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.