Deck Profile: Eric Wynn’s Gravekeeper Deck
Eric Wynn is running a Gravekeeper’s Deck in today’s tournament, featuring “Gravekeeper’s Visionary,” “Gravekeeper’s Descendant,” and “Gravekeeper’s Stele” from Absolute Powerforce. He’s counting on “Necrovalley” to bring him victory by shutting down opposing Decks. It’s a strong card in the current format, capable of negating the effects of popular monsters like “Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor,” “Mezuki,” and “Necro Gardna.” Wynn knows that most players have a heavy reliance on the Graveyard, and he’s hoping to take that away from them by using a Gravekeeper’s Deck in today’s tournament.
| Monsters | Spells | Traps |
| 3x Gravekeeper’s Spy 2x Gravekeeper’s Commandant 2x Gravekeeper’s Descendant 3x Gravekeeper’s Assailant 1x Gravekeeper’s Guard 1x Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier 1x Gravekeeper’s Visionary 2x Mystic Tomato 2x Caius the Shadow Monarch 1x Sangan 1x Dark Armed Dragon 1x Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind |
2x Royal Tribute 1x Heavy Storm 1x Mystical Space Typhoon 2x Allure of Darkness 2x Book of Moon 1x Brain Control 3x Necrovalley 2x Gravekeeper’s Stele |
2x Royal Oppression 1x Mirror Force 2x Bottomless Trap Hole 1x Solemn Judgment 1x Torrential Tribute |
Wynn has decided to exclude the cards that allow Gravekeeper’s Decks to swarm the field, like “Rite of Spirit” and “Magician’s Circle.” While both of these cards could Special Summon powerful Gravekeeper’s like “Gravekeeper’s Visionary,” Wynn decided that his Deck would be better off slowing down the game by limiting the opponent’s options instead. With “Necrovalley” shutting down the Graveyard, using “Royal Oppression” to prevent his opponents from Special Summoning monsters really limits their plays. In some cases, it may even been be enough to win the game.
Lightsworn Decks rely on their copies of “Necro Gardna” for protection. They also rely on “Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner” to swarm the field with Lightsworn monsters and send cards from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard. With “Necrovalley” on the field, “Necro Gardna” can’t be removed from the Graveyard and Lumina can’t use her effect to revive a Lightsworn. Twilight Duelists can’t remove the DARK and LIGHT monsters from their Graveyard needed to Special Summon “Chaos Sorcerer” either, once “Necrovalley” hits the field. Meanwhile, “Royal Oppression” helps Wynn prevent his opponent from regaining control of the Duel with “Judgment Dragon.”
One of Wynn’s favorite opening plays is activating “Royal Tribute” to strip his opponent’s hand of all its monsters before his opponent gets a chance to play any. This is especially effective against Lightsworn-based Decks since they typically run a high monster count and will lose a lot of cards when Wynn activates “Royal Tribute.” Without their monsters, Lightsworn Duelists are helpless to make any plays. After using “Royal Tribute,” Wynn can activate “Gravekeeper’s Stele” to return 2 of the Gravekeeper’s monsters he discarded back to his hand. This will give him the opportunity to Summon monsters and attack, while his opponent has nothing of his own to Summon.
Wynn has a great match-up against Zombie Decks, since they rely heavily on Special Summoning monsters from the Graveyard. The effects of “Zombie Master,” “Mezuki,” and “Book of Life” are all negated by “Necrovalley,” which really limits the plays Wynn’s opponents can make. While Blackwing Duelists are less reliant on the Graveyard than a lot of other popular Decks, they’re unable to remove Vayu from the Graveyard while “Necrovalley” is on the field, and can’t target a Blackwing monster in the Graveyard with the effect of “Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North.”
In addition to the ability for Wynn to shut down his opponent’s Graveyards, Wynn can also fill the field with 2000 ATK monsters that are difficult for opponents to attack over. Once “Necrovalley” is in play, Wynn’s 1500 ATK Gravekeeper’s become 2000 ATK terrors. Many Decks, including Lightsworn and Blackwing Decks, can have trouble attacking over such powerful monsters without boosting their own monsters with cards like “Honest” and “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow.”
Another of Wynn’s favorite opening plays is Setting “Gravekeeper’s Spy” on his first turn. When it flips face-up, Wynn can Special Summon “Gravekeeper’s Descendant” from his Deck. Then he can Tribute the “Gravekeeper’s Spy” with the effect of “Gravekeeper’s Descendant” to destroy one of his opponent’s cards. Next, he can Tribute “Gravekeeper’s Descendant” to bring out “Gravekeeper’s Visionary.” With 2 Gravekeeper’s in the Graveyard, Visionary will have 2400 ATK. Since it can stay alive each time it would be destroyed simply by discarding a Gravekeeper’s monster, Wynn’s opponents will have a lot of trouble getting it off the field for good. Wynn can also use “Gravekeeper’s Stele” to return Gravekeeper’s monsters in his Graveyard to his hand, giving him more cards to discard when his “Gravekeeper’s Visionary” is in danger of being destroyed.
Wynn is also running 1 copy of “Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind,” which gives him easy access to “Arcanite Magician.” Since most of the Gravekeepers in Wynn’s Deck are Level 4 Spellcasters, he can Tune them with a Level 3 Tuner like Gale to Synchro Summon “Arcanite Magician.” Wynn also uses 2 copies of “Mystic Tomato” to Special Summon all of those Level 4 Gravekeepers from his Deck.
Wynn’s Deck is packed with a solid Gravekeeper’s monster line-up and a bunch of tech choices to take down his opponents. If Duelists continue to rely on their Graveyards in the next format as much as they do in this one, we may be seeing a lot more Gravekeeper’s Decks entered into competitive tournaments.
