User:Romanoff Blitzer/The Nameless Guide/Dealing with Common Threats

Well in this guide, i am going to teach you how to deal with some very common and dangerous threats that you WILL encounter in most duels against meta decks or sometimes even fun decks. Here are the threats that are dangerous enough to notify players about:

Onikamas, Strange Flow
This is probably the worst of them all. Without this guy we will probably have more flexibility in for no cost builds, which is saying a majority of stuff. Of course if you are using Beat Jockey Rush, Jokers rush or MaltNEXT you won't have much problems, but if you use other stuff and you don't have anything against it you will be pinned dead on the floor. Here's what it does and how to counter-react it:
 * It's a 2 to 2000 water weenie that bounces for no cost tramples to your hand. While this allows come into play effects to be used and it doesn't seem very bad, what makes this bastard insane is it is UNCHOOSABLE. Not just unchoosable to spells or creatures, it is unchoosable against EVERYTHING.
 * In other words, while you can invade into Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie, it won't be removed and chances are it will be bounced back to your hand. What's worse, while Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious is usable against all unchoosables by this point, it won't help against Onikamas because it bounces it back to hand. The worst thing is when it is accompanied with Shuff, Eureka which GUARANTEES any defensive deck to be grinded to death.
 * To deal with this, there are different strategies for each deck.
 * Heaven's Gate/Sign Related: Use Memento Guardian Shrine, Prison Court of D and beat it back on the next turn. Baradios, Lord of Dragon Spirits helps stall it. It won't affect Heaven's Gate's mass blocker spams however, just beware of Shuff declaring 5 or 6 at the same time.
 * Redzones: Redzone, Roaring Invasion itself is a very good Onikamas Counter as it gets around unchoosables. If a stronger creature is present, multiple invasions are recommended.
 * Dormageddon: Now this is much harder especially when the opponent is using hard rush. You can stall until Dormageddon X, Forbidden Armageddon awakes however, but your opponent will kill you before you do sometimes. Mega Magma Dragon and Venomic Hazard, Violent Poison of D are good counters against it.
 * If you use WDF you can use O Parts, Last Question too (Summon it or use Evil Heat, Screaming Demon Dragon or another non-psychic Darkness Dragon. Linnevenus, M Demon Dragon is good for calling out extra stuff too.)
 * Discard Control: School Man will take care of it in the early stages of the game.
 * Dragon-Related decks with Fire (Drama, Buster, MaltNEXT etc.) Mega Magma Dragon will do the trick most of the time. It also kills other weenies in the vicinity too. Team Hamukatsu's Explosion Go! works too, as it does not choose creatures.
 * 5c Buster/Ramps: Puchohenza, Mia Moja will do the trick, but it will be bounced. Just remember to have a way to send it out other than Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious because Gaial Kaiser WILL be bounced. Team Tech's Wave Go! works when opponent is amassing weenies. Try to discard them afterwards if you can. Mad Dead Wood, Seductive of D is a good option too as it removes creatures before cost trampling. Hell's Hot Spring is convenient, but nothing more.

Magnum, Shortshot
Now here's another unnessecarily annoying and dangerous critter. It's a 3 to 3000 fire weenie that gets summoning sickness, but the scariest thing about it is When it is in the battle zone, any creature you put into the battle zone during your opponent's turn is put into the graveyard instead. This includes nearly ALL of the lethal triggers including Dormageddon Commands, Heaven's Gate, Dragon's Sign, Blue Dragon Earth, Ninja Strikes, Strike Back, Bolshack Dogiragon/Miracle Miradante (And they call themselves the ultimate miracle anti-invader cards) and Bainaradoor/Holy, Flash Guardian/Ragnarok, the Clock/Death Hands, Misfortune Emperor/Trap Giant/Kernel, Blue Stagnation Dragon Elemental. And this is why Heaven's Gate or any other light related deck no longer affects mono-fire rushes, like Redzone and Beat Jockey. If you don't have a tactic against it...It's basically GG.
 * The worst your opponent can do, which in my opinion is the final and ultimate troll, is summoning Linnevenus, M Demon Dragon and sending Shortshot from grave into battle zone, then revolution change into Dogiragon Buster, Blue Leader and return Linne into the battle zone and send out Rafululu, Sound Faerie from grave. This is the final and ultimate fuck you to you because there's basically nothing you can do and you will just get one shotted flat and dead because you cannot use any creatures or spells.
 * To deal with Shortshot, just bring a balance of creature and spell defense. It varies between stuff, but if your purpose is to stall you need to do that. If your purpose is to rush, feel free to bring creature only defense but it varies between decks.

Binge/Mass Discard
This is another common threat that can easily destroy most decks without discard resistance. Usually if it's Jenny, the Dismantling Puppet and Pakurio alone it's annoying but you should be fine; But if its multiple Jenny, the Suicide Dolls, Brain Touch and Pakurio/Dismantling Jenny in a row you need to be prepared. And no, these decks won't break shields, they instead clog the battle zone with super annoying critters, remove threats with scarce but powerful removal, and aiming to spam psychic creatures to form a Last Storm Double Cross, the Super Awakened for a quick finish.
 * And no, you cannot expect shield triggers to save you because they likely won't. Some of them also use Crimson Lord Yanus, Temporal Warpanther and Untouchable Powered, the Awakened Protean for a finish which means that if you let them finish you you are dead 90 percent. Or they could simply deck out by spamming Volg Thunders. Overall if you don't include them in your strategy input or cannot, you are dead.
 * Be noted that multicolored mana arms decks have Demon Wolf, Betrayal Moonlight Castle 100 percent of the time if they have darkness. In my opinion this is on par with the binge discarding involved in doromar/dimir decks because of the sheer amount it discards in turn 4 and the card costs a Mere 2, and due to TCO shuffle it's very easy for your opponent to cast 2 in a row. It's sometimes even worse because it can decide the outcome of games by itself. Once you think you have a good hand, it only takes is your opponent casting this card and you will be left with nothing. The same goes for turn 4 Jackpot Nicol Bolas which is equally horrible.
 * To deal with this, for fuck's sake pack some anti-discard. Here are a few ways to do so:
 * Water related decks: Baiken, Blue Dragon of the Hidden Blade. No exceptions. It's nice removal and avoids Magnum, Shortshot or VAN Beethoven, Zenith of "Shura" because it uses "instead" in its text. You could use it to weaponize Scale of Bravery and Love, Emergency Typhoon and Cyber Tune too if you don't see discard.
 * For fire decks there are 2 options: Ryusei Kaiser, the Eternal and Zark Taiser, Passion Admiral. The former does huge damage in your opponent's defense if left uncared of, but it can be easily destroyed by Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie. Zark Taiser, Passion Admiral can help you replenish your hand. Ryusei the Earth also helps replenish your hand as well if its discarded.
 * For Light decks it's a bit more troublesome because light's actions rely on the hand 100 percent of the time. However it is possible to get around it. Bonsoir, Dragon Elemental Admiral works but won't work fully unless in decks with huge amounts of blockers. Miracle Star, Time Caster is perfect in spell decks such as All Delete Dokindam and Five Color Jolly the Johnny Joe. If you are facing a Discard Mirror Duel, Time Caster works too.
 * No Madness Technique works if your opponent uses Pakurio on you in turn 4. You were warned.
 * In the optimal situation you can also counter deck them with Graveyard source or any other graveyard using deck save for Water Darkness Degeneration. Just if your deck uses for no cost summons, be prepared to deal with Onikamas, Strange Flow.

VAN Beethoven, Zenith of "Shura"
Here's another very common threat and a very dangerous one; When it is summoned, it bounces all your creatures and prevents any commands and dragons from coming into the battle zone. Since 90 percent of decks use Command and Dragons, it means that once he comes out and you are using full dragons you are dead fish and can just surrender. If you don't want this to happen, here's my advice:
 * VAN Beethoven costs fucking 11. Therefore, it should not be hard to rush your opponent before he sends him out. But beware if you want to rush a VAN deck you have to be prepared, as many of them are rush resistant. Rafululu, Sound Faerie would be good against many of them because they have lots of spells. If you want to stop Kernel, Blue Stagnation Dragon Elemental revolution changing into Puchohenza, Mia Moja as well, having a Shortshot next to Rafululu is good. Sadly, it's only possible in Linnevenus Buster.
 * If he hits the field, it would be advised to remove him then discard your opponent if you could. Intense Vacuuming Twist, Hyperspatial Gallows Hole or other cheap spell removal + Cyber N World/Nicol Bolas/Lost Soul/Schumacher, New World/Demon Wolf, Howling Moonlight Castle is good. If you don't you can wait for a shield trigger spell if you have any, but your opponent will be prepared for it so be warned.
 * If your opponent cost tramples it early like via Dragon Flare Egg...Just surrender already. Or you can remove the flare egg before it hatches.
 * Of course if you have Everlast, Destiny King and a huge wall of blockers you have nothing to fear about.
 * And if you have your own VAN, bringing it out as fast as possible will prevent your opponent from sending out one.

Overly fast rushes
While the typical duelist should be able to deal with Redzone and Buster Rushes, there's some types of rushes that are almost impossible to deal with without a special way. These include Mono-Fire rush (Gatling or Beat Jockey), Darkness Nature rush, Dogiragon Buster 3 turn kill and Mono-Water rush.
 * Just a warning that while these decks look wannabe and outdated, if you underestimate them you will find them worse than any form of meta deck possible despite how dumb and lowly they look like. It's especially troublesome when OCG beginners began abusing these stuff because they don't know how to play, or they started to clusterfuck themselves with all sorts of cards and end up rushing the opponent with Braid Claws (This is why i hate Braid Claw more than anything!) and a few weenies and the opponent cannot do shit against it.
 * To deal with this you need to figure what you are facing against.
 * If you are facing Gatling rush, you have to counterdeck by bringing Heaven's Gate or any other defensive deck. Just beware that they can destroy blockers so you need to be lucky. Redzone and Jokers are good against them too but you need to be quicker than them. If you get the short end in draws and dice, you can kiss your ass goodbye.
 * If you face Darkness Nature Rush, Mega Magma Dragon or any other weenie board wipe are very useful. Team Hamukatsu's Explosion Go! is the best because it permanently stops the rush.
 * If you face Mono Water Rush, don't use light defensive decks because they have huge amounts of unblockables. If you see Universal Shark and Sea you are dead. Just rush them and stop wasting time. If you have time, bring out a shortshot before you deal the final attack.
 * If you face Beat Jockey Rush...Good Luck. There's almost no way to get around it because they have shortshot and lots of kill triggers. You can probably bring Redzone or Jokers but that's about it. If you have the short straw...good bye.

Blocker Massers
This can come in 2 forms; Heaven's Gate or Dragon's Sign. This is extremely troublesome as Heaven's Gate/Dragon's Sign are one of the triggers that you must NEVER trigger at all costs. Defusing them is a granted knowledge for all meta players. This is because Heaven's Gate can mean not only 2, but 3, 4 or sometimes 5 or 6 huge fatty blockers that will end your ass in one go. Dragon's Sign can also mean lots of trouble especially when Heaven's Rosia, True Dragon Edge is involved, but it's not as troublesome.
 * Don't even think about using Onikamas, Strange Flow or Senno, Brainwash because they don't stop triggers during your opponent's turn.
 * However it's also very easy to counter if you could; Magnum, Shortshot should suffice all by itself, just watch out of other equally lethal spell triggers. You can also use Entertainer of Stealing and Lying and Forever Princess, Eternal Ruler, but come into play effects will still activate. Rafululu, Sound Faerie kills them and also kills the subsequent kill triggers. If your opponent has no shields and you can, a shield trigger tap all spell will suffice unless your opponent also has Alpharion, Lord of Spirits.
 * If you can, bring a water deck filled with unblockables and they should not trouble you at all.
 * Ramps are also a good option because they give you huge amounts of time to set up and by the point you can send out a VAN Beethoven, Zenith of "Shura" or Codeking Number Nine/Moai Land, Ancient Paradise to troll them.
 * It's even better with All Delete Dokindam and Five Color Jolly the Johnny Joe (With Dokindam Apocalypse), they cannot do anything against you at all! Just control and finish them before they start to lock your spells.

Revolution 0 Triggers
Here's another dastardly annoying threat that everyone must deal with accordingly. Sometimes if you fight a noob you will think it is very easy, until that guy begins spamming Bolshack Dogiragons and Miracle Miradantes and think he is so heroic, an act which is guaranteed to put the rage on most seasoned players. So what should you do is very simple.
 * If your opponent has only Bolshack Dogiragon and Miracle Miradante, place a Magnum, Shortshot and they cannot do anything against you. Entertainer of Stealing and Lying and Forever Princess, Eternal Ruler works too, but only when your opponent has no other killer come into play effects like Codeking Wilhelm or Seal Do Leiy, Protection Hero.
 * If your opponent has Iron Fist of Revolution or other spell triggers, Rafululu, Sound Faerie is excellent. They are also less consistent unless in decks with huge amounts of powerhouse fatties so direct attack with a huge fatty and you should be fine. Or you can direct with a Dokindam X or Dormageddon X because the former cannot be chosen by revolution 0 triggers and the latter has good destruction resistance against Aquarius of Revolution and such.
 * Beware of Barrier of Revolution because it adds shields. you have to stop cheap spells themselves to stop it.
 * Against Lion King's Emblem and Rebellious Wolf's Emblem, just use Shortshot and they cannot do jacks against you.
 * Miradante Twelve, Time Pope does not stop them itself so be warned.
 * If you HAVE to confront them yourself, Direct attacking with Onikamas works unless your opponent drags out Mega Magma Dragon or Codeking Mozart. It won't work against the Blocker generating ones like Miracle Miradante however.
 * Any creature with higher power than Bolshack Dogiragon can get around it when it reveals anything other than fixed removal or mass removal, but your opponent can use it to unseal Dokindam X which will result in a loss most of the time.
 * Any unblockable will bypass Miracle Miradante.
 * Untouchable Powered, the Awakened Protean will get around ALL Revolution 0 Triggers because it cannot be blocked and cannot be chosen. Again watch out for board wipes because it only has power 5000 and isn't a dragon.