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Top 5 Most Dreaded Decks in Yu-Gi-Oh! | Adilsons

Top 5 Most Dreaded Decks in Yu-Gi-Oh!

YuGiOh, with its myriad of archetypes and strategies, has a cardpool so vast that it would boggle any except the most seasoned of duelists. Diverse strategies aside, it is fortunate that all playstyles in the game can be categorized into one of 3 main approaches: aggro (hit hard and win through sheer power), stun (punish the opponent for playing the game) and control (limit your opponent's moves in the game). While the means to achieve any of these states seem virtually limitless, there are certain strategies which have stood the test of time. This has both positive and negative implications: while decks like Shaddolls and Burning Abyss have become fan-favorites, certain strategies have become infamously despised for their notorious nature.

In this week's Top 5 segment, we're looking at the 5 most dreaded decks in YuGiOh's history. These are decks which have seen significant use at some point in the game's history and have received an overwhelmingly negative backlash from duelists, either for the way they negativity impact the health of the game or just for their annoying playstyles. Whatever the case, here are the Top 5 Most Dreaded Decks in YuGiOh's history. As a disclaimer, we won't be including any Tier 0 decks since these are, by definition, completely oppressive and deserve a separate discussion of their own.

Quick Showcase:

5. Pachycephalo Control

4. True Draco

3. Altergeist

2. Guru Control

1. Find Out!


5. Pachycephalo Control

A deck that's frustratingly annoying to face and yet isn't quite powerful enough to make any modicum of impact on the overall game is Pachycephalo control- earning it the entry level spot on this list. This isn't exactly a deck in its own right, but moreso a control engine of sorts that finds home in many rudimentary control strategies.

While decklists are extremely variable, the most relevant cards in this strategy are:
•3x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
•3x Moon Mirror Shield
•3x Summoner Monk
•3x Armory Call

The strategy is so simple, even a unicellular organism could learn it. Get the dino on the field and stop your opponent from special summoning. Equip it with Moon Mirror Shield to beat over anything it battles and chip away at your opponent's lifepoints until you win. Toxic jeering and laughter are optional.

This deck serves only 1 purpose: annoy the opponent. It is neither oppressive enough to serve as a robust control strategy (it's basically a Vanity's Fiend with high ATK), nor is it foolproof enough to resist any responses from the opponent. A raigeki or dark hole is enough to dismantle this strategy completely but chances are, whichever cancerous being resorts to this mind-numbing "strategy" will usually stock up on counter traps like Dark Bribe or Solemn Judgment to compensate for the lack of a real win-condition. The trick is to bait out the counter traps with cards like Twin Twisters and then run over the Pachycephalo with any decently strong monster.

Make no mistake, however- for the unsuspecting duelist, Pachycephalo just might deal a blow too crippling to recover from in time.

 

4. True Draco

One of the most hated decks in the game, True Dracos would take the top spot on this list were it not for the fact that their boss monster is banned and 2 of their other cards are limited to 1 in order to neuter the deck a little. Nevertheless, attempts are still made every so often to make this deck function, but to varying results- fortunately none of which are particularly impactful. While the deck cannot survive in a competitive setting anymore, that doesn't detract in the slightest from its history of inflicting unparalleled suffering upon dueling communities worldwide, particularly following the release of Maximum Crisis.

True Dracos are what happen when you put Monarchs on steroids and give them a Spell/Trap lineup that not only grants them significant searching power, but also forces your opponent to lose a card each time one of their monsters hits the field. True Dracos take pride in bending the rules of the game; for those fortunante enough not to know what we mean, an explanation is in order. Unlike their slow and bricky Monarch predecessors, True Dracos have two big advantages:

•They do not exclusively require monsters for their Tribute Summon and are more than happy to use Continuous Spells and Traps as fodder, eliminating the very need to run other monsters soecifically for sacrifice. To further complicate the situation, each of their Spell and Traps have effects that destroy a card your opponent controls when they are used for this purpose.

•All of their monsters are able to search more cards on being summoned (thereby continually generating card advantage) and have unique effects in addition which punish your opponent for making moves or confer them with some form of protection.

Access to cards like The Monarchs Erupt also make for a formidable control strategy which can slow the opponent's game down to an absolute crawl and quickly shift the tides of the duel in favour of the True Kings. This is one deck not to be trifled with. Master Peace, The True Dracoslaying King (the card pictured above) is the boss monster of this strategy and has been a permanent member of the banlist since May 2018, a testament to just how dangerous this deck is if not kept under check by Konami.

 

3. Altergeist

Intended to be a pun on "poltergeist", this trap-based spellcaster deck does indeed motivate many players to flip the table and set the room on fire. Altergeists are a deck which rely on disruption and spamming the field, and the way they go about doing it has earned them a place as one of the most downright hated decks of all time.

Even Yugipedia has this to say on the deck: "...they tend to be a slower strategy than most modern Decks, relying heavily on floodgates to slow down an opponent's strategy to a crawl. "Altergeists" aim to reduce games down to slow wars of attrition that they can win through field control and their many floating effects." You know a deck isn't gonna be fun to face when it had "grind game" written all over it, and what better an example for this fact than our deck in question.

While Altergeists can be surprisingly flexible in their strategies, their overall playstyle is as follows: spam the field with low ATK spellcaster monsters while setting up archetype specific traps which reinforce their own strategy- this can include reviving Altergeists from the GY, protecting them from card effects and disrupting the opponent. What's worth remark here is that their monsters' low ATK doesn't get in the way of their strategy, as can the deck focus a lot on interruption and thereby mitigate the need to close games quickly. Altergeist monsters also have abilities which allow them to float when they are sent to the GY- which, more often than not, is to allow them to go into Link plays.
The monsters also have notorious effects which impede the opponent from playing the game; this includes Meluseek who can directly send an opponent's card to the GY and the dreaded Sliquitous who can return a card your opponent controls to the hand.

With their main monster (Multifaker) escaping from the clutches of the banlist last year, Altergiests are back at full power. What's even more disturbing is that they're rumored to see support in the upcoming Ghosts from the Past set.

 

2. Guru Control

Guru Control is the prime example of a deck that knows how to say "no". Ironically, even though counter traps are meant to be the specialty of Fairy decks, this deck uses them to much more devastating effect. In fact, this deck really only runs a small subterror engine centered around Guru, Fiendess, Umastryx, Hidden City and Subterror Final Battle, while the rest of it is essentially a collection of generic cards which focus on disrupting the opponent's strategies and forcing them to lose card advantage.

The deck is dangerously versatile and has a built-in omni negate in the form of Fiendess, who can discard herself to negate any opposing effect (and destroy it) if you control a face-up Subterror monster. The deck also has an instant high ATK beater through the use of the ever-present Subterror Final Battle, a card which can boost Guru to have over 3000 ATK- a value more than enough to beat over most boss monsters in the game. Their field spell (The Hidden City) is an instant searcher and also serves as a means to negate an attack to safeguard against the more aggressive beatdown strategies. Put together, these cards form a formidale and nigh-impregnable wall of defense, attack and negates to whittle down most opposing strategies- enough motivation to make even the most hardened of players scoop.

When players started to throw in cards like Evenly Matched, Crackdown and Nibiru into the deck, Guru Control begun to look like an even more revolting deck to duel against, making it one of the most despised decks in the history of the game.

 

1. Mystic Mine Burn

The unrivaled overlord of degeneracy and the poster-child of all hated decks in the game, Mystic Mine Burn tops off our list as the most hated deck in the game to date.

It doesn't take long at all to describe the Mystic Mine burn "strategy". Run mystic mine at 3 along with as many copies of searchers (Demise of Land, Terraforming, Metaverse) as you possibly can. Throw in Field Barrier to protect your main card. Chuck in a few copies of burn cards like Wave Motion Cannon and Cauldron of the Old man.
And that's it.
Just wait.
If your opponent doesn't scoop or off himself first, your mind numbing excuse for a strategy won't allow your opponent to use their monsters at all; and if they can't use their monster effects or attack, half their deck and all of their extra deck is automatically rendered useless.

That's your win condition: the frustration of your opponent. To be extra cancerous, throw in a card like Prohibition and declare "Cosmic Cyclone" to lock your opponent off from using backrow removal. That's literally all you do for the game. Either just spend the next 30 or so turns drawing cards until your opponent decks out (or you go into time) or burn your opponent to death with your Wave Motion Cannon- whatever route helps you connect better with your smooth, Neanderthal brain.

The worst part about this deck? It's all budget and none of the cards are shortprinted in their sets, meaning (at the time of writing) this deck is a lot cheaper and easier to build than most other tournament decks in the game. It does come at a high cost though- your dignity as a human being.


That wraps up this week's top 5 list, folks! What did you think; know of a deck that's more annoying than the ones on this list? We'd love to hear your opinions back on our WhatsApp group and Discord server. Check in and let us know what you have to say! Few things forge better friendships than common hate!

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