Greetings, ARG readers! Last week I discussed a card that I thought deserved a second look. If you missed that article, I highly suggest you read that before reading this. Just click http://articles.alterealitygames.com/?p=7700 to be warped to my previous piece.
This week, I want to discuss a particular deck that utilized Giant Germ. I asked you all to stop by on Dueling Network to help me playtest, and I am pleased to say I had a couple players come in with the intention of testing against the Giant Germ deck. I mentioned a few different decks that could utilize Giant Germ, and I decided to test the one that probably would see the least play (the others being agents and dark world) – fiends. This is the first draft of the deck:
Monsters (27)
1x Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
3x Giant Germ
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2x Maxx “C”
1x Sangan
3x Tour Guide from the Underworld
2x Tragoedia
Spells (8)
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
Traps (8)
1x Return from the Different Dimension
Side Deck
2x Cyber Dragon
Extra Deck
1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Scrap Dragon
1x T.G. Hyper Librarian
1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1x Number 24: Terror-Byte
1x Wind-Up Zenmaines
I’m going to break up the rest of the article into a few sections.
- Cards I liked
- Cards I disliked
- The matchups
- Changes
- Budget build
- Cards to consider
Cards I liked
To start off, I really did like Giant Germ in this deck. The purpose of 2 veiler and 2 Maxx “C” was to stymie Tour Guide plays, then ram a Germ in for a trade, 500 damage, and a Gachi Gachi. Dark Resonator also came in handy a ton as a counter to my opponent’s tour guide. I could summon my own tour guide, grab resonator, and attack to clear my opponent’s field (leaving me with resonator). I also loved using soul exchange to tribute for Caius, Anubis, or (especially) vanity’s fiend. Vanity’s fiend was by far the MVP in the plant matches I played. His ability to stop tengu, lonefire, dandylion, gorz, and a ton of other cards made him indispensable. Deck Devastation Virus was also surprisingly useful in the plant matchup. The ability to chain it to targeting effects like enemy controller, mind control, and Caius gave it some merit. Stripping my opponent of cards like debris dragon and lonefire blossom was more than welcome as well.
Cards I disliked
There were no cards I outright hated in the main deck or side deck. Some cards were very underwhelming, however. The End of Anubis seemed like it would be an incredibly strong card against plants and other matchups (like dark world). However, the inability to stop other common plays, such as Trishula, Caius, Hyperion, and the like made it a card I would probably not main deck in future builds. The Gates of Dark World was rarely useful as well. I think out of all the matches I played earlier this week, I only used it to filter more than 1 card maybe once. The attack boost never came up as being relevant. The final card that I didn’t feel was worth playing was vanity’s emptiness. It often was hit by MST, or it would destroy itself after I activated a card like Dimensional Prison.
The Matchups
I played for several hours on dueling network earlier this week. Several players I only played best-of-one games with (either because I didn’t feel it was necessary to run a whole match, or my opponent would quit before I had the chance to ask).
- Anti-Meta: This person was playing Wanghu, Thunder-King, and other typical anti-meta cards. I was able to bring out an early Gorz, which he was unable to get over. I didn’t get a chance to play a second or third game against this guy.
- Junk/Doppel/Quickdraw deck: This duelist was playing a plant variant using Junk synchron, Doppel warrior, and Quickdraw Synchron. He went first, and came out of the gates with some silly loops like quickdraw discarding dandylion. Through a timely soul exchance and End of Anubis, I was able to lock him down and seal the win.
- Dark World (skill drain variant): This guy opened really strong, and was a very good player. Game one was an uphill battle for me, having to fight a trap dustshoot/mind crush combo as well as drawing multiple giant germs. After losing this game, I sided a bit (Meiru Doom came in), but my side decking proved to be in vain. After setting up on my turn, he opened with card destruction and double grapha. He finished me a turn later with a field of Sillva, Grapha, Grapha.
- Light Hero Beat: Only got to play one game against this guy. I opened heavy storm to clear his one back row. Tour guide let me form leviathan, which carried me to the end of the game. Gachi Gachi also made an appearance thanks to Giant Germ.
- Dark World (ceruli/dragged down build): I started off with a set Giant Germ. On his turn, Fabled Raven was neutered by Effect Veiler. He attacked, netting me two more germs. My turn saw the summoning of Gachi Gachi and Wind-Up Zenmaines (thanks to tour guide). I was able to run down his raven. A few turns later, Vanity’s Fiend came out and sealed the deal.
- Agents (with Inzektor suite): This was an interesting deck that I just wanted to include to maybe spark some readers’ interests. The guy was playing a standard agent deck, but packed it with the 9 card Inzektor suite (hornet, centipede, dragonfly in triplicate). The game quickly simplified, and I was able to squeeze out a win by dropping gorz and tuning it with effect veiler to synchro summon Scrap dragon.
- Miracle Heroes: The game simplified early on, and he had an Absolute zero to my gachi gachi (still with both materials). I was able to soul exchange and drop The End of Anubis to prevent Absolute Zero from going off. Zenmaines later came out as well, and the game was quickly over after that. I wasn’t sure if Anubis stopped Miracle Fusion from removing things from the grave, but I had Solemn Warning to stop his comeback anyway.
- Plants: I played 3 best of three matches against a standard plant deck. I went first for two of the matches, and he went first for one. Match one I only win game 2 thanks to Vanity’s Fiend and Iron Chain Dragon (which helped me get over Caius). I lost the first match 1-2. Match two it seemed like things weren’t looking up for me when I lost the first game to a Gorz, which turned into a Trishula thanks to the various plant shenanigans that are around right now. I was forced to ram my Necrofear, whose 2800 defense was keeping me alive, to take control of Trishula. Unfortunately, a top-decked Caius ended game one in his favor. Game 2 I was able to push a late game Vanity’s fiend for some crucial damage (stopping a gorz). A sided in Deck Devastation Virus snagged the Debris Dragon from my opponent’s hand, and the game was soon over. Game 3 was not that impressive. I was able to drop Black Luster Soldier and maintain control of the game through Maxx “C” and Effect Veiler. I won the match 2-1. The third match was the most promising one for me. I was able to 2-0 the plant player (this is the match he went first for game one) through Vanity’s Fiend (in game 1) and Gachi, Zenmaines, and Caius (in game 2). I realized how frequetly this deck was able to create a solid game field (gachi paired with zenmaines is tough to get over. Throw in a vanity's fiend and your opponent is nearly locked out of everything save a dark hole + BLS)
- Rabbit/Chaos: The deck played standard Dino-Rabbit cards, but was also complimented by Dimensional Alchemist and a pair of chaos monsters. D-Alch allowed him to get back things like Rabbit, which he would be able to cycle. I was able to 2-0 this match-up solely because I had solemn warning for the Laggia, and was able to OTK through Necrofear, Return, and Vanity’s Fiend.
Changes
There were definitely some changes I would make:
Take out: The End of Anubis, 2x Vanity’s Emptiness (from side) – both cards were very underwhelming and did not perform as well as I hoped they would.
Put in: Caius the Shadow Monarch (from side to main), 2x D.D. Crow (to side), 1x Gemini Imps (to side) – Caius proved to be extremely crucial in most of my matchups, and I couldn’t imagine myself only playing 1 in this deck ever again. The Crows and Imps would hopefully give me a better dark world match up.
There are other changes that you all should try (like adding the third soul exchange), but it will likely boil down to personal preference. The field spell is something that I am not yet ready to take out altogether.
Budget Build
I am well aware that not every player can afford a playset of Tour Guides, or a pair of Maxx “C”s. These are the changes you should make if you are building on a budget:
Take out: 3x Tour Guide, 2x maxx “C”
Put in: 2x Koa’Ki Meiru Doom (from side), 1x Effect Veiler, 1x Soul Exchange (from side), 1x Deck Devastation Virus (from side), 2x Needle Ceiling (to side), 2x Fossil Dyna (to side).
The deck will not be as strong without the Tour Guide engine, but it will still win you some games. You can also consider adding more defensive traps, like Mirror Force or a third Dimensional Prison, to keep the deck stable.
Cards to Consider
There are definitely other cards that I did not mention in the article, but that could be useful in the deck. I won’t go into them too much. Instead, you should experiment with them all (I did myself as well) and see which ones you like.
Bark of Dark Ruler: This trap lets you pay life points to decrease the attack of one of your opponent’s monsters by the same amount. You can manipulate an opposing monster to have 1000 atk, which will allow you to swing Germ in for the standard Gachi Gachi play.
Wall of Illusion: With 1850 defense and the ability to bounce back any of your opponent’s monsters that attack it, this card can definitely have its uses. The only reason I did not include it was fear of running into too many Thunder King Rai-Ohs.
Chaos Hunter: This monster is not only pretty big at 2500 atk, but it has the ability to stop your opponent from using cards like Spore, Rescue Rabbit, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
Slate Warrior: A 1900 atk monster is never bad to have. He also decreases the atk and def of the monster that destroys him by 500 points. This could come up if you can’t get over an unusually big monster.
Dark Smog: This dark world support card can also be useful in this deck. It may even help against the dark world matchup by banishing that pesky Grapha. Needless to say, it will be useful against plants as well, removing targets for Debris Dragon, light monsters for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and stealing away the target of a Monster Reborn.
Conclusion
This fiend deck definitely deserves to be looked at and tested with. It has proven to be competitive against some of the top decks. While I haven’t had the chance to playtest as extensively as is recommended, I think the early signs give the deck some hope. I encourage you all to take this deck to a locals, or try it out on Dueling Network.
Finally, I would like to give a shout out to Eric and Shannon, who both helped me out with testing online. If either of you want to leave your dueling network name in the comments, please feel free.
Until next time,
Tej T.
voorhees, NJ
All Things Fun
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