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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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Ok! Finally, I'm going to lay into a few of the more creative and original decks that I've been talking about, but not delivering, for two weeks. Invasion of Chaos gave us several good cards for Fire decks, so this definitely seems like a prime time to take a look at one. Adam sent me just such a deck, and here’s what he had to say about it:
 Dear Jason,
Let me just start by saying I am a complete pyromaniac—in other words, I think Fire cards are awesome. When I first started duelling, I wanted a Dark Magician deck, but all this changed. I went out and brought my first booster, a Legacy of Darkness first edition, and I opened the pack to find what is now my favourite card—Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi, with the amazing ability to destroy the cards in your opponent’s hand. It was then that I decided to create a Fire deck. My deck is designed to do several things. It could be a Beatdown deck with the strong monsters I have, or a sort of Burn deck using my Lava Golem and my Mask cards. I have also been able to win by Last Turn with my Ultimately Obedient Fiend. And finally, I enjoy having a ritual monster in there, especially one with a Dark Hole effect. My friends don't see the point, but I get to summon my monster easier than Fusion, and I think it's great, which is what counts. This makes my deck, I've recently adjusted it with some new IOC cards. It's a bit "all over the place," but I don't know what I would change in my deck. I would be grateful for your perspective.
Thanks in advance,
—Adam Price
Here's the decklist Adam sent in:
Adam's Fire Deck
48 cards
Monsters
1 Ultimate Obedient Fiend
1 Lava Golem
1 Tyrant Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon
1 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
1 Manticore of Darkness
2 Twin-Headed Fire Dragon
1 Legendary Flame Lord
1 Molten Behemoth
1 Fushi No Tori
2 UFO Turtle
1 Little Chimera
1 Jigen Bakudan
1 Fire Princess
1 Spirit of Flames
1 Inferno
1 The Thing in the Crater
1 Blazing Inpachi
1 Battle Footballer
2 Darkfire Soldier #1
2 Darkfire Soldier #2
1 Great Angus
2 Robotic Knight
1 Fire Kraken
Spells
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Horn of the Unicorn
1 Mask of Dispel
1 Mask of Accursed
1 Mask of Brutality
1 Molten Destruction
1 Salamandra
1 Incandescent Ordeal
1 Spiritual Energy Settle Machine
1 Heavy Storm
1 Cost Down
Traps
1 Mirror Wall
1 Mask of Restrict
1 Mask of Weakness
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Life Absorbing Machine
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Trap Jammer
1 Last Turn
 Whoa! That is indeed "all over the place," as you put it, Adam. You've got a mix of cards that would all do well as the basis of their own decks, or as part of other, more focused decks: Fire Princess, Legendary Flame Lord, Manticore of Darkness, Lava Golem, a bunch of Spirit monsters and Spiritual Energy Settle Machine, Last Turn, and some Fire-type beatsticks and stat-boosters. You've basically got cards from seven different decks mixed into one here. We really need to narrow it down to just one, or else you really won't get much done. This is also going to benefit the deck, because by trimming it down, we're going to be able to keep the deck's size more manageable. Right now, it's quite bulky at 48 cards total. You've definitely got a lot of successful combos and ideas in the deck, but because you're running so many, you won't be able to reliably draw any of them.
You're also very high on monsters that require tributes or rituals to be summoned—you're currently packing a whopping ten. Even just three tribute or Ritual monsters is pushing it in most decks, especially when you're not running the support cards needed to use Ritual monsters effectively (Sonic Bird, Senju of the Thousand Hands, and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands). I'm going to drop all of the tribute monsters except for 1 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi and 1 Yamata Dragon. I think both cards work well together, and you said Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi is your personal fave, so we'll definitely keep them in. The rest all have to go, though—right now you're playing a deck with a ton of tribute monsters, and you're not really playing anything that lets you protect your board position enough to insure that you'll be able to use them.
Legendary Flame Lord is going to get removed because it needs to be used in a ritual deck. In order to run it effectively, you'd need two more copies and Incandescent Ordeal, as well as three Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, and probably two each of Sonic Bird and Senju of the Thousand Hands. If I did that, it would be a ritual deck and wouldn't resemble the deck you submitted any more, so I'm going to go with a fix that takes a small portion of your ideas and supports and emphasizes them so you can really dominate.
 Fushi No Tori, Jigen Bakudan, Fire Princess, and Inferno all belong in decks built around certain themes. Fushi No Tori and Inferno do well when matched with a lot of good equip spells, Maha Vailo, and Matazza the Zapper. Fire Princess needs a full lockdown engine with Gravity Bind, some trap cards that can negate spells, and things like Solemn Wishes and Cure Mermaid to trigger its effect. Jigen Bakudan needs sort of a combination of both—a lockdown engine to protect it, and equips to bulk up the attack of the monsters it's going to be destroying. All of those would require decks not based on Fire monsters, so I'm going to get rid of them all.
The Thing in the Crater is an interesting card—one could sort of make a deck focusing on Pyro monsters, and try and use it to special summon Twin-Headed Fire Dragon, or in a pinch, Blazing Inpachi. The problem is that there just really aren't any Pyro monsters worth using The Thing in the Crater with. Twin-Headed Fire Dragon is the highest-attack Pyro monster that can be summoned via The Thing in the Crater's effect, and it's only a lowly 2200 ATK and not really worth building a deck around. This fix is actually going to be pretty light on Pyro monsters anyways, so I'm going to chuck The Thing in the Crater.
The two Darkfire Soldier #1, two Darkfire Soldier #2, two Robotic Knight, Fire Kraken, and Great Angus, are going to be removed in favor of higher-ATK, Fire-attribute monsters. There are just far better options than these guys that are also quite cheap to get.
 All the equip cards are going to be removed. Mask of Dispel and Mask of the Accursed only belong in direct-damage decks, and though a bit of burn can be nice, both these cards require you to either not attack or not clear the opponent's spell/trap field—both things we want to be doing in order to win. Mask of Brutality and Salamandra give decent stat bonuses, but since we're running a deck focused on Fire, we can use field cards and other cards to gain far greater bonuses on a larger basis. Lastly, Horn of the Unicorn is just a bad idea. Not only are there better ways to gain stat bonuses for our monsters, but this thing has the tendency to be either a dead card in the hand or just flat out not-going-away. The fact that it can potentially take up your draw each turn is a very negative thing in this deck, and it's really not worth using.
Spiritual Energy Settle Machine belongs in a deck specializing in Spirits. We only have two, so running a single copy of Spiritual Energy Settle Machine is a waste of a card slot, seeing how difficult it will be to get one of the big Spirit monsters into play as well as having this thing in hand at the same time. It's not worth the potential benefit it might give, simply because it's usually going to be a dead card. Those Spirit monsters aren't easy to get to, as neither can be searched for with Witch of the Black Forest or Sangan, and we're not running a deck full of deck-thinning cards like Mystic Tomato and Thunder Dragon. The Spirit monsters are good, but they're not that reliable, so cards that can only benefit them shouldn't be run in this case.
Last up for spells, Cost Down is going to get tossed. Cost Down basically lets you save one of your monsters from being used as tribute in return for two cards from your hand. Regardless of what kind of deck you're playing, that honestly seems like a pretty bad trade-off to me. The fact that we're now running only three tribute monsters also really reduces this card's potential utility.
Lastly, I'm going to streamline your traps. The traps I'm going to recommend getting into the deck are probably really the only hard-to-get cards in the fix, so feel free to keep some of the traps I'm taking out until you can get the ones I suggest. However, Mirror Wall, Mask of Restrict, Mask of Weakness, Life Absorbing Machine, Bottomless Trap Hole, Trap Jammer, and Last Turn are all either sub-par traps, or meant for specialized decks. I'd definitely side deck Bottomless Trap Hole, but other than that, I'd recommend trying to find the replacements for each of these cards as quickly as possible.
That's alot of cuts! Right now, here's what we have left in the deck:
Monsters (8)
1 Yamata Dragon
1 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
2 UFO Turtle
1 Little Chimera
1 Spirit of Flames
1 Blazing Inpachi
1 Battle Footballer
Spells (3)
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Molten Destruction
1 Heavy Storm
Traps (1)
1 Magic Cylinder
 Basically, we've got the groundwork of a really solid Fire Beatdown deck that can pull some tricks out of its sleeve. We want to add cards that will continue the idea of field presence and field domination so that we can both attack effectively and have at least two monsters ready for when Yamata Dragon and Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi meander their way into the hand. Beyond that, we need to add some standard spells and traps to the deck that are near-staples in virtually any Yu-Gi-Oh! deck. All the cards I'm suggesting be added should be pretty easy to get, especially since a lot of the cuts from the deck freed up some pretty tradable cards.
First up, the deck needs a Jinzo. The deck is going to win by attacking, and you're running some pretty high-investment tribute monsters, so you need to make sure that a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute doesn't totally ruin each game. Jinzo's been reprinted, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.
Next up, another UFO Turtle. UFO Turtle is a great card, and it's definitely worth running three of. It's going to maintain your board presence to ensure that you have monsters to tribute for your Spirits, and it's also going to give you easy access to Little Chimera, Battle Footballer, and another card we're going to be adding. It's a definite must for any Fire deck.
I'm going to add in another Little Chimera as well. Because it's a low-ATK card, it probably won't be sticking around the turn after you play it, but you basically want to use it once you have a few monsters out to give them enough push to destroy your opponent. Remember that it's searchable via UFO Turtle, and that if you have both Little Chimeras in play, their effects stack together—pretty impressive!
 Two more Blazing Inpachis are a must. They have the highest ATK of any normal Fire-attribute monster under level 5, and they're going to give you some offensive potential. They're simple, effective, and deadly when backed up by a Little Chimera or a Molten Destruction. By the same token, Battle Footballer makes a great opening card as well as a great counter to most primary attackers. I've played with it before, and people don't tend to see it coming. It's a great card, and it can also be searched out by UFO Turtle. Just remember that UFO Turtle requires you to put the searched card into attack position, so if you're going to pull a Battle Footballer with it, make sure your opponent won't be attacking again that turn. I'm going to bump you up from one to two.
Next up, I'm going to add some more monsters the original deck didn't include. Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan are musts. They keep your hand count up, they let you search out monsters you need, and they're quite tricky to play against. They're especially good in a creative deck like this one, where an opponent won't know what's coming next and thus might not want to take the chance of attacking either one. Witch of the Black Forest is a definite staple in almost any deck, and Sangan is only a few steps behind it.
A pair of Spirits of the Flame is going to add a lot to this deck. Not only will they give offensive oomph, but they're also going to give you a way to get more monsters into play in order to pay for Yamata Dragon and Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. Their effect is great, and though they might need a bit of protection on the opponent's turn, they'll definitely provide a lot of good road-clearing services on your turns. A single Raigeki or Dark Hole, even in the early game, can mean game over for the opponent because of these guys.
Last up, Infernalqueen Archfiend. It's not as good as it was before it was given eratta, but basically, it functions as a 1900 ATK monster that you can retrieve from the deck with UFO Turtle. Cool stuff.
The deck is lacking a lot of very easy-to-get spell cards that are basically must-haves for any deck. Pot of Greed, Change of Heart, Dark Hole, Snatch Steal, Monster Reborn, Raigeki, and Graceful Charity are usually good ideas for any deck conceivable. Out of them, all are starter deck cards except for Raigeki, Snatch Steal, and Pot of Greed. Pot of Greed is a rare that has been reprinted in tournament packs, so it's usually easy to find. Snatch Steal is an ultra rare, but it, too, seems to be pretty easy to get. Raigeki might be a challenge, but it's really going to be a rewarding one—it's a completely broken card that wins games and gives an incredible amount of advantage. Be sure to get one as soon as possible if you don't have one yet, and if you do have one but it's in another deck, just rotate it into this one as needed.
 Three Mystical Space Typhoon and a Harpie's Feather Duster are definite musts as well. These four cards, as well as Heavy Storm, are featured in virtually all decks that focus on attacking as their main way of winning the game. Your opponents are often going to have things like Mirror Force, Imperial Order, Swords of Revealing Light, and other powerful cards to attempt to prevent you from attacking or get in the way of your plans, and these cards are a necessity to overcome these challenges. Mystical Space Typhoon is a starter deck card and should be easily attainable, and though Harpie's Feather Duster is popular, it's not often a particularly high-value card if you know where to look. If they command a lot in trade in your area, try an online auction site, where they can be had pretty cheaply.
I'd suggest one other spell card, and that's just a second copy of Molten Destruction. Molten Destruction and Little Chimera are going to accomplish what your equip cards were doing in the original deck, but they're going to give far better bonuses, and be a bit more difficult to play against because of how wide-spread their effects are.
Last up, the traps. Imperial Order, Ring of Destruction, Mirror Force, and Call of the Haunted are all definite musts for this deck. Imperial Order gives you a free negation of any spell card that comes your way, as well as the potential to lock down the opponent. Ring of Destruction is going to protect your monsters, especially Spirit of the Flame, and it can also be game-breaking when used for a lot of damage—say on Yamata Dragon or Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. Mirror Force gives protection as well as completely uncosted card advantage, while Call of the Haunted gives field advantage for pressing offensives and summoning your Spirit monsters. Not only that, it can also be chained to spell or trap removal to bring up a Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, or Jinzo. All four of these are quite important for this deck. Ring of Destruction should be easy to get since it was reprinted in the Invasion of Chaos Special Edition packs. Call of the Haunted and Imperial Order might be a bit pricey, but trading for them shouldn't be too hard. Mirror Force could be a real challenge to get—if you can't get one, then just don't run anything in its place, which would bring the deck down to 40 cards even.
Here's the list of changes to the deck:
-1 Ultimate Obedient Fiend
-1 Lava Golem
-1 Tyrant Dragon
-1 Manticore Of Darkness
-2 Twin-Headed Fire Dragon
-1 Legendary Flame Lord
-1 Molten Behemoth
-1 Fushi No Tori
-1 Jigen Bakudan
-1 Fire Princess
-1 Inferno
-1 The Thing in the Crater
-2 Darkfire Soldier #1
-2 Darkfire Soldier #2
-2 Robotic Knight
-1 Fire Kraken
-1 Great Angus
-1 Horn of the Unicorn
-1 Mask of Brutality
-1 Salamandra
-1 Mask of Dispel
-1 Mask of Accursed
-1 Incandescent Ordeal
-1 Spiritual Energy Settle Machine
-1 Cost Down
-1 Mirror Wall
-1 Mask of Restrict
-1 Mask of Weakness
-1 Life Absorbing Machine
-1 Bottomless Trap Hole
-1 Trap Jammer
-1 Last Turn
+1 Jinzo
+1 UFO Turtle
+1 Little Chimera
+2 Blazing Inpachi
+1 Battle Footballer
+2 Spirit of Flames
+3 Infernalqueen Archfiend
+1 Witch of the Black Forest
+1 Sangan
+1 Pot of Greed
+1 Change of Heart
+1 Dark Hole
+1 Snatch Steal
+1 Monster Reborn
+1 Raigeki
+1 Graceful Charity
+1 Molten Destruction
+3 Mystical Space Typhoon
+1 Harpie's Feather Duster
+1 Imperial Order
+1 Ring of Destruction
+1 Mirror Force
+1 Call of the Haunted
The final fix looks like this:
Adam's Fire Deck—Jason's Fix
41 cards
Monsters
1 Yamata Dragon
1 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
1 Jinzo
3 UFO Turtle
2 Little Chimera
3 Spirit of Flames
3 Blazing Inpachi
2 Battle Footballer
3 Infernalqueen Archfiend
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
Spells
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Molten Destruction
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Greed
1 Change of Heart
1 Dark Hole
1 Raigeki
1 Graceful Charity
1 Snatch Steal
1 Monster Reborn
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
Traps
1 Imperial Order
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Magic Cylinder
 There! That is going to run with a lot more focus. It's now a go-for-the-throat attacking deck that uses the bonuses and special summon cards available to Fire monsters to keep the opponent on the run, while ensuring it has monsters to tribute for a game-crushing Yamata Dragon or Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. Your ideal opening plays are going to be UFO Turtle or Battle Footballer, while Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan make alright starts as well. You want to build up a few monsters on your side of the field, and then use Molten Destruction and/or a Little Chimera to make a big push, either to wipe your opponent out or to take out his or her monsters. This goal is made more achievable by your recursion and your special summon–only monsters, as well as UFO Turtle's ability to replace itself. Remember that as needed, you can suicide a UFO Turtle to bring a Little Chimera into play.
For the side deck, I'd suggest one or two Torrential Tributes and two to three Bottomless Trap Holes to take care of Chaos decks. I'd also suggest a pair of Backup Soldier—you're running five non-Effect monsters, and if you're up against a Control deck, pulling three cards into your hand for the cost of just one from the field is really going to help. From there, just go with what you feel is right—either more copies of things already in the deck (Molten Destruction, Battle Footballer, and whatnot) or things that you feel will help you in your metagame.
Thanks for sending in the deck, Adam! Hopefully the fix helped!
As a reminder, players with deck ideas they would like to see featured in this column can email their requests to jasonatmetagame@yahoo.com. Please include your first name, city and state of residence, decklist in the format used above, and a few sentences about your deck and the challenges and successes you've had with it.
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