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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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Themed or “Tribal” decks saw an increase in play after last year’s Advanced format was announced. Tribal Beatdown decks have enjoyed their moments of success, but the Light decks have generally been under-appreciated. Even though they’ve been viable in the past, Light decks have managed to slip under the popularity radar, despite having all the needed factors for successful Tribal Beatdown builds. Duelist Justin L. from Bourbonnais, Illinois, is brave enough to take up this challenge. Here’s what he had to say about the deck that he put together.
Here is my Light deck. It’s good, but I think that it could be better. And before you say anything, I know that I should have a copy of D. D. Warrior Lady, Reflect Bounder, and/or Mirror Force in here. I just don't have those cards yet.
Thanks!
Justin L.
Bourbonnais, Illinois
Here is the decklist that Justin submitted.
Justin’s Blinding Light
40 cards
Monsters: 16
1 Guardian Angel Joan
1 Moisture Creature
1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
1 Soul of Purity and Light
1 Airknight Parshath
2 Thunder Nyan Nyan
1 Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
1 Hoshiningen
2 Blade Knight
1 Freed the Brave Wanderer
1 Kaiser Sea Horse
1 Magician of Faith
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Cyber Jar
Spells: 17
3 Luminous Spark
1 Terraforming
1 Magic Reflector
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Enemy Controller
1 Creature Swap
1 Scapegoat
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Swords of Concealing Light
1 Book of Moon
Traps: 7
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Dust Tornado
1 Magic Drain
1 A Hero Emerges
1 Divine Wrath
1 Torrential Tribute
 This is a good-sized deck, tightly hugging the 40-card minimum. We’ll definitely want to keep that. The deck is also chock-full of cards that strengthen the Light theme. Remember that when you build a theme deck, you need to be doing so for strategic reasons. With cards like Moisture Creature, Freed the Brave Wanderer, and Luminous Spark, this deck’s attribute selection gives it some great effects that a normal Beatdown build wouldn’t normally be able to access.
That being said, the deck will benefit from a more focused approach and a few card changes. Running five monsters that can’t be normal summoned without a tribute is too many, and since Justin’s build is relatively low on good opening monsters, his options will often be limited. Justin will want to run some monsters that he’ll be confident playing on turn 1, so I’m going to make some changes to his monster roster. I’ll be adding more high-level monsters later, but they’ll have more to do than just being big attackers. To make room in the deck, I’m going to remove Airknight Parshath, Guardian Angel Joan, and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch.
Next, I’m going to remove Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke and Kaiser Sea Horse. I suggest that these two cards should be placed in the side deck—they’ll be great in certain matchups, but they just don’t fit into my vision of the main deck’s core strategy. You may even want to side deck a second copy of Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke for when you go up against Lockdown Burn or Mill decks.
The last monster that I’ll be cutting from the deck is Cyber Jar. While Tribal Beatdown players generally love anything that gives them mass drawing power and lets them find their field cards, Cyber Jar could end up hurting the deck badly. The reason? Thunder Nyan Nyan. If this were an all-Light deck, we could play Cyber Jar without concern. But because the deck includes a handful of non-Light monsters, I don’t feel comfortable running the Jar. There is already some potential for being disadvantaged in matchups against many decks, because the monsters that we’re packing don’t have the raw ATK strength of monsters in other decks we might face. Playing Cyber Jar is always a gamble, and there are just too many risks involving the card in this particular deck for it to be a viable choice. Feel free to side deck Cyber Jar, since it can be very useful in matchups against Exodia and Lockdown decks, where poor luck resulting in an underpowered battle isn’t as much of a concern.
Next, I’d like to drop a couple of spells, namely Magic Reflector and Swords of Concealing Light. While Magic Reflector can reinforce Luminous Spark when it works properly, the Reflector is just too conditional to be worth playing in this deck. The odds are good that if an opponent destroys the deck’s field spell, we’ll have another copy available. Magic Reflector is often a dead draw, and the deck just can’t afford that. Swords of Concealing Light is a great little defensive card, but once I restructure the deck, we won’t need the Swords that much anymore.
Finally, I’m going to take out a few traps. Dust Tornado should be moved to the side deck. While the trap is potentially valuable, we’ve already got a bit of spell and trap removal in the deck, so running Dust Tornado seems like overkill. Jinzo can turn the trap into a useless card anyway, so it’s an obvious drop. Since we’re removing most of the big monsters that need tricks to get on the field, A Hero Emerges becomes far less valuable in this deck, so I’m going to take it out. In addition, Divine Wrath will be relegated to the side deck. While it’s useful in some matchups (especially against certain types of Warrior and Zombie decks), Divine Wrath just isn’t as good as some of the all-purpose traps that we could be using instead. Divine Wrath is a superb side-deck card, but it isn’t as great in the main deck.
 Now, let’s add some cards! First, I want to add three copies of Thunder Dragon. Freed the Brave Wanderer, Tribe-Infecting Virus, and Soul of Purity and Light can all take advantage of the Dragon, so it’s definitely worth playing. Thunder Dragon thins the deck while providing card advantage for some of the cool discard effects, so the card is an option that’s worth using. While you don’t want to see more than one copy in your opening hand, running three copies gives you about a one-in-twenty chance of drawing multiples, so you don’t need to be too concerned.
Next up, this deck needs more synergy and better opening and early-game monsters, so Shining Angel is an absolute must. The Angel is an incredibly versatile card, because it helps you maintain field presence and gives you access to some of the deck’s more powerful monsters, like Hoshiningen and D. D. Warrior Lady. Plus, Shining Angel can help you get an early lead or survive late-game topdecking situations. As a general rule, if you’re running an attribute-themed deck, you should run the Magic Ruler self-replacing monster that best fits your deck, if possible. These cards are just too awesome to pass up—they’re the perfect balance between utility and synergy.
On that note, I’m adding a copy of D. D. Warrior Lady. Even though Justin mentioned that he didn’t have one yet, he should try to get a copy for this deck. The Warrior Lady is one of the best reasons to play a Light deck. Luckily, the Warrior Lady just got placed on the Limited list, so the odds are good that a local player will be happy to trade because he or she will be dropping one or two copies from a Chaos deck. This is good news for Justin and for anyone else who doesn’t have one yet.
I’m also adding the copy of Reflect Bounder that Justin mentioned he didn’t have. Thunder Nyan Nyan can be an acceptable substitute, but nothing holds a candle to Reflect Bounder’s amazing effect. Though the card is an ultra rare and can sometimes be difficult to find, it’s an absolute beast with Luminous Spark on the field, and the Machine is disgustingly good at virtually any point in a duel.
Finally, for monsters, our old friend Sangan is back with the new Advanced format, and this deck should definitely run a copy! With the ability to search for D. D. Warrior Lady, Shining Angel, Magician of Faith, and Hoshiningen, this little powerhouse is one of the most important cards in the new format. Virtually any deck can make use of Sangan. It’s a great opening monster, a great way to maintain hand presence, and a valuable search tool, so this deck shouldn’t be without it. Just be careful and remember that Sangan is not a Light monster, so the Fiend could wind up killing Thunder Nyan Nyan or make it awkward to summon Thunder if you aren’t careful.
 For spells, I want to add a second copy of Terraforming. This deck takes off once you activate Luminous Spark, so we need to be sure that we can depend on getting the spell in the early game. Running a second copy of Terraforming to replace a destroyed one is important, so we can afford to devote five cards to the Spark’s cause. The ATK bonus from the potent field spell is arguably the main reason to be running this deck, so we should keep that emphasis in mind when building the deck
Lastly, I’m going to add two traps—Ring of Destruction and Mirror Force. While you may want to rotate Mirror Force out of the deck when you’re up against a Lockdown Burn player, both of these traps are extremely powerful in any other matchup. These cards are going to be the staples of the new Advanced format for most decks. The Ring and Mirror Force’s wickedly high utility and strong effects make the cards too good to pass up.
The final changes to the deck look like this.
-1 Airknight Parshath
-1 Guardian Angel Joan
-1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
-1 Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
-1 Cyber Jar
-1 Kaiser Sea Horse
-1 Magic Reflector
-1 Swords of Concealing Light
-1 A Hero Emerges
-1 Dust Tornado
-1 Divine Wrath
+3 Thunder Dragon
+2 Shining Angel
+1 D. D. Warrior Lady
+1 Sangan
+1 Reflect Bounder
+1 Terraforming
+1 Ring of Destruction
+1 Mirror Force
The fixed version of the deck clocks in at a tight 40 cards. Here it is.
Justin’s Blinding Light: Jason’s Fix
40 cards
Monsters: 18
3 Thunder Dragon
1 Moisture Creature
1 Soul of Purity and Light
2 Thunder Nyan Nyan
1 Hoshiningen
2 Blade Knight
1 Freed the Brave Wanderer
1 Reflect Bounder
1 Magician of Faith
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Sangan
2 Shining Angel
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
Spells: 16
3 Luminous Spark
2 Terraforming
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Enemy Controller
1 Creature Swap
1 Scapegoat
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Book of Moon
Traps: 6
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Mirror Force
1 Magic Drain
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
The fixed build performs more reliably due to its increased searching power, better opening options, and easier access to discard effects. At the same time, the deck’s newfound searching capabilities balance the fact that the monster roster still contains a lot of single copies of certain monsters. The result is a deck that is unpredictable but also has lots of easily reachable options and is flexible enough so it doesn’t have any particularly poor matchups.
The ideal opening play is to summon either a face-up or face-down Shining Angel, a face-up D. D. Warrior Lady, or a face-up Reflect Bounder. Remember, your goal on turn 1 if you go first is to discourage attacks from your opponent—this will give you an advantage when you’re making your first attack on turn 2. Summoning Sangan is also acceptable, as an opponent will often be hesitant to attack if the Fiend is face up and backed up by at least one face-down spell or trap.
 Your goal in the early game is to get Luminous Spark on the field and keep it there. Don’t feel obligated to activate the spell as soon as you get it into your hand, as often it will be smarter to draw out an opponent’s spell and trap removal first. This deck is below average in battle without Luminous Spark but absolutely deadly with it, so understand that it’s imperative that you protect the field card. From the early game and continuing into the mid- and late game, your goal is domination in battle. If an opponent can’t do anything about Luminous Spark and can’t wipe you off the field, he or she will fall relatively quickly. Don’t shy away from speeding up that process—go for an over-extension and lean on your opponent. In any deck that’s dependent on a field spell, it’s always best to keep an opponent reacting to your moves rather than prioritizing and making his or her own, so aggression can pay off.
Thanks for sending in your deck, Justin! I hope that the fix helps and inspires some duelists to sample the power of Light!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
Are you interested in seeing your deck featured? 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! |
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