Crystal Beasts - March 2013 Decklist

With less than 10 days left in the March format it might seem off that I would decide to write up a March format deck and honestly, yes it is.  My only real reasoning behind this is that I don't feel comfortable making a deck for the next format.  I don't really know why, but that is how it is.  Have fun with this for the next week, then you can make a few subtle changes to update it for the next format (something I myself will do eventually).  Anyway, let's dive right in.

3 Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus

3 Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger

2 Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth

2 Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle

3 Effect Veiler 

2 Summoner Monk

3 Ancient City Rainbow Ruins

3 Crystal Beacon

1 Crystal Blessing

2 Crystal Release

3 Crystal Promise

2 Forbidden Lance

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Pot of Duality

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

3 Crystal Raigeki

Before I get too deep into explaining the deck there are a few obvious things I need to cover.  The first is that Crystal Beasts are not a top tier deck.  They aren't even tier two.  Don't expect this deck to be competing with HEROes, Evilswarm, or those decks.  Because of this I made the outrageous decision of running Crystal Raigeki, one of the worst Crystal cards.  Why?  I find it to simply be extremely fun.  If you are interested in winning more games, I would drop them for either real traps, Terraforming, or Maxx "C".  The second thing I want to mention is that I have not posted an Extra Deck.  This does not mean it isn't essential.  What it does mean is that I want to leave that to you.  I find often Extra Decks are filled with peoples personal preferences, picking one card as opposed to another because of something they experienced in the past.

So I suppose a smart first step would be to explain how the deck plays.  The very basics are that Crystal Beast monsters place themselves in your Spell and Trap card zone as Continuous Spells when they are destroyed, but going deeper you will soon find that that is only part of the story.  On top of this, you will be using the effect of Sapphire Pegasus, Blessing, and Release to load up your Spell and Trap card zone.  These methods combined should hopefully add Crystal Beasts quickly.

Once you have the Crystal Beasts as Continuous Spells it is time to make plays.  Using cards like Ancient City Rainbow Ruins, Crystal Promise, Crystal Raigeki, and Ruby Carbuncle you can put these Spells to work (generally by summoning them back to the playing field).  Crystal Beasts used to stall out at this point with no use for a few 1600-1800 attack monsters, thus requiring them to play Abundance for the one turn kill.  Now however you can Xyz summon amazing Rank 4 monsters that will let you control the game.

In my usual fashion, I will now highlight the important cards in this deck.  Even my brother, a novice player, can tell you that Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus is the strongest of all the Crystal Beasts.  He is the searcher of the deck, letting you pull Ruby Carbuncles straight to the field without having to have them in your hand.  Summoning this card early and often is the root to victory.  It is impossible to stress how important to the deck this card is.

Speaking of Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle, he is one of the other powerhouse monsters in the deck.  When Carbuncle is Special Summoned, he summons out all the Crystal Beasts you have in the S/T card zone.  This is the reason the deck often feels like a swarm deck.  Bring him out using Promise or Rainbow Ruins and you can often also summon at least 1 Rank 4.  The issue is that drawing him in hand is a pain.  He is a top priority search with Pegasus.  You may also consider running Rank 3s in case you get two of these guys out at the same time.

Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins brings a huge boost to the deck.  This turns usually dead Crystals in your Spell and Trap card zone into advantage for you. On top of this, it doesn't cost you one of your precious five zones because it is a field spell.  The first two effects are not that dangerous (though they are handy).  The third effect can be extremely helpful in countering power spells like Dark Hole or Heavy Storm that can cripple decks.  The fourth is a free draw.  The fifth ensures you will always have an extra space in your Spell and Trap card zone (and with Ruby Carbuncle it will do a lot more than that).  The versatility and advantage this spell generates is insane.  While I don't run Terraforming, it is an excellent choice to get this card as fast as possible.

The final card I want to discuss briefly is Crystal Beacon.  This card is one that I think is greatly undervalued.  I understand that it is perhaps slightly situational, but the ability to summon a Sapphire Pegasus straight from your deck is incredible.  On top of that, you can Summon Ruby Carbuncle to quickly summon another two additional monsters straight away.  If you are playing the deck right you shouldn't have much of an issue with the conditions and in case you do, I added a copy of Crystal Blessing to the deck.

Since I started playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, Crystal Beasts have held a spot close to my heart.  I hope this post has done justice to one of the coolest archetypes of all.  As usual, I'm very grateful you took the time to read this.

Welche.