Part 1
Makyura the Destructor [Dark/Warrior/Effect/Lv4/1600/1200]
During the turn this card is sent to the Graveyard, the owner of this card can activate Trap Card(s) from his/her hand.
Since I've been kind of a Marik fan, I much anticipated the release of this card. For those of you who are hungry for a sado-masochistic combo machine, this is your ticket. I've been playing around with this in a few decks (most notably my trap-heavy "overkill" hand/field control deck, which if I'm in the mood I'll explain later). Here, I'll explain some of the better cards to drop Makyura with, as well as some cards that benefit greatly from his effect.
How to get Makyura into the graveyard:
Card Destruction. One of my personal favorite cards. In my humble opinion, it's roughly like Heavy Storm and Dark Hole rolled into one, except it affects a different plane of gameplay. Makyura would love to get dropped by this and see your new hand that gets refreshed with new traps.
Painful Choice. Actually, I'm not terribly fond of using this, because you'd have to use up both Makyuras in your deck* to totally zero out the chance of one not getting into the graveyard. Still, Painful Choice is quite useful.
Mirage of Nightmare. Draw power, and while you're at it, you can try to randomly dump the Destructing One and cause a bit of havoc.
Raigeki Break. Chainable, flexible - a Makyura dropped by this can be just plain bloodthirsty.
Creature Swap. When Makyura is on the field and your opponent is getting all up ons with a big monster, grab it and then kill off Makyura for some trap fun. You can even take a smaller monster after switching Makyura to defense position (his tender 1200def is great for this).
Tribe-Infecting Virus. Ah, the infamous all-purpose genocide machine. Give it some bite by dropping Makyura and a slew of chainable traps.
Those are just a few suggestions. I'm sure you all can think up some more on your own.
What to do with Makyura's effect:
Raigeki Break. Yes, this again - drop one, then drop another. Just be sure you're using your hand wisely or have some kind of insurance (Serpent, Night Assailants for example).
Dust Tornado. Similar to Raigeki Break in chainability, but of course the effect differences are noteable. Drop Makyura, and it's almost like having multiple MST's again.
Call of the Haunted. I used this in conjunction with activating Raigeki Break in an opponent's end-phase one time for quite an interesting effect. This becomes straight-up insane with Makyura.
Time Seal. One of the key cards in my "overkill" destruction deck. Toss Makyura, use a trap or two and top it all off by throwing this down. It's chainability and simple effect make it popcorn to use with Makyura.
Bottomless Trap Hole, Sakuretsu Armor, Torrential Tribute, Magic Cylinder, Draining Shield. One of the reasons why I like using Raigeki Break with Makyura is because it is ever-so-chainable to anything. Any kind of Makyura-gettison during your opponent's standby phase or mainphase 1 will open the door wide open for nasty traps like these.
Deck-type specific traps:
Bad Reaction to Simochi. I wonder if anybody misses this old burner card? I think it could still have some potential, and Makyura can help speed up this card in terms of getting it to the field and active. That set Burning Algae will love you...
Zero Gravity/Windstorm of Etaqua. Some decks (trample, Asura Priest/Ojama, etc) enjoy having traps like these to disrupt their opponent's strategy and give advantage to their own.
Ojama Trio. A nasty little trap that can have a few different decks built around it. If you want to set up locks/mass slaughters more quickly, Makyura can lend a helping hand.
Those are just a few examples of what can be done with Makyura. There are plenty more to be explored.
*Makyura the Destructor is limited to 2 in Japan - don't be surprised if UDE does the same thing on Western shores.
Part 2
Hand Control and Prenegation
In my recent experiments with hand control in my "overkill" deck, I've found the power of trade-offs and equivalents in hand-destroying tactics. Let me some some examples of what I mean:
Card Destruction = Heavy Storm + Dark Hole, since it sends monsters, spells and traps in both hands to the graveyard. Granted, Heavy Storm and Dark Hole don't draw you any cards, but I'm just focusing on the discard effect.
Drop Off = MST + Tribute to the Doomed (w/o cost). A hand-crippling trap that I've found works great alongside Time Seal, regardless of whether they chain quickplays or dump monsters for chaos or what-not (as long as you keep messing with their hand, that envoy will be slow to arrive). Kills one of anything.
Confiscation = MST +Tribute to the Doomed + Seal of the Ancients. Same as Drop Off, but faster and a bit more costly. Seeing your opponent's hand and the 1000 cost is why I compare it to Seal of the Ancients.
Don Zaloog = MST + TttD on legs. Multiple discards and deck destruction is always welcome in hand control. Don is almost a staple monster in hand-control decks that don't focus on stalling.
DD Designator = Dark Core (variable cost though) + Nobleman of Extermination. This comparison is more rough, but it focuses more on the fact that DC and NoE remove things from play.
I choose not to discuss Forceful Sentry, seeing as it doesn't send anything to the graveyard, thus making for difficult comparisons other cards, though Forceful Sentry is often used in a variety of control decks.
And therein lies the recently forgotten power of hand destruction - indiscriminant destruction. Hand-kill is flexible yet calculating - a properly made hand control deck should cut off the opponent's resources at the source (the hand and deck) and drive forward to make the win. Some do's and don'ts:
Do: ...use Don Zaloog and Kycoo, unless using a stall-based deck.
...everything to force your opponent to topeck.
...take advantage of your opponent's disadvantage (ie using DD Designator(s) after a Forceful or Confiscation).
...make room on your opponent's field. As long as you have Don in your deck, make every effort to do damage with him, whether it be with a Creature Swapped goat token, Mirror Wall, etc.
Don't: ...use Morphing Jar and/or Cyber Jar in the same deck. Please.
...use Card Destruction with Confiscation and/or Forceful Sentry in the same deck. It defeats the purpose of cards like Forceful and Confiscation.
...overextend your hand unless you know you can press the advantage, and even then you should excercise caution. Regardless of whether the deck is pure hand control or a control/hybrid, topdecking is never a good thing, especially since that's what you want your opponent to be doing!!
~ Fin. ~