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Deck Analysis:
Wrath of the
Different Dimension
July 11, 2006
Good day, everyone.
Today’s article will
be about a deck featuring a wide variety of cards that
involve the RFG zone, also known as the Remove from Game
Zone. An example of such a card is D.D. Assailant, who
removes a monster that destroyed him from play, along with
himself. Anyway, this zone wasn’t very useful, until Enemy
of Justice was brought out. Along with some interesting
cards, like Cyber Phoenix and the Destiny Heroes, it also
brought us two new cards that made the RFG Decks a whole lot
better: Macro Cosmos and Grand Convergence. Since they’ve
just been released and thus you might be unfamiliar with
them, I’ll write down their effects for you.
Macro Cosmos
(Common)
EOJ-EN057
Trap /
Continuous
“You can Special
Summon 1 ‘Helios – The Primordial Sun’ from your hand or
Deck. While this card is on the field, any card sent to the
Graveyard is removed from play instead.”
--
Grand Convergence
(Common)
EOJ-EN046
Spell / Quick-Play
“This card can
only be activated when ‘Macro Cosmos’ is on your side of the
field. Inflict 300 points of damage to your opponent’s Life
Points and destroy all monsters on the field.”
As you can see
immediately, these two cards are extremely powerful in their
own decks. Macro Cosmos has somewhat the same effect as
Banisher of Light, who is an amazing card for RFG decks. But
this thing is even better, since it’s a Trap Card, and
they’re harder to destroy than a monster. And besides,
Banisher of Light had to be face-up in order for his effect
to be activated, and that could form a trouble also. So
basically, this card is far more versatile than Banisher of
the Light, and that makes it one of the best cards for the
RFG decks. But let’s not forget about its first effect. When
you activate it, you can Special Summon a Helios – The
Primordial Sun from your hand or deck to the field...for
free! So this card gives you a free card upon activating,
and that’s just amazing! It can also thin your deck by 1
card, which could speed the duel up a bit.
The second card,
Grand Convergence, seems somewhat familiar. That’s right, it
has almost the exact same effect as another card – and that
card is banned from the Advanced Format. You’re right, I’m
talking about Dark Hole. But there’s a slight difference
between these two cards. Actually, there are two. First of
all, it’s a Quick-Play Spell, which means that it can be
activated in your opponent’s turn and during the battle
phase as well. This can give you great advantage, since you
could use it in many different ways: you could use it as a
Torrential Tribute, by activating it in response to an
opponent’s summoning (or your own), you could use it as a
Mirror Force when your opponent declares an attack (it will
destroy your own monsters then, but you get the point), or
you could just use it as a Dark Hole.
The second thing is,
since it requires Macro Cosmos to be out, that it removes
all monsters from play instead of sending them to the
Graveyard. This allows you to abuse this card’s effect by
combining it with D.D. Survivor and D.D. Scout Plane, since
they’ll return to the field after they’ve been removed from
play by this card’s effect.
But that’s enough
about these two cards. Let’s take a look at the basic
guidelines now.
Main
Guidelines for the Construction of the RFG Deck
Deck Name:
Wrath of the
Different Dimension
Deck
Theme: Remove From Game
-- Main
Focus --
Abusing the effects
of Macro Cosmos and Grand Convergence to gain control over
the field and boost the ATK values of cards like Gren Maju
Da Eiza, Helios – The Primordial Sun and Golden Homunculus
to extreme heights. That way, you can overrun the opponent
with this deck. When Macro Cosmos is out, a D.D. Survivor
will be almost impossible to destroy, and that makes him a
very good defender at times like that.
-- Strong Points
--
This deck can summon
monsters that are virtually invincible, along with monsters
that have the most devastating ATK values ever. This,
combined with the destructive effects of Grand Convergence,
should be enough to win you a duel.
-- Weak Points --
A weakness that
really hurts this deck is that it’s very combo-orientated.
Many cards are just dead draws if you aren’t holding the
right cards to support them. Take Grand Convergence and Gren
Maju Da Eiza for example. They’re both useless, unless
you’re also holding Macro Cosmos. This could lead to dead
hands, and that must be avoided, or this deck won’t work.
-- Main Form of
Support --
Cards that involve
the RFG zone. This deck needs cards that can remove other
monsters from play so that you can power up your own
monsters and gain quick control over the field.
-- Examples of
Support Cards --
Golden Homunculus,
Gren Maju Da Eiza, Macro Cosmos, Grand Convergence, D.D.
Survivor, D.D. Scout Plane, Return from the Different
Dimension, Bottomless Trap Hole.
Analyzing the
Monster Line-Up
As I’ve said before,
the monster line-up will exist mainly out of monster that’ll
be powered up depending on the amount of cards that are
removed from play and monsters that can be brought back as
soon as they’re removed from play.
So, the first few
cards I’m going to add are D.D. Survivor, D.D. Scout Plane,
Gren Maju Da Eiza, Helios – The Primordial Sun and Golden
Homunculus.
D.D. Survivor is one
of this deck’s main cards. Together with Macro Cosmos,
you’ll have an immortal 1800-ATK monster on your side of the
field. Not to mention the synergy this card has with Grand
Convergence and Return From the Different Dimension. D.D.
Scout Plane works almost the same, only he’s slightly
weaker. However, he does have its effect activated when he’s
tributed or when discarded from the hand to the Graveyard.
So he provides unlimited tribute fodder for this deck,
meaning that Golden Homunculus can be summoned very easily.
Gren Maju Da Eiza,
Golden Homunculus and Helios – The Primordial Sun are there
for beatdown. Gren Maju Da Eiza can become extremely strong,
as can Golden Homunculus. They can be easily powered up by
Macro Cosmos, which makes them very reliable monsters in
this deck. Helios can be brought out pretty easily, thanks
to the effect of Macro Cosmos, but unfortunately, he can’t
be powered up just as easy as the other two. Helios only
gets 100 ATK points for each monster that is removed from
play. This does however, include your opponent’s monsters.
Anyway, it does provide solid tribute fodder when it’s
brought out by Macro Cosmos.
The next couple of
monsters I’d like to add exists out of Mobius the Frost
Monarch, Breaker the Magical Warrior, D.D. Warrior Lady and
Magical Merchant.
Since this deck
focuses a bit on swarming/beatdown, S/T removal is required.
And because this deck has easy access to tribute bait, it
won’t hurt if we’d include Mobius the Frost Monarch as well.
For this purpose, I have also included Breaker, one of the
most solid S/T removers in the entire game.
D.D. Warrior Lady
supports the RFG theme very well, being able to remove any
monster she battles from play. She also forms nice tech
against some commonly seen cards like Cyber Dragon and/or
maybe even Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys.
Magical Merchant is
in for two reasons. First of all, it allows you to thin your
deck so that you can draw Macro Cosmos and other key cards
for this deck faster. Secondly, it can remove more monsters
from play (and in D.D. Scout Plane’s case, he’ll return to
the field to serve as tribute bait) to power up the three
“beatdown cards”.
Finally, I’m
including A Cat of Ill Omen. Macro Cosmos is by far the most
important card to this deck and therefore it’s extremely
important that you can get it very fast. The deck can
already be thinned by Magical Merchant, but we need it
quicker than that. That’s why I included this card.
This gives us the
following line-up for the monsters:
Monsters: 19
|3| D.D. Survivor
|2| D.D. Scout
Plane
|2| Gren Maju Da Eiza
|2| Golden Homunculus
|2| Mobius the Frost Monarch
|2| Kycoo the
Ghost Destroyer
|2| Magical Merchant
|1| A Cat of Ill Omen
|1| D.D. Warrior
Lady
|1| Helios – The
Primordial Sun
|1| Breaker the
Magical Warrior
Analyzing the Spell
Line-Up
We’ll start things
off with Grand Convergence, the main Spell Card of this
deck. Its effect is so devastating when combined with the
right cards (D.D. Survivor), but even without those, it’s
still a Dark Hole in Quick-Play Spell form.
And as I’ve said
before, this deck will need mutliple forms of S/T removal in
order for your swarmers to attack succesfully. Mobius the
Frost Monarch and Breaker already do a great job at this,
but they’re not enough. So I chose to include Mystical Space
Typhoon and Heavy Storm as well. Despite the fact that Heavy
Storm might destroy your own, precious Macro Cosmos, it’s
still a must in this deck. With no other S/T mass removal
other than that card, it’s one of the best S/T removers
around. Mystical Space Typhoon is the most solid S/T remover
if you ask me. It’s a Quick-Play Spell, so you can activate
it at any time you want.
The next Spell Cards
I’m adding are Messenger of Peace and Reinforcement of the
Army. Because of the fact that this deck might suffer bad
draws, some protection was required. Messenger of Peace is
the most solid option in my opinion, since you can choose
when you want to destroy it. That way, it won’t annoy you
very often, and it might draw away S/T removal from Macro
Cosmos. Reinforcement of the Army is necessary to get out
D.D. Survivor quickly. It allows you to get the most out of
Macro Cosmos.
Finally, some staple
Spell Cards: Graceful Charity, Snatch Steal and Nobleman of
Crossout. This gives us the following Spell line-up:
Spells: 12
|3| Grand
Convergence
|1| Heavy Storm
|1| Mystical Space Typhoon
|1| Snatch Steal
|2| Messenger of Peace
|2| Reinforcement of the Army
|1| Graceful Charity
|1| Nobleman of Crossout
Analyzing the Trap
Line-Up
Finally, the Trap
Cards. We’ll begin with our main card: Macro Cosmos. Without
it, this deck would be pretty much useless, since your
monsters won’t be powered up, D.D. Survivor would be unable
to return, Grand Convergence would’ve been a dead draw...As
you can see, Macro Cosmos is really, really important in
this deck.
Our next card is
Return from the Different Dimension. It’s such a wonderful
card in here. It allows you to swarm the field with D.D.
Survivors (who will return to the field after they’ve been
removed from play by the side-effect of Return from the
Different Dimension), Mobius the Frost Monarch and Golden
Homunculus. If you use a Grand Convergence first, then you
should have a clear shot at your opponent’s Life Points, and
that should mean that you win the duel. The best part about
this card in this deck is, that you can also use it when
your opponent attacks to bring back a horde of D.D.
Survivors. They’ll be removed in the End Phase again, but
that means that they’ll also return to the field.
The third card is
Bottomless Trap Hole. It adds some much-needed defence to
the deck in a way that supports the rest of the deck as
well: it removes the summoned monster from play! This could
boost your Helios some more, but its main purpose, defending
you from opponent’s monsters, is what it does best.
Finally, I’m adding
Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute as the staple Traps.
Let’s take a look at the final Trap line-up now.
Traps: 9
|3| Macro Cosmos
|2| Return from the Different Dimension
|2| Bottomless Trap Hole
|1| Torrential Tribute
|1| Mirror Force
Deck Summary
Until the release of
Enemy of Justice, RFG Decks were rarely seen. They only had
Banisher of the Light to ensure that cards would be removed
from play instead of being sent to the Graveyard, but now a
new, and far more versatile card has been released. Macro
Cosmos made the RFG Decks playable again, and together with
Grand Convergence, it could make this kind of deck tier one.
The deck I
constructed uses Macro Cosmos to increase the ATK values of
your monsters and to swarm the field with D.D. Survivor.
Grand Convergence wipes out the field for a direct assault,
and that’s about it.
The role of Magical
Merchant is also very important. It allows you to remove
lots of monsters if Macro Cosmos is out, and if it isn’t, it
allows you to get it faster. So it’s capable of powering up
your Gren Maju Da Eiza, Golden Homunculus and Helios, or it
could get you your main card. That’s pretty good if you ask
me.
Conclusion: This
deck is defenitely competitive, and because RFG decks
haven’t been that competitive, I bet it’s also very fun to
play with. The fact that this deck can use a card with a
more versatile version of Dark Hole three times is just
amazing. It can also shut down many cards that are played
commonly at the moment, like Premature Burial, Treeborn
Frog, Magician of Faith and Chaos Sorcerer.
Well, that does it
for this article. I hope you enjoyed it and now know that
RFG decks can be expected at a tournament.
If you would like to
respond or say anything at all, mail me at the usual
address:
ShineSoldier@gmail.com.
‘Til next time,
~ShineSoldier~
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