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ShineSoldier on YuGiOh

Deck Analysis: The Gearfried Deck
April 13, 2006

Goodday, everyone.
 

I’ll start my first artile as a Featured Writer with a short introduction of myself.

I’m ~ShineSoldier~, some of you might know me from the TCG Tips Section.

I must say that I’m quite honored to be allowed to write articles for the front page of this site. I’ve been reading all the articles and CotD Reviews for about 2 years now, and it never bores me. So for that: Thank you, Pojo.

In the TCG Section, I have written several Deck Construction Articles, and that’s what I’m going to do now as well. I’ll try to come up with some original deck ideas and work them out. Of course, you, the readers, can e-mail me all of your suggestions or decks that need to be fixed. If you’re planning on doing so, please send your mail with a little information about yourself (and if you’re sending me a deck list, some information about your deck as well) at ShineSoldier@gmail.com. Please, if you send me a deck that needs to be fixed, make sure it’s Advanced Format and try to keep it original. A Chaos or Warrior-Toolbox Deck won’t have a high chance of appearing in an article. A competitive Plant Deck however, is something I’d love to see.

Now, let’s start with the article.

I’m going to build a Gearfried Deck for you today.

Gearfried the Iron Knight

Earth / Warrior

Effect

4*

“If this card is equipped with an Equip Card, destroy that Equip Card immediately.”

As you all may have noticed, Gearfried is a Warrior, which gives him some very nice support cards. He has a nice 1800 attack, which is good enough to take down D.D. Assailant, Don Zaloog, Mystic Swordsman LV2 and Breaker the Magical Warrior to name a few. His 1600 defense means that Tsukuyomi can’t take him out when he flips it down, which is very nice as well. Then, we come to its effect: He destroys all Equip Cards that are equipped with him immediately. Usually, this is a bad thing: He can’t be revived with Premature Burial, he can’t be powered up by Big Bang Shot and Axe of Despair. Luckily, his effect has some positive points as well. Snatch Steal won’t work on him, but the best: All Equips that require to be destroyed by a Card Effect will be activated when equipped to Gearfried. For example, Smoke Grenade of the Thief.

Smoke Grenade of the Thief

Spell / Equip

As soon as you equip this to Gearfried, it will be destroyed by its effect, which is a Card Effect, and thus it will be activated. In that case, you will get a Confiscation-like effect, but without the 1000 Life Points cost.

Another card that has such an effect is Blast with Chain.

Blast with Chain

Trap / Normal

When you equip this to Gearfried, it will become an Equip Card, so it will be destroyed. Then, you select one card on the field and destroy it, with no cost at all!

At the beginning of this article, I said that Warriors have a nice amount of support cards. The Warrior Returning Alive and Reinforcement of the Army are the best two examples of these cards. The Warrior Returning Alive can bring back a Warrior from your Graveyard to your hand, and Reinforcement of the Army can get any Warrior of Level 4 or lower from your Deck, including Gearfried the Iron Knight.

Well, I’ve explained this deck’s main strategy, so let’s continue with the actual deck construction.

A deck like this has many strenghts, but some weaknesses as well. When Gearfried is out, you will be able to gain advantage pretty quickly, thanks to the two cards I mentioned above. Smoke Grenade of the Thief provides some serious hand control, while Blast with Chain helps you to control the field a bit. Because of RotA, this deck has a lot of speed as well. It can fetch out the main card of this deck pretty fast to speed up the game a bit.

A card that works really well in this deck is Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. It’s able to provide you with any Equip Card from your deck, meaning that getting a Smoke Grenade suddenly becomes a lot easier.

The best way to play with this deck is by using as less as possible recources. Of course you’ll have to defend yourself, but try to keep your hand size as high as possible. This way, you’ll have a lot of recources when your Gearfried hits the field. Combine that with one or two Smoke Grenades and your opponent finds himself topdecking very quickly. Because of that, you’ll be a bit safer when you’re going in for the win. With a low amount of recources, an opposing overextiontion could become a real problem.

So, if you’re burning down your opponent’s hand with this deck, Don Zaloog could also be a nice option. It’s a Warrior, so he can be searched out with RotA as well. And together with the Gearfried + Blast with Chain combination, you can clear the opponent’s field to give him a clear shot and get you some advantage. Another card that works well when it can get off some direct shots is Airknight Parshath. It’s true that she doesn’t fit the Warrior theme, but with the Field-clearing abilities of this deck, Airknight could give you a lot of extra draws and thus increasing the amount of recources in your hand.

To speed up the deck even more, Magical Merchant would make a nice addition as well. It’s able to thin your deck to increase the chance of drawing Gearfried, Smoke Grenade or Blast with Chain.

In order to defend yourself until you can get your Gearfried out, Command Knight is a solid option. It’s 1900 defense is pretty hard to break through, so he’ll last for a pretty long time. But besides that, it can give your Gearfried just enough attack power to take down the overpopular Cyber Dragon! And that’s something that’s really important now.

A card that’s really powerful in this deck is Mobius the Frost Monarch. Not only can he clear your opponent’s backfield, but it’s also capable of destroying one of your two Equip Cards when they are equipped to something else than Gearfried.

Now, let’s create the monster line-up:

Monsters: 17x

Gearfried the Iron Knight

Gearfried the Iron Knight

Gearfried the Iron Knight

Mobius the Frost Monarch

Airknight Parshath

Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu

Blade Knight

Blade Knight

Don Zaloog

Don Zaloog

Command Knight

Command Knight

D. D. Warrior Lady

Magical Merchant

Mystic Swordsman LV2

Breaker the Magical Warrior

Sangan

The D. D. Warrior Lady and Mystic Swordsman LV2 are for some extra solid monster removal. Breaker and Sangan are two staples that really deserve their spot in almost every single deck.

The Spells are pretty self-explanatory. Take a look at them first.

Spells: 13x

Heavy Storm

Smoke Grenade of the Thief

Smoke Grenade of the Thief

The Warrior Returning Alive

Reinforcement of the Army

Reinforcement of the Army

Premature Burial

Snatch Steal

Smashing Ground

Smashing Ground

Mystical Space Typhoon

Graceful Charity

Scapegoat

Heavy Storm, Smoke Grenade, The Warrior Returning Alive and RotA have already been discussed. Premature Burial and Snatch Steal both work very well with Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. The double Smashing Ground adds some Field Control to the deck, so that you can clear the field for your Don Zaloog and Airknight Parshath. Mystical Space Typhoon is yet another staple here. Take out one of your opponent’s S/T is always good, but here, it could also destroy one of your own Equip Spells to activate their effects. Graceful Charity is one of the best cards in the entire game. Drawing cards is good, drawing three cards is just insane! And Scapegoat, finally, provides you with 4 Tokens that are potential candidates for chained Blast with Chains. Of course they also do a great job as defenders.

Then the Traps:

Traps: 10x

Blast with Chain

Blast with Chain

Blast with Chain

Sakuretsu Armor

Sakuretsu Armor

Widespread Ruin

Widespread Ruin

Torrential Tribute

Call of the Haunted

Mirror Force

(Total amount of cards: 40)

The Traps are mainly meant for monster removal and protection. Blast with Chain is one of the deck’s three main cards. Sakuretsu Armor, Widespread Ruin and Mirror Force can prevent your opponent from attacking you when you don’t have any other defense. Torrential Tribute is a nice combination with a Scapegoat in the opponent’s End Phase to clear the entire field. That way, you can do some massive damage in your own turn. And finally, Call of the Haunted. It can get back your Gearfried, unlike Premature Burial, or Airknight Parshath to get you some advantages. It works perfectly here.

Tips when playing with this deck.

When you’re using this deck, make sure that you don’t use too many recources in the beginning of the duel. Spending all of your Smashing Grounds and Sakuretsu Armors so that you can take out little monsters like an attacking Exiled Force aren’t really worth it. Only use them when it’s completely necessary, or else you might find yourself in some  situations in which you are completely undefended against an opponent’s Don Zaloog or Spirit Reaper.

This deck can take care with most of the Cookie Cutter Decks. Cyber Dragon and Spirit Reaper both fall prey to cards in this deck: A pumped up Gearfried can take out Cyber Dragon and a Smoke Grenade is enough to destroy a Spirit Reaper.

If you were able to bring out Gearfried, make sure you’re well prepared. Don’t play him in your opening turn, but wait until your opponent has already used some monster removal pieces. Also, don’t play him if you haven’t got any of the two Equip Cards to work with him. Instead of summoning him, try to defend yourself with Command Knights until you do have the Equips in your hand. Then, you can play the Gearfried and together with the Smoke Grenades, you could get rid of some potential threats in your opponent’s hand.

So basically, you will have to play a bit slowly and defensive with this deck, until you’re ready to summon Gearfried and take control of the game through the Equips. Then, you should win the duel by attacking your opponent with cards like Don Zaloog and Airknight. You could even drop a Mobius on the board to get even more advantages!

Well, this is it for my first article here.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to mail me all your comments and/or suggestions at ShineSoldier@gmail.com

‘Til next time,

~ShineSoldier~