Hey readers, this week we’re going to start off by taking a look at Robert Millspaugh’s Crystal Beast deck.

[ccDeck="Monsters 15"]3 Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus:3 Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger:2 Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle:2 Summoner Monk:1 Scrap Beast:3 Maxx "C":1 Battle Fader[/ccDeck] [ccDeck="Spells"]1 Crystal Promise:2 Crystal Blessing:3 Crystal Beacon:3 Crystal Release:3 Rare Value:3 Ancient City Rainbow Ruins:1 Crystal Abundance:1 Dark Hole:3 Mystical Space Typhoon:2 Night Beam:2 Pot of Duality[/ccDeck] [ccDeck="Traps"]1 Torrential Tribute[/ccDeck]

I’ve been a pretty big fan of this deck ever since its release in 2007, and while the deck has never been top tier, it has always been a ton of fun to play. This deck has actually gone through a lot of iterations since its first printing, despite relatively few themed cards being printed for it, where previously the best variants were built around [ccProd]Crystal Abundance[/ccProd] and Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins, where now the best variants are more geared towards spamming Xyz monsters, and making one big push.

One notable thing in favor of Abundance in this deck though, is that since [ccProd]Solemn Warning[/ccProd] went to 1, and [ccProd]Solemn Judgment[/ccProd] to 0, there are fewer cards that blow you out should you make an Abundance play.

The first cut I want to make are the 3 copies of [ccProd]Rare Value[/ccProd]. While on the surface this card looks like a Destiny Draw, or even a [ccProd]Pot of Greed[/ccProd], having monsters in your backrow is the most important thing for this deck, certainly worth more than a random card from your deck.

This also really isn’t the place for Battle Fader, [ccProd]Swift Scarecrow[/ccProd] possibly, but [ccProd]Battle Fader[/ccProd] getting blocked by Emptiness, and clogging your field isn’t really something you want. When I was playing around with this deck last year, the only tuner I liked in this deck was Birdman. [ccProd]Scrap Beast[/ccProd] just didn’t do enough, and since synchro materials can’t go to the backrow, it wound up being really miserable to synchro summon. [ccProd]Genex Ally Birdman[/ccProd], however, had the nice benefit of being able to bounce Pegasus, and giving you access to [ccProd]Zeman the Ape King[/ccProd]. [ccProd]Scrap Beast[/ccProd] both eating your normal summon, and only being useful for synchro plays that this deck doesn’t really want to make caused me to not like the card very much.

[ccProd]Night Beam[/ccProd] seems incredibly subpar both in this deck, and for this format. Bottomless and Warning were the two most frustrating traps for this deck. With both of them at 1, and Lightning Chidori printed, Night Beam seems rather excessive.

While Ruins is a great card on paper, it often fills a role that doesn’t need to be filled, and with there being so many field spell decks in the metagame right now, I feel you’re better off focusing on either an aggressive plan or a Ruins control plan. I’m opting for the Aggressive plan. Siding into Rainbow Ruins versus slower decks with a lot of traps is a great option to help prevent getting grinded out, but as far as maindeck slots go, it could be spent on better cards.

The Cuts in Summary: 10
-3 [ccProd]Rare Value[/ccProd] -1 [ccProd]Battle Fader[/ccProd] -1 [ccProd]Scrap Beast[/ccProd] -2 [ccProd]Night Beam[/ccProd] -3 Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins

The first thing we need to do here is add some more Crystal Beast monsters, only having 8 (10 if you count monk) is frighteningly low for a deck that really needs to see 2 or 3 monsters to do anything. With the printing of Lightning Chidori, I actually feel like [ccProd]Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle[/ccProd] is better than [ccProd]Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth[/ccProd], despite Mammoth being both bigger, and having a more relevant effect. I’m going to add in the 3rd Carbuncle, and 2 Cobalt Eagles.

[ccProd]Crystal Promise[/ccProd] is one of the power cards in this deck, not maxing it is crazy. Being able to Promise out Carbuncles, or Pegasuses is huge. Having Pegasus + Promise in hand is also an easy [ccProd]Lightning Chidori[/ccProd] by going Pegasus -> Pegasus. Promise both helps set up your pushes by pushing Pegasus, and enable your pushes by pushing Carbuncle.

Due to this deck’s reliance on opening with either a Pegasus, or a Release, I feel the 3rd Duality is a staple in this deck, especially with [ccProd]Summoner Monk[/ccProd]s. Early on, it helps dig for that crucial Pegasus, and as the game goes on and you’re special summoning every turn, you can just pitch it to monk to get another card.

I actually like running a small trap lineup in this deck, though I feel running just Torrential is a little too small. I’m going to add a [ccProd]Bottomless Trap Hole[/ccProd], and 2 [ccProd]Horn of the Phantom Beast[/ccProd], for, you know, Value. I’m also going to add 1 Book of Moon, and it’s important to note that Pegasus does get his effect on flip summon as well.

Additions in summary:
+2 Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle
+1 Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
+2 Crystal Promise
+1 [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd] +1 [ccProd]Bottomless Trap Hole[/ccProd] +2 [ccProd]Horn of the Phantom Beast[/ccProd] +1 [ccProd]Book of Moon[/ccProd]

Next up, we’re going to take a look at Joe Kell’s Worm deck:
Monsters (15):
2x [ccProd]Worm King[/ccProd] 3x[ccProd] Worm Cartaros[/ccProd] 3x [ccProd]Worm Xex[/ccProd] 3x [ccProd]Worm Yagan[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Honest[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Evil Dragon Ananta[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Genex Ally Birdman[/ccProd]

Spells (9):
2x [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd] 3x [ccProd]Mystical Space Typhoon[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Dark Hole[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Book of Moon[/ccProd] 2x Viper's Rebirth

Traps (16):
2x [ccProd]W Nebula Meteorite[/ccProd] 2x [ccProd]Offering to the Snake Deity[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Solemn Warning[/ccProd] 2x [ccProd]Mirror Force[/ccProd] 2x [ccProd]Dimensional Prison[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Bottomless Trap Hole[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Compulsory Evacuation Device[/ccProd] 2x [ccProd]Fiendish Chain[/ccProd] 2x [ccProd]Dark Bribe[/ccProd] 1x [ccProd]Starlight Road[/ccProd]

This is a deck that has always been very interesting to me. [ccProd]W Nebula Meteorite[/ccProd] is probably the best legal draw card in the game after [ccProd]Hope for Escape[/ccProd], and the effects of the various Worms aren’t anything to laugh at. The entire deck is very redundant, and has an incredible lategame. The issue is getting there.

Viper’s Rebirth doesn’t strike me as all that useful, sure it helps with xyz plays, but that isn’t where the focus of this deck should be. You just want to be trying to out card advantage them through Worm effects, and Nebula Meteorite.
I dislike both [ccProd]Dark Bribe[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Starlight Road[/ccProd] as cards right now. The biggest reason these backrow decks would run these kinds of cards was so they had an answer to Heavy. With it gone though, there isn’t anything you really want, or need to be bribing, and Starlight will just sit dead in your backrow more often than you’ll ever get any value out of it.

[ccProd]Evil Dragon Ananta[/ccProd] doesn’t really do what this deck needs, you have traps and Yagan to function as removal, Ananta is just too slow, and will often come out with less than 2000 attack, functioning only to destroy a single card then die.

The cuts in summary:
-2 Viper’s Rebirth
-2 [ccProd]Dark Bribe[/ccProd] -1 [ccProd]Starlight Road[/ccProd] -1 [ccProd]Evil Dragon Ananta[/ccProd] [ccProd]W Nebula Meteorite[/ccProd] is the best card in this deck, and I can’t imagine trying to run this deck without the full 3 copies. Similarly, if this deck isn’t the kind of deck that wants triple [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd], I don’t know what is.

I really like the idea of running a couple copies of [ccProd]Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo[/ccProd] in the maindeck here. You can use Meteorite to trigger Dyna’s flip effect and you run plenty of traps that make protecting the Fossil Dyna a valid gameplan. I’m going to add 2. On a similar note, I can’t imagine trying to run a trap heavy deck right now without the best trap in the game right now: Vanity’s Emptiness. I think I’ve written at least a paragraph on this card in each of my articles for this format, so I’ll spare the boring explanation here, but the card is incredible against every top tier deck right now.

Additions in summary:
+1 [ccProd]W Nebula Meteorite[/ccProd] +1 [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd] +2 [ccProd]Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo[/ccProd] +2 Vanity’s Emptiness

That’s all for this week. If you have a decklist for either Johnny or myself to doctor, send us a message at https://www.facebook.com/ArgDeckDoctor with your list typed out.

Until next time, remember to Play Hard or Go Home!

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