That is, of course, my personal opinion. Let’s hear from Amit C. in Israel.

Hey, Matt!

My name is Amit and I am from Israel. I was having some trouble with my Light and Darkness Dragon-based deck, and was hoping you could assist me. The metagame in Israel is filled with Monarch decks, using multiple flip effect monsters, which obviously decrease the ATK of the Dragon enough to destroy it in battle with Cyber Dragon or a Monarch. The deck itself is based on forcing your opponent to spend his or her cards to destroy the Dragon, then special summoning Disk Commander or Dark Magician of Chaos to press for further aggression. The deck is fueled by Trade-In and Destiny Draw, which replace horrible opening hands.

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

—Amit C.

Israel

Here’s Amit’s deck:

Draconic Chiaroscuro—40 Cards                       

Monsters: 23

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

3 Light and Darkness Dragon

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

2 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger

3 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Gravekeeper’s Guard

1 Sangan

2 Destiny Hero - Malicious

1 Morphing Jar

1 Marshmallon

1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 14

1 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Destiny Draw

2 Trade-In

2 Pot of Avarice

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

1 Brain Control

3 Enemy Controller

1 Swords of Revealing Light

Traps: 3

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

What you really must wonder when looking at a deck like this is how I can possibly claim to make improvements. To tell the truth, it’s very hard. The difficulty with a deck like this is that everything works together so well that it becomes quite hard to fit tech in, and if you make choices that merely come close to optimal, you are still wielding a potent tool. Amit noted that his local metagame was heavy on Monarch decks suited to beat decks like this one through careful defense and a number of tricks designed to reduce the impact of Light and Darkness Dragon. Let’s help him with his problems.

The two biggest issues are the build’s draws, and Monarch decks that are suited to beating this concept. The Monarch decks are more or less the same as always, including Gravekeeper’s Spy, Apprentice Magician leading to Old Vindictive Magician and Crystal Seer, and even Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. I’ll make a quick aside here, and say that many changes I could make I will not, because those changes should be made to a side deck to help provide defense against players running Solemn Judgment, Macro Cosmos, or other dueling demons that deter this deck.

I will not be changing much today, primarily because there is not much to change. Amit sent me a very well-polished list, save for some card choices. I will focus on small details, which is a good sign. Trade-In is a wonderful card, providing themes heavy in tribute monsters the same tool that Destiny Heroes were granted in Destiny Draw except a good deal easier to obtain (and possibly a bit cooler depending upon how much you like the Dragon featured in the art). However, while it is supposed to mitigate poor draws, it is still highly conditional. Even more so, in fact, than Destiny Draw, which has more monsters to work with and more monsters you’re actually happy to see hit the graveyard! It needs to be cut immediately for better options, particularly the card I used to immediately fill the gap—Foolish Burial. Foolish Burial allows you to put Treeborn Frog, Dark Magician of Chaos, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, and Destiny Hero - Malicious into the graveyard at the cost of one card in your hand. Repeat after me: whoa. In this particular deck, the benefit is palpable. Awkward opening hands end up becoming solid thanks to the presence of Treeborn Frog in the graveyard.

That brings me to my next point. This deck needs to shut down opposing Monarchs more efficiently. This means putting out the Dragon faster to keep control early on. Personally, for the anti-Monarch and anti-LaDD (Light and Darkness Dragon) addition, few things fit this deck better than Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, who plays the part of offense after the Monarch deck sides out Bottomless Trap Hole and other removal cards. For room, I cut Gravekeeper’s Guard, who was slow and contradictory to the LaDD control theme. Field control in this vein would work in multiples to counter Monarchs if you go first, or if you ran Nobleman of Crossout/Shield Crush to ensure you would keep monsters in play and the opponent wouldn’t. Neither option is used in this deck, so we lose a bald singleton for a bald singleton with more ATK. A fitting trade. From there, more tweaking.

Enemy Controller is cute defense and a nice combat trick, but contributes not only to disadvantage in Monarch matchups where hand size and your remaining options dictate your chances of victory, but also to the bad-hand aspect of the deck. Still, this is a tight little list and they are here for a reason. Enemy Controller is very versatile and can make for some mean turnarounds. Cut one and fill the vacant spot with something more useful in the matchup against either other Light and Darkness Dragon decks, or other Monarch decks. While I would normally encourage the inclusion of cards like Forced Back or Solemn Judgment in the side deck, the particular situation Amit is in encourages the presence of these cards in the main deck. I add one Forced Back to help the deck turn some of its massive card draw into tempo manipulation. Due to the presence of Pot of Avarice and the velocity this deck wields, I think a second Reinforcement of the Army could help the deck, as well as mitigate poor matchups by allowing you to run one or two Warriors in the side deck like Exiled Force or D.D. Survivor. There honestly isn’t much to change here. I chose this deck because I wanted to talk about design philosophy in deckbuilding.

Cut:

-2 Trade-In

-1 Gravekeeper’s Guard

-1 Enemy Controller

Added:

+2 Foolish Burial

+1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

+1 Forced Back

+1 Reinforcement of the Army

That gives us an end result of this list, which should help Amit’s situation and play about the same, exchanging Trade-In for Foolish Burial and utilizing some slight tweaks to make it moderately better overall against Amit’s problem matchups.

Draconic Chiaroscuro—41 Cards

Monsters: 23

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

3 Light and Darkness Dragon

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

2 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger

3 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Sangan

2 Destiny Hero - Malicious

1 Morphing Jar

1 Marshmallon

1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 14

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Destiny Draw

2 Foolish Burial

2 Pot of Avarice

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

1 Brain Control

2 Enemy Controller

1 Swords of Revealing Light

Traps: 4

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Forced Back

Until next time, duelists!

—Matt Murphy