I played an interesting Monarch deck a few days ago, made by wlsack from Pojo. It was an old Adam Corn-style build that ran several other interesting cards, most notably Tragoedia. It also included Skelengel, allowing for a Chaos Sorcerer or 2. I personally recommended Black Salvo (for the free Black Rose) but he thought it was unneeded. His logic also included the conflicts with Royal Oppression. Personally, I would play it because of how if you don't have Oppression out, you will probably lose, and Salvo offers an option out of it.
The version I'm showing is going to include that tech.
Decklist.
3|Rds|Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive 3|Ysd|Skelengel 3|Jump|Tragoedia 2|Ioc|Chaos Sorcerer 2|Sdde|Caius the Shadow Monarch 2|Rds|Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch 1|Crms|Black Salvo 1|Pp01|Marshmallon 1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie 1|Crms|Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind 1|Mrd|Sangan 1|Pgd|Spirit Reaper
3|Pgd|Book of Moon 2|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness 1|Tlm|Brain Control 1|Mrd|Heavy Storm 1|Mrl|Mystical Space Typhoon
For people who don't know what Cornarch is, it's a Monarch deck that ran 3x Allure of Darkness, 3x Reckless Greed, 3x Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive, and 2x Mask of Darkness. This was during the Tele-DAD era, where all that speed was needed to keep up.
However, these days, running a slightly slower deck would probably be more beneficial if we can incorporate more power into it. Also, Allure is at 2, so the whole concept of "I can RFG Mask if it doesn't work" isn't as consistent anymore.
The main engine: The main engine consists of Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive and Skelengel, both of which are played in triplicate. This leads to a very strong draw engine, which fuels Tragoedia and Chaos Sorcerer. When I was playing against this deck, I was mostly on the defensive after he dropped a 3600 Tragoedia. Tragoedia is oftentimes strong enough to swing for game, especially with all the drawing involved in here.
Monarchy: The Monarchs are two copies of Caius the Shadow Monarch and two copies of Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. These are probably the best Monarchs this format. Caius has a strong effect and is an Allure target. Thestalos is great hand control. Some people might want Raiza in place of Thestalos however, because they are afraid of Thestalos discarding cards that like the Graveyard. Personally, I feel that that risk is minimal and insignificant. Thestalos is superior.
Synchros: wlsack is running a decent Synchro engine. It includes a Plaguespreader Zombie and a Gale the Whirlwind. These are just the basic Tuners, so there isn't any spectacular Synchros coming out of this deck, but it is still competent in that area.
I included a copy of Black Salvo over his Cyber Dragon in here, and I feel obliged to explain why. Cyber Dragon for a Monarch is a rather poor play, and I can understand that it being LIGHT is good, but I feel that running 4 LIGHT isn't much different from 5.
You should only play Black Salvo after you are losing, and you should only be making a Black Rose. Hopefully, you can get a +2/3 off of it, especially after you Waboku a huge rush.
Spell and Trap Analysis
This is mainly going to focus on the Traps, since the Spells are standard. We have Book of Moon to re-use Flip effects, to cancel big Synchro plays, and to save your life. We also have the standard staples, Heavy, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Brain Control. Allure because it wouldn't be Cornarch without it, and we need to have some form of draw.
About the traps, there's only one that matters. Waboku. The rest is pretty standard anti-meta, Oppression stops swarms, Bottomless is a good field controller, Dustshoot wins if you rip it first turn, Mirror Force and Torrential are good field-controllers, Solemn wins the game if you play it correctly.
Waboku is, in wlsack's words, "The best non-OTK card in the game at the moment." If you have this card face-down, you are guaranteed that you will not lose the duel that turn. It also sets up for a Black Rose wipe after, or something similar. It helps deck poor LS players out, and stops Honests and Kaluts. You can splash it in any deck and will NOT be disappointed.
Merchant Pot Turbo is a deck based upon the synergy between 3 cards, Magical Merchant, Chaos Sorcerer, and Pot of Avarice. The theory is that Magical Merchant mills a lot of cards into the Grave (you are going to play playing probably 20-30 monsters, and only using staple Spell and Traps.) Chaos Sorcerer can easily be summoned, and Pot of Avarice can easily be used. That way, you can get easy +1's. This deck was literally HUGE in Japan in around 2005 or so. Unfortunately, the banning of Chaos Sorcerer and the restriction of Pot of Avarice gave this deck a CRUSHING set-back. Fortunately, all the things that made it HUGE are now back, so it might be a solid contender this format.
A friend of mine showed me some cool builds, which he is considering taking to Regs.
Strengths of the Merchant Pot Turbo deck.
Merchant Pot Turbo is incredibly fast. It runs a grand total of 5 draw 2 cards, (3 Pot of Avarice, 2 Allure of Darkness.) It also runs a lot of powerful deck thinners. (Magical Merchant and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter.) The whole deck decks itself out at a rate almost parallel to Lightsworns. In fact, for people who enjoy the Lightsworn mechanic, but cannot afford the deck, I strongly recomend Merchant Pot Turbo, or MPT.
In addition, Merchant Pot Turbo has access to many powerful boss monsters. Some builds even go so far as to incorporate Cyber Eltanin and Cyber Valley + Cyber Dragon to play 3 more bosses. The deck also has access to 3 Tragoedia, allowing it to drop Monarchs with ease. Tragoedia is basically a Spell card, but is treated as a monster. Cards like Tragoedia, Gorz, and later on Battle Fader will be extremely viable in MPT.
It's basically Monarchs on crack. My friend's version plays 6 Monarchs (3x Caius and 3x Raiza/Thestalos) This build is probably even faster than the famed Perfect Circle, and especially since the deck is basically dead now, MPT is the fastest Monarch variant.
MPT is extremely difficult to side against. After viewing the lists, it should be pretty obvious why.
Weaknesses of the Merchant Pot Turbo deck.
The whole deck is highly reactive. It can't do much most of the time, and prefers to have the opponent commit resources (so all your destruction cards can wreck them.) Also, having a boss dropped on you is devastating, and without smart play, you WILL lose. MPT doesn't pilot itself at all, and you need to make lots of smart decisions to play it properly.
Why play MPT over LS? This is another big issue. MPT's main plusses are Monarchs and Pot of Avarice. (Not counting the occasional Cyber Eltanin.) Otherwise, LS has all of MPT's benefits. (Except MPT can play out of Light-Imprisoning/similar with far more ease.) G1, LS will be superior 10/10. Pot and Monarchs pale in comparison to JD.
An ideal Merchant Pot Turbo build.
3|Sdde|Caius the Shadow Monarch 3|Fotb|Raiza the Storm Monarch 3|Lodt|Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter 3|Mfc|Magical Merchant 3|Jump|Tragoedia 2|Ioc|Chaos Sorcerer 1|Tp2|Morphing Jar 1|Jump|Dandylion 1|Soi|Treeborn Frog 1|Mrd|Sangan 1|Dp03|Card Trooper 1|Csoc|Plaguespreader Zombie 1|Ptdn|Dark Armed Dragon 1|Dlg1|Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3|Een|Pot of Avarice 2|Ptdn|Allure of Darkness 1|Sdy|Card Destruction 1|Tlm|Brain Control 1|Sdj|Scapegoat 1|Mrd|Heavy Storm 1|Sdp|Mystical Space Typhoon
2|Cp04|Bottomless Trap Hole 1|Mrd|Solemn Judgment 1|Mrd|Mirror Force 1|Lon|Torrential Tribute
I am probably a bit biased. This is my friend's deck. However, a lot of players agree that this is one of the best ways to play Merchant this format. Other people prefer the Cyber Eltanin version, as shown on the Player's Legacy boards. That version is also very strong, and I will probably make an article on it later.
The main difference in this deck is Raiza. Raiza is incredible, and provides very solid field control. Although some people might prefer running Thestalos, I would seriously suggest Raiza. After this deck is stopped by something like Mirror Force, you are going to have a hard time making a come-back. Thsi deck needs a lot of field presence, and Raiza + Caius is definitely the best way to go for it.
Why is this deck good (over other MPT builds?)
The answer is Tragoedia. Tragoedia is incredible, and it allows you to play so many Monarchs. Trag also helps early game when you struggle to establish field presence and have a lot of cards in the grave. He's basically a Spell card that stops OTK's that CAN be milled by Magical Merchant. It also synergizes with Pot of Avarice. My friend is playing 3 Battle Fader when it comes out. If another card like that is printed, he will play it too. (Ogre of Scarlet Sorrow doesn't work since he needs 2 attacks. This will rarely occur.)
A very solid milling base. It basically lets you open with a miller every game. This is key to success.
"Magic:" A lot of cards in here act like they were Spells. These cards are critical since they get milled by Merchant but don't make your deck not have spell power. Those cards are Monarchs, Tragoedia, and Battle Fader (which will go in over Card Destruction, Scapegoat, and probably Solemn Judgment when it comes out.) These cards are very key. More abound in the side deck (which features D.D. Crow.)
The problem with Necro: Necro is highly suggested in this deck. A problem is that if you draw it you basically lose. There's already too many dead draw-esque cards like Pot of Avarice and extra Merchants. I don't think that running more is the way to go.
Spells and Traps
These are to be minimalized, and ran in as few as possible, so Merchant can mill more.
The new hot deck is Kristya LS. A fun thing I like to do is to tech 1 Fairy in place of the horrendous Shire. Shire is just used as a Chargeable Fairy. I find it much better to use one of my personal teches instead of Shire, since being Chargeable isn't THAT good, and it's mostly a dead card.
1. Asura Priest This + Honest is a 2 card Raigeki with damage. Pretty potent combo. It can also be used as a game winner with Beckoning. Also swings over Banisher of the Radiance.
2. Herald of Orange Light This is like your Divine Wrath Honest. It's a discard/-1, but it's very versatile. Stop that DAD, or just seal game with this and Celestia/Honest in hand. It's also a Tuner.
3. Victoria Honesteable, and steals Stardusts and Red Dragon Archfiends. Also wrecks Disaster Dragons. This one is more the side, but maining him is somewhat fun.
4. Third Celestia Does everything your other Celestias do, is a third Fairy, and last of all, it gives you more game winning options (important if JD gets limited.) I would play 3 regardless, to be honest.
Blackwings aren't doing very well competitively right now. Hopefully, this changes with The Shining Darkness, as it releases Breeze the Gentle Wind and Blackwing Treasure, two cards which will give Blackwings a big boost. I'm going to list some fun tech cards for BW that I've thought up of, but they may not be very good. I think that it might be worth doing a lot of random things to see what works best. A basic tenet though, for BW, is you have to run 3x Shura, Bora, Kalut, and 1x Gale as basically the necessities. On Pojo, I saw someone using 1x Bora (for less clogged hands) this is a really bad idea since Bora gives high BWW searches. He also did 2x Shura, and 2x Kalut in other builds. I have no idea why he would want to do that. I'm pretty sure that altering the number of BW's played isn't the best course of action. I really shouldn't be bashing on him though since a lot of my teches are kinda weird too.
My first idea is Blackwings + Tragoedia. This idea was inspired by Jae Kim. The logic is that by having BWW, all your Blackwings float, keeping Trag's attack high. You can also tutor for the level you want to steal, as there are a lot of commonly played 2/3/4's. I added Reckless Greed, allowing you to draw more. It's also a Sakuretsu when used with Tragoedia. Last of all, it can help you hit Black Whirlwind, and etc. The skipping 2 draw phases might be a turn-off, so I guess you could try Jar of Greed.I tested this deck and it did moderately well against the other top decks. It really gave Blackwings a speed boost. However, other players (particularly CuDi`) would prefer Jar of Greed in the spot.
Tragoedia also helps stop the OTK's that are running around this format, so good card.
The next idea isn't really that great but it's worth mentioning. It's Mask of Darkness. Mask lets you recycle your Icarus Attacks, Royal Oppressions, and the staple Traps. It sounds decent in theory, but it might flop. I learned about this idea from 25Strat. Not to sure about this idea, but it's worth a mention. It would be better if Crush was still around.
However, Blackwings run a lot of Trap cards, so it might be a pretty decent idea to main.
Mask of Darkness isn't that bad of a card though, and it's a 1-1. The list that 25Strat used contained only a single teched copy of Mask of Darkness. If I were to try the deck out, I would use 2 copies for more consistency (and also so I could see what actually happens due to the inclusion.
Light-Imprisoning Mirror is actually pretty good in BW. By maining it, you can defeat Lightsworn and anti-meta decks more easily. It also is effective against Chaos builds, especially those that use Ryko (which is the majority of the competitive ones.)
I would think about maining 2 Light-Imprisoning Mirror in Blackwings. It helps defeat LS, pretty much the dominant deck of the format, and it also beats a lot of other ones. Too bad it makes you weaker against Zombies (since it is a totally dead card then.)
The last tech I have is Banisher of the Radiance. This card pretty much destroys the meta. Unfortunately, he has a relatively low attack score - 1600. His associate, Banisher of the Light, has 100 attack and 2000 defense. That's too slow, since by the time you set it, LS can already wreck you, and so can ZOMBIES. wlsack has suggested playing triple Banisher with triple Waboku. This might become good. In theory, it should smash the top decks, but it might not work as well in practice.
Recently starting my own Yu-Gi-Oh! blog and hopefully this will grow really big. First post.
I'ma introduce myself, I'm a big GB fan, not going to show my real name on the internet though. Recently, Gladiator Beasts made it big at the Shonen, recieving a Top 16. This was the first Gladiator Beast top the whole format. It was an innovative anti-meta GB. I heard some rumors saying that See Yeem bribed/cheated to get his spot, but I disagree. He put up a decent fight in his Top 16 match, and also, there is little to no actual proof that he cheated, other than people bashing his decklist.
The decklist: See Huang Yeem
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1 Gladiator Beast Darius 2 Gladiator Beast Equeste 1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1 Gladiator Beast Retiari 1 Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 3 Gladiator Beast Laquari 1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind 1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Smashing Ground 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 3 Gladiator Proving Ground 3 Shrink 2 Book of Moon 2 Fissure 1 Brain Control
1 Torrential Tribute 1 Mirror Force 1 Solemn Judgment 2 Bottomless Trap Hole 3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2 Dimensional Prison 2 Waboku 1 Dust Tornado 1 Call of the Haunted
His side was typical, but it included Heavy Storm, not to mention Banisher of the Radiance and Icarus Attack as other interesting choice.
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1 Gladiator Beast Darius 2 Gladiator Beast Equeste 1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1 Gladiator Beast Retiari 1 Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 3 Gladiator Beast Laquari 1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind 1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
This is a somewhat typical lineup for Anti-meta GB. An interesting decision he made is that he opted to side Kycoos instead of maining them. This was something I found rather strange. A good choice he made was maining Gale, making siding Icarus a lot easier. Since my version won't be siding Icarus however, we can take that out (to make room for Kycoo. Kycoo is such a good card in today's meta. Another good option for this is, surprisingly, a single teched Test Tiger. Drawing 2 Test Tiger will often lead to losing the game, but with 1, you can drop Bestiari and potentially OTK or at least wipe the board. Since this new Anti-meta variant is based on consistency, Test Tiger in 1 is a smart option. Another thing I noticed was that he used Gladiator Beast Laquari in triplicate. I would prefer having it at 2, since it's not as critical to tag in and out as it is to drop Kycoo to stop GY options and Necros (which hurt GB.)
-1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind -1 Gladiator Beast Laquari
+2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer +1 Test Tiger
Now, we have 16 Monsters. This is one more than See Yeem's 15. However, Test Tiger is more or less a S/T, so we're still even here.
1 Smashing Ground 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 3 Gladiator Proving Ground 3 Shrink 2 Book of Moon 2 Fissure 1 Brain Control
Now, we move onto Yeem's spells. Something that immediately strikes me as something I wouldn't play is Shrink of Book of Moon. Book of Moon is a lot more versatile than Shrink. For my own playstyle, I would play 3x Book, and 0 Shrink. Another card I don't like is Fissure and Smashing Ground. 1-1's fail to cut it this format because swarms often consist of 3-4 monsters, and you'd need to drop all your 1-1's to fix it.
Instead, we should play something like Dimensional Fissure or Ancient Forest, cards that are pretty good in the main. Personally, I like D-Fissure. D-Fissure is like Kycoo in Spell form. It helps to wreck the meta, which is highly Graveyard reliant. D-Fissure won't conflict with Gorz, because they need to kill the backrow in order for them to attack/SS monsters, because they can't summon/or do anything with D-Fissure on the field. 2 is optimal in my opinion, since drawing 2 is kinda dead, and the deck doesn't rely on D-Fissure at all.
A popular tech card this format is My Body as a Shield. It can also stop them from Bottomlessing Besti. I would main 1. Heavy Storm is always needed in the main unless you are really Continous heavy. (2 isn't heavy.) I understand that Yeem kept it sided for the bluff factor (to stop them from overextending their backrow in fear that he was holding Storm) but I prefer actually having a physical impact on the field.
-3 Shrink -3 Fissure -1 Smashing Ground
+2 D-Fissure +1 Book of Moon +1 My Body as a Shield +1 Heavy Storm
Now, we have 11 Spells. That's a fairly solid number. Keep in mind that right now, we have 27 cards overall.
1 Torrential Tribute 1 Mirror Force 1 Solemn Judgment 2 Bottomless Trap Hole 3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2 Dimensional Prison 2 Waboku 1 Dust Tornado 1 Call of the Haunted
Yeem has 14 Traps. Since having 40 cards is very important, we need to cut one. I would say Mirror Force gets the cut. I like the card a lot, but it's weak to Brionacs. Also, I would play 3x Waboku, 2x War Chariot, since I would like to tag out more than negating effects, and only 2 are needed anyways.
I like Yeem's Dust Tornado tech to clear the backrow of Royal Oppression in case he plays anti-meta. It can also be used to set Chariot, etc in the end so he can play it. Brilliant tech there.
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 2x Thunder King Rai-Oh 2x Gladiator Beast Laquari 2x Gladiator Beast Equeste 1x Gladiator Beast Murmillo 1x Gladiator Beast Hoplomus 1x Gladiator Beast Retiari 1x Gladiator Beast Darius 1x Gladiator Beast Bestiari 1x Test Tiger 1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
3x Gladiator Proving Ground 3x Book of Moon 2x Dimensional Fissure 1x Brain Control 1x Heavy Storm 1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Waboku 2x Gladiator Beast War Chariot 2x Dimensional Prison 2x Bottomless Trap Hole 1x Torrential Tribute 1x Dust Tornado 1x Solemn Judgment 1x Call of the Haunted
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