Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! Lonely Tylenol, returning from the grave (apparently) to discuss another deck type for WATER users: Codarus Control!
Codarus Control focuses on the effect of Codarus, a level 4 Sea-Serpent from Absolute Powerforce:
You can send 1 face-up "Umi" you control to the Graveyard to select up to 2 cards your opponent controls and send them to the Graveyard.
Codarus' effect is simple: you can send a "Umi" on the field (or a card treated as "Umi"!) to the Graveyard to send up to two cards your opponent controls to the Graveyard. This card has an effect similar to the popular Icarus Attack, and the less popular Offering to the Snake Deity, in that it allows you to trade another card for two of your opponents'. Unlike Icarus Attack, however, this card remains on the field after use, so you are only trading the card you use as fodder for two of your opponent's cards, as opposed to a two-for-two trades! This card is a +1 in some of the best possible ways: It acts as field disruption against your opponent; it is versatile in that it can hit either the front row or the back row; and it maintains field presence, which allows you to reuse the card!
There are three outlets for Codarus' effect: Two cards that are treated as "Umi" while face-up on the field, and "Umi" itself. One card that you can use is "A Legendary Ocean", which is always treated as "Umi". Unfortunately, this means that you cannot use three copies of "Umi" along with your three copies of "A Legendary Ocean"; however, you can use Warrior of Atlantis, itself a fairly powerful monster (a level 4 1900 ATK monster that becomes a level 3 2100 ATK monster when "A Legendary Ocean" is out), to search out "A Legendary Ocean", meaning even though you are only running three copies, you are also running three searchers, for a total of six cards which lead to Codarus fodder in your hand! Unfortunately, neither Umi nor A Legendary Ocean has a very useful effect: the 200 ATK gain is mediocre and won't help many monsters in battle, and the level reduction of A Legendary Ocean doesn't do much unless you are running an abundance of level 5 WATER monsters, which will be Normal Summonable out of hand while A Legendary Ocean is face-up on the field.
Another card that you can use to fuel Codarus' effect is Forgotten Temple of the Deep. Unlike A Legendary Ocean, Forgotten Temple of the Deep only counts as "Umi" while on the field, so you can run it along with the three copies of Umi/A Legendary Ocean that you are allowed. Unfortunately, this card's effect is limited in its usefulness, but it does give you more fodder for Codarus. Between A Legendary Ocean, Warrior of Atlantis and Forgotten Temple of the Deep, you can run up to nine cards that will lead to a "Umi" on the field for Codarus' effect (six cards that count as "Umi", plus three searches), allowing for fantastic draw odds!
All told, it is probably preferable to run three copies of "A Legendary Ocean", along with "Warrior of Atlantis", before you consider running additional copies of Codarus fodder.
So, how exactly does a Codarus deck work? It's not like a lone 1400-ATK monster with the occasional destruction ability is enough to win games, let alone survive two turns to battle... So, how is it done?
The answer to that question is that Codarus' destruction engine is the centerpiece to a set of cohesive, synergistic advantage-based engines which make up the deck. Codarus control decks are all about advantage, which is why it's no surprise that roughly a quarter of your average Codarus control deck is made up of cards that are +1s from the moment they are activated.
The first thing that you might want to consider to complement your Codarus engine is Snowman Eater. Snowman Eater has gained a tremendous amount of respect this format, as people are turning toward advantage-generating walls to clear out problem cards without the element of risk that attacking into a potential Book of Moon or Dimensional Prison can incur. Snowman Eater is a 1900-ATK wall with a built-in destruction effect that is triggered when it is flipped face-up, allowing you to generate advantage from almost any entry-level monster's attack! When Snowman Eater is destroyed, you can also take advantage of its low ATK in a few different ways: Since it has 0 ATK, you can add it to hand with Salvage (for a +1 to your hand and the opportunity to reuse Snowman Eater's effect) or Special Summon it with Debris Dragon for a +1 to the field and a one-card Black Rose Dragon/Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!
Next, you might want to consider including the Deep Sea Diva engine. Deep Sea Diva is a level 2 Sea-Serpent Tuner that allows you to grab another level 3 or lower Sea-Serpent from your Deck. Unfortunately, the card pool for Deep Sea Diva's effect is small and largely unimpressive--aside from Deep Sea Diva, the only four targets for its effect are Spined Gillman, Mermaid Archer, Reese the Ice Mistress and Atlantean Pikeman--but in Deep Sea Diva's case, that has always been enough to make do. Deep Sea Diva searching out Reese the Ice Mistress, or another copy of itself, means two Tuners for the price of one--and a healthy +1 at that--or, for the bold and daring, Deep Sea Diva searching out Spined Gillman or Mermaid Archer means a one-card level 5 Synchro (or more with the right cards on the field), which is essentially like Normal Summoning Ally of Justice Catastor from your hand!
Finally, the Spell support for the engine, which, unsurprisingly, includes Salvage and Moray of Greed. While my love of Salvage is already well-documented, it would do good to state it again for the purpose of this deck. To do so, it might be easiest to post a sample list (you can attribute the high monster count to a lack of Dualities; my builds tend to be more "affordable" that way):
Codarus Control
Monsters: 17
3x Codarus
3x Snowman Eater
3x Deep-Sea Diva
3x Warrior of Atlantis
2x Spined Gillman
2x Debris Dragon
1x Mother Grizzly
Spells: 13
3x A Legendary Ocean
3x Book of Moon
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x Moray of Greed
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Salvage
Traps: 10
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Call of the Haunted
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Forgotten Temple of the Deep
1x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
Of the seventeen monsters run in this version of the build, fifteen are WATER monsters with 1500 or less ATK, thus making almost every monster in my build an eligible Salvage target. You could Salvage Codarus, in order to Normal Summon it and use its effect to destroy two; Snowman Eater, to Set it and force your opponent to either waste removal or lose a monster attacking it; Deep Sea Diva, to get another one-card Synchro Summon; Spined Gillman, to boost the ATK of your Codarus and of itself; or Mother Grizzly, to search out another component of the deck (such as a second Codarus, or something to that effect). The best part is, you can add more than one at a time, due the advantage that Salvage affords us!
Once again, Moray of Greed benefits from its synergy with Salvage; Salvage allows you to pay the cost of Moray without using two WATER monsters already in your hand, and Moray + Salvage is still a +1. Better yet, Moray of Greed allows you to return targets for your Diva engine to the deck for re-use.
With ten cards that are instant +1s in the above deck list (3x Codarus, 3x Deep Sea Diva, 2x Debris Dragon, 2x Salvage), plus three potential +1s (3x Snowman Eater) and a slew of disruption cards (2x Bottomless Trap Hole, 1x Torrential Tribute, 1x Solemn Judgment, 1x Mirror Force, 2x Dimensional Prison, 1x Dark Hole, 3x Book of Moon and 2x Mystical Space Typhoon, in addition to the aforementioned), you are bound to whittle away at your opponent's resources with Codarus Control, reducing them to a heap of dead cards that you can run over with relentless aggression!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Hunt!
This is a fun card that doesnt see much play.. with so many dark decks and so much setting.. i dont see why not ? i like it :)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tokens!
Damned Tokens.. Everywhere! Dandylion is definitely a huge pain with all those fluff tokens going around ,and with all those plant decks or DandyWarrior decks out there the sure can be a pain.. But theres a little hope out there.. Twin-Sword Marauder is a cool option, search able by Rota,Allure target, and a warrior.. not to mention hes a Peirce's! that means he can kill 2 tokens, while dishing out 3200 Damage.. Painful.. You can also throw out Jurrac Monoloph, a Smaller Asura preist that's a tuner and wont get sent back to your hand. if you want to Synchro you can always use Flamvell Uruquizas, he gets bigger, and Peirce's! and lastly Token Thanksgiving! gain some life off your opponents tokens.. Fun stuff :) Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
XYZombie
With the Tcg release of Hidden Arsenal 3, we got a few interesting cards, 2 of my Favorite are Worm Xex and Worm Yagan.
When this card is Normal Summoned, you can send 1 Reptile-type "Worm" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard. If you control a face-up "Worm Yagan", this card cannot be destroyed by battle. |
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Posibilitys
So many Archtypes out there with so much potential, yet we always see the same decks winning/topping.. Why? is it just that they are familiar,Superior, or just has that edge over everything using tried and true mechanics.. theres a ton of LS variants,Dandy Warrior and even Frogs now. is it time for something new? Depends if you wanna risk a loss to be the ugly duckling..but then again, what fun is Always winning with the same thing?
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Cleanin it out
Happy New Year!!
Its the End of the year , Lots of good stuff happening now, time to clean out the binders and trade fodder to get ready for the new year.. How do YOU get rid of all the extras?
I packed up 100+ of my Good commons/supers and put them in a deck box and GIFTED them for Xmas :) one mans Trash is anothers Treasure :) besides.. who doesnt want the whole Worm Set in 3's ? :P
Its the End of the year , Lots of good stuff happening now, time to clean out the binders and trade fodder to get ready for the new year.. How do YOU get rid of all the extras?
I packed up 100+ of my Good commons/supers and put them in a deck box and GIFTED them for Xmas :) one mans Trash is anothers Treasure :) besides.. who doesnt want the whole Worm Set in 3's ? :P
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