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Anteaus'
History of Yu-Gi-Oh!
This article is going to be a little bit different than my
other Gauntlet articles. It’s not going to be just an
article about the deck; it’ll also be a tourney report. This
is going to probably be the largest Goat Format article I’ve
ever written (and probably the longest article I’ve written
ever), but I really like Gravekeepers and I think
that with some tweaking the deck can definitely be relevant
in the format especially with the way that people play Goat
Format today.
I enjoy taking bad decks and trying to make them good. It’s
fun and it’s a great challenge especially in a static format
such as Goat Format. Gravekeeper’s aren’t as rogue as some
other decks, but they’re definitely underwhelming especially
since the only deck that topped back in 2005 (or ever) was
built entirely for an older meta that has decidedly shifted.
But since that’s the only Gravekeeper deck that topped, it’s
usually where everyone - including myself - goes for
inspiration.
I’m speaking, of course, about
Daryl Gessler’s build from Shonen Jump Indianapolis in 2005 (just use Ctrl+F to
search “Gessler” on that list and you’ll find it). Daryl, I
think, really built a solid deck to counter the metagame he
was going up against, but the meta has shifted, and this
requires us to take a new approach to account for new card
choices and newer theory - and also newer decks.
Before I get to my build, I want to start with some things
that I liked and also did not like about Daryl’s build.
Likes:
Book of Moon at three. This is, I think, an underrated decision (and a great one). Its
main synergy with Gravekeeper’s Spy is quite obvious, and
considering you have multiple targets for Spy to summon,
reusing Spy via Book of Moon or Tsukuyomi is viable. More
importantly, an attack position Spy is not a liability with
Book of Moon; instead, if your opponent attacks it, Book
turns Spy into a 2500 DEF wall with Necrovalley up and nets
you another Gravekeeper monster while also dealing damage.
This is a great move in the deck even if Necrovalley is not
active, as there are few non-tribute monsters that can get
over Spy’s 2000 DEF. Book of Moon is also one of the best
counters to Thousand-Eyes Restrict that the deck has outside
of Tsukuyomi. This is perhaps the biggest reason for Book at
3.
Forty-two card main deck.
This is something that is almost unheard of now, but back in 2005
going over 40 was sometimes deemed necessary considering how
many power cards were available for use. Fitting all those
into an archetype-based deck like Gravekeepers is a
challenge in and of itself, and Daryl took to playing two
more cards in his main deck as opposed to cutting something
else out. This is a feature that we may need to look at when
constructing modern Goat Format Gravekeepers, if for no
other reason than “it worked once, why not twice.” While
it’s usually best to keep your deck at 40 cards, sometimes
going over can work if the cards you put in are worth it.
Morphing Jar.
I’m not as big a proponent of this card as some others, but it does
have its uses, and in a deck that struggles to maintain
numerical advantage, Morphing Jar can be a lifesaver. Its
best use is arguably when you have the initiative to take
control of the field (of if you already have control of it),
because you can flip it, reset your hand, and turn the
momentum you establish into damage and maintain it via
continual pressure. It can also act as good bait for
Nobleman if you’ve already shown you’re playing
Gravekeepers. Protecting Spy is more important than
protecting Jar 90% of the time in Gravekeepers, I feel, so
it can be good bait and help protect your Spies from getting
banished. I’ll talk about this more in subsequent sections.
No Sakuretsu Armor. The deck simply doesn’t need Saku since it has triple Book of
Moon and triple Spy. Not playing it in 2005 isn’t
surprising, but even today I feel that no Sakuretsu Armor is
the right call in Gravekeepers as there are many other
defensive options at our disposal, and the deck doesn’t want
to play defense any more than it has to anyway.
Dislikes:
All the one-of’s. Let’s go point by point:
ˇ
Tsukuyomi.
I can kind of see
only using one because you have triple Book of Moon, but I’d
rather have two Tsukuyomi and triple Book of Moon
since the deck is heavily reliant on field control. Tsuk is
a reusable way of dealing with TER and reusing Spy. This
makes it invaluable. Book of Moon is a better option on the
opponent’s turn, but Tsuk is better in most every other
instance.
ˇ
Mystic Tomato.
I’m going to go on the record and say that I think
recruiters are overrated in Goat Format. If you’re playing
recruiters you’re almost required to play Creature Swap and
multiple recruiters. One Tomato in Gravekeeper’s just isn’t
enough I found. He is most powerful at three where he can
dig for your Gravekeeper beaters after Necrovalley is out,
but most good players simply won’t let that happen. This
renders Tomato as an inferior option in a deck that has
multiple ways of putting monsters on the field.
ˇ
Sinister Serpent.
I feel this card isn’t necessary in the deck. While card
advantage is important, it does not warrant cutting other
cards out of the deck simply to try to run Serpent. Plus,
cutting Serpent often means being able to cut
Tribe-Infecting Virus, which I also do not think is useful
in the deck. Delinquent Duo does hurt more without Serpent,
but on the whole Serpent doesn’t contribute much to field
presence and without Metamorphosis he loses even more
utility.
ˇ
Lightning Vortex.
With triple Spear Soldier this card is almost unnecessary.
Vortex’s main use was to clear Scapegoats and problem
monsters while also putting pressure on the opponent’s Life
Points., but there are still better ways of dealing with
your opponent’s monsters than a card that forces you to
discard for cost. The main discard was Sinister Serpent, and
if we don’t play Serpent, Vortex can likely be cut as well
considering we have no other good cards to discard.
ˇ
Swords of Revealing Light.
I don’t like Swords but I can understand why it was used
here. Being able to stall until you can draw the cards you
need to grab the initiative is useful, but if you’re in a
position where you have to stall with Swords you’re likely
on the losing side of the duel, and Swords likely won’t help
you overcome that advantage gap. Being more aggressive
should help more in that regard.
Lack of aggression. When I tested Gessler’s build I found that it had to play
passively until it found an opening. Oftentimes the deck had
to set Gravekeeper’s Spy to try to get the engine going even
with the threat of Nobleman of Crossout still in the air.
Without any other major power plays, flipping Spy to get
another Gravekeeper is the go-to play, and in this build
losing Spy often meant losing the game. Something to keep in
mind with Gravekeepers is the fact that the deck has to opt
not to play certain good cards to fit the engine. Cards such
as Delinquent Duo, Airknight Parshath, and Black Luster
Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning simply do not work in
Gravekeepers. This means that we have to make up for that
loss, and to be fair those are big, big cuts for the deck to
overcome.
The problem with playing passively with Gravekeepers is the
fact that this is what the opponent expects. Without power
cards such as Metamorphosis, threats such as Thousand-Eyes
Restrict are not a threat at all. Without Airknight,
opponents only have to deal with a 2000 ATK beater at worse,
and all they need to do to get past that is to destroy
Necrovalley. A smart player will use Necrovalley to their
advantage if they can and destroy it once they can firmly
establish momentum; therefore, playing passively and trying
to stop them from doing it simply isn’t an option.
Gravekeepers just don’t have the powerful swing cards at
their disposal. With a more aggressive approach - which I
discuss below - the deck should be able to maintain board
presence enough to make up its lack of numerical advantage
generators.
No My Body as a Shield. I’m going to explain more about this card when I talk about my
Gravekeeper deck, but let me just say that if you’re not
playing My Body in Gravekeeper’s you’re doing it wrong. I
can’t speak for Daryl Gessler’s decision to not include it
in his build, but I’ve found that My Body is easily the MVP
Spell of Gravekeepers after Necrovalley.
Too focused on “staple” Spells.
Daryl played Delinquent Duo which in testing I found to be horrible
in the deck. This runs counter to over a decade of
established theory about the format, but we must keep in
mind that Gravekeepers have never been a legitimate threat
in Goat Format to begin with. Clearly, “established” theory
is not helping this deck win. This gives us some flexibility
when it comes to the inclusion - or exclusion - of so-called
staples, because what’s going to happen, we make the deck
worse? Regarding Duo, when I tested the Gessler build I
found that there was never a time I actually wanted
to play it because I felt that it simply didn’t do enough.
It’s not enough to simply try to discard potential threats;
we have to play through them in an effort to to
establish the tempo we want to play at while also being able
to react to threats as they arise. In this way we
force the opponent to play by our rules.
Lack of flexibility.
Ultimately the biggest problem with Gessler’s build is the overall
lack of flexibility. Many players know how to deal with
Gravekeepers instinctively because it’s one of the oldest
archetypes in the game and because the archetype itself is
rather linear in its style. In Goat Control it’s even more
linear in that you only have three archetype monsters that
are actually viable in a competitive environment. Therefore,
aside from dealing with the rest of the deck - which any
Goat player should be intimately familiar with - they only
have to focus on four cards: the three Gravekeeper monsters
and Necrovalley. With how much the game has changed,
approaching the deck with the same old theory just isn’t
going to cut it, and after testing with Gessler’s build I
came to the conclusion that there had to be another
approach, a way to still play those Gravekeeper monsters
and Necrovalley and be able to capitalize on them
without having to play too linear a game.
This has been my focus - finding a different way to play
the deck. In theory, the following decklist covers all
the deck’s weaknesses and gives it quite a few new tricks to
help overcome the inevitable loss of card advantage. Note
that I say in theory. In theory, the deck
wants to establish its own unique tempo early and disrupt
the opponent’s timing. This is important; tempo contributes
greatly to field presence, and if you can play at the tempo
you want instead of having to continually wrest it from your
opponent, you’ll stand a better chance of winning the game.
It’s vital to keep momentum and initiative on your side
through setting the tempo early. As such, I wanted to move
away from the slow, reactionary style the deck has
traditionally promoted and take a more aggressive, proactive
approach.
The following list is the decklist that I took to a
tournament this past weekend. I managed second place with
it, which - when you consider that the entire deck is built
around theory, and I had rather limited time to test it,
isn’t bad. Of course, one locals isn’t really enough data to
say that the deck is solved, and I’m certainly not making
that claim here. In fact, there are some changes I would
make to the deck and I will highlight them as I go along and
then post an updated version below. So, if you just want the
most up-to-date build of mine, scroll down near the bottom.
But for now, here’s the deck I had constructed and decided
to play in the most recent Goat Format tournament in my
area.
Anteaus’ Gravekeeper’s (Pre-Tourney)
Monsters - 18
2x D.D. Assailant
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
2x Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
3x Gravekeeper’s Assailant
1x Gravekeeper’s Guard
2x Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier
3x Gravekeeper’s Spy
1x Morphing Jar
1x Mystic Swordsman LV2
2x Tsukuyomi
Spells - 15
3x Book of Moon
1x Graceful Charity
1x Heavy Storm
3x My Body as a Shield
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Necrovalley
1x Pot of Greed
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Terraforming
Traps - 7
1x Mirror Force
1x Ring of Destruction
2x Rite of Spirit
2x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
Total: 40
Side deck: 15
3x Mobius the Frost Monarch
1x Tribe-Infecting Virus
1x Sinister Serpent
3x Metamorphosis
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
3x Royal Decree
2x Threatening Roar
Anteaus’ (Pre-Tourney) Gravekeeper’s Explained
Okay, so first thing’s first, we have to talk about the
monsters, notably the Gravekeeper ratios, the inclusion of
the Warrior Toolbox, and several of the cards we have
excluded.
Let’s start with the Gravekeeper monsters and then move on
to the support. Gessler’s build ran a 3-3-3 ratio of
Spy/Assailant/Spear Soldier, but I’ve dropped a Spear
Soldier in favor of a Guard. The reason why is the fact that
the deck runs five cards that can flip monsters face-down,
so having another Gravekeeper that Spy can pull into defense
position is invaluable. In today’s format, Gravekeeper’s
Guard can be a powerful way to clear the board of problem
monsters, notably tributes such as Airknight Parshath and
Jinzo.
Also, after testing a 3-2-1 ratio of Spy/Assailant/Spear
Soldier, I learned that there simply weren’t enough targets
to reuse Spy effectively, and flooding the field became a
lot harder. However, with a 3/3/3 ratio, I find my hands
tend to be flooded with Gravekeeper monsters, which is a
problem because Spy can’t summon them from hand. As such, I
want them in the deck more than in my hand.
I originally thought that Spear Soldier would be best at one
because of how easy he was to get out. With Spy to fetch him
and Rite of Spirit to get him back, I assumed he would often
be on the field. Instead, I found that one copy made Spy
less powerful and forced a reliance on Gravekeeper’s
Assailant, which is just a 1500 ATK monster without
Necrovalley. Spear Soldier can pierce if Necrovalley isn’t
on the field, which is a huge advantage in modern Goat
Format. It’s really one of the best monsters that
Gravekeepers have in Goat Format.
Moving on to the support, Dekoichi is a really good card in
the deck that I originally overlooked. I learned, however,
that he’s too good in the deck to not include. For starters,
he can suck up an opponent’s Nobleman of Crossout, thus
protecting your main Flip monster, Gravekeeper’s Spy. This
is also decent deck thinning, and that was a reason I
originally thought of using him at three. However, Dekoichi
at three makes the deck play too passive, in my opinion. I’d
rather have his effect go off rather than have him hit by a
Nobleman, but it’s not the end of the world if he gets
banished. As such, he’s a solid opening set because if his
effect does go off, you get to draw a card, and if
not, that’s one Nobleman down so you can usually set Spy
relatively safely. He’s also solid at 1400 ATK and can poke
for incremental damage if your opponent can’t get rid of it
right away. But the fact that he nets a plus if destroyed by
battle is a really strong play in a deck that doesn’t have
many resource generators to begin with, especially since we
have to eschew cards like Airknight Parshath and Delinquent
Duo.
The Warrior Toolbox is also a great addition because
Gravekeeper’s thrive on field presence and the toolbox oozes
presence. This is seen very well in D.D. Assailant - I’ve
discussed why I like it so much in
other places,
and you should definitely take a minute and read about it if
you haven’t. Essentially, D.D. Assailant serves as a solid
normal summon that can get rid of threats that aren’t named
Thousand-Eyes Restrict, notably Airknight Parshath and
sub-1900 ATK beaters like Kycoo and Enraged Battle Ox.
While I usually don’t like D.D. Warrior Lady, she is more
versatile in this build than Exiled Force, another card I
considered using, because we can’t run Premature Burial or
Call of the Haunted. Those two cards give Exiled Force a lot
of extra power since you can get rid of problem monsters at
any time if Exiled Force is in the grave, but since
Necrovalley renders those cards useless, Exiled becomes
inaccessible once he’s in the grave. As such, I’ve found
that allocating that normal summon to D.D. Warrior Lady
gives you an out to monsters that D.D. Assailant does not,
notably Sangan, Sinister Serpent, and the various recruiter
cards such as Mystic Tomato. She can also act as a wall in
ways that Exiled can’t. In this way she is more versatile
than Exiled Force and a worthy addition to the deck.
A card that I was really debating not playing was
Mystic Swordsman LV2, but after extensive theory and testing
I realized that it’s something the deck needs because we
don’t have room for Nobleman of Crossout (and we don’t
really want to run it anyway with Spy being a common side
deck card). While Swordsman is a situational card, as its
power is greatest against specific matchups, notably Burn,
Tsuk Lock and Empty Jar, it gains a lot of power against
Standard Goats thanks to Necrovalley. This is why we don’t
have to play Nobleman - we have Mystic Swordsman. Swordsman
also contributes to field presence and it makes your
opponent unable to set against him until they clear him off
the board. And the way they do that is by attacking him,
leaving their own monster vulnerable to any counterattack
you can make. In this way, Mystic Swordsman LV2 helps us
maintain a steady tempo by forcing the opponent to attack it
and thus putting themselves in a disadvantageous position
while also clearing up two slots in our deck by
rendering Nobleman of Crossout unnecessary.
The deck, however, needs two copies. I originally thought
one would be enough because of Reinforcement of the Army;
however, Swordsman definitely puts in work. At one, he often
goes to grave quickly, and once he’s in grave he becomes
inaccessible. As such, I really feel that two is the better
option.
Now then, Morphing Jar. I really, really hate Morphing Jar.
I originally thought that it would act as a great trump card
and that he would definitely fit in Gravekeepers well.
However, I found that games often devolved into a top deck
war as the opponent has to spend vital resources outing your
monsters. My thinking was that it can not only bait out
Nobleman, which is great for protecting Spy, but it can also
reset the game in terms of numerical advantage. But, like
always, I found I rarely if ever wanted to use it for
either. Opponents with big hands in the mid game often
are sitting on useless cards, so pitching them just gives
them five new options. If you’re sitting pretty in board
presence and your hand count is low, but they’re locked out,
why flip Jar? It made no sense. In the tourney I often
regretted playing him as he often either sat dead in hand
because I was in a good spot or he was outed.
The two copies of Tsukuyomi are included for reusing Spy and
also because he can take care of problem monsters. Most big
beaters have high ATK and low DEF, which plays well to
Gravekeeper’s strengths if you can put them face-down. Note
too that Tsukuyomi is a one-card out to Thousand-Eyes
Restrict. Having two is rarely a problem and, at worst, you
can set it to bait out a Nobleman.
In terms of Spells, the lineup is fairly simple. Three
copies of Necrovalley are a must, of course. However, I
found that two copies of Terraforming was actually not that
great. I often found myself holding Terraforming and
Necrovalley, and after a point that second Terraforming
ended up being just another useless card. Useless cards are
bad in Goat Format. After extensive testing I’ve realized
that it really is best at just one copy.
Moving on. I originally had two copies of Reinforcement of
the Army in here, but one is really all the deck needs. It
gives you quite a number of options for a variety of
situations and can act as a pseudo Nobleman of Crossout
since it can fetch Mystic Swordsman LV2. I rarely wished I
ran a second copy, though right now I’m still on the fence
about it. Really, you could play two especially since I
think that two copies of Swordsman is the way to go.
Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity are staples. Graceful
loses a bit of power since you don’t have a Sinister Serpent
to combo it with, but two copies of Rite of Spirit in the
Trap lineup help make Gravekeeper monsters in your hand
accessible in grave. As such, it’s still included.
Delinquent Duo is absent from the build mostly because
you’re not going to find yourself in many situations where
it will help. Unlike in Standard Goats, Gravekeeper’s cannot
hope to win the numerical advantage war, so Duo becomes less
powerful. Instead, the focus shifts to controlling the field
and not the hand. We want the opponent to commit resources
to the board, preferably at inopportune times. In this way
we maintain the tempo we need to win and force the opponent
to play the game the way we want to play it.
Heavy Storm is included for backrow removal. Unlike Giant
Trunade Heavy Storm destroys backrow, and while it may seem
counterintuitive considering the deck needs Necrovalley,
running what is essentially four copies of our field spell
allows us to use Heavy Storm, so long as we play it right.
Those copies of Necrovalley can actually make Heavy Storm
more potent more often, because opponents will often set
more backrow knowing that a Gravekeeper player wants to
protect Necrovalley. In this way you can catch your opponent
committing too many resources to the board and punish them
for assuming their backrow was safe.
This brings us to Book of Moon and My Body as a Shield. I
touted Book of Moon at three when I was talking about the
Gessler Build and I stand by what I said. I think that three
copies of Book of Moon and two copies of Tsukuyomi are the
way to go considering we don’t run any battle traps except
for Mirror Force and we have few answers to big threats like
Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
My Body as a Shield is a perfect counter to Nobleman of
Crossout and one of the main cards you want to see alongside
a flip effect monster. I was originally playing two copies,
but I found myself always wishing for a third, even with its
high LP cost. Most of the time your opponent won’t be
dealing you much battle damage, and since My Body as a
Shield has so many uses three copies is absolutely perfect.
In addition to stopping Nobleman, MBaaS can stop Mystic
Swordsman LV2, Lightning Vortex, Smashing Ground, as well as
traps like Mirror Force, Sakuretsu Armor, Torrential Tribute
and Ring of Destruction. It puts in most work against Mirror
Force, which is perhaps the most powerful card it can
counter. This allows us to both summon with monsters already
on board and attack with a full board without fear. I feel
that it is simply too good not to run at three.
The traps are pretty standard. Rite of Spirit is the go-to
recursion card. Space concerns demand that we leave it at
two, as it is often dead in the early game but is a great
trump card in the mid game. When I first tested it at three
I often found I would open it early, as it’s definitely best
reserved for mid-to-late-game pushes. However, in practice,
especially with six Gravekeeper monsters now, the card is
definitely more versatile than I originally thought. Three
is probably the way to go, and dropping something like
Solemn Judgment down to one is probably the way to go.
Dust Tornado is a card I initially had at two, but with My
Body as a Shield (as well as double Solemn Judgment) I found
it was almost always easier to just attack through backrow
and negate it than to blow it up at End Phase. In this way
we catch the trap cards we want to catch, not just blindly
blow up backrow. We don’t want to waste our cards, which is
why Mystical Space Typhoon and Breaker the Magical Warrior
are excluded as well - I’d rather stop specific threats by
negating them once they get flipped.
Solemn Judgment is
Now, the side deck.
Ugh, I hated this side deck (sorry, Cam). In theory it would
help against specific matchups and give me outs to plenty of
threats. Mobius went in against a lot of things and it did
help, so I don’t recommend cutting it completely. But three
was too many.
Metamorphosis is freaking useless in the deck, even in the
side. So was Tribe and Serpent. Screw those cards in
Gravekeepers, they aren’t useful enough to warrant playing
when space is so tight and the main is built as it is.
Bottomless Trap Hole saw use and I like it in the side. Same
with Threatening Roar, which is best against DFT.
All that said, Royal Decree saw no use. I side it for alt
decks and I definitely think it’s good enough to play, but
at three is debatable. I’ve since changed the side which you
can see below.
Ultimately, the build wants to win by establishing its own
unique tempo and maintaining it. This should give us the
momentum and the initiative on every turn. The deck is not
afraid to commit to the board and is unfazed by the normal
counters that Gravekeepers come up against. By rendering
known threats obsolete, the deck is able to maintain its
edge on the field and secure victory ultimately by building
a big board incrementally while your opponent flounders in
their attempts to stop it.
Excluded Cards
We really should take a minute to look at some of the cards
that the deck does not run. Many could be put in the
side deck against specific matchups, and I’ll be discussing
side deck construction and options further on. For now,
though, let’s look at some of the glaring holes in this
decklist and I’ll explain my reasoning behind my choices.
Airknight Parshath.
You’d think that a deck that can’t keep up in terms of numerical
advantage would love Airknight, but ultimately it just
doesn’t do enough. You have piercing with Spear Soldier and
Parshath contributes to brick hands, which when you consider
that Terraforming and Necrovalley are necessary but also
contribute to brick hands, it’s a risky proposition throwing
Airknight into the mix. Besides, it’s almost always better
to pitch Airknight and revive it with Premature Burial or
Call of the Haunted. Because we can’t do that, we have to
tribute for her, and any tributing we do loses us board
presence. I’d rather be able to summon another
monster alongside those that I have on the field already
rather than simply replace one with another.
Gravekeeper’s Chief.
Chief is one of my favorite Gravekeeper cards, but sadly his effect
doesn’t really help much. If he had 100 more ATK I think he
would be worth it, especially with his effect, but as it
stands he loses out to powerful monsters and while he
doesn’t cost anything to tribute summon, thanks to his
effect, he still has to be tribute summoned. He may be an
interesting one-of, but ultimately I don’t think he does
enough to really make it worth playing him.
Jinzo.
For the same reasons as Airknight we exclude Jinzo. His
effect is powerful but simply shutting down traps is
detrimental in a deck that plays Solemn Judgment. As such,
there’s just no room for the big android. However, cutting
Judgment would put the deck at five traps, and at that point
Jinzo can really become a factor.
Magician of Faith.
This should be somewhat obvious given its lack of synergy with
Necrovalley, but I’ve seen some Gravekeeper decks try to
squeeze her in. Ultimately I feel that Magician of Faith
just isn’t necessary because she’s going to be dead more
than live and does not contribute to board presence.
Magical Merchant.
Though you can use him when Necrovalley is on the field,
Gravekeepers need their cards, and without any Chaos
monsters, filling the grave becomes counter-intuitive.
Digging for Necrovalley is nice, but that’s what
Terraforming is used for, and space is tight as-is. Besides,
we don’t run Metamorphosis either, which is another reason
to exclude both Merchant and Magician of Faith.
Mystic Tomato.
I’m going to write an article on why I don’t like recruiters in
many decks eventually. But ultimately, while Tomato is a
great searcher - and the best recruiter outside of Pyramid
Turtle - he just does what Spy does but on death instead of
on flip. He also doesn’t synergize with the limited Warrior
Toolbox the deck runs, as they are all non-DARK monsters. So
you’re only going to be pulling out Gravekeeper monsters
especially since the deck doesn’t run Sangan, which we’ll
talk about in a minute. Tomato also does not contribute to
board presence other than as a bluff, and I return to my
thinking regarding tribute monsters in this regard. I would
rather keep my monsters on board rather than lose one to
replace it with another. Ultimately if you play Mystic
Tomato it’s best to include three as well as two copies of
Creature Swap. But, since we don’t run Creature Swap (nor
have room for triple Tomato), we exclude them entirely.
Delinquent Duo.
I’ve already talked about why Duo isn’t used here in previous
paragraphs, but I will say that a copy of Duo might
come in handy depending on the decks you tend to face. I
don’t like it in Gravekeeper’s because it’s just not going
to net you a whole lot since you’re not looking to win the
advantage war, you’re looking to force your opponent to play
your game at your pace and waste resources outing your
cards.
Metamorphosis.
Again, space is tight. Ultimately we don’t have any good tribute
fodder for any fusion monsters. If we wanted to play
Thousand-Eyes Restrict we would have to include other cards
on this list, notably Scapegoat, Magician of Faith and
Magical Merchant. One could argue that Dark Mimic LV1 might
be a good option, but that would require a complete
re-tooling of the deck if we wanted to use it. Ultimately,
without any good tribute fodder, Metamorphosis is
extraneous.
Nobleman of Crossout.
I don’t like it. If your meta doesn’t play Spy at all then maybe
it’ll be useful, but Swordsman tends to be better. You
can hit Magician of Faith with it, but that’s just going
to thin your opponent’s deck and besides, Necrovalley shuts
her down anyway. Spy is also a popular side option and many
people will side in Spy against Gravekeepers because it’s a
hell of a counter. In that case you want to hit their Spies
with Zaborg or Mystic Swordsman, not Nobleman. As such,
Nobleman in this deck is a meta call. If you know you aren’t
likely to face many Spies, either in main or side, you could
probably use it to great effect.
Sangan.
Again we flout standard Goat theory, this time by excluding
Sangan. Ultimately the only cards you’re going to be
searching are Tsukuyomi and the Gravekeeper monsters. He
can pull Spy, which is nice, but the deck wants to be
able to do more than just rely on Spy, so getting it to hand
isn’t as necessary. Early game should be about establishing
firm control of the board and the swarming power of the
Gravekeepers. While one could argue that Sangan can get that
going, the deck is built to survive even without many
Gravekeeper monsters to begin with. Cards such as D.D.
Assailant and Dekoichi are great because they allow you to
control the field in other ways. Sangan’s only goal is to
die and hit grave for the search, which means that it does
not contribute to board presence the way we want it to, much
like Mystic Tomato. We don’t want to lose our monsters, even
if they replace themselves - we want to increase our monster
count via Spy and additional normal summons alongside Spy.
Scapegoat.
In a swarm deck Scapegoat is entirely counterproductive. We
don’t want to logjam our board with useless tokens,
especially without Metamorphosis. While other decks may need
the stall, Gravekeeper’s don’t have to rely on tokens to
stop attacks; we have Gravekeeper’s Spy and other cards for
that. It just isn’t necessary.
Snatch Steal.
I really wanted to play this card especially with three copies of
Book of Moon and double Tsukuyomi, but at the end of the day
I never really found myself wanting to actually take
anything with it, or if I have the opportunity I don’t have
a way to flip the monster or otherwise get rid of the Snatch
Steal. This deck doesn’t want to give the opponent anything,
and that includes Life Points. As such, the card ultimately
felt extraneous.
Swords of Revealing Light.
Since this build is more aggressive Swords just holds us back. It
makes the opponent turtle up and while it can be useful if
you don’t have control of the field, it’s ultimately not
going to do enough to help you overcome that. If you can’t
establish board presence early the deck has a hard time
winning the game, and Swords, while it might buy you some
turns, ultimately hinders more than helps. You could
make the argument that Swords forcing the opponent to turtle
is a good thing since we play Mystic Swordsman LV2, and
that’s definitely a valid one. However, I personally feel
that a defensive card in a deck designed to be aggressive is
simply counterproductive.
Call of the Haunted.
I really feel like I don’t have to explain this card, but I’ve seen
a lot of people try to shoehorn Call into other decks.
Personally I think Call is a great card but in Gravekeepers
it’s very situational. It requires you to not have
Necrovalley, which isn’t a good position to be in to begin
with and anything you can bring back likely won’t be worth
the effort. If you wanted to play this alongside a tribute
monster or two, that’s up to you. But I’ve found that it’s
simply subpar and far less useful in a deck that revolves
around keeping Necrovalley on the field, especially since we
already have recursion in Rite of Spirit.
Compulsory Evacuation Device.
I had considered adding this card for several reasons. One, it can
save Gravekeeper’s Spy from a Nobleman of Crossout. Two, it
can return problematic cards to the hand. Three, it can
return an opponent’s set monster to their hand and clear the
way for your beaters. But ultimately I found it subpar, as
it’s a strict -1 and only sets your opponent back unless
you’re going for a kill shot. Thorough testing proved that
Compulsory was better off replaced by cards like My Body as
a Shield.
Dust Tornado.
I would probably throw these in the side deck, personally, because
it’s a very valuable card. In fact, one could argue to play
them in the main, considering how they can preempt backrow
activation aimed at stopping your attacks. But ultimately
space is a concern, and since the deck plays Solemn Judgment
to counter a variety of threats in a number of situations, I
feel that Dust Tornado is simply not as versatile
considering what the deck is trying to accomplish..
Sakuretsu Armor.
Again, defensive cards are counterproductive. We don’t need to stop
attacks with traps because we have big beaters that form
walls even if they’re in attack position. Standard goat
theory says we should play it but it’s a reactionary card
that relies on your opponent attacking. Considering that we
don’t want to give our opponent many chances to attack,
Sakuretsu Armor just goes against the theory of the deck.
Anteaus’ (Post-Tourney) Gravekeeper’s (and mini tourney
report)
So, to start, the deck saw little testing until the
tournament. Come tournament time, I was surprised by how
ably it performed against most all threats. In round 1 I
played against Tsuk Lock and was able to pretty much do what
I wanted to do. Necrovalley shut down the loops hard. Game 2
was kind of a wash because while I opened well my opponent
drew literally every single out to my strategy in his
opening hand and I was not able to do anything. It’s hard to
play effectively when they’re able to play through not one
but two My Body as a Shield and also a Solemn
Judgment to get a NoC through on my Spy. I chalk that up to
great draws more so than skill. But game 3 went the same
game 1 and I was able to win round 1.
Round 2 I went up against Zombies and I was really surprised
to see them. Honestly I had a hard time overcoming them for
several reasons. Pyramid Turtle puts in work and Vampire
Lord can get over many things in the format. Plus Zombies
are rogue and play rogue strategies, while Gravekeeper’s are
built more to handle standard, established theories. This is
really where my side deck came into play, but unfortunately
the one I played came up short. Cards such as Enemy
Controller, Smashing Ground and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
would have been well-placed to counter Zombies. But we’ll
come back to this in a minute.
Round 3 I played Standard Goat and the match was over
quickly (sorry, Chris). He drew bad, I drew well, and I was
able to stop most everything he did while exerting pressure.
Round 3 was the last in Swiss because nine people and I felt
confident going into Top 4.
My top 4 match put me up against the Zombie player from
Round 2. This time around I fared a lot better. It did help
that game 2 he opened double Vampire Lord, Creature Swap and
Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys (which in my opinion was an odd
choice, but it did win him game 3 in Swiss). Game 1 was
tougher and more of a grind, but ultimately Necrovalley shut
down his recursion and I was able to more effectively play
around Vampire Lord thanks to Guard. Again, my side deck
would have come in handy, but Game game 2 was kind of a wash
because of a bad draw.
In the finals I played Standard Goat playing the Spy engine.
It was really frustrating because the last time I was
in the finals of one of these tourneys (instead of just
splitting the prize payout) I ran into the same issue. Both
times I lost mostly because I didn’t have Zaborg the Thunder
Monarch in my side deck. Zaborg is one of the absolute best
counters to Spy.
This match was also the reason why I feel that 2x Mystic
Swordsman LV2 is the way to go. Again, because of Spy. But
really you could sub Spy for any high-DEF (or ATK) monster.
Anything that can wall up against Gravekeepers is a problem,
and the deck needs outs to them.
Oh, I also had a crazy idea to get over Spy and
unfortunately it cost me the game because I only had 1500 LP
(a reason why I’m now debating no Judgment). I had Mobius on
the field and he was walled up behind Spy with my
Necrovalley giving it a DEF boost. So I couldn’t get over
his Spy. It was face-down because I had flipped it with
Tsukuyomi. I had no outs to it in my deck.
What I did was I Morphed my Mobius into a Ryu Senshi to bait
out the Mirror Force and then negate it. Then I could Rite
of Spirit my Gravekeeper’s Assailant, use Senshi to smash
into Spy and flip it face-up and then use Assailant to kill
it and deal game damage (he was at 600 LP). But...I only had
1500 LP and I screwed up the math. I was tired, it happens.
Happened the last time I lost in the finals too. Oh well.
Anyway, I ended up dealing myself game damage (1000
LP from the Senshi pay on the Mirror Force and 500 from the
attack into Spy). Stupid, stupid, stupid.
So I lost. But I showed that Gravekeeper’s can stand
up to a variety of threats and there’s not a lot that people
play to out them. With a better side, which I’ll explain
below, the deck would have had additional outs to one of the
only things that can shut it down, opposing Gravekeeper
monsters.
All that said, here’s the decklist that I think makes
Gravekeepers competitive barring a few tweaks for your
locals:
Anteaus’ Gravekeepers
Monsters: 18
2x D.D. Assailant
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
2x Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
3x Gravekeeper’s Assailant
1x Gravekeeper’s Guard
2x Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier
3x Gravekeeper’s Spy
2x Mystic Swordsman LV2
2x Tsukuyomi
Spells: 15
3x Book of Moon
1x Graceful Charity
1x Heavy Storm
3x My Body as a Shield
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Necrovalley
1x Pot of Greed
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Terraforming
Traps: 7
1x Mirror Force
1x Ring of Destruction
2x Rite of Spirit
2x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
Side deck: 15
2x Mobius the Frost Monarch
2x Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
2x Enemy Controller
2x Smashing Ground
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
3x Royal Decree
2x Threatening Roar
This is the most current version of the build. It’s not
tested, but I think that with everything I learned from the
tournament this is really the way to go. Note the double
Judgment still; despite what I said earlier, it’s hard to
cut it from the final build because of how versatile it is.
Care needs to be taken to play it properly, and like I said
earlier there may be other cards that will be better. The
side deck is better in this version as well, and definitely
built to stop opposing Spies and other high-DEF walls. It’s
built to help you get around threats that stop you from
advancing your plays.
After months of working on this, I think I can say that this
is one of the better Goat Format Gravekeeper decks I’ve
played. It’s able to stand up to a variety of different
decks and while I have yet to run a full gauntlet with it
I’ve found that it works well against most standard goat
decks and their various techs. Go ahead and do your own
testing with it - the deck might surprise you.
Anyway, that's it for this time. As always you can contact
me anytime at
anteausonyugioh@gmail.com.
Don't forget to stop by the official
Pojo Goat Format Thread
and check out the
Goat Format Discord server as well to continue the Goat Format discussion. If you're on
Reddit, check outr/MenWhoPlayWithGoats,
the official Goat Format subreddit.
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