Burning Down the Meta for Half the Price of a Tour Guide

Trading card games can be ridiculously expensive to play competitively. The absolute queen of high prices is currently Tour Guide From The Underworld ($170). Three copies of that card would cost me more than two weeks' pay. Even if I chose to run some other type of deck, there are still many expensive staples like Trishula ($33), Brionac ($32) and T.G. Hyper Librarian ($32).

But what if I told you that there is a surprisingly powerful anti-meta deck out there that can be built less than $100? A deck that has a strong game plan against decks like Agents, Dark World, Plants and Blackwings, while also having good odds against many less popular deck types? You'd probably laugh at me. And yet, it's true. Take a look at this deck (originally found here):

7 Monster cards:
3x Des Koala ($3)
1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness ($4)
1x Mask of Darkness ($0,20)
1x Morphing Jar ($2)
1x Sangan ($2)

6 Spell cards:
1x Allure of Darkness ($3)
2x Chain Strike ($0,70)
3x Pot of Duality ($39)

28 Trap cards:
3x Accumulated Fortune ($0,90)
1x Ceasefire ($0,20)
2x Gravity Bind ($2,60)
3x Jar of Greed ($0,90)
3x Just Desserts ($1,75)
2x Legacy of Yata-Garasu ($0,50)
2x Magic Cylinder ($5)
3x Needle Ceiling ($0,75)
2x Ojama Trio ($2)
3x Reckless Greed ($3)
3x Secret Barrel ($1)
1x Torrential Tribute ($1,50)

I've put the prices of the cards in parentheses. They're roughly based on Troll and Toad prices at the time I'm writing this article. As you can see, the deck runs in at a surprisingly affordable ~$75, and only ~$35 if you take out Pot of Duality. However, with Pot of Duality appearing in a collector's tin, we can probably expect the price of the card to go down in price quite a bit. All in all, this is a very cheap deck to build, consisting mostly of commons and junk rares.

But of course price is only of secondary concern. The main concern, and the only concern when playing with virtual cards, is performance. Burn decks have always had a spotty record. A major concern for most burn decks is that they often find themselves unable to deal out 8000 LP worth of damage before they end up with an empty hand. Seeing a burn deck coming out of the starting blocks strong, burning their opponents down to 3000 LP or so, and then ending up flailing helplessly in top-deck mode is quite a pitiful sight.

This deck counters that problem with a very daring design philosophy. The deck is incredibly focused in its design: 15 cards draw more cards and 16 cards have some sort of burn effect. Stall cards have always been a major part of burn decks, going all the way back to the time when players were content to activate Wave-Motion Cannon, then sit back for eight turns. Although Wave-Motion Cannon was rendered obsolete years ago by the ever-expanding array of spell/trap destruction cards, burn players have always relied on stall in an attempt to live through the previously mentioned top-deck moments. However, this deck has brought its lineup of stall cards down to just two copies of Gravity Bind.

The first hidden gem of this deck is found in its selection of draw cards. Accumulated Fortune is a +1 with a very stringent condition for its activation. However, the chain burn deck thrives on chaining cards together, and almost every trap in this deck can be used for this purpose. With Reckless Greed, Jar of Greed and Legacy of Yata-Garasu, this deck has a very easy time ending its turn with an empty hand, then starting its next turn with at least four fresh cards. The draw card selection is rounded off with the ever-present staple card Pot of Duality and the instant refill card Morphing Jar.

The burn cards used in this deck are a model of efficiency. The majority of them easily hit for at least 1500 to 2000 LP, meaning that you'd only need to activate four or five of them to win the game. One of the most amazing cards here is Ojama Trio, which has incredible synergy with more than a quarter of the deck. Including Ojama Trio in a chain adds 1500 damage to Just Desserts and 600 damage to Secret Barrel. Furthermore it slows down the opponent's ability to swarm the field with their own monsters, and it adds another 900 points of burn damage.

But one of the most important functions of Ojama Trio is to enable the second hidden gem of this deck: Needle Ceiling. Like Accumulated Fortune it's a card with a very narrow window in which it can be activated, but when Ojama Trio is played you're all but guaranteed to be able to activate it. But Needle Ceiling is an amazing anti-meta card even without Ojama Trio. Imagine playing against an opponent playing an Agent deck. They've just played Earth, set something to protect it, fetched Venus and passed the turn. Now it's fairly obvious that Trishula is coming. You pass the turn with a Needle Ceiling face down, then catch them with their proverbial pants down when they summon Venus and bring out two Shine Balls.

The other cards that neither draw nor burn are fairly standard fare. Gorz should be run in pretty much any deck. Mask of Darkness can fetch whatever trap you might need. Sangan can fetch every monster in the deck except for Gorz. Gravity Bind is a classic stall card, even if it doesn't work on XYZ monsters. Needle Ceiling has already been explained. Torrential Tribute is a staple.

Of course this deck list is far from perfect. One of the biggest flaws, in my opinion, is the presence of Gravity Bind. It takes up a spot on your back row that decreases your ability to chain and makes Gorz a dead draw. You could replace the Gravity Binds with cards like Marshmallon (which has the added bonus of also being a burn card) and Spirit Reaper. However, these cards have the problem that they don't play well with Needle Ceiling. It's very unfortunate that there are very few long term solutions for the question on how to stall properly. You could go for more temporary solutions like Dimension Wall and Threatening Roar, but those aren't as reliable.

This deck has plenty of counters. Royal Decree absolutely murders it, as does Black-Winged Dragon. However, neither of those cards are very popular at the moment. A more common threat to this deck is Solemn Judgment, but that card is limited at the moment and very costly for your opponents to activate. Other counter traps like Dark Bribe are rare these days, as they are -1 cards. More conventional spell/trap hate like Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade and Mystical Space Typhoon will simply end up being nothing more than links in the chain for your Accumulated Fortune and Chain Strike.

This isn't a deck that you just pick up and play, yet it's certainly not impossible to master either. You will need to familiarize yourself with the possible chains this deck can put together. There are all sorts of small intricacies, such as remembering to chain Ojama Trio after Just Desserts or Secret Barrel, or paying attention not to chain duplicate cards to make sure you can still activate your Chain Strikes and Accumulated Fortunes.

In the end, this deck is far from perfect. Then again, there's really no such thing as the perfect deck. What this deck is is a very surprising answer to the current meta that will cost you less to put together than half a Tour Guide From The Underworld. Of course there is plenty of room left to improve this deck, and I encourage you all to try to put your own twist on it.

The problem of Burn decks that if you can't use traps,you gone.

If they summon a jinzo you can leave the duel to make the game faster.

28 Traps ?

6 Monster -.-'

One deck >> 45 Cards -

15 or 20 Monster's

10 Traps

9 or 10 Spell '

40 - 41 Cards

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 or 1 , Lv 6+

1 or 2 , lv 8

1 lv 10 ( By effect )

5 , 6 XYZ , or Sych

! Wolf ! wrote:28 Traps ?

6 Monster -.-'

One deck >> 45 Cards -

15 or 20 Monster's

10 Traps

9 or 10 Spell '

40 - 41 Cards

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 or 1 , Lv 6+

1 or 2 , lv 8

1 lv 10 ( By effect )

5 , 6 XYZ , or Sych

Not every deck need to follow this rules,did you ever made a burn deck?It rarely uses a Monster.what it really matters is burn down the opponent using LP Decreasing effects like Just desserts and keep control with Ojama Trio+ Chain Needle trap.

Really,play more before making this kind of post,no offense.

012yArthur0 wrote:The problem of Burn decks that if you can't use traps,you gone.

If they summon a jinzo you can leave the duel to make the game faster.

True, but like Royal Oppression, Dark Simorgh and Black-Winged Dragon, these cards aren't exactly standard in today's meta.

Skios wrote:

012yArthur0 wrote:The problem of Burn decks that if you can't use traps,you gone.

If they summon a jinzo you can leave the duel to make the game faster.

True, but like Royal Oppression, Dark Simorgh and Black-Winged Dragon, these cards aren't exactly standard in today's meta.

But you can expect them to be sided. Jinzo can deal really well with alot of decks,the problem that he don't have a ss own effect (which speed is something to think about in any meta).

I didn't discuss the side deck (it's in the link), but it basically sides in Bazoo, Cyber Dragon, Eatos and Injection Fairy Lily to become an aggro deck.

I like this idea. Fairy Wind can be run in this type of deck too for burn power plus the ability to chain to Decree and destroy it (and when you destroy your own non-continuous s/t, their effects still apply).

Fairy Wind could work pretty well, although I'm worried that it hits me too. With the limited stall this deck has, chances are you could find yourself at pretty low LP already when you put together enough damage to win the game.

Emergency Provision and Good Goblin Housekeeping will get you a ridiculous amount of life and an even more ridiculous amount of hand control.

I'll have to playtest Good Goblin Housekeeping. The hand control is nice, but I don't like that it starts out as a -1. Emergency Provisions looks like a fun way to get the chain count up.

^Thus the fairy wind/emergency provisions. Ever try chaining either to 3 Housekeeping? Draw 12 return 3.

012yArthur0 wrote:The problem of Burn decks that if you can't use traps,you gone.

If they summon a jinzo you can leave the duel to make the game faster.

who the hell runs jinzo

Now What? wrote:

012yArthur0 wrote:The problem of Burn decks that if you can't use traps,you gone.

If they summon a jinzo you can leave the duel to make the game faster.

who the hell runs jinzo

1. Way to necro (well... kind of. It is a relatively old topic)
2. No one really
3. Royal Decree