From: Philip Lee
Subject: Building an Attribute Deck - Itsy Spider

A guide for newbies - building an attribute deck

Hi, it's been a long time since I last wrote my article on Creature Swap.
I'm pleased that I was correct in the prediction that Creature Swap would become more popular. This is my second article, and this time, it's an article on building an attribute deck. I will analyze the different strengths and weaknesses of the different attributes and talk about how the deck should be made.

Fire:
Overall Ratings-
Atk-3/5
Def-3/5
Effect-4/5
Good monsters:
Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
Solar Flare Dragon
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv 6

Monsters with the fire attribute tend to be quite weak with low attack and defense status to start with. However, many fire attribute monsters have powerful effects that power them up when there are other fire attribute monsters on the field. A good example of one is the Ultimate Baseball Kid, which gains 1000 extra attack for each fire monster on the field.
Fire type monsters usually make up for their lack in attack and defense with powerful effects. They often specialize in burning effects, and can often take down the opponent's life points quickly without attacking. Solar Flare Dragon and Ultimate Baseball Kid are good examples.
Fire monsters unfortunately do not have much support. The trap card 'Backfire' deals 500 damage to the opponent every time a fire monster on your side of the field. Another good card is Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai.
This card allows you to tribute a fire monster on your side of the field to deal direct damage to your opponent equal to the base attack of the monster you tributed.
The recruiter of fire monsters is the UFO Turtle

Water:
Overall Ratings-
Atk-4/5
Def-3/5
Effect-4/5
Good monsters:
Treeborn Frog
Abyss Soldier
Levia-Dragon - Daedalus
Mobius the Frost Monarch
Hydrogeddon

The water attribute is my personal favorite. The water attribute has been quite popular ever since its key card 'A Legendary Ocean' was released. This card created many new decks, such as water beatdown (a deck which revolves around bringing out powerful monsters with out tribute by using the level down effect of A Legendary Ocean) Probably the most commonly used water monster right now is Treeborn Frog.
Water monsters specialize in bouncing cards on the field back to the hand.
Abyss Soldier is particularly good at this; by discarding a water monster from your hand, you may return one card on the field back to the hand. Other good cards include Gale Lizard, Penguin Soldier, and Nightmare Penguin.
Water monsters have very good support, the main one being A Legendary Ocean.

This card gives several monsters such as Mermaid Knight, Amphibious Bugroth
Mk-3 Deepsea Warrior, Levia-Dragon - Daedalus and Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo Daedalus powerful effects. But that's not all-it also decreases the level of all water monsters in the hand and on the field a level! Suddenly, Levia-Dragon - Daedalus becomes a one-tribute behemoth with the ability to nuke the field!
Other water support cards include Salvage. This is a great support card for water monsters, because it lets you retrieve two water monsters with 1500 attack or less from your graveyard and add them to your hand. This gives you an instant +1 card advantage, and the cards you retrieved may give you even more advantage after you pull off their effects.
Spiritual Water Art - Aoi is another great support card with an effect similar to the powerful Confiscation. By tributing a water monster on your side of the field, you may look through your opponent's hand and discard one card. It is a good card to use with Treeborn Frog.
Finally, Big Wave Small Wave is one final support card. I personally do not like to use this card, as it is too situational to use, but the effect can allow you to get out a powerful, two-tribute water monster instantly.
The recruiter of the water monsters is Mother Grizzly.

Earth:
Overall Ratings-
Atk-5/5
Def-5/5
Effect-3/5
Good monsters:
Granmarg the Rock Monarch
Exiled Force
D.D Assailant
King Tiger Wanghu
Injection Fairy Lily

The earth attribute has the potential to be a powerful deck. Many earth monsters have high stats. Many, like Berserk Gorilla and Goblin Attack Force have high attack, whilst others, like Moai Interceptor Cannons and Golem Sentry have good defense. If you decide to build an earth deck, try and build a beatdown type for effectiveness. A beastdown deck can also be good with Enraged Battle Ox. If you wish to go for a control type, cards such as Des Lacooda and Medusa Worm are good. Granmarg the Rock Monarch is an underrated card, and you may wish to test it out.
Earth monsters do not have much in terms of effects, but there are a few that can be very useful, such as the Ancient Gear Beast.
Earth monsters have little support. However, there is the Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane which allows you to tribute an earth monster in order to special summon a level four or lower earth monster from your graveyard. Now at first sight, this may seem like a pointless effect. However, imagine how powerful this card could be if you used it during the battle phase. This card works well with the powerful earth monsters at your disposal; imagine, you enter the battle phase and attack directly with Berserk Gorilla, dealing 2000 damage. You then use the Spiritual Art to tribute the Gorilla and special summon another one, which then attacks directly. Then you use another spiritual art to bring out another one, which attacks again, and finally you use another spiritual art to bring out another one and finish off your opponent. Fun, huh? (This is highly unlikely to ever happen unless you rig your deck, but it's a good example of the use of the Spiritual Art) The recruiter of the earth monsters is the Giant Rat.

Wind:
Overall Ratings-
Atk-3/5
Def-2/5
Effect-3/5
Good monsters:
Slate Warrior
Harpie Lady 2
Sasuke Samurai #4
Sasuke Samurai
Spear Dragon

It is difficult to make a successful wind deck due to the fact that they have very few strengths. The one thing wind monsters are good at is bouncing spells and traps on the field to the hand. When making a wind deck, try and make an offensive deck and make good use of the bouncing effects of Lady Ninja Yae and of other monsters to go on the offensive. If you wish to, you may try to build a Harpy Lady deck. This deck can be successful; however great skill is required in order to make one successful.
The Spiritual Art - Miyabi demonstrates the bouncing power of wind monsters.

Its effect allows you to blow away a card on your opponent's side of the field back to the bottom of their deck if you tribute a wind monster. This is very useful because you can bounce a key card on your opponent's field to the bottom of their deck, and it will be difficult for the opponent to regain it.
The recruiter of the wind monsters is the Flying Kamakiri.

Dark:
Overall Ratings-
Atk-4/5
Def-3/5
Effect-5/5
Good monsters:
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Sangan
Spirit Reaper
Newdoria
Cyber-Stein

Dark monsters are some of the most powerful monsters in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. Cards like Breaker the Magical Warrior, Sangan and Spirit Reaper are seen in almost every deck in the professional tournaments. Dark monsters do not usually work well in a deck based around them, but they are effective because each card has an effect which does not need other cards in order to work. They work singly, and that is what makes them so strong. It is because in a duel, every card counts. However, when you are building a deck based around dark monsters, it is a harder thing to accomplish. The easiest way to do this is just to stuff the best dark monsters into a deck-namely, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Sangan, Spirit Reaper and Cyber-Stein. After that, start looking for any cards that help you either control the game by either destroying your opponent's cards and drawing more cards, or beat down the opponent.
Dark monsters do not have as much support as the other attributes. However, the ones that they have are powerful. There is the Deck Devastation Virus; this card has the potential to gain significant advantage and gives you the advantage of looking at your opponent's hand as well.
The searcher of the dark monsters is Mystic Tomato

Light:
Overall ratings-
Atk-4/5
Def-3/5
Effect-5/5
Good monsters:
Magician of Faith
D.D Warrior Lady
Cyber Dragon
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
Skelengel

Light monsters are very similar to the dark monsters. However, dark monsters are seen more often at competitive tournaments. But that doesn't mean that light monsters are inferior or anything. Light monsters have almost the same strengths and weaknesses as the dark monsters. Their effects are very independent and work alone. Magician of Faith, Cyber Dragon and D.D Warrior Lady are seen in almost all competitive decks.
Light monsters tend to work better together than dark monsters; this makes up for the fact that there are not as many good light monsters as dark ones.

The advice I have for building a deck is the same as for dark monsters; just throw a bunch of the best monsters in, and maybe throw in a Freed the Brave Wanderer, add a bunch of other cards that help support the theme, and voila!

You have a good deck that will work well.
Light monsters do not have much support, but there are a few excellent ones around-such as Solar Ray. This card combos well with Agent of Creation - Venus. Use the Agent's effect to get four light monsters onto the field, and then use Solar Ray to deal a whopping 2400 damage!
The searcher for the light monsters is Shining Angel.

I hope that you enjoyed this article. Until next time, fellow duelists!

Itsy Spider

I can be reached at Philip_lee9@hotmail.com. Feel free to email me if you want me to look over your decks and share ideas.

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