This week I’ll be taking the new Rise of the Dragon Lords structure deck and turning it into a build that you can use at your next competitive tournament. There are quite a few new cards in this structure that could have an impact in this game. Some of them you may recognize and some of them you might not know of yet. Here’s a quick list:
Malevolent Catastrophe is an interesting trap card. It has the same activation condition as Mirror Force, but instead of destroying all of the opponent’s monsters in attack position, you’ll get a Heavy Storm. Darkblaze Dragon is built beautifully for graveyard tricks. Its ATK and DEF (1200/1200) double when the monster is special summoned from the graveyard. Since this card is a level 7 monster, it works with Decoy Dragon.
Trade-In is a direct parallel to the popular Destiny Draw except for the requirement of having a level 8 monster in hand instead of a Destiny Hero. Foolish Burial is the card you have been waiting for to enhance the speed of decks that rely on the graveyard. Cards like Treeborn Frog and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander are perfect targets for Foolish Burial. D.D. Crow now becomes that much more important in the upcoming format.
The graveyard is becoming an even more important area of game play. More and more cards rely on and use the graveyard to the wielder’s benefit. This week’s deck feature is no different. The theme is “use the graveyard faster and more efficiently than your opponent can.” It’s not just the focus of this deck: rather it’s a broadening trend that encompasses all of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.
The structure deck on its own is pretty playable. However, wouldn’t it be better to have three of these to put together so we could build a stronger graveyard engine? I think so. Let’s take a look at the original decklist.
Monsters: 20
1 Felgrand Dragon
1 Darkblaze Dragon
1 Herald of Creation
1 Decoy Dragon
1 Spear Cretin
1 Gilford the Lightning
1 Morphing Jar
2 Kaiser Sea Horse
1 Tyrant Dragon
1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
1 Guardian Angel Joan
1 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
2 Masked Dragon
1 The Creator
1 The Creator Incarnate
1 Flame Ruler
1 Majestic Mech - Goryu
1 Snipe Hunter
Spells: 14
1 Trade-In
1 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Exchange
1 Giant Trunade
1 The Shallow Grave
1 Premature Burial
1 A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon
1 Terraforming
1 Big Bang Shot
1 Mystik Wok
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Brain Control
2 Mausoleum of the Emperor
Traps: 6
1 Malevolent Catastrophe
1 Dust Tornado
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Magic Jammer
1 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Draining Shield
There are many cards here that represent different strategies. It’s hard to choose just one. That’s why I’m going to take three structures and combine them into one deck, along with a few cards that you may have in your own arsenal. With three copies of Rise, you’ll end up with three or more of everything. That makes this easy.
Decisions . . . Decisions . . .
With all these cards available to you, what could you possibly build? You can play with a Dragon-type deck that focuses on Felgrand Dragon and Tyrant Dragon. From the structure deck, you have Masked Dragon, Decoy Dragon, and Twin-Headed Behemoth. You can also create a design focused around The Creator and his effect. The Creator Incarnate, Kaiser Sea Horse, and Soul Exchange will help you immensely. Another option is to use Mausoleum of the Emperor. It’s the most useful of all “tribute aids” but comes at the cost of your life points. Fortunately, those aren’t in limited supply thanks to Mystik Wok and Draining Shield.
This structure deck can take on many faces once you consider all the possibilities. I had a very hard time thinking of what to choose as a focus. After long hours of deliberation I arrived at a deck that could be taken to your next tournament:
Monsters: 19
1 The Creator
3 Felgrand Dragon
2 Kaiser Sea Horse
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Gilford the Lightning
1 Tyrant Dragon
2 Guardian Angel Joan
1 Treeborn Frog
2 Herald of Creation
2 Masked Dragon
2 Decoy Dragon
1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
Spells: 15
2 Foolish Burial
3 Trade-In
2 Mausoleum of the Emperor
1 Premature Burial
2 Mystik Wok
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Enemy Controller
Traps: 7
2 Dust Tornado
2 Draining Shield
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
I chose a combination of The Creator, Felgrand Dragon, Guardian Angel Joan, and Tyrant Dragon to maximize the power of Trade-In. There aren’t many attackers in the game that can take down these enormous monsters. There are two distinct combos: 1) Kaiser Sea Horse + a Light tribute monster and 2) Mausoleum of the Emperor + any tribute monster. Both are extremely efficient methods for summoning a large monster. I’ve included certain life-point-gain cards to facilitate the continued use of Mausoleum of the Emperor without much long-term damage to your life point total.
You can open with a variety of level 4 or lower monsters. Masked Dragon, Twin-Headed Behemoth, and Decoy Dragon are fantastic openers. Decoy Dragon is even better if you open with an early Foolish Burial for a level 7 or higher Dragon-type monster such as Felgrand Dragon or Tyrant Dragon. If you don’t happen to draw into Foolish Burial on your first turn, then you have a much better chance of drawing into Trade-In to discard a high-level Dragon-type monster to render Decoy Dragon nearly impossible to destroy in battle. You can also use Kaiser Sea Horse and another monster as a tribute for Gilford the Lightning. Doing so will activate his Raigeki effect and destroy all of your opponent’s monsters.
Dust Tornado, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon are in this build to protect your investments against opposing threats. With this deck, scoring hits on your opponent’s life points is earth-shattering. Given their innate ATK strength, you’ll be dealing a huge chunk of an opponent’s life points per attack. All it takes is four direct hits and it’s over. Fortunately for you, Felgrand Dragon can increase its own ATK by tremendous proportions when special summoned. In this deck, it can reach an ATK power as high as 4400 ATK.
The support cards for the Mausoleum of the Emperor tricks are Guardian Angel Joan, Mystik Wok, and Draining Shield. Many of the format’s top decks play recruiter monsters in order to maintain field presence. These monsters are designed to discourage your opponent from attacking, because he or she won’t gain any field advantage if he or she attacks. Well, there are different types of advantage in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and having higher life points happens to be one of them. Guardian Angel Joan steps in to take down any monster with weaker ATK. Hitting a recruiter monster is hardly a problem. Did you hit a Mystic Tomato? Good job! Gain 1400 life points for your trouble.
The intriguing thing about life-gain cards is how they make it difficult for your opponent to win the game. An extra 1400 life points could mean another one or two turns to survive and make your comeback. Mystik Wok takes life point gain to a whole new level by tributing one of your own monsters to give you life points equal to its ATK or DEF. This deck gives you a chance to take advantage of that, especially when you’re up against cards like Brain Control, Creature Swap, and Enemy Controller. Draining Shield discourages your opponent from attacking while protecting your monsters at the same time. The point of attacking is to reduce your opponent’s monster arsenal and deal damage. What’s the point if all he or she does after you declare your attack is gain life points instead?
Herald of Creation is a wonderful card. If your high-level monster happens to meet destruction, you can return it to your hand to tribute summon it once more. Better yet, you can use the monster to fulfill the requirement to activate Trade-In. A sample scenario could be the following:
1) With Herald of Creation already on the field, play Trade-In, discarding Felgrand Dragon to draw two cards.
2) Great! You just drew Mausoleum of the Emperor: play it.
3) Activate the retrieval effect built into Herald of Creation by discarding a card (preferably a monster) to bring back Felgrand Dragon to your hand.
4) Activate the effect of Mausoleum of the Emperor and pay 2000 life points to play Felgrand Dragon.
5) If you were lucky enough to draw Premature Burial, play it to special summon that monster you pitched for Herald’s effect. You now have over 5000 ATK on your field to attack with.
While this is just a sample scenario, you can make it happen relatively easily (except for the Premature Burial . . . that’s just lucky). This deck takes a more defensive stance, but it can get out of a rut if things go awry. Decoy Dragon is an excellent card to halt the battle phase with, especially when you have Felgrand Dragon or Tyrant Dragon sitting in the graveyard. Masked Dragon was included to search for Decoy Dragon in case your opponent has more answers to your threats.
I’ve also added Snipe Hunter to turn the tables against your opponent. It’s easy to pile up cards in your hand with a deck of tribute monsters. Snipe Hunter turns that disadvantage into an advantage. The Creator was kept to do the same: discard a card that is not useful to special summon a monster that can do something more useful.
Final Thoughts
I’ve only added a few cards that do not appear in Rise of the Dragon Lords: Mirror Force, Treeborn Frog, Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Enemy Controller, and Torrential Tribute. Each one should be easy to find except for Mirror Force. If you do not have one, then feel free to replace it with Malevolent Catastrophe or Sakuretsu Armor.
The deck I’ve constructed this week is yours to copy and use at your next local tournament. It’s fun to play and requires a little bit of planning, but pays off big when you make the crucial plays. Rise of the Dragon Lords has some very useful cards that are going to be relevant in the average metagame. I bet you’ll see a few of these cards at your local store, Regional Qualifier, or even at the next Shonen Jump Championship.
Thank you for reading. Talk to you next week!