JULY 2008

Deck Fix: Deep Pressure - Master of Shadows

Hello, everyone. I'm sure you know who it is, and I have a deck here that I haven't fixed in a long time - a Water deck. Water decks are a favorite of mine personally, and they used to be my specialty. Let's see if they still are. Let's get to it, shall we?

Hi,

I'm an intermediate player looking to start playing at tournaments.  This particular deck has been effective against local players, but I believe there could be more to it.
Obviously, I use A Legendary Ocean to bring out the big monsters like Giga Gagagigo, and pave the way with bounce effects.
Hope you can help. -ER

[Deep Pressure]

Monsters: 23

3 Levia Dragon - Daedalus
3 Giga Gagagigo
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Hydrogeddon
3 Warrior of Atlantis
2 Nightmare Penguin
2 Penguin Soldier
2 Abyss Soldier
2 Amphibious Bugroth MK-3
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Submarineroid


Spells: 12

3 A Legendary Ocean
2 Big Wave Small Wave
1 Magical Mallet
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Enemy Controller
1 Premature Burial
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Salvage


Traps: 7

2 Spiritual Water Art - Aoi
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Tornado Wall
1 Dust Tornado
1 The Transmigration Prophecy
1 Xing Zen Hu

Total: 42

I've played around with Neo Spacian Aqua Dolphin to assist with the Water Art for hand destruction, but ended up taking him out because I'd get him when I couldn't really use him.  I would realy just like to get this deck a tune up, and I noticed that no one has done any fixes on this type of deck in a long time.  Could ALO be as competitive as I hope?

I love Water decks. I just love them. The bad thing about them, though, is that they can be very predicatable. Oh well. Time to fix this thing up.

Cards to wash away:

- 3 Giga Gagagigo

- 3 Hydrogeddon

- 2 Penguin Soldier

- 1 Treeborn Frog

- 1 Submarineroid

- 1 Magical Mallet

- 2 Spiritual Water Art - Aoi

- 1 Tornado Wall

- 1 The Transmigration Prophecy

- 1 Xing Zhen Hu

I cut 16 cards from this deck. Giga Gagagigo is just a large beatstick and nothing else. He really does very little for us besides beat things, and that's not really helpful, especially when Levia's nuking the field, anyway, so that's got to go. Hydrogeddon, while being a good card to swarm the field with, very often will get stuck in your hand from what I've experienced, meaning not only does it become somewhat dead, it also telegraphs what you have in hand when you don't search for that second or third one when you can, but it could be strategy. No, the first option is more logical, but that's not the point. Penguin Soldier is best suited for the side deck. ALO will interfere with Treeborn Frog, so we get rid of the Frog. Submarineroid, while somewhat annoying, will have to be replaced by something different. Magical Mallet has better alternatives. Spiritual Water Art - Aoi, while a good control card, will actually slow us down a bit, and speed is the name of the format, so this has to go. Side deck material, though. Tornado Wall, no matter how good its effect is, shouldn't be used at all because of how reliant it is on ALO. No matter how many ways you have to bring out ALO, it is just as easily destroyed. The Transmigration Prophecy is great at screwing over other competitive decks with their endless Graveyard tricks but isn't too useful here. Side deck it if you will. Xing Zhen Hu is an interesting card, but it won't help too much in here, so we get rid of it.

Now for additions to the deck.

Cards that the tide should wash in:

+ 3 Mother Grizzly

+ 2 Unshaven Angler

+ 1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

+ 2 Aqua Spirit

+ 1 Abyss Soldier

+ 2 Hand Destruction

+ 1 Enemy Controller

+ 3 Solemn Judgment / Dark Bribe

I added in 15, bringing you to 41. That works. Mother Grizzly was added to do what Hydrogeddon did and is almost never a dead card and can be recovered by Salvage. Mother Grizzly searches out a few things in this deck that we may need, including the Unshaven Angler I added to help you get Levia on the field when you don't have ALO on the field. Mobius for a bit of extra destruction. Aqua Spirit for Tribute bait as well as being able to help you drop Levia very early. (Warrior of Atlantis for ALO, play ALO, remove Warrior of Atlantis for Aqua Spirit, Tribute for Levia, blow the field up) Abyss Soldier to make use of any dead Water monster in hand to clear something out that's in your way. Hand Destruction for a bit of draw power. Enemy Controller to help in battle. Solemn Judgment / Dark Bribe to protect your ALO and Levia from whatever the opponent may try to do to stop you.

I hope that helped things a bit. Now I want to bring back my Water deck. Great. Just another idea to put down somewhere. Oh well. That's all I have for now. Questions, comments, etc. can be sent to darkdestructionv30@yahoo.com

I'm still a bit backed up, everyone, but I will get to everything - I promise you that. Just be patient.

Until next time....