Unistorm! OUCH

I have finally completed the Unistorm deck in its entirety. I haven't been able to play Yugioh in a while, but I was lucky enough to get to locals on Monday. Did I top? No. In fact I did TERRIBLY. But not because of the deck, but because I played poorly. It has also come to my attention that I have yet to post an actual deck list. So let's take a look at the deck.

Monsters: 22
3 Tanngnjostr
3 Tanngrisnir
3 Guldfaxe
3 Mega-Hamster
2 Effect Veiler
2 Ryko
2 Dark Desertapir
1 Gorz
1 Airbellum
1 Sangan
1 Vanadis

Spells: 9
3 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Pot of Duality
1 Mind Control
1 Giant Trunade

Traps: 9
2 Solemn Warning
2 Gleipnir
2 Trap Stun
1 Torrential
1 Mirror Force
1 Bottomless

Now, I'm sure a lot of people are trying to make Nordic Decks, and most of them use the same skeleton. Three-Three/Two-Three for Gnjostr, Grisnir, and Guldfaxe, two effect veiler, 2 solemn warning, 2 trap stun, 3 Mega-hamster, and the rest is up to you. Of course, since this is "Uni"storm, we are still using the Dark Desertapir engine, as card choice is very slim for this deck. There is still some pieces of the build I am uncertain about, but this is the most powerful version I've come up with yet. Here's a breakdown of the card selection:

Three/Three/Three Nordic Beasts - A lot of people ran this at first, and a few people are going with 3/2/3. We all know that Tanngnjoster is the most powerful beast in the deck(in the game? I want Rescue Cat back!). Running 3 of him is definitely a requirement. Even after you draw into it, you will want to use the effect every chance you get. Searching out level seven synchros from your main deck is simply too good to ignore. You also have to run three Guldfaxe for that very reason. It is very, very easy to run out of Guldfaxe in your deck. Drawing it isn't the greatest topdeck in the world, but you will probably place it on the field at some point. Tanngrisnir on the other hand is a better draw in your opening hand. If your opponent doesn't have a monster, it is a great attacker that gets under BTH and contributes to your win condition if your opponent summons on their turn. Using 3 does seem a little excessive, but once again the monster choice isn't that great to begin with. The 3rd Grisnir makes the deck more defensive, but I suppose in emergencies it can be sided out for just about anything.

Double Veiler - Everyone and their mother is doing this and they should. Monster effects are more powerful than ever and it is often the main "out" to the Nordic Deck. Brionac, Scrap Dragon, Fulhelmknight, Caius, and many other cards exist that can turn a good field into a game loss. Veiler helps take card of this "problem" by stunning your opponent's out to your synchro or set monster. It is almost as helpful as Solemn Warning...almost.

Desertapir/Gold Sarc - As much as noone will back me on it, I still say that Desertapir and Gold Sarc are some of the best beast support in a long, long time. For those who don't know, Dark Desertapir is a level 2 Earth - Beast Monster with 1100 atk and 300 def. That is pretty crappy as far as stats go, but it shines when used with Gold Sarc. Sarc removes Desertapir from the deck and from play, activating the monster's effect to summon a beast from the grave. That may not sound like much, but in this deck that blows through bast monsters like they're nothing, "Sarking" them from the graveyard is never expected. Here's a good example: The opponent has Stardust Dragon and Solemn Warning that they just set after killing your hamster. Your have Gnjostr that you pulled from the deck with hamster, Gold Sarc in hand, and any non-tuner. You activate Gnjostr on your turn and they don't solemn because they will solemn the synchro instead. You synchro for Scrap Archfiend and they pay 2000 to stop you. Great, Sarc for Desertapir, special summon Guldfaxe back. Normal Summon and synchro into Wyvern. Hamster still on the field? Flip Gnjostr, summon guldfaxe, sync with hamster for Stardust. Now use Gold Sarc, get guldfaxe back and synchro for Wyvern. Losing and need to go on the defensive? Sark for Grisnir. Winning and cant synchro? Sark for Airbellum. First turn and you don't want to hold Gold Sarc? Then use it to get Dark Hole/Reborn. The combos are all there and work beautifully. In fact, the only thing that makes it bad is what to do with Desertapir afterward. Usually he becomes fodder for Brionac, but I also swing with it just like Tanngrisnir. In the past, I has 2 Crevice in the main deck, which uses the Desertapirs a 2nd time. Soul Release can do it too, and both cards punish a lot of the top decks right now. The main reason I don't still use it is because of the tight spell and trap lineup. I may test it again, possibly using 2 Tapir, 2 Sarc and 2 Crevice.

Airbellum - For those times that you can't synchro, but you need to exploit an opponent field, Airbellum fills that role. Of course the "tech monster slot" could be anything - Thunderking, Spirit Reaper, Caius, Maxx "C", etc. Not only do I not have Tkings or Maxx C, Airbellum seems to be a good replacement. Not only that, but he has synergy with Desertapir and Mega-Hamster in the most extreme cases.

One Duality - I only own 1 Duality, and yes I never draw it. I use it because the deck will always have times when it doesn't special summon, and digging out trap cards is a very powerful effect. Wish I had more, but 3 may actually be excessive in this deck.

Mirror Force - A while ago, I didn't use Mirror Force in most of my decks. I'm a little undecided about how necessary it is in this deck. The problem isn't if Mirror Force is good or not, the problem is the decks that you play against that are unaffected by Mirror Force completely. I will continue to main deck it, but I REALLY need to used to the idea of side decking it against certain decks. Dragunities that spam Stardust dragon, X Sabers that spam Hyunlei, Plant Synchro that want you to spend your resources, all are times where a main decked Book of Moon or Compulsory may have proven more useful.

One Bottomless - I also felt that bottomless was very important to this deck and the format in general, but this is another card I may need to side. A lot of decks play monsters with less than 1500 attack, and by the time you get one you can bottomless, it is too late. Some people play D.prison instead, but unfortunately I have none. The cool idea now is that if you run 2 trap stun, you can run Royal Oppression. Flipping that against a lot of decks can totally shut them down and HOPEFULLY not you too. I wish I knew what to choose. At this point, Bottomless is the "tech trap" card.

One Vanadis - This card was up to 40 dollars at the time everyone wanted to run 3. Now it is down in the low 30's and more and more people want to use only 1 or 2. I used to run 2, but now I am down to 2. It isn't a bad card, don't get me wrong, but in THIS deck, you don't need 3. If you REALLY need a Vanadis, you would get it with Fetters, but 80% of the time, you will be adding Gnjostr to your hand. That makes Vanadis the kind of card that either sits in your deck waiting for you when you need to search it out, or the kind of card that sits in your hand as your backup plan(assuming that you special summon as much as possible before you resort to normal summons.)

Zero Mystical Space Typhoon - With as many field cards and continuous spells going around right now, both MST are still in my side deck. Why? Because I don't like the idea of 2 more "one for one"s in this deck. The ideal play is to clear it all with BRD, or ignore most of it with stardust. If your opponent has continuous cards that are making it so difficult to win, that is the time to side in both MST. So with 2 decks that do that, there is a 1/10 chance I may be playing that deck. Is that enough reason to use MST? Who knows?

So this is the deck I use and I feel that it is very good. The main reason I lost on Monday was because I played so poorly and I still don't side very well. I will be using it Saturday if I don't forget my deck at home again. The only thing missing from the deck is 1 Zeman the Dark Ape, to be used with Vanadis. Other than that I do enjoy it a lot and hope to pilot it at YCS Providence (if I'm not judging!).