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Carrotizer on YuGiOh
Preparing for 1/5/07 Regional…
January 14, 2008

            Last Shonen Jump, San Mateo, was dominated by Perfect Circle (PC) + Light and Darkness Dragon (LaDD).  Among 16 decks that made the cut, 6 were PC LaDD, 3 were Macro Cosmos, and rest were consisted of Baboon Burn, Zombies, Tomato Monarchs, and others, including Volcanic Monarchs and Demise OTK. 

            Domination of the new Light and Darkness Dragon was predicted.  However, the one that caught my attention was appearance of 3 Macro Cosmos.  Among these noticeable themes, nothing was unaffected by Dimensional Fissure or Macro Cosmos.  While I was trying out Gadgets with Volcanic Shells with spin engines (Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Back to Square One), I decided to take out those D.D. Survivors from my drawer and put them into the black sleeves once more.  With the Regional coming up in less than 1 month, I decided that I would experiment with Survivor + Macro Cosmos engine. 

            With recent acquisition of 3 Solemn Judgments (I have been looking for these foils for about 3 months), I could mimic John Umali’s build – Raiza and Thestalos maxed out.  However, I was lacking Morphing Jar, and I wasn’t going to run the Jar anyway, so I made some tweaks.  I easily got to the local tournament finals, winning all the matches but one along the way.   

            A week later, I had Helios – The Primordial Sun in my possession and added it.  It worked relatively well, although drawing it meant 1 useless card, similar to drawing 2 Nimble Momongas.  I got to Top 4, and traded for 3^rd Zaborg the Thunder Monarch.  Now I could actually do all the trial-and-error experiments.

            While I tended to gain advantage quickly with indestructible D.D. Survivor on the field, drawing multiple Gravekeeper’s Spy/Reinforcement of the Army/Macro Cosmos with respective search targets occurred too often with 40 cards in the deck.  I therefore concluded that with 6 cards that can search out monsters from my deck, I should raise the card count slightly to at least 41 or 42.  Fili Luna’s deck had 45 after all, and the only deck that did well at that number was the infamous and now-crippled Fifth Gadget. 

            With Malevolent Catastrophe available and Light and Darkness Dragon rampant, 3 Dimensional Fissure and 3 Macro Cosmos became necessary.  Trap line-up then became John Umali’s build, partially because I never had any Dark Bribes.  My next priority, then, was to get Dark Bribes.   

            3 copies of Raiza the Storm Monarch were crucial to nearly any deck involving Tributing, and 3 of Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch provided further hand disruption.  However, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch was a questionable choice because I intended on destroying my opponent’s monsters with Monarchs that served their purposes fully.  3 led to 9 Monarchs, an abomination of Tribute monsters in nearly any deck except a genuine Monarch deck.  Consequently, choices came down to no Zaborg, 1 Zaborg, or two Thunder Monarchs.   

            To decide that, I began to debate what my deck was truly meant to do.  Sure, it provided indestructible 1800 ATK beatstick and Tribute fodder.  However, I had trouble destroying Gravekeeper’s Spy (and similarly Legendary Jujitsu Master), Spirit Reaper, and especially Marshmallon.  Spy and Jujitsu Master were not so much trouble because Monarchs could run over them easily.  A spun-Monarch was a boon – it just came down again at the next opportunity.

             Spirit Reaper and Marshmallon completely stopped an aggressive push, however.  Reaper could be taken care with relative ease with multiple copies of Enemy Controller (E-Con) and a Brain Control (again, I deliberated on 2 or 3 copies of E-Con), but Marshmallon.... Losing 1000 LP after casting 1 or 2 Solemn Judgments really made me reconsider using Brain Control afterwards.  Without Smashing Ground or Fissure, I only had three solutions: Lightning Vortex, Torrential Tribute or E-Con with Tributing.  None of them were practical.

            Well, turns out, unlike Demise OTK (whose only means of removal was often Brain Control, or Demise), I could often score a game after spinning the walling monster with Raiza the Storm Monarch.  Probability-wise, I did not need removal, but Morphing Jar…

            Testing with a Morphing Jar, I found out that it both replenished my hand and got either D.D. monsters or the continuous Spell/Trap I needed for the setup.  Getting rid of Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute, and Mirror Force from my opponent’s hand also allowed me to overextend without any punishment.

            My last question was whether to use Vortex Trooper or not.  With Gravekeeper’s Spies, Helios – The Primordial Sun, and other combination-oriented cards, Card Trader-like effect seemed useful.  Yet with Pulling the Rug (I expected it to be maindecked in 2’s and 3’s), 0 ATK floater suddenly squandered 2 cards (assuming shuffling 2 cards is a cost).

             I couldn’t decide what to do, until Friday, the night before.  Finals were approaching, and volunteering at a local community library drained all my available time.  To high school freshmen: trust me and do volunteer while you can.

            So, here’s what my deck looked like, finished 40 minute before the Regional (yeah…):

Carrotizer’s Instant Macrowave’ed Deck:  43

Monsters: 22

3 Raiza the Storm Monarch

3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

3 D.D. Survivor

3 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Snipe Hunter

1 Marshmallon

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Helios – The Primordial Sun

1 Vortex Trooper

1 D.D. Scout Plane

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Morphing Jar

Spells: 11

1 Heavy Storm

3 Dimensional Fissure

1 Brain Control

3 Enemy Controller

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Reinforcement of the Army

Traps: 10

3 Macro Cosmos

3 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Dark Bribe

1 Forced Back

Side Deck:

1 Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Mind Crush

3 Kinetic Soldier

2 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Twister

1 Horn of Heaven (^_^)

2 Pulling the Rug

1 Threatening Roar

1 Waboku

1 Royal Decree

            43 cards seemed one too many, but I was in a hurry.

By Paul Yeem – Carrotizer @ paulyeem@gmail.com