With Metalfoe, Blue-Eyes, and D/D/D populating the current meta, many tend to forget the existence of
. In the aftermath of the October 2015 banlist, Nekroz has maintained a solid position as a Tier 2 deck.On Saturday (14/5/2016), I took my variation of Nekroz to a local ranking tournament. So without further ado, let's get into it;
5 Round Swiss, 30 players
Format: Advanced Format
Deck Breakdown:
Monsters (23):
1x Nekroz of Decisive Armor
2x Nekroz of Trishula
2x Nekroz of Valkyrus
1x Nekroz of Gungnir
1x Nekroz of Brionac
1x Nekroz of Unicore
3x Nekroz of Clausolas
1x Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz
1x Dance Princess of the Necloth
3x Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
3x Senju of the Thousand Hands
2x Djinn Releaser of Rituals
2x Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit
Spells (16):
3x Nekroz Kaleidoscope
2x Nekroz Mirror
1x Nekroz Cycle
3x Book of Moon
1x Harpie's Feather Duster
1x Twin Twister
1x Dark Hole
1x Preparation of Rites
1x The Warrior Returning Alive
1x Reinforcements of the Army
1x Foolish Burial
Traps (1):
1x Treacherous Trap Hole
Extra Deck (15):
1x Traptrix Rafflesia
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Abyss Dweller
1x Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1x No.39: Utopia
1x SNo.39: Utopia the Lightning
1x Outer Entity Nyarla
1x Outer Entity Azzathoth
1x Phantasmal Lord Ultimitl Bishbalkin
1x Star Eater
1x Elder Entity N'tss
1x Herald of the Arc Light
1x Tatsunoko
1x No.101: Silent Honor Ark
Side Deck (15):
3x Maxx "C"
3x Solemn Strike
1x Twin Twister
2x Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries
1x Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss
2x Royal Decree
3x Typhoon
Round 1 - Blue-Eyes XX
Against Blue-Eyes, I won the dice roll and chose to start first. My opening hand was unappealing as I had 2 Nekroz of Valkyrus, 1 Djinn Releaser of Rituals, and 2 Book of Moon. Setting both of my Book of Moon's, I ended my turn. My opponent opened with Twin Twister and destroyed both my set cards. I forfeited the game to conceal my deck. I sided in my Maxx "C" to replace Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit as I intended to start second in the next game.
I did not open with Maxx "C" and my opponent spammed his field with
Dragon Spirit of White and
Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. I was unable to retaliate as my hand bricked with Djinn Releaser of Rituals, Nekroz of Trishula, and Nekroz of Decisive Armor. As such, I was destroyed in the next turn.
Round 2 - Blue-Eyes OO
Matched up against another Blue-Eyes deck, I felt more confident as I formulated my approach. I won the dice roll and chose to start second. My opponent proceeded with his play and summoned a Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. I opened with a nice hand against a Blue-Eyes deck. I summoned Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands to search for Nekroz of Gungnir. I activated Nekroz Kaleidoscope to summon the Nekroz of Gungnir I had added to my hand earlier by using a Djinn Releaser of Rituals from my hand and the Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands on my field. Activating Nekroz of Gungnir's effect to destroy my opponent's Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon, the Djinn Releaser of Rituals I had used for the ritual summon prevented my opponent from tagging out his Synchro dragons. I sided out Treacherous Trap Hole and 2 Book of Moon's for 3 Solemn Strike's as I predicted my opponent would let me start first for the next game.
As I had predicted, my opponent let me start and I opened with a very strong hand. Discarding Nekroz of Clausolas to search for Nekroz Cycle, I proceeded to summon back Nekroz of Clausolas using Djinn Releaser of Rituals and ended my turn. My opponent tried to remove the threat of the "Djinn Lock" by activating Dark Hole, but I protected my monster by discarding a Nekroz of Gungnir. As his only out to "Djinn Lock" was Dark Hole, my opponent forfeited the game.
Round 3 - Nekroz XOO
I won the dice roll for the first game of the third round and opted to start second. To my surprise, it was a mirror match. My opponent was able to "Djinn Lock" me in his first turn. My only out was to Book of Moon his monster but my opponent discarded Nekroz of Trishula from his hand to negate the effect. I conceded shortly after and sided in 2 Solemn Strike's for Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit and Treacherous Trap Hole.
The second game ended as quickly as the first, except this time the roles were reversed. I chose to start first and quickly left my opponent in a "Djinn Lock". Unable to break it, my opponent forfeited the game and we proceeded to the last game of the round. I did not side anything at this point, as I knew Solemn Strike would be more than enough to stop Nekroz decks and their plays.
My opponent opted to start first in the third game, being rather confident that he could pull off the "Djinn Lock". Even though he was unable to set up the stun, he still managed to special summon Traptrix Rafflesia by overlaying Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands and Nekroz of Unicore. I used Nekroz Kaleidoscope to summon Nekroz of Unicore by sending Elder Entity N'tss to the grave, using Elder Entity N'tss to destroy my opponent's Traptrix Rafflesia, who's effect had been negated by my Nekroz of Unicore. Understanding the nature of Nekroz mirror matches, I decided to play it safe and attacked directly with Nekroz of Unicore. I ended my turn by setting a Solemn Strike. My opponent began his next turn by activating Dark Hole, effectively removing my monster threats, and ritual summoned Nekroz of Clausolas using Djinn Releaser of Rituals as fodder. Luckily, I was able to top deck a Book of Moon and immediately activated it on my opponent's Nekroz of Clausolas. He chained by discarding Nekroz of Trishula to negate my Book of Moon, to which I negated his negation with Solemn Strike. Adding back to my hand the Nekroz Kaleidoscope I had used earlier, I ritual summoned Nekroz of Trishula and Nekroz of Clausolas. I attacked with both monsters and discarded Nekroz of Decisive Armor for an attack boost, ending the game and resulting in my victory.
Round 4 - D/D/D OO
It's GeotheBacon guys! He started off by setting up a really good field with his classic D/D/D combo, ending it off with a
Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon on the field. However, I was able to use Nekroz Kaleidoscope to summon Nekroz of Unicore, rendering his monster's effect useless, and proceeded to end the game quickly with a full frontal assault. I sided in Maxx "C" for Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit as D/D/D's are capable of multiple special summons in one turn.
GeotheBacon opted to go first, and seemed to have started with a good hand. As he began to make his plays, I dropped the Maxx "C" I had sided in earlier in hopes to get some advantage. The whole game went south as he decided to try the "Maxx "C" Challenge", special summoning on end in hopes to deck me out. He ended his turn with a
Formula Synchron and other D/D monsters on his field, hoping to summon
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier on my turn. His efforts, however, proved fruitless as he had left me with 11 cards in my hand. The advantage ultimately won me the game.
Round 5 (Final Round) - Blue-Eyes XOO
I was a bit intimidated when I found out I had been matched up with a rather strong opponent. I made a huge misplay when I forgot that Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon could bypass Nekroz of Unicore's effect. The game ended quickly as my opponent swarmed his field with dragon beat sticks protected by
Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon. I did not side for this game, hoping to be able to secure a win with a "Djinn Lock".
I opted to start first, which turned out to be a good decision as I had Foolish Burial, a key component for my "Djinn Lock". My opponent was unable to recover from my play and the game ended with my win. This time, I decided to side in Maxx "C", knowing that my opponent would decide to go first.
As predicted, my opponent had opted to go first. He made the standard Blue-Eyes play with Dragon Spirit of White and Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. Luckily enough, I had Dark Hole and Book of Moon, which allowed me to clear the board and finish him off with a "Djinn Lock".
Conclusion
To me, Nekroz is still a viable deck, especially since the options for Side Deck cards have shifted focus onto other archetypes. This gives Nekroz a slight edge over decks that are constantly being sided against. The deck itself is not as auto-piloted as before, and thus requires more thought into each play, allowing one to fully immerse oneself into each game. As for final thoughts, I felt that Nekroz still lacks speed and turbo needed for the deck to compete in the meta, so I might consider playing
Juragedo or
Heroic Challenger - Assault Halberd for Rank 4 plays.
Note from the Editor: I swear if I have to type "Djinn Lock" one more time
I'm going to flip every table I see.
Article By: DAM SON (new addition to the Dueling Cancer family)
Edited By: Traveler of the Burning Herpes
With that, let us welcome our youngest author of the team,
and a major great thank you to Traveler of the Burning Herpes for correcting and cleaning up the article.
-Ken Sir
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