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GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
Budget Gadget Rachet
January 22, 2009

Free Gadgets For Everyone!
 
Well, I went to town in my General Musings article all about the virtues of a Gadget deck. I have to say, they have never been my favorite deck type. I always viewed them as far too slow. I was always a Monarch man myself. Well, anyway, the last time I saw a Gadget build was in the Gladiator Format when it was piloted by Nationals Runner-Up Mark Garcia. Naturally when a player like Mark picks up what many say is a dead deck, you have to take notice. I must also say that I have heard of, but not seen, a Gadget deck that sides into Gladiators. There are clearly tons of different ways that we can take the Gadget deck. The way I see it, there are four main types; Negation, Removal, Swarm and Destruction. I will go over each of them, strengths and weaknesses, and then we will make the deck on paper so that you can see the decision-making process.
 
Negation Gadgets are pretty easy to build. The key cards are Thunderking Rai-Oh and Royal Oppression, forcing your opponent to work around your cards that are limiting their options. Little City and Counter Fairies function this way. A lot of Counter Traps also make it into the lineup like Solemn Judgment and Divine Wrath, whose cost is mitigated by the Gadgets themselves. The weakness with this deck is going second. If you go second, your opponent already has cards on the field, forcing you to make some proactive plays with your Gadgets, not something we want to do in this deck. This deck also packs less destruction, making it more effective against Stardust Dragon than Colossal Fighter.
 
Removal Gadgets are all about removing cards from play. Macro Cosmos, D.D. Survivor, Dimensional Fissure and I have even seen Dark Core make the cut here. The idea is that much of your opponent's strength is going to be in the graveyard, and if that graveyard is removed, then they have more limited options in which your removal spells and Gadgets can deal with whatever is left over. This deck also does not pack as much destruction as other builds, so it is relatively easy to run over a Gadget, but D.D. Survivor can help with that. The major weakness here is that if you do not get Macro Cosmos, Banisher of the Radiance or Dimensional Fissure, you have a bunch of dead cards in your hand. The deck also topdecks very badly, as stray copies of removal cards do not deal with that Thought Ruler Archfiend they just summoned.
 
Swarm Gadgets make use of getting a lot of Gagdets to the field. They use cards like Threatening Roar, Waboku and Messenger of Peace to stop your opponent's Battle Phase so you can swarm with Gadgets. This deck favors destruction spells over traps, using Smashing Ground, Fissure, Hammer Shot and Soul Taker to destroy your opponent's monsters and then Battle away. In fact, I have even seen this build run Jinzo to stop opposing Traps from messing you up. The weakness with this deck is Destruction negation. Generally the deck will not run Shrink, so Stardust Dragon is going to mess you up bad. As with all Gadget decks, Spell and Trap destruction ruins the deck. This deck will probably fair a little better nowadays, as the emphasis has been place on the Battle Phase for opposing decks, rather than the Main Phase.
 
The Destruction Gadget build is the classic one. They pack basically removal cards and Gadgets, with the main strategy that your opponent is going to run out of monsters before you run out of Gadgets. They pack the max of Sakuretsu Armor and Dimensional Prison as well as Bottomless Trap Hole and the usual spell removal. This was what the famous 5th Gadget build was, destruction with a 5th of the deck being Gadget cards. The weakness of this deck is of course going to be Stardust Dragon. This can be easily mitigated by the use of Compulsory Evacuation Device instead of Bottomless Trap Hole. I feel that this has always been the strongest Gadget build, so we are going to go into the deck building with this card in mind.
 
The Monsters
 
The Gadgets-Red Gadget, Yellow Gadget and Green Gadget
Thunderking Rai-Oh
Drillroid
Cyber Dragon
Jinzo
Elemental Hero Wildheart
Rose-Warrior of Revenge
D.D. Survivor
Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
 
 
That's a lot of monsters that I have selected for the deck. As we are going to stick to a 40 cards deck instead of going to a 45 card 5th Gadget build, we have to make a lot of cuts. The first is Thunderking Rai-Oh, who will not only negate your own Gadgets, but make it that much hrader to draw into a Gadget. The second is Drillroid, who has almost no use anymore due to the utter lack ot most Flip monsters. Cyber Dragon gets axed too, as at one we cannot use Future Fusion and Overload Fusion to get Chimeratech Overdragon going. Jinzo is cut as well, simply because we are playing more traps than the Swarm build. D.D. Survivor gets cut initially because of the lack of removal cards and the fact that an 1800 ATK slot is better reserved for Kycoo.
 
So if we play each of the remaining cards at 3, we get this
 
9x Gadgets
3x Wildheart
3x Rose
3x Kycoo
 
That is a healthy number of monsters at 18. I would prefer to go for less though, but we'll move on to the Spell and Trap cards in order to see if we have to make any cuts.
 
The Spells
 
Soul Taker
Heavy Storm
Giant Trunade
Smashing Ground
Fissure
Hammer Shot
Lightning Vortex
Monster Reborn
Brain Control
Shrink
Reinforcements of the Army
Shield Crush
 
The first card that we are going to cut here is Heavy Storm! Oh Shock and AWE! Giant Trunade is better here as we will be playing a TON of Traps. Next is Brain Control, as it doesn't actually kill anything. Hammer Shot is next, as a chained Shrink or Book of Moon can have you kill your own card. Shiel dCrush gets the axe becaus ewho plays cards in defense mode anymore? So if we leave it as is, we get:
 
3x Soul Taker
1x Giant Trunade
1x Smashing Ground
1x Fissure
3x Lightning Vortex
1x Monster Reborn
3x Shrink
3x Reinforcements of the Army
 
That means that 16 spells is too much. So we will do a little trimming right now. ROTA is put to 2, as is Shrink and Lightning Vortex. That leaves us at 13, much better.
 
The Traps
 
Dimensional prison
Sakuretsu Armor
Widespread Ruin
Mirror Force
Torrential Tribute
Bottomless Trap Hole
Compulsory Evacuation Device
Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
Solemn Judgment
 
Well, as much as it pains me, we will have to cut all o fthese three cards, Sakuretsu Armor, Widespread Ruin and Bottomless Trap Hole. Saku and Widespread get negated by Stardust and are not chainable, meaning that you probably don't want to play them. Bottomless is great, except that Malicious and Krebons can't be hit by them. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast is next, as we can easily remove threats and Compulsory will deal with Synchros. That leaves us with:
 
3x Dimensional Prison
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
3x Compulsory Evacuation Device
3x Solemn Judgment
 
leaving us with 11 Trap cards. The trap lineup is likely not to change, so we can leave it as is.
 
The Deck
 
We are over our 40 card limit, so we have to make a couple of tough cuts. Wait, just a Rose and Wildheart, not so tough afterall. So we will have the finished decklist like this:
 
To Be A Gadget
 
Monsters-16
9x Gadgets
2x Wildheart
2x Rose
3x Kycoo
 
Spells-13
3x Soul Taker
1x Giant Trunade
1x Smashing Ground
1x Fissure
2x Lightning Vortex
1x Monster Reborn
2x Shrink
2x Reinforcements of the Army
 
Traps-11
3x Dimensional Prison
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
3x Compulsory Evacuation Device
3x Solemn Judgment
 
 
And the Pieces Come Together
 
The deck is going to play very nicely. The only hole is that you may not draw a Gadget in your oppening hand. Don't fret. You can stall with your destruction cards until you can get the Gadgets to the field. Keep in mind that this is a skeleton deck that can be modified for playstyle as well as metagame. The idea is tohit the field with Gadgets and keep them on the field. Simple. This is very similar to the Monarch builds of old. Except that you should not run out of cards before your opponent.
 
Wildheart is perfect for opposing Phoenix Wing Wind Blasts. He is an aggressive beast, able to punch through almost any defense that has been prepared. This is great for attacking into the unknown, as Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute hurt you badly. this guy, not so much.
 
Rose is there for Synchro Summoning. Her effect is nice, but Synchroing with a Gadget is glorious, and will often help you to win the game before DAD or Judgment Dragon hits the field.
 
The Gadgets are your main Battle Force, allowing you to attack without fear of removal as if a Gadget is spun, all the better for you. They get you cards in hand for Lightning Vortex as well as batttle.
 
Kycoo prevents the pesky Necor Gardna, Mezuki and Malicious cards that are goimg to ruin your day. Kycoo is an all-star this format, so you should be able to remove a large part of your opponent's graveyard form play due to his effect.
 
Soul Taker is your answer to everything that is not Thought Ruler Archfiend and Stardust Dragon. The 1000 lp gain is minimal, and an attack from a Gadget will wipe that out easy, so removaing any face-up monster is worth it.
 
Smashing Ground and Fissure fall into the same category as Soul Taker, only without any benefit for your opponent. They are your old standbyes to get rid of Thought Ruler or even Stardust for a turn.
 
Giant Trunade is yoru spell and trap removal. You do not want to kill your own traps, so Heavy Storm is out. It is a temporary solution, but you can often force a lot of damage through in one turn.
 
Lighting Vortex is your panic button. You activate it when things are getting too hot for a single kill spell to handle, so why not take out everything? Spare Gadgets feed this card quite nicely, so it is a natural fit.
 
Monster Reborn brings back any card you need, especially Rose for additional Synchro Summoning. It is one of the best cards int ehgame, so it should not be overlooked, even here.
 
Shrink is the answer when everything else fails. You can Shrink just about anything except for TRA, so it is a good multipurpose answer when you have no other option.
 
Reinforcements of the Army speeds you a little bit through the deck as well as getitng the right Warrior for the job. need a Synchro? Get Rose. Need to attack through D-Prison andMirror Force? Wildheart is your man.
 
Dimensional Prison kills any card except for Thought Ruler, so you will be using it a lot. Synchros hate it and non-legendary monsters do too. I tisn't chainable, so you should be careful about setting it if you suspect Lyla, Breaker, JD or DAD.
 
Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute are your Mass Destruction, clearing teh way for your Gagdet Brigade. Not much else to say except tha tthese are the big Daddies for the deck.
 
Compulsory Evacuation Device is spot removal, forcing Malicious or Krebons back toyour opponent's hand and delaying Synchro Summoning or just killing the Synchro Itself. This is one of the better cards right now, and there is no reason not to run it.
 
Solemn Judgment stops anything you don't like, so JD, DAD and whatever you need to be stopped can be Stopped. It is good in the game right now, and is the only expensive card in the deck, so yeah.
 
Well, that is it for me today. Hopefully I will write even more in the future, so you can email me at raptor1k@hotmail.com with any ideas or whatever, azs I really do appreciate emails.
 
Thanx for Reading!
GZ