Deck Analysis 1: The Means to an End

Hello all, my name is Dante Kestrel. This series is mostly a way of showing off some decks that aren't necessarily in the mainstream circulation, but when built correctly, can definitely contend with some of the big names. With that worthless intro out of the way, we can get right to the decks.

The general consensus in the dueling community is that the best way to beat your opponent is to swarm them with pure monster force. But it's not the only way to do things. One of my favorite ways to beat one is to turn their monsters against them, however possible. This first deck is going to showcase this is a variation of the Spider archetype.

The Spiders are designed to work well with taking advantage of having all your opponent's monsters in Defense Mode. When I first set out to do this, I pretty much threw in every card from the set, with the occasional Birdman or Plaguespreader here and there. But after teching through some of those cards, I saw that something like this just wouldn't work out practically. There needed to be some sort of union of other Insects to make this all work like a nice hive of creepers that you'ld probably never touch.

Now Who's Getting Stepped on?



Main Deck: 41 cards (Yes, it's not an even 40 cards. Deal with it.)

Monsters x 21

2 x Insect Knight
1 x Aztekipede the Worm Warrior
1 x Beetron
1 x Brain Crusher
1 x Cross-Sword Beetle
1 x Genex Ally Birdman
1 x Grasschopper
2 x Howling Insect
1 x Informer Spider
1 x Maxx "C"
2 x Mother Spider
2 x Pinch Hopper
1 x Plaguespreader Zombie
1 x Sangan
1 x Shield Worm
1 x Spyder Spider

Spells x 11

1 x Dark Hole
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Insect Imitation
1 x Monster Reborn
1 x Mystical Space Typhoon
1 x Reasoning
1 x Solidarity
1 x Spiders' Lair
3 x Stumbling

Traps x 9

1 x Bottomless Trap Hole
1 x Call of the Haunted
1 x Curse of Anubis
1 x Dark Bribe
1 x Mirror Force
1 x Regretful Rebirth
1 x Scrubbed Raid
1 x Solemn Warning
1 x Tragedy


Extra Deck: 15 Cards

1 x Black Rose Dragon
1 x Blood Mefist
1 x Genex Ally Triforce
1 x Gravity Warrior
1 x Underground Arachnid
1 x Evilswarm Ouroboros
1 x Fairy King Alverd
1 x Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
1 x Inzektor Exa-Beetle
1 x Lavalval Chain
1 x Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1 x Number 39: Utopia
1 x Number 50: Black Corn
1 x Snowpeak Giant
1 x Wind-Up Zenmaines


Side Deck: 15 Cards

1 x Anteatereatingant
1 x Dark Spider
1 x Effect Veiler
1 x Gigaplant
1 x Ground Spider
1 x Naturia Fruitfly
1 x Relinquished Spider
1 x Insect Imitation
1 x Insect Neglect
1 x Fiendish Chain
1 x The Huge Revolution is Over
1 x Chronomaly Crystal Xenoform (Mouthful, isn't it?)
1 x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 x Muzurhythm the String Djinn
1 x Number 16: Shock Master


Breakdown:

Main Deck:

In retrospect, this deck is more of an Insect deck in general than a Spider deck. In any event, the main idea of this deck is to try and use those Defense Position monsters you're forcing on your opponents via Stumbling or Curse of Anubis against them. Cross-Sword Beetle is a great opener, as most people end up placing something facedown on their first turn, which can be punished. Similarly, Pinch Hopper can be a blessing in almost any hand, as long as it can get to the grave. In almost any situation, a wisely placed Pinch Hopper can turn into a huge Brain Crusher or a killer Grasschopper to turn the duel around.

As building blocks, Howling Insect and Informer Spider do a great job. Battle isn't the only cause of destruction these days, but a good Insect destroyed by battle can get you a strong defense like Shield Worm (not to mention that free deck mill to piss off your opponent a bit), or another piece to a bigger puzzle, like a nice Pinch Hopper. Similarly, Informer Spider provides a moderately good defense against weaker monsters early on with it's 1800 attack, along with the fact that it'll take any of your opponent's monsters if it's sent to the Grave by any effect. Did Informer Spider get destroyed by Mirror Force? I'll take a free monster. Did Informer Spider get destroyed by my Call of the Haunted? I'll take a monster. Did it get destroyed by Catastor. Well, you get the idea by now.

Brain Crusher and Doom Dozer are definitely two of the biggest heavy hitters of this deck. Using Reasoning and Pinch Hopper gets Brain Crusher out, if you can't tribute, and Doom Dozer only takes two insects in the grave, which is amazingly simple with this deck. Insect Imitation can also get out Brain Crusher from a well-placed Mother Spider, and using it's effect, you can disable many of those pesky graveyard effects like Grapha.

Genex Ally Birdman is almost crucial to a good strategy in this deck, when paired with the right cards. Underground Arachnid would seem like a hard Synchro monster to summon, under normal circumstances. But, throw in an Birdman along with that Howling Insect to get out a nice eight-legged Spell/Trap negating beatstick. At the same time, having Birdman in this deck allows for Genex Ally Triforce in the Extra Deck, which is incredibly easy to summon with just Birdman and a level four monster. Provided it's an EARTH type, like most the monsters in this deck, it does just as well as Underground Arachnid, just with more attack. Be careful when using this card though, as filling your grave with non-Insect monsters early leaves you with much less uses for Mother Spider, other than getting it out via Tribute or Pinch Hopper.

While we're on the topic, Mother Spider can be considered one of your main assets, along with Stumbling, as it'll take out literally any monster with it's effect, provided it's allowed to be targeted. Stumbling may seem a crutch when you have to wait an extra turn, but that turn is worth it when you see that your monsters are still standing when your turn comes, and that Mother Spider can take out two monsters for you so it can be summoned out to the field. Now, some people may question why Beetron is included on this list, given how situational it seems. But, keeping in mind that there are so many continous spells like Stumbling, Spiders' Lair and Solidarity, it'd be a waste not to add it in. Especially after that Solidarity becomes useful a few turns in when an Xyz or Synchro's stuck in the grave.

Insect Knight proves a great combo with Curse of Anubis, as it's immune to it's effects and allows for free kills on those opportunities that you can't grab a Mother Spider or there aren't enough monsters to summon one. Aztekipede, Maxx "C", Shield Worm, Spyder Spider, Plaguespreader Zombie and Sangan round out the support... but their effects pretty much speak for themselves.

Extra Deck:

Before complaining that Stardust Dragon isn't in the Extra Deck, considering the forced slow nature of the duel that Stumbling brings on, Blood Mephist works well at dealing extra damage when you can't get those attacks in. Black Rose Dragon just guarantees that you'll be clear when you really have too many monsters on you for anything else to handle. Gravity Warrior rounds out the Synchro side by giving the enemy a good reason to fear the Battle Phase. With so many monsters going into Defense Position, Gravity Warrior can pull out of them from under the rug and force them to attack, giving you some great damage. But Undergroud Arachnid is by far the best Synchro in this deck, as it's the easiest to get out, as well as my personal favorite. Something about snatching up your opponent's monsters, and using them as a personal shield, with no Spells/Traps to counter the following attack is very satisfying.


Rounding out the Xyz's, there are some more unorthodox choices here both for originalities's sake, and also to round out some of the weaker attackers when Solidarity isn't out. Lavalval can get you either Birdman or Plaguespreader for an easy Arachnid, or if you need some more insects in the grave for Doom Dozer. The beauty of having Synchros in this deck is having the opportunity to use Inzektor Exa-Beetle, without having to cram more unnecessary monsters into the main deck. And with so many EARTH monsters, Alverd and Snowpeak Giant would be wasteful not being in the deck. Instead of throwing in a Shock Master or Thunder Spark Dragon, Ouroboros serves to fill out the attack gap of most 2400-2500 monsters. All of the other Xyz's simply add more power, or can destroy things that the other monsters can't on their own.

Side Deck:

If you want to add a different sort of strategy to this deck, the Side Deck covers pretty much all the angles. Depending on your opponent, whether they use more monster effects, you'll have to adjust accordingly. Effect Veiler, Fiendish Chain and Shock Master will help if they rely more on monster effects. Anteatereatingant and Insect Neglect work well against prospective Spells and Traps, especially Equips. Gigaplant and Leviair are both useful if you're running into RFG decks and need some extra help. Insect Neglect in particular is great if you need to dawdle away strong attackers, and it pairs well with Leviair. Overall, it's important to find your own mix. Some of these cards may not suit the user, and others serve to hinder where for others, it helps.

Weaknesses and Counters

This is the portion of the analysis where we discuss what's wrong with this deck, and there are definitely ways that this one falls short to others. The deck has a tendency to rely on fishing out cards from the deck. Anything that blocks that such as Thunder King Rai-Oh or prevents you from summoning from the deck will pose a problem. At the same time, Remove-From-Play decks also pose a problem as most of your effects will rely on your monsters getting to the grave first. In most cases, the easiest way to get rid of them would be to just destroy the cards outright. If your MST's have already been washed up, Black Rose Dragon is a great way to get rid of all that, just mind the collateral damage. Of course, if you find yourself stuck with those field clearing spells like Heavy Storm, that's where the Huge Revolution is Over kicks in. One of those fancy cards in the Side Deck that'll save your life if played correctly. It was hard not to put this in the main deck, because it is a great card, and if you need some real negation, this is the card to do it.


And I've probably put way too much into this page than necessary. But, better to be overprepared than underprepared. If you've got any questions, additions, complaints, or ideas, feel free to leave me a private message, or reply to this thread. Let's keep the hate mail in the other academies.

See ya next time,
Dante the Omnipotent One in Training