Deck Doctor – Xavier Smith | Alter Reality Games

November 13, 2012

by Xavier Smith

Hello my fellow Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. My name is Xavier Smith, my favourite part about Yu-Gi-Oh! is constructing decks and coming up with fun innovating ways to use cards that I like and I think would have potential in the game but are under-rated. In this article we will be talk about 2 deck fixes I’ve made.

First up we have Billy Brake’s “Rock Stun Deck”.

Monsters: 19
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman

3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3 Block Golem
2 Card Trooper
2 Maxx “C”
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Neo-Spacian Grandmole

Spells:10
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole

Traps: 12
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Kochi Kochi Dragon
2 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gaia Knight, Force of Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon

This is a control oriented deck that focuses on throwing your opponent off balance by slowing them down and while doing so dealing chunks of damage with 1900 beaters. The best part is that these 1900 beaters all have a negation effect that negates almost every card in the game.

Xavier Smith’s ROCK STUN DECK

2 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman

3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3 Block Golem
2 Maxx “C”

3 Grandsoil The Elemental Lord

3 Naturia Cliff

1 T.G. Striker
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
2 Skill Drain
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck:
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Kochi Kochi Dragon
2 Gachi Gachi
2 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gaia Knight, Force of Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon

I added some speed to the deck by putting in a few special summon monsters while keeping it a control oriented deck, namely Grandsoil The Elemental Lord, Naturia Cliff and T.G. Striker. The deck now has access to Naturia Beast and Barkion, 2 cards that can lock down certain decks single handedly.

The Main Cuts:

-2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo: This will slow down your opponent dramatically but not only will it make the Maxx “C”s in your hand dead draws, it also slows YOU down.

-1 Neo-Spacian Grandmole: Useless with Skill Drain active.

- 2 Card Trooper: This will throw away a lot of your useful spells/traps. This deck doesn’t focus too much on graveyard control. Naturia Cliff and Call Of the Haunted does that quite effectively already.

-2 Soul Taker: This is a good monster removal card but when compared to Forbidden Lance which is an offensive AND defensive card, you can clearly see that the lance is much more versatile.

-2 Dimensional Prison: Another monster removal card but can remove a maximum of one monster. Mirror Force is better in most scenarios.

-1 Koa’Ki Meiru Guardian: 3 isn’t needed if Skill Drains are main decked.

-1 Starlight Road: This is perhaps one of THE most annoying cards to draw, it stays set for at least 3 turns or you draw it then its too late and then stays set for even longer.

The Additions:

Grandsoil The Elemental Lord

Beast-Warrior/ Effect

ATK/2800 DEF/2000

Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must first be Special Summoned ( from your hand) by having exactly 5 EARTH monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card is Special Summoned: You can target 1 monster in either player’s Graveyard; Special Summon that 1 target to your side of the field. If this card leaves the field, skip the Battle Phase of your next turn.

All decks that run mostly earth monsters and are capable of manipulating the graveyard should run this card. This gives the deck an additional win condition other than beating down your opponent’s life points 1900 at a time. This card alone is capable of hammering over half of your opponent’s life points by himself.

Naturia Cliff

Rock/ Effect

ATK/1500 DEF/ 1000

When this card is sent from the field to the graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Naturia” monster from your Deck to your side of the field in face-up Attack Position.

This is possibly 1 of the most important engines of the deck. Fills the graveyard for Grandsoil, it works under Skill Drain, basically a ROCK-type Reborn Tengu????! YES PLEASE! Just remember that the effect is optional so if used for a synchro summon then Cliff will miss the timing.

+1 T.G. Striker: This 1 single card gives you access to an array of synchro monsters, mainly Naturia Beast and Barkion for even more spell/trap negation.

+2 Mirror Force: self-explanatory……much better than Dimensional Prison.

+2 Skill Drain: Monster Effect negation is an important part of rock stun and what better way to capitalize monster effect negation than doing it with ONE SINGLE CARD? :). The only card that Skill Drain will affect in the main deck is Grandsoil. Every other monster will work under Drain because they all resolve in the graveyard.

Forbidden Lance

Quick-Play Spell Card

Select 1 face-up monster on the field. Until the End Phase, it loses 800 ATK but is unaffected by the effects of other Spell/Trap Cards.

This is probably the most versatile card in this deck if used correctly. First of all it defends your monsters from the ever-present threat of Torrential Tributes, Mirror Forces and Trap Holes, Compulsory Evacuation Devices and a lot of other threats. Secondly it can be used in an offensive way by using it on your opponent monsters to drop their attack points by 800(best used in the damage step because if your opponent wouldn’t be able to chain Mirror Force or Dimensional Prison. And my favourite way to use it is to special summon Grandsoil while skill drain is active, activate Grandsoil’s effect (Skill Drain doesn’t prevent you from activating your effect) and then chain Forbidden Lance to Grandsoil. It will be unaffected by Skill Drain and you will be able to get a free monster from ANY graveyard!

Next up we have Joe Giorlando’s “Gishki Hero Turbo Deck”

3 Gishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
2 Trageodia

2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Gishki Shadow
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

3 Destiny Draw
3 Trade-In
3 Miracle Fusion
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Salvage
1 Gishki Aquamirror
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

1 Grenosaurus
1 Melomelody the Brass Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Temtempo Percussion Djinn
1 Maestroke Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger
1 Black Rose Dragon

I always liked the Destiny Hero arch-type mainly because they have a really good drawing engine. This deck’s main win condition is through Miracle Fusion to make Elemental Hero Absolute Zero. Its drawing engine lets you dump the fusion materials in the graveyard to draw Miracle Fusion ASAP. What needed to be done was to give this deck more than ONE win conditions. I’ve included a consistent way to XYZ summon, increased the consistency to fusion summon and also included a way to burn huge chunks of life points to your opponent.

Xavier Smith’s GISHKI HERO TURBO DECK

2 Gishki Soul Ogre
1 Gishki Vision
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
3 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
3 Destiny Hero Dogma
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
2 Elemental Hero Prisma

1 Dark Armed Dragon

3 Destiny Draw
3 Trade-In

2 A Hero Lives
1 Miracle Fusion
3 Night Beam

3 Fusion Gate
1 Reinforcement Of The Army
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm

3 Over Destiny
1 Monster Reborn

3 Chain Material

3 Destiny End Dragoon

2 Elemental Hero The Shining

3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero

1 Number 16: Shock Master

1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis

2 Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max
The first thing you probably noticed is that I’ve drastically cut down on the Gishki part of the deck. Quite frankly you will use up too much resources to summon Gishki Soul Ogre so we will just use the Gishkis as discard fodder for Trade-In and as fusion material for Absolute Zero.

The Main Cuts:

-2 Gishki Vision, -1 Gishki Soul Ogre, -1 Gishki Shadow and -1 Gishki Aquamirror: This version of the deck does not ritual summon PERIOD so the entire Gishki line-up from the original deck list isn’t needed. Since most of the water targets were taken I also took out the 2 salvage.

-2 Trageodia: I run 3 Fusion Gate so my Hand isn’t that big after I fusion summon.

-2 Tour Guide From The Underworld: No extra deck space for rank 3’s. Since the Tour Guides were taken out then so was Sangan

-2 Miracle Fusion: I would prefer to keep the Destiny Hero monsters in my graveyard in order to recycle Destiny End Dragoon. A more devastating play than making Absolute Zero.

-1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness: 3 field cards usually make this a dead draw.

-3 Mystical Space Typhoon: This card is a quick-play spell card so Diamond Dude’s effect cannot mill it. “Night Beam” does almost the same thing AND it’s a normal spell card for diamond dude’s effect.

Now let’s talk about the main additions to the deck:

A Hero Lives

Normal Spell Card

When you control no face-up monsters: Pay half your Life Points; Special Summon 1 level 4 or lower “Elemental HERO” monster from your deck.

This card nets you a quick and easy XYZ summon. Among the monsters to choose from are Elemetal Hero Stratos and Elemental Hero Prisma. Stratos nets you a +1, capable of adding Dogma or Plasma for discard fodder, Diamond Dude to normal summon(use his effect before XYZ summoning) or Prisma to normal summon it and also use his effect before XYZ summoning.

Over Destiny

Normal Spell Card

Target 1 “Destiny Hero” monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 “Destiny Hero” monster from your Deck whole Level is less than or equal to half of that target’s Level. The special Summoned Monster is Destroyed during the End Phase of this turn.

Now THIS card is very under-rated, if used correctly you can pop off Diamond Dude’s effect and before your end phase, use it as XYZ material. There are 3 easy ways to get level 8 destiny heroes in your graveyard. Trade-In, Destiny Draw and Elemental Hero Prisma’s effect, preferably through Prisma’s effect because it will be the other XYZ material you need to perform the XYZ summon

Elemental HERO Prisma

Warrior/Effect

1700/1100

Once per turn: You can reveal 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, then send 1 of the Fusion Material Monsters listed on that card from your Main Deck to the Graveyard; this card’s name becomes the sent monster’s until the End Phase.

Not only does this card fuel your graveyard For Over Destiny and Dark Armed Dragon, but it copies the name of a Fusion Material so a Fusion Summon can be performed faster. It is also a Target for A Hero Lives.

Fusion Gate

Field Spell Card

While this card is on the field: Either player can Fusion summon a Fusion monster without using “Polymerization”, but the Fusion Material monsters are banished instead of being sent to the graveyard.

This card gives you access to ever fusion monster in your extra deck if the fusion materials are on the field or in your hand. What makes this better than Miracle Fusion is that it can be used more than once after activation and isn’t restricted to Elemental Hero fusion monsters only.

Destiny End Dragoon

Warrior/Fusion/Effect

ATK/3000 DEF/3000

“Destiny HERO - Plasma” + “Destiny HERO – Dogma”

A Fusion Summon of this card can only be done with the above Fusion Material Monsters. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls: destroy that target and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK on the field. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. During your Standby Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard: You can banish 1 “Destiny HERO” card from your Graveyard; Special Summon this card.

This is your MAIN Fusion Monster. This is 1 of the most ANNOYING monsters to deal with, a very good effect, great stats and when and it special summons during your standby phase with a simple cost.

Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max

Machine/XYZ/Effect

ATK/3000 DEF/ 3000

2 Level 10 Monsters

Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; inflict 2000 damage to your opponent.

This card will be released this month end. Upon release this deck’s potential will skyrocket because of this card.

Chain Material

Normal trap Card

Any time you fusion summon a monster this turn, you can remove from play, from your side of the field, deck, hand or graveyard, fusion material monsters that are listed on the fusion monster card, and use them as fusion material monsters. You cannot attack during the turn this card is activated. If you used this effect for a fusion summon, the summoned fusion monster is destroyed during the End Phase.

This is without a doubt the BEST CARD in the entire deck. While Fusion Gate is active Chain Material can fusion summon fusion LITERALLY EVERY FUSION MONSTER IN YOUR EXTRA DECK!!!! The fusion monsters are destroyed in the end phase but you can overlay the fusion monsters to make powerful XYZ’s such as “Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis” and “Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max”. The main combos are to fusion summon Destiny End Dragoon, use his effect to target 1 monster your opponent controls, destroy the target and inflict its attack points to your opponent. Fusion summon another Destiny End Dragoon and use his effect again if there are targets. Then overlay both of them into Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max and burn a solid 2000 points of damage. The only fusion monster you want destroyed in the End Phase is Elemental Hero The Shining because you will get a +1 when destroyed.