Deck Doctor: Trapless Scraps!

Hey guys, I'm starting up a new segment on the blog both as a means to keep more fresh, interesting content coming and to keep myself sharp on strategies and decks I wouldn't normally consider. It's called “Deck Doctor”, and I'm sure you've all seen something similar to this before. Basically, it works like this: readers submit their deck lists to me, no matter what they might be (the more unheard of the better, actually! I love learning about new decks I haven't seen before), and I'll take a look at them and go in-depth with some changes to help better the deck and the overall strategy.

So, our first submission comes from Daegor42 over on the WBO forums, in the form of his “Trapless Scraps” deck! First up, the decklist as it stands now:

Monsters: (31)

3 x Scrap Beast
3 x Scrap Chimera
3 x Scrap Goblin
2 x Scrap Golem
2 x Scrap Searcher
2 x The Tricky
2 x Cyber Dragon
2 x Level Eater
2 x Treeborn Frog
2 x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3 x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 x Necro Gardna
1 x Card Trooper
2 x Battle Fader
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Magic: (9)
2 x Scrapstorm
1 x Charge of the Light Brigade
1 x Giant Trunade
1 x Cold Wave
1 x Monster Reborn
1 x Foolish Burial
1 x One For One
1 x Dark Hole

First Impression:

Wow, what a monster heavy deck! I'm a fan of monster heavy builds myself (I'm primarily a Lightsworn player competitively), and I also just recently built my own Scrap build. The first thing that jumps out at me after looking at the deck list is that it lacks protection! Running a lot of monsters is great, as monsters are what win games, but monsters are nothing at all if you don't have any way to keep them on the field! Also of note, Daegor42 has chosen to run both the Treeborn Frog and Level Eater techs to fuel his Scrap Dragon's effect. I don't particularly like this, as both Treeborn and Level Eater by themselves have the potential to be dead draws. I like the idea for the deck, but as an archetype Scraps inherently rely on the graveyard, and though there are 3 Ryko and a Card Trooper present, complimented by Charge of the Light Brigade, that's not nearly enough fuel to get the deck moving properly. Also, a 31/9 ratio for monsters to magic is way too much!

Proposed Changes:

+ 3 Book of Moon, + 2 Enemy Controller, + 1 Scrapstorm, + 1 Scrapyard, + 1 Tragoedia, + 1 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, + 1 Pot of Avarice, - 2 Battle Fader, - 2 Treeborn Frog, - 2 Caius, - 2 The Tricky, - 1 Necro Gardna, - 1 One for One.

Breakdown:

Book of Moon is an absolute must in more or less every deck, but especially in a Scrap build. Now, some of you might find this strikingly obvious and already want to stop reading, but here's the thing: Book of Moon isn't played the same way in this deck as it is in others. You should almost never be using it to protect yourself from a direct attack, unless you really can't afford to let a LP change go through. Both Book of Moon and Enemy Controller are here simply to protect your monsters, which are all relatively weak compared to other competitive archetypes currently present in the meta. Scraps are unique in that they generally only summon 1-2 monsters in a turn, and making a Scrap Dragon play, which is the absolute bread and butter of the deck, is already costly in terms of card economy. If you put a Scrap Dragon on the field, you'll want to make sure you can keep it there for longer than a turn, and Book of Moon and Enemy Controller will both go a long way in making sure that that happens.

Scrapstorm is a card that must be run at three, period. It's the single best support card that Scraps have, and it's perfect for setting up your graveyard for Scrap Chimera plays. My favorite thing to do is to target Scrap Beast with Scrapstorm, send Chimera from my deck to the graveyard, destroy Beast and gain its effect, adding back Chimera to my hand. It's a reverse search, and the best part is that it's unstoppable. Even if the opponent chains Book of Moon to Scrapstorm, all of Scrapstorm's effects resolve separately, so Scrap Beast doesn't have to be face up for Scrapstorm to resolve, and your opponent has effectively wasted a Book of Moon. The same combo works with a Scrap Goblin on the field.

Scrapyard is infinitely worse than Scrapstorm, but it's still worth teching at one, solely for the times when you need to search a specific tuner. Even though the deck is very consistent and runs most of its creatures at three, there will still be times when you don't open up with the Tuner that you need, and Scrapyard can really help get you that crucial card you need. Also, if worse comes to worse and Scrapyard is dead, you can always set it as a target for Scrap Dragon's effect!

As for Tragoedia, I'm amazed it wasn't already present! Tragoedia and Card Trooper are two of my absolute favorite cards, and I'm very strongly of the opinion that you cannot run one without the other. In this deck, which runs almost nothing but monsters, you'll almost always have a large hand to support Tragoedia, not to mention you run very little protection, so Tragoedia will almost never be dead! It's also fueled by Card Trooper's draw effect. If you open up a game with both Tragoedia and Card Trooper in your hand, you're already in a prime position to gain advantage. Summon Trooper, mill three with priority, hopefully milling a Scrap Beast or a Scrap Goblin, and let it sit. The opponent will have to destroy it, you'll get to draw a card, replacing the Card Trooper, AND you'll get to drop a 3,000 attack Tragoedia, which is almost unstoppable as it triggers in the damage step. See what I mean? These two cards should never be played alone.

Finally for our additions, I've chosen to add in a teched Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. As I mentioned in my First Impression, the original deck list had quite a bit of mill present, but Super-Nimble Mega Hamster will only help you, and on two fronts! First, it has great defense that most popular monsters won't be able to get over, and it also allows you to special summon a Ryko. This might not sound like much, but when you flip that Ryko on your next turn, wipe out a backrow, then summon Scrap Beast to synchro with Mega Hamster into Scrap Dragon for the first time, you'll see how great it can be. You've effectively cleared two of your opponent's cards and it only cost you one card to do it – Mega Hamster. You'll have a dead Ryko face up that you can target with Scrap Dragon's effect, and your opponent's field will likely be clear for a direct 2800 attack. Good stuff!

Pot of Avarice is also another card that is more or less a staple in Graveyard-based decks. I like to call it a Pot of Greed in disguise, as it's one of the last straight +1's in advantage left in the game. Because this deck runs so many monsters and its core strategy works out of the graveyard, it's a great choice to replenish both your deck and your hand. I'm only playing one here, because Scraps generally want to keep quite a few of their monsters in the graveyard, so at two it might run the risk of being dead.

For our removals, here's a re-cap: - 2 Battle Fader, - 2 Treeborn Frog, - 2 Caius, - 2 The Tricky, - 1 Necro Gardna, - 1 One for One. Battle Fader is a great card, and not a bad choice, but with both Gorz and Tragoedia now in the deck it's more or less worthless. We've also added in more protection in the form of Book of Moon, Enemy Controller and Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, so Battle Fader is really unnecessary. Because Battle Fader is gone, this also makes running Caius redundant, as Battle Fader is its primary mode of being summoned. Caius is a great card, but it doesn't really do anything to benefit the theme or the overall strategy of this deck, so I chose to cut it. Treeborn Frog is a great tech in Scrap decks because it's able to be reused and abused with Scrap Dragon's effect, but because both Treeborn and Level Eater were in this deck, I chose to drop Treeborn in favor of Level Eater for one good reason: Level Eater has a much higher utility. What I mean by that is, say you have a Scrap Dragon on the field, you can “eat” its level with Level Eater to special summon Level Eater from the graveyard, and then target Level Eater with Scrap Dragon's effect. But it doesn't stop there, Level Eater can be brought out by eating a Scrap Golem's level as well. If you special summon a Scrap Goblin or Scrap Beast with Golem's effect, you can make an instant 8 star synchro (aka Scrap Dragon), with an immediate target for its effect. Level Eater is just more versatile and useful, which is why I chose it in favor of Treeborn.

The Tricky is also a great splash idea here, as it allows you to discard dead Beasts or Goblins to setup future plays, and its also a special summon which can lead to an instant Scrap Dragon or Scrap Twin Dragon play. However, it's a costly effect, and one that can be stopped easily by a Bottomless Trap Hole or a Book of Moon, costing you three cards (if you summoned a Tuner to synchro with The Tricky) and only costing your opponent one. Cyber Dragon is already in the deck and it's an infinitely better choice. It accomplishes the same thing as The Tricky and does it more efficiently, and in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, that means a world of difference.

I also removed Necro Gardna and One for One. Necro Gardna isn't a bad choice, but in a deck that is already prone to dead cards and hands, its effect doesn't do enough to warrant the risk. Without running six targets (2 Treeborn, 2 Level Eater, 2 Scrap Searcher), One for One also becomes a dead card, so I chose to cut that as well.

So, after all of our changes have been applied, here's what we're left with!

Monsters: (24)

3 x Scrap Beast
3 x Scrap Chimera
3 x Scrap Goblin
2 x Scrap Golem
2 x Scrap Searcher
2 x Cyber Dragon
2 x Level Eater
3 x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 x Tragoedia
1 x Card Trooper
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 x Super-Nimble Mega Hamster

Magic: (16)
3 x Scrapstorm
3 x Book of Moon
2 x Enemy Controller
1 x Scrapyard
1 x Charge of the Light Brigade
1 x Giant Trunade
1 x Cold Wave
1 x Monster Reborn
1 x Foolish Burial
1 x Dark Hole
1 x Pot of Avarice

Now we have a deck that is still trapless, but which also provides enough offensive and defensive power to accomplish its big plays that should also play much more consistently! In competitive Yu-Gi-Oh play there is nothing more important to a player than consistency. It's one thing to run a deck full of powerful monsters and effects, but if you never see them or are unable to consistently make your big combo plays, it will have been for nothing at all!

I hope you guys like the new segment. I plan on doing one or two Deck Doctor articles per week, but I can't keep them going without your submissions! If you'd like to submit a deck list for a Deck Doctor article, you can post it in the comments of this article, or you can mail me your deck-list at ssroan [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to doing more of these articles in the future, it was a lot of fun to write and hopefully it was informative and helpful for all of you out there! Until next time!