Disclaimer: This deck profile section is not how people usually play LaDD, but rather this is our own take of this deck, to showcase the diverse card pool and ideas. Overview Usually, Light and Darkness Dragon is played in Perfect Circle/D-Hero engine, there are many ways to play the card without even using the engine. While this build isn't as fast as D-Raida, it has it's own tricks up it's sleeves. With recruiter-like cards like Gravekeeper's Spy, Giant Germ, and Mystic Tomato, the deck can generate more consistent field presence by flooding numerous monsters at a time, which makes even easier to tribute summon for LaDD (or other 2 tribute monsters like Dark Magician of Chaos). Not only that, usage of Dandylion and Treeborn Frog also helps a lot in field presence. This build might look radically different from the D-Raida (D Hero + LaDD) one, but ultimately, the playstyle and goal of the deck remains the same, which is maintaining advantage. The deck have very good synergy with Creature Swap, by stealing (ideally) stronger opponent's monster and giving floaters like Tomato and Giant Germ to opponent to trigger their effects, and further build your board with tribute fodders. Despite not using Perfect Circle engine, this deck still have great synergy with the infamous Crush Card Virus, with 7 potential targets (or even 8 if you tech in Gravekeeper's Guard to even out the Gravekeeper's engine). Overall, this deck is slower, but simpler and easier to play version of Light and Darkness Dragon. Essential CardsLight and Darkness Dragon (2 Copies) The ace monster of this deck, Light and Darkness Dragon is very powerful and annoying monster to face with. With strong stats and very potent floodgate effects, LaDD will strips your opponent's advantage even further. Not only that, when it got destroyed (even by CCV when it's in your hand!), you can special summon 1 monster from your Graveyard (Ideally Disk Commander to further your advantage). Truly one of most annoying monster to fight. Be wary when you play this card, though. When you play this card, make sure that you don't play many cards in your field, since the special summon effect also destroys all cards on your field. Raiza the Storm Monarch (3 Copies) The 2nd ace monster of this deck, and easier to summon. Raiza remains the essential part of this build, due to it's powerful effect. Raiza makes you even easier to build advantage and ruins your opponent's draw, not to mention providing decent beatstick. Cyber Dragon (1 Copy) This build only plays 1 Cyber Dragon due to the deck's ability to generate more and more field advantage, which makes Cyber Dragon is not that needed in this build. Nevertheless, there are situations that you need immediate tribute fodder, or a beatstick. Gravekeeper's Spy (2-3 Copies) Graveekeeper's Spy is a great card. Boasting high defense and decent recruiting effect, you can use 2 to 3 copies of Spy to provides easy tribute fodders. You can even out by using 3 Spies and 1 Gravekeeper's Guard to make your Crush Card Virus to be more potent. Mystic Tomato (2-3 Copies) Mystic Tomato is very versatile in this build. Almost all monsters in this deck can be summoned by simply crashing the Tomato to your opponent's monster. Most of the time, you'll be summoning another Tomato, Sangan, Giant Germ or Snipe Hunter, but sometimes Spirit Reaper and Gravekeeper's Spy can be an alternative when you desperately need walls for another turn. Dandylion (1 Copy, Limited) The OCG-exclusive card that can provide instant field presence. Ideally, you want to use cards like Foolish Burial or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to immediately summon the tokens (that can be tributed next turn), but it also got great synergy with Snipe Hunter, Creature Swap, and Lightning Vortex. The tokens can also buy you time from opponent's attack. Marshmallon (1 Copy, Limited) Acts as 2nd copy of the limited Spirit Reaper, Marshmallon is a pesky wall that cannot be destroyed by battle. It can also burn opponent a bit, which is pretty handy at times. Yet, the main reason it's here is because it's provide good tribute fodder for LaDD and Raiza. Giant Germ (3 Copies) Very annoying tech monster that fits well with this deck's gameplan. It can recruit 2 copies of itself when got destroyed by battle, providing tribute fodders or wall from attacks. The burn effect might seems minor, but it can helps you win some duel. But the best potential of this card is providing fodder to activate the infamous Crush Card Virus. D.D. Crow (1-2 Copies) With so many decks depending on Graveyard set-up, D.D Crow is great inclusion to this deck. This card can easily searched by Sangan, which is can be searched by Mystic Tomato. In less ideal situation, you can also summon it by crashing Tomato and tribute it for CCV. Sometimes, D.D. Crow can also act as 5th monster in Graveyard when you need to activate Pot of Avarice immediately. Destiny HERO - Disk Commander (1 Copy, Limited) The only Destiny HERO that still essential to the list, Disk Commander effect is too good to pass. Disk Commander is ideal target for LaDD special summoning effect. By being weak DARK monster, Disk Commander also have synergy with Mystic Tomato and Crush Card Virus Creature Swap (2 Copies, Semi Limited) One of underrated card in the format, and very annoying tricks to play in this deck. Ideally, you will want to give your floaters (Tomato, Germ, Dandylion or Sangan) to generate even more advantage, but you can also give up your weak monsters (which is plenty in this deck) to steal stronger opponent monster. Foolish Burial (1-2 Copies) Gateway to some cards in this deck, like Destiny HERO - Disk Commander, Treeborn Frog or Dandylion. You can also combo it off with Premature Burial if you use another high level monsters like Dark Magician of Chaos or Jinzo. Swords of Revealing Light (1 Copy, Limited) With slower pace, sometimes you need to stall some turns to ensure your tribute fodder safe. Swords of Revealing Light provides you one-way protection and lets you to attack when you already summon your boss monsters. Another Cards to Consider Dark Magician of Chaos
DMoC is one of best card in the format. With this deck's engine, you can also tribute summon DMoC from your hand easily, but the most ideal scenario is by using Foolish Burial to dump it to Graveyard than special summon it with Premature Burial. DMoc is also an ideal target to revive with LaDD's effect. Gorz the Emissary of Darkness Not only providing 2700-ATK beastick, Gorz also immediately gives you 2 monsters in the field, which is ideal to summon LaDD. It can also provide you comeback in case your LaDD got destroyed and you still can't overpower opponent's monsters. At least, you can consider this card in your side deck. Chaos Command Magician With cards like Exiled Force and Snipe Hunter running around in the format, Chaos Command can give unexpected surprise to your opponent. Not only that, this spellcaster also negates Destiny HERO - Plasma effect! Jinzo The classic boss monster, Jinzo is also pretty good addition to this deck. With easy access to both tribute and revival, you can ruins your opponent's plan if you summon this monster at the right time. Gravekeeper's Guard While the effect is only decent at best, Gravekeeper's Guard is eligible CCV target and can be searched by Gravekeeper's Spy. Consider also add Book of Moon if you wanted to use Gravekeeper's Guard.
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When the Rug is Pulled Pulling the Rug was one of most used cards (or side-cards) in Raiza Format, and with good reasons. While it can only negate the summon and destroy normal summoned effect monsters, it requires no additional costs. And in slow, normal summon-centered meta, Pulling the Rug is a very potent card. Usage in MetagameBack in 2007, It's widely known that Monarchs rule the competitive realm. Holding powerful effect that immediately resolves when tribute summoned while only costs 1 monster, Monarchs easily slides into many kind of decks, whether it's tribute-summoned centric decks, or as techs in many different kind of decks. The most used Monarch used in this era was Raiza the Storm Monarch.
Another deck that's popular in 2007 is Gadgets. While having flimsy stats, Gadgets have effects that search each other when it's summoned. With great consistency effects and lot of supports, Gadgets became one of popular decks in this era. The similarity of those two popular decks are the usage of Normal summoning (tribute summon counts as normal summon) to trigger effects. And with it, Pulling the Rug can be a great choice to stop both of those decks (Note that Gadget effect can also be triggered by Special summoning them, though). The usage of Pulling the Rug doesn't stop there. Two of most popular cards in this format, Breaker the Magical Warrior (which found in almost all decks) and Elemental HERO Stratos (in Perfect Circle or Hero Control decks) can also be stopped by Pulling the Rug. OverviewDestiny Hero (or also called Perfect Circle in TCG) Monarchs is a versatile and flexible midrange control deck that heavily emphasizes both field control and card advantage. Considered the best deck in September 2007 in both OCG and TCG, this deck focuses on putting Raiza the Storm Monarch and another 1 (like another Monarchs, Jinzo or sometime even Vanity’s Fiend) or sometimes 2 tribute monsters (like Light and Darkness Dragon and Dark Magician of Chaos) to put pressure on your opponent’s card advantage. Due to many high level cards, this deck also generates tribute fodder by using the fast and versatile Destiny Hero engine and other monsters like Spirit Reaper, Treeborn Frog and Dandylion to ensure field presence and getting your tributes ready. Raiza the Storm Monarch has a very powerful effect, which returns 1 card from the field to the top of the owner’s deck and you can use 3 copies of Raiza the Storm Monarch in this format! Other Monarchs to consider to accompany Raiza are Thestalos and Zaborg, which help control hand and field advantage respectively. But ultimately, cards like Lightning Vortex or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast can seal the game very fast when played right with Raiza the Storm Monarch. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Raiza in 1 turn means your opponent doesn’t draw any new cards for 2 turns! With the ability to use both cards from the Destiny Hero engine and Tomato engine, this deck is also a great fit to use Crush Card Virus to gain even more advantage over your opponent. Also, many cards in this deck (i.e Dandylion, Destiny Hero - Malicious, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander and Treeborn Frog) are excellent discard fodder to use with discard effect cards like Snipe Hunter, Lightning Vortex, Destiny Draw and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Even if you use cards that aren't an ideal fit for discard cost like Monarchs, you can always recover it with Pot of Avarice or The Transmigration Prophecy. No wonder that this deck is considered the best deck in this format. While considered the best deck of this format, this doesn’t mean this deck is as easy or obvious to use as other competitive decks in this format like Gadget or Zombie, which have a very linear strategy. The Perfect Circle Monarch deck requires you to play your cards right and use each card in suitable timing. Since All Monarch monsters' trigger effect is mandatory and only activated when you tribute summon them, you have to summon them at ideal time (Be careful that cards like Zaborg or Raiza can only target themselves if there are no other targets on the field), and you don’t activate its effect if you special summon them. And other than Monarch monsters and staples like Breaker the Magical Warrior, many cards in this deck have low stats, which means there are some times you can only set your monster and especially vulnerable to cards like Nobleman of Crossout, Shield Crush, Drillroid or even Mystic Swordsman LV2. StrengthsPowerful Control Capability and Effects Monarchs are arguably monsters with the most potent effects in this format. Not only does Raiza the Storm Monarch ruin your opponent’s momentum, other monarchs like Zaborg, Thestalos or Mobius ensure you to always have control and advantage over your opponent, especially if they’re not playing Monarch deck. This is also supported by very tribute-heavy monsters line-up to ensure you can almost always do a Tribute summon in your turn. Don’t forget that this deck is also one of the best decks that use Crush Card Virus, a very potent card that can ruin your opponent’s draws or even practically instantly wins you the game sometime. And even if you ran out of monsters to use, recovery cards like Pot of Avarice or The Transmigration Prophecy will set you up once more. Versatile & Adaptable The Perfect Circle/Destiny Hero Monarch is arguably the most adaptable deck in the format. With an ace like Raiza the Storm Monarch, almost every kind of problem can be mitigated with his effect. Not only that, Destiny Hero Engine ensures you have a good hand advantage and tribute fodder to utilize. While Destiny Hero Engine is very predictable, it’s so consistent and good that there’s almost no consistent way to stop it effectively. And even if your opponent puts the stop of your engine/tribute summons, utility cards like Breaker The Magical Warrior and Snipe Hunter can save the day. With proper siding, almost any matchup is bearable. Easy to modify/sides While Destiny Hero/Perfect Circle Monarchs were practically everywhere back in 2007 (even in March 2007 Format, You can find the earlier version of this deck), there are always some differences between decks that can alter your strategy and deck’s consistency. You can try a few different things like more utility warriors, more recruiter engines, more Destiny Hero cards, more wall monsters like Marshmallon or Gravekeeper’s Spy even changing the Monarchs line-up into other tribute monsters, like Jinzo, Destiny HERO - Plasma and/or Light and Darkness Dragon. Also, some decks opt to use Foolish Burial rather than Card Trooper (Some decks even use both). Weaknesses .Predictable With all that powerful effects, adaptability and stuff, Perfect Circle Monarch is one of most predictable decks due to using many of the same cards even within the most obscure builds. Almost all of Perfect Monarch builds almost always use these same cards : 3 Raiza the Storm Monarch 1-2 Zaborg The Thunder Monarch 2 Destiny HERO - Malicious 1 Destiny HERO - Fear Monger 1 Elemental HERO - Stratos 1 Destiny HERO - Disk Commander 2-3 Destiny Draw 1-2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast Even if we count the minimum amount of that average, there’s at least 12 same cards, not counting other staple monsters like Breaker the Magical Warrior. This makes it much easier to pick the most obvious answer to the deck. Cards like Pulling The Rug (Stop all Monarchs, Normal summoned Elemental HERO - Stratos, and Breaker The Magical Warrior), The Transmigration Prophecy, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, and D.D. Crow (All of them can interrupt Destiny Hero engines in Graveyard) are popular and strong choices to counter this deck. Difficult to pilot While considered the best deck of the format, this deck isn’t as fast and easy to use as another top contender like Zombies, Gadget, Warriors or even Dark World. Mistakes on deck building, cards ratio, or even one bad or hasty decision in a duel can cost you enormous damage or even sometimes, the duel itself, especially if you are going against a very aggressive deck like Zombies or Dark World. You have to know where and when to summon your Raiza the Storm Monarch efficiently so you can use its effect at it’s finest. Essential Cards As said before, there are many variations and builds you can create to boost the power and change your strategy with. Yet, there are some essential cards and common tech choice listed below: Raiza The Storm Monarch (3 Copies) The Ace and icon of this deck (and the format). Raiza the Storm Monarch allows you to get an upper hand in field control effectively while also ruining your opponent’s chance to draw new cards for 1 turn. Raiza the Storm Monarch has an infamous combo with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to ruin your opponent’s draw and field for 2 turns, and can be even more devastating if you discard cards like Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, Treeborn Frog or Dandylion to make more plays next turn. Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (1-2 Copies) With the average big monsters ratio of your choice around 6-7 per deck for Perfect Circle Monarch, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch is one of most potent cards to fill this role. An effect to destroy any monster could come very handy, which can pop an opposing monarchs (return them so your opponent can re-use it’s effect could be disastrous sometimes), recruiters, or even pesky walls like Spirit Reaper or Marshmallon. Cyber Dragon (1-3 Copies) Cyber Dragon is a good card to ensure 1 turn Monarch play. While it’s a very strong beatstick with 2100-ATK, Cyber Dragon can be a mere 2100 Level 5 Monster that must be summoned with tributes when cards like Treeborn Frog or Spirit Reaper linger in the field. While any number of copy is pretty good in any monarch deck, you can always side 1-2 copies of this card in your side deck in case you found some match-up that can cripple your tribute fodder engines Destiny Hero Engines As mentioned above, Destiny Hero engines are the bread and butter of this engine. It provides draw power and tribute fodder consistently to this deck. It’s also one of the faster engines available in this format, which was the reason why this engine became more popular than the classic Gravekeeper’s Spy - Dekoichi engine seen in earlier Monarch decks. In this example, we also include 2 copies of Mystic Tomato to bring more consistency to this engine and some power cards like Spirit Reaper or Snipe Hunter. Dandylion (1 Copy - Limited) Limited in OCG as of September 2007, this card wasn’t available yet in TCG back in the day. While the tokens can’t be used as tribute fodder the turn it was summoned, Dandylion provides additional tribute fodder, walls and have great synergy with cards like Snipe Hunter, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Lightning Vortex, Foolish Burial, and Card Trooper, since the effect will be activated as long as Dandylion was sent to Graveyard, no matter the circumstances. Some tech you can use with Dandylion is Destiny HERO - Plasma, which can tribute the token immediately after being summoned because it’s special summoned, and has decent synergy with the Destiny Hero engine. Pot of Avarice (1-2 Copies - Semi-Limited) This card is a recovery and draw engine in one card. While it boasts powerful effects, this card can be a dead card in your hand if you get too much on early turns. Some decks only use 1 and it works just fine. Reinforcement of The Army (1-2 Copies - Semi-Limited) Arguably one of the best search spells in the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! History, even until now. Reinforcement of the Army is Semi-Limited in Raiza Format. While most builds only include one copy of Reinforcement of The Army, the 2nd copy could come very useful for consistency, especially if you include some utility warriors like Spell Striker. Brain Control (1 Copy - Limited) Take control of your opponent’s monster, use their effects/attack with them, and tribute them for a monarch. Use as many copies as you can. The LP cost is negligible due to the lack of major burn cards like ring of destruction in the format. Soul Exchange (1-2 Copies) Soul Exchange is a great card. It can tribute one of your opponent’s monsters regardless of their position. The drawback is you can’t conduct a battle phase in the turn you use this card. Since Brain Control is limited in Raiza format, having an extra card to tribute your opponent’s card does certainly help. Crush Card Virus (1 Copy - Limited) One of the deadliest trap cards of all time, Crush Card Virus has good synergies with Destiny Hero engines and cards like Sangan and Spirit Reaper. This card is very useful in both winning or losing conditions, since it destroys the opponent's powerful monsters while you can peek and destroy all drawn monsters with 1500 ATK or more on their hand for 3 turns. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast (1-2 Copies) One of the most versatile and powerful discard traps of this era, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast is a good trap to use with so many cards that gain advantage while in the Graveyard in this deck. This card forces your opponent to re-draw their card next turn, which means it’s very deadly if you use it alongside your Raiza the Storm Monarch. Common Tech Choices Light & Darkness Dragon
LaDD was one of the popular monsters to use with this deck back in the day. With some adjustment to accommodate even more 2 tributes like Spell Striker, Gravekeeper’s Spy or even cards like Nimble Momonga, LaDD can be easily summoned to your field. LaDD NEGATES EVERYTHING INDISCRIMINATELY that happens while reducing it’s attack, and summon your monster back if it gets destroyed (Destiny HERO - Disk Commander is a popular pick for this effect). Even if you don’t have any good monster to pick from your Graveyard, remember you can use LaDD as Crush Card Virus tribute fodder if you get it’s attack too low to negate everything since it also counts as a DARK monster in the field. Jinzo With so many powerful traps like Crush Card Virus, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Mirror Force and Macro Cosmos, Jinzo is a decent tech that can sometimes win you the game. Just make sure to not use too many traps yourself if you decide to include this card. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch A powerful monarch with a pesky hand destruction effect, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch is a solid choice to use with the Perfect Circle Monarch deck. While seemingly not as devastating as Raiza the Storm Monarch, Thestalos can push more hand advantage in your favor and while not ideal, it can even be summoned while your opponent has no cards in their hand and field, providing you 2400-ATK beatstick. Foolish Burial Foolish Burial provides a Graveyard engine just like Card Trooper, with less cards yet more accuracy. This card instantly provides you with powerful play, especially if you send cards like Destiny Hero - Malicious to tribute summon for your bigger monsters. Divine Wrath Divine Wrath is another discard trap with decent synergy in this deck. Not only you can discard a key card in your hand, it’s also much more versatile than cards like Pulling The Rug Card Trooper Having a beat-down card helps a lot in monarch deck. In addition to that, some of the cards in the deck are nice to mill as well. Overview Blowback Dragon is one of the solid, yet underrated cards. With respectable 2300 ATK, one tribute summoning cost and decent re-usable effect (albeit luck based), Blowback Dragon makes a decent choice in some decks. Ever since decks with cards like Reasoning and Monster Gate started to be played in past formats like Goat Format, Blowback Dragon often got compared with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch as the Reasoning-Gate Counterpart of the original LIGHT Monarch, though you can use Blowback Dragon’s effect every turn. While not as assuring as Zaborg (You can simply bust the coin flip), Blowback effect can be used once in every turn, making it sometimes potentially even more destructive than monarchs. Although the effect requires you to toss a coin three times, the chance of getting 2 heads out of 3 coins is actually 50%. Which means it is probabilistically equal to flipping a single coin. Strengths Reusable Effect One of Blowback Dragon's advantages over monarchs is the fact that you can activate its effect once per turn and not just once when it’s summoned. And even better, since Priority still in the rules, Blowback Dragon can chain its effects immediately after just summoned. Versatility Unlike Monarchs, you can use Blowback Dragon's effects regardless of method of summon, whether by Tribute or Special Summon. You can also pick any kind of card in the field, regardless of card type and position. This makes Blowback Dragon a highly versatile card to use. DARK Attribute & Machine-Type Machine monsters are notorious for synergy with cards like Limiter Removal or Overload Fusion for straight and quick OTKs, and Blowback Dragon is no exception. Even better, you can use Blowback Dragon effect first to clear your opponent's field before you use those cards to seal your opponent's fate. And being a DARK monsters with more than 2000-ATK, Blowback Dragon can be used as tribute-fodder for Deck Devastation Virus. Weaknesses One Tribute with 2300 ATK
Believe it or not, by having 100 less in ATK stats than monarchs (and most 1-tribute monsters) makes Blowback Dragon much more vulnerable to a counter-attack. In the format which Monarch rules the meta, any Monarchs can beat Blowback Dragon just by attacking over it. It's even worse if the Monarch is Raiza or Zaborg, which can remove Blowback Dragon from the field immediately. Unreliable Effect While reusable and having a choice which card to destroy is neat, relying on coin flip to get the effect work is not. While 50% chances are pretty good, it can backfire or even cost you the game if it fails. Machine-Type Being a Machine-Type is both a blessing and curse for Blowback Dragon. With Cyber Dragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon splashable and running rampant in most decks, it only takes your opponent drawing a Cyber Dragon in their Draw Phase to dispose of your Blowback Dragon and make it a minimum 2000 ATK monster to beat you with. Also, some Anti-Machine cards like System Down are always readily available. Overview Snipe Hunter, in many ways, is the spiritual successor of Tribe-Infecting Virus from the Goat Format era. With turn-player priority still on rules and a handful of good discard cards in this era, it's no wonder Snipe Hunter got Limited after his infamous performance in March 2007 format. While obviously aren't as board-breaking as Tribe-Infecting Virus, Snipe Hunter is more versatile since it can hit any cards rather than just face-up monsters. You can dispose of a strong boss monster, pesky walls or even suspicious backrow with a mere cost of 1 card in your hand and 1/3 chance of failing, which is still a good chance to get it works. Combos Another better aspect of Snipe Hunter is the pesky sniping Fiend is easily searchable. You can crash/set your Mystic Tomato to be destroyed in battle to immediately Special Summon it to field, or search it with Sangan's effect.
While dice rolls can obviously fail when it counts, Players can mitigate or even make the discard cost of Snipe Hunter advantageous with cards that are great to be discarded to the GY like Destiny Hero - Malicious, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, Treeborn Frog, Non-Monarch tribute monsters, to be Special Summoned immediately with Premature Burial or Call of The Haunted or even (back then) OCG-exclusive Dandylion. And what's even better, Snipe Hunter effect can be activated as much as you like in one turn, as long as there are cards in hand to discard. Overview Breaker the Magical Warrior has always been a staple since it's release in Magician's Force. The magic swordsman is back from his exile (it was banned on March 2007 OCG/TCG Banlist) when Raiza format started. Breaker is essentially a Mystical Space Typhoon on legs, or a decent 1900-ATK beater. Even without Spell Counter, 1600 is still a solid attacking stat that can run over some crucial cards like Snipe Hunter, Attribute recruiters like Mystic Tomato, Card Trooper, or Sangan. It can even give some pesky cards like Hydrogeddon or Banisher of the Radiance a tie without its counter intact. Combos Breaker is already a fantastic card on it's own. It almost always cuts your opponent's advantage just by being successfully summoned, since you'll often use its backrow sniping effect immediately after the Spell Counter effect is resolved. Yet, there are some fantastic combos you can do with Breaker The Magical Warrior, and it involves other magic-related cards!
Breaker & Apprentice Magician One solid and powerful combo with Breaker the Magical Warrior is with Apprentice Magician, which gives Breaker another chance to snipe more Spell/Traps, or make him a powerful beatstick once more. Obviously, you have to make sure that you already have Breaker on the field with his spell counter exhausted (Breaker can only have 1 Spell Counter max) or you have a way to special summon either one of them (like Premature Burial). You can even add more counters next turn with cards like Book of Moon or second copy of Apprentice Magician which is Semi-limited in this format. Be very wary that Breaker unfortunately doesn't get any counter if special summoned, yet Apprentice Magician can generate spell counter-giving effects while Normal, Special, or even Flip-Summoned. Breaker & Magical Dimension Magical Dimension is one of the most under-explored cards with high potential in retro formats (in TCG, it's available Reaper format onwards). Magical Dimension’s effect reads: “If you control a Spellcaster monster: Target 1 monster you control; Tribute that target, then Special Summon 1 Spellcaster monster from your hand, then you can destroy 1 monster on the field.” Breaker is one of best spellcasters to work with Magical Dimension, since it can give you a pretty good board wipe right off the bat, destroying. Good spellcasters to summon after Magical Dimension effects include : Apprentice Magician (to generate more counters if Breaker is still on the field), Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer (decent beatstick that can banish pesky Treeborn Frog or Destiny Hero - Disk Commander on opponent's GY, while preventing Destiny Hero - Malicious effect from activation), Chaos Command Magician (solid 2400 beater with immunity to cards like Snipe Hunter and Exiled Force) or even Dark Magician of Chaos (Strong 2800 beater with banishing effects, and potent choice between destroying 1 monster or recovering your vital spells) NOTE : Due to the missed-the-timing rules on "when... you can...'' on both Magical Dimension and Dark Magician of Chaos card effects, you can choose ONLY ONE of their effects. If you choose Dark Magician of Chaos' spell recovery effect, you missed the timing to activate Magical Dimension destruction effect and vice-versa. You can also choose to not activate any of them (this is pretty counter-productive most of the time, though. The only time I think of this as an ideal condition to do this is when there are no Spell cards on your GY and no monsters on your opponent's side of the field.) Breaker destroying your own Spells/Traps Notice that I said earlier that Breaker is a Mystical Space Typhoon with feet. Yes, MST specifically, not Dust Tornado, not Twister. Because Breaker can indiscriminately destroy any kind of Spell/Traps regardless of position and the ownership, including your own Spell/Traps. You might think it's counter-productive to destroy your own Spell/Traps (It is, if you have no valid reason), but there are some cards that got their effect activated when they got destroyed, like Dark Coffin or Statue of The Wicked. Also, in some stall/combo decks that use cards Gravity Bind/Level Limit Area B, Breaker can also do his magic when you don't need those cards anymore. NOTE : Even with Priority ruling, You CANNOT normal summon Breaker then immediately destroy Spell/Traps on the field if your opponent chained with cards like Bottomless Trap Hole or Raigeki Break. Because the effect that gets priority when Breaker is normal summoned is the Spell Counter addition effect, not the counter-removing then Destroy 1 Spell/Traps on the field effect. So the order of chain would be Chain Link 1 Breaker spell counter effect, Chain Link 2 Bottomless Trap Hole, as you can see you can’t declare priority anymore at that point. Overview The (machine) dragon that brings revolution and in a way, changes how the game played when Cybernetic Revolution released. Some people even said this card practically ends the Goat Format due to it's awesome effects and stats. That is true because just by being released, Cyber Dragon overshadows some of monster that regarded as powerful in Goat Format like Airknight Parshath, Vampire Lord, Berserk Gorilla, Blade Knight, Zombyra the Dark, and many else, just because it's Level 5, LIGHT, and have 2100 ATK! Cyber Dragon is an amazing addition to almost every type of deck. It can be an instant tribute fodder for monarchs, which often generates a great advantage, especially if paired with Raiza the Storm Monarch, or be a beatstick on it's own. Some decks like Warrior or Gadgets can also even play 3 copies of them to quickly swarm their field with monsters. Remember that you can only special summon this card when you have NO monsters and there are monster(s) on the opponent's side of the field. Combos Summon Cyber Dragon, tribute for a 1-Tribute monsters
This combo is one of the common things conducted by Monarch players. It generates a very good advantage, especially if you bounce back opponent's cards to the top of their deck with Raiza the Storm Monarch. But there are some good (non-monarch) cards that also work fantastic with Cyber Dragon due to their powerful effects, like Jinzo, Chaos Command Magician, or even Vanity's Fiend. Cyber Dragon + Exiled Force/Grand Mole/Snipe Hunter/Mystic Swordsman LV2 The main goal of this combo is get rid of pesky monsters, and give 2100 direct damage to your opponent's life points. While Exiled Force and Grand Mole worked with almost any kind of monsters (be wary with Chaos Command Magician, Exiled Force and Snipe Hunter can't destroy it), they didn't stay on the field. While having flimsy stats, Mystic Swordsman LV2 can easily generate advantage if you can protect it for some turns, due to your opponent's most likely will set their monsters unless they can beat Cyber Dragon. Cyber Dragon vs Any machine (including opposing Cyber Dragon) In OCG, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon already available in September 2007. Cyber Dragon can be contact-fused (fusion without any fusion spell card) with machine monsters in either player’s field into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. This makes Cyber Dragon able to counter machine decks like Gadgets, and even other Cyber Dragon. Make sure to add Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in your extra deck if you’re playing Cyber Dragon. OverviewDestiny hero engine is one of the most popular engine of the format. It serves as a draw engine, discard fodder, and a tribute engine. Elemental HERO Stratos helps you search your discard/tribute fodder: Destiny HERO - Disk Commander and Destiny HERO - Malicious. Both has great graveyard effects, with Disc Commander allowing to draw 2 cards when revived, and Malicious can be used for a tribute fodder on demand. You can use Destiny Draw to discard them and also helps you draw and refresh your hand. Given how versatile and powerful the destiny hero package is, it can splash into countless decks and is a popular option in the format. This article will discuss what is the advantage and disadvantage of the engine, when to use the engine, how to use each cards in the engine, and cards outside the engine that synergize well with the engine. Advantage Great Card Advantage A lot of cards in this engine can act as both direct +1 card advantage (Stratos/Malicious), or indirect +1 card advantage (Destiny Draw/Disk Commander/Fear Monger). Since you want Disk Commander and Malicious in graveyard more than in your hands, discarding them for Destiny Draw feels like a +1. Draw Engine/Deck Thinning The engine has a lot of searching and drawing power. You can use Reinforcement of the Army to search for Stratos, and Stratos for the other cards. Then you can use Destiny HERO Malicious to summon another copy of himself, and of course you will frequently draw 2 cards from either Disk Commander and Destiny Draw. "Free" Discard Cost You want Disk Commander and Malicious in your graveyard rather than your hand. Thus discarding them as a cost actually benefits you. Excellent Tribute Fodder One of the edge that this engine has over your typical elemental recruiter engine is that you have better control of when you can summon your monster. You can keep your Destiny HERO Malicious in graveyard until you draw your boss monster. Destiny HERO - Fear Monger is also unaffected by typical recruiter counter cards such as Hydrogeddon or Asura Priest. DisadvantageOccasionally Bricks Destiny Draw is a brick without the other Destiny HERO monsters. Additionally, you sometimes draw both of your Destiny HERO - Malicious, making both of them useless. Takes up a Lot of Card Slot The smallest Destiny HERO engine is 5 cards (1 Stratos, 1 Disk, 2 Malicious, 1 Destiny Draw), which is rather bulky compared to other engines of this format such as the elemental recruiters (1 minimum), or Apprentice Magician (3 minimum). The effectiveness of the engine increases as you put more cards into it (ROTA, Fear Monger, more Destiny Draws), however it will also takes up more card slot. Although this is often a good thing since most of the cards thins your deck and search for another card/draw. It is sometimes a problem if your opponent is countering the engine. Dependency on Graveyard If you are planning to use this engine, be prepared to side them out as your opponent might counter you with cards like D.D Crow, Macro Cosmos, and Dimensional Fissure. The EngineThere are few variations of the engines depending on how your deck is constructed and what tech cards are you using. In general here is the breakdown of the engine: Destiny HERO - Disk Commander - 1 Copy [ Limited ] Although limited, you can get this card into your hand with relative ease. Since this card is searchable by both Reinforcement of the Army and Elemental HERO Stratos, you can play basically 4 copies of this card(2 ROTA, 1 Stratos, 1 Disk Commander). Use this card when you have to discard a card for cost of cards such as Destiny Draw or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. You can draw 2 cards when this card is special summoned from the Graveyard. which makes this card ideal to be revived using staples such as Premature Burial, or Call of the Haunted. Ideally, you will tribute summon a monster (e.g. monarchs) with this card after summoning since it has low stats. His draw 2 cards effect can also be used when you needed a specific card to counter your opponent's plays. Note: Use the pre-errata version of this card in Raiza format. Destiny HERO - Malicious - 2 Copy [ Semi-Limited] Arguably the best Destiny HERO of all time, this card is almost always semi-limited soon after its release. You can banish a copy of this card in your graveyard to special summon another copy from your deck (must be from your deck). You shouldn't tribute summon this card (obviously), instead, similar to Disk Commander, use a copy of this card to pay for a discard cost, then you can activate his effect to special summon another copy of himself. It should be noted that you shouldn't use his effect carelessly since you only have 2 copies, which means you can only use his effect once per duel unless you used cards such as Necroface. Elemental HERO Stratos - 1 Copy [ Limited ] Stratos has both decent stats and powerful effects. You can search all of the other monster of this engine with Elemental HERO Stratos, and he gives you a boost in field presence. Most of the time you will be using this card to search for Disk Commander, Malicious as a setup for your play, or sometimes Fear Monger. In most cases, it is better to draw this card first rather than his search target, since you gain additional card advantage if you draw him first. Although rarely comes up, you can destroy spell/traps when you have other HERO monsters (e.g. Malicious). Making this card useful even if you have drawn most of your Destiny HEROes. Note that Stratos is searchable by Reinforcement of the Army, allowing you to play 3 copies (1 Stratos, 2 ROTA) of this card in your deck. You can also add E-Emergency Call if you wanted to. Destiny HERO - Fear Monger - 0 to 3 Copies Although you can revive Disk Commander with staples such as Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted, you might want to save those cards to revive your boss monsters. Destiny HERO - Fear Monger can act as a "monster reborn" for your Destiny HEROes. As mentioned previously, the main target of this card is Destiny HERO - Disk Commander. If you use multiple copies of this card, you can trigger Disk Commander's effect several times in a single duel. It should be noted that Fear Monger revives your monster during your next Standby Phase, making it bad to sponge battle damage, but great for comeback through tribute summoning. Additionally, since you are most likely searching him instead of drawing him, your opponent might play around this card by using cards such as Nobleman of Crossout or Fissure. Destiny Draw - 1 to 3 Copies As mentioned previously, you can discard both Disk Commander and Malicious as a cost to maximize it's potential. One of the most versatile use of that discard is to activate Destiny Draw. You can draw 2 cards by discarding one of your Destiny HERO monster. This allows you to draw your powerful cards or boss monster, which you can use Malicious to tribute summon. You can play 1 to 3 copies of this card depending on the number of your Destiny HERO monsters in your deck. WARNING: Unfortunately, you might draw your second copy of Malicious by this effect. Reinforcement of the Army - 0 to 2 Copies [ Semi-Limited ] All of the monster except for Destiny HERO - Malicious is searchable by this card. Even then, you can search for Stratos, and Stratos can search Malicious, which implies that this card can search all of the monster in this engine. Most of the time you are better off searching for Stratos instead of the other monster since you will get an extra body on the field (Stratos). However you might want to hold out your Stratos sometimes if you want to use Stratos' spell/trap destruction effect. If you have the space, use as many copies of this card as you can. Synergy CardsCrush Card Virus
Disk Commander, Fear Monger, and Malicious are potential targets for Crush Card Virus. Giving you another alternative other than using them for tribute summoning or discard cost. After tributing them for Crush Card Virus, you can use their Graveyard effect to gain even more advantage. Destiny HEROes It is not a surprise that the Destiny HERO engine works well ith Destiny HEROes. Stratos/ROTA can search them, and using more Destiny HEROes allows you to use Destiny Draw more frequently. The most commonly used monsters are Destiny HERO - Diamond Dude, Destiny HERO - Doom Lord and Destiny HERO - Dasher. Diamond Dude can yield some free draws from excavating Destiny Draw, Doom Lord can banish your opponent's pesky monster temporarily, while Dasher is useful in decks centered around high level monsters that is not Monarch (e.g. Dark Magician of Chaos). Card with Discard/Tribute as Cost/Effect Basically any good cards with discarding a card as a cost. Feel free to use cards other than Destiny Draw. Here are few examples of cards that you can use alongside this engine: Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Lightning Vortex, Raigeki Break, Card Destruction, etc. The list of available cards in Raiza Format is now up! Check it out here! There are almost 3000 cards (2944) in the format from Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 1 set (1999) to Gladiator Assault (2007) and even promo cards.
You can now check if your favorite card is in the format. Do let us know if you think we miss any card. OverviewZombie is an aggro-deck with great potential to gaining advantage through swarming and drawing cards. With Il Blud, Card of Safe Return, Book of Life and Zombie Master, Zombie decks can easily generate advantage against your opponent. With Card of Safe Return unlimited to 3, Zombies can perform multiple draws in a turn thanks to cards like Book of Life and Zombie Master. Pay attention that you have to set up your Graveyard first, though (and make sure there are monsters in the opponent's when using Book of Life). While stayed mostly similar to their TCG counterparts, Zombie decks got a crucial boost in OCG/Raiza Format version in the form of Goblin Zombie. Not only a good Zombie-type searcher, it's also a viable target for Book of Life or Zombie Master. This prolongs the Card of Safe Return draw combo (and even provides you one additional search if it's sent from field to the Graveyard once more, by any means). Here is a sample recipe of Raiza Format Zombie Deck: WARNING : This is just a sample deck list. We suggest you to try it first and see if it suits your style, and/or modify it to suits your own. The recommended number of copies is also just a general suggestion rather than absolute requirements. StrengthsSimple and Powerful Zombies are great for players who like to play a straight-forward deck. Summon monsters, swarm the field with your hordes of undead while gaining hand advantage is one of the easiest ways to play and win a duel. and while you building your advantage, you can also disrupt your opponent's Graveyard setup with Book of Life. Zombies also had decent beaters like Ryu Kokki that can be summoned easily and fight head to head with most popular 1-tribute monsters like the monarchs and even destroys a very problematic card like Dark Magician of Chaos due to its effect. There's nothing too complex to learn about Zombie deck. It's an effective, yet fun deck to play. Great Hand Advantage Thanks to Card of Safe Return, Zombie decks allow their player to draw a considerable amount of cards. This is even better with cards like Zombie Master, Goblin Zombie, and Book of Life that synergize very well and provide an additional advantage. With a good setup, drawing 3 cards every time you revive a monster from your Graveyard is achievable. Even a single activated Call of The Haunted could be big trouble for your opponent. This considerable hand advantage combined with a strong field presence could mean you can win your duel very quickly. WeaknessesToo much dependency on GY setup While Zombies can be very deadly, lack of Graveyard setups can be a serious problem. This could make Zombie players in deep trouble early game if they draw too many copies of Book of Life and/or Card of Safe Return without any monsters. This also means cards that acts as Floodgate to banish other cards like Banisher of the Radiance, Macro Cosmos, and Dimensional Fissure could kill Zombie decks since it banishes the Zombie monsters and preventing set-ups. Cards that can banish monsters like Dark Magician of Chaos also means trouble since it could make Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie useless. Sometimes, even a copy of Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer or Necrovalley could mean trouble since it prevents the Book of Life activation. Banishing effects from cards like Karma Cut, Dimensional Prison or D.D. Crow could also stop Zombies from their tracks. This is why some of PC Format Zombie players put Return from the Different Dimension on their side deck. Very vulnerable to mass-monster removal Being an aggro-swarm deck means Zombie decks often played with all monsters in face-up Attack Position. While this means Zombies are very imposing deck to face against, it's also especially vulnerable to Trap Cards like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute. Cards like Lightning Vortex can also destroys all of your monster easily. This could be even more problem if you have Il Blud as lowest ATK monster alongside with Ryu Kokki(s) on your field, since even a single Fissure could wipe out your entire field. And ironically, one of the that can counter Zombie decks strategy very well is another Zombie-type monster, Dark Dust Spirit, since it can destroys all your face-up monster and very hard to dispose of since it will go back to your opponent's hand. Too much dependency on Special Summons The main key of Zombie decks quick swarming are special summon. While this is good since you can perform as many special summons as you can in one turn, it also means cards that stop special summoning could stop Zombie decks. Royal Oppresion at 3 and Vanity Fiend can be Zombie decks worst nightmare. Essential CardsIl Blud - 1 Copy Il Blud is a great Gemini monster that can special summon a zombie monster from hand or Graveyard every turn. With the right amount of setup, Il Blud can very quickly gain you a massive amount of advantage and field presence. While this card is good, you don't really want to draw this card. Despite its great effect and swarm potential, it's a Gemini monster, which unfortunately makes it slow and tedious to make it work. Fortunately, it's a viable target for Pyramid Turtle effect and it's okay to dump Il Blud to the Graveyard, so you can revive it with Book of Life, Premature Burial, or Call of The Haunted, re-summon it and use it's effect to start swarming. WARNING: While Il Blud has a very powerful effect, make sure that you protect Il Blud. Since if it got destroyed, the monsters special summoned by Il Blud also got destroyed, which could mean clearing your field from monsters! Zombie Master - 3 Copies Zombie Master acts as both non-tribute beat-stick and your combo extender. While 1800 ATK is decent, it is its effect that makes this card a staple. Not only you can revive your monster for Card of Safe Return draw, you can also swarm the field with 3 Zombie Master if you have sufficient cards in your hand and another Zombie Master(s) in GY. And pay attention that you CAN also summon your opponent's Zombie-type monster from their GY (usually their Spirit Reaper). Due to its 0 DEF, this card is search-able by Goblin Zombie's effect. Ryu Kokki - 1 to 2 Copies Your big all-around beater. With 2400 ATK and 2000 DEF, it can withstand most Level-4 monsters and ego for a draw with monarchs and Jinzo. Even though it's a level 6 monster, it is almost never Tribute Summoned. Instead it often cheated out from the Deck (by Pyramid Turtle) or Graveyard (by Il Blud or Book of Life). It's one of the best targets for Pyramid Turtle. Though rarely comes up, its effect could sometimes handy when you're up against a strong Spellcaster/Warrior monster like Dark Magician of Chaos. Pyramid Turtle - 3 Copies The MVP of this deck. Pyramid Turtle practically can search and summon out almost all of your zombies with its Graveyard effect. Il Blud, Ryu Kokki, or even tech such as Vampire's Curse, Vampire Lord, or Lich Lord, King of The Underworld can be summoned thanks to Pyramid Turtle's versatile requirement (2000 DEF or less). Don't forget that you could also summon weaker, but useful Zombie cards such as Zombie Master, Goblin Zombie, and even Spirit Reaper with its effect. Goblin Zombie - 1 to 2 Copies The extender of this deck. While having mediocre stats, Goblin Zombie is a versatile monster with a Graveyard effect that could easily be used. You can even use it with Zombie Master and Card of Safe Return to generate an advantage. It's also a decent tribute fodder due to it's searching effect. Think of it as Sangan for zombies. Spirit Reaper - 1 Copy [Limited] A staple in many decks, and it's even better in Zombie deck! Not only it discards your opponent's hand or stall your opponent to buy time, it can also be revived with Book of Life, Zombie Master, or Il Blud for maximum annoyance. Be wary it would be immediately destroyed if summoned by Premature Burial or Call of The Haunted. As mentioned before, it can also be Special Summoned easily from the deck by Pyramid Turtle. Giant Rat - 1 to 2 Copies This mad rat is your main monster to recruit Pyramid Turtle straight from the deck. Sometimes, you don't even have to search Pyramid Turtle to your field. You can search another EARTH monsters such as Exiled Force (or even Injection Fairy Lily) instead to surprise your opponent! Card Trooper - 1 Copy [Limited] Card trooper is a great card to start your Graveyard setup. By milling a maximum of 3 cards per turn, not only do you thin your deck, but you could also dump some powerful zombies such as Ryu Kokki and Il Blud to start your combo. Card Trooper even lets you draw 1 card should it got destroyed by any means. Book of Life - 2 to 3 Copies Book of life is a very powerful card in Zombie decks. It could not only reviving your own Zombie-type monsters but also disrupting your opponent's Graveyard by banishing pesky cards like Treeborn Frog and Destiny HERO - Disk Commander. Unfortunately, as strong as Book of Life is, it also has a glaring drawback by having requirements that your opponent should have 1 monster at minimum at their Graveyard. Drawing too much of Book of Life in the early game could make it a dead card in your hand. Nevertheless, this card is too good to pass. Card of Safe Return - 3 Copies The key card that creates enormous advantages for the deck. With monsters summoned easily from the Graveyard, this card is a very powerful draw engine. You can also stack 3 of it, which give you 3 card draws per Special Summoning from the Graveyard at maximum. There are plenty of good reasons why this card got limited and even banned in future formats. Creature Swap - 2 Copies [Semi-Limited] The deck got so many low ATK cards with potent graveyard effects like Pyramid Turtle, Giant Rat, Goblin Zombie, Card Trooper, and Sangan. So, it's obvious that Creature Swap could provide you with an enormous field advantage, that's why we suggest you max-ed out this card. Not only you could steal your opponent's monster (that's often stronger than yours) to beat yours with, your monsters will activate their effects when they got sent to the Graveyard. Pay attention that Creature Swap allows your opponent to choose which monsters they would like to give control to you, though. Nobleman of Crossout - 2 Copies [Semi-Limited] Due to the very aggressive play style and decent ATK stats of zombie monsters, Nobleman of Crossout could potentially help you to win the duel very quickly by gaining more field advantage by removing your opponent's pesky set monsters like Magician of Faith, Gravekeeper's Spy, and Old Vindictive Magician. It also removes all copies of them from the decks so nobody could use it anymore in the duel. Nobleman of Crossout can also be a decent removal for defensive cards like Legendary Jujitsu Master and D.D. Warrior Lady. Tech CardsVampire Lord The classic boss monster of Zombie decks got outclassed since the arrival of Cyber Dragon after the Goat Format ended. But this doesn't mean Vampire Lord doesn't have its own strengths in Raiza Format. Vampire Lord can revive itself if destroyed by card effects, which means you can generate draws from Card of Safe Return even without any help from Book of Life. Take notice and try not to get him killed by stronger monsters or even worse, banished since it means Vampire Lord's revival loop is broken. Note that you can also try Vampire's Curse which has a similar effect (but when it's destroyed by battle instead of by a card effect) to Vampire Lord. Decayed Commander
While Decayed Commander usually pales in comparison with Don Zaloog, Decayed Commander got it's own niche and advantage over the Don. Being a Zombie-type monster means it's a viable target for both Zombie Master and Book of Life, which could help you get even more advantage. It also has a Spirit Reaper-like effect that could help you perform hand control on your opponent. |
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