Chappy's Shenanigans #3

Air Neos OTK baby.

You can view the previous edition of my shenanigans Here

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Deck Profile: Infernities

The Wild West Deck of Yugioh

Infernities are an archetype consisting of All Dark attribute monsters with mostly fiends. It prioritizes on filing its graveyard with Infernity monsters and emptying out the user's hand. This Article will explain the many strategies and techs they may utilize. Warning; Infernities are more complicated than Gravekeepers so this article will be substantially longer than My Last Deck Profile.

The Main Players

Infernities generally stick to Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Necromancer, Infernity Mirage, Infernity Beetle and Infernity Avenger. All of which are effect monsters which require an empty hand to activate. Archfiend and Necromancer hold the most important effects for getting the gears in motion.

I've seen plenty of builds running Infernity Randomizer because of it's draw effect but I personally don't think of it to be as effective as the the other five.

With Infernity Archfiend there are several advantages and disadvantages. Archfiend's effect can target any infernity monster/spell/trap. This makes it part of the consistency engine within Infernities. What it also does is open its user up for misplays if they lack the ability to properly understand the deck. While you may gain a card from special summoning it, it will place a handicap on the rest of your Infernities if you search a card you can't remove from your hand. The common play is search out an infernity monster if you haven't normal summoned yet, or to fetch Infernity Barrier/Infernity Launcher.

Infernity Mirage is the next item of this deck. Its abilities are somewhat a combination of Infernity Beetle and Necromancer. Tributing this card to summon 2 Infernities from the grave is a powerful effect that is essentially a floating Infernity launcher. What balances this card is the fact that it can't be special summoned from the grave, but there are a number of ways around this. Using Monster reincarnation is an amazing tech to emptying the hand along with getting mirage back or Hundred-Eyes Dragon, but I'll elaborate more on Hundred-Eyes Dragon after I've explained the rest of the Infernities.

Infernity Necromancer is the card that abuses the grave the most in Infernities. Its purpose is to simply special summon any Infernity that isn't itself while the users hand is empty. This effect can allow you to synchro with Beetle/Avenger, search with Archfiend, or simply create more field presence. Necromancer's stumble ability makes it a lot safer to normal summon it, with an attack of 0 and no more, being automatically swapped to defence mode is an effect that only banes Infernity Barrier but it makes up for it by special summoning a new monster in attack mode if desired. There are obvious disadvantages to this card though, such as not having a grave. This applies to Infernity Mirage as well.

There isn't much to say about Infernity Beetle. A Good card that can duplicate itself to thin out the deck and also fill up the grave. It's a tuner that makes things happen really. Even if there are no materials to synchro with, there is always the choice of overlaying into Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. The only disadvantage to beetle is opening/drawing multiples. Which can be made up for with Infernity Inferno or Infernity Launcher.

Hundred-Eyes Dragon is just a neat card that any Infernity build should run. Like many Infernity effects, it requires a decent grave. Its ability is to banish any Dark Monster under level 6 and imitate its effects. This means Dark Grepher can also be targeted along with any of the five Infernities previously discussed. Hundred-Eyes Dragon is essentially one of the most flexible cards Infernities can use and with 3000 Attack, why not?

The Support

Infernities rely on using Spells and Traps just about as much as Gladiator Beasts do. See the perks of Backrow is that you can set up to five, where as you can only play 1 Infernity Monster from your hand generally. It is the simple solution to a clogged hand.

Allure of Darkness is a fantastic tech in Infernities, not just because they're mostly Dark monsters, but because It will also remove a monster to prevent clogged hands. The disadvantage of this is that you will lose an Infernity, but the advantage generally outweighs the cost and may even gain from the cost.

Call of the Haunted and Monster reborn are obvious additions to this deck as they special summon from the grave or just loiter on the field for reduced hand presence.

Infernity Barrier is literally the best protection Infernities have, making it worthy of its name. What I can not stress more about this card is the fact that you absolutely have to be playing the deck properly in order to use it. It is not as flexible as solemn judgment, but it does cover all activation types.

Infernity Inferno = Hand Eater, Grave Filler. Absolutely necessary in Infernities. Toss out the cards you don't like and thin out your deck while you're at it. Completely Chain-able and a part of the Infernity Consistency Engine. This also explains Foolish burial being used to further thin the deck and create more targets for various Infernity effects or revival cards.

Infernity Break is yet another trap card used by Infernities that once again relies on grave presence and being empty-handed. The good thing about it is that you can select any Infernity card to activate the effect. This means you can use an old Infernity barrier instead of your monsters.

Dark Grepher is a floating Infernity Inferno, making it useful for emptying your hand and adding to the grave but a flaw that mustn't be overlooked is that grepher has little use if you hold no monsters. What makes it a risky card but also apart of the Infernity Consistency Engine is that it helps you start off but can hurt the deck if you draw it alone.

One for One is simply a tech that infernities could use considering they use avenger and mirage. If the targets for one for one were no longer in the deck, it could still be set to avoid hand cluttering.

Maxx "c" and Effect Veiler. These two cards are not exactly popular in Infernities, considering they are hand activated cards but something to consider is that maxx "c" can be sent to graveyard whenever the user wishes, while Effect Veiler only needs an opponents monster on their field during their turn. On paper it sounds situational but what are the odds of your opponent not having an effect monster out on their turn?

Next up is Infernity Launcher. This card is limited to 1 and with good reason really. It's purpose is to empty your Infernity monsters into the grave or bring back monsters you've sent to the grave. This pretty much is where your opponent feels like scooping, especially if you have a healthy Infernity grave with Necromancer and Archfiend. While a limited to 1 card doesn't seem to be all that worth it, it is searchable by Archfiend making it easier to get and easier to win.

Pretty Much Covered Eveything but some of the Side-deck so I'll just get to that now.

Debunk is sided in because sometimes you may come up against cards that rely too much on the grave to use their effects but while Infernities use the grave as their 'second hand', only Mirage and Beetle's effects resolve in the grave (Avenger's activates in there too i guess). Debunk is the answer to a lot of monsters like Grapha, Discard Search Monsters like Hecatrice, Elemental Hero Captain Gold, and what would bother Infernities the most; Effect Veiler and Maxx "C".

Snipe Hunter is side-decked incase the deck comes across monsters that can't be destroyed by battle and the like. It's an easy to piece together tech as snipe hunter can discard an unlimited number of cards. Snipe Hunter can also be replaced by Fabled Raven if you desire as Raven can also empty a hand of monsters if need be.

Lastly, Mind Crush. I personally don't like main-decking mind crush, but Infernities are one of the few archetypes that can profit substantially off this card. Simply put, Mind crush can empty a hand but it can also be set back by the fact that you can't activate this without a hand.

All of my praise if you're still reading this attentively. Thanks for reading, Until next time.

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Promotional Card From Tag Force 6: Crimson Blader

Crimson Blader
FIRE AttributeWarrior/Synchro/Effect Level 8 2800/2600
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Your opponent cannot Normal or Special Summon Level 5 or higher monsters during their next turn.

A great Level 8 monster with a very interesting effect, useful in any deck that Synchro Summons. With 2800 ATK, same as Scrap Dragon's, not much gets over it in battle, and if it kills a monster, then your opponent will not be able to Special Summon anything big as a response to Crimson Blader.

Large targets include Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, Master Hyperion, Archlord Kristya, Dark Armed Dragon, basically any Synchro monster, and Fusion Monsters. The card provides just a little bit more protection against those cards by preventing them. Sure, your opponent could decide to not summon a monster for you to destroy, so they can try and get their boss monster out the next turn, but is it worth taking 2800+ direct damage, potentially? In Plant Decks, it's very easy to take advantage of an empty field, with cards such as Trishula, Spirit Reaper, and other cards that knock cards out of your opponent's hand, possibly knocking that boss monster out of their hand, foiling their plans.

Weaknesses that this card has is that it obviously does not stop XYZ summons, though not many XYZ monsters currently can get over Crimson Blader, with the exception of Wind-Up Zenmaines, and Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction (but that card is bad unless you have a Skill Drain active on the field, or something). Sure, there are XYZ monsters that have effects that can destroy it, but often they need Level 5 or higher monsters to Special Summon them.

That's all for now, not much else to discuss, currently.

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Debunk

Sorry for the lack of updates, I personally have school. Also I'm very lazy.

Debunk
Counter Trap
Negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect that activates in the hand or Graveyard, and remove it from play.

I've recently been testing Debunk for my side deck and I've seen excellent results. It hits so many decks in the meta hard enough, I've even considered main decking it. The only thing stopping me is how it can end up as a dead card, slowing down my deck. I would consider it for the main deck of a Counter-Fairies build.
Large Targets
While it hits several main deck staples like Effect Veiler, Gorz, and even Maxx "C", it also can break the backs of entire engines.
The plant engine is broken by this card. While Lonefire Blossom can still work through a Debunk, usually giving them a Formula Synchron; cards like Dandylion, Glow-Up Bulb, and Spore all fall at this card.
T.G. Variants also die to this card. Not only does it stop all T.G. searching business, but it also cuts off Reborn Tengu. Unfortunately, it cannot stop them from special summoning Striker, then Warwolf, then normal summoning Rick Ross and going into Trish.
Fableds and Dark Worlds all get smashed by this card, as all of their effects activate in grave or in hand.
X-Sabers get cut off from Darksoul and Emmersblade, shutting down their set ups for large synchro plays.
Blackwings lose Vayu, which is arguably their best card at this point.
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Light Pulsar Dragon

Taking a break from Rescue Rabbit for a bit to discuss a recently spoiled card that is claimed to be broken by many.

Light Pulsar Dragon
6 Star Light Dragon/Effect
You can banish 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your Graveyard; Special Summon this card from your hand. You can send 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your hand to your Graveyard; Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Level 5 or higher DARK Dragon-Type monster from your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.

Basic Overview
This card's power comes from how easily it can get out, into the grave, and out again. Dragon's have access to two major cards that get them into the grave, Dragon Ravine and Future Fusion (for Five-Headed Dragon). With either of these cards, you can pitch a variety of cards that assist Pulsar. For example, with Dragon Ravine you can pitch both a Light and Dark Dragon, then Banish both to summon Pulsar. Pulsar almost always will grab REDMD, and REDMD will almost always grab Pulsar, they complement each other perfectly. Since Pulsar's effect can never miss timing, there are a wide variety of ways to pitch it and get value. These destructive elements are what has lead to the deadly Pulsar FTK.

Pulsar FTK
The concept of Pulsar FTK is to get out REDMD, Pulsar, and (Toon) Cannon Soldier, or Pulsar and Cannon Soldier with a REDMD in Grave. You then sack Pulse for Cannon, get out REDMD, then SS Pulse back with REDMD and sack REDMD then Pulse, Rinse and Repeat. The deck also has synergy with a slew of great FTK cards, like Toon Table of Contents, Trade-In Blue-Eyes and Consonance White Stone.These cards are commonly referred to as the Deep Draw Dragon engine, and they fit perfectly with this deck.

Non FTK Tricks
In addition to having a whole FTK, this card has several other easier combos.
Enemy Controller: You can sac Pulse for Econ to take control of a monster for a turn and then summon a REDMD
Plaguespreader: Plague + Pulse = 8 Star Synchro and a REDMD. Summoning Plague then SSing Pulsar with 2 REDMD in grave can lead an easy OTK.
Glow-Up Bulb: You can synch Bulb with Pulse to make Black Rose Dragon, pop the field and then get a REDMD once the field is cleared off.
Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon: You can tribute REDMD and Pulse for this guy, then resummon REDMD with Pulse eff and then get Pulse with REDMD effect. That's 8300 damage.
Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute: You can pop the whole field with one of these and then get back REDMD with Pulse, then get Pulse with REDMD.

In conclusion, Pulsar will probably get Cannon Soldier and Toon Cannon Soldier banned just as Sams got Mass Driver banned, as the only practical use Cannon has at this point is to pop out a busted FTK, and without him Pulsar just becomes another good dragon instead of a broken combo piece.

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Gladiator Beasts: Totally Not My Furry Fetish

Gladiator Beasts are without a doubt one of the most amazing archetypes ever created in Yu-Gi-Oh. They are what is called a "toolbox," which is a group of cards that you have access to that can certain situations. Gladiator Beasts can be aggressive, and can be a control deck, and it isn't uncommon for the deck to switch from one play style to another in mid-duel. Gladiator Beast monsters all have a "tag" effect, in which at the end of a battle phase (including your opponent's), if the Gladiator Beast monster attacked, or was attacked, and was still present on the field, you could return it to the deck ("tagging"), and Special Summon from your deck another Gladiator Beast monster with a different name as the one you tagged. GBs that you tagged in gain effects from being tagged, such as Gladiator Beast Laquari, a 1800 ATK monster. His effect states that when he is special summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast monster, his original ATK becomes 2100.

When the deck first came to be, Gladiator Beasts were an anti-meta deck, which got use out of Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, and Gladiator Beast Heraklinos, and hid behind multiple Solemn Judgments. There was no Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, or Essedarii. They came around later, Gyzarus first, and Essedarii, coming out on May 10th, 2011, with all of the Extreme Victory cards. Nowadays, Gladiator Beasts are fast, powerful, and have many options in their main deck, and have lots of ways to take care of different problems.

There are lots of ways to run Gladiator Beasts. Most Gladiator Beast decks run a low amount of monsters, typically 13-16 at most. They run a lot of search cards, as well as a lot of spells, and traps, almost all of which negate things, or destroy a card, or generally just make your opponent lose a card, such as Bottomless Trap Hole, or Solemn Warning. The following are ALL Gladiator Beast variants, all of which play differently, for the most part, and some are more competitive than others. They are:

Prisma Build: Very aggressive, Elemental HERO Prisma's effect can turn himself into either Gladiator Beast Bestiari, or a Gladiator Beast Laquari, and coupled with another Gladiator Beast, you can make a Fusion Gladiator Beast monster very easily. Uses Test Tiger to tag monsters (Including Elemental HERO Prisma)A Hero Lives makes Special Summoning a Prisma or Elemental HERO Stratos easy, and then you can Normal Summon, and make a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus or Essedarii.

Tigerless Build: The anti-meta toolbox. You don't run Prismas, nor Test Tigers, and you just run 11-13 Gladiator Beast monsters, and some tech monsters, such as Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Doomcaliber Knight, and King Tiger Wanghu. The deck negates EVERYTHING.

Dimensional Fissure Build: This deck shits on Dark World, Plants, any deck that relies on the Graveyard. They all need the Graveyard to work, and if D-Fissure sends any monster that would be sent to the Graveyard to the remove from play pile, then cards that get effects that activate in only the Graveyard are dead cards . It's extremely anti-meta. You can even tech in Guardian Eatos.

Icarus Gladiator Beast Build: The deck makes great use of Icarus Attack, by running many Winged Beast monsters, including Gladiator Beast Bestiari, Equeste, and even Lanista, a very interesting Gladiator Beast. You can add in Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, too, and halve a monster's ATK/DEF permanently, and then play Icarus Attack, tribute the Gale, and destroy two cards (perhaps spells and traps), and play a Gladiator Beast to get over the monster whose ATK/DEF you halved.

Respite Gladiator Beast Build: The deck runs three Gladiator Beast Respite, which you use to recycle dead cards in your hand, and can turn a shitty hand into something amazing. It's an extremely consistent deck. You can return a Gladiator Beast Respite to the deck with the Respite that you play, even, and then return the Respite you used with Gladiator Beast Equeste.

Counter Gladiator Beast Build: This build uses a lot of Counter Trap cards, to negate EVERYTHING. You then can add Van'Dalygon the Dark Dragon Lord, and make great use of it, having an awesome 2800 ATK beater that can do either 1500 burn damage to your opponent, destroy a card your opponent controls, or Special Summon a monster in your Graveyard, such a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, if it was properly summoned and was perhaps destroyed earlier. You would get the Gyzarus effect from Special Summoning him, and thus destroy two more cards, potentially. Dark Bribe and Divine Wrath are both really good cards for Counter Glads.

Equip Gladiator Beasts: The last variant I'll discuss is not a competitive build, but is still very fun to play anyways. You play with the Gladiator Beast Equip Spell cards, Gladiator Beast Spartacus, and plenty of Gladiator Beast Hoplomus. You can even use Elemental HERO Prisma to copy Spartacus and make the Fusion Monster Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz.

All in all, Gladiator Beasts aren't the best deck in the game, but they are the most difficult to play, as one misplay can cost you the game. You need to know how to deal with a specific deck, and you need to know how your cards work, too. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to play Gladiator Beasts efficiently, but if you do, you will be rewarded with many victories. Stay classy.

-Brian

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Deck Profile: Ratbox Samurais

A format ago Six Samurai decks were a force to be reckoned with. Six Samurai decks were praised by some, and hated by others but both sides could agree that the deck itself was one of the more consistent decks of the format.

Fortunately for the sake of the game they took a pretty lofty hit from the new banlist. Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En was limited along with Shien's Smoke Signal. Even after the banlist Six Sams are still around, only not as strong.

Usually for Six Samurai decks staples are as followed: x3 Kizan, x3 Kagemusha, and x3 Kageki. All Six Samurai decks use this as a standard, more or less. The rest of the Six Samurai cards are put in depending on what kind of a deck you want to have. As you can tell, I side deck Kageki, merely because I'm use a Ratbox variant in my deck. A Ratbox deck is a toolbox variant that centers around bringing out monsters from Giant Rat's effect. All of the Six Samurai in this deck are Earth so that I can exploit their explosive swarming and synchro into the Naturia monsters, Barkion and Beast, to lock down my opponent according to what kinds of backrow they have.

This deck is fairly consistent, it has a lot of swarming ability with Kizan, and Grandmaster being able to special summon themselves when I have a Six Samurai monster out. There's one thing though, Grandmaster is limited to where you can only have one of the card out on the field at a time. Elder of the Six Samurai is practically a level 3 Cyber Dragon with the ability to special summon itself if you control no monsters, but your opponent does. Spirit of the Six Samurai is a Union monster that gives Six Samurai monsters 500 attack, and lets you draw a card when you destroy a card. This can be very helpful, since Grandmasters attack is 2100, and when you add the 500 to the original attack, it allows you to defeat strong and annoying monsters like Stardust Dragon and Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. In place of Kageki I run Marauding Captain because he can summon all monsters level 4 or under from my hand, and is not limited to Six Samurai monsters and it's also an Earth monster that helps for Naturia Beast. Giant Rat speaks for itself, I can use him to special summon Kagemusha, Marauding Captain, Spirit of the Six Samurai, Elder of the Six Samurai or Neo-Spacian Grand Mole. Grand Mole is a great card in that his effect allows you to "bounce" monsters, or return them to the hand when the monsters battle. This can work especially good against Synchro monsters, since instead of going to the hand, they are sent back to the Extra Deck and have to be Special Summoned again. I also run two Effect Veiler because it has pretty much become a staple, in the ability to stop effects for one turn. In some cases like Caius the Shadow Monarch or Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier that have Trigger Effects which activate when they're summoned, and don't activate every turn, Effect Veiler can stop them completely, which is an amazing asset to have especially if you're close to pushing for game.

The Spells for the most part of self explanatory, staples like Monster Reborn, Dark Hole, Book of Moon, x2 Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm. There are also the Six Samurai spell cards that you usually run, like Gateway of the Six Samurai, Shien's Smoke Signal and Six Samurai United. Spell cards that I run that AREN'T staples are ones that I feel run fairly well in this deck, like Forbidden Lance and Miracle Synchro Fusion. Forbidden Lance is a phenomenal card which can thwart cards like Mirror Force and Dark Hole, although taking away 800 attack which is most cases is completely worth it. Miracle Synchro Fusion is kind of an odd card, I use it to summon Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste. Equiste is a 3200 beater, that lets me take the effect of Dragon Type Synchro monsters for a turn. It's good if you have a clear field and a Dragon Synchro monster and a Warrior monster in your graveyard, which you'll usually have since this deck is predominantly Warrior, and you'll be synchro summoning into Naturia Barkion a lot in this deck.

The Traps are pretty much staples as well in that you have Solemn Warning and Judgment, Mirror Force, and Torrential Tribute. Trap cards that are becoming staples like Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush which can cripple an opponents hand early in the game. There are also the Six Samurai traps Musakani Magatama and Double-Edged Sword Technique which explain themselves if you read them.

My Side Deck consists of x3 Kageki, x1 Maxx "C", x2 D.D. Crow, x1 Naturia Landoise, x1 Mind Control, x1 Mystical Space Typhoon, x1 Debunk, x1 Solemn Warning, x1 Bottomless Trap Hole, x1 Mind Crush, and x2 Call of the Haunted. Most are kind of self explanatory, you use Maxx "C" if you're going against decks that special summon a lot. D.D. Crow and Debunk cripple decks like Dark World and Fabled. The rest are pretty much extra staples just in case you need them in game two and three.

The Extra Deck reads x1 Ally of Justice Catastor, x1 Brionac, x1 Naturia Beast, x1 Naturia Barkion, x1 Driven Daredevil, x1 Stardust Dragon, x1 Trishula, x1 Black Rose Dragon, x1 Scrap Dragon, x1 Shi En, x1 Gem-Knight Pearl, x1 Number: 39 Utopia, x1 Steelswarm Roach, x1 Number: 20 Gig-Anto Brilli-Ant and x1 Draco-Equiste. Catastor, Brionac, Beast, Barkion, Stardust, Tishula, BRD, Scrap and Shi En all speak for themselves. I run a Driven Daredevil since he's a level 7 synchro monster that I can go into without having BRD, and that his effect allows him to get over a lot of cards. Utopia and Roach are staples, and I run Gig-Anto Brilli-Ant mainly because I was doing test runs against decks for that spot and his effect allowed me to win against an Agent deck 2-0.

Pretty much overall, the deck is fairly consistent and allows for huge plays, even though you DO want to play conservatively this format. It has some flaws since it's just now coming back from being knocked down from the banlist. I don't think you'd be topping Regional Tournaments with this deck, but I'd say you could still win using Six Samurai even though everyone tries to say that they're dead because their boss monster was limited.

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