
So with the new format upon us, I feel like Geargia and Bujins are by far the most popular decks. Not to be counted out, with great showings are still Mermails and Fire Fist variants, but many people have turned to Geargia as they were untouched by the F/L list, as well as Bujins for similar reasons.
Of course, not I. I'm always trying to innovate new things, and I'm back this week to show you my updated Ghostrick Spirit deck in which I was able to place 1st at my regional in Garden City this past weekend.
For those of you who avidly follow me, I innovated the Spirit variant with Ghostricks not too long ago, in which my boyfriend, Loukas Peterson was able to top 8 with at our last regional. This time around, I was able to make new improvements with some awesome cards, and we were BOTH able to make the top 8 this time around with the same deck. I can honestly say when I look at this deck (while I can still make some improvements after 9 rounds of testing) I am very proud to come up with something like this, and this deck is the reason I still play Yu-Gi-Oh. I love building decks so much, and I feel like I am able to look at cards like pieces of puzzles, and they fit together in my head and out comes my deck ideas. So without further delay, here we are
[ccDeck="Main Deck"]1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Dark Dust Spirit
3 Nikitama
3 Aratama
3 Kagetogake
3 Ghostrick Mary
2 Ghostrick Jiangshi
3 Ghostrick Specter
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Dichotomy
2 Creeping Darkness
1 Mind Control
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Black Horn of Heaven
2 Seven Tools of the Bandit
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Warning
1 Bottomless Trap Hole[/ccDeck]
[ccDeck="Extra Deck"]1 Diamond Dire Wolf
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 King of the Feral Imps
1 Daigusto Emeral
1 Number 50: Blackship of Corn
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Downerd Magician
1 Ghostrick Alucard
2 Number 101: Silent Honor Ark
1 Ghostrick Dullahan[/ccDeck]
First I'm going to say [ccProd]Dark Dust Spirit[/ccProd] was terrible and I will never run it again, and I should have never taken out the third Jiangshi. So lets just pretend there are 3 of those in there.
As I have been saying lately, Ghostrick Mary has now allowed certain decks to run a Ghostrick Engine, allowing you to block attacks and cycle through cards in your deck. Jiangshi is similar to [ccProd]Geargiarmor[/ccProd] while Specter is an [ccProd]Upstart Goblin[/ccProd] monster. You cycle through cards in your deck very fast with this.
Then we have the Spirit monsters of the deck, Nikitama and Aratama. They are the only ones you need. Everyone else sucks (unless you are using Pure Spirits) and should not have a spot wasted on them.
The whole combo is Nikitama + Aratama + Kagetokage. With these 3 cards it allows you to overlay Nikitama and Kage for Lavalval Chain to stack any monster on top of your deck (most of the time Black Luster Soldier) and then Nikitama will allow you to draw it. You can also do similar things, but much more difficult, with Dark Armed Dragon.
The win conditions of the deck are not only Black Luster Soldier and Dark Armed Dragon, but the fact you will keep out advantaging your opponent and then spam rank 4's to take away their cards. Things like [ccProd]Number 101: Silent Honor ARK[/ccProd], Exciton Knight, and [ccProd]King of the Feral Imps[/ccProd] will all allow you to do this since most of your rank 4 Summons are free.
The 2 most important aspects of my deck after the monsters are the 2 Spell cards no one uses; Pot of Dichotomy (my idea) and Creeping Darkness (All Loukas's idea). Ghostrick Mary immediately gives you 2 different types to fullfill Dichotomy as well as all the different Xyz monsters and Spirit monsters. Because you cycle through your cards so quickly, it is important to be able to get some of those cards back, especially cards like Black Luster Soldier, or fix your Graveyard for Dark Armed Dragon. The downfall of not being able to attack is hardly ever relevant as cards like Exciton Knight and 101 now exist to help deal with threats. Also while on the topic of fixing graves, the next card Creeping Darkness not only does that, but fixes your hand as well.
Creeping Darkness states by Banishing 2 Darks from your Grave, you can search for 1 Level 4 Dark monster from your deck. This gets the ever important Aratama and secondly, Kagetogake. The Ghostricks again fill this roll as Mary will give you 2 Darks almost immediately. The quicker you get to Aratama, the better, and things like Duality conflict too much with your important plays. I actually was almost shit out of luck, as this card was ridiculously hard to find, none of my locals had any, and I was able to scrounge them up last minute thanks to a friend who had them in some of his junk.
My regional was 9 rounds, 280 people or so. I was able to go 8-1, only losing to a Geargia player who mained 3 [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd]s which crippled me, backed by double Geargiagear and [ccProd]Solemn Warning[/ccProd].
In my time at the tournament I was able to take down 3 other Geargia decks, 2 Bujin decks, 1 Samurai deck, and a random deck from r0und 1 which wasn't relevant, but still. My last opponent was of course my boo, Loukas. I looked over my opponents and saw that the people I played were doing well, so my tie breakers would be very good, and if I won again, Loukas tie breakers would be good as well. Meaning that if there was any chance of BOTH of us top 8ing, I should take the win, and it actually did! We both won out our rounds and both top 8ed the regional with the same deck. It was very cool and a very exciting moment for both of us.
At the end of the day, I would make some slight alterations, but I will leave those for another time. I do hope you enjoy my deck and ideas as much as I do, because I live for actually trying to enjoy myself at this game, and win at the same time. By all means give our deck a try!
That about does it folks, be sure to follow us at the upcoming ARG Circuit in Richmond, VA April 26-27, click the picture below for details. And until next time, make sure you play hard or go home!
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