This month, Kaijudo is finally ready to make its big push. The full set, dubbed “Rise of the Duel Masters” has finally been released. With it comes two new competitive decks. First up, we have the Sonic Blast deck. It features a typical combination of darkness and water civilization cards.
First off, let’s talk about the exclusive card for this deck: Dark Scaradorable. DS is an insanely awesome card. For the cost of six, you get a six thousand attack monster and the double breaker ability. That alone makes the card a big threat. However, it also has the unique ability called “terrifying gaze”Â. This ability allows it to destroy an opponent’s shield the turn it comes into play. I already thought Scaradorable was awesome from the show and other cards, but this one takes it to a whole new level. Your opponent MUST have an answer for him, or face utter annihilation. It’s worth noting, again, that this card is not a part of the core set, and is exclusive to this deck.
Sonic Blast is all about using creatures that have abilities. Most of them are cheap, but also pretty weak. This means the deck requires a lot of strategy to use. You can’t just go blindly charging into battle, or you’re going to get crushed by decks with bigger monsters at their disposal.
The water side of the equation features two primary mechanics. Firstly, there are several cards that allow you to draw cards from your deck. In fact, the deck contains three copies of Aqua Seneschal. Every time this three cost creature attacks, you can draw a card. He’s already a staple of blue decks everywhere, and this deck simply emphasizes it. Other useful cards include Hydro Spy, Reef Prince Glu-urrgle, and Midnight Crawler. Midnight Crawler in particular can be interesting. Whenever he attacks, you draw cards equal to the number of enemy creatures in play. Needless to say, using this deck will never leave you in desperate need of cards in your hand.
Also featured for the blue cards is the ability to send creatures back to your opponent’s hand. Ice Blade is a cheap spell with shield blast that sends a level four or less creature back to its owner’s hand. You can use this on your opponent to get a pesky creature out of the way, or even on yourself. There are a number of cards in the deck that have abilities that activate when they come into play. Using Ice Blade to recall Hydro Spy, for example, allows you to play him again and draw a new card. This ability also works well with your black cards, but I’ll get to them later. Veil Vortex and Rusalka, Aqua Chaser are where it’s really at though. These return ANY creature to its owner’s hand. You can remove your most dangerous foe off the field temporarily, or even return something like Dark Scaradorable to your hand. Using that terrifying gaze ability a second time will put your opponent into fits.
The black/darkness side of the deck is all about grieving your opponent. The first way to do this is by banishing their creatures. Cards like Death Smoke and Bone Blades allow you to remove opponents at will, while two different cards with the slayer ability give you ticking time bombs on the battlefield. The slayer ability means that whenever the creature loses a battle, it takes down its opponent as well. So, a measly Skull Cutter with one thousand attack points could take down even the mightiest Tatsurion card thanks to this ability. Voidwing, which also has the slayer ability, is one of my new favorite cards. He’s got four thousand attack points, meaning he can actually win some battles as well. In addition, you get to draw a card when he loses. He’s the gift that keeps on giving.
The black deck also has a way to deal with the cards that are still in your opponent’s hand. Gigastand is sure to see a lot of play. A three cost creature with two thousand attack points, he forces your opponent to choose and discard a card every time he attacks. If he gets multiple attacks in, you can empty your opponent’s hand early on and win by attrition. After all, if they don’t have cards in their hand, they can’t charge mana. If they can’t charge mana, they can’t cast any spells and/or creatures. You can cripple them. Specter Claw is a cheap spell that performs this affect as a one off, but it has shield blast as well. Plus, since most cards in the deck are so cheap, you’ll likely have left over mana to play it at any time.
The deck’s biggest weakness is that it doesn’t have a lot of firepower. All but one of the creatures in the deck have four thousand or less attack points. As such, the deck really depends on getting those effect cards and using them properly. It also has only a few blockers, and weak ones at that. If an opponent’s deck is fast enough, getting overrun is very likely.
The good news is that there are a number of ways to improve this deck. Firstly, if you’re lucky enough to have a Hovercraft Glu-urrgle, then you MUST use him in this deck. Any time one of your creatures loses a battle, they go back to your hand instead of in the discard pile. This allows you to reuse creatures with the slayer ability, and keep a constant wave of creatures on the field. He’s a super rare card though, so good luck with that. Frogzooka is a solid blocker for cheap that can help shore up your defensive line. Quakes the Unclean is a hell of a card that bestows the slayer ability to one of your cards until the end of turn. Using this ability on something like Hyrdo Spy makes him useful even after he’s given you that card from his ability. If you really like, you could throw a few more powerhouses in there to give you more of a chance in late game scenarios. Zagaan, the Bone Knight would work great here.
Overall, I really dig this deck. It showcases that brute strength isn’t always the way to win a battle. While high attack point totals are impressive, they mean nothing without strategic play. Using this deck, you can return a powerhouse to his owner’s hand, and then laugh gleefully as you force him to discard it. That’s always a good time.
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