September 2008

 

Relinquished Revival - Declan

 

Greetings! It is I, using yet another strange deck. Its a Monarch build but quite different from your standard Monarch build I can assure you. Lets have a look at the decklist first, then I'll get into the idea behind the deck. Long article today because I playtested this deck a lot.
 
Monsters(23)
Tribute~7
1x Raiza the Storm Monarch
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3x Mobius the Frost Monarch
 
Non~Tribute~16
2x Relinquished
3x Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
1x Treeborn Frog
3x Volcanic Shell
1x Sangan
1x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1x Snipe Hunter
1x Mystic Tomato
2x D.D. Crow
1x Chaos Necromancer
 
Magic Cards~15
1x Monster Reborn
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Scapegoat
2x Foolish Burial
1x Monster Reincarnation
2x Black Illusion Ritual
3x Creature Swap
1x Brain Control
1x Soul Exchange
1x Lightning Vortex
 
Trap Cards~7
1x Torrential Tribute
3x Limit Reverse
3x Graceful Revival
 
Total: 45
 
Ok, its 45 cards which is not a good thing in a deck where your trying to get as many Monarchs to hand as possible. However I have found that with the amount of deck shrinking going on its above average size doesn't come into play.
 
Now the trick to any Monarch build in my eyes has always been two things: A)Having enough tributes and B)Having enough Monarchs. There are so many cards that can provide a player with tributes these days its not even worth mentioning it. I will say that the monster you revive is always better off being a +1 but more on that later.
 
A run through off the cards, starting with the monsters.
 
The Monarchs, all players have their own preferences for Monarchs. I like Caius and Mobius more than Kuraz or Thestalos, however feel free to mix and match any 5-6 stars you like. I will say that Kuraz can be abused in this deck, activate Limit Reverse, tribute for Kuraz, destroy the now useless Limit Reverse, etc... However not being able to attack is just too slow for my liking.
 
Relinquished: Hands down my favourite card in this game made even more useful by the new release "Graceful Revival." This is this decks party piece but I'll explain that later on aswell.
 
Manju: If your going to use Ritual Monsters you may as well run 3 of these.
 
Treeborn Frog: Great card, fantastic tribute fodder for Relinquished. Oh, Monarchs tend to like him too. Vulrenable to DD.
Crow but in this deck I wouldn't be too worried.
 
Volcanic Shell: Yet more tribute fodder for Relinquished, however he also makes Snipe Hunter lethal, shrinks your deck and is useful for paying disacrd costs. Overall a highly useful card.
 
Sangan: Can search a lot of monsters in this deck, prime targets being DD. Crow or Manju depending on the situation.
 
Breaker: It never hurts to have some S/T removal handy, a beatstick is a beatstick is a beatstick...
 
Snipe Hunter: If you draw Shells/Treeborn Frog/extra copies of BIR/Rel then this guy can provide great advantage for little cost.
 
Mystic Tomato: There to search for Snipe/Sangan/Chaos Necromancer or DD. Crow in a pinch.
 
D.D. Crow: 2 copies make it into the main deck because they are almost impossible to stop and because most decks are utiliising the graveyard these days, including this one.
 
Chaos Necromancer: This is a wild card choice that isn't for all duelists out there. I have had some great games with him(4800 Atk Necro vs 4600 Atk Collossal Fighter...) and the other games I just discarded him to pay for a cost or Creature Swapped him. The card also has some great artwork on it.
 
I just realised how long this is getting, I'm going to try to speed this up.
 
Spell Cards:
Monster Reborn+Heavy Storm+MST+Brain Control+Scapegoat = Staples or near staples. Special attention to Scapegoat as fodder for BIR(Black Illusion Ritual) or Creature Swap.
 
Foolish Burial: You can run this at 1 or 2, I find 2 suits me better. It sends either Sangan/Volcanic Shell or Treeborn Frog straight to the graveyard which is very, very useful. If you have a set Limit Reverse send Sangan.
 
Monster Reincarnation: Mostly you should try discarding Shells for costs so consider this near costless. Brings a Manju or a Monarch back to your hand ready to re-use ts effect. Can be quite good with DD. Crow.
 
BIR: Well, you need it to summon Relinquished so...
 
Creature Swap: Every deck needs a back up plan, this decks has Creature Swap. Swap an unequipped Relinquished, a Shell, Treeborn Frog, Sangan, Mystic Tomato, Manju or Breaker after using their effects, or Chaos Necromancer early game. So thats nearly every non-tribute monster in the deck then... In the deck for a reason.
 
Soul Exhange: You could almost cut this from the deck but I'm a big fan of the Plan B so to speak.
 
Lightning Vortex: All round useful card you can run it at 2 if you want to drop Reincarnation.
 
Traps:
Torrential: Staple.
 
Limit Reverse: This is another great card that is still great even with Disk Commander on the banned list. Simply put you can revive Relinquished(stealing one of their monsters) then tribute it off for a Monarch if you have one to hand. It can also be used well with Sangan or if you topdeck it late game revive the Chaos Necromancer for a powerful monster.
 
Graceful Revial: Same tricks as Limit Reverse except Sangan is off limits. However it does disappear when you tribute the revived monster as far as I know and thus Treeborn Frog has an easier time reviving itself.
Both of these cards can provide you with large swings in advantage.
So in short: Relinquished into the graveyard where you can keep reviving him for direct attacks or tribute him for direct attacks and some card advantage. Everything else supports this plan with Creature Swap waiting in the wings in case of a bad hand.
 
Keep your side deck open and if possible side into something very different to throw your opponent off. Watch out for Macro as always. Most things can be sided decked for. This deck can be very hard to side deck against. A lot of Royal Decrees and DD. Crows normally come in so side into something that replaces the trap and graveyard reliance. Its actually possible to side this into a Demise deck very easily which the aforementioned cards hardly effect at all.
Happy duelling.
 
Opinions/Ideas/Deck Fixes/Inane Rantings of a Borderline Psychopath: Same address as always, draconian777@hotmail.com