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YamiBakuraFan's Little Shop of Horrors
The Deadly Masquerade
September 16, 2005

In the later chapters of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga, Kaiba and Yuugi were forced into a team duel against the two Ghouls, Light Mask and Dark Mask. The Mask brothers decks were built with a Mask theme of course, and focused on using their powers as one to defeat their enemy. Yuugi and Kaiba had at first thought Masked Hellraiser to be their best monster, however they had another trump card up their sleeves, a great beast called Death Guardius. In the manga version of the game 3300 attack points is quite powerful, even in the real OCG that’s a great attack power!

But with great power comes great responsibility. Like almost all high attack monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game, Death Guardius has a specific set of cards that need to be used along with it in order for it to work properly. Yes, this card cannot just be thrown into any deck! You must take time and thought into building a deck around Death Guardius.

Death Guardius
Dark Main-type
Demon sub-type
Level 12
3300 / 2500
This monster cannot be special summoned except by sacrificing 2 monsters on your side of the field. One or both monsters must be either “Cursed Gyura” or “Melchid the Four Faced Beast”. When this card is sent from the field into the cemetery, you can activate one “Bequeathed Mask” from your deck. Your deck is then shuffled.

Now lets look into Death Guardius’s almost overwhelming statistics. A Dark main-type and Demon sub –type is always quite good, this means he can be used effectively in some Demon and Dark based decks out there. Level 12 is very large for a monster level. Even cards like Metal Reflect Slime only have tens stars, when it’s a monster that is. I’d say level 12 is probably one of the highest levels for any monster in the game, aside from other cards like Dragon Master Knight and Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon that is.

I’d like to point out that this card should not be used in a deck at all unless you are also playing a few Gyuras and / or Melchids as well as a Bequeathed Mask or two. Without Gyura and Melchid this card cannot be summoned to the field at all. You need to have a Gyura or Melchid as at least one of the monsters sacrificed to summon this creature.

As I previously stated, 3300 attack and 2500 defense is also thoroughly amazing as well. One to two direct attack from this guy and the duel is done. But even though Death Guardius has huge attack and defense points, like every monster out there he’s prone to the massive amounts of easy monster removal available through cards like Exclusitivety Virus, Cyber Pod and even Man Eating Bug. Death Guardius will probably hit the cemetery one to two turns after he hits the field.

However, unlike other hard to summon monsters you get a treat for losing your ever so wonderful card. You get to play Bequeathed Mask from your deck! What does Bequeathed Mask do? Read on to find out.

Bequeathed Mask
Magic
Shuffle this card into your deck. If this card is activated by the effect of “Death Guardius”, this card becomes an equipment magic card. The control of the monster equipped with this card is shifted to the opponent.

After Yuugi and Kaiba successfully defeated Death Guardius they were sure the Mask brothers were all out of tricks. But the victory was short lived, because Death Guardius wasn’t just a huge attack monster, it had a sneaky control effect that came in the form of Bequeathed Mask. This card plays the role similar to Theft in the way it can equip onto an opponents monster and let you take control of it.

Bequeathed Mask is however, literally the worst topdeck in the entire game. No matter what anyone else says, this is very true. Since without Death Guardius’s effect in play, all you’ll be able to do with Mask is shuffle it straight back into your deck. Yes, you don’t even get to trade it for another card at all. Mask is, however, a staple in the Death Guardius based deck. In any other deck out there, this card is pretty much useless.

Once Death Guardius is destroyed you’ll be able to immediately activate Mask from your deck to the field. At this time you get a kind of free Theft from it as it steals an opponents monster and brings it onto your side of the field for some abuse. Yes, you can give your opponent a monster of yours by equipping this card to it, but I just don’t see why one would do that. Unless of course your planning on giving them a searcher like Killer Tomato, attacking or even planning to suicide another searcher into it just to pull out some quick field presence.

Cursed Gyura
Dark Main-type
Demon sub-type
Level 4
1500 / 800

Melchid the Four Faced Beast
Dark Main-type
Demon sub-type
Level 4
1500 / 1200

Both Melchid and Gyura were non effect monsters used by Light and Dark mask in the manga and released in the ancient Spell of Mask booster set. In the manga Light and Dark Mask simply used them as masked monsters to fit the theme, but they were both taken a bit further and made staples in a Death Guardius deck. As you can see both cards are sub par in attack and defense points and can be easily defeated by any above average beatsick.

Gyura and Melchid are basically the same monster under a different name, they both share the same Main and Sub types as well as 1500 attack points. Gyura is a little bit behind Melchid in defense, but neither monster is made for attacking or defending. They are merely food for the great beast, that’s all.

You could involve them in some of the non effect monster combos if you really wanted to though. Both cards are perfectly good targets for both Heart of the Underdog , and Non-Magic Casting Area. Backup Soldier and Dark Assembly Line can also be used for a bit of recursion. Thse cards are kind of a clutter in a Death Guardius deck and there are other more effective ways to use these cards.

As for getting them out, you can use Critter to grab them from the deck or simply a Killer Tomato to plunge them right onto the field. Tomato seems the best since you’ll be able to summon another monster next turn and drop a Death Guardius on your opponent. Necrophia also likes these guys, once there in the cemetery they make great Necrophia food as well. Poor Gyura and Melchid, no love for you.

Death Guardius is one of my all time favorite monsters. He’s just a great concept on Konami’s part. A huge monster with just enough restrictions that it doesn’t reek havoc on the meta game, but just enough power on it’s own to make a great deck type around itself and it’s support cards.Now I’ll be constructing a Death Guardius deck, with a bit of Tomato control and Demon combos built into it.

01) Death Guardius
02) Death Guardius
03) Dark Necrophia
04) Melchid the Four Faced Beast
05) Melchid the Four Faced Beast
06) Cursed Gyura
07) Cursed Gyura
08) Killer Tomato
09) Killer Tomato
10) Killer Tomato
11) Nyudoria
12) Nyudoria
13) Soul Hunting Spirit
14) Magic Warrior Breaker
15) Critter
16) Cannon Soldier
17) Don Zaruug
18) Jar of Greed
19) Cyclone
20) Tempest
21) Theft
22) Early Burial
23) Bequeathed Mask
24) Bequeathed Mask
25) Black Hole
26) Book of Moon
27) Devil’s Sanctuary
28) Scapegoat
29) Forced Transfer
30) Forced Transfer
31) Confiscate
32) Shrink
33) Shrink
34) Tidal Wave
35) Cry of the Living Dead
36) Deck Destruction Virus of Death
37) Metal Reflect Slime
38) Sand Tornado
39) Sand Tornado
40) Soul Line


That’s all for today folks!

Thank you all for reading my newest article, I hope you stay tuned for future articles as well.

Until next time,


-YamiBakuraFan