Hey ARG Readers, I’m back again for my first “official” deck doctor article. We’ve got a couple of cool submissions this week, so let’s get right into it. Our first deck is from Cristopher Ramos. Let’s get right into it.
Monsters 32:
Tragoedia x2
Judgment Dragon x3
Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning x1
Lightray Gearfried x3
Lightray Diabolos x3
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness x1
Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior x1
Jain, Lightsworn Paladin x1
Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress x2
Ehren, Lightsworn Monk x1
Honest x1
Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid x1
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner x2
Card Trooper x2
Maxx "C" x2
Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2
Magical Merchant x1
Effect Veiler x3
Spells 8:
Solar Recharge x3
Heavy Storm x1
Dark Hole x1
Pot of Avarice x1
Monster Reborn x1
Charge of the Light Brigade x1
Extra Deck:
Scrap Dragon
Stardust Dragon
Ally of Justice Catastor x1
Armory Arm x1
Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis x1
Number 11: Big Eye x1
Number 39: Utopia x1
Maestroke the Symphony Djinn x1
Abyss Dweller x1
Gagaga Cowboy x1
Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction x1
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon x1
Number 20: Giga-Brilliant x1
Leviair the Sea Dragon x1
Wind-Up Zenmaines x1
Ok, so this is pretty similar to old-school Lightsworn lists, but with a new twist from the Lightray monsters to give you some extra bosses. The goal of the deck is going to be overwhelming them with numerous large monsters, much like the Chaos Dragon deck does. However, your monsters are higher impact, since they have meaningful effects. There is a trade-off though, as your monsters are also much more difficult to summon than the monsters out of the Chaos Dragon deck. The main problem I see in the list is that it has difficulty getting to its extremely powerful boss-fueled endgame.
The first cut I’m going to make is I’ll cut 2 of the Lightray Gearfrieds, leaving you with a 1-of. The card is good, though the deck already plays a lot of cards that are dead early on, and in this kind of deck I’d value early game consistency over late game explosiveness. Mostly because of the very high natural power level of the deck since it has Judgment Dragon. I cut this instead of the Diabolos just because removing their defenses are more important than locking out their spells in this kind of deck.
I really don’t think Effect Veiler is a good card right now. Versus Water, you’re maybe going to hit a Moulinglacia, possibly stop a Megalo from attacking twice. Versus Chaos Dragon it’s doing practically nothing. The only deck it does much of anything against is Rabbit, where you can negate their, well, Rabbit, but even then the deck mains Macro Cosmos, completely making your Veilers dead. I’m cutting all 3, even though they have synergy with the Lightray monsters.
It might seem like a weird cut, considering how easily you put monsters into your graveyard, but Pot of Avarice is hugely out of place here. Your end goal is to load up your graveyard to summon boss monsters, which directly conflicts with Pot of Avarice returning them to your deck. Having a loaded graveyard in this deck is worth much, much more than one extra card is. Avarice is at its best when returning the cards to the deck is a benefit, rather than a cost, such as with Reborn Tengu, or Wind-up monsters. By the time Avarice is live for you, you’re already in a good position.
So in summary, here are the cuts:
-2 Lightray Gearfried
-3 Effect Veiler
-1 Pot of Avarice
Now we have to add cards. I was talking earlier about surviving the early game, and while they aren’t fun to draw, Necro Gardna is an exceptional card. Gardna and Honest are how the original Lightsworn decks managed to survive the early game, and keep their milling engines alive. He filled his role well, and he seems like he’d fill his role very well in here as well. I’m adding three copies.
Your deck has a huge problem with Macro Cosmos game 1, while I’m sure you side Mystical Space Typhoons to combat this, a little more hate in the main can’t hurt, especially when it’s just another copy of Lyla, and another copy of Ryko. This addition both increases your number of answers to maindeck macro, and helps load your graveyard earlier by playing more monsters that mill versus the decks that don’t have Macro. It either helps your bad matchups, or makes your engine more consistent.
The final addition is going to be one copy of Monster Reincarnation to replace the Pot of Avarice. While Reincarnation is a minus in card advantage, this is very deceptive, as discarding can often beneficial for this deck, which plays Necro Gardnas, and runs off of the graveyard. Judgment Dragon is also worth much more than one card, so really even if you need to pitch a real card, the advantage the Dragon can gain heavily outweighs any minus you’re taking. Milling your boss monsters isn’t usually a good thing, but Reincarnation can act as a Monster Reborn for your Judgment Dragons, or Lightray monsters.
So overall, there are a lot of different directions you could take this deck. One that I was entertaining for awhile was cutting all of the spells and just going straight 40 monster with Gallis+Birdman as a secondary milling engine. Another idea is cutting most of the hand traps and just playing real traps. This option is notable because it gives you access to Beckoning Light, a card that was extremely powerful in older Lightsworn lists, and I can’t imagine it isn’t just as good in here. I’m not sure how much I like the 1-of Magical Merchant, but you said in your post that you liked it, so I didn’t touch it.
The additions in summary:
+3 Necro Gardna
+1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
+1 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
+1 Monster Reincarnation
With cutting the Effect Veilers, you can also cut the Synchros from the Extra deck. It isn’t especially important what you cut them for, so I’ll just let you decide what to add. It might even be reasonable to keep them in just in case you Monster Reborn a tuner from your opponent.
As far as the sidedeck goes, you’ll definitely want Mystical Space Typhoons for Dimensional Fissures and Macro Cosmos. Siding Effect Veiler for the matchups where it’s high impact is something you can do as well. Gozen Match for Wind-up is a cool option, since there is a solid chance that the wind-up player sides out most of their spell/trap destruction, so even though it becomes your only trap, it’s still difficult for them to deal with.
Moving on to the next decklist, this one submitted by Kyle Forga:
Monsters: 14
Elemental Hero Avian x3
Elemental Hero Burstinatrix x3
Elemental Hero Clayman x2
Elemental Hero Sparkman x2
Elemental Hero Ocean x1
Elemental Hero Stratos x1
Elemental Hero Wildheart x2
Spells: 18
Dark Fusion x3
Polymerization x2
Super Polymerization x2
Miracle Fusion x2
Mystical Space Typhoon x2
Dark Hole x1
Heavy Storm x1
Monster Reborn x1
Book of Moon x1
E- Emergency Call x2
Reinforcement of the Army x1
Traps: 8
Torrential Tribute x1
Mirror Force x1
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Solemn Judgment x1
Solemn Warning x2
Starlight Road x1
Extra:
Evil Hero Inferno Wing
Evil Hero Infernal Sniper
Evil Hero Wild Cyclone
Elemental Hero Flame Wingman
Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman
Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
Elemental Hero Nova Master
Elemental Hero Great Tornado
Elemental Hero Gaia
Elemental Hero the Shining
Elemental Hero Escuridao
Stardust Dragon
Maestroke The Symphony Djinn
Photon Papilloperative
Wind-up Zenmaines
Kyle submitted this interesting list, calling it Hero Burn. There is actually a very cool combo using heroes you can use to kill your opponent using Fusion Gate, Chain Material, Elemental Hero Electrum, and Blaze Phoenix the Burning Bombardment Bird. I want to add this combo in, but I don’t want to take out the Evil Hero stuff that makes this deck what it is, and fun for you.
The initial cuts I’m going to make are the 4 Polymerizations, and the 2 Miracle Fusions. These are going to be replaced with other spells which fill a similar purpose, but also enable the Blaze Phoenix kill. Super Poly is a great card for controlling the opponent’s field, however cuts need to be made.
Both of the Wildhearts, and the Ocean are also being cut from the monsters to make room for other things. They don’t really fit in with the deck, and while Wild Cyclone is good, it isn’t worth maining cards like Wildheart.
From the traps, I’m taking out the Starlight Road. This deck is neither reliant on extending its backrow, nor its monster zones. Starlight isn’t necessary in here.
The cuts in summary:
-2 Polymerization
-2 Super Polymerization
-2 Miracle Fusion
-2 Elemental Hero Wildheart
-1 Elemental Hero Ocean
-1 Starlight Road
From the beginning my goal was to add the Blaze Phoenix kill into this deck, though I never explained how it works. What happens is you activate Chain Material, which lets you send monsters from anywhere (deck included) for fusion summoning. Then you use your Fusion Gate to make a Blaze Phoenix the Burning Bombardment Bird, removing a machine type monster (which we’ll be adding in a moment) and a pyro monster (which we’ll also be adding) You then remove another machine, and the Blaze Phoenix you just summoned for another Blaze Phoenix. After that, you make an Elemental Hero Electrum, shuffling your removed from play pile back into your deck. Then to complete the loop, you make an Elemental Hero the Shining with the Electrum, and another hero. You then deal infinite burn damage to your opponent with infinite Bombardment Birds.
So now we need to add cards in order to enable this gameplan. First we’ll add the 3 copies of Fusion Gate. Not only does Fusion Gate help with the combo, but you can also use it to loop Shinings. Then we’ll add in the 3 Chain Materials.
Then we have to add in the machine type monsters. You have a couple of options here. Card Car D is definitely the best option, though that might be a bit outside of your budget. You could also play Swift Scarecrow in this slot, or Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. They all fill the same role of being a machine for the Burning Bird, while also getting you deeper into your deck. Add 2 of your machine monster of choice
For Pyro, there is much less selection. It’s pretty much just Elemental Hero The Heat, who is a fire for bird, a hero for Fusion Gate, and a beatstick. Nothing too special. Add 2.
The Additions in summary:
+3 Fusion Gate
+3 Chain Material
+2 Machine Monster of Choice
+2 Elemental Hero The Heat
The Extra deck needs a bit of a revamp as well. So we can easily cut the Wild Cyclone, and Stardust Dragon. But we still need more room. The combo takes 4 slots, so we’ll also be cutting the Escuridao, and the Photon Papilloperative.
Those cuts from the Extra allow room for 2 Elemental Hero Electrum, and 2 Blaze Phoenixes.
Some other quick ideas on things you can do in the main, Pot of Duality is probably very good in here, and if you can find room I’d definitely play the allowed 2 copies.
Dust Tornado over MST might be correct, since Dust can set your Chain Material during their end phase, keeping it safe from MSTs and Heavy. Cards like Dark Bribe to protect your Evil Hero monsters or your combo might also be good.
That’s all for this week. If you want your decklist featured in a future deck doctor article, post it here: https://www.facebook.com/ArgDeckDoctor and either Johnny or I will try to get to it in one of our articles. Hope you enjoyed the read, and remember: Play hard or go home!
-Tyler Nolan
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