Doesn’t it seem fit to look at the deck list first? Before this, though, I’d like to say that this following format is what I would like to see in the email sent to me, not just a list of the questions and the answers immediately followed afterwards, but I’d like to observe an email in paragraph form, for ease of use in my article formats and the overall appearance of the article. Here’s the email that I received:

Ed,

Hi, I'm nick and this is one of many different deck ideas I’ve tried. It is, to be more specific, a Monarch variant that utilizes Cold Wave and Anti-Spell Fragrance. Overall, the deck is very durable when paired against most of the decks that saturate the current environment; it has the ability to slow down the pace of the game to take full advantage of the monarchs various abilities. However, it is somewhat prone to bad hands from time to time. The occasional bad hands unfortunately give the deck a bit of a flow problem, but other than that, it has no major issue that I have picked up on. The main reason I want to make this deck work is because it fits my play style, which is a general Aggro-Control. I would like your overall opinion of the deck and any suggestions with fine-tuning it to increase its flow, keeping in mind that Cold Wave and Anti-Spell Fragrance are very important to how the deck plays. I plan on taking this deck to regional’s, then nationals; I am that confident in the possibilities of this deck. Also, I know you don't like sideboards, which is why I didn't include one, but if anything strikes you as a major problem that I might face, a suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking time to look at my deck,

Nick

Next, I’d like to look at the deck list that he sent me. It’s in the correct format, so all readers that are thinking about sending me an email requesting a deck fix should look over it and follow the example:

Riding the Wave – 40 Cards

Monsters: 22
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Razia the Storm Monarch
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Darklord Zerato
3 Armageddon Knight
3 Necro Gardna
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Mystic Tomato
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
1 Snipe Hunter

Spells: 12
3 Cold Wave
2 Burial From a Different Dimension
2 Soul Exchange
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 6

3 Solemn Judgment
2 Anti-Spell Fragrance
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

So first off, I’d like to say to Nick that I don’t dislike Side Decks, but the general Meta in different areas around the world can differ greatly, so I wouldn’t want to make a mistake with the sideboard that causes the person’s deck that I’m fixing to disapprove or have problems with it. Secondly, I would like to let everyone know that my Deck Fixes will now take a longer time, because I have chosen to invest as much time as possible into playtesting the deck against the top tier decks of the format (Dark Armed Dragon Return, Gladiator Beasts, Shadowpriestess OTK, etc.) in order to achieve the best result when changing the deck. First, I’d like to report to you guys what the results of my playtesting was:

Against Oppression Gadgets

I thought it would be a good idea to test this deck against Oppression Gadgets mainly because both of these decks are aiming to counter the Meta, but in totally different ways. Because Oppression Gadgets have indeed proved to be pretty useful in the format, I’ve tested these two decks first and gathered data from 10 duels, without either deck side-decking between duels. This deck fares quite well against Gadgets, but it can easily be outnumbered by the number of monsters that the Gadgets have at their disposal. Also, Anti-Spell Fragrance didn’t work too well, since the only Spells that Gadget users would need to use during the turn they draw them are Lightning Vortex and Smashing Ground. The other important Spells like Shrink and Enemy Controller could be set for a turn and then be activated, which isn’t even a slight problem. To fix these problems, we can utilize the use of multiple Dust Tornados to destroy those pesky facedown cards before they can be activated. Anti-Spell Fragrance would force the opponent to set the cards, and Dust Tornado and Mystical Space Typhoon would destroy them.

However, when Cold Wave is activated when Riding the Wave has field advantage, the Gadget deck is devastated, because it can’t set any Shrinks or Enemy Controllers for defense. So I think that the Dust Tornados are the only precaution that needs to be taken based on the data gathered from this first playtesting session.

Against Gladiator Beasts

Now, I don’t think I need to explain why I chose to playtest Nick’s deck against Gladiator Beasts, I mean they took Shonen Jump Championship Minneapolis by surprise, and if any player that runs Gladiator Beasts plays as conservatively as Paul Levitin, this deck would most likely be devastated, especially since Levitin’s conservative plays led his opponent to think that he was safe while he was planning to flip his Crush Card Virus, which is the worst card that this deck can deal with. So, I’ve decided to fix this problem with a pair Jinzo’s. Jinzo is another 2400 beat stick, and it prevents opponents from activating the horrible Crush Card Virus. Solemn Judgment takes care of any cards that would potentially destroy any hope of card advantage that Nick could have when playing this deck (including Crush Card Virus) and it also prevents Nick’s Gladiator Beast opponents from summoning any Gladiator Beasts that could shift the duel in the opponent’s direction. I would also like to include a copy of Deck Devastation Virus, since there are so many monsters that can be sacrificed to activate its effect. This prevents opponents from building up walls with cards like Spirit Reaper or Marshmallon, slowing down the speed of Nick’s deck, and it can prevent the opponent from drawing any monsters that can be sacrificed for Crush Card Virus. If you’re wondering why I’m not asking Nick to include Crush Card Virus in his deck, it’s because there aren’t many cards that I can add into the deck to make a decent amount of monsters that can be sacrificed for its effect that wouldn’t conflict with the deck as a whole.

Nevertheless, if Nick’s opponent is running Gladiator Beasts and isn’t conservative, then Nick might have something to worry about, since Gladiator Beasts can become extremely annoying then played aggressively. In attempt to fix this problem, I’d like to tell Nick to include 3 Royal Oppressions in his Side Deck, and include 2 Bottomless Trap Holes in his Main Deck.

So far, we’ve tested the deck against Oppression Gadgets and Gladiator Beasts and chose to add 2 Dust Tornados, 2 Jinzo’s, 1 Deck Devastation Virus, and 2 Bottomless Trap Holes. This makes the total card count 47 cards, but we only want 41, if not 40. So let’s see which cards we should remove from the deck.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

I’m choosing to remove both copies of this card from the deck because they only do well against Dark Armed Dragon Return decks; or rather Dark Armed Dragon Return is the only competitive deck that Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer can do a good job against. I want to let Nick know that I want him to move this to his Side Deck, as just totally removing this card from the decklist isn’t reasonable with Dark Armed Dragon Return decks still pretty common. The only problem with Main Decking this is that multiple new kinds of decks have rose to the top, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep Kycoo in the deck when the chances of facing a DAD deck in a tournament has significantly decreased since the beginning of the format. This brings the card-count down to 45 cards.

Mobius the Frost Monarch

This might come as a shock to some readers, but I think it’s necessary. Removing both copies of Mobius the Frost Monarch from the deck actually helps the deck, since they won’t be needed and be replaces by Jinzo. Mobius is indeed a useful card, but it can be dealt with too easily with cards like Bottomless Trap Hole and Crush Card Virus being chained to Mobius’s effect. Jinzo, on the other hand, doesn’t allow players to chain cards to its effect and forces the opponent to activate Solemn Judgment on the turn that Jinzo is summoned. If they, for whatever reason, don’t have Solemn Judgment at the time that Jinzo is summoned onto the field, Nick has the opportunity to take a huge chunk of life points from his opponent. If they do activate Solemn Judgment in response to Jinzo’s summon, Nick can use that to his advantage, knowing that his opponent has already activated x amount of Solemn Judgments. This brings the card-count down to 43 cards.

Armageddon Knight

This card is extremely useful in this deck, so I’m not removing all 3 copies, but just 1. Why? Because the only card that should be sent directly to the Graveyard via Armageddon Knight’s effect is Necro Gardna, and with Necro Gardna in three’s, there’s a pretty high possibility that Necro Gardna will already be on the field, in the Graveyard, or in the hand by the time that Armageddon Knight can be Summoned. This brings the card-count down to 42 cards.

Mystic Tomato

Mystic Tomato is a great card when you take a look at all the possible targets that are included in the deck, but when testing the deck, Mystic Tomato almost never came up until most of the DARK monsters with 1500 or less attack points were already in my hand, in the Graveyard, or on the field. This means that by the time I draw Mystic Tomato, it already became a dead-draw. When Mystic Tomato is only run by itself, without any other copies, it’s not too useful. The problem is that we don’t have any room for another one, so we have to get rid of it altogether. Now the total card count is 41 cards

Soul Exchange

I’m just removing this card because I’m going to add Brain Control to replace one copy of Soul Exchange. Brain Control not only takes control of an opponent’s monster so that it can be used for Tribute Fodder without giving up a Battle Phase, but it also allows Nick to press for more damage, and it can eventually win him the duel. Brain Control was limited because of its OTK possibilities, so why not include him in the deck instead of Soul Exchange? Now the card count is 40 cards, not quite what I can get it down to.

Darklord Zerato

With 8 one-tribute monsters already included in the deck, including a Darklord Zerato just makes this deck even harder to play and it disrupts the flow of the deck. Keeping this card in the deck could result in starting hands having all high-level monsters or at least 4 of them. To reduce this risk, we’ll take Darklord Zerato out, bringing the number of cards down to 39, but, with Brain Control, the card count is 40.

Let’s continue with the playtesting results, shall we?

Against Monarchs

I’ve chosen to test this deck against Monarchs since they took Shonen Jump Championship Nashville by surprise, and they have proven themselves to be a rather useful deck-type once again. Just like before, Monarchs versus Monarchs is a pretty hard matchup to predict, but this deck fares pretty well against normal Monarchs because of its key cards: Cold Wave and Anti-Spell Fragrance. There is a slight problem when Monarchs and their horrible effects come along and dominate the field, but I’ve included Bottomless Trap Holes to take care of that, and the Solemn Judgments also help out with this problem. Nothing needs to be added here.

Against Dark Armed Dragon Return

There’s no explanation needed for why I tested Riding the Wave against DAD Return, I mean it just continues to dominate tournament scenes. Nick’s deck and its key cards work very well against DAD Return, and I think he intended for those cards to work against it. However, Cold Wave and Anti-Spell Fragrance don’t stop Armageddon Knight from building up DARK monsters in the Graveyard, and Anti-Spell Fragrance can only keep those Allures and Destiny Draws from activating one turn later. Consequently, I’ve chosen to include cards that I’ve mentioned before: Solemn Judgment and Bottomless Trap Hole. Still, I want to tell Nick that the Side Deck is very important, and I suggest including Vanity’s Fiend with Royal Oppression. After siding, this deck should do well against DAD.

Those were all the decks that I playtested against, and we’ve gotten some good results from those testing sessions. There are still some more cards that I’d like to add as well. First, I’d like to include Treeborn Frog. Nick probably didn’t include Treeborn Frog because Anti-Spell Fragrance conflicted with its effect, but his opponent is bound to use Heavy Storm, Dust Tornado, or Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Trap Card, and, once that happens, we want Treeborn Frog in the Graveyard so we can easily Tribute Summon a Monarch the following turn. Treeborn is just a precaution, and we can never be too careful. If I want to include Treeborn Frog, I surely have to remove a card from the deck in return, and I choose a copy of Cold Wave. Why? Well, Cold Wave is indeed a great card and it’s too useful against the decks of the format, but it disagrees with multiple cards in the deck like Soul Exchange and Lightning Vortex. Running Cold Wave in three’s is a pretty big risk, as when it’s drawn late-game, it doesn’t work wonders anymore.

Here are the changes I’ve made to the deck:

- 2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
- 2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
- 1 Armageddon Knight
- 1 Mystic Tomato
- 1 Soul Exchange
- 1 Darklord Zerato
- 1 Cold Wave

+ 2 Dust Tornado
+ 2 Jinzo
+ 1 Deck Devastation Virus
+ 2 Bottomless Trap Hole
+ 1 Treeborn Frog
+ 1 Brain Control

That basically wraps it all up; let’s take a look at the final decklist:

Riding the New Wave – 40 Cards

Monsters: 17

3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Jinzo
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Armageddon Knight
3 Necro Gardna
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 11

2 Cold Wave
2 Burial From a Different Dimension
1 Soul Exchange
1 Brain Control
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 12

3 Solemn Judgment
2 Bottomleess Trap Hole
1 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Dust Tornado
2 Anti-Spell Fragrance

All these changes will most likely work with Nick’s play-style, and I’m sure that he’ll be satisfied. However, I do make mistakes (as many of you know), so please e-mail me at lightningsaphira94@gmail.com if any one of you guys notices one. Also feel free to send any article requests, feedback, or deck fixes to me at that e-mail address. Keep in mind that you must follow my Submittal Guidelines while sending me a Deck Fix email.

Have Fun and Play Fair!