[fieryshadowcard@yahoo.com]

For the upcoming dueling environment, I thought of a potential deck idea that could see some play and also give many people the creativity they've been complaining about. Hope you like it enough to post it! :)

[fieryshadowcard@yahoo.com]
Mazera Deville Deck Idea- Fieryshadowcard
 
Mazera Deville Deck Idea
When Im bored, I generally recycle through the past Card of the Days, and I stumbled upon the interesting Mazera Deville card. Warrior of Zera has interested me for awhile now, and I think this deck could prove fatal if used properly. Someone asked before on Pojo if it was possible to make a decent Mazera deck, and I decided to poke around to determine just that. From what Ive read, people have talked about Mazera belonging in either an Archfiend deck or a deck built specifically for him. I disagree. Neither of those is viable, particularly because that puts a lot of pressure on a card with strict summoning requirements, not to mention such decks would be too slow. Instead, a thought dawned upon me. The difficulty is in getting his requirements on the field, which are Pandemonium and Warrior of Zera (once hes on the field, as long as he gets his effect off, who cares if he dies?). And what exactly is Warrior of Zera? A Warrior! Perfect! Well design a Warrior Control deck with the added touch of Mazera! Inspired by the release of Command Knight and the innate swarming abilities of Warriors, I decided to formulate yet another deck idea:
 
Monsters (19)
Mazera Deville x3
Warrior of Zera x3
Command Knight x3
Marauding Captain x2
Don Zaloog x2
Cyber Jar
Exiled Force
D.D. Warrior Lady
Jinzo
Invader of the Throne
Sinister Serpent
 
Magic (19)
The Warrior Returning Alive x3
Pandemonium x2
Scapegoat x2
Terraforming x2
Reinforcement of the Army x2
Creature Swap x2
Change of Heart
Snatch Steal
Heavy Storm
Premature Burial
Pot of Greed
Painful Choice
 
Traps (4)
Torrential Tribute
Call of the Haunted
Magic Drain x2
 
There are more S/Ts than Monsters for a reason. Upsetting the ratio actually helps the speed of this particular Warrior deck. More S/Ts means more chances to see the searcher/recursion cards. That means Terraforming and Reinforcement of the Army have a better chance of appearing, and since the purpose of this deck is to get Mazera out with the help of Warriors, you have two out of three of the pieces already. It will only be a matter of time before one of three Mazeras falls into your hands. Lets see what this deck revolves around: Drawing/Searching/Swarming (basically speed), Recursion, Hand Destruction, Field Control. Breaking it into those four categories, we can start to take a look at which cards do what:
 
Drawing/Searching/Swarming Options:
Pot of Greed
Terraforming
Reinforcement of the Army
Cyber Jar
Marauding Captain
Painful Choice
 
Recursion Options:
Premature Burial
Call of the Haunted
The Warrior Returning Alive
Painful Choice
Sinister Serpent
 
Hand Destruction Options:
Don Zaloog
Mazera Deville
Magic Drain
Sinister Serpent
 
Field Control Options:
Jinzo
Cyber Jar
Don Zaloog
Magic Drain
Marauding Captain
Command Knight
Snatch Steal
Change of Heart
Invader of the Throne
Scapegoat
Mazera Deville
Call of the Haunted
Premature Burial
Heavy Storm
Creature Swap
Exiled Force
D.D. Warrior Lady
Torrential Tribute
Sinister Serpent
 
Basically, unlike my Exodia Deck, this time almost all of your cards are being poured into Field Control. Why? He who controls the field controls the duel. Your opponent can try to mill you if he wants, but Yata and Delinquent are gone. Hes got a lot of cards to go through. Therefore, if youve got the field dominated, it really doesnt matter if your hand is lacking. The object is to get your Warriors on the field as soon as possible, using Scapegoats to buy you time if you need it.
 
Torrential Tribute, Scapegoat, Marauding Captain, Command Knight, Jinzo, Cyber Jar
            You dont want your opponent to attack. At all. Period. Youre either going to want at least two Command Knights or two Marauding Captains (ideally the latter), but locking the field down is important because it helps make way for Warrior of Zera and Mazera. Jinzo helps particularly when you only have one Command Knight on the field. You have a 1600 Monster who cannot be attacked and a 2400 Monster few would dare to attack. In the meantime, plop down Cyber Jar to move your deck along if its moving slowly. If youre still having problems, Torrential and Scapegoat will help to buy you time. Theres really not much to say here. This is your LP defense.
 
Snatch Steal, Change of Heart, Creature Swap, Invader of the Throne
            You really dont want your opponent to attack, but hes inevitably going to bring out something you dont like. This says hell no to that. Snatch Steal a Jinzo or a Magical Scientist and dare him to waste S/T removal to bring it back. Or seal the deal and Creature Swap an Attack-position Scapegoat with a monster of his choosing, thus lowering the number of monsters he has on the field. Creature Swap not there, or do you want to decide which monster you keep? In conjunction with Marauding captain, Invader of the Throne steps up. Pimp-smack that face-down card out of the way with Change of Heart, then flip it, get its effect, and tribute it for Jinzo. Basically, these cards deal with your opponents field by moving it ever-so-gently out of the way, with the added bonus of making their power your own. That way, you have attacking options if Mazera falls through or you can intimidate your opponent with an invincible wall until you get Mazera. This deck is meant to give you either the option of attacking, or of controlling your opponents hand. Despite it lacking cards to deal with the hand, you only really need to destroy your opponents hand once for it to be all over, anyway, right?
 
Exiled Force, D.D. Warrior Lady, Heavy Storm
While cards such as Change of Heart and Cyber Jar primarily deal with your opponents front field (Monsters and offense), these cards focus more so on lowering your opponents options by getting rid of the back field (S/T) and the defensive/effect monsters in the front field. The strength of this deck is that few of your S/T have to stay on the field, so Heavy Storm hurts you much less than your opponent. Heavy Storm the entire field before or after you summon Mazera (before so that you can get his effect, after if youve gotten his effect and theres some face-down S/T trouble), ensuring a clean swipe at life points. Exiled or D.D. should take care of any Monster threats youre uncertain about, and can even deal with the heavy hitters, as well.
 
Pot of Greed, Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, Reinforcement of the Army/The Warrior Returning Alive/Warrior of Zera, Terraforming/Pandemonium, Painful Choice
            Basically, you want to get your requirements in hand. These cards are the spine of the spine of your deck and its purpose. Pot of Greed gives you drawing power, while Reinforcement, Warrior Returning, and Terraforming get the other cards into your hand in a less roundabout way. If you already have both Warrior of Zera and Pandemonium, Terraforming serves a dual role of being bait for attacks to your hand. Also, if youre set up for the win or have the advantage, Reinforcement and Warrior Returning are for your other Warriors, instead. If all your Warrior of Zera cards find their way to the graveyard, Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial are there to retrieve them (or any other Monster of yours for that matter). Painful Choice allows you to dump cards in the graveyard and set them up for recursion. The best method is to dump one of each of the monster cards that you pack in multiples (Mazera, Warrior of Zera, Marauding Captain, Command Knight, Don Zaloog) and let your magic deal with the rest of the deck. If your hand is looking pretty good (about 3-5 cards), your opponent may not think that Mazera will be dead weight after all and choose Warrior of Zera (of course, what he doesnt know is that this is the card youre lacking). All the same, this is the primary reason The Warrior Returning Alive is run in threes. Be careful with Painful Choce though. Since this is a Warrior-supported deck, you run the risk of decking out if you thin the deck to quickly.
 
Mazera Deville, Don Zaloog, Magic Drain, Sinister Serpent
            Basically, if your opponents hand somehow manages to survive after dealing with the rest of the deck (his field should be looking dire at this point), then Mazera serves as the unnecessary-but-flashy coup de grace. Unnecessary in the sense that this deck can still win without him; all the same, he doesnt hinder the deck in any way.  Three Don Zaloogs are meant to peck at your opponents hand and deck with the protection and/or boosts of Command Knight. Sinister Serpent is field/hand bait to make your opponent waste his/her time dealing with the snake that keeps on living. Magic Drain is not only a win/win situation for you (since most talented duelists wont use waste-of-space spell cards), but it also gauges your opponents hand even without you looking at it. If your opponent immediately cant deal with Magic Drain and automatically lets your effect go through, it says that his hand has no Spells and hes in trouble (your advantage). If he lets you negate his card almost instantly, hes got something bigger in store (possibly his advantage). If hes deliberating, youve got him in a power-struggle (50/50). Basically, his ability to choose determines how well you yourself are doing.
 
Side Deck Options:
            I dont have much to say here. Its all up to you. If you think basing this deck around Mazera isnt up to snuff, then get rid of Mazera, but I still think youll find that the support here is pretty good even without Mazera, so add in your own twists. Or, if you dont like Fiends but instead like Angel/Fairy decks (or prefer good to evil, lol), then you might even consider replacing Pandemonium with The Sanctuary in the Sky and Mazera with Archlord Zerato (and everything Ive said about a Warrior-supported Mazera deck basically applies to the way a Warrior-supported Zerato deck works, too; thats food for thought). If you do it this way, then switch up some of your cards for more Light Monsters. Or even make this a Chaos deck if you think this needs more Light Monsters. In fact, combining both BLS-EotB and Zerato in the same deck provides you with at least five viable Light monsters (if you choose not to remove D.D. Warrior Lady by her effect). And including BLS gives this deck the strong Warrior head it needs if you want to keep more so with the Warrior theme. Plus, this means that you can actually select BLS with Painful Choice since The Warrior Returning Alive can actually revive him. And in a risky venture, you can also include a combination of both Mazera/Pandemonium with Zerato/Sanctuary to give BLS both more Light and Dark options. Just like with my recent Exodia deck idea, I think this can be played as more than just a fun deck. Plus, its original enough that your opponent may not necessarily be able to deal with it. Ultimately, I hope someone decides to take up my idea and kick major butt with it in my stead.
 
Once again, Ive said my two cents.
 
If you have comments or flames (to roast the beef from my last deck idea), then hit me up at fieryshadowcard@yahoo.com
 
Take care!
Fieryshadowcard