In a world without dragons ...

Now reread the title with a dark and slightly sinister tone … like a movie trailer.  

In a world without dragons, there arose powerful beings from the past … THE MALEFICS

The Malefic monsters were quickly pushed aside by the Elemental Dragons.  Our current dragon lords are big, fast, and laugh in the face of Skill Drain.  But that landscape may not persist come January.  Though this deck will never be a mainstream tier deck*, it does give people trouble.  How would like staring at the monster that defines beat stick.  2,000, 2,400, 3,000 attack points?  Puhleeze, how ‘bout 4,000 attack points.  Now that’s a beat stick.  

The Mother of All Beatsticks

  Here are a few reasons that make me think that the Malefics may show up at a local near you:

1. My field spell or yours?  Malefic monsters don’t really care who has the field spell.  Go ahead and play yours – it will save me time searching for mine.  The next format may have a number of archetypes vying for the field spell square: Madolche, Ghostrix, Vampires, Spellbooks, Gravekeepers, and Harpies. 

2. How important are those monster effects? Malefics saw a degree of prominence during the Wind-Up era because that deck was devastated by Skill Drain.  I admit that the brain trust at Konami may want to limit Skill Drain as they did for Soul Drain.  If they do, I would put the Malefics right back into the binder.  But, if this card escapes the F&L axe, several decks will have problems including: Madolche, Harpies, Geargias, FireFists, Evilswarms, Battlin Boxers, Ghostrix, and Gadgets. 

3. Come play in my house.  Certain decks can be quite disrupted by field spells.  Ever try to equip a Noble Knight card to a Zombie?  The living dead also don’t respond to spellbooks.  Necrovalley poops on the Hysteric Party and Bujins have a hard time saving private Yamato.  

4. Say good night Evil Swarms.   Without Skill Drain, Ophion can single handedly shut down a Malefic deck.  That said, the Evil Swarms may have much less presence in the era of the new F&L list.  This archetype has thrived principally because of its dragon match-up. However, their match-up against rank 4 decks is not so hot.  Evil Swarm players may have their hands full with big monsters that do not require special summoning a level 5 or higher. Less ESwarms, more Malefics

I realize that there are outs to all of these cards.  The deck is quirky and a little bit rogue.  However, don’t be surprised if you hear your opponent say, “Banish Cyber End Dragon to summon …”

Ohh … and one more thing! Do you think Konami has introduced Ghostrix like a drug dealer passes out free heroin samples?  Look the deck is cheap and fun … you couldn’t possible get hooked!  Then the next set comes out … please dude – I need my Dullahan fix. Sure, I have a secret rare version right here.    

*Hopefully it never will be – have you ever played a Malefic mirror match.  It’s beyond degenerate.