I think it's time to start getting this thread going again now that Smoke Screen is at two. I know Blue has some specific ideas of what the deck should be now, but there must be other options. I need to take a look at all of the cards I pulled together and see what makes sense.

Well, Smoke means consistency in choosing your LV3 and lower monsters, so you can get stuff going anywhere from making rank 3 and 4 xyz engines, fast synchro decks, red and blue field control and probably a few others.

I do like the maxx c capability in this deck, but I also like to downplay grandmaster to 1 this format. Kizan can get up just as high and doesn't have the possibility of being dead outright. Enishi might be viable too, this format and I'm looking for more ways to defend against effects

I'm assuming you are talking about the Level 4 Enishi? I pulled that aside the other night when I was grabbing cards that I was considering for this deck. I honestly have no idea what direction I want to take it yet. I want something that is versatile and not autopilot since those are the decks that tend to interest me the most.

So what is the build going to look like this format? 2 smoke signal lets us run a low monster count, but like blue said, this also opens up a lot of options for us to work with.

I don't think that red/blue is going to be that powerful without dojo and that card is meh to me right now. Almost novelty, to be honest. I would think ascetiscism builds get that extra boost and with xyz beginning to take over, it offers the deck with two signals versatility and power. Would be nice if we can toolbox sams now

Well consider that red and blue are smoke signal searchable level 3's that open up more chances to get two of them to the field for xyz summoning ...

I really like Red, Blue and Dojo right now. I've only done limited testing with my build but it really adds to the explosiveness of the deck. It's pretty typical for me to play Dojo, summon Kageki, special summon Kagemusha, Synchro for Shi En and have three counters on Dojo for Red or Blue. Adding Gateway to the mix means you can instantly search for the other missing piece so you can special summon both. Obviously that part is a little harder to pull off with Gateway limited.

They still open up a lot of destructive options and Level 4 Xyzs.

Not to mention red and blue give you two summons as well, two counters on dojo, blow up something for free and then pop dojo, summon kagemusha, synch Shi En. A lot of times people like to hold their warning until you summon shi en. In this case Shinai will either draw the warning, or you will be able to blow it up before you bring out shi en. Red an blue is also what I used most in the march '11 format if my field got broken. Usually they invested a lot to break my field, and holding a red and blue meant turning the game around. Summon both, blow somthing up and get kizan or grandmaster in return.

Not to appear as if I'm #### stirrin, but I'm finding the tone of this condescending. Red/blue is an option but right now I'm feeling being novelty at worse, 65% efficacy rate at best. The problem lies in the fact your going to need two dojo on the board to pull it off. Its a possible way to go an one of two routes to go on. Ascetiscism is far better imo because you can run things that are a little less dependant on a loop to work. Granted, dojo works both ways and shinai, mizuho as back together as they need be, the dojo chews up valuable space in the main and the deck could use a second gateway to make red/blue viable in my sight again.
Is it possible to run red/blue? Yes, but doesn't mean you should.

And what does asceticism do ? It makes you run multiples of elder and various other cards you probably don't need and suck big time on their own, reverting you back to a combo deck, the very reason the deck was highly inconsistent throughout the last format. With the needed protection on board its also easy to leave a Dojo on the field if people want to activate maxx C, as they can't chain it to the sending it to the grave.

However much you want to believe last formats decks were effective, they were not. and just adding one smoke signal to them won't change a thing about that. The idea is to use the extra asset to make the deck more reliable and less combo oriented (or at the very least give it a larger amount of possible combos).

Also works case Dojo is another counter collector that can fuel Gateway. That's not an ideal scenario, but when you are down cards and you need to stack counters it can come in handy.

Why would you run more than one elder in the first place. Ascetiscism does give you rank 4 xyz plays at the least.

Blue, I concede the fact that you have more experience than, however, I can't but help feel your wrong on this one.

I look at dojo and see that yes, I can get a few extra summons on it. But for me to do that, I have expend two search spells and draw the third piece of the combo to make sure it can go off, which I don't see it happening very often. It can and has, but in honesty, can you quantifythe success rate; it that you be able to go off 60% of the time? I just feel its too risky and if your gonna compete against the big three, your main has to be built stron and easily interchangeable with your side. Can you do it with dojo? Yes. Will it affect efficacy? Hell yes. Is it worth the risk? Player's choice. Methinks ascetiscism works a bit better, but I won't out of hand red/blue.

I'm really not seeing the issue. When you don't have dojo, its like not having any other card. When you do, all it needs is two summons you would be making anyway. By making a summon with a LV3 you ensure a shi en play. You can do this by :

Kageki + Shinai
Kageki + Mizuho
Mizuho + Shinai
Shinai + Kizan
Mizuho + Kizan
Kageki + Kizan
Kageki + Grandmaster
Shinai + Grandmaster
Mizuho + Grandmaster
Smoke Signal + Mizuho
Smoke Signal + Shinai
Smoke Signal + Kageki
Smoke Signal + Grandmaster
Smoke Signal + Kizan
ROTA+Shinai
ROTA + Mizuho
ROTA + Kageki
ROTA + Kizan
ROTA + Grandmaster

I'd say you have a fair chance of having one of these combos in your opening 6 when you draw dojo. It doesn't require me to add cards that are useless. One Elder ? With 3 ASC ? Each of these plays above nets me a Shi En. After you burn one elder, you have nowhere left to go to make shi en with asc. And as much as I like Zanji, I don't really feel like Zanji-Kizan and Elder-Kagemusha should be my only options.

Then what say you when dealing with the big three this format?