Subject: Future of the Last Will Deck - Last Will I believe I've done said quite enough on the strategy aspect of the Last Will deck for now, so in this article, I will discuss how this deck will change and adapt to Pharaoh's Servant! First off, let me say, I've never seen a set with as many useful Rares and Secret Rares as PSV. Obviously, you have your staple Ultra Rares like Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial, but the fact that the Secret Rares(Jinzo, Imperial Order) and Rares(Michizure, Magic Drain, Hayabusa Knight, Gravity Bind) are not only playable, but insanely useful is something new for us Yu-Gi-Oh players. May be just me, but the most useful cards have skipped a set so far. Yugi starter and Metal Raiders sets were chock-full of useful cards, while LOB and Magic Ruler contained only a few useful cards. Looking at my current deck, and breaking down the cards by set, I get: SDY: 15 LOB: 4 MRD: 20 MRL: 5 How odd. Looking at my ideal deck once Pharaoh's Servant comes out(YES, it is a 50 card deck, and there's a reason for it, so get off my back!), I get the following breakdown SDY: 10 LOB: 4 MRD: 19 MRL: 8 PSV: 9 The ratios of cards that I want from PSV in my deck may be wrong, and the usefulness of Messenger of Peace may skew the Magic Ruler, but there's no doubt that Metal Raiders is far and away the most useful set released, at least where my deck is concerned. Now, in all that blathering above, I mentioned something about my ideal "Pharaoh's Servant deck". What new additions does it include exactly? Not only does it incorporate many useful PSV cards, but also incorporates some cards from prior sets that just became much better. First of all, from Pharaoh's Servant... Michizure: This trap states that when I lose a monster from the field, I can choose 1 monster on the field and destroy it. I might be mis-interpreting it, but this card seems broken to me. There are so many combos, it is unbelieveable. Share the pain, along with this card, allows you to take out TWO monsters, while giving up a witch or flipped-up effect monster from your side. Now, you almost want them to trap hole your witch. Activate Michizure to destroy whatever monster it was that they had set anyway(negating its flip), and take a monster to your hand while you're at it. Tribute a monster for Summoned Skull, and activate Michizure. Destroy their face down Man-Eater or Magician of Faith and attack for 2500. All this without mention of one of the most insane combos known to Pharaoh's Servant involving Cannon Soldier. This card is PERFECT for hand destruction decks using Robbin' Goblin/White Magical Hat(such as mine) because this card creates direct damage opportunities with ease. Magic Drain: Now, once you've destroyed their hand, how to take advantage? This trap card allows you to force your opponent to discard an extra magic card from their hand, or else negate the magic card that you chained this against. I can't tell you how frustrating it can be when you have the opponent down to 0 cards and have him drawing off the top of his deck when he gets a Swords or Raigeki that sucks the momentum out of your attack. After you've destructed his hand, Magic Drain works as a free Magic Jammer, allowing you to negate his magic card at no cost to you. And even if he does have a hand, having him discard a magic card from his hand in order to play his Change of Heart can give you a serious hand advantage, and tip the scales in your favor. Not recommended for EVERY deck, but any deck that runs hand destruction should not hesitate to play 2 of these. Hayabusa Knight: What can be the use of this card? I've talked to several people about this card, and their unanimous opinion is that this card is useless. Suckers. But how do I use a 1000 ATK monster that can attack twice every battle phase? Hmmm. Well, obviously use it to do direct damage to the opponent. Add in Robbin' Goblin. Since it attacks twice, that is 2000 damage and TWO cards removed from their hand. Use the Share the Pain/Last Will combo to bring this sucker out to do direct damage and watch the LP and cards fly. Obviously, for best results, back it up with a Swords, Trap Hole, Messenger of Peace, Gravity Bind, Mirror Force, etc. to ensure it doesn't get killed next turn. Hell, even if it does, it has done it's job, and most likely helped to win you the game. Gravity Bind: This trap states that monsters of 4 stars or more cannot attack. Obviously, this is the kind of card that works best when a whole deck is based around it. Try the following 3 star or lower cards in your deck, and watch your opponent flail around finding a monster in his deck that can actually attack: Hayabusa Knight, Sangan, White Magical Hat, Giant Soldier of Stone, Jinzo #7, Mask of Darkness, Cyber Jar, and obviously, Man-Eater Bug and Magician of Faith. Jinzo #7 is pure evil. Do you know many people that run any of the monsters I listed above? Maybe you run into the occasional Sangan, Mask of Darkness or Cyber Jar(which is restricted to one anyway, and never used to attack...except by me! :)), but those are still rare. Sangan is usually scrapped for Witch, and Mask of Darkness likewise for Magician of Faith, which cannot kill a Jinzo #7. So, tell me, what in their deck is going to kill the Jinzo #7? Until they use a magic card or a Man-Eater Bug to kill it, use your Robbin' Goblin and Jinzo #7 to do 500 damage and discard a card every turn. Then summon another one. Mask of Darkness to get back Gravity Bind when it eventually dies, and you've got yourself a very gimmicky deck that will make people pull their hair out. Call of the Haunted: A free monster to the field? This can never be a bad thing. Ever. Take back your Hayabusa Knight/White Magical Hat/Masked Sorcerer if you can do direct damage, otherwise, take back a Sangan or Witch, so you can get another monster to your hand. Or, go for Summoned Skull for some power. Cannon Soldier if you have a Michizure down. Hell, take back anything you want so you can use Share the Pain to take down their set MoF. It's free, why not. Monster advantage is a wonderful thing. It's why you should always choose to go first when given the option. Premature Burial: Not free, pay 800 LP, but you skirt around some of the side effects. No need to worry about setting this one turn prior. If you need a monster this turn, go right ahead. And another benefit that has been discussed before. Giant Trunade can bring Premature Burial back to your hand to be used again, while keeping your monster alive(CotH cannot, the wording on the cards are different). With this combo, the Giant Trunade/Swords combo and the Giant Trunade/Robbin' Goblin combo(make them pick up their cards, only to discard them), not to mention the overall usefulness of making them pick up all their traps so you are safe to make way for your huge Summoned Skull/Last Will/Michizure combo that's going to take half their lifepoints and maybe a couple cards from their hand...time to start playing Giant Trunade(already have one...2 is pushing it, but am seriously considering it). Again, monster advantage is key...play this card. Imperial Order: FREE MAGIC JAMMER! Negate all magic cards on the turn this is played, and then don't pay the 700. You just negated their Raigeki and it didn't cost you a thing. Obviously, there are other uses to keeping this card in play, but quite honestly, I wouldn't very often pay the 700 upkeep on this card to keep it in play. Maybe late in the game when I have the lead, but by then, it probably doesn't matter much. Regardless, if you have this card, play it. This card, 2 Jammers and 2 Magic Drains can seriously alter the course of a game. Magic wins Yu-Gi-Oh... Jinzo: First off, let me say that this card WILL NOT MAKE MY DECK. It will make almost every other deck on the planet, but not mine. First of all, I will be running Messenger of Peace, so this card would rarely be useful to me. And in the event that MoP is not out on the field, I do NOT want a monster that negates my own traps. Of course, that is because I plan on running 10 or 11 traps. Most decks wouldn't dream of running so many, so you have to evaluate the use of the card in your deck. That's it for the Pharaoh's Servant cards for now. More cards like Shadow of Eyes, Chain Destruction, Limiter Removal(watch out with this and Barrel Dragon), Paracite Paracide(or however the hell you spell it...this card suits a specific deck), etc are very useful, but just did not make the cut in my deck. Of course, I always have an open mind. Moving on to other cards that have just taken on a whole new usefulness... Messenger of Peace: This should've been an obvious choice for my deck from the get-go, as I rely on Last Will to bring out 1500- ATK monsters from my deck. As I started to look into the aforementioned Gravity Bind deck, I realized that my current deck relies on many of the same principles that would make that deck fly. Obviously, Gravity Bind was out of the question, because Witch x 2, Wall of Illusions and Masked Sorcerer are 4 stars, and I don't wish to take those 4 monsters out. However, Messenger of Peace seems to be a perfect fit. First of all, it slows the game down. Most other decks rely on at least a few Jinn/Fish and/or Summoned Skull. All it would take is a quick Monster Reborn/Change of Heart combo and I'm out 5000 points in one turn. Messenger of Peace brings strategy more in to play, and since nearly ALL of my monsters are under 1500, I have MANY more options to choose from, enhancing my strategic advantage. This card stalls. Both players will see many cards as the duel progresses, but as this deck runs hand destruction, the hand advantage will be mine, and the combos will be executed by myself. As this deck relies on a lot of combos(most of these cards rely on each other. A Hayabusa Knight or Masked Sorcerer on its own has no real value), this strengthens my position of being able to bide my time and wait for the right moment to strike. Also, this allows me to get away with running 50 cards. Of course, it also necessitizes running 50 cards, as the sheer number of monsters I go through in a given duel can make me deck myself in a hurry if I'm not careful. Messenger of Peace is still in its experimental phase, I'm going to play my first MoP deck this coming Friday and see how it plays out. Cannon Soldier: I have advised anybody who ever asked me for advice from playing with Cannon Soldier, because sacrificing a monster is not worth 500 damage. Monster advantage is way too important. Which card has come along that has changed my mind? Michizure. First let me give you an example of the type of combo that you will run into with this deck. Won't happen like this every time, but variations of this will occur more often than you care to think. Start off with Cannon Soldier and a face down Michizure. Depending on the opponent, they won't summon a La Jinn to destroy it, figuring nobody is stupid enough to leave a Cannon Soldier out unprotected, and fearing Trap Hole, they will set a Bug or Hane-Hane and a Trap Hole. You can try setting the CS face down, but that's beside the point really. Anyway, assuming they set a monster, set your Sangan(doesn't have to be, but for best results...). Now, it gets interesting. Play Last Will. Tribute your Sangan for 500 damage. Take a monster to your hand. Flip Michizure. Destroy their face down monster. Special Summon a Hayabusa Knight/White Magical Hat/Masked Sorcerer to the field using Last Will's effect. Attack for 3400/2400/2300 and perhaps discard/draw a card. What's amazing about this combo, is that you can do 3900 damage second turn, and not have drawn a single game-breaking card. And not only that, you still have 4 cards in your hand and 2 monsters on the field, so you haven't really given up any hand or monsters advantage. Of course, don't count on starting out with Cannon Soldier/Michizure/Last Will in your opening hand, because that's a little naive. However, at any point during the game, you can take a Cannon Soldier to your hand with Witch or Sangan. You can get Cannon Soldier back with either Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted. Michizures and Last Wills come by often if you run 2 and/or 3 of each. I guarantee you that you will be able to use a similar combo to this once per match. In my current deck, Share the Pain/Last Will/Sangan combo occurs about that often, and this isn't too much harder to pull off. Of course the beauty of this is, unlike the dragon deck, the deck doesn't NEED this combo to work. It's just an added bonus to running a Share the Pain/Last Will/Michizure deck :) Even without the Last Will, you are tributing a monster that you WANT to lose(preferably either Sangan or flipped-up MeB/MoF) for 500 damage AND killing their monster, leaving them open for direct damage. Obviously works well in tandem with Robbin' Goblin(run 3, if you haven't caught on to the importance of Robbin' Goblin yet). Again, sorry to be long-winded, but if you're still reading by now, I hope you don't mind too much :) Those are my(semi-random) thoughts about the Pharaoh's Servant expansion. Hope you enjoyed. fastat3m@hotmail.com AIM: fastat3m _________________________________________________________________ Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp