Deck Analysis: "SOL Dragon"

SOL Dragon

Deck Creator: Yanni

"SOL Dragon" is an advantage oriented variant of the popular "Hopeless Dragon" One-Turn-Kill deck that originated from Japan. SOL Dragon utilizes the tuner monster "The White Stone of Legend" to fuel its draw engines and feed its hand and graveyard with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"(s) for "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon" to then revive and swarm the field with. Unlike most Hopeless decks this deck does not play to OTK and as such a lot of the card choices in the deck are chosen to help it last longer into duels, give it more options and aid in abusing the advantage generated by White Stone of Legend. The deck is, as I have already said, and advantage engine. It plays by wearing the opponent down with large beaters and lightning fast Special Summons. It retains advantage through all of this because the beaters come from the Graveyard, and are thus able to be considered "Pseudo-floaters", the Special Summons from the hand and Extra Deck are in the form of monsters such as Chaos Sorcerer and Arcanite Magician; monsters who pay for their summoning cost by clearing cards from the opponents field. All the while as this goes on SOL Dragon is able to maintain a consistent draw engine powered by 3 draw cards. Each and every target for these draw cards is searchable and as a result dead draws are rare. The deck is very live and very versatile, here is an example of my current decklist:

Main Deck: 40

Extra Deck: 15
1 Five-Headed Dragon
1 Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
2 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2 Arcanite Magician
1 Magical Android
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Dark End Dragon
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter

Monsters: 22
3 Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
1 Elemental Hero - Stratos
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Prime Material Dragon
3 White Stone of Legend
2 Red Eyes Wyvern
1 Destiny Hero - Plasma
2 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Dark Armed Dragon

Spells: 16
1 Future Fusion
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Foolish Burial
2 Allure of Darkness
3 Destiny Draw
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Scapegoat
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
2 Trade-In

Traps: 2
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force

As I've already said, the deck plays around advantage. This concept of advantage is as simple as counting cards; the idea is that if you have more cards then your opponent then you have more options, more answers, more plays and thus you are in the more favourable position to win. While card advantage doesn't take all aspects of the game into account the example I have presented is a very basic interpretation of the concept; it is card advantage at the core. There are many facets to card advantage but I won't bother addressing them in this article. For this article all that is needed to be understood is the concept of "Simplification", "Floaters" and "Pseudo-Floaters".

A floater is a monster that has effectively "paid" the cost it took to play them. If someone summons an "Elemental Hero - Stratos" and searches for a Malicious from their deck then the 1 card that they paid to play Stratos - the Stratos itself - has been replaced by a new one, if Stratos were to die then you wouldn't be "losing" anything in terms of Card Advantage because Stratos has given you a +1 in its summoning, in fact anything your opponent does to kill Stratos, bar battle will force them into a less favourable position by making them spend more cards to destroy something that has already replaced itself. In trying to avoid doing so your opponent may be tempted to try and kill Stratos in battle. If you prevent that exchange from happening via a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute you have simplified the gamestate. For an example of how SOL Dragon does this click this link to a tournament I played it at. Woot self plugging in my own article. :P

Say it is my first turn, I summon Stratos and grab Malicious. I began with 6 cards, I now have 7. I set Mirror Force. Next turn my opponent summons a monster and attacks; I flip Mirror Force. I have lost 1 card in the exchange and they have lost one, however they now are down to 5 cards total whereas I have 6 cards left and next turn shall proceed to draw into a 7th. Instantly I am not only 2 cards up on them but I have a monster on the field, while they do not, they have wasted their normal summon. What may have seemed like a waste of a Mirror Force has now put me above my opponent. Obviously while we both have full hands such numbers are relatively useless, so by removing further cards from the board I can extend my lead over my opponent. After establishing 1 or 2 cards over the opponent if I proceed to make a series of 1 for 1 exchanges with Monsters and Spells or Traps I can eventually reduce my opponent to the point where my 2 card advantage over them is in the form of 3 cards to 1. An incredible advantage as they are virtually topdecking. If some of the exchanges that I make come in the form of monsters that pay for themselves or replace themselves then I will have even more cards over my opponent. After reaching such a point even a top decked Judgement Dragon will find it difficult to turn the game in my opponents favour.

Obviously the devastation wrought by a Judgement Dragon will depend entirely upon how many cards I have committed to the field in comparison to how many I have left in my hand, as well as the possible answers I may have to a Judgement Dragon. By saving cards such as "Brain Control", "Chaos Sorcerer" and the like in my hand I am able to respond easily to something such as a Judgment Dragon. If my field consisted entirely of monsters that had paid for themselves, such as an Elemental Hero - Stratos, a Red-Eyes who had revived a monster and the monster Red-Eyes had revived, then the Judgement Dragon wouldn't phase me at all. Had I a monster such as Red-Eyes Wyvern, Sangan or The White Stone of Legend on the field then I also wouldn't mind. This is because while these cards may not replace themselves when they are played they have further potential to do so after they die. These cards are called "Pseudo-Floaters".

SOL Dragon is built around The White Stone of Legend. Its reliance on this humble 1-star tuner monster is evident in the fact that I named the deck after it. "SOL" comes from "Stone Of Legend". Its also the word for sun in almost every language other than English, as I discovered on the Pojo forums.

SOL Dragon plays with the expectation that The White Stone of Legend will be sent to the Graveyard. Any way is fine; dump it via Future Fusion, dump it via Lightning Vortex, Foolish Burial, set it and let it die in battle, kill it with Torrential Tribute, or even tune it to something like Chaos Sorcerer for Arcanite Magician or to a Malicious for a Black Rose Dragon. The possibilities and methods for triggering The White Stone's effect are endless. Its an incredibly versatile little egg; and when it dies you get a free Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

This is important because it means that in playing cards like Foolish Burial or Lightning Vortex that would normally cost you cards you are receiving their effects for free while also furthering your decks goals. Lightning Vortex played on less than 2 monsters is a -1, however, with White Stone it becomes a 1 for 1 and a +1 against 2 monsters, only further increasing with the more monsters your opponent may have. Foolish Burial is an incredibly versatile card that can open up loads of different plays and openings and when paired with White Stone of Legend its inherent -1 status becomes a 1 for 1 that thins your deck by 2 cards and now you have a Light/Dragon/Tuner in your grave - which means Chaos Sorcerer is now only lacking a dark, Red-Eyes has a viable target for recursion and not to mention your deck is 2 cards thinner and you are now holding a Blue-Eyes in your hand. White Stone is the heart of the SOL Dragon deck and cards like Foolish Burial give immediate access to it and its effect. While we're on the subject, Foolish can also dump an extra dark for DAD, cover an extra Light or Dark for Sorcerer, throw Mali or Plague in the grave for a quick synchro or tribute or even chuck a Wyvern or Darkness Metal into your grave for an endphase summon. Its utility and versatility is endless and almost all these plays go on to make up for its inherent -1 status. Foolish Burial is very, very useful.

As the deck expects that you shall be sending White Stone of Legend to the Graveyard it lends itself to take advantage of that via cards such as Trade-In and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal. Though these may be the most obvious uses for your free Blue-Eyes I shall also point out that it is also, like White Stone of Legend a good source of fodder for your discard costs.

The deck as a whole is a gargantuan draw engine; 13 of the cards in the deck can be considered "high level" monsters, and thats a majority of your monsters, however its a minority in your deck and each of those high level monsters is capable of fueling at least one of the 3 different draw cards in the deck, if not 2 of them - or in Plasma's case all 3. In addition to that almost all of them are Special Summons with easy costs to play.

The benefit of Trade-In in the SOL engine is that every draw target is searchable with Plasma acting as a sort of fiber between them all. Level 8, D-Hero and Dark. Its searchable via Stratos and a 4th target for Trade-In. Also every target for the D-Hero engine is recruitable via Stratos and as such your targets for Allure and D-Draw are recruitable. That means every target for every draw card is able to be searched. On top of all that almost every card in the deck is either Light or Dark which in turn fuels both Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon.

Every monster in the deck is either a Floater, Pseudo-Floater or a named Destiny Hero. Destiny Hero - Plasmas uses have already been outlined. Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude acts as another fiber to merge the deck together; Dark for Allure, DAD and Chaos Sorcerer, D-Hero for Stratos and Destiny Draw, level 4 Warrior for Reinforcement of the Army and an ability that can give you any Normal Spell in the deck for free. This sets up potential abuse with the 3 draw cards, both Trade-In and Destiny Draw can be activated for a free 2 draws if hit by Diamond Dude's effect while Allure will give you its draw but still require a removal.

As every monster in the deck is designed to work in tandem with the rest of the deck, while paying for itself and fueling the draw engine it is easy to see how in a matter of turns this deck can reduce the opponents field to a simplified game state of 1-2 cards including their hand, while your field and hand still consists of the same number of cards you drew at the beginning of the duel. By abusing the decks inherent nature to feed itself free cards at the expense of your opponent and playing the simplification game there is very little your opponent will be able to do when you decide to start dropping dragons.

And drop dragons this deck does. A single Red-Eyes Darkness Metal paired with a Blue-Eyes and a Chaos Sorcerer is enough ATK points to go for game. Though this deck may not play OTK that certainly doesn't mean it can't explode into one. Chaos Sorcerer's use in this deck is vital; serving almost as important a role as The White Stone of Legend. It merges the Light and Dark themes, acts as a free 2300ATK beat stick while also possessing the ability to float upon summon via the removal of an opposing monster. When combined with the Stone of Legend it opens up plays into Arcanite Magician; this decks best secret weapon.

Not many opponents expect a dragon deck to be able to drop a Sorcerer on turn one, sync it to a White Stone for a Bottomless dodging Arcanite which can then proceed to wipe 2 more cards off their field. But regardless of whether or not they expect it; this deck can do it. And it can do it well.

In summary; SOL Dragon is an advantage oriented deck that aims to wear the opponent out of resources whilst maintaining its own, all the while dropping free 2000ATK+ monsters each turn. By playing the simplification game and exhausting the opponents resources to the point where they have no answers left for your monsters you can easily achieve total control of the board, the duel and win it in a matter of turns. This deck is explosive and fast, however, its greatest strength lies in its incredible versatility.

DRONG WAPH WER DARASTRI!