New cards excite me, and some of the best new offerings in Power of the Duelist belong to Aster Phoenix. Several of the new Destiny Heroes piqued my interest, so I’ve been waiting with bated breath for some innovative decks to hit my inbox. Today, an unknown deck submitter answered my call. While I normally wouldn’t run a deck that doesn’t have a name attached to it, this one’s just too good to pass up!

Hey Jason!

Double Dude has got to be one of my favorite cards ever, and I dedicated this deck to it. The main plan is to discard two cards from the opponent’s hand with Double Dude and Robbin' Goblin. When the other player attacks Double Dude, I generate the tokens, clear the field with plentiful Smashing Ground-type effects, and attack for more discards with the tokens.

Feast your eyes on a deck aptly titled . . .

Double Dude Abuse—40 Cards

Monsters: 21

3 Destiny Hero - Double Dude

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

3 Flying Kamakiri #1

2 Black Ptera

2 Sasuke Samurai #4

2 Mataza the Zapper

3 Gravekeeper's Spy

1 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 11

3 Smashing Ground

2 Fissure

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Creature Swap

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Graceful Charity

1 Enemy Controller

Traps: 9

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

3 Robbin' Goblin

3 Dust Tornado

Looks fun, doesn’t it? The deck uses Flying Kamakiri #1, Sasuke Samurai #4, Gravekeeper’s Spy, and Spirit Reaper to fuel the tribute summoning of Destiny Hero - Double Dude and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Once the first Double Dude hits the field, its tokens then support further tributes: justifying the three copies that our mystery submitter has included. Even if you draw into all three Double Dudes early on, you only need to get the first one onto the field in order to set up the next two.

This deck can control the field easily, and is incredibly difficult to break through once it gets a defensive monster or two going. It uses that defensive potential to buy time and set up its infrastructure. Then it explodes with sudden attacks augmented by Robbin’ Goblin, often wiping the opponent out in a single turn. The speed at which this deck can change gears is what makes it a real winner. Even just a single pair of attacks from Mataza can devastate an opponent. The strategy and discipline that have gone into it creates a focused, efficient pick for the current North American metagame.

I think we can make it even better.

The changes I want to make are centered on two observations. The first is that field presence is key to this strategy’s success. Flooding the field with monsters allows this deck to stand up to aggressive players in an aggressive format, and that substantial field presence then turns into offensive potential when the deck goes on the attack. The more field presence we can pack into this deck, and the more surprise summoning power, the better.

In addition, this deck happens to be running seven Wind monsters, a rather stunning number for a monster attribute that has always been rather unpopular. Our submitter is using the Wind monsters he’s selected simply because they maintain field presence and support tributing, but I think we can take further advantage of the coincidental synergies at work here.

So, my two goals are:

—Take advantage of the Wind attribute.

—Make this deck even faster at deploying monsters.

In order to do that, I’m going to have to drop a few cards from the deck list. Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier is my first cut, because there are different piercing monsters that I prefer in this case. You’ll see why in a bit. I’ll also reduce the number of Gravekeeper’s Spy cards in the deck to just two, so I’m already breaking apart the infrastructure that was supporting the Spear Soldier.

Next, I’m going to remove the two Black Ptera cards. While they make excellent tribute fodder for Zaborg and Double Dude, I’m not sure what I’d do with them once they bounced back to my hand. I’d like to play the deck more aggressively, and while setting and tributing Pteras every two turns is nice, I don’t believe that the aggressive pace of the average North American metagame will let me do that. In addition, one of the changes to the deck that I’ll be making will necessitate Wind monsters in the graveyard. Black Ptera would hinder this initiative.

I’m going to bump all three Dust Tornado cards to the side deck as well. While I like the idea of activating it in the opponent’s end phase to destroy something, and then using its second effect to set Robbin’ Goblin, I’m not sure that’s worthwhile with so many people running Royal Decree. While chaining Dust Tornado to Decree is awesome, I’m afraid of drawing into Tornadoes after Decree has already been flipped. It’s a risk to run so many traps, and I don’t think it’s one worth taking for this particular deck.

The last card I’ll drop is one Fissure. With Scapegoat running rampant, the utility of Fissure is low in comparison to Smashing Ground. I’ll leave one copy, but I don’t think two are necessary. This deck thrives on creating card-for-card trades once it flips Robbin’ Goblin, but three Smashing Ground, one Fissure, and the removal-oriented traps are probably enough power for that goal.

So, what am I going to add? First, I need to replace that Spear Soldier and Spy. I’m going to do it by adding two copies of Spear Dragon to the deck. The Dragons have a lot of advantages over Spear Soldier in this context. Their higher ATK lets them take down bigger monsters, they can deal more damage attacking through Sheep tokens, and they carry the Wind attribute. More than that, the fact that they turn to defense position with a DEF of 0 can draw out an opponent’s attackers. That in turn leaves them vulnerable to Smashing Ground and Fissure, cards that can’t touch face downs. You want to initiate a fast tempo, so that you can keep the field open when Robbin’ Goblin flips. Face-down monsters establish a slow tempo and clog your path, so you want to give the opponent an incentive to play his or her monsters face up.

If you attack and destroy a monster with Spear Dragon, the opponent has lost one card. If he or she then summons a monster and attacks your Dragon, you have lost one too. On the following turn you can activate Smashing Ground, and both players lose another card each. In the span of this cycle, each duelist has only drawn a single card apiece, but you’ve managed to cost each duelist two cards. Using cards faster than they are recovered is the definition of a fast tempo, and such a tempo creates simplified duels that will then increase your chance of scoring direct attacks.

Wind attribute monsters are welcome in your graveyard, since I’ll be adding two copies of Silpheed to the deck. For the low, low cost of just one Wind monster removed from the graveyard, Silpheed hits the field with 1700 ATK and an effect that fits this deck to a tee. When Silpheed is destroyed by battle, your opponent discards one card from his or her hand. So Silpheed adds an extra attacker to your rush when you flip Robbin’ Goblin, maintains field presence since the opponent won’t want to attack it, and wears away at your opponent’s hand when he or she finally does. Even if a card like Smashing Ground is used to destroy Silpheed, you’ve again forced the opponent to make an exchange of cards and thus increased tempo.

Finally, I’d like to add three Nimble Momonga cards and one Pot of Avarice card. Because this deck is only removing two monsters (at most) over the course of a game, it’s an immediate candidate for Avarice. Add the fact that this deck uses lots of recruiters, and thrives on reusing them, and you’ve got a win-win proposition. The Momongas give this deck another very efficient defensive wall, more tribute fodder, and even a pair of fast attackers for Robbin’ Goblin. I won’t begin to describe how annoyed an opponent can get if you Recycle your Momongas to gain 6000 life points in one game.

It just isn’t fair.

So, here are the changes I made to Double Dude Abuse:

-1 Gravekeeper's Spy

-1 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier

-2 Black Ptera

-3 Dust Tornado

-1 Fissure

+2 Silpheed

+2 Spear Dragon

+3 Nimble Momonga

+1 Pot of Avarice

The final build of the deck is as follows:

Double Dude Abuse—Jason’s Fix—41 Cards

Monsters: 24

3 Destiny Hero - Double Dude

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

3 Flying Kamakiri #1

2 Sasuke Samurai #4

2 Mataza the Zapper

2 Gravekeeper's Spy

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Silpheed

2 Spear Dragon

3 Nimble Momonga

Spells: 11

3 Smashing Ground

1 Fissure

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Creature Swap

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Graceful Charity

1 Enemy Controller

1 Pot of Avarice

Traps: 6

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

3 Robbin' Goblin

If you go first, you definitely want to open the duel with a monster like Gravekeeper’s Spy, Nimble Momonga, or Flying Kamakiri #1. Doing so will usually ensure that you have at least one monster on the field for turn 2, so if you wish to start attacking that early, you’ll be able to do so. If you do not wish to commit to an early offense, each of these monsters will continue to defend your life points on successive turns.

If you go second, your choice is a bit more difficult. A defensive play can be fine here, so long as the opponent doesn’t have Nobleman of Crossout with which to force through two attacks. If the opponent sets a monster to begin, consider an attack with Spear Dragon. You can score some early damage, and you’ll draw out an attacker on the following turn. You can follow up a turn later with a normal summon and Silpheed, placing the opponent in a very sticky situation and causing some considerable damage in the process. From there, you can tribute monsters or continue building a defensive field presence while your Silpheed attacks.

Whether you turn to aggression in the early game or mid-game depends on how your opponent acts, and how you draw. If your hand is less than stellar, feel free to turtle for a couple turns to fix that situation. If your hand is good, but the opponent is playing to a slow tempo, do as you please. You can take advantage of his or her slow tempo by participating in it, or start attacking him or her then and there. Just remember that this deck rewards forethought and patience. You can let the game go for turns on end with both players building up massive hands, so long as you can score that one big turn where Robbin’ Goblin takes it all away.

Remember that Double Dude doesn’t fear Torrential Tribute—Torrential Tribute fears Double Dude. Summon it with the knowledge that there’s almost nothing your opponent can do short of destroying it in battle. Torrential just wipes the field for two attacks from your tokens. Bottomless Trap Hole can’t hit Double Dude since its ATK is so low, and Mirror Force still leaves you with two attackers. Sakuretsu Armor is horrible—the opponent gives up his or her Armor to turn your one attacker into two. I’m not sure how that math works out in terms of card advantage, but I’m going to out on a limb here and say “+20”.

This is a fabulous example of the type of deck that the new format makes possible. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the new Advanced lists and how they would make more attributes playable. This deck is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind, blending both old and new cards thanks to the freedom the September format permits. It’s clever, unpredictable, and very difficult to disrupt. I would not be surprised if this started making Top 4 at Regionals in the coming months. There are tons of possibilities I haven’t even explored yet (Twin-Headed Behemoth instead of a Spear Dragon, perhaps?), and I’m eager to see how this deck will perform if people start playing it.

Give it a shot yourself! You won’t be disappointed.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Working on a deck for the new Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.