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.

(Sort of) Budget Beater - Karakuri

These segments are far less regular than I would like them to be, but to be honest the game is giving me a headache at the moment. On one hand, cards like Photon Sabre Tiger and Gishkis are giving me new ways to innovate decks, the decks that I come up with are largely hindered by the lack of Tour Guides at my disposal. YCS Brighton went on last weekend, I didn't go (no money, Quelle Surprise, and Sherlock Holmes was better), and it was won by Dino Rabbits, a deck that I ran when the cards were announced in the OCG, but quickly stopped using after the rarities were hiked (thanks Konami, that's another dream shattered). I have, however, been testing Karakuris, another deck that I love playing. So far I haven't lost with this build, and although Maxx "C" is expensive and the extra deck adds up, this is as cheap as winning gets right now:

(Excuse me for not typing the full names, I'm lazy like that)

21
3 Karakuri Komachi "Ninishi"
3 Karakuri Ninja "Kuick"
3 Karakuri Soldier "Nisamu"
3 Karakuri Merchant "Inashichi"
1 Karakuri Strategist "Nishipachi"
1 Karakuri Watchdog "Saizan"
1 Karakuri Muso "Haipa"
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Genex Neutron
2 Maxx "C"

12
2 Instant Fusion
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Limiter Removal
1 Mind Control
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm

7
2 Solemn Warning
2 Dimensional Prison
1 Fiendish Chain
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot

2 Karakuri Steel Shogun "Bureido"
2 Karakuri Shogun "Burei"
1 Naturia Landoise
1 Naturia Barkion
2 Cyber Saurus
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Ally of Justice Catastor

The monster line up is very similar to what Jeff Jones ran at YCS Toronto, but I think it's important to not what I didn't run. He played three copies of Genex Neutron, Maxx "C" and Cyber Dragon in his deck, Genex Neutron is an awesome card, it helps set up the combos and it beats over Tengu, but with every deck main boarding Thunder King I felt like I wasn't getting his effect off as much as I'd like (at three) so I cut it down. Cyber Dragon is really good in this deck, he is the yin to the Neutron's yang, he beats over Thunder King and helps with the OTK, but I didn't like not being able to summon Merchant or Neutron while he was on the field  because I risked losing both of the monsters to a Fortress Dragon. Granted, I can make my own, but I preferred Instant Fusion as a more explosive card.

Maxx "C" is a controversial card to me. On one hand it deters enemy explosions, provides advantage and combo pieces, and can stop Gorz from ruining your fun, but at the same time, I didn't feel like it added to the main focus of the deck enough, which is OTK as quickly as possible or sit behind a Naturia Beast or Landoise until you can OTK, 2 seemed like the right number. It is also my only draw card.

I decided to omit Duality from my deck, as even though it was nice with Komachi, I'd draw my combo pieces off it too much and my opponent could prepare for the on-coming assault. I decided to run Mind Control, which is really good for making Trishula with opposing Sabersauruses and Kabazauls (due to the popularity of Dino Wabbits). I also included Forbidden Lance in my deck, which helps me to get my explosive plays that usually leave me with 3 Monsters on the field and 4 cards in my hand by allowing the first Steel Shogun to be summoned, and consequently allow another + a Strategist to follow.

When constructing the Trap line up I basically learned from Jeff Jones's mistakes. He wasn't happy with the way that Fiendish Chain played at 3, so when I built my deck I started with 2. I saw what he meant, too many decks can just drop a big monster with no set-up now, so Fiendish Chain is either useless or wasted on a Hyperion that is still 2700 (another reason I like Forbidden Lance and Prison). I went down to 0 Chains and ran 3 Prisons, but I wasn't impressed since I kept losing to Leviair/Tour Guide. I finally settled on 1 Fiendish Chain as tech and one in the side deck, for the Synchrocentric-Good Stuff deck. One is enough to help against Tour Guide but not too much so that I lose to big monsters.

The side deck is a work in progress, so I haven't shown it. Until next time (which should be next Monday, because I'm on holiday) have a nice day!

Budget Beater #4 - Hero Beat - I'm back!

To the small number of individuals who read my previous blogs and wondered where a new one was, I apologise, being back at school is harder than I thought. I have a week off, though and I thought I'd shove a new deck at you, one that I will probably be playing until I have enough money to afford an extra deck (and then I'll play something completely different). This week's deck is Hero Beat, a deck that I have a bunch of experience with. Unfortunately there's nothing new or techy about it, but here it is:

Gemini Stun

13

3 Elemental Hero Neos Alius

3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1 Honest

1 Crusader of Endymion

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

14

3 Gemini Spark

3 Pot of Duality

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 E-Emergency Call

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Book of Moon

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

13

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Solemn Warning

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Skill Drain

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Hero Blast

Whereas the Spellcaster deck that I profiled last month has the advantage in Wonder Wand and Magician's Circle, this deck has access to Elemental Hero - Stratos, which really helps make Gemini Spark consistent. Between him, Emergency Call, the 3 Alius and the Crusader pulling of 2 for 2 Spark plays is really easy, and with the increased popularity of Dark World and Rescue Rabbit decks, Bottomless Trap Hole has risen in play. This is important because it allows you to chain Spark, kill the opponent's set monster or spell/trap and Draw a card. 

The low monster count is attributed to a simple state-of-mind, one thought of by Luke Mattingly "You lose the games where you draw all monsters" is what he said about T.G.s and the same rule applies here; drawing all monster hands limits the chance of shutting down opposing plays, and your opponent WILL out-speed you. 

Another fatal weakness of the deck (at least in the UK, where the Shining is illegal) is the lack of a decent boss monster(s). Decks like Agents and Lightsworn have access to up to 5, so stopping those plays is all-important. For this reason 3 Thunder King is an auto-in. It can stop big monsters under Skill Drain, and slows decks consistency plays down (Like Sangan, Agent-Earth, Snoww and Charge), 1900 isn't anything to laugh at and it's a LIGHT for Honest. Grand Mole is another card that is really, really good this format, it can take big monsters away for no cost, cannot be touched by Bottomless and is usable on either players turn. 

If you are playing this deck in America or Canada (or Japan) it's advisable to play 2 Miracle Fusion and 2 Super Polymerization in the deck (either in the main or side). Access to Shining is all important, and cards like Snowman Eater, Gemini Lancer and E-Hero can offer access to Absolute Zero, another big monster. 

By defensive core consists of Bottomless Trap Hole, Solemn Warning and Dimensional Prison. These cards ensure that my beat sticks are protected, and that my opponents power plays cannot go off. One of the format's most defining plays is Tour Guide into Sangan. Warning shuts down this play by not allowing Sangan to come out of the deck. Prison also helps, because a lot of players will attack with the pair of Fiends to deal a hefty 2000 damage. Catch players off guard by using Prison. 

A card that I chose to omit from my original build is Starlight Road. The reason is, not enough decks play field clearing cards anymore; Black Rose isn't popular, Lightsworns have fallen out of favor and by playing cleverly I can make sure that the impact caused by Heavy Storm and Dark Hole is as low as possible. Starlight Road is inconsistent and a card that I don't suggest running.

Thanks for reading, have a good day :D

Budget Beater #3 - GeminiCasters

In this week's installment of Budget Beaters I'll be reviewing a deck that I made by accident and turned out to be kick-ass.

The story started on Pojo, where a fellow user was looking for deck advice. He presented a pretty, to be honest, horrible Spellcaster deck that contained mostly 1-of cards like Gemini Elfs and Dark Eradicator Warlock. I presented him with an extremely cheap version of DrainCasters, which basically played 3 Skilled Dark Magician, 3 Crusader of Endymion, 3 Breaker and 3 Cyber Dragon with 3 Chaos Sorcerer for extra muscle and a myriad of 1 for 1 spells and traps like Smashing Ground and Dimensional Prison. He didn't take my advice, but afterwards I went and built a slightly up-market build with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning as the boss monster, and a couple of Anti-Meta cards such as Thunder King Rai-Oh and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. It was at this point I remember that Magical Dimension existed, so I added that in to accompany my 10 Spellcasters. I played around with the deck on the unrated section of Dueling Network and found that it wasn't very good and needed changing, so I went back to square one and started again.

This time, I decided to search on the deck builder "Level 4, Spellcaster, Gemini" monsters. There's only 2; Crusader (which I was already playing) and Tuned Magician. I added 3 Copies of Tuned Magician in and 3 Copies of Gemini Spark; taking out the Magical Dimensions because the Spellcaster has to be in your hand, and as yet there's no "Reinforcement of the Wizard" card. After that the deck all fell into place. Testing with it today, 3 days after it's conception, I've managed to win 6 out of 7 games that I played, all against top decks this format such as TourPlants and Agents. Here's the list:

18
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Tuned Magician
3 Crusader of Endymion
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Effect Veiler


12
3 Gemini Spark 
3 Pot of Duality
2 Wonder Wand
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon


10
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Magician's Circle
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot

The first thing to cover is obviously the Monsters. Starting it off we have the ubiquitous Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. 3000 double attack makes it the best card that's legal at the moment. Period. With 7 lights and 7 darks it's awfully easy to summon him and when I do it's usually going to win me the game. Next is Solider's little brother who managed to get out of jail early. Chaos Sorcerer is a smaller, less threatening BLS that is used more as a beatstick that a game-ender. It can be used to win games, but usually it's putting pressure on the opponent.

My Spellcaster line-up consists of 3 Breaker the Magical Warrior, 3 Tuned Magician, 3 Crusader and 2 Kycoo. Breaker is a +1 on Summon, need a say more. Between this and Gemini Spark there's really no need for Mystical Space Typhoon, and dropping my big guys is never a problem because Breaker sucks up the backrow. He does for me what Tengu did for most decks last format; the dirty work. 3 Tuned Magician and 3 Crusader of Endymion function as Gemini Spark targets as well as beatsticks, with the latter being better because he's light and has 100 more ATK points. Kycoo is an awesome meta pick; he's beefy (especially with Wonder Wand), disrupts the graveyard by removing names for Judgment Dragon, Darks for Dark Armed and targets for BLS and Sorc. He also stops the Chaos Duo from being summoned at all, as well as Agent players removing fallen Earths and Venuses to summon Hyperion, because your opponent cannot remove monsters in their graveyard from play. Kycoo is also DARK.

For the Spell there's only 1 that is worth talking about; Wonder Wand. The card got lots of hype when it was announced 6 months ago as the card that would sky rocket Gravekeepers to Tier 0. When it was released in Generation Force under a month ago, the hype had died down because everyone wanted to get their paws on Roach and Leviair. Wonder Wand has two uses; it's first is making small(er) monsters such as Breaker and Kycoo into big(ger) monsters. Kycoo equipped with Wand can run over any monster with under 2200; as well as crashing hands with Brionac. Wonder Wand also makes Sorcerer 2800 attack, destroying Trishula, Scrap Archfiend, Hyperion, Catastor and more! The extra attack also helps him get his effect off more often. The second use of Wonder Wand is making the deck faster. Summoning Breaker, clearing a threat and then equipping it with Wand is technically a +2 play, it gives you more options in your hand and more Dark targets for the Chaos monsters.

The final card to talk about is Magician's Circle, the closest thing to a RoTA for Spellcasters. Magician's Circle let's both players special summon a Spellcaster monster from their deck in face-up attack. Note: it's mandatory; so unless they can't, your opponent is going to have to waste a Veiler. The card is obviously sided out against Gravekeepers because their whole deck is Spell Caster monsters and it gives them the ability to summon whatever they want. The benefits of Circle are keeping the 3 Gemini Sparks alive and putting larger damage on the board, as well as easy access to Rank 4 Xyz monsters such as Utopia (or Roach if you have the cash, or luck).

I hope you enjoyed the deck. Unfortunately I go back to school tomorrow; so updates may be less frequent. I'm also trying to add more variety to the blog, so any ideas are welcome!

Budget Beater #2: Final Countdown

For this week's Budget Beater I thought I'd put a deck that I've been playing all week and having some of the most fun ever, and for the first time in a while, built in real life. It's Final Countdown, and it's the most rage-inducing deck I've ever built. Here's the list:


3 Battle Fader
3 Swift Scarecrow
3 Zero Gardna
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Effect Veiler
1 Morphing Jar


3 Final Countdown
3 Pot of Duality
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Gold Sarcophagus 
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Dark Hole


3 Threatening Roar
3 Waboku
3 Thunder of the Ruler
3 Jar of Greed
1 Torrential Tribute

The first thing to say about the deck is it's price. With the recent release of Pot of Duality as a super rare in the 2011 Collectible Tins, it is really easy to make cheap decks run well. The deck mostly consists of Commons, some of which might be harder to find in real life, but should be a sinch online. The two Effect Veilers make up the bulk of the price, coming in at around £15 each; but the great thing is the rest of the deck shouldn't cost more than that in it's self.

The first three monsters in the deck are invaluable for any Final Countdown deck. Battle Fader and Swift Scarecrow do virtually the same thing; but both have different advantages. Battle Fader Special Summons himself; so he can protect from another attack the turn after he is used. Swift Scarecrow has the edge, however, because he isn't summoned he can't be negated by the likes of Solemn Warning or Judgment. One of the first things I learned when playing this deck is always use Scarecrow first (unless the opponent has an empty backrow). The next monster is Zero Gardna; he works well because his effect can be chained to cards such as Caius and Trishula, stopping them from inflicting damage, especially as my deck essentially makes me start playing on 6000 life points.

Spirit Reaper is the only monster which I don't usually see in the deck, and I can't understand why. It's so difficult for an opponent to get round a Spirit Reaper if they don't have the right cards. Book of Moon doesn't work; and my Effect Veilers stop things like Caius from running circles on my hooded Zombie friend. The thing about him is, if he survives one turn he's already done as much as a Swift Scarecrow would have, and the fact that he can survive permanently means that technically he's infinitely better than Scarecrow. All bogus figures aside, Reaper is a star in this deck, and I'd be hard pressed to find anyone to disagree with me.

The spells that I run are all standard place. Come tomorrow (when the new F/L list kicks in) I will run 3 Veiler over the Swords, just because it's so easy to destroy. I will, however place two in the side deck, for when I side into Burn Game 3. The Gold Sarcophagus and Pot of Duality help me get to my Countdown early, I think 2 and 3 copies of each respective card is enough.

The Trap line-up is also very basic. 3 Threatening, Wabuko and Thunder of the Ruler make attacking me very difficult. The are all chainable, although Thunder can only be used in the Standby Phase, so Heavy Storm and MST don't phase me. Another thing to note about playing the deck is that you shouldn't set more than 1 stall card per turn. If your opponent Heavy Storms you, you can only use one; so remember to hold onto your cards! The final Trap is Jar of Greed; a chainable version of  Upstart Goblin with no cost. It helps dig through your deck, but it can be replaced with more stall cards (such as Gravity Bind, Level Limit etc).

Hope you enjoyed the short article about my new favorite deck!