The question posed in the title of this article has crossed my mind repeatedly over the past few weeks. On the one hand, the recent additions to the Zombie theme in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG seem very fitting. There’s a lot more coming back from the dead, and Zombies are now imbued with the ability to attack in swarms (as any B-movie buff would expect them to). But there’s one part that just doesn’t seem to fit, something that adds to the terror in a shocking and unexpected way.
These guys are fast.
There’s no slow, Romero-esque shambling. There isn’t any standing there, looking death in the face and contemplating how it’s taken the guise of a loved one. There’s no time for that. Zombies in their post-Tactical Evolution form will munch you into oblivion long before you have a chance to reflect on the irony of your own demise. They’ve gone all Danny Boyle on us: they’ll kill you four times before you hit the ground.
And so, it was with this idea (and the question about Zombie land speed) in mind that I happened to receive an e-mail from repeated Shonen Jump Championship Top 8 duelist Ryan Spicer. Lo and behold, he had exactly what I was looking for: a fast deck that I could make even faster (and more vicious) by adding some Zombies. Here’s what he had to say about the deck he sent me . . .
Hey Jason
This is Ryan Spicer, and I have a deck I would like to see featured in one of your articles.
I have been thinking of ways to make a new and stable way to OTK, and this is what I have come up with. The basis of the deck is to swarm the field in many ways and put a lot of damage on the field at once. This is done through Gigantes, Pyramid Turtle, Giant Rat, Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, and Book of Life. Its ability to summon or attain five monsters on the field at once is just amazing. I have tested this deck quite a bit and it has been doing great so far. Please tell me your thoughts and any improvements I could make.
Thanks!
—Ryan Spicer
Arlington, Texas
Ryan’s deck is like a speed-oriented update of the Earth beatdown decks that did well earlier this year in some European metagames. However, he’s added Pyramid Turtle and Ryu Kokki, giving it more ways to special summon and swarm. Here’s the list:
Surprisingly Fast Zombies—41 Cards
Monsters: 22
3 Card Trooper
3 Giant Rat
3 Pyramid Turtle
3 Ryu Kokki
2 Injection Fairy Lily
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Snipe Hunter
3 Gigantes
Spells: 14
2 Machine Duplication
1 United We Stand
1 Snatch Steal
3 Brain Control
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Premature Burial
3 Book of Life
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
Traps: 5
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ceasefire
1 Magic Cylinder
I’m not going to change a whole lot about Ryan’s deck. As he noted, it works well already. However, I have some key additions I’d like to make to improve three things: speed, resiliency, and the deck’s use of Book of Life. Like many decks running Book of Life, it can be a dead card in the early game, and we can accomplish all three of my goals simply by adding more Zombies. If you have a deck like this one, then you might want to consider taking similar steps once you get your hands on some Tactical Evolution cards.
First up, I’ll drop two of the three copies of Ryu Kokki. I’m going to be introducing some different high-level Zombies, and that means making space within the existing lineup of tribute-demanding flesh eaters. I’ll keep one Ryu Kokki for those situations where I want to power over Cyber Dragon or trade with a Monarch. With Pyramid Turtle to bring Kokki out when needed (and lots of ways to reuse it), one should be enough.
Next, I unfortunately need to pluck one strategic leg off this beast. Gigantes needs to be removed for a few good reasons. First, space: something needs to be cut, and this is the easiest drop to make. Second, I’ll be doing a lot more recursion, and Gigantes already seemed to conflict somewhat with Book of Life, Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted. Sure, they would sometimes be the basis for a win: multiple Gigantes are easy to special summon and can be played from the hand in the right situation to sweep an opponent. But they still seem like the weakest link in the deck’s strategy, and we’ll be making up for that special summoning power with more impressive effects. All three Gigantes cards will be removed.
One Injection Fairy Lily will be dropped as well. Again, with space at a premium and Zombies becoming more important in my version, Lily is powerful but less important. Like Ryu Kokki, one copy of her will remain to be used in situations that demand her.
Finally I’ll ditch one of the two copies of Machine Duplication. While Trooper-Duplication is certainly fearsome, I’m going to be using Card Trooper in a more active way in the final build. Since I’ll be running more Zombies and more methods of special summoning them, it becomes even more beneficial to use Card Trooper early in order to send Zombies to the graveyard. That means less of a reason to wait around with a Trooper in hand hoping for Duplication. This change is actually going to make the deck faster and more aggressive in the long run.
Six of the seven cards I’ll be adding are Zombies, and if you’ve been reading Metagame.com for the past couple of weeks, you can probably guess what they are. First up, three copies of Zombie Master! Zombie Master lets us get big Zombies into the graveyard for use with Book of Life, special summon swarms of attackers, and reuse Pyramid Turtle. On its own, it can build huge swarms by recurring more copies of itself, and it’s an explosive play in conjunction with Book of Life.
Zombie Master will be matched by what is currently my favorite card of all time, Il Blud! This is the big piece of the puzzle that brings everything together. The speed of Il Blud and Zombie Master, united with Giant Rat and Card Trooper, is nothing short of breakneck. Giant Rat and Card Trooper set you up to special summon Zombies, either with Pyramid Turtle or Book of Life respectively. We approach the main goal (special summoning a ton of monsters) from two primary angles, then toss in Machine Duplication for yet another path to victory. With Il Blud in the picture, you have a lot more incentive to play Card Trooper early and aggressively, because it sets you up for huge plays almost immediately. Meanwhile you have all the stability of six recruiters and three copies of Card Trooper to fall back on.
With six more monsters that can special summon from the graveyard, Torrential Tribute becomes a must. This deck is already packing Card Trooper, so it can play defensively if it needs to and then break apart the field for a big rush of monsters when it’s good and ready. The ability to set Troopers to bait out more monsters from the opponent and then use Torrential has proven devastating time and time again, and this deck can capitalize on that play like few others.
Those seven cards are my only additions! Here are the changes I made to Ryan’s build:
-3 Gigantes
-2 Ryu Kokki
-1 Injection Fairy Lily
-1 Machine Duplication
+3 Zombie Master
+3 Il Blud
+1 Torrential Tribute
The final decklist looks like this:
Surprisingly Fast Zombies—Jason’s Version—41 Cards
Monsters: 22
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Ryu Kokki
3 Il Blud
3 Zombie Master
3 Giant Rat
3 Card Trooper
1 Injection Fairy Lily
2 Snipe Hunter
Spells: 13
1 Machine Duplication
1 United We Stand
1 Snatch Steal
3 Brain Control
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Premature Burial
3 Book of Life
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
Traps: 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ceasefire
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Torrential Tribute
The deck opens with amazing strength. As stated above, Ryan’s original build can open with one of three Giant Rat cards or three Pyramid Turtle cards to maintain field presence and build the on-field special summoning of Zombies. Or it can open with Card Trooper to maintain card presence and prep the graveyard for Book of Life. This wasn’t my call, but it’s pretty genius, and it gets awesome results. As you can see, I didn’t mess with it in the slightest.
What I did do was make changes to bring the deck’s offense online even faster, while making Book of Life a more useful card in the early game. While the original build used the same number of Books and Snipe Hunter as this one, those cards are now more useful in this version, simply because the number of Zombies and effects to special summon them has gone way up. Zombies you pitch to Snipe Hunter? Now easier to bring back. Discarding for Snipe Hunter’s cost? Now more beneficial in the long run.
Provided you draw Pyramid Turtle, Giant Rat, or Card Trooper in your first few turns this deck should end games by turn 5. It can certainly take its time if it wants to, but it usually won’t have any reason to do so. If Torrential Tribute knocks you down, you have plenty of ways to pick yourself back up immediately, and you’ll often like seeing that card played against you—it means a clear field. Mirror Force can be endured with experience and careful play, and anything else is likely to be shredded. Raiza the Storm Monarch in the early game can be a concern, since having Il Blud returned to the top of your deck might cause problems, but aggressive play should work to counter that threat.
Remember: when Il Blud hits the field, you want to work carefully to mitigate its drawback. The ideal special summon is always Pyramid Turtle unless you have an important reason to grab Zombie Master, Ryu Kokki, or another Il Blud. “Important reasons” in this context generally denotes either a win scenario, or the elimination of a big monster that is obstructing your bid for victory. By taking Pyramid Turtle and trading it for another monster from your deck, you’ll be able to ensure that Il Blud’s demise won’t cost you too much of your field.
This deck is fast, deadly, and unlike many OTKs, highly resilient. A single Book of Life with Il Blud is all you need to set off a string of special summons thanks to Zombie Master, and Card Trooper makes those kinds of plays an impressive reality. If you want the explosiveness of an OTK, but the ability to bounce back from poor draws and rough beat situations, this deck may be what you’re looking for.
Thanks for sending it in, Ryan!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Got a cool deck that you think could benefit from some advice? Send me a decklist in the format shown in this article, along with your name, location, and a couple of paragraphs describing how the deck works. You can reach me at jdgmetagame@gmail.com.