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!
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