August 2006
Staples – that are hesitant to be run
in the main deck
1. Lightning Vortex
This is the possibly the only, the one and ONLY mass
spell removal, besides Grand Convergence. Since
Vortex requires a discard, it’s usually 2-resource
management. However, you can make advantage of that
discard. For example, depends on what you are
running, you can discard a monster card that you
want it to hit graveyard as soon as possible.
Discard 1 Thunder Dragon to get 2, use Vortex, and
summon that Sorcerer and use Return for game. Also,
discard Night Assailant and you won’t lose anything.
In fact, you might actually gain something by
trading Night Assailant for the flip monster of your
choice, but the trade-off is that your opponent will
see what’s coming. Nevertheless, breaking that 2
Marauding Captain lock or going for game is cool.
Many duelists tend to favor 2 Smashing Grounds over
Lightning Vortex + discard because Smashing Ground
never loses in trade. Still, there’s a reason that
Lightning Vortex is restricted =)
2. Pot of Avarice
This one is actually questionable, and I (for once
XD) fully understand why. With everyone running
Chaos + Return, Macro decks, and maybe Dark World
flying around, monsters are useless back in the
deck. Yet flip monsters can still be cycled with
this, though Night Assailant is faster. But hey!
Both are restricted so why not give a try? Thunder
Dragon works well also. Cough Nimble Momongas cough
abuse them cough
3. Scapegoat
Goats are personal preferences, nothing game
breaking (or is it ^_^). In terms of card advantage,
it’s 1 for 4 monsters. However, because of 0/0
stats, (awesome 0s) it also means that opponents
have easy opportunities to neutralize the field
status. Asura Priest just rips the lambs apart, and
you may well get otked if your opponent runs Big
Bang Shot (ouch). Scapegoat isn’t meant to be
attackers obviously. They are meant to be combined
with other cards, such as Metamorphosis, Creature
Swap, and other countless ones. With this and
Metamorphosis, suddenly it becomes 2 for 3 goats and
Thousand Eyes Restrict, plus you suck up an
opponent’s monster. A lot of advantages there!
That’s it for this one!
By Paul Yeem - Carrotizer
