Deck Doctor – Joey Payne | Alter Reality Games

November 9, 2012

by Joey Payne

How's it going ARG? I'm Joey Payne and I'm willing to bet absolutely none of you know me. I've been playing the game since the days of Magic Ruler. Like a lot of you I played for fun back then, building goof decks to go up against La Jinn beatdown and the ever crippling Exodia. Around the time of Ancient Sanctuary I took a break, a very long break. I didn't pick the game back up until Strike of Neos, then again when the legendary Phantom Darkness came out. I've been playing ever since. I don't particularly have any credentials worth bragging about because I work full time and go to school full time. However, I am revered by a great many players in North Carolina(west side) as an efficient deck builder. I build decks based on practicality, opposed to potential. That being said let's look at Billy Brake's Rock Stun:

Billy Brake’s Rock Stun Deck

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
1Monster 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

For starters I picked this deck because it's a stun deck, plain and simple. There aren't too many layers of interaction, or any intricate combos you have to remember. It puts monsters on the field, negates stuff and backs them up with protection. I suppose for the sake of simplicity I'll start with the monster lineup.

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

The first thing I notice is the inclusion of Maxx "C." It seems that at this point in the format people have migrated away from Maxx "C" in favor of Effect Veiler. There are a few theories floating around about why this is the case, but the sole reason is that good players and lucky ones alike will just make an aggressive push through the card advantage you'd gain from C. I'm also not sold on it in a deck like this because you really stand to gain nothing from it, as you aren't main decking Gorz. You could potentially bluff Gorz, but in a back-row centric deck like this, it's not likely you're pulling that off. Another card I'm not sold on is Card Trooper. Trooper is a king of card advantage, crashing with TKings and drawing off of it in the process, but it doesn't fit in this deck. I understand the synergy it has between Block Golem and Call of the Haunted, but in a stun deck like this you can ill afford to mill key prection cards for the sake of making
Block Golem live. Which also brings up a key point, Block Golem shouldn't be ran in 3s. Chances are you aren't going to need it 3 times in a game. This deck grinds the game down little by little, 3 Block Golem would just interfere with this.

As for the cards to replace those, the first that comes to mind is Thunder King Rai-oh. TKing is the Aaron Rodgers of Yugioh, and yes I am a Packers fan. Rai-oh consistently makes its presence known because it's THAT good. It has the greatest standalone utility in the game. When it comes to stun decks, it's almost auto-include. Right now it shuts down Wind-Ups, Geargia and Agents. The three best decks of the format. It also single handedly stops Prophecies, which are on the cusp of top tier reverence. I also believe, as another great standalone card Legendary Ju-Jitsu master should be included. That might seem a tad overboard, but I'll elaborate further down. So for the monster changes

-2 Maxx "C"
-1 Block Golem
-2 Card Trooper

+2 Thunder King Rai-oh
+2 Legendary Ju-Jitsu Master

As for the spells

Spells:10
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole

Truth be told there isn't a lot I can say about the spells. It looks fairly solid to me, I do feel that Book of Moon should be included. I don't mean to state the obvious, but it's very versatile and in a grind deck like this it's a perfect fit. The inclusion of Soul Taker is a nice tech because bigger monsters can be a bit problematic. Not to mention Heroes and Chaos Dragons are still relevant, albeit not as relevant as our current big three. Also, again with the obvious, Seal of Orichalchos is a big deal in this deck. It synergizes very well with how I intend to shape this deck in the trap section. For the changes:

+1 Book of Moon(since I dropped 5 monsters and only added 4)

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

For traps the first thing I'm dropping is Call of the Haunted. Without Trooper, Call is not going to be very useful. Sure, it is monster recursion but in this deck monsters are expendable. Not to mention you have 2 Block Golems and a Monster Reborn for monster recursion. In place of this I feel Compulsory Evacuation Device would be a solid fit. It has a great deal of utility and it can help get around problematic cards like Zenmaines. I would also drop the 2 Torrential Tributes. In a grind deck, presence is everything. This might seem like a contradiction because I said the monsters in this deck are expendable, but they're expendable in a different way. With their negation effects, sending them to the graveyard is typically a 1 for 1 exchange. With Torrential you're more than likely losing advantage because this deck can't utilize floaters. I'm dropping Torrential in favor of, are you ready for this?...Skill Drain! This deck has a very solid synergy with
Skill Drain. All of your Koa'Ki Meiru guys, Thunder King Rai-oh, Block Golem and my main dude Legendary JuJitsu Master(if he's destroyed by battle)can operate under Skill Drain. Skill Drain will continue to remain a solid card, barring two scenarios: The rise of Dark World in response to Moulinglacia(which isn't reasonable when you could just run a couple of Veilers, opposed to switching decks entirely) or the potential Atlantean dudes popping cards from the graveyard(keep in mind they can be sent as a cost for Undine, therefore bypassing Skill Drain). That being the case, in a diverse meta you cannot be completely prepared for everything. Your best option is to prepare for as much as you can in a very fluid, consistent fashion and Skill Drain provides this. The last thing to note is the synergy it has with the Seal of Orichalchos. A 2400 Koa'ki Meiru dude, or Tking is no joke. If they're backed by a Skill Drain it puts your opponent in a tough position
because their Mystical Space Typhoons become a very valuable resource. For the trap changes:

-2 Call of the Haunted
-2 Torrential Tribute

+2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
+2 Skill Drain

As for the very comedic extra deck:

Now I've got to say Billy did a fantastic job creating diversions in the main deck, but the extra deck is outright funny. I'm not even really sure where to begin. The extra deck isn't vital to this deck's success like most decks we're accustomed to. My first fix would be to drop the synchros with the exception of Stardust Dragon, because of Starlight Road. I would also drop Gaia Knight because you have no way to access rank 5 or 6 and you aren't running Mind Control. Gachi also serves no purpose because we aren't running Maxx "C" and we most certainly are not stacking them for Gachi. That leaves a lot of room in the extra deck, so what should we put in place of everything? Generic, good cards of course. Maestroke should be incorporated, as should Utopia. Acid Golem fits too because we're running Skill Drain. Catastor is another consideration because as stated 30,000 words ago, people are running Veiler over C these days. Monster Reborn on a Veiler to
make a Catastor, while seemingly bad, could win you a game in a very obscure scenario. With a great deal of extra deck space, those obscure scenarios need to be accounted for. It's also worth mentioning, the extra deck can be fixed depending on preference. I included 2 Maestroke because I like the card more than any other rank 4.

-1 Naturia Beast
-1 Naturia Barkion
-1 Scrap Dragon
-1 Kachi Kochi Dragon
-1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
-1 Gaia Knight, Force of the Earth
-1 Soul of Silver Mountain
-1 Wind-Up Zenmaister

+1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
+1 Number 33: Acid Golem of Destruction
+2 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
+1 Number 39: Utopia
+1 Photon Papilloperative
+1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
+1 Ally of Justice Catastor

So the final, newly fixed version is this:

Monsters: 18
3 Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
3 Koa'ki Meiru Sandman
3 Koa'ki Meiru Wall
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
2 Block Golem
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

Spells: 11
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
2 Pot of Duality
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon
1 Seal of Orichalchos

Traps: 12
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Skill Drain
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15
1 Wind Up-Zenmaines
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 17 Leviathan Dragon
1 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Number 33: Acid Golem of Destruction
2 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Kachi Kochi Dragon
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Number 39: Utopia
2 Gem Knight Pearl
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Stardust Dragon