Deck Profile: John Richie’s Volcanic Beatdown Deck
One of the most creative Decks making waves here today is John Richie’s Volcanic Beatdown Deck, a simple strategy that blends a straightforward Beatdown approach with plenty of fiery Volcanic tricks to stump stuff like Lightsworn and Blackwings. Here’s what it looks like:
(Deck list will be posted after Day 1 of competition is over – check back later!)
“Breaker the Magical Warrior,” “Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer,” and “Volcanic Rocket” are all Level 4 monsters that are easy to Summon and have high ATK. They deal most of the damage for Richie, and are the offensive core of his Deck. But each Rocket can search out 1 of Richie’s 2 “Blaze Accelerators,” leading into the other side of the Deck: a too-hot-to-handle monster destruction engine that blows away whatever Richie’s monsters can’t destroy by battle.
Accelerator’s effect lets Richie discard small Pyro-Type monsters to destroy his opponent’s monsters. In previous tournaments, the big counter to Accelerator was the threat of “Stardust Dragon” (which could negate and destroy Accelerator when it’s activated). But since Vayu Decks and Lightsworn usually struggle to Synchro Summon a Level 8 Synchro Monster, Accelerator is more viable if the tournament is filled with those kinds of Decks. If there are fewer “Stardust Dragons” Summoned in this tournament than we’re used to seeing, Richie can take advantage of that.
To feed Accelerator’s effect, Richie is playing 3 copies of “Volcanic Shell.” Once he draws and discards 1 copy, he can pay Life Points to search out the remaining 2 Shells, then use them for Accelerator. The result is that he can destroy his opponent’s monsters at a rate of 500 Life Points apiece. We’ve seen this trick before in Volcanic Monarch Decks, but Richie’s gone above and beyond – he’s also playing 3 copies of “Volcanic Scattershot.”
When Richie discards his first “Volcanic Scattershot,” the Scattershot’s effect gives him the option of sending 2 more copies from his Deck to his Graveyard to destroy all of his opponent’s monsters. “I basically run “Raigeki,”” quipped Richie with a grin. Against a field of Lightsworn monsters, Zombie-Types, or multiple Blackwing Synchro Monsters, Richie can create huge openings by discarding Scattershot for Accelerator and blowing everything away. It’s a huge play.
But to do that Richie needs 2 of his Scattershots in the Deck. To help make that happen, and to get more uses out of his “Volcanic Shells,” he runs 3 copies of “Royal Firestorm Guards.” When Summoned, the Guards let him send back 4 Pyro-Type monsters from his Graveyard to his Deck, drawing 2 cards in the process. Firestorm Guards is like a “Pot of Avarice” with a 1700 ATK body attached, so not only can Richie draw cards and reuse his Shells and Scattershots, he’s got three more attackers with respectable ATK. The Guards weren’t played in a lot of previous tournaments because “D.D. Crow” can be Chained to the Guards’ effect to remove one of the monsters that would’ve been returned to the Deck. If that happens the effect disappears – nothing gets sent back and no cards are drawn. But once again, Richie’s tapped into trends that were likely to effect this tournament, and seen that “D.D. Crow” isn’t being played as much as it used to be.
The Deck doesn’t run any Tuners or other Special Summon effects. Richie capitalizes by packing 3 copies of “Royal Oppression,” and he protects those (and his Accelerators) by running 3 “Dark Bribes.” “Divine Wrath” gives Richie something else to do with his “Volcanic Shells,” making life even tougher for big monsters like “Dark Armed Dragon” and “Judgment Dragon.”
The result is a Deck that Summons big monsters to run over smaller ones, and makes direct attacks by destroying the biggest threats with “Blaze Accelerator.” Once Richie destroys a monster or two with straight attacks, the leverage that “Volcanic Shell” and “Blaze Accelerator” can give him turns the Duel into a slow grind – eventually his opponent is going to run out of monsters that can stand up to “Volcanic Rocket” and Kycoo.
Richie’s creation is easy to pick up and play, and it’s really good at what it does. It’s competitive against the most common Decks in this tournament, and he’s done a great job of fine-tuning it for the situations he expects to find himself in.