Basic Volcanics

18
3x Volcanic Rocket
3x Volcanic Shell
3x Volcanic Scattershot
3x Royal Firestorm Guards
3x Card Car D
3x Effect Veiler

13
1x Blaze Accelerator
2x Pot of Duality
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Forbidden Lance
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm

1x Pot of Avarice

9
2x Torrential Tribute
2x Solemn Warning
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Starlight Road
1x Dark Bribe

Here is a very basic Volcanic build.  If you want to start out playing Volcanics, this is a solid build to use.  The interaction between cards is minimal and the main skill required is in the playing of traps and deciding when to drop Royal Firestorm Guards.  Since this blog attempts to go further in depth to the Volcanic archetype, I think I should elaborate on certain card choices and then I can discuss interaction and why some other popular cards have been omitted.

The Deck

The first thing that is obvious is an interesting monster line-up.  I run 3 of each monster.  The Volcanics themselves operate at maximum efficiency with 3 of each.  Shell and Scattershot and three are required.  The three Veilers are more malleable and I will discuss them shortly, after a brief bit on Card Car-D.

The three Card Car-Ds are here because for Volcanics consistency is key.  Any Volcanic build can pull off the occasional win, a fleeting moment of success, but the mark of a good build is winning consistently.  Card Car-D does slow the user down in that it takes a normal summon, but with a substantial trap line-up (9 traps, 2 Lance and a Book of Moon, not to forget three Effect Veilers.), the player can be safe to wait a turn. CCD gives the player a much better chance of drawing into Rocket, Guards or Scattershot which are the strongest cards of the deck.

Effect Veiler may or may not be a sub par choice at the current time.  I will be the first to admit I'm not the most up to date player.  I can't for the life of me understand the new meta after the banlist.  Is Rabbit relevant?  Who knows.  I have heard Maxx "C" is quite good now.  Perhaps you should consider playing that over Veiler.  The decision is in your hands.  This is merely a guide.

Having discussed the monsters, it is time to have a look at the spell and trap line-up.  I would be surprised if any of my choices in this section are shocking, but perhaps I am wrong.  I choose to use Dark Bribe because it is an amazing defensive and offensive card.  You can use it to protect against a Heavy Storm, Dark Hole or any number of other power cards in the meta, but you can also make pushes knowing you have a solid negation on your side.

Why Not?

I title this section "why not?" because I am answering why I did not include certain cards.  The first card would be Summoner Monk.  It is generally considered to be a good way to get Volcanic Rocket from the deck.  Summoner Monk is also a dead card often.  This deck has quite a few powerful spell cards and most you would be unwilling to drop for a Blaze Accelerator.  Furthermore, Blaze Accelerator is going to be face-up on the field fairly often.  When this is the case, there are no good +0 choices to search with Summoner Monk.  Overall I would prefer to play the two extra spell and traps no Monk allows me to play.

Another card people sometimes choose to play is Bottomless Trap Hole.  This, like Maxx "C", is a more personal thing.  I think that Compulsory is better for navigating around Xyz monsters like Zenmaines, but that might be living in the past.  Perhaps now Bottomless or even Mirror Force would be a better choice, but I use Compulsory.  

Tour Guide is likely to be a less suggested card, but I'm sure the idea will come up at some point.  With only two copies, it is not longer able to function within it's purpose to search Sangan without running another Level 3 Fiend in your deck.  What other fiend would I run though?  Tour Bus?  But of course Tour Bus is an awful card.  Night Assailant?  What benefit stems from more monster destruction?  Thus Tour Guides only use would be as a 1 card Xyz which is not enough to convince me of it's worth.

A final card I would like to mention is Wild Fire.  I wrote it a glowing review earlier, but I would like to retract certain statements made.  Wild Fire is best suited to be run alongside tribute monsters, such as Monarchs.  At some point I will discuss the Monarchs interaction with Volcanics but that is a subject for another time.  Right now I just want to say that Wild Fire is susceptible to the Space Typhoon and unless you can find a solid use for the token it generates, I would suggest not running it.  Scattershot serves the same purpose.

Interaction

I know these section titles are less than impressive, but I am here only to bring to you the raw facts.  That is why this section is on interaction, or how the deck functions.  The principle here is to combine the burn generated by Volcanic Scattershot each time you use it with a slow stream of attacks from the level 4s.  Scattershot can then be reused continuously with the help of Guards and Avarice and Duality with Card Car-D let's you draw into it faster.  Volcanic Shell is more used for specific sniping of power or problem cards.  

While you will not be able to attack after playing your Blaze Accelerator, you can set traps.  The deck runs a total of 15 cards that can be used for defence (9 traps, 3 Quick Play, and 3 Veiler).  These cards will allow you to interrupt and end your opponents moves, giving you the opportunity to push for maximum damage.

In general the deck is fairly simple to play and I would suggest it as a starter for any Volcanic player.  Also do not forget to fill the Extra Deck with Xyzs and Synchros of your choice though if you play Starlight Road I would highly recommend running the Stardust Dragon.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and leave a comment with any questions.  See you later with more Volcanic fun!

Wild Fire

"Pay 500 Life Points.  Destroy a face-up "Blaze Accelerator" card you control and destroy all monsters on the field.  Then , Special Summon 1 "Wild Fire Token" (Pyro-Type/FIRE/LEVEL 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000) in Attack Position.  Also, you cannot declare an attack this turn."

This is probably one of the most underrated Volcanic cards that exists.  Even I underrate is a lot.  It's one of those cards you know you should be running a few of but you just never seem to run.  Effectively this takes that spark of fire from your Blaze Accelerator and uses it to burn the field down.  You know the saying "spreads like wild fire"?  Well this card sure does!

Wild Fire is basically a chainable Dark Hole that requires a Blaze Accelerator to be on the field, but then it summons out a token (which can be particularly useful in some builds like Volcanic Monarchs).  The 500 Life Point cost is laughable although it might be something to worry slightly about late game, but generally Dark Hole is worth 500 points.  Although you can't declare an attack when you activate this card, since it is quickplay you can set it an use it to interrupt your opponents plays on their turn then attack on yours.

So what I wanted to do with this card is run through what you could do with it first turn against the big 3.  First we have Rabbit.  Against Rabbit they might bring out a beatstick like Guiaba/Sabersaurus/TKRO or the likes.  Drop this and it dies.  Alternatively they might play Rabbit, call prio and bring out two Vanillas.  Pop those Vanillas and they don't get a Laggia/Dolkka.  The only play that this is less optimal against is the TGU play, or the set 1 play.  TGU brings out Sangan and giving them the search would be reckless, same as for the set 1.  If they set a monster it will likely either be Sangan or Snowman.  Against Snowman you want to Wild Fire, but against Sangan you really don't unless you have a response for Rabbit all set.

Then there is the Inzektor match-up.  Inzektors turn 1 will be trying to pop your stuff.  They summon out the Centipede or the Dragonfly and you pop it with this like you would play a Torrential Tribute.  I don't play Inzektors much (because I don't play much) but other than that I don't know much plays they make turn 1.

Against the Wind-Up match-up, you can wreck their combos.  They might try to swarm the field with stuff before Exceeding.  If you can blow that field up after they Normal Summon they need a Reborn to continue comboing which is less than likely.  The other play Wind-Ups like to make is drop a Wind-Up Rabbit and sit on that.  In this situation your Wild Fire will be much more dead because Rabbit can dodge.  In fact Rabbit will basically dodge whatever you try to do.

This card is also particularly useful in Volcanic Monarchs, much like the deck that topped SJC San Mateo in '07, which I posted about yesterday.  This allows you to go from 2 backrow to non in your opponents End Phase giving you access to Treeborn Frog and the Token you just got.  Personally I would have run an LaDD in that deck because it wouldn't be too hard to get.  Even on it's own though Wild Fire gives you that Token to tribute which can be clutch.

One thing to mention though is that you must be really careful of Mystical Space Typhoon with this card.  You see, it doesn't destroy Blaze Accelerator as a cost.  That is part of the effect.  If you don't have a Blaze Accelerator face up when it resolves to destroy, you cannot nuke the monsters which means that this card has no effect. In this way your opponents MST goes from a +0 to a +1. In a 3 MST format, this is something you will need to be really wary of when using this card.

I hope this post makes up for yesterday's really low quality post.  Thanks for reading and make sure to keep the fire going!

The Glory Days [Volcanic Monarchs '07]

Monsters [Total - 22]
2 Volcanic Rocket
3 Volcanic Shell
3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
2 Raiza the Storm Monarch
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
2 Crystal Seer
1 Old Vindictive Magician
1 Magician of Faith
1 Apprentice Magician
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Spells [Total - 10]
1 Blaze Accelerator
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
2 Soul Exchange
1 Brain Control
1 Wild Fire
1 Book of Moon
1 Pot of Avarice

Traps [Total - 9]
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Sakeretsu Armour
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Dust Tornado
1 The Transmigration Prophecy

Side Deck [Total - 15]
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Apprentice Magician
1 Volcanic Rocket
1 Kinetic Soldier
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Twister
2 Waboku
1 Pulling the Rug
2 Forced Back
1 Malevolent Catastrophe
1 Shrink

While this decklist is outdated, it is definitely worth talking about.  This is because it got top 16 at SJC San Mateo in 2007.  I really don't know anything about the meta at that time, but I might as well show you this deck.  I have tested this deck and it is a lot of fun and really worth the time to play.  Really I can't say much else.  Expect better posts tomorrow.

Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

"Discard 1 card from your hand.  Return 1 card on your opponent's side of the field to the top of the owner's Deck."

Finding a nice picture of this card was kinda tough TBH and since I've never used it IRL this is the first time I get a good look at the art.  An interesting thing is that I think I've played Phoenix in Volcanic's back when I was not so good at the game and now I play his wing blast!  In general though the art makes it fit Volcanics because of the fire and well ya.  

This card is kinda a blast from the past.  It used to be a lot more relevant back in like 2007 (our glory days, so to speek), but I think it could be a nice tech in modern Volcanics.  The key idea behind this is that the cost on this card is pretty meaningless.  As you will find in testing, cards like Volcanic Shell and Volcanic Rocket will generate a lot of advantage, BUT this advantage will be dead a large portion of the time.  This allows us to use cards that have discard costs without too much worry.

So the next question is why run this over Rageki Break?  Well the answer actually involves more than just nostalgia.  Rageki Break is a card of choice in the OCG, but I think TCG is better off with this.  This is partially because of Tour Guide.  Tour Guide searches out a Sangan which Rageki Break doesn't really deal with all too well.  Tour Guide creates Wind-Up Zenmaines easily as well which Rageki Break is once again bad against.  This on the other hand works great against both of those.

Another reason is against Rabbit which is huge in the TCG right now.  You can spin that Sabersaurus or the other Vanilla whose name evades me at the moment.  This causes a dead draw next turn that will put you in control.  One thing to be worried about when doing this is that if they shuffle their deck for whatever reason, they will be able to use Rabbit to grab that vanilla again and you made Rabbit more live.

Thanks for reading guys!  Be sure to check back tomorrow for some form of post.

Volcanic Chaos Garden

Monsters [Total - 19]
3 Volcanic Rocket
3 Volcanic Shell
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
2 Don Zaloog
2 Sacred Crane
2 Summoner Monk
2 Effect Veiler
1 Sangan
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

Spells [Total - 14]
3 Black Garden
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Pot of Duality
1 Blaze Accelerator
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Traps [Total - 7]
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck [Total - 15]
2 Number 39 Utopia
1 CNumber 39 Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17 Leviathan Dragon
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 30 Acid Golem
1 Number 20 Giga Brilliant

1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor

This very first thing I want to say about this deck is sorry the extra looks so bad.  TCG is lacking in good rank 4s, but when Lavalval Chain and Daigusto Emeral come out you should be running them.  This extra is really just a rough draft with the synchros acting as filler.  Since Plants as a deck died, reviving tuners has become near impossible making Veiler our only play into them.  More Rank 3s and Rank 4s would be better.

On to the actual deck itself, I bet you are wondering what this is.  I have received comments on this in the past that basically call this a pile of random but it really isn't.  This is one of the better ways to play Volanics in fact.  As usual, this deck contains the classic Volcanic engine.  I used to play double Blaze here, but people are playing their MSTs more conservatively right now, waiting to hit Chains or trying to get rid of Solemns, plus they will need them to destroy our Gardens.  A single Blaze should suffice at the moment.

The basic concept behind this deck, the Theory-Oh if you will, is that you can blow up your opponents field with Blaze Accelerator then summon a monster and play Black Garden putting you in control of the duel. Black Garden also allows for offensive plays, letting you revive key monsters at any time.

Don Zaloog is optimal for summoning before you play Garden because 1400 will be amazing and he will generate tons of +es for you.  If he had 300 more ATK I would play 3 in a heart beat.  Summoner Monk is a natural choice because at 800 ATK you can easily revive him and he allows you to get Volcanic Rocket out fast, or Sacred Crane.  Sacred Crane is also great because at 1600 ATK Garden can revive it easily giving you the draw and it is also a Monk target.  That on top of it fuels the Chaos aspect of the deck.  Black Luster Soldier is freaking amazing in this chaos deck.  The rest of the monster line-up is pretty staple.

As for spells, I choose to play 3 Pot of Duality because it improves consistency so much.  I might consider switching those for Card-Car D when it makes its way to the TCG but I'm not fully decided on that yet.  Avarice refuels Shells and gives you even more +es than you already have.  The rest of the spell/trap line-up is really staple.

If you have any other questions, just leave them in a comment or something.  I really enjoy this deck and I hope you can have fun with it too!

Volcanic Counter

"When you take Battle Damage while this card is in your Graveyard, remove it from play.  Then, if there is a FIRE monster other than "Volcanic Counter" in your Graveyard, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the amount of Battle Damage you took."

Welcome back to another card discussion!  This time we have one of my personal favorite cards in the archetype, Volcanic Counter.  Of course this isn't based on effect, only on the art.  Look how amazing he looks.  That power and the fire breath?  I couldn't imagine a better card.  On the other hand that isn't what I'm really here to talk about.

One thing to mention about this card is how key it was in the anime.  Axel used this in a match against the Supreme King to tie the game up, freeing Jaden from it's evil clutches or something along the lines of that.  While I don't think that is how it would work IRL (you lose before Counter can activate), it is still a really awesome fact.  While everyone else couldn't beat Jaden, Volcanics could!

So now we can finally move onto the card itself.  I need to say right away this card is not that good.  Why they made it a Super rare we can only imagine, but since the removing effect is mandatory it is really easy for your opponent to play around.  Were the effect optional I would love this thing so much.   It would really make your opponent slow themselves down and instead they would be beating you with weaker stuff to avoid the damage.

Since if that was all I said this would be boring, I'll tell you guys about a really silly deck I made once.  It was something like Volcasworn which combined Volcanics with Lightsworn.  The basic idea was to dump this and Volcanic Scattershot into the Graveyard to inflict damage to your opponent.  Volcanic Shell can be milled for more card advantage and stuff.  I'll probably get into more details about that later.

In short?  As is this card is really only a silly tech you can play but in general there are tons of better cards.  If you want a 7th Blaze target you can run this but otherwise there is no use.  Hopefully you learnt something from this or at least enjoyed the read!  See you later.

Background and logo!

Quick little surface update.  I just changed the background and added a logo.  The background was made for me by .Rai who is really awesome at it.  Emrakul made the logo.  All I really have to say is wow.  I hope everyone reading likes the logo and background.  Now to change some settings to make everything else look nicer.

Royal Firestorm Guard

"When this card is Normal Summoned, select 4 Pyro-Type monsters in  your Graveyard.  Return those cards to the Deck then draw 2 cards."

Welcome back to my very first "tech talk" post as I like to think about it though I think I'm stealing that name from somwere else.  It's actually interesting that I call this a tech because if you looked closely at the opening post this was one of the pictures in my square.  That is how intrinsic I consider it to the Volcanic archetype.  That again seems like an odd statement when you look at the decks I just posted, but here you need to consider that the variations I have to date posted only have the basic Volcanic engine.  More decks with this card are to come.

Now what is basically the only way Volcanics have been hit by the banlist?  The limiting of Pot of Avarice.  It was amazing for Volcanics, allowing you to return 3 Volcanic Scattershot and 2 Volcanic Shell to your deck while at the same time giving you +es.  Sadly Plant Synchro made it so abusable that it had to be limited.  While at first that seems lame, Volcanics have a way to bounce back.  This guy.  He enables you to run 3 more Pot of Avarice except you don't even get the -1 of using Pot because he sticks around.  The downside is he is less versatile but it's still an amazing card.

When would I suggest running this? Basically if you have both Shell and Scattershot in your deck this would work.  They both fill your grave fast and I've actually discarded Scattershot and sent the other 2 to destroy 1 monster and get that +1 (though TBH it's almost always best to send all Scattershots as I will talk about later).

Anyway there isn't much else to say other than this is like the lost Volcanic.  Hope you learnt something new from this!

Volcanic Jurrac Garden

Monsters [Total - 15]
3 Volcanic Rocket
3 Volcanic Shell
3 Jurrac Guiaba
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
2 Summoner Monk
1 Sangan
1 Jurrac Aeolo

Spells [Total - 17]
3 Black Garden
3 Pot of Duality
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Blaze Accelerator
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm

Traps [Total - 8]
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra [Total - 15]
1 Ally of Justice Catastor

3 Evolzar Laggia
2 Evolzar Dolkka
2 Number 39 Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Chaos Number 39 Utopia
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 25 Leviaithan Dragon
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 30 Acid Golem

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Welcome back to this brand new decklist I have for you guys!  This time it's a Black Garden deck which I've built tons of in my time, except this one has it's own special touch.  A Jurrac engine.  I'm sure some players are thinking "Just because they are both FIRE archetypes doesn't make them compatible" or something along the lines of that.  Well I actually have great reason to play Guiaba here.

So I am playing the 3 Guiaba and a single Aeolo here for access to Laggia and Dolkka (obviously).  Most people choose not to run Aeolo but I have Summoner Monk to give me faster access to the Guiaba's so it should never be a problem.  To compliment this engine, I also run 2 Forbidden Lance which allows for offensive pushes with Guiaba or defensive plays to keep my monsters safe.

Now onto what we have all been waiting for!  The "synergy".  Let us consider Black Garden.  It halves a monsters ATK and summons out an 800 ATK token to the opposing field.  Then look at Guiaba.  It has 1700 ATK so imagine it was summoned under Garden.  It will go from 1700 to 850 which is 50 more attack then the token.  Because of this you can now run over the token to grab out another Guiaba.  Then you can make Laggia or Dolkka.  This combo works better if you have Monk in Grave already because you can destroy Garden and the 1 token summoned by your second Guiaba to revive it before making Laggia to keep Laggia at full force.

One more cool thing is that Laggia can be revived by Black Garden if you have three tokens out.  Not gonna happen too often but it's nice to know.

So why not Hydrogeddon?  It seems like an obvious choice given it has 1600 ATK making it a nice Black Garden target and it can attack if it was summoned by Hydrogeddon.  There are 2 problems with it.  The first is that it has 1600 ATK which halved is only 800 ATK meaning it breaks even with the tokens.  On top of that, even if it was 1602 or something it still wouldn't work because it needs to send the destroyed monster to the Graveyard while Guiaba just needs to destroy it.

I hope you enjoyed this deck and I hope you have fun testing it out.  Leave feedback in the comment area and have a great day!

Volcanic's are sweeping over the internet!

As the title says, I'm beginning to notice a rise in the popularity of Volcanics.  Why do I say that?  A few reasons.   The first is that my Volcanic guide on Pojo has been getting a lot more comments then ever before, even when it was brand new.  This is amazing guys.  If you want a forum to discuss VOlcanics in general that would be a good place to go.  I'll add it to the helpful links section down below.  While it is outdated (this website is designed to replace it), it's still convenient for discussion.

Another reason that leads me to believe Volcanic's are gaining popularity comes from the Dueling Network forums.  There, there is a thread for suggestions on what you want to be an avatar.  Only today I saw tons of people asking for Volcanic Doomfire which is not something I've seen a lot of in the past.  By the way, if you are reading this nice and soon after it's posting go to the DN forums and vote for Doomfire!  We can do this guys!

A few more things I want to lump together that aren't too important.  The first of these things is that in a thread about what archetypes need more support on /r/yugioh (a reddit subreddit) Volcanics were the top item.  I also saw a friend randomly playing them when before it was only me.  Volcanics got attention on DGz which is a top tier site that focuses on competitive play.  There's also this blog which has gotten over 300 views in under a week which is pretty sweet considering I've been barely advertising!

Well just thought I should say something about that here.  Let's keep the ball rolling and try to get Konami to show us some love!

Tour Guide + Sangan

This isn't so much a discussion on the current state of the Volcanic archetype right now, but more of me reminiscing on a combo I loved for a few days.  Of course only doing that would be entirely pointless and since this blog is designed to help you build Volcanics your way and not simply waste your time I'm also going to give a way to modernize this combo.

As you might have guess, this combo involves Tour Guide from the Underworld and Sangan (who are a big part of a lot of decks right now).  In fact, it involves the old Xyz ruling which I am sure you know meant that when Sangan was detached you were abled to activate it's effect because Xyz material monsters were treated as being on the field.  How is this so great for Volcanics?  Let's look at a simple combo.

1. Activate Gold Sarcophagus to banish a copy of Volcanic Rocket from your deck.
2. Normal Summon Tour Guide from the Underworld.
3. Activate Tour Guide from the Underworld's effect to Special Summon a Sangan from your deck.
4. Overlay the Tour Guide from the Underworld with your Sangan to Xyz Summon Leviair the Sea Dragon.
5. Activate Leviair's effect by detaching Sangan to Special Summon your banished Volcanic Rocket.
6. Activate Sangan's effect to search a Volcanic Shell from your deck.
7. Activate Volcanic Rocket's effect to search a Blaze Accelerator from your deck.

All this combo requires is Gold Sarcophagus and Tour Guide in your hand, and it launches you into an amazing state.  You have 3 Volcanic Shells at your access with a Blaze ready to fire them and two decent sized beat sticks.  The only downside is that this forces you to run Gold Sarcophagus but with fairly good access to Leviair, that isn't even too bad.

While we did lose the Sangan search power, we will soon be able to pull off a similar weaker version of this combo (without having to run any really undesirable cards!)  How do we do it?  With this card over here.  I bet either you are starting to understand or you are wondering what this does.  Well I'll just tell you:

Once per turn, you can activate 1 of these effects:

• Detach one Xyz Material from this card; send 1 card from your deck to the Graveyard.
• Detach one Xyz Material from this card; choose 1 Monster Card from your Deck and put it on top of your Deck.

By the way, it requires two level 4 monsters to overlay for it.  So let's just jump right into this new combo I've been setting up for.

1. Normal Summon Summoner Monk (whose effect turns it into defence position).
2. Activate it's effect discarding any spell to search out Volcanic Rocket.
3. Volcanic Rocket can search out a Blaze Accelerator from your deck (or Graveyard if you discarded it).
4. Overlay for Lavalval Chain using Volcanic Rocket and Summoner Monk.
5. Activate Lavalval Chain's first effect by detaching either monster to send a Volcanic Shell from your deck to your Graveyard.

This combo net's you a Volcanic Shell in the Grave and a Blaze in hand with Lavalval Chain face-up for the price of Summoner Monk and a spell card.  The other combo gave you one additional monster and also allowed you another use of Volcanic Shell though in theory you could place Shell on top of your Deck to draw into it next turn (which could be wise if you are going first and so can't make use of Blaze this turn).  The benefit it has is that Lavalval Chain will be useful again next turn and that you do not need to run a slightly sub par card like Gold Sarcophagus.  I still prefer the original combo but this is something to consider.

I hope you learnt a bit from reading this because that is my goal!  In case you haven't noticed I'm trying to post every day at noon PST which will be something else your time.  Be sure to check in at that time tomorrow for more Volcanic whatever!

A Brief History of Volcanics

Axel Brodie and two of his powerful Volcanic monsters.

Well if I am going to be writing a summer long blog about Volcanics, I should probably tell you the history of them (or at least what I know of it).  This should include both their history in the GX arc, but also their history in terms of pack releases.  First though, a bit of general information about them.  They are a series of Pyro-Type FIRE monsters that appear to be reptiles that have been fortified with military technology to make them stronger.  The basic goal of the deck is to use Blaze Accelerator's destruction capabilities coupled with your monsters burn effects to create a devastating field with limitless advantage.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Volcanics were used by Axel Brodie the the GX series.  Their main claim to fame here is that Axel Brodie almost beat Jaden once and later he actually managed to tie Jaden.  Wow I really expected to have more to say about this.  Let's move on to their IRL history then.

In IRL Yu-Gi-Oh!

Volcanics first hit the scene in 2007, in the Force of the Breaker pack.  Volcanic Doomfire was featured as the cover card of the set and did a great job of it.  In the same year Volcanics got their own tin (of course giving away Volcanic Doomfire).  They also got support in Tactical Evolution, Light of Destruction and Phantom Darkness (also more minor other packs).  The TCG also got Volcanic Rocket which you will see me rant about just how awesome it is a lot here.

While Volcanics have never been particularly competitive, they did manage to top an SJC in Orlando in 2007.  Sadly no other showings.

So that's just a brief history of Volcanics.  Hope you enjoyed reading it!

Volcanic Blaster

"When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by battle, you can place 1 "Volcanic" monster in your Deck on top of your Deck."

I don't really think I should go straight to the big guns for this blog so let's start the card discussions off with Volcanic Blaster, our searcher!  In case you are a complete novice with Volcanics, they will all be FIRE monsters with Pyro-type.  More importantly, they will all have sick artwork.  He has a revolver built into his back.  It's amazing.  Enough of that though.

What we really need to do is look at this cards effect.  That is after all the entire point of this post.  The effect is pretty straight forward like most Volcanic monsters.  If it gets destroyed by battle you can stack your deck for a Volcanic.  In a slower format I would love this card.  It has the ability to grab a Volcanic of any level. This could be great in a Doomfire build (which I'm not recommending), grabbing a Queen to get out of a tight situation if you run it, a Rocket to get Blaze or just a Shell/Scattershot to blow things up.  So what is wrong with it now?

Firstly this is not a battle destruction heavy format.  There are a lot of other cards that do it (like Inzektors) which won't set this thing off.  Maybe ages ago when card destruction was harder to find this would get set off a lot but now basically all cards that activate when destroyed by battle have fallen out of use.  The other problem with this format is that we have gotten to a point where the format is so fast that stacking your deck isn't too helpful.  Duels don't last too long anymore.  Having to wait the turn might be a big problem though this is likely only going to be destroyed on your opponents turn.

So I think it would make sense to just say what this card would need for me to play it.  I think that if it had 500 ATK and the effect activated when discarded by Blaze it would be brilliant but that's calling for a huge change.  As is I do not run this in anything outside my hilarious Axel Brodie character deck which I expect you will see at some point.

Anyway thanks for reading.  One last thing I wanted to mention is that if my post quality ever dies off just spam me with comments.  I want to keep this as high quality as I can.  That is all for now!  Good day.

Quick update

This isn't anything Volcanic related, just a quick little update on the behind the scenes at The Volcanic Project.  Firstly I want to say that what I'm trying to do is post an entry every day at 12:00 PST.  This way I can get ahead of myself on content and I won't have to worry about missing a day.  It also means that I can write tons on days I'm bored and this blog will continue long after I decide to leave.  Isn't that slightly creepy?  Either way that is my current schedule.

Next I want to talk about the look we have.  Right now it kinda looks aweful.  This is a default theme by Blogspot which sucks.  I have a friend who is really awesome at GFX (Rai) and he is making me a back ground which will be awesome.  I'm also looking for a logo with Volcanic Doomfire.  I know I don't have a following as is, but I'm going to ask you to comment with a link to your attempts just to help me because I could really use one.

One last thing to mention is that I have added a few things down at the bottom of the page.  The first thing is a helpful links section.  It will be links to basically anything I talk about outside this blog and will have tons of information.  I would highly suggestion looking at them.  I also added a "Follow by Email" box and I made it easier to subscribe to this using your Google account.  Those are both things I would suggest doing if you want to get updates on my blog (though since I want to post daily at 12 it isn't too useful.

Well that is all I had to say for now.  Peace out!

Volcanic HEROes

Over the years I've play tested many different types of Volcanics, but this is the most recent style I have taken to playing.  Before I get into any more detail, let's see the list.

Monsters [14]

3 Volcanic Rocket

3 Volcanic Shell

3 Elemental HERO Neos Alius

3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

1 Elemental HERO Stratos

1 Sangan

Spells [16]

1 Blaze Accelerator

3 Miracle Fusion

3 Pot of Duality

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Future Fusion

1 Gemini Spark

1 Monster Reborn

1 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Reinforcements of the Army

Traps [10]

3 Fiendish Chain

2 Torrential Tribute

2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

2 Solemn Warning

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra [15]

2 Elemental HERO Nova Master

2 Elemental HERO The Shinning

1 Elemental HERO Escuridao

1 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero

1 Elemental HERO Great Tornado

1 Elemental HERO Gaia

2 Blade Amour Ninja

1 Number 39 Utopia

1 Leviair the Sea Dragon

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 Number 30 Acid Golem of Destruction

1 Number 17 Leviathan Dragon

So let's have a closer look at the deck!  First there is the classiv Volcanic engine.  This is something you will see in a majority of the decks I post here.  Three Rockets, three Shells, and a single Blaze.  I actually want to talk about this engine later because it's really important to the Volcanic duelist.  Just for now trust me that it is good.

Then we have 3 Alius and 1 Stratos along with the 3 Miracle Fusion, a Reinforcement of the Army and a Gemini Spark.  This engine is really nice because Spark and Alius are +es when played right and what the Volcanics allow you access to is Nova Master who is brilliant.  Volcanics are amazing +ers already but a free draw is just fantastic.  HEROes also have the ability to run Super Poly which normally is a -1 BUT we have Volcanic Shell on our side!  Volcanic Shell makes any discard a lot cheaper.  Super Poly is great right now to get out of Zenmaines and Laggia (plus rogue decks).

I hope that explains why I feel the two decks work together well.  Now we can move onto the Tourgan engine.  Sangan here searches out Shell or other Tour Guides.  Really it isn't too great here but it is good enough to be worth running because of Tour Guide.  Tour Guide is beautiful here because she makes Rank 3 monsters like Leviair.  Leviair takes your banished Stratos or Rocket and revives it allowing you to get that + of their effect, or it brings back an Alius to play Spark.

The last thing I want to talk about is the Phoenix Wing Wind Blast.  At first I ran Smashing in it's place but this deck can generate a lot of hand advantage which will generally be dead.  This then becomes a more versatile version of Smashing that can make your opponent waste an MST or Heavy of that type.

I hope I have explained this deck pretty well.  It's a LOT of fun to play and I would be sure to recommend it to all of you.  If you have any questions, leave a comment.

Welcome to The Volcanic Project

Pretty epic right?

Hello and welcome to this brand new blogging project.  My name is Welche and I will be your primary author for this blog.  Over time I hope this will become the internet's primary source for Volcanic information, surpassing the author guides and such I have posted.  I plan to include everything from single card discussions to deck lists and even to combos.  Basically anything Volcanic related I want to post here. I also plan to update the look of this except I'm bad at GFX so I will get someone else to make a nice background and a logo for me.  Also got to mention that I plan to write a little about me blurb to give my history with Volcanics.  Really that's all I had to say.  Thanks for coming and if you want to learn more about Volcanics just subscribe to this blog!