X-Tapirs

So one of my favorite decks of all time is X-sabers:

• Their monsters have some of the best effects in the game.
• They can run higher numbers of spells and traps.
• They create a certain amount of pressure that is great in this format. You know, staring down a first turn monster that you really wish your opponent didn't have.

In my opinion, Sabers dance the fine line between what is balanced and what isn't. It has an excellent boss that you can't really run 3 copies of and it has excellent monsters that have a very broad range of Attack and Defense. Out of the many cards that you can splash into X-sabers, none of them are excessively powerful in this format. Konami also loves X-sabers, and has pumped out a number of reprints to make the deck more playable than ever. The coveted Emmersblade can be found in Hidden Arsenal Special Edition and we can find Darksoul in the new Number 10: Illumiknight Collectible Tin. Faultroll was reprinted as a rare in Turbo Pack 3 and Fulhelmknight is easy to find too. Basically, the only difficult card to get is XX-Saber Hyunlei.


So why didn't I build X-Sabers? Besides never holding onto their key cards for more than a week, I could not find a build I like. I can't simply build the decklists from YCS champions, my local version would have to be original. This format is also a little more difficult for Sabers as they can't out-sustain all the deck choices on the market. Because of this, a lot of people aren't actually playing X-Sabers, which is the perfect time to play it (who wants to play something that everyone else is?). I decided to go back to my fun, imaginary deck: X-Tapirs.

X-Tapirs uses beast support to confuse and out-sustain the enemy. Darksoul is the key component to this, so looping him is the way to outlive your opponent. Darksoul can't win by himself, so we have another X-Beast to get us cards: Garsem. Garsem hits the field at 1600 and goes up by 200 for every Saber. In this format, he is more likely to die from battle than an effect, but if your opponent wants to play Dark Hole, Torrential, or Mirror Force, they will have to give you an X-Saber from your deck. Along with Garsem, Airbellum eared a spot back into the deck. With these Beast attackers and Boggart Knight as the Beast-Warrior, Horn of the Phantom Beast has obviously made its way into the deck.

The Beast support doesn't end there. Mega Hamster is still one of the best 1st turn sets in Yugioh and gets you Darksoul or Airbellum right out of the deck. What can you do from there? Anything really. Enemy controller, Mind Control, Faultroll, Horn, and many other cards that aren't in my build can capitalize on Hamster. After Hamster, I HAD to include my 2nd favorite beast support in the game: Dark Desertapir. Desertapir and Gold Sarcophagus is a 5 card commitment to the deck. X-sabers already have plenty of room for cards, so running 2 extra Monster Reborns is a lot of fun. In X-sabers, Desertapir can give you plays that otherwise would not have happened:
Punish your opponent's Torrential by "Tapering" Airbellum to the field and attack directly.
Get a 2nd X-Saber for Faultroll.
Bait out Solemn Warning. Taper for any beast.
Tribute Darksoul for Enemy controller to take a tuner. Taper it back to synchro and get 2 monsters in your end phase.
Drop Gottoms and use Dark Desertapir to allow another discard through Gottom's effect.

What strays other players away for running this engine is finding something to do with used Dark Desertapirs. This is where the real hilarity ensues as Gold Sarc isn't the only card that can activate Dark Desertapir's effect. My favorite for this format is main decking Soul Release. The current errata on Soul Release is that you can remove up to 5 cards from all of the graveyards. This means that if your opponent milled well with Card Trooper, you can synchro Airbellum with Desertapir to make Naturia Beast. Then you can use Soul Release to remove Desertapir, remove their Veiler and Gorz in the graveyard, and summon Airbellum back to the field. The goal is to not minus yourself for playing Soul Release in the main deck. Even if you get back Darksoul or Hamster, you will have removed important cards from their grave to summon a Darksoul, Hamster, or Garsem to the field.

There are not many matchups that this deck cannot beat. The worst is probably gravekeepers, which will shut down Soul Release, Desertapir, Gottom's and Faultroll. Luckily, we can attack over their best monsters with Horn of the Phantom Beast on Boggart Knight and Garsem. If all else fails, the side deck will overcome any disadvantage X-Tapirs had. A few choices I had in mind were:
-Creature Swap for decks like Gravekeepers that summon 1-2 monsters at a time. You lose the search from Darksoul if you give it to your opponent, however, Gravekeepers have a hard time destroying an opposing 2500DEF Spy.
-Caius/Mobius. Sounds silly yes, but Caius and Mobius will ALWAYS bait out Solemn Warning and Judgment. In X-tapirs, it is easy to keep a monster on the field during your opponent's end phase, especially if you have the first move against Gravekeepers. You can flip Hamster to search out Darksoul. Afterward tribute Hamster or Darksoul for Caius and eliminate at least 1 card from their field.

There are many options for this deck and all of them are a lot of fun. I may actually give this a try in November and report back to you guys afterward.

Proving Internet Duels are usually bad

All of these duels are using the prototype version of "Better Storm," A competitive Nordic build. It is still going through a lot of testing and will hopefully find its way on the Deck Pages soon.

Duel 1:: Versus Malefic Skill Drain?
The Opponent goes first. He activates Fusion Gate. Removing a Cyber End Dragon from his Extra deck, he summons Malefic Cyber End Dragon (4000/2800). He sets 1 f/d card and ends his turn.

I start with Book of Moon, Monster Reborn, Super Nimble Mega Hamster, Ryko Lightsworn Hunter, Pot of Duality and draw into Trap Dustshoot. Activating Duality, I chose Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir out of Tengu and Trunade. For some reason, the opponent uses Mystical Space Typhoon on my Duality(I may as well quit now) so we can already tell that this duel is going to be worthless for testing. I set my Dustshoot, Fetters and Book and pass.

The opponent draws a card and I use Dustshoot during his standby phase. Dustshoot reveals Meteor of Destruction(really?), Magical Mallet, another Malefic Cyber End and Fusilier the Dual Mode Beast. I send Fusilier back into his deck. In his main phase he uses Meteor that deals 1000 damage to my LP. He then uses Magical Mallet to shuffle in his 1 M. Cyber End and draw into a 1-card hand. Next he attacks my set Ryko with M. Cyber End. I flip Fetters to search out Tanngjostr of the Nordic Beasts. The attack goes through and Ryko is flipped. It destroys Fusion gate, milling a Reborn Tengu, Pot of Avarice, and a Mega Hamster. M. Cyber End is destroyed by its own effect. Then Ryko is destroyed and sent to the grave, in which I can special summon Gnjostr from my hand. The opponent ends his turn with no field and 1 card in his hand.

7000::8000

I draw into Mind Control. Switching Gnjostr to attack mode activates the effect and searches out my level 4 tuner Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts. After that I can use Monster Reborn to summon the Tengu from my graveyard. 4+4 = Colossal Fighter(in case he can drop another Cyber End on his turn) and Tengu replaces itself with another copy. I then attack with all 3 monsters and end my turn.

The opponent draws into his 2nd card. He sets it and ends the turn. During his end phase I use book of moon on my own Gnjostr.

On my turn I draw Giant Trunade(game over). I activate it, returning his 1 card. I can then flip Gnjostr and synchro for 8 again, but the opponent forfeits the duel.

Duel 2: Versus...Monarchs?
I go first with an awesome hand of Tengu, Horn of the Phantom Beast, Gnjostr, Solemn Warning, Duality, and Mirror Force. First thing I do is Duality for Mystical Space Typhoon, shuffling in a Fetters and Sangan. I normal summon Reborn Tengu, then set everything but the Tanngjostr.

The opponent draws a card and sets 1 Monster and 1 spell/trap. During the endphase I Space Typhoon it, his own Space Typhoon.

I draw into Giant Trunade. without playing a card I attack with Reborn Tengu, revealing a...Marshmallon? Marshmallon deals 1000 damage to me. I set my Gnjostr and end the turn.

7000:8000

He draws a card, Even though I have 3 set cards, he tributes Marshmallon for Mobius, the Frost Monarch. I promptly Solemn Warning that. He sets 1 spell/trap and ends his turn.

5000:8000

I draw Fetters. The first card to play is Trunade, getting rid of whatever that f/d could have been. Then I flip Gnjostr to summon Guldfaxe. Guldfaxe and Tengu cluster together into a Stardust Dragon, and summons my next Tengu from my deck. I attack with all 3 monsters to deal 5000 damage. I set my final card, Fetters and end my turn.

5000::3000

The opponent summons D.D. Warrior Lady! Monster Reborn my Guldfaxe, oh no! D.D. Lady and Guldfaxe make a Thoughtruler Archfiend. The opponent attacks my Stardust with Thoughtruler and eats Mirror Force. Good Game.

Duel 3: Versus True Six Samurai
I lose the dice roll and the opponent goes first in classic Six Samurai Style.
1) Shien's Smoke Signal for Mizuho.
2) Activate Shien's Dojo. Activate Six Samurai United.
3) Normal Summon Mizuho. Special Summon Kizan.
4) Activate United, Draw 2 cards.
5) Special Summon Grand Master. Special Summon Kizan.
6) Send Dojo to the grave and special summon Kagemusha.
7) Mizuho and Kagemusha are sent to the grave for a Shi En.
8) Reinforcements of the Army to search out Kizan.
9) Special Summon Kizan.
10) Turn ends with 3 Kizan, 1 Grandmaster, 1 Shi En, 2 cards in hand and no spells or traps.

My opening hand is 2 Fetters, a Ryko, Guldfaxe and Bottomless trap hole. I then Draw another Guldfaxe on my turn, but that's okay. Guldfaxe special summons itself to the field. Then I normal Summno Ryko. 4+2 = Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. I use Brionac's effect to send Shi En back to the extra deck, discarding a Fetters. Then Brionac can attack over Grandmaster. I set my bottomless and Fetters and end my turn with just a Guldfaxe in hand.

The opponent forfeits.




Not all duels are great ones.

UniSTOORRRMMM! Part 3

Video from Card Kingdom, courtesy of ckaid0021 on youtube. A lot of people making Nordic Beast decks go with this deck as their skeleton. Of course, with the TCG, there are some definite changes to be made to the deck, such as adding Vanadis and Solemn Warning. What is key to remember when you look at this deck is that there aren't very many good beast monsters in yugioh, and instead of using a higher monster count, this deck uses only 20 monsters. Also, the monster lineup sticks strictly to the nordic beast strategy. Your only other option besides goats and horses are Ryko, which some people feel is the best strategy. Since the other beast monsters are not good, this OCG deck only uses the goat and horse strategy. All the other cards, triple creature swap, triple forbidden lance, support only that. The TCG builds of this deck are pretty much the same, just adding in Vanadis, a Valkyrie or 2, and taking out some of the non-nordic beasts. Then they slim up on some of the triple magic cards to add in Solemn Warning, Torrential, and other traps that are very important to slowing the TCG down.

Is this better than my UniSTORM? Perhaps. I really don't like the idea of having no other monster effects you can use during the duel. But what else is there besides Lockey+Dog?
Scrap Beasts? That gives you another level 4 tuner to use with goat tokens. Scrap Chimera is an amazing card, but after that, none of the deck has synergy with those cards. Can't use Hamster with them, can't use creature swap if you plan to run that, and I'm sure you are limited in other ways.

Moja? Terrible card in a synchro deck. King of Beasts is made for Beast Beat decks, not synchro decks.

Egotistical Ape? Discard to special summon from the hand? It's just like a quickdraw! Unfortunately, there is a reason why noone is topping with quickdraw right now, and that is because Hand resources are toooo important right now. Combined with mine mole, Ape is awesome. But the extra -1 to the hand might be too painful.

Airbellum? Attacking that hand is awesome. You can even get it with megahamster, but why would you if you have Gnjostr? Whats the point of getting anything out of the deck with Hamster other than Gnjostr Grisnir or Ryko?

Aside from that, everyone and their mother wants to run Forbidden Lances in this deck. And in all honesty, its an amazing card. Doesn't save you from Solemn Warning, but it protects Tuner monsters from book of moon, and protects synchro monsters from bottomless. You can also drop your opponent's monsters by 800, but I feel like this is an overlooked aspect. It makes Lance better, to me, in decks that run level ~4 "beatsticks." Because you are losing an aspect of the card, you could have just ran trap stun instead(which doesn't stop Book). I like the card, and I do want to own 3. Will I run it though? Haven't decided.

Another cool card to think about is Nordic Relic Laevateinn. Laev, believe it or not, is not Nordic specific. You can use it when any card gets destroyed by battle. You destroy the card and no effect can be activated in response to it. That means Tytannial, Stardust, Shi En, Thought Ruler, and many other cards will all fall prey to this "1 for 1" card. Yes you did lose a monster by battle, but in the nordic beast deck, that really doesn't matter much. Either you gained tokens(and tokens can activate Laev!), you gained a tanngnjostr, destroyed a card, or got a got in your hand. Just the fact that it can hit So many things for almost free is really cool.

In unrelated news, a new banlist has emerged that is 99.9% likely to be the real thing. Unlike most banlists, it isn't a change for a "fun format" like I posted about last year. This time it is a change for a more balanced format.
Forbidden:
Goyo Guardian
Cold Wave
Mass Driver

Limited:
Honest
Dandylion
Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
Book of Moon
Gateway of the Six

Semi-Limited
Card Trooper
Archlord Kristya
Spirit Reaper
Debris Dragon
Royal Tribute
Overload Fusion
Megamorph
Solemn Warning
Icarus Attack

Unlimited:
Chaos Sorcerer
Demise, King of Armageddon
Snipe Hunter
Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier
Gold Sarcophagus
Skill Drain
Ultimate Offering

UniSTOORRRMMM!

STOA(storm of awesome) has finally been released, and the not-so-unthinkable has happened. No thanks to me(I like to believe that) and Konami, everyone and their mother has decided that the pure Nordic Deck is no good, and that all of a sudden Hamster makes the beast engine soooooooo good.

Remember Unistorm? I've been talking about that for a long time now. Tonight, we'll cover this deck and why it is so good (why I feel like people are copying me! Of course I invented the cards)

So what is UniSTORM exactly? As I said back in NOVEMBER, it is a beast deck with the new nordic beasts splashed in. Let's remember that there aren't that many good beast monsters in the game. Tanngjostr and Guldfaxe alone change this fact, by making something to strive for in the deck. Tanngrisnir, as I'm coming to find out, supports the idea behind this, and allows the star player Super Nimble Mega Hamster to have a humongous toolbox to choose from. But the key to remember is that UniSTORM is not a 100% nordic deck. It is a deck that has a lot of synergy with the nordic monsters splashed in. So let's talk about the basic skeleton.
3 Super Nimbles
2-3 Ryko
2-3 Tanngnostr
2 Guldfaxe
1-2 Tanngrisnir
1-2 Vanadis
1-2 Gleipnir
As of A WEEK AGO(my feelings about this) there are tons of decks on US YGO forums that use this basic skeleton, and most of them run 3 of everything. Of course, 3 Mega Hamsters is a must, as it is one of the most powerful 1st turn sets in the game. The rest of the monster count is where things get a little wonky.
-Most people run 3 ryko, which is an awesome card, especially when you run Avarice. But, when you run Avarice, you can also put Ryko back in the deck. Drawing a ryko in your hand is nice, but it is essential to draw into Super Nimbles.
-A lot of people are also running 3 Tanngostr, which is again an amazing card. But why run 3? If you draw into it, you can drop it with it's trigger effect. If you don't draw it, you have both Hamster and Gleipnir to rip it out of your deck. After that, you don't need a third. As powerful as it is, three copies is excessive to me. -Guldfaxe is yet another card people are running at three. Why? I don't know. Not every deck runs 2 bottomless, and if you get your Guldfaxe bottomlessed, then so be it. You should be able to normal summon now and synchro anyway. Do we want to draw into Guldfaxe? Not really. It isn't dead in the hand, but it works better when it stays in the deck. So I have been running 2.
-Only ONE person at the sneak peak pulled a Tanngrisnir, and I quickly snatched it up in exchange for a tin Shooting Star Dragon. I wanted 3, but now, I am not so sure. Each set in Unistorm is very important, and Tanngrisnir has an effect from setting it. It must be destroyed by battle, and when that happens, you get 2 level 3 tokens. That is powerful, but slow. But the biggest issue I have is, we don't always want to set Tanngri. I almost feel that running 2 Giant Rats are more important than running 3 Tanngrisnir. Rat and Hamster gives you the ability to put 2 level 3 tokens on the field when you have a tuner in your hand. If you drew into a Tanngrisnir and decided you must set it, then that means you didn't set a Hamster or Ryko that turn. I'm so undecided on how powerful a set Tanngrisnir is. This requires much more testing, but for now I am running 2.
-Now this is the kicker. Everyone and their mother is running 3 Vanadis. I too want to own 3 Vanadis, but I will not play 3 in a nordic Beast deck. If you run 3 Tanngrisnir, maybe. If you run Garm, maybe. Vanadis can not be synchro'd with non-nordic monsters, and in a deck like Unistorm, that gives us only 6 cards to tune it with. So to me, that means I run 1. And I only summon that 1 Vanadis when I know it will give me results(aka behind a cold wave or trunade.) If ONLY it could synchro with anything, then I would gladly run 3. It is important to note that many of the nordic decks are running Forbidden Lance and Trap stun alongside Cold Wave and Trunade. Each Lance you have is 1 Vanadis that should go off unhindered. However, each Vanadis you run is 1 less non-nordic card you get to run.

Of course, as all Unicorn decks go, we need the Unicorn engine. This is another divergence you will find in these Nordic Beast decks. A lot of them are held back by a common problem beast decks have - Explosive plays. Don't get me wrong, Tanngjostr is really explosive when you drop it, but that is only 6-9 cards out of the entire deck.
Chain Keycat - Lock Cat, Key Mouse and Chain dog attempt to added to the decks general synergy. Key Mouse can search out either goat if you draw it turn 1. Lock Cat gets Key Mouse out of the grave, and Chain dog can summon itself after EITHER Cats or Gnjostr's effect. Chain dog can then be tuned into a Naturia Beast with Key Mouse, or Lightning Tricorn (2800 attacker) with Guldfaxe.
Dark Desertapir - As usual, Dark Desertapir is a key component of unicorn synchro. It allows for explosive plays by monster reborning level 4 or lower beasts from the graveyard, leading to 1 card synchros. Desertapir in the main deck allows us to main 2 more cards, Gold Sarc, which digs out powerhouse cards like Dark Hole and Avarice, and it allows us to main-deck Crevice Into The Different Dimension, which hurts many decks such as Plants, Scraps, Monarchs and even other nordic decks.

All in all, I feel that the deck has a lot of potential, and my build, will be worked and worked and worked until I make a final deck, wish you will find in the to pages.

Round 2 - Releasers vs UniStorm MKII

Tanngrisnir is out for vengeance! After so much trial and error, The UniStorm deck(Unicorn Synchro MKIV) has been revamped into a more powerful, streamlined build. It still has a lot of the "fun" aspects that makes Unicorn Synchro what it is, but now with much more offense. But will it be enough to take down last week's winner - Djinn Releaser and her Relinquished deck? Let's find out!
Djinn Releaser(Relinquished) 8000 - Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts(Unistorm MKII) 8000

Since this is still qualified as round 2 of their match-up, Tanngrisnir will have the option of going first or not. Naturally, with such a set-heavy deck, Tanngri will want to go first.

Turn 1- Tanngri Most decks will start of setting cards on the opening turn, and Unistorm is no different. The opening play is the common 1 set monster and 2 set spells/traps. with that, Tanngri ends the turn/

Turn 2- Releaser Releaser draws her card. Her opening play will be Armageddon Knight, which sends a Plaguespreader Zombie from the deck to the grave. Armageddon Knight attacks into Tanngri's facedown card- a Super Nimble Mega Hamster! After dealing the 400dmg in attack difference to Releaser's life points, tanngri summons a Tanngjostr out of the deck with hamster's effect, face-down and in defense position. Releaser sets 1 s/t and ends the turn.
Releaser 7600 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 3- Tanngri Tanngri is ready for the offensive push already! One monster on the opposing field and 1 spell/trap? What could go wrong? After the draw, Tanngri switches the f/d Tanngjostr to attack mode, activating its effect to summon Guldfaxe in defense position right out of the deck. With no response from Releaser, Tanngri can synchro for 4+4, which is Stardust Dragon. Still nothing from Releaser? Well let's overextend and activate Gold Sarcophagus, allowing Tanngri to remove Dark Desertapir straight out of the deck. Classic Unicorn Synchro in action: Desertapir summons Guldfaxe right back to the field, without ever normal summoning. Battle Phase - Guldfaxe tramples Armageddon Knight for 200 damage. Then Tanngjostr attacks, Releaser activates Call of the Haunted that was face-down to summon Armageddon Knight back. Unfortunately, Tanngrisnir main decks Crevice Into the Different Dimension, which allows it to remove 2 darks from the graveyard - Plaguespreader Zombie and that Armageddon Knight. Tanngjostr's attack goes through for 1200, then Stardust chimes in 2500. Tanngri isn't done with its turn in Main Phase 2 though, there are too many plays to be had. Level 3 Tanngjostr and level 4 Guldfaxe sync up to become Voltic Bicorn. And with that, Tanngri ends the turn with 2 Synchro monsters, 1 s/t and leaving Releaser with nothing but a floating Call of the Haunted.
Releaser 3700 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 4- Releaser Releaser probably can't do too much on this turn. No plaguespreader to make Brionac with and a floating CotH that may interrupt Gorz. She decides to set a monster in f/d defense position and end the turn.

Turn 5- Tanngri Draw for turn. Tanngri summons a lone Chain Dog in attack mode, then immediately enters the Battle Phase. The first attack is Voltic Bicorn attacking the f/d, a Mystic Tomato. Tomato uses its battle destruction effect to replace itself with another Tomato from the deck. Chain Dog attacks over that for 200 points for damage. That Tomato also activates and puts an Armageddon Knight on the field, which in turn puts a Necro Gardna in the graveyard. Stardust attacks Armageddon Knight for 1100 damage. With that, the turn moves back to Releaser.
Releaser 2400 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 6- Releaser It seems that Releaser drew into Allure of Darkness. Allure loves being a topdeck in your time of need. Activating Allure Draws 2 and removes an in-hand Relinquished from the game. Releaser counts her grave, which is usually not a good sign. She then summons a Card Trooper in attack mode and mills 3 cards from the deck to use its effect. Dark Armed, Prep, and Ryko all go to the grave to give Trooper a boost to 1900 attack. Why? For Pot of Avarice of course. Releaser's entire grave, minus that Necro Gardna, returns to the deck, and then she gets to draw 2 MORE cards. "Oh hoho" Black Illusion Ritual. Tribute Card Trooper to summon Relinquished from the hand. Relinq's effect activates and equips itself with Stardust Dragon. Now a 2500 attack, Relinq swings over Chain Dog for 900 damage. Releaser sets 1 s/t and ends the turn.
Releaser 2400 - Tanngri 7100
Turn 7- Tanngri Tanngri isn't a dumb goat. With Necro Gardna in Releaser's grave, attacking over Relinquished will not kill it this turn. Tanngri has to prepare to lose its Bicorn. It sets a monster in f/d defense position, then a s/t on its backrow and ends the turn.

Turn 8- Releaser At this point in the game, Releaser has slowed Tanngri down to her speed. Now is the time to get control of the game back. Releaser immediately enters the Battle Phase after drawing and attacks the equally powered Bicorn. Tanngri activates Mirror Force, an obvious play, destroying Relinquished and Stardust with it. In Main Phase 2, Releaser summons Relinq back with Monster Reborn and equips it with Voltic Bicorn. Finally, she summons Manju in attack mode and adds the final Relinq to her hand. The turn ends with Manju and Relinq with a set s/t, versus 1 f/d monster and 1 f/d s/t.

Turn 9- Tanngri Losing all of those synchros is not good. Tanngri starts by flip summoning that set monster, a Ryko, to destroy Relinquished. Since Voltic Bicorn was destroyed and sent to the grave, both players discard 7 from the top of the deck (Tanngri loses a total of 10 because of Ryko). Tanngri then summons Guldfaxe in attack mode. No response from Releaser allows Tanngri to special summon Chain Dog from the grave (2 beasts are face-up on the field.) Four + Four = Lightning Tricorn. Tricorn at 2800 attacks Manju, in which Releaser removes that Necro Gardna in the grave to save it. The turn ends there, nothing else Tanngri can do.

Turn 10- Releaser Releaser asks to know how many cards are left in Tanngri's deck. Tanngri has 17, Releaser has 16, so another Bicorn may be hazardous. But for now, the options are getting slim. She does Dark Hole to clear all the monsters on the field, and Tricorn replaces itself with Bicorn. She then sets a monster and ends the turn.

Turn 11- Tanngri This game could stall out for quite a while if Releaser keeps this pace up. What I can say about Tanngri's Hand is that this would be a great time to own a Mist Worm. Tanngri summons Elephun in attack mode. Now that it has 2 beasts on the field, it can summon the next Chain Dog from the graveyard. Tanngri tries to enter the Battle Phase, but Releaser finally uses that facedown card, Threatening Roar. Tanngri sets a s/t and ends the turn.

Turn 12- Releaser Do or Die time now. Releaser draws and passes the turn.

Turn 13- Tanngri No opposing spells or traps. No Necro Gardna in the grave. No chance for Gorz because Call of the Haunted is still Face-up. Time to end the duel. Tanngri summons a Mega Hamster in attack mode. Level 4 Mega Hamster and Level 2 Elephun become a Level 6 Brionac, Ice Barrier Dragon. Brionac sends the f/d monster Releaser had back to the hand to end the game.
Releaser 0000 - Tanngri 7100


Result Djinn Releaser 1 - Tanngrisnir 0

Releasers vs Unistorm!(Uni MKIV)

This is a match up between 2 very fun decks: Relinquished and the upcoming Unicorn Synchro MKIV(aka Uni post-STOR aka UNISTORM). Relinquished has the ability to lock out certain aspects of the game from the opponent, whereas Unistorm uses small monsters to create larger ones. Both decks have a small reliance on their opponent, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Djinn Releaser(Relinquished) 8000 - Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts(Unistorm) 8000

Coin flip, Djinn Releaser wins the coin toss and chooses to go first.
Turn 1- Releaser Djinn Releaser opens with the usual 5 cards and draws the 6th. She chooses to just set 1 monster in def position and end the turn.

Turn 2- Tanngri Tanngrisnir has a deck that plays defensively just like Releaser's. So its opening move is very similar, to set one monster. But then Tanngri also sets a face-down s/t card and ends the turn.

Turn 3- Releaser Releaser draws her card. She then summons a mystic tomato in attack mode and attacks Tanngri's f/d monster. Tanngri reveals and sends Key Mouse to the graveyard, and uses its effect to add Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts to its hand. Releaser ends the turn after that.

Turn 4- Tanngri Tanngri draws and looks a little dissatisfied. It sets another card and ends the turn again, with 5 cards in hand.

Turn 5- Releaser After drawing a card, I think Releaser is ready to go for the offensive push. She begins by flipping her set sangan, no response from Tanngri. She then Summons Plaguespreader Zombie in attack mode, again, no response. A synchro for 5 lets Releaser summon Magical Android to the field using Plague and Sangan, then sangan's effect lets her add Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands to the hand. Battle Phase. Android attacks the facedown card and Tanngri flips Mirror Force, wiping Releaser's 2-monster field. Releaser ends with 6 cards in hand.

Turn 6- Tanngri Draw for turn. Tanngri flips its face-down, the Tanngrisnir that was searched. He then plays another Tanngrisnir in attack mode. Finally, it uses Gold Sarcophagus to search out Dark Desertapir from the deck, which activates the Tapir's effect to summon Key Mouse from the grave. Battle Phase. Tanngri attacks with all 3 monsters to inflict 1700 damage. Then, in Main Phase 2, it synchro summons the level 7 Voltic Bicorn using all 3 monsters. Tanngri ends the turn with just Bicorn on the field and 4 cards in hand.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 7- Releaser Luckily enough, a 1 monster field is nothing to Djinn Releaser and a 7 card hand. She opens with Manju, which lets her add Black Illusion Ritual to her hand. Then she uses Preparation of Rites which adds Relinquished to the hand. to put relinquished on the field, she sends a Djinn Disserere(trap immunity) to the grave and summons Relinq in attack mode. We all know Relinq's effect. It sucks up Bicorn and becomes a 2500 atk monster.Releaser swings hard into an open field for 3900.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 4100
Turn 8- Tanngri Tanngris paid the price for playing so passively. Now it must stop the 2 monsters (Relinq and Manju) on the field. It starts by summoning the giant rat it just drew. At 1400, Giant Rat can crash into Manju and destroy both, then summon a Dark Desertapir in attack mode. During MP2, Tanngri uses a Creature Swap, which swaps control of the Relinq and the Tapir. Now Tanngri ends the turn with a 2500 Relinquished on the field.

Turn 9- Releaser Releaser checks her graveyard after drawing, usually not a good sign. She starts by top-decking a card from her hand to summon PGZ from the grave in defense position. Three darks (Sangan, Disserere and Tomato) allow Releaser to special summon Dark Armed Dragon in attack mode. But that's not it! She summons Armageddon Knight in attack mode which not only dumps a Djinn Releaser into the grave, it also shuffles that top-decked card into the deck. PGZ(2) + Desertapir(2) + Arma Knight(4) becomes level 8 Stardust Dragon. It already sounds like this match is over, Releaser removes the Armageddon Knight from the graveyard to destroy Tanngri's 1 Relinquished. Voltic Bicorn's effect does activate since it was destroyed by game mechanics, but unfortunately since Tanngrisnir doesn't run and Graveyard effect monsters, it won't save it.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 0000


Result Djinn Releaser 1 - Tanngrisnir 0

Unicorn Synchro, Tournament Ready!

I believe I have finally created my end-build for the Unicorn Synchro deck. After much much testing and about 5 different versions of the deck, I've narrowed down a monster lineup that I feel is the most consistent, as well as a spell and trap lineup that I feel will help the most.

For those that don't know, the Unicorn Synchro deck has a very wide monster lineup that can form into countless different builds. The choice monsters are
Chain Dog - Lock Cat - Key Mouse - Scrap Beast - Scrap Chimera - Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter - Egotistical Ape - Elephun - Super Nimble Mega Hamster - Giant Rat - Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest - Kinka Byo - and Dark Desertapir
The monsters I am running in the final version of the deck will be
Monsters 22

Chain Dog x1 Dark Desertapir x2 Egotistical Ape x2 Elephun x1 Giant Rat x2 Green Baboon x1 Key Mouse x2 Lock Cat x2 Kinka-Byo x1 Mine Mole x2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2 Scrap Beast x1 Super Nimble Mega Hamster x3

Though the scrap engine is amazing, the fact that none of the cards are search able unless you run Scrapyards like we did in Unicorn MK I make the engine too unreliable unless it is a dedicated portion of the deck. I decided to keep 1 Beast though, as it is the only normal summon in the deck that can be hit by bottomless trap hole, so it makes decent bait. Also, if it is in the graveyard for whatever reason, it instantly becomes a Desertapir target. I feel the card is better than Airbellum because of the fact that A) Rescue Cat is gone, B) Airbellum promotes Normal summoning to get in that attack effect, which could bring more harm than good, C) Airbellum cant make reliable level 5 7 or 8 synchro summons.
Elephun made a return to the deck because Giant Rat only has 2 real targets, Mine Mole and Key Mouse. The synergy between Mole and Mouse is nonexistent unless you throw in Lock Cat, so Elephun becomes a toolbox card; searched out whenever it is necessary. The battle effect is as bad as ever, and once konami releases more beast type tuners, Elephun will be the first to be dropped from the deck.
Super Nimble is by far one of the most important cards in the deck. It is one of the best turn 1 sets in the game and opens most of the deck to you. You can search out key mouse to synchro-5 if your opponent can't kill Hamster. You can search out Mine mole if you have a synchro-5-7 waiting next turn. I was originally running 2, mostly just for Ryko, but after realizing how important searching out things that ARENT ryko are I figured out that the deck can not run without 3 hamsters.

The spell and trap lineup has been the most debated part of the deck. It is difficult to figure out what Unicorn Synchro actually needs besides the core components of the deck. Unicorn Beacon and Super Rush are both very very good cards, but in this deck they simply don't flow well enough. Beacon is in the side deck to use against people who play Macro and Super Rush finds no place in the deck at all. I believe Super Rush Recklessly is designed for dedicated swarm/Baboon builds, where destroying your own monsters is practically encouraged. After a lot of testing, I narrowed the s/t lineup to this:
Spells-14 Traps-4

Book of Moon x2 Creature Swap x2 Dark Hole Gold Sarcophagus x2 Mind Control Monster Reborn Pot of Avarice x2 Soul Release x2 Compulsory Evacuation Device x2 Mirror Force Torrential Tribute

Now this isn't to say that the deck can't run 2 Solemn Warnings(which I do own) and 3 Pot of Duality. I may test them later, but out of what I really wanted to run, the above is what I think is most consistent. Avarice, Soul Release, Gold Sarc, Reborn and Dark hole are mandatory for "Unicorn Synchro. This leaves about 10-12 open spots for various other cards. So the idea is, what hurts the deck the most and how do we complement the monster lineup? High attack boss monsters are a bit of an issue. Decks that normal summon monsters they plan to attack with are not much of an issue. Constant amounts of stun aren't TOO much of an issue either because of the fact that the deck can make multiple plays in 1 turn, and then recover on the opponents turn through their attacks. Adding those facts together, the s/t lineup is less reactive than most decks(no bottomless, no Warnings) and instead I wanted to go with a more "plan B" route. That means that the cards are in there for when plays don't work the first time and the opponent has already garnered an advantage (Compulsory and Creature Swap) With only 4 traps, you would think that royal decree is a no-brainer, but I don't think that Decree is a good main-deck card in this format. There are just too many good cards available to allow space for 3 Royal Decree in your main deck.

I wasn't able to play at any locals this week, which does suck. I will be placing Unicorn Synchro on the deck pages at the top of the screen and with luck, it will become as successful as the others.

Various things.

I don't have TOO much to talk about today. So I'll give a little bit of updates. I did take Divine Armageddon to locals last week and got into top 8. I lost to D.fissure Glads and to AbZero, which was 100% my fault. The deck works very well and I was able to beat what I thought was the worst matchup for it - Quickdraw Plants. You can tell that D.A. works because a lot of time I will have 4-6 cards in my hand while my opponent is playing multiple cards per turn, all of which get nuked by Black Rose or Demise during my next turn. But as I was saying, I did lose to D.Fissure Glads (a deck I always seem to lose to), so D.A.'s side deck needs some tweaking. Right now it uses the generic deck-hating side that the Koaki deck runs, but since Koakis don't have a dedicated harmful card like other decks do, it can side cards to use solely AGAINST decks. D.A. requires a side deck that can not only punish the opponent for using a tier 1 deck, but also stop the cards used to side against itself (Macro). I did the same with Unicorn Synchro, the side-deck is no longer "tier 1-hate", it is now complementary. So basically, I will have to find cards that can replace the Salvo Destruction engine and play into the opponent's Macro Cosmos. So far, the only things I've come up with is siding into the Demise-Garland build, with Escape from the Dark Dimension and Return from the D.D.

Speaking of Unicorn synchro, real life testing hasn't been going to well. Deck hurdles are important to think about with any new deck, especially one that you can't just find on the internet. Decks suffer from pretty much the same things, just some are more important than others. It can be overcoming enemies with high ATK power(monarchs), holding comparable field advantage(Sabers, Samurai), dealing with monster effects (Herald, Quickdraw), Backrow vulnerability(Stun, Macro) and a multitude of other things. From what I've gathered so far, Unicorn Synchro has 2 serious contenders. Those are Effect Negation (Skill Drain) and it has a serious Backrow Vulnerability. Monsters aren't usually an issue with the deck's synchro performance, so we had to take out a few of the trap cards that are designed for monster-stun. Most of this has been replaced by more offensive cards, as Unicorn Synchro is a surprisingly offensive deck, though many effects activate when your monster is killed. The way the deck is played is beginning to show more and more. You take hits, and burst back. Unicorn MK II needs more testing, but I feel that we are fast on the track of the correct build.

Lastly, a small tournament in Japan had a top 4 winning Naturia deck, which is great because "Naturals" are fun cards and I would love to give them a try. Though Naturia Cliff is not out yet, Naturia Cherry was released in STBL, and that is part of the Natural arsenal. Cherry is your fuel, Cliff is your grabber, Antjaw and Bambooshoot are the win condition. Besides those 3 cards, the only thing else you really need is to stop your opponent's monsters. So the rest of the deck is mostly monster stun. This is a look at the deck that topped. DISCLAIMER: I do not condone netdecking. It is difficult to find originality in a pool of 3000 items, but playing a deck strictly because it wins prizes is my definition of "netdecking."

x1 Giant Rat x1 Medusa Worm x1 Morphing Jar x3 Bambooshoot x2 Naturia Butterfly(DT07) x3 Naturia Cliff (DT05) x3 Des Lacooda (Not sure the reasoning behind this) x1 Monster Reborn x1 Swords of Revealing Light x3 Duality x1 Trunade x3 Dark Bribe x2 Bottomless x2 Grave of the Super Ancient Organism x1 Mirror Force x1 Solemn Judgement x2 Solemn Warning x1 Wall of Revealing Light x1 Royal Oppression x1 Trap Stun x3 Fiendish Chain (hate this card) x1 Starlight Road x3 Red Screen (excessive if you ask me)

Thats a whopping 21 trap cards. Some of the cards I do not necessarily agree with, but it worked for this guy/gal.

Nordic Beasts

In many many months, Konami will spring the next set upon us, Storm of Ragnarok (STOR). Of course it is a little silly to skip ahead so many months/packs, but Starstrike Blast just has nothing for me.

Storm of Ragnarok has a couple things going for it. One is the Meta-Destroying support Six Samurai are receiving. I'm sure a few people will quit YGO the moment the cards are released, but True Six Samurai suffer from the same problem the original Six Samurai do, mass destruction. Of course with My Body As A Shield or Starlight Road on the field, spamming 3-5 six samurais in 1 turn is game clinching. But without those 2 cards, decks that easily summon Black Rose Dragon (Or Demise in our case. Divine Armageddon!) destroys the player's advantage and makes it difficult for them to get their "tempo" back.

A few new themes get support, like Karakuri, Watts and Scraps. None of it is too defining, I think a lot of cards out now are powerful enough to make those 3 decks work. Blackwings also get a couple of new cards, most of which won't see any play.

The thing we ARE excited about are GOATS AND HORSES.

From left to right:
Tanngnjostr - When a monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, when this Defense Position card is changed to face-up Attack Position, you can Special Summon 1 "Nordic Beast" monster from your Deck, except "Tanngnjóstr of the Nordic Beasts".

Tanngrisnir - When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon 2 "Nordic Beast Tokens" (EARTH/Beast-Type/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position.

Guldfaxe - If your opponent controls a Synchro Monster and you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.

This adds a 3rd Synchro engine to the beast lineup. We have Lockey, Scraps, and now Nordic Beasts. Obviously we won't use Guldfaxe for its effect, it will be just like Scrap beast and Airbellem, one of the main tuner targets of the deck. The 2 big cards are the goats Gnjostr and Grisnir. Grisnir gives you a better destruction effect that Nimble Momonga, and Gnjostr is the card that replaces Scrap Chimera, our synchro enabler. The best part is that both are searchable with MegaHamster and Giant Rat, unlike those scrap monsters. Of course, attack destruction effects are a tad slow nowadays, but the deck has to pack a bit of extra stun to keep your opponent at bay. Running triple Grisnirs means triple Super Rush Recklessly's may find their way back into the deck.

This is all barring the fact that we can use Thor in this deck, and Re-summon it from the grave twice.

Scrap Beast vs Key Mouse, and Naturia Tapir

I came to realize that there are a couple main problems with the Naturia Tapir deck. The 1st issue is Pineapple, a good card, but because the deck runs plants, the only synchro options are Splendid Rose and Queen of Thorns. Really, synchro is the main problem in the deck. Of course, Naturia Beast is a great monster to sync into, but the way how these recent beast decks work is to synchro into Unicorns very easily, which can't be done in this Naturia deck. I believe a proper "Naturia Tapir" deck would use Beast, Rose, and Queen as convenience synchros, rather than being a synchro-centric deck. That means that the rest of the deck will probably be more aggro. It may even be able to run Moja along with D.D. Crazy Beast, Bazoo, or other similar aggressive beasts that Dark Desertapir can special summon.

Focusing back onto Unicorn Synchro, I'm still contemplating Lock Cat and Key Mouse versus Scrap Chimera and Scrap Beast. Both do essentially the same thing, one card is a tuner, the other can SS the tuner from the graveyard. Pretty simple stuff.

Pros:

Scraps: Level 4 for 1-2 card synchros with Mine Mole. Searchable by Scrapyard. Basic attack rating. Synergy with Scrap Dragon, which is rare in this format.
Cat and Mouse: Evades Bottomless Trap Hole! Destruction effect, setting a key mouse on the field actually benefits me. Level 1 Tuner, so it can be used with mind control on enemy synchros to make just about anything, and let's not forget Formula Synchron in Starstrike Blast.

Cons:

Scraps: Bottomless trap hole target. Useless destruction effect that can only be used with Scrap Dragon. Can't be searched by Giant Rat, Hamster, or really anything but scrapyard.
Cat and Mouse: No attack rating. Level 1 tuner so a 1-2 card synchro leaves me with an empty field, whereas a Chimera play to make Bicorn leaves Chimera on the field.

I really need to test a few more builds. One using Cat and Mouse instead of the scrap engine, and one using both "Lockey" and Scraps in the same deck. Since Unicorn synchro uses Elephun as an intermediate tuner, they can be replaced by 2 Mice, then the only other thing is to find a replacement for 2 Cats, which may be the 2 scrapyards.

More Unicorn Synchro and Deck #52, Naturia Tapir?

Unicorn synchro is still doing well with alpha testing. I'm still 2 hamsters and 1 Naturia beast away from Beta testing the build I want. As far as the side deck goes for Macro, there still arent too many things I want to use. A couple possibilities are:
Malevolent Catastrophe
Mystical Space Typhoon #2
Imperial Iron Wall
Trap Stun

It's obvious how Iron Wall would help me out, but it also makes my Tapir engine completely dead. I'd have to side out Tapir and go with Lock Cat and Key mouse in this situation. That is why I think Catastrophe may be superior. Against pure macro(DD Survivors and crap like that) Catastrophe forces them to burn through their hand. Against an anti-meta deck, catastrophe grants me a free turn, then I'd have to deal with more stun afterward. I'm also considering siding RftDD against pure macro decks, as it is a great way to reverse the game. My monsters will have to be sided out though, which is a big problem for me.

In other news, I was thinking of a new Tapir deck that uses a few other very powerful cards. It is a Naturia deck, with Pineapple, Bambooshoot and Cosmobeet as the only normal summons. Those can be grabbed using Lonefire, Lord Poison and Giant Rat. Then Lock Cat and Key mouse make synchroing very easy, along with the typical Tapir Engine. I'll talk about it more if it jumps off.

Quickee Post, Unicorn Synchro!

It's a shame how badly Intro did at the last locals. Won 0 of the matches that mattered (1/4) and barely won anything in between. My heart is leaning back towards Koakis, Amaryllis, and Unicorn synchro. Intro may get the same treatment as Northy, a deck I would love to use at any time, once I figure out a good build for it.

What I am enjoying though is Unicorn Synchro. Seeing as I pulled my 1st Thunder Unicorn today(and 2nd Ultimate Tricorn) I feel that the deck WANTS to be played. The only cards I am missing are the 2 megahamsters in the build and 1 Naturia Beast. Everything else is fair game.

What I'm wondering though, is what kind of side decks should I prepare?
Sabers seem to be the least issue. The deck can remain the same and I could just side in Gottoms. I could even change it to pure DD Beasts, but I would have to take out the mine moles AND scrap chimera for that. Killing half the deck.
Glads and Macro sound like a problem though. None of my non-synchro monsters can attack over a Glad Beast, and Macro kills the graveyard engine. Combine the 2 together and you get an evil combo that retards my deck. The only out I see to Macro Glads are Karma Cuts or something to put their cards in the RFG zone as well as mine. Then I could side out soul release and put in RftDD and Burial to keep the engine alive. For pure macro/Anti-meta we have an even worse problem. Most of the monsters are 1200-1900, barring those who use Caius, so attacking isn't the issue. The problem is the dang D. Prisons and Smashing Grounds. Who needs high attack when theres no monsters to attack? And if i side in MBAAS and a 3rd 7 Tools, I'm facing massive damage trying to rely on 6 cards to combat 10-12.

I'll continue trying to figure out how to fight these. Otherwise, I am looking forward to playing this deck.

Last time, Kaosu was able to defeat Dark Desertapir in a round of yugimonz. This is round 2 to the fight.

Kaosu(Intro to Chaos) 8000 - Dark Desertapir (Unicorn Synchro) 8000
Turn 1- Desertapir Since Tapir lost, it will go first. The opening move is the classic "T" set, one face-down monster and one face-down s/t card.

Turn 2- Kaosu Looks like Kaosu will open offensively with a Cyber Dragon. He attacks into Tapir's Mine Mole, which isn't destroyed by battle. Afterwards, he sets 2 s/t cards and ends in the turn.

Turn 3- Desertapir Seemingly not afraid of anything, tapir summons an Elephun and synchros for 5+3, Naturia Beast, with Mole's additional Draw. Successfully summoned, Beast attacks for "Cydra". With nothing more to do, Tapir ends.
Kaosu 7900 - Desertapir 8000
Turn 4- Kaosu Kaosu does some fancy manuevers. Effect Veiler negates Naturia Beast's effect. Then he mind controls it. Summoning End Master, it looks like he plans to synchro for 8, but alas, Tapir had Torrential set. Kaosu ends the turn after that.

Turn 5- Desertapir Tapir summons a Scrap Beast, which gets trap holed. Luckily, Tapir avarice's its entire graveyard and ends the turn with another set s/t. No monsters this time. After Tapir ends, Kaosu activates CoTH to get End Master back.

Turn 6- Kaosu Summoning Sangan, its time to get the match rolling with 3+3=6(Goyo Guardian). After the synchro, CoTH is left on the field and Kaosu adds Cyber Valley(Vari) to his hand. He swings for 2800 damage and ends the turn.
Kaosu 7900 - Tapir 5800
Turn 7- Desertapir Quick turn for the Tapir. Draw a card, set a monster, end the turn.

Turn 8- Kaosu Kaosu summons the Vari in attack mode. Goyo attacks the face-down monster, which is a Hamster, that special summons Ryko from the deck, face-down. With Goyo's effect, Kaosu gets control of the Hamster and ends the turn.

Turn 9- Desertapir Somehow, Desertapir is able to turn the entire situation around. Step 1: Flip Ryko to destroy Goyo and mill 3 off the deck. Step 2: Discard Giant Rat from the hand and summon Ape. Step 3: 5+2 = Voltic Bicorn. The Bicorn easily tramples the stolen Mega-Hamster. Tapir sets 1 s/t(finally) on the field and leaves Kaosu with nothing but Vari.

Turn 10- Kaosu Kaosu attempts to Monster Reborn his Goyo back, but walks into BTH. Oh well, at least he has Vari.

Turn 11- Desertapir Pot of Avarice(don't we all just hate this card) Rat, Ryko, Hamster, and 2 Apes. After drawing 2 cards, Desertapir uses scrapstorm and summons out the SBeast it searched for. SBeast attacks Vari, which gets removed from play to draw a card and end the battle phase.

Turn 12- Kaosu Another quick turn for Kaosu. He T-sets(1 monster, 1 s/t) and ends the turn. Looks like its time for defense.

Turn 12- Desertapir Desertapir summons a Dark Desertapir, looking to do a 4+2, but the Tapir gets flipped with Book of Moon. Bicorn attacks the set monster, a shining angel that summons another angel from the deck. Beast kills that one, which summons an End Master from the deck. Desertapir sets a s/t and ends the turn.
Kaosu 7700- Desertapir 5800
Turn 13- Kaosu Kaosu opens up with another Book of Moon, this time on the Bicorn. End Master attacks the f/d Tapir which activates Master's effect to summon Byser Shock from the deck. Byser bounces all face-downs to the hand, including that booked Bicorn! Byser can't attack over SBeast, so Kaosu does a 3+5= Scrap Dragon! Dragon's effect destroys Kaosu's floating CoTH from turn 6 and destroys Tapir's Scrap Beast.

Turn 14- Desertapir Tapir is far from finished though! Using Soul Release, Tapir removes a Dark Desertapir in the grave from play to special summon Mine Mole with its effect. Next, it summons a Scrap Chimera to pull SBeast from the abyss. 3+4= Voltic Bicorn with an additional draw. Now the field is 2500 and 1700 vs 2800, but there's more left to do. Tapir decides to pitch a 2nd Chimera in the hand to SS Ape at level 1! 1+7 = Lightning Tricorn with 2800 attack power. Tricorn suicides with Scrap Dragon, then activates its effect to summon Bicorn from the grave. Then Tapir can attack directly with both Chimera and Bicorn. Finally Tapir sets 2 s/t and ends the turn.
Kaosu 3500 - Desertapir 5800
Turn 15- Kaosu If Kaosu can't turn this around its game over. He uses RotA to get Armageddon Knight from the deck and puts Level Eater in the graveyard. Now with 3 darks available, he can special summon Dark Armed Dragon from his hand and use its priority effect to destroy the Bicorn. Tapir counters with BTH, removing DAD from the game, but both players still mill 7 because of Bicorn. Then, Tapir pays 1000 LP to summon Green Baboob from the graveyard. Looks like this match is pretty much over.
Result Kaosu 1, Desertapir 1

Unicorn Synchro, Deck 47

Okay I think I've finally found the best build possible for "Unicorn Synchro." Unicorn Synchro is a beast deck that tries to recurs monsters in the graveyard and RFG zones for easy 1-2 card synchros. The main targest are Voltic Bicorn and Naturia Beast, which nets a +1 draw when used with Mine Mole, and a +2 Draw when used with Pot of Avarice.

The pre-alpha build of Unicorn Synchro used a few different cards for the Dark Desertapir engine. It used 2-3 copies of Soul Release, 2-3 copies of Unicorn Beacon, 3 copies of Future Visions, and 2 copies of Gold Sarcophagus. We have since changed it to 3 Soul Release, 2 Beacons, and 2 Gold Sarcs. The eason for this is, there just aren't enough Desertapirs in the deck to warrant 9-11 interactions with it. The current build has the (lucky)7 interactions which seems to be an ideal number. This way I can USUALLY use each one the moment I draw it, rather than getting it turn 1, which was the reason for using 11 components in the first place.

Another change we made was taking a bit of valuable knowledge from Beasties and putting it into Unicorn Synchro; and that is the fact that Scrap Beast-type monsters are ridiculous. Scrap Beast is an amazing level 4 tuner monster, with almost 0 draw back except for its searchability. Airbellum was nixed from the deck entirely and Beast was put in with 2 Scrapyard to replace the fact that Mega-Hamster can search out Airbellum. Because Beast was added to the deck, Scrap Chimera was a MUST at 4. What makes it so amazing is that unicorn synchro can easily pull a level 2-3 monster out of nowhere after a Chimera->Beast play. So your opponent may expect the go-to Scrap Dragon, but instead, I synchro into Goyo with ryko as material, or Bicorn with Mine Mole as material. Then when all else fails, we have Scrap Dragon to fall back on for some game winning destruction.

The only issues left in Unicorn Synchro are 3 cards.
1) Giant Rat
2) Unicorn Beacon
3) The "tech" trap
Giant Rat is a very good monster. It has 1400 atk, which can sneak under bottomless trap hole and check out your opponent's cards. It has an annoying recruiting effect, meaning that if your opponent wants to attack over it, they are practically setting up your strategy for you. The problem with Rat is that it only searches out 3 monsters in the deck - Elephun, Mine Mole, and itself(and Desertapir in emergencies). Not that this is totally bad, but the question is, would 1 extra Ryko and 1 extra Mega Hamster make a more powerful deck than running 2 Giant Rats?
Unicorn Beacon is also a key card in the strategy. Opponent bottomless's Naturia Beast? Beacon a Desertapir, Special summon Naturia Beast from the RFG zone, then SS the tuner from the grave, or the material. Soul Release Desertapir and Mine Mole, SS Elephun from the grave, then Beacon any card in your hand to get Mine Mole back, synchro for Thunder Unicorn then draw a card. The issue with Beacon is what to do with it when you DON'T have a monster in the RFG zone? I added in 1 Monoceros to try to fix that problem. Monoceros as the ability to turn a dead magic card in the hand into a Naturia Beast+Elephun on the field, Voltic Bicorn+Scrap Beast on the field, or any number of things with Egotistical Ape. The Utility is there, but so is the possibility of it being dead.
The Tech Trap is the 1 trap added in after I maximized the staples. I would have loved to use Super Rush like Beasties and Tapirs(the XSaber-Beast hybrid), but this deck as a supreme issue with dealing with traps. Right now I am using Seven Tools of the Bandit, as more and more people are using Solemns and Theme-specific counter traps. Trap Stun just can't keep up with those. But at the cost of 1000 LP, 7 tools at least insures my synchro can hit the field.

Anyway, Unicorn Synchro is starting to turn into just an idea(pre-alpha) into something I'm actually willing to build in real life(alpha/pre-beta). I still don't have too many details to report about "Intro to Chaos" since I haven't been able to use it in a real tournament. However, real-life testing(Beta) has been great. The deck only really slows down to decks that use even MORE s/t "monster hate" than Intro does, and it shines against pretty much anything else.

Quickee Post, Beasts + Xsabers = ?

I just realized that X-Saber Darksoul was a beast. Like Beasties, which uses Scrap Chimera and Scrap Beast as part of it's lineup, I believe that Unicorn Synchro(and another Beasties style deck) could do interesting things with Airbellum, Darksoul, and maybe even Faultroll. Unfortunately, I have trouble seeing Darksoul existing in the same deck as Mine Mole, which makes synchroing whenever possible an advantage. But perhaps Key Mouse and Lock Cat are the answer to this. With a Darksoul already on the field, Lock Cat and Key mouse can make Voltic Bicorn, same with Mine Mole. Then we'd have the option of gottom's emergency call and Desertapir to pull Darksoul out of the abyss. There's so many options, its not even funny. Whats even better, is that Darksoul grants us access to a level 6 synchro monster that ISN'T Goyo, and thats Hyunlei, and we all know how ridiculous she is. X-Saber Garsem is the 3rd beast in the X-Saber lineup. With Garsem, you could run triple Super Rush Recklessly's and be able to search out another X-saber from the deck. It creates quite a bit of space issues, however, the combos are all there. What's nice about these beast decks is the synergy between all the cards. With all these combos, what could EVER go wrong??

Tapirs

x3 Dark Desertapir x2 Egotistical Ape x2 Elephun x3 Giant Rat x2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster x2 X-Saber Airbellum x3 XX-Saber Darksoul x2 XX-Saber Faulttroll x2 XX-Saber Garsem x1 XX-Saber Ragigura x1 Dark Hole x2 Gold Sarcophagus x1 Giant Trunade x1 Mind Control x1 Monster Reborn x1 Mystical Space Typhoon x2 Pot of Avarice x2 Soul Release x2 Bottomless Trap Hole x1 Call of the Haunted x2 Gottom's Emergency Call x1 Torrential Tribute x2 Super Rush Recklessly

Changes to Deck Pages and Unicorn Synchro

I'm going to change the deck pages at the top to reflect what I am currently playing with. Those are Amaryllis, Koakis and Intro to Chaos. The other decks will always be in my mind and once I think up new strategies to increase their power, I will bring each one back. But for now, we will do the swap.


Yesterday, I mentioned briefly about Unicorn Synchro, a beast deck that attempts to synchro as a win condition, often using the RFG zone as part of the engine. It is still in pre-alpha. Right now, I am testing to make a build that is as close to being the most responsive that I can. So far, this is what I've come up with:

Unicorn Synchro

x3 Dark Desertapir x1 Egotistical Ape x2 Elephun x2 Giant Rat x3 Mine Mole x1 Monoceros x1 Naturia Pineapple x2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster x2 X-Saber Airbellum x3 Future Fusion x2 Gold Sarcophagus x1 Monster Reborn x1 Dark Hole x1 Mystical Space Typhoon x3 Soul Release x3 Unicorn Beacon x2 Bottomless Trap Hole x2 Compulsory Evacuation Device x1 Torrential Tribute x2 Trap Stun

As you can see, the deck has a few cards that are very important.
Tuners: Airbellum is usually the go-to tuner in every deck it is used in. Unfortunately, in this deck Airbellum can often be a hindrance. With Mine mole on the field, Airbellum forces you to make a non-beast synchro. He is also not searchable except by Mega Hamster, which is often a waste of resources. This makes Elephun almost more important. Then, Ape is there to supplement the small number of tuners in the deck.
Dark Desertapir: The toolbox of the deck. It's effect activates from Beacon, Visions, Soul Release, and even Gold Sarc. This enables 1-2 card synchros and sometimes even nets an additional draw through Mine Mole!
Future Visions: This card is one of the few control cards available in the deck. Since so many monsters are easily attacked over, Visions allows you to plan ahead(like the name says). Also, it is part of the synchro strategy.

Let's talk a bit about the extra deck. In it, there are:
x2 Thunder Unicorn, lv 5
x1 Naturia Beast, lv 5
x1 Ally of Justice Catastor, lv 5
x1 Magical Andriod, lv 5
x1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, lv 6
x1 Goyo Guardian, lv 6
x1 Flamvell Urquizas, lv 6
x2 Voltic Bicorn, lv 7
x1 Black Rose Dragon, lv 7
x1 Stardust Dragon, lv 8
x1 Scrap Dragon, lv 8
x1 Lightning Tricorn, lv 8
x1 Colossal Fighter, lv 8

This is all subject to change, but so far the level 5's and level 7 synchros are the most important. Sometimes, I will syncro for 8 if there is a threat, but typically I go for 5 or 7. Until konami makes a level 6 synchro beast, 6's are almost detrimental to play.

Anyway, pre-alpha(meaning still theoretical and I don't have the cards in real life). Deck is far from complete but it is so interesting, it almost makes me want to make it as soon as possible.

Beasts! Deck #46!

Beasts are a LOT of fun.
A) Tons of easy to get cards. (Some not so easy)
B) Lots of new support from DREV.
C) One of the best draw engines in the game.
D) A Synchro toolbox with 3-4 extra targets.
E) They look silly. And are even more silly to actually win with.

I've been playing with 2 Beast themed decks. One is your typical aggro beast deck with less combos and more generalized play(Aptly named Beasties for now), and the other is the combo themed RFG Synchro style deck(Aptly named Unicorn Synchro for now). Both decks have things they do very well.
Beasties uses the beast scrap monsters goblin and chimera, which have amazing synergy with super rush recklessly and green baboon.
Unicorn Synchro can synchro very easily by recycling cards in the graveyard and RFG zone. Thanks to Dark Desertapir, future visions and gold sarc, the deck can often synchro from almost nothing.

Of course, these decks are still in the pre-alpha, "for fun" stage. I'll post more about them as they do better in testing.