I would like to start off this article by introducing myself and wishing everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. My name is Jeffrey Carr from Linthicum, Maryland and my local tournament stores are Front Row Sports Cards and Squabbles. I have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! since the original Yugi/Kaiba Starter Decks and Legend of Blue Eyes came out, and competitively since the infamous Troop Dupe Scoop Format. The game is constantly evolving and so are the decks being played, top tier and fun alike. I have always been a student of the game, looking at these decks studying their prominent points and the flaws that lead to losses. As the title says, in this article I will be talking about the “Watt” Archetype and why I believe it could see the success that other archetype decks, such as Dark World and Karakuri, are seeing.
The basic concept of Watts revolves around pluses being generated by floaters. The deck can also be taken into a lockdown style but after weeks of testing, this seemed to work to no avail. The main card in the Watt deck, and the catalyst for the resulting combos, is actually the newest, being debuted in the highly anticipated Photon Shockwave. Wattcobra is a level four, Light attribute, Thunder type, effect monster with 1000 attack and 500 defense. At first glance this may seem like another run of the mill floater, but Cobra’s effect is the component that really makes it shine. Wattcobra’s effect reads, “This card can attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent by a direct attack: Add 1 “Watt” monster from your Deck to your hand.” Wattcobra is a Watt themed search card that inflicts 1000 points of damage to your opponent, direct damage at that. Cards like Sangan and Spirit Reaper are being played more and more in face down defense position to either fetch a decks combo pieces or stall for those combo pieces. The direct swings can make these cards invalid during your battle phase, as long as you’re attacking with your Watts. Back to the search effect, after inflicting damage you can add another Watt to your hand can go +1 on your opponent. Going plus one means that you generate a one card advantage over your opponent, and usually the more pluses you have, the more outs or options you have. The search can also get the right Watt for the right job: Wattgiraffe to stop opposing backrows, Wattphesant to get rid of XYZ materials, a Wattdragonfly for defense, or another Wattcobra to continue plussing or putting pressure on your opponent. I will explain these monsters in more detail later, but now more about Cobra. Cobra and its plus combos nicely with another card from Photon Shockwave, Photon Lead. Photon Lead is a Quick Play Spell card with the effect, “Special Summon one level four or lower Light monster from your hand in face-up attack position.” The combo is to summon a Wattcobra and attack your opponent directly. If the attack is successful and the search is too, you can activate Lead to special summon the searched for monster, and attack directly with it (if you get another Cobra you can get an additional search). In Main Phase Two, you can overlay the two Watts for a Rank four XYZ monster such as Steelswarm Roach or Number 39: Utopia. A two card combo has netted you an XYZ monster and another search if you summoned another Wattcobra off Lead. This play puts a large amount of pressure on your opponent, forcing your opponent to waste a power card such as Dark Hole or Caius the Shadow Monarch to get over your XYZ. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Wattcobra plays, and when the very anticipated Number 16: Ruler of Color – Shock Ruler comes out in the next set, Order of Chaos, this combo with a second Lead or with another level four monster already on the board can almost bring about the end of the game on the spot. As you can see, Wattcobra is a pretty electric card that can really generate combos and advantage that the Watt deck never had prior to its release.
Wattcobra isn’t the only card in the archetype; a large supporting cast helps to propel this card to survive, or to maximize the use of it. Wattgiraffe is a level four, Light attribute, Thunder type, effect monster with 1200 attack points and 100 defense points. Giraffe’s effect reads, “This card can attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent as a result of a direct attack, your opponent cannot activate the effects of any Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster Cards until the End Phase of this turn.” The effect to stop opposing card effects can initiate a flurry of direct Watt attacks, without concern of opposing cards effects, to counter your attacks such as Dimensional Prison or Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness. If your opponent does counter Wattgiraffe with a Dimensional Prison, you can be surer in a Cobra-Lead play going off without problem, generating the minor advantage that the deck loves to play off of.
Along with Giraffe, Watts have another direct attacker and strong effect in their arsenal. The before mentioned Wattphesant is a level four Light attribute monster with 1000 attack points and 800 defense points. Pheasants’ effect reads, “This card can attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent by a direct attack, select 1 face-up monster on the field and remove it from play until the End Phase of this turn.” The effect may seem subpar, and in some aspects yes, it is. When you think about this effect though, and what the current meta is like, you can remove a Gachi Gachi or a Wind-Up Zenameines and its XYZs materials and then have them come back at the End Phase with less power than they would otherwise have. First turn Venus or Tour Guide plays are very common and opening with a Wattphesant, or hitting one off of a Duality, can really cripple the set-up that the Agent or Plant player would hope could stay on the field long enough so they could go and get their combo pieces.
The final Watt monster that I am going to talk about is Wattdragonfly. Wattdragonfly is a level two, Light attribute, Thunder type, effect monster with 900 attack points and 100 defense points. Dragonfly’s effect reads, “If this card is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by card effect), you can Special Summon 1 "Watt" monster from your Deck.” This card is very similar to XX-Saber Emmersblade in many aspects, but it is better due to the fact that it can special summon a Watt monster when destroyed by a card effect. A common play that can occur is to summon a Dragonfly, attack into a Tour guide, or suicide into a Gachi boosted Shine Ball in attack mode, and special summon a Wattcobra. The before mentioned Cobra-Lead play now becomes a live possibility if you have Lead in your hand, just for 100 life points. Dead dragonflies can also fill your grave for a live Pot of Avarice or a Recycling Batteries to go off and give you a plus one.
Four cards don’t make a deck, but the Watt archetype has many untheamed support cards that give it the strength to be played on a competitive level. The most obvious card here is Honest. Honest gives a player the confidence to summon a Cobra, get a plus (assuming we don’t have Photon Lead in hand here) and be able live on to fight another turn. Another support card that can be played is Maxx “C”. Since YCS Columbus, with ARG writer Billy Brake taking home the title using plants with three Maxx “C” in the main deck, maining multiple copies of Maxx “C” is now somewhat standard, and it works well in the Watt deck also. When a Plant or Agent player goes off on a combo turn one, chaining Maxx “C” can draw you the outs, or even the cards to go off on a combo off you own. Thunder King Rai-Oh is another valuable tool, due to the fact that it is Light Attribute for a possible Honest boost, level four for another possible XYZ material, and is arguably one of the strongest openings, and cards, in the current meta at the moment. The immensely played Reborn Tengu is another option due to the fact that it is a generic floater, which draws out the Dimensional Prisons and Solemn Warnings that you don’t want your Watt monsters to run into. Tengu is also a level four meaning that it combos nicely with the other level fours in the deck in going for a Rank four XYZ monster. Sangan has to be the best floater out there, being able to fetch any Watt monster, or even an Honest, and should definitely be a staple monster, meaning obvious choice, for any Watt deck. Recycling Batteries does just as the card’s name states, it adds two Thunder type monsters with 1500 or less attack from your graveyard to your hand, an instant plus one. This can recycle the linchpin monster of the deck, Wattcobra, for another round of combos, searches, and XYZ summons. Pot of Avarice is very similar, only it can recycle your Honest, Sangan, Maxx “C”s, Tengus, or Thunder Kings that Batteries cannot. Gorz the Emissary of Darkness provides a very good surprise factor in the deck, seeing that backrows such as Threatening Roar, to protect your low attack Watts, or MSTs can be easily chained allowing clear fields for a surprise Gorz drop. Gozen Match in the side deck (you would want to side out Gorz) can really cripple an opponent’s field, and really does minimal to no damage to yours. I personally love the card, as it single handedly won game two against Jerry Williams this past week at locals. He was stuck with a Tengu, and had already gone through his other two, that wouldn’t die due to direct attacks by my Watts. Jerry couldn’t get another Wind attribute monster to go for a Synchro Summon- a clear demonstration of how powerful the card can be in games two or three against the highly feared Synchrocentric match-up. The final card I am going to talk about is Pot of Duality. Duality can search combo pieces such as Photon Lead or Wattcobra, or can get power-cards to change the flow of the game such as Dark Hole or Heavy Storm. Duality is luck based, but it can pay off with little downfall, due to the fact the deck doesn’t special summon much outside of XYZ summons and with Tengu’s effect. As you can clearly see the deck can easily be taken in many different directions, and has enough options to suit any players’ play style.
In summary, Watts are a very flexible and upcoming deck that can begin to see success at upcoming events. From veteran players to beginners the deck can be played by everyone, and has enough support to be adapted to easily. The deck can also be very budget, not having to run expensive cards such as Tour Guide of the Underworld or Rescue Rabbit. While writing this article ARG writer Robert Boyajian wrote an article deck doctoring Watts. In his build he plays Watts much like an Anti-Meta deck, including Watthoppers. Personally I don’t like Watthopper due to the fact that it can’t attack directly, but his list clearly shows the diversity the deck has. I look forward to testing his list and also a list I am writing using D.D. Crows and other Chaos cards, maybe even going as far as incorporating the upcoming Chaos field spell and Malific monsters. How this testing will go, I don’t know yet, time will tell, but I do hope to write about it in another article. Before I conclude I would like to give some thank-you’s to Indy Green and Brandon Hare for helping me to test and learn to love this archetype, Josh Everly, Colin Berman, and the Allen Brothers for teaching me how to play this game competitively, and Alter Reality Games for giving me the opportunity to post this article about a deck I feel very strongly about on a website with names such as Billy Brake, Frazier Smith, and Ryan Spicer- players I’ve idolized and now have gotten the chance to meet at YCS Columbus. So Watt deck will you be playing after reading this article?
Until Next Time,
Jeffrey Carr
Check out my Youtube Channel for Duels and Deck Profiles of My Watt Deck
www.youtube.com/mdvayu1
Latest posts by Jeffrey Carr (see all)
- Choosing Watt Deck to Play - December 19, 2011
Get
Connected