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YCS Austin and YCS San Diego
Well, YCS Austin is finally behind us, and as was fairly predictable, Mermail won the event. My final standing was 169th place out of 1,300+ competitors, putting me roughly in the 12th percentile. Hopefully San Diego will see a better performance out of me. ARG recently had a facebook poll asking whether Battle Pack is something that can be practiced for, considering that the 50 cards you are given are not your own selection. The answer is definitely yes, and serious competitors including myself are training hard for this event. At the very least, you can memorize what all the cards do, practice grind game fundamentals, and learn patterns of synergy in preparation for a sealed event.
Matt Cashiola’s V-Hero (Electrum OTK)
Main Deck: 40
Monsters: 14
3 Elemental Hero Sparkman
3 Kabazauls
2 Rescue Rabbit
1 Elemental Hero Burstinatrix
1 Elemental Hero Clayman
1 Elemental Hero Avian
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Bubbleman
1 Cardcar D
Spells: 11
3 Terraforming
3 Fusion Gate
2 E – Emergency Call
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 15
3 Chain Material
2 Dark Bribe
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
Extra Deck: 15
3 Elemental Hero Electrum
2 Elemental Hero The Shining
1 Elemental Hero Nova Master
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Blaze Fenix, the Bombardment Bird
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Starliege Paladynamo
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Evolzar Dolkka
1 Evolzar Laggia
1 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
At a Glance
“Victor” originally came up with V-Heroes over a year ago. The deck was like Dino Rabbit, but had Sparkman as well in order to utilize Blade Armor Ninja and Miracle Fusion in its arsenal. Kabazauls and Sabersaurus provided the attributes needed to fuse Gaias and Absolute Zeroes, giving the deck greater versatility versus large boss monsters (pure Dino Rabbit was notoriously bad at dealing with walls and boss monsters). The Evolzars also provided a path to Nova Master. With Tour Guide and Effect Veiler, the deck had literally every attribute E-Hero at its disposable for Miracle Fusions (though Escuridao was not released at the time).
While V-Hero was creative, it did not thrive because it was conceived in a VERY defined meta where you there was much less wiggle room to get away with running a non-tier 1 deck. Also, it wasn’t widely played. In any case, Gate Heroes have seen a return recently with Robert Boyajian II’s Electrum OTK variant performing so well at Austin. The deck is rather unique among degenerate OTKs in that it actually plays a dual game where it offers interaction with the opponent while it attempts to setup for the OTK. Matt’s strategy still retains the degenerate game-stealing win condition offered by Chain Material+Fusion Gate, but also includes the interaction you would see in the V-Hero matchup.
Monsters
3 Elemental Hero Sparkman
3 Kabazauls
2 Rescue Rabbit
1 Elemental Hero Burstinatrix
1 Elemental Hero Clayman
1 Elemental Hero Avian
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Bubbleman
1 Cardcar D
What we’ve sacrificed from V-Hero is Tour Guide. What we’ve sacrificed from Electrum is Neos Alius, Duality and Super Poly. What we’ve gained is the potential for a stronger opening in the form of turn 1 Laggia or Dolkka (or even Paladynamo). The additional potential to draw badly with Sparkman and Kabazauls is by no means negligible. While Kabazauls’ WATER attribute is helpful for Absolute Zero and Abyss Dweller, the loss in good draws is something that need to be addressed. Neos Alius seems most naturally replaced by Sabersaurus.
The lone Cardcar is there for the summon of Blaze Fenix. Apart from cutting that mini-strategy, the only other way to reduce the monster count would be to drop the set of Sparkman in favor of two copies of any of the vanillas used for Electrum’s summon. For example, you could run 3 Avian and Lightning Chidori over Paladynamo. But then there would be difficulty with summoning The Shining. No matter how we look at it, it’s hard to keep the deck’s monster count low and engine still functional.
-3 Kabazauls
+3 Sabersaurus
Spells
3 Terraforming
3 Fusion Gate
2 E – Emergency Call
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Reinforcement of the Army
While E-Call thins the deck out, it does not actually facilitate the OTK. As we’ve gone over, the monster lineup makes the draws significantly worse in this variant, and we want real cards over E-Call. Cards that, say, protect Evolzars.
-2 Emergency Call
+2 Lance
Traps
3 Chain Material
2 Dark Bribe
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
Dark Bribe is kind of an unfair card in a deck with a one-card win condition. You can sit on it all day as the world around you crumbles, conserving it to protect that one win condition. It doesn’t matter if Dark Hole off the top blew out your Dolkka, or your opponent had the Warning for your Rabbit play. All you have to do is protect Chain Material from Heavy once and the job is nearly finished. What you lose in card advantage, you gain in the assurance that you can’t get Heavied again for the remainder of the duel. No changes recommended for traps.
Extra Deck
3 Elemental Hero Electrum
2 Elemental Hero The Shining
1 Elemental Hero Nova Master
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Blaze Fenix, the Bombardment Bird
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Starliege Paladynamo
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Evolzar Dolkka
1 Evolzar Laggia
1 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
Shoutouts to Starliege Paladynamo, the newest release in Matt’s Extra Deck, and a pretty useful card to boost Hero Beat and all Hero decks in general.
Matt is taking some risks by cutting the Hero Fusions to their bare minimum in order to make way for the Evolzars and Starliege. The other day, I watched as my friend Julian decked out at locals while running Electrum OTK. His last monsters were Snowman Eaters that could not deal damage. I jokingly said that if he had Extra Decked Submersible Carrier Aero Shark, he would have won. Jokes aside, rank 3s are actually a thing, especially post-sideboard with Banisher and Snowman. I think there are more games that will be won with the ability to go into a rank 3 than with Blade Armor. You’ll almost never go, “Oh man, there was NO other play I could make to take that game other than Blade Armor.”
-1 Blade Armor
+1 Leviair (not Aero Shark, but you can mess with Aero Shark for fun)
Final List
Main Deck: 40
Monsters: 14
3 Elemental Hero Sparkman
3 Sabersaurus
2 Rescue Rabbit
1 Elemental Hero Burstinatrix
1 Elemental Hero Clayman
1 Elemental Hero Avian
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Bubbleman
1 Cardcar D
Spells: 11
3 Terraforming
3 Fusion Gate
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 15
3 Chain Material
2 Dark Bribe
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
Extra Deck: 15
3 Elemental Hero Electrum
2 Elemental Hero The Shining
1 Elemental Hero Nova Master
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Blaze Fenix, the Bombardment Bird
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Starliege Paladynamo
1 Evolzar Dolkka
1 Evolzar Laggia
1 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
While most Electrum decks focus on biding time for the OTK, this one can play a little bit of Dino Rabbit stun as well, and even go for game with Blaze Fenix. Yet another variant for your consideration: Miracle Fusion!
Shaun Loadholt and Mist Valley
Main Deck: 40
Monsters: 22
3 Genex Ally Birdman
2 Reborn Tengu
2 Tragoedia
2 Mist Valley Baby Roc
2 Mist Valley Thunderbird
2 Lady Ninja Yae
2 Flying Kamakiri
2 Mist Condor
1 Dark Simorgh
1 Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
1 Mist Valley Falcon
1 Mist Valley Soldier
1 Shield Wing
Spells: 12
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Divine Wind of Mist Valley
2 Quill Pen of Gulldos
1 Pot of Duality
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps: 6
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Dimensional Prison
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Call of the Haunted
Extra Deck: 15
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Armory Arm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth
1 Mist Valley Thunder Lord
1 Mist Wurm
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
At a Glance
First, thank you Shaun for writing your entire decklist out with the full name of each card capitalized. This is not required for Deck Doctor submissions, but it did make compiling the deck list easier for me.
The Mist Valley archetype is centralized around the bounce to hand mechanic. One thing you’ll notice about Mist Valley cards (or even cards with just Mist in their name, such as Mist Wurm) is they have effects that trigger when something is bounced to hand, or they bounce things to the hand with their own effects.
The thing about fun decks like Mist is that they can be taken down various avenues. There are multiple ways to incorporate the strategy into a deck. However, we don’t want to be jack of all trades and master of none. There are multiple mini-engines in this deck, but they are so varied that overall consistency is lacking. My commentary will maximize the consistent elements of the deck and trim the remaining fat in favor of protection traps.
Monsters
3 Genex Ally Birdman
2 Reborn Tengu
2 Tragoedia
2 Mist Valley Baby Roc
2 Mist Valley Thunderbird
2 Lady Ninja Yae
2 Flying Kamakiri
2 Mist Condor
1 Dark Simorgh
1 Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
1 Mist Valley Falcon
1 Mist Valley Soldier
1 Shield Wing
Birdman, Tragoedia, and Tengu were all good picks for this deck for their obvious synergy. However, there are some cards that need to go. Most notably, Yae because it isn’t actual removal, does not synergize with the deck much, and flat out loses to Fiendish Chain. Baby Roc because there are a thousand different ways to make it miss its timing, and even when it doesn’t, there’s not much going on with it. Shield Wing because it does not create any sort of win condition. Dark Simorgh is a pretty useful win condition for Mist Valley decks, and the changes I make to the trap lineup will make it a bigger threat (spoiler: Safe Zone). To make Simorgh more consistent, we’ll need a couple of DARK monsters…
-2 Mist Valley Baby Roc
-1 Mist Valley Thunderbird
-2 Lady Ninja Yae
-2 Flying Kamakiri
-1 Shield Wing
-1 Mist Condor
+2 Mist Valley Falcon
+1 Dark Simorgh
+2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
Spells
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Divine Wind of Mist Valley
2 Quill Pen of Gulldos
1 Pot of Duality
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Swords of Revealing Light
The spell lineup here has pretty good ratios by not overdoing it on Quill Pens and Divine Winds. It makes one wish Giant Trunade were still a card. Swords recycling was a neat trick in the Magic Ruler days, but is currently two slow a strategy (and not an actual win condition).
-1 Swords
+1 Pot of Duality
Traps
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Dimensional Prison
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Call of the Haunted
Fiendish Chain is the best unlimited trap of the format, and this deck happens to have a way to abuse it like none other. Mist Valley Falcon anyone? Since Fiendish doesn’t leave the field when its target is used as XYZ material or Synchro fodder or is bounced to the hand, etc..you get the idea..there are many opportunities to recycle it. On that same note, let’s pull all kinds of shenanigans with Safe Zone. You can use it to create soft locks with Simorgh, or chain it to MST to destroy an opposing threat, or even use your own bounce effect to return Safe Zone to hand to eliminate that threat. Really neat stuff. We’ll want to include Solemn to protect pushes and setups.
-1 Dimensional Prison
-1 Bottomless Trap Hole
+1 Fiendish Chain
+1 Compulsory
+1 Warning
+1 Judgment
+3 Safe Zone
Extra Deck
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Armory Arm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth
1 Mist Valley Thunder Lord
1 Mist Wurm
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
The Extra Deck will be doctored according to Main Deck changes. I’m surprised Chidori was left out since it fits so elegantly with the theme.
-1 Catastor
-1 Armor Arm
-1 Thought Ruler
-1 Gachi Gachi
-1 Number 16
+1 Abyss Dweller
+1 Number 17
+1 Big Eye
+1 Temtempo
+1 Chidori
Final List
Main Deck: 41
Monsters: 18
3 Genex Ally Birdman
3 Mist Valley Falcon
2 Reborn Tengu
2 Dark Simorgh
2 Tragoedia
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Mist Valley Thunderbird
1 Mist Condor
1 Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
1 Mist Valley Soldier
Spells: 12
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Divine Wind of Mist Valley
2 Quill Pen of Gulldos
2 Pot of Duality
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 11
3 Fiendish Chain
3 Safe Zone
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
Extra Deck: 15
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth
1 Mist Valley Thunder Lord
1 Mist Wurm
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Lightning Chidori
The side deck for Mist Valley is worth a bit of discussion as well, since Fiendish and Safe Zone aren’t the only neat tricks you can pull off (though they are some of the most consistent ones). You can also use cards like Anti-Spell Fragrance - it’s like an unlimited Imperial Order vs. Dark World and Prophecy that only hurts your opponent for the most part. Begone, Knave! and Fire Formation – Tenki also show some promise in alternate builds.
And last but not least, I wish safe travels to everyone heading out to San Diego this weekend. Practicing sealed AND constructed has kept me quite busy. See you at the event!
Until next time,
Play Hard or Go Home.
Sincerely,
Johnny
Johnny Li
Latest posts by Johnny Li (see all)
- 100 Prisoners - February 23, 2015
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- Learning Efficiently for the Returning Player - February 16, 2015
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