Earth Decks: Can you handle the swarm? 

Hey everyone, I’m back again with an article about Earth decks and I will be displaying a picture perfect example of what an Earth deck should look like.

Strengths

To begin with, Earth monsters are known for their high ATK power. Take Goblin Attack Force, Berserk Gorilla, Rock Spirit, Injection Fairy Lily and Gigantes for example. These are Earth monsters that tower over other monsters with their enormous ATK power. Also, Earth monsters have a wide variety of effects that are always particularly useful. Injection Fairy Lily boosts herself to 3400 by paying a mere 2000 LP. Berserk Gorilla is the best metagame monster with its overbearing 2000 ATK power which runs over close to everything. Plus its “must attack” effect ensures that the opponent will have to waste any defensive traps or quick-plays in order to stop the gorilla from hitting their Life Points. Berserk Gorilla places unrelenting pressure on the opponent to use their defensive cards so they won’t take a direct hit for 2000.

Goblin Attack Force implies the same concepts as Berserk Gorilla. GAF also supplies Earth monsters in the graveyard for Gigantes or Rock Spirit. This is accomplished so easily since Goblin is easily destroyed on the next turn after it has attacked. Gigantes and Rock Spirit provide the raw swarming power that is inherent to the Earth type. When facing an Earth deck be prepared to witness an effective retaliation to your Tribe-Infecting Virus. For example: If you use Tribe to destroy a Marauding Captain and GAF you should expect a Berserk Gorilla and two Gigantes to pour out of the opponent’s hand. Offensive pressure is the name of the game with Earth monsters.

The Special Summoning of Gigantes and Rock Spirit provide the swarming power the Earth deck needs to win. This swarming effect is not only inherent of these two monsters however. Marauding Captain and Nimble Momonga are also notorious for their swarming capabilities. Marauding Captain is like gold in an Earth deck, especially an Earth deck that employs the service of Warriors. Effective use of Marauding Captain is painfully essential to the success of not only Warrior players but Earth players as well. Nimble Momonga’s Special Summoning effect is unique to all the other battle searchers. When you destroy this monster in battle you get to Special Summon two monsters instead of one. This card alone provides LP gain, massive monster advantage, and deck thinning. This card is a staple to the Earth theme deck with its three effective uses.

Earth decks also have quite a bit of speed to them as well. This is accomplished with Giant Rat and the rare Morphing Jar. Giant rat is the all purpose monster it this deck. Searching Exiled Force, Injection Fairy Lily, Nimble Momonga, or another Giant Rat is essential to this deck’s plans. This provides a plethora of options for the Earth player allowing for adaptability to most situations. Morphing Jar is the wild card of the deck. Morphing Jar bestows an amazing amount of speed and overextension the Earth deck is accustomed to. Discarding the whole hand could mean discarding Earth monsters and drawing into multiple Gigantes, and Marauding Captains. The effect of Morphing Jar adds to the unpredictability the deck already has.

Gaia Power is also an essential tool in an Earth deck. As if the Earth monster’s ATK power isn’t high enough. J A 500 ATK boost is a death knell to your opponent since the Earth monsters will now be able to tower over all opposing monsters in a heartbeat.

Weaknesses

Despite the amazing strengths of the Earth theme there are also minor weaknesses that, when exploited, can devastate the Earth strategy.

First off, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer tears this deck apart. The Earth deck has a particular reliance on the graveyard for its swarming capabilities. D.D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant are even bigger nuisances to this deck as compared to other deck themes. The D.D. family not only disables the Earth player’s battle searchers but also disables the field clearing effect of Gigantes. A well timed Tribe-Infecting Virus or Magical Scientist can ruin the Earth deck’s field advantage that is so vital to their success.

The key thing to remember when facing the Earth deck is this: Disable the battle searchers at all costs by removing them from play via D.D. Family or Nobleman of Crossout. The next important thing to remember is that if the Earth deck is not swarming, it is losing. If you disable the swarm, the Earth player is forced to play one monster at a time; this is something that Earth player does NOT like or want to do. I would recommend that newer players stay away from this deck type as their starting deck type. This is only because this deck requires an acute sense of timing and knowledge of every single monster’s capabilities.

Deck Qualities

Earth decks are a naturally strong deck type but they have one quality about them that most decks don’t have. To further explain, Earth decks are so synergistic in fact that disabling their battle searchers or their swarming tactics can literally dismantle the whole deck itself. The Earth deck is so painfully reliant on all of its cards and combos that proper timing when playing this deck is essential. One card can ruin the Earth deck’s strategy completely.

There is another quality about the Earth theme that is unique compared to all other decks. The Earth deck is especially monster heavy. Builders of this deck type soon come to realize that monsters are the key strength of the deck and require much more consideration than anything else. Earth decks’ monster counts can soar to suicidal numbers like 20 – 23 monsters, which is about 50% or more of a typical deck. Players of this deck must be quick to realize that they will often have monster clogged hands and effective use of the monsters they get is the key to their success. In other words, your monsters are your defense and offense. Players of this type should not rely on their spells and traps for defense but rather on their monsters.

With the Earth deck consisting of 50% or more of monsters, some serious compensation must be taken into consideration. The spell and trap counts will be typically lower than any other deck. The trap counts could easily go down to 5 and even 3. The spell counts will go down to 15 easily. With this in mind the Earth player must use multiple hand manipulating cards to rid them of their monster clogged hands. Reload and Card Destruction are perfect additions to this deck since they keep the tempo of the deck consistent and provide the Earth player with better hands per say. Players of this deck type do not despair, since the many deck thinning qualities of the Earth type will allow for much better hands when hand manipulating cards are used.

With all this in mind, I present to you an extremely effective Earth deck created by my friend Amir. He has taken into consideration the handicaps and massive strengths of Earth theme and constructed a deck that performs extremely well against the top tier decks of the format:

Monsters: 22

3x Gigantes
3x Nimble Momonga
3x Giant Rat
2x Marauding Captain
2x Goblin Attack Force
1x Morphing Jar
1x Fiber Jar
1x Jinzo
1x Spell Canceller
1x Injection Fairy Lily
1x Exiled Force
1x Sinister Serpent
1x Magical Scientist
1x Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 16

2x Creature Swap
2x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Pot of Greed
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x The Forceful Sentry
1x Confiscation
1x Change of Heart
1x Snatch Steal
1x Premature Burial
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Heavy Storm
1x Painful Choice
1x Reload
1x Card Destruction 

Traps: 4

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

Card Choice

As you can see this deck list does not employ the services of any defensive spells or traps. All of the Spell and Traps in this deck are used offensively which is essential to the Earth deck’s success. In all honesty the Earth deck does not have room for cards like Swords and Scapegoat only because those cards naturally slow them down.

He uses a classic approach to the Earth theme. He combines the Earth type’s raw ATK power with the versatility of the Warrior type. Reinforcement of the Army allows Amir to search what he needs to remedy his field situation and provide an Earth monster in the graveyard if need be.

Creature Swap is an extremely effective way to manipulate the field and keep it in the favor of the Earth player with Giant Rats and Nimble Momongas. Card Destruction provides the hand manipulation and speed necessary to this deck’s success. It also has the added effect of ruining the opponent’s plans in the process.

His monster choice is a bit unorthodox to my tastes in deck building. He opted to use Spell Canceller to combat any spell card threats to his monsters. This is effective at times, but the low attack power and the lack of defensive cards do not encourage the main deck usage of this card.  I also do not agree completely with the usage of Fiber Jar in the deck mainly because he removes monsters from play to Special Summon Gigantes. Resetting the game with Fiber Jar effectively reduces his Earth monster count thereby hindering his deck’s capabilities.

Amir also opted to use a classic offensive trap for extra damage; Ceasefire. This card naturally fits into this deck since the deck will always have 2 or more monsters of the field ripe for Ceasefire effect damage to the opponent. All of his monsters are effect monsters after all. Royal Decree is the trump card of the deck; and those who are lucky to get their hands on one are encouraged to use it frequently. Royal Decree is in many ways more effective than Jinzo and offers high utility being able to chain to the activations of other traps. This card alone punishes those who think the Advanced format allows the abundance of traps. In my opinion, I think that there is more pressure on the usage of numerous traps more than ever. So much trap removal still exists in this format and I find it difficult for Burn/Stall players to effectively make their stance in a highly competitive environment full of continuous spell and trap removal.

The overall strategy of the deck is to assume a defensive stance until the right cards are in the hand and the number of Earth monsters in the graveyard is increased to launch a massive counter attack. After the counter attack has been accomplished the Earth player can easily keep the pressure on the opponent to obtain a victory. This takes some patience since the deck often depends on the opponent to send your Earth monsters to the grave. This concept is a double-edged sword and players of this deck type should be very cautious when using this strategy.

In closing, this is a very good example of an Earth deck that is built to maximize its strengths in every possible way. Though the deck lacks in defensive traps and spells that most of the top tier decks use, the Earth deck makes up for this with the strength in the monster effects and its offensive capabilities. This deck archetype is a great way to combat the conservative competitive environment filled with Control variants like Horus and Metamorphosis Control. Well, that’s it for me this week. Next week I will be discussing a classic favorite of mine: Gravekeepers. Remember to play hard, think about your moves and most of all…have funJ.

Got any questions, suggestions, or just want to say hi? Email me at deathjester86@yahoo.com