We can rebuild him. We have the technology

November 13, 2012

by Nick Howell

What is good ARG, it is your boy TourGuideForGame here and today i'm going to be going over two decks submitted by Billy Brake and Joe Giorlando. Billy submitted his Rock Stun deck, so i'll take a look at that first.

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

First, lets take a brief look at what Rock Stun decks are supposed to do, as this will help decide how to improve the deck. Rock stun utilizes the effect of the 'Koa'ki Meiru' monsters to negate opposing plays, and maintain constant pressure. Just like how stardust dragon would make the opponent think 'This mirror force I have set is dead, since his stardust will just negate it', rock stun aims to keep on the pressure with its many beatsticks whilst constantly having the option to negate opposing cards.

On paper, this deck looks very solid, and this is actually very similar to the first rock stun build I created myself. However, whilst good in theory the deck has a couple of major problems that prevent it from functioning as it should. The biggest problem I find with a low monster count in this deck is the maintenance cost for the Koa’ki monsters. With only 15 rock monsters in Billy's deck, there is a large possibility you will only have one rock monster in hand at a given minute. If that monster is a Koa'ki, it will die in the end phase since you can't pay the cost. If it's a block golem unless you can use its effect it's a dead 1000 ATK beater you don't want to waste. And if you can actually use it, you are forced to go into an XYZ. The second problem is that block golem is very bad in your opening hand, and is essentially a dead card. Whilst it gives this deck many powerful plays, it can be a very situational card and you don’t want it in your hand at the start of the duel.

The final problem I see with traditional Rock Stun decks, is the reliance on Block Golem in the maindeck. By this, I mean that people limit their card options severely because they assume anything non-rock would cause conflict with the deck. This is incorrect. A non-rock causes conflict with block golem, sure, but not with the deck itself. By not playing good extra deck cards like maestroke the symphony Djinn, you are restricting the deck's power severely and also its ability to play out of certain situations.

With these things in mind, here are my changes:

Monsters: 21
3x Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3x Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
3x Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
2x Block Golem
2x Card Trooper
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
1x Neo Spacian Grand Mole
1x Gigantes
1x Giant Rat

Spells: 9
2x Pot Of Duality
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Forbidden Lance
1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn

Traps: 12
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Solemn Warning
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Call Of The Haunted
1x The Huge Revolution Is Over
1x Mirror Force
1x Skill Drain

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck: 15
2x Gem-Knight Pearl
2x Kachi Kochi Dragon
1x Steelswarm Roach
1x Soul of Silver Mountain
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Number 39: Utopia
1x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1x Wind-Up Zenmaister
1x Gachi Gachi
1x Fairy King Albverdich
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Scrap Dragon

Monsters
Ok, time for my explanations. First of all, I have removed 2 copies of 'maxx "C"' from the maindeck. This is because I don't think Maxx "C" is a good enough card for the maindeck right now. This format is so diverse and it only stands out against windups. Additionally, I don't think it's suitable for this deck because this deck is supposed to stop the opponent from making big playds, and Maxx "C" relies on your opponent making said big plays. Whilst you can '1 for 1' with this card in many situations, it does not advance the gamestate so I think there are better cards for the maindeck.

I also cut 1 copy of Block Golem from the maindeck for the reason I stated previously. With 2 block golems, I reduce the opportunity to draw it first turn whilst still maintaining the ability to draw it when needed.

Next, I added 2 Legendary Jujitsu master. This is because I beleive the ability to remove a problematic monster from the field is key in this deck, and it may not be possible with a trap card. It also combines well with forbidden lance, which I also added.

I also added 1 Gigantes. Whilst it might seem to conflict with thw deck's high trap count, when played correctly it can allow y ou to control the board incredibly well all by itself, and a 1900ATK heavy storm isn't something to laugh at. It's also a beater that doesn't waste your normal summon, and so can be used to combo with your other monsters, or be summoned with a set monster aswell.

I next increased the number of Fossil Dyna's to 3, because it's absolutely amazing in the deck and with the high trap count you can keep it on the field for a long time and control the pace of the game incredibly well.

Finally, I added a copy of Giant Rat. Rat allows you to search out your block golem if you need it, whilst also searches for grand mole when you're wanting to get rid of a zenmaines or other problematic monster. It can also search card troopers and jujitsu master if necessary.
Spells
Moving onto the spells, I removed a mystical space typhoon and 2 Soul Takers, and added in a forbidden lance. I think that lance serves the function of both cards very well, it helps you play through a trap/dark hole etc, whilst allowing your 1900ATK beaters to attack over bigger monsters. I think Soul Taker’s 1000LP gain can be too costly late game and has actually caused me to lose in previous games as its given them a boost and then we’ve gone into time. I think there is sufficient trap removal to deal with problem monsters. I also removed the seal of orichalcos, because I think the card is too situational for it to be effective in this deck. It offers you nothing if you are in a lsoing position, and if you are winning all it does is help you win a bit more. It doesn't advance the gamestate in your favour enoguh to be worth a spot in the deck, not to mention it's the only card in the deck that does absolutely nothing by itself. You also have to bear in mind that in some situations using your extra deck is necessary to play out of certain situation (For example going into Maestroke and chaining Torrential tribute to clear a path to attack) which is not possible with orichalcos.

Traps

As for the traps, I didn't change much as I think the trap lineup is fairly solid. I removed the torrential tributes, in favour of a Mirror Force and Skill Drain. In a deck that revolves around field presence, torrential tribute is a poor card choice in my opinion and you would rarely want to use it unless you're desperate or your opponent is brave enough to over-extend against a stun deck with a face-down backrow. Mirror force helps punish said over-extension without costing you a monstrer, and skill drain is an exellent card this format when almost every single deck revolves around field effects. It stops all windups, geargiarmor, gigant X, Venus,Tragoedia, Tour Guide, and many other cards. Not to mention it works well in combination with the Koa'ki monsters, as they tribute themselves for their effects. I only added 1 because it’s bad against HERO and Darkworld, and can conflict with Juju, Dyna and Grand Mole.

I also added in one copy of Compulsory Evacuation Device. I think this card is really good this format as it can put a stop to problematic cards like Zenmaines and Tiras, much like Grand Mole can. It can also disrupt combos and it’s usually chainable to an MST or heavy storm.

I also swapped a Starlight Road for The Huge Revolution Is Over. I think in this deck THRIO is far superior for a number of reasons. First of all, it does not force you to summon a WIND monster you can't remove from your graveyard (Since Stardust Dragon wasn't Synchro summoned successfully, you cannot special summon it from the graveyard with CoTH or monster reborn). Obviously you can choose NOT to summon stardust, but then it's pointless using road altogether really. In addition, starlight can be stopped by Solemn Warning, whereas THRIO can only be stopped by a Dark Bribe or similar countr-trap, and isn't succeptible to Shi-En or Naturia Beast either. Another point to consider is that THRIO stops ANY 2 cards from being destroyed, whereas stardust dragon only works if it's your own cards that are being destroyed. So for example you could stop your opponent using Torrential Tribute when they summon Sangan if you control a monster, and it would also stop cards like Scrap Dragon.

I finally removed solemn judgment from the deck. I think in a format where so many different decks have potential, unless you know every deck inside out you can find yourself negating the wrong card which can cost you the entire game. Not to mention that negating one card isn't particularly important when decks like Windups, Geargia and Mermails can obtain enough advantage to play round a judgment with ease. In addition, in a slow deck using half of your lifepoints to negate one card (Unless it would save you from losing right there and then) is way too costly when popular decks can crank out 3+ monsters in one turn, or have massive beaters like Grapha and Archlord Kristya.
Extra Deck
Concluding with the extra deck, as previously stated Billy appears to have gone with the assumption that non-EARTH extra deck cards are unusable in this deck. I find this to be incorrect. With 2 CoTH and a reborn, it's fairly easy to get your graveyard correct for Block Golem, and simply playing non EARTHs you give yourself the opportunity to play out of more situations, and gives you a bigger arsenal when you need it. For example, since this deck is fairly slow it has a hard matchup against decks like Chaos Dragons that summon high ATK monsters frequently. The use of Steelswarm Roach would allow you to halt these monsters whereas previously Billy would have to find another way around them.

Because of this, I removed a Soul Of The Silver Mountain as this deck doesn't have many level 3s and I highly doubt you would ever go into 2 in one game. I also removed a Naturia Barkion, Beast and stardust dragon, because this deck has no ability to synchro summon whatsoever outside of a monster reborn, and the only realistic target would be Effect Veiler which can't summon the Naturias, and with no starlight road, Stardust isn't necessary here either.

I replaced these with a Utopia, Steelswarm Roach, Maestroke for the reasons stated above, and I also swapped Beast for an Ally of Justice Catastor, simply because this is the best level 5 synchro and the one you'd want to go for IF the opportunity ever arose, which is highly unlikely. I finally took away the Gaia Knight, because assuming you synchro’d with an effect veiler, you could really only make a level 4/5 synchro anyway. I replaced this with the new Gagaga Cowboy from Abyss Rising. Cowboy is EARTH most importantly, but his effect is amazing. In time, his burn effect can steal the win from your opponent, and offensively it can essentially become 3000ATK to beat over pesky chaos dragons or mermails.

We finish with 42 cards in the main deck, adding 1 overall because this does not damage the probability of drawing into the cards you need, but it does slightly increase your options and helps prevent clogging.

Next, I will take a look at Joe Giorlando's Gishki Turbo deck. As above, I will first of all analyze the deck as a whole and look at the deck's overall strategy in order to work out what to change.

3 Gishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
2 Tragoedia

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

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

Traditional Gishki Decks focus on Ritual Summoning, and using the Ritual and support cards in order to increase field and/or hand advantage whilst maintaining the other. However, Joe’s build intends to innovate the ‘trade in + level 8s’ you typically see in turbo decks, and has gone for the Gishkis to utilize Gishki Aquamirror. With 3 Miracle fusion, the HERO side of the deck will also allow powerful plays in order to swing momentum in his favour. I would like to take the opportunity to point out the main flaw with all Turbo decks, and one I see in Joe’s: Consistency. The biggest problem is that turbo decks typically focus exclusively on drawing into one combo and therefore if they don’t draw it, they lose. It’s great opening with Destiny Draw & Destiny Hero Plasma, or Trade-In and a level 8, but then if you don’t draw 2 cards you need to continue the pace you find yourself with a hand of unusable cards. This problem is mostly caused by the fact that many draw cards are situational, and in the instance of D Draw or Trade-in, require another card aswell. It’s my intention to fix this problem with my below changes. I was lucky enough to have a friend at locals who plays gishkis, so I borrowed some of his cards to build and test this deck, just so I could get a feel of how it plays.

Monsters: 18

3 Gishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Abyss
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Gishki Vision
2 Tragoedia
1 Gishki Shadow
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 22

3 Destiny Draw
3 Trade-In
3 Miracle Fusion

3 Upstart Goblin
2 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 Elemental HERO Absolute ZERO
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Elemental HERO Escuraido
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 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Grenosaurus

Ok, first with the monsters. I removed 2 copies of Tour Guide, and the lone sangan. This is simply because I don’t believe that TGU + Sangan actually do anything for the deck except provide DARK targets for Dark Armed Dragon. In a deck with no backrow, Sangan is way too risky and a rank 3 play just doesn’t seem to compliment the strategy of the deck. I also removed 1 Gishki Vision. This is because I jhave added in 3 Copies of Gishki Abyss, which I think is great in the deck. It allows you to search for Vision and Shadow, which things the deck further which is a big part of the deck. It helps maintain consistency. When testing this deck I found that I always seemed to have either Ogre or mirror in hand, but rarely both. Adding Abyss helps solve this issue. It can also be discarded for Ogre’s effect if necessary.

I also removed one copy of Destiny HERO Plasma, because I think that 3 is too many. With 3 D Draw having 5 targets, and 3 Trade-in having 5 targets, I think dropping one will not hurt its synergy with the draw cards. I can also search one out with Stratos if necessary.

Spells

I first of all removed a copy of Mystical Space Typhoon. Although this is a turbo deck, with the amount of draw power you have plenty of opportunity to draw into 2 Mystical Space Typhoons, so I think removing 1 for another card is worthwhile. I added in 3 copies of Upstart Goblin. This essentially thins the deck by 3 cards automatically, essentially meaning you’re running a 37 card deck. Since Goblin doesn’t need another card along with it and gives the opponent no hand advantage (Unlike One Day Of Peace), it’s the perfect draw card in the deck and the 1000 LP gain isn’t detrimental to this deck.

I considered adding a 3^rd salvage which would give Joe the opportunity to OTK without Monster Reborn (Discard Visions & Shadow for Ogre and Mirror > Salvage > Add Shadow & Visions > Discard Visions to search for Ogre No.2 > Discard Ogre No.2 to Ritual summon Ogre No.1 > Mirror’s effect adding Ogre No.2 To hand > Discard visions to grab Mirror > Salvage > Repeat previous steps) however I felt that it would be too situational and salvage can clog your hand further, which is the opposite of what I set out to do. With 2 salvage you can still summon 2 Ogres and go for Heliopolis if it was the right play to make.

Traps

I considered adding 3 Reckless Greed to the deck to help speed it up, however I could not find the space. Joe may want to try 3 Reckless Greeds over 3 Upstart Goblins, as it’s technically faster, and in the battle step can provide Tragoedia with a 1200ATK boost. I personally wouldn’t though.

Extra Deck

My first duel with this deck had an opening hand of 2 Miracle fusion, and a turn later had I used Elemental HERO Absolute Zero or Escuraido, I would have had an OTK. Absolute Zero is Absolutely perfect (Excuse the pun) in here, because the deck has plenty of HERO targets and is obviously full of WATER monsters. Previously Joe only had 1 target (Stratos) for 3 Miracle fusions, which is a massive consistency issue. Because of this, I added 2 to the extra deck and also added an Escuraido. There may be occasions where you only have DARK monsters in the graveyard (Or don’t want to banish your WATER monsters) And so I chose to go 2 Zero 1 Escuraido over 3 Zero.

I also added a Gagaga Cowboy, mostly for the reasons mentioned in the Rock Stun portion of this article. It’s an excellent card and this deck has more than enough room for it.

The final addition was Abyss Dweller. This card is really good at getting over battle recruiters or wasting an opposing Sangan when you use its effect. It’s also a WATER, so it’s another target for miracle fusion.

To replace these, I removed Gaia Charger, Big Eye, Black Rose, Acid Golem and Melomelody. The first three were removed because it’s literally impossible to make them in this deck so they obviously server no purpose. Acid Golem came out because whilst it has massive ATK power and is WATER, it prevents you special summoning which in a deck focused on special summoning can cause you to lose the game because you couldn’t kill off your own Golem and burned yourself to death. I also removed melomelody, because I think this is a terrible card in general and doesn’t deserve a place in any deck.

That’s it for this week, but stay tuned next week for more deck doctoring, and remember to email your decks to Iamtotallygoingtowin@alterrealitygames.com!