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David "BobDole" Hoffman on Yu-Gi-Oh!

Howdy howdy fellow Pojoers. As some of you may have noticed, I kinda cut it down to an article a week. This is due to a case of extreme laziness. That and I now have a job, so that kinda cuts into writing time. Though I will try to get up two articles next week.

Anyway, it's time for another deck review. I do so enjoy these. It gives everyone a chance to see what makes a deck tick. That by itself increases a players understanding of the game, which is always good. Today we'll look at the Aggro Control deck. It's not just a style of play anymore. This is a rather powerful deck that utilises the best ways of controlling the field while also smacking up your opponants hand. It's quite powerful overall, and I think it's Tier 1, though everyone always argues over what is and isn't Tier 1. Anyway, let's look at the basic build.


Monsters: 18

2x Mobius the Frost Monarch
2x Cyber Dragon

3x Don Zaloog
3x Spirit Reaper
2x D.D. Assailant
1x D.D. Survivor
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
1x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1x Magician of Faith
1x Sangan
1x Exiled Force

Magics: 13

3x Smashing Ground
2x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Snatch Steal
1x Mysticl Space Typhoon
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Premature Burial
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Enemy Controller
1x Book of Moon
1x Pot of Avarice

Traps: 8

3x Sakuretsu Armor
3x Dust Tornado
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Torrential Tribute

First off, this looks really aggro. Multiple D.D. Assailant, three Smashing Ground, no Swords of Revealing or Messenger of Peace. When this deck gets topdecking it's in a bit of trouble. The thing is though, this deck is meant to make your opponant topdeck. With two Mobius, three Smashing and two D.D. Assailant, your opponant will have trouble keeping field presence. All the while Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper slam your opponant up for having an open field. three Dust Tornado is quite essential in this deck. It lets Don Z continuously knock out your opps hand. Not only does this abuse constant advantage, but with two Reinforcement of the Army you can thin pretty good. Enemy Controller can serve both offensive and defensive purposes, making it really really good in this deck. Idealy, you can sacrafice a facedown Sangan for an opponants Mobius or unused Breaker. That makes this dead even more deadly. Pot of Avarice is great to create even more card advantage, leading to an even quicker victory. The main thing about this deck though, is that it's consistant. Nearly every draw will strengthen your field or hand position. In the rare cases where you lack five monsters in the Graveyard, or your opponant has no monsters to Crossout, you'll have atleast a decent bluff. Yet while running three Sakuretsu, you're opponant will almost certainly avoid attacking in fear of that bluff.

Anyway, now that you've seen how this works, let's look at a few things that you will run into often with this deck.

Pure Control can hurt this pretty bad. If you're forced to topdeck while using this deck, you're in trouble. There aren't any defensive spells spare Enemy Controller. Torrential, three Sakuretsu and Call can be used defensively, but if your opponant lands a Jinzo on the field you're in trouble. Basicly anything that can stop all parts of this deck from working.
Pure aggro probably wouldn't fair well against this though, as it tends to use tons of big beatsticks which get shot down with Smashing Ground, Sakuretsu Armor and Mobius. Plus some Aggro Control decks main a Brain Control or two, which you should have sided in this deck anyway. Basicly this deck abuses your opponant for trying to abuse you.

Toolbox Warrior gets hurt playing this. Infact, it's probably the deck that comes closest to equaling this. True TBW gets hurt by the Smashings, it also answers alot of things this deck throws at it. The D.D. Assailant get hurt against D.D. Survivor, Spirit Reaper gets slaughtered against Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, The Warrior Returning Alive makes Smashing seem kinda pointless, and without a Kinetic mained you will have a hard time getting rid of those DDA. Both of these decks use Reinforcement of the Army, though your opponant will most likely have better targets to search. So all in all, this deck can go toe to toe with TBW, but there's no real guarentee of victory for either side. I'm not saying you're guarenteed victory against Aggro, but your chances of victory as much slimmer against a good TBW.

Shield Control completely owns this. Even with three Dust Tornado, you'll have a hard time just getting through the basic defenses inorder to attack. Then you've got Gravity Bind to worry about. Once that hits the field chances are good that a Wave-Motion Cannon wil be coming out soon, which is very very ungood for you. Even if you get an open shot, you'll have wasted so many resources just trying to get that shot that a card from your opponants hand will mostly be one of the other six. Then again, Shield Control owns everything.

Anyway, you've seen how it should work against certain decks. I would suggest going out and trying this deck out for yourself. Test it, tinker with it, make it your own. Just remember who to give credit to. Mack, that's who. Truely this review was inspired by my many many many battles against him, most of which he proved victorious against my TBW, but then again, I still refuse to drop Marauding Captain. However I do believe he's lost twice to my Shield Control, which even he has admitted is awesome.

Well, until next week anyone who's stupid enough to read this. Have a good weekend, and keep sending this deck fixes. I've hit like, 200 e-mails thus far, and my apologies to anyone who hasn't gotten a fix yet. I'm workin' on it. I'm off to finish the finals of a tournament I'm in. I did start a duel yesterday, but my opponant had to leave, so I just said it could be a draw instead of me having to declare an instant victory. He was winning anyway. Go go Toolbox Warrior!


- David "BobDole" Hoffman


Notes: Go go Team Fate. We've got business cards now. Business cards which put all other team-based business cards to shame. Unless of course the person who made them actually knew how to use Photoshop. In that case we get put to shame, but that's besides the point. The point is that on the 20th I'm going to see my girl again, so all praise drivers liscenseseses. Props to Mack, Josh (AKA, WiCkEd), and Al (AKA Duy "b l u E" Bui)