YCS Portland: Top 4 Deck Profile – Yishan McNabb’s Golden Castle Gren Maju
Yishan McNabb isn’t a new face in Dueling. We’ve seen him many times now, still innovating his trademark Gren Maju Da Eiza strategy with new cards. We first started seeing him with the Deck after the release of Pot of Desires and Eater of Millions, which instantly boost Gren Maju simply by playing them. His newest variation uses Golden Castle of Stromberg, and it brought him to the grand finals of YCS Portland.
Main Deck: 40 cards
22 Monster Cards
3 Gren Maju Da Eiza
3 Eater of Millions
3 Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher
3 Danger! Thunderbird!
3 Danger! Bigfoot!
3 Glife the Phantom Bird
2 Hexe Trude
2 Dinowrestler Pankratops
18 Spell Cards
3 Pot of Desires
3 Golden Castle of Stromberg
3 Super Polymerization
3 Trade-In
3 Called by the Grave
1 Monster Reborn
1 Terraforming
1 Foolish Burial
0 Trap Cards
Extra Deck: 15 Cards
1 Salamangreat Violet Chimera
1 Mudragon of the Swamp
1 Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
1 Knightmare Mermaid
1 Knightmare Phoenix
1 Knightmare Cerberus
1 Knightmare Unicorn
1 Barricadeborg Blocker
1 Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon
1 Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon
1 Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon
1 Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy
1 Number 68: Sanaphond the Sky Prison
1 Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star
1 Number 22: Zombiestein
Side Deck: 15 Cards
3 Eradicator Epidemic Virus
3 There Can Be Only One
1 PSY-Frame Driver
3 PSY-Framegear Gamma
3 Twin Twisters
2 Cosmic Cyclone
Golden Castle of Stromberg offers a lot for this strategy. The obvious one is that it banishes ten cards every turn, making Gren Maju Da Eiza huge very quickly. Protection from all attacks is also very welcome. It’s a bit like Mystic Mine, in that it singlehandedly can prevent your opponent from hitting you back. It doesn’t stop monster effects like Mystic Mine, but has the upside of being completely one-sided.
The biggest thing about Golden Castle of Stromberg, however, is its ability to Special Summon Hexe Trude. Hexe Trude is a powerhouse, able to destroy a card, attack twice, and boost the ATK of itself or another monster. When necessary, Golden Castle can also Special Summon Glife the Phantom Bird, but you’ll almost always go for Hexe Trude.
The next new card in the Deck is Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher. We’re seeing Gizmek used in a lot of strategies thanks to its great effects and type. In this Deck it offers more banishing for Gren Maju, and it’s a Level 8 to pair with Hexe Trude or his two Danger! monsters for Rank 8 Xyz Monsters. With so many Level 8 monsters, Trade-In is also a no-brainer. The rest of his Extra Deck is suited to Super Polymerization, giving him a lot of options for handling opposing monsters and turning them against their masters.