Saturday 20 November 2010

Supreme Arcanite Magician

We have to start somewhere. That is here.

The deck I worked on and played last before I sat down to start blogging is a deck focused around this absolutely killer card.

Name: Supreme Arcanite Magician
Stats: [Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect] LV 10 ATK/ 1400 DEF/ 2800
Type: LIGHT
Description: 1 Spellcaster-Type Synchro Monster + 1 Spellcaster-Type monster
This monster can only be Special Summoned by Fusion Summon (from the Extra Deck). When this card is Fusion Summoned, place 2 Spell Counters on it. This card gains 1000 ATK for each Spell Counter on it. Once per turn, you can remove 1 Spell Counter from your side of the field to activate 1 of the following effects: ● Select 1 card in the field and destroy it. ● Draw 1 card.

If you cant tell that this guy hitting the field is a big deal, you havent played yugioh before. Massive attack (When he has his counters), Massive defense (Important since once used he is still a pain to get rid of). Thats even before you note how amazing his effect is. Surely this guy needs many cards invested into him to bring him to the field right? Nope! Just one, with Miracle Synchro Fusion, as long as your Grave is set up right you summon him for just one card. Awesome. Oh and he cant even be bottomlessed. Sexy.

Now theres the point. "As long as your grave is set up right." This has been the reason Miracle Synchro Fusion hasnt taken off yet (That and there only being Ultimate Axon Kicker as a target). To summon S.A.M. you need a spellcaster type synchro monster and a spellcaster type monster in your grave or on your field. Generally needing a synchro monster to go to your grave doesnt sound that great, because most synchro monsters require a decent amount of resources. Having a specific kind of synchro monster needed makes it even worse because that just makes the card more situational. Consistency is key in these matters; having a hand full of dead Miracle Synchro Fusions just isnt good (Despite them being excellent bluffs, since if your opponent hits them with MST or etc. you get a draw, but thats just a small bonus.) The next logical step then, is trying to find ways to very consistently fulfil these conditions.

As of now in the Yugioh TCG there are 3 spellcaster synchro monsters. However, although the other 2 are not without merit, there is definately 1 which stands out above the rest. Arcanite Magician has been a powerful weapon ever since its release, being abused to the point of frustration in decks such as Synchro Cat. That deck had to be neutered by the banlist which shows the big advantage gaining power of Arcanite. The clue is in the name; which spellcaster synchro should be the focus of our Supreme Arcanite Magician deck. Once you have summoned Arcanite Magician (Solemn Warning or not), Miracle Synchro Fusion becomes live, since a spellcaster is necessary for the summon of Arcanite Magician himself. Therefore the aim of a Supreme Arcanite deck, is to consistently summon Arcanite Magician. If you can summon the bigger version also then... Woop Woop.

So without further waffle, I give you the decklist, titled on the spur of the moment!

Arcanite Blast!

Monsters: 17

3 Arsenal Summoner
3 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Scrap Goblin
2 Skilled Dark Magician
2 Gravekeeper's Spy
2 Trust Guardian
1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1 Scrap Beast
1 Sangan


Spells: 14

3 Pot of Duality
3 Miracle Synchro Fusion
3 Book of Moon
2 Scrapyard
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Mind Control


Traps: 9

2 Solemn Warning
2 Seven Tools of the Bandit
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute


Extra: 15
3 Supreme Arcanite Magician
3 Arcanite Magician
2 Scrap Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

The first thing you might notice, and you might be unfamiliar with is the Arsenal Summoner engine. Yes, I consider it an Engine, and an underated one at that. So here is the card:

Name: Arsenal Summoner
Stats: Spellcaster/Effect Level 4 ATK/1600 DEF/1600
Type: WIND
Description: FLIP: Select 1 card that includes "Guardian" in its card name from your Deck and add it to your hand. You cannot select "Celtic Guardian", "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1", "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #2", "Guardian of the Labyrinth", or "The Reliable Guardian".

Its a 1600 attack, 1600 defense floater once you activate its effect. This is always a good thing. It has other good targets like Guardian Eatos and Koa'ki Meiru Guardian but here we are using it exclusively to get to Trust Guardian, which is conveniently a level 3 tuner to go along with the Arsenal Summoners 4 levels and make that all-important Arcanite magician. Trust Guardian also has a reasonably useful effect; the synchro monster it makes cant be destroyed by battle once per turn. This is great for arcanite magician, since once its tokens are spent, it is generally nothing more than a body to chuck in the way of your opponents attacks. This effect makes it better at that. The play, flip Arsenal Summoner, search Trust Guardian, summon Trust Guardian, Summon Arcanite Magician, Blow up 2 things, is a straight +2 in card advantage, which is awesome.

The rest of this deck is also based around the level 4 Spellcaster + level 3 Tuner monster mechanic for summoning Arcanite Magician to make for added consistency by all parts being interchangeable. The other card choices in the deck arise from this.

As my other primary level 3 tuner I have chosen to use Scrap Goblin for is "Stickaroundability" and as a continuation of that I have chosen to add a single copy of Scrap Beast and 2 Scrapyard to make it more of a Scrap engine than simply a splash of Goblin. This has the added benefits of being able to use Scrap Dragon to full effect, should I ever summon him. The only other odd looking monster choice is the inclusion of 2 Skilled Dark Magician, which I actually feel is kind of "the rough edges" of the deck. I couldnt really find anything better. I felt more gravekeepers would be too passive and that Crusader of Endymion was too slow to be of any real use, so I chose Skilled Dark Magician for its truly excellent stats and its ability to easily gather spell counters for my Arcanite Magicians to use.

My spell and trap line up is reasonably standard I feel, with a greater than average amount of defense to ensure that my vulnerable spellcasters stick around long enough to be turned into lovely advantage gaining Arcanite Magicians. Pot of Duality makes this deck a lot better, since as I said earlier, consistency is key here, but hey, there are always replacements.

If anyone does read this, please do leave any comments or queries!

4 comments:

LightGrunty said...

That's a clever idea to use Arsenal Summoner to get Trust Guardian. The rest of the Monster line-up seems incoherent, though. I'm not sure how you could fix it without completely overhauling it.

The main problem is that your Monsters will die too quickly for you to be able to Synchro Summon. Gravekeeper's Spy and Scrap Goblin aside, most of the Monsters will die in battle before you're able to Synchro. Perhaps using more Gravekeeper's or some recruiters of some sort would help.

Thomas said...

Maybe less Skilled Dark, More GKs? Just ideas...

Kamatari said...

I think you both may be underestimating Skilled Dark Magician, 1900/1700 is as good as it gets for a 4 star monster. If you have more Gravekeepers you dont have any aggresive options, so you cant run over Stratos or a Banisher of the Radiance or whatever. I find bad situations like that can snowball. + In testing, Gathering counters has turned out to be really useful..

LightGrunty - I think if they can keep the pressure on from their first turn to their last, I am indeed going to find it hard to synchro. But I also think thats kinda rare. I mean, any ideas on how else to summon Arcanite Magician would be helpful; currently I am considering trying a different Variant using Apprentice Magicians and Junk Synchrons.

Relentify said...

I don't know if you ever considered it, but try teching a Dark Simorgh. I do realize that it isn't a spellcaster, but it has some devastating locking attributes. With Arsenal Summoner being a wind, you can quite easily gain access to the requirements to play him, and getting him to hand isn't to much of a problem considering that you play triple Pot of Duality. I would suggest taking out a Scrap Yard for the Dark Simorgh. Or something of a better choice if you decide.

Post a Comment