Fast fact: certain words are way more entertaining to say in an Australian accent than in your own accent.* One of those words happens to be “dynamite.” I’m not sure about what marvel of happenstance and star-crossed fate brought Australian reader Josh S. to submit a D. D. Dynamite deck. But I’m glad he did, as his deck is quite good, and I’ve spent my afternoon shouting Crocodile Hunter slogans. It’s pretty difficult to maintain professional composure even as I write this, and not type things like “Crikey, this deck has potential!”
Here’s what Josh had to say about his deck.
Dear Jason,
I was wondering if you'd be able to help me out with my new deck based around D.D. Dynamite. The deck revolves around stalling, removing my opponent's cards with multiple copies of Soul Release, and then finishing him or her off with D.D.
Dynamite for a win.
It's a real break from my Chaos deck, and is quite fun to play. It's still in its early stages, though, so I was wondering if you had any ideas?
Thanks,
Josh S.
NSW, Australia
Here’s Josh’s decklist.
D. D. Dynamite!
40 Cards
Monsters: 15
3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
3 Des Lacooda
2 Big Eye
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Magician of Faith
2 Mask of Darkness
1 Sangan
Spells: 13
3 Soul Release
3 Reload
2 Level Limit – Area B
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Heavy Storm
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps: 12
3 D.D. Dynamite
2 Jar Of Greed
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Gravity Bind
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
It’s a solidly built and streamlined 40-card deck, and the only issues I have are with the deck’s focus. It’s important for Josh to be able to get his copies of D. D. Dynamite, and he’s got a ton of resources focused on getting to them, but I’m not sure that cards like Big Eye belong in a deck that’s already maxed out on Reload and packing Jar of Greed.
At the same time, I’m a bit concerned about how well the deck maintains its board presence. This is a Lockdown deck and its Lockdown engine is well thought out, but the deck will still occasionally get nailed by Giant Trunade and similar cards. I think this deck needs a few self-replacing monsters to cushion the blow that comes when an opponent can actually attack.
To address those issues, I’m going to drop some cards. I don’t think the deck is so desperate for precision access to its Lockdown engine and D. D. Dynamite that it needs Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive or Big Eye. I think these card slots can be spent in better ways, so I’m going to remove those and see what else we can do with those five spaces. I’m also going to remove Jar of Greed to add in a card or two that will help us hit key spells and traps and will work better in the deck, generally impacting the game more than Dekoichi, Big Eye, and the Jar.
While Des Lacooda is amazing when it’s protected behind Gravity Bind or another locking agent, it’s a poor topdeck in the opening and early game. I’m going to remove one copy. I’ll be adding in some cards that will help search for Lacooda anyway, so that will compensate. It’s a great idea, but we’re going to trim it back a bit so that we can keep our options open.
I’m also going to bump one copy of Mask of Darkness and the single Heavy Storm to the side deck. If the deck hits its Lockdown cards in the early game, Heavy Storm will likely be a dead card unless you don’t draw or set D. D. Dynamite until the late game. See, Heavy Storm can be a great finisher for this deck, blasting a few more cards into the graveyard to be ousted from play in order to feed a few Dynamites. But it’s also a risky topdeck, and we can’t afford bad draws in a difficult deck like this one.
The first thing I want to add is a pair of Banisher of the Light. Banisher has great DEF, so it provides some nice synergy with our defensive strategies. However, its real worth is in its effect—while it’s face up, it will remove every card that hits the graveyard from play. This will hurt Mask of Darkness and Magician of Faith, but it seems like an acceptable cost to fuel D. D. Dynamite, and when you don’t want Banisher of the Light face up, you can turn it face down with . . .
. . . Tsukuyomi, of which we’ll be adding a single copy, since it’s searchable with Sangan. Tsukuyomi will help you get the most out of Mask of Darkness and Magician of Faith. Due to new rulings, you’ll be able to use Tsukuyomi to turn Banisher of the Light face down, use a spell or trap, flip Magician of Faith or Mask of Darkness to bring it back, and then flip summon Banisher of the Light again to keep the pressure on your opponent.
We need a way of digging for those Banishers, and we need some ways to maintain board presence. Josh’s build of the deck looked like it might struggle in the opening game, since it didn’t seem to have many ideal plays for turn one. A single copy of Shining Angel will let us search for Banisher, two Mystic Tomato will grab Spirit Reaper, Sangan, or Mask of Darkness, and one Apprentice Magician will summon Magician of Faith as needed. That will give this deck a lot of resiliency and control in the early game.
Card Destruction is a must for this deck. Not only is it going to wreck the opponent’s plans and force him or her to discard cards (sometimes sending them directly out of the game, thanks to Banisher), it’s also going to pick up some of the slack left behind by the removal of Big Eye and its card-thinning friends. In my opinion, Card Destruction is the number-one way to seek out specific cards in this kind of situation, and it packs a ton of synergy with this deck’s intentions and win condition.
A single copy of Book of Moon is going to be placed in the deck as well. I’ll put two more in the side deck to play against opponents who are highly aggressive with their attack patterns, but the main reason I’m main decking one is to get that Tsukuyomi effect, primarily on Magician of Faith, Mask of Darkness, and Banisher of the Light when it’s special summoned into attack position with Shining Angel.
The last addition I want to make is Ceasefire. To me, this is a given for any Lockdown Burn variant, easily smacking an opponent for 2000 or 3000 life points in the mid- or late game while at the same time negating nasty flip effects that can harm your lock. Three D. D. Dynamite as the deck’s only win condition is definitely an admirable approach, but I believe Josh can win a lot more frequently if he’s packing a copy of Ceasefire. That’s it for my changes to the deck.
Here are my final changes.
-3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
-2 Big Eye
-2 Jar of Greed
-1 Des Lacooda
-1 Heavy Storm
-1 Mask of Darkness
+2 Banisher of the Light
+1 Tsukuyomi
+1 Apprentice Magician
+2 Mystic Tomato
+1 Shining Angel
+1 Card Destruction
+1 Book of Moon
+1 Ceasefire
Here’s the fixed version of Josh’s deck, along with a side deck that should provide a good template for a more customized version to fit Josh’s local metagame. You can customize it for your metagame, too, if you feel like giving this deck a try!
D. D. Dynamite: Jason’s Fix (Crikey!)
40 Cards
Monsters: 15
2 Des Lacooda
2 Banisher of the Light
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Magician of Faith
1 Mask of Darkness
1 Tsukuyomi
1 Apprentice Magician
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Shining Angel
1 Sangan
Spells: 14
3 Soul Release
3 Reload
2 Level Limit – Area B
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Card Destruction
1 Book of Moon
Traps: 11
3 D. D. Dynamite
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Gravity Bind
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ceasefire
Side Deck: 15
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mask of Darkness
1 Tsukuyomi
3 Secret Barrel
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Book of Moon
3 Magic Drain
2 Solemn Judgment
The deck plays like a standard Lockdown Burn deck, maintaining board presence and attempting to gain leverage over the field while establishing its lock and then proceeding toward its win conditions. The difference is that this deck puts out more disruption (in the form of Banisher of the Light, Tsukuyomi, Soul Release, and Book of Moon) as well as more options beyond the usual three Solar Flare Dragon, three Stealth Bird, and some support monsters. That makes it unpredictable and deadly.
This is not a deck for the novice player, as it takes calculation and restraint in order to run this deck properly. Unlike other Lockdown Burn builds, this deck isn’t aiming to set up a steady damage-producing set of conditions on the field—it instead looks to stall, remove cards, and then take the game in one big single-turn explosion. Don’t fire off a single D. D. Dynamite until you know you can win the game outright The exception to this rule is any situation in which D. D. Dynamite is threatened by imminent destruction. The deck has a lot of answers to various deck types, so learn which tools work best in which matchups.
The side deck is highly important. The second Tsukuyomi and the copies of Nobleman of Crossout are invaluable against more reserved players or other Lockdown decks, while Book of Moon, Magic Drain, and Solemn Judgment are important against aggressive players. Secret Barrel provides extra oomph if an opponent side decks in Secret Barrel or extra trap negation, and Heavy Storm can be used with Banisher of the Light against slower decks to speed up your win condition.
Hold on to Card Destruction until you can get the most use out of it. Remember that you have a two-fold goal with the card—you’re looking to get rid of as many of your opponent’s cards as possible while at the same time using it to get to your Dynamites and sometimes even your Lockdown components. One good Card Destruction backed by Banisher of the Light can add 1500 to 1800 damage to each Dynamite, so you really need to time it carefully.
Remember that your remove-from-play cards can strip the opponent’s graveyard of Chaos-summoning materials. It’s highly valuable to be able to clear out the possibility of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, because even if it can’t attack it can remove important monsters from your side of the field. Nobleman of Crossout and Tsukuyomi become highly important in such a situation, since they provide a permanent answer to the Soldier issue.
Go ahead and try this deck for yourself! While it’s tricky at first, some players will easily get used to it, and opponents will never know what hit them until that first D. D. Dynamite flips face up. There’s not much that’s more thrilling than pulling off a surprise victory, and Josh’s deck is a great way to accomplish this.
Thanks for sending it in!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Are you interested in seeing your deck featured in this column? Send a decklist formatted like the one in this article, your name, and your hometown to Jason@metagame.com, and your deck might be used in a future Apotheosis article!
*Unless you’re Australian, in which case, you’ve found the loophole in my system.