As would seem logical, I follow-up with a new deck profile.
Preface, I’m running pretty dry on what to write about currently. I really don’t care about Zoodiacs, and even if I did have an idea involving using them who really cares? Of course it will be good, Zoodiacs are good period so it be meaningless to say so again. Anything else relevant metawise is probably mildly degenerate because it’s neccessary to be so if you want to keep up. Either way, I’ve got nothing, so I made a Subterror deck to the best of my ability and I can guarantee it is incapable of competing in the current meta, but that’s because nothing is currently capable, so go figure. Perhaps this will act as an ancient referential manuscript for later when it has the potential to matter?
Monsters: (15)
- 2 Subterror Behemoth Stalagmo
- 2 Subterror Behemoth Umastryx
- 1 Subterror Behemoth Stygokraken
- 1 Subterror Nemesis Warrior
- 3 Subterror Nemesis Archer
- 3 Des Lacooda
- 3 Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
Spells: (16)
- 2 Dark Hole
- 2 Terraforming
- 1 Book of Moon
- 1 Book of Eclipse
- 3 My Body as a Shield
- 2 Subterror Cave Clash
- 3 The Hidden City
Traps: (9)
- 3 Quaking Mirror Force
- 3 Floodgate Trap Hole
- 2 Solemn Strike
- 1 Solemn Warning
Extra Deck: (15)
Fusion: (2)
- 1 ABC-Dragon Buster
- 1 Metalfoes Mithrilium
Synchro: (2)
- 1 Moonlight Rose Dragon
- 1 Vulcan the Divine
XYZ: (11)
- 1 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
- 1 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
- 1 Number 11: Big Eye
- 1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
- 1 Phantom Knights of Break Sword
- 1 Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse
- 1 Soul of Silvermountain
- 1 Ghostrick Alucard
- 1 M-X-Saber Invoker
- 1 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
- 1 Toadally Awesome
What makes me mildly sad about this deck is that I still only run the original 2 Subterror Behemoths pplus 1 Stygokraken. The fact that this deck has changed so little since then is a little disheartening when it comes to anticipating any kind of good support for the deck in the future. The good news is that with each set comes at least 1 single card to be added to the deck. Hopefully the next card they add is a good one. Actually, I’ll just make up a card for Konami to make right now, here ya go Konami you don’t even have to think, just make this a new Subterror card next set. You can steal it and everything and I won’t even bat an eye or ask for money or anything:
Hardened Scales of the Subterror Behemoth
Counter Trap Card
When you opponent activates a Spell, Trap or Monster effect: Target 1 Subterror monster you control; negate that opponent’s card, then if you do, flip that target into face-down defense position. You can only activate 1 “Hardened Scales of the Subterror Behemoth” per turn.
Ya, let’s do that!
Basic Premise:
Moving on to the deck, it’s a pretty basic version of what I like to call a “Lacooda Deck”. In a Lacooda deck you run a whole mess of defensive cards and you use them all in one for ones in order to protect Des Lacooda because you will always come out on top in a one for one trade fight because you are in effect drawing 2 cards per turn while the opponent only draws 1. Subterrors can compound on this idea because they have natural synergy with Des Lacooda in multiple facets. First, Normal Summoning Des Lacooda and flipping it face-down allows you to set off your Subterror Behemoths in the hand and start summoning them, thus jump starting the deck. Second, using The Hidden City you have nearly infinite attack negation on your Des Lacooda, making it even harder to destroy. Third, because you always keep Des Lacooda face-down, it now has synergy with Subterror Cave Clash because it ensures there’s always 1 face-down monster on the field to boost all your Subterror monsters by 500 ATK and DEF.
Opening Plays:
If possible you want to open with this deck by summoning a copy of Stalagmo. With the release of Subterror Cave Clash, Stalagmo now becomes the centerpiece of the deck. Stalagmo is just a gigantic version of Des Lacooda. He draws more cards and has more ATK and DEF. In this ideal play you get him on the field with The Hidden City as well so you can flip flop him on turn one. This lets you get even further into your deck hopefully netting you a bunch of defense cards.
Now, with Subterror Cave Clash, you can keep recycling the monsters that you’re dumping with Stalagmo, or that are dieing by other means and create a discard draw 2 loop to allow you to draw a bunch of cards every turn and absolutely overwhelm the opponent with advantage. That’s the ideal scenario. You get out a Stalagmo by using a Des Lacooda or Mid Shield Gardna and flipping them face-down or by destroying your own Subterror Nemesis Archer. Here’s all the basic combos that are best:
- The Hidden City + Des Lacooda
- Dark Hole + Subterror Nemesis Archer
- Book of Moon/Book of Eclipse + any Level 4 or lower monster + The Hidden City
Specific Cards:
Here’s some weird cards in the deck and why I run each of them:
Book of Eclipse:
Book of Eclipse doubles as a counter to decks that spam crazy broken boards turn one and as a way to set off a bunch of Subterror combos. It can be used as defense to turn off an opponent’s turn or as a way to flip my Subterror Behemoths face-down. It can flip my small monsters face-down in order to start summoning Subterror Behemoths from the hand. It flips my opponent’s monsters face-down (and doesn’t target nicely enough) so they can be removed from the field more easily with Umastryx or by attacking with Nemesis Archer. If it where possible I would want to run more copies of Book of Moon instead, but Book of Moon is still at 1. For now I run a 1/1 Book of Moon/Eclipse set with the 2 remaining Book of Eclipse in the Side Deck.
My Body as a Shield:
While everyone wasn’t looking My Body as a Shield became an absolutely amazing card that counters a lot of the changes that people have adapted into the meta. What it boils down to is being a straight counter to most defensive cards while going second baring the Solemn brigade. For example it can be used to negate all of the huge negation and control monsters, for example Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Zoodiac Drident, and plenty of other cards all attempt to destroy you during your turn. My Body as a Shield allows you to easily counter that while going second. It doesn’t just do that though, for decks like Subterrors for example that lack protection for large board investment, My Body as a Shield also negates the pluthera of mass removal destruction cards people are main decking nowadays such as Raigeki, Dark Hole and Interrupted Kaiju Slumber. Subterrors in particular desperately want a way to protect there board when they have 2 or more Subterror Behemoths face-down during the opponent’s turn and this is easily the best way I’ve tested for doing that.
Other Meta Cards:
Particularly for the current/upcoming meta I run the cards Forbidden Chalice and Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. They don’t have particularly great synergy with any portions of the deck, but given this is a defensive control styled deck these two can make a nice place in at least that regard. Chalice and Ghost Ogre are two of the best cards for defensive and offensive plays in the current meta and are welcome at the moment. Chalice allows you to break through opposing control monsters when going second, while also allowing effect negation. Ghost Ogre allows you disrupt very important plays while going second and also is just generic defense against a lot of things.
The Face-down Brigade:
This includes both Quaking Mirror Force and Floodgate Trap Hole. Flipping monsters face-down for the least cost is probably the best defensive style for Subterrors since they have a lot of very good ways to deal with face-down monsters. They can attack over them with Nemesis Archer, banish them with Umastryx, and destroy them with Stygokraken. Clogging up the opponent’s field is always nice too, bringing my mind back to stall decks of times past!
Extra Deck:
The Extra Deck goes mostly unused, but I tried to put the most useful stuff that was possible to make in there. I’ll go through each one with a brief explanation:
- ABC-Dragon Buster
- Metalfoes Mithrilium
- Toadally Awesome
- Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
Because the Extra Deck is so open, I figured I would add the cards that I would want to go along with Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries. To a degree M-X-Saber Invoker also belongs in this category, but it doubles as being potentially useful as well. I might add in Cyber Dragon Nova or Cyber Dragon Infinity, Masked HERO Dark Law and maybe some of the Zoodiacs later once I figure out what I really don’t need to run.
- Moonlight Rose Dragon
- Vulcan the Divine
With the 3 Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit in the deck it’s not entirely foreign to be able to make a Synchro play, but it’s not always recommended. In general I wouldn’t Synchro Summon with this deck. If you do though, I added these two because I felt that add what I would want to get if I’m i a Synchro scenario. Both bounce stuff, which is cool I guess. Vulcan is neat because he can allow you to re-use your The Hidden City.
- Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
- Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
- Number 11: Big Eye
These are the generic high rank XYZ monster for if I somehow get out both copies of either Stalagmo or Umastryx. Both are intended to maximize my damage output. Gustav Max makes sense, attack with two Stalagmos for 5600 damage and then bring out Gustav Max for the 2k, bring the opponent almost to 0.
Big Eye and Dracossack are just the two generic Rank 7 XYZ I found. Nothing else really has any synergy as far as Rank 7 XYZ are concerned so I just dumped these two in. Never summoned them yet though. I did want to try testing an engine using Interrupted Kaiju Slumber though because you can use it destroy your own Nemesis Archer, give yourself a Level 7 Kaiju then summon Umastryx with Nemesis Archer allowing you to make a Rank 7 XYZ play. This could also work for just about any level, so this would be potentially better for making a Rank 9 or 10 XYZ play in order to summon Phantom Fortress Enterblathnir or Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora.
- A bunch of Rank 3 XYZ
This deck has a bunch of level 3 monsters (9 to be exact) making Rank 3 XYZ the easiest to do. I’ve summoned a good handful of these monsters the most often has been Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse and Soul of Silvermountain.
That’s all I’ve got for this deck profile. If you’ve got any ideas of your own or questions feel free to comment below!
Written by: Kyle Oliver