Ygoz Blog

 
 
Synchro Cat: The strongest deck two formats ago returns as the strongest deck again, this time with the powerful Flamvell monsters helping them out. Synchro Cat is currently a random mishmash of powerful cards that aid in Synchro Summoning. They also have incredible opening plays. Setting Gravekeeper’s Spy, Gravekeeper’s Guard, Sangan, and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter are all plays everyone has to watch out for against Synchro Cat. Some Cat decks also use Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, who functions similarly to Gravekeeper’s Spy. Rescue Cat and Summoner Monk basically make instant Synchro monsters. Synchro Cat is a deck that works by making pushes for advantage, using cards like Arcanite Magician and Gravekeeper’s Descendant who can easily clear the field. Against Synchro Cat, I would probably play Nobleman of Crossout, who can easily eliminate their entire flip monster lineup. That old card is really trending in playability again. Another good choice would probably be Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, who can eliminate the annoying Flamvell Firedog and Flamvell Magician from the Graveyard.

 

Blackwings: Blackwings are the second strongest deck this format, and took only a minor hit with the banlist. Although only Tier 2 at the end of last format, Blackwings are at the top of their game right now. Zombies and Lightsworns got hit HARD by the banlist, whereas Blackwings only lost a copy of Black Whirlwind. Blackwings play by creating quick Synchro Summon oppurtunities to beat the opponents down. Blackwings are inherently a swarm deck, however, they can still play anti-meta cards like Royal Oppression and Skill Drain without fear. Combining this with Icarus Attack, Blackwings become a major threat to any anti-meta deck hoping to succeed this format. Against Blackwings, I would probably side in Consecrated Light, but I would watch out for Icarus Attack.

 

Lightsworn: The powerful Lightsworn decks make a return this format as the third strongest deck. As always, they focus on quick beatdown and using their milling effects to quickly build up a strong offense and defense. This format, they are much weaker defensively due to the lack of Necro Gardna, and some builds are teching Lightsworn Barrier, which is definitely something to watch out for. Despite the limitation of Lumina, who could quickly put 2000 points of damage onto the field as well as toolbox various powerful effects, Lightsworns are still a major threat due to Judgment Dragon and Wulf, Lightsworn Beast. They are also the fastest deck around, because Solar Recharge is at 3 right now. Against Lightsworns, I would be sure to watch out for sudden comebacks, Lightsworns are famous for “sacking” into powerful cards like Celestia (a +1 tribute monster) and Judgment Dragon (who can easily clear the field for game.) Against Lightsworns, I would probably side cards like Dimensional Fissure (if possible) and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer.

 

Gladiator Beasts: The fourth strongest deck, soon to be fifth if Machina Gadgets keeps on rising is Gladiator Beast. A very old-fashioned (from 2007!) strategy, Gladiators will always have a place in my heart. They function by gaining advantage through battle. I won’t really review this as much since they are the exact same as they were 3 or so formats ago. Some good cards to side include Mirror of Oaths.

 

Gadgets: The Gadgets got a major boost from the arrival of Machina Gearframe and Machina Fortress. Machina Gearframe is basically a Gadget who is a 1800 beater who recruits a 2500 beater. The original Red, Yellow, and Green Gadgets form a solid support cast who are a great combo with Machina Fortress. This deck is a defensive deck which plays for card advantage, using Dimensional Prison and other cards to eliminate the opponent’s options. With plenty of viable 1 for 1 choices such as Icarus Attack and Dust Tornado being mained by almost everybody, Gadgets have their work cut out for them. Their major weakness is how ridiculously easy they are to side against. Cyber Dragons and System Downs pretty much break their back.

 
I keep on hearing that the Lightsworn deck now takes more skill to play, which is believe is false. If anything, the Lightsworn engine takes less skill to play. Something disturbing that I've noticed is that Konami seems to actually want LS to be as sacky as possible, as they hit the cards that promote skill and keep cards that give instant advantages through drawing high up on the list.

Cards that promote skill that were hit: Charge of the Light Brigade, Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner.

Cards that give instant advantage upon being drawn or milled (which you can't control except for cheating): Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, Judgment Dragon, Honest, and Solar Recharge.

The only exception is Necro Gardna, what is your guy's thoughts on this?
 
An Introduction
I haven’t been playing this game for a while now because of stuff like school and problems with life. I took perhaps a month or so break and now I’m back. My friend S{t}ack from Pojo and I discovered an interesting combo, which is Scrubbed Raid and Destiny Hero – Plasma. S{t}ack is an avid fan of Plasma and frequently tries to break it every format. It should be noted that “Zombie Jesus!” from Pojo made a similar deck, but his focuses on abusing Drill Warrior with Dandylion for infinite use of Scrubbed Raid. He also can abuse Enemy Controller, and his build is arguably superior at abusing Scrubbed Raid.

Scrubbed Raid is a card that’s similar to an “infinite” number of Negate Attack. By sending a card on your side of the field to the Graveyard, you can terminate the Battle Phase – either yours or your opponent’s. This proves to be very useful when used in conjunction with Destiny Hero – Plasma. The card equipped to Plasma can be sent to the Graveyard, and Plasma can proceed to absorb another one for infinite use of Scrubbed Raid. Many beginners use Scrubbed Raid in stall, but it will fail because of how the chainables, like Threatening Roar and Waboku are superor. However, using the opponent’s cards as resources for Scrubbed Raid instead of yours, the card becomes viable.

The Plasma Lock is very powerful, but there is going to be a lot of difficulty to bring it out. Destiny Hero – Plasma requires a whopping three tributes. The best way to bring out Destiny Hero – Plasma is to use floaters and tokens so the card becomes essentially free. The floaters and tokens also are good to use with Scrubbed Raid, off-setting it’s cost.

The Plasma Lock is very susceptible to destruction, as no cards are protected. Stardust Dragon is an excellent choice, as it creates an almost unbeatable lock. (Scrubbed Raid + Stardust Dragon is also an annoying, but somewhat inefficient, lock.) Using Synchros also gives us an additional win condition.

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Why Play Destiny Hero – Plasma?
Destiny Hero – Plasma is an excellent card this format. The one sided Skill Drain is attached to a decent body (after his boost.) He also easily can pay for the three tributes you paid for him, coming off with stealing a monster and later on probably killing a few. He’s weak to Honest and traps like Sakuretsu Armor, but Scrubbed Raid helps solve that problem. Destiny Hero – Plasma has advantages over Lightsworns (by preventing their mill and essentially being game if you suck up Celestia or Judgment Dragon) Infernity (they lose their effects which are really important for them to win, in particular Infernity Archfiend, although you should watch out for big Synchro monsters) Gladiator Beasts (they no longer get effects upon tag out, but you have to watch out for Book of Moon.)

Overall, Plasma is a strong card weak to one for one removal and he has rather crappy stats, in particular defense. His low defense lets him dodge Smashing Ground, and token generation gets around Fissure, however both are still major threats. Destiny Hero – Plasma shines when paired with Stardust Dragon and protection. In this build, we quickly turbo into those things and Destiny Hero – Plasma really shines.


Choosing an Engine
Given cards to use in this deck would be  two to three copies of Destiny Hero – Plasma. There should also be a copy of Elemental Hero Stratos and two copies of Destiny Hero – Malicious. The one allowed Destiny Draw should also be played, as even though it is restricted, it is still a powerful card. Now we will add in staples, those being Sangan, Dark Armed Dragon, and Plaguespreader Zombie.

There are many viable engines to use with this deck, and some include the Black Valley engine, Debu-Hime, Zombies, and even Reptilianne. We settled on Zombies at the end, because of how they have a great deal of floating monsters (Goblin Zombie and Mezuki.) They also have access to Plaguespreader Zombie abuse and Pyramid Turtle + Zombie Master to generate Synchro fodder and tributes for Destiny Hero – Plasma. (Note that the fodder the bring out will float themselves.)

The other engines however, are not entirely without benefit. I’ll outline some of the strengths and weaknesses of them for people who want to try out the other engines.

Black Valley: Cyber Valley provides an excellent outlet for tokens. Drawing 2 every time you draw Cyber Valley is excellent. Black Salvo and Dekoichi are a good team in terms of bringing out Destiny Hero – Plasma. Dekoichi floats itself and Salvo is good too. Unfortunately, the limitation of Black Rose Dragon limits us to a bunch of underwhelming options for Synchros. They also require a token to bring out Stardust Dragon, which is why we opted to play Zombies. (Salvo can only make 1 possible 2 card Stardust, that being Malicious + Plaguespreader, and neither of those float, as opposed to Goblin Zombie + Plaguespreader into Zombie Master to bring back Plaguespreader.)

Debu-Hime: Debu-Hime (Japanese for Debris Dragon Plants) has excellent options in terms of Dandylion abuse. Debris Dragon can easily make Dandylion come out, creating a 1 card Plasma. I played around with this engine for a long time, but dropped it at the end for the same reason I dropped Black Valley, which was difficulties in bringing out Stardust Dragon. This deck also relied heavily on bringing out Scrubbed Raid early on and was weak to Gladiator Beasts.

Reptilianne: This engine is a lot more potent than it would seem. The cards played are 3x Reptilianne Gardna, 3x Reptilianne Vaskii, 3x Limit Reverse, and 1x Ojama Trio. This was the weakest of the engines, but Repitlianne Vaskii was just broken. A 2600 instant floater who could come out off of tokens is excellent. Unfortunately, she was often dead in hand when he did not have tokens. In addition, she died easily and was overall inferior to bringing out Plasma. I would recommend teching 1 of her in any build though, if you can find the space for her. When this engine goes off, it is extremely explosive, but it flops more often than not.

Zombie: This was the engine we chose at the end. The Zombies have access to Goblin Zombie and Mezuki, who are excellent. They can also easily make multiple Stardust Dragons. The weakness of this engine is that while it is the most consistent, it does not explode as often as the others might. It also requires a lot of smart play to bring out Destiny Hero – Plasma at the right time, as this deck has slight problems with token generation, which led to us teching in a Debris Dragon over the spot formerly taken by Reptilianne Vaskii.

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The Deck Itself
2|Dp05|Destiny Hero - Malicious
2|Ct04|Destiny Hero - Plasma
2|Jump|Dandylion
2|Tdgs|Krebons
2|Ptdn|Goblin Zombie
1|Crms|Debris Dragon
1|Ptdn|Dark Grepher
1|Mrl|Mystic Tomato
1|Sdj|Sangan
1|Sd2|Pyramid Turtle
1|Pp02|Mezuk
1|Sdzw|Zombie Master
1|Jump|Elemental Hero Stratos
1|Ptdn|Dark Armed Dragon
1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie

2|Ptdn|Fires of Doomsday
2|Sd10|Enemy Controller
2|Sjcs|Gold Sarcophagus
1|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness
1|Dp05|Destiny Draw
1|Sd7|Brain Control
1|Sdj|Scapegoat
1|Sd1|Heavy Storm
1|Sdp|Mystical Space Typhoon
1|Sd5|Reinforcement of the Army

2|Lod|Bottomless Trap Hole
2|Dp09|Scrubbed Raid
1|Mrd|Mirror Force
1|Mrd|Solemn Judgment
1|Sd2|Torrential Tribute

2|Tdgs|Stardust Dragon
2|Ha01|Mist Wurm
1|Dp08|Armory Arm
1|Anpr|Ancient Fairy Dragon
1|5ds1|Colossal Fighter
1|Tdgs|Goyo Guardian
1|Csoc|Doomkaiser Dragon
1|Csoc|Iron Chain Dragon
1|Tdgs|Magical Android
1|Csoc|Black Rose Dragon
1|Ha01|Ally of Justice Catastor
1|Tdgs|Thought Ruler Archfiend
1|Ha01|Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

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Monsters
2|Dp05|Destiny Hero - Malicious
2|Ct04|Destiny Hero - Plasma
2|Jump|Dandylion
2|Tdgs|Krebons
2|Ptdn|Goblin Zombie
1|Crms|Debris Dragon
1|Ptdn|Dark Grepher
1|Mrl|Mystic Tomato
1|Sdj|Sangan
1|Sd2|Pyramid Turtle
1|Pp02|Mezuki
1|Sdzw|Zombie Master
1|Jump|Elemental Hero Stratos
1|Ptdn|Dark Armed Dragon
1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie

Destiny Hero – Malicious: Great for bringing out Stardust Dragon. In addition, allows us to speed through the deck with our pathetic one Destiny Draw on occasion. Overall, will be brought out through Mystic Tomato.

Destiny Hero – Plasma: One of our win conditions is the Plasma Lock described earlier. Plasma also can protect a field of Synchros.

Dandylion: Allows us to quickly and efficiently bring out Destiny Hero – Plasma, he’s a pretty obvious choice.

Krebons: An excellent Tuner who can stall for Plasma or Tune to summon Synchros.

Goblin Zombie: A floater who makes an ideal card to sacrifice for Plasma. He also helps us bring out Zombie Master, who can win games pretty easily. He’s also a good choice to recruit against Gladiators, so their Murmillo won’t gain as much advantage.

Debris Dragon: Excellent synergy with Dandylion, a one card Black Rose Dragon really helps us get back on our feet. Also creates one card Plasma (Synchro + two Fluff Tokens.) Only one copy is played because only one copy of Black Rose Dragon is allowed. Getting out Ancient Fairy Dragon occassionally will help to bust out Destiny Hero – Plasma, but overall one copy is best. It also sucks to draw him early game too, so yeah.

Dark Grepher: Helps boost consistency and solves double Malicious in hand.

Mystic Tomato: An excellent card to bring out Destiny Hero – Malicious or Krebons. Overall, I originally played 2 copies of him, but recently cut it out for a Pyramid Turtle. Pyramid Turtle brings out Zombie Master, who has excellent synergy with Dandylion, Destiny Hero – Malicious, and a slew of other cards, though to a lesser extent.

Sangan: A staple, who is an excellent tribute for almost anything.

Pyramid Turtle: An excellent recruiter. His main job is to bring out Zombie Master, but Mezuki should be brought out against Gladiator Beasts.

Mezuki: An excellent card despite his restriction. He still makes the Zombie engine viable, albeit not broken as it was with him and multiple Burials.

Zombie Master: A truly excellent card. He helps make mad Synchro swarms, who can help win the game for me. He also has great synergy, as detailed before. He also can make an easy Destiny Hero – Plasma.

Elemental Hero Stratos: Major boost to consistency, I often play Gold Sarcophagus on him if I open with it and not Stratos. Stratos is excellent because he generates our win conditions by himself (and you can choose which one too!)

Dark Armed Dragon: He’s a broken boss monster who can win the game for us, even if he sack him.

Plaguespreader Zombie: He’s broken in every deck almost. This guy makes our Stardusts, so he is simply EXCELLENT.


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Backrows
2|Ptdn|Fires of Doomsday
2|Sd10|Enemy Controller
2|Sjcs|Gold Sarcophagus
1|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness
1|Dp05|Destiny Draw
1|Sd7|Brain Control
1|Sdj|Scapegoat
1|Sd1|Heavy Storm
1|Sdp|Mystical Space Typhoon
1|Sd5|Reinforcement of the Army

2|Lod|Bottomless Trap Hole
2|Dp09|Scrubbed Raid
1|Mrd|Mirror Force
1|Mrd|Solemn Judgment
1|Sd2|Torrential Tribute

Fires of Doomsday: Fires of Doomsday is a great card for Plasma summoning. He also has synergy with Malicious and makes easy Mist Wurms.

Enemy Controller: An excellent card that breaks this deck. Enemy Controller allows us to beat Consecrated Light as well.

Gold Sarcophagus: A major boost to consistency that can help this deck make the plays it needs when it needs them.

Other spells and traps are pretty much staples, so I won’t go that in depth. Scapegoat is a one-card Plasma, and Reinforcement of the Army is amazing consistency.

Scrubbed Raid creates the Plasma Lock, and Solemn Judgment is great protection.

Extra Deck
2|Tdgs|Stardust Dragon
2|Ha01|Mist Wurm
1|Dp08|Armory Arm
1|Anpr|Ancient Fairy Dragon
1|5ds1|Colossal Fighter      
1|Tdgs|Goyo Guardian
1|Csoc|Doomkaiser Dragon
1|Csoc|Iron Chain Dragon
1|Tdgs|Magical Android
1|Csoc|Black Rose Dragon
1|Ha01|Ally of Justice Catastor
1|Tdgs|Thought Ruler Archfiend
1|Ha01|Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

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The Extra Deck is mostly standard, but with a second Mist Wurm over Red Dragon Archfiend. The tokens make getting Mist Wurm incredibly easy. Also, an Armory Arm is played over Colossal Fighter. Armory Arm is a pretty decent card who can power up Plasma, and it’s a piece of cake to make it too.

Getting out Mist Wurm can frequently spell game for your opponents, as can Doomkaiser Dragon. I originally put Doomkaiser in to be filler, but he frequently won games for me, either turning himself and Plaguespreader into a Stardust or even combining with a token as well, forming Mist Wurm.

The original draft also included Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Red Dragon Archfiend, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, and Revived King Ha Des, which are all missing from the final draft. Those cards are additional options which may be sided (I personally side Gladiator Beast Gyzarus against Gladiator Beasts and Red Dragon Archfiend for stall decks (and if it is ever widespread played) the mirror.


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Constructing the Side Deck
This deck suffers from a weakness to Royal Oppression, as then you can’t bring out Destiny Hero – Plasma. The best idea would be to side against Anti-meta. Preferably, play Dust Tornados. These cards are excellent, and in addition, they also beat out Blackwing’s Black Whirlwind. Three Dust Tornados are an excellent choice. They also beat out people who decide to play Macro this format. (Although now that I think of it, Macro Plasma might not be that bad, although Dandylion abuse is exchanged for the weaker Phantom Skyblaster abuse.) Siding Macro might not be as bad of an idea as I previously thought.

This deck also has problems with Gladiator Beasts. Gladiator Beasts play powerful removal cards and Book of Moon which cause serious problems for Destiny Hero – Plasma. Your best bet is to also side three copies of Mirror of Oaths, to cause them problems in return. Scrubbed Raid isn’t bad against them, but Test Tiger + Gladiator Beast Bestiari will get the better of you more often than not. Try to bring out Stardust Dragon as soon as possible.

This deck doesn’t have as many problems with Lightsworns and Blackwings. The troublesome Kalut and Honest can be played around with Enemy Controller and smart use of Scrubbed Raid (immediately terminating your Battle Phase then sucking their monster up.) However, siding Waboku would be an excellent idea. Waboku doesn’t make it into the main because of this deck’s Gladiator Beast weakness.

Versus Infernities, the key thing is to halt their mad swarming. Once you get Plasma out, the Infernity player will be hard pressed to respond, but Infernity Break still proves troublesome. Infernities haven’t made it into the United States yet, but when they do, it will be a good idea to adjust the side deck to counter them accordingly. I think that Compulsory Excavation Device might prove to be a good counter, as it sends stuff back to their hand (yet Infernity Gun might just dump them back down, so make sure to stop the combo before they bust out the big guns.) The new Synchro Scrambler (check the translation name?) is also fairly promising.

Against X-Sabers, side in Sillva, Warlord of Dark World (or perhaps Goldd) I personally prefer Sillva, because of it’s strong hand controlling effect. I also side in Morphing Jar and Card Destruction along with him. This is mostly precautionary, since it’s unknown how good X-Sabers will be yet. Reign-Beaux is an option, but I personally don’t like him all that much.

This deck doesn’t have many problems against Flamvell Cat. Most of their cards are largely nullified by Destiny Hero – Plasma. I would look into siding Synchro Scrambler to stop their Rekindling plays, but just using the age-old Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer might be a smart choice. He also helps stop Lightsworns and the rare Zombie appearances.

Gadgets are most likely going to be your most difficult matchup. Royal Oppression, one-for-one removal, and large beaters in the form of Machinas make this deck your worst nightmare. Fortunately, they aren’t as common as other decks. Your best bet in this scenario is to just side in your Tornados and hope for the best. Do not side in one-for-one removal on them because that just fulfills their goal (they want you to waste one-for-ones on their monsters, which replenish themselves.) Shoot for the backrows. I would also side in draw cards to help you get the stuff you need faster (nothing special, just Morphing Jar, Card Destruction, and possibly Cyber Valleys.) System Down is a great card. Side 3.

Consecrated Light isn’t as big of a problem as it sounds. Enemy Controller is a good out to it, in addition to simply attacking it with a Scapegoat or a Dandy token the turn it goes out. Side in your third Enemy Controller on this threat though.

As previously noted, some good cards to side in from the Extra Deck include Red Dragon Archfiend and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus.

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Other Options
Some other viable options to include in the Main/Side/Extra board include:

Morphing Jar to help speed to your outs to stuff. I currently have it sideboarded, but maining it is very viable.

Cyber Valley is very viable, even only one or two copies. It’s extremely powerful in this deck because of all the stealing stuff and tokens.

Third Enemy Controller is very good. I dropped it for a Mirror Force, but if your meta has a lot of Starlight Road play, play the Enemy Controller.

Mind Control is good if you are maining Cyber Valleys.

Battle Phase droppable monsters, like Battle Fader, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia, and Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow (not Ogre as much though) can be good fodders for Plasma.

A single teched Reptilianne Vaskii could be deadly. She’s more or less a Chaos Sorcerer in here. She also attacks over many threats to this deck. I took it out because of slight inconsistencies and a Royal Oppression weakness.

More recruiters, like Pyramid Turtle, Mystic Tomato, and even Giant Rat (for Dandylion) might be a decent choice if that’s your playstyle.

Upstart Goblin and Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive are decent choices if you want to focus on the lock, but they aren’t recommended. (Although Dekoichi is beastly in the Black Valley variant.)

Dark Bribe is also a decent card to protect the lock, but the -1 really hurts, especially since this deck focuses fairly heavy on amassing card advantage. Gaining card advantage should be your main goal, and Dark Bribe counteracts that. It’s still worth a look because it protects your set-up and if it fits your playstyle.

Foolish Burial is a decent choice if you want to add more speed. I’m not playing it because it’s a -1, and using it with Dandylion just wasn’t that great overall.

Spirit Reaper and Marshmallon are decent choices, but they are just too weak to the popular Gladiator Beast cards.

Book of Moon is a good choice, but is outclassed by Enemy Controller.

Trap Dustshoot may be interesting, and perhaps play it over a card that isn’t working.

Giant Trunade is good to clear the field from threats to Plasma.

Cold Wave can serve a purpose similar to the Giant Trunade card.

Gernia is a funny choice that might be okay-ish on Gladiators, but isn’t recommended, as it is outclassed by Mezuki.

Book of Life is also a decent choice in the Zombie variant.

Red Dragon Archfiend might be a good choice to kill Scapegoats.

Gladiator Beast Gyzarus in the Extra might be a good idea as you can easily make him. (Although I recommend siding him and your third Enemy Controller.)

 
Unless a deck fix is something that I've never seen before, I won't be posting it on my blog and instead will address concerns through e-mail. There are some articles I really want to put onto here that I haven't been able to because of a lot of deck fixes I'm answering. PLEASE continue to send in e-mails I will answer every one of them.
 
T
 
Thanks to Maelstrom for this idea. The deck fixes will be pushed back to last week. For this week, users will do a deckfix for me instead!

2|Lodt|Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
2|Lodt|Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2|Lodt|Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1|Lodt|Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1|Lodt|Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1|Lodt|Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
1|Lodt|Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1|Lodt|Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

2|Anpr|Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor
2|Crms|Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
1|Crms|Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

2|Lodt|Judgment Dragon
1|Ptdn|Dark Armed Dragon
1|Sd6|Chaos Sorcerer
1|Ptdnsp|Dark Grepher
1|Taev|Necro Gardna
1|Sdrl|Morphing Jar
1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie

3|Dp07|Hand Destruction
3|Lodt|Solar Recharge
1|Sdrl|Foolish Burial
1|Sd2|Heavy Storm
1|Sd5|Reinforcement of the Army
1|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness
1|Tdgs|Charge of the Light Brigade

2|Fet|Threatening Roar
2|Ast|Beckoning Light
1|Sd2|Torrential Tribute

2|Crms|Blackwing Armor Master
2|Rgbt|Blackwing Armed Wing
1|Sovr|Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant

1|Tdgs|Magical Android
1|Tdgs|Stardust Dragon
1|Tdgs|Goyo Guardian
1|Crms|Arcanite Magician
1|Csoc|Black Rose Dragon
1|5ds1|Colossal Fighter
1|Ha01|Mist Wurm
1|Tdgs|Red Dragon Archfiend
1|Ha01|Ally of Justice Catastor
1|Ha01|Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

This is something me and some friends have been playing around with. The concept is basically draw + random aggro.

Props to S{t}ack for the concept.
 
Vayu Lightsworns are turning out to be really good during testing. Combining in a Hand Destruction engine, it turns into a sacky deck that easily dishes out 8000 damage. I think in the future, this might turn out to be a viable combination. Can users give me some thoughts?

2|Lodt|Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
2|Lodt|Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2|Lodt|Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1|Lodt|Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1|Lodt|Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1|Lodt|Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
1|Lodt|Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1|Lodt|Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

2|Anpr|Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor
2|Crms|Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
1|Crms|Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

2|Lodt|Judgment Dragon
1|Ptdn|Dark Armed Dragon
1|Sd6|Chaos Sorcerer
1|Ptdnsp|Dark Grepher
1|Taev|Necro Gardna
1|Sdrl|Morphing Jar
1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie

3|Dp07|Hand Destruction
3|Lodt|Solar Recharge
1|Sdrl|Foolish Burial
1|Sd2|Heavy Storm
1|Sd5|Reinforcement of the Army
1|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness
1|Tdgs|Charge of the Light Brigade

2|Fet|Threatening Roar
2|Ast|Beckoning Light
1|Sd2|Torrential Tribute

2|Crms|Blackwing Armor Master
2|Rgbt|Blackwing Armed Wing
1|Sovr|Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant

1|Tdgs|Magical Android
1|Tdgs|Stardust Dragon
1|Tdgs|Goyo Guardian
1|Crms|Arcanite Magician
1|Csoc|Black Rose Dragon
1|5ds1|Colossal Fighter
1|Ha01|Mist Wurm
1|Tdgs|Red Dragon Archfiend
1|Ha01|Ally of Justice Catastor
1|Ha01|Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 
Hey Greater Ace,

When I saw dragon queen of tragic endings in ABPF, I dug through my old FOTB packs for this format.
It sort of revolves around ancient city rainbow ruins and diamond dude to get over the fact that your sp/trap zone will be clogged.

The Alchemy of Gems


Monsters-20

3xCrystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus
3xCrystal Beast Topaz Tiger
3xCrystal Beast Amethyst Cat
1xCrystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
2xCrystal Beast Amber Mammoth
1xStratos
1xMorphing Jar
2xDragon Queen of Tragic Endings
3x Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
1xTragoedia


Spells-17

3xAncient City - Rainbow Ruins
1xCrystal Abundance
1x Allure
3xCrystal Blessing
3xRare Value
2xCrystal Beacon
3xSmashing Ground
1x ROTA

Traps-3

1xTorrential Tribute
1xMirror Force
1x Transmigration Prophecy

Unfortunately, it hasn't tested well, so please help?

- atglobe aka skyphantom (on pojo that is)

A new Trend.

A lot of people have turned to Crystal Beast after the new release of Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings. She's a really powerful card who many people think has rejuvinated the Crystal Beast archetype. I personally want to break her elsewhere but hey it works fine in this too.

Diamond Dudes Suck.

Diamond Dude is really terrible in here. It sounds like a good idea but in reality, your Zones won't be that cluttered and there's no point stuffing in Diamond Dude. He's really terrible and you might sack into some extra draws but otherwise there is really no point playing him in this and he's actually probably the reason why this deck hasn't been testing well.

-3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
-1 Elemental Hero Stratos

Let's Stuff in the Rescue Cat Engine

Rescue Cat is incredible. Everybody played her at 3 when they good in CB. Then they played her at 2. And now they will play her at 1. The ability to instantly tutor 2 Amethyst Cat, or to make some kind of Synchro monster is incredible. To replace the old stuff, let's add in the CB stuff.

+3 X-Saber Airbellum
+1 Rescue Cat
+1 Summoner Monk (tutors Cat and also Sapphire Pegasus, wins games.)
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 A Different CB lineup would be better.

3x Crystal Beast - Sapphire Pegasus
2x Crystal Beast - Topaz Tiger
2x Crystal Beast - Amythyst Cat
2x Crystal Beast - Ruby Carbuncle
1x Crystal Beast - Amber Mammoth

3x Bad End Queen Dragon

I'm iffy on Tragoedia because of his major Glad problems.

Final Monster lineup.

3x Bad End Queen Dragon
3x X-Saber Airbellum
3x Crystal Beast - Sapphire Pegasus
2x Crystal Beast - Topaz Tiger
2x Crystal Beast - Amythyst Cat
2x Crystal Beast - Ruby Carbuncle
1x Crystal Beast - Amber Mammoth
1x Morphing Jar
1x Rescue Cat
1x Sangan
1x Summoner Monk

Backrow.

I'ma be upfront here. I don't know very much about the Crystal Beast support and Spells. I know that Ancient City is a beast card and that's about it. I also know the silly rulings and stuff because I played back in the brief hype they had. That's about all I don't know very much at all about the new supports and stuff, so I'm going to build a backrow based on what I used to see. There's a lot of filler in here I want to eliminate as well. I took this mostly from a friend of mine who knows a bit about CB.


3x Rare Value
3x Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins
3x Crystal Abundance
3x Crystal Beacon
3x Crystal Blessing
3x Crystal Promise

1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force

 
Joshua's Budget Fiend Beatdown Deck

Hi, my new room mates got me back into Yugioh after a two year hiatus, so I have no idea what cards are out and what I need to improve my deck. This is my current deck, after adhering to the new banlist (which screwed me over with the ban of Dimension Fusion and Snatch Steal). Cards marked filler are what I had to add in with no other choice since I can't find my old card folders. Assume a budget of 30 dollars I guess.

17 MONSTERS3x Giant Orc3x Archfiend Soldiers 1x Slate Warrior1x Spirit Reaper1x Twin Headed Behemoth (Filler)1x Sangan 1x Bazoo the Soul Eater (Filler) 1x Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World1x Goblin Elite Attack Force1x Twin Headed Wolf (Filler)1x Dark Ruler Ha Des 1x Dark Necrofear 1x Great Majuu Garzett13 SPELLS2x Nobleman of Crossout 2x Hammershot1x Heavy Storm1x Mystical Space Typhoon2x Fissure (Fillers)1x Creature Swap (Filler) 1x Nobleman of Extermination1x Giant Trunade (Filler)1x Swords of Revealing Light1x Autonomous Action Unit 10 TRAPS1x Call of the Haunted1x Deck Devestation Virus1x Dust Tornado (Filler) 1x Solemn Judgment1x Torrential Tribute1x Return from the Different Dimension1x Trap Dustshoot (Filler) 3x Drop Off (Filler)Wow, I did not notice how many traps I had until just now. So far my deck has beaten incomplete Tuner/Synchro decks with no problem, but is at odds with a Gemini deck. I'm thinking of adding in more Slate Warriors and another Dark Necrofear, and maybe starting a side deck with The End of Anubis as the main switch-in. So what do you think?
Don't you just love budget decks?

This is a Fiend Beatdown deck, but on a $30 Budget. As you may know, most Fiends hold a powerful attack arsenal. Joshua intends to make use of this arsenal in a deck. Let's see what fixes we can do.

Best Fiends Forever!

Lots of filler and lots of unnecessary cards, I see.

[-]1 Spirit Reaper: A great stall, but only so much nonetheless. It does have its hand control moments, but when using such methods, it leaves you wide open for massive damage. Also, when up against Gladiator Beasts, it can be attacked, then targetted by Murmillo for an instant pop. Not so much on the bright side here.

[-]1 Twin-Headed Behemoth: Filler, as well as no synergy in the deck.

[-]1 Bazoo the Soul Eater: Filler and not too practical as it messed with the Dark Necrofear strategy.

[-]1 Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World: 2100 DEF is great, but 2200 ATK is better.

[-]1 Twin Headed Wolf: You don't encounter too many Flip Effect monsters in the game anymore. Also filler.

[-]1 Dark Ruler Ha Des: This really only applies to searchers and cards like Newdoria and Yomi Ship. Impractical.

[-]1 Great Maju Garzett: Too many ways of taking this down and easily. A simple Trap Hole or Bottomless Trap Hole and you basically lost 2 monsters. Not good in many situations.

[+]3 Magical Merchant: LIGHT, floater, great for dumping Fiends into the Graveyard for Dark Necrofear and Pot of Avarice. It also helps you receive more Spell and Trap support. Excellent card.

[+]3 Wall of Illusion: Awesome effect. If a Gladiator Beast attacks it, the Gladiator Beast is sent back to the owner's hand before the Battle Phase ends, thus the Gladiator Beast tag will not happen. This card is also great for returning Synchros, Fusions, and hihg-leveled monsters. It also has decent DEF (1850).

[+]2 Dark Necrofear: With Magical Merchant dumping your Fiends to the Graveyard, this card will be a cinch to summon. It also has 2200 ATK AND 2800 DEF, not to mention its Brain Control effect.

[+]2 Goblin Elite Attack Force: Better version of Giant Orc and exceeds the meatiness of Archfiend Soldier.

[+]2 Slate Warrior: Like Archfiend Soldier except better. When Slate Warrior is destroyed by battle, the opposing monster loses 500 ATK and DEF permanently. Also, if you manage to Flip Summon Slate Warrior, its ATK becomes 2400.

[+]1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness:
Possibly game-breaking, prevents OTKs and losses, and top top it all off, it's a Fiend. Excellent card for this deck.

-1 Spirit Reaper
-1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
-1 Bazoo the Soul Eater
-1 Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World
-1 Twin-Headed Wolf
-1 Dark Ruler Ha Des
-1 Great Maju Garzett
+3 Magical Merchant
+3 Wall of Illusion
+2 Dark Necrofear
+2 Goblin Elite Attack Force
+2 Slate Warrior
+1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness


Spells Line-Up

Yet again, lots of filler and unnecessary cards.

[-]2 Nobleman of Crossout: Face-down monsters aren't worth the hassle. Taking a swing with your monster is better than using up one card for them. These have to go.

[-]2 Hammershot: Situational and can lead to the destruction of your own monsters. There are also better cards like Fissure and Smashing Ground.

[-]2 Fissure: Smashing Ground is better. Most stronger monsters have higher DEF, which Smashing Ground applies to. Also filler.

[-]1 Nobleman of Extermination: Your opponent can chain the card you target, which will most likely be a Trap card. It will not be negated. No point in playing this.

[-]1 Giant Trunade: You don't focus on OTKing your opponent, so this isn't worth putting in your deck. It'll most likely help your opponent more than it helps you. Also filler.

[-]1 Swords of Revealing Light: This simply isn't used anymore. It can be easily destroyed, and by then, you'll probably be knocked down to 0 LP.

[-]1 Autonomous Action Unit: This card will be quite inconsistent and won't work so well with your deck.

[+]1 Card Destruction: This is basically your only draw power. It's a good draw power, though, for it 1) sends Fiends from your hand to the Graveyard for Dark Necrofear's use, 2) refreshes your hand, and 3) may disrupt any combos your opponent may have have in his/her hand.

[+]3 Pot of Avarice: You'll have increased Graveyard input due to Magical Merchant. Use this for a +1 to your hand and to return a Grave'd Dark Necrofear to your Deck for reuse.

[+]3 Smashing Ground: This card is to replace your Hammer Shots and Fissures. Better than both most of the time.

-2 Nobleman of Crossout
-2 Hammershot
-2 Fissure
-1 Nobleman of Extermination
-1 Giant Trunade
-1 Swords of Revealing Light
-1 Autonomous Action Unit
+1 Card Destruction
+3 Pot of Avarice
+3 Smashing Ground


You can interchange between Creature Swap, Brain Control, and Autonomous Action Unit. It's your choice, really. Brain Control carves a pathway for a direct attack and disrupts your opponent's strategy. Creature Swap works quite well with Giant Orc and Goblin Elite Attack Force; after you attack, it is switched to Defense position, which you can abuse with Creature Swap to permanently take an opponent's monster while they're left with a useless monster. Autonomous Action Unit allows you to take your opponent's Synchros and Tribute Monsters from their Graveyard.

Traps Line-Up

A couple of things here:

[-]1 Dust Tornado:
Better in the Side Deck, and at 2. Trap Destruction won't be a problem until you run into certain cards that may annoy the hell out of you.

[-]1 Trap Dustshoot: This is better off in the Side Deck or out. What if you duel a deck whose hand count remains quite low? Not too practical in the long run.

[-]3 Drop-Off: There are really better cards. Mind Crush is better, as you can specifically name a card in your opponent's hand. This, it just comes down to luck. Also, you may help certain decks with their strategy if you use this.

[+]2 Hate Buster: Great card against a lot of decks. Take down bigger baddies, incoming Gladiator Beasts, and Honest/Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow users. You lose 2 cards, but they lose a combo card and LP. This works exceptionally well with Goblin Elite Attack Force and Giant Orc.

-1 Dust Tornado
-1 Trap Dustshoot
-3 Drop-Off
+2 Hate Buster


And to address the End of Anubis Side question: With the new decklist, you're better off not doing it. You'll be running a lot of cards that target cards in the Graveyard. The new decklist offers more beatsticks, a faster deck, and a more advantage.

Final Decklist (With Prices)

H = Have
C = Common ($0.25-$0.5) 11 C's in here = approx. $3-6

(Monsters: 23) 17 + 5C
3 Archfiend Soldier H
3 Dark Necrofear 2
3 Giant Orc H + 2C
3 Goblin Elite Attack Force H + 4
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 3
3 Magical Merchant 6
1 Sangan H
3 Slate Warrior H + 2
3 Wall of Illusion 3C

(Spells: 10) 9 + 4C
1 Card Destruction C
1 Creature Swap/Brain Control/Autonomous Action Unit H
1 Heavy Storm H
1 Mystical Space Typhoon H
3 Pot of Avarice 9
3 Smashing Ground 3C

(Traps: 7) 2C
1 Call of the Haunted H
1 Deck Devastation Virus H
2 Hate Buster 2C
1 Return from the Different Dimension H
1 Solemn Judgment H
1 Torrential Tribute H

Total Cost: Approx. $29-32

*Price range is due to varying prices in commons.

If you feel like it, try fitting in the following cards. (Bolded ones are highly recommended)
1 Chaos Sorcerer ($3)
1 Morphing Jar ($5)
1/2 My Body as a Shield ($5-10)2/3 Book of Moon ($6-9)
1 Tragoedia ($14)
 
Beatdown Synchro Deck:
Monsters : 18
Flamvell Magician 3
Rose, Warrior of Revenge 2
Mist Valley Soldier 1  (I WOULD have more, but this dude is hard to get)
Summoner Monk1
Tragoedia 1
Gorz 1
Stratos 1
Defender 2
Diamond 1
Fear Monger 2
Gravekeeper's Spy 3

Spells : 15
Brain Control 1
Mind Control 1
Gold Sarcophagus 1
Cold Wave 1
Heavy Storm 1
Scapegoat 1
Lightning Vortex 2
MST 1
Reinforcement of the Army 1
Book of Moon 2
Smashing Ground 2

Traps : 6
Solemn 1
Torrential Tribute 1
Call of the Haunted 1
Bottomless 1
Mirror Force 1
Royal Decree 1

What Synchros should I put in?

New Format DARK Synchro

A lot of people have converted from using the D-Hero Malicious stuff that used to be so effective for Synchros into stuff like this. However, D-Hero Malicious is still an incredible guy and even though you only have 1 D-Draw, you can always just bring him out with Tomato in order to Synchro. The guy made no mention of a budget, and he's including some fairly high-end cards like Gold Sarcophagus, Mirror Force, and Solemn Judgment. I'm going to assume a middle budget for this deck fix (being that he can spend an extra 150 on this deck.)

Why is Malicious still good?

People are assuming that Malicious is no longer good because there's no reliable way to dump him with Destiny Draw. However, tributing for Malicious, although rather crude, still works and gets off the +1. So does bringing him out with D-Draw. This format, the most effective way to use Malicious is in conjunction with a DARK Monarch style deck, running Caius the Shadow Monarch, Mystic Tomato, Krebons, and Malicious himself.

A Monster Analysis.

It seems to me that either Jonathan took out his Malicious for this inferior engine, or he never had them. In my opinion, they should be easy to get because of their low price now (I picked up a playset of this and a D-Draw/Stratos to trade for just 20 bucks today. All lowest rarities though.)

Fixes:
-2 Flamvell Magician
-2 Rose, Warrior of Revenge
-1 Mist Valley Soldier (Don't need to worry about getting more.)

4+4 isn't nearly as good as Monarch + 2 or Malicious + 2. The first way is a -1, the second way is a trade off that has been paid off. It should be obvious which one is better. Teching 1 Flamvell Magician doesn't seem too bad, so I'll keep it. The other LV 4 Tuners are far inferior - they fall to Bottomless before they can make Stardust.

-2 Destiny Hero - Defender
-1 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
-1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger

I'm keeping 1 Fear Monger to act as Malicious stuff and also as tribute fodder for Monarchs. It should work out nicely.

+3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
+2 Krebons
+2 Mystic Tomato
+2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
+1 Plaguespreader Zombie/Dark Armed Dragon <-- Replace with Psychic Commander if not possible.
+1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

This new monster line-up is looking much more vibrant. It can get off much more damage as well as being able to make Synchros that are already paid for, allowing advantages pushes.
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Backrow Analysis.

First cuts are Royal Decree for being not very good in here, and Gold Sarcophagus for not being really needed in this type of deck. There's nothing we really want to search that always remains relevant. I'm also cutting 1 copy of Lightning Vortex. I'm keeping in the other copy so that he has ways to dump Malicious and to recover from a swarm. Otherwise, it's not that great.

-1 Royal Decree
-1 Gold Sarcophagus
-1 Lightning Vortex
-2 Smashing Ground (Straight 1-1 is NOT what this deck needs.)

We now have 20 monsters, so there can only be 3 new Spells and Traps. The first Spell is Destiny Draw. It's still good with 5 targets (2x Malicious, 1x Stratos, 1x RotA, and 1x Fear Monger.) The next card is Book of Moon which provides excellent defense in this deck. The final new card is Emergency Teleport/Royal Oppression depending on what Jonathan wants - more defense or a quick offense.
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