Like many of you, I was quick to leap onto the Macro Cosmos bandwagon. While I made a lot of the same mistakes that other duelists made (three Grand Convergence cards just seemed so good!), I took the deck itself in a direction that was relatively unpopular at the time. Instead of focusing on the Helios monsters or D.D. Survivor and Monarchs, I built a deck around one of the promo cards that came with the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2006 video game: Golden Homunculus. Capable of creeping up to 4000 ATK with relative ease, it was a single-tribute powerhouse that rocked many an opponent. Gren Maju Da Eiza was also used, but Golden Homu’s 1500 ATK bonus was a big vote in its favor. Just three cards removed from play would let it match blows with Monarchs and Jinzo, and one more would let it trump virtually anything.
Today’s submitter, Chris, has updated the strategy for today’s competitive field. Here’s what he had to say about the deck he built:
My name’s Chris, and I built my deck around the cards released with the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2006 game. I’ve had great success with it so far. While most would run Monarchs in this kind of deck, I decided to be different, and this isn’t meant to be a cookie cutter. Instead I focus on beefing up Golden Homunculus. I've tried to run it with Elemental Absorber and DNA Transplant but that was too much hassle.
Here's the deck! Let me know what’s wrong or right with it.
—Chris X.
Here’s the list Chris has been using:
Homunculus Havoc—40 Cards
Monsters: 18
2 Golden Homunculus
2 Helios Duo Megistus
3 Banisher of the Light
3 D.D. Survivor
2 Helios - The Primordial Sun
2 Gren Maju Da Eiza
1 D. D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Exiled Force
1 Dimension Jar
Spells: 12
1 Card Destruction
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Chaos Greed
1 Dimension Distortion
1 Confiscation
1 Magical Mallet
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Soul Release
Traps: 10
3 Macro Cosmos
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Karma Cut
1 Torrential Tribute
1 D. D. Dynamite
1 Magic Drain
Chris has a great idea going, but I’m not sure that he’s making the most of it. This deck has the potential to bring out big attackers and then swing with them for game-winning amounts of damage, but that requires focus and a lot of support. Currently Chris is playing to remove every single one of his cards from the game, and that’s going to create some problems. This deck can be really resilient, but some of the bells and whistles will have to be traded in for more reliable material.
My first drops will eliminate the “remove every last card from play” mandate. While Macro Cosmos is an obvious choice over Dimensional Fissure (since Gren Maju and Golden Homu thrive on every card of yours you remove, not just monsters), stuff like Chaos Greed and Dimension Distortion is really difficult to work with. It necessitates the use of effects like Soul Release and Dimension Jar—cards that accomplish little on their own—and until you empty your graveyard, the very cards you’re trying to use are pointless. As good as special summoning a monster or drawing a couple of cards can be, neither effect is worth the risk it presents to their user. I’m going to drop all the cards that depend on this strategy.
Moving along, Banisher of the Radiance seems superior to Banisher of the Light. While Banisher of the Light might stay on the field a bit longer, Radiance can smash up recruiters like there’s no tomorrow, and that offensive edge is going to fit our intentions a lot better than a high-DEF monster. Out with three Light, and in with three Radiance.
Next, I’m going to drop both pairs of Helios monsters. While the advantage given by a Helios brought into play through Macro Cosmos is nice, it usually never gets big enough to amount to anything more than a chump blocker. Drawing it is hideous, and its Duo Megistus form isn’t much better when you’ve got superior attackers like Gren Maju. While Megistus’ “back from the grave” ability can be useful, I don’t think it fits well here, since Macro Cosmos will remove it from play before it ever hits the graveyard.
Magical Mallet doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. We want to see Macro Cosmos quickly, but not so quickly as to run a single Mallet and risk drawing it in the late game. While Karma Cut is cool Treeborn Frog tech, we can already remove troublesome monsters from play due to Macro Cosmos, and its effect doesn’t seem worthy of the discard it necessitates. D. D. Dynamite isn’t really necessary in a deck that can perform so well through battle, and I’ll be removing Magic Drain and Bottomless Trap Hole in order to make room for other protective traps.
So far I’ve dropped nineteen cards: that’s a pretty drastic level of change for a deck fix, but I’m confident that that extra room is going to pay off in the finished build. I’ve already added three Banisher of the Radiance cards, but since I’ve cut so many monsters from the original version I should start replacing cards in the monster list first.
My main concern is getting to Macro Cosmos as quickly as possible, but I really don’t want to run anything that under-performs once Cosmos hits the field. I’m going to add three Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive cards and a Morphing Jar to the deck to help us dig. While each sees play in plenty of decks nowadays, what’s really cool about them is the unique role they can perform here. Sure, before Macro Cosmos comes down, these monsters act just as they would anywhere else: drawing cards and taking hits to slow tempo. Once you activate Macro Cosmos though, each can result in cards being sent to the removed from game pile without you losing card presence. That means you can fuel Gren Maju and Golden Homunculus without losing options in the process. Cool!
The other monsters I want to add are pretty standard. Two Cyber Dragon cards give the deck more offensive capabilities and a greater resiliency when it gets knocked off the field, and one Breaker the Magical Warrior is just as good here as he is anywhere else. That leaves us with 20 monsters total, and since that’s a good number, we can move on to spells.
While I removed Chaos Greed and Dimension Distortion from the deck, there is one card from this family that doesn’t require a totally empty graveyard. Chaos End only needs seven of your cards removed from play in order to activate, and from there on out it’s a Dark Hole. Having been on both the giving and receiving end of this card, I can speak for its worth, and one copy here will let us shake up defensive players for a quick shot with Gren Maju Da Eiza.
Graceful Charity is a must—running Card Destruction to get a massive removed from game pile is fine, but Graceful Charity provides a similar effect with a lot more versatility. I really can’t think of a deck that shouldn’t use Graceful, and it’s especially good in this strategy. The other spells I’d like to add are just some simple, reliable field control cards: one Smashing Ground and two Enemy Controllers. They’ll soften up the opponent’s side of the table for your big attacks, and Controllers will double as defensive measures to replace the Bottomless Trap Hole cards I removed earlier.
Finally, I’ll finish up by adding a few traps. Mirror Force is a must for virtually any combat-oriented deck, and while it’s one of the few expensive cards left that hasn’t been reprinted, it’s well worth the investment. The last three traps I want to add are reprinted in the Champion Packs! Solemn Judgment—formerly only available as a pricy ultra or super rare—can now be had in rare form, and it’s the perfect card for this deck. Chris was only using a single Magic Drain to ensure that Macro Cosmos stayed on the field, and with the average opponent packing Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and siding two Mobius the Frost Monarch cards, the odds of Macro Cosmos staying active were poor. Solemn Judgment is the ultimate problem solver, and it’s going to work outstandingly well in Chris’s deck.
So here are all the changes I made:
-1 Dimension Jar
-2 Soul Release
-1 Chaos Greed
-1 Dimension Distortion
-2 Helios Duo Megistus
-3 Banisher of the Light
-2 Helios - The Primordial Sun
-1 Magical Mallet
-2 Karma Cut
-1 D. D. Dynamite
-1 Magic Drain
-2 Bottomless Trap Hole
+3 Banisher of the Radiance
+3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
+1 Morphing Jar
+1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
+2 Cyber Dragon
+1 Smashing Ground
+2 Enemy Controller
+1 Chaos End
+1 Graceful Charity
+1 Mirror Force
+3 Solemn Judgment
The fixed build is as follows!
Homunculus Havoc—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 20
2 Golden Homunculus
3 Banisher of the Radiance
3 D.D. Survivor
2 Gren Maju Da Eiza
1 D. D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Exiled Force
3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
1 Morphing Jar
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Cyber Dragon
Spells: 12
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Confiscation
1 Card Destruction
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Chaos End
1 Smashing Ground
2 Enemy Controller
Traps: 8
3 Macro Cosmos
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
3 Solemn Judgment
Despite this deck’s inability to use recruiters, it still opens strongly with Dekoichi, D. D. Warrior Lady, D. D. Assailant, or even Morphing Jar. It wants to play defensively until it draws into Macro Cosmos, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t cause some early game damage with Warriors and Cyber Dragon: if you get the chance, don’t hesitate to turn the duel into a game of “protect the Dekoichi.” The little trains are just as good here as they are elsewhere.
Once Macro Cosmos hits the field, it’s not a bad move to play recklessly in order to build up a big removed from game pile. Still, the more “free” cards you can get removed the better, so pay close attention to Dekoichi, Morphing Jar, Card Destruction, and Graceful Charity when you get them into your hand. Each can easily provide the raw fuel this deck needs in order to go off, and you probably won’t want to activate Card Destruction until Macro Cosmos is active.
Be wary of Dark World before Macro Cosmos flips, but remember that once you get it going, it’s going to remove Goldds and Sillvas from the game before they ever get a chance to bounce out of the graveyard. This deck has excellent matchups with Monarch and Dark World decks (chaining Macro Cosmos to Dark World Lightning is just mean!), and you can take advantage of that if you play carefully.
By the mid-game you should be slinging around huge attackers, and at that point simplification becomes your biggest concern. The faster you can reduce the size of the duel, the faster your Homunculus or Gren Maju will be attacking directly. Solemn Judgment is a defensive card, but remember that it can also be used to keep the field clear. You only need one or two shots with a pumped attacker to take the game.
This deck is really different from the one Kirk Leonhardt carried into the fray at Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim, but it’s an explosive pick that most people never see coming. With Kirk’s success inspiring more duelists to take a second look at the Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure theme, this is one of the strategies that’s really worth testing for higher-end competition.
Give it some practice, and you won’t be disappointed.
The Apotheosis will return next year, but for now, this is the last new edition until 2006! Enjoy your holidays while we do the same, and get ready to revisit some of the year’s best articles. Thanks for being with us here at Metagame.com!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer