Wrom: YCGPKYLEJGDGVCJVTLBXFGGMEPYOQKEDOTWFAOBUZXUWL
[themightymollusk@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 3:31 PM
To: Bill
Subject: Deck Archetypes Update--The Mighty Mollusk

Hello one and all. It seems that every time I get an
article posted on Pojo, I get some interesting
feedback (yes, my tourney report got feedback). I can
always use interesting mail through the wall of spam.

Anyway. Last month (September 2002), I wrote an
article on deck archetypes, analyzing each kind of
major deck. Now with Magic Ruler out in force, there
are a few new types, as well as updates to older ones.
So, with the old article now out of date, here's a new
one. (Note that I will not be discussing the argument
over the cheapness of beatdown decks. I find the
entire debate pointless and boring.)

Beatdown: Yeah, like you didn't see this one coming.
Beatdown is the single most common deck type, and is
among the easiest to build. It focuses entirely on
powerful attackers to overwhelm an opponent's defenses
and slap them around directly. Signature cards include
Summoned Skull, Seven Colored Fish, La Jinn, and (to a
somewhat lesser degree) Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Axe of
Despair is showing up quite a bit lately as well. 
Fiend/Spellcaster Beatdown is quite amusing as well, 
using specific equipment cards to power up monsters 
even further. Maha Vailo is a new favorite of this type 
(remember, MV is a Spellcaster).

Strengths: Beatdown is the easiest type of deck to
build; slap in strong monsters, good magics and traps,
and go to town. It's also among the easiest to use,
since it's all about attacking. Beatdown will only get
stronger with later sets, when we get even better
cards. Gemini Elf comes to mind, a level 4 1900/900
Spellcaster with no effect; this is currently the
highest nontribute noneffect power available in the
game (shared by a couple other cards I can't remember
the names of). Also, many of the cards good for this
deck are easy to find: Seven Colored Fish is a common,
and the others mentioned above (except Maha Vailo and
Axe of Despair) are all in starter sets. BEWD and SS
are in those nifty new tins, as well.
Weaknesses: Again, I'm not getting into that whole
debate about the cheapness of it. Beatdowns rely on
high attack low defense monsters (Summoned Skull, for
example, has terrible defense); Shield and Sword is a
death card here. Fiend/Spellcaster Beatdown, with its
high amounts of equip cards, is vulnerable to Reverse
Trap and Heavy Storm.
Overall: If nothing else, most people will agree with
me that this is a good deck choice for beginners.
Beatdown will never go away, whether you want it to or
not.

Exodia: The obvious second one, Exodia decks rely on
the auto-win condition. Signature cards include
Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, Pot of Greed, and
(of course) the five pieces of the Forbidden One. New
cards such as Upstart Goblin and Painful Choice also
help to thin out the deck.

Strengths: Simple enough. Get Exodia and win.
Weaknesses: The Exodia pieces are all Ultra Rare to
begin with, AND from Legend of Blue-Eyes, which
according to my information is out of print.
Individual pieces sell for $40-$50 easily, so good
luck getting 'em. I'm still not sure how I managed to
get three of them. Card Destruction, Robbin' Goblin,
Delinquent Duo, and other hand-disruption tricks are
Exodia's worst enemy, dumping a piece into the
graveyard (in one of my many duels, an opponent
discarded three Exodia pieces to a Card Destruction,
then drew the other two pieces from it. Needless to
say, he wasn't happy). There's also very few
card-drawing options right now, and two of them 
(Card Destruction and Cyber Jar) are Exodia's worst enemies.
Overall: Leave Exodia in the binder for now. Later
sets give us better search mechanisms, but right now,
there's simply not enough drawing power in the game
for out friend the Forbidden One.

Gate Guardian: Believe it or not, this is almost a
viable option now. Gate Guardian decks rely on...well...
summoning the Gate Guardian. Anything for cheapening tribute 
costs is good here; discarding for Monster Reborn is 
commonplace. Spear Cretin gives this deck a shot in the arm, 
allowing more special summoning fun. Three Cretins can make 
it a lot easier to pull off.

Strengths: The Gate Guardian. 3750/3400. 'Nuff said.

Weaknesses: GG himself again. He's a Secret Rare and
his pieces are Super Rares, so they're hard to
assemble. Getting all three pieces into your hand at
the same time can be tough, never mind getting them
into play and having GG in hand. Man-Eater Bug kills
the Spear Cretin plan. Then, of course, someone could
do what I did: Change of Heart the Guardian, tribute
it to a Catapult Turtle, and Reborn it. }=]> Oh yeah,
and GG can't be Reborned unless it came into play via
its special summon requirement.
Overall: Good luck with this deck type, because you'll
need it. Unlike the other deck types, not much
upcoming will be of a big help. I foresee GG
completely disappearing fairly soon, aside from the
occasional casual deck.

Lord of D: Dragons galore. This deck abuses Lord of D
and the Flute of Summoning Dragon, dropping high-level
beasts such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Tri-Horned
Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Hyozanryu, and Ryu-Ran
quickly for high-speed kills. Dragon Treasure and
Mountain can help quite a bit.
Strengths: Dragons. Lots and lots of dragons. Lord of
D protects from targeted effects; no Spellbinding
Circle or MEB for your opponents. Some of the game's
most powerful monsters, such as Blue-Eyes Ultimate
Dragon and Five God Dragon (a 5000/5000 fusion of any
five dragons, which takes no combat damage from any
main type except Light) are dragons. Black Skull
Dragon and Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon can hit it big
here, as well.
Weaknesses: Lord of D is, frankly, a weakling, and is
very vulnerable to attack. His effect also doesn't
protect from nontargeted abilities such as Cyber Jar
or Mirror Force. Dragon Capture Jar shuts this deck
right down unless a trap-killer is handy, such as
Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, or (better yet)
Seven Tools of the Bandit. Horn of Heaven and Solemn
Judgment kill special summons. And frankly, there
STILL aren't enough good dragons for this deck yet.
Overall: Combo it with Beatdown for devastating
effects, but don't use it alone. The lack of good
dragons limits this deck's potential for now.

Monster Removal: It's all about destruction here. This
deck is focused on killing the enemy's monsters to
allow clear shots at the life points. Man-Eater Bug
and Barrel Dragon own here, with Hane Hane and Wall of
Illusion as backup and Cyber Jar as a contingency
plan. Other signatures include Fissure, Trap Hole,
Share the Pain, and Tribute to the Doomed, all
top-notch monster killers.
Strengths: Killing monsters is always good. No
monsters means no defenders. This deck has a lot of
future potential as well, with better cards upcoming
in later sets, such as the Deck Destruction Virus of
Death (AKA the Crush Card).
Weaknesses: Not much for good killers right now. This
deck is prone to large amounts of weakling monsters,
and thus suffers the same problem as Lord of D-based
decks.
Overall: Best when paired with another type, but fair
on its own as well. Most decks include minor elements
of this, mainly MEB and Trap Hole, and with good
reason.

Shield and Sword: As the name implies, this deck
abuses Shield and Sword, with high-defense low-attack
monsters such as Mystical Elf, Catapult Turtle, and
the ultimate defender, Labyrinth wall. Magician of
Faith is handy for re-using those used Shield and
Swords.
Strengths: This deck can usually hold opponents off
for a long time while waiting for its killers. Shield
and Sword is death to Beatdown; suddenly, that
Summoned Skull is a lot less threatening. Later, we'll
be getting Millennium Shield, which is basically the
same as Labyrinth Wall (although I believe it's a
different main type).
Weaknesses: Shield and Sword tends to leave you with
weak attackers; Labyrinth Wall is especially
vulnerable. Fissure kills your best attackers easily.
Magic Jammer shuts down the deck's kill mechanism. If
the opponent won't let you set up, you could be in for
some hurting pretty quickly.
Overall: Despite those big weaknesses, I like this
deck type. Maybe it's just because of all the
opponents I've inflicted single-turn kills upon
(Shield and Sword + two Labyrinth Walls + Catapult
Turtle: kill their defenders, attack with any other
available attackers, then finish them off with the
Turtle's effect). Worth a look, if nothing else.

Burner: This one's all about direct damage. Ookazi and 
Tremendous Fire own here. Princess of Tsurugi, Just 
Desserts, and a few others are also good. Messenger of 
Peace combos with the direct-attacking Metal Raiders 
monsters such as Rainbow Flower and Queen's Double for 
some fun tricks.

Strengths: Messenger of Peace can completely lock down
Beatdown decks while you whittle away at their health.
This deck also abuses Robbin' Goblin very well, since
it attacks directly anyway.
Weaknesses: Once that Messenger of Peace leaves play,
you're in trouble; that La Jinn that's been forced to
stay back is gonna be very unhappy with you.
Tremendous Fire and Messenger of Peace cost life
points to use; those small costs add up. A Heavy Storm
is this deck's nightmare, allowing those weak direct
attackers to get slaughtered quickly and efficiently.
Overall: Go ahead and try it, but keep Magic Jammer
handy. Those Heavy Storms are a killer. I'd recommend
just waiting a bit for more burn spells.

Toons: Entirely new from Magic Ruler, Toon decks
explain themselves: drop Toon World and toss down
Toons for direct damage. Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon rocks
here. And frankly, Toon Summoned Skull is just creepy.
Strengths: Direct damage of 3000 per turn? Yes please.
Weaknesses: Once Toon World leaves play, all of your
toons go with it. Thus, De-Spell is death here. You
STILL have to pay tributes to summon Toons. The two
best toons are excessively rare (Toon Blue-Eyes is a
Secret Rare). You have to pay life points to attack
with Toons; that adds up as well. And lastly, Toons
can't attack on the same turn as they're summoned
(players of Magic: The Gathering will interperate this
as summoning sickness).
Overall: Wait until we get some better toons. Even
then, I wouldn't really recommend it.

Fusion: Fuuuuuuu-SION! HAAA! Sorry, been watching
Dragon Ball Z too much. Fusion decks rely on
Polymerization to drop super-powered monsters easily.
Magician of Faith is once again strong for re-using
Polys. Black Skull Dragon and Twin-Headed Thunder
Dragon rock here, along with Gaia the Dragon Champion.
Strengths: Fusion is a special summon; no Trap Hole
for you. Most of the game's most powerful monsters,
including the aforementioned Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
and Five God Dragon, are fusions. Much later, we'll
have access to Fusion Gate, a field card that allows
you to play fusion monsters without Polymerization by
removing the fusion material monsters from the game
instead of putting them into the graveyard. Also,
there's the fusion substitute monsters, such as
Versago the Dark Destroyer, who can replace one
monster in a fusion.
Weaknesses: Magic Jammer shuts fusion down, as do Horn
of Heaven and Solemn Judgment. Polymerization is
currently hard to come by, although the upcoming
Structure Decks will make that part a lot simpler. The
fusion substitute monsters are nearly impossible to
get, and we won't be getting Fusion Gate for quite
some time at this rate.
Overall: Best when teched into another deck type. Wait
until later sets for it to become playable on its own.

Zombies: Very rarely seen (in fact, too rarely for me
to have included it in my last article), zombie decks
use lots of zombie monsters, in combination with
Wasteland, Violet Crystal, and Castle of Dark
Illusions for devastating results. Shadow Ghoul can
get ridiculous in this deck if played right.
Strengths: Not many that I can see at the moment, but
there's possible future potential. About the only real
strength is the ability to make Shadow Ghoul go
insane.
Weaknesses: Lots and lots. Our current strongest
zombie is PumpKing, at a fairly mediocre 1800/2000,
pretty bad for a level 6. Most zombies have very poor
defense (many of them are 0), making Shield and Sword 
absolutely chaotic.
Overall: I wouldn't recommend this deck at all. Even
teched into others, it doesn't work well. Perhaps
later sets will bring us better zombies. BTW, I've yet
to find out just what Call of the Haunted's card game 
equivalent actually does; if anyone else knows, I'd 
appreciate it if you'd let me know.

Rituals: Also not often seen on their own, Ritual
decks abuse ritual summons like they're going out of
style. Sonic Bird and Senju of the Thousand Hands are
good for searching out sets. Crab Turtle, Performance
of Sword, and the mighty Relinquished are powerful
here.
Strengths: Rituals are special summons (believe me,
I've lost track of the number of people I've seen
trying to Trap Hole my Performance of Sword). Tribute
costs for rituals can be paid from the field or from
your hand, making it yet another discard/Monster
Reborn abuser for high-level summons. There will also
be some great rituals later, such as Chaos Soldier
(AKA Black Luster Soldier) and the Magician of Black
Chaos. Not to mention some that just plain sound cool,
such as Masked Hellraiser.
Weaknesses: Rituals suffer from the same drawback as 
Polymerization; they get stalled by Magic Jammer, 
Horn of Heaven, and Solemn Judgement. The current 
best ritual, Relinquished, is hard to get (Relinquished 
is an Ultra Rare, and his Black Illusion Ritual is a Super 
Rare). There's also a lack of good rituals right now. You 
also have to have both the Ritual and the Ritual Monster 
in hand at the same time; often  you'll have one or the other, 
making the one you have useless. Like Gate Guardian and others 
with special summon requirements, Ritual Monsters can only be 
Reborned if they're come into play via the Ritual first. 
Still searching for the ruling on Relinquished and Cyber Jar 
(ie can Relinquished come into play via Cyber Jar's flip effect).
Overall: Another one to be teched into other deck
types. Come to think of it, this might pair fairly
well with Gate Guardian (discard a peice to a ritual,
set a Spear Cretin, flip and tribute it to another
ritual to get the first peice into play). I'd
recommend waiting for future sets and better rituals,
tho.

And that about sums it up. I know I'm going to get
e-mailed about deck types I supposedly missed, so let
me say a few things.
1: Harpy Lady is not a deck in and of itself (yet). It
fits into other decks, most often Shield and Sword.
2: Weenie attack decks do NOT EXIST. They're either
monster removal decks that attack with their used-up
effect monsters, or they're burners using Messenger of
Peace.
3: Most decks will include different facets of various
deck types. So if your deck is beatdown with a couple
of fusions and some monster removal (as my current
deck is), it's about right, but not a new deck type in
and of itself.

Woo, that fusion joke up there is making me imagine
Summoned Skull and Red-Eyes Black Dragon attempting
the Fusion Dance from DBZ. And on this somewhat trippy
note, I bid you all adieu. As always, Good Luck, Happy
Dueling, and May The Heart Of The Cards Be With You.

The Mighty Mollusk
themightymollusk@yahoo.com

PS: Anyone trying to contact me, please put something
related to YuGiOh in the e-mail's subject line, to
ensure that I don't mistake it for junk mail. I'm
happy to answer any questions you may have, but I'd
advise you to check Pojo's FAQ first, since that's
where I get my answers from anyway.

PPS: On an unrelated note, I'd like to join the people
thanking wartortle for taking the time to screen the
tips. At last, no more "combos" about how to kill a
BEWD! Woo!