Greetings, duelists! We’re soaring high after two back-to-back major events in Las Vegas and Chicago, respectively, where Bujins reigned supreme both times! I bet no one saw that one coming; Bujins are definitely a good deck, but the majority of the field was still Water and Fire Fist. It seems the deck is forcing itself into the meta as a serious threat, and I can guarantee that some hardcore side deck tech will be sure to emerge in the coming months, seeing as how it was completely unaffected by the banlist. Regardless of that, though, I’m here today to talk to you about an interesting deck that found life in the Top16 of ARGCS Vegas—Mythic Drain. We’ll be analyzing the build of second place finisher, Adamassu Williams, which can be seen below:
2 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
2 The White Stone of Legend
2 Cardcar D
2 Flamvell Guard
2 Card Trooper
2 Mythic Water Dragon
2 Mythic Tree Dragon
1 Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos
1 Redox, Dragon ruler of Boulders
1 Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
1 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls
1 Influence Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
3 Dragon Shrine
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Cards of Consonance
1 Trade-In
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Burial From A Different Dimension
3 Skill Drain
2 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Warning
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute[/ccDeck] [ccDeck="Extra Deck"]
2 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Trident Dragion
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Crimson Blader
1 Leo, The Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1 Star Eater
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Evilswarm Excition Knight
1 Number 11 Big Eye
1 Divine Knight Felgrand
1 Hieratic The Sun Dragon Overload of Heliopolis[/ccDeck]
The deck is beyond fast. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it plays a ton of draw cards, such as Cardcar D, Trade-In, and Cards of Consonance. It also uses one of my favorite cards from Dragon format, Card Trooper, which gives the deck even more speed in the form of a monster, and it has natural synergy with Debris Dragon, Skill Drain, and Redox. The ideal setup is to get to Skill Drain as fast as possible, and then establish a beater like Blaster or Tidal. You do this by utilizing the main engine, which revolves around pitching White Stone of Legend and Blue-Eyes White Dragon to quickly fuel the graveyard with dragons, and once you’re there—with Skill Drain—you can start to drop the big guys. Since they won’t be bouncing to the hand on the opponent’s end phase, it becomes extremely easy to dominate the game in a few short turns. As it stands, I would say the entire format loses to Skill Drain when you think about how contingent each deck is on abusing small monster effects—not to mention the fact that the Dragon Rulers are entirely too big to be such easy summons.
Between three copies of Dragon Shrine and one limited copy of Gold Sarcophagus, you should be able to find your Blaster or Tempest pretty early on. If you have either Mythic Tree or Mythic Water Dragon, you can “Sarc” for the opposite element, making it into a ROTA ([ccProd]Reinforcement of the Army[/ccProd]) for the dragon you need. On top of this, you still get the element in two turns, which effectively makes this card into a +1 every time you draw it. I actually love how the plusses can pile up in this deck. You have White Stone with Cards of Consonance, Card Trooper milling a Dragon Ruler, Gold Sarcophagus for an element, Cardcar D, and Burial from a Different Dimension.
Burial from a Different Dimension adds some power by allowing you to remove your Dragons and get them back. This is extremely important since they’re all limited to one. I noticed when testing this deck that drawing Burial gives you a huge swing in tempo, obviously, and usually leads to game that turn, or at least a position that will give you the game next turn. I even used Gold Sarcophagus to search for Burial because it’s just that good in this deck. On a random but sort of related note, you could stymie a Spellbook of Eternity by returning the targeted Spellbook to the graveyard. It’s more of a troll thing to do, but it could win you a game if done correctly (meaning that you at least return two of your Dragon Rulers with the Spellbook).
The deck also has some cool plays with Mythic Tree and Mythic Water Dragons, allowing you to go into Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, which is easily one of the hardest Xyz monsters to deal with. Not only is he huge, but he also has a Skill Drain-like effect built in that can be used both offensively and defensively. Outside of just that, Mythic Tree Dragon can be brought back with Debris Dragon to Xyz for Lavalval Chain or Evilswarm Exciton Knight, though I would be inclined to fit Number 101: Silent Honor ARK if I could. You could also use Mythic Tree Dragon with Tidal to make Number 11: Big Eye or Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack without having to commit two Dragon Rulers. And then we have Mythic Water Dragon, which naturally combos with Scrap Dragon, allowing you to pop a card before going into Felgrand.
One of my favorite monsters in the extra deck is none other than Trident Dragion, whose effect is so devastating that it usually OTKs the opponent in one turn, even after Upstart Goblin! When playing this deck, you should always be looking for opportunities to bring it out, as it can put a quick end to an otherwise painful duel. It typically requires any Dragon Ruler and Influence Dragon to bring out, but you could also have Debris in-hand, which can bring Influence back from the grave. This will also give Trident Dragion at least one card to destroy with his effect, too. It’s a cheap way to victory, but a way to victory no less.
So we have a simple game plan coupled with a high-speed engine to give the deck consistency. You’re simply trying to play Skill Drain beatdown while everyone struggles to find an MST before it’s too late. If you have the cards, I recommend giving Willams’ deck a try. It doesn’t brick as much as Hieratic Rulers, though it isn’t as explosive, either. What do you think about the viability of this deck in the April 2014 format? Leave a comment below! The Circuit Series comes to Richmond, VA on April 26-27, 2014, click the pic below for the details!
Thanks for reading, duelists! Remember, Play Hard or Go Home!
-Frazier Smith
-The Dark Magician
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