This is another tantalizing theme that never quite materialized, for whatever reason. In this case, the support just wasn’t there. Sure, Dark Crisis aimed to provide Archfiends with a plethora of options to work with, including the field spell card Pandemonium. However, the dueling community basically chose to ignore this theme, for two primary reasons.

The first is that there are just too many Fiends out there, in general. It’s tough to distinguish between them, and there’s no legitimate form of Fiend spell or trap support. Prior to the release of the Dark World cards, Fiends basically received one bonus for their subtype. That bonus is Dark Necrofear, a special summoned monster that generates massive advantage in the right situation.

The second is that the key support cards in the deck, with the exception of Terrorking Archfiend, just are not very strong. This deck is perhaps the first New Grounds deck that enters the scene almost knowingly inferior to the cream of the crop. However, I feel that building the most competitive version of this deck would please lots of readers who are looking for a place to start with their Fiend decks.

We’re going to follow my rules of a good theme. Four to five solid monsters, and one to two spell or trap cards with decent support. Does this deck deliver?

Monsters: 19

1 Dark Necrofear

1 Skull Archfiend of Lightning

1 Dark Ruler Ha Des

2 Terrorking Archfiend

2 Shadowknight Archfiend

2 Archfiend Soldier

2 Cyber Archfiend

1 Sangan

2 Desrook Archfiend

3 Giant Germ

2 Mask of Darkness

As you can see by this rough outline, the answer is tantalizingly unclear. After all, the era of beatdown monsters seems to be at an end. The powerful Cyber Dragon looms over the format, boasting a robust 2100 ATK. The Archfiend user can either cry and leave teary-eyed voicemails on Jerome, Jason, and Julia’s cell phones, or adapt. I highly suggest the latter option.

We’ll establish this deck’s win condition: assert heavy and swift control of the field, then drop Necrofear and the tributes and achieve dominance. The three power monsters of this build, Dark Necrofear, Skull Archfiend, and Dark Ruler Ha Des, are all more powerful than Cyber Dragon. In fact, Ha Des can basically take down any monster in the game, and Necrofear will absorb any monster that it can’t destroy. If you can summon these monsters, you will likely win the duel.

Of course, the problem is trying to achieve control in the early game. In this deck, you have what is probably one of the two or three best four-star monsters in the game. Of course, I’m talking about Terrorking Archfiend, a card that was so powerful that entire deck strategies were based around it, usually involving unusual combos like Marauding Captain. It’s still a solid card that can establish dominance. However, Cyber Dragon simply runs all over Terrorking.

If you can destroy an effect monster with Terrorking, you will achieve field control over your opponent. The burden will then be on your opponent to destroy it through battle (highly unlikely), or with a spell or trap (remember, Terrorking Archfiend can negate certain spells or traps). The net result is a powerful card in the early and mid-game.

Spells: 14

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Premature Burial

1 Snatch Steal

1 Nobleman of Crossout

3 Pandemonium

1 Falling Down

1 Rush Recklessly

1 Axe of Despair

1 Smashing Ground

1 Confiscation

Yes, this is the first recorded instance of any Metagame.com writer in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh! to advocate the use of Axe of Despair in a competitive deck. Let me justify this by stating two things. First, it works like a Smashing Ground on any Spirit Reapers you might see. Second, it can provide a card’s worth of advantage if you equip it to take down a card you couldn’t otherwise. And third, it counts as an Archfiend.

Rush Recklessly works great with Terrorking Archfiend for destroying Spies, Cyber Dragons, and other such pesky cards. One of the best spells in this deck is Pandemonium, since it will basically generate advantage any time one of your Archfiends is destroyed. After all, you can always search for Desrook. Use Falling Down to generate more life point damage your turn, or to tribute your opponent’s monster. It works basically like Snatch Steal.

Traps: 8

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Sakuretsu Armor

2 Time Seal

Again, we have to be very careful with our traps here. Running too many unchainable traps will lead to too many cards in the backfield. After all, playing Pandemonium and setting a Sakuretsu Armor leads to an opponent getting extra advantage out of Heavy Storm faster than you can say Archfiend of Gilfer! Well, you get the point.

Bottomless Trap Hole and Time Seal should help. The opponent’s main avenue of hand disruption (through Spirit Reaper and Smashing Ground) is gone, because it loses advantage. Also, your monsters have the chance to negate many of your opponent’s defensive cards. You won’t need Sakuretsu Armor as much—save it to protect your monsters from battle losses.

Mechanics of Advantage: The Archfiend Deck

Let’s briefly analyze the ways that this deck generates advantage.

First, Archfiends can negate lots of your opponent’s options, such as Snatch Steal, Book of Moon, Enemy Controller, Sakuretsu Armor, and others. This makes them especially dangerous when combined with the next strategy.

Second, despite its weaknesses against Gravekeeper’s Spy and Cyber Dragon, Terrorking Archfiend still remains one of the better monsters in the game. While denying many defenses due to the risk of losing card advantage, it completely destroys the control decks that rely on either D. D. monsters or flip effects. The card will single-handedly stop every Magical Merchant, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and D. D. Assailant you’ll see. However, it doesn’t ensure success against three other staples: Spirit Reaper, Cyber Dragon, and Gravekeeper’s Spy.

Third, Pandemonium stacks even more upon Archfiend’s ability to negate targeted effects. See, if your opponent chooses to take a risk and play Sakuretsu Armor on your Terrorking Archfiend, the effect can either fizzle or succeed. However, at this point, you can simply refuel your hand with a new Archfiend from your deck! This effectively paralyzes a smart opponent, causing him or her to be unable to use spell or trap removal on your Archfiends.

Fourth, the deck still has access to the primary means of the typical Fiend win. Dark Necrofear can be accessed quite readily, as can Dark Ruler Ha Des. There are a variety of ways to win with this deck.

Ability to Counter the Metagame

In regards to the deck’s ability to counter the metagame, it has two selling points and two negative points. First, the deck counters most of the targeted forms of monster removal in the game, including Sakuretsu Armor. Second, the deck negates about 50 percent of the powerful effect monsters in the game.

Unfortunately, the deck doesn’t counter three commonly played powerful monsters. Gravekeeper’s Spy, Cyber Dragon, and Spirit Reaper remain untouched by this deck. In fact, Cyber Dragon smashes almost every monster in this deck to smithereens. And because Pandemonium doesn’t trigger through battle destruction, it puts you in a tight spot indeed. The savvy duelist will use the Germs and other such cards to maintain a foothold on field presence while drawing cards for the big win conditions.

Strategies to Use in a Matchup with a Cookie-Cutter Deck

One of the Archfiend deck’s biggest weaknesses is its inability to amount to much in the early game. Your best play after Giant Germ or Sangan is set is to set Desrook Archfiend. The card can hold off most assaults, and it serves as great tribute fodder.

The deck takes some time to get started, since you’ll have to wait to play your Pandemoniums until you can amass an army. Remember, the cards you fear are Mobius, Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reaper, and Chaos Sorcerer. The goal is to avoid these cards whenever possible. You can drop Necrofear to clear one of them, but you’ll likely see more than one Cyber Dragon during a typical match.

You have nothing to fear from any other monsters in your opponent’s deck, so save all of your defensive traps for the true threats. This deck probably has a 25-percent chance to win against a truly skilled cookie-cutter player, and greater than a 50-percent chance against flip-effect abuse decks that feature cards like Pot of Avarice.

New Grounds Verdict: This deck was better in the past before Cybernetic Revolution, but it’s still a solid choice for today!