Hello fellow duelists! My name is Karl Lim, I hail from Durham North Carolina and have been an active yugioh player for around 5 years now and I greatly enjoy playing the game for fun rather than competition so you won’t find me at the top 8 table at regional’s. Now back to the topic at hand, Billy Brake’s stun deck is good but it could use some love. Here’s the breakdown of the deck.

Billy Brake’s Rock Stun

I like to think outside the box and find new ways to run any deck. Looking at the list, let’s try to take it towards a new direction.

Monsters: 20

3x Beast King Barbaros

3x Koa’ki Meiru Guardian

2x Koa’ki Meiru Sandman

2x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo

2x Gigantes

2x Card Trooper

2x Maxx C

2x Tragoedia

1x Block Golem

1x Grandsoil the Elemental Lord

Spells: 8

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

2x Pot of Duality

1x Pot of Avarice

1x Dark Hole

1x Monster Reborn

1x Heavy Storm

Traps: 13

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

2x Dimensional Prison

2x Call of the Haunted

2x Skill Drain

2x Solemn Warning

1x Solemn Judgment

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device

1x Starlight Road

Extra: 15

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

1x Ally of Justice Catastor

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Scrap Dragon

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Fairy King Albverdich

1x Gem Knight Pearl

1x Number 39: Utopia

1x Photon Papilloperative

1x Steelswarm Roach

1x Number 16: Shock Master

1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

1x Leviair the Sea Dragon

1x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn

1x Wind-Up Zenmaines

Now when you look at the deck, you’ll see that the deck has gained more explosiveness as well as late game plays. The deck had no boss monsters to start with so I decided to add in a few fancy cards to help.

Beast King Barbaros: This was my first choice as a boss because of his stats and no limitation for summoning. He can be brought back with reborn or call as a huge 3k beater, as well as normal summoned.

+3 Barbaros

Grandsoil the Elemental Lord: The majority of the deck is Earth so he fits in perfectly, he has great stats as well as a built in reborn, which can be a devastating +1 advantage for you. While he may be great too many grandsoils can clog up your hand and dead cards lead to dead players in this game, so we’ll leave him as a 1 of.

+1 Grandsoil

Gigantes: This card may be an unknown to some but he is a great card for this deck. The first thing that makes him great is that he doesn’t eat up a normal summon, this allows for early damage, xyz’s and pressure mainly because of his second effect, if he is destroyed and sent to the grave you Heavy Storm. Now this isn’t all he is good for, in my opinion if he gets removed via bottomless or dimensional prison then he put in a lot more work especially if you still have your normal summon.

+2 Gigantes

Tragoedia: He may not be an earth, and he may not be a rock either but he is probably the best boss monster in the deck. He’s a free summon when you take damage, and unlike gorz you don’t have to have a clear field. He can steal monsters!!! That alone should make him a great card.

I tried to leave the rock stun portion of the deck alone as best I could but there were too many monsters that could easily get replaced, for instance koa’ki meiru wall. He tributes himself to negate a spell, unless the spell is dark hole, reborn, or heavy storm he virtually does nothing most of the time so an easy cut.

-3 Wall

Sandman has a similar situation in stopping cards like torrential and mirror force that keep you from exploding, or even stopping Royal Decree from locking you out of your traps. While he has a great effect there’s no need to max him at 3.

-1 Sandman

Block golem seems to be the base of the deck as he can get back any 2 lvl 4 or lower rock monsters. While this effect is a great +1 it’s difficult to set up and can be a great loss to a bottomless trap hole. While he is still a good card and makes for a great push for game, I believe he can do the job best at 1.

-2 Block Golem

Grandmole is another good card, but when looking at the deck you don’t really need him in the main. While I am cutting him I would definitely include him in the side deck.

-1 Grandmole

Naturia Barkion and Beast are great cards, dealing with one can be impossible for some decks, and having to deal with both is a real nightmare. I cut both from this deck because of the lack of tuners. Yes their good to have but when your deck has to make out of the way plays and use up valuable resources to make one of them only to have them stopped by a warning, then there’s no need for them.

-2 Naturia’s

Now for the spells, the deck originally had 3 MST, while 3 is good I feel that having 3 can be a dead draw, there’s no worse feeling that wanting that golden goose egg of a top deck only to draw into a MST.

-1 MST

Pot of Avarice is another card I added, it has great utility in helping to  reset your graveyard and recycle key cards like tragoedia, maxx c, and any Xyz’s you may have used.

+1 Avarice

Heavy storm is considered a staple card for a reason, how many games have you won/lost because of a perfectly timed heavy storm? Easy addition to the deck.

+1 Heavy

Soul taker is great for getting rid of Shining or Pulsar but unless you’re facing tons of dragon’s and Hero decks they don’t need to be in the main. I never like +ing my opponent unless it benefits me more than it will them, easy cut.

-2 Soul Taker

Seal of Herp Derp is the new thing popping up in various decks such as Malefics and skill drain, the deck doesn’t really need this card to win, and being unable to summon from the extra deck can hurt when you need someone like Utopia or Roach, the 500 attack boost is nice but this card is more of a win more and can easily be cut.

-1 Seal of Oricalcos

The trap lineup was the hardest part of the deck to fix, there were a lot of great cards and I have my reasons for the cuts and additions I made.

The first addition I made was to add in Skill Drain. This card barely affects this deck while disrupting the majority of the meta, It also helps to keep your barbaroses at 3k rather than 1900.

+2 Skill Drain

Compulsory has been a favorite of mine for the longest time, nothing says TROLL than running 3 copies and never letting your opponent get a monster but for practicality we’ll keep it as a 1 of. The utility of this card is great especially since you can bounce facedowns, the best part is that this card is chainable to destruction, so even if you lose out to an MST you can make it a 141 on your opponent.

+1 Compulse

Torrent was a hard cut for me, it’s a great card against swarm decks like samurai, hieratics, and wind-ups, but it just had too many flaws for me to keep. It’s good for slowing down their combos but due to the fact that it’s not chainable nor can it put in work once your opponent is set up and ready to attack for game, torrent will have to be benched for now.

-2 Torrent

The extra deck choices gave me a good laugh until I tried to find good cards to replace them. There aren’t many xyz’s to use right now, and due to the lack of tuners I didn’t want to flood the deck with too many synchros. Here’s a quick assessment of why I chose the cards for the extra deck.

Chimeratech- Good for when you side into cyber dragon for the machine match up.

Catastor- Generic level 5 and has great utility against most decks.

Black Rose- Majority of the tuner’s people use are level 3, while there’s no real way of obtaining one other than reborn or grandsoil it will have to be one of those “if it happens” situations.

Scrap Dragon- He’s in the same boat as black rose but both of them have great effects so if it happens it happens.

Stardust- Mainly for Road, but if you can make him go for it.

Fairy King- While I’m still unsure of running him he does have a decent global effect, he should not be your first choice when xyzing

Pearl – Gets over 2500 that’s all.

Utopia- Blocks attacks, 2500 attack, really easy to make.

Papilloperative- Blow’s up spirit reaper, and turns any big defense monster to attack, while having high enough attack to stand up to most monsters.

Roach- While his attack is lower than most, he still stops special summons.

Shock Master- Ask no questions, if you can make him go for it

Leviathan- Generic rank 3 you can make for when you don’t want to go into leviair or zenmaines just yet.

Leviair – Great card for getting back monsters you may have removed with Gigantes, as well as taking goodies from the RFG.

Temtempo- Answers Zenmaines, Utopia, Shockmaster etc. (Temtempo, Tem Tempo, Tim Tebow…Works for me!)

Zenmaines- Has too many good things to list.

This concludes my fix of Billy Brake’s Rock Stun now I will show my fix on Joe Giorlando’s Gishki Turbo Deck. My first look at this deck I see a lot of silly combo’s as well as a few All In plays. Now let’s take a look at the new deck.

Monsters: 22

3x Deep Sea Diva

2x Gishki Shadow

2x Gishki Vision

2x Ryko, the Lightsworn Hunter

2x Destiny Hero Malicious

2x Elemental Hero Neos Alius

1x Elemental Hero Stratos

1x Destiny Hero Diamond Dude

1x Destiny Hero Doom Lord

1x Destiny Hero Plasma

1x Black Luster Soldier Envoy of the Beginning

1x Plaguespreader Zombie

1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

1x Tragoedia

1x Evigishki Gustkraken

Spells: 19

3x Destiny Draw

3x Miracle Fusion

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Gishki Aquamirror

1x Allure of Darkness

1x Reinforcements of the Army

1x E-Emergency Call

1x Scapegoat

1x Salvage

1x Pot of Avarice

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

1x Monster Reborn

1x Mind Control

Extra: 15

3x Elemental Hero Absolute Zero

1x Elemental Hero Escuridao

1x Elemental Hero The Shining

1x Armory Arm

1x Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth

1x Scrap Dragon

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Blade Armor Ninja

1x Daigusto Phoenix

2x Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

1x Number 39: Utopia

1x Photon Papilloperative

So here’s the deck, I incorporated several different engines to try to get the most consistency out of the deck, now let’s go over the card choices as well as some plays you can make.

Deep Sea Diva – This card is great for this deck, you can synchro for level 6 or 8, xyz into gachi, and it also loads the grave for miracle fusion.

Gishki Shadow- Shadow searches for the ritual spell as well as gives you a target for miracle. For consistency I increased the count to 2.

Gishki Vision- Same reason as shadow only he searches for Gustkraken. For consistency I put him at 2 especially since there is only one target he can grab.

Ryko- This little guy gives you access to several plays, the previous list didn’t have too many turn 1 setups other than tour guide into sangan. Ryko keeps you opponent guessing as to what your running as well as helps load the grave and gets rid of a card. He is also a target for miracle fusion.

Malicious – With the destiny draw engine this guy is a must, allows for level 8 synchros as well as tribute fodder for Aquamirror.

Neos Alius- A hero deck wouldn’t be a hero without this guy, 1900 attack as well as a target for miracle seems good to me.

Diamond Dude- I like this guy, his effect is very unique and since the majority of the deck are spells you have a good chance of getting his effect off. Since his stats aren’t as big as Alius or Stratos he has less survivability and can be destroyed by a larger pool of monsters. For that he settles the list at 1.

Doom Lord- I first saw this card in play 2 formats ago when leviair was first released. You can remove a monster from play, xyz into leviair, and take the monster you just banished…A mind blowing play to those who never saw it coming. He’s in the deck as a 1 of mainly as a target for Destiny draw, but to help remove stubborn targets like zenmaines or utopia.

Plasma- This card brought back a lot of memories for me, none of them good ones. Mainly used as a target for destiny draw and miracle, but if you can get him to the field it’s like having Skill drain and Relinquished in one card. Cut to 1 to prevent dead hands.

BLS- The bane of many players, since adding more light and dark targets this opened up the possibility of a chaos aspect, and who is more chaotic than BLS? He stands as another card no one expects in this deck, as well as being a target for miracle fusion.

Plaguespreader- This card has always been close by when Destiny Heroes are involved, other than spore he’s the only tuner that can jump out of the grave. He opens up level 6 and 8 synchros, as well as going into Gachi or Phoenix.

Gorz & Trag- Helps stop OTK’s most of the time, gorz provides field presence, while trag steals everything under the sun. I cut trag down to 1 instead of 2.

GustKraken- For some reason I thought this card was banned at first, but seeing as she isn’t were going to use and abuse. Her effect is great, lets you see 2 cards in their hand and tucks 1 of them away. She also has decent attack at 2400 and is also a target for miracle.

Now for the Monsters I took out of the deck.

Tour guide & Sangan- I took out this engine because it didn’t have a lot of synergy with the rest of the deck. Yes it got out an early rank 3, or floated Sangan, but she isn’t a good target for miracle and does little to nothing for the ritual engine.

Soul Ogre- Cool effect with cool stats, but with no priority he loses to bottomless and torrential, also since he’s level 8 he requires more material to ritual summon which sucks if you don’t have Vision or Shadow.

DAD- I love this guy, with his ability to make little children cry when they can’t stop his summon, but with the hero and ritual aspect of this deck he just fell out of place. He is also very obvious once your opponent notices you counting darks in your grave, me being the guy to never give out information unnecessarily he was an easy cut to make.

The spell line up was easier than most for cuts, let’s go over them shall we?

Trade In- Since there are only 2 targets left in the deck for this card it was an easy decision.

MST- The same reason as the last deck, I like 3 but 2 prevents dead draws.

Salvage- This card is good for any water deck, the utility is great for discarding Vision and Shadow for Gustkraken and Aquamirror, as well as recovering diva’s for later, but since the deck doesn’t revolve around rituals we can keep it at 1.

Now for the cards I added in.

E-Emergency Call- This card gave you one more search for Stratos, I always like having at least 2 tutors to make things more consistent.

Pot of Avarice- Even though you may be removing cards for BLS or Miracle, this card is still good for recycling.

Mind Control- Since we have the tools to synchro and Xyz this card can only help us, it also gets a monster out of the way when you push for game.

Scapegoat- This card is a personal tech choice, it has amazing utility in this deck. You can block 4 attacks, synchro, ritual summon, as well as make Plasma a real boy.

Now for the Extra deck, the previous one was very unusual with the majority of the cards being impossible to make under certain conditions. This revision should help as well as open up plays for any situation. I won’t get too into detail about the cuts with some of them being obvious as to why they aren’t here. Instead here’s a breakdown of why I chose these monsters.

Absolute  Zero- I don’t think any card in the game puts as much pressure on a person as this guy, if he leaves play in any way he blows up the world.

The Shining- I kept this guy at 1 because zero is the primary target for miracle. Don’t get me wrong, Shining is still really annoying, unless they have soul taker you will get resources back for more plays.

Armory Arm- The only Level 4 synchro with a great effect, what’s better than swinging with Zero when he’s got his shiny glove on.

Gaia Knight- With the loss of Brionac level 6 synchros have virtually disappeared from play with the exception of Naturia Barkion. Gaia is good as a beatstick as well as tribute fodder for Aquamirror.

Scrap Dragon- Who doesn’t love this guy? He brings huge attack and spot removal to the table, and can be very annoying to deal with.

Stardust- No matter what we will always go back to stardust for our problems, he can stop just about any destruction and can come back every turn.

Blade Armor- Even though we don’t have bubble man, he can still be made with this deck for a quick 4400.

Daigusto Phoenix- The newest rank 2 to hit the stage, he’s easier to make than blade armor with the diva engine.

Gachi Gachi- Another easy to make monster with survivability and Stat boost. He’s perfect for this deck.

Utopia- Another card we can rely on to help us in our time of need, 2 negate attacks as well as a light target for miracle.

Papilloperative- The butterfly returns to flip up ryko’s and snowmen. But other than getting herself killed she can open up opportunities for winning the game.

Roach- Dragons giving you a hard time? Well tag this guy in and you’ll be winning the game in no time!

That’s it for my fix on Joe Giorlando’s Gishki Hero deck, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had writing it. Leave any comments below and remember

Play Hard or Go Home!

(but remember to have fun!)

Discussion

comments