The Story Behind The Idea

Up until this point, Yellow has successfully eluded my attempts at building a serious deck. I made several attempts when it was first released in Set 2: Rise of Angels, but many of my creations were unsuccessful. That trend continued into Set 3: Scars of Battle. However, I have learned from those experiences, changed my ideas, and am now willing to share it all with my readers!

I began my first attempt at a Yellow deck with Set 3's card pool; the idea was to abuse the combo of Royal Potion and The Clown Clan. I tried very hard to make the deck work and made many changes to improve it. Most of those changes were intended to increase the speed of the deck. I accomplished this by increasing the low cost cards and removing the higher cost ones. The deck was quicker, but it had become dependent on The Blessed Sanctuary and inconsistent due to that fact alone. I decided it was at its best for what the card pool had to offer and scrapped it. Here is the Mono Yellow list I am referring to.



I noticed several problems while play testing the Mono Yellow Beat Down that you see above; core generation was severely lacking and I was always on the losing side of battles because of low battle points. These two deficiencies amounted to loss after loss. I thought that the deck would improve drastically if I could fix these problems. After examining my options, I decided that adding Green would cover up its weaknesses. My thinking was curved this way because Green sports cards with high battle points that can both block and attack; it is also gifted with a plethora of core generation. With Green added, the future looked positive for completing the build of a competent Yellow deck.

The Concept

The central concept of this deck is to use Brilliance to its fullest. We have several spells at our disposal to do this; those being Power Aura, Storm Draw, Binding Thorn, and Royal Potion. I'm sure you can imagine the delightful consequences of combining Brilliance with any of the above. We will need a lot of cores to do it, though. That is why the deck values several cards that generate cores; they allow us to use of our spells to their fullest with Brilliance! Lastly, we are using beat down cards to ensure that we aren't wasting any opportunities to deal damage to the opponent. All of this encompasses the Yellow and Green Beat Down that you see below.



How it Works!

How does the deck work? That's a good question; let's ponder on it for a little while... It's a beat down! If I tell you that it should be self-explanatory, right? It may be a little cruel to leave a couple in the dark. I will shed some light on the subject for those of you who skipped beat down 101. The deck focuses on repeatedly attacking the opponent; whether we deal damage or destroy spirits is not our concern. We are happy as long as the opponent feels pressured.

Another question should jump at you: how are we going to keep the pressure on our opponent? We will do this by playing a lot of spirits with high battle points and forcing the opponent into situations where they must either destroy a spirit or take damage to their life. Easier said than done, right? You'll be happy to know that this deck is well equipped with cards that will make it easier done than said.

One thing that I feel is very important to address is how your resources are used. The deck requires efficient maneuvering of cores in order to maximize its effectiveness. This idea is somewhat complicated to explain through text, but I will do my best to convey it through an example. A good example is the card Arcanabeast-Ken. You need to actively decide whether it is better to have two spirits on your field with Arcanabeast-Ken at level three or play another spirit. Spreading your cores out thin in this deck is a bad idea! You want to have two guys at level two, instead of four guys at level one. It's hard to describe what I mean, but I hope you understood the gist of it, it is key to using the deck properly!

Create a Pressure Zone [Early Game Analysis]

Our early game will focus heavily on battling and laying down a abundance of attackers. You have a surplus of strong spirits at your disposal; those being Pelileaf, Shockeater, Arcanabeast-Ken, and X-Scissors. All of these cards will provide you with a sterling start. You can use of Hermit Wise Tree to put pressure on your opponent. I don't recommend taking a lot of damage to get this card out. However, if you are given the opportunity to play this card take it. Do not underestimate how useful 1000 extra battle points are. Not to mention that it combos with X-Scissor; this will allow you to intensify your onslaught earlier in the game!


An important aspect of this deck is core generation. You will be hard pressed to win a match without a good stock of cores in your reserve. Bathopper and Ochogo were specifically placed in the deck for that reason. Additional cores means that our spirits will achieve higher levels and have more battle points. While these cards don't have a beat down feel, they will set you up to hit your opponent hard in the mid-game.

No Mercy! Keep The Pressure On! [Middle Game Analysis]

We've established our field presence by generating cores and pressuring our opponent with high battle points. Now we need to increase the intensity of our assault. We'll accomplish this by playing an abundance of spirits while still paying homage to the rule of not spreading our cores too thin. It may not matter at this point if you have Hermit Wise Tree on the field. You will be golden as long as you can keep your field presence solid on both player's turn.

Mycanaen excels by continually keeping the pressure on your opponent. You can use him at this stage to either pave the way for an extra attack; or keep him available to defend and ready a strong spirit on your side to block again. Do not underestimate his usefulness in the deck. It is exceedingly helpful when Arcanadoll-Ken is at level three. Your opponent may think they have disabled your wall of Arcana spirits, but Mycanaen will give you the go ahead to use them freely as blockers and attackers.

Exhausting spirits isn't a huge part of this stage, but it doesn't hurt. You have Arcanadoll-Pan, EmeraldScissor, and Binding Thorn to use at your discretion. These cards will allow you to disable the threats on your opponent's side of the field; this creates an opening for you to storm ahead and keep the pressure on! You may also find yourself in a position to win thanks to the potential of these cards.


Arcanadoll-Tria (Brilliance) makes its usefulness known at this time. You should have enough cores to play Arcanadoll-Tria and bump him up to level two; this will enable you to use Brilliance. At this point, what you want to do with Brilliance is increase your hand. You can do this by playing Power Aura while Arcanadoll-Tria is battling. Through this, you draw an extra card every turn and everyone will gain 1000 battle points. This may seem trivial, but this deck lacks a lot of draw; this will help you attain your win condition faster while keeping up the pressure. Storm Draw can be used to find your win condition or gain an extra 3000 battle points every turn. You also have the possibility of playing Binding Thorn for free every turn. This allows you to exhaust an extra spirit every turn and deal with potential threats that cause you to lose momentum.

"Finish Him!" [End Game Analysis]

We've attained the "Finish Him!" moment and are ready to deal the final blow! So, what do we have in this deck that is going to allow us to freeze the opponent in their tracks and shatter their world with a strong kick to the chest? We've got a combo and a rather hellish one at that; the combo is Arcanadoll-Tria and Royal Potion. A lot of the spirits we play in the early and middle game are two cost spirits. They are perfect specimens to attack twice. When using this combo we don't need a lot of spirits on the field, but it would help. What we want to do is attack with everyone except Arcanadoll-Tria. Attack with Tria and play Royal Potion after you've attacked with everyone else. The result of this is Royal Potion returning to your hand and unexhausting all the two cost spirits on your side. Finish your opponent off by attacking again with two cost spirits. You can also throw Binding Thorn or any of the other exhaust spirits to completely devastate your opponent. The great thing about this combo is there is no worry about counters like Silent Wall; you can come back on the next turn and do the same thing!


Improving the Deck

As usual I'm not going to claim this is the best version of the deck. This is a workable version that can be used at your local to beat the pants off someone who never saw it coming. There were some cards that I would have liked to try, but I never got around to it. They may improve the consistency of the deck. I recommend giving any of the cards below a try. They could definitely come in handy in several situations.

I thought Pentan might help; generating cores is great, but it would also make life easier if spells cost less. I know Power Aura and Royal Potion would be significantly cheaper if they cost one less core to play. The problem with Pentan is he requires three Yellow spirits to be on the field. That doesn't happen too often with this deck. All the benefits he could do might not be worth the dead card. There's also the issue with him costing an arm and a leg to play. His lack of battle points and cost may hurt the deck more than it helps. Despite all of this, I think he's worth a try.

Is it a Tier 1 Deck?

I wish I could tell you that I truly believe it is; however, I really don't. The deck has the potential to beat tier 1 decks, but it lacks the draw and removal to keep up. Don't get stuck on the idea that its not good enough. Yellow has loads of potential and will improve drastically as the card pool expands. For now, revel in the possibility of running this at your next local and laughing at your opponent when you beat them. You can laugh especially hard if you beat a top tier deck with it. Good luck in all your deck building ventures!

---

---