Reliable Locks and Heroic Recurring

November 16, 2012

by Christian Baez

Reliable Locks and Heroic Recurring

By Chris Monts

I could begin with an introduction on what essentials should be in any given deck, and what good picks will improve a deck’s stand in this format. But that would take time in discussion and testing to see if there’s a way to build the best version of a deck. So instead, I’ll start by noting two basic aspects of deck-building:

-Theory is best well when our goal is simplified,

-Every card has a realistic purpose.

The first aspect means you want to understand the game-plan of the deck. If you choose to play a deck, like the two at hand, it is because they offer scenarios that fight effectively against the current field. Whether it is grinding down with control and successfully having the tempo of the game in your hands via progressive card advantage, or having reliable access to your key cards at a faster rate than your opponent to assemble game-winning combos before they reach their 5^th turn, as long as you understand how to reach the deck’s goal, you’ll have a better chance to improve the deck.

Consequentially, the second aspect has to do with at what typical, yet specific, game scenarios your deck can handle and dodge. The deck has to make use of every card-choice as a steppingstone that leads not to a 100% win ratio, knowing that you won’t always draw playable hands or hands that’ll always cancel-out with your opponent. But the greater a well-thought-out a choice is, the more likely is the deck’s playability and your success with it.

Now, the operations can begin!

Next patient is Mr. Brake’s Rock Stun deck-list. Proceed!

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

The initial step is to apply both concepts described above. Looking at this list and what the goal of the deck is will allow us to closely make the deck’s choices more compatible with this format’s competition. The deck plays 1900 ATK beaters that negate popular plays, and maintains field presence thanks to Block Golem and a suite of defensive trap line-ups. Thus, the purpose here is to apply pressure and to prevent the opponent from working his hand. To ensure this, every copy of a card must flow with the deck to steer away from clogging.

Card Trooper and Block Golem interactions.

The deck sustains itself with Rock monsters to apply pressure. Drawing a crucial Guardian with no other monster but one of two Card Troopers (Machine) really hinders your basic plan. You could summon Trooper and mill a few rocks for future Block Golem fodder, but you want Guardian and the rest of your beaters to actively pressure your opponent to find a specific answer for their plays to pass uninterrupted and, equally important, use your traps to assist that. Cutting troopers, and using 2 Block Golems will suffice; along with 2 Koa’ki Meiru Boulder(s) (Rock) we can search for whichever beater we need and have them set-up for instant Block Golem and Call of the Haunted (abrv. Coth) plays. The Boulder will help us maintain a Koa’ki Meiru beater’s cost to reveal a Rock, while giving us access to key monsters to stay in the game. This will give a touch of consistency and reliability.

3 MST’s…and other spells.

Our patient has methods of maintaining, reviving, and searching for a Rock monster in most instances. Now we have to know how to follow steps to keep them intact. One of the main problems most agro-control decks have is not with back-rows. It’s the large Hyperion/The Shining/Chaos-monster that threatens to turn our game-plan against ourselves. Once their boss monster out, you must clear it that same turn and continue to apply pressure. Your very own trap card could get MST’d during the end-phase while this is happening. Thus, we consider clearing big threats with urgency and the back-rows a little nuisance. With 2 MST’s you’ll answer the few relevant back-rows (Wind-Up Factory, Gates of the Dark World, Abyss-Sphere,etc), and that extra slot can be open for another Soul Taker. That may be too generous of you to potentially help your opponent’s with 3000LP, but as long as your beaters are attacking unopposed (and with the help of Coth and Seal of Orichalcos) while you pace yourself each turn with better card advantage, field presence, and answers than they are, you are closer to winning.

Sustain and Supply: The Traps.

The trap line-up is solid and simple. With 2 Block Golem and 2 Boulder, the 2 Coth are less likely to clog your hands or board. Now with the rise of Atlanteans and Mermails, the last slot for the main-deck should be a lone-copy of Macro Cosmos. One copy would not conflict with the deck’s graveyard reliant effects (Maxx “C”, Koa’ki Meiru Boulder, Coth), and would prevent flood-gate matchups from getting out of hand (Agents, Dark World, Inzektors, etc) in the early stages. It worked well with Dino-Rabbit decks last format for good reason, and considering it for this deck gives it that one chance to outright have a better matchup Game 1.

Monsters: 18
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman

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

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

Traps: 13
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

1 Macro Cosmos

Extra Deck: 15
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Kochi Kochi Dragon
1 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Maestroke, the Symphony Djinn
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Stardust Dragon

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

The changes listed for the extra deck were done with one objective in mind: Use every option and have them be live. Cards like Zenmaines and Acid Golem will make disabled Lv3’s more playable by giving us more options. Maestroke can put some work against bigger monsters, and Shock Master is there to simply give you the option of cancelling spells in scenarios where you have Monster Reborn for their Lv4, while applying more pressure by having the detached beaters be usable for future Coth and Golem cards. These scenarios seem too odd to happen, but acknowledging these possibilities will give just give you more realistic and live options to play out of tough situations than having a Barkion or a Naturia Beast with no main-deck’d tuners to support.

Next Patient: Mr. Giorlando’s Gishki Hero Turbo! Proceed!

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:

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

With a deck like this, you have a much more different gameplan than Mr. Brake’s deck. Now, you have to make sure every part of the deck flows. The spells are solid as they allow the player to dig through the deck 2 cards at a time and search for various combo pieces to fuel Miracle Fusion. The sole issue here is the lack of the Miracle Fusion pulsing target: Absolute Zero!

3 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
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
The crucial, freezing geyser. Absolute Zero is the monster that should stand strong and arrive from every Miracle Fusion you resolve with this deck. It’s what combos so well if used to xyz along with Plasma or a Ritual Monster to play the Overlord of Heliopolis (if the situation calls for it). The speed of the deck is to supplement the graveyard with enough Destiny Draw and Trade-In fodder to gather game ending cards before your opponent has a chance to set-up or draw into his cards. While they are waiting for their draw phase to be kind enough as to give them their combo piece, you have the possibility to dig 2-4 cards per turn to draw multiple copies of 3-ofs to further the game in your favor.

I was about to suggest maining a copy of Spirit Reaper to stall the game in your favor, but the pair of Tragoedia will provide enough offense/defense for your power plays to come through eventually.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll pay a visit once in a while to the deck doctor.

And remember to do your part of testing and deck-building.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.