Greetings everyone! My name is Kalen Nelson and I am here today to doctor some decks. For this competition we were given 2 decks designed by Billy Brake and Joe Giorlando. The decks I will be discussing in this article are Billy’s Rock Stun deck featuring the Seal of Orichalcos, and Joe’s Gishki deck, which he has fused with his signature Heroes to make Gishki Hero Turbo! Now, both of these decks have some core ideas to them, and I feel that before any “doctoring” can begin, we must identify the core concepts, goals and win conditions behind these decks.
Rock Stun is a deck that is all about controlling the game. Through the use of Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, Sandman and Wall you can negate Monster Effects, Spells and Traps respectively. The deck also does not special summon often and can therefore take advantage of cards like Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo and Pot of Duality without falling prey to their negative factors. The core concept of this deck is to consistently field 1900 beaters to keep pressure on your opponent and then put them in a sudo-lockdown by making it much more difficult to pick their plays.
Gishkis are a ritual based deck that focus and rely on heavy recycling power to dump the often forgotten about Ritual monsters to the field for a big push. They also tend to revolve around field and hand control, which is why we have the Hieratic Gishki variant that caused Gustkraken to get limited on the Sept. 1st Forbidden/Limited list. However, Joe has all but forgone the ritualistic part of Gishkis and is instead using them as a consistent engine for Trade-In to quickly fill up his graveyard and add cards to his hand. Coupled with this Trade-In engine, Joe has thrown in the Destiny Hero engine as well with Destiny Heroes Plasma and Diamond Dude with Destiny Draw for some extra draw power and Trade-In targets. The deck is designed to move very fast and just over power your opponent with card advantage and big pushes with Elemental Hero Absolute Zero.
Now that we have the core ideas of the deck noted, let’s start by working on Billy’s deck that he has for us.
Monsters: 19
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
3 Block Golem
2 Card Trooper
2 Maxx “C”
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
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 Kachi Kochi Dragon
2 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gaia Knight, Force of the Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
Now the biggest issue with this deck is actually one of its greatest assets. Block Golem has the unintentional effect of limiting your scope of monsters to being only Earth types, this locks you out of Effect Veiler, Doomcaliber Knight, Gorz (not that you would run him with so many traps in the deck), Tragoedia and even Thunder King Rai-oh. I think the best thing to do when “doctoring” this deck is to give two different decks as opposite sides of the same coin. However, to stick with this particular engine that utilizes Block Golem for maintaining field presence I will stick with the core idea that Billy Brake set up with his deck.
Monsters: 19
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
3 Block Golem
2 Maxx “C”
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
Spells: 9
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 13
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
1 Mirror Force
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Solemn Judgment
1 The Huge Revolution is Over
Extra Deck: 15
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Kachi Kochi Dragon
2 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Gaia Knight, Force of the Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon
First off, Maxx “C” stays simply because of the Wind-Up match. While this deck still doesn’t have a very strong matchup against them in my opinion, they do have 1 amazing main deck card that can destroy them and that is Fossil Dyna. Fossil Dyna destroys all wind-up decks and if you can get it as soon as possible (Maxx “C”) then the better off you are. The first card that didn’t make the cut was Card Trooper. I absolutely love Card Trooper and in many decks it is amazing right now, especially in conjunction with Call of the Haunted. The big problem I see with this deck is that you only have 18 targets for a card trooper mill to be effective. This deck lives and breathes on its trap support, so milling them is out of the question. I replaced the Card Troopers with Legendary Jujitsu Master because the card is an out to big monsters and is also special summonable by Block Golem along with Grand Mole.
Because of all the negation power the deck has, I felt that 3 MST was a little much. I also felt that with 13 traps, 2 Fossil Dyna, the Seal of Orichalcos, Grand Mole and 2 Jujitsu Masters that big bosses weren’t a threat, so Soul Taker did not make the cut for me either. Instead, we dropped MST to 2 and took out the Soul Takers in exchange for 2 Forbidden Lances in the spell line up. Lance is a card that I feel is mandatory this format. Not only does Lance get your monster over your opponent’s trap cards and Dark Holes, it gets your monsters over their monsters. With Seal of Orichalcos on the field your Koa’kis are all 2400 beaters and are 3200 when battling a lanced monster.
I swapped Starlight Road for The Huge Revolution is Over specifically because Stardust is not an earth attribute monster and could unintentionally throw off the deck. I felt that Torrential Tribute punished you as well as your opponent, so I swapped the 2 of them for 1 Mirror Force and then threw in 2 Fiendish Chains. The lack of Effect Veiler in this deck really bothers me and that is where Fiendish Chain comes in. Not only will this protect your weaker monsters from battles they couldn’t win, it stops your opponent’s plays in their tracks. Some people would say that Skill Drain would be a better choice, and it is true that Block Golem gets around Skill Drain, but Grand Mole, Jujitsu Master and Fossil Dyna do not, and those are all integral parts of this deck.
Lastly I felt that the extra deck needed some explanation as well. There are syncro monsters and no tuners in this deck! Well, with Monster reborn you can take your opponent’s tuners to use against them, and both Six Samurai and Psychics are big decks right now and they both have earth type tuners to use for the Naturia Syncros. Since we replaced Starlight Road, we also replaced Stardust Dragon with a new monster debuting in Abyss Rising, Gagaga Cowboy. He is a Rank 4 XYZ Warrior with an Earth attribute. He can both inflict burn damage and serve as a beater to get over a big monster.
Next we have Joe’s unique take on Gishkis utilizing Heroes! First of all, here is the deck list.
Monsters: 20
3 Evigishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
1 Gishki Shadow
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
2 Tragoedia
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
2 Tourguide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Dark Armed Dragon
Spells: 20
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: 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
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Maestroke the 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
Now with this Gishki deck, the first thing that should be noted is that we have 3 Destiny Draw and 3 Trade-In. Trade-In has 6 targets and D-Draw has 5 and all of the targets for both draw cards are easily searchable and are even useful in the Graveyard thanks to Gishki Aquamirror and Miracle Fusion. This deck pumps out Absolute Zero like it is nobody’s business. However, there are some innate problems (such as 3 miracle fusion and no Fusions in the extra deck) that are holding this deck back and I intend to address them.
Here is what I came up with:
Monsters: 18
3 Evigishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
2 Gishki Shadow
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
3 Deep Sea Diva
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
Spells: 24
3 Destiny Draw
3 Trade-In
3 Miracle Fusion
2 Nobleman of Extermination
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Duality
2 Salvage
1 Scapegoat
2 Gishki Aquamirror
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
Extra: 15
3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
2 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Daigusto Phoenix
1 Armory Arm
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Armory Arm
1 Gaia Knight the Force of the Earth
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
The first difference you will probably notice is that I nuked almost the entire Dark engine, taking out Tour Guide and Sangan, Tragoedia and even big daddy DAD. Outside of Miracle Fusion and monster reborn I didn’t find enough graveyard control to merit having the big guy in there. Instead, we swapped the dark engine for a water engine that focuses more on the Gishki ritual Soul Ogre and also takes a leaf out of Agents with extremely consistent Gachi and Daigusto Phoenix plays using Deep Sea Diva.
I feel that this deck needed to focus on 2 boss monsters and build itself up around that. Soul Ogre can blow away a face-up card every turn and is a 2800 beast and gives Elemental Hero Absolute Zero a 500 point boost just for being on the field. The Gishki rituals are easily revivable thanks to the recyclability of the Ritual spell card Gishki Aquamirror, you can even recycle the ritual spell to give Soul Ogre more discard fodder for blowing stuff up!
Deep Sea Diva rocks in this deck because it serves multiple purposes. It buffs up your monsters as Gachi, makes Daigusto Phoenix (which can be used with Elemental Hero Stratos) and can be used to grab Gishki Vision from the deck to be used as a tribute for Soul Ogre’s instant summon. Diva can also be used with Diamond Dude or Stratos to summon Gaia Knight and then go into Scrap Dragon or Stardust Dragon. This isn’t the most conservative play out there, but sometimes you need that level 8 to go for game or get rid of a big threat. The last thing that Diva does for the deck is it gives Absolute Zero access to Armory Arm making him a minimum of a 3500 boss monster that can nuke the field AND inflict burn damage with every kill, which is too good to pass up in my opinion.
The next set of differences lie in the spell cards. Joe’s original build had the right idea of utilizing a large amount of backrow hate in 3 MST, but the problem with MST is that it doesn’t work well with Diamond Dude and can lead to some headaches because of that. Instead, I dropped MST to 1 and threw in 2 Nobleman of Extermination. This card is really good right now because people are playing less chainables and are maxxing out on D-Prison and Bottomless, some even on Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force. Nobleman can kill all of those threats instantly and can be used with Diamond Dude’s effect, which can really upset an opponent’s plays.
Then we stuck in 4 last spells. 2 Pot of Duality for consistency and for finding the other piece for a Trade-In or Destiny Draw play, 1 Scapegoat to make summoning Destiny Hero Plasma something that is an option and lastly a 2nd Gishki Aquamirror to make recycling the ritual monsters a bit easier and make it easier to draw into.
The Extra Deck has changed accordingly to match the new idea of the main deck. Rank 2 monsters and Syncros replaced the rank 3 XYZ monsters for Diva plays. Big Eye didn’t make the cut because we don’t have 2 level 7 monsters in the deck anymore or even Tragoedias. All in all I have really enjoyed this deck and I will probably toy around with it a bit more in the future just to see what can be done with it.
Anyways guys, thanks for reading this! If you enjoyed my takes on these decks please let me know below in the comments section. If you want to hear more from me on this site, DEFINITELY let them know in the comments section below as well as check out my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/TheValachorin. Regardless of the results of the competition, I appreciate the chance to bring my doctoring skills to bear for you all, and remember…
A Hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer, so play hard or go home
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