April 2008
 

Deck Fix 3- RFG Monarchs
 

So I have been following the meta-game pretty closely, and while I don't
really expect to beat DAD decks and Magical Explosion or Tundo-type
decks if they get the right draw going, I at least want to have fun when
I am not playing some person with a lot of money and a fondness for
Solitaire. So here is my RFP Monarch deck, but I need help because
while it works sometimes, it lacks consistency.

Monsters 20
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
2 Cyber Valley
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Marshmallon
3 D.D. Survivor
2 D.D. Scout Plane
2 Apprentice Magician
2 Crystal Seer
1 Marshmallon
1 Snipe Hunter

Spells 13
3 Dimensional Fissure
2 Enemy Controller
1 Brain Control
1 Giant Trunade
1 Magical Mallet
2 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Mystical space Typhoon
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Dimension Fusion

Traps 7
1 Mirror Force
2 Macro Cosmos
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Dark Bribe
1 Return from a Different Dimension

Side Deck
3 Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord
2 Solemn Judgment
2 Divine Wrath
2 Hero's Rule 2
1 Prime Material Dragon
3 Chain Energy
3 Curse of Darkness

I cannot afford Destiny Draw or Allure of Darkness, so I have not made
this deck as dark as I otherwise would have. Keeping that in mind and
the speed of the current metagame, I get draw from a more traditional
Apprentice Magician engine, using Crystal Seer and some Old Vindictive
for destruction. I also use Morphing Jar, Cyber Valley and Magical
Mallet in case I have a dead hand, which is my most common problem,
actually.

To get a lot of RFP, I have the 3 Dimensional Fissures and 2 Macro
Cosmos. I thought about 3 Banishers, but I find that they just don't
last very long in this meta against level 3s and 4s: All the D.D.
warrior-types, Elemental Hero Stratos, 2 of the Six Samurai, Strike
Ninja, Asura Priest, Bazoo, Cannon Soldier, Des Wombat, Gladiator Beast
Laquari, etc. Banisher is great if you have some stall, esp
Level-limiter Area B, Swords of Revealing Light, and Gravity Bind, since
it ca attack under them all, but frankly I have been playing around with
Remove From Play Burn and it is not the easiest deck to make effective.

I prefer Giant Trunade because often I don't need a whole lot of time to
win. Just have to get the back field clear for one or two good hits.
Plus, I don't lose my Macros or Dimensional Fissures, I just reset
them. With Dimensional Fissures, I can even Trunade and reset them
immediately. The 2 Dark Bribes give me some protection, but I have
considered going to some other form of spell/trap denial because I am
tired of giving my opponent's draw in this format. That is even worse
than giving them life points!

I also have succeeded a few times in getting the
DMoC/CyberValley/Dimension Fusion going, to get some draw and clear the
field and hit big, though obviously without the range of effect possible
with a Tundo-style deck. However, that is not a main object for me,
more of a pleasant side effect.

The side deck is oriented towards hurting DAD and Spell-driven draw
engines. If I hit a Curse of Darkness and/or Chain Energy, I can do
serious damage to someone dependent on Spell cards, and The Prime
Material I keep for both anti-burn and to gain life from using Curse of
Darkness. The counter-traps give me draw power for Van'Dalgyon.

Options: I had thought about putting in two Threatening Roars, to slow
down opponents, as speed is still not my strong suit, but then I seem to
draw too many dead hands. I also was wondering if I really need the
Dark Bribes, or if I should go with Solemn Judgment or even Cold Wave
for more control as I am actually pretty monster-heavy or even with no
counter protection at all. There just seem to be a lot of Solemn/Dark
Bribe heavy decks these days. Also, what about Hand Destruction for
this deck?

Thanks,
Chris
 
Hey Chris, thanks for sending in your deck! It seems like the dek that you're currently running has a mix of control and brutal, quick strikes, and I do agree with you, I playtested with this build for a little bit, and I did notice some inconsistency. I'll do my best to help you with this build, as these were some of the changes that I saw that could help.
 
Here's what I took out:
 
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch: Normally, I'd be all over this card as a definite yes since it can possibly wipe a good card from the hand of any good deck. The truth is that I wanted to fit not only this copy, but two more in, but I just couldn't find the room.
 
Cyber Valley: Another good card for RFG decks, but in this build, I wanted to make it aggressive, and I wanted to make sure that you had as few dead draws as possible. Since there is no "Valley Dupe" combo in this deck, I decided to take them out all together.
 
Apprentice Magician/Crystal Seer: A cool choice, since these aren't ran as often as they were. the problem that I had was that in the duels that I needed a monster with an okay attack stat to finish with (Sangan or Exiled Force, for example) I drew into one of these. Defensive tactics are good, but I feel as if the
Apprentice Engine is too slow to tak on DAD right now.
 
Magical Mallet: In this deck, Mallet definitely has it's advantages. Give back multiple copies of Dimensional Fissure or Cosmos and draw new cards. However, you have the chance of drawing those very same cards off of Mallet's effect, so I decided to go with a different version of getting rid of unwanted cards.
 
Reinforcement of the Army: I removed one copy because we only have 4 target cards: 3 D.D. Survivor and 1 D.D. Warrior Lady. There is a possibility that the extra ROTA could get stuck in your hand when you need to draw into something else that would be useful at that time.
 
Mystical Space Typhoon: I must be nuts by cutting this card....or am I? Don't get me wrong, MST is awesome, and it's uses are far reaching, but it's rarely used in a game winning push. Put yourself in this scenario: I'm running a removal deck, and my opponent knows it. It's mid-game, and my opponent and I are real close in card advantage. I've got a face down Solemn Judgement and Dimensional Fissure in the backfield, and my opponent has Torrential Tribute, Fires of
Doomsday and Enemy Controller face down. He also knows that I run solemn, and that since I have already played Trunade, that there is no way I can clear his backfield to make a push for damage. In these types of situations, I upgraded MST into it's larger counterpart, and swept the game. I did the exact same thing for this deck.
 
Dimension Fusion: Nice OTK card, but not what we're looking for in this deck. We want a clear shot at our opponents, and we don't want to go through the trouble of having to clear the field of all the monsters we just removed from the game.
 
Dark Bribe: I agree with you. There are better forms of spell/trap negation, and giving a DAD player a card for negating an Allure or something is just unacceptable.
 
Return from the Different Dimension: Due to our new negating cards I put in, we want to watch our life points, so I had to nix this card.
 
Here's what I added:
 
Gravekeeper's Spy- Oh, the good old days when this thing was in every single deck imaginable. In here, it adds stability and a good swarm engine to make early game pushes. I included 3.
 
D.D. Crow- It stops every card that uses the graveyard, it fits the theme of the deck, and it shuts down the biggest threats in this format except for Gladiator Beasts. I added 2.
 
Cyber Dragon- Our old friend makes a comeback in this deck as a beatstick and an excellent special summon, so long as you meet the requirements. I used the maximum number allowed.
 
Heavy Storm- The bigger cousin of MST I was talking about earlier. This card will win you games in this deck, but only play it if you're going for the kill, or if you lured your opponent into a pro storm.
 
Card Destruction: I chose this card over magical mallet because I won't draw the same cards that was making my hand a dead one, unless I draw into another copy of a useless card. It's a gamble, but it can reward you greatly.
 
Solemn Judgement: A removal deck's best friend, it'll stop anything for half of your life points. A worthy investment, especially in this DAD driven format.
 
Trap Dustshoot/Mind Crush- Hand Control is very important, and these two cards can and probably will wreck your opponent every single time you play them.
 
 
Removed:
-1 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
-2 Cyber Valley
-2 Apprentice Engine
-2 Crystal Seer
-1 Magical Mallet
-1 Reinforcement of the Army
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-1 Dimension Fusion
-2 Dark Bribe
-1 Return from the Different Dimension
 
Added:
+3 Gravekeeper's Spy
+2 D.D. Crow
+2 Cyber Dragon
+1 Heavy Storm
+1 Card Destruction
+3 Solemn Judgement
+1 Trap Dustshoot
+1 Mind Crush
Here's the finished deck:
 
RFP Monarchs- 41 Cards
 
Monsters: (21)
 
Caius the Shadow Monarch x3
Dark Magician of Chaos
Gravekeeper's Spy x3
D.D. Survivor x3
D.D. Scout Plane x2
Marshmallon
Spirit Reaper
Snipe Hunter
D.D. Crow x2
Cyber Dragon x2
D.D. Warrior Lady
Morphing Jar
 
Spells: (11)
 
Dimensional Fissure x3
Enemy Controller x2
Brain Control
Giant Trunade
Lightning Vortex
Heavy Storm
Reinforcement of the Army
Card Destruction
 
Traps: (9)
 
Mirror Force
Macro Cosmos x2
Torrential Tribute
Solemn Judgement x3
Trap Dustshoot
Mind Crush
 
The object for this particular build is similar to any other RFG deck; take out as many graveyard options as you can in order to cripple your opponent. Card Destruction can turn bad hands into good ones, Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush keep you informed of your opponents hand, hit or miss, and Crow stops TundOTK, Explosion OTK, OhmTK, DAD, DDT, and anything else that focuses on the graveyard. And to answer a question from your e-mail, I don't believe that Hand Destruction should be in the final build, because your opponent can profit from it just as well as you can.
 
As for the side deck, that would be completely up to you and what your meta is like in the area you live. Here's what I'd put in the side for my meta if I were running this deck:
 
Kinetic Soldier x2
Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord x3
Dark Bribe x3
Divine Wrath x2
Mobius the Frost Monarch x2
Waboku x2
Mystical Space Typhoon x1
I
 hope these changes have helped you, and good luck with this build! I will always write a reply to any and all deck fixes, so be sure to keep them coming!!
 
PDtamer03
 
Email to PDtamer02@hotmail.com