Notes & Combos

I've been trying to climb to KoG for about a week now, but couldn't find success with any decks and kept losing streaks. Eventually I got inspired by albell26 playing D-Hero post-banlist, so I decided to give the deck another chance. At first I played their version which ran Beatrice, but I did not like that version whatsoever. Beatrice forces you to run Farfa and Fusion Recovery, and in a deck that already bricks too often by drawing Malicious, I don't think this is the best version... at least, not on ladder. So, I switched back to this version, the one I KoG'ed with in August. Unfortunately, because of Malicious being Limit 3, the deck is a lot weaker without access to more Limit 3 traps. Not sure why BLS and friends are allowed to run amok with Limit 3 traps while D-Heros suffer, but oh well... that's Yu-Gi-Oh. At least Crackdown was still godly on the rare occasions I saw it.

This KoG run was quite awful. I kept losing my rank-up games by a combination of either drawing too many monsters, completely bricking on unusable Spell/Traps (the chance of bricking with this list is 4.57%, which happened to me twice) or by going second against decks that basically blow you out if they go first (to the Magikey player who beat me on my rank-up: f@ck you). Funny enough, this deck is pretty crazy going first and second, which is why I chose to pilot it to KoG. Unfortunately, though, this list is not at all optimized. I need to play with ratios to make that brick chance less deadly. It absolutely sucks drawing 2-3 Dai with no monsters (more on that later).

Changes from the last list + tips/advice/other changes I'd consider:

• -1 Cerberus, +1 Abyss Dweller: My list from August included Cerberus. It was good back then, but I took it out to play Dweller instead. Because we're currently in a backrow meta with BLS, Twin, and Rokket as the best decks, Cerberus rarely comes up. You always make Cerberus going second, but in games where Cerberus would've been decent, the setup for it usually gets stopped by backrow anyway. Dweller was better for me overall because it helped to slow down BLS.
• 4 Xyz monsters + 3 Link Monsters: I summoned every monster in my Extra Deck in all my Duels to KoG. IMO, the Extra Deck is pretty non-negotiable with MAYBE the exception of Dweller. Dweller is dead in some matchups so you could probably replace this with any other Rank 4 that might be good in the meta, especially in tournaments with Side Deck. In general, though, I liked having Dweller and 1 going first Xyz monster (Nightmare) and 2 going second Xyz monsters (Sin and Exciton Knight). My entire Extra Deck put in massive work and I don't think I'd change a single card in it.
• 3 Expendable Dai: This was probably my least favorite tech. There were games where I saw 2-3 of this with no monsters to play with, and was the sole reason I lost those Duels. However, I believe running 3 of this is a necessary evil now that Malicious is Limit 3. It helps to draw this turn 1 when you have an extra Mali on board but can't make Ferocious with it, and it even draws you a card to help with follow-up or protection on the next turn. I definitely need to experiment with the ratios on this card.
• Limit 3 Trap: I chose Crackdown for the Limit 3 Trap. Don't get me wrong, it's an INSANE card, but without the consistency of 3 of this, it was a lot worse. You could honestly replace this with any other Limit 3 Trap and it'd probably be just as good.
• Playing around D.D. Crow: It's important to remember that your opponent cannot respond to your Skills, meaning their only time to Crow you is when your first move immediately after using the Skill isn't banishing Malicious. When you go for the Skill, have an extra body to make both Ferocious and Dystopia, and want to play around D.D. Crow, you summon Malicious first then activate Poly to make Dystopia. Even if they Crow the Mali after that, you still have Dystopia live.

If you read all the way here, you are awesome. Feel free to comment how I'm a loser for typing these up in all my KoG lists KEKW. Otherwise, good luck, Duelist!