Deck Essay #6: Dark Creator Turbo

The card pool available to players of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is extensive, to say the least; however, of course, it must be said that not the entirety of that card pool is competitively viable, with only quite a small percentage being such. While this statement is indeed true, it is also inevitable in this type of game that one obviously and immensely powerful card will overshadow other options, to the point where the vast majority of players will use it and it alone. One such example of this scenario comes from the release of the booster set Phantom Darkness (PTDN), with Dark Armed Dragon being the offending card. The Monster dominated the 2008 formats. There was however, one other card released within that set which was similarly powerful to Dark Armed Dragon, in that it could Special Summon itself for free and create equally free card advantage through its effect, but it was not until much later that this card began to see the attention it deserved. I am talking, of course, about The Dark Creator, the subject of this essay.

A deck based around The Dark Creator will have two simple goals: the first is to draw many cards from the deck; and the second is to then Summon as many Monster Cards to the field as one can and as quickly as possible. Due to this strategy (which is inherent through The Dark Creator’s own effect and interaction with many drawing cards), the deck – titled Dark Creator Turbo – lends itself very well to performing One-Turn-Knockouts, and, while this type of deck is nothing special in the Traditional Format (a format famous for its predisposition towards One-Turn-Knockouts), the way it goes about it is. For, while other decks may need to use a contingent of often complex combos and tricks to fill its field with enough Monsters in a single turn to attack for game, the Dark Creator Turbo deck needs no such great effort: as one will see shortly, this deck is capable of creating a swarm of five large Monsters so simply it seemed as though they sprang out of thin air.

The Monsters: 22

3 The Dark Creator
3 Wulf, Lightswon Beast
3 Dark Grepher
2 Phantom of Chaos
1 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End
1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 Jinzo
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Tragoedia
1 Necro Gardna

I would first like to look at the central engine which drives this deck along, if I may, for it sets the tone for the entirety of this particular list. While it is traditionally a Destiny Hero engine which would be employed for the Dark Creator deck, I have instead chosen here to go with a core based around Lightsworn Monsters. I have done this for a very specific reason: and that is the Lightsworn archetype’s mechanic of sending cards from the top of the deck to the Graveyard. I felt that such an effect, which is used in this deck by a total of six cards (three Solar Recharge, one Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress, one Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner and one Charge of the Light Brigade), in addition to the draw power afforded by Solar Recharge, would be far more beneficial than merely draw power on its own from Destiny Draw. It is a choice which adds an unfortunate inconsistency to my build, but I choice I stand by nonetheless. Only five Lightsworn Monster Cards in total were included to compliment a set of Solar Recharge Spell Cards, for, with the additional amount of draw power this deck would include, and the ability to search for one at any given time with Charge of the Light Brigade, I felt this quantity was sufficient.

A note on the individual choices: first and foremost, I decided to play a full three copies of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, a card many people have dropped down to two or even merely one copy in recent times due to its uselessness as a draw (and a decision which I am sure many people reading this shuddered at), purely because of its interaction with Painful Choice – it was blatantly obvious that this Spell was to be included, and the thought of sending two or even all three copies of Wulf to the Graveyard, and getting to Special Summon them without any cost whatsoever, was quite simply too tantalizing. It can, of course, be Special Summoned off of either of the other two Lightsworn Monsters or either of the two Lightsworn Spells as well. Next, a single copy of Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress was included for its ability to destroy opposing defensive cards (most usually Imperial Order, a Trap Card which has a significant effect on one’s setting up phase), and for its End Phase effect. And, finally, the single allowed copy of Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner was included for its ability to make use of other Lightsworn Monsters in the Graveyard, and, again, its End Phase effect.

Three copies of the deck’s signature card, The Dark Creator, were included. I have seen many builds that played only two, but, with the speed the deck gains from the immense amount of draw power, and the Lightsworn archetype’s special effect, I felt three were well justified. Of course, it is possible that, through all of the milling and drawing the deck is capable of, copies of The Dark Creator will find their way into the Graveyard; for this occurrence, I have included two copies of Phantom of Chaos. This Monster can copy the effect of one’s Dark Creator, creating a usable facsimile in the aforementioned event, but can also copy the effect of any of the other Monster Cards, should one need to do so. As a bonus, and cementing its synergy with the strategy, it is of the DARK Attribute.

The chief Monster to be Special Summoned by The Dark Creator will be Dark Magician of Chaos; it can continue drawing through the deck by retrieving a draw Spell, add a combo card (such as Monster Reborn or Dimension Fusion) that was sent to the Graveyard by one of the Lightsworn archetype’s special effects back to the hand, or simply act as a large Monster. However, I have included a few other options, as well: Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, while not a large Monster, can help to continue drawing through the deck; Jinzo can be summoned to deprive the opponent of the use of Trap Cards to prevent your onslaught, as well as providing Attack Points; and Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, while also providing another use to this deck (more on that later), can provide raw Attack Points should the need arise.

Next, I would like to discuss the last three Monster Cards on the above list. If one were to quickly peruse the remainder of this essay, one would not find a heading, “The Traps:”, followed by a number signifying how many of this type of card there are in the deck. There are none. My reasons for not including any Trap Cards are two-fold: firstly, the deck is much too fast for any Trap Card to be of any real use; and secondly, due to the inclusion of a Lightsworn engine, the number of Monster Cards must outweigh the number of Spell and Trap Cards to increase the chance of milling Monsters and to decrease the chance of milling Spells and Traps, and there was, quite simply, no room left. With these two grounds in mind, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia and Necro Gradna were included for not only their Attributes, but also to make up for the lack of defence. In all honesty, though, the lack of Trap Cards is by no means a problem, and much less the brobdingnagian one many people would believe it to be.

From there, the remainder of the Monster Cards were simple inclusions: both Chaos Monsters, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, were included due to the abundance of LIGHT and DARK Attribute Monsters (although, to be honest, this was in fact a deciding feature when building this deck as opposed to a mere afterthought); Dark Armed Dragon was included due to the speed at which three DARK Monsters can be placed into the Graveyard, as well as the speed at which a full Graveyard can be brought back down to that magic number, with so much Special Summoning from and Removing from Play from thither; and three copies of Dark Grepher were included for the ability it affords to send specific DARK Monsters to the Graveyard when needed (for example, Dark Magician of Chaos for a revival or a third DARK for Dark Armed Dragon).

The Spells: 18

3 Solar Recharge
3 Trade-in
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Card Destruction
1 Painful Choice
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Raigeki
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dimension Fusion

I have already stated the fact that three copies of Solar Recharge were included, as well as the reason for such (that the milling effect, in addition to the drawing effect, would be of great benefit to this strategy). To add to the necessary speed of the deck, and with a total of six Level Eight Monster Cards within the deck, I decided to play a full three copies of Trade-in, alongside the ever important customary additions of Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, Allure of Darkness, and Painful Choice. When drawing through the deck in order to set up a game-winning attack (either on the current turn or the next), one should prioritize putting Monster Cards into the Graveyard; this means activating any possible copies of Solar Recharge and Painful Choice first, with any other draw cards being played subsequently. This is for the reason that the deck is balanced disparately to most others (that is, Monsters over Spells and Traps as opposed to the reverse), and, in order to make the most of this variance, Monsters need to be sent to the Graveyard before they are drawn.

To compliment this robust suite of draw cards, the single allowed copy of the two appropriate search cards were included: Reinforcement of the Army is used more often than not to search for a copy of Dark Grepher, but one can also add Necro Gardna or Disk Commander to the hand for an instant discard; and Charge of the Light Brigade is used to search for any Lightsworn Monster that is needed. Again, in relation to prioritizing the sending Monster Cards to the Graveyard, this latter card should be activated prior to any draw cards.

From there, the remainder of the Spell Card line-up is ordinary picks: Monster Reborn and Premature Burial are included for their ability to Special Summon a large Monster to the field, or to facilitate combos with Monsters such as Dark Magician of Chaos and Destiny Hero – Disk Commander; Raigeki is included to clear the opponent’s field of Monster Cards, so that one may be able to attack the opponent’s Life Points directly; Harpie’s Feather Duster is included to be able to destroy any defences the opponent may have been planning; and, with the immense amount of Removing from Play that this deck is capable of, Dimension Fusion was an obvious inclusion as a single-card way to swarm the field. Note, please, the absence of Heavy Storm; space was very tight, so this card was omitted. One could indeed sacrifice some other card for the ability to play it, or even run it directly over the top of the original list (to make it forty-one cards), but, for consistency issues, I was not prepared to do either.

To be completely honest (and, truth be told, I would not attempt to deceive anybody), this deck is immensely simple; so simple, in fact, I am lost for additional intricacies to talk about. However, this essay was much more about attempting to convey a new way to construct Dark Creator Turbo, as opposed to proving the worth of the overall strategy – as the acta show, Sorosh Saberian already achieved this when he made Top 4 of the 2008 Shonen Jump Championship in Toronto. While I will concede that utilizing a core driving engine of Lightsworn instead of the more conventional Destiny Heroes is a somewhat questionable decision, for it undoubtedly introduces some hitherto unseen inconsistencies, it is a decision I stand by: to my eyes, the times it works appropriately far outweigh the times it does not, and, in these latter occurrences, the deck is versatile enough that most often one may be able to survive for long enough to make a comeback. Whether the idea takes off, I know not; it is out there, and this is all I aimed for.