Deck Review: Volcanics

One thing I always find funny in Yugioh is when cards go out of style that are good. The top tier in Yugioh is not only what’s good, but also what is still cool. (and thus overplayed most of the time, pushing the odds in its favor of winning large scale events) And then on the opposite end of the coin “uncool” decks get underplayed. (and thus are less likely to win large events because so few if any are used at events) Decks like Six Samurai, that are honestly just amazing decks get no play and people rarely try to re-engineer them to work in newer metas because they are no longer cool. Another good archetype or engine I should say, is Volcanics. Volcanics are an archetype that are supremely underplayed. They’re all ugly and they don’t do anything flashy. Recently I’ve been experimenting a lot with them and have found a lot of success using them as a small engine. Volcanics boast consistency as well as strong monster destruction that I think is very viable for use in a competitive deck.  So today, in this article, my goal is to inform you, the reader, of possibly a archetype you’ve never considered and I hope that you would, and that is Volcanics.

The engine itself only really consists of 3 cards: Volcanic RocketVolcanic Shell and Blaze Accelerator. Of course some other cards help the engine along, but these three are the only that are technically necessary.

Photobucket

Volcanic Rocket is the first card, being the searcher while simultaneously being a heavy force with a nice 1900 ATK(crashing with Thunder King Rai-Oh is pretty much always a good thing) it holds the engine together. Whenever Rocket is Normal or Special Summoned you can add a Blaze Accelerator card from your deck or graveyard to your hand. Unlike most searchers this card has some very notable up sides; he searches no matter how he’s summoned, and he can also recur from the graveyard. If you read my article on Summoner Monk a long while back you may remember me citing Volcanic Rocket as one of the best targets for his effect and that’s still true now. Because Rocket can activate its effect when Special Summon it works very well in tandem with Summoner Monk since this allows you to tutor it. This also adds some nice XYZ plays to the deck. (in the future even better plays once Lavalval Chain comes out. Send Volcanic Shell to the grave anybody?) This also works well with Monk in that you can pitch the Blaze Accelerator for Monk’s effect the summon Rocket and add the same Accelerator back to your hand, or maybe another from the deck if you like deck thinning.
Photobucket

The second card, that gives the engine its oomph, is Blaze Accelerator. Blaze Accelerator can destroy one monster your opponent controls by discarding a 500 ATK or less Pyro monster, then you can’t enter your battle phase that turn. Blaze Accelerator is as people call it “three free Smashing Grounds” since when combined with Volcanic Shell is allows 3 monster destructions in one turn at the cost of 1000 life points.
Photobucket

Of course, to understand why this is, you need to know what Volcanic Shell is. Volcanic Shell is a Level 1  100 ATK  0 DEF Pyro monster, making it fodder for Blaze Accelerator. (which is clearly what this card is designed to be used for)  When Volcanic Shell is in the graveyard you pay 500 to add another from your deck to your hand, but only once per turn. So basically you discard one for Blaze Accelerator then pay 500 to have another Shell then discard that one and use that ones effect etc.  And with that a simple engine is formed. Of course you can always keep Shells in hand to wait for appropriate threats.
Photobucket

The engine also takes gladly to two other cards: Royal Firestorm Guards and Pot of Avarice. Both the cards help you to recycle your Volcanic Shells and also bring some welcomed advantage. Pot of Avarice we all know good and well; Royal Firestorm Guards is pretty much the same as Avarice except in monster form. When Royal Firestorm Guards is Normal Summoned you can return exactly 4 Pyro monsters from your Graveyard to your deck to draw 2 cards. (in this deck’s case the monsters you can return are Shell, Rocket and other copies of Royal Firestorm Guards)

That’s pretty much the engine. It’s pretty straight forward. Try it out in some other decks, splash it around. Hopefully it will at least be a fun diversion from the Plants and Rabbits. And to end my article I will once again collage some cards that work well with Volcanics. Happy Dueling.
Photobucket

Tags: No tags

5 Responses

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.