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Deck Analysis:

The Armed Dragon Deck
May 24, 2006

Welcome, everyone.
 

Today I’m going to present you a new article that will explain to you how an Armed Dragon Deck can be built. This time, though, I will show you the deck of Cameron Waud. He has created an Armed Dragon Deck and he sent it to me. His deck obviously uses the Armed Dragons as its main cards, but it can do this in a very special way.

Lets’s take a look at the Deck List of Cameron Waud’s Armed Dragon Deck first.

Armed Dragon Deck: (40)

Monsters: 19

1 Armed Dragon LV7

2 Armed Dragon LV5 

2 Armed Dragon LV3 

3 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast 

3 Chainsaw Insect 

3 Masked Dragon 

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magician of Faith

1 Mirage Dragon

1 Sangan

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

Spells: 15

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Snatch Steal

2 Level Up! 

2 My Body as a Shield 

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Nobleman of Crossout 

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Premature Burial

2 Stamping Destruction 

1 Swords of Revealing Light

Traps: 6

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ceasefire

2 Dust Tornado 

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

Deck Summary

The Armed Dragons: The Armed Dragons form the main part of Cameron’s Deck. He uses 2 copies of LV3, 2 copies of LV5 and 1 copy of LV7. He did this to make the amount of Tribute Monsters as small as possible; that’s also why Armed Dragon LV10 isn’t in. With only 2 copies of Armed Dragon LV3, it might seem hard to get out Armed Dragon LV5, since you’ll need an Armed Dragon LV3 to Special Summon him on the easy way. However, this is where Masked Dragon jumps in. He can search out Armed Dragon LV3, among others, and thus you’ll be able to bring out LV3 quite easily, even though he’s only in twice. More than 2 copies of Armed Dragon LV5 would be bad, mainly because the deck would contain too many Tribute Monsters then and that might lead to bad hands. Armed Dragon LV7 is a Nomi, which makes him a dead draw most of the time. That’s why one copy of him is enough.

Mirage Dragon: Mirage Dragon is a very nice choice is in this deck. It supports the Dragon Theme that this deck has and it provides ultimate defense to your Armed Dragons. With only the Armed Dragons and Masked Dragon, Stamping Destruction might become a dead draw at some times as well, but with the addition of Mirage Dragon, Stamping Destruction got one more friend.

Twin-Headed Behemoth: The same thing goes for this guy: He increases the utility of Stamping Destruction by being a Dragon, but that’s not the only thing he does. Whenever he’s destroyed and sent from the field to the Graveyard, he’s Special Summoned to the field with an ATK and DEF of 1000 points. That means that when you set him in Defense Mode and he gets destroyed, you will still be able to summon Armed Dragon LV5 during your next turn, thanks to this wonderful revival effect. And of course, he can be searched out by Masked Dragon, when that’s absolutely necessary.

Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast and Chainsaw Insect: These two cards form the most interesting thing about this deck. Both Fusilier and Chainsaw Insect have very high ATK values (2800 and 2400), so they will work perfectly with the destruction effects of the Armed Dragons. The best thing about these guys is that they won’t be dead draws most of the time. Fusilier can double as a 4-star monster with avarage stats (1400/1000). He will then still be strong enough to take out Don Zaloog (even though it’s suicide), Mystic Swordsman LV2 and lots of commonly played Flip-Effect Monsters. So even if you haven’t got an Armed Dragon out, you can still make good use out of this card...Heck, the revival cards work great with him as well...summoning a 2800 ATK monster out of nothing is pretty surprising and nice. Chainsaw Insect has one of the highest ATK’s of all Level 4 monsters. Armor Exe has the same amount, but his effect makes him totally unplayable. Giant Kozaky has 2500 ATK, but he’ll only survive as long as Kozaky, a Normal Monster with stats of 400/400, is face-up on the field, which is something really awful. And above that, he inflicts 2500 damage to your own Life Points when he’s destroyed...Chainsaw Insect has an effect that obviously forms a downside, but it’s not as bad as you may think it is: Whenever this card battles a monster, your opponent draws 1 card at the end of the Damage Step. As you can see, its effect is only activated when it battles a monster, meaning that when he attacks directly, your opponent won’t get the draw. Its 2400 ATK can take out almost anything that’s commonly played, even though your opponent gets to draw a card. But of course, this card should be used as discard fodder (actually, you aren’t really discarding for Armed Dragon’s effect. Your sending a card from your hand to the Graveyard) for the effects of the Armed Dragons. That way, you will most likely be able to take out any monster that crosses your path.

Level Up!: This card is added to speed up the process of bringing out Armed Dragon LV5/7. When you were able to bring out Armed Dragon LV3 through the effect of Masked Dragon (which will be in your opponent’s turn most of the time), you can level him up by its own effect to summon Armed Dragon LV5 and then activate Level Up! to bring out Armed Dragon LV7 without having to destroy a monster in battle first.

My Body As a Shield: This card is one of the cards of which I think that they should see more play than they do now. My Body As a Shield is a wonderful card; at the cost of 1500 Life Points, it lets you counter anything that might harm one of your monsters. It negates Sakuretsu Armor, Mirror Force, Smashing Ground, Nobleman of Crossout, Old Vindictive Magician, and many others. His purpose in this deck is obvious: With Armed Dragon LV7 being a Nomi (which means that he can’t be Special Summoned from the Graveyard), this deck needed cards that could protect it properly so that it wouldn’t be destroyed with great ease. My Body As a Shield does a perfect job at that point. You can even activate it from your hand in your own Battle Phase to drop it as a nice surprise.

Nobleman of Crossout: This card is a pure staple in this deck. With Armed Dragon taking care of almost any face-up monster, this card wipes out any face-down monster, which gives you a very nice control of over the field.

Pot of Avarice: Another interesting choice. Again, Armed Dragon LV7 is a Nomi, but with this card you will still have an option to ‘revive’ him when sent to the Graveyard. But this card is also very easy to use in this deck. Masked Dragons and Armed Dragon LV3’s that are levelling up will fill your Graveyard quickly, so you will meet the necessary requirements in order to activate this card qutie often.

Stamping Destruction: Wonderful tech here. With all the Armed Dragons being Dragons, Mirage Dragon, three copies of Masked Dragon and a Twin-Headed Dragon, you won’t have any problems when you want to activate this card. It forms perfect protection for your Armed Dragons, since it can get rid of Bottomless Trap Hole (among others), which forms a main threat to this deck.

Swords of Revealing Light: Another wonderful option. It helps the deck out when it is in a tough situation (like when your hand is full of Armed Dragons, while your opponent has a Cyber Dragon and Mobius out, f.e.). It stalls for three whole turns, and that’s enough to bring out Armed Dragon LV7, so that you can regain field control. But that’s not the only reason for this card to be in the deck. It flips all monsters on your opponent’s side of the field face-up, which makes them legal targets for the effect of the Armed Dragons.

Ceasefire: Again, a wonderful option. Just like Swords of Revealing Light, this card flips all opponent’s monsters (and yours) face-up to make them legal targets for Armed Dragon. The added effect (Inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent

S Life Points for each Effect Monster on the field) makes this card really wonderful. With the small burn effect that Stamping Destruction provides, this deck can inflict some nice amounts of effect damage. Combine that with the destructive powers of the Armed Dragon, and you will be able to take down your opponent’s Life Points very quickly.

Final Words on Deck Summary: As you can see, this deck has a lot of nice cards in it that make it very original and effective. It has lots of cards that provide protection to allow your Armed Dragons to do their thing (destroying other monsters) and inflict some hefty points of damage. With support cards like Swords of Revealing Light, Ceasefire and Nobleman of Crossout, you will be in total control of the field. Of course, this deck can suffer some bad draws, but aside from Swords of Revealing Light, it has many other ways of dealing with it. Masked Dragon can protect your Life Points by summoning monsters to the field. If you can summon Armed Dragon LV3, you will be able to summon LV5 on your own turn so that you’ve regained viable field control.

The added burn cards in the deck (Ceasefire and Stamping Destruction) will make your opponent lose a lot of Life Points so that he/she will have a lot of trouble with defending him/her self. Combine this with the destructive nature of the Armed Dragons to get off some good shots at the opponent’s Life Points to speed up the duel big time.

My Suggestions:

+ Ante: This a Spell Card that is really underrated in my opinion. Of course, it has a pretty high risk factor, but when you can get it off succesfully, you will inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent’s Life Points AND you’ll discard a card from his/her hand. This Deck uses Armed Dragon LV7 and three copies of Fusilier, and with almost no one playing monsters with more than 7 Stars, you will be able to get this card’s effect to work quite often. It also supports the burn part of the deck, since it’s capable of doing a nice 1000 points of damage to your opponent’s Life Points, and combined with the 1000-1500 damage from Ceasefire and the 500-1000 damage from the Stamping Destructions, you’ll be able to do a nice amount of effect damage.

+ Mirage Dragon: I know it’s already in there, but I’d suggest putting in another one. The protection it provides you is amazing and it has great synergy with Stamping Destruction. I think this deck’s qualities will be improved even further when a second copy of this card is added.

- Level Up!: I would take out one copy of Level Up! to add Ante. Level Up! works great, but I feel like 2 copies of it is just too much. Without an Armed Dragon LV3 or an Armed Dragon LV5, this card is always a bad draw.

- Masked Dragon: I would take out one copy of Masked Dragon to make place for Mirage Dragon. With two copies of Masked Dragon, you will still be able to summon Armed Dragon LV3 easily.

The Final Deck List: The Armed Dragon Deck: 40

Monsters: 19

1 Armed Dragon LV7

2 Armed Dragon LV5 

2 Armed Dragon LV3 

3 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast 

3 Chainsaw Insect 

2 Masked Dragon 

2 Mirage Dragon

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magician of Faith

1 Sangan

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

Spells: 15

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Snatch Steal

1 Level Up! 

1 Ante

2 My Body as a Shield 

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Nobleman of Crossout 

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Premature Burial

2 Stamping Destruction 

1 Swords of Revealing Light

Traps: 6

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ceasefire

2 Dust Tornado 

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

Final Words on the Deck: The deck looks great. It can function as a very competitive deck, while it’s fun to play with as well. With its ability to take control over the board, it will be a very hard deck to deal with, and the synergy the cards have with each other is just amazing. Thank you for sending me this deck, Cameron Waud.

I know that I haven’t explained all the weaknesses, strenghts and other things of the deck, but I tried to do that in the Deck Summary section. I explained that the deck can take control over the field very easily, thanks to the support cards that it has. I hope this article was clear for ya’ll and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

All comments and the like can be sent to ShineSoldier@gmail.com.

~Special Thanks to: Cameron Waud~

‘Til next time,

~ShineSoldier~