July 2006

From: Will Yeomans [mailto:nagash4king@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 10:21 AM
To: yugiohcrew@pojo.com
Subject: A big long card rant, plus my original Deck List, by Nagash



OK, I've seen lots of rants, pants (good old Rex Cinema Guide) and every other form of commenting on Card Advantage and Card Originality around here. Well, now I'm going to jump on the shiny new train (who wants to ride a bandwagon anyway???) and give my 2 pence (cause I'm British!) on these here things.

Nobody can deny that Pot of Greed is a good card, but is it a game winning card? Nope. It can draw cards that you otherwise would have had to wait for, and thus it is a good card, but it hasn't one the game for you on it's own. So, what am I getting at? Who knows, I have no idea where I'm going, this is completely improvisation, so I might be saying a load of rubbish. Anyway, back to the real article.

Say someone you're playing against Raigeki Break. So what if they lost a card from their hand (and good if it was a tribute monster, as it now can be reborn (although I rarely get to reborn monsters, as they aren't that many recursion cards, so don't rely on that)) they might have removed the card that was stopping them from winning, like, for example, a Gravity Bind.

Another example is winning by using all these drawing cards. How do decks built using Dekoichi, Tsukuyomi and their friends win? They go through their deck really quickly, and then win by doing what? I have no idea, and this is one of the major reasons I steer away from using those kind of deck builds (although Tsukuyomi is in my deck, she's a control card for me, not some draw combo card).

I probably haven't actually said anything helpful when writing this, but if anyone has picked up on what I'm trying to say, email me (see below for address).

This is the point where I want you to all look through your decks and see how close there are to these Tournament winning decks, like Warrior Toolbox (whatever the heck a Warrior is doing with a toolbox is beyond me) and the Monarch Soul Control (who said you could take our Queen's soul?). Now, how many multiple cards have you got in there? None, maybe one duplicate card. Or maybe lots. There is a big reason for me asking you this. You have these multiple cards so you can draw them better. But how can you draw cards you need without multiple cards? Pure damn luck. Now I have plenty of luck, but I also have multiple cards, so I can draw them.

Can people start seeing where I'm heading? Good, 'cause I can't.

Anyway, back to the question I asked. How close are your decks to those tourney decks. Close or your own style. Hopefully you answered: a hybrid! Or something to that effect. You duel for fun right? And to have as much fun you want to build a good game winning deck. But it needs to be your own. Not some copied deck from some random collection of cards. This is how I feel. I need a deck to be mine, but to use powerful cards. Not unfair cards, just plain good cards. Like Lightning Vortex. I don't really care about the discard even if I'm playing against my friends Dark World Fiend Hand Discard Deck (that's not the real name, but we still haven't come up with the best name. We've tried lots of names but we don't need no help (I hope that was some kind of double/triple negative, as I'm confused by that), we'll come up with it ourselves. Back to the originality though. I win even when I've had no hand for the past three turns. I've built my field up, destroyed theirs and got traps waiting if they recover. But by that I've won. I've prepared for what's going to happen, but still used up all my resources. It's a gamble, but I do it. I'm that kind of person (I even have a Gambling Deck just for the fun of it. It rarely goes well, but it's fun and it's always funny when I activate a stupid card like Gamble, get it right and then unleash the whole fury of the Casino!

So I've shown some originality, but now the important bit: my deck build. The cards I have, the combos and reasons for everything. And so here's my original deck:



The Classic Deck



Main Deck



Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon
Toon Summoned Skull
Jinzo
Mobius the Frost Monarch
Vampire Lord
Guardian Sphinx
Patrician of Darkness
Toon Goblin Attack Force
Toon Gemini Elf
Breaker the Magical Warrior
D.D. Warrior Lady
Solar Flare Dragon
Solar Flare Dragon
Solar Flare Dragon
Toon Cannon Soldier
Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
Tsukuyomi
The Dark – Hex Sealed Fusion
Exiled Force
Sangan
Penguin Soldier
Magician of Faith
Outstanding Dog Marron
Relinquished
Black Illusion Ritual
Scapegoats
Mystical Space Typhoon
Toon Table of Contents
Hammer Shot
Hammer Shot
Lighting Vortex
Graceful Charity
Monster Reincarnation
Pot of Avarice
Brain Control
Brain Control
Swords of Revealing Light
Toon World
Toon World
Snatch Steal
Premature Burial
Bottomless Trap Hole
Dust Tornado
Mirror Force
Magic Cylinder
Conscription
A Rival Appears!
Ultimate Offering
Call of the Haunted
Nightmare Wheel


Fusion Deck



Sanwitch
Thousand Eyes Restrict


Side Deck



Lava Golem
The Creator
Ancient Gear Beast
Helpoemer
Pyramid Turtle
Nightmare Penguin
Ancient Gear Cannon
Fox Fire
Ectoplasmer
Nitro Unit
Gravity Bind
Bottomless Shifting Sands
Ordeal of a Traveller
Mask of Restrict
Robbin' Goblin


Yes, you're reading it right. I have 50 cards in my deck! Shock horror! I know it's somewhat big, but I need those cards in there. Anyway, on to the card comments:

The Toon cards are all in there as that is my earliest theme in this deck. It revolves hitting my opponent's Life Points hard and fast, meaning I win without them getting a chance to have a proper duel. Although it's not a real fun way to win, the Toons themselves are fun. And yes, I have tried using other Toons, like 2 Toon Mermaids, but they never worked. So they went. But I haven't got any other Toon Goblin Attack Force or Toon Gemini Elfs to use, so at the moment I am restricted to one each. I have the same problem with Toon Table of Contents, but hey. They deck still works.

Jinzo, Mobius and Vampire Lord are all obvious choices (well, Vampire Lord is one of my favourite cards, with it's 2 decent effects. Yes two, I consider the deck destruction effect good. It removes all those pesky Magic and Trap cards (I know I should say Spell Cards, but Magic just sounds better to me). And Jinzo and Mobius are two more control cards.

Guardian Sphinx and Patrician of Darkness are both powerful Control cards. With Guardian Sphinx I can constantly remove my opponent's field without them really stopping me, and with Patrician, well, it does exactly what it does. I say who gets attacked. Pure and simple, but really annoying. It also means my opponent's rarely attack, because I could send them off to a powerhouse, or something else with a nasty effect.

Breaker, D.D. Warrior Lady, Tsukuyomi, Exiled Force, Sangan and Magician of Faith are all decent cards that are in almost any deck, and they fit well into mine. Breaker keeps cards away. D.D. makes sure I can get rid of those dangerous cards, or stop flip effects. Tsukuyomi and Magician keeps a nasty combo going (with destruction cards) and Exiled, well he is monster destruction. Lastly we have Sangan. A powerful search card that gets everything just said apart from Breaker, but then, he is Breaker No Mates (I hate the term Billy No Mates, as I know a Billy, and I'm a Will).

Penguin Soldier is just a mini Guardian Sphinx, and is also reusable with either Tsukuyomi or itself. Good card, and works with Toon Gemini Elf, which I didn't put in with Guardian Sphinx.

Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands is a very good searcher, who obviously finds Relinquished, who is normally summoned with Outstanding Dog Marron, who then stops me decking out. Very useful. And with Relinquished, I can really annoy my opponent's. I rarely get out Thousand Eyes, as his effect is dangerous to both of us. But I do use both of them with Tsukuyomi. To bring out Restrict though, I need either Metamorphosis or a Fusion. I choose Fusion for the originality (and the fact I don't have Metamorphosis), and for Dark Hex goodness (a very helpful card, that I think makes Fusion worthwhile).

Black Illusion Ritual is a must for Relinquished.

Scapegoats and Swords of Revealing Light are my defensive spells. And Relinquished summoners. And Cannon fodder. And Toon summoners. My goodness. Scapegoats really is a useful card.

Mystical Space Typhoon, Hammer Shot, Lighting Vortex, Brain Control and Snatch Steal are all removal cards in some way or form. Hammer Shot is in twos since I don't have Smashing Ground (if I did, there would be one of each, as I feel they're both good). Snatch Steal and Brain Control just infuriate my opponent's, especially with Tsukuyomi (she really is a useful card eh?).

Hmmm, Graceful Charity and Pot of Avarice. What's to say about them you don't already know? They're great cards. So they had to be in. But I do miss my Sinister Serpent.

Monster Reincarnation and Premature Burial both are good recursion. Well, Reincarnation for Relinquished, the Toons and Mobius. And as I said above, who cares about card advantage?

Finally, the traps. My first one was Bottomless Trap Hole, which is a major card for me, as it stops all those nasty Dark World cards coming out from the Graveyard. Plus, I'm quite sure it will be deadly at a tourney (although I have never been to one). My next control card was Dust Tornado, followed by Mirror Force and Magic Cylinder. These are all key tournament cards, and although I don't like identikit decks, I don't mine using an idea for myself. Plus, Magic Cylinder is a Burn card, one of the many themes of my deck.

Then there are the oddities: Conscription and A Rival Appears!. These 2 cards help me a lot, especially when my opponent's destroy my other cards. I other steal one of theirs, or get one from my hand. This is one of the reasons with my large number of different levelled monsters, just in case my opponent has a level 8 powerhouse (like The Creator).

Now, to use Solar Flare Dragon effectively, I need to get them out quickly. And wait! I can, with Ultimate Offering and Call of the Haunted (although that's for pretty much everything). Who cares about 500 Life Points for an extra monster. Actually, I'll leave that one to you (this time...).

And lastly, there is Nightmare Wheel, a very good blocking card that follows my Burn theme.

And because I am such a lazy toad, I'm not going to talk about my Side Deck to my next posting (too...much...type...ing!). Anyway, it's goodnight from him, and it's goodnight from me. Bye bye now!

Will nagash4king@yahoo.co.uk