quinta-feira, 7 de março de 2013

D-Machina - A Machine Duplication Deck


TORNAMENT - REGIONAL PORTO
PLAYER - BERNARDO GUERREIRO "ARAWN"
RESULT - 5/2

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BERNARDO GUERREIRO
"ARAWN"

I first saw this deck concept on duelistgroundz a couple of weeks ago. I was impressed with its originality at the time, but, not having tested it myself yet, assumed it was probably a bit too slow for the format. Once my curiosity got a hold of me and I went ahead and tested, I realised I had dismissed it too early. 

I was looking at the deck as a combo-oriented deck that depended too much on Machine Duplication; what I hadn't realised yet was that Machina Fortress + equip (Gearframe/Peacekeeper) is actually a really complicated lock for most decks to deal with. Hell, even Fortress on its own is pretty strong. Think about it: Firefists can handle Fortress with Bear, but not without giving up a card in hand. If Fortress is protected by an equip, they won't even be able to destroy it. Dino Rabbit simply doesn't have an easy out to this. Mermails have an easier time, because of Big Eye, but they'll still have to give up a card in hand. If they do steal your Fortress, if you manage to crash another Fortress into that one, you'll be able to destroy 2 cards, so that's still a pretty good trade. Catastor is another out, but again, it can't deal with Fortress + equip.

After a few changes/improvements, I decided to take this build to the Porto Regional, where I was expecting a lot of Firefist and Dino Rabbit (and sure enough, that was the case). Heroes was also popular, which again don't have an easy out to the "Fortress lock". I ended up X-2 and qualifying for the European Championship. Not the greatest score, but the losses weren't dramatic; I drew 0 monsters 2 games first round, when I run 20, which resulted in the first loss. The other loss was due to me choosing what turned out to be the wrong play between 2 possible plays. The deck ran very smoothly throughout the event, however.



But the deck can do a lot more than what I described above. The "broken" card of the deck, Machine Duplication, has 4 viable targets, all of them discardable for Fortress, and each of them giving you something different with duplication:
-> Armored Cybern: probably the best target, as it gets the engine rolling by making Debris Dragon live, and allowing you to go into Gear Gigant X and get Machina Gearframe straight to your hand. It also allows you to go into Shockmaster and Lightning Chidori.
-> Cyber Valley: draws deeper into the deck to get to the agressive parts. It's the least necessary to the strategy, so I usually sided it out (normally for Rykos). It's a Debris Dragon target, which can be relevant if it hit the Graveyard and you have duplication in your hand, as you'll be able to draw 4 cards with 2 (Debris + Machine Dup).
-> Card Trooper: applies a lot of pressure to the opponent, getting rid of beaters, and allowing you to draw cards, plus sometimes mill a Fortress or Armored Cybern. It is also a Debris Dragon target.
-> Machina Peacekeeper: searches out Machina Gearframe, and equips itself to Fortress for the "Fortress lock". If you start with Peacekeeper + Duplication + Fortress + another machine, you can make impenetrable fields with 3 Peacekeepers giving you 3 Gearframes, or Gachi Gachi +  Fortress equipped with Keeper.

Debris Dragon is the other star of the deck. With Armored Cybern in the Graveyard, you can go straight into Lightning Chidori (!), Maestroke, Cowboy, Abyss Dweller; essentially, an instant Rank 4 suitable to the situation at hand. It can also go into Iron Chain Dragon and Orient Dragon (as an instant out to Catastor) or Black Rose Dragon. In addition, Debris Dragon -> Level 6 Dragon  + Call / Reborn for Debris gives you a Trident Dragion play that can catch people off guard.

Between the various Gearframe plays, the Machine Duplication abuse, the Debris Dragon combos and the great targets for Call of the Haunted, this deck is constantly applying pressure onto the opponent by putting strong monsters on the field that are hard to deal with. 

Two more things. First, I want to explain why I played 43 cards, something I'm not usually comfortable with. I felt like the deck had a lot of search power between its various plays, and sometimes you had hands with a lot of milling. You also have to play 3 of each Machine Duplication target, which not only means you occupy a lot of space easily, but also means it's not that easy to side out. Playing more cards allowed me to have an easier time siding out, but it also gave me the ability to play 2 cards that I felt were very important in the deck: Forbidden Lance and Limiter Removal.

Secondly, I'd like to point out some of the deck's weaknesses, which are mostly these:
-> Dimensional Prison: You have to play around this card, because a Prison on a Fortress with an equip can simply lose you the game. Forbidden Lance is important against this card.
-> Macro Cosmos, Banisher and Dimensional Fissure: most of the deck is graveyard-oriented, so you have to be able to have a healthy graveyard. Ryko and backrow hate are crucial against these.
-> Thunder King Rai-Oh: you need your searches, so Rai-Oh can be annoying sometimes. Ryko and traps are important to deal with him.

Most traps can hurt your plays, but in general you can play around any other card, just like you can with other decks. 

So that's it! You'll have a lot of fun trying out this deck, and I believe it's competitive, at least for right now. If you have any questions, let me know.


BROKEN TEAM                          

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