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!

Dragons Top 16 at YCS Milan

Yet another YCS top for dragons.

Kim Just Jensen

Monsters: 19
3 Koa’ki Meiru Drago
3 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Masked Dragon
1 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Vice Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon
1 Exploder Dragon
1 Totem Dragon
1 Delta Flyer
1 Dread Dragon

Spells: 12
3 Book of Moon
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Future Fusion
1 Enemy Controller
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Giant Trunade

Traps: 9
2 Solemn Warning
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit
1 Burst Breath

Extra Deck: 15
2 Stardust Dragon
2 Black Rose Dragon
1 Dragunity Knight Gae Bulg
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Five-Headed Dragon
1 Dark End Dragon

Side Deck: 15
2 Malevolent Catastrophe
2 Pulling the Rug
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Mind Control
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit

Source

Deck Feature: "SOL Unity"

Been testing this for several months now. The decklist choices seem pretty nailed out by now and with Dragunitys hitting stateside it seemed like a good time to reveal it.

SOL Genesis reshaped by the release of Dragunitys. It plays completely different to the other build, and is far faster. Though to be honest I prefer how the other build plays.

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 18
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
1 Dragunity Arms - Misteil
1 Red-Eyes Wyvern
1 Genesis Dragon
1 Dragunity Arms - Laevatein
2 Dragunity - Phalanx
2 Masked Dragon
1 Exploder Dragon

Spells: 15
1 Dark Hole
3 Cards of Consonance
3 Dragon Canyon
1 Future Fusion
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade
3 Trade-In

Traps: 7
2 Solemn Warning
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force

Extra Deck: 15
1 Five-Headed Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Dark End Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Nova Dragon

Deck Analysis: "SOL Genesis"

SOL Genesis has been my deck for the past format and a half now, and its running pretty well. I've got 2 Tops with it so far, placing 4th and 2nd. The deck is a lot of fun and I've been getting a lot of pressure from dragon users on pojo to write up an article on the deck. So that is what I'm going to try and do today.

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 20
2 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Red-Eyes Wyvern
1 Genesis Dragon
1 Vice Dragon
1 Dread Dragon
2 Masked Dragon
1 Delta Flyer
1 Sangan

Spells: 13
2 Pot of Duality
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
2 Cards of Consonance
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Future Fusion
1 Monster Reborn
1 Giant Trunade
2 Trade-In

Traps: 7
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force

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

SOL Genesis is a control deck. Its a much slower paced deck than any of the others you've seen on this blog and it plays an attrition game. It favours singular versatile monsters that can profit from maximum interaction with other cards in the deck, not individual combos. As a result you won't see it running cards like Super Rejuvenation that you might see in other decks carrying a similar draw engine. This deck can support it, yes, but its not a combo deck, its not explosive, it doesn't OTK anymore than say... Disaster Dragon, so you have nothing to accelerate your draw into, plus the deck benefits from controlling the tempo and pace of the duel, recycling with Genesis, etc. Combos, whilst neat, are not welcome here.

SOL Genesis then is a control deck which capitalizes off of the advantage given by White Stone of Legend. If you're reading my blog I'll assume you know about my past decks by now and my obsession with the little egg. Like SOL Dragon before it this deck revolves around the advantage engine Stone of Legend creates. Utilizing SOL and Genesis Dragon the deck aims to constantly maintain its resources as it controls the duel with dragons; forcing the opponent to expend resources while your plays pay for themselves. Genesis Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon maintain the versatile outlets for your dragon options, be it special summoning for +s and field presence, draw combos, or even just maintaining viable options in your hand. Cards like Chaos Sorcerer, Dark Armed Dragon and Dark Hole aim to enforce your plays, establishing field control and allowing you to gain further pluses off spent Dragons. One of my favourite combos from SOL Dragon is tuning Stone of Legend to Chaos Sorcerer to make Arcanite Magician then raking in the advantage the play creates. This play carried over to SOL Genesis, and although it may not occur with the same frequency the move is devastating in its own right.

The deck wins by whittling the opponent out of resources and just amassing its advantage, virtually leaning on them until they lose. At any point you find they present an opening you can, of course, simply swarm them with dragons in a manner akin to previous SOL decks. Blue-Eyes fuels the draw engine that feeds the deck its resources, and benefits from SOL recruiting it in that it gives you pluses in advantage whilst also making the draw engine more dependable and consistent. Its also just an amazing 3000ATKer - when brought back via Darkness Metal its just a +1 so its fate doesn't really matter, it can cause some serious disruption if you catch your opponent off guard with it.

It is this +1 off Red-Eyes that is so important. Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is the backbone of many dragon decks. In SOL Genesis its role is not as necessary as in past SOL decks to ease the summoning of big hitters, however, its still a powerful asset to the deck. More often than not you'll use its effect to revive smaller dragons, or Genesis itself. Blue-Eyes being brought back as a floater won't often happen until you need to establish a push for game or feel the need for an even bigger hitter than your standard 2800 can muster.

Genesis Dragon is imperative to the deck, and it is for Genesis Dragon that I actually made the deck itself. Because he looks like a Rathalos. And Rathalos is awesome. Dragons used to be renown for their ability to bypass summoning requirements, cheat tributing costs, and carrying some of the heaviest hitters in the game. Now, however, dragons carry 9 possible draw cards, more than any other deck in the game; Trade-In, Cards of Consonance and Super Rejuvenation. Dragons carry some of the most versatile targets for these cards, something later developed on by Dragunitys and Dragons Canyon. Genesis Dragon allows for recycling of Draw card targets, and despite the fact that I am against the inclusion of Super Rejuvenation in this deck also feeds its cost. Genesis Dragon ensures that you never run out of fodder for Cards of Consonance and Trade-In, both with its discard and recycle effect and with its more Pot of Avaricesque effect; one that is actually very useful in this deck. In older variants I ran triple Consonance and Trade-In with double Genesis Dragon. This worked, however, it also led to some clogged hands. By cutting the draw cards down to 2 copies each I was able to ensure that I could still benefit from Genesis' abilities whilst also gaining more fodder for its effect. Spent SOLs and Blue-Eyes still serve a purpose in this deck in acting as free fodder for Genesis to recur other dragons. I still really want a 2nd Genesis in there but my tribute count is beginning to run a bit high.

A single Red-Eyes Wyvern is more preference on my end. Dual Wyverns could work well if you find you have the space, however, I personally find it to be a subpar deck building tactic. I found when I was running Deep Draw that the better I got with the deck the less I relied upon Red-Eyes Wyvern. This is the case with most dragon builds, bar perhaps Disaster which has no better alternative at the moment, however, I really felt it in Deep Draw. This realization eventually spread over to SOL Dragon and has since influenced my stance of dragon deck building; that is that running Red-Eyes Wyvern for the sole sake of recurring Darkness Metal is an inconsistent deck building tactic bordering on a subpar play at best - it reeks of the fact that we dragon users have no better altnernative and is something that should not be relied upon consistently. We may have had no better alternative in previous formats, but now we have Monster Reborn back. Wyvern should not be maxed.

The flaw in Wyvern is that it only has 1 target in the ENTIRE deck. Even if you run 3 Darnkess Metal (which, you should) you still only have 1 target for your Wyvern. Sure you can recurr other Wyverns, but thats moronic. The flaw in Red-Eyes Wyvern is it forces reliance on Future Fusion and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal. Whilst those cards may be our power plays, it does not bode well to construct decks that rely so heavily upon them that when they are disabled the deck falls flat on its face. Without Darkness Metal in play all copies of Red-Eyes Wyvern are vanilla 1800ATK piles of crap. 1800ATK isn't even high anymore, its average, its Shura/Firedog/Laquari fodder, feeds none of your draw cards and ultimately serves no more purpose than a vanilla monster until you get a Darkness Metal into play.

Thus when constructing a deck maxing Wyverns should not be considered "staples" as such. You wouldn't run 3 Mezuki for the sake of 3 other zombies, the fact that dragons virtually have to run Wyvern for the sake of Darkness Metal shows the flaw in our limited cardpool. Which brings us back to my focus on Genesis Dragons importance in this deck and its lack of reliance upon Darkness Metal.

All of that said, I have found despite my abhorring that which Wyvern stands for dragons as of yet do not have a fully viable alternative to it, and Monster Reborn will only get us so far, and thus a single copy is included in my deck.

The rest of the deck is fairly standard. The trap lineup is huge due to this deck aiming for a much loner game. If the game draws out you're better off; your monsters are self replacing and Genesis can refuel your deck and hand. The traps allow you to control your opponents ability to remove your control of the board, and in doing so help you to even further establish it. Solemn Warnings are virtually staples this format and it is for that reason that I'm running a single Seven Tools of the Bandit.

I had thought about running Trap Stun for a while this format, however, in the end 7 Tools outshone it. Last format the deck sided, and then eventually mained dual Royal Oppression. With Oppressions in deck Trap Stun allowed for a versatile method of shutting out my opponents traps for the turn whilst also preventing them from stopping my Special Summons via Oppression. This format, however, with the trap line-up shifting towards Counter Traps and Royal Oppression outclassed by Solemn Warning I find Trap Stun to be vastly inferior to 7 Tools.

SOL Genesis is not an OTK deck so the chances of it pulling off an OTK are low, sure it can, but any deck can. It lacks monster effects to destroy the set cards so the traps are still going to be there the next turn (unless you tech Tiger Dragon), and it has to then be used in the standby phase to block Solemn Warnings, since if they go off Stun cannot be chained. This then means that my Solemn Warnings and Solemn Judgments are down for the turn preventing me from blocking any Quickplays, Monster Effects and Trago/Faders that could impede my push for field control/game that turn.

7 Tools on the other hand may only block 1 trap but it ends the chain there and then. Unless they 7 Tools or Solemn back nothing can be activated after it due to its Counter Trap powaaaa. It also removes the trap in question, can be used reactively after a Solemn Judgment or Warning whilst also blocking any other traps I may have issue with. It also means in the case of those counter traps that are so rampant now; they still pay the cost. That helps my push more than Trap Stun not going off any. Since this deck is a control deck based around attrition that is better for its overall goals and playstyle.

7 Tools is better than Trap Stun in SOL Genesis, just as Solemn Warning is better than Royal Oppression. Oppression was good last format, but now we have better cards to run. Though yes, if you can't afford Warnings then run Oppression and in that instance Trap Stun becomes more viable, however, you should aim to not be running either as the deck is stronger without them.

Pot of Duality is back in force once more; especially in light of the latest Duality ruling on its interaction with Future Fusion there is really no reason not to run this card. For those of you who missed out here it is; If you play Duality then you can still activate Future Fusion on that turn and vice versa. However, obviously you cannot activate Pot of Duality on the turn Five-Headed from Future Fusion is summoned, nor can you End Phase a Wyvern the turn you play a Duality.

Anyway, thats my deck with a little write up on it. It gets a wonderful overhaul with the release of Dragunitys so stay tuned for that one.

Dragons Top 16 at YCS San Jose

This is old news by now for most, just thought I'd spread the word a little more.

William Miller (Top 32 – Dragons)

Monsters: 20
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Delta Flyer
2 Totem Dragon
2 Exploder Dragon
3 Masked Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon
1 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Vice Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon

Spells: 12
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Giant Trunade
1 Future Fusion
1 Dark Hole
1 Foolish Burial
1 Monster Reborn
2 Book of Moon

Traps: 8
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Royal Oppression
2 Burst Breath
1 Solemn Judgment

Side Deck: 15
1 Consecrated Light
1 Pulling the Rug
1 Mind Crush
1 Koa’ki Meiru Drago
1 Light-Imprisoning Mirror
1 Malevolent Catastrophe
1 Dust Tornado
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Battle Fader
1 Marshmallon
1 System Down
1 Enemy Controller
1 Starlight Road
1 Trap Stun

Extra Deck: 15
1 Armory Arm
1 Magical Android
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Mist Wurm
1 Trident Dragion
1 Five-Headed Dragon
1 Iron Chain Dragon

Source.

S/T and Extra lineup look fairly standard. The monster lineup stands out due to obvious playset of Delta Flyers, lack of Dread and the inclusion of both LaDD and Yamata, which is uncommon. A single Vice is also an interesting move. One I doubt would have an apparent effect over dual copies, which I still prefer. No Koa'ki Meiru Drago mained is to be expected. And a move Ithquentbvare of Pojo.com has been urging Dragon Players to make for months now.

The side deck is where it gets trippy. That thing is a mess. And quite frankly; bad. Its designed for single swap exchanges with the main deck and isn't built to effectively deal with present metagame problems. It does lend the deck versatility in the way it sides, but also limits its response ability thus leading to the inevitable defeat in the top32 once he got into facing good players. The side does make sense from a maindeck perspective, but for a side decks purposes its a bad move, I feel.

Deck Analysis: "Dragunity!"

Dragunitys have long been a favourite deck of mine. Even before SOL Dragon I was running the basic Dragunitys in the OCG. Back in the days when triple Tribus was considered almost mandatory, followed up by Icarus Attack plays. Gadaerg was the best of the Dragunity Knights and the spoiler for Cards of Consonance was giving us nerd-gasms.

You know, all that fun nostalgic stuff people feel about a deck they used to play. Anyway Dragunitys recently got an overhaul, and by recently I mean, as of about 6 months ago. I promised the boys back on pojo I'd write an article and put it off until Jason wrote one on TCG Player. Given his article outlined the basics of Dragunity play I figured there was no longer a need for me to write one, but formats change and JDGloom's article is now several sets and a banlist out of date. Given that the TCG is about to get Dragunitys in Starstrike Blast and Hidden Arsenal 3 I figured now would be a good time to write a short spiel for the TCG dragon players who do not yet understand how the Dragunity deck works.

The decklist I'll be posting is the present deck I'm running, which means it runs Dragon Canyon a card dragon players should know all about. If you don't, follow the link in its name and learn about it quickly; in short its a searchable dumping engine for dragons that can be run in triplicate. Now Dragon Canyon and the Dragunity Arms series may not be the Dragunity promos being released in Starstrike Blast, but even if they aren't the fact that the Dragunitys are coming out in HA03 means they will not be very far behind, thus I feel this deck is appropriate. This decklist is built for the TCG metagame, not the OCG one just as a bit of a disclaimer. And cue decklist.

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 18
3 Dragunity - Phalanx
3 Dragunity - Dux
3 Dragunity - Legionnaire
3 Dragunity - Arms Laevatein
2 Dragunity - Arms Misteil
3 Dragunity - Aklys
1 Morphing Jar

Spells: 16
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
3 Dragon Canyon
3 Cards of Consonance
2 Pot of Duality
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Book of Moon
1 Foolish Burial

Traps: 6
1Mirror Force
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15
3 Dragunity Knight - Vajuranda
1 Dragunity Knight - Gadearg
1 Dragunity Knight - Gáe Bulg
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Magical Android
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Scrap Dragon
2 Trident Dragion

Pojo Deck Link.

This build should look fairly familiar by now for those of you who are familiar with Dragunitys. Dragunitys have a solid skeleton that everyone tends to stick to and it actually originated in several points; I can remember constructing this build on DMG before the cards came out (minus DREV stuff) and then running over to Bubbledee on the Dragunity forums on Pojo who had an extremely similar build. Then a few weeks later Jason posted his build on TCG Player and again the lineups were virtually the same with only minor tech differences. If you follow the link to my deck on pojo you'll see its been posted for over a year; very little has changed to the inherent skeleton. Dragunitys are quite solid in the way they build themselves. Some people see this as a downside as Konami is effectively telling people how to build their decks, I prefer to think of it as a sign of a coherent theme. Over a year and very minor deck changes is a good sign of a strong skeleton. Its also a sign of being ignored by the banlist.

Dragunitys play very Junk and Debris; you set up the Dragon-Tuner (Generally Phalanx) summon the Dux/Legionnaire and then go from there; Dux leads into level 6 Synchros; if you elect for Vajuranda as your synchro that then leads to a level 8, whilst Legionnaire can either act as monster destruction or go for a level 5.

Those are your most basic plays with the deck. Legionnaire gets more explosive when equipped with an Aklys and his floating without a tuner makes him prime fodder for those of you who run Icarus Attack still; or to send to the grave for a Dragunity Arms - Misteil.

Misteil is awesome. A walking level 6 monster that can capitalize on any lone Dragunity you have on the field; even going so far as to normal summon Phalanx, send it to the grave for a Misteil Special Summon and then equipping it to it to Sync for a level 8 is a viable play. Not a recommended one in most circumstances due to the minus in advantage, but its still a versatile outlet of use for Misteil. Naturally Misteil is best used after a Legionnaire play via Aklys: Summmon Legionnaire, equip Aklys, send Aklys, proceed to +2. Send Legionnaire for Misteil, equip with Phalanx, SS Phalanx, beat face. You know, basic Dragunity tricks.

Dragunitys are all about field control and synchro spam. Because of their grave tricks they can very easily drop a Synchro of any level between 5 and 10 for the cost of a Normal Summon. Yes. I said 10. That 10 is a Trident Dragion. The Dragunitys OTK asset.

Trident Dragion is made possible through the incredible power that is Dragunity Arms Laevatein (DAL). Now, these days its actually quite common to only run 1 Laevatein. The general opinion is that hes a heavy monster that can't capitalize of Aklys effect. Now, the flaw in this is simple; when Dragunitys were first revealed a few TCG players got it in their heads that Aklys wouldn't abide by basic Equip destruction rules, I blame the fact that because we have so few competitive equips people have forgotten the basics of how they function. Anyway, they felt that Aklys could blow up when the monster to which it was equipped was removed for DALs summon, thus upon the ruling that it could not (apparently this was a big problem) it was perceived as a "nerfing" instead of the clarification that it was. This resulted in a percieved "loss" of power in DAL thus the card was cut in quantity.

I can understand the stance of not wanting to run 3 heavy monsters, however, I respectfully disagree; Dragunity Arms Laevatein is a 3 or 0 card. This is because it is not through Aklys that it gains its power, but through Phalanx. You see DAL carries with itself the same effect as Dux, Legionnaire and Misteil, while normally a level 8 monster having that effect is useless when paired with a tuner DAL also happens to be a Dragon. 2+8=Trident Dragion. This is the Dragunity OTK, and the reason for which I run 3.

You see 1 copy is simply not reliable. Sure its dumpable via Canyon; at the cost of a -1, but you won't reliably pull the OTK off as often as if you run 3. Because Laevatein can special summon himself from the hand or grave with his own effect it will very rarely be dead in hand; in fact, you more often than not SHOULD NOT summon it from the hand. This may sound contradictory; I said I wanted to run 3 so I could draw them, but I have no interest in summoning them from the hand. Its not, and by now I'm sure you know its not. Because of 1 card; Dragon Canyon.

You pitch the DAL for Canyon. You Draw it, you pitch it, and when the opportunity shows itself you go for the jugular with Trident Dragion.

Dragunity decks running only 1 copy of DAL can't do this. They have to set up the OTK. Given the sole copy of DAL this requires more investment in the longrun and in the middle of a duel thats not always possible. Running more copies of DAL gives you more options, whilst not hampering you at all thanks to the Dragon Canyon. It also allows you to put pressure on your opponent; if they can see that they can be OTKed at any time they're going to play differently. If its more conservatively you can punish them via Legionnaire+Aklys tactics, if its more aggressively you can outmuscule them. Of course if they don't see the OTK then you can just catch them off guard. 1 card in hand turns into a Trident Dragion with 2 attacks if you've got a DAL in grave and a Canyon in play. Surprise ending.

Of course I should talk about Canyon, but I really don't feel I need to. Its a Field Spell, so its searchable via Terraforming. Its a Field Spell, so it sticks around. And as long as its in play any card in hand turns into a Dragunity. Thats searchable Consonance fodder, thats searchable monster removal, thats searchable level 8 Synchro monsters. Of course discarding eats up hand advantage, which is why I'm running Morphing Jar. You don't overextend with Dragunitys, but you do play out a lot of cards. Jar helps you recoup that advantage. Avarice recycles spent bird Dragunitys so you can re-search them with Canyon, etc. The rest of the deck is really self-explanatory.

The reason I'm not running Terraforming is because I'm running Pot of Duality. I realize they don't serve the same purpose, however, in principle and play I find Duality to be the stronger card. Dragon Canyon is powerful in this deck, and needed. It turns the deck into a Synchro engine, and without it the deck often falls flat on its face; Dragunitys are a glass cannon. They are powerful, versatile and reactive, however it is Canyon that gives them the speed and consistency to maintain pace with tier 1 decks, thus without Canyon they fall behind. This is not to say that they are incapable of winning, however, it is a severe disadvantage to be playing without a Canyon and in the Dragunity Mirror he who controls the Canyon, controls the game.

This also ties into why I find triple DAL so imperative; because of the fragility of the deck you need to not only seize opportunities for game but also capitalize on your ability to take game at the drop of a hat. But I've been side tracked. I was explaining why I run Duality over Terraforming; Terraforming provides searchability for Dragon Canyon, allowing easy access to your ace card; and thanks to Canyons effect Terraforming can virtually never be dead; if you have a Field Spell in play then Terraforming turns into the discard fodder for its effect. Granted thats not to mean it isn't ever dead. Its still a wasted draw and the Canyon is still costing you a card in hand. By running higher utility cards than Terraforming the deck can ensure it has useful draws whilst Canyon is out.

Pot of Duality I find is more beneficial because it can give access not just to Canyon, but also to other cards in my deck. Pot of Duality makes my opening hands stronger, lets me dig into single copies faster and more consistently; helping with the fluidity of the deck, I consider it a more versatile form of Terraforming. At the cost of a Special Summon for the turn I also gain the ability to search out cards other than my Field Spell. If its not beneficial to play Duality that turn, I just hold it, or discard it. Granted, this is not to say it has to be either or, I'm certain people will run both, and in fact, I too may do so in a later version of this deck.

Dragunitys are a powerful and versatile deck. They're incredibly fun and with their imminent release I predict a lot of Dragunity decks cropping up in tournament standings.

For people who can't be bothered reading through this entire post here is a quick summary of some basic Dragunity combos:

• Legionnaire + Aklys = 1 Monster and 1 Card destroyed.
• Legionnaire + Phalanx = Catastor/ Tech Genus Hyper Librarian.
• Legionnaire floating = Mystletainn Summon.
• Mystletainn + Phalanx = Level 8.
• Mystletainn + Brandistock = 2100 dual attacker, sometimes this is better than a level 8; thats 4200 damage.
• Using Aklys to summon Mystletainn or Leyvaten from the hand with its first effect; they miss the timing on their equip, but are immune to Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute.
• Dux + Phalanx = Level 6 Synchro.
• Dux + Brandistock = 1900 dual attacking 4 star, that can be really brutal. Especially against a heavy backrow where a Synchro climb is a weaker choice.
• Dearg: It sets up the deck.
• Vajrayana + Aklys = 3800ATK + 1 card destroyed.
• Vajrayana + Phalanx = Level 8 Synchro.
• Vajrayana + Brandistock = 1900 dual attacker (I'd just stick with Dux since it gains further ATK, this is a play I've never seen tbh).
• Leyvaten + Phalanx = Trident Dragion
• Leyvaten + Brandistock = 2600 dual attacker, in situations where you are low on advantage or Trident Dragion is risky this can be better than going into Trident. Considering Leyvaten can pop out of the graveyard for the cost of a Normal Summon its a pretty amazing play.
• Dragon Ravine searches all Cards of Consonance targets as well as Legionnaire and Dux, it can also dump Leyvaten. I run 2-3 Mystletainn because it can't be searched via Ravine.

Anyway, enjoy the deck.

Snipe Hunter

Snipe Hunter is back at 2, which opens up some pretty neat combos with SOL decks.

Main Deck: 41

Monsters: 22
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Red-Eyes Wyvern
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Genesis Dragon
2 Snipe Hunter
2 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
1 Dark Armed Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
2 Vice Dragon
1 Morphing Jar
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan

Spells: 13
1 Dark Hole
1 Cold Wave
1 Future Fusion
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
2 Trade-In
2 Book of Moon
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Avarice

Traps: 6
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force

Deck Feature: "SOL Genesis"

New deck I've been playing of late. Its been doing really well. Props to ShadowNeji from Pojo for testing it while I was on break.

I have two builds to post. The one I took to nationals and topped a regional with about a month-two months(?) ago, and the one ShadowNeji has been testing with recently. Bit hazy on the dates, I've been on vacation. :D

I haven't yet had a chance to try his changes but they look solid.

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 23
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
2 Genesis Dragon
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Dread Dragon
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Wyvern
1 Phantom of Chaos
1 Flamvell Guard
2 Vice Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
1 Masked Dragon
1 Sangan
1 Tragoedia

Spells: 12
1 Foolish Burial
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Brain Control
3 Cards of Consonance
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
3 Trade-In

Traps: 5
1 Mirror Force
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Main Deck: 41

Monsters: 24
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
2 Genesis Dragon
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Dread Dragon
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Wyvern
1 Phantom of Chaos
1 Flamvell Guard
2 Vice Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
1 Masked Dragon
1 Sangan
1 Tragoedia
1 Delta Flyer

Spells: 12
1 Mind Control
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Brain Control
3 Cards of Consonance
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
3 Trade-In

Traps: 5
1 Mirror Force
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute

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

Deck Analysis: "SOL Sniper!"

In the past it has been a goal of many a dragon-user to try and mix Hopeless Dragon and Disaster Dragon. Such attempts have proved rather futile as the decks don't mix in goals. I attempted last format to mix SOL with Disaster as well to no avail.

When Cards of Consonance was first released many people suggested adding it to SOL. Lacking any targets beyond White Stone of Legend it was brushed off as being inconsistent. During attempts to make a viable draw engine to combine it with Trade-In the D.E.T. Exodia deck was born, which utilized both Trade-In and Cards of Consonance with Super Rejuvination, Card Destruction, Reckless Greed and other draw cards to attempt to draw Exodia. The deck was fast, however, despite the strength of the draw power its speed wasn't enough to fuel a deck built purely around drawing.

Such draw power would be best geared in the direction of fueling a turbo deck. D.E.T. paired White Stone of Legend with Flamvell Guard to take advantage of Cards of Consonance, the deck then expanded further into the realms of Normal monsters to further abuse Flamvell Guards status as a normal monster, however, for a control or turbo oriented deck Normal monsters wouldn't do. Many Normal Hopeless decks featuring Tri-Horned Dragon worked to great success but a deck that could utilize the engine when coupled with effect monsters lacked a good effect monster target for both Cards of Consonance and Trade-In.

At least, that was what I thought. A few weeks ago I stumbled across Jason Grabher-Meyer's article on "Deep Draw Dragons". It utilized the D.E.T. engine in a turbo-esque fashion, however, geared it towards effect monsters by using Debris Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon to fill in the gaps. The obvious next step in its construction was the inclusion of Totem Dragon which added synergy between Debris and Light and Darkness Dragon as both profited from its inclusion. The deck is very fast and very fun, however, it lacked the advantage oriented 1 for 1 simplification game that I have grown to love so much.

Growing disgruntled by the fact that dragons lacked any monster akin to Chaos Sorcerer or Enishi, Shien's Chancellor I was chatting to some friends of mine online; Dragonic Horizons and ShadowNeji115217 from the Pojo.com forums who suggested Maximus might serve the purpose. At first Maximus failed the test, it unlike Chaos Sorcerer could not easily gain advantage off of its summon due to its reliance on an in hand spell card, however, on closer inspection Koa'ki Meiru Maximus, like Light and Darkness Dragon was a powerful level-8 monster that could cover the Trade-In aspect of the draw engine with Blue-Eyes White Dragon. As in Deep Draw 2 copies of Debris Dragon could also serve as Consonance fodder while still acting as useful tuners. In order for the deck to carry 3 Maximus it also needed to hold 3 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru, and with the places already filled for it 3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago soon followed as well. So, without further ado I give you the child of Disaster Dragon - Maximium Sniper and SOL Dragon; SOL Sniper!

SOL Dragon + Disaster Dragon + D.E.T.

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 21
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
3 Koa’ki Meiru Maximus
3 Koa’ki Meiru Drago
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Wyvern
2 Masked Dragon
2 Debris Dragon

Spells: 17
3 Trade-In
2 Book of Moon
2 Super Rejuvenation
3 Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru
1 Card Destruction
3 Cards of Consonance
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control
1 Future Fusion

Traps: 2
2 Dust Tornado

The deck is pretty self explanatory. The draw engines power the deck as they did in D.E.T. while the dragons swarm the field and destroy all life; as they were meant to. The deck lacks any cards that can trigger Starlight Road; Heavy Storm, Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute are all side decked due to the hype surrounding the illustrious trap card. While I believe that Starlight Road itself is not good enough to merit siding out such cards almost every deck in my locals is maining 2 at the moment. As a result I find it beneficial to go into game 1 with nothing to trigger them, that way any Starlight Roads they draw are dead cards.

In place of Heavy I elected to run 2 Dust Tornado. Dust Tornado is a versatile trap card that can take care of problematic Royal Oppressions and the like while also handling cards such as Black Whirlwind and the soon to be released Infernity Gun. While the power of Royal Oppression against this deck may intimidate some into maining Heavy or at least attempting to run Giant Trunade I found that of the commonly played decks only Blackwings are consistently running Royal Oppression at the moment, against which I can side Heavy Storm back in against them on game 2. Gladiator Beasts, however are running at least 2 Starlight Road with no Oppression while Flame-Cat also runs 1-2 Starlight Road without Oppression either. Given those numbers and the fact that Machina and Lightsworn still exist; Lightsworn has little to no backrow and Machina in my area have been maining Roads as well I find that Heavy in the side is actually best for now. This decision will obviously change as the format and hype around Road settle.

The deck plays like Maximum Sniper but with a more SOL approach to advantage. It plays through aggressive disruption plays and locking the field down with Koa'ki Meiru Drago. However, I felt that the original Maximum Sniper was too slow to support such frequent dead draws and didn't draw into its combo pieces fast enough thus I incorporated a draw engine into the deck borrowing from D.E.T. and Deep Draw Dragons, that helps me see cards faster and get Maximus and Iron Core into play easier. It also opens up a lot of OTK options.

The deck is obviously very fast. It draws through itself in speeds comparable to D.E.T., however, unlike the Exodia deck it also has the ability to turn those draw cards into use. Maximus drops are powerful and carry heavy swings in momentum, because Maximus is a Semi-Nomi it can also be revived by Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon provided it has been summoned successfully. Once Maximus is on the field it can create huge swings in field control, easily followed up by a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal/Blue-Eyes swarm. Maximus is also Wind which means it can get in around Koa'ki Meiru Drago when its locking down the field. In addition to that both Drago and Maximus can supplement eachothers end phase costs, with Iron Core working for both of them and other Maximus' also serving to save the life of an inplay copy. Alternatively Maximus can simply be allowed to die after popping a card and attacking and be revived later, or even be removed for a Darkness Metal. The deck is as always very versatile.

Synchro plays are also capable in this deck; courtesy of it carrying 5 tuner monsters. While not as common as synchro plays in most other SOL decks they still act as a another facet of the deck which can catch most opponents off guard.

Yeah, so this is my latest deck. Its also going to be my primary deck this format since Starlight Roads release rather killed my SOL Demise deck. :P

Enjoy.

Deck Analysis: "SOL Demise"

With the advent of the new banlist drawing closer and closer any SOL Dragon user has already realized it won't be able to exist in the new format. Having lost multiple Tragoedia, Destiny Draw, Allure of Darkness and Chaos Sorcerer's the deck as it was is left quite crippled.

Luckily the new banlist also brings Demise, King of Armageddon to 2.

Demise and Blue-Eyes White Dragon have always got along well, especially with the help of Advanced Ritual Art, however, the release of White Stone of Legend only furthers their synergy by allowing Blue-Eyes to also be recruited to the hand for a normal Ritual Summon.

A new face of SOL for the new format, I give you SOL Demise:

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 23
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
2 Luster Dragon
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Magna Drago
2 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
2 Demise, King of Armageddon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 The White Stone of Legend
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Tragoedia

Spells: 14
1 Advanced Ritual Art
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Brain Control
2 End of the World
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Giant Trunade
2 Swing of Memories
3 Trade-In

Traps: 3
1 Mirror Force
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute

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

The decks playstyle is pretty straight forward. It abuses the searchability of Demise to use it as a field clearer and as a recruitable Trade-In or Allure target. Advanced Ritual Art can be used to summon Demise, dumping 1 Blue-Eyes White Dragon or 2 Luster Dragons from the deck. Swing of Memories can be used in tandem with the normal dragons to revive them for an OTK, to act as ritual fodder, to synchro summon with or to remove for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon + Magna Drago makes an easy Trident Dragon, and when following up a Demise wipe spells game to the opponent bar Battle Fader or the like.

The deck plays similarly to the old SOL, abusing advantage to its benefit with a series of floater monsters and expending the opponents resources before clearing the field with Demise/Arcanite/Dark Armed Dragon and swinging for game.

Trunade is mained to deal with those pesky Starlight Roads and if they or Royal Oppression become a serious issue this format then the traps drop out for Royal Decrees.

The good thing about this build is that a lot of alterations can be made it. If you wanted to go for a more Demise OTK oriented build you could simply include Sonic Bird or Senju. Sangan could be included as another Dark monster that can recruit both White Stone of Legend and Manju, or even a more normal monster based focus could be taken. The deck is very flexible in its line up, and that in part is what makes me think it could be so powerful in the coming format.

Sorry this post is so short. University starts tomorrow so today is rather hectic for me. I'll be back later with a more in depth analysis of the deck.

Deck Analysis: "Eclipse Drain"

This deck is built for the new format. With the advent of the banlist SOL Dragons guts were ripped out so I decided it was time to move on. Introducing Eclipse Drain!

This deck is built around the recently released Sun Dragon Inti and Moon Dragon Quilla. The decks aim is to abuse their virtual immunity to Skill Drain and crush the opponent into the dust. Nicely, of course.

Thanks to Kahu from Pojo forums for the deck name and Kaiba's lil Mutt for suggesting the level 5 Fusions be Musician King - the reason being that makes them Spellcaster for Arcanite Magician, which if you've been following my blog may know I think is one of the coolest Synchros out there. Anyway, here is the deck list.

Extra Deck: 15
2 Musician King
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Dark-End Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
2 Moon Dragon Quilla
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
2 Stardust Dragon
2 Sun Dragon Inti

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 16
1 Dark Armed Dragon
3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
3 Oracle of the Sun
3 Fire Ant Ascator
1 Sangan
1 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
3 Supay

Spells: 12
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Brain Control
3 Dark World Dealings
1 Heavy Storm
2 Instant Fusion
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Mind Control
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Avarice

Traps: 12
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Limit Reverse
1 Mirror Force
2 Skill Drain
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Starlight Road

Pretty much every card in the deck works around Skill Drain with the exception of a few effects - Dark Armed Dragon becomes a free beat stick but can't nuke the field while its up and Moon Dragon Quilla can't use its life gain effect. Obviously under Skill Drain Arcanite is useless so despite the fact that the deck can make it through any combination of Musician King, Oracle of the Sun + Plaguespreader there is only a single copy in my extra deck.

The Dark World monsters serve as Darks and level 5 Special Summons to tune with Supay and Fire Ant. This gives me quick access to Inti and Quilla while also letting me utilize the Allure and Dark World Dealings draw engines.

Limit Reverse can bring back pretty much any monster in my main deck, I had someone recommend Ojama Knight to me as my level 5 fusion as it could be summoned as well but personally I've never been short of a target when I've had Limit Reverse in hand, although Ojama Knight is certainly worth consideration.

Starlight Road makes this deck awesome by covering Skill Drain as your dragons loop on and off the field. Pot of Avarice is for reshuffling in Synchros and other used up fodder monsters as you desire. It was also added due to my preference to play OCG where they have access to the dreaded Dragunity Knight - Trident which can strip your extra deck clean.

Anyway thats the basic skeleton of the deck that I'll be playing next format. I'll update as time goes on with changes to the deck. Till next time, Drong Waph wer Darastri!!

Deck Analysis: "SOL Dragon"

Just an update on the SOL Dragon main deck. Since a lot of people have been pming me on Pojo and asking if the one featured here is up to date I figured I might as well keep posting the updates on here.

Main Deck: 41

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 Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 Magical Android
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Dark End Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter

Monsters: 25
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
3 Tragoedia

Spells: 14
1 Future Fusion
1 Lightning Vortex
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Destiny Draw
1 Scapegoat
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
2 Trade-In

Traps: 2
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force

New notable inclusions are a playset of Tragoedia. These were added in at the expense of Foolish Burial and a single Destiny Draw. 2 copies of each draw card seems to play it out more consistently as 3 D-Draws were clogging hands a lot. The loss of Foolish Burial is nothing major and simply prevents instant access to White Stone's effect from the deck. However, it encourages using White Stone properly towards the decks goals so I see it as a bonus in the long run.

Tragoedia's inclusion as not only knocked those cards out of the decklist but has also bumped it up to 41 cards to allow for 3 Tragoedia's inclusion. Tragoedia is pretty much the second best thing in the deck after White Stone of Legend itself. I have a tendancy to hoard cards in my hand and take direct hits in order to establish advantage over my opponent and Tragoedia not only profits from that but allows me to do so with more frequency. Playing conservatively lends to SOL's winning style and Tragoedia rewards it. I've never dropped it in a duel with less than 3000ATK.

Tragoedia makes up for the decks lack of traps and allows for Royal Decree to be sided in with easy to cut out Oppression, Icarus Attack and those pesky Light Imprisoning Mirrors. As its summon happens in the damage step its perfect against Oppression in game 1 and its ability combined with SOLs level range lets you steal pretty much anything. In the dragon mirror any in hand Tragos or Red-Eyes become perma brain controls for the opposing Red-Eyes, against people running their own Tragoedia they do the same, Blue-Eyes can steal Maximus/ Judgement Dragon/ Heraklinos/ Colossal Fighter/ Stardust Dragon and more. Prime, Mali and Sorcerer can steal Brionac and the like. Its just amazing, virtually every level but 2, 3 and 7 can be readily stolen and of those only 3 is unaccessible with the main deck. Its also got the level changing ability which really helps for synchroing, but I've actually yet to use it. Its so easy to just plunk it down and ride the Trago to victory.

Deck Feature: "Dragon Exodia Turbo"

This deck is wicked fun.

Its being tagged as a Feature as I'm a bit too busy to write an analysis at the moment.

Enjoy.

Monsters: 17
3 Tri-Horned Dragon
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
1 Left Arm of the Forbidden One
1 Left Leg of the Forbidden One
1 Right Arm of the Forbidden One
1 Right Leg of the Forbidden One
1 Exodia the Forbidden One
3 The White Stone of Legend
2 Flamvell Guard
1 Sangan

Spells: 17
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark Factory of Mass Production
1 Summoner's Art
3 Super Rejuvenation
3 Trade-In
3 Card of Consonance
3 Upstart Goblin

Traps: 6
3 Common Charity
3 Reckless Greed

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!

Deck Analysis: "Disaster Dragon"

Disaster Dragon

Deck Creator: Richard Clarke

"Disaster Dragon" is a deck created by Richard Clarke. It is an aggressive control oriented deck that plays disruption strategies to gain and maintain control of the duel. Utilizing a pure dragon lineup it is an evolution of the popular "Hopeless Dragon" deck from Japan. "Disaster Dragon" is one of the most popular dragon decks in the competitive scene and easily the most consistent, outranked only by SOL Hopeless in tournament results.

Here are two examples of a Disaster Dragon Decklist:

Yamata Disaster Dragon

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 20
3 Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
3 Red Eyes Wyvern
3 Masked Dragon
2 Exploder Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon
1 Genesis Dragon
1 Magna Drago
1 Debris Dragon
1 Totem Dragon
1 Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells: 13
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Foolish Burial
1 Creature Swap
1 Future Fusion
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
2 Book of Moon
2 Gold Sarcophagus

Traps: 7
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Burst Breath
2 Bottomless Trap Hole

Light and Darkness Disaster Dragon

Main Deck: 40

Monsters: 22
1 Genesis Dragon
3 Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Exploder Dragon
3 Masked Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon
2 Red Eyes Wyvern
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Totem Dragon
1 White Night Dragon
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Debris Dragon
1 Magna Drago

Spells: 12
1 Future Fusion
2 Creature Swap
1 Lightning Vortex
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Book of Moon
1 Burial from the Different Dimension
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control

Traps: 6
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Burst Breath

Disaster Dragon is a control oriented deck that plays disruption strategies mixed with lockdown aggression to gain and maintain control of the board. It carries a lot of momentum and explosive power as the deck can consistently drop 2+ monsters per turn without losing advantage and often times they will be big monsters. This is done through the use of the decks backbone card “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon”. Weighing in at 2800ATK this card is easily the most powerful or one of the most powerful dragons in the deck, outclassed only by a potential “White Night Dragon”. Red-Eyes effect allows for the constant recursion of monsters from the graveyard as well as the ability to bypass the normal summon limit and the requirements for tributes that many decks suffer from. As a result Disaster decks are packing some of the highest ATK monsters in the present Metagame, because they can bypass the tribute mechanic required to summon them.

Obviously ATK points don’t do much on their own but the fact that its carrying these powerhouses only serves to solidify Disaster Dragons real strength; disruption and lockdown. Through the usage of cards such as Koa’ki Meiru Drago, Exploder Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon alone the deck is capable of shutting out and eliminating a majority of plays made by the current popular decks. The deck plays like a toolbox, with Masked Dragon working to recruit the dragons you need for tributes, Synchros, battle, monster removal, etc and cards like Red-Eyes Darkness and Genesis Dragon allowing you to reuse them. Cards such as Foolish Burial and Future Fusion allow you to dump dragons into your graveyard faster while also aiding in the deck inherent synergy; some dragons such as Yamata Dragon or Light and Darkness Dragon cannot be Special Summoned, thus they are unable to cheat their 2-tribute requirement via Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon as most dragons would. Instead the deck utilizes “Totem Dragon” a self-recurring dragon that can act as 2 sacrifices in order to summon a dragon-type monster. Being a dragon in itself Totem Dragon is a viable target to search with Masked Dragon or to dump with Future Fusion. It can also be easily revived via Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

The idea with Koa'ki Meiru Drago is to play it after Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is on the field, or simply remove him from the field by other means in order to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. One of the most common analogies for Koa'ki Meiru Drago usage compares it to a switch, courtesy of a feature match involving Richard Clarke where he flipped Koa'ki Meiru Drago on and off the field allowing himself all the Special Summons and locking his opponent out of everything.

Future Fusion also carries synergy with the newly released Genesis Dragon. Allowing you to discard dragons from your deck to the grave and simply retrieve them to your hand in a form of reverse tutoring. Genesis Dragon also carries synergy with Yamata Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon. Both dragons cannot be Special Summoned from the grave but via Genesis they can be resummoned again and again. An infinite loop exists with Light and Darkness Dragon and Genesis Dragon where in you sacrifice Red-Eyes Darkness Metal and Genesis Dragon for Light and Darkness Dragon. When that dies you bring back Red-Eyes and use its effect to revive Genesis who grabs back the Light and Darkness Dragon. Then you can sacrifice them both to summon it again and spam Light and Darkness Dragon. It’s fairly unstable for obvious reasons but the ability to infinitely reuse a monster as powerful as Light and Darkness Dragon is definitely an option the deck has at its disposal.

In basic summary Disaster Dragon is a more control oriented deck that utilizes a full deck of dragons. As it doesn't rely on any combo's to go off it’s by far the most consistent dragon deck and is one of the favoured choices online. Future Fusion is the power house dumper of the deck, and although it’s not needed it kicks the deck into high gear instantly by giving you 5 dragons of your choice in the grave - right where you want them. Masked Dragon acts as a recruiter toolbox engine, Red-Eyes can swarm the field or reuse dragons, Yamata and Light and Darkness rack up a ton of advantage and disrupt/lock down the field, Prime Material Dragon covers your dragons from s/t hate, Koa'ki Meiru locks out the top decks Light and Dark summons and also acts as another control measure and Genesis is basically the best thing ever, allowing you to recycle lost dragons, trade in dead ones and tons more. The deck does not pilot itself and requires forethought and careful consideration of options. Every choice made with what you dump, search, revive can tilt the scales in either favour. It plays aggressively - as almost every monster in the deck has higher ATK than opposing monsters they can utilize this in their favour and play a momentum game. By locking down the opponents options while you continue to amass your own it is quite easy to take complete control of a duel in a matter of turns.

You can also find this post on Wikipedia here. Thanks to Bahamut Dragon King from Pojo forums for making the page.