While discussing the differences between “advantage upon summon” tribute monsters and “advantage through battle” tribute monsters (found here), I became intrigued by the idea of a deck that focuses entirely on “advantage through battle” (ATB) monsters. If we can create a neutral playing field where defenses don’t matter, the advantages generated through battle by our ATB monsters should spur the innovative deck-builder to victory.

There are numerous ATB monsters out there. Some of the best include cards like Spirit Reaper, Don Zaloog, and Airknight Parshath. But this article wouldn’t be very interesting if we just focused on the same overused monsters, would it? Other great—and less well-known—examples include Sasuke Samurai #4 (a card I used at Shonen Jump San Francisco and in the East-West team battle), Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Helping Robo For Combat, Blade Knight, and Winged Sage Falcos. Our concept deck will feature every single one of these monsters!

Let’s take a quick look at which of these cards can generate a resource advantage, and which ones are relegated to supporting roles in the deck.

Spirit Reaper: causes opponent to discard, immune to battle destruction.

Don Zaloog: causes opponent to discard, easily destroyable by battle.

Airknight Parshath: lets you draw a card, piercing monster, vulnerable to Snatch Steal and Cyber Dragon.

Sasuke Samurai #4: This is a special card that warrants special status by its own right. Assuming it attacks a face down monster, it gets an immediate 50 percent chance to destroy the monster outright. If the effect fizzles, a card like D. D. Assailant will turn back around and attack it. In this case, you have a 75 percent chance of getting a +1 advantage on your opponent. This card can definitely help win games, and if properly played, will cause severe problems for any opponent.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer: Provides extra advantage against Treeborn Frog. It stifles Chaos, can hurt Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted targets, serves as a Dark monster, and can destroy weaker monsters like Mirage Dragon.

Helping Robo For Combat: Unless you’re running three Thunder Dragons, this card simply helps improve hand quality. It doesn’t give strict advantage across the board.

Blade Knight: If this destroys a flip, it can gain you some advantage. Otherwise, it falls to Cyber Dragon and other heavy hitters.

Winged Sage Falcos: Provided it destroys the right types of monsters, the effect will create almost two cards of advantage. Your opponent loses the monster, and the card returns to the top of the deck. Because the effect is optional, it’s very good. However, Falcos will need help to achieve its effect. More on this later.

All of the above monsters fill a specific function within the deck. Three copies of Spirit Reaper will be present because they work as a good opening summon or set. Don Zaloog, Blade Knight, and Sasuke Samurai #4 can all be located through Reinforcement of the Army, but will likely appear as only single copies. Airknight and Helping Robo will fill Light slots for the “soft lock” with Chaos Sorcerer (more on this later), and Winged Sage Falcos will also be used sparingly, mostly to mop-up pesky flip effects like Dekoichi, Magician of Faith, and Magical Merchant.

Creating Win Conditions From the Stated Goals

All of our ATB monsters will weep if pesky Mirror Forces, Sakuretsu Armors, or similar cards hinder their unfettered advance. Therefore, the deck’s spell or trap support  aims to destroy all semblance of an opposing defense. By utilizing a card like Royal Decree with our ATB monsters, you can gain two +1 advantages in your favor. First, Decree will negate the trap while remaining on the board. Second, your ATB monster will push through for a +1 advantage as well.

Our win conditions include the ATB monsters listed above. However, to help them achieve more coups through battle, an element of crafty deception needs to be involved. I’m talking about a great support card in our arsenal: Rush Recklessly. Imagine you have Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer on the field. Your opponent summons Don Zaloog and declares that he or she is attacking straight into the 1800 ATK monster. Ordinarily, you’d laugh it off, right? But then after responses and prior to the damage step, your opponent activates Rush Recklessly. Here’s an equation that represents this action.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer (1 resource) + discard from hand (1 resource) = you cry.

Or let’s take another scenario. Your opponent has Airknight Parshath on the field and a set spell or trap. You nervously finger your Cyber Dragon before deciding to summon it. After all, Royal Decree is face-up on the field. What’s the worst that can happen? You declare an attack into the Airknight. Your opponent passes to the damage step (where spells and traps cannot be activated except to modify ATK/DEF values). He or she then activates Rush Recklessly. Here’s another equation for you.

Cyber Dragon (1 resource) + your opponent’s draw (1 resource) = you cry.

In fact, I’m so high on ATB monsters that I’m going to tell a story from the Team Savage archive. This one involves the hapless Hugo Adame, whose opponent had a Don Zaloog on the field that had hit directly the turn prior, with a Snatch Steal equipped to D.D. Survivor and a set spell or trap. Hugo’s Royal Decree was active. He summoned Berserk Gorilla with two cards in hand. (See where this is going?) Mystical Space Typhoon returned Survivor to his side and it attacked into Don Zaloog. At the damage step, Rush Recklessly was activated. Hugo lost the Survivor and a discard. Gorilla was forced to attack. It too, hit into Don, taking a card from Hugo’s hand. Hugo cried, and was never the same duelist again.

The moral of this story is that Rush Recklessly is great with ATB monsters.

Now, let’s put our concept deck into short form.

Build: Conceptual ATB Rush Recklessly

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Negate defenses in preparation for goal #2

2) Use advantage through battle monsters to full potential.

Pivotal Cards

1) Repeated ATB hits.

2) Every type of monster removal, depending on the situation.

Constructing the Monster Line-up of the ATB Concept

The problem with most ATB monsters, outside of Spirit Reaper, is their ineffectiveness in the opening hand. If you are slated to go first and have a hand that includes something like Kycoo, Don Zaloog, Sasuke Samurai #4, and no defenses, you’ll likely have to pass the turn without setting a monster. To counterbalance this weakness, we must pack plenty of good opening summons. Let’s organize our monster lineup into the win conditions and the initial opening hand support.

Good opening summons:

3 Spirit Reaper

1 Sangan

1 Skelengel

2 Magician of Faith

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 D. D. Assailant

Win conditions:

1 Airknight Parshath

1 Don Zaloog

2 Sasuke Samurai #4

1 Winged Sage Falcos

1 Blade Knight

1 Helping Robo For Combat

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Studs:

2 Chaos Sorcerer

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Keep in mind that you have removal for every situation: Sasuke Samurai #4 is basically your piece of face-down removal. Keep in mind that the Sorcerer will remove all face-up monsters, and having both on the field at the same time constitutes a “soft lock.” The spells aim to take advantage of the versatility of the monster lineup.

The Spell Support for our Purring, Humming Engine of Destruction

We can make a list of spell staples (which are numerous in this format), and spells that support this concept.

Spell Staples:

1 Graceful Charity

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

Conceptual support:

2 Rush Recklessly: As stated before, these two copies will provide the backbone of many of our strategies. They will enable fearless, bold assaults that were previously unimaginable. They also serve to ward off Spirit Reapers. (Please do not use this on your own Spirit Reaper.)

1 Confiscation: You’ll find that many of your ATB cards are ticking time bombs. Sure, an active Decree and set Rush Recklessly might seem peachy. But what if your opponent plays Snatch Steal? It will absolutely destroy your field! Even combinations like Cyber Dragon and Mobius the Frost Monarch will cause pain. Avoid these by using Confiscation.

1 Swords of Revealing Light: In addition to working deliciously with Chaos Sorcerer (turn your opponent’s monster to remove it), it will force your opponent to start setting monsters. Then Sasuke can enter and clean house. This card also helps you return from bad opening hands.

2 Smashing Ground: Because ATB cards can have problems maintaining field presence on their own, you’ll often need immediate monster removal to get those direct hits. Smashing Ground is the best option, considering you’re running three copies of Royal Decree.

2 Reinforcement of the Army: This will allow you to fish numerous ATB monsters, including Sasuke Samurai #4, Blade Knight, and Don Zaloog. It’ll also let you search for two of your best opening sets—the D.D monsters—and artificially inflate your monster count.

1 My Body as a Shield: For those moments where you can’t have a Decree set just yet, you can immediately bring out My Body as a Shield to negate their pesky destruction. Plus you can set it with Reaper for even more fun!

1 Book of Moon: This card will work with options like Chaos Sorcerer for repeated effect fun. You can use it on D. D. monsters and Spirit Reaper to protect them from spells or traps as well. A versatile card for a versatile deck, I say!

The traps for this deck are three copies of Royal Decree. The end.

Expected Matchup with Cookie-Cutter Decks

If the decks you’re facing are anything like the Top 8 at the Baltimore Shonen Jump Championship, variants of this deck will offer significant advantages versus their eight-, nine-, and even ten-trap lines.

Royal Decree is one of the most effective counters to Return from the Different Dimension. You can chain it in the same process with Heavy Storm. If your opponent tries to play Return on the chain, simply use Decree and he or she will pay half his or her life points for nothing! Once Decree is active, of course, all of your monsters kick in for significant advantages.

I stopped playing Sasuke Samurai #4 because, even with a 75 percent chance of a +1 advantage, the times it misses can severely dash your hopes of winning. However, all of the other monsters in the deck can generate massive advantage. Sure, watching your opponent flip Dekoichi and poke you for 1400 damage per turn is no fun. However, the fun factor increases dramatically when you summon Winged Sage Falcos, smash it for 300, then return it to the top of your opponent’s deck!

Lots of playtesting will be required to see how well this deck fares. However, in theory and in concept, it looks pretty good.

New Grounds Verdict: Looks like a winner to me!