October 2009

 

Horus' Dragon Den - Lord of Dragons

 

Good day to you, duelists.  I am the self-proclaimed Lord of Dragons, and I wanted to share my deck with anyone who wants to try something new.  I have been playing Dragons for over seven years, and have played almost every dragon in the dueling world as well as many different support cards.  So for the most part I know which cards work well with Dragons and which ones aren't so good.

 

Dragons are some of the most legendary and powerful creatures known to man.  Most of the strongest cards in the dueling world are dragons: Dark Armed Dragon, Judgment Dragon, Chaos Emperor Dragon, and the list goes on and on.  So why not use these monsters to their fullest potential, especially now that they have many new toys to play with?  The best part is that most of the cards in this deck can be found very cheaply, so you don't need to rob a bank or your mom's purse to play it.  Of course, they have great artwork as well.  The following is a dragon deck built by a (self-proclaimed) dragon master:

 

Main Deck (40 Cards):

 

Monsters (20):

 

2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8

2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6

2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4

 

1 Cyber Dragon

3 Luster Dragon (Level 4 - 1900 ATK)

2 Spear Dragon

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

2 Exploder Dragon

2 Mirage Dragon

3 Masked Dragon

 

Spells (14):

 

1 Enemy Controller

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Shrink

1 Book of Moon

1 Smashing Ground

1 Fissure

1 Reasoning

1 Natural Tune

2 Dragon's Mirror

2 Stamping Destruction

 

Traps (6):

 

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Burst Breath

 

Extra Deck (4):

 

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Exploder Dragonwing

2 Five-Headed Dragon

 

Side Deck:

 

2 Troop Dragon

2 D.D. Crow

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 My Body as a Shield

1 Shrink

1 Return from the Different Dimension

2 Sakuretsu Armor

2 Royal Oppression

2 Royal Decree

 

The first thing you will notice about this deck is the lack of many "mainstream" cards that everyone uses.  The lack of tuner monsters even though there are Synchro monsters in the Extra deck jumps out too.  The reason for this is that this deck doesn't rely on Synchros to win, they are there simply as an added option.  That's why I haven't wasted card slots on Tuners, and instead run only one Natural Tune which transforms the three Luster Dragons into Tuners if you need one.  This deck can best be described as a "beatdown" deck.  Dragons are built for power, and this deck takes advantage of that power and channels it to control the field.  Horus is there to deny your opponent from using spells; Horus LV6 is immune to spells, and Horus LV8 negates all your opponent's spells entirely while giving you a 3000 ATK monster.  Why do you think everyone likes Jinzo over Royal Decree?  This can cause major problems for your opponent if they can't get rid  of Horus by other means, as many decks used these days rely on certain spells to get their combos off.  Honest is a good example of this.  Your opponent will have a hard time controlling the graveyard without spells as well, which makes it more difficult to summon Dark Armed Dragon.  Shrink, Book of Moon, and Enemy Controller are there to help your lower-level Horus cards destroy opposing monsters and get their level-up effects.  Royal Decree is used to deny traps as well, which leaves your opponent with only monsters.  At this point, you can easily control the field since most of your monsters are either strong enough to last in battle or replace themselves if destroyed (Masked Dragon, Troop Dragon).  My Body as a Shield is there to protect either Horus, Five-Headed or Stardust Dragon, whichever you have out.  I play this instead of Solemn Judgment because Royal Decree would make Solemn useless anyway. 

 

The rest of the deck is built for destruction of your opponent's field, the central theme of this deck.  You want to keep your opponent from getting their field set up, either by destroying their cards within a turn or two or keeping them off the field altogether with Bottomless Trap Hole, Torrential Tribute and Royal Oppression.  Stamping Destruction is a no-brainer in a Dragon deck, destroying their backfield and dealing 500 damage each.  Burst Breath requires a sacrifice of a dragon, but destroys all monsters with a DEF lower than the tributed dragon's ATK.  This card works amazingly well with Spear Dragon.  Attack a defense position monster, deal trample damage, then use Burst Breath next turn on your defense position Spear Dragon, killing all monsters with 1900 or less defense points which includes most monsters used today (Dark Armed Dragon only has 1000 defense points!)  Best of all, Burst Breath is chainable so you can wait for your  opponent to waste Breaker or Heavy Storm on it only to eliminate their monsters and make them sad.  Exploder Dragon is searchable by Masked Dragon and provides destruction in monster form.  It can be used either offensively or defensively

 

Most Dragon decks use a lot of high-attack tribute monsters like White-Horned Dragon or Light and Darkness Dragon.  The problem with this is you have to devote a lot of precious card slots towards ways of getting these monsters out, such as Monster Gate or dump/remove-and-revive tactics.  This deck has Cyber Dragon which 99% of the time isn't tribute summoned, and the Horus series which can be special summoned by their effects.  The big monster of this deck is Five-Headed Dragon, another no-brainer in any Dragon deck.  The two Dragon's Mirror cards summon him once you have five dragons in the graveyard or on the field.  Masked Dragon, Troop Dragon, and the Horus series make it very easy to fill your graveyard with dragons for a Mirror drop.  Reasoning is there because you win either way.  You either get a free monster or another dragon in the graveyard for your Mirrors.  Once you get Five-Headed out, you will either end the game right then or  force your opponent to use Smashing Ground or other removal cards on it.  Usually Five-Headed will end the game for you if you use it correctly, which means don't summon it if your opponent has a backfield. 

 

Basically, this deck gives you a lot of options, yet is very simple to play.  All of the cards I've included in this deck are geared around destroying your opponent's field while keeping the pressure on with an endless stream of powerful monsters.  The only weakness of this deck is that it can be slow at times, which is a problem in the fast-paced metagame we live in today.  Most of the time, however, this deck runs very well for me unless I draw a crappy opening hand.  This seems to happen to every deck on occasion though.  No deck is immune to a crappy opening hand or a dead topdeck draw.  The best part of this deck is that most of the cards in this deck can be found either common or in a promo/tin form, making it affordable for anyone.  It is also a new choice for anyone wanting to escape the "cookie-cutter" metagame and try something new.

 

If anyone has comments on this deck, either suggestions on how it can be better or constructive criticism, you can email me at sprsnc20@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading, and good dueling!