Hey all!

 

After several months of no deck articles, I have one for you!  If you are so daring as to enter my den, you will see what I got going!

 

We’ve all noticed a new breed of monster known Crystal Beasts emerge from the Force of the Breaker set.  After gathering an ultimate rare set of Rainbow Ruins, Topaz Tigers, and Sapphire Pegasus, I decided to go find a build that worked.

 

At first, I went with Marc Glass’s deck from US Nationals.  Nice deck, Marc, but not quite what I’m looking for.

 

As I was looking through my cards, looking for possible candidates, I kept in mind that part of the idea behind the deck is to fill up your back row. So many of the cards in the deck are made to do this. The other part of the deck is to draw into one of its many game ending cards, which, like any other deck, means that you want to thin your deck to increase the probability of drawing those game ending cards.  Cards that did that were what I was searching for, and I came across a card that did BOTH!

 

So, before I explain my find, whether it truly be my find or not,  I shall present the deck.

 

WCBT (Wolfy’s Crystal Beast Turbo….yes, I know! SO ORIGINAL!  LOL)

 

Cards: 42

 

Monsters: 17

3x Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus

3x Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger

3x Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat

3x Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle

2x Rescue Cat

1x Sangan

1x Morphing Jar

1x Spirit Repear

 

Spells: 21

3x Ancient City – Rainbow Ruin

1x Terraforming

3x Rare Value

3x Crystal Beacon

3x Crystal Abundance

3x Crystal Blessing

1x Pot of Avarice

1x Card Destruction

2x Lightning Vortex

1x United We Stand

 

Traps: 4

1x Torrential Tribute

3x Generation Shift

 

The Breakdown:

 

Well, since I’m sure you all notice the odd 3 cards out here, so I’ll start with….

 

Traps:

 

First off, we only see ONE of the BIG THREE, as they’ve become known to be called.  Torrential Tribute.  This deck is made to fly through the deck and rocket Crystal Beasts to the Spell/Trap Zone.  Torrential Tribute, while acting as a nice piece of monster removal, also acts as a way to send a few Crystal Beast to the back row.

 

And, now we get to the big one, Generation Shift.   As Crystal Beasts have been out for two months, I’m sure someone has found this card before I did, but this is honestly the first time I’ve come across it. For those who may not remember this forgotten card, here it is….

 

SOI-EN055

Generation Shift

Normal Trap

 

Destroy 1 face-up monster on your side of the field.  Add 1 card from your Deck with the same name as the destroyed card.

 

At first glance you might be thinking “Wolfy! That’s a -1! -1’s are BAD!!!”  But notice that Generation Shift DESTROYS your monster, exactly what you want to happen to your Crystal Beasts.  Let’s check out the pros and cons to this card….

 

Pros:

 

-         Sends a Crystal Beast to the Spell/Trap Zone

-         Gets you another copy of the monster

-         Thins your deck, increasing the probability of drawing your power cards

-         Anti-theft, meaning you can use it to stop a Snatch Steal from using your Crystal Beasts against you.

-         Anti-Raiza (Its effect, not the attack damage)

-         Combos GREAT with Pegasus.

o       Summon Pegasus, put a Crystal Beast in the back row. +1. Set Generation Shift.  The opponent try to Snatch Steal Pegasus.  You chain Generation Shift, destroying your own Pegasus, stopping Snatch, and getting another Pegasus from your deck.  Turning a -1 into a +1 or better as you stopped Snatch Steal as well.  You then summon your new Pegasus, getting ANOTHER +1.

-         Great opening card with any Crystal Beasts (namely Pegasus) especially if you also have a Ruin and/or other CB support.

-         Can be used to save Ruin from S/T Removal

-         Multiple other uses against your opponent’s cards.

 

Cons:

-         Adds to the already obvious weakness of defense that Crystal Beasts lack by removing a defender from the monster zone.  Hopefully this will not be an issue as the deck should have game rather quick

-         Bad late game card

 

I don’t know about you, but I think the Pros out weighs the cons.  It’s true that Crystal Beasts die rather easily in the first place, but I see this card as quite useful. It speeds up a deck that, considering its lack of defense, needs to find a way to win as fast as possible.

 

Anyway, on to….

 

Spells:

 

Nothing special here, really.  You have your standard Crystal Beast support, a Terraforming to search for Ruin, Pot of Avarice to re-use key monsters, Card Destruction to set up for Blessing and to get a new hands, Vortex to handle a significant monster threat(s), and lastly, United We Stand comes in great handy right after a Carbuncle Special Summoning or a Crystal Abundance as it will likely add enough damage to get game.  It can also help in a tight spot to get around a big monster.

 

Monsters:

 

Again, nothing special here.  3x Pegasus, Topaz, Amethyst, and Carbuncle.  A Sangan for searching.  A Morphing Jar to gain a new hand, and Spirit Repear for some VITAL defense. 

 

And now onto cards that….

 

Missed the Cut:

 

Emerald Tortoise misses the cut as its defense, while great at 2000, isn’t quite enough.  If it could block Cyber Dragon, then maybe.  Its effect isn’t quite good enough either.  Maybe it’ll get more consideration upon Rainbow Dragon’s release.  The same goes for Amber Mammoth, though it came closer to making the cut than Tortoise for a solid 1700 attack. 

 

Crystal Promise also missed the cut.  True, it could Special Summon a Ruby Carbuncle or Sapphire Pegasus, but the deck has so many ways of doing that in the first place.  Eventually a deck having too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing.  Another spell that missed the cut (other than staples that are in almost every deck) was Magical Stone Excavation. The only reason it missed the cut….I don’t have one!

 

Next we have traps that missed the cut.  The only ones to really speak of are Ring, Mirror, and Crystal Raigeki.  You do NOT want to run many cards that take up the S/T slots in this deck.  A Mirror Force in the s/t zone at the wrong time could prevent you from playing the game ending Crystal Abundance!   And Crystal Raigeki takes you farther away from what you want the deck to do.

 

So, there you are readers!  My version of the popular Crystal Beasts theme!  The deck still needs work, but it is starting to run rather smoothly.  I’d love to hear your feedback on this deck, in particular on my ideas surrounding Generation Shift!   It so far has won one local tournament, never losing a match, though it did lose 2 single games.

 

Send me an e-mail at lonely_wolf93@yahoo.com with your thoughts, deck fixes, article idea, or your own cards for my contest (see the previous article).

 

Until next time readers, from the Den,

 

Wolfy