Morphtronics, Transform and Roll Out!

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I’ve been playing a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! lately, and I’ve gotten my Morphtronic deck as good as it’s getting right now unless they put out some surprise support or ridiculously powerful Synchro that I can summon (granted, more Synchros are due soon due to the current arc of ARC-V). Granted, I may forget something obvious and need to adjust it.

This deck has been the main deck I’ve used in this game since the archetype’s initial release, so I have all of their combos completely figured out. I’ll explain the ones possible in this build, but first the list is below.

For those unaware, the deck is a Transformers parody, though I see them more are minicons.

Equip Synchro Spam Morphtronics (April 2015 Banlist)

Main Deck (40)

Monsters (20)

2 Morphtronic Boarden
2 Morphtronic Boomboxen
3 Morphtronic Celfon
2 Morphtronic Radion
2 Morphtronic Remoten
2 Morphtronic Scopen
1 Morphtronic Slingen
3 Morphtronic Smartfon
3 Morphtronic Staplen

Spells (17)

2 D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation
2 Junk Box
2 Machine Duplication
1 Moon Mirror Shield
2 Morphtronic Accelerator
2 Morphtronic Repair Unit
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 One for One
1 Raigeki
2 Reasoning

Traps (3)

1 Jar of Avarice
2 Mirror Force

Extra Deck (15)

Synchro (13)

1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Armory Arm or Old Entity Hastorr
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Black Rose Moonlight Dragon
1 Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
1 Formula Synchron
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Life Stream Dragon
1 Naturia Beast
1 Power Tool Dragon
1 Shooting Quasar Dragon
1 Shooting Star Dragon
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian

Xyz (2)

1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK

Change Log

  • Ancient Sacred Wyvern replaced by Black Rose Moonlight Dragon due to lack of ways to get rid of destruction-immune opponents.
  • Old Entity Hastorr replaces Armory Arm upon release. Armory Arm left on the list since Hastorr is not available yet.

Deck Goals

The win condition here is simple: Make Shooting Quasar Dragon as quickly as possible. But that’s not the only way to win, not by a long-shot, there are various other winning combinations, be it through a field of Synchros or because Morphtronics can deal deadly damage in the right combinations. Celfon + Radion + Boomboxen + Boarden = 8000 points in direct damage, since Radion is boosting everyone by 800, Boarden lets everyone attack directly and Boomboxen can attack twice. That said, non-Extra Deck plays are fairly awkward and especially fragile, so they’re not really recommended.

Summoning Quasar

Speaking of Quasar, while there’s more than one way to summon him, it will almost always be the result of using Machine Duplication on Celfon, giving me three Celfon to use. If I get any Tuners at all, Quasar is possible, but it’s tricky if I can’t get Scopen. Scopen in defense is level 4, so I can use it and the Celfon that summoned it to make Librarian. At that point, things become significantly easier if I can keep going. If the second Celfon fetches Smartfon (or if I have one in my hand, I can special summon it now with its effect), being a level 1 Tuner, I can use it to add a card to my hand and then make Formula Synchron using a Celfon to draw two cards in combination between its effect and Librarian’s.

The last summon also heavily depends on circumstances, as a Smartfon summoned via Celfon or that was otherwise not summoned properly cannot be revived. If the third Celfon fetches a level 4 and I can revive Smartfon with one of my many revival cards then, I could make Ally of Justice Catastor for another level 5 Synchro. If I can’t revive it, I can revive Scopen in defense as a level 4 and make Catastor that way. If I can’t revive either of them, I have to use Celfon and pray for either Scopen or Remoten. If I get Scopen, it’s summoned in defense and used to make Catastor. If I get Remoten, it banishes a Celfon or Remoten from my grave to fetch a spare Smartfon, I make Armory Arm with Remoten and Celfon, then banish Celfon to special summon Smartfon and (after searching with its effect to maintain my hand) use it with Armory Arm to make Catastor.

If I can make more 2-card Synchro summons, this is the time since Librarian will be leaving the field for Quasar to come out, and Librarian helps maintain my hand size as I spend it to Synchro. Once I’m ready, Formula (Lv 2) + Librarian (Lv 5) + Catastor (Lv 5) = Lv 12, and they’re a Tuner Synchro and 2 non-Tuner Synchros so I can make Quasar, which typically results in an immediate victory. Just in case it doesn’t, I have Shooting Star Dragon (which I can’t summon outside Quasar), who gets pulled out if the opponent ever manages to get rid of it. Its attack negation effect won’t allow it to come back this way, but it is otherwise a decent beater with destruction negation.

Mitigating Luck

You may have noticed that both Celfon and Smartfon are luck-based, involving a die roll, making the above combo difficult to complete. The thing is that the deck has been built to prevent a lack of luck from being problematic too often. Celfon summons any one of the Morphtronics I may find at the top of my deck, so I made half of the deck into valid targets, meaning he will always be able to summon something, even if it’s not what I want. Similarly, Smartfon adds any one of the Morphtronic cards it finds to my hand. All Morphtronic monsters are Morphtronic cards, and I use 4 non-Monster Morphtronic cards, so more than half of the deck is valid.

The only real issues, then, are the cases where I find nothing anyway, and the cases where I find something I don’t want. If I find any valid targets, I have to pick one and can’t just choose not to, which can cause problems with the Celfon Duplication combo, since I only have 5 monster zones and could run out of spaces.

Non-Quasar Extra Deck Plays

Even if the attempt at Quasar fails, the deck has a plethora of other Synchro options to summon. If one can identify where Quasar isn’t possible, one can shift gears and just get a strong field out. Naturia Beast shuts down a lot of decks on its own, Catastor helps get past annoying non-DARK opponents, Goyo Guardian is a strong beater, Armory Arm is either a stepping stone or a good combination with Power Tool Dragon. Goyo Guardian and Armory Arm (or, rather, a level 6 and a level 4) are mandatory to run due to the deck’s combinations sometimes only allowing their levels if I’m unlucky. Upon release, Hastorr is more than superior to Armory Arm and will replace it in the deck.

Speaking of which, this deck can make level 7 Synchros rather easily via Scopen’s effect to summon a level 4 Morphtronic. As such, I run several: Power Tool Dragon searches my equips, which are all revival cards (except Moon Mirror Shield, which is a solution to the deck’s low ATK), allowing my to continue summoning, and I can add in Smartfon once it runs out of search targets to make Life Stream Dragon. Black Rose Dragon is a sudden tactical nuke, which can turn the game around if I can use the opportunity to immediately summon a strong field. Clear Wing Synchro Dragon counters several decks, but is weak to spell and trap removal options. Finally, Black Rose Moonlight Dragon can bounce most powerful monsters, useful for evading destruction-immunity.

Leviair can result in a Synchro if the circumstances allow it. My favourite combo with it is duplicating Remoten to banish Scopen and a level 4 for a search, then making Leviair, who summons Scopen, who summons the level 4 I just searched, allowing me to bring out a level 7 Synchro. Silent Honor ARK is a rare summon, but can get rid of so many monsters that are difficult to get rid of otherwise. I usually pull it out only because it’s the only available play.

Jar of Avarice allows me to recycle these back to the Extra Deck for use again. It is, in fact, best used when I have 5 Synchros to target.

Miscellaneous Notes

Accelerator shuffling a Morphtronic from my hand is not a cost, but I don’t get to draw a card if I don’t destroy the target with its effect. While awkward to explain to opponents, this means that the opponent has to use protection rather than negation to cause problems when you use it, a distinction that catches many off-guard, though several decks do have such an option to use.

Two (face-up) defense-position Boarden prevent my Morphtronics from being destroyed in battle. Two attack-position Staplen stop my opponent from attacking any of my monsters (though cards that allow them to attack directly will still work). Slingen is best summoned via Celfon, since it can tribute that Celfon to destroy a threat, but should not be prioritized over the Quasar combo without a plan to get back on track (a Smartfon in hand counts as a plan here).

Since the Morphtronic used for the cost of Repair Unit is sent to the grave before picking a revival target, I can choose to summon the one I just sent, making it a versatile card. The problem is that I need a valid target in the grave before I can activate it in the first place. This plays into why I can’t run too many revival cards at once here – if my opening hand is nothing but cards that require something in the grave with nothing to send something there, I lose.

There are also a great many other Extra Deck options, but the 15-card limit is a pain.

Weaknesses

Firstly, to cover issues within the deck itself, many of the deck’s combos are limited by only having a single normal summon or requiring a Morphtronic in the grave. This is due to the nature of using Remoten and Smartfon, which are the deck’s only reliable method to maintain a hand – Hyper Librarian isn’t touching the field unless attempting to summon Quasar. Additionally, revival cards are the deck’s most reliable swarming option, and such things are impossible without cards in the graveyard in the first place. This makes One for One’s cost useful in the long run and makes Reasoning a win-win card, as, even if the opponent guesses the correct level, I can banish or revive it (or both) at my leisure, though it would be even better if I’d managed to find the space for Breakthrough Skill, which doesn’t care if it’s sent to the grave as collateral for Reasoning.

Then there’s stopping opposing plays. Mystical Space Typhoon is absolutely essential here because this deck is vulnerable to damn near everything. Nearly every floodgate in the game (i.e. Vanity’s Emptiness) poses a credible threat, and most of them are, luckily, traps. As they’re usually continuous, destroying them will usually prevent the effect from stopping my play if done in the same chain as their response to my summon attempts, etc. Mystical Space Typhoon is a quick-play, allowing for this. It is also imperative that I get rid of an opposing face-down Mystical Space Typhoon with my Mystical Space Typhoon, as destroying my equip spells will stop them from working, making my paying the cost be in vain and breaking up several of my combos as I attempt to perform them.

However, cards like Majesty’s Fiend and Djinn Releaser of Rituals are more problematic to stop, requiring me to side in cards like Compulsory Evacuation Device and Book of Moon to deal with them. I also have the option of simply using Moon Mirror Shield to defeat them with a normal summonable Morphtronic, as said card allows my monster to always win a battle by at least 100. Such emergencies are why I use it to begin with. Unless I have them handy, though, I have to adapt more defensive strategies with cards like Staplen. Evilswarm Ophion is a monster floodgate that forces me to use non-Extra Deck tactics, as it locks out everything but my Xyz and two of my Synchros: Armory and Formula.

I have no out to hand traps like Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit or Effect Veiler. My opponent is also getting at least 2 draws off of Maxx “C” in nearly every scenario. This deck, unlike most modern decks, has no immediate recovery from having its monsters destroyed. Where modern decks bounce back immediately, my only choice is to rebuild. While I technically have the option to run Stardust Dragon, it’s awkward to summon here in most situations and easily defeated by simple brute force, not to mention that many decks are using non-destruction removal in response to modern decks not caring about destruction.

The player can also be a weakness if unable to think outside the box to make combos on the fly to make a field. Unlike most decks, the same play can have many different variations, and you have no control over which variation you’re dealt even if you’re doing everything right.