Quick Article #7: Scientist Control

I’ve been having some interest in the Scientist Control deck I’ve been posting in my latest tournament reports, both online and in person. One player in particular emailed me directly to ask me some very good questions regarding how the deck plays, combos, match-ups, siding, and then some queries about specific card choices (such as Number 56: Gold Rat and Evilswarm Ouroboros). Since I don’t think it’s too much of stretch to assume there are more people interested than just the few who have talked to me, I’ve decided to use the quite detailed answers to the aforementioned player for the basis of this short article, describing how I play deck.

Its main goal is to get out Scientist – the heavy tendency in the construction towards drawing, searching and Special Summoning is primarily geared towards finding Magical Scientist and putting him on the field. For a first turn play, I’m going to be trying to lock the opponent out of their first turn (a second turn play will obviously be more intent on creating the best possible response to the opponent's first turn set up); depending on what the opponent is using (that is, what their Spell/Trap/Monster ratio is like, what their play patterns and possibilities are, etc.), and depending on what I’m able to find and create, some combination of Number 16: Shock Master, Photon Strike Bounzer or Evilswarm Ouroboros, backed up by my Spells and/or Traps – Imperial Order, Crush card Virus, Delinquent Duo, etc. – and/or Effect Veilers, is going to be my final set up. The aim, again, is to lock the opponent out of their turn, so the pilot needs to be able to read what they're playing, and what they'll be trying to, and able to, accomplish.

That said, though, the deck has many other options. The Chaos monsters, as well as being discard/removal fodder for the draw engine, can also be Summoned when needed. By the same token, Light and Darkness Dragon, again primarily a discard target, is also a very powerful option to be Summoned when Scientist isn't available, and is quite easily done with all of the Special Summon options. Other Monsters make Crush Card Virus live, the Extra Deck does contain a couple of Synchro Monsters which can be summoned with Effect Veiler, the Magical Scientist/Dark Strike Fighter FTK is possible, and even just Elemental Hero Stratos with some control cards can be a decent opening play. It all depends on the opening hand – the pilot will need to be able to gauge the amount of stuff he or she can do, which only comes with experience. When I play the deck, I can see my final set up from my opening six cards, and plan what I'm going to do anywhere from the second possibly play up to the twentieth possible play in advance.

If I’m going to be playing against FTKs, I'll need Hand Traps; Effect Veilers are already Mained, so the Side Deck will generally consist of Droll & Lock Birds, Hanewatas, Neko Mane Kings, Maxx "C"s, Elephant Stature of Disaster, depending on what I expect to play against. Battle based matchups are quite good, although I may want to Side more battle based cards – Snatch Steal, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm and Harpie's Feather Duster, that sort of thing. Also, some Hand Traps, such as Maxx "C" and D.D. Crow, can be good for battle based match ups – Dark World, heavy Special Summoning strategies – so I’ll consider Siding those, as well. The Side really depends on what I expect to play, and then changes accordingly. My Side, even for the same deck, is different at every tournament.

On the subject of Number 56: Gold Rat: during my turn, I quite often end up with Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Magical Scientist on-field, and, in this scenario, rather than making a few exceeds (which obviously cost Life Points with Scientist) and leaving those two, low ATK Monsters susceptible to attacks, I summon Thousand Eyes Restrict and overlay the three for Gold Rat. I then get to draw another card, shuffle back a dead card (or my second Malicious, always helpful), put Disk Commander (by detaching him to activate Rat's effect) back into the Graveyard for another revival and draw, and have a LIGHT target if Rat hits the Grave. It seems like an odd choice, and I got a bit of crap for it at the time, but it really is very good here.

Evilswarm Ouroboros is for when I have Imperial Order. If I've drawn the Trap Card, I don't want to Summon Shock Master and call Spells – I'll already be cutting out Spells with Imperial, and doubling up on effects, except when making a fancy surprise combo, is useless. Therefore, unless I need to cut out Monster effects (which I'm most likely going to be doing with Photon Strike Bounzer or Effect Veiler anyway), I'll make Ouroboros to take another card from the opponent's hand instead.

I hope this clears up some questions that might have formed around this deck, especially since I unfortunately never got around to writing any others pieces about it.

Quick Article #6: Just What Do You Plan on Doing with that Scientist, Eh?

If I needed to name but a single card in the Traditional Format that was infinitely versatile, amazingly powerful, easily splashable, but also more often than not atrociously misused and misunderstood, I would choose without a second’s thought Magical Scientist; it’s a card that I see included in the vast majority of decks posted on internet forums, Youtube channels and the like, and discussed by those people including it in such decks, but is almost always done incorrectly, with very little regard for its true potential. Of course, there is the possibility, as everybody well knows, to use Magical Scientist to Special Summon Fusion Monsters with amazing effects, such as Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Dark Balter the Terrible, Ryu Senshi and so on, but this is only a rather shallow representation of the enormous well of opportunity it grants. In this article, therefore, I want to briefly go over the two major uses for Magical Scientist, the one’s which seem to be either unknown or simply overlooked.

 

·         Synchro Summoning: the first of these is the ability to utilize the Fusion Monsters as Synchro Materials. Where the Advanced Format has almost entirely shied away from Synchro Monsters, owing to the limited possibility to successfully include Tuners in the majority of the top decks, no such occurrence has befallen Traditional; with Plaguespreader Zombie, Glow-up Bulb and Spore (to name but a few) all being viable choices thanks to cards alike to Painful Choice and Graceful Charity, Synchro Summoning remains a potent strategy here. Magical Scientist, as we know, can Special Summon any number of Fusions with any number of Levels below 7, offering a unique single-card toolbox for creating various required non-Tuners. Granted, this will most often revolve around the Dark Strike Fighter One-Turn/First-Turn-Knockout, but this is neither the only option available nor the one always indicated by the gamestate. Other powerful options, such as Stardust Dragon, Scrap Dragon, Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier and Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, are all potential plays, and access to enough Tuners can result in multiples of such.

 

·         Exceed Summing: the second way in which one might employ the Fusion Monsters brought to the field by Magical Scientist, quite clearly, is Exceed Summoning. Again, owing to the variability across Levels, there is a wealth of possibilities to be found in this route, and, it must be said, a wealth of possibilities that are simpler to execute: two Level 3 Fusions can make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Leviair the Sea Dragon, Wind-Up Zenmaines and many other powerful Rank 3 options; two Level 4s can be overlayed into Number 39: Utopia, Steelswarm Roach or Maestroke the Symphony Djinn; two Level 5 Fusions can Exceed Summon powerful Rank 5s such as Tiras, Keeper of Genesis or Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon; and, finally, a pair of Level 6s will be able to form Photon Strike Bounzer or Inzektor Exa-Beetle. In addition, the lack of a necessity for a specific Tuner Monster, as in Synchro Summoning, means that one can Exceed Summon as many times as one has the Monster Zones, Fusion Monsters and Life Points to allow, easily creating a full field at a moment’s notice.

 

The only problem arising from the utilization of Magical Scientist, that I can see anyway, is the limit on the number of Extra Deck cards; fifteen is far from being a substantial amount, meaning every card needs to be chosen with absolute precision (re: On Skill). Other, lesser uses, such as Summoning two or three Fusion Monsters to tribute for Destiny Hero – Plasma, bypass this, but don’t offer anywhere near the same level of power and versatility, so this is where the aspect of skill arises in using such a straightforward, immensely powerful card – in the construction of the Extra Deck. That precision which is required when piecing together a perfect set of cards is still something that takes months, even years of practice and devotion to learn how to do properly, and Magical Scientist makes that task even harder.

Quick Article #5: The Plant Engine

Now, with the results from the latest tournament held by Good Games Canberra published, I had originally intended to compose a complete analysis of the Destiny Hero Plant strategy I piloted there, going undefeated until Top 4 where I lost to the eventual winner. However, with the decklist in question reading, for the most part, much the same as any Destiny Hero-based DARK Synchro deck (barring, of course, the Plant engine itself), I have decided against this for the simple reason of not wishing to repeat myself. Instead, I will be using this Quick Article to list and briefly outline the advantages of the specific seven card suite, for I have hitherto been unable to do so otherwise. 

Monsters: 4

1 Glow-Up Bulb

1 Spore

1 Lonefire Blossom

1 Dandylion

Spells: 3 

1 One for One

1 Foolish Burial

1 Card of Safe Return

Not only do the four Monsters listed above grant an additional level of combo potential to cards already employed in a Synchro-based strategy (Painful Choice and Graceful Charity spring to mind as the most obvious examples), they also offer the amazing opening to then include cards which are so close to being viable in such circumstances – those cards which, while they might clutch a game-winning combo here and there, are more often functionally dead, creating instead unplayable hands and subsequent defeats. Here, the three listed Spells most definitely fall into this category: One for One and Foolish Burial are options I myself would sincerely love to run in any Synchro deck splashing Magical Scientist, or that uses Plaguespreader Zombie, but there simply aren’t enough worthwhile targets to do so; similarly, not a single speed-centred deck exists that I wish Card of Safe Return wouldn’t be feasible in, drawing extra cards through those Dark Magician of Chaos and Destiny Hero – Disk Commander revivals, but such instances are simply too few and far between in the early game to warrant that commitment.

That said, however, these Spells find the extra consistency and usefulness necessary to take starring roles in a deck utilizing the Plant engine. Moreover, I can also foresee other, for the most part rarely used cards becoming strong contenders for inclusion: Hand Destruction is one that I have been thinking about for quite some time now, and some even lesser used cards, in the shape of Mirage of Nightmare and Fibre Jar, have also been presenting themselves to my consideration. For this reason, the Plant engine is immensely versatile, not only in the plays possible from its most basic incarnation (as evidenced by the past success of Plant Synchro in the Advanced Format), but also in the form of additional prospects it presents to deck architecture – something which is undoubtedly an interesting opportunity in the Traditional Format.

Quick Article #4: Some Ideas Just Don't Work Out

It would be an indiscretion of the highest degree if I – or, for that matter, anybody, without exception – were to put forth, and then play along with, the impression that every single one of my ideas was perfect; this would require an ego of immeasurable proportions, which is something I do not possess. Everybody, quite simply, makes mistakes. However, although they may not be perfect, all ideas must still, to my mind, be documented, for another person may come along who can, upon examining such an idea, continue with it in some direction in order to either ameliorate its good qualities, or conclude that the venture is, once and for all, pointless. I will post, therefore, here and now, one of the decks which I myself have struggled with for quite some time now, but have been wholly unable to accomplish to any degree acceptable to my high personal standards (and have neither the desire nor the time to further investigate):

Monster: 15

2 Summoner Monk

2 Rose, Warrior of Revenge

2 Destiny Hero – Malicious

1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander

1 Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Dark Grepher

1 Morphing Jar

1 Cyber Jar

Spell: 22

3 Golden Bamboo Sword

3 Broken Bamboo Sword

2 Destiny Draw

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Card Destruction

1 Pot of Greed

1 Graceful Charity

1 Painful Choice

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Monster Reborn

1 Premature Burial

1 Dimension Fusion

1 Last Will

1 Harpie’s Feather Duster

1 Snatch Steal

1 Change of Heart

1 Raigeki

Trap: 3

1 Imperial Order

1 Crush Card Virus

1 Ring of Destruction

With draw power so very important to the Traditional Format, I was intensely interested in utilizing the Bamboo Sword cards, an engine typically only employed in First-Turn-Knockout strategies, to increase the speed of a battle-oriented deck. I had been thinking upon this subject for the better part of two weeks, contemplating the best option for doing so, eventually arriving at the decision that Monk Synchro would fall into such a category; the option of discarding a dead Bamboo Sword (whether Broken or Golden) for the effect of Summoner Monk was a synergy that appealed to my sensibilities, and, with my experience and personal style also leaning in this direction, I ultimately went with it – to relatively good effect, I should add, although the result, after testing various builds, was still not consistent enough for my liking. While capable of some extremely impressive plays, as the case almost always is when playing Destiny Hero-based Synchro strategies, the above deck suffers from completely useless hands far more often than is acceptable: hands split between unmatched Bamboo Swords, Synchro generators and power cards prove unplayable in virtually any situation presented, including a first turn start. Perhaps a different ratio of Bamboo Swords would be superior, but, as noted above, I have decided to move on. I post it here as an example of an idea that, while no doubt good (and worthy of exploration, I think), is far from being a completed work of greatness.

Quick Article #3: Side Decking Against the FTK

Now, I had originally intended to compose a full essay detailing, in great depth, the art of Side Decking with specific regards to the Traditional Format; such a discussion was to include an extensive commentary on individual cards and their efficacy in certain match-ups, based on the three most common threats to be encountered, followed then by techniques for constructing the Traditional Format Side Deck and ways in which one should go about accomplishing proper utilization of the finished product during a given tournament. It was no doubt to be epic in length, and enormous in aspect of knowledge. However, I have shelved the project, doing so for reasons that are three-fold: firstly, such a venture is simply incongruous with the purpose of this blog, which has been, is still, and always will be, to organise my thoughts so that a final treatise can be composed – and, furthermore, I should like to confine myself to the subject of Main Decks in any instance, by far the more interesting topic; secondly, the subject of proper Side Deck usage has been discussed many a time, and in such a fine way, so as to render anything I could add to the literature, if indeed anything at all, void; and, thirdly (and finally), such a topic is, as I have indeed seen from the work that I began, of such a mammoth size that I should be writing for some time to come, and that devoting so much time and effort to something that I deem unnecessary (for the aforementioned reasons) would be pointless.

Having said that, however, I in no way wish to stray from my theorist’s duty as the world’s only authority on Traditional Format Yu-Gi-Oh! – after all, this is a blog, no matter what the centrally intended purpose may be, and people do read it. Ergo, I have still deemed it essential that I should cover the subject of Side Decking in the Modern Traditional Format, at least to some degree. Taking into consideration that which I have already stated, I shall here confine myself to the much smaller, much more manageable act of listing those potential and plausible counters to the First-Turn-Knockout deck. I shall refrain from entering into any detailed discussion of why a certain card is a pertinent Side Deck choice against specific decks, instead continuing with my previous statements and simply providing a catalogue of cards able to counter this style of deck. While I had previously mentioned that there exists three threats within the Traditional Format (the other two being the One-Turn-Knockout deck and the Anti-Meta deck), it is no doubt the First-Turn-Knockout that poses the greatest risk in a large, professional tournament landscape, and is thus the of the most interest to readers.

First-Turn-Knockout Counters:

Droll and Lock Bird
Neko Mane King
Herald of Green Light
Herald of Purple Light
Herald of Orange Light
Hanewata
D.D. Crow
Effect Veiler
Elephant Statue of Disaster
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

These above listed cards constitute the ten best possible options when constructing a Side Deck in the Traditional Format, providing answers to the most consistently powerful First-Turn-Knockout decks available. Of course, though, it must be remembered that any Side Deck will always be contained within a vacuum of bias, with specific regard to the Main Deck it is to be couple with, in addition to not only the preferences of the individual constructing said decks but also to the environment which he or she intendeds to play in. Just as in the architecture of a Main Deck, the Side Deck (and, indeed, the Extra Deck for that matter) must be considered comprehensively, and built accordingly.

Quick Article #2: The Disk Commander Discourse

A few days ago, some fellow Pojo.com members were discussing the use of engines in the modern Chaos deck, and specifically the engine centred around reviving Destiny Hero - Disk Commander many times in order to draw cards. I joined in the discussion, as I often do whenever an interesting topic appears in the Traditional Format sub-forum, and will publish here what I said; I will do so for two reasons: firstly, talking with other players, especially on a written forum like Pojo.com, allows for a greater depth of discourse on a single idea (in this case, engines) than do the general deck essays I compose for this blog; and, secondly, reiterating what I said there, which is a place altogether disparate to this website, should give an interesting insight, I think, into what happens 'behind the scenes', as it were.

This first quote came about at the beginning of the conversation, after the Disk Commander engine was mentioned in the first place and some discussion between other members ensued:

"The Disk Commander engine is incredible: superior access to cards is what a deck strives for in any card game, not just Yu-Gi-Oh!, and even just reviving Disk Commander once (and, of course, being able to do so with the consistency a full-fledged engine allows) gives you huge momentum. Being able to then revive Disk Commander again, and even many more times, is just sick... exactly what the Traditional Format should be about. I myself have already published one deck using the Disk Commander engine, and I'm currently working on another, a DARK-centred Control deck based on versatility and resilience rather than pure power. I will also be using a full Destiny Hero engine, that is with Destiny Draw and more Destiny Heroes.

Now, once upon a time (that is, back in the days of triple Destiny Draw and double Allure of Darkness - oh, my God! how I miss those days!), it would be unnecessary to play what we now consider the "Disk Commander engine", but it would sadly seem these days are never coming back. However, having said that, I still consider Destiny HEROES to be on top of the Traditional Format, whether it be in FTK, OTK or Control format, they just need some supplimentation through either the Disk Commander engine or the addition of Trade-In. This latter one is also something I am currently testing.

Anyway, I just thought I'd insert my two cents: I saw discussion of Destiny Heroes, and, well, hopefully without sounding exceedingly arrogant, I'm an expert on the subject. Again, it is my firm belief that Destiny Heroes are on top of the Traditional Format; the speed, consistency and versatility they offer is second to none - just something to think about.

-Jamie"

I was then asked to expand upon what I said previously (the user who instigated the thread in question had previously been utilizing an engine centred on Hidden Armory, hence the mention of said engine in the second section of the quote):

"********: I don't really want to give away too much - I hate giving away secrets before I reveal them (oh, wow, that sounded so lame, but it's true) - but I suppose I don't mind showing the engine for the DARK Control deck: I'm still about halfway through the testing stages, but it looks like this at the moment:

3 Armageddon Knight
3 Limit Reverse
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger
1 Destiny Hero - Plasma
1 Destiny Draw
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Scapegoat

I dropped the Graceful Revivals from this build in favour of a more versatile engine, and the added instant speed of Destiny Draw allowable by a third discard target. The full Trade-In engine, as well as the deck I'm playing it in, is still top-secret (that sounded even more lame) and will be for a long time - that deck is my long-term project, and won't be published for quite a while.

********: the Hidden Armory engine is very good (I plan to use it at least once more, myself), I wouldn't discount it simply on a whim. It depends on what you prefer, as long as you have solid reasoning to back up your decision.

The Disk Commander engine, in its most basic, fundamental form, would be the following:

3 Armageddon Knight
3 Limit Reverse
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Reinforcement of the Army

These nine cards fit underneath the Monster Reborn and Premature Burial you should already be playing - the only reason I specifically include Call of the Haunted in the engine is because I don't believe it's an automatic inclusion in Traditional.

Anything on top of those nine cards is purely optional and down to personal preference: I usually like to play at least Elemental Hero Stratos and Destiny Hero - Fear Monger for extra deck thinning and revival options; I ran two Graceful Revival in the Chaos Return deck I published because I was focussing on Chaos only (that is, there were no Tuners, no alternate win conditions of any kind, just Chaos) and I needed the extra reliability the Trap Card gave me for drawing; and the engine for the DARK Control deck aforementioned includes Destiny Draw, which is allowed due to the addition of another discard target, and the added versatility of a Hero like Plasma and its associated copy of Scapegoat.

Again, it really comes down to personal preference. These are only things that I have found through testing and research myself, but I would never, ever declare that I know everything there is to know.

-Jamie"

Quick Article #1: Challenge Cards

If there is anybody that thinks Yu-Gi-Oh! can never be both competitive and fun at the same time, I beg these people to reconsider; for the last few weeks, three of my friends from locals have been doing something (a game, if you like) I like to call 'Challenge Cards', in which the group agrees upon a fun, oft-overlooked card that each of them must then include, at a minimum of one copy, in their Main Deck (for example, last week's card was The Beginning of the End, and this week's was Exchange). I decided to join in this week and came third with the following Hand Control Deck featuring the Challenge Card Exchange, going undefeated until the last round (in which I only lost due to Zombie World in the first game and Imperial Order in the second):

Monsters: 14
3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
3 Dark Red Enchanter
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger
1 Cyber Jar
1 Morphing Jar
1 Dark Magician of Chaos

Spell: 19
1 Destiny Draw
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 The Forceful Sentry
1 Confiscation
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Exchange
1 Heavy Storm
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
1 Brain Control
1 Reinforcement of the Army

Trap: 7
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Sixth Sense
1 Mind Crush
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Imperial Order
1 Time Seal

Not only is this fun, but it also opens up the mind to the obscure, thus broadening one's possibilities in Deck Architecture and Tech choices. I definitely recommend this to anyone who either is losing interest in the game due to over-competitiveness or has hit the proverbial wall.