Paging Doctor Yugioh: Rock Stun and Gishki Heroes

November 9, 2012

by Sam Nguyen

Hello ARG readers! My name is Sam Nguyen and I want to share just a little history of myself, I’ve been playing competitive Yugioh for about two years now and have several regionals tops across the board but have failed to capture any YCS tops.... unlike the duelists whose decklists I now have the great pleasure of reviewing today, Billy Brake’s Rock Stun and Joe Giorlando’s Gishki Heroes. Without further ado, let’s get started!

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

So right off the bat, we can see that this is a stun oriented deck, it’s meant to keep your opponent from being able to further their strategy, utilizing an array of the Koaki Meiru effects in conjunction with the many trap cards that it plays. This can lead to a devastating 1900 hit to the face every turn and if left unchecked can become downright unwinnable in a few turns.

Which leads me to the first issue, Card Trooper. We can see here that Card Trooper is used to mill your rock monsters to make Block Golem live and while that in itself is a clever strategy, it’s really subpar compared to just getting the Koaki Meiru into the grave the old fashioned way. Reason for that being with Card Trooper, you know must decide what to summon every turn, do you summon Trooper and hope to mill some monsters or do you summon another piece to the pseudo Solemn trifecta? Personally, I’d go with the Koaki since it furthers the game state that you are trying to achieve, and not only that, but when you mill with Trooper, you’re playing more spells and traps then monsters and imagine the discouraged look on your face when you mill Pot of Duality, Solemn Warning and Maxx “C”. Instead let’s replace those Troopers with Thunder King Rai-Oh! Thunder King has, in past formats become staple in decks that normally wouldn’t run him, and that’s because of the format. As we are shifting towards a more Geargia, Atlantean and Wind-Up dominated format, Thunder King will become that much more amazing. However, since he will conflict with the Block Golems, let’s play one, as he is a solid turn one opener, you will still retain the ambiguity of what deck you are playing (seriously, turn one Rai-oh? What’s he playing?!) and to rectify the conflict here, you play Call of the Haunted to easily bring him back and make the grave all Earth once again. Over the second Trooper, I will suggest teching one Forbidden Lance. Lance serves the same purpose as it does in Dino Rabbit, not having to waste that precious negation on something silly like a Bottomless Trap Hole or Soul Taker, but saving them for the big guns. Not only that, but it can turn your 1900 beaters into pseudo 2700 beaters in the damage step too, so they won’t be able to chain much outside of Judgment or their own Lance.
Since we’re taking out Troopers, for consistency's sake, let’s also take out a Block Golem, and let’s put a trap in it’s place, but we’ll get to what trap that is later. This also being a stun deck, I feel that 3 Typhoons is just too many, I mean if you MST all of the trap cards, what is there left for Sandman to negate? In a slower, more controlled deck, I prefer 1-2 Typhoons and since we play guys who naturally negate backrows, let’s go with 1. So in the missing 3 card slot I would suggest putting in 1 Dark Bribe, as not only can it protect your incredibly important backrows against Heavy Storm, but also push for game through a Solemn Judgment or Warning! Imagine the look on your opponent’s face when they pay 2000-4000 LP to draw one card! Priceless! Taking the last two spots will be, arguably, the best trap of the format, Compulsory Evacuation Device. CED is amazing this format with the ability to blast XYZ monsters back to the Extra Deck, and break apart combo pieces as well as being chainable, I’d be quite foolhardy not to play this card in here.

Lastly, I want to discuss the Maxx “C” vs Effect Veiler argument here as Billy has clearly chosen to play Maxx “C”. Let’s not kid ourselves here, the only deck that Maxx “C” is good against is Wind-Ups. It’s subpar to bad in EVERY other matchup, but it’s just so darn good against these little toys that we just we forget. Now the decision could boil down to what do you expect to play more of and this actually might have been better in the beginning of the format where half of your matches would be just Wind-Ups. However, with how the format has become so much more diverse, to whom you can give some blame/responsibility to Billy Brake for topping with Inzektors, Veiler is far more superior in my opinion in that it is still GOOD against Wind-Ups but suddenly it’s also good to subpar against everything which is what we want, for our handtraps to be at worse, mediocre. However, because Veiler would conflict with Block Golem, we’re forced to come up with something that works like Veiler but won’t.... that is where Skill Drain comes into play. Skill Drain is amazing, downright amazing this format, so good in fact that resolving just one can be the difference between winning and losing in certain matchups. This card doesn’t conflict with anything in the mainboard other than grandmole and fossils who are used mainly as decent control cards as they are and reveal targets for the Koaki, since revealing is a condition and not part of the effect so you will still have to do that under Skill Drain. Block Golem, Koaki Triplets and Thunder King (his negation effect) all resolve in the grave making this card perfect in here. So taking in account all of the fixes the deck should a little something like

Billy Brake’s Rock Stun Deck V2
Monsters: 15
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Block Golem
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Neo-Spacian Grandmole
Spells:9
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 17
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Skill Drain
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road
1 Dark Bribe
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

Not too shabby huh? Now onto the next decklist!

Joe Giorlando’s Gishki Hero Turbo Deck

Monsters: 20
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
Spells:20
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

Extra Deck:15
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

Now this is a sight for sore eyes, Joe’s deck suddenly reminds me a lot of DDT (Diamond Dude Turbo), which was a wildly popular deck at its time, Turbo’ing through the deck and dropping game out of nowhere, which is the point behind Joe’s build here if that’s not clear through the usage of NO TRAPS. Which this deck honestly doesn’t need if it’s going to play and work the way you want it to.

Alright just off the bat, I would take out the Tragoedia, if you make a huge push, you’re not going to have many cards in hand to give ol’ Trag a nice attack boost, and it won’t help if your opponent is going to fire off with their deck. So I’m going to say take out both Tragoedia in favor of Effect Veiler, whom I feel will make the deck less susceptible to a Wind-Up combo or Geargia going off, and securing a winning game state. I feel as though he really pegged the monster line-up really well, the only changes I would make to that is the addition of Evigishki Gustkraken, as his abusable effect combined with the recyclability of him due to Aquamirror is just way too good to pass up. I personally do not like the Tourguide engine in the deck as I see that it really doesn’t prove any worth outside of the “it’s Tourguide” reason and instead I’d take out the 2 Tourguide, 1 Sangan and 1 Diamond Dude to accommodate, 2 Deep Sea Diva and 2 Destiny Hero Malicious as Malicious proves as invaluable resource when taking in consideration the fact that we now play Gustkraken as they are both level 6 monsters and Malicious when used in conjunction with Diva can make explosive plays which, unlike Tourguide can fuel your Miracle Fusions. The spell line up is actually really good and honestly I don’t have much to say in the ways of fixing it.
Now let’s move onto the Extra Deck which will now have to accommodate our Tourguide to Diva change. Let’s removed the Brass Djinn, Leviathan Dragon, Zenmaines and Leviair to add in two Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, two Daigusto Phoenix as the switch from Rank 3’s to 2’s is inevitable with this switch in the main deck. While we’re at it, even with the possibility of Monster Reborn, I don’t see any real possible way to make Big Eye and Gaia Charger, and it seems he may have missed the three oh so important Absolute Zeroes necessary in the deck so let’s change those two and the Grenosaurus into 3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero. Finally, let’s get rid of Temptemto, Acid Golem and Black Rose Dragon and add in some really good, and forgotten level 8 synchros, 1 Stardust Dragon, 1 Colossal Fighter and now easier to obtain than ever, 1 Scrap Dragon!

After all of these arrangements have been made the deck should look a little like this

Joe Giorlando’s Gishki Hero Turbo Deck V2

Monsters: 20
3 Gishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
1 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
2 Effect Veiler
2 Deep Sea Diva
2 Destiny Hero Malicious
1 Gishki Shadow
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
Spells:20
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

Extra Deck:15
2 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Daigusto Phoenix
3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Maestroke Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter

This allows the deck to be able to drop it’s main boss monster Elemental Hero Absolute Zero more quickly and efficiently!

Well those would be my changes to the following decks above and thank you very much for reading this article! Hopefully I’ll be able to write more articles for ARG in the future so until then Play hard or go home