DeathJester

Burn/Stall: Is it Over-Hyped or Under Rated? What’s the Verdict?

10.05.04  Hey everyone I’m back again to discuss the ins, outs, and notable cards of the Burn/Stall archetype in the new Advanced Format. Does this deck archetype live up to the recent hype? Let’s find out.

Notable Cards of Burn/Stall

Monsters:

Des Koala - One of the nastiest burn monsters there is, in my opinion. 400 LP per card isn’t bad at all especially since most of your opponents’ cards will be their hands due to your stalling tactics.

Cannon Soldier – This card screams combo. Activate Scapegoat and tribute all the tokens for 2000 LP worth of damage. Use Change of Heart or Snatch Steal, attack then offer. Versatility is the name of the game with Cannon Soldier.

Stealth Bird – 1000 LP per Flip Summon is murder for your opponent. With 1700 DEF most of the common control monsters can’t even break through it. However, you could always activate Gravity Bind or Messenger of Peace to keep them from attacking it anyway.

Lava Golem – Burn/Stall’s main form of removal; it allows you to tribute 2 of your opponent’s monsters, to Special Summon this monster, on their field. This is very fun to use in conjunction with Gravity Bind so that way they sit there and take 1000 LP per Standby Phase.

Balloon Lizard – Balloon Lizard isn’t as common as the others but equally useful. This monster’s effect puts pressure on your opponent to try and destroy it as fast as possible, which makes them waste removal on it. This card is effective only when you can provide adequate protection for it.

Giant Germ – Giant Germ is an old school favorite of mine. This card provides field advantage as well as deck thinning. Germ is more commonly used in Fiend decks to provide food for Necrofear.

Bowgunian - I prefer to use this card, especially since it won’t get attacked too often. If they do happen to attack it just activate some Limiter Removals.

Fiber Jar – We all know why this card is good. No need for an explanation right?

Cyber Jar – Same as Fiber Jar.

Prominence Dragon – This is another useful card that puts pressure on your opponent. Whoever doesn’t destroy this monster quickly enough will be taking 500 LP at the End Phase of your opponent’s turn. Two of these on the field create an attack “lock” which will be very hard to get by.

Spells:

Level Limit – Area B – The newest stall card for Burn/Stall. Any monster Level 4 or higher monster is switched to DEF position permanently.

Messenger of Peace – This is another old school favorite. Paying 100 LP per turn is a minimal cost for such an effect.

Swords of Revealing Light- One of the better stall cards. This grants you 3 turns of no attacks from your opponent. Like all other continuous cards in Burn/Stall it’s susceptible to M/T removal.

Wave Motion Cannon – Burn/Stall’s kill spell. Your opponent will most likely commit to trying to destroy this card first before anything, which in essence protects all of your other cards. You can easily deal 3000+ LP with this card alone. Activating 2 of them is pretty much game for your opponent if you can keep them alive for at least 2 or 3 turns. Combined with the other Burn cards, you should have no problem winning the game in short time.

Magic Reflector – This card is the ultimate insurance for your continuous spells cards. Your opponent will end up using 2 forms of removal just to get rid of the counter and the spell itself. This card definitely gives you the field advantage you need.

Book of Moon – This card is surprisingly underrated. Chainable and stops attacks. Great to use when your opponent attacks your flip effect monsters while face up. Just activate this puppy and re-use the flip effect.

Final Countdown – This card will always work in the favor of the one using this deck. Pay 2000 LP and try to survive for 20 turns, but remember not to rely on this for a win, this card is mainly to apply pressure on your opponent, which will cause him/her to make stupid mistakes.

Traps:

Gravity Bind – The most annoying card stall card there is…period. Just watch out for Jinzo when using this.

Magic Cylinder – Negates attacks and deals damage. Burn LOVES this card. The benefits of this card increase as your opponent monsters’ get larger.

Ceasefire – Restricted to one for very good reason. An extremely destructive card that is capable of dealing an easy 1500 – 2000 LP of damage to your opponent. Ceasefire can also negate Nobleman of Crossout by flipping the targeted monster face up. Chainability is this card’s main strength.

Ring of Destruction – This is yet another fantastic form of Burn damage as well as removal. This card is always a 2 for 1 deal.

Secret Barrel – Another chainable form of Direct Damage that is especially effective after Cyber Jar.

Barrel Behind the Door – Works great against opposing Burn damage as well as in conjunction with Ring of Destruction.

Judgment of Anubis – Another Burn/Stall favorite. This card just says ‘NO’ to any spell card that destroys M/Ts. Not only that, you get to destroy an opponent’s creature and deal damage equal to the destroyed monster’s ATK power. I suggest saving this for Heavy Storm, MST, or Nobleman of Extermination.

Strengths of Burn/Stall

Now, on to the strengths of Burn/Stall; Burn/Stall has the ever-annoying trait of stopping the opponent from attacking your Life Points. Gravity Bind, Messenger of Peace, and Level Limit – Area B are the key cards involved in this strategy. In addition to defense, Burn/Stall is also offensive by dealing Direct Damage to the opponent’s Life Points. Usually when playing with this deck you, conserve your Burn options until middle or late game. A skilled Burn player saves his Burn cards until the opponent starts filling up his hand and field. Be warned that this is a risky move with great benefits to the Burn user. The Direct Damage dealt by most of the main Burn cards get exponentially higher as the turns go by.

Burn/Stall is adept using monsters, traps, and spells to deal Direct Damage rather than attacking. Burn/Stall monsters also boast high DEF power starting from 1700 and up. This deck can either slowly whittle your Life Points away or stall for a victory via Final Countdown. The spells and traps of this deck archetype are meant for only two things: STALL and BURN.

Weaknesses of Burn/Stall

As annoying and sturdy as the Burn/Stall deck may be, it still has weaknesses that are easily seen but difficult to exploit. Spell and Trap destruction is one of the bigger problems this deck has to face. When building this type of deck the player must be willing to commit mostly to preventing the destruction of their back field. The appearance of Mobius the Frost Monarch and the increased usage of Dust Tornados, Jinzo, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon spell doom for this deck.

Another problem with this deck is its slow recovery from removal. I know it must be trivial to say this, as this applies to most decks, but it is true. I encourage you to build a deck of this type and test this out for yourself. In an average hand of the deck type, more than half of it consists of stall type cards and the rest are offensive types of cards.  This is due to the nature of the deck. The average player will most likely set more than half of these defensive cards or all because they all work together in some way. Since the deck is so reliant on defense, if you do not deal with the pressure applied by your opponent effectively they will demolish you in a few short turns. Also, you must consider the fact that if your stall cards are destroyed and you do not have another way to stop attacks the deck will crumble against a skilled player. The Burn/Stall deck has good defense oriented monsters but they are not effective against the ever popular D.D. Warrior Lady.  For those of you who disagree please keep in mind that stopping offensive pressure with this deck is easier said than done.

This deck relies on the middle and late game to function properly. Do not be surprised if you have trouble in the early game. Speedy decks like Warriors and Gravekeepers can topple this deck quickly if field control isn’t established quickly enough. Control is also a major threat to this deck because it operates in the same time frame (Middle to late-game).

In closing; is the Burn/Stall archetype over-hyped or under rated?  I must say that the weaknesses of the Burn/Stall archetype outweigh the strengths. Determining whether Burn/Stall is over-hyped or under rated is really up to all of you duelists out there. I have only laid out the facts; I leave it you to decide what you think of Burn/Stall. In the coming months we will see what kind of threat this deck type really is or not.

In my next article, I will discuss not only my personal experiences of competing in Regionals and a National competition, but also what it really takes to make it to the top of this game. See you all next time!

If you have any suggestions, comments, or whatever, you can email me at deathjester86@yahoo.com