Deck Profile: Lucksworn

Lightsworns got a nice boost from the new ban list by unlimiting their ridiculously powerful boss monster, Judgment Dragon, semi-limiting Necro Gardna, and bringing BLS from 0 to 1. These cards don't make the deck any more consistent, like semi-limiting Lumina or Charge would, but they make the deck more explosive and luck based. The earlier you can summon JD/BLS, the sooner you'll win.

Yesterday, before locals, I threw together a quick Lightsworn deck for the September format, just to test some things out. Out of the 16 or so games I played, I won 13 of them, and most of the games ended with multiple Judgment Dragons and a Black Luster Soldier. The deck doesn't even include Tour Guide (due to it being $150+), so just imagine if that were in here.

• Celestia, Lightsworn Angel x2
• Wulf, Lightsworn Beast x2
• Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2
• Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress x2
• Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
• Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
• Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
• Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
• Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

Lightsworn Monsters
These are (obviously) the main cards of the deck . They knock around your opponent until you can explode with your multiple 3000 ATK monsters. I'm not sure how I feel about the Wulfs. It's always bad when you draw them, but when they're milled, you get free 2100 ATK beaters. I'd replace them with Tour Guides if I could. The rest is the basic LS line up.

• Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
• Judgment Dragon x3

Boss Monsters
These are the cards that will end the game. Judgment Dragons are summoned for free, and you can summon as many as you want per turn. Just use your first one to blow up the field, and feel free to swarm.

• Effect Veiler x2
• Necro Gardna x2
• Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
• Tragoedia
• Honest
• Plaguespreader Zombie
• Glow-Up Bulb

Filler Monsters
Using so little traps and the explosiveness of the upcoming format makes Gorz pretty essential. Tragoedia is used for the same reason, to stop OTKs. Veiler is necessary to keep the opponent's Tour Guides and such from giving them too much advantage. As the best Graveyard-based Tuners, PSZ and Bulb fit in nicely and gives you access to Synchros like Trishula.

• Heavy Storm
• Dark Hole
• Monster Reborn
• Charge of the Light Brigade
• Book of Moon
• Pot of Avarice
• Gold Sarcophagus
• Solar Recharge x3
• Mystical Space Typhoon x3

Spell Cards
We have the basic staples, and the LS cards, Charge and Recharge. Avarice helps in the off chance that you mill all your Judgment Dragons and Beckoning Lights, or if you just need to draw something new. Gold Sarc is not only good for grabbing your big monsters, but also for setting up your OTK by grabbing Heavy Storm, or other cards that will help you. I feel there is no reason not to use 3 MST in decks based on swarming with huge monsters.

• Beckoning Light x2

Trap Cards
 This is the only trap you need. You can dump your unneeded cards, and grab your milled JDs or BLS.


This deck is very easy to use, as long as you open with a decent hand.

Deck Analyzation: Tegu Synchro

Reborn Tengu is one of the most useful exclusive cards we've had in a while. When it's removed from the field, you Special Summon another one from your deck. As long as the Tengu wasn't face down when it was removed from the field, or it was sent to your deck, you'll get a free monster. Tengu has made a very strong showing at the last 2 YCS Championships since its release, and we're going to take a look at the winning deck from YCS Providence.

Monsters: 20
2x Lonefire Blossom
3x Reborn Tengu
2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2x Effect Veiler
1x Sangan
1x Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite
1x Glow-Up Bulb
2x Caius the Shadow Monarch
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Spore
2x Debris Dragon
1x Card Trooper
1x Dandylion

First, there's the popular Plant engine. This allows easy access to Formula Synchron using Glow-Up Bulb/Spore and Dandylion Tokens. This also lets you get multiple level 5 Synchros with Tengu. Debris Dragon revives any monster with less than 500 ATK (read Dandylion) for instant Synchros. Effect Veiler and Gorz cards that can turn the game around when in your hand.

This deck is based on using monsters from the Graveyard, and Card Trooper and Ryko can put them there while using their effects to pressure the opponent. Zephyros is a nice beater, and can be easily Special Summoned from the Graveyard. With Zephyros and Glow-Up in the Graveyard, a Tengu on the field means a free Trishula. Since most of the monsters in this deck have less than 1500 ATK, Sangan can grab what you need to turn the duel in your favor, and a pair of Caius takes care of monsters that you otherwise would not be able to get rid of with destruction (Stardust, Shi En, etc).

Spells: 12
2x Pot of Duality
2x Pot of Avarice
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x Book of Moon
1x Giant Trunade
1x One for One
1x Foolish Burial

There's the standard set of staples with the Plant engine Spells, Pot of Avarice and One for One. Avarice is great in this deck, as it lets you reuse your Tengus.

Traps: 9
2x Solemn Warning
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Limit Reverse
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Dust Tornado
1x Dimensional Prison

Again, pretty standard trap line-up, if not a bit much for a deck that tries to mill monsters. Limit Reverse can grab most of the monsters in this deck, and can plus off an opponent's MST if you target Dandylion, Trooper, or Sangan. Dust Tornado is a nice choice. Not only does it take care of Necrovalley and Oppression, but with Plant decks running so few traps, there's a good chance you'll hit a Solemn. I'll leave out the Extra Deck because it's basically the same as any Plant-Synchro deck, and Hyper Librarian wasn't legal at the time.

Side Deck: 15
2x Cyber Dragon
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Dust Tornado
1x Nobleman of Crossout
2x Chain Disappearance
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Royal Oppression
2x Puppet Plant
2x D.D. Crow
1x Ally Salvo

Cyber Dragon is a good side choice against decks like Gladiator Beasts and Gravekeeper's that have monsters you'll have a hard time getting over, and wrecks any Machine deck with Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in your Extra Deck. Thunder King keeps your opponent from adding cards to their hand, so it shuts down cards like Duality, Gadgets, Darksoul, and Stratos. It can also negate inherent Special Summons like Synchros, Contact Fusion, and Faultroll. Nobleman of Crossout can take a big chunk away from your opponent's deck if you hit a Ryko or GK Spy.

Chain Disappearance works kind of like Crossout. If you hit a card like Darksoul, Ryko, or Treeborn Frog, your opponent loses some very important cards. Bottomless Trap Hole is good against Glads, GKs, and the new Agent deck. Once you have your field set up, Royal Oppression can lock down your opponent so they can't come back. Puppet Plant steals opposing Warrior (Samurai) and Spellcasters (Gravekeepers), and you can do whatever you want with the monster.

Crow is a great side choice all around. The Graveyard is a very important part of most decks, and this card can stop your opponent's plays dead. Ally Salvo works against Agents if it's destroyed by battle, but with Hyperion around, that won't always be the case.

What's Next?

One of the best parts about this deck is the easy access to T.G. Hyper Librarian. With just Tengu and Glow-Up Bulb, you can make 2 of these in 1 turn, giving you an instant +1. With Formula Synchron being so easy to summon as well, you can easily gain advantage over your opponent. Next time, we'll look at a deck very similar to this one, but also very different. They both have the same goal, but have different ways of getting there.

[Deck Construction] Metabo Globster.dek

While typing my last article, I noticed a card from PTDN that I made fun of, but never really read until then. I decided to build a deck around this card and take advantage of the tokens it produces.

First, since the only way to get tokens is to tribute this card for a Dark monster, we'll throw in the best ones we have. Caius is an obvious choice, and Jinzo is a good way to get around the opponent's Solemn Warnings and other traps. Then, we need a way to abuse the Metabo Tokens. Plasma negates the effects of your opponent's monsters, and lets you turn one into an equip card.

• Metabo Globster x2
• Caius the Shadow Monarch x3
• Jinzo x1
• Destiny Hero - Plasma x2

Next, we need a way to get Metabo Globster from the deck. Mystic Tomato can Special Summon it straight to the field, and Sangan can add it to your hand. With Tomato bringing out Dark monsters, we'll throw in a few more good ones. Malicious is excellent for Synchro Summons, and is a Destiny Hero. Plaguespreader Zombie is the best Dark Tuner out there and can be easily used more than once.

• Mystic Tomato x2
• Sangan x1
• Destiny Hero - Malicious x2
• Plaguespreader Zombie x1

With all the Tokens and level 6 monsters here, we can add some more Tuners. Since we have 4 Destiny Hero monsters, we can use one of the best Fusion Monsters in the game, Absolute Zero, if we add some Water monsters, which makes Deep Sea Diva a great choice as a Tuner. Stratos is another Hero for Absolute Zero, and can search for Plasma or Malicious. Then, to round out the monsters, we'll add Gorz and Dark Armed Dragon.

• Deep Sea Diva x3
• Elemental Hero Stratos x1
• Gorz, Emissary of Darkness x1
• Dark Armed Dragon x1

Now for the Spells.  Monster Reborn and Dark Hole are obvious choices. Cold Wave will let our combos go off without interruption, and Book of Moon will help take care of enemy monsters.

• Monster Reborn x1
• Dark Hole x1
• Cold Wave x1
• Book of Moon x2

With all the Dark monsters and Destiny Heroes, we can safely use Allure of Darkness and Destiny Draw to speed up the deck. Miracle Fusion is the best way to summon Absolute Zero, and Future Fusion easily enables Miracle Fusion and sends Malicious to the graveyard.

• Allure of Darkness x1
• Destiny Draw x1
• Future Fusion x1
• Miracle Fusion x2

We're using a pretty basic trap line-up. The object is to keep your opponent's monsters at bay, and Trap Stun is used for the same reason as Cold Wave.

• Mirror Force x1
• Torrential Tribute x1
• Solemn Judgment x1
• Call of the Haunted x1
• Bottomless Trap Hole x2
• Dimensional Prison x2
• Trap Stun x2

The Extra Deck is set up for using Diva and Plague in every way imaginable in this deck.

• Elemental Hero Absolute Zero x2
• Armory Arm x1
• Ally of Justice Catastor x1
• Magical Android x1
• Goyo Guardian x1
• Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier x1
• Black Rose Dragon x1
• Stardust Dragon x2
• Dark End Dragon x1
• Red Dragon Archfiend x1
• Scrap Dragon x1
• Colossal Fighter x1
• Mist Wurm x1

This is the final deck list.

Monsters: 20
1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness
1x Dark Armed Dragon
2x Destiny Hero - Plasma
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
1x Jinzo
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
2x Metabo Globster
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Sangan
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
3x Deep Sea Diva

Spells: 10
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Cold Wave
1x Destiny Draw
1x Allure of Darkness
2x Miracle Fusion
2x Book of Moon
1x Future Fusion

Traps: 10
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Trap Stun

Extra: 15
2x Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1x Armory Arm
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Magical Android
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Black Rose Dragon
2x Stardust Dragon
1x Dark End Dragon
1x Red Dragon Archfiend
1x Colossal Fighter
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Mist Wurm

Deck Contruction: Burning Skulls

I recently obtained playsets of the three burning skull monsters; Burning Skull Head, Skull Flame, and Supersonic Skull Flame, and I've been thinking so hard about how to build a deck around them. That's where this post comes in. Instead of explaining a deck I already built, I'm going to go through the process of building a deck from scratch.

First, let's look at the cards which the deck will be based around.

Burning Skull Head

FIRE/Zombie/Effect

3/1000/800 

When this card is Special Summoned from your hand, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. You can remove from play this face-up card you control to return 1 removed from play "Skull Flame" to its owner's Graveyard.

Skull Flame

FIRE/Zombie/Effect

8/2600/2000

Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Burning Skull Head" from your hand. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. You can add 1 "Burning Skull Head" from your Graveyard to your hand instead of conducting your normal draw during your Draw Phase.

Supersonic Skull Flame

WIND/Zombie/Effect

10/2600/2000

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned by removing 1 "Skull Flame" in your Graveyard from play. Once per turn, you can inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each "Burning Skull Head" in your Graveyard. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 "Skull Flame" from the Graveyard.

So, what do these guys do? Let's start with Skull Flame. He can special summon Burning Skull Head from your hand, dealing 1000 damage by Burning Skull Head's effect. You can also add 1 Burning Skull Head to your hand from your graveyard instead of drawing a card in your draw phase. While Skull Flame is in the graveyard, you can remove it from play to special summon Supersonic Skull Flame. Supersonic Skull Flame can deal up to 1200 damage per turn, depending on how many Burning Skull Head are in your graveyard. When it's destroyed, you can special summon 1 Skull Flame from your graveyard, which starts the cycle over again. Then, by removing from play a Burning Skull Head from your side of the field. you can place the Skull Flame you removed to special summon Supersonic Skull Flame back in the graveyard.

So basically, you should constantly have a 2600 attack monster on the field while being able to get some burn damage in as well. The great thing about these monsters is that they're Zombies, which have a huge amount of support. All three monsters can be special summoned from the graveyard, though you'd have to special summon Supersonic Skull Flame properly first.

On to the deck! First, the monsters

• 3x Burning Skull Head
• 3x Skull Flame
• 2x Supersonic Skull Flame

Since Supersonic Skull Flame cannot be easily summoned at first, we'll only use 2. I've left out Skull Conductor because there are other ways of using Burning Skull Head's effect, and without 2 Burning Skull Head in your hand, he's a pretty useless monster.

• 3x Pyramid Turtle
• 2x Il Blud
• 1x Zombie Master
• 1x Mezuki
• 2x Goblin Zombie
• 1x Plaguespreader Zombie

These are the Zombie support monsters. Pyramid Turtle can special summon any of these monsters from the deck, except Supersonic Skull Flame. Il Blud can special summon any of these monsters from your graveyard or hand, which means 1000 damage if you choose Burning Skull Head. Zombie Master can discard a high level Zombie monster for revival, and can special summon any level 4 or lower Zombie, which means reusing your Turtles. Mezuki revives Zombies, Goblin Zombie can add Burning Skull Head to your hand, as well as Zombie Master, Il Blud, Mezuki, and Plaguespreader. Now for the non Zombie-monsters.

• 1x Sangan
• 1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
• 1x Dark Armed Dragon
• 1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

Sangan can grab Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie from the deck, Gale can help take down your opponent's big monsters and synchro into Ancient Fairy Dragon, which is another way to get Burning Skull Head's burn effect. Dark Armed Dragon is here because we have plenty of dark monsters, and Gorz is a great backup defense. That makes 22 monsters. Let's look at the spell cards.

First, we'll look at all the spell cards that support the deck theme, then the staple cards and other support spells.

• 3x Book of Life
• 1x Foolish Burial
• 1x Burial from the Different Dimension

I've maxed out Book of Life to fully utilize Skull Flame and Il Blud. Foolish puts monsters in the grave to be special summoned. Burial from the Different Dimension puts Burning Skull Head, Skull Flame, Mezuki, and Plaguespreader back in the graveyard.

• 1x Heavy Storm
• 1x Allure of Darkness
• 1x Brain Control
• 1x Lightning Vortex
• 1x Card Destruction

The first 3 are basic. I'm including Vortex to clear my opponent's monsters for my Zombie swarm to attack, and with so many high level monsters, Card Destruction dumps them for revival, refreshes my hand, and can mess with my opponent's strategy. That's 10 spell cards. Now, on to the traps.

• 1x Mirror Force
• 1x Torrential Tribute
• 1x Call of the Haunted
• 1x Solemn Judgment
• 2x Bottomless Trap Hole
• 3x Thretening Roar

Solemn and Roar protect my field setup, as it may take a turn or two to get the deck moving. The rest are pretty standard.

And there we have it. 41 card deck that should constantly have you bringing out big monsters and burning your opponent the whole match. The deck should be 40 cards to keep it consistent, but I'll leave that decision up to you.

Burning Skulls

Monsters: 22

2x Supersonic Skull Flame

3x Skull Flame

1x Dark Armed Dragon

1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

3x Burning Skull Head

3x Pyramid Turtle

2x Il Blud

1x Zombie Master

1x Mezuki

2x Goblin Zombie

1x Plaguespreader Zombie 1x Sangan

1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

Spells: 10

1x Heavy Storm

1x Allure of Darkness

1x Brain Control

1x Lightning Vortex

1x Card Destruction

1x Foolish Burial

1x Burial from the Different Dimension

3x Book of Life

Traps: 9

1x Mirror Force

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Call of the Haunted

1x Solemn Judgment

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

3x Thretening Roar

Deck Profile: This well. It's filled with power. Telekinetic power.

 This is my current deck for the new format. I've only been able to test it against Six Samurai so far, but it won about every game with neither player side decking.


The point of the deck is basically the same as dark synchro, but it's based around getting Krebons in the graveyard and using Telekinetic Power Well to synchro multiple times.

Monsters: 21
3x Mystic Tomato
2x Armageddon Knight
1x Dark Grepher
1x Necro Gardna1x Plaguespreader Zombie
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious


The Krebons are easily accessed via the monsters above. Tomato brings Krebons/Arma Knight/Necro/PSZ/Malicious to the field. Armageddon Knight dumps the Malicious/PSZ/Krebons to ready them for a synchro. Level 6 and 8 synchros are the easiest to summon this way.

3x Krebons
1x Mind Master

Krebons is the best tuner for this deck because it's very easy to get it into the graveyard, it's a dark, and it can be special summoned with Power Well and Emergency Teleport. The Mind Master can also be special summoned with those cards, and I can use his effect to send a Krebons to the graveyard and grab one from the deck if needed.


2x Cyber Dragon

This guy can turn the game around if used correctly. If I'm in a position where my opponent has monsters and I don't, I can special him, summon a Krebons, and nuke the field with Black Rose, or use Mind Master for a quick Brionac. With Power Well, I can even make a level 8 very easily if it's needed.

1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness
2x Caius the Shadow Monarch


1x Sangan


DAD and Gorz are obvious choices. Caius is there for power, removal, and a potential level 8 synchro. Sangan can grab 13 monsters in the deck, so that's an easy choice.



Spells: 11
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade


1x Mystical Space Typhoon
 
Being a swarm/power deck, my opponent's backrow needs to be clear.

1x Brain Control
1x Mind Control


These let me use my opponent's monsters for synchro.

1x Allure
1x Foolish Burial
1x Emergency Teleport
3x Telekinetic Power Well






Allure is draw power, Foolish puts Krebons/PSZ/Malicious in the grave, and Teleport and Power Well special summon my tuners. Power Well can special summon any number of my tuners from the graveyard, except Plaguespreader.
 
Traps: 8
1x TT
1x Mirror Force
1x CotH
1x Solemn
2x BTH
2x Threatening Roar

The traps are basic, except for the 2 Threatening Roars. I chose to run this because it protects my field so I can make a huge play on the next turn. Most of the monsters in my deck are relatively weak until I can tune them into a big synchro. It also helps against the mass of Gladiator Beasts decks we'll probably see early in the format. 


If you have any questions, or complaints, don't hesitate to leave me a comment :)

Deck Profile: The Sky's on Fire!

Here's a fun deck I was working on a while ago. I feel it's pointless to post this so close to the new format, but until the list comes out, I have nothing to blog about.

Monsters: 22

• 2x Flying Fortress Sky Fire
• 3x Summon Reactor 
• 2x Spell Reactor  
• 2x Trap Reactor

Essential to the deck.

• 3x Mystic Tomato
• 1x Sangan
• 2x Armageddon Knight
• 1x Black Salvo

Tomatoes can search out the Spell and Trap reactors, as well as PoC, Sangan, and Armageddon Knight to set up the next turn. Armageddon Knight sends the parts to the graveyard to be revived with Dark Creator, Salvo, or PoC. Salvo revives Trap Reactor, and I can syncro in a pinch.

• 1x Dark Armed Dragon
• 3x The Dark Creator
• 2x Phantom of Chaos

DAD is DAD. The Dark Creators can revive anything in the deck, besides Sky Fire, and can be used with Trade In. The PoCs can use TDC's effect, and there should be no problem getting them in the graveyard.
 
Spells: 8

• 1x Heavy Storm
• 1x Giant Trunade
• 1x Brain Control

Staples. 

• 2x Allure of Darkness
• 3x Trade In

All but 2 monsters in the deck are dark, and everything besides the reactor monsters can be removed. Trade In lets me dump The Dark Creator for PoC use, and lets me replace a drawn Sky Fire for something more useful.

Traps: 11

• 1x Torrential Tribute
• 1x Mirror Force
• 1x Call of the Haunted
• 1x Solemn Judgment
• 2x Bottomless Trap Hole

Basically staples with some protection. The Solemn keeps my monsters alive or does what Solemn does.

• 2x Anti Spell Fragrance 
• 3x Fake Explosion

Spell Fragrance makes my opponent  waste a card if they want to activate a spell while Sky Fire is on the field, and Fake Explosion is some protection while easily bringing out the Summon Reactor.


So the purpose of the deck is to get Sky Fire on the field quickly, then shut down your opponent with his effect and Spell Fragrance. There is plenty of draw power and the dump/revive tactic will make sure you get your reactors on the field for Sky Fire.