[Trooper Format] Pt. II – Deck Library Gallery

 

To make things simple, here is a SJC Top 16 Deck List for the format.

 

For your convenience, I will also include a Download Link (<1 MB) of Trooper Format deck list files hosted by Pojo (to be uploaded straight into the dueling application of your choice).

 

Below is a gallery of many of the decks you will come across in this format.  It is not an exhaustive list. 

 

DHERO Monarch

This deck’s engine makes it very consistent.  Reinforcement of the Army searches EHERO Stratos; Stratos searches the DHERO monsters; Destiny Draw discards the DHERO monsters for draw power; DHERO Malicious revives itself for tribute fodder; DHERO Fear Monger revives DHERO Disk Commander for draw power tribute fodder.  Using Metamorphosis on a floating Malicious gives access to LV6 Fusions.  Providing the muscle of the deck, of course, is the ~6 Monarchs. 

 

DHERO Machine

This deck uses the same Monarch engine, but it differs in its priorities.  This deck is more focused on Trooper and Machines in general.  Dasher can summon Dark Magician of Chaos with ease.  Cards like Jinzo and Snipe Hunter exist to bolster an offensive.  Whereas the Monarch-based deck focused on controlling the field, this deck focuses a little more on damage output.

 

Beatdown

This is an example of a well-rounded deck that uses a little bit of everything: some Monarch, some Trooper, some defense. It’s a classical deck.  There’s no one way to run it.  If you want more Dekoichi or more Spy or more Tomato targets or another Duplication, go for it.  Hydrogeddon’s ATK is relatively strong in this format and it’s another source of both card advantage and damage dealing.

 

Beast

This is not your conventional Beast deck.  You won’t see any Berserk Gorillas.  Green Baboon’s ability to summon itself for free will generate a lot of power and card advantage, which Nimble Momonga helps pay for.  Giant Rat helps Nimble Momonga get out faster, and having weaker Beast monsters in general assures they can be destroyed much more quickly to bring out Green Baboon even sooner.  Rat also brings out Trooper, enabling duplication at a sooner time. 

 

Elemental Hero

Or, as many call it, Big City.  It’s a deck that protects a small army of monsters with a heavy trap line-up.  Both EHERO Ocean and Skyscraper 2 recover EHERO monsters to generate high card advantage.  Wildheart’s decent stats and immunity to traps are not only good for survivability, but also allow the player to push for additional damage where they wouldn’t normally be able to; it also compromises cards like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute.  The Hero monsters are easily searched.  Cards like Snipe Hunter and Lightning Vortex convert the card advantage generation into removal power.

 

Pure Monarchs

This is an example of a straight Monarch deck without the DHERO engine.  This allows the deck more tribute monsters and more LV4 monsters for field presence although it may come at the expense of the DHERO cards’ fast speed.

 

 

 Pure Machines

This deck is uses the Trooper engine and is capable of using a bit of everything.  But Future Fusion and Overload Fusion bring out Chimeratech for the OTK.

 

Machine Gadget

This is the classic anti-meta Gadget deck.  Chimeratech OTK capabilities with Overload Fusion are possible but not mandatory.  Gadgets inherently replace themselves, allowing the player a seemingly endless army of monsters while the Spells/Traps help them get over any particular monsters which are troublesome.  The Banishers are an out to Card Trooper and many other cards in the format.

 

DDT

Diamond Dude Turbo.  This is an OTK deck which relies on Diamond Dude’s ability to potentially activate powerful Spell cards for free.  The end result leads into banishing the monsters in the deck (from Phoenix Blade and Dark Magician of Chaos’ effect) and then using Dimension Fusion to bring them all back.  It also benefits from the Hero engine and the Reasoning-Monster Gate engine.  It’s still very hit or miss.

 

 

Crystal Beast

Back in the old days, I spent more time tinkering with Crystal Beasts than I should have.  Long story short: Rainbow Dragon is bad, Ancient City is essential, Abundance is great in moderation (is easily disrupted), Promise pays for itself if used on Pegasus, Beacon is amazing and a light trap line-up is preferred.

 

Harpies

With Queen, Harpies can use Hunting Ground very consistently.  Icarus Attack is an excellent removal option that is not hard to +1 on when used on a Harpie that is being targeted by an opponent’s effect anyway.  Hysteric Party adds some OTK capability, but I only use one for better early game consistency.  Harpies did not have enough support to justify a purely dedicated deck, so I added the Trooper engine.

 

 

Aggro Burn

This deck type was popularized by Justin Womack.  With both effect damage and powerful monsters, it burns the opponent at both ends.  As you will notice, any card which does not contribute to an early game life point assault has been taken out.  You won’t see much removal or cards like Confiscation here.  Triple Brain Control can be used to duplicate the opponent’s Troopers, tribute for Goldd or deal the finishing blow of damage.  Dark World Lightning clears out traps and brings out Goldd.  The synergy in this deck is brilliant.

 

 

Stall Burn

This deck was piloted by Kenny So.  Where it differs from other Stall/Burn decks is the ability to floodgate the opponent.  Most of the monsters perform fine with Skill Drain out.  Instead of focusing on dealing quick damage, the deck instead sets up a tough board to crack.  Dimension Wall is better than many other burn cards because it protects you against damage and it deals a higher amount of damage than most other burn cards do.  So’s side deck smokescreens into a Trooper Monarch deck.

 

 

Six Samurai

This deck is sort of a glass cannon.   Powerful but not very consistent.  A single copy of Kamon is good against Snatch, Premature, Call, Decree, etc.  Grandmaster pulls the weight of the deck.  Shogun Shien can be a dead draw, so some players don’t use it.  The deck relies on a strong early game setup, which a single Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute can devastate.  Hence, cards like My Body as a Shield.

 

Zombies

Near the end of the format, Tactical Evolution was released, giving Zombies Il Blud (and more importantly) Zombie Master.  Mezuki and Goblin Zombie were not out yet, but Card of Safe Return was still at 3, giving the deck substantial card advantage potential.