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Carrotizer on YuGiOh
Carrot Analysis: Horus
November 2, 2006

Hi Carrotizer,

My name is Aidan Makepeace (Balvazar on the Pojo Forums), Basically I am in desperate need of your help on my Horus Lock deck I have been playing Horus since it first came out which must be in the realm of 2 years now, and as such I have learnt a fair amount on Horus, but I still feel that I need to learn more and that I would benefit from your expertise.

My playing style is that, I love to dominate the field not necessarily with destruction, but with negation effects. My best field to have out is the most obvious one really Horus Lv 8, King Dragun and Royal Decree although Mystic Swordsman Lv 2 does help to be out as well. Apart from that the deck is built around utilizing clever combo's that I like, Though I have had to put in destruction cards, as I am not so blind to think that I can win without them, another problem I have been having is the tempo of the deck in that I lack the speed needed in the summoning department once I get the ball rolling so to speak I find that then the synergy of the deck works just fine but its up till that point that I find the deck struggles. I will list the deck then spilt the deck up into the various important fields which I find are the important bits that are in desperate need of balancing. Then after that I will list all of the various combos that I feel are useful in the deck.

DECK + SIDE DECK

Monsters (19)

1x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 8
2x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 6
2x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 4
2x Mirage Dragon
2x Mystic Tomato
2x Lord of D
2x The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion
2x Exiled Force
1x Mystic Swordsman Lv 2
1x Magician of Faith
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Sangan

Spells (18)

2x Messenger of Peace
2x Smashing Ground
2x Enemy Controller
1x My Body as a Shield
1x Book of Moon
1x Creature Swap
1x Last Will
1x Graceful Charity
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Swords of Revealing Light
1x Giant Trunade
1x Premature Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps (3)

2x Royal Decree
1x Call of the Haunted

Total = 40

Side Deck (15)

1x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 8
1x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 6
1x Mystic Swordsman Lv 2
1x Magical Merchant
2x King Tiger Wanghu
1x Stamping Destruction
1x Mausoleum of the Emperor
1x Monster Reincarnation
1x Dragon's Mirror
1x Fissure
1x Spiritual Art Fire - Kurenai
1x Ring of Destruction
1x Royal Decree

I still feel that this deck overall tempo is too slow, I have tried to increase that speed with cards like Mystic Tomato and Last Will and even Creature Swap to a degree (a recent inclusion)
these to try and speed up my summoning of Dragun through the parts also I have found that Pot of Avarice while seemingly obvious is a good inclusion for this deck in the case of Horus Lv 8, also I have been considering whether to include Magical Merchant and Dragon’s Mirror in this deck or not and would quite like your opinion on that. Finally I would just like to mention that if you could avoid removing any of the Horus the Messenger of Peace and the Royal Decree as they are all related to me in some way or another and are the heart of this deck.

I would just like to thank you for taking the time to read this exceptionally long email that I have just written and I look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks again,

Aidan Makepeace

            Well, thanks for attaching the Side Deck!  I should first mention problems of the lockdown decks, as stated; speed and/or tempo.  I suppose it is balanced since once you set up the lock, the game is yours.  However, Horus, being one of the most powerful monsters in the game, is easily fallible, even with Royal Decree.  Obviously Aidan wants King Dragun to protect the precious Dragon from Exiled Force and other potential effects, so let’s start off, shall we?

Strength:  Once lock is activated, gg!

Problems:  Lack of speed, Horus LV 8 is easily fallible to monsters.

Key to Success:  Solidify the lock through “untargetability” with consistent, steady yet straightforward tempo.

            First, because you are using Royal Decree to negate opponent’s traps, Mirage Dragon is not needed. Although further negation would not be harmful, adding 1 Jinzo would be more reasonable since it matches 2400 ATK of Monarchs and it also does the same job.  I understand the Dragon theme but I won’t be too far to assume that you would rather chain Decree to Ring of Destruction, rather than having it only activated during Main Phase. For that, I’ll move the Decree to the deck.

            You wanted Messenger of Peace, so I won’t touch that.  Although 2 seem a bit numerous with Swords of Revealing Light and Enemy Controllers, I respect your preference.  I personally like Lightning Vortex, but hey, it doesn’t always work.  Two things you should know.  EDITED Dragon’s Mirror, unlike Future Fusion, and similar to Miracle Fusion, allows to remove substitutes such as King of the Swamp and The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion. Also, Horus LV 4 does not work with Creature Swap.  It is an invalid target.

            The fact that Horus LV 4 isn’t searchable hurts the speed.  Let’s come back to that once we see what we can do with other cards.  My Body as a Shield is questionable, but reasonable.  Exiled Forces and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, as well as Ring of Destruction, which I’ll move to the deck, are all powerful cards that cannot be stopped without King Dragun.  In case King Dragun gets stuck in the traffic, we’ll keep the Quick-Play.  What I think should be removed is Giant Trunade.  It only works with Premature Burial,  Swords of Revealing Light, and Call of the Haunted with Royal Decree.  If you want more Spell/Trap removals, we can definitely use Stamping Destruction. First I’ll add Breaker the Magical Warrior.

            Mystic Swordsman LV 2 is too much with 2 Exiled Forces.  We already have 2 Smashing Grounds, 1 Ring of Destruction and 2 Enemy Controllers.  I’m thinking 1 D.D. Warrior Lady can be used offensively by removing 1 Exiled Force, but it’s not a necessary change. 

            Apparently King Dragun won’t be always around, and if we can’t draw My Body as a Shield, Horus LV 8 will fall.  We will use 1 Level Modulation.  It is –2 in a sense, but they can’t do anything with Smashing Ground or other Spells!  Because of that matter, Pot of Avarice will be removed, though it is a good card.  I will take the Magical Merchant path; if we dump LV 8, Level Modulation is here! 3 seem too many, and 1 is too slow. 2 look ideal. Now, Creature Swap isn’t so good, especially when you don’t know what face-down is.  Because you can send Horus during End Phase of your opponent’s turn, Shrink or Rush Recklessly work very well, sometimes better than Enemy Controller.  I’ll take out Swords of Revealing Light and Creature Swap for 2.

            Now, the newest and strongest raw Fusion, Five-Headed Dragon, requires 5 Dragon, but we barely meet the requirement.  Because Horus LV 4 has 1600 ATK, just over Sangan’s reach, we need 3^rd copy. 2 Smashing Ground now seems too many with Rush Recklessly. 1 should do.

            Back to the tempo problem.  Level Up! is a card that literally does what it says.  I’ve been trying 3’s in my version of Horus, but didn’t quite work so well.  1 seems too…scanty, yet 2 are still a bit much.  With Magical Merchant, that won’t be a problem.

Just revive LV 6 or Level him up after bringing back. 

            Now, to the solidification part.  We have Magical Merchant to dump, but we don’t want to draw the necessary materials, Lord of D. and Divine Dragon Ragnarok. Now the targeting doesn’t seem like a problem with Quick-Plays to step up the tempo, but Aidan wants it, and I’ll give it!  We could use Fusion Gate, or stick to Dragon’s Mirror. I like Dragon’s Mirror, and a surprise 5000 ATK will be pretty cool, huh?  We have Lord of D. and Mystic Tomatoes, along with Last Will and Exiled Force, and because of Messenger of Peace and the Quick-Plays, Lord of D. will live a lot longer.  1 seems enough, and 1 Divine Dragon  Ragnarok with 1 Dragon’s Mirror will be good. Shoot, that makes it 44…a bit thick. Oh yeah, we don’t need Hex Fusions anymore! 42 sounds all right, not too thin to draw multiple Horuses, but enough to draw them fast. 

Hope you like it!!

Monsters (19)

1x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 8
2x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 6
3x Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 4
2x Mystic Tomato

2x Magical Merchant
1x Lord of D

1x Divine Dragon Ragnarok
2x Exiled Force /1 D.D. Warrior Lady
1x Magician of Faith
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Sangan

1x Breaker the Magical Warrior

1x Jinzo

Spells (18)

2x Messenger of Peace
1x Smashing Ground
2x Enemy Controller
2x Rush Recklessly

1x My Body as a Shield
1x Book of Moon
1x Last Will
1x Graceful Charity
 
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Level Modulation
 
1x Premature Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Level Up!

1x Dragon’s Mirror

Traps (5)

3x Royal Decree
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Ring of Destruction

Total = 42


 

Carrot Analysis: 

Power: easily accessed to 3000 ATK and 2300 ATK with Quick-Plays.  8-9ish ^^

Speed:  Merchant detracts from consistency, but it adds a lot more to the tempo.  9

Consistency:  As mentioned above, but with Dragon’s Mirror, backup plan isn’t so bad. 7.8