Warriors: Can you take the pressure?

 

11.03.04  Hey everyone, I’m DeathJester I’m back again to talk about the deck archetype I personally use to compete. The Warrior deck has always been a deck archetype that has had a variety of cards to support it. From Reinforcement of the Army, The Warrior Returning Alive, and Fusion Sword Murasame Blade; the Warrior archetype was never far behind the popular Chaos/Control variants that dominated the Traditional format. Mass removal was always the silver bullet that dealt the winning blow to the Warrior player.

However, now that we have entered a new age in the Yugioh! Trading Card Game, Warriors are now much deadlier and heavily played. The Advanced format now offers the Warrior archetype a new opportunity to dominate the tournament scene. Mass monster and mass S/T removal are nearly non-existent and that signifies a much more monster dominated environment in the Yugioh! Trading Card Game.


Strengths of the Warrior Archetype
   
Warriors have unrelenting speed and field dominance. The deck can switch gears constantly, assuming an offensive or defensive stance at any given moment. Marauding Captain’s effect, for example, can be used as a swarming weapon or provide monsters to chump block to stall until you draw a much better card that would aid your situation.

Warriors are the epitome of speed, field dominance, and versatility. They gain speed with Reinforcement of the Army, and versatility with what I call: Spell-Based Monster Search. I’ve found that this form of monster search is not only unique to Warriors, but the fastest and safest form of monster search in the format. In addition to their searching capabilities, Warriors boast a vast array of effect monsters designed to suit nearly any situation. Also, do not forget that Warriors have graveyard retrieval to keep up the hand advantage with The Warrior Returning Alive. The Warrior deck brings out so many threats at once; this quality if difficult to handle for those who play conservatively and prefer to conserve their resources to launch a counter attack.


Weaknesses of the Warrior Archetype

Given the fact that the Warrior deck is quick offensively and defensively, the Warrior deck still harbors the same inherent weaknesses from the Traditional format. Hand management is extremely tedious to monitor when playing the Warrior deck. The Warrior deck’s innate speed and versatility lead to the fast consumption of the initial hand. A well built Warrior deck will have a new threat to approach the opponent with turn after turn. This quality combined with Marauding Captain’s effect can lead to the hand size being at one to zero cards on turn 3 or 4. I also cannot exclude the fact that Warriors are still vulnerable to what’s left of mass monster removal. Tribe-Infecting Virus, Torrential Tribute, and Armed Dragon LV7 all pose serious threats to the frequently monster clogged Warrior field.


My Warrior Deck List

With all of these concepts in mind, I present to you the Warrior deck that I have built to combat the current metagame.


Aggro Warrior Control

Deck Count: 40 cards

Monsters: 17

1x Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
3x Night Assailant
2x D.D. Warrior Lady
2x Blade Knight
1x Don Zaloog
1x Airknight Parshath
1x Mobius the Frost Monarch
1x Tribe-Infecting Virus
1x Marauding Captain
1x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1x Morphing Jar
1x Exiled Force
1x Injection Fairy Lily

Spells: 15

2x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Mirage of Nightmare
1x Heavy Storm
1x Confiscation
1x Scapegoat
1x Snatch Steal
1x Swords of Revealing Light
1x Change of Heart
1x Painful Choice
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Premature Burial
1x Pot of Greed
1x The Forceful Sentry

Traps: 8

2x Raigeki Break
2x Sakuretsu Armor
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Ring of Destruction
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment


Card Selection

Monsters

To combat the weak hand management of the Warrior archetype I’ve decided to use Night Assailants combined with Mirage of Nightmare and Raigeki Break to keep the hand advantage consistent. Night Assailant provides amazing hand management and is a great first turn play as monster removal. It virtually makes Raigeki Break, Tribe, and Mirage have no cost.  Airknight Parshath is in the deck for obvious reasons. He is a form of draw power and is pretty game-breaking when protected properly.

Morphing Jar is the trump card of the deck since it allows the deck to explode with blazing speed and hand advantage. A turn 2 Morphing Jar can easily lead to Painful Choice, Black Luster Soldier, Marauding Captain, Blade Knight, and an MST allowing me to either attack for the game (if my opponent has a face up monster) or a direct attack for 6200. Morphing unlocks a myriad of opportunities for this deck to be very aggressive or defensive by ruining the opponent’s hand.

Injection Fairy Lily is probably the best offensive monster in the game. It synergizes very well with Marauding Captain when attacking the opponent directly. Mobius the Frost Monarch is more powerful than Jinzo in many more ways, in my opinion. Being able to destroy two spells or traps on the field and being a 2400 ATK beater is game-breaking. His effect being optional is also a major plus over its cousin Zaborg the Thunder Monarch.


Spells

Scapegoat provides a more than adequate defense for this deck when recovering from any kind of removal. Swords of Revealing Light is a great addition that combats the entire metagame by itself. It flips face-down monsters face-up to activate any nasty flip effects, like Fiber Jar and Cyber Jar, on my Main Phase rather than running into them in battle.

Mirage of Nightmare is the most efficient way to keep up the hand advantage versus your opponent as it supplies cards and a psychological effect on the opponent. Any opponent, no matter how skilled, is easily perturbed by the opponent having 4 cards in the hand constantly, not knowing when an MST or Raigeki Break will appear.

The two Reinforcement of the Army are staples in any Warrior deck and offer flexibility and speed allowing me to search for any level 4 or lower Warrior. The Forceful Sentry and Confiscation are obvious choices for the Control aspect of this deck. Having the ‘heads up’ on your opponent’s plans is essential to the success of every player in this game of imperfect information. I mention the term imperfect information because the players in this game don’t know what is coming 90% of the time. Face-down cards and hands being kept a secret do not allow us the make the right moves. The two pre-negators let any player know what is going on and what will happen in the future.


Traps

Raigeki Break is extremely useful by being able to destroy any card on the field. It also serves as a minor replacement for MST. Sakuretsu Armor is the next best attack negating effect compared to the now-banned Mirror Force. It provides field advantage and protects my Life Points in the process. This card makes Waboku obsolete, since Waboku provides no field advantage and delays the inevitable. There are much better cards out there to use, since chainability is no where near as essential as monster removal in the Advanced format. Solemn Judgment is a player’s answer to anything but attacks. It really shines in the late-game but is also useful during the beginning of the game to keep up the advantage against my opponent.


Closing Thoughts

My Warrior deck in pretty unique in itself and shows you, the reader, that there are many directions the Warrior archetype can take when building a deck. You can choose to be aggressive, defensive, or both. I hope that the readers of this article realize that the Warrior archetype is a force to be reckoned with and may rival the popularity Chaos/Control had in the Traditional format. Beware as Warriors are now very heavily played and boast many qualities that will allow them to easily dominate the tournament scene. As always, remember to play hard, stay focused on the game, and most importantly have fun.

Any comments, suggestions, or just want to say hi? Email me at deathjester86@yahoo.com