[YGO] Random boredom: messing with "The Dark Emperor"

[digi-kun]

ok, basic story, i became interested in this deck mostly because the the Japanese CMs that showed during the airing of GX (All Monarchs + a new (DARK) one). i ended up buying cuz of that, realized the US version of the deck decided to get rid of other monarchs, go figure
(Being said the US marketing of the deck is completely screwed up)
So ya, i bought another one (for Caius, and for excess of money) and decided to play around and build a deck around the strategy (Removing from play). Just wanna see if i can improve it more. [Oh, and all the people i know that play are far from close to metagame standards, so it's more a casual play under Ban list (being said, i only briefly scanned the ban list when making this)]

Monsters 5+ (5)
2x Caius The Shadow Monarch
1x D.D.M. - Different Dimension Master
2x Golden Homunculus

Monsters 4- (22)
2x Banisher of the Radiance
3x D.D. Assailant
2x D.D. Scout Plane
3x D.D. Survivor
2x D.D. Warrior
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
1x Dimensional Alchemist
1x Exiled Force
2x Gren Maju Da Eiza
2x Helios the Primordial Sun
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1x Morphing Jar

Spells (9)
2x D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
3x Dimensional Fissure
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Soul Release

Traps (7)
2x D.D. Dynamite
2x Macro Cosmos
2x Return from the Different Dimension
1x Torrential Tribute

Total: 43

Um, as far as playtesting goes (i've only played one deck so far anyways [oversized Dragon]), it won all but one time, when i couldn't get out one of the three graveyard deleters.

 

[MegaDitto]

As an tribute, D.D.M. - Different Dimension Master is weak. Also along with it's effect. Being that you only have 9 Spell cards in your deck. It seems like a waste of deck space.

It's not that it cannot work, because it has a lot of potential in this deck, but Golden Homunculus seems to be a waste for a tribute...

So I would take out those 3 cards to make it a even 40.

D.D. Dynamite has effectiveness in the late game but it still does make a weak topdeck during certain parts of the game.

What would help is Reinforcements of the Army due to the amount of warriors in your deck..

Helios will still be weak even if you have enough monsters removed from play..

Macro Cosmos isn't as needed as it looks being that your monsters have remove from play ablities..

D.D. Scout Plane is weak outside of Strike Ninja and it takes up field space for
Return from the Different Dimension.

Monsters(21)

2x Caius The Shadow Monarch
2x Mobius the Frost Monarch

2x Banisher of the Radiance
3x D.D. Assailant
2x D.D. Survivor
2x D.D. Warrior
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
1x Dimensional Alchemist
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1x Morphing Jar
2x Bazoo the Soul Eater
1x Gren Maju Da Eiza


Spells (11)
1x Brain Control
2x D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
2x Reinforcements of the Army
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Monster Reborn
2x Enemy Controller

Traps (9)
2x Sakuretsu Armor
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Return from the Different Dimension
1x Torrential Tribute
1x D.D. Dynamite

That's what I could think offor now with Strcture Deck cards..

 

[Alter Ego]

Umm...yeah, "D.D." isn't really a strategy on its own and you've got a lot of cards here that don't really mesh. Gren Maju and Homunculus are high-maintenance cards that require a buttload of cards to be removed before they begin earning their keep. Your deck, on the other hand, is crazily monster-dominant and terribly slow at reaching such an amount of cards, let alone getting them D.D. dumped as well. Personally, I'd say drop Homunculus and Gren Maju; those pretty much require you to center your deck around them before they really start to pay off and even those kinds of builds tend to be horribly slow. And speaking of slow...Helios really takes the cake here, as it's horrible even if you commit your whole deck to it. Just dump the little fireballs; an occasional free summon is not worth the horrid topdeck. For something that wants to keep Fissure or Cosmos on the field all the time, Soul Release is also just plain silly since you shouldn't be needing it in the first place and D.D. Dynamite, again, looks for a deck with monstrous dumping ability; again, this one doesn't deliver. D.D. Warrior also seems redundant with all the other monster removal you've already got. Kycoo, while being a good card, is really for protecting cards in your graveyard while hitting your opponent's monsters, but your deck doesn't need the former and is already accomplishing the latter anyway. D.D.M. really only wants to summon big bad beaters, but you don't have any for him so he's not doing much. D.D.R. is suffering from the same problem, so I'd say cut those; Scout Plane and Survivor should ensure that you always have the fodder you need on your field anyway. So like, at the very least...

-1 D.D.M. - Different Dimension Master
-2 D.D. Assailant
-2 D.D. Dynamite
-2 D.D. Warrior
-2 Golden Homunculus
-2 Gren Maju Da Eiza
-2 Helios the Primordial sun
-2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
-2 Soul Release

Then, to balance these losses, a card that definitely should be here in threes is Allure of Darkness; it meshes extremely well with D.D. Scout Plane while providing much-needed deck thinning and also finds a number of other targets in your deck. In short, there really is not reason not to run it here. A third Banisher is also a no-brainer since you'll want your RFG mechanic on line as soon as possible and two Reinforcement is good because it's both deck thinning and getting to Fissure's/Cosmos' favorite partner; D.D. Survivor. It can also fetch you a Warrior Lady or Exiled in a pinch. Snipe Hunter is also a good choice since it's basically turning any troublesome dead draws into instant removal fodder. Now, on the others, you'll really want to do more tributing since you're setting up plenty of opportunities for it with Scout Plane and Survivor. To that end, three copies Thestalos is a pretty good pick as hand disruption is very important these days, and a third Caius probably wouldn't hurt since it ups your dark count while adding another tribute monster to abuse Scout Plane with. Brain Control is pretty much a given for anything running monarchs, and two copies Enemy Controller should serve you well, both for tributing off Scout Plane to the control effect and for chainable emergency protection against big beaters.

+3 Allure of Darkness
+1 Banisher of the Radiance
+1 Brain Control
+1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
+2 Enemy Controller
+2 Reinforcement of the Army
+1 Snipe Hunter
+3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

And that should settle at 40 cards unless I'm mistaken. Crush Card Virus would be a prime pick if you got your hands on it, and if you want to go for the big beater D.D. recursion thing you could always Dark Magician of Chaos and other big darks (should be no shortage of those) combined with Escape From the Dark Dimension. Anyways, yeah, not my best work probably but these changes should make this deck better. Hope some of it helped. :3

 

[Frostweaver]

UDE isn't letting their precious cards go that easily. Look at how Dark Armed Dragon is a secret rare for us, and a rare in Japan >_<; I'll personally recommend...

Now remember, if you can't chain the trap, don't bother with that trap. Dark Armed Dragon will just blow it off the field anyway. Sakuretsu Armor, Bottomless Traphole and so on, are all useless (Jinzo will always be part of Dimension Fusion almost, making the bottomless suck.)


Monsters 5+ (6)
3x Caius The Shadow Monarch
1x Raiza the Storm Monarch/Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
2x Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

Monsters 4- (14)
3x Banisher of the Radiance
2x D.D. Scout Plane
2x D.D. Assailant
3x D.D. Survivor
1x Exiled Force
1x Snipe Hunter
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Spells (14)
3x Allure of Darkness
3x D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
3x Dimensional Fissure
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Reinforcement of the Army

Traps (7)
3x Macro Cosmos
2x Return from the Different Dimension
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot

Keeping the 2 Kycoo
-it's dark, so it still works with Allure of Darkness. However, it's a great defense against Dark Armed Dragon decently by stopping it from removing monsters. Direct attacks further remove monsters from play. Dark Armed Dragon itself is basically gone with that and the entire RFG mechanics around, so now we only need to worry about Dimension Fusion (but that's not saying much, Dimension Fusion wins half the time on turn 3...)

I think DDA is fine just because they do well against the non DAD decks. Gladiator Beast cries if they run into DDA instead of the Sangan they expect. Six Samurai got no muscle to wrestle with you except grandmaster and shogun.

Raiza is a strong version of Caius, so why not? Thestalos can discard and hope it can nail some crucial cards with a bit of luck.

Again, morphing jar needs to wait a turn to be used, and that's usually a bad sign in this format to be wiped by DAD.

All the other stuff is just making tribute foddlers for your monarchs. I stuck to monarch as the goal since guess that's what you expected anyway from the lucky Japanese XD;


Things that this deck will suck against: Dimension Fusion
We got no defense against it. We got no way to negate it. We are HELPING them build it up too. o_O; Then again, doubt that many decks got a solution to them, or else they claimed a SJC already.

 

[digi-kun]

so basically i can slap another $10 in and all i'd need left would be the other monarchs and Allure

Assuming i can get the other monarchs relatively easily through trade assuming about everyone has them (especially Thestalos), would there be any recommendations on what i could substitute in for the 3 Allures in the meanwhile?

Oh as a small note: none of the people here (by that i mean the socialites that are playing yugioh in the corner) have Dark Armed, would never have the luck to get it, and probably would never figure out how to play it either. Would there be any change of circumstances if the threat of dark armed was removed?

 

[Frostweaver]

Then you fight slower versions of DaD decks that uses Dark Nepthyrs instead as the primary removal engine, only nuking the back row instead of everything. If the community/geeksquad is as casual as you say, then I doubt that we will see Cyber Valley duping trick either.

Without 3 allure which is reasonable because that thing is expensive, I'll try for 2 or 3 Solemn Judgments. If Solemn Judgment is not accessible either or we worry about bad starting hand (which macro ALWAYS do at important matches), then Lightning Vortex, Enemy Controllers and the last DDA are decent follow ups.

Bottomless Traphole becomes a considerable option since they do well against Gladiator Beasts, mirror matches against RFG monarchs, and basically everything but DaD/Dark Return decks/Oppression Gadgets.

We'll have to face:

-gladiator beast: it's reasonably cheap as you can get away with just using 1 Herak and be decently fine. Test Tiger does cost some, but the entire deck together is under 200... Yeah it's still expensive, but RELATIVELY cheap compare to DaD and their allures. Not a very good match-up seeing how DD Scout plane is asking for gladiator beasts to tag out using it. Gladiator Beast is more a reactive deck, and tags out to the appropriate monster to blow up monsters/traps with Murmillo/Bestiari or build towards Heraklinos and backed up by solemn judgment for control. Also lingers around the 1800 atk power each, while if they set anything, it's going to be Hoplomus hoping for you to run into its 2100 defense. Your non-tribute line up at most clashes with them (which is fine), but none of them can get pass hoplomus and some of them like the scout planes are just asking for it. Hopefully monarch's effect can slow down the deck and safely remove the monsters from play, and Thestalos nailing Test Tiger in the hand is the best thing ever. DDA is great here to remove the monsters.

-zombies/gigaplant: both relies on cards in the graveyard, which won't be happening unless gigaplant tries for the OTK, which then hopefully you can get Kycoo out fast enough to stop gigaplant from touching the graveyard if he used future fusion or other methods to load up the graveyard before you got RFG cards out.

-oppression gadgets: if there really is no DaD around, then I recommend Mobius over Thestalos just because of these annoying guys. Oppression is painful, and along with half the deck being the back row (the only deck in today's meta still playing defensive cards), it's difficult to survive the endless trade-offs. The battle is to keep your RFG cards alive (or get them out asap after you lose yours) so you keep getting survivors and scout planes back to live the trade-offs, while you have to kill the Oppression so your survivors aren't useless. Defeat Oppression and there's really nothing they can do against all of your recursion from RFG through survivors, RftDD and DDR.

-Six Samurai: definition of swarm, but most of them only run 1 Kamon and 1 more in sidedeck, and that's the one that attacks face up spells/traps. Will probably have some problems since monarch is by default a slow deck, while they got six samurai united as their draw engine. Nothing but card effects can beat Shien though in this deck. The good thing is likewise, they don't have anything to beat monarchs either except Shien in battle, or suiciding Zanji (but only if another six samurai is also out.) Always check which six samurais they have in their graveyard to help you in making the right choices in Reasoning, if you should call 7 to stop Shien, or call 4 to stop allowing more six samurais on to the field so the other player can special summon the shien in the hand.

-mirror match (RFG Monarch)- eh what else can you do but hopefully play the deck better. Put a heavier emphasis to nail the backrow if you got to choose with Caius in case if the other person got to set the RftDD earlier than you, I guess.

-Light and Darkness Dragon- this thing is back up as a new method to fight against DaD. If you can get out RFG cards fast enough, then they can't rely on the destiny heroes or disc commander as their backbone to get out Light and Darkness Dragon. Keep their tribute fodders dead and the deck falls apart. You have the natural edge here since once again, they are pretty graveyard dependent. (assuming they don't have allure of darkness and only destiny draw, or else they just draw too fast compare to monarchs.)


Still, not playing DaD doesn't mean that Dark Return is dead. Just that they are significantly slower because their removal engine doesn't have a "destroy 3 cards" built it to the same thing. Dark Nepthyrs is most likely the one in 3 since Dark Creator is more expensive than Nepthyrs. While slower and only kills spells/traps itself, Nepthyrs does work with trade-in, so it's not surprising to see some D Hero Plasma/Nepthyr combination to imitate the DAD/Plasma build.