Deck Profile: The Egg Turbo

Alright, so I think I've decided that every Tuesday, I'll be discussing something different, either a Deck Profile or Card of the Week sort of deal.

So today will be a Deck Profile, starting with quite possibly the most fast-paced variant of Disaster Dragon. NO, not Twilight Dragons. We'll save that for a later date.

No, the deck I'm talking about is...

Egg Turbo (aka. The Egg)

Egg Turbo is fairly simple in design. It's a Disaster Deck focused on the rightly deemed "Blue-Eyes Engine" and the control-oriented Light & Disaster Deck.

To begin, let's talk a little bit about this "Blue-Eyes Engine". For those that don't know what it does, I'll quickly run down the three cards that make up this engine.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

LIGHT / Level 8 / 3000 / 2500

[ Dragon ]

The White Stone of Legend

LIGHT / Level 1 / 300 / 200

[ Dragon / Tuner ]

When this card is sent to the Graveyard: Add 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your Deck to your hand.

So the first basic part of this engine is obvious: Get Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the hand. The White Stone of Legend, or "The Egg", the namesake to our deck, manages this easily by being able to add it from the deck to the hand whenever it's sent to the Graveyard; whether it be by battle, card effect (like Dragon Ravine or Future Fusion for example), or, as the only Tuner monster in the Deck, as Synchro Material. Even though the egg can add BEWD to the hand so easily, that isn't the whole engine. There's one more crucial piece of the puzzle:

Trade-In

Spell

Discard 1 Level 8 monster; draw 2 cards.

This is what makes it an engine. As soon as you get BEWD to the hand, you can immediately ditch it to Draw 2 more cards! Usually, if you do this, it will end up as a +1, and more importantly, it thins out the deck to make for better topdecks. I'm sure now, though, that you also recall that there is a spell similar to Trade-In, that can use the Egg as the discard cost, the card specified being Cards of Consonance.

Cards of Consonance is not used in this deck for several reasons, but I'll just get into the main two. First off, The White Stone of Legend is your only target to use as cost for CoC. In The Egg variant of Disaster Dragon, all you run is 2-3 White Stones, whereas you should be running, at a minimum, 5 Level 8 monsters to be used towards Trade-In. Therefore, as you can see, there's more of a chance of having the card you need to discard in hand to be used for Trade-In than for CoC. More importantly, and as my second point, unlike BEWD, the Egg is not searchable in this deck. While BEWD can be added by the Egg, the Egg can't be added by anything, therefore, just like the point about not having many of them, you'll rarely have it in your hand, meaning CoC is more than likely just going to sit dead in your hand for ages and ages.

So now that we've looked at the engine, let's just quickly put it in perspective of the deck. You should be running 3 BEWD, as they'll be the main discard outlet for Trade-In, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's main target for revival. As for the Egg, it's not necessary to run a full 3, but if you have space, it's perfectly fine to do so. For Trade-In, it follows almost the same line as the Egg; if there's space, put it in, though it does deserve the spot over the Egg, as you'll more than likely be running around 6 Level 8 monsters, so in my humble opinion, I would think of it first when there's an empty spot and run it @3.

Now you may be asking yourself what other Level 8 monsters you should be running alongside the Blue-Eyes Engine. There's one obvious choice, of course, and I hinted at it much earlier in this post, but there are also two techs that I'd like to also note along with an important staple to bring it all together. But first, with the best option:

Light and Darkness Dragon

LIGHT / Level 8 / 2800 / 2400

[ Dragon / Effect ]

THis card cannot be Special Summoned. While this card is face-up on the field, its Attribute is also treated as DARK. when a Spell or Trap Card is activated, or the effect of an Effect Monster is activated: That activation is negated and this card loses 500 ATK and DEF. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 monster in your Graveyard; destroy every card you control and Special Summon that monster.

Oh Light and Darkness Dragon, Chazz Princeton would be so proud. This 2800 ATK beatstick is quite possibly one of the coolest card negators around. Although it may negate virtually everything, stopping you from making certain moves, and certain cards can take out its effect before it even gets a chance (Lightsworns, cards that reveal themselves in their hand as a cost, and self reviving cards in the Graveyard), it's usually a very sound card, allowing you to force the Opponent to throw cards at it until they can get rid of it only to see it bring out another beastly monster from your Graveyard to take its place; normally Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Plus, it's easy for you to play around as well. If you have Future Fusion or Dragon Ravine already active on your side of the field when this card shows up, have no fear! LaDD doesn't negate card effects, only activations! Since FuFu or Ravine are already activated, they can still do whatever it is you want them to. But be forewarned, if LaDD gets destroyed, so do they, so if you do find yourself in a situation such as that, consider your ways around it, namely, getting rid of LaDD in a fashion that won't have it destroyed (i.e. banish it or tribute it). In The Egg variant, it's best to run this card at 2-3, depending on your preference and space.

Of course, you could also try something completely different! Here are a few techs you can use instead of Light and Darkness Dragon:

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

LIGHT / Level 8 / 3000 / 2500

[ Dragon / Effect ]

You can Special Summon this card from your hand by Tributing 2 monsters with 2000 or more ATK. During either player's Battle Step, when this card battles an Opponent's monster: You can target the monster this card is battling; banish both it and this card, then any monster banished by this effect returns to the field at the end of the Battle Phase. If the monster banished by this effect was an Xyz Monster, this card gains 500 ATK for each Xyz Material the Xyz monster had when it was banished.

What, you thought I was going to discuss Level 8 Dragons without discussing the most badass piece of art Konami may have ever made? Hell no! GEPD is, by definition, the sh*t. It's best use should be obvious, going up against Xyz monsters to eliminate their materials and give itself a little ATK boost, or removing an obstacle for the rest of your monsters to attack directly. At its worse, it's a Blue-Eyes White Dragon that isn't searchable by the Egg, at its best, it's a way to clear the field and finish your Opponent whether they've tried to defend themselves or not. Also, LOOK AT THAT DAMN CARD ART. 

Before I move onto the next card, I would like to apologize to my good friend evilfusion if my praise of this card was not endearing enough to your liking. Thank you for your time.

White Night Dragon

WATER / Level 8 / 3000 / 2500

[ Dragon / Effect ]

During either player's turn, when a Spell/Trap Card that targets this card is activated: Negate the activation and destroy it. When a face-up monster you control is targeted for an attack: You can send 1 Spell/Trap Card you control to the Graveyard; change this target to this card.

Okay, hopefully, if evilfusion was reading this, let's pray that he stopped before this, because this next sentence will probably make him take my number from me. (Giga-Brilliant is MINE!) White Night Dragon in secret rare form is the most badass looking dragon card in the game. Look at that sh*t. It was MADE for secret rarity. Anyway, level 8 for Trade-In as well as protection for weaker monsters and an immunity to any Spell or Trap card that targets it. Unfortunately this excludes Inzektor Hornet, but then again, hardly any cards do.

Now, of course, there are a few other cards necessary to bring this guys out and make them usable. Thankfully, I went over them in the last post on staples, so I can just post the images and get to it!

So, basically, you run this the same way you run normal Disaster. We have here the Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Wyvern engine. You can run that any way you'd like as long as the total of those two is 5-6. Totem Dragon is the real difference here. In this deck, you're going to want to run as many Totem Dragons as you run Level 8 monsters not named Light and Darkness Dragon, which should usually be 2-3. I'm kidding, run 3. You'll need it to make sure that you have fodder for REDMD.

There's one last important point to remember with this deck. You're going to need to use up a few spaces spent specifically for sending cards from your hand and/or deck to the Graveyard in order to send the Egg and Totem Dragon to the Graveyard in order for everything to work right. There are really only two ways you're going to do this:

Pretty simple really, I tend to run 2 Dragon Ravine and the 1 allotted Future Fusion, which tend to get the job done, but it's important for any player to test it out and find their perfect balance.

Well, that's it for this deck profile, I'll leave you off here with my own personal build.

Just a quick list here:

Monsters:

3 BEWD

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

3 Light and Darkness Dragon

3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

2 Red-Eyes Wyvern

2 The White Stone of Legend

3 Totem Dragon

Spells:

1 Book of Moon

1 Dark Hole

2 Dragon Ravine

1 Future Fusion

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Terraforming

3 Trade-In

Traps:

1 Call of the Haunted

3 Fiendish Chain

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

2 Torrential Tribute

That's all then folks, until next time, see ya!

If you have any comments or questions, contact me by commenting below or e-mail me at mnraiko@hotmail.com

Staple Cards in Disaster Dragon

Well it's been about a month since I first created this blog and I figure that it's about time to post something useful, so let us begin by talking about staples in a deck based around Dragons, more specifically staples in a Disaster Dragon deck.

The following cards are the most important for Dragon decks, more specifically for the generic build, as there are a few cards that get left out in other designs.

Let's begin with the first card.

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

DARK / Level 10 / 2800 / 2400

[ Dragon / Effect ]

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by banishing 1 face-up Dragon-Type monster you control. Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type monster from your hand or Graveyard, except "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon".

Where to start with this card? I mean honestly! Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon should be run at 3 in about every deck that has more than two dragons that can be summoned by its effect in the Main Deck; it's just that good. There are no restrictions, meaning that you can continuously Special Summon the big Dragons like Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon to beat-stick your Opponent into submission or the techs like Totem Dragon to tribute something from your hand that can't be Special Summoned or Exploder Dragon to take out any threats to your control of the game-state. And you can do this every turn, so, honestly, why wouldn't you want to run it? It's only downside is that you can't summon the monster you banished to summon it! It's the boss of the deck and shouldn't be taken below 3 in a deck except in specific situations.

There are a few different cards we can talk about next, but I think I'll stick with the one you're more likely to play as much as you will REDMD:

Divine Dragon Apocralyph

DARK / Level 4 / 1000 / 1500

[ Dragon / Effect ]

Once per turn: You can discard 1 card, then target 1 Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.

Apocralyph really gave dragons a boost when it came out in Order of Chaos. Its effect makes it easy to get what you want in your Graveyard in your Graveyard and what you want in your hand in your hand. Best of all is that if you have a card in hand and REDMD in the Graveyard, you're essentially Normal Summoning REDMD! Plus, as a DARK monster, it works great in Chaos Dragon builds as summoning fodder for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Chaos Sorcerer, Lightpulsar Dragon, and Darkflare Dragon. It's also summonable from the Deck by Summoner Monk if you happen to tech that card in too, as well as a target for Masked Dragon, meaning it's very easy to get out onto the field. Most decks will run 2, but if you're feeling lucky, want to test, or run a low Spell and Trap count, then you can try it at 3.

Well, now that we've gotten to quite possibly the two most influential cards in the Deck, let's try for something that may not be seen in every Dragon deck, but is a staple for sure in most Disaster variants:

Red-Eyes Wyvern

WIND / Level 4 / 1800 / 1600

[ Dragon / Effect ]

During your End Phase, if you did not Normal Summon or Set a monster that turn: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 "Red-Eyes" monster in your Graveyard except "Red-Eyes B. Chick"; Special Summon the targeted monster from the Graveyard.

It's a real shame the Attribute they gave to Red-Eyes Wyvern. If it was DARK like every one of its Red-Eyes brethren, it would be infinitely more usable! Now, obviously, you won't be using this card to revive Red-Eyes B. Dragon from your Graveyard, that would be meaningless. No this card has one meaning and one meaning alone: resurrect Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. That's it, there's no other reason to run this. It does have other advantages, of course, it's Level 4, making it an easy target for Summoner Monk to go into a Rank 4 Xyz or just Normal Summon a beater that can run over Jurrac Guiaba. But even then, those points pale in comparison, and in general, they're trying to meet the same function. Using it as Xyz Material can make Lavalval Chain (though not in the TCG quite yet) to dump Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon whilst at the same moment, detaching Red-Eyes Wyvern to the Graveyard, thereby completing the objective of having Wyvern and REDMD in the Graveyard at the same time. In Disaster, you should be running this card at 3 most of the time. If a build needs space, you can move it to 2 and in certain other decks, like Chaos Dragons, which utilize Lightpulsar Dragon more than most, you shouldn't need to run it at all (stupid attribute...)

Now for my namesake:

Koa'ki Meiru Drago

WIND / Level 4 / 1900 / 1600

[ Dragon / Effect ]

During each of your End Phases, destroy this card unless you send 1 "Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru" from your hand to the Graveyard or reveal 1 Dragon-Type monster in your hand. LIGHT and DARK monsters cannot be Special Summoned.

If anyone tells you that this is a bad card, smack them in the face for me, will ya? Thanks. Now our good friend Drago may not be in the same amazing category of top-tier anti-meta cards that he used to be thanks to two decks which will not be named (but involve rabbits and insects respectively), but he's still a very important card to run in any Disaster deck. Just off the top of my head, Koa'ki Meiru Drago stops Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia, Tour Guide from the Underworld, Inzektor Dragonfly plays if they didn't get rid of it with Hornet's effect, as well as Disaster's sibling decks Chaos Dragons, Twilight Dragons, and Hieratic Dragons. Unfortunately, he isn't all that he had been, so he's best run at 1, with maybe one or two more waiting in the side deck for the right matchup. I'll have an article all about him later, as there are certainly going to be questions about why he should be played.

Totem Dragon

EARTH / Level 2 / 400 / 200

[ Dragon / Effect ]

This card can be treated as 2 Tributes for the Tribute Summon of a Dragon-Type monster. If this card is in your Graveyard during your Standby Phase and you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card in Attack Position. You cannot activate this effect is there are any monsters in your Graveyard that are not Dragon-Type. If this card is Special Summoned with this effect, banish it when it leaves the field.

Now it should be obvious why this guy is so cool. If you control no monsters during your Standby Phase, you can Special Summon him, giving you a nice +1 right off the bat as well as giving you the ability to make a Tribute Summon that would normally be a -2 become a +0. It's also perfectly capable of being the target for REDMD to summon it, since it would be banished if it left the field anyway. Speaking of that banishing effect, you're also perfectly capable of Special Summoning it with REDMD and using it as tribute fodder since the effect that allows it to be used as 2 tributes works either which way. This little trick is possibly best used when running Yamata Dragon. Since Yamata can't be Special Summoned on its own, all you have to do is keep using REDMD's effect to continuously revive Totem Dragon and you'll be able to use Yamata and its amazing draw power effect to your heart's content.

Now for the card that turns Disaster into a toolbox:

Masked Dragon

FIRE / Level 3 / 1400 / 1100

[ Dragon / Effect ]

When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck.

Masked Dragon may seem pretty slow. After all, players tend to cringe and back away from the words "When this card is destroyed by battle" since in today's fast-paced game, you're more than likely to run into cards that'll destroy Masked Dragon before it can even activate its effects. But that isn't too much of a concern in Disaster, after all, there really isn't anything better. Masked Dragon can search Divine Dragon Apocralyph, Totem Dragon, itself and Exploder Dragon, as well as the only tuners you should be running, Delta Flyer, Dread Dragon, and The White Stone of Legend. With all the backrow defense that Dragons run, your more than likely going to have enough to force the Opponent to inevitably attack Masked Dragon and destroy it in battle anyway, so really, there's not to much of a reason not to run this if it works in the deck. Basic builds and their main variants should run 2-3, certain builds like those based around the Blue-Eyes Engine or Chaos Dragons should not run any.

For our last two monsters, let's work in moderation:

Exploder Dragon

EARTH / Level 3 / 1000 / 0

[ Dragon / Effect ]

When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: Destroy the monster that destroyed it. While this card is attacking, any Battle Damage either player takes from a battle involving this card becomes 0.

So its purpose should be obvious. It's perfect for setting and waiting for your Opponent to run headfirst into it and lose their monster, or sending it in Banzai-style to die and take out the opposing monster in a blazing ball of fire. It's summonable by about every card in the deck that can manage it (i.e. REDMD and Masked Dragon) meaning you can easily get it on the field to do all the dirty work that you need it to get done. You know... I love it when a card is THIS straightforward. Run one in basic Disaster builds, it'll be tough to use anywhere else.

Delta Flyer

WIND / Level 3 / 1500 / 900

[ Dragon / Tuner ]

Once per turn: You can target 1 other face-up monster you control; increase its Level by 1.

Speaking of straightforward! Actually this card takes a bit of thinking to use properly, but its basic principle is simple: Synch for a wide range of monsters. Summonable by Masked Dragon(note that it's also searchable by Dread Dragon, which searches Level 3 or lower dragons), Delta Flyer is the only Tuner you should be running in the deck besides possibly one Dread Dragon and should, like the past few monsters, only be ran in certain decks. Unfortunately, Dragons don't have too much on the side of Special Summoning tuners so, as it is, we'll have to stick with this bugger.

Now onto the two spells that you'll specifically see in Dragon decks.

Future Fusion

Spell / Continuous

Reveal 1 Fusion Monster in your Extra Deck and send, from your Main Deck to the Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on that Fusion Monster Card. During your 2nd Standby Phase after this card's activation, Special Summon 1 of that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck and target it with this card. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.) When this card leaves the field, destroy that target. When that target is destroyed, destroy this card.

Let me be very clear about my feelings for this card: I love it dearly, it is a staple in Dragon Decks and I don't know how far Disaster would have come without it, but it should be banned. With Five-Headed Dragon in the Extra Deck, Future Fusion's effect becomes "Send 5 Dragon-Type monsters from your Deck to the Graveyard and in two turns, if this card is still here, kill your Opponent." ...actually, it should totally say that. This basically means that you can send 2 Wyvern, 2 REDMD, and a Totem Dragon to the Graveyard and at the End Phase, you'll have at least one 2800 ATK beat-stick with the ability to bring out all your other monsters. Frankly, in many cases, just opening with this card means you'll win. No one really cares about the fact that it can summon Five-Headed Dragon, the main point of this card is the part where it fills your Graveyard with cards like Red-Eyes Wyvern, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Totem Dragon, or Lightpulsar Dragon. The 5000 ATK beat-stick that shows up two turns later just happens to be a cool bonus. Always run the 1 that Konami's banlist has allowed you.

Dragon Ravine

Spell / Field

Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can discard 1 card to activate 1 of these effects:

● Add 1 Level 4 or lower "Dragunity monster from your Deck to your hand.

● Send 1 Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to the Graveyard.

I can imagine that Konami had two things in mind when they made this card: 1: Dragons and Dragunity will LOVE this card. 2: It should make Dragons good enough to ban Future Fusion. Here's the thing though: none of that happened. Dragon Ravine, admittedly, isn't played in a lot of decks. Personally, I like it, I use it in a variety of different Decks. I've even ran two of them instead of Future Fusion in one of my decks (I know, blasphemy, right?). In Dragon's, it's basically a restricted Future Fusion, able to dump a monster a turn. If you open with Wyvern or REDMD, you'll be able to Summon REDMD that End Phase. It's a cool card, not the best. I like using it, but if you do, only use it at 1 bar a few decks (any that run the Blue-Eyes engine can benefit from two as well as any Disaster/Dragunity hybrid decks).

So that's it for staples. Any other cards in a Dragon deck are usually just sensical, and I can get into at a later point. I'll try to post again soon with either a card summary, a deck summary, addressing current stories involving Dragons in the meta (I know there are many of you who want me to talk about Chaos Dragons), Useful techs, or any questions you send to me.

But until then, thanks for reading and goodnight.

Questions? Contact me at mnraiko@hotmail.com