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Deck Analysis:
An Insect’s Ultimate Friend
May 9, 2006

Good day, everyone. Today I’m back to talk about a probably unknown deck type. As the title says, this article will feature some Insects, but that’s not all, no. Along with those insects, this deck will also pack the almighty King Tiger Wanghu, which forms great synergy with one of the Insects here. I’m talking about Ultimate Insect. The Ultimate Insects (of all Levels, except for LV1) have the ability to reduce the ATK and DEF of opposing monsters if they were summoned by the effect of the previous one. For example, Ultimate Insect LV5 decreases the ATK and DEF of all opposing monsters by 500 points when it was summoned by the effect of LV3.
 

Now why do these cards work so well with King Tiger Wanghu? Because King Tiger Wanghu can take out all monsters with an ATK value equal to or beneath 1400. Together with the Ultimate Insects, most monsters’ ATK values are decreased to this point which means that you will be able to take out almost any summoned monster. With LV7, even Cyber Dragon’s ATK decreases to 1400.

So that’s how the deck should work in the end. Let’s write down the deck list now.

An Insect’s Ultimate Friend: (40)

Monsters: 19

1 Ultimate Insect LV7

2 Ultimate Insect LV5

2 Ultimate Insect LV3

3 King Tiger Wanghu

2 Spirit Reaper

1 Spell Canceller

2 Mirage Dragon

2 Flying Kamakiri #1

1 Gyroid

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

1 Sangan

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 11

1 The Shallow Grave

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

2 Messenger of Peace

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Nobleman of Crossout

Traps: 10

2 Sakuretsu Armor

2 Light of Intervention

2 Dust Tornado

2 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

Deck Summary

The decks packs only 3 different cards of the Ultimate Insect Family; I left out Ultimate Insect LV1 on purpose. Ultimate Insect LV3 can be summoned just as fast, and decreasing a monster’s ATK by 300 points by offering LV1 as a tribute isn’t that great. There are 2 copies of Ultimate Insect LV3, 2 of Ultimate Insect LV5 and 1 of Ultimate Insect LV7. That seems like a fine line-up to me. Together with Flying Kamakiri #1, you’ll be able to bring out Ultimate Insect LV3 very fast and probably in your opponent’s turn. This means that you can tribute him in your own turn to bring out Ultimate Insect LV5. If you manage to do that, the only thing left to do is to summon King Tiger Wanghu and your strategy is working already.

Flying Kamakiri #1 is able to search out Ultimate Insect LV3 very fast, but that’s not the only reason I put him in. The high amount of Tribute Monsters in this deck, together with a lot of low-ATK Monsters forces us to put in some defensive monsters. This is why I included Gyroid and Twin-Headed Behemoth. They are capable of stalling the opponent so that you can either tribute them for one of your Insects (NOT LV7!) or you could use them to stall for a bit longer so that you can get your strategy to work.

I also included 2 copies of Spirit Reaper. Even though he can’t be summoned through Flying Kamakiri #1, I still think he’s a solid card in this deck. What this deck needs is defense, because it uses a lot of low-ATK Monsters. Spirit Reaper offers this to you.

Because the combination of Ultimate Insect + King Tiger Wanghu only works on monsters, I needed to add cards that would protect you against Spells and Traps as well. Spell Canceller seemed like a solid option to me, since he negates all Spell Cards. The reason why Spell Canceller doesn’t see a lot of play is mainly because of its low ATK points and the ‘impossibility’ to increase its ATK points by Equip Cards (Blast With Chain excluded) or Field Spells. This deck solves this problem in a totally different way. The Ultimate Insects lower the ATK of your opponent’s monsters in such a way that it will become really hard to take Spell Canceller out in battle. And when Spell Cards don’t work either, then Trap Cards are almost the only things left...

That’s where Mirage Dragon jumps in. With 1600 ATK, it avoids King Tiger Wanghu’s effect and with its own effect, it can protect all of your monsters from in-battle triggered Trap Cards. Even though Mobius the Frost Monarch and Jinzo might be better than this card, I think this one fits in better in this deck. Both Mobius and Jinzo are Tribute Monsters, which means that you’ll have to give up one of your monsters first to bring them out. But the key behind this deck is to get your strategy to work as fast as possible. When you’ve already got King Tiger Wanghu, Ultimate Insect LV7 (or 5) and Spell Canceller out, you must get that Trap-Negator out as fast as possible. With Mobius and Jinzo, you’ll have to summon another monster first and then you can summon them. Mirage Dragon is just a whole lot faster, and above that all: Jinzo would stop your own...

Light of Intervention! That Trap Card is one of the main cards in this deck to get the most out of your strategy. While all monsters are forced to be played face-up, you will be able to take them out really easily by the effect of King Tiger Wanghu so that you can get off direct attacks all the time. Combined with Mirage Dragon / Spell Canceller, you will most likely win the duel then. And not to forget the synergy this card has with The Shallow Grave. If you force your opponent to summon (actually, set) a monster from his/her Graveyard while Light of Intervention is out, that monster will be destroyed most of the time. But you on the other hand, will get a free summon from the Graveyard, and that could be absolutely devastating. You could get back your Ultimate Insect LV5 so that you can tribute him in your next standby phase to bring out LV7!

The funniest thing to do is to get back a Sangan with this card. It’ll be automatically destroyed by King Tiger Wanghu, which means that you can search your Deck for a monster. In that case, you’ve basically turned your The Shallow Grave into a Spell Card that says: “Search your Deck for a monster with an ATK equal to or lower than 1500 and add it to your hand. Show it to your opponent and shuffle your Deck afterwards.”

Wouldn’t that be great?!

Like I said earlier, this deck runs a lot of low-ATK Monsters. So until your King Tiger Wanghu and Ultimate Insect LV5/7 come out, you might have a problem with defending yourself properly. That’s why I included some standard defensive cards, like Sakuretsu Armor and Mirror Force. But aside from those cards, I also chose to include Messenger of Peace. That may sound weird, but think about it: King Tiger Wanghu destroys all monster with an ATK of 1400 or lower, while Messenger of Peace prevents all monster with an ATK of 1500 or more from attacking. That means that only monsters with 1450 ATK can attack...But why would they, if you’ve got a King Tiger out? It’s true though, that King Tiger Wanghu won’t be able to attack either, but this is just a ‘strategy B’ to buy yourself some time until you can get out one of the two big Ultimate Insects out. If you do, just destroy Messenger of Peace and you’ll be able to attack again.

Since Ultimate Insect LV7 is one of the main cards of this deck, we will need some ways to use him multiple times. Running multiple copies would be an option, but since he’s pretty hard to summon, I wouldn’t recommend that. He might clog up your hand then. When using Premature Burial, Call of The Haunted or The Shallow Grave to bring him back, he won’t decrease the ATK and DEF of opponent’s monsters, so in order to get him back WITH his effect, we will need to include other cards. That’s why I included Pot of Avarice. Pot of Avarice will be very easy to use, since your Graveyard fills pretty quickly.

And when you activate it, Ultimate Insect LV7 returns to your deck so that you can Special Summon him through Ultimate Insect LV5 again.

Strengths of the ‘Insect’s Ultimate Friend’ Deck
 

Obviously, the main strength of a deck like this is its capability to destroy almost any summoned monster immediately. Ultimate Insect LV7 is a great monster if used correctly and together with King Tiger Wanghu and a Light of Intervention, your opponent will have a lot of trouble with maintaining field presence. Normally, Spell and Trap Cards would still form a threat, but thanks to the addition of Spell Canceller and Mirage Dragon, this deck has also found ways to avoid them. So if you can get your strategy to work, you’re pretty much preventing your opponent from doing anything at all.
 

But this deck can be really strong, even without the above mentioned lock being active. Ultimate Insect LV7 is a really strong monster, so if you combine him with Mirage Dragon only, you’ve got a 2600-ATK monster that can attack without having to fear Mirror Force. You see, King Tiger Wanghu is a great card, but even without it, this deck can function pretty well.

Weaknesses of the ‘Insect’s Ultimate Friend’ Deck

As I stated earlier, a main weakness to this deck remains the fact that it needs some time to build up its field presence. Ultimate Insect LV7 is a monster that’s quite hard to summon, so you’ll have to put some time into it. Also, King Tiger Wanghu, Mirage Dragon, Light of Intervention and Ultimate Insect LV3 are all dead cards if you haven’t got some other cards to work with. King Tiger Wanghu needs cards like Messenger of Peace and Ultimate Insect LV7 to work properly, as does Mirage Dragon. Light of Intervention is only useful when you were able to build up a decent field presence and Ultimate Insect LV3 is useful when summoned through Flying Kamakiri #1.

Luckily, this deck has a lot of cards that are able to buy you some time. Gyroid, Spirit Reaper and Twin-Headed Behemoth can defend yourself for a while and are perfectly suited as tribute bait for your Ultimate Insect LV5 or Spell Canceller. Make sure that you’ve always got some sort of defense, so that you won’t fall prey to a one-turn mass-swarm. Also, the high amount of low-ATK monsters might form a problem when you’ve already got King Tiger Wanghu out. He’ll destroy all of your own monsters then, and that’s not good. So if you’re using this deck, make sure to play King Tiger Wanghu only when you already have an Ultimate Insect out, or when you’ve got Messenger of Peace out (then you could still Set a monster and tribute it for Ultimate Insect LV5, then tribute LV5 to bring out LV7 and voila...).

Theoretical Dueling Tips

The best way to duel with this deck is defensively at the beginning of the duel, but aggresively in the end. A good way of opening the duel would be to set Flying Kamakiri #1 and a face-down Dust Tornado.  That way, you are perfectly defended against an opponent’s attack, and you’ll be able to bring out your Ultimate Insects very quickly too. If your opponent then attacks Flying Kamakiri #1, use its effect to summon Ultimate Insect LV3 so that you can offer it as a tribute during your own Standby Phase and you’ve got Ultimate Insect LV5 out already!
 

When you were able to bring out Ultimate Insect LV5, try to bring out Mirage Dragon as fast as possible to back your Insect up so that it won’t get destroyed so fast. The two copies of Solemn Judgment in this deck should help you with this.
 

Then, try to summon Spell Canceller so that you’ll have a pretty nice lock already. Until you’ve done that, try to not ‘evolve’ Ultimate Insect LV5 into LV7, since you’ve only got one copy of it. Only summon him when you’re defended very well.
 

So if you’ve got Ultimate Insect LV5, Spell Canceller and Mirage Dragon out, you can summon King Tiger Wanghu and Ultimate Insect LV7. Activate Light of Intervention and you’ll be almost guaranteed of the win.
 

This might sound situational: You, having 5 specific cards on the field, but it’s not like that at all. Ultimate Insect LV5 or 7 can be brought out so easily, as can Mirage Dragon and King Tiger Wanghu. With cards like Gyroid, Spirit Reaper and Twin-Headed Behemoth, you won’t have any problems with summoning Spell Canceller either.

That’s about how this deck should be used...

Final Words

It took a long time to construct this deck. In order to find out how many copies of which card I should use, I needed to playtest it a lot. But, I had a lot of fun doing it. I don’t have anything more to say, actually.

So, that does it for this article.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to mail all your comments, thoughts or anything else to ShineSoldier@gmail.com

‘Til next time,

~ShineSoldier~