The Fix-up: Deck Doctor

November 12, 2012

by Akshar Patel

Hey its Akshar Patel, I was working on another article for ARG on another key yugioh concept when I stumbled upon this challenge to doctor a deck , so I thought id give it a shot. I will start by clarifying the format of how I will write this, I will first go through the changes in the monster/spell/trap/extra that I made then give the reasons for these choices and post a link that you can use to watch a few of the matches I played with that deck. With that in mind lets get straight into it and fix up Billy's Rock Stun Deck.

Monsters:

-2 Card Trooper

-2 Maxx "c"

+ 2 Legendary Jujitsu Master's

+2 Giant Rat

Explanations:

I cut card trooper because the mill isn't that great, sure if you mill Block Golem targets you are going to get it off but I have found that it does little to add to the overall strategy of the deck which is to 'stun'. Hand-Traps at the moment can be sub-par especially in match-ups that this deck will have difficulty against such as Dark-World's and Hero's and to a lesser extent Mermail/Atlanteans which is why I decided against main decking Maxx "C". These cards also had one thing that made them less appealing to me, it was the fact that they couldn't be revealed to allow my powerful Koa'ki Meru cards to remain on the field.

I added 2 Legendary Jujitsu Master because it was similar to grand mole and I can set turn 1, this card is really good because it forces your opponent to top deck the same card that they just attacked with. This sets them back a turn and can be a quick +1 for you, its also an answer to xyz/synchros. The jujitsu was really good through out a lot of the games in testing , and for an added bonus it can also be revealed for the Koa'ki Meru's. Adding Giant Rat was difficult for me at first because I don't like pure battle floaters as there are too many ways around them, but the more I played it the more I realized it was essential as it added an extra level of consistency. The ability to toolbox out Neo-Spacian grand mole proved to be a valuable asset against a myriad of decks. It also provides some added level of stall if you need to wait in order to draw into more defense or get to a Koa'ki-Meru or Fossil Dyna.

Spells

-2 Soul Taker

-1 Mystical Space Typhoon

-1 Seal of Orichalcos

+ 3 Forbidden Lance

Explanation

I took out two soul taker because even though its a great card , I felt that the spot removal wasn't needed that much. This may seem illogical but if you think about it, this deck is very slow and plays a lot of traps so theirs no need to rush into removing threats off the board instantaneously. I thought about what soul taker would hit and reasoned that out of the situations I would like it in , there were much better cards that did a similar job and could hit more cards.

I added in 2 lance initially but because it tested so well and protected my stun monsters so well I decided to add an additional copy the reason being it is very good for defending your monsters from opponents spell/trap removal.It functions effectively to lessen the impact of removal cards that your opponent plays. It also allows your monsters to defeat larger monsters in battle. Its ability to activate in the damage step and it being a quick-play only further adds to the card's utility. In testing I found that it was very good especially turn two because my opponents would torrential/bottomless and I'd have an immediate out. This card is also a very good out to Spirit Reaper - a card which can hold this deck back.This is also a reason I cut one MST because of the similarity in the role that both these cards play in the overall strategy and I didn't feel I needed the extra removal as I see the deck as a reaction deck rather than pure aggression, I found that if I waited and got control of the situation their was little my opponent could do. I didn't like the seal because it shut down the extra deck, while the extra deck isn't vital , I don't like shutting down entire avenues of possibility and cutting the overall flexibility of decks.

Traps

- 2 Call of the Haunted

-1 Starlight Road

+2 The Huge Revolution Is Over

+1 Mirror Force

+1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

Explanation

I cut Call of the Haunted because I had cut card trooper, this card I feel is very good in decks like Inzektors where a end-phase call would basically end your opponent. I felt that rather than play those I could play more defense and have less dead traps at the beginning of the game. In testing I found that the start of the game where both players had plentiful resources was the most difficult for this deck because I had to prioritize what to stop. The middle and late stages of the game is when the strategy starts to come together and pressures your opponent and you can just take the game from there. I cut starlight road because its a very unsure form of negation and stardust directly conflicts with Block Golem. The fact that they can still chain onto road with speed spell 2 cards and hit it with solemn warning was one of the main reasons why I cut it. Counters are never the best reasons not to play certain cards, but I felt that protecting the field with my opponents only out being the 1 solemn judgment was more important than the added number of outs to road and the complexity of grave management posed by Stardust and the Block Golem conflict.

Every so often you get that 'guy' yeh... that guy who drops 4 monsters vs you turn 1 and they have no idea what they are doing , or that person who gets greedy and try's to go for game prematurely. Whats my answer to them; Mirror Force. This card is very good and can be unexpected due to less people main decking mirror force. I felt that more removal was needed if I was to cut soul takers and Mirror force is very good at what it does. Its catch is that it destroys instead of the popular alternative of straight removal presented by Dimensional Prison. I felt they both can do well in different situations so I kept both the Prisons and added a Mirror Force.The addition of Compulsory Evacuation Device was to compensate for few number of outs this deck to cards like Zenmaines. The fact that it is chain-able adds to its utility and it is a good out to shock-master.

Extra Deck

-1 Scrap Dragon

-1 Stardust

+2 Gaga Cowboy (Gaga Gunman)

Explanation

I cut Stardust and Scrap dragon because there was only one real way to make it , that's with monster reborn. I felt Gaga Cowboy was very good and it helped me win a few games, the burn 800 effect can win games, The ability to get over large monsters also makes it very good, with the amount of protection this deck runs it is not uncommon to get the effect of this card off twice. It also doesn't conflict with Block Golem.

Here is the link to some games I played with the Rock Stun deck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afr1kMqi3qI&list=HL1352431091&feature=mh_lolz

Now that we have had a detailed look at this deck, lets move swiftly onto Joe's Gishki Hero Deck:

Monsters

-1 Dark Armed Dragon

-2 Tour Guide from the Underworld

-1 Sangan

-3 Destiny Hero Plasma

-2 Evigishki Soul Ogre

+1 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude

+1 Summoner Monk

+1 Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord

+2 Gishki Shadow

+ 3 Gishki Abyss

+2 Evigishki Levinama

Explanation

As you can see I changed the monster line up a lot. I felt that this deck was too reliant on having the right monster to match the correct draw card so my objective was to add more consistency and an alternative strategy's that could add to the overall strategy which was to drop big monsters with powerful effects and overwhelm. For this reason I took out the Tour Guide engine and Dark armed dragon. I took out Tour guide engine because aside from rank 3 xyz's the card wasn't really part of hero's or Gishki's and I felt it had no place here. Dark Armed was cut for similar reasons but also because even though three dark's are easy to get into the graveyard you can just as easily open dark armed and a bunch of cards that don't help it at all hence it seemed very inconsistent too me and proved to be so in testing. I cut plasma very early on in the testing phase because I found that it didn't do anything to contribute to the strategy, apart from act as discard fodder to speed the deck and it being an additional Stratos target. I also cut 2 Soul Ogre because its highly searchable so I felt I only needed one, this allowed me to replace it with a better card in my opinion which I will mention in the next paragraph.

I added a summoner monk and a destiny hero dude, they both complement the deck immensely. Summoner monk is very helpful if you draw dead spells or if you need to get rid of a destiny draw as you can bring out a Stratos and get a target for your draw card. This deck should be played very mathematically, I personally was always calculating the odds of me drawing into spells or milling them with diamond dude , playing draw cards at the right time was vital so that you wouldn't draw into targets that Diamond Dude could potentially be generating card advantage off. One other use of the monk was to simply special the level 4 Gishki shadow so I could make my salvages live. The final addition to the monster line up for me was adding an extra diamond dude this was to compensate for the loss of Destiny Draw targets.

Moulinglacia was added because the grave is so easy to control and the constant discarding of Gishki's meant the grave was quickly filled. The ritual spell and miracle fusion kept the graveyard in check so the Elemental Lord was rarely 'dead'. It also acts as fodder for Trade-In if you open it early on and it becomes too difficult to set up. Gishki Shadow is one of my favorite cards in this deck and I added two more copies. Since the ritual spell was recycled into the deck often through its own effect, I wanted to get it back so I could Ritual Summon and gain field presence and put more pressure on my opponent. The spell searching ability also makes is useful as you can discard the ritual spell for summoner monk. This card also removed another card in the deck diamond dude couldn't exploit with his effect and increased the probability of diamond dudes effect being successful.

I added three copies of Gishki Abyss because its basically the Stratos for the Gishki side of the engine. It adds a ton of consistency and is great to banish for miracle fusion, fills the grave for Moulinglacia and acts as an additional salvage target. This card also adds to the normal summon of the deck which I thought it initially lacked. Finally to conclude the monsters I added two Evigishki Levinama. This card nets you a draw every time it declares an attack and has a solid 2700 attack, I felt this effect was too good to pass on as it still gets its effect even if my opponent uses dimensional prison or mirror force.

Spells

-1 Destiny Draw

-3 Mystical Space Typhoon

+2 Night Beam

+2 Pot of Duality

Explanation

The reduced number of targets for Destiny Draw and the fact it seemed to be dead more than it was live was the reason why I cut one copy. I cut the mystical space typhoons because they couldn't be 'hit' by Diamond Dude and replaced them with Night Beam which can be triggered and is similar in its function. I added two pot of duality to add extra consistency to turn one plays and it helped to gain access to cards such as Trade-In's or targets for such cards. An additional note is that if Diamond Dude mills a pot of duality then you aren't bound by the special summon part of duality.

Extra

-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 Number 11: Big Eye

-1 Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger

-1 Black Rose Dragon

+1 Elemental HERO Escuridão

+3 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero

+1 Number 39: Utopia

+1 Number C39: Utopia Ray

+1 Number 16: Shock Master

+1 Photon Papilloperative

+1 Heroic Champion Gandiva

+1 Steelswarm Roach

Explanation

Due to cutting the Tour Guide engine I removed the Rank 3 xys's and added Rank 4's instead. Zero was essential and is the best miracle fusion target in this deck, it combos very nicely with the Gishki ritual summon because it allows you to use its field clearing ability offensively . I added Escuridao just in case I needed a larger beatstick . The rest of the rank 4's were pretty standard with the only real notable was Heroic Champion Gandiva who is in their because of the space and it has a decent effect that can be used vs decks that special a lot of level 4 or lower.

Here is the link to the games I played with the Gishki Hero deck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNRoOfe7tJo&feature=youtu.be

To summarize, my main goal when editing these decks was to add alternative options and versatility without reducing consistency. If you have reached this far I applaud you , I am very sorry for making this article so long and detailed but I enjoyed deck doctor immensely and gave it my all , I hope you give the decks a try.

Until next time

~Akshar Patel