Amazon is a deck type where you can see the themes and the combos when looking through the cards, and yet Amazon decks hardly see play due to their reputation as a sub first-tier deck. Tom Brouwers took a crack at it at Battle City Amsterdam 2004, with pretty good results!

Monsters
3 Amazoness Fighter
2 Amazoness Tiger
3 Amazoness Paladin
3 Amazoness Swords Woman
1 Cyber Jar
2 Magician of Faith
3 Gemini Elf
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan

Spells
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Dark Hole
3 Amazoness Spellcaster
1 Graceful Charity
1 Pot of Greed
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Change of Heart
1 Monster Reborn
1 Mage Power
1 Raigeki

Traps
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Mirror Force
2 Dramatic Rescue
2 Amazoness Archers
2 Dust Tornado
2 Bottomless Trap Hole

In any metagame outside of Europe, this deck would definitely need some cuts. However, in an environment where most competitive players are running several tribute monsters, the games are a bit slower. A player can get away with a larger deck size, provided the player knows what he or she is doing. That’s definitely the case here.

The intent of this deck is to pressure your opponent into not attacking long enough for you to establish your board presence. Amazoness Fighter and Amazoness Swords Woman have annoying effects when they are attacked, so starting with those two monsters is often a good idea. Once one Amazon hits the field, Amazoness Paladin and Amazoness Tiger become 1900 attack monsters from their effects, and once a third Amazon is summoned on your side they will have 2000 ATK and 2300 ATK respectively. Cyber Jar helps this initiative, hopefully bringing out multiple Amazons at once.

The Spell selections are pretty typical. The usual staples are present, plus two Reinforcement of the Army to give the deck some more search capabilities as well as three Amazoness Spellcaster. Amazoness Spellcaster is just a great card, turning losing situations into winning ones. Is that 2300 attack Tiger not strong enough to take out the opponent’s Jinzo? Well, your Amazoness Fighter will make short work of it while dishing out some nice damage with Spellcaster on its side. Using Amazoness Spellcaster, any Amazoness can take down any face up monster on the field. It’s a good solution to Chaos monsters, turning the tables unpredictably while also potentially pounding through a decent amount of damage.

Dramatic Rescue and Amazoness Archers are also quite good. Dramatic Rescue is a gem, functioning in this deck as a counter to many popular cards like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Ring of Destruction, replacing one Amazon with another. If I played this deck, I’d run a few crazy high-level monsters to special summon with Dramatic Rescue’s effect. However, it’s clear why Tom didn’t do that here, instead banking on his lack of tribute monsters to make up for his deck size. It’s certainly given me ideas, though.

Amazoness Archers is the single best card in the Amazon repertoire if you can use it properly. It’s a bit tricky, but basically it forces your opponent into attacking you when the battle will go in your favor (which it normally will, due to the attack reduction effect), letting it function as both a way of dealing damage as well as a piece of monster removal that affects multiple monsters. Again, it’s a card that makes Amazons incredibly resilient. If your opponent has you out-matched with five monsters to zero on your side of the field, you can set this, drop one decent Amazon, and if the opponent can’t muster something with more than 2200 ATK it’s probably a good bet that not only will he lose all five of his monsters, but he’ll also take a lot of damage as well.

Amazons are yet another deck to watch once the Forbidden list is in widespread use. If Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan are on the North American Forbidden list, the overall play value of Reinforcement of the Army is going to go through the roof, and if there is less spell and trap removal in the environment, Amazoness Archers and Dramatic Rescue become a lot easier to play. Try one out for yourself!