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MOFOX’S DECK EVOLUTION SERIES
Aggro & Control
Sept 15, 2006 

Before we begin constructing the 3 decks I was thinking about how we will go about building them and began looking into the methods of deck construction.  There are some great tips on various websites, and on the Pojo Message Boards.  One thing that cropped up a lot is the choice of building aggro or control type decks or even a mix of both.  I therefore looked into the differences between aggro and control, what they mean and how they apply to deck building.  I will be writing a two-part article discussing each.  Here is what I came up with when looking at Aggro Decks.

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AGGRO

The term Aggro is an abbreviation of the word aggressive

It describes a deck by which you use the method of continuously attacking your opponent until you beat them to a pulp. 

The idea of an Aggro deck is to start quickly and keep attacking, attacking, attacking until the opponent runs out of defences and eventually succumbs to defeat.  Lets show a very simple scenario to show how aggro decks work:

Opponent Turn 1: Sets 1 Mon f/d

You Turn 1: Summon a Mon and attack and destroy opponents Mon

Opponent Turn 2: Opponent sets another Mon f/d

You Turn 2: You summon another Monster and first destroy your opponent’s new monster then attack directly with the other

Opponent Turn 3: Opponent sets another Mon f/d

You Turn 3: You summon a third Mon and destroy your opponent’s new set monster then attack with the other 2 directly

Opponent Turn 4: Opponent sets another Mon f/d

You Turn 4: You summon a fourth Mon and destroy your opponent’s new set monster and attack with the other 3 directly

Now if all your monsters had 2000ATK then that right there would be game (Turn 2 you do 2000 damage, Turn 3 you do 4000 damage, Turn 4 your do 6000 damage = total damage 12000).  That was a very simple example but you can understand the principle.  Attack, Attack, Attack!!

Now if we step that scenario up a level so that we can grow our understanding of Aggro principles, I think I will use my favourite cards Ojama Trio and Gyaku Gire Panda:

Opponent Turn 1: Sets 1 Mon and 1 s/t

You Turn 1: Summon Enraged Battle Ox and set 2 s/t.  You Attack the set Mon, which is Dekoichi, you cause piercing damage (700) and your opponent draws a card.

Opponent Turn 2: Summons Exiled Force and tributes to destroy your Enraged Battle Ox.  Then activates Last Will to summon Spirit Reaper, puts Reaper in Defense and activates their set s/t MST to destroy one of your set s/t.  You chain your trap Ojama Trio putting 3 tokens on your opponent’s field.  Your opponent sets a s/t and ends turn.

You Turn 2: You summon Rescue Cat and use its effect to get 2 Gyaku Gire Pandas from your deck.  You activate Premature Burial to bring back Enraged Battle Ox.  You attack reaper with one of your 2800ATK Pandas, your opponent activates Sakuretsu Armor, you chain your other set s/t Beast Soul Swap and put your Panda back in hand and summon again.  You attack the reaper with all 3 monsters causing piercing damage (6700).  Only 1 Panda goes to the graveyard as per Rescue Cats effect as Beast Soul Swap has removed the conditions placed upon the other Panda by Rescue Cat’s effect.

Your Opponent Turn 3: Opponent discards Magician of Faith from hand to activate Lightning Vortex destroying all your monsters.  They then remove Dekoichi and Magician of Faith from play to special summon Chaos Sorcerer and hit you for 2300, attack with reaper to discard from your hand and set 1 s/t.

You Turn 3: You activate MST on your opponents set s/t, they chain book of moon on their Reaper.  You summon Injection Fairy Lily, pay the lifepoints boost her to 3400 ATK and attack Chaos Sorcerer for game.

Hopefully you followed that hectic example, but there you can see a more complicated example of how an Aggro Deck just keeps attacking and attacking until it beats the opponent down.  The cards used by the opponent are all typical control cards, Dekoichi, Exiled Force, MST, Last Will, Spirit Reaper, Lightning Vortex, Book of Moon are all common cards used in control decks.

I’ve seen many people recommend that new players initially stick to aggro decks, as they are a bit simpler to play.  The premise of attack, attack, attack generally fits into a new players impressions on how to play the game.  However aggro decks should be played a lot more carefully and strategically.  Overextending without finishing your opponent could leave you in a vulnerable position next turn, not starting quickly enough could give your opponent chance to get his control strategy into play, build up the parts for his OTK or even get too far ahead with their own aggro strategy.  Selecting the right cards for an aggro deck are vital in making sure you have a quick and powerful attacking force that at the same time prevents the opponent from taking advantage of a failed push at their lifepoints.  Now I’m not going to personally build an aggro deck here but I will select a few notable cards that are definitely aggro orientated.

Trample Cards – Any cards offering trample (the ability to deduct life points even if the opposing monster was in defense mode) are definitely aggro cards.  Some of these such as Airknight Parshath have an additional effect making them excellent choices for aggro decks.  You will find your hand depleting very quickly with an aggro strategy so cards that can replenish your hand help balance this weakness.

Hydrogeddon – Arguably the ultimate aggro card.  Destroy a monster and send it to the graveyard to special summon another Hydrogeddon.  As this is done in the battle phase that newly summoned monster can attack also.  Destroy another monster and you can summon another Hydrogeddon.  With only a max of 3 allowed in the deck, if you could somehow keep at least one Hydrogeddon on the field and recycle the others into the deck with Pot of Avarice then you could potentially have an endless stream of Hydrogeddons beating down your opponent.

Enraged Battle Ox  - This ain’t no ordinary Battle Ox, no this one is p****d off.  It gives the trample ability to all other beast/beast-warrior type monsters on the field, see above for trample.

Exertion Universe – Switch on the trample ability at will for the sacrifice of 400ATK points.

Steamroid – Attack with this guy and he is boosted to 2300ATK, who’s gonna mess with this wrecking train, Cyber Dragon… I don’t think so!!

These are just a few but there are many many more.

If you were to play an aggro deck how would you do it?  Well your deck would be constructed with high ATK power monsters, most likely contain some trample and have ways of swarming the field with special summoned monsters at short notice.  The idea is always to get off to a quick start.  Push your opponent early and force him to make defensive moves he might not want to.  Making your opponent use cards when they don’t want to just so they can defend their lifepoints is exactly what you want to do.  One thing about aggro decks is that if you are gonna make a big push make sure that there is nothing that could stop it.  Removing potential traps and spells will make sure you won’t fall foul to a Torrential Tribute or something similar.  Facedown cards with troublesome effects can also scupper your plans, cards like Mystic Swordsman & Nobleman of Crossout are useful for this.

I’ll leave you with one thought:

“Destroying a monster in battle is the most basic +1 advantage in the game.”

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My email address is mofox9@hotmail.co.uk email me for any help or advice or even your opinions on my articles.  I would love to hear your opinions and if you have any suggestions to improve them then let me know.  I will reply to all emails that are sent to me.  Remember newbies no question is a stupid question.

Until next time fellow duellists!