Hey readers, this week we’re going to start off by taking a look at Emil Tronier’s Thunder Family deck:
Main Deck
3 Thunder Sea Horse
3 Mahunder
3 Pahunder
2 Sishunder
3 Vylon Prism
3 Photon Thrasher
1 Honest
1 Reinforcement of the army
2 Pot Of Duality
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Monster Reborn
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Breakthrough Skill
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Bottomless traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgement
1 Dark Bribe
1 Trap Stun
Extra Deck
2 Starliege Paladynamo
1 Constellar Omega
1 Constellar Ptolemy M7
1 Daigusto Emeral
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Maestroke The Symphony Djinn
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Abyss Dweller
1 King of the feral Imp
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Crimson Blader
1 Stardust Dragon
I was toying around with this kind of deck back when I was preparing for YCS Edison a couple months ago, though the deck definitely tries to fill a different role now than it did pre-ltgy. Where the deck excels is in its long game, Thunder Seahorse is one of the most efficient card advantage engines in the game, and I’m convinced if it were tutorable in some way, this deck would’ve been a big threat pre-ltgy. However now, as I said in my previous article, what is important isn’t trying to win grinds, but to prevent your opponent from being able to properly execute their gameplan, because it’s almost impossible to beat Dragons, or Spellbook in a grind.
This deck does, however, have some interesting options for locking the opponent out. The Hunder monsters are all normal summon effects, making it extremely easy to overwhelm a Jowgen. Kycoo does almost nothing to the deck, and you have very easy Shock Master access to trump the spellbook matchup. Versus Dragons, Shock Master on monsters can quickly lock out your opponent, as all of their effects use the chain, even the summon effects.
Moving into the cuts though, the big thing that stood out to me initially was all the spell/trap hate, despite this format being fairly light on traps. Forbidden Lance, and Trap Stun especially strike me as very poor card choices in the main in a metagame full of Prophecy (which mains between 3 and 5 traps) and Elemental Dragon (which mains between 0 and 3.) Lance is also terrible against the best “trap” in the format in Spellbook of Fate, as it doesn’t target. They can banish 3 spellbooks to Fate, and if you Lance, they can just remove something else. If they see Lance coming, they might just remove 2, and when you lance your monster they just flip their Magician down in order to get another search.
Similarly, Mystical Space Typhoon, while it is very good in the Spellbook matchup, is absolutely terrible versus Elemental Dragon. With the growing popularity of Spellbook however, I can definitely see keeping 2 in the main, 3 just seems a bit excessive for a card that is virtually dead versus a good portion of the metagame.
Mirror Force is a horrible card at the moment. Between Spellbook of Wisdom, and Dracossack, there are so many cards in the current metagame that completely invalidate what this card tries to do. Your goal versus the big decks is to resolve a Shock Master, or Crimson Blader, and ride that to victory, Mirror Force doesn’t contribute to that.
I’m also going to cut the 2 copies of Breakthrough Skill, not because they’re a bad card or anything, but because I want to add a card that fills a very similar role later on.
Lastly, I wasn’t a big fan of Honest pre-ltgy, and the format pre-ltgy was much more focused on the battle phase than it is now. I can’t imagine this card doing very much, as it doesn’t protect your big plays in any meaningful way.
Cuts in summary:
-2 Forbidden Lance
-1 Trap Stun
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Mirror Force
-2 Breakthrough Skill
So now on to the additions. Vanity’s Emptiness, as I’ve said before, is one of my favorite traps in the game right now. Being able to lock dragons out of the game until they manage to destroy one of your cards is huge, and you can use it versus Prophecy to prevent them from getting Jowgen off of Judgment/Life, or summoning Priestess. I’m going to add in 2 copies.
Next, I really feel like this deck can benefit greatly from Upstart Goblin. Unlike pre-ltgy where the deck aimed to grind opponents out with an endless stream of Paladynamos, now you’re trying to assemble the cards required to make a quick Crimson Blader, or Shock Master to close out the game. In the more grindy matchups like Evilswarm, being able to dig for your Thunder Seahorse greatly outweighs the life your opponent gains from Upstart as well.
Lastly, I want to add 3 copies of Forbidden Chalice. This card has been gaining popularity over Breakthrough Skill in some dragon lists because of its versatility. It lets you stop a Jowgen immediately, rather than being forced to wait a turn and let your opponent resolve another Judgment. It also has a very useful interaction with Colossal Fighter and an opposing Maxx “C” where if you Chalice one of your opponent’s monsters to be bigger than Colossal Fighter, then you’re able to deck your opponent out from their own Maxx “C”.
Additions in summary:
+2 Vanity’s Emptiness
+3 Upstart Goblin
+3 Forbidden Chalice
As far as the sideboard goes, things like Maxx “C” and Swift Scarecrow for dragons works, I even considered adding those cards to the main, but with Prophecy on the rise it seemed mediocre. Gozen Match is another option this deck has available to it versus Dragon. Versus Prophecy, boarding Droll&Locks, Heavy Storm, and maybe the 3rd MST seems worthwhile as well.
Moving on now to the next deck, we’re going to take a look at Claudio Bertoni’s Dino Fist deck.
3 sabersaurus
3 genewarped warwolf
2 rescue rabbit
2 tour guide from the underworld
2 thunder king rai-oh
3 brotherhood of the fire fist- bear
3 fire formation tenki
1 fire formation tensu
2 pot of duality
1 monster reborn
2 forbidden lance
3 mystical space typhoon
2 bottomless trap hole
3 fiendish chain
2 mirror force
1 solemn judgement
1 solemn warning
2 imperial iron wall
2 dark bribe
I’m sure everyone is familiar with this. This is basically the same deck as it was pre-ltgy, but with a couple additions like Imperial Iron Wall, and Thunder King to make the Dragon/Spellbook matchups more winnable. For those unfamiliar, Dino Fist is a tempo-aggro deck where you use Bear as a sort of mega-gadget monster, who both replaces himself and acts as removal. You then protect your fields with trap cards, and kill your opponent. The main problem I see with this deck though is its use of some cards I would consider outdated.
The first cut I want to make, again, is the 2 copies of Forbidden Lance. Where Lance is definitely easier to justify in this deck than the previous, as the deck gains advantage through battle, you need to take into account what things you’ll be able to beat over with Bear + Lance in the current metagame. Ophion is 2550, Big Eye and Dracossack are 2600, Priestess is 2500 (at a minimum), Blaster/Tidal are 2800 and 2600 respectively, etc. Lance was great last format, when the mirror match was prevalent, and a lot of common monsters were smaller than 2500, but Lance is a very poor answer to the cards in the metagame right now.
I again want to cut one of the Mystical Space Typhoons, for the same reason I cut down to 2 in the previous list. Tour Guide seems like a very poor card right now. Obviously it’s nice if you happen to open one of your 2-of Rabbit, and one of your 2-of Tour Guide, but aside from that, Zenmaines just gets Big Eyed/Fated, and none of the other rank3s are all that impressive either.
Lastly, I am not a fan of Mirror Force at all right now. I’d much rather have traps like Compulsory, which can answer a turn 1 Dracossack, and prevent Big Eye from stealing things.
Cuts in summary:
-2 Forbidden Lance
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
-2 Mirror Force
Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer is an absolutely absurd card right now, and he is the lone reason why I’d consider running a trap-heavy deck at the moment. Versus Spellbook, he shuts off Fate, and keeps spellcasters out of their graveyard for Tower/Life. Versus Dragons, you can often lock your opponent out singlehandedly with a Kycoo. I don’t see much reason why you wouldn’t run this card, I’m adding in 2.
Compulsory Evacuation Device is actually my trap of choice right now. It’s extremely good against Dragons for obvious reasons, and while it seems like it would be bad against Spellbooks, simply Compulsing their Kycoo when they attack with it, so you can get an attack in with Bear/turn off their Fate for a turn actually matters. The tempo gain winds up being more important than you’d think. I’m adding in 3, mostly to make beating Dragon easier, but also because they aren’t completely dead against the rest of the field either.
With the remaining 2 slots, I’m going to add in 2 copies of Maxx “C”. While against Spellbooks it is almost never better than an Upstart Goblin, it makes your life so much easier versus Dragons that maining it actually seems correct.
Additions in summary:
+2 Kycoo, the Ghost Destroyer
+3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
+2 Maxx “C”
If you’d like to submit a decklist for either Johnny, or myself to doctor in one of our articles, send a message to www.facebook.com/argdeckdoctor
Until next time readers, remember to play hard or go home!
Latest posts by Tyler Nolan (see all)
- Deck Doctor #33: Spellbook and Vanilla Synchros - December 18, 2013
- Deck Doctor #32: Synchros and Inzektors - December 11, 2013
- Deck Doctor #31: Frog Monarch and Anti-Meta - December 4, 2013
Get
Connected