Rise of the Fiends

Special Monster:

• 1x Dark Necrofear

Tributes:

• 1x Great Maju Garzett
• 2x Dark Ruler Ha Des
• 1x Jinzo

Beatsticks:

• 1x Zombyra the Dark
• 2x Luster Dragon
• 1x Mad Dog of Darkness
• 1x Slate Warrior
• 1x Opticlops
• 2x La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp
• 1x Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
• 1x D. D. Assailant

Defensive Front:

• 2x Wall of Illusion
• 1x Legendary Jujitsu Master

General Effect Monsters:

• 1x Witch of the Black Forest
• 1x Penguin Soldier
• 1x Magician of Faith
• 1x Sinister Serpent

Spells:

• 1x Axe of Despair
• 1x Back to Square One
• 1x Change of Heart
• 1x Dark Hole
• 1x Graceful Charity
• 1x Harpie's Feather Duster
• 1x Monster Reborn
• 1x Mystical Space Typhoon
• 1x Pot of Greed
• 1x Premature Burial
• 1x Scapegoat
• 1x Stray Lambs
• 1x Swords of Revealing Light

Traps:

• 1x Call of the Haunted
• 1x Magic Jammer
• 1x Seven Tools of the Bandit
• 1x Torrential Tribute
• 3x Waboku

Card Summary:

     Special monsters:    1 ( 2%)
     Tribute monsters:    4 ( 9%)
     Beatsticks:         11 (23%)
     Defensive monsters:  3 ( 7%)
     Effect monsters:     4 ( 9%)
     ----------------------------
     Total monsters:     22 (52%)

     Spells:             13 (30%)
     Traps:               7 (16%)
     ----------------------------
     Total Spells/Traps: 20 (47%)
     
     ----------------------------
     Total Cards:        42

Having returned to a powerful and effective yet simple base deck last time, I made the decision to run with the somewhat weaker Fiend theme of the previous iteration and make it the focus of this new deck. My ability to finally locate the Master Collection along with some lucky pulls from the new set Dark Revelation Volume 1 enabled me to do this, and I did not regret it.

This time I faced 6 different opponents, with two of those in a Battle Royale where everyone dueled everyone else, and again I was victorious in every single duel. This gives this deck a total winning streak of 16, which is super compared to the performance of my previous decks. The competition at this play session was much more intense, as more of the older players showed up again this time. Zombies were in particular strength -- at least three of my opponents were running them as a main deck theme, and several others were using individual cards from the Zombie Madness starter as tech (especially Pyramid Turtle and Ryu Kokki). I was pleased to be able to test this iteration out against a tougher field, since succeeding means that my deck was really strengthened by the few adjustments I made.

The changes from last time are actually very few. First, I dropped Gagagigo for an extra La Jinn like I almost did to begin with, since I was now deliberately emphasizing Fiends and not simply using all of my strongest beatsticks. The extra La Jinn came in handy too, as both were removed to bring out Dark Necrofear in one of my duels. Speaking of, Dark Necrofear takes her place as the "Ace Card" of the deck. Her attack is a bit lackluster, but her effect is very nice, and her method of summoning is rather reminiscent of a certain Tier 1 deck theme I won't mention by name. Dark Necrofear being Special Summon provided extra momentum that proved very useful. Dark Elf was dropped from the beatsticks to make room for her, changing the deck balance ever so slightly.

The biggest changes in this deck were to my Tributes. Jinzo remains to combat the vicious trap problems I always have at the library, but my Summoned Skulls took an unprecedented day off. One was replaced by the second Dark Ruler Ha Des which I had hoped to have for the previous deck, and the second was removed the night before the play session to make way for the incredible Great Maju Garzett, whom you can see reviewed in today's Card of the Day review.

What worked:

• The tributes. Like last time, they were easy to summon and provided an intense amount of field-dominating power. Witch was still able to search Jinzo and Great Maju Garzett, though this never came into play this time. Jinzo saved me several times from falling victim to traps like Ring of Destruction, which have lost me some previous duels with other decks. Great Maju Garzett was unquestionably the star of the deck with his astronomical attack power. By tributing a frozen Dark Ruler Ha Des, I was able to bring him out at 4900 ATK once, to which my opponent responded by summoning Vampire Genesis. My Fiends were victorious, however, with some timely help from Back to Square One.
  
  
• The beatsticks. An endless stream of monsters with a good percentage of Fiends to provide the fodder necessary to bring out Dark Necrofear. I had more trouble keeping them on the field this time due to Spell and Trap Cards, and the new equip card Flint was giving me a lot of trouble attacking with them as well. But, they still served their purposes in one way or another.
  
  
• The defensive front. Legendary Jujitsu Master sent many monsters back to the deck, which was simply marvelous. The Walls of Illusion, which are conveniently Fiends and thus fit the deck theme now more than ever, also got a few good hits in. These guys are gonna be staples to me for a long time.
  
  
• The general effect monsters. This time I was able to combo Magician of Faith and Sinister Serpent to recycle Back to Square One and send my opponent's Vampire Genesis back to the top of his deck. Witch never showed up when I needed her in this duel. Penguin Soldier came up once during the Battle Royale, and I used him to return both of my opponents' only monsters to their hands. All in all, they proved their worth again.
  
  
• The spells and traps. No changes were made from last time, so I really don't have anything to say about them. They were great and always seemed to come to me when I needed them -- almost like the Heart of the Cards :P

What did NOT work:

• For the second time in a row, I can honestly say nothing in this deck failed me. I was afraid that Dark Necrofear would become dead weight or a bad top deck, or that my Dark Rulers and Great Maju Garzett being more or less impossible to resurrect from the Graveyard would hurt me. Neither of these became a concern, however.

Once again, the next library play session is a month from now. I have a feeling I will be looking for cards that can strengthen this deck even further, because I'll probably be sticking with it for a long time to come. Also, a new card shop is about to open in the mall here in about 5 days. This will be great, as they are planning to hold tournaments with money prizes. If I can optimize this deck enough, I just might throw my hat into the ring and test my mettle against the best opponents in this area.