It was one of the most popular cards ever to hit the game, fostering intense loyalty among newbies and long-time players alike: Blue-Eyes White Dragon. But basing a competitive deck around it has always been a challenge. You may have looked at the title of this article and wondered if it were even possible. Well, wonder no more! Seeing is believing and what I have to show you today will blow your socks off. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you the competitive Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck!

James’s “Totally Rad” Blue-Eyes Deck

40 cards

Monsters: 20

3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Soul of Purity and Light

2 Kaiser Sea Horse

3 Shining Angel

1 Kaibaman

1 Magician of Faith

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 D. D. Survivor

1 Exiled Force

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 16

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Snatch Steal

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Premature Burial

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Burst Stream of Destruction

1 Brain Control

1 Scapegoat

1 Book of Moon

2 Enemy Controller

3 Smashing Ground

Traps: 4

1 Call of the Haunted

3 Royal Decree

After taking a first glance at the deck, you’re probably thinking that I’m out of my mind. But this deck can be quite deceptive, and in fact, it has a lot of potential to compete at a high level. How? Let’s run through the basics.

First off, running twenty monsters—though not recommended in many formats—is perfectly acceptable in this deck. The monsters here have a lot more synergy than they first appear. Three copies of Blue-Eyes is pretty predictable—the deck is based around the Dragon, after all. Two Cyber Dragons allow for swarming and to get an extra monster on the field (possibly to be used as tribute fodder), and they are Light monsters, which goes well with the deck’s overall theme. Light also factors in to feeding Soul of Purity and Light’s special summon cost. This underrated monster makes people think twice about attacking it with Cyber Dragon. Because it’s a special summon, you can use it as tribute bait, possibly in the same turn if you already have a monster on the field.

The two copies of Kaiser Sea Horse and single copy of Kaibaman are Blue-Eyes support cards. Kaiser Sea Horse has its own respectable ATK and DEF values, and although it may take an extra turn to get Blue-Eyes on the field,  the Sea Horse’s 1700 ATK runs over popular choices like a spent Breaker the Magical Warrior or any of the popular battle searchers. Kaibaman’s ATK and DEF values are much weaker, and it may seem useless at first; however, it allows Blue-Eyes to be summoned as a special summon from your hand. Add that to the fact that it could also be searched by Shining Angel (if you have Blue-Eyes in your hand), and assuming that your opponent has no more monsters to attack with, and it becomes a pretty cool card. (Though having more than one copy in your deck is probably pushing it a bit.)

Shining Angel works fantastically in this deck, providing good field presence and helping out a search for either another copy of itself, Kaibaman, Magician of Faith (if you must take desperate measures), or D. D. Warrior Lady. That makes it one of the most synergistic monsters in the deck . . . and also the quickest way to get two Light monsters in the graveyard for Soul of Purity and Light.

D. D. Survivor is one of the more unorthodox choices in this build, and one of the more supportive cards in the deck. With some people playing up to three D. D. Assailants and a D. D. Warrior Lady, Blue-Eyes could really be in for a hard time, even if you do manage to get it out. To this extent, D. D. Survivor is a kind of personal assistant to Blue-Eyes. If you can hold off the D. D. monster assault, then you can safely remove the threat with D. D. Survivor next turn. Its companion, Ms. Warrior Lady, is there for the usual removal technique, as well as for helping the return of Shining Angel from the graveyard. Breaker, Sangan, and Exiled Force pull out the usual stops, while Spirit Reaper provides stalling power and also draws out Smashing Ground, or even Snatch Steal, which could otherwise spell very bad news for your Blue-Eyes.

This deck uses a sizable amount of spells compared to other decks in this format. If you look at the trap lineup, you’ll see why. With three copies of Royal Decree to negate those annoyingly common Sakuretsu Armors and Widespread Ruins, as well as other pesky cards such as Torrential Tribute, Blue-Eyes will normally have a good chance of hitting for a lot of damage. If the attack is stopped, it will usually come from either Book of Moon/Enemy Controller or Scapegoat. Big bad Dragons like eating Sheep, so they shouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, this deck does play one other trap­—Call of the Haunted—which is worth playing because you can do some nifty tricks with it. Chain Decree to a trap and then use Call, or chain Decree to Heavy Storm and then chain Call. A number of other cool tricks work with this lineup, and of course, you could just draw Call of the Haunted when you don’t have a Decree. That works, too.

The choice of playing Royal Decree means that we need some extra protection with the spells. For this the deck packs two copies of Enemy Controller, a Book of Moon, a Scapegoat, and three copies of Smashing Ground. Controller and Book are both versatile cards in their own right, and Smashing Ground is one of the strongest monster removal cards in the format. Burst Stream of Destruction comes off as a nice Raigeki-style card if you can get Blue-Eyes on the field, and although it means it can’t attack that turn, you could always cause some damage with Spirit Reaper, Shining Angel, or the like. Swords of Revealing Light will give you some valuable turns to set up your field position, and Brain Control can be used to tribute an opponent’s monster for a better cause (as well as being able to ram D. D. Assailants).

This deck must be played very carefully, however. Royal Decree is an essential part of the strategy, so you don’t want to get it destroyed too quickly. Over the first few turns, try to set chainable cards like Controller or Scapegoat. Shining Angel is fantastic if you get it in your first hand, and with three copies of it, it’s likely that you’ll pull one in the first few turns—but you could always search one out with Sangan if you need to.

Of course, the main goal of the deck is to summon Blue-Eyes and crush your opponent like a teeny little bug, but don’t do it too early. With Smashing Ground being played in threes and other nasty cards flying around, you want to let your opponent use up his or her resources first. Of course, if Blue-Eyes gets discarded or destroyed, you always have Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, but it’s not quite as fun as searching for Kaibaman and letting your opponent know it’s coming.

One more thing to remember is that with this deck you have a limited number of life point protection cards, so damage control is instantly important. If you can let small attacks go through, then take them. For instance, don’t waste an Enemy Controller on Magician of Faith. The basic idea remains the same in that respect for a normal cookie-cutter deck, but since you have significantly less protection (for example, no Sakuretsu Armors), you must always have an eye on your life point total.

There we have it: the competitive Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck. If you fancy taking a few people by surprise, or if you have a local tournament where you can afford to play a non–cookie-cutter deck, try this out for yourself. It’s a lot of fun to play, and if handled correctly, it can make a devastating addition to your arsenal of decks.

James Pennicott

AveragePsycho(AT)gmail(DOT)com