4th Place Toronto Deck

4th Place Toronto Deck

I did the thing!

So now that I've caught up on things in my life, here is my deck (and side board) list from coming in 4th at Toronto:

Main Deck

Side Board

In case you guys have a hard time seeing the cards, here's the list written out:

Main Deck:

Buddy: Byakuya "Shiroyasha Mode"

Size 1:

4x Byakuya "Shiroyasha Mode"

4x Tsukikage "Kuroyasha Mode"

4x Tsukikage "SD"

3x Low-Rank Ninja, Mikazukimaru

3x Electron Ninja, Shiden

Size 2:

3x Yumi Ninja, Suiha

4x Ghoul Deity, Gojinmaru

2x Gojinmaru "Ghoul Deity Arts, Dance of Yashagami!"

Size 3:

1x INV Second Omni Demon Lord, Death Asmodai

1x Fourth Omni Fire Lord, Burn Nova

Spells:

4x Art of Body Replacement

4x Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze

4x Clear Serenity

3x Raiton, Art of Stored Electricity

3x Shinobi Scrolls

3x Katon, Blazing Armors 

Side Board:

3x Ceremony of Excorcism

3x Demon Way, Kasumienran

4x Ninja Arts, Half Kill

So as many of you can probably tell, this deck is all about drawing and searching for everything and anything.  Suiha, Shiden, Mikazukimaru and Shinobi Scrolls helps you draw a decent amount of cards per turn. In the mean time, you can regain all the gauge you burned to draw with a Clear Serenity or Raiton.

The deck still mainly focuses on the original Gojinmaru but I put in 2 of the impact monster because I would rather have a Gojinmaru on the field than none at all.  He's more of a plan B card.  Ninjas still gel the best with the original Gojinmaru.

Once you have Gojinmaru on the field (prefereably with Tsukikage "SD" in the soul), the point is to keep him on the field with Tsukikage "Kuroyasha Mode" (which is a stupid card in every way, shape and form) and stop people from doing massive attacks with Snake Gaze and Katon, Blazing Armor.

Death Asmodai is awesome for ninjas because you can respam the field with size 1's or call a Gojinmaru onto the field.  Granted, he won't have soul but it really stops people in their tracks when he just comes out of nowhere.  Asmodai also helps get your life to 5 or less for Raiton's full effect. 

Burn Nova saved my bacon a couple times during the tournament and he's not hard to call. Especially if you call Clear Serenity or Raiton in your hand (or in Shinobi Scrolls) when your opponent is declaring the attack to kill you. 

Side board thoughts:

Ceremony of Excorcism: Literally not used.  I will probably remove it in future tournaments.  I only run it for fear of someone cheesing the tournament with a Stars deck.  Stars screw over Ninjas hard.

Ninja Arts, Half-kill:  Massive help against my Shadow Shades and Fifth Omnis match up. I originally side boarded it for Raging Spirits since I can't shadow dive them.  Definitely a possible main board card but Gojinmaru does have shadow dive and all the other ninjas (except Shiden) have decent attack power to pop souls.  I only put Half-kill in against Shadow Shades because it's "technically" better than Katon, Blazing Armor in that match up.

Demon Way, Kasumienran: Originally meant as side board against Darkness Dragon World shadow dive decks.  I never played against them but I did play against a Wydar Sarkal rush deck and my opponent was smart. He link attacked me directly to beat me game 1 because he knew there was no Ninja Art card that can nullify link attacks with an open center.  I sided in the Kasumienrans to bait out his link attacks.  This card was worth its weight in gold in game 2 and 3.  Baited out 2-3 link attacks total between game 2 and 3.

Some cons of the deck:

- If the game goes on for too long, you can possibly deck yourself out.  Deck management is a little bit of an issue but it's not major.

- I wanted to fit a weapon in the deck but couldn't find space.  Water Calling Sword, Suiryu was definitely something I was thinking about but didn't have time to think about adding it.

- I like Sword Skill, Sen no Sen in the deck more than Katon, Blazing Armors (especially to bait out two monsters with penetrate link attacking your center monster) but gauge management was already intense and I couldn't afford that one extra gauge.

- This isn't as much of a con but I need to find a way to get my life to 5 or less more easily to get the full effect of Raiton.  Once Gojinmaru got on the field, I rarely go to 5 life or less.

I'm still working on another article about resources in the game.  It's in the editing phase but the tournament pulled me from that so it's delayed for about a week or two.