Friday 14 September 2012

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!

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