Trick Decks: Brilliant or Brainless?
Andrew J. Mueller
URjustSOL
Every now and then you get matched up against a deck that is so far out of the normal that you're taken by surprise and you have to actually stop and think about how to play against it, provided you even see your next turn!
Most decks center around control or beatdown. This is a fact. This is where the metagame is at this point in Yu-Gi-Oh's evolution. It's refreshing to see something that, for lack of a better word, is just plain weird. I'm not talking about some odd variant of a popular deck like Beatdown, or other widely played types like Exodia or Burn.
In this article, I'm going to explore a few of the odd decks and discuss why (or why not) they're playable and tournament worthy.
Last Turn
Last Turn decks have actually been around for a long time, since Last Turn itself was introduced in the Legacy of Darkness booster set. With the release of Wall of Revealing Light last summer in the Ancient Sanctuary booster set, Last Turn decks got a big boost.
The main idea of this deck is to go first, set Last Turn, set Wall of Revealing Light and summon Jowgen the Spiritualist. During your opponent's Draw Phase, activate Wall of Revealing Light, then Last Turn. Jowgen prevents them from summoning giving you an instant-win.
Other combos include Self-Destruct Button, Jowels of Dark Demise and Rafflesia Seduction. If they bring out Dark Ruler Ha Des, kiss your Jowels or Rafflesia goodbye. Since Last Turn is semi-limited, Reload is also a key card in these decks.
Last Turn's weakness is that you need 1000 Life Points or less to activate it. If they have a Poison of the Old Man (or 2) in their hand, they can chain it against the activation of Last Turn and win.
Reversal Quiz
Reversal Quiz is a short print out of the Pharonic Guardian booster set. It's a normal spell card that gives you the opportunity to swap your current Life Points with those of your opponent.
The main idea for this deck is to get your Life Points as low as possible, then play Reversal Quiz with some combination of Black Pendant's and/or Fuhma Shuriken's set. Since the Pendant and Shuriken are graveyard effects, they start a new chain AFTER Reversal Quiz resolves. If you have 500 Life Points left, and you pull off the Reversal Quiz with a Black Pendant set, you swap Life Points THEN Black Pendant does 500 points of damage to your opponent killing them.
Other important cards in this type of deck are Inspection, which can be used to reduce your Life Points low enough to win and burn cards like Poison of the Old Man and Tremendous Fire. If you don't win the turn you play Reversal Quiz, you can still pull off a victory if you draw into one of these cards. Messenger of Peace and Level Limit Area "“ B are also important cards in this deck. Most Reversal Quiz decks will also run Card Destruction, Reload, Scapegoat, Spell Reproduction and Upstart Goblin. Wall of Revealing Light can be used, but adding Trap cards into the deck makes the Reversal Quiz call risky.
If you're running 38 or 40 spell cards, then your chances of answering Reversal Quiz correctly is quite good. The trick with this deck is to get your Life Points low enough to swap, but not get killed in the process. Good luck with that.
Mill Deck
I saw a report on an interesting mill deck played in the LA SJC. It ran maybe 4 monsters and 36 spell cards. The goal of this deck was to deck your opponent out.
It would use Giant Trunade to load up your opponent's hand, and then use Book of Moon, Book of Taiyou, The Shallow Grave and Cyber Jar to over-load their hand. The finisher was Card Destruction which forced your opponent to discard his over-loaded hand and draw another overloaded hand.
Other key cards in this deck include Upstart Goblin, Dragged Down to the Grave, Spell Reproduction and Reload.
A friend of mine played against this deck in the April Butler, PA Regional and said it was amazing. He used Morphing Jar to get through his deck until he found his Cyber Jar.
This deck is far superior to the classic mill decks running Needle Worm. If you can get an opening turn Cyber Jar with a Book of Taiyou and perhaps a The Shallow Grave, then it could be all over for your opponent.
OTK/FTK Scientist Style
The classic FTK/OTK deck centered on getting Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle on the field together. Pay 1000 Life Points for Magical Scientist to special summon a 2200 ATK fusion monster that would get launched by Catapult Turtle for 1100 points of damage to your opponent. Doing this 6 times leaves you with 2000 Life Points and your opponent with 1400. Then you summon a 2000 ATK fusion and launch it for another 1000 points of damage. You finish them off by launching the Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle.
What made this deck the most hated deck next to a Yata-lock hand control deck was the fact that you could pull off a win before your opponent ever drew a card.
Key cards in this deck were Gilasaurus, Monster Gate, Last Will and Reasoning. This deck was unstoppable prior to October 1, 2004 when you could run 3 copies of Dark Magician of Chaos. When Monster Reborn and Graceful Charity were banned in Advanced Format and DMoC was restricted to 1 per deck, this deck type was essentially killed. The final nail in the coffin was when Magical Scientist was banned in Advanced Format April 1, 2005.
Conclusion
I played the Scientist FTK/OTK prior to October 1, 2004 and I know it was virtually unbeatable. I've tinkered with some of the other trick decks and decided that they really lack consistency. Unfortunately, consistency is the ONE thing you absolutely need to win premier events like Regionals, Nationals and Shonen Jump Championship tournaments.
Slow and steady wins the race. Don't try to substitute fancy tricks for hard work, but don't just follow the crowd either.
Enjoy!
Original Article: http://synecdoche.net:32001/yugioh/
