One Step Ahead + Budget Beater - Malefics

Since my last post, the popularity of Chaos Dragons has sky rocketed, and I can see why - an explosive deck that can pack a ton of high-attack monsters, with an OTK that's not exactly difficult to pull off. Perfect, right? Considering this, today's budget beater is a deck that is not only cheap, but should be really good against Chaos Dragons, as it can churn bigger monsters out, and pressure them to OTK when they don't need to. It is, of course, Malefics:

13 Monsters

3 Malefic Cyber End Dragon

3 Malefic Stardust Dragon

3 Beast King Barbaros

2 Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon

2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

19 Spells

3 Trade-In

3 Pot of Duality

3 Terraforming

3 Geartown

3 Necrovalley

2 Royal Tribute

2 Forbidden Lance

8 Traps

3 Skill Drain

3 Dark Bribe

2 Starlight Road 

The monster line-up is pretty basic. 11 Level-8 Monsters gives me plenty of targets for Trade-In, which speeds the deck up greatly and gives it a consistency that some anti-meta decks lack. The reason the deck is so good in the Chaos Dragon and Dino Rabbit match-ups is because Malefic Stardust and Malefic Cyber End are bigger than almost all of the monsters in their deck. It's incredibly difficult for a Chaos Dragon player to destroy a 4000 attack monster, especially under Skill Drain. Chaos Dragons also have to wait for the right time to OTK you - they can't just do it on a whim because cards like Gorz and Tragoedia will run their day, using Malefics you can hit the player for damage, while they're unable to do anything because all they have is Chaos Monsters. 

I explained in my Gravekeeper article why I think Necrovalley is important, and I play a full three copies in here, along with 3 Terraformings to search them. The high Spell/Trap count makes Royal Tribute a great card for getting rid of the Chaos Dragon player's whole hand. Most Dragon players playing upwards of 25 monsters means Tribute will always be a big hit, with Necrovalley and Skill Drain stopping them from playing from their Graveyard. Forbidden Lance rounds off the Spells - proving useful at making sure my summons go through uninterrupted - although I may test Eradicator Epidemic Viruses in their place, as they better against the Rabbit and Rogue decks at wiping out 3 turns of Spells/Traps.

The Trap count is attributed to 2 things - Firstly I don't have a problem with destroying monsters, my Malefics have more attack than nearly any card played in popular decks. Secondly, Life Points can be precious when using this deck in particular, as the 3 Skill Drains and the occasional turns without monsters may leave you low. With that said, Solemn Warning and Judgment are poor choices as they may often be detrimental to your success. Instead, Dark Bribe acts as a barrier against 1 for 1 removal, protecting your invaluable summons, and stopping power spells such as Future Fusion or Miracle Fusion, and Starlight Road helps protect your cards from heavy Storm, Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute. 

 

The deck is currently untested, but there's nothing in it that won't work. All that needs doing is tweaking and refining. 

Thanks

One Step Ahead - Gravekeepers

Budget decks are too samey nowadays; You either run some kind of watered-down non-Tour Guide Inzektor or Dark World deck, or Skill Drain. It's boring and no one wants to read it, so I'm starting a new set of articles called "One Step Ahead" - where I will be addressing tech cards, deck lists and strategies that will help you stay one step ahead of the competition. This article is about Gravekeepers, an archetype that has fallen out out favor recently, but one that I feel has massive potential.

Looking back on the 3 YCS that have taken place this format, it's clear to see that the game has shifted from what cards are best for the event to what deck is the best. Before YCS Long Beach, Dino-Rabbit, Inzektor and Wind-Up was hyped up the wazzoo, so smart players began to recognize that Skill Drain is a viable answer to all 3. Eventually, Michael Balan won the event with Dark Worlds, a deck with an exceptional Rabbit Match-up, and also a deck that plays like no other - meaning a lot of side deck cards that people were running (such as Snowman Eater, Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler) are useless. As well Dark Worlds winning, Hero variants were one of the top played decks of the event, no surprise, as any deck that can summon big monsters under Skill Drain was bound to do well. 

The novelty of Skill Drain wore off for YCS Dallas and Toulouse - players now expected it, so sided and played accordingly. However, something that I predicted ended up happening. Before the event I was certain that a deck like Chaos that could play under Skill Drain and still spam big monsters was going to do well, lo-and-behold, Chaos Dragons takes 1st and 2nd place at Toulouse and Dallas respectively. Not a lot of players were siding a great deal for the deck, and not a lot of players new how to play against these powerful Dragons that revolve around the Graveyard.

Which is why I think Gravekeepers are a deck to look out for. Against the Chaos Dragon deck, which is likely to have been copied numerous times, Necrovalley is a powerful card which stops their Chaos monsters from being summoned. Necrovalley is also effective against Inzektors, especially with the prevalence of Call of the Haunted-Centric builds. The high-defense of Gravekeeper's Spy under Necrovalley is an effective wall against the Evolzar Xyz monsters, as well as a seach-able out to Laggia in GK Guard. Going first against Wind-Ups, Necrovalley will shut off their Rat, and the two Effect Veilers prove effective when going second. 

The deck clearly has well-rounded match-ups against everything. However, with any deck there are some issues - The abundance of Mystical Space Typhoon for one, due to the popularity of Skill Drain and Dark Worlds. However, after the success of Dragons, and the decline in the use of Fiendish Chain, MST could become a less widely-used card (unlikely however). Malefic Stardust Dragon is a suitable barrier against MST, stopping it from being destroyed, while boasting 2500 Attack points to deal with bigger monsters. Due to the inclusion of Stardust, and the aforementioned Effect Veiler, Royal Tribute is a much less potent card - you want your build to be as consistent as possible. Royal Tribute is also a detrimental card against Dark Worlds, triggering all of their effects. 

I hope this article has been informative in helping you make decisions about what decks you want to play, and also what decks to look out for. Some of the lessons in this article can be applied to other decks - big monsters, shutting off the graveyard and being strong Game 1 are all important in this fast paced, diverse format where games can be decided in one turn.

Budget Beater #5.1 - Chaos Stun

You may have read the article I posted last Monday about the Tengu Gadget deck and wonder where it is now. I deleted it. The deck wasn't working as I had planned and the Tengus kept getting stuck in my hand. I have however, got another deck that I have played throughout previous formats with a fair amount of success; Chaos Control. The deck basically plays a load of one for one cards and simplifies the gamestate so that +1s off of Sorcerer and BLS mean more. Here's the deck;

(Note: Maxx "C" is optional in the deck. Fossil Dyna works just fine)


20
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1 Sangan
2 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Dimensional Alchemist
2 Effect Veiler
2 Maxx "C"
2 Snowman Eater

10
2 Pot of Duality
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Smashing Ground
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn

10
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Solemn Judgment

The Chaos line-up that I have found to be most effective is 1 BLS and 2 Sorcerer. 1 and 1 was too few, and late game I'd be topping monsters that are too small to use to any effect, 1 and 3 is too many, and I didn't have enough Lights/Darks to support them. With 1 and 2 I get the balance between early game consistency and late game power (or sackiness).

Snowman Eater is a card that has a few very good things going for it in this deck. Being level 3 it works well with Reaper to make Leviair and retrieve monsters banished by Chaos Monsters, Bottomless or by other means. Some people will say "Why not Ryko; he's Light and fuels the grave". The simple answer is: Milling sucks. Why would I want to risk sending important spells and traps to the grave, just to get Light and Darks that I'd rather summon for Chaos food. Monsters get run over so easily nowadays that Ryko is hardly worth the risk. 1900 DEF on Snowman Eater is also enough to wall a Thunder King without dying.

Finally I want to talk about the combination of 2 Effect Veilers and 2 Maxx "C". To me (at least from testing online) Maxx "C" is a very overrated card. It's exceptional at what it does, and it really helps having an extra two or three cards on your turn after your opponent goes for a push, but drawing more than one is just awful, and it happens to me all to often. Effect Veiler is far better to draw late game, as I can use it as a Tuner, Chaos food or as a bluff, while Maxx "C" can only be used as a bluff. 3 Maxx "C" and 1 Veiler was a number I wasn't happy with.

The deck plays a large number of 1 for 1 monster destruction cards (11 to be precise, 14 if you count Dark Hole and Torrential) for this reason, it's incredibly difficult for the opponent to keep monsters on the field, which also makes it very easy for Spirit Reaper to land direct attacks. The one for one spells and traps make summoning a Breaker or Chaos monster more devastating, because you're usually at a more advantageous position than your opponent anyway. It also helps balance the -1 that occasionally comes with using Effect Veiler, Book of Moon or Caius. I chose to evict Mirror Force from the deck because I don't think that it's good against any Tier 1 deck this format other than Karakuri, which I side plenty for anyway.

Thanks and have a nice day.