The Power of the Butterfly Dagger Deck - Ryan
Hey Everyone! As promised I'm back, but this week I'm going to focus on another one of my favorite decks, I call it the Dagger Deck. First I want to thank everyone who wrote me as I got a lot of great responses from my last article on why Water Decks are the Best. 2nd for clarification the idea and theme behind it was speed and swarming, so this deck type can also apply to say Fiends, Warriors, or even Exodia Decks. 3rd I know I messed up on Mermaid Knight's total damage and everything so stop telling me that.
 
Anyways on to my deck tips. I'm sure you all remember all the hype about this card when it first came out. It was thought that yugioh would die because everyone would be playing this in the metagame. However we soon found out that this deck needs multiple cards on the field to work, and most people didn't like that because of all the monster/magic/and trap removal out there. Now I'm going to be honest right up front. THIS DECK WILL NOT WORK IF YOU TRY PLAYING THE CURRENT METAGAME WITH IT! Simply put there is no room for Chaos, or DDWL, or Exiled Force...I don't even play Mirror Force or MST in it just because they get in the way and take up space. (I know this sounds shocking!) But consider this, there is a REASON WHY THIS DECK WAS THE CHAMPIONSHIP DECK a few years ago! Its deck speed, power, and burn ability is unmatched and unlimited. Really the only hybrid that would work for this deck is an Exodia/Dagger deck because of the speed.
 
I find it surprising how little of the great people at the tournaments know this strategy. In fact it seems that most people think its terrible right away b/c there aren't that much staples or any of the highly played monsters. Apperently if your not playing Breaker, Chaos, Don, or Berseck Gorrilla then your deck sucks...Luckily I've had the chance to blow up some false misconceptions at my local tournament.
 
Ok I feel better now, sorry I had to get that out of my system...now for the tips. For those of you who don't know this deck focuses on the magic card Butterfly Dagger-Elma. Now you can't use it with Woodland Sprite, so don't even bother trying it, but there are other cards that work just as good.
 
1st you need Gearfreed the Iron Knight. Now he was a staple beatdown back in the day but is now considered outdated. In fact it can't even be revived with Premature Burial...a lot of people wandered what good was it. Well for starters lets look at the Dagger card. A monster equipped with this card increases its ATK by 300 points. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard while equipped to a monster, this card can be returned to the owner's hand.
 
Now there is a combo here. At official tournaments it is legal and very deadly. I call it the Time Lock. Normally I would never do this, unless it is like the championship round and I know my opponent can beat me my next turn. However I do make one exception...and that is for everyone who abuses Yata. Now I'm not opposed to playing one, but you have to draw the line somewhere. (I personally think the strategy is brilliant, especially if you thought of it, but the honest truth is most people just copy whatever works...its really kind of sad) My Time Lock is Revenge against The Yata Lock...and its JUST AS DEADLY. They basically do the same thing...keep your opponent from being able to play anything. Well here it is just keep playing Dagger on Gearfreed when your winning in LP's until the time limit runs out! Its perfectly legal! And its exactly like the yata lock...don't believe me...well look what you need to do it...both require certain cards to work and both decks are only allowed to play one of each card.
 
Ok I know its cheap and evil, and chances are if you abuse this lock you won't have many friends left...so try adding in a Royal Magic Library to the combination. This creates a loop that lets you draw infinitly. I've drawn my whole deck before by my second turn looking for the right cards to finish off my opponent. (This is why you can add Exodia to this deck type!)
 
The next loop is the Infinite Power loop. All the power of the Egyptian God cards stuck in a little one tribute monster called Magical Marionette. Now this card is also gamebreaking. First its easy monster removal by itself, get the loop and its an instant Raigeki! Keep it going and its att will keep increasing! Keep going until you can finish your opponent...now I honestly recommending clearing your opponents M/T zone before you try this because nothing is worst than a RoD or Magical Cylinder right here.
 
The 3rd loop is the infinite burn loop. (you know this might be why I like this deck so much, it has all the crucial elements of gameplay rolled into one; beatdown, speed, and burn) To do this you will need Morale Boost and Fire Princess. Now this combo is the hardest to do because it needs one more card than the others, but its also easier than Magical Marionette's because you don't have to worry about their trap cards as much.
 
Now I've heard people say that the combos are amazing but they are impossible to pull off. Thats not true, they are only impossible if you try to mix this with your typical tournament decks. I'm going to go away from the staples here to look at strategy. This deck won't work unless you build around it. Always have a back up plan!!!
 
Well first the obvious choice is to play several copies of each card. I personally play 3 Royal Magical Libraries, 3 Gearfreeds, 2 Fire Princesses, 1 Magical Marionette, and one Moral Boost. Now I look at what I have to work with. First thing that comes to mind is Fire Princess. This deck NEEDS STALL so I normally play several Gravity Binds or Messanger of Peaces (play Gravity Bind if they abuse Don, Messanger if they abuse Jinzo). Since I'm going to play Fire Princess and burn anyways I might as well play a few Solemn Wishes (I normally play 2...sometimes 3) Like I mentioned earlier its very important to have a back up plan. (With all the hand disruption it would be very easy for your opponent to wipe this deck out with Delinquent Duo or Don. This is why I play Des Lacoodo and Stealth Bird. The stall cards will add protection anyways. This deck needs speed and the Lacoodos do just that. Every turn you get to draw an extra card (this also adds to the burn combo with FP and SW...I've gotten 3 of these flip monsters out before so counting my starting draw it would be doing 2000 burn damage a turn and I would get to draw 4 cards a turn...it doesn't get much better than that) Add in a few Stealth Birds and you got a very deadly burn deck! (Sometimes people think I play that and they don't even see the dagger coming!)
 
Now my next back up plan focuses on the lp's. Since I'm always going to be wining in LP's (3 solemn wishes normally does that...) I might as well play 2 Last Wills and Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle...(for those of you who remember my water deck tip I love this combo!) Now LP's are never an issue here. If the Burn and Dagger Threats weren't enough now they got this to look out for. Plus with all the speed in this deck these cards are very easy to play!
 
Now these combos are very easy to play if you just let yourself play multiples if each card. The only cards I even consider playing besides these are the following: Magician of Faith (its nice for the extra drawing power of magic cards, plus it gets back Dagger if its thrown in the graveyard by hand disruption) 2nd is Fiber Jar (if you don't get a good hand or Dagger gets thrown out this lets you restart the duel (plus theres always a chance for a direct attack with Gearfreed!) 3rd Injection Fairy Lily is a must! If done correctly they are probably low on LP's even if you didn't get any combos yet, now with all your LP gain Lily's cost means absolutely nothing!!! (Its a staple in this deck and it works right along side those awesome gravity binds) Last I might add in TIV, Sinister Serpent, Cyber Jar, Morphing Jar, or Exodia.
 
Now since this deck is useless without Dagger it follows the Exodia and Scientist theme...speed. I would definately play PoG, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, 2 Last Wills, Painful Choice, and sometimes Mirage of Nightmare with a MST or 2.(Does this look familiar...it should if you looked at my Water/Scientist Hybrid Last Week...in fact it has everything but the mother grizzlies...I just replaced them with the Des Lacoodos) You should also play the Iron Blacksmith, flip effect lets you add one equip card from your deck to your hand, also works well with Premature Burial, UWS, MP, shoot I even play 1 Autonomous Action Unit (well LP's aren't an issue and it works great with getting out my opponents Jinzo and Finishing with Magicial Marionette!) Lastly since your playing  stall and there a lot of m/t removal out there...I would highly recommend play Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell or Spell Vanishing to take out all of your opponents MST's. (If you read my water article you would already know that)
 
I know its been a long article, but I just wanted to show everyone that this deck does work! You just have to put a little creativity and some thinking into making your decks...I know shock shock...Some of my friends couldn't believe that I pulled off the combos, but I kept showing them up because I kept beating everyone of them...(they played chaos, hand disruption, fiend, warrior, and an exodia deck) Yeah I beat them all. I only lost once, but that was after I just beat the guy 4 times in a row so I didn't feel bad...lol...Also I might add against the hand disruption deck they finally got rid of my precious dagger...and Fiber Jar with Nobleman...I already used Magician of Faith...but thats ok I finished him off with Scientist and Turtle!!!
 
Anyways I hope I've helped inspire some more people and I hope you go out and kick some chaos and yata decks! Also I would encourage everyone to try some originality with their decks. I've proven twice now that originality decks when done correctly are not only tournament worthy, but also groundbreaking! Just don't be afraid to try something different (remember when everyone thought 3 drop offs was overdoing it until the championship...!!!) Be yourself and have fun!
 
Ryan <><
 
ps: I'm thinking for my next tip I'll go back and revisit the old burn decks...I might make it pure FIRE too because Fire/Burns get a boost in Ancient Sanctuary with Prominence Dragon and Backfire...)
 
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