Fun Format: 2003 Old School Deck - Baneful
June 2014

  

1. Only cards from SDP, SDJ, LON, LOD, PGD, MFC, DCR are allowed.

2. Current Forbidden/Restricted list applies – not the 2003 list

 

Monsters - 20

1 Vampire Lord

1 Dark Dust Spirit

3 Breaker the Magical Warrior

3 D.D. Warrior Lady

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

2 Spirit Reaper

2 Newdoria

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

1 Bazoo the Soul-Eater

1 Zombrya the Dark

1 Don Zaloog

1 Exiled Force

1 Tsukuyomi

 

Notes: A lot of monsters were released in this era.  With the basic staples/spells released in 2002, the game then focused on allowing players to customize their army of monsters.  I had to cut Airknight Parshath, Magical Merchant and Luster Dragon among other monsters.  Breaker at 3 is essential because MST wasn't made in 2003.  D.D. Warrior Lady is a favorite of mine and is versatile removal. 

 

Spells - 10

3 Smashing Ground

1 Book of Moon

1 United We Stand

1 Autonomous Action Unit

1 Reinforcement of the Army

2 My Body as a Shield

1 United We Stand

 

Notes: The Spell line-up is quite weak because the game in 2003 depended on the staples in 2002.  With that context in mind, I picked the most viable spell cards of that particular era.  My Body is useful because in the 2002 era because monsters are worth protecting and non-destruction removal wasn't as common as it is today.  Action Unit is a Monster Reborn alternative.

 

Traps - 10

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

3 Reckless Greed

1 Drop Off

1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

3 Sakuretsu Armor

 

Notes: An overall very solid trap line-up, with a mix of removal and hand control.  Most of those are still used today.  Sakuretsu is vulnerable to Breaker, but in a format without MST's the opponent is going to have to use their Breaker's wisely.

 

Additional Notes

 

For those who want to follow the 2003 ban list, instead this deck would need a lot of reworking.  Yeah, I would add cards like Ring of Destruction, Yata-Garasu and Tribe-Infecting Virus, as well as take away borderline cards like Drop Off, but I would also have to add chaos cards from IOC (BLS, Sorcerer, Emperor Dragon) and change some of the EARTH monsters to LIGHT monsters.

 

With the growth of archetypes, it well would've been possible to make a Zombie Deck or a Gravekeeper Deck fueled by many of the cards in PGD, but I decided on a Greatest Hits collection of that year instead.

 

Contact – banefulscolumn@gmail.com