November 16, 2007

Hey everyone, I'm back, and I'll try and start to write a little bit more. Today I am writing about Necroface. There has been some speculation about this card and what impact it may have on the current advanced format.

Lets start off with it's text: When this card is Normal Summoned, return all cards removed from play back to their respective owner's decks. For every card returned by this effect, this card gains 100 ATK. When this card is removed from play, both players remove from play the top 5 cards from their decks. Not much at first glance, but lets look a little bit closer. Some of the first things you relise is it's ability in a return deck with dimensional fissure, and macro cosmos. Also, a deckout deck could be very likely. But for this article, I got three different players to submit decklists of how they would run Necroface. After I show the decklists, I will get explanations from them on the goal of each deck and then rate each.

The three contestants are......Micheal Lux, Chris Welch, and Shelby Page. Some information about these players:Micheal LuxWinner of SJC OrlandoMany Regional Top 8'sResides in FloridaChris WelchNumerous Regional Top 8'sResides in Nor-CalShelby PageNumerous Regional Top 8'sResides in TexasNow for the decklists:

-Micheal Lux--=16=-=15=-=9=- [3]Gellenduo [3]Mystic Tomato [3]Necroface [3]Needle Worm [1]Sangan [1]Morphing Jar [1]Marshmallon [1]Spirit Reaper - [3]The Shallow Grave [3]Book of Taiyou [3]Messenger of Peace [1]Card Destruction [1]Premature Burial [1]Scapegoat [1]Book of Moon [1]Swords of Revealing Light [1]Level Limit- Area B - [3]Solemn Judgement [3]Dark Bribe [1]Call of the Haunted [1]Torrential Tribute [1]Gravity Bind________________

-Chris Welch-7 3 Necroface 3 Needle Worm 1 Morphing Jar 15 3 Dimensional Fissure 3 Foolish Burial 3 Soul Absorbtion 2 Gravekeeper's Servant 1 Dimension Fusion 1 Book of Moon 1 Card Destruction 1 Swords of Revealing Light 18 3 Macro Cosmos 3 Solemn Judgement 3 Dark Bribe 3 Forced Back 3 Return from the Different Dimension 1 Mirror Force 1 Torrential Tribute 1 Gravity Bind _____________________

-Shelby Page-# 8 Monsters #3 Necroface3 Torture Golem1 Toon Cannon Soldier1 Morphing Jar# 25 Magic #3 Upstart Goblin3 Dark World Dealing3 Inferno Tempest3 Soul Absorption3 Dimensional Fissure3 Card of Sanctity3 Toon Table of Contents1 Level Limit area B1 Swords of Revealing Light1 Gold Sarcophagus1 Card Destruction # 7 Traps# 1 Gravity Bind3 Dark Bribe3 Good Goblin House Keeping#15 Side Deck#1 Mirror Force3 Forced Back3 Macro Cosmos2 Destiny Hero Plasma1 Elemental Hero Stratos2 Reinforcements of the Army3 D.D. Survivor

I was surprised when I got the decklists and saw just how much different they were. It shows just how diverse this deck can be. Here are the explanations from each player on how the deck works to win.

Micheal Lux: You win throught deckout. It's that simple. Reuse Necroface/needle worm as much as possible, while using stall cards to slow down the tempo. Thats pretty much it.

Chris Welch: The focus of the Necroface deck I presented can simply be defined in two words: deck out. it uses cards like Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure to activate Necroface's second effect. Certain cards like Foolish Burial and Return from the Different Dimension also work to achieve this goal (foolish mainly being activated when macro is out, to remove Necroface from play). Cards like Gravekeeper's Servant and Soul Absorption help to slow the game down long enough so you can set up this combo, the latter also helps to preserve life points and pay for the heafty cost of cards like Solemn Judgment, Return from the Different Dimension, and Dimension Fusion. Speaking of which, the deck uses certain counter traps like Solemn Judgement, Dark Bribe, and Forced Back to make sure you can control the game and stop certain threats from hitting the field (such as Light and Darkness Dragon).

Shelby Page: Basically the deck thins itself out and draws many cards until you draw into the combo. That combo being, drop Torture Golem to their side of the field, and attack it with one of your tokens, activate inferno temptest, and win through deckout.Here is the text of Torture Golem:This card cannot be Normal Summoned. When this card is played from your hand, you must Special Summon 2 [Torture Token] - (Dark/Demon/1/0/0) in attack mode to your side of the field, then Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. During the turn this card is Special Summoned, you cannot Normal Summon.I guess Shelby's deck is built more for the OCG, but I also didn't specify.

Ok, now for the rating of the decks. Firstly, I think that Micheal Lux's just isn't fast enough. I think it has some stability so that will work positively towards my rating. Shelby's deck has speed, but is also VERY combo relient. Particularly, it focuses on getting 2 of six cards. Inerno Temptest, and Torture Golem. Chris Welch's is probably the best of the three. It has more speed, and consistancy then both of the aforementioned lists. It has counters to the metagame, a focused deckout theme, and ways to abuse them over and over.So this is how the Awards will be given.Chris Welch (Gold Medal)Shelby Page(Silver Medal)Micheal Lux(Bronze Medal)If anyone has any questions about this article send me a message on the boards. My boards name is now blackluster777.

-Spicer