Hey all, and welcome to another edition of my Friday Deck Fix! This week, we’re going to be taking a look at a card that I absolutely love: Strike Ninja. He’s versatile, synergistic, and absolutely amazing in just about any aspect. In fact, Christopher thinks so too, and I’ll let him show you his build of Modern Ninja Return:

Hey my name is Chris. I was reading your articles and noticed you help people with their decks. I would really appreciate your help with a deck I'm trying to run. The deck is a RFG deck. I know there are a few cards in there that don't belong but I just don't know what to replace them with. Please help me, thank you in advance.
 
Monsters:22
2x Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
2x Bazoo the Soul-Eater
3x Gravekeeper's Spy
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
3x D.D. Scout Plane
2x Mystic Tomato
3x D.D. Survivor
1x D.D. Assailant
2x Strike Ninja
 
Spells:10
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Dimensional Fissure
3x Allure of Darkness
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Heavy Storm
 
Traps:11
1x Return from the Different Dimension
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Macro Cosmos
1x Mirror Force
2x Dark Bribe

Well, the first thing I see about Chris’ deck is the fact that he really does like removing stuff from play. The challenge will be incorporating Return from the Different Dimension, as it is restricted at one-per-deck this in turn changes our strategy, because if your win condition is reliant on one card, you need to make sure that you can pull off that combo 99.9% of the time. However, this deck is going to be designed to run quickly, and our monster lineup needs to reflect that. With that being said, let’s start breaking this down.

One major flaw in Chris’ deck is that he has too much removal. Two Bazoo the Soul Eater and two Strike Ninja aren’t going to do the job; they’re conflicting. If you’re going to run a deck with this build, you’re going to have to make a decision: Bazoo or Strike Ninja. Luckily, I’ll be answering that question, and it’s a simple one to answer: which one gives you the most advantage? Strike Ninja. So, we’ll be dropping two copies of Bazoo. Another thing we’re going to drop is both D.D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant. In this deck, you need to be running a lot of Dark monsters, and Warrior Lady and Assailant, while they may fuel the overall theme of the RFG build, won’t cut it in this Modern Ninja Return build. So, they go. Also, we’re going to be running this build not off of a Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos engine, but a Strike Ninja engine, and D.D. Survivor won’t survive (pardon the pun) in this deck. They need to go as well.

This gives us a total of seven monster spots, and just so we’re sure let’s recap:

-2 Bazoo the Soul-Eater

-1 D.D. Warrior Lady

-1 D.D. Assailant

-3 D.D. Survivor

These monsters really each need their own dedicated deck. Bazoo Return, while not viable in my opinion, can definitely be a contender if you build it right, and Warrior Lady, Assailant and Survivor are better off in a Macro Cosmos-based build. What we’re going to go for instead is the idea of “right over might.” What this means is that we’re going to turn this deck into a Monarch/Ninja hybrid, utilizing the discarding power of Thestalos and the removal aspect of Caius combined with cards that can do both. I’m going to add a third copy of Mystic Tomato; his ability to recruit just about any monster in here will flow well with what I have in store for the build. Two Don Zaloog will fill the hole left by Bazoo, and there are several reasons for this: a) he’s one of the best 1400 ATK monsters in the game, b) he can discard cards from your opponent’s hand, and c) he can spin cards off the top of your opponent’s deck. These three reasons make him a prime candidate to fill the spot, and he does it well. A third Strike Ninja is an obvious choice, and I’m also going to throw in a Raiza the Storm Monarch and a Morphing Jar. This is to make the deck a bit quicker than it was before: Raiza can spin cards back to the top of the deck, and Morphing Jar can act as a catalyst to get creatures into the Graveyard. Also, to fill out the 22^nd monster slot, we’re going to run one copy of Card Trooper; its ability to fill the graveyard with Dark monsters, as well as giving you another beatstick, is too good to pass up. So, here’s what we’ve added:

+1 Mystic Tomato

+2 Don Zaloog

+1 Strike Ninja

+1 Raiza the Storm Monarch

+1 Morphing Jar

The extra monsters are important in this build, because most of them will end up in the Graveyard. But now let’s look at Spells. The first thing to go will be the three copies of Dimensional Fissure; it’s not needed, and could be better suited with a second copy of Reinforcement of the Army, a second copy of Lightning Vortex and a copy of Smashing Ground. We’re going to also bump up the count to 13 and add three copies of Enemy Controller; this card will be instrumental in giving you control of the field, as well as maintaining it. Here are the changes to the Spell lineup:

-3 Dimensional Fissure

+1 Reinforcement of the Army

+1 Lightning Vortex

+1 Smashing Ground

+3 Enemy Controller

The Spell lineup is interesting, but the idea behind it is to promote as much control as possible over the field. You’re going to have a hard time maintaining control if you can’t tell your opponent’s monster what to do, and it’s important that we have that advantage. Strike Ninja will be able to last a while, and the Monarchs we’re currently running in the build will only add to the advantage. For Traps, we have to pull it down to five cards, and that’s an easy solution: keep the two copies of Solemn Judgment, the Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force, and Return from the Different Dimension. Everything else goes.

-2 Dimensional Prison

-1 Trap Dustshoot
-1 Macro Cosmos
-2 Dark Bribe

Now the deck is virtually complete. With this build, it’ll be hard to beat because you have a billion options every single turn. With Thestalos and Don Zaloog, you can control your opponent’s hand quite easily, and Caius and Raiza will take care of the field with a bit of help from your Spell and Trap lineups. Ultimately, this deck will provide a real challenge to players with a multitude of decks, but you need to make sure that you have a sidedeck answer for one-off decks like Burn and whatnot. It should be able to handle the metagame fairly well; certain adjustments may need to be made for local level play, where unexpected cards and decks are the norm; however, for the most part it should run well.

Thanks for reading, and as always you can reach me at anteaus44@hotmail.com.

Thanks,

Anteaus