GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
Protect the Deko!
October 17, 2009
Protect It At All Costs!
One of the most successful decks of all time was the Chaos
Return deck. The deck used crazy awesome cards like Chaos
Sorcerer and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch backed by Return
From the Different Dimension, Dekoichi and Treeborn Frog and
centering on Don Zaloog, D.D. Assailant and Cyber Dragon.
The result was a fast and deadly efficient deck that could
win out of nowhere as well as force a response or gain
advantage with every card it played.
Now, what has changed between now and then? A TON is what
has changed. We have Synchro monsters and even more crazy
broken cards that would have been banned should they have
been created just 2 months earlier. But, slower decks are
doing fairly well this format as they are able to keep up
with opposing Gladiator and Blackwing strategies without
fear of cards like Solemn Judgment blocking their every
action.
I have been playing around the strategy of "Protect the Deko"
for a while. The idea is to set Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted
Locomotive, and then set up protection behind it to keep it
from dying. Then you flip the Deko and tribute it for a
Monarch. Luckily, we have the Synchro mechanic , so it
doesn't HAVE to be a Monarch, although they are certainly
very powerful and useful cards.
The result was this deck, which actually managed to blow
apart a Lightsworn deck rather easily. I call it Soul Train
Monarchs!
You're One Ugly Mother-
Monsters-21
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3x Raiza the Storm Monarch
2x Prime Material Dragon
1x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Cyber Dragon
3x Thunderking Rai-Oh
3x Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Krebons
1x Plaguspreader Zombie
Spells-11
3x Soul Exchange
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Smashing Ground
1x Emergency Teleport
Traps-8
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Trap Hole
1x Dimensional Prison
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Call of the Haunted
D For
Dekoichi
This deck is actually one fo the most flexible decks out
there. It is able to adapt to almost any situation with
impunity and able to power through some otherwise impossible
situations.
The ideal opening play is definitely going to be set
Dekoichi and set a Bottomless or regular Trap Hole.
Actually, Trap Hole is better in this case. This opening
hoses Lightsworn, Gladiators AND Blackwings, as they are
unable to get a monster on the field in order to get their
ridiculous comboes going. You then flip Deko, draw a card
and then tribute for a Monarch or follow up with Kycoo or
Rai-Oh.
Later in the game, the deck keeps on going solid. Soul
Exchange and Brain Control allow for some massive swings in
tempo and advantage when combined with a Monarch. The
Monarchs themselves either disrupting field presence or your
opponent's draw as well as ridding the field of a threat and
then getting in there for 2400 damage.
Thunderking and Kycoo allow you to restrict your opponent's
best plays as well as boasting fairly high ATK. In fact, the
second best opening the deck has is Rai-Oh plus a Trap Hole,
as then your opponent has almost no choice but to take 1900
in the face next turn or they can waste a removal card that
would have been better saved for later.
Prime Material Dragon is the real star of the deck. Even
though only 2 copies are run, his ability forces an opponent
to play around him, and with the decent amount of defense
the deck runs, can actually stick around for a while. Even
against a rogue burn deck, PMD can turn calamity into
victory.
The deck actually has a surprisingly strong matchup against
Lightsworn. Rai-Oh and Kycoo force out Honest early, while
Raiza messes with their draws, Caius removes their precious
monsters and Prime Material Dragon blocks Celestia and
Judgment Dragon. The one card that really, really screws the
deck up is Aurkus though. So many of the cards inthis deck
target that you really don't have an answer to it beyond
Smashing Ground and running it over. If you do try to run it
over, it is likely that Honestor Necro Gardna will stop you.
The deck also does VERY well against Blackwings. They need
to establish a presence on the field in order to swarm with
Black Whirlwind. The Trap Holes stop that and even if they
manage to fight back, Soul Exchange plus a Monarch usually
means bad things for them. Kycoo works wonders here,
stopping Vayu and removing Blackwings so Blizzard cries
himself to sleep.
The deck does alright versus Gladiators. Rai-Oh an dKycoo
really mess with that deck, and the decent amount of removal
makes them sad while Prime Material Dragon just ruins the
deck unless War Chariot is out. War Chariot is your biggest
enemy here, negating your key Rai-Oh and MOnarch plays. That
is why it is key to side in Book of Moon and Fissure, which
allows you to stop those kind of shenanigans before they
start.
The deck's worst matchup is itself. It is sort of a slow
rolling deck for while, so if your opponent gets the
required setup first, then you are uinlikely to win. The
deck also has a bad habit of drawing many Monarchs together
and without tribute fodder or tribute cheating, so it can go
a very long time without making a solid play. Lots of
shuffling can take care of this problem, but it is bound to
happen at some point with an 8-Guage Monarch deck.
Choices Choices and MORE Choices
The deck is actually very compatible with many different
strategies. I fyou like more disruption, copies of Royal
Oppression can be put in in place of Trap Hole. If you like
combo more, Book of Moon can take the same slot. Here is a
listof cards that I feel would make fine additions to the
deck, but ran out of room for them or I felt that they were
not aggressive enough for me.
My Body As A Shield
Solemn Judgment
Gravekeeper's Spy
Gravekeeper's Guard
Fissure
Book of Moon
Royal Oppression
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
Mobius the Frost Monarch
Dark Armed Dragon
Many of these cards like Mobius, Book of Moon and Fissure
are great side deck cards thatyou can use against decks like
Gladiators and Synchro Heavy decks like some of the Summoner
Monk variants.
That is all for this article, I really am pretty tired. If
you need to reach me for ideas, deck builds or fixes or
pretty much anything yugioh related, you can email me at raptor1k@hotmail.com or
you can come in to see me at Bizarro World in Davis, CA on
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-7. Please put YGO in the
subject of any email you sne me so that I don't throw it
away as junk.
