Deck Analysis: "Malefic World"

The "Malefic" monsters are an archetype of monsters utilized by Paradox in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th Anniversary Movie. In the Japanese version of the movie as well as in the OCG these monsters are called "Sin" monsters.

The 10th anniversary book explains that the name "Sin" is a pun on "Shin" which is the the Kanji "真" which means "Truth". So the Sin monsters are actually as Paradox sees their "true" form, which would tie in with his concept of the true world. This gives the Sin monsters a dual meaning in their name as to Paradox it is their true form, but to everyone else they are corrupted images of themselves.

Sadly, however, the translators over at 4Kids misconstrued "Sin" to solely mean corrupted and thus in the TCG our monsters are named "Malefic", losing the dual symbolism in their name.

The Malefic Monsters are a series of monsters not bound by traditional laws of Normal Summoning. They each carry high ATK power and can be Special Summoned with relatively little cost. However, to compensate for this they have several draw backs, such as only being able to control 1 at a time, whilst also requiring a Field Spell. Malefic Monsters are powerful, however, require careful thought when being played in order to maximize the impact of their high ATK.

The first Malefic monster; "Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon" was unveiled over a year ago in early December of 2009. Dragon users online threw a fit when it was first unveiled as its full effect was not confirmed; merely its summoning requirements. Eagerly we rushed to build decks which could incorporate it: SOL Dragon. Then came the crushing discovery that it required a Field Spell, and with that came the dream of pairing it with Skill Drain to mitigate its negative effects. The deck proved unstable, but shortly thereafter OCG players were rewarded with a Malefic Red-Eyes B. Dragon as the movie promo, and a Malefic Stardust Dragon and Malefic Truth Dragon within the V-Jump magazine. The type was coming into its own. If interested you can broswe through the ghosted decklists on my Pojo Sin thread to see the builds and variants that evolved as new cards were released.

Finally the TCG received the release of Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon within the Duelist Pack Kaiba booster. And just as they had in the OCG Malefic Stardust and Truth soon followed. With the advent of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time 3D Movie Pack Malefic decks have received a huge overhaul. The recent unlimitation of Skill Drain from the Banlists Semi-Limited list also gives them a huge boost.

So, after over a year of playing around with these awesome monsters I can finally post a Malefic deck on my blog. :3

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 16
3 Beast King Barbaros
2 Meklord Emperor Wisel ∞
3 Malefic Cyber End Dragon
3 Malefic Parallel Gear
3 Malefic Stardust Dragon
2 Malefic Truth Dragon

Spells: 13
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
3 Pot of Duality
3 Malefic World
3 Terraforming
2 Trade-In

Traps: 11
3 Dark Bribe
2 Eradicator Epidemic Virus
3 Skill Drain
3 Malefic Claw Stream

Extra Deck: 9
3 Malefic Paradox Dragon
3 Cyber End Dragon
3 Stardust Dragon

Straight of the bat you may notice 2 cards that are not TCG playable; the two copies of "Meklord Emperor Wisel ∞". The reason for its inclusion should be rather obvious, for those of you who do not know its effect just look below or follow the link in its name.

Meklord Emperor Wisel ∞ /Dark/1/ 2500/2500/ Machine/Effect:
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except from your hand when a face-up monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard. Once per turn, you can equip 1 face-up Synchro Monster your opponent controls to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the combined ATK of all Synchro Monsters equipped to it by its own effect. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. Once per turn, you can negate the activation of an opponent's Spell Card and destroy it.

Whilst not a Malefic monster in and of itself Wisel brings a nice level of dependability and versatility to the deck. Capable of being summoned off a Malefic monsters destruction it doesn't require a Field Spell and it eats Synchros. This enables you to have a form of defense should your opponent succeed in bringing down Malefic World or Skill Drain. It also opens up some odd combos such as playing a Malefic without a Field Spell to trigger its summon (useful for getting rid of big Synchros at the cost of a minus). Its Synchro eating abilities pair nicely with those of Malefic Paradox Dragon putting pressure on the opponent and what will be their best form of counter attack to your Malefic monsters. Its brothers Skiel and Grannel are largely unreliable in the Malefic deck due to Skiel being weak and Truth's Life Point cost making Grannel virtually powerless. Wisel, however, proves incredibly handy; also coming with the ability to negate Spells that may endanger your other cards. Clocking in at 2,500ATK and a Dark to boot its also a viable target for Eradicator Epidemic Virus and Allure of Darkness.

Watch out for its other effect though as without Skill Drain in play it will prevent your Malefic monsters from attacking and if you get it out alongside a Malefic monster with the same clause then neither monster can attack. O.o

Next up is the first monster on the list and the only other non-Malefic in the entire deck: Beast King Barbaros.

Beast King Barbaros /Earth/8/ 3000/1200/ Beast-Warrior/Effect:
You can Normal Summon or Set this card without Tributing. If you do, its original ATK becomes 1900. You can Tribute 3 monsters to Tribute Summon this card. When you do, destroy all cards your opponent controls.

A level 8 monster that can be summoned without Tribute. Barbaros brings a welcome addition to Malefic decks utilizing both Trade-In and Skill Drain. Paired alongside Malefic monsters Barbaros allows you to control 7,000 to 8,000 ATK points in just two monsters as well as acting as a means to clear pesky set monsters that your opponent will inevitably put in your way to allow your Malefics direct attacks. Even without Skill Drain up Barbaros is a welcome addition; at 1900ATK and Earth its capable of removing pesky threats such as Koa'ki Meiru Drago and Consecrated Light that may be hindering your in hand Malefic monsters.

Many people compare Beast King Barbaros to another Skill Drain friendly monster: Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast. Being that there is a common point of contention on which of the two to run in a Malefic deck I thought I'd address why I elected to run Barbaros over it.

Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast /Dark/7/ 2800/2000/ Machine/Effect:
You can Normal Summon or Set this card without Tributing. If you do, its original ATK and DEF are halved.

Fusilier has some obvious merits; its Dark for Allure, it can be set and maintain its 2800ATK for Eradicator Epidemic Virus' (EEV) cost and its a Machine, for those gear-heads who do so love their Limiter Removal. My issue with it is that that is literally all it does.

Beast King Barbaros is level 8 so it fuels the Trade-In engine. It may not be Dark for Allure, but with a Malefic deck packing 13 other Darks there is no shortage of that, where as the deck only has 3 Level 8's without Barbaros. It has 3,000ATK under Skill Drain compared to Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast's 2800 which means it can run over Tytannials, LaDDs and Scrap Dragons and paired with Malefic Truth Dragon puts 8,000 damage on the board.

Its also Earth, not Dark which, whilst previously was brought up as a con is now being used to its benefit as it means that Barbaros can kill Consecrated Lights should Skill Drain not be in play whilst Fusilier would be stranded alongside your Malefics. Also speaking of Skill Drain not being in play 1900 lets it clash with Koa'ki Meiru Drago and the like where as Fusilier just becomes dead weight once again; un-Trade-In-able dead weight at that.

Sure its a Dark for Allure, but thats limited and we have no shortage of Darks, sure its fodder for the Viruses and can be set for them, but again; no shortage of targets. Those who would argue Limiter Removal as a bonus would do so at endangering their decks consistency; with only 5 Machine targets Limiter Removal would just go to waste, perhaps if your Malefic deck desires to include Cyber Dragon to bring the count up to 8 you could get more use out of it. In the end Fusilier is essentially a weaker Malefic monster, where as Barbaros fills in the void that Malefic's can't touch. Thus Barbaros supplements the deck where as Fusilier just acts as filler.

That said, there is no reason a Malefic deck could not run both alongside each other and if you were seeking to replace the 2 Wisels for the time being then I'd highly recommend either 2 Fusiliers, 2 Kaiser Colosseums or 2 Cyber Dragons. Each of which have their own merits. However, should you run Cyber Dragon in Malefics NEVER leave it out alongside a Malefic Cyber End Dragon.

Now onto the other cards. Cue Malefics.

Malefic Cyber End Dragon /Dark/10/4000/2800/ Machine/Effect:
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned by removing from play 1 "Cyber End Dragon" from your Extra Deck. There can only be 1 face-up "Malefic" monster on the field. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. If there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field, destroy this card.

Malefic Stardust Dragon /Dark/8/ 2500/2000/ Dragon/Effect:
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned, except by removing from play "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck. There can only be 1 face-up "Malefic" monster on the field. Field Spell Cards cannot be destroyed by effects. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. If there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field, destroy this card.

Malefic Parallel Gear /Dark/2/ 0/ 0/ Machine/Tuner:
If this card is used for a Synchro Summon, the other Synchro Material Monster must be 1 "Malefic" monster in your hand.

Malefic Paradox Dragon /Dark/10/ 4000/4000/ Dragon/Synchro:
"Malefic Parallel Gear" + 1 or more non-Tuner "Malefic" monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned, you can select 1 Synchro Monster in either player's Graveyard, and Special Summon it. There can only be 1 face-up "Malefic Paradox Dragon" on the field. If "Malefic World" is not face-up on the field, destroy this card.

Malefic Truth Dragon /Dark/12/ 5000/5000/ Dragon/Effect:
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by its own effect. If a face-up "Malefic" monster, except "Malefic Truth Dragon", is destroyed by battle or a card effect, you can pay half your Life Points to Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. There can only be 1 face-up "Malefic" monster on the field. If there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field, destroy this card. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls.

Malefic Cyber End Dragon and Malefic Stardust are staples in any Malefic deck; capable of clocking in at ridiculously high ATK points, searchable via Malefic World, fodder for Allure and EEV and Deck Devastation Virus (I have it sided) the two also remove their summoning targets from the Extra Deck which means unlike Malefic Blue-Eyes or Malefic Rainbow Dragon you cannot draw into their target and kill their playability. Malefic Cyber End Dragon acts as a gargantuan beatstick. It hits the field and attacks, if it lands a direct attack then your opponent is halfway beat; two attacks and you win. Thats pretty impressive for a single monster. Malefic Stardust is more of a protective card; it still has the ATK to run over most monsters in the game but it also can defend your Field Spell from destruction. Also being Level 8 it is a viable target for Trade-In or for Malefic Parallel Gear to summon Malefic Paradox Dragon with.

Malefic Parallel Gear is our Tuner for the Malefic archetype; it allows for the summoning of Malefic Paradox Dragon and gives use to dead in hand Malefic Stardust and Malefic Blue-Eyes, in fact in an older build I ran a single Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon without its normal counterpart to act as searchable fodder for Gear, Allure and Trade-In. It worked really well and I only cut it because I needed the space. Malefic Parallel Gear is nifty because its effect is ruled as a condition; like that of Eccentric Boy. Since its effect is a condition it cannot be negated by Skill Drain thus allowing for a loophole that lets you control more than 1 Malefic monster provided you have Skill Drain in play. See here for more details on that loophole as well as rulings on the matter.

Malefic Paradox Dragon is quite the monstrosity. Weighing in at 4,000ATK and DEF not much will be able to get over it in battle. Its reliance in Malefic World is a big nerf, however, as we are running no other Field Spell other than Malefic World it is not inhibited in this deck. Should you simply require a huge beatstick and lack a Malefic Cyber End Dragon then Skill Drain will allow you to summon Paradox without it dying, albeit giving up on its Synchro stealing ability. This ability is amazing. With it Paradox can claim any Synchro you or your opponent has summoned correctly; from Formula Synchron to Odin, Father of the Aesir they're all viable targets. And even without a Field Spell in play you can still summon Paradox and claim a Synchro, letting it die and using it as a sort of Synchro specific Monster Reborn (A card not in my deck due to the limited number of targets which would render it dead). And of course with the Parallel Gear loophole it is possible to control Malefic Paradox Dragon alongside another Malefic monster, giving you 8,000 to 9,000ATK in the form of two monsters. Fun.

The last Malefic monster on the list is the astounding Malefic Truth Dragon. With an upgraded effect of Red Dragon Archfiend this dragon is a beast to contend with. It can be summoned from either the hand or grave making it our own themed Machine Emperor. As a result of its effect many Malefic decks utilize Dragon Ravine from the Dragunity Structure deck to act as a Field Spell/ dumping option for Malefic Truth Dragon and setting up for powerful plays as a result. I too used to run such a build, however, once the opponent knows what Truth does they tend to play around it, and playing around Truth's summoning is relatively easy courtesy of Brionac and the like. Because of this I tend to prefer my Truths to drop from my hand; fully searchable via Malefic World they are a powerful threat when leaping out of your hand by surprise with a whopping 5,000ATK points. The card is unrivaled in its power, however, it is due to its steep summoning cost that I elect to only run 2 copies instead of a playset. Granted once a Truth is play it isn't going anywhere unless its removed so if you can't get a hold of 2 copies then 1 can keep you safe for the time being.

The Spell Line-up is fairly standard; everything searches and digs deeper into my deck, giving me faster access to Malefic World and thereby letting me manipulate my Draw Phase.

Malefic World/ Field Spell
While this card is face-up on the field, you can activate this effect instead of conducting a normal draw during your Draw Phase. Choose 3 "Malefic" cards from your Deck and have your opponent pick 1 of them at random to add to your hand. Shuffle the rest back into your Deck.

Malefic World is quite the power card; capable of manipulating the entire draw phase down to virtually letting you choose what you draw, it is my favourite aspect of the Malefic deck (aside from the huge dragons). It can even search other copies of itself and Malefic Claw Stream, meaning this card single handedly gives access to a near infinite stream of 2500+ATK monsters, monster destruction and even protection and backup for itself. Thought still random this can be circumvented by choosing 3 copies of the card you want, and even if you have played one of said cards Malefic World still reduces your chance of getting it from 1/40 to 1/3 or 2/3, vastly increasing your odds of getting what you need.

And lastly the Traps.

Malefic Claw Stream/ Normal Trap
Activate only if you control a face-up "Malefic" monster. Select 1 monster your opponent controls, and destroy it.

Searchable removal. I must admit when this was first unveiled I vastly underestimated it. Searchable, chainable one for one removal. You can use it to intercept Synchro plays, wipe out Set monsters to allow direct attacks and clear out pesky Spirit Reapers. Malefic Claw Stream is an amazing card that is readily usable within the deck courtesy of Malefic World.

Skill Drain serves as a counter to the Malefic monsters downsides whilst also abusing their strengths. It protects from opposing monsters abilities whilst also cutting off Synchro plays from decks such as X-Sabers, Legendary Six Samurai and Dragunitys by preventing their swarming effects from working (Boggart Knight, Kageki, Dux, etc.). Should you feel you need further protection from Synchro monsters then look no further than Kaiser Colosseum:

Kaiser Colosseum/ Continuous Spell
If there is 1 or more monster(s) on the field of the controller of this card, his/her opponent cannot place a monster on the field if his/her number of monsters would exceed the number of monsters that are on the field of this card's controller. The cards that are already on the field before this card's activation are unaffected by this effect.

Locking your opponent down to the same number of monsters as you control this card singlehandedly shuts out any opposing Synchro plays your opponent may attempt. The only reason it isn't in my main deck is due to space conflicts, but in practice its a very useful card.

Dark Bribe protects Skill Drain and Malefic World. Solemn Judgment is limited and its LP cost makes Truth an expensive summon, as such the versatile Bribe can fill that void and allows you to make aggressive plays with your Malefic monsters while ensuring them safety. Though such versatility comes with a hefty cost; the draw given to the opponent by Dark Bribe renders this card an inherent -1, and as such can be risky to utilize. Played correctly this card can clinch the game in your favour, but used offhandedly it will lose you the game flat out. Beware of the opponent baiting Bribe. The most important thing about using Dark Bribe well is timing, so with that comes self control and the ability to read the opponent. If you wanted to use Dark Bribe I'd recommend reading this article by Matt Peddle.

Lastly we get to the final Trap: Eradicator Epidemic Virus. Our own personal heavy S/T removal card, this gives Malefic monsters access to something most decks lack with Heavy Storm's banning. Best used reactively, for the price of a Malefic or Wisel it grants you virtually free reign for 3 turns. Locking an opponent out of Spells early game can hand you the duel on a silver platter and taking out their Bottomless Trap Holes and Solemn Warnings leaves their little monsters defenseless before your dragons. The ability to see their hand and draws allows you to anticipate their plays and makes Dark Bribe all the more powerful as well. In addition with Skill Drain locking down the opponents monster effects most people will elect to side in S/T removal in the form of other Spell and Trap cards. As a result while I side my Eradicators out in game 2 and 3 (for other reasons), other Malefic players side in a 3rd copy. A strategy that may very well pay off.

Deck Devastation Virus has been mentioned several times throughout the article, I chose not to main deck it as a I feel that Eradicator is far more powerful in the main deck, however, with Dragunity, Legendary Six and Plant decks ruling the early stages of the format it may prove beneficial to main some DDV either in addition to or instead of your EEV. Just be careful not to have too many traps reliant on your Malefic monsters or you'll be stalled with dead draws when you find yourself without one.

Some notes on staples I am not running, specifically: Giant Trunade, Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment (I addressed Monster Reborn earlier). Giant Trunade doesn't make it into the deck on account of it being a suicide switch for Malefic monsters, Solemn Warning and Judgment were cut because their heavy Life Point costs clashed with triple Skill Drain and Malefic Truth Dragon, both of which are far more powerful in this deck than either Warning or Judgment.

Now this variant is a pure Malefic deck, there are certainly many others. You can see a collection of Malefic builds from Gravekeepers to Geartown variants here. What I have found in my testing with these decks is this: the Gravekeeper and Crystal Beast variants are average at best. They suffer from being unable to fully abuse the Malefic monsters or Gravekeepers/CBs, thereby making it weaker than pure builds of either. In such decks the Malefics are better off run as tech (Stardust in GK and Cyber End in CB respectively), hybrids aren't as competitively viable.

Geartown is a strong variant of Malefic deck but its inconsistent; its not something that will get you through 10 rounds of competitive play. That said, it is an amazing deck to side into; completely stalling a vast majority of Anti-Malefic cards that your opponent may bring into the game in duels 2 and 3. Even though Imperial Iron Wall would still be effective against the deck most people are ignoring that in favour of S/T removal which makes this the perfect deck to side into come Game 2.

Pure is the most consistent, which is why it is my main, as it abuses the strengths and weaknesses of the Malefic monsters the best; but as a result it also has the weakest game 2 and 3 in the competitive scene due to side decking, which is why I'd change it up for that match, siding into Geartown or the like.

Anyway, there you have it, my thoughts on Malefic monsters as well as my build for the deck. I was hesitant to post it up so soon as I'm still testing and refining some of the cards but what the hell; play it, test it, if you find cards that don't work for you swap them out and keep going.

All Hail Truth!