Oh, sweet Megarock Dragon. If you don’t know what this card does, go ahead and click the link on its name and check it out. Don’t worry; I’ll wait while you do.
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Cool stuff, huh?
When it comes down to it, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG was intended to be about big monsters, but very few have the potential to be this large. Megarock Dragon is a no-holds barred thug, easily reaching ATK totals in the 4200+ range. More than that, it’s the only card I know of that can let you remove half a dozen monsters or more in one shot, allowing you to go from an empty removed-from-game pile to an instant win with Return from the Different Dimension without warning.
Donald K, from Florida, has created a different strategy that foregoes Return in favor of just dropping enormous Megarock Dragon cards onto the field and swinging for game. Here’s what he had to say about it:
I need some help on this deck, and I was wondering if you can help me out. Right now, it runs OK, but I think you can make this deck a lot better. The point of it is to flip Magical Merchant, go through 15-20 monsters and then get Giant Trunade to clear the field. Then you remove like 15 to 20 Rocks to summon Megarock Dragon, and then you win. You can use Monster Reincarnation to get back Megarock Dragon if it’s discarded by Merchant.
Thank you for your time,
—Donald K,
Orlando, Florida
That sounds pretty cool. Magical Merchant was run successfully in a Megarock build by Arty Stein at Shonen Jump Championship Chicago a few months ago, and in the limited top-tier play Megarock has seen, it’s proved to be quite viable. Here’s the deck list Donald submitted to me:
Megarock Rampage—45 Cards
Monsters: 33
3 Megarock Dragon
3 Legendary Jujitsu Master
3 Golem Sentry
3 Giant Soldier of Stone
3 Stone Statue of the Aztecs
2 Guardian Statue
3 Moai Interceptor Cannons
3 Magical Merchant
3 Sand Moth
2 Medusa Worm
2 Dice Jar
1 Morphing Jar
1 Gokipon
1 Sangan
Spells: 10
3 Giant Trunade
3 Messenger of Peace
2 Monster Reincarnation
1 Level Limit - Area B
1 Graceful Charity
Traps: 2
2 Gravity Bind
Hmm. The idea sounded good on paper, but I’m pretty concerned about this deck’s all-or-nothing approach. It’s 45 cards thick, and 33 of them are monsters. Very few of them serve to thin the deck; the one Gokipon can fetch Magical Merchant, but beyond those two cards and Morphing Jar, the deck has very little draw acceleration. That means that it will frequently sit on hands full of monsters, and in a best case scenario you’ll be able to set defensive walls for a while. In a worst case scenario, it can mean losing 4000 LP or more by turn 3 thanks to double Nobleman of Crossout cards. Ouch.
Donald has tried to solve that problem by packing Level Limit - Area B, Messenger of Peace, and Gravity Bind, but that just seems to clutter up the deck even more, forcing it to rely on Giant Trunade for the win in some situations where it otherwise wouldn’t need it. When you find that your own cards are working against you instead of your opponent, something is wrong.
While the idea of using Magical Merchant to shave a dozen or so monsters from the deck and then dropping Megarock Dragon is tempting, I’m worried that it just won’t happen that often. Even if it does, I don’t see what makes this OTK better than Cyber-Stein, or even a similar deck based around more flexible monsters leveraged into a huge Chaos Necromancer. While Donald has some great ideas here, they’re not going to shine until we change the deck’s focus a bit. In my opinion, this needs to be a Return variant, not an OTK.
With that goal in mind I’ll start by dropping some cards. I need to begin with monsters, dropping the deck down from 33 to a more reasonable number. The easiest place to do that is with the Rock types. Many of them are just here because they’re the best of the bottom of the barrel: fodder for Megarock Dragon. Stone Statue of the Aztecs, Dice Jar, and Moai Interceptor Cannons all have effects we can’t maximize. Guardian Statue is highly repetitive, doubling over with Golem Sentry and, to some extent, Medusa Worm. Legendary Jujitsu Master has seen better days: Zaborg the Thunder Monarch has made it a very difficult card to use. I need relatively decent Rock attackers for Return from the Different Dimension, so two will remain. But be sure to use them cleverly, and fake out the opponent with Sand Moth whenever possible.
The Magical Merchant/Gokipon engine is very interesting—something I’ve never seen before—but with a reduced number of Rock monsters, this deck doesn’t really seem like the place for it. It’s smart, and I’m sure I’ll wind up using it somewhere down the road, but again, it’s better suited for something like Chaos Necromancer.
Moving on to spells, the lack of Magical Merchant narrows the need for Monster Reincarnation. Both are easy drops for the sake of space. Since this deck isn’t an OTK and won’t need Giant Trunade cards, they’re easy to remove too. Finally, Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind will hit the road. This deck has so much control over the opponent’s field presence that I don’t think it needs anything more than the three Messenger of Peace cards, and I can afford to keep those because removing them from the field in order to launch a big attack is as easy as deciding not to pay their maintenance cost.
So, on to some additions! One of the things I loved about Arty Stein’s build of Megarock Return was his use of Treeborn Frog in order to fuel Granmarg the Rock Monarch and Jinzo. The result was a deck that could kick out big attackers at little to no cost to itself. I’ll be adding one Jinzo and one Treeborn Frog, but not Granmarg. While Arty’s deck thrived on the 2400 ATK Granmarg provided, I want to preserve one of the mainstays of Donald’s strategy: his flip-down monsters, like Medusa Worm and Golem Sentry. That’s going to let me take Return in a whole new direction. I’ll be able to bring back multiple monsters, attack with them, and then flip them face down in main phase 2 in order to keep them around. Not only will this deck be able to shunt out massive Megarock Dragon cards, but it will be able to go from an empty field to a full one at a moment’s notice.
With that in mind, I’ll add two Guardian Sphinx cards instead of Granmarg to the monster lineup. In combination with Medusa Worm and Golem Sentry, Sphinx is going to generate massive field advantage that will leave the opponent wide open. I’ll also be adding a third Medusa Worm for the same reason.
One Gigantes will mix well with our Treeborn Frog-compliant trap lineup, and it will also fill some of the gaps left from the removal of Giant Trunade. At 1900 ATK it’s quite good in the late game too, pressing through damage when the deck would otherwise be without a big attacker.
The final monster I want to add is D. D. Warrior Lady. She’s a great monster for any deck dependant on Return from the Different Dimension. Not only does she load up your removed-from-game pile, but she also gets stubborn blockers out of your way.
The spell lineup will wind up looking pretty typical for a competitive Return variant. Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Snatch Steal, Book of Moon, and Nobleman of Crossout are all good ideas for any deck that seeks to win through battle. In addition, I’ll be maxing out on Smashing Ground. This deck loves a simplified duel that comes down to topdecking once it’s had the chance to draw a Megarock Dragon, because that’s the kind of situation where the average opponent will be least likely to have a response. Smashing Ground, and other effects that allow you to trade one of your cards for one of your opponent’s, make that kind of situation a reality.
Finally I’ll add Mirror Force, Call of the Haunted, Torrential Tribute, and two Return from the Different Dimension cards. No surprises there—it’s a minimalist trap lineup designed for maximum efficiency without clogging up our back row. That keeps Treeborn Frog upwardly mobile, ensuring that no spell or trap cards block his ascent back to the field.
The changes I made are as follows:
-3 Stone Statue of the Aztecs
-2 Dice Jar
-3 Giant Soldier of Stone
-3 Moai Interceptor Cannons
-2 Guardian Statue
-1 Legendary Jujitsu Master
-3 Magical Merchant
-1 Gokipon
-3 Giant Trunade
-2 Monster Reincarnation
-1 Level Limit - Area B
-2 Gravity Bind
+1 Treeborn Frog
+2 Guardian Sphinx
+1 Jinzo
+1 Medusa Worm
+1 Gigantes
+1 D. D. Warrior Lady
+1 Heavy Storm
+1 Mystical Space Typhoon
+1 Snatch Steal
+2 Nobleman of Crossout
+1 Book of Moon
+3 Smashing Ground
+1 Mirror Force
+1 Call of the Haunted
+1 Torrential Tribute
+2 Return from the Different Dimension
The final deck list is now down to an eye-pleasing 40 cards, and looks like this:
Megarock Rampage Return—40 Cards
Monsters: 22
3 Megarock Dragon
2 Guardian Sphinx
1 Jinzo
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
3 Golem Sentry
3 Medusa Worm
3 Sand Moth
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Gigantes
Spells: 13
3 Messenger of Peace
1 Graceful Charity
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Book of Moon
3 Smashing Ground
Traps: 5
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Return from the Different Dimension
How the deck plays depends on the opponent. You aren’t blessed with any recruiter monsters to give you an easy opening, but Golem Sentry and Legendary Jujitsu Master are pretty good. Both have effects and DEF that can set you up for a pair of direct attacks on turn 2, and if you can knock the opponent down to 5000 LP early on, then all you need to do is wait around to grind out an easy win with Dragon and Return.
Defense is your friend with this deck. Monsters like Guardian Sphinx, Jujitsu Master, Sand Moth, and Sentry can all keep themselves on the field thanks to big DEF numbers. In addition, many of your monsters will be impervious to Chaos Sorcerer’s effect thanks to their ability to turn themselves face down. Don’t forget that, because it’s one of this deck’s primary strengths in a Chaos-heavy metagame. Set monsters and force your opponents into a guessing game. If they play slowly, you’ll be able to punish them with your bounce effects and monster destruction. That’s pretty awesome, because you can often force an opponent to adhere to a slow tempo with Messenger of Peace. Try not to think of Messenger as a stall card: think of it as a tool to dictate tempo, and you’ll begin to understand its true potential in this deck. Of course, if your opponents don’t play slowly, then you’ve got Book of Moon, Smashing Ground, Jujitsu Master, and Morphing Jar (!) to make them pay for their aggression. Oh, and you’ve got that massive Dragon, too. About that . . .
I actually played against a deck similar to this one a few weeks ago, and after slapping my opponent with Spirit Reaper, he proceeded to special summon Megarock Dragon and hammer my Reaper for 4600 damage. Needless to say, I learned my lesson about giving this deck an opening for attack. Reaper went to defense position and stayed there for the rest of the duel. Those are the kinds of surprise plays that this deck is capable of, and learning all of your options doesn’t take as much time as you might think.
The late game is where it truly shines. You’ll face choices like, “Do I summon Megarock Dragon for game, or do I summon it next turn in order to attack with it and use Return? If I pick the latter do I Return for the win, or Return for an instant field full of self-flipping monsters?” Those sorts of questions operate on the same level as, “Are my diamond shoes too tight?” and, “Man, how am I going to fit all my lottery winnings into this tiny wallet?” Regardless of your decision, the result is usually good news for you and bad news for the guy sitting across the table. The deck loves topdecking situations once it has a few monsters in the graveyard, and sometimes you won’t even need any fancy tricks to win. A single Golem Sentry will frequently be enough to keep the opponent off the board while you develop your field presence, and having monsters when your opponent doesn’t usually means the game.
If you’re looking for a unique play experience that can easily win local level tournaments, and that could definitely Top 4 at a Regional, you might want to give this deck a shot. It doesn’t take a huge amount of time to learn—a couple of days should be long enough—but its particular bag of tricks play like a far more complicated deck. It does things that Chaos Return just can’t do, and its consistency makes it a reliable and deadly weapon.
Thanks for sending it in, Donald! Hopefully the fix helps, and it might inspire some of you readers to give this Return variant a go!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer