The dam has been feeling too much pressure and has finally burst. Ever since I started doing New Grounds, dozens (if not hundreds) of bright duelists have either approached me in person or through the Internet to profile their own unique creations. Since I’ve written dozens of columns using my own ideas that other duelists have used to achieve success, I thought it’d be a good idea to profile some brilliant decks created by other players.

Today, I want to analyze a wonderful creation by a top player: Kevin Hor, a former star player of Comic Odyssey who won two ultra rare Cyber-Stein cards in side events while consistently placing in the Top 8 of every Regional. A Top 8 in the Shonen Jump Championships has always eluded the man, but he’s one of the few people in the world who has two copies of a SJC promotional card.

His deck focuses on Mausoleum of the Emperor, a card that we previewed on the pages of Metagame.com. The card choices are quite interesting, and should leave your opponent with no cards in hand if played correctly (cue ominous, suspense-filled music).

Creating Advantage through the Mausoleum Hand Control Concept

Mausoleum allows you to set up a tribute summon by paying a life point cost rather than tributing a monster. Kevin decided to use this card in conjunction with the Spirit monster Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi, a ghastly 2800 ATK/2900 DEF Pyro monstrosity that causes your opponent to discard his or her entire hand during his or her next draw phase before he or she draws if it can swing through some battle damage to the opponent’s life points.

The entire focus of the deck is to find a way to get the Hino on the field. At that point, it can either run over an attack-position monster or pierce a face-down monster with the assistance of the equip spell, Big Bang Shot. Different pieces of spell or trap removal help seal the deal, and the deck uses a variety of search cards to fetch the different components needed for the combination. It’s an extremely powerful and innovative concept that I saw Kevin playing at a Southern California regional event, and I wanted to share it with the rest of you.

Build: Kenzo Control

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Use Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi to force the opponent into a topdecking situation.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi

2) Big Bang Shot

3) Mausoleum of the Emperor

Constructing the Monster Lineup of the Mausoleum Hand Control Deck

Let’s begin with three copies of the Spirit monster.

3 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi

Now we can separate the rest of the list into cards that help set up the pieces for the possible tribute summon, and cards that provide the framework for general support.

Tribute Summon Support:

3 Magical Merchant

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Sangan

3 Nimble Momonga

1 Magician of Faith

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

As you can see, only monsters with good to great field presence are listed. Gravekeeper’s Spy, Nimble Momonga, and Twin-Headed Behemoth are probably the most stable monsters in the game for field presence. The first two will bring additional monsters onto the field when attacked, and Behemoth is practically guaranteed to make a return appearance after being destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

Nimble helps with the life point cost of Mausoleum as well. The three copies of Merchant are slightly dangerous because they can send multiple copies of Hino to the graveyard, but that’s counterbalanced by running Pot of Avarice. Despite the risk, it’s one of the only forms of spell searching in the game and is too valuable not to be used here.

While you may question the use of Treeborn Frog in a deck with field spells, remember that you’re only playing the Mausoleum when every component of the combo (Bang Shot, Hino, and Mausoleum) is ready for consumption. Since this will likely take a few turns to bring about, there’s no problem with using Treeborn Frog.

General Support:

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Morphing Jar

1 Night Assailant

2 Maharaghi

Cyber Dragon, with its special summon effect, allows you to swarm the board, deflect early pieces of defense your opponent may hold, and provides brute force after your opponent is left to topdecking (this is crucial). The combo components are not nearly as useful after achieving one hit with Hino, so you need to seal the deal with good monsters after the fact. That’s the main reason I chose to forgo Kevin’s original UFO Turtle and Flame Ruler engine.

Dark Magician of Chaos works wonders with Mausoleum as well. Morphing Jar forces both you and your opponent to draw new hands, which hurts your opponent even more if you hit him or her with Hino that turn. Finally, Maharaghi will let you dig for spell or trap removal, the Mausoleum, or Hino. It’s an excellent choice for a combo-based deck like this one.

The Spell and Trap Support for our Legendary Flame Lord of Decks

Let’s begin with the general spell support.

Spell Staples:

1 Confiscation

1 Graceful Charity

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Premature Burial

Yet again, we find ourselves using the same six basic spell cards. This deck is far from the average beatdown build, but the same spells are always worth at least considering when you’re building a new deck in this format, regardless of how original it is.

Conceptual Spell Support:

2 Giant Trunade: This piece of spell or trap removal works the best. Since Hino will be breaking through for damage anyways, there’s no problem with sending everything back to the opponent’s hand. Since Big Bang Shot works wondrously well with Giant Trunade in removing your opponent’s monsters, it’s a good idea to run multiple copies.

2 Big Bang Shot: This card is absolutely necessary for the combo. It allows Hino to pierce through defense position monsters to achieve battle damage in situations it might not have been able to otherwise.

1 Swords of Revealing Light: Swords is another card that combos with Giant Trunade while providing an early defense that is crucial for setting up the combo.

1 Scapegoat: Scapegoat helps slow the game down while allowing us to build cards in hand.

1 Pot of Avarice: Great with Merchant and our Spies and Nimble Momonga, Avarice will also help us send copies of Hino back to the deck if they’re dumped with Merchant. The card is essential to the strategy.

1 Card Destruction: You’ll only be using this spell when finding other pieces of the combo is essential.

Trap Staples:

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Call of the Haunted

You can perform all sorts of tricks with Torrential Tribute, such as special summoning Cyber Dragon to clear the field, then dropping Mausoleum and Hino, potentially with a Trunade for support. Mirror Force and Ring of Destruction provide necessary defense and monster removal, while Call of the Haunted sets up tributes the traditional way.

Expected Matchups with the Best Decks in the Format

There you have it. I’ve modified Kevin Hor’s Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi deck to work just a bit better and more consistently than the original. Nevertheless, I must extend all credit and praise to the man for showing me a great deck idea to work on for New Grounds.

The deck should dominate in a slow-paced field such as Shonen Jump Boston’s. As long as Cyber-Stein isn’t putting you on the defensive by making a big dent in your life points (an essential resource for Mausoleum of the Emperor to function) the deck should slowly accumulate the needed pieces before winning on a mid-game turn. It’s a deadly concept and should have the needed consistency to do well at a tournament.

New Grounds Verdict: Definitely good enough to shake up a regional or even a Shonen Jump Championship event.