Exploding Scourge of the Skies
Hello my adoring fans!! It's time for another article from me! Today, I'll be discussing a deck that made top 16 at SJC Orlando. The deck was made by James Laurent and it is called DARK Norleras. Here's an outline of what you'll be seeing today:
I. Key Cards
II. Laurent's Decklist
III. Important Strategies and Combos
IV. Other Variants
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I. Key Cards
Laurent's deck is centered around a lot of big and powerful DARK monsters. Let's take a look at his most important monsters:
Darklord Zerato has a Raigeki-like effect. Since this deck makes use of many grave loading strategies getting 4 different DARK monsters in the grave for him is no problem, and in other scenarios he can be sent to the grave and get his effect copied by Phantom of Chaos (PoC). That is especially good for PoC who loses the stat increase at the end phase anyway. He is also both an Allure of Darkness and a Trade-In target.
Dark Nephthys
Winged Beast/DARK
2400/1600
If this card is in your hand and there are 3 or more DARK monsters in your Graveyard, you can remove from play 2 of them to send it to the Graveyard. If this card is sent to the Graveyard by this effect, Special Summon it during your next Standby Phase. When this card is Special Summoned, destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card.
Again, the deck loads the grave so quickly you should have no trouble using this guy's effect. I'll be talking more about this guy later because he is particularly important to a major part of the deck's strategy. For now, note that he is also both an Allure of Darkness and Trade-In target, and note finally that his last effect works whenever he is special summoned, whether it is by his own effect or by the effect of Call of the Haunted or Dark Creator.
Sky Scourge Norleras
Fiend/DARK
2400/1500
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by removing from play 1 LIGHT Fairy-Type monster and 3 DARK Fiend-Type monsters in your Graveyard. You can pay 1000 Life Points to send all cards on the field and in both players' hands to the Graveyard, then you draw 1 card.
The most important thing to note is that this deck runs 0 Fairy monsters. The purpose of the deck is to send Norleras to the grave and then use Phantom of Chaos to copy his effect. There are many ways to do this such as Foolish Burial, Dark Grepher, Trade-In, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, and others.
The Dark Creator is yet another big DARK monster who is both an Allure and Trade-In target. He is also yet another monster who can be special summoned if you have enough DARK monsters in the graveyard and his effect can be copied by PoC to bring out other big monsters. More on this guy also later.
Doomsday Horror
Fiend/DARK
????/????
The ATK and DEF of this card are each equal to the number of removed from play DARK monsters x 300. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, return all removed from play DARK monsters to their owners' Graveyards.
Doomsday Horror serves 2 important functions for this deck. 1st, he can become an enormous beatstick late in the game and requires no tributes. This is possible because PoC, DAD, Plaguespreader, Malicious, Allure, and The Dark Creator all remove DARK monsters from play to buff up this guy. His other important function is to return all those big DARK monsters to the grave, allowing you to have more targets for PoC, including the re-use of PoC targets like DAD, and it also lets you re-use cards like Plaguespreader Zombie and Necro Gardna.
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II. Laurent's Decklist
So, let's take a look at the deck James Laurent used to make Day 2 at SJC Orlando:
Monsters(24):
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Darklord Zerato
2 Dark Nephthys
3 Sky Scourge Norleras
3 The Dark Creator
3 Dark Grepher
2 Destiny Hero ? Malicious
1 Summoner Monk
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
3 Phantom of Chaos
1 Doomsday Horror
Spells(16):
3 Trade-In
3 Hand Destruction
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Foolish Burial
1 Card Destruction
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Extra(15):
1 Armory Arm
1 Magical Android
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Tempest Magician
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Psychic Lifetrancer
1 X-Saber Urbellum
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Arcanite Magician
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
2 Colossal Fighter
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
Side(15):
3 Royal Decree
2 Dark Illusion
2 Escape from the Dark Dimension
3 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
2 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation
1 Doomsday Horror
There are a few things to be noted about this build. The first and most obvious is that Laurent uses no traps in his main deck. He is going for pure speed and hoping to foul up his opponent with Decree in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the match when the opponent tries to side in cards like Skill Drain and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. This allows Laurent to have the highest chance of pulling off his strategy in game 1 and catching the opponent off-guard with very aggressive plays.
Some more things to notice is that Laurent is only running 2 copies of Dark Nephthys and only 1 copy of Gold Sarcophagus. I consider this a mistake as I will explain later and the only reason I can think of that he would do things that way would be because he again was looking to capitalize on speed more than anything else.
Looking into Laurent's Side Deck you can see Dark Illusion which works well at stopping Chaos decks who use Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon. There's Escape from the Dark Dimension which he can only actually use on a select few monsters like Dark Nephthys, but it works well at making the opponent think he has Decree, and it can also bring back cards like Plaguespreader Zombie to help out. It is also a good tech against the deck's major weakness - Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer.
Book of Moon shuts down Black Whirlwind and is important in games 2 and 3 when he is not particularly looking to go all-out with speed. Heavy Storm and Giant Trunade slow him down in game 1, but in the rest of the match they are needed to stop cards like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Skill Drain.
D.D.R. is yet another way of getting around Kycoo, who is such a nuisance to this deck.
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III. Important Strategies and Combos
Well, I've already said that the main strategy of the deck is to bust out Norleras' effect with Phantom of Chaos, but what good does that do you? After that, isn't it just a luck-based game with both players trying to top deck cards that can help them out? The answer is a big fat HELL NO!! This deck is prepared to cope with top decking and it can top deck like a master, not that it needs to. Allow me to explain.
The 1st important note about this deck is that it has ways to get you tons of extra cards after Norleras' effect explodes the field and hands! Plaguespreader Zombie and Malicious should be in your grave when it happens and they provide you with a free 8 star Synchro courtesy of the draw you get at the end of Norleras' effect. Necro Gardna should also be in the grave to protect your LP in case your opponent is able to get some decent top decks. Gold Sarcophagus can be used either the turn before or on the turn you use Norleras' effect. This will get you extra cards a turn or 2 after the effect which means you'll have immediate and free +1's from it to beat up your opponent with. A similar situation works with Dark Nephthys. If you use his effect on the same turn before you activate Norleras' effect, then next turn you'll be special summoning a 2400 ATK beatstick who can also clear away a backrow card if your opponent managed to draw a spell or trap during his/her 1 turn in-between.
As for top decking, there are tons of awesome cards that you can top deck with this deck. Darklord Zerato, Dark Nephthys, and The Dark Creator are all awesome top decks who can be quickly special summoned since you should have plenty of DARK monsters in the graveyard by this point. Dark Grepher is also always a nice 1700 ATK beatstick and you can use his effect too if you received some bad top decks earlier (like getting a Norleras in your hand). Phantom of Chaos is always an awesome card to top deck since you can use him to remove DAD, another Norleras, The Dark Creator, Darklord Zerato, and others to get their awesome effects. Doomsday Horror is yet another great top decking card, since he should easily be a large beatstick and he'll again let you use all those DARK monsters again when he gets destroyed and sent to the graveyard.
Now, all of these points are moot if you can't manage to get Phantom of Chaos in your hand and Norleras in your graveyard immediately. Therefore, the deck packs 1 of the largest draw engines of any deck (beaten out only by Exodia decks, imo). You can see it has: Card Destruction, Hand Destruction, Allure, Trade-In, and Upstart Goblin. In total, that is 12 cards (over 25% of the deck!) that are dedicated to nothing but milling through the deck to get those 2 cards. Norleras can be sent to the grave via Foolish Burial, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, Trade-In and Dark Grepher (note that you can use Grepher's 1st effect to special summon Grepher by discarding him. That allows you to still have a normal summon for PoC). That's 9 cards that can send Norleras to the grave and it means a total of 17 cards (almost half the deck!) that are dedicated to making sure that your 1st turn goes as smoothly as possible.
Now, you may find yourself saying "Well that's all fine, but don't Card Destruction, Hand Destruction, and Dark Grepher create a lot of -1's??" to which I answer you this, "It doesn't matter." Seriously, it doesn't, because no matter how much card advantage you give to your opponent, as soon as you set of Norleras' effect the card advantage is going to become a net +1 in your favor. Your opponent can have 4 or 5 more cards than you and it won't matter. When you blow up the field and hand and then draw a card, you'll be at the advantage. You'll be at even more of an advantage when you start summoning Dark Nephthys the next turn and getting back cards from Gold Sarcophagus.
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IV. Other Variants
As exciting as James Laurent's build is, there are other ways to make this deck. If you aren't looking for a build that is completely dedicated to pulling off a Norleras effect on turn 1, there are also other options. You can make a slower, more control-oriented build by including a trap lineup with cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Call of the Haunted and Torrential Tribute. This may mean that you won't be able to use Decree as readily (or at least not in 3's) in the 2nd and 3rd games, but it can be useful for having a more solid all-around game rather than just focusing on a strong opening move. For those more control-oriented builds, you won't want to use Card Destruction and Hand Destruction, because you'll be more focused on only activating Norleras' effect if you fall behind in the duel. You won't be specifically wanting to lose card advantage. I also suggest maining Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon for this build.
I also suggest using 3x Dark Nephthys and 2x Gold Sarcophagus. I find them invaluable to the deck's strategy, since you should never (imo) set off Norleras without being certain that you're going to be getting back some cards in the next couple turns. That's part of what makes it so that your opponent is the only person who is trying to top deck cards.
Another interesting variant is to add yet another draw engine to the mix in this deck. You can add in a Diamond Dude Turbo (DDT) draw engine by adding in 2-3x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude and some Destiny Draws. Diamond Dude works in this build by 1st being a target for both Destiny Draw and Allure, but also you can use his effect to hit a lot of very good cards. With a bit of luck, you can use him to get the effects of cards like Allure, Destiny Draw, Trade-In (btw for D Draw and Trade-In you won't have to discard a card since costs aren't applied when the card is sent by Diamond Dude), Gold Sarcophagus, and others.
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I hope you've enjoyed reading up on the DARK Norleras deck-type. I've found it to be 1 of the most enjoyable deck-types to play with, because just watching your opponent cry when you blow up all his/her cards and then summon an army of uber powerful DARK monsters is so rewarding. =3
Until next time, this is nekofjung signing off!
Hello my adoring fans!! It's time for another article from me! Today, I'll be discussing a deck that made top 16 at SJC Orlando. The deck was made by James Laurent and it is called DARK Norleras. Here's an outline of what you'll be seeing today:
I. Key Cards
II. Laurent's Decklist
III. Important Strategies and Combos
IV. Other Variants
-----------------------------------
I. Key Cards
Laurent's deck is centered around a lot of big and powerful DARK monsters. Let's take a look at his most important monsters:
Darklord Zerato has a Raigeki-like effect. Since this deck makes use of many grave loading strategies getting 4 different DARK monsters in the grave for him is no problem, and in other scenarios he can be sent to the grave and get his effect copied by Phantom of Chaos (PoC). That is especially good for PoC who loses the stat increase at the end phase anyway. He is also both an Allure of Darkness and a Trade-In target.
Dark Nephthys
Winged Beast/DARK
2400/1600
If this card is in your hand and there are 3 or more DARK monsters in your Graveyard, you can remove from play 2 of them to send it to the Graveyard. If this card is sent to the Graveyard by this effect, Special Summon it during your next Standby Phase. When this card is Special Summoned, destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card.
Again, the deck loads the grave so quickly you should have no trouble using this guy's effect. I'll be talking more about this guy later because he is particularly important to a major part of the deck's strategy. For now, note that he is also both an Allure of Darkness and Trade-In target, and note finally that his last effect works whenever he is special summoned, whether it is by his own effect or by the effect of Call of the Haunted or Dark Creator.
Sky Scourge Norleras
Fiend/DARK
2400/1500
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by removing from play 1 LIGHT Fairy-Type monster and 3 DARK Fiend-Type monsters in your Graveyard. You can pay 1000 Life Points to send all cards on the field and in both players' hands to the Graveyard, then you draw 1 card.
The most important thing to note is that this deck runs 0 Fairy monsters. The purpose of the deck is to send Norleras to the grave and then use Phantom of Chaos to copy his effect. There are many ways to do this such as Foolish Burial, Dark Grepher, Trade-In, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, and others.
The Dark Creator is yet another big DARK monster who is both an Allure and Trade-In target. He is also yet another monster who can be special summoned if you have enough DARK monsters in the graveyard and his effect can be copied by PoC to bring out other big monsters. More on this guy also later.
Doomsday Horror
Fiend/DARK
????/????
The ATK and DEF of this card are each equal to the number of removed from play DARK monsters x 300. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, return all removed from play DARK monsters to their owners' Graveyards.
Doomsday Horror serves 2 important functions for this deck. 1st, he can become an enormous beatstick late in the game and requires no tributes. This is possible because PoC, DAD, Plaguespreader, Malicious, Allure, and The Dark Creator all remove DARK monsters from play to buff up this guy. His other important function is to return all those big DARK monsters to the grave, allowing you to have more targets for PoC, including the re-use of PoC targets like DAD, and it also lets you re-use cards like Plaguespreader Zombie and Necro Gardna.
-----------------------------------
II. Laurent's Decklist
So, let's take a look at the deck James Laurent used to make Day 2 at SJC Orlando:
Monsters(24):
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Darklord Zerato
2 Dark Nephthys
3 Sky Scourge Norleras
3 The Dark Creator
3 Dark Grepher
2 Destiny Hero ? Malicious
1 Summoner Monk
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
3 Phantom of Chaos
1 Doomsday Horror
Spells(16):
3 Trade-In
3 Hand Destruction
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Foolish Burial
1 Card Destruction
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Extra(15):
1 Armory Arm
1 Magical Android
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Tempest Magician
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Psychic Lifetrancer
1 X-Saber Urbellum
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Arcanite Magician
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
2 Colossal Fighter
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
Side(15):
3 Royal Decree
2 Dark Illusion
2 Escape from the Dark Dimension
3 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
2 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation
1 Doomsday Horror
There are a few things to be noted about this build. The first and most obvious is that Laurent uses no traps in his main deck. He is going for pure speed and hoping to foul up his opponent with Decree in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the match when the opponent tries to side in cards like Skill Drain and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. This allows Laurent to have the highest chance of pulling off his strategy in game 1 and catching the opponent off-guard with very aggressive plays.
Some more things to notice is that Laurent is only running 2 copies of Dark Nephthys and only 1 copy of Gold Sarcophagus. I consider this a mistake as I will explain later and the only reason I can think of that he would do things that way would be because he again was looking to capitalize on speed more than anything else.
Looking into Laurent's Side Deck you can see Dark Illusion which works well at stopping Chaos decks who use Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon. There's Escape from the Dark Dimension which he can only actually use on a select few monsters like Dark Nephthys, but it works well at making the opponent think he has Decree, and it can also bring back cards like Plaguespreader Zombie to help out. It is also a good tech against the deck's major weakness - Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer.
Book of Moon shuts down Black Whirlwind and is important in games 2 and 3 when he is not particularly looking to go all-out with speed. Heavy Storm and Giant Trunade slow him down in game 1, but in the rest of the match they are needed to stop cards like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Skill Drain.
D.D.R. is yet another way of getting around Kycoo, who is such a nuisance to this deck.
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III. Important Strategies and Combos
Well, I've already said that the main strategy of the deck is to bust out Norleras' effect with Phantom of Chaos, but what good does that do you? After that, isn't it just a luck-based game with both players trying to top deck cards that can help them out? The answer is a big fat HELL NO!! This deck is prepared to cope with top decking and it can top deck like a master, not that it needs to. Allow me to explain.
The 1st important note about this deck is that it has ways to get you tons of extra cards after Norleras' effect explodes the field and hands! Plaguespreader Zombie and Malicious should be in your grave when it happens and they provide you with a free 8 star Synchro courtesy of the draw you get at the end of Norleras' effect. Necro Gardna should also be in the grave to protect your LP in case your opponent is able to get some decent top decks. Gold Sarcophagus can be used either the turn before or on the turn you use Norleras' effect. This will get you extra cards a turn or 2 after the effect which means you'll have immediate and free +1's from it to beat up your opponent with. A similar situation works with Dark Nephthys. If you use his effect on the same turn before you activate Norleras' effect, then next turn you'll be special summoning a 2400 ATK beatstick who can also clear away a backrow card if your opponent managed to draw a spell or trap during his/her 1 turn in-between.
As for top decking, there are tons of awesome cards that you can top deck with this deck. Darklord Zerato, Dark Nephthys, and The Dark Creator are all awesome top decks who can be quickly special summoned since you should have plenty of DARK monsters in the graveyard by this point. Dark Grepher is also always a nice 1700 ATK beatstick and you can use his effect too if you received some bad top decks earlier (like getting a Norleras in your hand). Phantom of Chaos is always an awesome card to top deck since you can use him to remove DAD, another Norleras, The Dark Creator, Darklord Zerato, and others to get their awesome effects. Doomsday Horror is yet another great top decking card, since he should easily be a large beatstick and he'll again let you use all those DARK monsters again when he gets destroyed and sent to the graveyard.
Now, all of these points are moot if you can't manage to get Phantom of Chaos in your hand and Norleras in your graveyard immediately. Therefore, the deck packs 1 of the largest draw engines of any deck (beaten out only by Exodia decks, imo). You can see it has: Card Destruction, Hand Destruction, Allure, Trade-In, and Upstart Goblin. In total, that is 12 cards (over 25% of the deck!) that are dedicated to nothing but milling through the deck to get those 2 cards. Norleras can be sent to the grave via Foolish Burial, Hand Destruction, Card Destruction, Trade-In and Dark Grepher (note that you can use Grepher's 1st effect to special summon Grepher by discarding him. That allows you to still have a normal summon for PoC). That's 9 cards that can send Norleras to the grave and it means a total of 17 cards (almost half the deck!) that are dedicated to making sure that your 1st turn goes as smoothly as possible.
Now, you may find yourself saying "Well that's all fine, but don't Card Destruction, Hand Destruction, and Dark Grepher create a lot of -1's??" to which I answer you this, "It doesn't matter." Seriously, it doesn't, because no matter how much card advantage you give to your opponent, as soon as you set of Norleras' effect the card advantage is going to become a net +1 in your favor. Your opponent can have 4 or 5 more cards than you and it won't matter. When you blow up the field and hand and then draw a card, you'll be at the advantage. You'll be at even more of an advantage when you start summoning Dark Nephthys the next turn and getting back cards from Gold Sarcophagus.
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IV. Other Variants
As exciting as James Laurent's build is, there are other ways to make this deck. If you aren't looking for a build that is completely dedicated to pulling off a Norleras effect on turn 1, there are also other options. You can make a slower, more control-oriented build by including a trap lineup with cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Call of the Haunted and Torrential Tribute. This may mean that you won't be able to use Decree as readily (or at least not in 3's) in the 2nd and 3rd games, but it can be useful for having a more solid all-around game rather than just focusing on a strong opening move. For those more control-oriented builds, you won't want to use Card Destruction and Hand Destruction, because you'll be more focused on only activating Norleras' effect if you fall behind in the duel. You won't be specifically wanting to lose card advantage. I also suggest maining Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon for this build.
I also suggest using 3x Dark Nephthys and 2x Gold Sarcophagus. I find them invaluable to the deck's strategy, since you should never (imo) set off Norleras without being certain that you're going to be getting back some cards in the next couple turns. That's part of what makes it so that your opponent is the only person who is trying to top deck cards.
Another interesting variant is to add yet another draw engine to the mix in this deck. You can add in a Diamond Dude Turbo (DDT) draw engine by adding in 2-3x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude and some Destiny Draws. Diamond Dude works in this build by 1st being a target for both Destiny Draw and Allure, but also you can use his effect to hit a lot of very good cards. With a bit of luck, you can use him to get the effects of cards like Allure, Destiny Draw, Trade-In (btw for D Draw and Trade-In you won't have to discard a card since costs aren't applied when the card is sent by Diamond Dude), Gold Sarcophagus, and others.
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I hope you've enjoyed reading up on the DARK Norleras deck-type. I've found it to be 1 of the most enjoyable deck-types to play with, because just watching your opponent cry when you blow up all his/her cards and then summon an army of uber powerful DARK monsters is so rewarding. =3
Until next time, this is nekofjung signing off!
