“The Structure Decks are tournament tough, ready to play with out of the box with powerful hard to find cards.” -Upper Deck Entertainment
Well time for me to hold Upper Deck to those words. Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G back in this series of me going through many of the products released throughout the years of Yu-Gi-Oh and giving a review on how I feel about them. I’m starting out with the earliest Structure Decks in the game’s history. Now, I’m aware how bad some of these Structure Decks can be with the boss monsters they give you, alongside some other new cards, so if I judged them off that then they’d get low scores. Therefore, I should most certainly use more criteria here. I’ll look at how good of a Deck this can be if you faced off with a friend in some old school Structure Deck battles, meaning I won’t compare them as much to newer ones, and I’ll look for any good cards that were new or reprinted in here for actual competitive use, bonus points for being one of the first reprints for a card. Get ready, cause this is going to be a fun one.
Dragon’s Roar
Release Date: January 1st, 2005
Cover Card: Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon
The first Structure Deck ever released and it shouldn’t surprise many that Dragons were one of the earliest types to get a Structure Deck. The Deck consisted of 28 unique cards, meaning many multiples in here, and it only gave us 1 new card in general. That new card was the Ultra Rare Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, which isn’t as painful to summon compared to other Structure Deck bosses, and the effect isn’t terrible in the sense that it doesn’t have a real downside, it’s just one of those Structure Deck bosses that got outdated fast. You of course have Red-Eyes B. Dragon to summon Darkness Dragon, but it wasn’t like that card was short on reprints, even in 2005. You get 2 copies of Luster Dragon, which was good to have reprinted outside Magician’s Force and Tournament Pack 5. Twin-Headed Behemoth is reprinted in here for the first time. You get 2
Armed Dragon LV3 and a LV5, though they weren’t too hard to find nor were they that old at that time, same goes for Red-Eyes B. Chick (now known as Black Dragon’s Chick), Element Dragon, and Masked Dragon (which was at least nice to get 3 of in here). Snatch Steal got its first reprint to finally get it outside Dark Beginning 1 and/or Magic/Spell Ruler. Mystical Space Typhoon begins its legacy for being in many Structure Decks throughout history until there were more options. Nobleman of Crossout was good at that time, even if Kaiba Evolution put it in a Deck first, but this Deck gave 2. Premature Burial was also in here as well as Kaiba Evolution, but this time you only got 1 in here. Swords of Revealing Light, while decent, was previously in Yugi Evolution. Pot of Greed is always a good card, even if it wasn’t hard to come by at the time still. Heavy Storm needed a reprint outside Metal Raiders. You get 3 Stamping Destruction, which is fine even though it was previously a common still. Creature Swap is a great reprint to have 2 of since it was previously only in Legacy of Darkness. Reload is a great reprint from Invasion of Chaos, and you got 2 in here. The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension wasn’t necessary, especially since this Deck only had a total of 3 LV monsters. Call of the Haunted is a great reprint to get outside Pharaoh’s Servant and Dark Beginning 1 now. Ceasefire also becomes more accessible. The Dragon’s Bead is pretty meh. Dragon’s Rage fits in well here, especially with 2 copies, even if it’s another card that wasn’t hard to come by. Reckless Greed gives the Deck another solid draw card. Interdimensional Matter Transporter was at least a good reprint to finally have outside being an Ultra Rare from a Core Set, and this Deck gave 2. Finally you got better accessibility for Trap Jammer and Curse of Anubis. The Deck is solid out of the box, you got some great cards in here to go against your friends. There’s a few cards that might feel like weak links if you don’t do 3 Structure Decks, but still a ton of good generic cards and Dragon-based cards. The reprints are strong with some getting their first reprints since being foils in other booster sets. It’s a fairly strong start for Structure Decks in terms of reprints, just the new card isn’t really competitive.
Structure Deck Rating: 8/10
Zombie Madness
Release Date: January 1st, 2005
Cover Card: Vampire Genesis
Coming out on the same day as Dragon’s Roar, probably to help you have Structure Deck battles with friends that don’t become mirror matches, we get Zombie Madness. Once again, we got 28 unique cards, meaning multiples. The new card this time was Vampire Genesis, which was probably easier to summon compared to Darkness Dragon since you needed a 1-tribute monster with Genesis, but it was banished and I don’t know if Vampire Lord is a card you want to banish. At least Vampire Genesis helped you revive Zombies, which was solid. For reprints, you first got a copy of Master Kyonshee, which doesn’t compare to Luster Dragon at all. Vampire Lord is important to have, even if just 1 copy makes Vampire Genesis inconsistent with having 1 copy each per Deck, and it’s the first guaranteed copy of Vampire Lord since it was previously a Secret 
Rare in a main set and a Special Edition promo. Dark Dust Spirit makes for another good tribute monster, and while it was previously Common, this time it isn’t a short printed Common in a set. Three Pyramid Turtle is perfect for this Deck. Spirit Reaper was a useful card to get in here. Despair from the Dark is pretty meh unless you face another Zombie Deck, so it stings this Deck has 2. Ryu Kokki is a good card to summon off of Pyramid Turtle in here. Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower isn’t too useful in this Structure Deck. Vampire Lady can be a decent replacement until you get to Vampire Lord. Double Coston is a good beater, though has only 1 monster it synergizes with in Despair from the Dark. Regenerating Mummy is also fine for another beatstick in this Deck, especially to get 2. Snatch Steal is also in here, meaning it was reprinted in two Structure Decks so you can have a choice, same goes for Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Crossout (only 1 in here though), Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, Creature Swap (x2), Reload (x2), and Reckless Greed. Giant Trunade was exclusive to this Deck and it’s a pretty good reprint to have. Card of Safe Return foreshadows how good it’ll be with Zombies later on. Book of Life makes for a good reprint, and it fits in with Zombies. Call of the Mummy comes in here times three, so you can get some field presence. Dust Tornado is a fine reprint, though Kaiba Evolution had it as well. Torrential Tribute was a great reprint to no longer have it only be an Ultra Rare in a pack. Magic Jammer is another accessibility option like Trap Jammer, only this was in Yugi Evolution previously. Finally Compulsory Evacuation Device is a good card for this Deck alongside the other staples, especially to get 3. Overall, I’d say it’d be an even game if this went against the Dragon Structure that came out at the same time, and I’m sure it’d be far better than later Structure Decks in this era. The reprints good in Dragon’s Roar are good in here as well, and this one has its own good reprints. Another decent Deck, even if the boss isn’t competitive.
Structure Deck Rating: 8/10
Blaze of Destruction
Release Date: May 9th, 2005
Cover Card: Infernal Flame Emperor
From the first batch of Structure Decks to a second batch of them released on the same date, we have the WATER and FIRE Decks and for now I’ll discuss the FIRE Deck, Blaze of Destruction. The lone new card in here is the cover card, Infernal Flame Emperor. Emperor is a Level 9 monster that can’t be Special Summoned and upon being Tribute Summoned, you can banish up to 5 FIRE monsters from your graveyard to destroy an equal number of the opponent’s Spell and Trap cards. The ability to not be Special Summoned is something you can expect a lot of from early Structure Decks. The effect is kinda meh, but you’re likely to have 2 monsters already in the grave to use the effect upon summon. As for reprints, you got two vanilla beaters in Great Angus and Blazing Inpachi. UFO Turtle comes in triplicate so you have a strong floater. Little Chimera
is a little monster to boost your FIRE monsters while weakening any WATER monsters. Inferno gives you an easy Special Summon for the Deck, and you get two of it. Molten Zombie could be draw power if you could keep Special Summoning it from the grave. You get two Solar Flare Dragons for the attack lock as well as 1000 burn every turn. Ultimate Baseball Kid is another card you get two of and it can be strong with more FIRE monsters on the field. Raging Flame Sprite is also fun to keep attacking directly while getting stronger for each one. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch is a great reprint in here and gives the Deck some hand destruction capabilities. Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective is a bigger, yet more fragile, beater compared to your vanilla monsters. Fox Fire is a monster that can revive itself, but is very specific on the conditions about it and it can’t even be tribute material. We see some more staples in this Deck like Snatch Steal, Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Crossout, Premature Burial, Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, Dust Tornado (x2), Call of the Haunted, and Jar of Greed. These reprints do become less impressive as we get more Structure Decks with them inside, though. Molten Destruction is a Field Spell for you to make your FIRE monsters stronger. Tribute to the Doomed adds some more monster removal in here. Reload becomes an option to unbrick your likely bricky hands. Level Limit – Area B is strange in here with a lot of Level 4 or higher monsters, and for some reason you get two of it, but does work with Raging Flame Sprite I guess. Necklace of Command is an inferior Equip Spell compared to what was out at the time, but it does deal burn when it leaves the field. Meteor of Destruction can be an easy 1000 damage at the start of a duel. Spell Shield Type-8 offers for some Spell negation and makes for a good reprint outside of being Super Rares in Dark Revelation and Magician’s Force. Finally you got Backfire for more burn when your FIRE monsters are destroyed. This Deck does feel weaker, and the reprints don’t carry it as well since they were previously in Structure Decks. This is kind of a weak Structure Deck overall as a result, making easier wins for the other Deck released on the same day.
Structure Deck Rating: 5/10
Fury from the Deep
Release Date: May 9th, 2005
Cover Card: Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo-Daedalus
Now it’s for the WATER Deck and overall the strategy does seem more cohesive compared to big monsters and burn. Ocean Dragon Lord is your new card, and while it does need a specific monster to summon with Levia-Dragon – Daedalus, it does make up for it by being a potential field and hand nuke at the cost of a Umi on your field, and your Ocean Dragon gets to stick around. 7 Colored Fish, Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness, and Space Mambo are your vanilla beatsticks in this Deck. Mother Grizzly is also at three in this Deck for floating capabilities. Star Boy fills the role that Little Chimera did in Blaze of Destruction. Tribe-Infecting Virus makes for a great reprint to destroy opposing monsters of varying types. Fenrir is an easy Special Summon in a Deck where A Legendary Ocean can turn some 2 tribute monsters into a 1 tribute. Amphibious Bugroth
MK-3 is a solid direct attacker while you control Umi, even if the original Umi makes Burgroth weaker. Levia-Dragon – Daedalus is in here since you need it to summon your boss, and it’s a good reprint from Invasion of Chaos as well as another potential field nuke. Mermaid Knight is fine for becoming a double attacker with Umi. Mobius the Frost Monarch is arguably better than Thestalos, and it’s still a great reprint to have. Unshaven Angler can be treated as two tributes for your Daedalus if you don’t have A Legendary Ocean. Creeping Doom Manta is fine since it can nearly guarantee its summon by preventing Traps from being activated when summoned. You got some of the same reprints from Blaze of Destruction like Snatch Steal, Mystical Space Typhoon, Premature Burial, Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, Reload, Dust Tornado, Call of the Haunted, and Spell Shield Type-8. A Legendary Ocean is key for this Deck, basically being your Umi, and you get three of it. Creature Swap can be fun to give the opponent a Mother Grizzly. Salvage gives this Deck some solid recovery. Hammer Shot is a nice piece of monster removal for this Deck. Big Wave Small Wave is good for turning smaller WATER monsters into bigger ones. Gravity Bind is at two in this Deck to keep your monsters until you get to your Daedalus monsters so they can destroy it later. Tornado Wall prevents you from taking damage with your A Legendary Ocean on the field. Finally you got Xing Zhen Hu for shutting off Spells and Traps and the zones they’re in. Overall the Deck feels more coherent, as it’s focused around A Legendary Ocean seemingly since it’s always treated as Umi, and the cards seem better. Overall a good Deck for the time, even if it was never really going to do that much in a tournament, but I could see someone maybe doing well with an optimized version.
Structure Deck Rating: 8/10
Warrior’s Triumph
Release Date: October 28th, 2005
Cover Card: Gilford the Legend
With enough Structure Decks, we start seeing them coming one at a time, and the first Structure Deck to be released solo was Warrior’s Triumph. This Deck did something different as it gave us 3 new cards instead of one. Gilford the Legend can’t be Special Summoned and upon summon will equip as many Equip Spells from the grave as possible to Warriors you control. Warrior Lady from the Wasteland is a good floater that gets you to your EARTH Warriors with 1500 or less ATK, basically being a more specific Giant Rat. Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade does boost your Warriors by another 300 ATK, but it’s been known throughout the years for banishing Warriors to get back in the hand for your Airblade/Diamond Dude Turbo Decks that came later as well as future Warrior Link Decks. Dark Blade is the lone vanilla beatstick in the Deck, but you also got Goblin 
Attack Force with stronger ATK and a bigger downside. Gearfried the Iron Knight is a solid body that is safe from an opponent’s Snatch Steal at least, so it’s good to have 2 of it, even if its effect goes against the Deck’s idea to equip. Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight can be easy to summon when you’re low on cards in the hand. Obnoxious Celtic Guard is safe against very strong monsters when it comes to battles. Command Knight redirects attacks to himself and boosts all Warriors by 400 ATK, just wish there was two. At least there’s two Marauding Captain to summon monsters from the hand and have the attack lock with two Marauding Captains. Exiled Force is a great reprint in here 
to be able to destroy stronger monsters from the opponent. D.D. Warrior Lady makes for another good reprint to banish an opponent’s monster that she battles. Mataza the Zapper is good for a double attacker that the opponent can’t steal. Mystic Swordsman LV2 can destroy set monsters and later upgrade into Mystic Swordsman LV4 for you. Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke is good for face-up Defense Position monsters. Gearfried the Swordmaster can be hard to get out in this Deck with only 2 original Gearfried and 1 Release Restraint. Armed Samurai – Ben Kei is perfect for a Deck around Equip Spells since it gains attacks for each one it has equipped to it. You got good reprints for staple-like cards such as Snatch Steal, Mystical Space Typhoon, Giant Trunade, Heavy Storm, Lightning Vortex, Call of the Haunted, and Magic Jammer as well as
a card that can be useful with Swords of Concealing Light. Lightning Blade is good to boost your Warriors by 800 ATK, with the same going for Fusion Sword Murasame Blade. Reinforcement of the Army is a good searcher that you get two of, with The Warrior Returning Alive being a good recruiter. Wicked-Breaking Flamberge – Baou is solid for boosting a monster by 500 ATK and negating monster effects the equipped monster destroys. Fairy of the Spring might be one of the worst ways to retrieve Equip Spells back. Reload is here to unbrick your likely less bricky hands. Royal Decree is a great reprint for the time that’s good for Trap negation. Finally Blast with Chain can boost monsters by 500 ATK and punish the opponent for destroying it. Overall another solid Structure Deck with a strategy that feels coherent, even if the quality of these Structure Decks look less impressive over more time.
Structure Deck Rating: 7.5/10
Spellcaster’s Judgment
Release Date: January 18th, 2006
Cover Card: Dark Eradicator Warlock
The first Deck of 2006 and considering how soon we got a Structure Deck to upgrade Red-Eyes, it’s interesting it took a year to get an upgrade for Dark Magician. This time around we have a grand total of 6 new cards. Dark Eradicator Warlock, while an interesting boss for Dark Magician, isn’t the most memorable nor is it the best one. Mythical Beast Cerberus seems interesting with its effect to get stronger the more Spells you use. Magical Blast is some weak burn for Spellcasters. Magical Dimension is actually a pretty good Spellcaster support card, and you get 2 in here. Mystic Box is always very interesting. Then, you got Nightmare’s Steelcage as a worse Swords of Revealing Light. Reprints give us the Dark Magician for your new boss monster. You got some copies of Gemini Elf for some ATK power. 2 copies of Magician of Faith is great considering 
it was an amazing card around this time. 2 Skilled Dark Magician helps get to the original Dark Magician. 2 Apprentice Magician is also pretty good. Chaos Command Magician is a pretty meh Tribute Monster still. Breaker the Magical Warrior was especially welcome at this time. Royal Magical Library is a very notorious card. Tsukuyomi was another card that was good in its time. Chaos Sorcerer gives the Deck a decently strong monster to summon with ease. White Magician Pikeru and Ebon Magician Curran are fairly weak to have here. Blast Magician isn’t too great. We got Spells and Traps like Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Crossout, Premature Burial, Swords of Revealing 
Light, Heavy Storm, Reload, and Call of the Haunted that we come to expect in these Decks. Mage Power is a nice reprint to make your monsters super strong. Diffusion Wave-Motion was never the most popular Spellcaster card. Lightning Vortex makes for a solid reprint to have. Dark Magic Attack is kinda odd with 1 Dark Magician. Spell Shield Type-8 is yet again in a Structure Deck. Pitch-Black Power Stone gives more Spell Counters for you. Divine Wrath is a fine reprint for monster negation. Finally you got a solid reprint for Magic Cylinder. This is really a weak Structure Deck. You got a great card like Magical Dimension, but the other new cards aren’t too special and the reprints aren’t as appealing the more Structure Decks we get, even some of the cards that weren’t in other Structure Decks. Might be the worst Deck I looked at so far.
Structure Deck Rating: 5/10
Invincible Fortress
Release Date: May 15th, 2006
Cover Card: Exxod, Master of the Guard
Oh, about the worst Structure Decks. Invincible Fortress gives us new support for the not as well supported Rock typing at the time and it gives us three new cards. Exodd, Master of the Guard requires a very specific subset of monsters of which I can count on my hand the amount there actually are, which are the Sphinxs, and for that you get 1000 burn for flipping your EARTH monsters. Great Spirit has an interesting effect that might of been good if the entire Structure Deck was based on an archetype that worked like it, but it isn’t. Then you got Canyon to counter the purpose of your Deck by telling the opponent to basically not attack your Set monsters, since the Deck is based around dealing more damage for attacking monsters with strong DEF. For reprints, you at least get 3 Giant Rat for some of the best synergy in this Deck. Maharaghi is one of 
the worse Spirit Monsters we have. Guardian Sphinx, while a cool card and somewhat useful, isn’t really the strongest. Gigantes gives the Deck a Special Summon, which is nice. Stone Statue of the Aztecs also represents the Deck’s strategy, but that strategy isn’t a good one. Golem Sentry can be an annoying card. Hieracosphix and Criosphinx aren’t really the best Tribute Monsters ever. Moai Interceptor Cannons, while I get getting an Attack in then going to Defense, just makes the opponent not want to Attack it. Megarock Dragon might be the best bet for a boss in this Deck. Guardian Statue is kind of like Golem Sentry, but with worse DEF. Medusa Worm can be a solid card. Sand Moth is a card which you’ll probably never get the effect off. You got 
standard staples like Mystical Space Typhoon, Premature Burial, Swords of Revealing Light, Hammer Shot, Magic Drain, Reckless Greed, and Compulsory Evacuation Device. Shield & Sword can be nice, though the change doesn’t last and you’ll be stuck with low ATK monsters. Magical Mallet can be a better or worse Reload. Ectoplasmer is a weird choice in this Deck. A reprint for Brain Control is pretty good before its errata. Shifting Shadows is a strange card. Waboku can be decent for stalling. Ultimate Offering helps give field presence. Robbin’ Goblin can be hand destruction if you can get damage in. Finally you got Ordeal of a Traveler as an 
annoying, yet unreliable card. This might actually be the worst Structure Deck ever. The strategy seems to be focused on the opponent attacking monsters with stronger Defense, which is not that reliable without cards that force Attacks. You can at least win with Exxod by continuing to Flip your EARTHs, but it won’t happen often. Brain Control might be the best reprint overall. This really isn’t that good of a Structure Deck.
Structure Deck Rating: 2/10
Lord of the Storm
Release Date: July 12th, 2006
Cover Card: Simorgh, Bird of Divinity
I mean, it’s an upgrade. Lord of the Storm is our next Structure Deck and gives us new WIND monsters, which has always been the most undersupported Attribute. You get two new cards in total this time around. Simorgh, Bird of Divinity is a monster that needs tributes as you can’t Special Summon it, and while it burns the opponent for 1000 each turn, it is lowed by 500 for each Spell/Trap they have Set, which really makes you want to keep removing their backrow. Then you got Sonic Shooter for direct attacking if the opponent has no backrow, but a weird restriction where the damage inflicted via this battle being the monster’s original ATK. Reprints give us Sonic Duck for a vanilla beater and Harpie Girl since the rest of the Harpies are in here. You got Slate Warrior with an
okay Flip Effect and a better body on board. 2 Flying Kamakiri #1 is interesting when previous Decks had 3 of the floaters. Harpie Lady Sisters at 2 makes for some bad bricks. Bladefly can boost your WINDs, but is easy to get over. Birdface can get to your Harpie cards. Silpheed is a Special Summon for you. Lady Ninja Yae can be a Giant Trunade for you. Roc from the Valley of Haze is a decent tribute body with an effect you won’t likely use. You got Harpie Ladies 1-3, with Harpie Lady 1 still being the best one. Swift Birdman Joe can be another Giant Trunade just for being Tribute Summoned. Harpie’s Pet Baby Dragon helps round out all of the Harpie monsters. You got 
staples like Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Crossout, Heavy Storm, Reload, Lightning Vortex, Dust Tornado, Call of the Haunted, Magic Jammer, Reckless Greed, and Sakuretsu Armor. Card Destruction is a weird choice in this Deck, but it works with your Hysteric Party I guess. Elegant Egotist makes sense at 2 with your Harpie monsters. Harpies’ Hunting Ground is another logical choice at 2 in this Deck. Triangle Ecstasy Spark isn’t the best Harpie support still. Aqua Chorus boosts same named monsters, which works with Harpie cards. Dark Coffin makes you want to destroy your own backrow, but you still prefer to go for the opponent’s. Ninjitsu Art of Transformation, while a good card, doesn’t make sense in a Deck with 1 Ninja monster. Finally, Icarus Attack is a card that does make sense with a bunch of Winged Beasts. This is another Structure Deck while not great, at least has a coherent strategy that works better. The monsters are fairly weak, though, meaning it’d be hard to go for the win. I would of liked more focus on the Harpie archetype instead of random WIND monsters, but at least this gave Konami a reason to make the Simorgh archetype years later. It’s another meh Structure Deck that I imagine it being hard to win with really, even with an ok strategy in theory.
Structure Deck Rating: 4/10
Dinosaur’s Rage
Release Date: October 20th, 2006
Cover Card: Super Conductor Tyranno
Funny this is the Deck that the Dinosmasher’s Fury Structure was based off of. Dinosaur’s Rage is a Deck full of Dinosaurs of course, and gives us the most new cards so far with 8. Super Conductor Tyranno can at least be Special Summoned, but the restriction on its effect is very not warranted still. Big Evolution Pill can make your big Dinosaurs easier to summon, but doesn’t summon anything immediately. Tail Swipe helps bounce lower Level monsters to the hand with your bigger Dinosaurs. Jurassic World is a Field Spell that feels like should of been printed in 2002. Hunting Instinct can help summon big Dinosaurs quickly when the opponent Special Summons. Survival Instinct gives some LP gain while supporting Tyranno Infinity at least. Volcanic Eruption can be a field nuke during the End Phase, but you need Jurassic World. Finally, Seismic Shockwave is a very weird 
card that locks the opponent’s backrow for your Dinosaurs being destroyed. Reprints include a bunch of big Dinosaurs. You got Sabersaurus and Kabazauls for beaters. Mad Sword Beast is here for piercing. Gilasaurus gives you a Special Summon to help Tribute Summon your bigger Dinosaurs that you get 2 of. Dark Driceratops is a big piercer, which is fine. Hyper Hammerhead can bounce back big monsters, which is another 2 of. Black Tyranno is a very big Dinosaur that can get direct attacks in during a specific situation. Tyranno Infinity could be cooler if you had more ways of banishing your Dinosaurs at this time. Hydrogeddon at 2 is pretty good, but Oxygeddon isn’t too necessary. Black Ptera can return to the hand after being tribute fodder. Ultimate 
Tyranno is another big boss monster. Miracle Jurassic Egg is a card you’ll likely never resolve. Babycerasaurus is here years before it became actually good. Your stapleish cards include MST, Heavy Storm, Lightning Vortex, Magical Mallet x2, and Negate Attack. Sebek’s Blessing is likely just here for the prehistoric creature on the card. Riryoku feels unnecessary with your big monsters. Mesmeric Control keeps monsters in Attack Position for you to run over I guess. Magical Arm Shield can help keep your smaller Dinosaurs safe to get the bigger ones out. Goblin Out of the Frying Pan is a very bad Counter Trap, especially around this time without hard once per turns. Malfunction at least can help against Traps. Finally you got Fossil Excavation for some revival, especially for big Dinosaurs. Well again the strategy is clear, and at least there is the Attack Power to win the game, and it has that in spades. The strategy is very outdated, this Deck would of been better a few years ago, but it can at least win some casual games. It actually isn’t that bad compared to the last two.
Structure Deck Rating: 6/10
Machine Re-Volt
Release Date: January 17th, 2007
Cover Card: Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon
Ah, finally a very good Structure Deck. Machine Re-Volt is the last Structure Deck in this era as there were many that were released in the OCG but not the TCG, but that did later change and those OCG Structure Deck cards were mostly Secret Rares in GX sets. Machine Re-Volt at least gives us a solid way to go out with 12 new cards. Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon was at least good when Geartown came out, until the Field Spell ruling changed. Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera was far inferior in the sense it was a 1 tribute card that wanted to tribute the Gadgets for effect, though nobody wanted to do that with Gadjiltron 
Dragon and its 2 tributes. Ancient Gear Engineer is an ok tribute for backrow removal, even with its weak ATK and the fact that Ancient Gears ignore backrow when attacking. Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo isn’t the best card to use the Gadgets with at all. Speaking of which, you had the TCG debut of Red, Green, and Yellow Gadget in this Structure Deck and they were somewhat meta relevant for a few years upon release, especially with Ultimate Offering. Ancient Gear Workshop serves as recovery for Ancient Gears. Ancient Gear Tank is an Equip to boost Ancient Gears while burning the 
opponent when Tank leaves the field. Ancient Gear Explosive is burn in an archetype where burn doesn’t belong. You got Ancient Gear Fist that will destroy monsters that remain on the field after it battled an Ancient Gear. Finally you got Stronghold the Moving Fortress which was only decent as a Level 4 Trap Monster and not for gaining ATK when you got the Gadgets. For reprints you got Mechanicalchaser for a vanilla beater. Cannon Soldier, which isn’t good outside an FTK Deck. Gear Golem the Moving Fortress for strong Defense. Heavy Mech Support Platform for a meh Union Monster you get 2 of. The rest of the Ancient Gear archetype with Golem, Beast, Soldier, Cannon, and the Ancient Gear monster that you get 2 of. Staple Spells and Traps give us MST, Heavy Storm, Enemy Controller, Pot of Avarice, and Sakuretsu Armor x 2. Ancient Gear Factory
can help bypass Tribute Summons, but at a high cost. Ancient Gear Drill can retrieve a Spell you can’t immediately use. Ancient Gear Castle is better for tribute bypassing than Factory is. Limiter Removal makes your Machines more terrifying. Weapon Change swaps a Machine’s ATK and DEF where the only cards to benefit from this are probably the weakest links in the Deck. Machine Duplication is terrible in the context of this Structure Deck where Ancient Gear is the only card you get 2 of 
in this Deck, and even then that doesn’t maximize Machine Dupe. Ultimate Offering is a great card in tandem with the Gadgets. Micro Ray lowers DEF to 0 for potential piercing which Ancient Gear Golem is the only one that inherently has it. Rare Metalmorph is a decent boost for Machines that gives Spell targeting protection. Covering Fire boosts your monster that’s being attacked by the ATK of another monster you have. Finally, you got Roll Out! for your lone Union Monster in the Deck. Now of course not every card in a Structure Deck is going to be good, but this is the best we’ve had so far with meta relevance in Gadjiltron Dragon and the Gadgets. Plus you got some decent monsters overall for the context of a Structure Deck at this time and some solid Spell and Trap support. We at least end this era on a positive.
Structure Deck Rating: 8.5/10
In Conclusion
As fun as this was, I’m happy to get the worst era of Structure Decks over with. The boss monsters in these Decks really weren’t that good, but you at least saw in the last two that they were beginning to improve. The early Structure Decks were looked at more fondly due to reprints being more scarce back then and the game being slower to where I can see somewhat of a decent Deck being made from these Structure Decks. None of them age too well, but some were good for the time, and others weren’t good ever really. It’s uphill from here in Structure Deck quality, where there won’t need to be as much of a curve for some of these. And the eras are at least split easier with the OCG splitting off from the TCG where they got Structure Decks while we got the return of Secret Rares in main sets with those Structure Deck cards.
Structure Deck Ranking:
- Machine Revolt (8.5/10)
- Dragon’s Roar, Zombie Madness, and Fury from the Deep (8/10)
- Warrior’s Triumph (7.5/10)
- Dinosaur’s Rage (6/10)
- Blaze of Destruction and Spellcaster’s Judgment (5/10)
- Lord of the Storm (4/10)
- Invincible Fortress (2/10)
Thanks for Reading,
Crunch$G
