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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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| Feature: Gordon's Magical Scientist Deck |
| Jason Grabher-Meyer |
| June 26, 2004 |
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 It’s early in the day at what is bound to be North America’s most intense Yu-Gi-Oh! competition to date: Yu-Gi-Oh! U.S. Nationals. Hailing from all over the U.S. as well as Canada, today’s field has been culled from the best, those that have proven themselves time and again prior to today’s tourney. Tension is thick, and every player is preparing for the upcoming matches in his or her own way. Gordon Nelson is one such player.
Gordon’s from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is the manager of King Arthur’s Arena. Gordon’s been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! since before its release in English, and decided to forego a Chaos variant in favor of a well-tested Scientist one-hit KO skewed towards a secondary offense of Machine-type monsters. The deck has a lot of tricks:
Main Deck:
3 Gilasaurus
3 Catapult Turtle
3 Dark Magician of Chaos
3 Cannon Soldier
1 Sangan
1 Magical Scientist
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Jinzo
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Limiter Removal
3 Reload
1 Dark Hole
1 Painful Choice
3 Reasoning
3 Last Will
1 Pot of Greed
1 Premature Burial
1 Card Destruction
1 Monster Reborn
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Imperial Order
Fusion Deck:
3 Musician King
3 Kwasar Hercules
3 Metal Dragon
3 Raging Ocean Snake
3 Punished Eagle
3 Empress Judge
3 Dragoness the Wicked Knight
3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
3 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Ryu Senshi
3 Dark Flare Knight
3 Fusionist
3 Fiend Skull Dragon
3 Super Roboyarou
3 Darkfire Dragon
3 Flame Ghost
3 Cyber Saurus
3 Charubin the Fire Knight
3 Giltia the D. Knight
3 Reaper on the Nightmare
Side Deck:
2 Despair from the Dark
2 Dark Ruler Ha Des
3 Jinzo #7
1 Machine King
1 Barrel Dragon
2 Axe of Despair
1 Change of Heart
1 Raigeki
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 United We Stand
When asked what he was expecting from the environment today, Gordon considered a moment and replied that he really didn’t know. But after another moment’s consideration, he came to the conclusion that everyone today is holding, “a lot of Chaos and Control.” With more than 90 percent of yesterday’s Last Chance Qualifier's participants playing some version of Chaos or a Chaos splash, a lot of games are going to be coming down to who sees a Dragon or Soldier first. For those not running Chaos, the answer is either a side deck full of tech or sheer speed. The latter is what Nelson is banking on for today.
“I can generally take down a one-hit KO one first turn against the goldfish 77 to 85 percent of the time.”
“Wow, really?” Me, always incredulous about the OH-KO decks.
“Yup.” Nelson seemed pretty assured.
“Against . . . the goldfish?”
“Yeah, like . . . against no opponent.” Nelson laughs.
“Oh! Dry runs, cool, ok.” I’d briefly wondered what, if anything, Gordon had against goldfish. But now his comment made sense.
Realistically, Gordon’s numbers are probably spot on. While other Scientist players have experimented with exploitation of Serpentine Princess and Monster Recovery, Gordon’s gone with a few other interesting combos including one he affectionately calls the “Suicide Slide.” It’s the reason he has such a huge Fusion deck, which I’d wondered about. Gordon explained that the low-end Fusion monsters are strictly for crashing to claim Last Will’s effect and end the game asap. Whereas other Scientist players run Mystic Tomato and Mother Grizzly to maintain board presence and pull the monsters they need, Gordon’s strategy allows him to go totally all-in with the use of Scientist. The deck is more dependent on the lone Magical Scientist than others, but it also has a higher potential for overall speed, easily claiming Last Will’s pull without requiring Cannon Soldier.
Of course, when Cannon Soldier is used, it’s used to its maximum effect, as Gordon’s running some offensive backup in the form of Limiter Removal. The Fusion deck has an impact here as well, as Cyber Saurus and Metal Dragon can be pumped up with Limiter and then slammed against attack-position monsters: a clever alternative to the usual route of Thousand-Eyes Restrict for dealing with large monsters.
Gordon Nelson, who took third in the Davenport Qualifier on April 10 and Top 8'd the Chicago qualifier clearly knows his stuff: in an environment bound to be populated by Chaos and its grinding board control, an all-in strategy like Nelson’s could be what’s needed to win this event.
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