Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043

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The Apothesis: Armed Dragon

Jason Grabher-Meyer

December 15, 2004

Dragons have always had excellent combos. What started as one key combo—The Flute of Summoning Dragon and Lord of D.—is now a whole type of monster dependent on various support cards. Dragons as a whole are pretty underplayed, but the Advanced format, which is a bit more forgiving when it comes to speed, might be just what Dragons need to become highly viable.

E. Goodson sent me an Armed Dragon deck a while ago. Here’s what E. had to say about his deck.

Hello,

I have an Armed Dragon deck that I think works rather well and I thought I’d show it to you in the hopes that you might improve it further. It’s focused on getting out powerful monsters as quickly as possible to overwhelm the competition, plus some fun Dragon support cards thrown in to keep things under control.

Thanks!

E. Goodson, Dallas, TX

Let’s look at the decklist and see what we can do!

Goodson’s Armed Dragon Deck

43 Cards

Monsters

1 Armed Dragon LV7

2 Armed Dragon LV5

3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Spells

3 The Flute of Summoning Dragon

2 Level Up!

2 Last Will

2 Stamping Destruction

1 Dark Factory of Mass Production

1 The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension

1 Change of Heart

Traps

2 Light of Intervention

2 Soul Resurrection

2 Dragon’s Rage

1 Waboku

2 Burst Breath

I’ve got a few concerns about the deck and a lot of ideas for interesting ways to overhaul it. I’m a big fan of Armed Dragon’s monster-destruction effect, but my immediate concern with this deck is the number of dead cards that could find their way into an opening hand. This deck has nine monsters that it can’t normal summon. We’re going to need to get rid of some of those.

Marauding Captain is semi-limited, so dropping one of those will be a must.

I’m not sure about some of this deck’s choices in traps. They seem pretty conditional to me, so I’ll be trimming some of those.

Let’s begin with the cuts. Some of the monsters that can’t be normal summoned need to go. The three copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon are nice, because with an Armed Dragon, they can take out almost anything with Armed Dragon’s effect. However, they can be totally dead cards in the wrong situation, and since the focus here is on the Armed Dragon line, I’m going to drop all three. I’m also going to drop one copy of Rare Metal Dragon, simply because they can be very unsettling to see in an opening hand.

I’m going to remove all three copies of Luster Dragon. The deck just doesn’t need that much raw power from normal summons. It has more important things to do than dropping big monsters. I’m going to remove the three Troop Dragon as well, because I’m replacing them with Masked Dragon. You’ll see why in a bit.

The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension isn’t going to be that useful. It’s a conditional card and just doesn’t keep up the tempo of this deck. The other recursion card, Dark Factory of Mass Production, is also going to be removed simply because it’s now out of targets due to Luster Dragon and Blue Eyes White Dragon being removed.

Finally, I’m going to remove Light of Intervention, Soul Resurrection, Dragon’s Rage, and Burst Breath. Burst Breath isn’t needed in this deck since we want to be maintaining our field presence, not blowing it away. Light of Intervention is a conditional card in this deck and won’t help in any serious way. Being able to have your Level 5 monsters in defense position but be face-up is all right, but it’s not a big issue in my mind. Our Armed Dragons are either levelling up because they were brought up in attack position, or they’re not levelling up at all. Soul Resurrection is leaving for the same reason as Dark Factory of Mass Production—the cards it works with have been removed from the deck. If it could bring back effect monsters it would be great, allowing us to level up previously-deceased monsters. But unfortunately, that isn’t the case, so it needs to be shown the door.

I want to play Armed Dragon LV3 in this deck. I think relying on getting Level 5s out strictly via tribute or The Flute of Summoning Dragon isn’t using our total options the best we could. I’m going to add a pair of those, and then I’m going to add three copies of Masked Dragon to be able to search for them while at the same time giving the option of stalling by maintaining board presence.

For the same reason, I’m going to add three copies of Mystic Tomato to the deck. Lord of D. is very important to our strategy. Mystic Tomato gives access to Lord of D. when we need it, as well as maintains board presence and gives us a nice opening move.

I want to add some spells as well, starting with Pot of Greed. This card belongs in every deck, especially one that relies on certain key cards. In addition, I’m going to add another obvious card, Mystical Space Typhoon. It’s limited for a reason—it’s a good reactive card and is useful in hundreds of different situations.

Once big dragons start hitting the table, your opponent will have no choice but to start playing things in defense position, and two copies of Nobleman of Crossout will be valuable in that kind of situation. This deck’s hard work can be wiped away by a single Fiber Jar or Cyber Jar, but Nobleman of Crossout can keep those cards from ever flipping. They’ll also neatly clear the way and let us pound on opponents directly. Very nice.

Finally for spells, I’m going to add one copy of Book of Moon to the deck. Book of Moon is a card with a lot of uses, and it can be used in a pinch to protect our Armed Dragon LV3s from attack so they can then level up on the next turn.

For similar reasons, I’m going to add in Ring of Destruction and Magic Cylinder. These are both cards that dish out damage to the opponent while at the same time protecting key monsters from attack. This is invaluable to the hope of effectively using Armed Dragon LV3, and both cards are excellent in just about any deck in the Advanced format.

I’m going to add Ceasefire because the deck now has a more commanding field presence consisting entirely of effect monsters. It works well against lockdown decks, and will often be a game-ender. It’s also a nice way to work around those pesky Cyber Jars and Fiber Jars that I mentioned earlier, since it will negate the flip effects of any monsters it flips over.

Call of the Haunted makes the cut not only to bring back big huge Dragons, but also to bring back Armed Dragon LV3 in the draw phase so it can be levelled up by its own effect. The usual vulnerability of Call of the Haunted in this situation—the risk of Call being destroyed—is neatly avoided in such a case because almost as soon as the LV3 hits play it will be replaced by the LV5, which will be free of Call of the Haunted’s effect.

Finally, I’m going to add one copy of Torrential Tribute. With a Flute of Summoning Dragon combo, Torrential Tribute can clear the path and mean the end of the game. I know I said we wanted to maintain board presence, but Torrential Tribute is faster and easier to use than Burst Break, so I’m definitely going to include it. It will also help out when the deck goes up against Warriors and gets rushed in the early game.

Here are the final changes.

-1 Marauding Captain

-3 Blue Eyes White Dragon

-1 Rare Metal Dragon

-3 Luster Dragon

-3 Troop Dragon

-1 The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension

-1 Dark Factory of Mass Production

-2 Light of Intervention

+1 Mystical Space Typhoon

+1 Pot of Greed

+2 Nobleman of Crossout

+1 Book of Moon

+1 Ring of Destruction

+1 Ceasefire

+1 Call of the Haunted

+1 Magic Cylinder

+1 Torrential Tribute

The fixed version of the deck looks like this.

Goodson’s Armed Dragon Deck

Jason’s Fix

40 Cards

Monsters

3 Lord of D

Spells

3 The Flute of Summoning Dragon

2 Level Up!

2 Last Will

2 Stamping Destruction

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Change of Heart

1 Pot of Greed

Traps

1 Waboku

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Ceasefire

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Magic Cylinders

1 Torrential Tribute

The deck now has more ways to get Armed Dragon out, and it will be stronger and easier to use in the early game. It does a good job of fending off Warrior and Lockdown decks, but if you want to build a side deck, then a good place to start is considering some tech against Lockdown decks. Some extra spell and trap removal will be more important, and I’d suggest Heavy Storm, two Dust Tornado, and two copies of Giant Trunade be included to start, complementing Stamping Destruction and Mystical Space Typhoon. From there, an extra Waboku, an extra Armed Dragon LV3, and a Premature Burial can provide some additional options for the deck.

Thanks for sending it in, Goodson! Hopefully the suggestions work out well for you.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Have a deck to submit? Want to say hi? Get in touch with me via email at Jason@metagame.com.

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