Peter's Dragon Deck

So, I just finished my new Yugioh deck. And, I've got to say, I'm kind of proud of this one. No, it's not the type of deck that you could take to a tournament, but it's my deck, and it's one of the better ones I've had for use against my friends.

After a brief turn to a pretty basic Synchro deck, I decided to return to my more traditional focus on Dragon-types, with the release of the Dragons Collide structure deck serving as the basis. The idea is pretty simple- use Red-eyes Darkness Metal and other cards to summon a lot of powerful dragons and clear away threats from my opponent with powerful Spells and Traps- a fairly basic, if effective, strategy.

I'll put the deck list below, but before that I'm going to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of this deck, along with some of the better cards in it. Consider this the beginning of a semi-regular column on Yugioh decks. I'm not the best player out there, but I've enjoyed this game for a while, and with the advent of www.duelingnetwork.com, it's easier than ever to try out new decks and see what can be done with them.

Strengths

Obviously, the primary focus of a dragon deck is to summon powerful Dragon-type monsters. Dragons are one of the most prolific types in Yugioh, and with good reason; they're awesome, and very versatile cards. Many of the best cards in the game are Dragons, and this deck utilizes a lot of these titans.

The two key cards to the deck are Eclipse Wyvern and Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, two of the best cards for Dragon-decks to be recently released and the only monsters run in pairs. Eclipse Wyvern, when it is sent to the graveyard, lets you banish a level 7 or higher LIGHT or DARK Dragon from your deck, and if it is banished, add that card to your hand. This makes Eclipse Wyvern the perfect discard fodder or target for Foolish Burial, as well as material for Lightpulsar's summoning. On the flip side, Darkness Metal Dragon is a level ten monster with 2800 ATK, which can be summoned by banishing a face-up Dragon and, once per turn, allows the player to special summon a Dragon-type EXCEPT another Darkness Metal, because otherwise Dragon OTKs would be far too easy. Since every monster in this deck is Dragon-type, Darkness Metal has a lot of fodder for its effects. Oftentimes the summoning of Darkness Metal also means the summoning of another powerful dragon, such as Lightpulsar or Galaxy-eyes.

Lightpulsar Dragon is another powerful card which deserves mention. A 'Chaos Dragon' of sorts, Lightpulsar can be Special Summoned by banishing a LIGHT and DARK monster in your graveyard, or specialed from the grave by discarding a LIGHT and DARK. Lightpulsar's true power lies in its other effect, which allows it to Special Summon a level 5 or higher DARK Dragon from the grave when it is destroyed. This works well with Lightpulsar's weaker little brother, Darkflare Dragon, but it also combos great with Darkness Metal- if both cards are destroyed by an opponents Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute, you can summon Darkness Metal with Lightpulsar's effect, and then vice-versa, effectively wasting your opponents card and leaving you with 5300 ATK power on your field.

Weaknesses

It's important to be aware of the weaknesses in your deck before sitting down to play. Aside from general weaknesses with my builds (I build decks more to have fun with them, rather than by some arbitrary formula), the biggest weakness to any dragon deck is momentum. Dragon decks pretty much rely on a strong start to win; catching the opponent off balance with a sudden assault, and setting proper defenses up to keep your Dragons alive. Wasting precious defense cards early in the game while waiting for the cards you need to summon a Darkness Metal or other monster will usually cost you the game. This deck also isn't very good for topdecking; it's essential to keep a decent pool of resources on hand in case things don't go your way. You shouldn't use up all your available cards unless it will guarantee your win, because things can and probably will go very badly for you should you need to topdeck. This deck (currently) has no Xyz monsters to support it, although later I plan on obtaining Queen Dragun Djinn, Neo Galaxy-eyes, and some Hieratic Xyz monsters once they go down in price.

Keep in mind that this deck is NOT compatable with the recent banlist, although it's easy to find legal substitutes for some of these cards (Duality instead of Pot of Greed, for instance). Future decks will stick to this list more likely than not. But, without further ado, here is my dragon deck!

Monsters x 19

Alexandrite Dragon
Axe Dragonute
Bright Star Dragon
Darkflare Dragon
Debris Dragon (Tuner)
Delta Flyer (Tuner)
Divine Dragon Apocralyph
Dread Dragon (Tuner)
Eclipse Wyvern x2
Galaxy-eyes Photon Dragon
Lightpulsar Dragon
Magna Drago (Tuner)
Mirage Dragon
Prime Material Dragon
Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon x2
Van'dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord
Vice Dragon

Spells x 13

Different Dimension Reincarnation
Dark Hole
Dragon's Gunfire
Dragon's Mirror
Foolish Burial
Heavy Storm
Brain Control
Monster Reborn
Mystical Space Typhoon
Photon Sanctuary
Pot of Greed
Soul Exchange
Swords of Revealing Light

Traps x 8

Call of the Haunted
Fiendish Chain
Magic Cylinder
Magic Jammer
Mirror Force
Seven Tools of the Bandit
Shadow Spell
Starlight Road

Total- 40

Extra Deck x 10

Five Headed Dragon
Dark End Dragon
Iron Chain Dragon
Light End Dragon
Red Dragon Archfiend x2
Red Nova Dragon
Stardust Dragon x2
Trident Dragon