With the recent release of Trade-In, new deck possibilities were created and old ones were made better. Today, we’ll be revisiting The Creator and the deck archetypes he allowed. While the deck has often been criticized as overly inconsistent, I’ve seen some interesting builds created that made it fairly competitive in a tournament format. Also, like any deck, moving into the Traditional format makes it more regulated, giving it additional drawing power.
We’ll be making a deck that will draw a lot of cards and have the ability to swarm the field with them. Decks based on The Creator aren’t played very often, but after testing this build, I’ve found it going toe to toe against the savviest Chaos duelists I know. It plays like a Diamond Dude Turbo deck, but requires fewer life point costs. While utilizing the graveyard makes it weak against cards like Banisher of the Radiance, your opponent will have to act quickly and get very lucky to stop the deck in its tracks without a fully developed remove-from-play theme.
The Monsters
We’ll start the monster lineup with the tributes, which will obviously be extensive. I’ve chosen to include a Destiny Hero backbone, allowing for extra draws and the ability to play Destiny Hero - Dasher.
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
2 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
3 The Creator
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
The two copies of Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys are our real beatsticks. Special summoning enormous monsters is great, but special summoning enormous monsters that won’t go away is even better. In fact, you’ll find that most opponents will be almost incapable of destroying the Phoenix, and they’ll have to overexert themselves to do it. Having the ability to bring the Phoenix back with ease will turn a desperate opponent into one scooping up his cards.
The inclusion of Dasher will allow for late game comebacks. Early game should involve the deck exploding, drawing multiple cards and special summoning enormous monsters. Mid-game will result in your opponent trying to deal with the monsters and losing cards in doing so. Late game (if it ever gets there) relies heavily on Destiny Hero - Dasher turning terrible draws into game-winning ones.
The non-tribute monsters, which only total nine of the nineteen monsters, are mostly included as support.
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Card Trooper
1 Sangan
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Morphing Jar
2 The Creator Incarnate
You’ll notice I’ve been forced to leave out monsters that usually make the cut, such as Breaker the Magical Warrior. This is a result of a difficulty keeping the deck at 40 cards. While Breaker is one of the best monsters in the game, there isn’t another monster that can be sacrificed from the lineup to allow his presence.
The inclusion of Card Trooper is the most questionable choice here, but its ability to fill the graveyard is more beneficial than Breaker’s ability to destroy a back-row card. Everything in this monster lineup is complimentary to the general theme, and that’s the consistency this deck needs to operate on a tournament level.
The Spells
The spell lineup is fairly normal, barring the copies of Reinforcement of the Army, Trade-In, and Destiny Draw. Here, great cards become almost absurd. Painful Choice isn’t just a way to get a fast Sinister Serpent and free deck thinning, it’s also a means to dump Dashers, Disk Commander, and tribute monsters. Graceful Charity achieves the same noteworthy synergy with the theme, both drawing you extra cards and filling your graveyard with monsters that want to be there.
Spells: 19
1 Card Destruction
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Painful Choice
2 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Trade-In
3 Destiny Draw
The most powerful part of this deck is its ability to move quickly through itself, using a combination of Destiny Draw, Trade-In, Card Destruction, Pot of Greed, and Graceful Charity. It’s fairly rare to open with a hand that doesn’t give you more cards. All of these cards can shift the tide of the game in your favor, turning a poor situation into a one-turn KO.
The Traps
Because of the deck’s difficulty staying at 40 cards, the trap lineup is extremely limited. Royal Decree, besides being arguably the strongest trap for the deck to run, is probably the only card that can be justified as representing the entire lineup. Running more traps risks dead draws as a result of your own negation.
Traps: 2
2 Royal Decree
Despite my wish for the deck to run Call of the Haunted, which would compliment the recursion theme of the strategy, I was unable to find room for it. Also, I neglected running a Waboku lineup, along with any other monster removal, because your monsters should be able to maintain field presence on their own. As long as you stop your opponent from activating his or her traps, you’ll be able to maintain control of the field. Royal Decree shuts down about half the answers most opponents will have to your field—including Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute—leaving them with only spell- and monster-based removal. Much like the triple Dust Tornado lineup, the idea is to generate an advantage over your opponents by destroying their monsters with your own instead of relying on traps.
The Final Decklist
There isn’t much to playing this deck: you draw cards and special summon monsters when you can. The only real choice you’ll have to make is choosing what card to special summon with The Creator. Remember to consider the benefits of returning Destiny Hero - Disk Commander and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys under each circumstance differently. Sometimes it’s more mathematically sound to choose one rather than the other. Also, if you have Destiny Hero - Dasher, remember to use his effect! I’ve seen players scoop their cards after drawing Dark Magician of Chaos without realizing that they have a Dasher in the graveyard, making him their best possible draw.
Monsters: 19
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
2 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
3 The Creator
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Card Trooper
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Morphing Jar
2 The Creator Incarnate
Spells: 19
1 Card Destruction
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Painful Choice
2 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Trade-In
3 Destiny Draw
Traps: 2
2 Royal Decree
You’ll need to watch out for strong remove-from-play side decks. For this reason, I suggest siding multiple copies of Dust Tornado and Heavy Storm. Besides that, there isn’t really a bad matchup for this build: you can use the rest of your side deck to guard against one-turn KO strategies such as Last Turn, Exodia, or Diamond Dude Turbo.
To play this deck, you’ll need three copies of Trade-In from the Rise of the Dragon Lords structure deck. I wouldn’t suggest trying to run this without them. They’re well worth the investment for this structure. Other than that, most of these cards can be pilfered from an Advanced format deck, making it a great transition for players looking to play Traditional with minimum searching of old cards. Until next week, enjoy the madness this build can bring, but more importantly, try to have a camera ready to capture the look on your opponent’s face.
—Ryan Murphy