PaPaya's Guide to Plant Type Duel Monsters
Table of Contents:
-An Overview of Plant Types
-Play Styles
-Plant Synchro
-Plant Beat down
-Plant Lock down
-Naturia Plants
-Plant Staple Cards
-Plant Decks in Tournaments
An Overview of Plant Types
Compared to other types of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, plant cards were a very unsupported type. They were overlooked and deemed to be very weak, and unsuitable for tournament play when other, more supported types were around. Since then, massive amounts of support cards for plants have been produced in booster packs such as Crossroads of Chaos, Phantom Darkness, and have even made appearances in Crimson Crisis and Raging Battle booster sets. Most plant types revolve around swarming the field with the effects of the cards, such as Gigaplant and Lonefire Blossom. The plant tuners are relatively weak ones such as Copy Plant and Spore, but they are very good tuners. For example, Copy Plant's effect allows you to select one face up plant type monster and have Copy Plant's star level be equal to that of the selected plant type monster until the end of the turn. The synchro monsters that are summoned from these tuners can be very powerful when played correctly, such as Queen of Thorns. Since each player has to pay 1000 life points to normal or special summon a monster, other than a plant type, you could be in control of the duel very quickly. If you need to get some powerful dangerous monsters off your opponents field, then Black Rose Dragon could be very helpful, since when it is synchro summoned, it has the ability to destroy all monsters on the field, including itself.
Play Styles
There are many different styles of play with plant type monsters, and for all duel monsters as a whole. These are a few of the styles that you could use in your deck. Plant Synchro
A plant synchro deck is probably the most currently used style out of all plant decks. It may use a Quickdraw Synchron, but the focus is mainly on Dandylion and Debris Dragon.
Debris Dragon: When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon one monster with 500 or less attack from your Graveyard in Attack Position. The effect of the monster (if it has one) is negated. One of the main inconveniences with this card is that it can only be used to synchro summon a dragon type synchro monster, and the other material monster cannot be a level four monster.
Dandylion: When this card is sent to the graveyard, you can special summon two fluffy tokens in defense position. Unfortunately these tokens cannot be used to tribute summon the turn they are special summon.
Plant Beat Down
Oh boy, probably my favorite of all the plant decks, the plant beat down deck. This deck really revolves around cards like Gigaplant and Lonefire Blossom to special summon monsters and flood the field with them. Then you use these plants to synchro monsters like Queen of Thorns which will make your opponent pay to summon if it is not a plant type monster he/she is summoning. Keep your opponents off your back with powerful cards like Wall of Thorns. Be sure to pack cards like Mystical Space Typhoon because of cards like Lightning Vortex, Mirror Force, Zombie World, and DNA Surgery.
Cards like these can foil a very powerful swarming effect.
Plant Lock Down
This style takes advantage of the plant drain deck. The main lock down comes through cards like Queen of Thorns and Royal Decree.
Queen of Thorns: This card is very useful in a Plant Lock Down deck because it makes you and your opponent pay 1000 life points to summon a non-plant type monster, and 1000 life points can go a long way in a duel. Did I mention that this effect is continuous?
Royal Decree: This card can let you attack and summon without worry of having your opponent use traps like Mirror Force, Bottomless Trap Hole, and so on. The only problem is that you cannot use any trap cards except for this card.
Naturia Plants
This type of deck utilizes Naturia plants and other plants in order to beat the opponent down with strong plant cards such as Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, and lock down the opponent with Naturia Bamboo Shoot.
Plant Staples
There are some plant staple cards consisting in the form of Pollinosis and Wall of Thorns. Gigaplant and Fairy King Truesdale are very helpful cards for your plant deck. Plant Decks in Tournaments
Plants showcase the wild forces of nature in the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game. Plant decks can be very strong in tournament play because they are able to keep the battlefield area full of monsters and bring potent effects against non-plant creatures. Plant-type monsters often possess special summoning powers and the ability to create other plants in the form of tokens. Plant decks must focus on overwhelming their opponents with monsters and keeping the field full of threats.
All in all plant type monsters can be extremely powerful, overwhelming your opponent and leading you to victory. Always be sure to test your deck at least 20-30 times to learn all the different aspects of it. (I got the rule of 20-30 times from the deck building guide here at DA, all credit for it goes to the author)
Good luck, and be sure to show off your green thumb!