The Storm is Upon Us

The day we have feared is almost upon us. Soon, we will all be witnesses to the corruption of the very spirit of Yugioh.  We will be beset by evil forces that will forever hide the goodness of the game.  

… or we will all pick up some new cards and roll our eyes at the “next” broken archetype. 

Regardless of your enthusiasm for the Qliphoth invasion, this archetype will change the way decks are built. The most notable adjustment will be the reemergence of MST as a main deck card. For the past several years, MST has been sided more than it has been mained.  Doing so lowered the chances of drawing an MST when you really needed a MonSTer.  The pervasive use of Vanity’s Emptiness has led to a mini-resurgence in mained MST.  However, the Qliphoths will all but institutionalize the practice.  

The truth is that there are few cards that are as good as MST in fighting the Qliphoths. As a spell, it avoids trap negation.  As a quick play, it can be activated on your opponents turn.  Finally, it has no restrictions or costs.  The card is somewhat unique since it is really, really needed unless it isn’t.

Coming to a deck near you!

The ubiquitous use of MST will have many subtle effects on the game.  The most obvious will be the decreased effectiveness of continuous spells and traps.  While Emptiness will continue to be played, other cards may decline.  Most notably will be the use of Call of the Haunted, which will give Satellarknights another hit.  The practice of “main decking” side deck cards will probably stop as well.  Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Soul Drain should return to the side deck.  

A glut of MSTs changes the way players open.  Most players don’t want to run the risk of losing their single copy of Bottomless to a blind Typhoon.  As a result, they will set a lot more bait.  In fact, one of those bait cards is probably another MST.  

 

Trap heavy decks do thrive during formats that routinely use triple MST.  The strategy is to overcome an opponent’s MST by overwhelming the field with targets.  Of course, it is hard to imagine a format with more traps. The point is that the number of traps in the average deck is not a function of the number of anti-trap cards; it is a function of the speed of the format.  The Qlipoths, while impressive, are not the fastest killers in the Yugioh pantheon.   

The habitual use of MST does open the way for trapless decks.  Without targets, you opponent will be drawing into a dead card.  This is the equivalent of drawing twice.  Hopefully, the tactic will lure your opponent into siding out his MSTs, which is the perfect time to side in your continuous traps.