Before I start the article, I’d just like to share some information about myself. Normally, I’d avoid it. You clicked this for the article, not for my biography. But if I’m going to tell you about a deck, I suppose some credibility behind my tips would help. I’ve been playing Yu-gi-oh since its release, but I started playing competitively and taking the game seriously around four years ago. I’ve kept up with the formats ever since, and play almost every day with my team. I’ve only recently begun going to YCS tournaments, my first being Columbus where I came just short of day 2. I’ve moderated and co-owned a few forums on teaching people to play the game, and I’m active in helping players in my area advance.
- The Intro -
Dragons are a very popular field of interest. The monster that even Magic: The Gathering players know, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, is the most famous card in the game and one of the first we were introduced to. They are simultaneously one of the most supported types with a massive pool of monsters, and one of the least supported types due to a lack of archetypes and synergy between most of the cards. Build a Dragon deck, no matter the variant, and you’re going to walk away with an aggressive swarm deck. Sounds good on paper, but it’s all we have to work with.
For example, say you wanted to build a Red-Eyes Black Dragon deck. Of course, I reference the casual level, but the point is still the same. You’ll throw in a couple copies of the Red-Eyes monsters, some easy ways to bring it out, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to add the ability to swarm. The final product is a deck that can swarm big monsters with REDMD. With Dragon decks, there really aren’t that many choices, and between that predictability and missing consistency, players are warded off from picking up the deck.
Well, Structure Deck 22 - Dragons Collide has been announced, and is soon to be released in February of 2012. In a previous article, I wrote about the cards inside and the individual effects of the new content, but here I’ll be discussing the deck itself. Both players new and seasoned, users of Disaster Dragon or those looking for something new, have something to look forward to here.
Before I go into the deck list, let’s review. The new deck revolves around the Chaos mechanic; removing LIGHT and DARK monsters from the grave in order to summon big monsters. It’s a familiar mechanic popularized by Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer, cards that like to pop up in certain decks of the Meta. The two stars, Lightpulsar Dragon and Darkflare Dragon, can both be special summoned through removing a LIGHT and DARK monster from the grave. Lightpulsar revives a high level DARK Dragon upon destruction, mainly Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, while Darkflare can mill through the deck and place key cards in the grave, while removing key cards from your opponent’s grave. Together with Eclipse Wyvern, who searches the higher Dragons to your hand, and Divine Dragon Apocalypse, a newcomer from Order of Chaos, you’re ready to begin deck building.
- The Deck List -
The New Cards to keep in mind:
Lightpulsar Dragon - http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lightpulsar_Dragon
Darkflare Dragon - http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Darkflare_Dragon
Eclipse Wyvern - http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Eclipse_Wyvern
Divine Dragon Apocalypse - http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Divine_Dragon_Apocalypse
Tour Bus - http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Tour_Bus_From_the_Underworld
Competitive - Dragon Chaos
Monsters - 24 // Spells - 13 // Traps - 3 // Extra - 15
Light Pulsar Dragon x 2
Darkflare Dragon x 1 or a third Lightpulsar Dragon
Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon x 3
Eclipse Wyvern x 3
Divine Dragon Apocalypse x 2
Sangan/Tour Bus from the Underworld x 1
Red-Eyes Wyvern x 1
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning x 1
Dark Armed Dragon x 1
Effect Veiler x 2
Tour Guide from the Underworld x 3
Thunder King Rai-Oh x 2
Summoner Monk x 2
Pot of Duality x 3
Monster Reborn
MST x 3
Heavy storm
Dark Hole
Foolish Burial
Future Fusion
Allure of Darkness
Gold Sarcophagus
Solemn Judgment x 1
Solemn Warning x 2
Five-Headed Dragon
Numbers 39: Utopia x 2
Wind-Up Zenmaines
Numbers 17: Leviathan dragon
Staple Synchro/XYZ x 10
The idea is similar to Disaster Dragon, in the sense that aggressive REDMD plays will be a popular route to the victory. Opening with Future Fusion gives you an amazing start with instant access to your Chaos monsters.
Mill away Red-Eyes Wyvern, two Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons, Eclipse Wyvern, and a Divine Dragon Apocalypse for Five Headed Dragon; activate Eclipse Wyvern’s effect to remove Dark Armed Dragon/REDMD from the Deck. Summon Lightpulsar from the hand, removing Eclipse Wyvern and Divine Dragon Apocalypse. Eclipse Wyvern’s second effect goes off, adding the removed DAD/REDMD to your hand. Set backrow. End of the turn, Red-Eyes Wyvern’s effect goes off, special summoning REDMD from your graveyard. At the end of turn, your field consists of two or more beaters, a win condition in hand, and a backrow. Other plays include using Summoner Monk and Eclipse Wyvern to make Utopia. Once Wyvern is detached/Utopia is destroyed, it’s first effect goes off, and with Monk’s attribute, you now have the set-up to drop a Chaos monster and abuse Wyvern’s second effect right away.
Controlling a Lightpulsar Dragon while REDMD exists in the graveyard is a great scenario as well. Throw your weight around with Lightpulsar until it gets destroyed, and use its effect to revive REDMD. You now have even more bulk, and the ability to revive Lightpulsar to do it again.
But wait. What if you don’t have Tour Guide, BLS, and Effect Veiler? Can the deck still work? Absolutely. I don’t own Tour Guides, and I’m the one pitching this deck to you. For the penny-pincher in us all, I’ve crafted the following.
Budget, Dragon Chaos
Monsters - 24 // Spells - 13 // Traps - 3
Lightpulsar Dragon x 3
Darkflare Dragon x 2
Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon x 3 (Reprinted in the SD)
Eclipse Wyvern x 3
Divine Dragon Apocalypse x 3
Red-Eyes Wyvern x 1
Summoner Monk x 2 (Reprinted in the SD
Sangan x 1
Dark Armed Dragon x 1 (Reprinted in the SD)
Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x 3 (Reprinted in the SD)
Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress x 1 (Reprinted in the SD)
Pot of Duality x 3
MST x 3
Monster Reborn
Heavy storm
Dark Hole
Foolish Burial
Future Fusion
Gold Sarcophagus
Charge of the Light Brigade
Solemn Judgment/Trap Dustshoot x 1
Solemn Warning/Mind Crush x 2
This build focuses more on milling your LIGHT and DARK targets into the graveyard with Ryko and Lyla, setting up for your Chaos plays while being LIGHT attribute themselves. The same plays as in the above build can be performed, Future Fusion is still your best friend, and while losing Tour Guide was a bit of a hit on the DARK count, we’re still in the game. It’s also good to point out that, while having a lot of Chaos monsters in your deck can lead to consistency issues, you don’t -have- to summon them that way. Both Lightpulsar and Darkflare can be normal summoned/special summoned by any means(mostly REDMD), which decreases the need for constant graveyard manipulation.
It is also about $600 cheaper just without the Tour Guides. Something to think about. That alone makes me like this build a tad bit more. Not having BLS does hurt a bit though. If you don’t use any other money cards, at least try and get your hands on one of them.
- The Overview -
Well, while the deck is very cool, it isn’t perfect. Relying on the milling effects of Lightsworns can prove inconsistent, and hands full of high level monsters with no means of dumping them can lead to dead draws. There are many variants of this deck; some may opt toward using Dragon Ravine to assure your LIGHT and DARK counts are perfect and rid yourself of dead hands. I’ve seen some builds mixing Plant Synchro in for more plays with successful results. The deck also has a great trump card, in that it can side deck into Disaster Dragon almost effortlessly, making it very difficult for your opponent to side against you. Chaos Dragons can work fast and get out huge monsters on every turn, but you’ll find sometimes that it isn’t enough.
There exists something called the “Dragon curse”, whenever something is released based on the Dragon type, there is always massive hype surrounding it, followed by disappointment. But there’s still hope. Konami loves their TCG exclusives and OCG reprints, and they love to make decks jump tiers. And this wouldn’t be a very good article if I didn’t mention the effectless wonder, Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon. If his effect confirms the rumors, I actually see people playing this thing. Chaos Dragons is a young deck, and has the time to improve. Where they stand now, I see Chaos Dragons reaching Tier 3 - Tier 2. Potential exists and the plays are there, it just needs a little time to improve and a little extra push. You won’t be seeing them fill the top 32 lists, but they won’t fade into the darkness.
- The Conclusion -
In conclusion, Chaos Dragons is a great deck to get players into the game, and inspire some nostalgic love from some of the older players. Everybody loves Dragons, and I see a lot of people giving this deck a shot. In casual play, use it to beat up on your friends. It’s a fun deck to play, regardless of its place on the tier list. Every out-of-the-box deck needed some time to iron out. During this time, builds were very far apart. Agents started out low and got better and better. Dark World started out on top and got worse and worse. Chaos Dragons are being released on neutral ground; neither broken nor horrible. Whichever direction the scale leans towards will be decided by time and testing. Until then, grab a few pre-orders, log in to Dueling Network, and dust off the Dragon Capture Jars.
- Written by Tyler Alastor Meacher.
Caution - I don't recommend looking for your Dragon Capture Jars. Wherever they are, they're there for a reason.
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