From: Cameron Waud [mailto:cjrwaud@cogeco.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 9:45 PM

Subject: Enter the White Dragon - Cameron

    Blue-Eyes White Dragon is competetively one of the worst monsters in the game. So why has it been given so much support? Because it's in the show, just like Dark Magician. This support can be seen simply as a way to keep noobs interested in the game, but few people have actually used the support and made Blue-Eyes competetive.

I am posting this article to do that, Blue-Eyes is one of the most fun monsters to play around with. If not competetive in an official tournament, then at least competetive in a casual atmosphere. Here is a Blue-Eyes focused deck called "Enter the White Dragon":

40 Cards

Monsters        x19

Blue-Eyes White Dragon  x3

Breaker the Magical Warrior

Gravekeeper's Guard

Gravekeeper's Spy  x3

Kaiser Seahorse

Magician of Faith  x2

Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands  x3

Paladin of White Dragon  x3

Spirit Reaper  x2

Fusion Monsters

Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon  x2

Magic Cards        x16

Dimension Fusion

Dragon's Mirror  x2

Fulfillment of the Contract  x2

Graceful Charity

Heavy Storm

Mystical Space Typhoon

Nobleman of Crossout  x2

Premature Burial

Ritual Weapon

Snatch Steal

White Dragon Ritual  x3

Trap Cards        x5

Call of the Haunted

Royal Decree  x2

Soul Resurrection

Torrential Tribute

Now, at first I know you'll disagree with the use of Paladin of White Dragon. It is true that Ritual Monsters are not competetive, and this is for two reasons:

- Bad for Card Advantage

- Bad because they're dead weight in your hand unless you have both pieces and enough monsters to use it.

These really don't apply in this deck, the second problem is solved by the use of 3 full copies of the ritual (easily obtained through Kaiba Evolution Decks), and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands in 3s. With 3 Ritual Monsters and 3 Ritual Magics in this deck you're bound to get one in the opening hand or close to it.

Manju will be soon to follow if not already in your hand, he'll retrieve the other part from your deck upon summon (netting an instant +1 in card advantage), the Gravekeeper's Spies and Guard are there to also add card advantage (+1 upon flip) and if hit by Cyber Dragon or a stronger monster they at least replace themselves.

Blue-Eyes Decks are usually not competetive, so forget that the Blue-Eyes are in this deck for the moment. Look at Paladin, he's a LV4 Special Summon with a solid 1900 ATK who can take out face-downs like Mystic Swordsmans. He goes up to 3400 ATK with the one Ritual Weapon if he's aiming for a Monarch or some other strong monster. And he'll just keep coming back because once he's properly Special Summoned he becomes a legal target for Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, and the two Contracts.

Now add to that monster the ability to be able to pull out a 3000 ATK monster for free and you have a top notch monster for 2 cards from your hand/field (Gravekeeper or Manju and Ritual Card). Ideally you'll want to Ritual Summon a Paladin after gaining enough card advantage with the Gravekeeper's and Manju, kill a face-down then Special Summon a Blue-Eyes at Main Phase 2 since it can't attack that turn.

A great combo with these cards is to get the first Paladin out, Special Summon a Blue-Eyes, then play one of the 4 revival cards on Paladin and fetch another Blue-Eyes, then do it again with a second revival card for the third (only if you haven't drawn one).

Don't worry too much about having to attack with Paladin to get the face-down killing effect or having to attack with Blue-Eyes to deal massive damage because the Royal Decrees are there to help you out. Attack, they activate Sakuretsu Armor, then activate Royal Decree to negate it then leave it there to stop further traps for a while. Soul Resurrection works well with this because it and Call of the Haunted will be negated with Decree out, but won't kill the monster because all that happens is it becomes "detached from Call or SR", so it'll stay if the Call or SR are destroyed.

Dimension Fusion is to make use of the second Dragon's Mirror (there are two just for probability, but I don't want the second to become dead weight late game), it also can double as a fifth revival card for a Paladin that had its Contract destroyed and got removed from play. There you have it, a great Blue-Eyes Deck. First focus on getting card advantage so it doesn't hurt so much to Ritual Summon Paladin, then USE THE PALADIN! It's not there just to bring out the Blue-Eyes, they're actually supposed to be the sub-theme, Paladin is a great monster so USE IT TO ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL!!! Thank you for reading this post.

Send your questions, comments, etc. to cjrwaud@cogeco.ca. Please no hate mail, I'm really a nice guy once you get to know me.