There’s a pretty good chance that the Gadget monsters from Structure Deck 10: Machine Re-Volt have hit your area in a big way. Many of you reading this are probably running Gadget decks yourselves for competitive tournaments, and the rest probably spent some time this past week or two figuring out how to tech against your Gadget-wielding opponents. There are plenty of ways to make life hard on Gadget players: King Tiger Wanghu, Deck Devastation Virus, Mind Crush,

Narrow Pass, and literally dozens of other options have seen significant testing. Each solution has its strengths and its weaknesses, but personally, one of my favorite ways to deal with Gadgets is to hinder their monster removal. Without the ability to keep the field clear, many Gadget decks buckle under the weight of a decent mid-sized attacker. In addition, most removal-heavy Gadget builds rely on their monster removal to provide the card-for-card trades that let them make the most of their extra Gadgets. If we can force a Gadget player into a situation where his or her removal cards are either incapable of creating card trades or useless altogether, then we’ll be at a distinct advantage.

This deck aims to flood the field with Zombies to provide enough fodder for Hand of Nephthys, in order to bring out Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. The deck wins a majority of games and can be really fun to play. I just need help removing the inconsistent cards that usually lead to me losing. Please fix my deck Jason.

Thanks!

—Alex C.

Alex didn’t design this deck to have an edge against Gadgets, but it just so happens that he’s got the perfect framework for doing so. Here’s the deck as Alex submitted it:

Phoenix Rising—42 Cards

Monsters: 23

1 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

2 Ryu Kokki

1 Vampire Lord

3 Cyber Dragon

3 Pyramid Turtle

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Apprentice Magician

2 Old Vindictive Magician

1 Hand of Nephthys

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Exiled Force

1 D. D. Assailant

1 Treeborn Frog

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Magician of Faith

Spells: 13

2 Brain Control

1 Last Will

1 Premature Burial

1 Book of Life

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Graceful Charity

1 Confiscation

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

1 Smashing Ground

Traps: 6

3 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

While the deck looks functional as is, I can definitely understand the one concern that Alex voiced: inconsistent cards which lead to losses in the wrong situation. The reality is that when you’re running this sort of deck, you’re obligated to use a certain number of conditional cards to begin with. Tributes like Ryu Kokki and Vampire Lord are meant to be special summoned with Pyramid Turtle, so every time you draw one, you’re taking a strategic blow. Book of Life is too good to ignore, but again, it can be a dead draw for many turns in the early game. Alex has tried to compensate with additional cards (like Brain Control) to make tribute monsters a bit more useful, but that’s actually created even more situations where Alex might have dead cards.

So my fixes to this deck will have two goals. First, I want to build on Alex’s theme of really tough-to-destroy monsters and leverage that potential right into the face of the average Gadget deck. Secondly, I’d like to streamline the build to increase its average utility. I actually tested a few different versions of this deck before settling on a final fix, and riskier builds were definitely disappointing. One went hog wild with synergy, featuring Hydrogeddon and Rush Recklessly (where Rush was intended to protect Vampire Lord from Cyber Dragon). The result was just more dead cards stacking up next to my already-dead tribute monsters and first turn Book of Life. Utility is going to be a big asset.

With that in mind, the first cuts I want to make are intended to eliminate potentially dead cards. I’m going to be maintaining field presence like there’s no tomorrow, so my first drop is the set of three Cyber Dragon cards. I’m going to recommend that they get bumped to the side deck and rotated in when needed, but for now, they’re going to require a tribute too often, and they’ll fall prey to removal cards very easily. That really defeats the goals I’ll be trying to achieve.

Next, Last Will and Pot of Avarice are both too conditional for a strategy that’s already running several tough-to-use cards. I can’t express how many times I tested different versions of this deck and wound up with Pot of Avarice sitting in my hand for what seemed like years starting on turn 1. While there’s some cute combo potential between Last Will and Pyramid Turtle, testing proved that it just wasn’t worth the risk . . . especially with just one Exiled Force supporting it.

I’ll be switching around the deck’s removal options, swapping some of Alex’s choices for a few that will fit my final build a bit better. One Old Vindictive Magician, Exiled Force, and Bottomless Trap Hole will be removed in favor of some different options. The two Brain Control cards won’t be nearly so useful with Cyber Dragon removed, and I’ll also drop the deck’s count of Ryu Kokki to one instead of two.

The reason? I want to put more emphasis on Vampire Lord. While Cyber Dragon has knocked this former powerhouse off the competitive map in the minds of many, proper protection can ensure that he survives on the field. Gadgets hate him: wasting a piece of removal on Vampire Lord just to defend from (or make) an attack is a wince-worthy move that few duelists will want to commit to. Such an exchange is costly in the long run. The opposing player loses a card, you get your Vampire Lord back, and a turn later you have an even better position than you did before.

Twin-Headed Behemoth presents a similar situation, just daring the opponent to activate Sakuretsu Armor when it attacks. Not only can Behemoth create pressure on a Gadget player, it’s also going to provide a little bit more tribute fodder to balance out the times when you draw a high-level Zombie. Since we like messing with the opponent’s removal so much, I’ll add a pair of Elemental Hero Wildheart cards to the mix as well. I faced these a few times playing my own Gadget deck, and they honestly caused me more problems than King Tiger Wanghu. If you find you need some more muscle against Monarchs, then they’re an easy set of cards to rotate out for two of your sided Cyber Dragon cards.

With an extra Vampire Lord in the deck, and a new reliance on a lower count of big attackers, Call of the Haunted is a must. It’s a great way to bring back discarded or destroyed Vampire Lord cards, and it’s utterly frustrating when used in conjunction with Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, especially if the opponent finally managed to destroy it in battle. In my opinion, any deck focusing on Phoenix should be running this card.

Moving onto the replacement removal I mentioned earlier, Mirror Force is another must. While I assume Alex probably wasn’t running it because he didn’t have one at his disposal, it’s really an important card for a deck like this. There are a lot of monsters that need defending, and Mirror Force is just going to help cut down Gadgets even faster. From there, one Smashing Ground will help mitigate the impact of bigger monsters, and two Enemy Controller cards will keep attackers off Vampire Lord.

The last card I want to add is Scapegoat. If you’ve been reading my deck fixes lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve become a big fan of the “Scapegoat and two Enemy Controller” defense engine, and it’s going to work wonders here. While Scapegoat could interfere with the deck’s swarming, it’s rare to find a deck nowadays that will leave you with your tokens. While some aggro decks will run Asura Priest, and some Gadget builds will use Lightning Vortex, Scapegoat will almost always save you from one rough battle phase and will often stop an opponent for two to three turns. In this deck it’s even more valuable, since Hand of Nephthys can tribute a Scapegoat token to bring out Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys.   

My list of changes for my final builds looks as follows:

-1 Ryu Kokki

-1 Old Vindictive Magician

-3 Cyber Dragon

-1 Exiled Force

-2 Brain Control

-1 Last Will

-1 Pot of Avarice

-1 Bottomless Trap Hole

+1 Vampire Lord

+2 Elemental Hero Wildheart

+1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

+1 Scapegoat

+1 Smashing Ground

+1 Call of the Haunted

+2 Enemy Controller

+1 Mirror Force

The deck itself looks like this . . .

Phoenix Rising—Jason’s Fix—41 Cards

Monsters: 21

1 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

2 Vampire Lord

1 Ryu Kokki

3 Pyramid Turtle

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Apprentice Magician

1 Old Vindictive Magician

1 Magician of Faith

1 Hand of Nephthys

2 Elemental Hero Wildheart

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

1 Sangan

1 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 13

1 Book of Life

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Graceful Charity

1 Confiscation

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

2 Smashing Ground

1 Scapegoat

1 Premature Burial

2 Enemy Controller

Traps: 7

3 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

Opening plays should never be a problem: Treeborn Frog, Apprentice Magician, and Pyramid Turtle are all ideal, while D. D. Assailant and Twin-Headed Behemoth aren’t far behind. The deck is short on big beatsticks, so you need to play carefully: while Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial conflict with Treeborn Frog, they’re really outstanding on all of your hard-to-destroy monsters. They balance out the deck’s low count of big attackers, and you’ll find that they’re an absolute necessity for victory.

If you can come out swinging early, then by all means do so: the faster you get out your Vampire Lord cards, Phoenix, and Behemoth, the better. Once you do, your primary goal is keeping the opponent’s big monsters under control, while forcing the use of monster removal. This goal is static regardless of what you’re facing: it’s just easier to pull off against Gadgets than it is when facing Monarchs or an aggressive beatdown.

The deck’s got lots of tricks. Book of Life can be invaluable for its ability to remove Treeborn Frog from the game. Hand of Nephthys has a wide array of great tribute partners that make bringing out Sacred Phoenix really easy, and it can be worthwhile to wait for that flipped Old Vindictive Magician or Treeborn to deploy Phoenix as cheaply as possible. Perhaps my favorite trick this deck has going for it is its use of Torrential Tribute in the mid-game. Since Wildheart, Phoenix, Behemoth, Treeborn, and Sangan can all shrug off Torrential’s impact in their own ways, you can often simplify a very complicated field and wind up keeping most of your monsters. That’s the kind of thing that wins games.

If you’re a beatdown-style player, then this deck may not work for you: it just doesn’t have a ton of raw muscle. However, if you’re crafty enough to handle the average matchups, you’ll find that it’s an excellent deck to take against just about any Gadget-wielding opponent. The current format is incredibly heavy on monster removal, and this new spin on Alex’s creation does an excellent job of counteracting that trend. Would I run this at a local as-is? Definitely, and it could easily bring you success in a Regional, perhaps with a bit of tweaking for your area’s metagame.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer