ARG Deck Doctor Article: Soul Trek, Assemble!

December 4, 2012

Categories: YuGiOh!

by Kevin Mathew

Hello again, reader of ARG articles. I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving and for those of you that went out on Black Friday, I hope you emerged victorious in the great struggle for bargain deals. I am very excited to be in the Top 8 for the Deck Doctor contest. Before I begin discussing about the deck, I would like to thank the people at ARG who took the time to read all of the Deck Doctor articles and manage to find a way to filter out contestants to the Top 8. To all of those other contestants, I would like express my thanks for the competition. As I mentioned in my last article, that was the first time I actually made an article for editing decks and I am still amazed that I was chosen as one of the members of the Top 8. To all those who did not advance, keep on editing decks and don’t give up the cause.

Now that the formalities are over with, let’s move onto the deck for this article’s doctoring: Alex Vansant’s X-Saber deck.

Alex Vansant's Sabers Strike Deck

X-Sabers: 41

Monsters: 18

XX-Saber Darksoul x3
XX-Saber Emmersblade x3
XX-Saber Faultroll x3
XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3
X-Saber Pashuul x2
Tragoedia x2
X-Saber Airbellum
Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 11
Forbidden Lance x2
Enemy Controller x2
Scapegoat
Mind Control
Book of Moon
Heavy Storm
Pot of Avarice
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Traps: 12
Gottom’s Emergency Call x3
Solemn Warning x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Torrential Tribute x2
Reinforce Truth
Solemn Judgment
Starlight Road

Extra: 15
XX-Saber Gottoms
Scrap Dragon
Stardust Dragon
XX-Saber Soulza
Black Rose Dragon
XX-Saber Hyunlei x2
Naturia Barkion
Ally of Justice Catastor
Naturia Beast
Armory Arm
Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
Inzektor Exa-Beetle
Photon Strike Bounzer
Wind-Up Zenmaines

Oh, Sabers. The grand stories I can talk about this deck. I started going back into Yu-Gi-Oh with Gladiator Beasts when those guys came out. In that format, Giant Trunade, Heavy Storm, AND Cold Wave were all limited to one so there were essentially 3 ways to lock the back row. Now, for those that do not know who X-sabers are or what they do, it is an archetype of mostly Warriors, Beast-Warriors, and Beast monsters that take their time filling their graveyard and setting up their hand for a massive OTK that when it goes off, it creates a massive field of Synchro monsters that will clear your opponent’s field of any nuisances they may have with Hyunlei and while attempting to remove any hand traps that may hamper the play with the effect of XX-Saber Gottoms, the “big bad” boss monster of the deck.

Now, when this deck came out, it was in a format that ran Trunade, Heavy Storm, Cold Wave, Brain Control, Royal Oppression, and Rescue Cat, so you can imagine the great and unique plays available. There was no Maxx “C”, Effect Veiler, or Solemn Warning at this time so stopping this deck was a challenge. One of the classic plays people would do was play Cold wave, summon Rescue Cat, use its effect to bring out a Darksoul and an Airbellum, special summon Faultroll, synchro summon either a Hyunlei and destroy the opponent’s frozen back row or summon Brionac and bounce whatever monsters they had on the field, revive the Airbellum, drop another Faultroll and bring out Darksoul again, and attack for 8,800 points of damage. If the opponent managed to live after this onslaught, the player could synchro summon Gottoms and tribute Darksoul to pitch a card out of your opponent’s hand and because of the ruling of Darksoul back then, it stacked everytime the card went to the graveyard, which basically meant to the opponent that you have an imposing field that cannot be destroyed by spells or traps and has to be run over in battle. Now that the wave of nostalgia has returned to those who faced this once great deck, let us dive into this build, starting with this core of this deck, the monster lineup.

Monsters

When I first looked at this deck, it looked like what could be considered a pretty standard saber deck except there was one major issue I had with the monster lineup: where’s Boggart Knight? The only explanation I could think of was that you could Veiler it, but even then that is not a good enough excuse. Boggart Knight is a 1900 ATK Beast-Warrior monster that has the Kageki effect of special summoning a Lv. 4 or lower “X-Saber” monster from your hand. If you decide to Veiler the special summon effect, you are still left with a 1900 beat stick that can sit there and be a strong opening monster. For those, I took out the 2 Tragoedia for 2 Boggart Knight. In the instance that you manage to drop a Tragoedia, your hand will not be big enough to make Tragoedia a threat so they could just run it over with the next monster on their field. As for Gorz, there really isn’t a time when your entire field is going to be empty for his effect to go off. The same can be said about Faultroll. While he continues the plays for the overall massive OTK/massive damage from the battle phase, having 3 copies a card with a specific summon condition as that will cause the deck to give you dead draws and a cloggy opening hand to make you sit there for the long haul.

Whenever I’m deck doctoring a deck, I tend make the build online to confirm some initial concerns I have with the deck and to see if I can find any consistency problems in the play style. I would also talk to my friends about what I plan to do to see how they would react to the changes just to a feel of what kind of a defense I would have to make for removing a card or keeping a card. For this deck, one of the bigger arguments I had was about keeping in X-Saber Airbellum. The main argument I would hear about him was that he is your worst card to have on the field when playing against Dark World. It is true that the threat of Dark World stills lurks about in the meta and they will love any opportunity they can get to get a free discard, but discard effect aside, Airbellum is a Lv. 3 tuner with 1600 ATK. Combined with forbidden lance, you can pretty much run over a good amount of your opponent’s monsters and as for the argument of taking him out for the discard effect, look at the Mermail/Atlantean deck. That deck is like the forbidden lovechild of Dark World and Inzektor. In one turn, you can leave yourself with no hand, have 2-3 boss monsters on the field, clear your opponent’s back row, and eliminated hand traps in your opponents hand while attacking for game. The reason why I say reference this deck for a counter argument against saying no to Airbellum is the other boss monster in that deck: Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord. When he is special summoned, you discard 2 random cards in your opponent’s hand. That would be contraindicated for a Dark World deck and yet people use him. Why, you may ask? It is because the threat of one deck does not give enough reason to remove an otherwise good card in a deck. People may respond with the question of why every other deck runs Veiler and Maxx “C” so they have a way to halt the Wind-up loop and to them I say both Veiler and Maxx “C” stopa other deck as well; it’s just their focus is for wind-ups. If you are facing a deck that does not meet the criteria of using Effect Veiler or Maxx “C”, then you now have room available for when you side in cards for game 2. So here are the overall changes for the monster line up:

- 2 Tragoedia

- 1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

- 1 XX-Saber Faultroll

+ 2 XX-Saber Boggart Knight

Spells

Oh wow, Enemy Controller. As soon as I saw that card in this deck I instantly realized the pure genius of that card in that deck. You can use the first effect to switch your opponent’s monster to DEF. mode to make it easier for Fulhelmknight to destroy your opponents monster and special summon one of your Lv. 4 or lower X-Saber monster to attack again and then synchro summon during your main phase 2, or you can use the second effect to turn a dead Darksoul top deck into a power play to tribute the Darksoul and take control of one of your opponents monsters and search for a better X-saber monster to have in your hand for your next turn. The same could not be said about both Scapegoat and Pot of Avarice. Yes, Scapegoat provides token support for your opponent to run over and it can help bring out both Naturia beast and Barkion, but the defensive support is not needed. As for Pot of Avarice, you need X-Saber monsters in the graveyard for Fulhemknight and Gottoms Emergency Call plays so that can go as well. In place of them, I would use Pot of Duality; the deck lacks consistentcy for the opening plays of setting Emmersblade or Darksoul, or even to help fix your hand or get another trap for your backrow. So overall, the only changes I made are:

- 1 Scapegoat

- 1 Pot of Avarice

+ 2 Pot of Duality

Traps

For the most part, the trap line up is pretty stable. The only thing I would remove is a copy of Gottoms Emergency Call because it requires the condition of having a face up X-Saber monster and 2 other Saber monsters in the grave to even activate the card. The final thing I would do to this lineup is to add 2 copies of Compulsory Evacuation Device. One of the main weaknesses of this deck is in its strength: the pure attack power. While the deck is able to explode and hit your opponent for massive amounts of the damage, it will be delayed by XYZ monsters that take about 3 attacks to remove them off the field, allowing your opponent time to recover from the onslaught and counter attack. To prevent such plays while at the same time preserving life points for the Solemn brigade, Compulsory fills in the requirement by bouncing the summoned monster back and leaving you with the advantage in the monster department. So, in summation for the trap line up:

- 1 Gottoms Emergency Call

- +2 compulsory evacuation device

Extra Deck

After a couple of duels on Dueling Network, I noticed two big problems with the Extra Deck: Armory Arm, and not enough generic Synchro monsters. In this build, it is a very slim chance that the scenario will arise where you will not only can make Armory Arm, but also need to make one. That needed to go, which left an open spot. The second thing I noticed was the lack of monsters that requires any type of monster to summon. In both cases, there would be moments where I could use Mind Control so steal my opponent’s monster and either Synchro summon with it or make an XYZ summon with another one of my monsters. The main Synchro monster that was a lv. 6 was only a Naturia Barkion,which required EARTH monsters so I threw in Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. The only other generic Lv. 6 Synchro monster that could be useful was Iron Chain Dragon, but that would be contradictory with the current meta. With Iron Chain Dragon, I am basically allowing Chaos Dragon to proceed to rampage me with the extra milling, I could potentially give a target a Wind-up Rat, I could mill a Hornet for Inzektors, I could help Dark World out by milling out their Grapha, heck, I even help out Heroes by making Miracle Fusion easier to become live.

On the XYZ part of the extra deck, the only good XYZ monsters there were Photon Strike Bounzer and Wind-Up Zenmaines. Bounzer controls my opponent’s field so I can stop combos from going off from the door, and as for Zenmaines, he allows me to put up a defensive wall so I can recover in those instances of a slow hand and you need to replenish your hand. Exa-Beetle is only good to get rid of one monster on the field, but at the same time you already have both Ally of Justice Catastor and X-Saber Souza so that is not necessary and as for Gaia Dragon, his only real purpose would be to mind control Tiras and overlay XYZ but even then that is still situational, and Mind Control can be utilized better in this deck. In place of those cards, I would throw in a Maestroke the Symphony Djinn and a Leviathan Dragon, Leviathan Dragon has always provided a classic offensive card that maintains field presence and instant detaching. Maestroke is ingenious in this deck because you can use his first effect to Book of Moon your opponent’s monster and attack it with Fulhemknight and let the pluses begin from there.

So here is the revised deck:

Monsters: 16

XX-Saber Darksoul x3
XX-Saber Emmersblade x3
XX-Saber Faultroll x2
XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3
X-Saber Pashuul x2
XX-Saber Boggart Knight x2
X-Saber Airbellum

Spells: 11
Forbidden Lance x2
Enemy Controller x2
Mind Control
Book of Moon
Heavy Storm
Pot of Duality x2
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Traps: 13
Gottom’s Emergency Call x2
Solemn Warning x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Torrential Tribute x2
Compulsory Evacuation Device x2
Reinforce Truth
Solemn Judgment
Starlight Road

Extra: 15
XX-Saber Gottoms
Scrap Dragon
Stardust Dragon
XX-Saber Souza
Black Rose Dragon
XX-Saber Hyunlei x2
Naturia Barkion
Ally of Justice Catastor
Naturia Beast
Armory Arm
Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
Inzektor Exa-Beetle
Photon Strike Bounzer
Wind-Up Zenmaines

Now with this revised edition, it turns the deck from having 41 cards into having 40 cards. This is just a side result from the changes made to the deck so whether or not the deck works better from the deck going down to the bare minimum is up to your own opinion.

X-Sabers have a lot of potential and even though it is not as competitive deck as it used to be, it is still very fun to play and still has the potential to appear as a rouge deck at a YCS/regional. This has definitely been a fun deck for me to playtest with a even after this article I plan to play this online some more. Thank you guys for taking your time to read this article; I hope to continue to advance further in this contest and proceed to move on. If you have any problem with how I edited this deck or whatever else you would like to say about this article, please feel free to comment below and I will try to get back to you.