Deck Profile: Aquatic Nicky Lacaille’s Fish Deck
Ever since late last year, Fish strategies centered on Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth have been gaining momentum and popularity. The release of Formula Synchron in Starstrike Blast flung the doors wide open, allowing the Deck to make the most of the Level 1 Tuner Fishborg Blaster, and its ability to generate Level 1 Oyster Tokens to go with it. On the other end of the spectrum, Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon opened up some truly spectacular combos and unprecedented payoffs for the Deck’s key plays, and Fish Duelists haven’t looked back since. Montreal’s Nicky Lacaille is 1 of the Duelists competing with this up-and-coming darkhorse pick this weekend: after a successful showing with Fish at an Ottawa Regional last November, here’s what he’s running today…
Nicky Lacaille’s Fish Deck – 40 Cards
Monsters: 23
3 Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth
3 Swap Frog
2 Dupe Frog
3 Oyster Meister
3 Fishborg Blaster
2 Snowman Eater
2 Light And Darkness Dragon
2 Treeborn Frog
1 Ronintoadin
1 Gorz The Emmisary Of Darkness
1 Tragoedia
Spells: 17
3 Pot Of Duality
3 Moray Of Greed
3 Enemy Controller
3 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
Decks like these focus on the powerful effect of Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth, which lets its controller discard a card to fill their field with Special Summoned Fish-type monsters straight from the Deck. In the past, we saw plenty of variants that were based around Royal Swamp Eel – a Level 4 Fish Tuner. Royal Swamp Eel would be Tuned to other Level 3 or Level 4 Fish to make 2 high-Level Synchro Summons in a single turn, but Lacaille (and others) have taken the Deck in a new direction. Lacaille isn’t playing Swamp Eel at all. Instead, he’s running triple Fishborg Blaster and triple Oyster Meister. The result? A Deck that can unleash Red Nova Dragon and claim victory even in the face of Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.
How does Lacaille accomplish such a feat? “I can bring 3 Oyster Meister and 1 Fishborg Blaster to the field with Coelacanth.” From there, Lacaille follows these steps:
-Tune Fishborg Blaster to Coelacanth to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon.
-Discard to Special Summon Fishborg, then Tune it to Oyster Meister for Armory Arm. This triggers Oyster Meister’s effect and Special Summons a Level 1 Oyster Token.
-Equip Armory Arm to Stardust Dragon, and discard again to bring back Fishborg Blaster. Tune it to the Oyster Token for Formula Synchron (and a free draw).
-Tune the Formula Synchron to the 2 remaining Oyster Meisters, Synchro Summoning Red Dragon Archfiend.
-That Special Summons 2 Oyster Tokens, and Lacaille uses his Fishborg Blaster twice more to Synchro Summon 2 more Formula Synchrons for 2 more draws.
-With 2 Formula Synchrons on the field, plus Red Dragon Archfiend, he can unleash Red Nova Dragon!
By the time the dust clears, this play sequence leaves Lacaille with a 5500 ATK Red Nova Dragon, and a Stardust Dragon equipped with Armory Arm. “Even if my opponent has Gorz, the effect of Armory Arm will finish the Duel,” remarked Lacaille. It’s impressive stuff, and it’s just 1 combo in the encyclopedic arsenal of tricks Lacaille commands. “There’s a lot of other ways to beat your opponent when you bring out Coelacanth, but that one’s my favorite.”
So how does Lacaille make that dream scenario happen reliably? “Swap Frog is a key card in the deck to dump Treeborn Frog to the Graveyard.” To keep things consistent, Lacaille plays 2 Dupe Frog to search out Swap Frog. “It’s also a good defensive card with 2000 DEF: it can slow the game when I get 2 on the field.” While some Duelists rely on Mausoleum of the Emperor or Special Summon tricks to get Coelacanth into play, Lacaille just uses regular Tribute Summoning backed by his Frogs. That lets him run Light and Darkness Dragon as well. “With the Frog engine, nothing is easier than a double Tribute. And if Coelacanth is in my Graveyard, I can bring it back with Light and Darkness Dragon’s revive effect!”
Lacaille’s fully aware of the challenges this Deck can run into, and he’s built his version to try and outplay them. “With Cold Wave now Forbidden, every Deck likes to set lots of Spells and Traps.. My only way to get an easy shot at the opponent’s Life Points is Giant Trunade: I need to draw Trunade very consistently, so to do so, I run triple Pot of Duality and triple Moray of Greed, as well as 3 copies of the no-longer-restricted Gold Sarcophagus.” Effect Veiler is also a big problem for many Coelacanth Decks: its effect can negate Coelacanth’s ability for a turn, costing the Fish Duelist a discard and all of their momentum. But Coelacanth packs another effect, that lets its controller Tribute a Fish to negate an effect that targets the Deepsea King. That lets Lacaille play around the threat of Veiler by ensuring that he has Fishborg Blaster on the field when he tries to use Coelacanth’s ability. Consistently being able to do that is another benefit of the uncommon choice to max out on 3 copies of Fishborg.
With a slow, but steady build of momentum in the months leading to this tournament, we could see a big showing from Fish this weekend. Lacaille’s build is an excellent example that explores a lot of incredible options, and it could take him to Day 2 in this competition.