Light Fiend Summon Part 2

Locals last night was relatively small. I believe we had 18 players, with top 8. Friend of the blog Kavy would be there for a short time, so I was able to borrow his Reborn Tengu to try a more consistent version of the Fabled Deck aka LFS - Light Fiend Summon.

As a lot of you guys know, a Fabled Deck from Sorosh Saberian did make it into the top 32 of YCS Providence. While I was judging the event, I do remember seeing a Fabled Deck in the top tables on Saturday night. Whether that was Sorosh or not, I won't know until the deck list is up on Konami's blog. From what I saw, his deck was 100% Synchro. You kill the opponent's backrow with Trunade, Space Typhoons and Dust Tornado, then you go into a frenzy of synchro summoning that should eventually lead you to win the game. If I remember correctly, he was using Reborn Tengu, plants, Reckless Greed, Instant Fusion, and even a tech Quillbolt Hedgehog, all for the purpose of dropping a full field of synchro monsters easily. As powerful as this sounds, he ended up losing to Machina Gadgets, which is actually a tough match-up against his deck. You may explode into an awesome field, but Machina Gadgets have D.Prisons, Warnings, and Fortress's destruction effect waiting for you. Then on their turn, they have smashing grounds and more monster cards in hand. Their conservative play punishes decks that have to overextend to win.

LFS still uses the Tengus even though I hate the idea of only running 2 Krus. It is still an explosive deck when it can be, but instead of exploding into a full field of Synchros, it explodes into half a field of synchro monsters and multiple backrow cards. A lot of people call this a "control" version of the Fabled Deck, rather than the recently topping OTK versions. Most cards in both decks are the same, but LFS just has a different trap lineup than the others. Cards like Karma Cut hurt a lot of top decks right now, and can completely kill an opposing player's Tengu engine. Then, I am able to use staples such as Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute, allowing me to pass turn 1 and not take as much damage as the other decks that only have 2 Solemn Warnings to hold their opponent back. Besides that, LFS has more individual Fableds in it, instead of losing 8 card slots to 3 Tengu, 2 Lonefire, Glow Up, Spore, and Dandylion. Here is a look at the deck:

Monsters: 22
3 Grimro
3 Chawa
3 Cerburrel
3 Tengu
3 Snipe Hunter
2 Ganashia
2 Krus
1 Sangan
1 Nozoochee
1 Kushano
Spells: 11
2 Avarice
2 MST
2 Instant Fusion
1 Reborn
1 Trunade
1 Mind Control
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 7
2 Warnings
2 Karma Cut
1 Dust Tornado
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

In all honesty, I don't like Card Destruction much in this deck. Nor do I like Dark World Dealings or Morphing Jar, and those don't even have a slot in my deck. Card Destruction is more of a last ditch effort to get something good or to place something on the field, at the cost of a -1. If there was a Quickplay Spell, or another good Spell that isn't called Lightning Vortex, then that would probably work better than Card Destruction. I don't consider Dark World Lightning a good replacement, as the deck already runs 2 MST, Dust Tornado, and Trunade. Some people op for Monster Reincarnation. That can also be a good choice, but sometimes you don't have any good targets in the graveyard. I may give it a try, as I almost always side out Car Destruction after the first game.

That build got me into the top 4 at locals, which was a lot of fun. My loss was against a Plant Tengu deck which is supposedly a similar match-up. This is where Karma Cut and Warnings shine, as every time I play against plant synchro, the results are usually the same. If that deck doesn't draw or mill into all of its "one-of" cards, it will stall until it does. This is the time where LFS can go for the kill. While they are stalling with Lonefire->Lonefire->Dandylion with no set cards, you can easily spew out Ragins without much worry. If the monster is face-down, it is either a ryko or a plant, neither of which is very harmful. In my opinion, the only dangers in the Plant Tengu deck is the Gorz while their field is empty. If you leave gorz and its token on the field, you will give your opponent the chance at a level 8 synchro using Glow-Up or Spore. Luckily, if my turn went well, I can have multiple facedown cards that can stop any synchro attempt.

I believe that LFS and Fabled Decks are actually rather difficult to play. It takes a bit of skill to figure out how to turn a hand full of incompatible cards into something good. You also have to know how to take a hit on that first turn where you can't commit to the field. I will probably play this same deck on Saturday too. Wish me luck!