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GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
Kickin' It Old School!
January 16, 2008

Glory Days
 
Oh I remember a time when Monarchs reigned supreme. Not just that pushy new guy on the block Raiza. A time when Zaborg was worth his salt and Mobius was king. Granmarg still got no love though. I am talking about the deck supreme from last year, Plain Old Monarchs. Now everyone is using that D-Raida build, or that Perfect Circle build or that rogue deck. What happened to the old deck that made it so obsolete? Well nothing actually. Card Trooper was brought down, and that was about it. People have an incessant need to try out new cards. So much so that they often forget that there are older cards that are just as good if not better. Gravekeeper's are one such deck, along with Machines. This led to people wanting to use the D-Heroes and Light and Darkness Dragon over the old reliable. Sadly I was one of these people until I caught myself. D-Heroes just weren't for me. I still prefer the methodical juggernaut style of play that is the hallmark of the old Monarch decks. So I build one again. It actually started out as a Gravekeeper Monarch deck, but that was a really bad idea and it morphed into this.
 
Monsters-22
 
3x Cyber Dragon
3x Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
3x Raiza the Storm Monarch
1x Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
 
3x Gravekeeper's Spy
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Gravekeeper's Guard
1x Card Trooper
1x Treeborn Frog
1x Sangan
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Marshmallon
1x Magician of Faith
 
 
Spells-12
 
2x Creature Swap
1x Premature Burial
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Brain Control
1x Scapegoat
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Enemy Controller
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Soul Exchange
1x Book of Moon
 
Traps-6
 
2x Dimensional Fissure
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Torrential Tribute
 
 
That Was Soooo Last Season!
 
I actually lied. I have seen this deck in this format before, it was at SJC San Mateo. There were several copies of the deck peppered across the floor. I actually found (through my extreme powers of observation) that they were not losing to D-Raida. They were losing to Rogue decks like Baburn and Macro Cosmos. This got me thinking that quite possibly the Standard Monarch players just had a run of bad luck in being paired up with bad matches. The deck is still very good. I can't think of a deck that runs Nobleman of Crossout as standard fair except for Gadgets, so that is good news for your flipping Gravekeepers. Zaborg is at an all time low, so that leaves only Raiza as a nuisance to facedowns. In fact I saw that people were more willing to sit on their Raiza and wait for their Light and Darkness Dragon to hit the field.
 
 
Trade You My Tomato For Your Uber Monster?
 
In fact there is actually almost nothing different from this deck and last season's craze. Only that I have added copies of Creature Swap. Zombie decks have shown us that Creature Swap is exceedingly powerful in the right hands. Even swapping for a Frog and denying it to your opponent is a potent trick. However the card really shines with Recruiters, like my pair of Mystic Tomato. You swap your tomato for their Raiza and then you get another attacker (usually Spirit Reaper or Sangan in this deck) to continue to beat face with. D-Raida decks have a problem with constant pressure, as they need a little bit of time to set up their combos. Thanks to the liquid structure of this deck, all we nee is a Monarch and tribute fodder to get the deck going. Creature Swap allows us to keep up constant rpessure on the opponent as well as disrupting the strategy to which the D-Raida deck is so accustomed.
 
 
Light the Fires and Kick the Tires Big Daddy
 
A card actually almost made it into the deck just to counter D-Raida. Disturbance Strategy. It is a Normal Trap that makes your opponent Reload their hand. So that means that after they have done their searching for Stratos or Reinforcements of the Army, you can have them draw dead Malicious cards later on. Hwoever I decided that it was too narrow of a use for a deck that can be so fluid in it's win condition. Instead I chose Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. Normally I would have gone with more Zaborg and a couple of Mobius, but Thestalos gives us that little bit of disruption that we are looking for. Though it is not as disruptive as Disturbance Strategy, it (to quote my Magic the Gathering playing friend) "has huge honkin legs!" The 2400 ATK attached to Thestalos means that it will often deal much more damage to the opponent than a simple spell or trap card.
 
 
Tech Deck Heroes
 
I also found in my brief stint in playing D-Raida that Destiny Hero Plasma is AMAZING. He stops every deck except only slowing down burn. With the popularity of Baburn onthe rise, I felt obligated to point out that Plasma need not be relegated to Destiny Hero decks at all. Unlike his slightly more imposing cousin, Dogma, Plasma only requires three tributes, no Destiny Heroes needed. He would be good tech for this deck, even though there are no other Destiny Heroes simply because it is an excellent card and can devastate an opponent in rather short order. I did not include him in this deck because I felt that you (the players) needed to make that call and not me.
 
Well that is it for this article, don't forget about my Card Contest, Details are in my Articles Section under "So You Want to Design a Yu-Gi-Oh! Card". You can email me entries, questions and comments at raptor1k@hotmail.com and I do love email. It may take me a while to get back to you, being a 21 year old college student and all, but I will get back to you asap. If I forget, just remind me!
 
Thanks for reading!
GZ