It has been a really long time since I write anything for you all. In fact, I would bet that most of you have not even read a single article of mine, mostly because they are all out of date. The real world has put a hold on my article writing for far too long, so I come out of retirement with this article based around a relatively cheap deck with explosive potential.

For a long time, the X-Saber deck was the one to beat. It was fast, consistent and generated more card advantage than almost any deck since. Of course several decks have come out that are faster and more consistent and there are a few cards that just destroy the deck that are commonly played in the side. As far as I know, what nobody has tried is to make a control deck based upon the X-Saber theme.

They have one of the best control Traps in the game (Saber Hole) and combined with Solemn Warning and Bottomless Trap Hole, your opponent would be lucky to ever get a monster out onto the field. You can even use some of the fast cards in the archetype in order to mount a quick offensive when the deck is ready to go. And without further ado, I give you the X-Saber Control Deck!

I Like Swords

Monsters-20

3x XX-Saber Faultroll

3x XX-Saber Emmersblade

3x XX-Saber Garsem

3x XX-Saber Boggart Knight

3x XX-Saber Fullhelmknight

2x XX-Saber Gardestrike

2x XX-Saber Darksoul

1x X-Saber Pashuul

Spells-6

3x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Monster Reborn

1x Heavy Storm

1x Dark Hole

Traps-14

3x Saber Hole

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

2x Solemn Warning

2x Horn of the Phantom Beast

2x Compulsory Evacuation Device

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Mirror Force

1x Solemn Judgment

Extra-15

2x XX-Saber Hyunlei

2x M-X-Saber Invoker

1x X-Saber Urbellum

1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x Number 17: Leviathan

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Number 39: Utopia

1x Ally of Justice- Catastor

1x Gaia Knight, Force of the Earth

1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x XX-Saber Gottoms

1x Leviair the Sea Dragon

My Name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die.

Now this deck is far more focused on maintaining a field presence than almost any other X-Saber deck before. Since Saber Hole requires a Saber monster on the field, it is imperative to keep a monster face up to use it. Other Saber decks have been mostly focused on the card advantage created from Gottoms Emergency Call, but in my opinion that just left the deck too open to disruption. With this deck, everyone will be expecting you to play E-Call, which means they will be playing around it.

Many people would question the use of Garsem in the deck, as it was a fairly underwhelming card for a long time. What made it good is that it is of the Beast Type, which means that you can use Horn of the Phantom Beast effectively within the deck, as Gardestrike and Boggart Knight are both able to use it as well. Plus he nets you a card when destroyed by a card effect and gets stronger the more X-Sabers you have on the field.

The most unorthodox things that I have done with the deck are to reduce the Spell count to 6, only play 2 Darksoul and play many more traps. Because it is a control deck, it has to use far more Traps to control an opponent’s Monster summonings. Darksoul is not supposed to stick around for very long and is thus contrary to the deck, but is still good enough for card advantage and getting your deck going.

Gardestrike is another uncommon choice, but since he works with Horn of the Phantom Beast and can actually stick around for a while he was worth putting in, especially since he is packing a whopping 2100 ATK.

Do You Feel Lucky? Well, do ya? Punk!

The deck does have a few weaknesses, the foremost being Thunderking Rai-Oh. He stops Darksoul searches, Special Summoning and can really put a dent in your lifepoints since he is bigger than most of your monsters. Gardestrike manages him quite well and Boggart Knight can trade with him. Even lowly Garsem can get over him on occasion.

Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo is your other problem. He will kill most of your monsters and stop your plays cold. However, most of your Monsters can now beat him in battle which is good. Also compulsory evacuation Device is your best bet if you sense a face-down Dyna.

The deck plays well against decks like Anti-Meta which require key monster summons to get their deck going. It will also play well against Gladiators, Monarchs, Karakuri and Rabbit/Dino decks. All of these require specific monster summons to get the deck going and your deck is designed to deny them.

The deck does not play well against Lightsworn and Dark World. Both decks are faster than this build and can quickly overwhelm you. Dark World can also remove your graveyard via Dark Smog, which can seriously halt your aggression when it happens. Your monster control can usually be enough to make these matches interesting at least and the trio of MST can help to keep Dark Smog in check.

Well that is it for this article, keep an eye out for more in the future. If you have any questions, comments, concerns or ideas, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can contact me at alarbios@live.com for anything Yu-Gi-Oh! related.

Thanks for reading!