Subject: Perhaps the Most Evil Strategy Ever

This style of deck came close to winning a local tournament for me last 
weekend despite being amazingly easy to beat.  It took six tournament 
rounds before someone finally figured out the trick I was pulling (and 
he watched me play two duels before we played after hearing about the 
"unfair" deck I was playing all day).  Will it win for you?  Maybe.  But 
it's likely to throw off your opponents so wildly that you'll pull at 
least a few wins and it's awfully fun to use.

I refer to it as a Turtle Deck:

Monsters -
All the high defense monsters you can fit in to get it up to 25; ignore 
attack power entirely.  Spear Cretins work well to provide indefinite 
defense as well as helping the second half of the strategy.

Magic and Traps -
All the "hurt the opponent when they do something" cards: Chain Energy, 
Toll, Gravekeeper's Servant...

The surprise defense boosters such as Reliable Guardian and Castle Walls 
are key as well as the Chorus of Sanctuary.

Dian Kato will work very well in this set up but the other cure cards 
don't give enough life.

As for the rest, staple magic and trap cards to get you up to 25.

I combined this strategy with deck destruction since the duels do tend 
to go on for a very long time (almost all my rounds were called on time) 
hence the thicker size than normal.  If you do that then Cyberjar, Card 
Destruction, Grand Trunade are all appropriate, but not the Bistro 
Butcher.  Direct Damage is another option as Just Deserts is a good 
match for the deck as well, and a few of the direct damage monsters can 
win the game for you.

Let's get to the strategy: so, you wind up with a weak deck that can't 
really do anything.  Now here's the trick: what happens when you play 
Toll or Chain Energy (and to some extent Gravekeeper's Servant)?  Your 
opponent pauses.  They get hurt when they do something so they're going 
to hold back until they think it's more advantageous for them.  Putting 
that mental stumbling block in their path immediately throws them off, 
but there's more.

Don't put a monster into attack (with one exception, I'll get to in a 
minute).  A good portion of your opponent's deck is likely taken up by 
cards to defend themselves against you.  You're not giving them anything 
to defend against.

So it starts costing the opponent life to place a card and to attack, 
and thanks to the sudden defense boosters you can cause a few extra 
thousand in damage when they attack.  Before too long one of two things 
happen: attacking or placing a card will kill them or they'll have their 
entire field filled up not realizing the deck you play won't remove 
their cards.  By the time most opponents recognize the threat it's too 
late for them to do anything.  You'll likely have far more life than the 
opponent when time is called and in some cases you can even pick them 
off with the monsters that have almost no attack power (nothing like 
being killed by a Prevent Rat to humiliate someone).

It helps with this method to remind the opponent every time they take 
damage from the Chain Energy or Toll ("Did you remember to take the 
damage?"  "Don't forget about the Chain Energy."  "Oh, now it costs 1000 
life to attack!").  That increases their anxiety about it helping the 
player lock themselves.

There's two reasons that I refer to this style as a Turtle Deck.  First, 
you're putting up a shell.  Second, you're getting your opponent 
to withdraw into his own.

The threat that this strategy can't stop is people who are just willing 
to take the damage and attack.  Pausing just makes things worse for them 
and keeping the pressure up is the easiest way to break it.  You'll be 
forced down to the same "Play anything and you'll die" range in such an 
event.

This is a trick you can only pull once since once your opponents realize 
what you're doing they can stop it easily but for that one time you'll 
have your opponents bewildered and squirming.

Joel Mathis