Hi I was wondering if you could help me improve my Dark Paladin deck that I came up with.

Deck-40 cards

Fusions
Dark Paladin x3

Monsters x17
Dark Magician x2
Buster Blader x2
Skilled Dark Magician x2
E-Hero Stratos x1
E-Hero Prisma x2
Dark Grapher x2
Spirit Reaper x1
Caius The Shadow Monarch x2
Morphing Jar x1
Destiny Hero Malicious x2

Spells x17
Polymerization x2
Future Fusion x1
Allure of Darkness x2
Destiny Draw x2
Monster Reborn x1
Premature Burial x1
Fires of Doomsday x2
Emblem of Dragon Destroyer x2
Mystical Space Typhoon x1
Dark Magic Attack x1
Swing of Memories x2
Card Destructionx2

Traps x6
Torrential Tribute x1
Dark Illusion x2
Mirror Force x1
Bottomless Trap Hole x2


thanks for any help/advice you can offer, it all is appreciated

 

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone bother with Dark Paladin…or any other non-Contact Fusion Fusion monster. Let’s see what I can do to this. (Luckily, I already know how the deck’s mechanics work.)

 

Cards to cut:

 

- 2 Buster Blader

- 2 Caius the Shadow Monarch

- 2 Destiny Hero – Malicious

- 2 Dark Grepher

- 2 Destiny Draw

- 2 Emblem of Dragon Destroyer

- 1 Dark Magic Attack

- 1 Future Fusion

- 2 Card Destruction (limited to 1)

- 2 Dark Illusion

 

I cut 18 cards from the deck. That’s on the high end of cuts. That could be a good thing. That could be a bad thing. We’ll see.

 

Contrary to popular belief, Buster Blader is not necessary in a Dark Paladin deck, especially when there’s much more support to fish out the other half of the Fusion instead of Buster Blader. Of course, the deck could be made around Buster Blader with Dark Paladin, but it’s highly discouraged. Plus, with what I’m going to do, Buster Blader will be in the way. Emblem of Dragon Destroyer had to come out with it.

 

Caius the Shadow Monarch is a very unnecessary part of the deck here. The main focus of the deck should be to get Dark Paladin out as soon as possible at minimal cost, much in the same way that Gladiator Beast decks perform their Contact Fusions (but with many more tricks and fewer cards, but still). Caius would just get in the way.

 

Destiny Hero – Malicious is also in the way here. It does nothing for you outside of a deck with the Destiny Hero draw engine or anything of the sort. It seems like it (and the 2 Destiny Draw which had to come out because of the scarcity of discard bait) was just splashed in here and unsuccessfully at that.

 

Dark Grepher is a card I’m wondering about here. Its main purpose is to dump monsters into the Graveyard. You really can’t do anything with a Dark Magician in the Graveyard, and Dark Magician (for Dark Paladin) is needed either in the hand or on the field. Even in the deck is preferable to the Graveyard (as in the deck, it can be dumped by Prisma so it can assume its name).

 

Dark Magic Attack is best used in a deck focused on Dark Magician, not his Fusion, Dark Paladin. That Dark Magic Attack could be something else that’ll do more for you at the time.

 

Future Fusion has to come out because, without Buster Blader, it can’t be used for Dark Paladin (as Fusion Subs can’t be used for Future Fusion unless it fits the requirement as it is in the case of Evil Hero Dark Gaia with The Light/Dark/Earth – Hex-Sealed Fusion).

 

Card Destruction will be replaced with something else that’ll help us a bit more without costing us everything.

 

Dark Illusion, while a decent card to an extent, has much better counterparts (i.e. Solemn Judgment, Divine Wrath though that wouldn’t be good here, Seven Tools of the Bandit).

 

Now to add things:

 

+ 1 Elemental Hero Prisma

+ 1 Dark Magician

+ 1 Sangan

+ 2 King of the Swamp

+ 2 The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion

+ 2 Reinforcement of the Army / E – Emergency Call

+ 1 Heavy Storm

+ 1 Polymerization

+ 2 Hand Destruction

+ 1 Dark Magic Curtain

+ 2 Upstart Goblin / Jar of Greed / Legacy of Yata-Garasu / Solemn Judgment / Seven Tools of the Bandit

+ 2 Royal Decree

 

I added 18 cards, bringing you back to 40. That’s good. Now to explain my choices:

 

Prisma and Dark Magician were maxed out so you have the best chances to draw into your “Dark Magician” piece of the Fusion. Whenever you’re playing with Fusions (such as with Rainbow Neos where there are a plethora of ways to search out the individual pieces – Prisma for Rainbow Dragon and E – Emergency Call for Elemental Hero Neos), you want to make sure you have as many ways as possible to play your Fusion, which is what I tried to do here.

 

Sangan is to search out your Morphing Jar and Fusion Subs, King of the Swamp (which doubles as a Polymerization searcher) and The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion, which have replaced Buster Blader. They don’t tend to be completely dead draws (because you can defend your Life Points with them in a pinch) like Buster Blader, though you can replace The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion with Buster Blader and the Upstart Goblin / whatever for 2 Emblem of Dragon Destroyer if you’d like (which is probably the better option).

 

Reinforcement of the Army and E – Emergency Call are interchangeable here as they would both search the same things here – Stratos and Prisma. Thins the deck by one and gives you either Stratos (for Prisma, thinning it by another card) or Prisma (giving you one half of your Fusion).

 

Heavy Storm replaces Dark Magic Attack. Same effect only you don’t need Dark Magician on the field and your Spells and Traps get hit, too, but that’s almost never a problem.

 

Polymerization was maxed out like Prisma and Dark Magician to make sure you have a better chance to play your Fusion.

 

Hand Destruction replaced Card Destruction, ditching only two cards instead of your whole hand, kind of like Graceful Charity in a sense (in a very loose sense).

 

Dark Magic Curtain (just one, though) is to pull Dark Magician to the field so you can drop Dark Paladin the next turn. That can be replaced with another Hand Destruction if need be.

 

Royal Decree is to work with Dark Paladin’s effect of Spell negation stopping the Traps while Dark Paladin has the Spells locked up, much in the same way as the Horus / Royal Decree lock.

 

Upstart Goblin is to essentially make your deck 38 cards (as with Jar of Greed / Legacy of Yata-Garasu but with giving your opponent Life Points in exchange for being a Spell and not a Trap). Solemn Judgment to stop whatever. Seven Tools of the Bandit to work with Dark Paladin in stopping Traps while Dark Paladin keeps the Spells locked up.

 

That’s all I have for now. I did what I could for this. One bad thing about Fusions is that they take so much trouble to play, especially when the pieces seem searchable but aren’t as searchable as we would like, but that’s what numerous deck thinners are for. Good luck with this.

 

Questions, comments, etc. can be sent to darkdestructionv30@yahoo.com