Let’s cut right to the heart of the matter. With the release of Majestic Mech - Ohka in Enemy of Justice, a bridge has been formed between standard Skill Drain builds and standard Chaos builds. Ohka is an interesting character for numerous reasons, mainly because it single-handedly elevates two nearly moribund archetypes (Skill Drain and Fairy) to respectable new heights. This week’s New Grounds concept is a version of Skill Drain with added support from the Chaos side.
The simple fact is that every monster in the format is an effect monster, with the possible exception of Cyber Dragon. Graveyard effects such as Mystic Tomato, Exiled Force, and Sangan can still activate with Skill Drain on the field. Keeping that in mind, let’s construct a deck that uses graveyard effect monsters to circumvent Skill Drain’s restrictions!
Creating Advantage Through Skill Drain
A Skill Drain activation will make about 60 to 70 percent of your opponent’s monsters useless. First, every flip effect monster, such as Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Magician of Faith, and Magical Merchant is entirely nullified. Because these monsters pack low stats to counter-balance their great effects, Skill Drain makes them completely useless. Next, the two Spirit monsters Tsukuyomi and Asura Priest become vanilla monsters (1100 and 1700 ATK respectively) that are forced to stay on the field. Cards like Creature Swap will be wasted in these scenarios. Finally, the D. D. monsters also become useless, as do standard beatdown monsters like Blade Knight, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, and Breaker the Magical Warrior.
This leaves a few threats. The staples of aggro Chaos (Cyber Dragon, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, and Chaos Sorcerer) will be stripped of their on-field effects but still pack immense ATK values. These are the only threats that the Skill Drain deck will fear. However, by nullifying the board and remaining impervious to all but Dust Tornado, Royal Decree, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Heavy Storm, the Skill Drain deck is quite secure nonetheless.
Build: Skill Drain Concept Deck
General Synergies and Goals:
1) Activate Skill Drain
2) Use graveyard-based effect monsters to create advantage
Pivotal Cards:
1) Skill Drain
2) Support monsters
Constructing the Monster Lineup for the Skill Drain Theme
We can organize this list into two groups: graveyard effects that work both with and without Skill Drain, and strong support monsters that work even better with Skill Drain active. Finally, non-themed pieces of support will round out the list.
Graveyard Effect Support
3 Mystic Tomato
1 Sangan
1 Exiled Force
2 Newdoria
Mystic Tomato will always get its effect, regardless of whether Skill Drain is active or not. Because it can push over almost every monster or fetch Newdoria to do so in its stead, Tomato becomes a field dominator in our build. Sangan and Exiled are also staple monsters in other decks that can fetch effects with Skill Drain active on the field. The seven monsters listed above are a great support structure for the deck, since they allow us to cycle through our cards.
Skill Drain Support
3 Majestic Mech - Ohka
2 Big Shield Gardna
1 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
1 Goblin Elite Attack Force
These seven monsters can work both with and without Skill Drain active, albeit with slight drawbacks. Ohka can sweep out Sorcerers, Cyber Dragons, and Monarch cards with relative ease. And with Drain active, it becomes a free normal summoned 2400 ATK monstrosity. Big Shield helps set up the early game as well, and with Skill Drain active, it still negates Nobleman of Crossout while face-down. It also loses its drawback of switching to attack position. This makes it immune to nearly every form of monster removal in the game, with the sole exception of Smashing Ground. And finally, one copy of Fusilier allows us to pull numerous tricks. Because Skill Drain immediately pumps it to 2800 ATK, you can use it almost as a Mirror Wall trick.
General Support:
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Spirit Reaper
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
First off, Breaker is too good to ignore even in a Skill Drain build. You’ll always want to summon it at the first opportunity to avoid drawing into Skill Drain later. One Reaper will easily be fished by Tomato in the early game, and since our build will only play two copies of Skill Drain, it should work out nicely. Cyber Dragon suffers no drawbacks under Skill Drain, and Chaos Sorcerer is a special-summoned 2300 ATK beatstick. Mobius might be essential to sweep out Decree, and it also works as a 2400 ATK monster in a pinch.
The Spell and Trap Support for our Skill Draining Mechanism of Destruction
Let’s begin with spell and trap staples, followed by themed support.
Spell Staples:
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
Conceptual Spell Support
2 Smashing Ground: This deck needs to push through damage with monsters that have relative impunity, like Mystic Tomato and Newdoria. In addition, cards like Chaos Sorcerer can wreck your strategy, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Trap Staples
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
Conceptual Trap Support
3 Dust Tornado: Here we can end phase with Dust Tornado, then set Skill Drain from hand to negate effects to get some extra advantage on the next turn. It also creates great lead-in strategies to other cards like Robbin’ Goblin.
2 Skill Drain: This card provides the backbone of our strategy, of course.
1 Robbin’ Goblin: A great card with either Gardna, Robbin’ Goblin gives us an avenue for hand disruption that doesn’t include Spirit Reaper or Don Zaloog, which are both negated by our Skill Drain.
Expected Matchup with Tier One Decks
This Skill Drain deck is highly competitive, rivaling even the best Chaos return decks. Because the primary focus negates all of the opponent’s huge threats, it will force the opponent back on his or her heels unless spell or trap removal can be drawn. And because Skill Drain is oddly defensive in its ability to snap Breaker’s ability, Spirit Reaper’s hand disruption ability, and Tsukuyomi’s ability, you need not fear losing advantage through battle.
Packing a field full of monsters with impunity with three Dust Tornado cards makes it rather easy to dominate the field. And because only the opponent’s highest-ATK monsters like Zaborg and Chaos Sorcerer threaten your presence, you can push through to your heart’s content while negating almost all counter moves.
New Grounds Verdict: This is a solid, top-tier deck.