The Dark Magician Deck

So the Dark Magician Support is kind of Legit

I can’t remember if I said anything on here about the Deck with it was first announced, but I do remember telling people that the Deck wasn’t that good and I was actually really disappointed in it.

Now though. I’ll happily admit that I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, because at the time the deck was trash but there are now 3 cards that make the Deck legit, and fourth card which I hope comes out in the TCG and for those who have played the Deck, you know that the card I’m referring to is essential in the Deck. But we’ll get to that. I want to talk about the other three cards first.

The first card is: Dark Magician of Chaos (DMoC).

Thank you Konami! You won’t see that too often, but they absolutely made the right call on this one. Banned to 3 was absolutely the best thing they could’ve done, not only to sell the Deck to actually make it somewhat playable. When DMoC’s errata was first announced, we were all on the same page. The “New effect, he ain’t even good” page. But we were just on the wrong page. We were just using him wrong. I think this card was still legal when Reborn was last legal and it opened up a nasty loop. The errata shuts that down, but he is still a powerful card and, in my opinion, the errata actually makes him more skilful to use. He’s still a 2800 beater. He still has his banishment effect. He still has his recycle effect. I don’t think you could ask for much more in a card. So how are we using him wrong, and what is the right way to use him?

In the old days before his errata, you’d drop DMoC and he’d pretty much sit there and banish your opponent’s monsters as he destroyed them until you forced them into submission and on top of that you usually got your Raigeki or your Reborn back so you put your opponent into a world of hurt. However, this way of using him isn’t effective in the current game state.

The most effective way I’ve found of using him in the current game state is to Game your opponent. He is still a 2800 beater. That is a lot of damage. Even if you don’t OTK your opponent through DMoC (and the Deck is able to OTK/FTK), you generalyl put them at such low LP that you don’t have to worry about them responding with things that cost Life Points to activate. Then you can choose the spell that’s going to set up your kill next turn. Alternatively, you can use “Dedication Through Light and Darkness” to Summon him on your opponent’s turn, get the spell during their End Phase, and you’re good to go.

Next: Dark Magic Circle

This card is some next level shit. It’s a Duality and D. Fissure rolled into one and that puts it in a very unique space. You’d be hard pressed to find a card that is like this one. How it works, for those who haven’t played or played against the Deck, is that you activate it, you look at the top 3 cards of your Deck. You then get to add a Dark Magician or a card with Dark Magician in its text to your hand (after revealing it to your opponent). The other two cards don’t go to the Graveyard though, you get to stack them on top of your Deck in any order you want. On top of that, when you Special Summon a Dark Magician (which is easy to do in the Deck, as you’d hope it would be) you then get to banish a card. Any card. Scale, facedown, backrow, Boss Monsters, basically anything that can be targeted or affected by card effects if fair game for this effect. That is incredibly powerful for a spell card, and it’s a DMoC target.

Thirdly, Magic Expand.

Now, there are several ways you can use this card, and I’ve only ever seen it used for its first effect: The attack boost. You can use this card defensively to protect a Dark Magician and maybe get over your opponent’s Boss Monster’s in the process. You can use it offensively and try to OTK your opponent. The ability to either protect or kill is what makes this card a vital addition to the Deck, even at 1.

So what is this fourth card? It’s a card, that in my opinion, the Deck cannot function without. If Konami wants to sell this Deck. If they want to sell The Dark Illusion as a set, then they must release Eternal Soul into the TCG. It allows you to Special Summon a Dark Magician from your hand or Graveyard which allows you to get off the effect of Dark Magic Circle (which can even be activated in the Battle Phase, which is just another level of insanity). It allows you to search either Dark Magic Attack (which destroys Pendulums) or Thousand Knives which allows you to pop a monster. It also protects Dark Magician(s) on your side of the field so they can’t be Raigeki’d or Bottomlessed. However, there is a downside of Eternal Soul: If it leaves the field: your monsters (not just your Dark Magicians) go bye-bye. That is a massive down side, but this deck gives you so much field advantage you should be able to prevent its destruction quite easily.

The Deck isn’t Tier 1-0. It’s nowhere near as strong as Monarchs (which is really the only Top Tier Deck in the current format, at least that I’ve seen so far. Dracopals were severely weakened, but I’ll leave that for another time), but it’s a decent, fun, Tier 3-2 Deck. So try it out, have fun with it and see what you think of it. You might be pleasantly surprised at its ability to allow a free-flowing game state, but can lock your opponent down and leave them defenceless when it wants to. One last thing, the Deck needs to go aggressively. If you don’t have your field set up by the end of your second turn at the latest, you will lose and you will lose very fast.

Anyway, Big Dub out.