Where a little over a year ago most of my decks were born on paper and slightly tweaked in the heat of battle to fit my own style, the more a format progresses to include either more decks, or more high-utility decks, the more of my decks are a continually adapting process, starting from a rather stringent but very consistent deck on paper, to a very versatile toolbox over time, that no longer only needs to adapt to my own style, but a plethora of deck themes and styles. My latest brain child seems to be bearing remarkable fruit as tested against Europe’s best two weeks ago.

Monsters : 20

2x Destiny Hero - Plasma

3x Caius the Shadow Monarch

1x Raiza the Storm Monarch

2x Destiny Hero - Malicious

1x Cyber Dragon

1x Elemental Hero Stratos

1x Destiny Hero – Disk Commander

1x Destiny Hero – Fear Monger

1x Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

1x Treeborn Frog

1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

1x Exiled Force

1x Card Trooper

1x Sangan

1x Snipe Hunter

1x Spirit Reaper

Spells : 16

3x Destiny Draw

2x Reinforcement of the Army

2x Foolish Burial

1x Heavy Storm

1x Giant Trunade

1x Premature Burial

1x Monster Reborn

1x Brain control

1x Fires of Doomsday

1x Enemy Controller

1x Scapegoat

1x Lightning Vortex

Traps : 6

2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

2x Limit Reverse

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Crush Card Virus

Side-deck : 15

2x Giant Rat

1x Injection Fairy Lily

1x cyber Dragon

1x Fires of Doomsday

2x Jinzo

3x Light-Imprisoning Mirror

2x Puppet Plant

2x Threatening Roar

1x Mystical Space Typhoon

At first glance the deck seems to be a bit all over the place. These last few formats have put a great deal of pressure on decks to be high-utility, in turn giving up some of their consistency. This is actually the reason that draw power enables the DARK decks, because it lets them dump dead cards to draw into the option they need. A lot of cards are low utility, so decks need to pack a large variety of cards and then have ways to get the one they need in order to create a high-utility deck. A gladiator beast deck typically runs two copies of Reinforcement of the Army and two copies of Proving ground on top of the fact that each Gladiator can search out his kin from the deck.  A DARK deck will use a mix of an insane amount of draw power and a reverse toolbox fueled by Armageddon Knight and Dark Grepher. Its up to other decks, although they don’t have the same ability to maintain consistency, to keep up in terms of utility. The best way to achieve this is to have a well-functioning toolbox, and a lot of different combo plays that can make any combination of draws into a useful play. The end result when all is said an done seems to look a lot more all over the place than it really is. Permit me to highlight some of the parts that allow this deck to run as well as it does.

Crush Card Virus

A big topic apparently. Funnily enough this section does not deal about the choice to run CCV. That’s a no-brainer. If you have the card and it’s a natural fit for the deck (with 8 potential targets) you add CCV to your deck. Especially in light of what I DO want to talk about. In Japan CCV isn’t such a huge threat. The meta adapted. In Europe, we’re seeing the same sort of adaptation three months after the Gold series was released. Deckbuilders take into account this card is widely used, and make sure to minimize the impact of it. This is not the case in North-America, where, despite having to deal with CCV on the SJC circuit a considerable time longer than the rest of the TCG, deck-builders just don’t seem to grasp the concept of adaptation. I understand they don’t teach evolution in Kansas anymore, but the rest of the continent should still be minimally familiar with Darwin’s theory.

The SJC has seen a few decks succeed with very, very forced CCV plays. Gladiator beast and Lightsworn decks that have no business running CCV, but they do anyway, splashing very low utility cards like necro guardna and D.D. Crow, further ruining the utility and consistency of their decks, just to be able to force inopportune CCV plays. Those same players then go out of their way to make bad plays like setting crow and CCV, just to make it work. This is not a healthy concept and we all know it. So how is it that these guys are actually getting rewarded and winning games and tournaments by making these bad decisions and plays ? Easy, because the entire field is happy remaining oblivious to the widespread use of CCV, taking no action whatsoever to limit the damage this one card does. If you let CCV typically strip 2 cards total, it’ll hurt bad, anymore than that and you’ll need the heart of the cards to stand a chance of winning. On the SJC circuit, where players are supposed to be “pro”, we see CCV strip 2 or 3 cards on the turn it is activated, and sometimes up to 5 cards total !!! If you know everyone and their mother go out of their way to play CCV, how is it that people take such risks to expose themselves to the card ?

That’s the first thing you’ll notice in this deck. It returns to a line-up of several smaller, but powerful effect monsters. At any given time, 50-55% of the monster line-up, 75% of the deck, is immune to crush. That means 9 out of 10 times CCV will strip 1 card at best. On top of that it runs its fair share of recursion, and the big monsters are often floaters. Because you want to make sure you get at least one card with CCV a lot of players will wait until a large monster is played. Unless they can chain CCV targeting the monster my monarchs or plasma are targeting, they generally paid for themselves since they lose three cards total (CCV, target, and whatever the monarch or plasma hit) to only 1 or 2 of mine. If this was against a deck that actually made these inopportune plays with splashed crows and what not, they are in for a world of hurt and then some.

The Limit Reverse Toolbox

I admit, I fell in love with this one. Limit Reverse is the greatest common to be released since Snipe Hunter. In a format that sought to punish us from reactive recursion by banning Call of the Haunted, we get a card in triplicate that allows all the same plays barring the old tricks with Jinzo. At first sight the card is just a way to get two more draws from disk Commander, but upon closer inspection it becomes so much more. With Disk Commander in the grave it becomes excellent Heavy Storm bait, because even if you set it alongside another trap, you come out on top, since Limit Reverse replaces both traps with fresh cards in your hand, and your opponent still loses his Heavy Storm. If the other trap or spell was chainable, you gain even more advantage. The ability to lure out so much s/t removal with this card is insane. On top of that it pulls pretty much all the tricks call used to pull, summoning some tribute bait for two draws in the end phase, dodging counter traps and freshly set MST’s and what not.

But one target does not a toolbox make. Though this deck generally gets Disk in the grave in a timely fashion, that’s not always possible, or even the best option. So having multiple targets is what keeps Limit from being a dead card. The two secondary options here are Card Trooper and Sangan. Both still get you one additional card if played reactively, but they open up the door to more aggressive play. Trooper can set up your reverse toolbox further while taking out a monster in battle, then still get you your draw, whereas tributing sangan to, well, anything sets up a bigger monster and replaces your limit reverse with another card searched from the deck. Given you opted to Reverse Sangan, that likely makes disk commander a solid choice for sangans effect.

So far I’m only stating the obvious. What really makes this toolbox amazing instead of just great tech is cards like Exiled Force, Grand Mole and Injection fairy lily, which are immense options in the face of cards like DAD and Gladiator beast heraklinos. These are your tertiary, control-oriented options. Especially Exiled Force gains a whole new dimension here. Thanks to two Reinforcements of the Army and a Sangan to get it from the deck, two foolish burials to get it to the grave and at least 4 chances to revive it, you have it at your beck and call continuously. And with Exiled Force clearing the way, you are likely wrecking a lot of your opponents large investments for practically no cost, while poking for damage with other monsters. The other two aren’t nearly as handy or easy to play, but still solid options. Lily gets around Honest for damage on your turn, whereas a Mole being brought back time after time becomes a brick wall that eventually leads to clear shots against an open field (there is a reason it was limited after all). For these two cards I side a pair of Giant Rats as well. They work wonders in the Gladiator beast match-up, as a small extended Ratbox.Together this toolbox opens a veritable new dimension in an already very versatile deck.

I really don’t understand how this card is not seeing more play at the top tables. Everybody knows its great. Admittedly not everyone knows quite HOW great, but still. This thing opens so many doors for so many decks, it’ll likely get limited next format. And it may take that long to see mainstream play, just like with that other formidable common, Snipe Hunter. We abused the crap out of that card, but it didn’t see mainstream play until after it was limited.

Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

This card gets my vote for second best TCG exclusive (after Grandmaster) and one of the best cards in LODT. Few people so far have realized how splashable she is, being a 1600 ATK LIGHT Warrior-type monster. With similar stats and attribute to drillroid, she is actually a more searchable, reliable and upgraded version of drillroid. Despite sharing the same vulnerability to FLIP-effects, she is really in a league of her own. The ability to send treeborn frog, disk commander, Hoplomus and what not back to the deck is spectacular in this day and age. It offers a new degree of field and graveyard control never before seen.

Now I’m not a fan of UDE’s Secret rare policy, on the contrary, I loathe it, as it has ruined the game for collectors, has made the trade and sale market all but collapse and puts decent cards we should have gotten as commons and rares in a price range the average duelist can never hope to gather. But my stance on it has always been that when UDE releases a card they make, they are free to do so in any fashion they like. I can’t ethically object to that, the way I can ethically object to DAD becoming a secret instead of a rare. And for a card as great as this one, and as splashable and searchable as this one, I was actually glad to pay 25 bucks to get an Ehren. I love this card. Not only is it a solid staple for any warrior toolbox deck, if it survives to the end phase, Ehren sets up your graveyard like secondary Card Trooper as well, whilst staying on the field with much higher ATK.

Ehren really only sucks in one match-up and that’s against Lightsworn. But in that game you’ll likely want to side her out for Lily anyway.

Destiny Hero – Plasma

For a while I thought Plasma Control was going to be a hit in the format, until I played the deck at a regional and bombed. The deck can summon a plasma with ease, but the redundancy in its support completely kills plasma control as a viable deck this format, making it more a slow stall deck, that simply can’t keep its win conditions out long enough to really pay off or beat the faster and higher utility decks. That doesn’t mean Plasma isn’t a good monster. I’m not running it as a dedicated option for the deck, but I’m not running it as meaningless fodder either, as so many DARK decks tend to do these days, pitching it to Destiny Draw or Trade-in rather than actually putting the card to use. In this deck I run two copies. Since Plasma is easily searchable, there is no need to weigh down the hand with a third copy, but still maintains the safety of still having one left in the deck if you mill a copy, or discard it to destiny draw. The deck packs remarkably little direct support as well, but it doesn’t have to, because the needed support lies dormant in your existing strategy, letting you summon plasma from the deck at your whim. Sometimes you’ll plan a plasma play by flipping an end phase scapegoat, then summoning plasma on the following turn, but more often than not you pull it off by summoning treeborn frog, summoning malicious, then playing reborn or prem on stratos to fetch plasma. That still leaves your normal summon, which, if at all possible you could use to normal summon sangan, then sac frog, mali and sangan to Plasma and suck up a monster as you get one from your deck. You’ve invested two cards from your hand, but you gain a monster on the field on top of plasma, a monster in your hand from sangan, and you strip the opponents biggest monster and render the rest of them useless. That sort of play can break a game wide open if the situation is right. And that’s what the deck aims to do : drop plasma only if the situation is really right. It has too many options, ranging from monarchs to ehren to deal with smaller monsters, saving plasma to shut down major options like DAD or judgment dragon.

What makes plasma so solid as an added control option ? Well we already mentioned searchability, but the fact that its searchability is provided by the single greatest support engine in the game is nothing to scoff at. The extra draw power and tribute support a destiny engine provides combines for the easiest incorporation of such a huge monster ever seen. Its rather indiscriminate special summon condition however is what really breaks plasma. The fact that you need only invest tokens, floaters and a frog most of the time, makes it like a free one-sided skill drain attached to a large body. What in that sentence doesn’t sound appetizing ?

Giant Trunade

For many still a controversial choice, but lately I’ve been even more inclined to use Trunade instead of MST. First of all, these days, especially with the widespread use of solemn judgment, it happens more and more that you have a choice of spells and traps to destroy, and as with any facedown cards, that’s a tough choice you don’t want to make. So for big turns you’d rather have trunade baiting out the solemn, or clearing the back row for a major hit. Even though it’s a -1, plenty of advantage can be had from the card. Getting back spent copies of premature burial or limit reverse tends to count for a lot as well. All in all, you’ll likely not be investing much in spell and trap removal until you can make a big push, and when you do, you’ll likely want to clear the whole back row, making Trunade and infinitely better main deck choice than MST.

I’m sure most of my other choices make perfect sense. A pair of PWWB help ditch cards I need in the grave, while controlling the field, Vortex can reset an ill-times swarm while doing the same and enemy controller combo’s well with frog, malicious, scapegoat, fires of doomsday and Ehren.

I would say, give it a try, I can only bestow its virtues on paper so much, you need to handle the deck to get a real feel of how good it is. I rarely open with a bad hand, and I’ve never opened with a useless hand.

Tags: Destiny Hero Plasma Ehren Caius Raiza Exiled Grand Mole

Related to: Yu-Gi-Oh!

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