G’day fellow duelists and welcome back to another instalment of the deck doctor contest!
- as a quick aside, before you point out that I misspelt the word ‘instalment’, keep in mind I am Australian; we use words like “reckon”; pronounce aluminum al-you-min-ee-um; and just generally have some odd vernacular. The crux of it coming down to we are incredibly lazy and barely pronounce the letters that ARE there, so we are surely not going to be adding additional ‘l’s where they’re not required! -
Back on track! Sorry, I get distracted fairly easily. However, do not fear, this is a good thing; perhaps not for someone who’s patients are living but certainly for one who focuses on Yu-Gi-Oh decks. It means that I am constantly looking up new information and new decklists and that is why I was so excited when I saw this weeks list for review. The decklist this week is by none other than ARG’s own, Frazier Smith. Frazier has submitted a decklist that is not only unconventional but utilizes some extremely old-school cards that will forever have a place in my heart. I am, of course, talking about the Chaos monsters and their slew of lights, darks and other fodder that support their extremely overpowered bodies.
Before I enter into any further discussion on the deck, I figure you guys want to see the list, right? Right! Without further adieu, here is the 40 cards we have laid out on our operating table this time around.
Frazier Smith Presents “Soul Control”
Monsters: 22
3 x Cyber Valley
2 x Card Trooper
2 x Dimensional Alchemist
2 x Maxx “C”
2 x Effect Veiler
2 x Cardcar D
1 x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 x Battle Fader
1 x Necroface
1 x Chaos Sorcerer
1 x Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 x Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 x Tragoedia
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 x Sangan
Spells: 10
2 x Soul Absorption
1 x Machine Duplication
1 x Gold Sarcophagus
1 x Allure of Darkness
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Mind Control
1 x Monster Reborn
1 x Dark Hole
1 x Scapegoat
Traps: 8
2 x Solemn Warning
2 x Torrential Tribute
2 x Bottomless Trap Hole
2 x Mirror Force
Extra Deck: 15
1 x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 x Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1 x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 x Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 x Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 x Abyss Dweller
1 x Number 39: Utopia
1 x Formula Synchron
1 x Armory Arm
1 x Ally of Justice Catastor
1 x Arcanite Magician
1 x Black Rose Dragon
1 x Stardust Dragon
1 x Scrap Dragon
Nurse! Defibrillator, quick! As a Doctor, this was my immediate reaction. This deck has so much going on that it reminded me of a tachycardia patient! The heart, or in our case the engines, are beating so fast that the body as a whole is threatened. Nurse! Scalpel, we have work to do! Initially, I saw a lot of cards that did not seem to fit and this is where we shall begin with hacking off the unnecessary limbs. However, before I do that, I feel I must explain how we will be approaching today’s procedure. The first night that I started playing around with this deck at locals and on Dueling Network, I began by trying to implement ways around the potentially dead cards that I was drawing. I slowly developed a list that kept most of the original engine in tact but was more geared towards a standard Chaos list. Unfortunately, I was still drawing cloggy hands and the same cards came up over and over again as lackluster. Ultimately, cards like Soul Absorption and Necroface had to be cut because I just felt like they were weighing down the rest of the deck. In medical terms, it was the diseased left leg that had to be cut off to protect the sanctity of the remaining body. However, as a doctor, if my patient comes to me seeking help for a broken leg, I do not feel it is fair to simply cut that leg off and leave it at that. Therefore, today’s operation will be two-fold: I will provide what I believe to be the most synergistic, competitive version and I will then provide what I perceive as a fun deck. Both will remain as true to the original theme as possible.
Yes, yes, I am well aware that this is not standard medical practice. One does not usually cut off a limb simply to stitch it back on elsewhere at a later date. However, if we keep it between us, I am sure that no one will notice some sort of hybrid decklist with an additional left leg and my medical license shall remain unscathed!
Operation One: Removing the Soul
Alright guys, here is where things start to get messy. If you’re squeamish at the sight of poor, rejected cards lying in sorrow on the floor amongst the other discarded items, please read no further. To those brave souls who remain, we press on scalpel in hand and resolve in our hearts!
The Cuts:
2 x Cardcar D
I am a massive fan of this little guy. If you think back to the first operation you guys sat in on, you will remember that I actually used Cardcar as an integral tool towards curing that patient. However, in this deck, I found that I ended up having both too many normal summons and too many cards that, whilst they would draw me cards, did nothing to help me. There comes a time where you need to stop including draw cards and start including cards to draw into. This was where I had to draw the line.
1 x Necroface
I love this card. The artwork and the combos you can do with things like Grinder Golem and the like. However, I feel it is best left to it’s own deck (that being something utilizing Grinder Golem or previous decklists in formats past where it was not limited). It did nothing to further my own strategy and I almost always regretted having it in my hand in the revised list. I struggled trying to find a solid way to fit this into the chaos build we are working our way towards but I was unable. I will make it up to you later on in part two Frazier, I promise!
2 x Soul Absorption
Much like Necroface, this card did nothing to further my own strategy. There is little good in gaining ‘X’ amount of lifepoints if your strategy is unable to capitalize. Your opponent will not care if you spend 2+ cards gaining lifepoints when they can simply strip you of those gains when you are unable to establish a board presence. I did see a potential combo that was not being utilized however; that being its synergy with Ancient Sacred Wyvern. It was not uncommon to gain anywhere from 500-5000 life points in a single turn and this made potential Wyvern plays that much more relevant. However, that particular card is not featured in Frazier’s decklist and I feel that is one of the bigger oversights in the extra deck. I ended up loving the Wyvern and, after I finished creating my finalized decklist, I set about creating a list focused almost solely on Ancient Sacred Wyvern; take this as a hint towards the second deck!
1 x Gold Sarcophagus
Without Necroface, this card lost a lot of the usefulness it had. Whilst this deck does play quite passively, often allowing you to survive multiple turns without taking damage, I did not like the fact that I was looking at a card that was not a resource at time of drawing it. The power plays in this deck are a lot more diluted than the power plays of other decks so I did not like having too many cards that weren’t able to help you respond to a game state that you may find yourself in.
2 x Solemn Warning
2 x Torrential Tribute
2 x Bottomless Trap Hole
2 x Mirror Force
I grouped these cuts together because they have the same explanation. This deck is highly focused on monsters and the power plays of the big bosses like Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Having a minimal trap lineup, whilst not a terrible idea, felt cloggy to me when I had to forgo monster options that I would otherwise like to see included. To that end, all original traps have been cut from the deck. This has the added bonus of making the opponents copies of backrow destruction cards next to irrelevant.
This equates to a total of 14 free slots that we must now fill up. In testing, I was having trouble stabilizing after my opponent made a push. Oftentimes I was just stalling with Cyber Valleys and hoping to dig into answers. Once your opponent starts to get traction against this deck it can be difficult to make a comeback given you play so many passive cards. Therefore, the cards we put in must both increase simple one for one removal to respond to threats and also more power plays; something the deck is sorely lacking. With that being said, here is my prescription for the current patient.
2 x Tour Guide from the Underworld
This card just seems like the most obvious inclusion. Frazier provided us with a rather large toolbox of rank 3s in the extra deck but he neglected to include the undisputed best engine for producing them with regularity. Furthermore, this deck banishes so much that Leviair was just amazing giving you a reverse toolbox with your banished zone. The Cyber Valley plays with Leviair were always good and helped to stall out until the power cards started coming. She really is just too good not to run.
2 x Spirit Reaper
This is my answer to stabilizing. It allows you to wall off your life points with next to no investment on the field and can just help you dig into answers by providing such a shield. Furthermore, when combined with the chaos monsters, the discard effect becomes far more prevalent. It is also a level 3 that hangs around which increases your rank 3 options and access throughout the course of the duel.
1 x Dark Armed Dragon
We have a total of 10 darks in the revised list and this makes Dark Armed Dragon a really solid inclusion. Note, I did not count Battle Fader in this dark count because he usually banishes himself. With Card Trooper milling fodder into the graveyard and the fact that a single Tour Guide play almost makes this card live on it’s own, meant I just had to include the solitary copy. You have decent grave control and the ability to dump cards somewhat quickly so it will always be a really relevant threat. This also fits into the category of “too good not to run”.
1 x Caius the Shadow Monarch
This gives you another out to your opponents problem cards. Following up a Battle Fader with no plays is really underwhelming so having an additional copy of Caius will complement the second Battle Fader which I will explain next. There was also times where I removed a monster with Chaos Sorcerer or got Effect Veiler’ed and then sacked the now dead chaos monster for a Caius. It is just a really, really good card and is essentially a universal out to almost any legitimate threat.
1 x Battle Fader
This deck has a lot of draw cards and the ability to banish two monsters through Cyber Valley and dig two cards further into your deck is extremely strong. However, this does often waste your normal summon and so you need some defenses to stop your opponent from pushing for game regardless of how many cards you drew the previous turn. As mentioned above, combining this with Caius can allow you to turn game states around and toolboxing this with Dimensional Alchemist helps to stall your opponent whilst you dig for resources.
1 x Thunder King Rai-Oh
The sole copy of this card just felt lonely; especially in a chaos deck where he is one of the best light monsters in the game. It is bad against very, very little. Barring going second and getting blown out by XYZ plays on their turn one whilst you’re stuck staring at what would have been an answer. It is obviously really good against Wind-Ups, Mermail etc and shares a necessary attribute so the second copy found it’s way in fairly quickly.
1 x Tragoedia
This is similar to the reasoning for Battle Fader. There is absolutely no good drawing cards every turn if you are not able to draw into anything relevant. This allows you to block a potentially game-ending strike and then push back with a huge “back-off!” Tragoedia. Plus, you play a variety of levels that you can often make use of it’s effect to steal your opponent’s monsters. To me, this is pushing the “too good not to run” category for this deck.
2 x Soul Taker
As I mentioned a while back, I found that I was overwhelemed by my opponents and unable to respond to all the threats at once. Soul Taker is a simple, targeted one for one removal that will allow you to respond to one threat via a monster and another via your spells. This card also works well with the Spirit Reapers to push damage through and strip your opponent of their own resources. Hey, there's still an *element* of soul control and what not left!
2 x Mystical Space Typhoon
I am undecided on how I feel about this card this format. In some matchups, in fact most matchups, I really like it. However, in matchups like Agents and Chaos Dragons, both of which have seen increased popularity of late, it is incredibly useless. That being said, this deck has so few power plays that it must ensure that every one it does possess can hit the field safely and do it’s job. To that end, I feel it necessary to include two copies with the third being relegated to the side-deck.
1 x Pot of Duality
I really, really wanted to find room for two of this card but I could not. You don’t special summon all that regularly and instead you want to be digging for the combo pieces and power cards and Duality helps with both of those goals. Unfortunately, there was only room for one to balance out the even 40 card list.
1 x Treacherous Trap Hole
Normally, I am a fan of 40 card decks. However, I have found that lately I have been pushing 41 and even 42 in some of my own decks like Mermail. This is mostly because I feel that the slight loss in consistency by adding an additional card is irrelevant when compared to the fact that you would otherwise be missing out on an extremely powerful card (s). That being said, I don’t advocate continuing this reasoning along until you hit 50+ cards I just feel that something as powerful as Treacherous Trap Hole deserves it’s spot as the 41st card to round out our revised list.
The Extra Deck
Luckily, there is very little work needed here and I feel that Frazier did a fairly good job with this. In fact, I think I only have one change and even then it is not a necessary change.
-1 Stardust Dragon
The ability to make level 8 synchros in this deck is next to impossible. This then meant that having two level 8 synchros became incredibly pointless. Of the two that were originally included, those being Stardust and Scrap Dragon, the latter was far more useful and I can’t see myself burning 2-3 resources just to make a Stardust Dragon.
+1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern
When I said this is not a necessary change, I should perhaps be more clear. Of the games I tested with the revised decklist, I believe I made this card less than 3 times. However, I made Stardust Dragon 0 times and I did not miss it once. Wyvern’s ability to push for game off a Chaos Sorcerer tuned with an Effect Veiler and similar became really relevant when you consider threats like Black Luster Soldier and Dark Armed Dragon clearing the way for massive swings in damage.
Alright, that wall of text aside, the finalized decklist is as follows:
Monsters: 28
3 x Cyber Valley
2 x Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 x Tour Guide from the Underworld
2 x Battle Fader
2 x Dimensional Alchemist
2 x Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 x Card Trooper
2 x Tragoedia
2 x Effect Veiler
2 x Maxx “C”
2 x Spirit Reaper
1 x Sangan
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 x Chaos Sorcerer
1 x Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 x Dark Armed Dragon
Spells: 12
2 x Mystical Space Typhoon
2 x Smashing Ground
1 x Dark Hole
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Monster Reborn
1 x Mind Control
1 x Allure of Darkness
1 x Scapegoat
1 x Machine Duplication
1 x Pot of Duality
Traps: 1
1 x Treacherous Trap Hole
Total: 41
Extra Deck: 15
1 x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 x Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1 x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 x Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 x Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 x Abyss Dweller
1 x Number 39: Utopia
1 x Formula Synchron
1 x Armory Arm
1 x Ally of Justice Catastor
1 x Arcanite Magician
1 x Black Rose Dragon
1 x Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 x Scrap Dragon
With this new list, it focuses more heavily on the draw/stall aspect initially allowing you to build off a strong foundation of opening plays. Mid to late game the plays with chaos monsters and Dark Armed Dragon become far more devastating. The Tragoedias, Tour Guides etc allow you to push the game state towards this point without committing much in the way of your own resources to the field. As you opponent wastes cards to deal with the intial plays, you are able to save the more powerful monsters like Black Luster Soldier until they are unable to come back.
In my opinion, this list hones in on what Frazier’s original list did well and removes the avenues in which it attempted to go down but with less success. In that regard, the irony is that, through making this a Chaos deck, we have simultaneously removed some of the original chaos that was going on in the beginning 40 cards. However, as I mentioned before we started cutting cards, I would feel that I had not done my job properly if I did not provide a more “Soul Control” based decklist; if only for use as a fun deck.
Operation Two: Soul Transplant
I won’t go into much detail with the deck and simply provide the list and extra with a brief explanation at the end.
Monsters: 14
3 x D.D. Survivor
3 x Cyber Valley
2 x Cardcar D / Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 x Chaos End Master / Wattberyx
2 x Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 x Night Assailant
1 x Necroface
Spells: 15
3 x Soul Absorption
2 x Dimensional Fissure
2 x Forbidden Lance
2 x Pot of Duality
1 x Dark Hole
1 x Allure of Darkness
1 x Mind Control
1 x Machine Duplication
1 x Gold Sarcophagus
1 x Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 12
3 x Macro Cosmos
2 x Fiendish Chain
2 x Dark Bribe
2 x Mirror Force
2 x Torrential Tribute
1 x Starlight Road
Total: 41
Extra Deck: 15
2 x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 x Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 x Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 x Number 39: Utopia
1 x Gagaga Cowboy
1 x Heroic Champion – Excalibur
1 x Orient Dragon / Gaia Knight, the Force of the Earth
2 x Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 x Black Rose Dragon
1 x Scrap Archfiend
1 x Stardust Dragon
Now, obviously this deck is not meant to be Tier 1 or “the best deck”, however, it provided a lot of fun on Dueling Network and attacking for game with a single Ancient Sacred Wyvern is a lot of fun. As stated, I have only included this because I felt it was unfair to change the original decklist so drastically in the interest of making it as competitive as possible and so this is my attempt to make up for that.
The Chaos End Masters / Wattberryx are included for the sole fact that they are a level 3 LIGHT tuners to combine with D.D. Survivor into making your Ancient Sacred Wyverns; whichever one you use is personal preference and will be dependent on whether you want a potentially useful effect or a bigger body.
Well, that pretty much wraps things up for this weeks Deck Doctor. I hope you all enjoyed the discussion and agreed with the changes. I also hope that you have some fun with the alternate list provided and perhaps tweak it to be more competitive. If you guys have any suggestions, especially for more fun ways to abuse Ancient Sacred Wyvern, I would be keen to hear about it in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and have a good one guys!
Cheers!
Ashley
Latest posts by Ashley (see all)
- Nurse! Bring Sedatives – This Poor Soul is Out of Control! - December 18, 2012
- Doctor, Doctor, Come Quick! It’s a (Gottoms’) Emergency! - December 3, 2012
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