There is no doubt in anybody’s mind, I should hazard a guess, that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a fast game; with little or even no cost or restriction associated with some of the most powerful effects ever printed, there is not a great deal of constraint when it comes to claiming victory in only a matter of a couple of turns. Many people, however, will decry this aspect of the game as detrimental to its lifespan, stating that decks designed to win in this way are unskilled and do not further our understanding of play. These people, quite simply, are wrong: while I would not be conceited enough to announce that every single One-Turn-Knockout strategy requires a large quantity of skill and experience to pilot, the outnumbering majority, in fact, do. Thence, we come to the Traditional Format: due to the increased card pool and abundance of intricate, complicated interactions between cards, there exists an immense amount of new and exciting possibilities to be explored which fall into this latter category. The deck I will be presenting in this essay is just one such example, a One-Turn-Knockout strategy using an engine which has not, I believe, been investigated to the extent it deserves: a Turbo-based Chaos deck centred on Fortune Ladies.
The end goal of this deck, which I have tentatively entitled ‘Fortune Chaos Turbo’, is, as is always the case in One-Turn-Knockout strategies, very simple: to Special Summon as many large Monsters as possible in as little time as possible, and then attack for game with said Monsters. However, the difficulty present, again as is always the case in this category of deck, comes from the way in which it achieves this win condition, the way in which the deck powers through itself to create this game-ending swarm of Monster Cards: in this specific case, a group of Fortune Lady Monsters is incorporated into a Chaos deck by using a number of cards intended to Remove them from Play, in order to then be able to activate the draw Spell of the archetype, Fortune’s Future. A suite of additional draw cards speeds the strategy towards a plethora of Special Summon effects. The result, a deck based chiefly upon a large amount of personal trial and error, is immensely quick, immensely powerful, and surprisingly consistent.
The Monsters: 17
3 Cyber Valley
3 The Dark Creator
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
2 Fortune Lady Light
1 Fortune Lady Dark
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Dark Armed Dragon
I shall begin, if I may, by discussing the group of Fortune Lady Monsters, the most important aspect to this specific strategy – although a small and, at first glance, uninteresting group it is, indeed! but the deck has been carefully balanced to allow the maximum consistency possible within the forty cards: running more than the three Fortune Ladies found herein (two copies of Fortune Lady Light, and a single copy of Fortune Lady Dark) has a tendency to create dead opening hands, in which one has Ladies with which there is nought to do; whereas, of course, running fewer would make it very difficult to find them when needed. Furthermore, Gold Sarcophagus will also be included in the Spell Card list, allowing one to search for a needed Fortune Lady at any given time. While I will admit that it may look like only three Fortune Lady Monsters is not enough to warrant an entire engine, rigorous testing has found that this number is perfect.
I should like, however, before I move on, to discuss my choices regarding the quantities of the individual Fortune Ladies. I have split the possible set of Fortune Lady Light in order to include a single copy of Fortune Lady Dark for the ability of the latter to interact with certain DARK Attribute support cards, all of which it was, during the initial stages of design, obvious that they were to be included: The Dark Creator, here utilized at its full three copies, can Remove from Play the one Fortune Lady Dark via its effect, fulfilling both the Special Summoning of a Monster and bringing a held Fortune’s Future on line; in a similar vein, Dark Armed Dragon, at its allowed single copy, can also Remove from Play the Fortune Lady Dark from the Graveyard; and, lastly, Allure of Darkness, included at its allowed single copy in the Spell Card list, can Remove from Play the Fortune Lady Dark from the hand – this latter example is, in fact, a +1 to hand presence, which is of particular note not only in regards to any deck, but especially in a combo-based deck (that is, any combo-based deck) that requires the retaining of in-hand options.
Frome there, a full set of Cyber Valley has been included to facilitate the further Removal of a Fortune Lady Monster. It does so while also either drawing oneself two more cards deeper into the deck, if one was able (or, rather, needed) to Summon a Fortune Lady to the field, or retrieving a required card from the Graveyard. The former is a rather rare course of action, for one will not often find a Fortune Lady on the field, but the latter is of especial importance: one can Normal Summon a Cyber Valley, activate its third effect by Removing from Play itself and a Fortune Lady from the hand, place a useful card – such as, for example, Pot of Greed or Graceful Charity for continued drawing, or Monster Reborn, Premature Burial or Dimension Fusion for Special Summons – atop the deck, and then follow up by activating Fortune’s Future to draw that stacked card and another. The synergy herein is, while slightly unintuitive and shrouded to begin with, very impressive and well worth looking into further than merely this single essay.
Five supporting Monster Cards have then been included, with the intention to further enhance the general speed, consistency and overall capabilities of the deck: firstly, a full three copies of Broww, Huntsman of Dark World find their place alongside a set of Dark Word Dealings, a Graceful Charity and a Card Destruction in the Spell Card list, offering extra draws by taking inspiration from the arsenal of the First-Turn-Knockout deck; next, Destiny Hero – Disk Commander becomes a welcome addition not only because of its card drawing effect, but also the ease with which it can be sent to the Graveyard, and subsequently revived to trigger said effect, within a deck such as this; lastly, and in direct correlation to the reasoning behind the inclusion of Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, Dark Magician of Chaos offers the distinct ability, and, again the simple execution of such an ability, to further the strategy towards its end goal – it can also play a part in the final win condition, owing to its sheer size of body.
Finally, the Envoys are clearly included. While it may seem to be just plain folly to base a deck around Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, but incorporate only two LIGHT Attribute Monsters to fulfil the second half of their Summoning Requirement, there is simply so much potential for the drawing and searching of cards here that the Envoys will only on the rare occasion be dead. Of course, in addition to this, one should not discount the possibility of sending an unneeded Cyber Valley to the Graveyard through any of the incorporated discard effects, whence it can later provide necessary Removal fodder.
The Spells: 23
3 Fortune’s Future
3 Trade-In
3 Dark World Dealings
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Painful Choice
1 Machine Duplication
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Raigeki
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Snatch Steal
We are come now to the Spell Card line-up, which in truth is the last section to discuss – any desired Trap Card would inevitably prove to be too slow to be of any distinct use to this strategy. While it would indeed be nice to run Imperial Order, and possibly Ring of Destruction in addition, such options would offer no specific advantage to the deck as a whole configuration, only finding use when the opponent is involved and, furthermore, only prior to being Set beforehand. Ergo, I decided the omitting of Trap Cards altogether was the best option, for the sake of maximum reliability.
A total of ten theme-specific Spell Cards which allow the drawing of cards stand out in the above list. Quite simply, a Turbo deck is designed to claim victory on the very first turn it can declare an attack, and this plethora of drawing Spells, in addition to the more intricate drawing combos presented by the Monster Card list, will achieve this on the most consistent basis possible: three copies of Fortune’s Future round out the Fortune Lady engine, and has already been discussed and concluded as the cornerstone to the entire idea; three copies of Trade-In then make an appearance due to the abundance of Level Eight Monster Cards included here (a grand total of six, realizing the generally accepted ratio of two targets for every one draw card, expressed as the number 2:1), although this was, of course, an initial design and not an afterthought; three copies of Dark World Dealings, which not only show their usefulness by discarding the primary target of Broww, Huntsman of Dark World, but also when placing other needed Monsters into the Graveyard, such as, for example, a Fortune Lady or the Destiny Hero – Disk Commander; and, lastly, the single allowed copy of Allure of Darkness is an obvious pick within a deck running so many DARK Attribute Monsters.
From there, two copies of Gold Sarcophagus have also been included with the intention of assisting in the drawing of cards, if not drawing cards directly; one is able to select a Fortune Lady Monster from the deck and send it to the Removed from Play pile, whither it can then be immediately used for the activation of a Fortune’s Future. Searching for and Removing Dark Magician of Chaos, or any other required Monster, followed by the activation of Dimension Fusion, is also an acceptable play. Only two copies of Gold Sarcophagus were included in order to prevent the drawing of multiple situational cards at the same time. In the same vein, a single copy of Machine Duplication was also included for the option, should it present itself, to Special Summon all remaining copies of Cyber Valley from the deck; such, while being a welcome addition to the arsenal, is not by any means an essential one, furthering the decision to only run the lone copy.
The drawing and searching potential is completed by what we might suitably term ‘staple’ cards: Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction and Painful Choice. These four Spells realise a great potential in not only the Traditional Format as a whole (hence the use of the term ‘staple’), but especially and most notably in the DARK School of Thought, a school of Yu-Gi-Oh! specifically centred on speed and an overwhelming abuse of the Graveyard. Each one either draws more cards or places combo pieces into the Graveyard for future use, and some even have the distinct possibility of doing both. Their existence is obviously welcome in general, by it is particularly noteworthy in this case.
The next three Spell Cards represent the final additions to the set of Special Summon effects utilized to achieve the game-ending swarm of Monsters: Monster Reborn and Premature Burial both grant the revival of a single large Monster with which to either attack, or advance the deck towards a point in which attacking becomes the object of the mind; and Dimension Fusion, inarguably one of the most powerful Spell Cards ever printed, will most often Special Summon many Monsters at once. These cards are, however, in need of more discussion. While many One-Turn-Knockout strategies would find Monster Reborn, Premature Burial and Dimension Fusion being the instrumental cards in the win condition, the Spells here have a much different, even strange, purpose, due to the peculiar construction of the deck – that is, the majority of the large Monsters which will do the necessary attacking will, in fact, Special Summon themselves, and so these three Spell Cards will function more as combo cards than anything else, creating or facilitating more draws or facilitating the retrieval other needed cards from the Graveyard. They should, of course, be played thus.
Lastly (but by no means the least important aspect), three pieces of generic, Traditional Format field control have been included: Harpie’s Feather Duster, Raigeki and Snatch Steal, the former being able to deal with an opponent’s back row while the latter two deal with the opponent’s front row. While these Spell Cards add nothing to the deck in the sense of strategic importance, they are nevertheless essential in creating a stable battle-oriented deck. To omit them would be to denounce the existence of an opponent altogether, and while the First-Turn-Knockout deck does in fact do this the most extreme degree, it is not the place of the One-Turn-Knockout deck to do so. Although far from being a control-oriented strategy, in which the idea is to restrict the opponent’s moves by reacting to anything they do, there is still a need here, if only a slight one, for the ability to answer threats offered by an opponent; Harpie’s Feather Duster, Raigeki and Snatch Steal comprise the most versatile suite for such, I have discovered.
With the possibilities in this great game, and especially when considered within the increased card pool of the Traditional Format, being very close to infinite, it is almost impossible (or, at the very least, I think so) to sit back and allow ourselves to become slaves to what the wider population consider to be the standard architecture. Doing so would only serve to prevent the growth of Yu-Gi-Oh! to any standard in which ‘flourishing’ would be an appropriate adjective. Although there have indeed been some formats ruled by one deck build (the now termed ‘TeleDAD’ format of September 2008 springs instantly to mind), this time appears to be over – there is merely a need for players to realise this. While I am not condoning, I should clarify, the extradition of what we call ‘meta’ (for meta should always, in my opinion, be the dominant, or even only, force), the leg room available within that term is enormous, as exemplified by the topic of this composition: through the use of a little explored drawing engine, and some additional support in the way of tried and true tricks, I have discovered (or rather, simply unclouded) yet another fast, powerful and consistent One-Turn-Knockout strategy. Now, whether it takes off is another story, but the success I have had warrants, I believe, at the least some further investigation.
Showing posts with label Turbo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turbo. Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Deck Essay #12: Kuraz-Blade Turbo
While there are indeed a vast number of disparate cards, mechanics, and individual effects to be found in this great game, there also exists of course a surplus of possible combinations when integrating these single cards together. Some, needless to say, are more powerful than others, and are thus explored to a great extent; while some are distinctly the reverse – not very powerful and for the most part left alone. The deck (or rather, the combo) I will be investigating in this essay is in fact neither, or perhaps instead a combination of the two: it is very powerful, but inexplicably has not been explored with the great depth that it deserves. Now, my personal view on this curious occurrence is that the idea was lost amidst metagame shifts due to both additions to the Forbidden and Limited Lists and the release of new, highly viable deck-types. However, the deck is lost no more! for I have retrieved and studied the little amount of information I could find in order to reconstruct this remarkable strategy for the modern Traditional Format. I am talking about the deck known simply (if known at all) as Kuraz-Blade Turbo.
When thinking to oneself about the large quantity of complicated strategies that can be constructed in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kuraz-Blade Turbo is undoubtedly as intricate and bewildering as they come; however, through rigorous testing and rebuilding over the course of approximately two months, I have finally discovered the appropriate architecture. The win condition, though, from merely staring at the following decklist, will not be obvious, I fear, so I shall explain it now: through a plethora of effects to send cards to the Graveyard, whether by discard or mill, copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade are loaded into the discard pile; Kuraz the Light Monarch is then Removed from Play (along with other Warrior-Type Monsters) through the retrieval effect of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade; the Removed copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch are then Special Summoned using D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, with the Monarch then using its effect to target itself and the Spell Card for destruction to draw two cards; eventually, the huge amount of card drawing and Removing Monsters from Play sets up a turn in which the activation of Dimension Fusion will create a game-ending swarm of Monsters.
Now, as with any exceptionally complicated deck I present, I must implore those people less skilled with in-game decision making to exercise caution; a thorough understanding of not only the possible combos herein, but also the possible long-term outcomes of said combos, is essential to piloting this deck correctly. One incorrect judgment can and will spell doom. This is a skill which takes years of painstaking practice to develop, so people who would make the choice to play this deck must not do so lightly.
The Monsters: 13
3 Kuraz the Light Monarch
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
2 Card Trooper
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
It is generally accepted that Monster line-ups in the Traditional Format are relatively short (barring some special cases), in order to facilitate room for the abundance of powerful Spell Cards; however, this deck takes the premise even further, playing a grand total of only thirteen. Very little is needed in the way of Monster Cards for the strategy to function properly, and, as is the case in the Traditional Format, efficiency is the primary focus; cards unnecessary for the central win condition are omitted.
First and foremost, I have based the deck around an engine of Lightsworn. It was the most obvious engine to my mind, for not only would it allow the draw and discarding power needed to carry out the appropriate task, it would also do so while sending more cards to the Graveyard through the theme’s inherent mill effect and, most importantly, would accomplish such while maintaining hand presence. This latter facet is important to note, for many players I think would be inclined to utilize an engine centred on Hand Destruction and the like (and is indeed something I tested in preliminary builds of this deck). While the Lightsworn engine would, on the occasion, create dead hands in which one draws Solar Recharge without a discard target or Lightsworn Monsters with which there is nought to do, I feel the decision is well justified by not only the incredible momentum the engine allows when given a decent hand, but also the consistency with which this happens. Dead hands, in short, are statistically rare.
Now to discuss the individual decisions regarding the engine, although I will admit that there is indeed little to talk about! for I have included only two different Lightsworn Monsters: the first, Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, included at a full three copies, and the other, Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior, included at two, together totalling five. The inclusion of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast was, to be completely honest, a simple choice: it finds itself being Special Summoned for free very often due to three copies of both Solar Recharge and Hidden Armory and one each of Charge of the Light Brigade, Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate, and this provides the deck with excellent early game momentum and an offensive power should the engine unfortunately stall (for I would not be stupid enough to declare that this never happens, although I will stress again that it is rare). Some people might say that playing the card in triplicate would create dead draws, but this is, to refer again to my previous argument, statistically unlikely.
A little more difficult was the decision to include Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior. The number of copies, I will say before I go any further, was an easy choice, for there quite simply was no more room to be found, and another would have been unneeded in any way. These two slots hither were set to be filled by any of the three Lightsworn Warrior-type Monsters, in order to add extra Removal targets for ones copies of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, and Garoth, to my mind, was the suitable one: Ehren, Lightsworn Monk would be useless due to not only its low ATK, but also because any Set Monsters utilized in Traditional are Flip-Effect Monsters, which Ehren is completely unable to influence; and the fluctuating ATK of Jain, Lightsworn Paladin seemed detrimental when Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior boasted a steady body that was already larger. Ultimately however, it matters little which Monster Card is chosen, for it would rarely be Summoned, although in the interest of constructing the deck with as much accuracy as was feasible for the purposes of this essay, I spent much time considering my options.
In order to aid the central engine in sending needed cards to the Graveyard, I have drawn inspiration from the Shonen Jump Championship winning Diamond Dude Turbo build piloted by Marc Glass at Columbus in the year 2007, including the allowed two copies of Card Trooper. This adds, if at all possible, an extra layer of speed to the deck, allowing the copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade and other combo-oriented cards to be set up as fast as possible. The draw effect also adds extra combo potential, for one can target Card Trooper with the effect of Kuraz the Light Monarch in order to draw three cards instead of merely two; although this effect is good any deck Card Trooper is played in, it is an especially nice touch here.
Thence, I have made the somewhat questionable decision to include Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. However, I assure the reader that I can justify this incongruity, and my reasons are three-fold: firstly, with the vast amount of drawing and milling the deck accomplishes, it is by no means too problematic to load one of the two DARK Attribute Monsters into the Graveyard for the Summon of the Soldier; secondly (and in direct relation to the first point), Summoning Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning allows for another way to send a copy of Kuraz the Light Monarch to the Removed from Play Pile for later revival; and thirdly, the Monster is of the needed Warrior-type itself, meaning it adds yet another possible card to facilitate the retrieval of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, thus making it far easier again to Remove the copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch for later revival. At first glance, it looks to be a bizarre addition, but the synergy it presents is only veiled rather shallowly.
Finally, I have made two obvious inclusions, and ones which therefore require little justification: Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos are here to help draw more cards and retrieve a lost combo piece from the Graveyard, respectively. One will have almost no trouble whatsoever in sending these cards to the Graveyard for revival, and such is made even more achievable by the fact that one of the revival cards, namely Premature Burial, can be searched via Hidden Armory if needed. Dark Magician of Chaos can even be revived through a copy of D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, another card searchable through Hidden Armory, adding an extra layer of versatility to the arsenal of the strategy.
The Spells: 26
3 Solar Recharge
3 Hidden Armory
2 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade
2 D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Painful Choice
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Snatch Steal
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Raigeki
Much of the strategy-specific Spell Cards have already had their uses expounded upon above, for it was simply not possible to explain many of the intricacies of the Monster line-up without revealing the remaining contents of the deck. Firstly, the Spell Card list is centred on a key engine of Equip Spells. A full three copies of Hidden Armory allow the player to search for any needed Equip Spell at any given time, either from the deck or from the Graveyard: two copies of D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation stand out as the chief search targets, reviving a Removed Kuraz the Light Monarch in order to draw two cards, or revive the copy of Dark Magician of Chaos to retrieve a combo piece; Premature Burial also brings combo potential to this strategy, for not only can it revive the Dark Magician of Chaos or the Destiny Hero – Disk Commander as normal, but it can also be used to Special Summon a copy of Kuraz the Light Monarch, which will, as with the previous Spell Card, target itself and its reviver to draw two cards; Snatch Steal is included as a way to remove a threat and create one at the same time, as it does in other decks; and lastly, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade is included to facilitate the Removal of Monsters from the Graveyard to set up the draw engine and win condition of the deck, as well as provide retrieval discard fodder for other cards.
From there, the Lightsworn engine is rounded out by the inclusion of three copies of Solar Recharge and the single allowed copy of Charge of the Light Brigade. There would be some people, no doubt, who would be afraid of running a target-specific draw card with only five actual targets, but I have found, through rigorous testing, that this number is sufficient. One must also remember that Charge of the Light Brigade, when drawn, can essentially be counted as a discard target for Solar Recharge, bringing the total number of Lightsworn up to six. Barring some special cases (First-Turn-Knockout decks, for example, which contain enough draw acceleration to be able to play less targets), a ratio of two targets for every one draw card (expressed as the figure 2:1) is quite sufficient for adequate consistency. However, for the interests of producing as much consistency as is possible, I have also made the addition of the single allowed copy of Reinforcement of the Army, which permits the extra search of a copy of Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior for later discarding.
Next, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate have all been included for the abilities they possess to power the deck along: the first three draw more cards and, in the case of the latter two, also place needed cards into the Graveyard; while the last three allow the pilot to place combo pieces directly into the Graveyard from the deck. Painful Choice clearly boasts the most power in this instance, but Reasoning and Monster Gate are both exceptionally potent for this purpose. Also with the inclusion of Reasoning and Monster Gate comes the partnership of two copies of Magical Stone Excavation, again taking inspiration from Diamond Dude Turbo; not only do these cards allow the retrieval of needed combo pieces from the Graveyard that were either sent thither by milling or used already, they also allow the discarding of other combo pieces to the Graveyard, accomplishing, as many cards in the deck do, multiple purposes.
Finally, the remaining list of Spell Cards are all clearly justified by assisting the game winning turn, either by Special Summoning Monster Cards or by clearing the opponent’s field in order to attack for victory: Dimension Fusion, the chief win condition, and Monster Reborn, another way to Special Summon a Monster from the Graveyard, both fulfil the former requirement; while Raigeki, to destroy the opponent’s front row, and Harpie’s Feather Duster, to destroy the opponent’s back row, both fulfil the latter.
The Traps: 1
1 Sixth Sense
While I see little need to explain the reasons for including Sixth Sense here, I will admit that having the single Trap Card constitute the entirety of the Trap line-up requires at the very least some justification: with the deck already packed solidly, I had very little room for Trap Cards, although in truth anything of this nature would work out to be far too slow to be of any real use. One could argue, and one could do so quite convincingly I feel, that some form of defensive card could be included in this place (Imperial Order or Ring of Destruction, for example, come to mind instantly); however, the possibilities that Sixth Sense offer to the strategy was simply too tantalizing to ignore, for not only can it allow the drawing of even more cards, the downside to the card (or what is commonly accepted as a downside), that of milling cards from the top of the deck, is by no means the usual detriment here. Of course, the card should be rotated out during any tournaments that disallow the use of OCG cards.
In the world of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, there is a nigh endless list of possibilities to be explored, but quite often the majority of players will rest upon that which has already been deemed an acceptable strategy to play. I feel I must implore such players to rethink their outlook, for the brilliance of this great game is truly manifest in the intricacies found when unlocking new potential, or, as in this particular case, continuing in a previously short line of study. The deck I have presented here, Kuraz-Blade Turbo, is but one example of an incredibly powerful, fast and consistent strategy known but little by the average player due to its lack of sufficient investigation and documentation by skilled architects; there are many more of such to be found. And the results are indeed exciting, as one can clearly see in the decklist above: through the use of two seemingly random yet interlocking, synergistic engines, one of Lightsworn and the other of Equip Spells, it is possible to claim victory as early as the first turn the pilot is able to attack, and unless other people take up the challenge of not only studying Yu-Gi-Oh! but also documenting it as well, many important strategies will be lost. A single person cannot possibly discover them all.
When thinking to oneself about the large quantity of complicated strategies that can be constructed in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kuraz-Blade Turbo is undoubtedly as intricate and bewildering as they come; however, through rigorous testing and rebuilding over the course of approximately two months, I have finally discovered the appropriate architecture. The win condition, though, from merely staring at the following decklist, will not be obvious, I fear, so I shall explain it now: through a plethora of effects to send cards to the Graveyard, whether by discard or mill, copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade are loaded into the discard pile; Kuraz the Light Monarch is then Removed from Play (along with other Warrior-Type Monsters) through the retrieval effect of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade; the Removed copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch are then Special Summoned using D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, with the Monarch then using its effect to target itself and the Spell Card for destruction to draw two cards; eventually, the huge amount of card drawing and Removing Monsters from Play sets up a turn in which the activation of Dimension Fusion will create a game-ending swarm of Monsters.
Now, as with any exceptionally complicated deck I present, I must implore those people less skilled with in-game decision making to exercise caution; a thorough understanding of not only the possible combos herein, but also the possible long-term outcomes of said combos, is essential to piloting this deck correctly. One incorrect judgment can and will spell doom. This is a skill which takes years of painstaking practice to develop, so people who would make the choice to play this deck must not do so lightly.
The Monsters: 13
3 Kuraz the Light Monarch
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
2 Card Trooper
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
It is generally accepted that Monster line-ups in the Traditional Format are relatively short (barring some special cases), in order to facilitate room for the abundance of powerful Spell Cards; however, this deck takes the premise even further, playing a grand total of only thirteen. Very little is needed in the way of Monster Cards for the strategy to function properly, and, as is the case in the Traditional Format, efficiency is the primary focus; cards unnecessary for the central win condition are omitted.
First and foremost, I have based the deck around an engine of Lightsworn. It was the most obvious engine to my mind, for not only would it allow the draw and discarding power needed to carry out the appropriate task, it would also do so while sending more cards to the Graveyard through the theme’s inherent mill effect and, most importantly, would accomplish such while maintaining hand presence. This latter facet is important to note, for many players I think would be inclined to utilize an engine centred on Hand Destruction and the like (and is indeed something I tested in preliminary builds of this deck). While the Lightsworn engine would, on the occasion, create dead hands in which one draws Solar Recharge without a discard target or Lightsworn Monsters with which there is nought to do, I feel the decision is well justified by not only the incredible momentum the engine allows when given a decent hand, but also the consistency with which this happens. Dead hands, in short, are statistically rare.
Now to discuss the individual decisions regarding the engine, although I will admit that there is indeed little to talk about! for I have included only two different Lightsworn Monsters: the first, Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, included at a full three copies, and the other, Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior, included at two, together totalling five. The inclusion of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast was, to be completely honest, a simple choice: it finds itself being Special Summoned for free very often due to three copies of both Solar Recharge and Hidden Armory and one each of Charge of the Light Brigade, Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate, and this provides the deck with excellent early game momentum and an offensive power should the engine unfortunately stall (for I would not be stupid enough to declare that this never happens, although I will stress again that it is rare). Some people might say that playing the card in triplicate would create dead draws, but this is, to refer again to my previous argument, statistically unlikely.
A little more difficult was the decision to include Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior. The number of copies, I will say before I go any further, was an easy choice, for there quite simply was no more room to be found, and another would have been unneeded in any way. These two slots hither were set to be filled by any of the three Lightsworn Warrior-type Monsters, in order to add extra Removal targets for ones copies of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, and Garoth, to my mind, was the suitable one: Ehren, Lightsworn Monk would be useless due to not only its low ATK, but also because any Set Monsters utilized in Traditional are Flip-Effect Monsters, which Ehren is completely unable to influence; and the fluctuating ATK of Jain, Lightsworn Paladin seemed detrimental when Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior boasted a steady body that was already larger. Ultimately however, it matters little which Monster Card is chosen, for it would rarely be Summoned, although in the interest of constructing the deck with as much accuracy as was feasible for the purposes of this essay, I spent much time considering my options.
In order to aid the central engine in sending needed cards to the Graveyard, I have drawn inspiration from the Shonen Jump Championship winning Diamond Dude Turbo build piloted by Marc Glass at Columbus in the year 2007, including the allowed two copies of Card Trooper. This adds, if at all possible, an extra layer of speed to the deck, allowing the copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade and other combo-oriented cards to be set up as fast as possible. The draw effect also adds extra combo potential, for one can target Card Trooper with the effect of Kuraz the Light Monarch in order to draw three cards instead of merely two; although this effect is good any deck Card Trooper is played in, it is an especially nice touch here.
Thence, I have made the somewhat questionable decision to include Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. However, I assure the reader that I can justify this incongruity, and my reasons are three-fold: firstly, with the vast amount of drawing and milling the deck accomplishes, it is by no means too problematic to load one of the two DARK Attribute Monsters into the Graveyard for the Summon of the Soldier; secondly (and in direct relation to the first point), Summoning Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning allows for another way to send a copy of Kuraz the Light Monarch to the Removed from Play Pile for later revival; and thirdly, the Monster is of the needed Warrior-type itself, meaning it adds yet another possible card to facilitate the retrieval of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, thus making it far easier again to Remove the copies of Kuraz the Light Monarch for later revival. At first glance, it looks to be a bizarre addition, but the synergy it presents is only veiled rather shallowly.
Finally, I have made two obvious inclusions, and ones which therefore require little justification: Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos are here to help draw more cards and retrieve a lost combo piece from the Graveyard, respectively. One will have almost no trouble whatsoever in sending these cards to the Graveyard for revival, and such is made even more achievable by the fact that one of the revival cards, namely Premature Burial, can be searched via Hidden Armory if needed. Dark Magician of Chaos can even be revived through a copy of D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, another card searchable through Hidden Armory, adding an extra layer of versatility to the arsenal of the strategy.
The Spells: 26
3 Solar Recharge
3 Hidden Armory
2 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade
2 D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Painful Choice
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Snatch Steal
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Raigeki
Much of the strategy-specific Spell Cards have already had their uses expounded upon above, for it was simply not possible to explain many of the intricacies of the Monster line-up without revealing the remaining contents of the deck. Firstly, the Spell Card list is centred on a key engine of Equip Spells. A full three copies of Hidden Armory allow the player to search for any needed Equip Spell at any given time, either from the deck or from the Graveyard: two copies of D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation stand out as the chief search targets, reviving a Removed Kuraz the Light Monarch in order to draw two cards, or revive the copy of Dark Magician of Chaos to retrieve a combo piece; Premature Burial also brings combo potential to this strategy, for not only can it revive the Dark Magician of Chaos or the Destiny Hero – Disk Commander as normal, but it can also be used to Special Summon a copy of Kuraz the Light Monarch, which will, as with the previous Spell Card, target itself and its reviver to draw two cards; Snatch Steal is included as a way to remove a threat and create one at the same time, as it does in other decks; and lastly, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade is included to facilitate the Removal of Monsters from the Graveyard to set up the draw engine and win condition of the deck, as well as provide retrieval discard fodder for other cards.
From there, the Lightsworn engine is rounded out by the inclusion of three copies of Solar Recharge and the single allowed copy of Charge of the Light Brigade. There would be some people, no doubt, who would be afraid of running a target-specific draw card with only five actual targets, but I have found, through rigorous testing, that this number is sufficient. One must also remember that Charge of the Light Brigade, when drawn, can essentially be counted as a discard target for Solar Recharge, bringing the total number of Lightsworn up to six. Barring some special cases (First-Turn-Knockout decks, for example, which contain enough draw acceleration to be able to play less targets), a ratio of two targets for every one draw card (expressed as the figure 2:1) is quite sufficient for adequate consistency. However, for the interests of producing as much consistency as is possible, I have also made the addition of the single allowed copy of Reinforcement of the Army, which permits the extra search of a copy of Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior for later discarding.
Next, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate have all been included for the abilities they possess to power the deck along: the first three draw more cards and, in the case of the latter two, also place needed cards into the Graveyard; while the last three allow the pilot to place combo pieces directly into the Graveyard from the deck. Painful Choice clearly boasts the most power in this instance, but Reasoning and Monster Gate are both exceptionally potent for this purpose. Also with the inclusion of Reasoning and Monster Gate comes the partnership of two copies of Magical Stone Excavation, again taking inspiration from Diamond Dude Turbo; not only do these cards allow the retrieval of needed combo pieces from the Graveyard that were either sent thither by milling or used already, they also allow the discarding of other combo pieces to the Graveyard, accomplishing, as many cards in the deck do, multiple purposes.
Finally, the remaining list of Spell Cards are all clearly justified by assisting the game winning turn, either by Special Summoning Monster Cards or by clearing the opponent’s field in order to attack for victory: Dimension Fusion, the chief win condition, and Monster Reborn, another way to Special Summon a Monster from the Graveyard, both fulfil the former requirement; while Raigeki, to destroy the opponent’s front row, and Harpie’s Feather Duster, to destroy the opponent’s back row, both fulfil the latter.
The Traps: 1
1 Sixth Sense
While I see little need to explain the reasons for including Sixth Sense here, I will admit that having the single Trap Card constitute the entirety of the Trap line-up requires at the very least some justification: with the deck already packed solidly, I had very little room for Trap Cards, although in truth anything of this nature would work out to be far too slow to be of any real use. One could argue, and one could do so quite convincingly I feel, that some form of defensive card could be included in this place (Imperial Order or Ring of Destruction, for example, come to mind instantly); however, the possibilities that Sixth Sense offer to the strategy was simply too tantalizing to ignore, for not only can it allow the drawing of even more cards, the downside to the card (or what is commonly accepted as a downside), that of milling cards from the top of the deck, is by no means the usual detriment here. Of course, the card should be rotated out during any tournaments that disallow the use of OCG cards.
In the world of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, there is a nigh endless list of possibilities to be explored, but quite often the majority of players will rest upon that which has already been deemed an acceptable strategy to play. I feel I must implore such players to rethink their outlook, for the brilliance of this great game is truly manifest in the intricacies found when unlocking new potential, or, as in this particular case, continuing in a previously short line of study. The deck I have presented here, Kuraz-Blade Turbo, is but one example of an incredibly powerful, fast and consistent strategy known but little by the average player due to its lack of sufficient investigation and documentation by skilled architects; there are many more of such to be found. And the results are indeed exciting, as one can clearly see in the decklist above: through the use of two seemingly random yet interlocking, synergistic engines, one of Lightsworn and the other of Equip Spells, it is possible to claim victory as early as the first turn the pilot is able to attack, and unless other people take up the challenge of not only studying Yu-Gi-Oh! but also documenting it as well, many important strategies will be lost. A single person cannot possibly discover them all.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Deck Essay #11: Rainbow Dark Dragon Turbo
When the contents of each new Booster Set are released to the public, and also due to the fact that the Original Card Game (OCG) obtains new cards before the Trading Card Game (TCG), there is always undoubtedly some degree of anticipation surrounding a brand new deck idea. Such an occurrence is only natural. However, some of such decks, I am decidedly saddened to say, never pan out into anything successful even though they may have a high degree of potential; some time merely needs to be taken in order to perfect them. Prior to the release of the Booster Set Phantom Darkness, many players were discussing a plethora of possible uses for one particular card therein, but there was one deck, a fast, One-Turn-Knockout-based strategy, which garnered the most attention. With the Traditional Format offering us the opportunity of additional speed, power and consistency atop that already present, I will use this essay to revisit a deck which, while it fell short of achieving greatness in the Advanced Format, arguably has what it takes to become a top contender in the modern Traditional Format: I am talking about Rainbow Dark Dragon Turbo.
The deck known as Rainbow Dark Dragon Turbo is centred around the following win condition: through the use of a selection of drawing and milling Spell Cards to fill one’s Graveyard with many DARK Attribute Monsters, one then proceeds to Normal Summon Phantom Chaos and use its effect to mimic that of Demise, King of Armageddon; once the field has been cleared of all cards, one then Removes from Play seven different DARK Attribute Monsters from the Graveyard in order to Special Summon the eponymous card, Rainbow Dark Dragon; finally, one then Removes from Play the remainder of one’s DARK Attribute Monsters, increasing the ATK of Rainbow Dark Dragon to above eight-thousand, and subsequently declares an attack for game. All of this is carried out in a single turn, the very first on which one is able to attack, instantly claiming victory in a single swoop. The deck is, admittedly, rather low on utility; however, it makes up for this shortcoming with an incredibly fast movement through the deck to find the win condition with remarkable consistency.
The Monsters: 20
3 Rainbow Dark Dragon
3 Sky Scourge – Norleras
3 Demise, King of Armageddon
2 Destiny Hero – Plasma
2 Destiny Hero – Dogma
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Phantom of Chaos
1 Grinder Golem
1 The Dark Creator
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End
1 Berserk Dragon
I must concede, before I go any further, that the above list of Monster Cards does indeed seem to have been chosen at complete random – but I must ask you to bear with me! all will be revealed in due course, for one must first realise that every Monster, save only three (exclude Rainbow Dark Dragon itself, that is), are Level Eight and cannot be Normal Summoned. These two facets are of immense importance, for the aforementioned movement through the deck would not be possible otherwise.
To begin with, all three allotted copies of Rainbow Dark Dragon have been included in order to achieve the maximum consistency possible; running fewer would, while possibly opening up room to include more versatile cards (and, of course, the same could be said for any of the Monsters I have included at multiple copies), this simply does not represent something the deck should aim for. Instead, the deck is constructed much like a First-Turn-Knockout, more so in fact than a Battle-oriented strategy, in that a single goal, and a single goal only, is the desired result. Ergo, Rainbow Dark Dragon, and many other Monsters, have been included at an unintuitive two or even three copies. Of course, though, it is far from being impossible to Special Summon more than one copy of Rainbow Dark Dragon during a game: in fact, doing so would constitute an alternate win condition, for if one is able to Summon two copies against an open field the two attacks would be sufficient to end the game. Also note that extra copies of Rainbow Dark Dragon may be discarded for draw cards, which can then be counted towards the necessary number of DARK Attribute Monsters.
As a minimum number, the deck must load at the very least sixteen DARK Attribute Monster Cards into the Graveyard: that is, one copy of Demise, King of Armageddon, which will be used for the effect of Phantom of Chaos; seven more, each with different names, to allow the Special Summon of Rainbow Dark Dragon; and finally another eight to increase the ATK of Rainbow Dark Dragon to eight-thousand exactly (also note that the Phantom of Chaos on the field counts towards this eight). The former of the three is the most easily achievable, for three copies of Demise, King of Armageddon have been included to create the most consistency possible in sending the one necessary copy to the Graveyard swiftly. However, rather more difficult are the latter two requirements: to achieve the first, the spread of different names has been diversified as much as possible, amounting to a total of twelve disparate DARK Monsters; and to achieve the second, an entire half of the deck, twenty cards, has been devoted to DARK Attribute Monsters, a fact which also means being able, on the occasion, to put even more DARKs in the Graveyard than necessary.
I will now discuss each individual choice. Sky Scourge – Norleras, which is included at a full three copies, has been included not only as a name but also as a way to possibly retrieve an unwinnable game. Should the deck happen to stall (which is, I must admit – for I would not dare to hide this fact – a distinct possibility given the inclusion of many otherwise useless cards), one can use Phantom of Chaos to mimic this card’s effect and destroy every card on the field and in both players’ hands; doing so cuts the opponent off from having a full set of options on their subsequent turn, giving oneself the opportunity to mount a comeback. The single allowed copy of Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End has also been included for exactly this reason.
From there, five Destiny Heroes have been included: two copies of each Destiny Hero – Plasma and Destiny Hero – Dogma, and the single allowed copy of Destiny Hero – Disk Commander. The addition of these cards facilitates the use of Destiny Draw in the Spell Card line-up for added draw acceleration, while the former two Monsters still retain the ability to be discarded or milled by any of the other Spell Cards. They can also, of course, be copied by Phantom of Chaos if one should need to do so, adding a somewhat small layer of synergistic versatility to the deck. Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, one of the only three Monsters that can be Normal Summoned (again, I will discuss this in more detail later), is included for its ability to act as even more draw power and, yet again, a name for Rainbow Dark Dragon.
The last two Monsters to be included that can be Normal Summoned are Dark Magician of Chaos and Phantom of Chaos. Dark Magician of Chaos is, to be completely honest, an obvious pick here: it is a DARK Attribute Monster (and a differently named DARK Attribute Monster, no less), a Level Eight, and easily Special Summoned from either the deck or the Graveyard in order to trigger its effect. This last point is especially important to note, for in a combo-based deck such as this the retrieval of an already used or lost combo Spell Card that Dark Magician of Chaos offers can continue an otherwise stalled momentum, allowing one to claim victory where that may not have been possible previously. Next, Phantom of Chaos, the other specific Monster Card necessary for the combo, has been included at only the needed single copy in order to avoid any conflict with the resolution of the milling Spells. More copies could indeed be included, but I found such to be ultimately superfluous.
The remainder of the Monster Card line-up is made up of single picks, in keeping with the need to increase the number of different names present. The Dark Creator, Berserk Dragon and Grinder Golem are ones typically played in these slots, and I have not deviated away from this tradition, although there are indeed alternatives one could choose instead if one should wish to do so.
The Spells: 20
3 Trade-in
3 Hand Destruction
3 Recurring Nightmare
2 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Destiny Draw
1 Painful Choice
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
This is whither the seemingly random list of Monster Cards makes sense. A full three copies of Trade-in are now revealed as the reason the vast majority of the Monsters needed to be of the Level Eight status; discarding one of such Monsters allows the drawing of another two cards, not only placing DARKs into the Graveyard but also powering the deck towards the win condition. The single allowed copy of Destiny Draw has also been included, complementing the Destiny Heroes present in the Monster line-up; although I will admit that multiple Destiny Draw cards would indeed be better (and perhaps one should wait until such is allowable in a future format), the fact that this card is currently Limited by no means discounts it from being useful to the strategy, and furthermore by no means does it discount the strategy in its entirety. The deck is still easily both fast enough and consistent enough to be competitive.
To complement this suite of draw cards, the obvious additions of Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Painful Choice have been made. While the two former options will aid in drawing deeper into the deck towards the win condition, the two latter will also grant the ability to place from two up to four DARK Attribute Monsters into the Graveyard. Hand Destruction, which I have included at its maximum allowed three copies, also allows the discarding of two DARK Monsters to the Graveyard in exchange for two draws, adding even more draw acceleration. Finally, Card Destruction achieves a similar purpose, although it has the distinct advantage of being able to discard an entire hand of DARK Attribute Monsters, not only placing many DARKs into the Graveyard at once but also refreshing a dead hand and drawing yet more cards at the same time.
In conjunction with these draw effects, Monster Gate and Reasoning are included as standout ways to possibly send a multitude of DARK Attribute Monsters to the Graveyard in one hit: because the vast majority of the Monsters cannot be Normal Summoned (seventeen cards out of a total of twenty), both of these Spell Cards simply do not recognise them as being Monsters, and so they will skip past them and keep picking up more cards; thence, since so few Monsters that can be Normal Summoned have been included (only three cards out of the twenty), there is a high probability that a large percentage of DARK Attribute Monsters will be sent to the Graveyard straight away. Of course, there is the possibility that one may draw into all three of the recordable Monsters; this is, unfortunately, an occupational hazard of the strategy, although I must stress now that such an occurrence is highly improbable.
From there, Monster Reborn and Premature Burial have been included for their abilities to Special Summon both Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos back from the Graveyard, either of which will reward the pilot with extra draws or retrieval of a needed Spell Card.
Finally, I have included the two allowed copies of Magical Stone Excavation, a card not typically seen in this archetype. However, with Destiny Draw Limited I was in need of more options that could draw more cards while also discarding DARK Attribute Monsters to the Graveyard; this card seemed perfect, for it would allow the discarding of two DARKs in order to then retrieve a drawing Spell Card back from the Graveyard. Rigorous testing showed that I in was correct in this conclusion. Magical Stone Excavation also has the distinct advantage of being able to simply discard DARK Attribute Monsters without actually doing anything in return should one not needed to do so, such as in the case, for example, that one has drawn the entire deck but is still without the necessary number of Monsters in the Graveyard. In such a scenario, one can simply discard two DARKs to retrieve the other copy of Magical Stone Excavation, and then loop retrieving the second copy until one has sufficient infrastructure.
Note for me please, the absence of any and all Traditional Format staple Spell Cards: Harpie’s Feather Duster, Heavy Storm, Raigeki, Dark Hole, Change of Heart and Snatch Steal have all been omitted, for the effect of Demise, King of Armageddon achieves the purpose of every single one of these cards, rendering them useless. However, of course, chainable defensive cards, such as Book of Moon and Ring of Destruction, will disrupt one’s combo by removing Phantom of Chaos from the field before its effect can be activated (whether technically or literally), so one should Side-Deck Spell and Trap removal in the case of opponents playing such cards. Furthermore, I have not included any Trap Cards in the Main-Deck, for these will interfere with the movement through the deck; again, though, one should most likely Side-Deck several of these, such as Imperial Order, in the case one plays first (and cannot attack until the turn after) in order to prevent the opponent from mounting a comeback.
To my mind, there is something undeniably beautiful about a deck that is designed for the sole purpose of achieving a single goal. Such decks, while they tend to lack versatility and the ability to respond to unpredictable opponent plays, display a nigh unfaltering consistency and efficiency, most often rendering any plays the opponent may have been planning on making completely moot. While it is very, very rare that such a deck would be oriented around battle instead of a First-Turn-Knockout (battle-based decks, while essentially centred on a single goal, still most often demonstrate many adaptable win conditions within the single deck), I have nevertheless presented in this essay a deck which is just that. Moreover, I have presented a deck which is, much to the surprise of many people I am sure, alive and well within the Traditional Format, even if it is only a handicapped fancy in the Advanced Format. As we well know, the Traditional Format affords us access to cards no longer available in Advanced, and it making the most of such new options that brings about these impressive results. Indeed, this format is not worth playing otherwise.
The deck known as Rainbow Dark Dragon Turbo is centred around the following win condition: through the use of a selection of drawing and milling Spell Cards to fill one’s Graveyard with many DARK Attribute Monsters, one then proceeds to Normal Summon Phantom Chaos and use its effect to mimic that of Demise, King of Armageddon; once the field has been cleared of all cards, one then Removes from Play seven different DARK Attribute Monsters from the Graveyard in order to Special Summon the eponymous card, Rainbow Dark Dragon; finally, one then Removes from Play the remainder of one’s DARK Attribute Monsters, increasing the ATK of Rainbow Dark Dragon to above eight-thousand, and subsequently declares an attack for game. All of this is carried out in a single turn, the very first on which one is able to attack, instantly claiming victory in a single swoop. The deck is, admittedly, rather low on utility; however, it makes up for this shortcoming with an incredibly fast movement through the deck to find the win condition with remarkable consistency.
The Monsters: 20
3 Rainbow Dark Dragon
3 Sky Scourge – Norleras
3 Demise, King of Armageddon
2 Destiny Hero – Plasma
2 Destiny Hero – Dogma
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Phantom of Chaos
1 Grinder Golem
1 The Dark Creator
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End
1 Berserk Dragon
I must concede, before I go any further, that the above list of Monster Cards does indeed seem to have been chosen at complete random – but I must ask you to bear with me! all will be revealed in due course, for one must first realise that every Monster, save only three (exclude Rainbow Dark Dragon itself, that is), are Level Eight and cannot be Normal Summoned. These two facets are of immense importance, for the aforementioned movement through the deck would not be possible otherwise.
To begin with, all three allotted copies of Rainbow Dark Dragon have been included in order to achieve the maximum consistency possible; running fewer would, while possibly opening up room to include more versatile cards (and, of course, the same could be said for any of the Monsters I have included at multiple copies), this simply does not represent something the deck should aim for. Instead, the deck is constructed much like a First-Turn-Knockout, more so in fact than a Battle-oriented strategy, in that a single goal, and a single goal only, is the desired result. Ergo, Rainbow Dark Dragon, and many other Monsters, have been included at an unintuitive two or even three copies. Of course, though, it is far from being impossible to Special Summon more than one copy of Rainbow Dark Dragon during a game: in fact, doing so would constitute an alternate win condition, for if one is able to Summon two copies against an open field the two attacks would be sufficient to end the game. Also note that extra copies of Rainbow Dark Dragon may be discarded for draw cards, which can then be counted towards the necessary number of DARK Attribute Monsters.
As a minimum number, the deck must load at the very least sixteen DARK Attribute Monster Cards into the Graveyard: that is, one copy of Demise, King of Armageddon, which will be used for the effect of Phantom of Chaos; seven more, each with different names, to allow the Special Summon of Rainbow Dark Dragon; and finally another eight to increase the ATK of Rainbow Dark Dragon to eight-thousand exactly (also note that the Phantom of Chaos on the field counts towards this eight). The former of the three is the most easily achievable, for three copies of Demise, King of Armageddon have been included to create the most consistency possible in sending the one necessary copy to the Graveyard swiftly. However, rather more difficult are the latter two requirements: to achieve the first, the spread of different names has been diversified as much as possible, amounting to a total of twelve disparate DARK Monsters; and to achieve the second, an entire half of the deck, twenty cards, has been devoted to DARK Attribute Monsters, a fact which also means being able, on the occasion, to put even more DARKs in the Graveyard than necessary.
I will now discuss each individual choice. Sky Scourge – Norleras, which is included at a full three copies, has been included not only as a name but also as a way to possibly retrieve an unwinnable game. Should the deck happen to stall (which is, I must admit – for I would not dare to hide this fact – a distinct possibility given the inclusion of many otherwise useless cards), one can use Phantom of Chaos to mimic this card’s effect and destroy every card on the field and in both players’ hands; doing so cuts the opponent off from having a full set of options on their subsequent turn, giving oneself the opportunity to mount a comeback. The single allowed copy of Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End has also been included for exactly this reason.
From there, five Destiny Heroes have been included: two copies of each Destiny Hero – Plasma and Destiny Hero – Dogma, and the single allowed copy of Destiny Hero – Disk Commander. The addition of these cards facilitates the use of Destiny Draw in the Spell Card line-up for added draw acceleration, while the former two Monsters still retain the ability to be discarded or milled by any of the other Spell Cards. They can also, of course, be copied by Phantom of Chaos if one should need to do so, adding a somewhat small layer of synergistic versatility to the deck. Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, one of the only three Monsters that can be Normal Summoned (again, I will discuss this in more detail later), is included for its ability to act as even more draw power and, yet again, a name for Rainbow Dark Dragon.
The last two Monsters to be included that can be Normal Summoned are Dark Magician of Chaos and Phantom of Chaos. Dark Magician of Chaos is, to be completely honest, an obvious pick here: it is a DARK Attribute Monster (and a differently named DARK Attribute Monster, no less), a Level Eight, and easily Special Summoned from either the deck or the Graveyard in order to trigger its effect. This last point is especially important to note, for in a combo-based deck such as this the retrieval of an already used or lost combo Spell Card that Dark Magician of Chaos offers can continue an otherwise stalled momentum, allowing one to claim victory where that may not have been possible previously. Next, Phantom of Chaos, the other specific Monster Card necessary for the combo, has been included at only the needed single copy in order to avoid any conflict with the resolution of the milling Spells. More copies could indeed be included, but I found such to be ultimately superfluous.
The remainder of the Monster Card line-up is made up of single picks, in keeping with the need to increase the number of different names present. The Dark Creator, Berserk Dragon and Grinder Golem are ones typically played in these slots, and I have not deviated away from this tradition, although there are indeed alternatives one could choose instead if one should wish to do so.
The Spells: 20
3 Trade-in
3 Hand Destruction
3 Recurring Nightmare
2 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Destiny Draw
1 Painful Choice
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
This is whither the seemingly random list of Monster Cards makes sense. A full three copies of Trade-in are now revealed as the reason the vast majority of the Monsters needed to be of the Level Eight status; discarding one of such Monsters allows the drawing of another two cards, not only placing DARKs into the Graveyard but also powering the deck towards the win condition. The single allowed copy of Destiny Draw has also been included, complementing the Destiny Heroes present in the Monster line-up; although I will admit that multiple Destiny Draw cards would indeed be better (and perhaps one should wait until such is allowable in a future format), the fact that this card is currently Limited by no means discounts it from being useful to the strategy, and furthermore by no means does it discount the strategy in its entirety. The deck is still easily both fast enough and consistent enough to be competitive.
To complement this suite of draw cards, the obvious additions of Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Painful Choice have been made. While the two former options will aid in drawing deeper into the deck towards the win condition, the two latter will also grant the ability to place from two up to four DARK Attribute Monsters into the Graveyard. Hand Destruction, which I have included at its maximum allowed three copies, also allows the discarding of two DARK Monsters to the Graveyard in exchange for two draws, adding even more draw acceleration. Finally, Card Destruction achieves a similar purpose, although it has the distinct advantage of being able to discard an entire hand of DARK Attribute Monsters, not only placing many DARKs into the Graveyard at once but also refreshing a dead hand and drawing yet more cards at the same time.
In conjunction with these draw effects, Monster Gate and Reasoning are included as standout ways to possibly send a multitude of DARK Attribute Monsters to the Graveyard in one hit: because the vast majority of the Monsters cannot be Normal Summoned (seventeen cards out of a total of twenty), both of these Spell Cards simply do not recognise them as being Monsters, and so they will skip past them and keep picking up more cards; thence, since so few Monsters that can be Normal Summoned have been included (only three cards out of the twenty), there is a high probability that a large percentage of DARK Attribute Monsters will be sent to the Graveyard straight away. Of course, there is the possibility that one may draw into all three of the recordable Monsters; this is, unfortunately, an occupational hazard of the strategy, although I must stress now that such an occurrence is highly improbable.
From there, Monster Reborn and Premature Burial have been included for their abilities to Special Summon both Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos back from the Graveyard, either of which will reward the pilot with extra draws or retrieval of a needed Spell Card.
Finally, I have included the two allowed copies of Magical Stone Excavation, a card not typically seen in this archetype. However, with Destiny Draw Limited I was in need of more options that could draw more cards while also discarding DARK Attribute Monsters to the Graveyard; this card seemed perfect, for it would allow the discarding of two DARKs in order to then retrieve a drawing Spell Card back from the Graveyard. Rigorous testing showed that I in was correct in this conclusion. Magical Stone Excavation also has the distinct advantage of being able to simply discard DARK Attribute Monsters without actually doing anything in return should one not needed to do so, such as in the case, for example, that one has drawn the entire deck but is still without the necessary number of Monsters in the Graveyard. In such a scenario, one can simply discard two DARKs to retrieve the other copy of Magical Stone Excavation, and then loop retrieving the second copy until one has sufficient infrastructure.
Note for me please, the absence of any and all Traditional Format staple Spell Cards: Harpie’s Feather Duster, Heavy Storm, Raigeki, Dark Hole, Change of Heart and Snatch Steal have all been omitted, for the effect of Demise, King of Armageddon achieves the purpose of every single one of these cards, rendering them useless. However, of course, chainable defensive cards, such as Book of Moon and Ring of Destruction, will disrupt one’s combo by removing Phantom of Chaos from the field before its effect can be activated (whether technically or literally), so one should Side-Deck Spell and Trap removal in the case of opponents playing such cards. Furthermore, I have not included any Trap Cards in the Main-Deck, for these will interfere with the movement through the deck; again, though, one should most likely Side-Deck several of these, such as Imperial Order, in the case one plays first (and cannot attack until the turn after) in order to prevent the opponent from mounting a comeback.
To my mind, there is something undeniably beautiful about a deck that is designed for the sole purpose of achieving a single goal. Such decks, while they tend to lack versatility and the ability to respond to unpredictable opponent plays, display a nigh unfaltering consistency and efficiency, most often rendering any plays the opponent may have been planning on making completely moot. While it is very, very rare that such a deck would be oriented around battle instead of a First-Turn-Knockout (battle-based decks, while essentially centred on a single goal, still most often demonstrate many adaptable win conditions within the single deck), I have nevertheless presented in this essay a deck which is just that. Moreover, I have presented a deck which is, much to the surprise of many people I am sure, alive and well within the Traditional Format, even if it is only a handicapped fancy in the Advanced Format. As we well know, the Traditional Format affords us access to cards no longer available in Advanced, and it making the most of such new options that brings about these impressive results. Indeed, this format is not worth playing otherwise.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Deck Essay #5: Beginning of the End Turbo
Within a game such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, which boasts not only an enormous card pool but also a great deal of disparate mechanics, archetypes and categories of cards, the strategic possibilities are nigh endless. However, many decks quite simply (and sadly) do make not it very far off the page, and, for the most part, are not even considered at all past their paper and ink beginnings. This is unfortunate, for every now and then an idea comes around that is so brilliant (albeit a slight bit out of the ordinary, or indeed one might say ‘crazy’) that it absolutely needs to be explored, but is not. One such idea came to me, and, as somebody who is thoroughly engrossed in building many decks and studying this great game of ours from an academic viewpoint, I felt the urge to test it out; the result is what I will be presenting hereafter in this essay, a DARK Return turbo strategy based around the oft-maligned Spell Card The Beginning of the End.
The central Win Condition of this deck (which I have simply titled ‘Beginning of the End Turbo’) is to Special Summon a multitude of large Monsters through the use of Dimension Fusion, and to end the game with subsequent attacks from those Monsters. The deck functions much like Diamond Dude Turbo, drawing many cards in a single turn while sending all of its Monster Cards to the Graveyard and then Removing them from Play for recursion. However, the draw and facilitation engine is ultimately disparate: Hand Destruction and Trade-in with Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight are used as the primary ways to fill the Graveyard, while the eponymous card, The Beginning of the End, draws more cards while also sending the necessary Monster Cards to the Removed from Play Zone. The result is an immensely fast deck (albeit one lacking a certain amount of versatility displayed by other decks from the DARK School), designed to reduce the opponent’s Life Points to zero as early as the second turn of the Duel.
The Monsters: 15
3 Dark Nephthys
3 Darklord Zerato
3 Dark Grepher
3 Armageddon Knight
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Makyura the Destructor
The first thing one will notice when looking at the above list is the vast majority of high-level, high-ATK Monsters – seven out of a total fifteen. I have constructed the deck in this way for the sole purpose of maximum consistency across each individual game; one will see this theme occurring in all areas of the deck’s architecture, but here, having so many large Monsters (all of which are, I should point out, Level Eight) ensures that almost any given hand will have the necessary Monster Cards to use for the abundance of included discard effects. While this can, on the odd occasion, create a hand of nought but unusable Monsters, the number of times this occurs as opposed to number of times it does not occur make it an easy decision in my mind; One must remember that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a game of statistics, and the statistics are well on the apt side here.
A word on the selection of these large Monsters: within the DARK archetype there are many, many such Monster Cards to choose from, but I chose the three different ones above for specific reasons (apart from simply their high ATK and high level, that is): firstly, Dark Nephthys was chosen to add a layer of much needed versatility to the deck, for it can be used to remove other Monsters from the Graveyard in order to carry out a small Dimension Fusion swarm, or Special Summon itself, should the need arise, and it can also be used to destroy any Spell or Trap cards the opponent may have had on the field when it was Special Summoned; next, Darklord Zerato was chosen for its Monster destruction effect, which is not only invaluable when going for a game-winning turn, but also does not fall prey to Imperial Order as the Spell Cards Dark Hole and Raigeki do (although Dark Hole was still included, but more on that later); finally, Dark Magician of Chaos was included for its Spell Card recursion, which is simply amazing in any turbo strategy for it can continue an otherwise stalled draw engine by taking back a draw Spell, or recovering a lost combo piece (which is most usually Dimension Fusion in this particular build). Others, such as Dark Armed Dragon and The Dark Creator, could very well have been included, but their inability to be Special Summoned by Dimension Fusion led to them being omitted.
From there, Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight are both included at three copies each, which are used to place DARK Monsters from the deck and/or hand into the Graveyard. Obviously the former is preferable, for it will send anywhere from two to three DARK Monsters thither, but the latter is still acceptable powerful. Now, most often, one find the use of only one or two of these Monsters necessary, with the rest being sent to the Graveyard through Painful Choice, Graceful Charity, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, or either of their own effects, to then be used as DARKs for The Beginning of the End; however, Special Summoning multiple copies of Dark Grepher can be the correct course of action if one is holding The Beginning of End, for the Spell will mitigate the loss of so many in-hand cards to Dark Grepher – if one is not holding The Beginning of the End however, it may be a better idea to simply pass with the infrastructure one was able to accomplish (as with any other deck, one does not want to overextend unnecessarily).
Finally, the last two Monster Cards were included at their allowed single copies: Destiny Hero – Disk Commander is included to be used as extra drawing potential, and it is easy to access with the amount of cards this deck wields to send DARK Monsters to the Graveyard; and lastly, Makyura the Destructor was included to facilitate the use of Reckless Greed as even more drawing potential, and, again, with the amount of cards this deck wields to send DARK Monsters to the Graveyard, there will be no problem in using its effect.
The Spells: 20
3 The Beginning of the End
3 Hand Destruction
3 Trade-in
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Painful Choice
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Heavy Storm
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
Here we can see the overall theme of consistency over versatility played out again. The three draw cards of The Beginning of the End, Trade-in and Hand Destruction were all included at three copies each to maximize the potential of not only seeing them in the hand, but also seeing them in the hand with their appropriate conditions being met: Trade-in was quite frankly a simple inclusion for, with the entirety of the large Monster line-up being Level Eight, it would let the deck draw cards while also sending those necessary Monster Cards to the Graveyard; Hand Destruction was also a rather simple choice, for it would allow the sending of other DARK Monsters to the Graveyard while also still drawing cards; both of these Spells set up the use of The Beginning of the End, the deck’s namesake, which sends the Monsters to the Removed from Play area (for subsequent recursion) while drawing even more cards. The three Spell Cards complement each other perfectly. However, due to the high DARK Monster requirement of The Beginning of the End, one may sometimes find dead copies in the hand; this is, unfortunately, an occupational hazard of the strategy and cannot be rectified, for, while one could very well drop a single copy, I find such a decision to be too detrimental to the overall consistency of the deck.
From there, the suite of drawing Spells is rounded out by Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Card Destruction. Each of them draws more cards for use, but the latter two also put more DARK Monsters into the graveyard. Painful Choice is also included to instantly fill the Graveyard with four DARKs, and is an invaluable addition to this deck as it is in most other Traditional Format strategies. With three copies each of Dark Grepher, Armageddon Knight, Trade-in, and Hand Destruction, as well as these four Spells, one will more often than not find the Graveyard being loaded very quickly with the necessary seven DARK Monster count for The Beginning of the End.
Harpie’s Feather Duster and Heavy Storm are included here as some needed removal of an opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards, in order to clear the way for a game-winning turn. Monster Reborn and Premature Burial were included as not only ways to Special Summon Monsters – namely Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos – to continue the draw engine, but also to Special Summon a big Monster to attack with if necessary, thus adding some options other than Dimension Fusion if one is not all that confident in one’s Removed from Play Zone infrastructure. Reinforcement of the Army is a simple inclusion due to the high count (seven total) of Warrior-Type Monsters in the deck, and Dimension Fusion is obviously included as the central Win Condition.
Lastly, I would like to take some time to discuss the most difficult decision I had to make when constructing this deck: the inclusion of Dark Hole over Raigeki. The deck is so concentrated on a single end goal that there are many, many cards that must be in it, and, because of this, I had only room for one piece of Spell-based Monster Removal (although I did indeed consider omitting it completely due to the inclusion of Darklord Zerato, but I ultimately decided against this). The reason I chose one instead of the other is that Dark Hole can be used to destroy one’s own field of small Monsters (that is, Armageddon Knight, Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and any Dark Gephers one may have used) in order to either put more DARKs into the Graveyard for The Beginning of the End, or to swarm the field with Dimension Fusion. While this play does, in theory, sound rather idiotic, I have done it several times and found it to be an acceptable move.
The Traps: 5
3 Reckless Greed
1 Imperial Order
1 Crush Card Virus
The Trap line-up, as it most often is in the Traditional Format, is very slim. The first thing is the three copies of Reckless Greed: with the ease of which Makyura the Destructor could be sent to the Graveyard in this deck, and having the need for one more draw card (and finding nought any appropriate Spell Cards to use), as well as the fact that Reckless Greed needed no specific activation requirements, I decided that it would be the best option. And actually, with the introduction of Reckless Greed, the strategy now boasts its most interesting facet: due to the downside of the Trap Card (or, rather, what would under normal circumstances be considered a downside) one is able to draw the entire deck out – something which will be necessary on the occasion – and survive for a further two turns. This gives the strategy the ability to set up the necessary infrastructure on the very first turn by drawing every card if one needs to, and still be able to make the game-winning attacks on the subsequent turn.
Lastly, Imperial Order and Crush Card Virus are included as simply the two most powerful Trap Cards existent in the game. I should point out that, while there is only one Monster in the entirety of the deck that is able to be tributed for the activation of Crush Card Virus (that being Destiny Hero – Disk Commander), do not forget two things: the first is that this deck, as aforementioned, has consistent access to Disk Commander; and that, due to the use of Makyura the Destructor, Crush Card Virus can be activated during the very turn it is drawn, eliminating the need to wait a turn. One will have very little problem in activating it.
I have presented in this essay a strategy that was born from an idea that sprang to my mind during a time of nothingness. To the best of my knowledge, the only other deck that even comes close to similarity is one published by Jerome McHale, but he took a vastly disparate approach with his build. I would like to state, quite plainly if I may, right now, that people should not be afraid of their ideas; if one has an idea, and even if it seems a little ‘crazy’ as the one herein does, I urge one to try it. The chances are it will not function properly, but equally the chances are that it might. Through a thorough exploration of the idea (that is, going through many different builds and testing each one with rigor and an open mind, making many decisions along the way), as I have done, one can come up with the best build possible. Here, I have designed a deck that, although it is overly unwieldy and can often draw strings of completely useless cards, is immensely fast, amazingly powerful and, despite everything, surprisingly consistent. It is something I definitely think to be a contender in the modern Traditional Format.
The central Win Condition of this deck (which I have simply titled ‘Beginning of the End Turbo’) is to Special Summon a multitude of large Monsters through the use of Dimension Fusion, and to end the game with subsequent attacks from those Monsters. The deck functions much like Diamond Dude Turbo, drawing many cards in a single turn while sending all of its Monster Cards to the Graveyard and then Removing them from Play for recursion. However, the draw and facilitation engine is ultimately disparate: Hand Destruction and Trade-in with Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight are used as the primary ways to fill the Graveyard, while the eponymous card, The Beginning of the End, draws more cards while also sending the necessary Monster Cards to the Removed from Play Zone. The result is an immensely fast deck (albeit one lacking a certain amount of versatility displayed by other decks from the DARK School), designed to reduce the opponent’s Life Points to zero as early as the second turn of the Duel.
The Monsters: 15
3 Dark Nephthys
3 Darklord Zerato
3 Dark Grepher
3 Armageddon Knight
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Makyura the Destructor
The first thing one will notice when looking at the above list is the vast majority of high-level, high-ATK Monsters – seven out of a total fifteen. I have constructed the deck in this way for the sole purpose of maximum consistency across each individual game; one will see this theme occurring in all areas of the deck’s architecture, but here, having so many large Monsters (all of which are, I should point out, Level Eight) ensures that almost any given hand will have the necessary Monster Cards to use for the abundance of included discard effects. While this can, on the odd occasion, create a hand of nought but unusable Monsters, the number of times this occurs as opposed to number of times it does not occur make it an easy decision in my mind; One must remember that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a game of statistics, and the statistics are well on the apt side here.
A word on the selection of these large Monsters: within the DARK archetype there are many, many such Monster Cards to choose from, but I chose the three different ones above for specific reasons (apart from simply their high ATK and high level, that is): firstly, Dark Nephthys was chosen to add a layer of much needed versatility to the deck, for it can be used to remove other Monsters from the Graveyard in order to carry out a small Dimension Fusion swarm, or Special Summon itself, should the need arise, and it can also be used to destroy any Spell or Trap cards the opponent may have had on the field when it was Special Summoned; next, Darklord Zerato was chosen for its Monster destruction effect, which is not only invaluable when going for a game-winning turn, but also does not fall prey to Imperial Order as the Spell Cards Dark Hole and Raigeki do (although Dark Hole was still included, but more on that later); finally, Dark Magician of Chaos was included for its Spell Card recursion, which is simply amazing in any turbo strategy for it can continue an otherwise stalled draw engine by taking back a draw Spell, or recovering a lost combo piece (which is most usually Dimension Fusion in this particular build). Others, such as Dark Armed Dragon and The Dark Creator, could very well have been included, but their inability to be Special Summoned by Dimension Fusion led to them being omitted.
From there, Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight are both included at three copies each, which are used to place DARK Monsters from the deck and/or hand into the Graveyard. Obviously the former is preferable, for it will send anywhere from two to three DARK Monsters thither, but the latter is still acceptable powerful. Now, most often, one find the use of only one or two of these Monsters necessary, with the rest being sent to the Graveyard through Painful Choice, Graceful Charity, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, or either of their own effects, to then be used as DARKs for The Beginning of the End; however, Special Summoning multiple copies of Dark Grepher can be the correct course of action if one is holding The Beginning of End, for the Spell will mitigate the loss of so many in-hand cards to Dark Grepher – if one is not holding The Beginning of the End however, it may be a better idea to simply pass with the infrastructure one was able to accomplish (as with any other deck, one does not want to overextend unnecessarily).
Finally, the last two Monster Cards were included at their allowed single copies: Destiny Hero – Disk Commander is included to be used as extra drawing potential, and it is easy to access with the amount of cards this deck wields to send DARK Monsters to the Graveyard; and lastly, Makyura the Destructor was included to facilitate the use of Reckless Greed as even more drawing potential, and, again, with the amount of cards this deck wields to send DARK Monsters to the Graveyard, there will be no problem in using its effect.
The Spells: 20
3 The Beginning of the End
3 Hand Destruction
3 Trade-in
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Painful Choice
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Heavy Storm
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
Here we can see the overall theme of consistency over versatility played out again. The three draw cards of The Beginning of the End, Trade-in and Hand Destruction were all included at three copies each to maximize the potential of not only seeing them in the hand, but also seeing them in the hand with their appropriate conditions being met: Trade-in was quite frankly a simple inclusion for, with the entirety of the large Monster line-up being Level Eight, it would let the deck draw cards while also sending those necessary Monster Cards to the Graveyard; Hand Destruction was also a rather simple choice, for it would allow the sending of other DARK Monsters to the Graveyard while also still drawing cards; both of these Spells set up the use of The Beginning of the End, the deck’s namesake, which sends the Monsters to the Removed from Play area (for subsequent recursion) while drawing even more cards. The three Spell Cards complement each other perfectly. However, due to the high DARK Monster requirement of The Beginning of the End, one may sometimes find dead copies in the hand; this is, unfortunately, an occupational hazard of the strategy and cannot be rectified, for, while one could very well drop a single copy, I find such a decision to be too detrimental to the overall consistency of the deck.
From there, the suite of drawing Spells is rounded out by Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Card Destruction. Each of them draws more cards for use, but the latter two also put more DARK Monsters into the graveyard. Painful Choice is also included to instantly fill the Graveyard with four DARKs, and is an invaluable addition to this deck as it is in most other Traditional Format strategies. With three copies each of Dark Grepher, Armageddon Knight, Trade-in, and Hand Destruction, as well as these four Spells, one will more often than not find the Graveyard being loaded very quickly with the necessary seven DARK Monster count for The Beginning of the End.
Harpie’s Feather Duster and Heavy Storm are included here as some needed removal of an opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards, in order to clear the way for a game-winning turn. Monster Reborn and Premature Burial were included as not only ways to Special Summon Monsters – namely Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Dark Magician of Chaos – to continue the draw engine, but also to Special Summon a big Monster to attack with if necessary, thus adding some options other than Dimension Fusion if one is not all that confident in one’s Removed from Play Zone infrastructure. Reinforcement of the Army is a simple inclusion due to the high count (seven total) of Warrior-Type Monsters in the deck, and Dimension Fusion is obviously included as the central Win Condition.
Lastly, I would like to take some time to discuss the most difficult decision I had to make when constructing this deck: the inclusion of Dark Hole over Raigeki. The deck is so concentrated on a single end goal that there are many, many cards that must be in it, and, because of this, I had only room for one piece of Spell-based Monster Removal (although I did indeed consider omitting it completely due to the inclusion of Darklord Zerato, but I ultimately decided against this). The reason I chose one instead of the other is that Dark Hole can be used to destroy one’s own field of small Monsters (that is, Armageddon Knight, Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and any Dark Gephers one may have used) in order to either put more DARKs into the Graveyard for The Beginning of the End, or to swarm the field with Dimension Fusion. While this play does, in theory, sound rather idiotic, I have done it several times and found it to be an acceptable move.
The Traps: 5
3 Reckless Greed
1 Imperial Order
1 Crush Card Virus
The Trap line-up, as it most often is in the Traditional Format, is very slim. The first thing is the three copies of Reckless Greed: with the ease of which Makyura the Destructor could be sent to the Graveyard in this deck, and having the need for one more draw card (and finding nought any appropriate Spell Cards to use), as well as the fact that Reckless Greed needed no specific activation requirements, I decided that it would be the best option. And actually, with the introduction of Reckless Greed, the strategy now boasts its most interesting facet: due to the downside of the Trap Card (or, rather, what would under normal circumstances be considered a downside) one is able to draw the entire deck out – something which will be necessary on the occasion – and survive for a further two turns. This gives the strategy the ability to set up the necessary infrastructure on the very first turn by drawing every card if one needs to, and still be able to make the game-winning attacks on the subsequent turn.
Lastly, Imperial Order and Crush Card Virus are included as simply the two most powerful Trap Cards existent in the game. I should point out that, while there is only one Monster in the entirety of the deck that is able to be tributed for the activation of Crush Card Virus (that being Destiny Hero – Disk Commander), do not forget two things: the first is that this deck, as aforementioned, has consistent access to Disk Commander; and that, due to the use of Makyura the Destructor, Crush Card Virus can be activated during the very turn it is drawn, eliminating the need to wait a turn. One will have very little problem in activating it.
I have presented in this essay a strategy that was born from an idea that sprang to my mind during a time of nothingness. To the best of my knowledge, the only other deck that even comes close to similarity is one published by Jerome McHale, but he took a vastly disparate approach with his build. I would like to state, quite plainly if I may, right now, that people should not be afraid of their ideas; if one has an idea, and even if it seems a little ‘crazy’ as the one herein does, I urge one to try it. The chances are it will not function properly, but equally the chances are that it might. Through a thorough exploration of the idea (that is, going through many different builds and testing each one with rigor and an open mind, making many decisions along the way), as I have done, one can come up with the best build possible. Here, I have designed a deck that, although it is overly unwieldy and can often draw strings of completely useless cards, is immensely fast, amazingly powerful and, despite everything, surprisingly consistent. It is something I definitely think to be a contender in the modern Traditional Format.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Deck Essay #1: Diamond Dude Turbo
The Traditional Format, in complete contrast to the Advanced Format, is immensely fast and immensely powerful. Due to the number of additional cards it has to offer – which are, more often than not, cards that have been long since forbidden in the Advanced Format – Tier One in Traditional is an extensive omnibus of some of the most powerful Decks to ever be created in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Other Decks, quite simply, find it nigh impossible to stand up to them. In this essay, I will be analysing one of such Decks, which I myself played with much success last format (September 2009), leading me to consecutive tournament Top Two’s and Four’s for months: Diamond Dude Turbo.
The central Win Condition of Diamond Dude Turbo (often abbreviated to ‘DDT’) is to set up a game state wherein there are enough Monsters in one’s Removed from Play Zone to create a swarm of Monsters – and subsequent Game winning attacks – with one of the most powerful cards in the game, Dimension Fusion. The Deck uses Destiny Heroes as its Monsters of Choice, backed up by a multitude of Spell Cards (of which the main contingent are Normal Spells for abuse with the eponymous card, Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude), to create this state: through Destiny Draw, Reasoning, Monster Gate, Painful Choice, and the Synchro Summon Mechanic (this latter option being a new addition to the Diamond Dude Turbo arsenal) to fill the Graveyard, and Allure of Darkness, Dark Armed Dragon, Plaguespreader Zombie, Dark Magician of Chaos, and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to fill the Removed from Play Zone, it is easily achieved, and the Deck often wins before the end of its second turn.
I will say, however, before I go any further, that Diamond Dude Turbo is the most complicated (and therefore difficult) Deck to pilot correctly, and is often far out of league for many players. While the end goal is simple, the combinations of Cards which eventually lead to it are an almost infinite number of obscure, unintuitive plays, which are more often than not executed with split-second decisions in a single turn. It takes an immense amount of skill to recognise and carry them out properly; ergo, I would recommend caution for any player wishing to attempt using this Deck, and for anybody unsuccessful to not discount the Deck in any way.
The Monsters: 10
2 Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero – Malicious
1 Destiny Hero – Dasher
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
In order to achieve its purpose, Diamond Dude Turbo needs very little Monster Cards, but do not be mistaken – every single one is essential to the strategy. The list begins with Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude, which will become apparent when the Spell Cards are listed later; the Traditional Format boasts an immense list of powerful Normal Spells to abuse with Diamond Dude, and using any one of them for free will more often than not result in a game winning turn. Three could very well be played, but I included only two copies because I needed room for other Monsters I felt were necessary as well.
Next, the two copies of Destiny Hero – Malicious are long-established cards in this Deck. They: make for a perfect discard for Destiny Draw or any of the other discard-costed cards (because its effect activates in the Graveyard); provide free field presence to be used as a Tribute for either Monster Gate or Dark Magician of Chaos, or as a Synchro Material with Plaguespreader Zombie (a use that, while not previously used in this Deck, fits it perfectly); thin the Deck; and also fill the Removed from Play Zone.
Getting to Destiny Heroes is a key aspect to the success of this Deck; without Destiny Heroes, Diamond Dude Turbo quite simply falls apart. Elemental Hero Stratos (backed up by Reinforcement of the Army in the Spell line-up) allows the player access to any Destiny Hero at any given time. In the early game (the first turn in the Traditional Format), Destiny Hero – Disk Commander or Destiny Hero – Malicious are the most appropriate picks for moving the Deck along. However, if one opens badly, Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude is the correct choice for use of its effect the following turn.
Destiny Hero – Dasher is included as a strong Monster that is also a Destiny Draw discard, Dark Magician of Chaos is for raw power and the reuse of any needed Spell Card that successfully made its way into the Graveyard, and Dark Armed Dragon is for additional firepower and card removal. It is very important to note that Dark Armed Dragon can be Special Summoned more consistently here than in any other Deck in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh!, due to the speed at which it can be drawn, the low Monster Card count, and the nigh flawless DARK control via Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade when Monsters do make it into the Graveyard.
Finally, there are a couple of off-beat choices I included: the first is Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, a card which, in the prime of Diamond Dude Turbo (late 2007 to early 2008), was left out because it would interfere with Reasoning and Monster Gate; however, with those two cards Limited to one copy each, and the ability to draw towards key cards it offers, I believe Disk Commander is well justified; the second strange pick is Plaguespreader Zombie, a card that, with the field presence this Deck generates, is another well justified choice. In fact, with the addition of these two cards, it is now possible for Diamond Dude Turbo to perform a First-Turn-Knockout: if one can summon Dark Magician of Chaos and Dark Strike Fighter on the first turn, with Dimension Fusion in the Hand, one can loop Tributing Dark Magician of Chaos for Dark Striker Fighter’s effect and Special Summoning it back with Dimension Fusion. Due to the speed and consistency of this Deck, I performed this combo many times.
The Spells: 26
3 Destiny Draw
3 Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade
2 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Painful Choice
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
1 Heavy Storm
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
The Spells are the core of the Deck. First and foremost, one will notice the amount: twenty-six is a very high count, even for Traditional Format (a format ruled by Spell Cards). It is crucial the Spell count (and specifically the Normal Spell count) be this high, for, not only will the Deck often fizzle into nothing if Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect is not used successfully, one needs to send Dimension Fusion and at least one copy of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to the Graveyard when Reasoning and/or Monster Gate is used. In addition to this, playing so few Monster Cards will allow for a more consistent chance of hitting Dark Magician of Chaos with Reasoning or Monster Gate, which is a crucial play.
The majority of the Spells (twenty-one out of twenty-six) are Normal Spells, which means there is a very high chance (twenty-one out of forty) of hitting one with Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect, and, as aforementioned, the free use of almost any single one can make game (one can also use Plaguespreader Zombie’s cost to put an appropriate Spell Card on top of the Deck to ensure a successful Diamond Dude hit).
Destiny Draw and Allure of Darkness provide not only draws to move the player towards key cards, but also an outlet to discard Monsters and Remove from Play Monsters, respectively. Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Card Destruction are all cards that achieve those same objectives, though Graceful Charity and Card Destruction will also allow the player to discard Spell Cards (such as Dimension Fusion and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade). Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate sift through even more cards while also filling the Graveyard.
Once the Graveyard is full (or one needs discard fodder or DARK Monster regulation), Monsters are then Removed from Play for the cost of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, which then returns to the hand. Next, Dimension Fusion, if it successfully made its way to the Graveyard, will be added back to the hand with Dark Magician of Chaos or one of the two copies of Magical Stone Excavation; this makes Dimension Fusion, the primary win condition of Diamond Dude Turbo, a searchable combo piece. There are very few Decks that can boast such a feat.
Finally, all Traditional Format agents of removal have been included: Heavy Storm and Harpie’s Feather Duster are included to clear the back field, while Raigeki, Dark Hole, Snatch Steal, and Change of Heart are included to clear the front field. There is little justification needed in playing these cards – they are so powerful that not playing them in a battle-based Deck if one has the chance would be a severe folly, and, just like Dimension Fusion mentioned above, can be searchable cards. In this way, Diamond Dude Turbo layers synergy upon synergy to create a flawless strategy.
The Traps: 4
3 Threatening Roar
1 Imperial Order
With thirty-six slots in the Deck already taken up by essential cards, and my desire to keep any Deck I construct at forty cards for maximum consistency, there is only room for four Trap Cards. One would not want to include much more than four anyway, otherwise one would be sacrificing the ability to use Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect successfully on a reliable basis. The only Trap Cards really needed are three copies of Threatening Roar, which I find to be the best defensive card in the Traditional Format due to its ability to trump Spell and Trap removal by being chained, and Imperial Order, which is an all important card to cancel an opponent’s access to Spell Cards for a turn, which more often than not cancels said turn entirely.
There is but one problem I have found with Diamond Dude Turbo: and that is the impossibility in Side-Decking with it. This is due to the fact that every countermeasure to First-Turn-Knockout Decks in the Traditional Format is Monster-based, and extra Monsters interfere with the delicate balance between Spell Cards and Monster and Trap Cards this Deck thrives on. In effect, to successfully Side-Deck with Diamond Dude Turbo, one must Side-Deck out of Diamond Dude Turbo and into something else. My preferred method was to Side into a Magical Scientist First-Turn-Knockout Deck, although I still included extra Spell and Trap removal for Decks based around Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure, Skill Drain and Royal Oppression, all of which kill this Deck.
There is no doubt that Diamond Dude Turbo is one of the fastest, most powerful and most consistent Decks in the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game; it is also one of the most important Decks in the development of the game, for it announced a transition period between slow, control-based Decks into fast, One-Turn-Knockout-based Decks. Unfortunately, though, with the introduction of the March 2010 Limited Lists, it is no longer possible to play this Deck due to the Limitation of both Destiny Draw and Allure of Darkness. This fact is something which, while it gives me (or rather forces me) the exciting opportunity to innovate, I am saddened by. Because of this, I felt the need to document my Traditional Format version of it, which is a version I personally believe to be the best.
The central Win Condition of Diamond Dude Turbo (often abbreviated to ‘DDT’) is to set up a game state wherein there are enough Monsters in one’s Removed from Play Zone to create a swarm of Monsters – and subsequent Game winning attacks – with one of the most powerful cards in the game, Dimension Fusion. The Deck uses Destiny Heroes as its Monsters of Choice, backed up by a multitude of Spell Cards (of which the main contingent are Normal Spells for abuse with the eponymous card, Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude), to create this state: through Destiny Draw, Reasoning, Monster Gate, Painful Choice, and the Synchro Summon Mechanic (this latter option being a new addition to the Diamond Dude Turbo arsenal) to fill the Graveyard, and Allure of Darkness, Dark Armed Dragon, Plaguespreader Zombie, Dark Magician of Chaos, and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to fill the Removed from Play Zone, it is easily achieved, and the Deck often wins before the end of its second turn.
I will say, however, before I go any further, that Diamond Dude Turbo is the most complicated (and therefore difficult) Deck to pilot correctly, and is often far out of league for many players. While the end goal is simple, the combinations of Cards which eventually lead to it are an almost infinite number of obscure, unintuitive plays, which are more often than not executed with split-second decisions in a single turn. It takes an immense amount of skill to recognise and carry them out properly; ergo, I would recommend caution for any player wishing to attempt using this Deck, and for anybody unsuccessful to not discount the Deck in any way.
The Monsters: 10
2 Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero – Malicious
1 Destiny Hero – Dasher
1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
In order to achieve its purpose, Diamond Dude Turbo needs very little Monster Cards, but do not be mistaken – every single one is essential to the strategy. The list begins with Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude, which will become apparent when the Spell Cards are listed later; the Traditional Format boasts an immense list of powerful Normal Spells to abuse with Diamond Dude, and using any one of them for free will more often than not result in a game winning turn. Three could very well be played, but I included only two copies because I needed room for other Monsters I felt were necessary as well.
Next, the two copies of Destiny Hero – Malicious are long-established cards in this Deck. They: make for a perfect discard for Destiny Draw or any of the other discard-costed cards (because its effect activates in the Graveyard); provide free field presence to be used as a Tribute for either Monster Gate or Dark Magician of Chaos, or as a Synchro Material with Plaguespreader Zombie (a use that, while not previously used in this Deck, fits it perfectly); thin the Deck; and also fill the Removed from Play Zone.
Getting to Destiny Heroes is a key aspect to the success of this Deck; without Destiny Heroes, Diamond Dude Turbo quite simply falls apart. Elemental Hero Stratos (backed up by Reinforcement of the Army in the Spell line-up) allows the player access to any Destiny Hero at any given time. In the early game (the first turn in the Traditional Format), Destiny Hero – Disk Commander or Destiny Hero – Malicious are the most appropriate picks for moving the Deck along. However, if one opens badly, Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude is the correct choice for use of its effect the following turn.
Destiny Hero – Dasher is included as a strong Monster that is also a Destiny Draw discard, Dark Magician of Chaos is for raw power and the reuse of any needed Spell Card that successfully made its way into the Graveyard, and Dark Armed Dragon is for additional firepower and card removal. It is very important to note that Dark Armed Dragon can be Special Summoned more consistently here than in any other Deck in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh!, due to the speed at which it can be drawn, the low Monster Card count, and the nigh flawless DARK control via Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade when Monsters do make it into the Graveyard.
Finally, there are a couple of off-beat choices I included: the first is Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, a card which, in the prime of Diamond Dude Turbo (late 2007 to early 2008), was left out because it would interfere with Reasoning and Monster Gate; however, with those two cards Limited to one copy each, and the ability to draw towards key cards it offers, I believe Disk Commander is well justified; the second strange pick is Plaguespreader Zombie, a card that, with the field presence this Deck generates, is another well justified choice. In fact, with the addition of these two cards, it is now possible for Diamond Dude Turbo to perform a First-Turn-Knockout: if one can summon Dark Magician of Chaos and Dark Strike Fighter on the first turn, with Dimension Fusion in the Hand, one can loop Tributing Dark Magician of Chaos for Dark Striker Fighter’s effect and Special Summoning it back with Dimension Fusion. Due to the speed and consistency of this Deck, I performed this combo many times.
The Spells: 26
3 Destiny Draw
3 Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade
2 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Painful Choice
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Reasoning
1 Monster Gate
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
1 Heavy Storm
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
The Spells are the core of the Deck. First and foremost, one will notice the amount: twenty-six is a very high count, even for Traditional Format (a format ruled by Spell Cards). It is crucial the Spell count (and specifically the Normal Spell count) be this high, for, not only will the Deck often fizzle into nothing if Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect is not used successfully, one needs to send Dimension Fusion and at least one copy of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to the Graveyard when Reasoning and/or Monster Gate is used. In addition to this, playing so few Monster Cards will allow for a more consistent chance of hitting Dark Magician of Chaos with Reasoning or Monster Gate, which is a crucial play.
The majority of the Spells (twenty-one out of twenty-six) are Normal Spells, which means there is a very high chance (twenty-one out of forty) of hitting one with Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect, and, as aforementioned, the free use of almost any single one can make game (one can also use Plaguespreader Zombie’s cost to put an appropriate Spell Card on top of the Deck to ensure a successful Diamond Dude hit).
Destiny Draw and Allure of Darkness provide not only draws to move the player towards key cards, but also an outlet to discard Monsters and Remove from Play Monsters, respectively. Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Card Destruction are all cards that achieve those same objectives, though Graceful Charity and Card Destruction will also allow the player to discard Spell Cards (such as Dimension Fusion and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade). Painful Choice, Reasoning and Monster Gate sift through even more cards while also filling the Graveyard.
Once the Graveyard is full (or one needs discard fodder or DARK Monster regulation), Monsters are then Removed from Play for the cost of Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, which then returns to the hand. Next, Dimension Fusion, if it successfully made its way to the Graveyard, will be added back to the hand with Dark Magician of Chaos or one of the two copies of Magical Stone Excavation; this makes Dimension Fusion, the primary win condition of Diamond Dude Turbo, a searchable combo piece. There are very few Decks that can boast such a feat.
Finally, all Traditional Format agents of removal have been included: Heavy Storm and Harpie’s Feather Duster are included to clear the back field, while Raigeki, Dark Hole, Snatch Steal, and Change of Heart are included to clear the front field. There is little justification needed in playing these cards – they are so powerful that not playing them in a battle-based Deck if one has the chance would be a severe folly, and, just like Dimension Fusion mentioned above, can be searchable cards. In this way, Diamond Dude Turbo layers synergy upon synergy to create a flawless strategy.
The Traps: 4
3 Threatening Roar
1 Imperial Order
With thirty-six slots in the Deck already taken up by essential cards, and my desire to keep any Deck I construct at forty cards for maximum consistency, there is only room for four Trap Cards. One would not want to include much more than four anyway, otherwise one would be sacrificing the ability to use Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude’s effect successfully on a reliable basis. The only Trap Cards really needed are three copies of Threatening Roar, which I find to be the best defensive card in the Traditional Format due to its ability to trump Spell and Trap removal by being chained, and Imperial Order, which is an all important card to cancel an opponent’s access to Spell Cards for a turn, which more often than not cancels said turn entirely.
There is but one problem I have found with Diamond Dude Turbo: and that is the impossibility in Side-Decking with it. This is due to the fact that every countermeasure to First-Turn-Knockout Decks in the Traditional Format is Monster-based, and extra Monsters interfere with the delicate balance between Spell Cards and Monster and Trap Cards this Deck thrives on. In effect, to successfully Side-Deck with Diamond Dude Turbo, one must Side-Deck out of Diamond Dude Turbo and into something else. My preferred method was to Side into a Magical Scientist First-Turn-Knockout Deck, although I still included extra Spell and Trap removal for Decks based around Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure, Skill Drain and Royal Oppression, all of which kill this Deck.
There is no doubt that Diamond Dude Turbo is one of the fastest, most powerful and most consistent Decks in the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game; it is also one of the most important Decks in the development of the game, for it announced a transition period between slow, control-based Decks into fast, One-Turn-Knockout-based Decks. Unfortunately, though, with the introduction of the March 2010 Limited Lists, it is no longer possible to play this Deck due to the Limitation of both Destiny Draw and Allure of Darkness. This fact is something which, while it gives me (or rather forces me) the exciting opportunity to innovate, I am saddened by. Because of this, I felt the need to document my Traditional Format version of it, which is a version I personally believe to be the best.
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