Well, a lot of people including myself pegged zombie/phoenix as the best anti-gadget deck out there. Its a very viable deck in the current meta, that can stand toe to toe with all the decks out there, and come out as the favourite against gadgets. This is my first finished build, it'll need some work still

Monsters : 20
3x Vampire Lord
2x Ryu Kokki
1x Sacred Phoenix
3x Pyramid Turtle
2x Apprentice Magician
1x Magician of Faith
1x Old Vindictive Magician
1x Hand of Nepthys
2x Cyber Dragon
2x Snipe Hunter
1x Sangan
1x Treeborn Frog

Spells: 13
2 Instant Fusion
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Book of Life
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Smashing Ground
1 Last Will
1 Premature Burial
1 Creature Swap

Traps: 8
2 Mirror Wall
2 Sakuretsu Armor
2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of The Haunted

That's the basic build I use. It can side into a more aggressive strategy geared specifically toward gadgets in which case I make the following changes

- 2x Ryu Kokki
- 1x Old Vindictive Magician
- 2x Mirror Wall
- 1x Deck Devastation Virus or 1x Last Will

+ 3x Nimble Momonga
+ 2x Skill Drain
+ 1x Spell Absorption

The tactic is simple. In a format dominated by removal, let them tackle the V-Lord/Phoenix engine that can easily be backed up to infinity with Book of Life, premature and call. That gives you a potential 3 Phoenixes and 6 V-Lords. Especially gadgets, lacking in attack power and maxing out on removal will run themselves into the ground doing this. The skill drain side can let you dominate the gadgets from the beginning, negating their double draw as well.

V-Lord Runs on Pyramid Turtle, Treeborn and Instant fusion to get him out. If he gets defeated in battle, you can chain DDV and just book of life him back. Phoenix needs hand of nephthys, hence the apprentice engine that helps maintain control on the field, by avoiding face-up removal. Since Hand of Nephthys needs an additional tribute it also works well with pyramid turtle, book of life, premature burial, call of the haunted and instant fusion, as well as cyber dragon. Each of these cards can provide an instant phoenix. You can always, under extreme conditions, tribute summon phoenix with any combination of the aforementioned if you draw him.

The skill drain side techs in Momonga's and a spell absorption, because then I'm supporting 2 drains and 2 instant fusion, good for 4000 LP. That's hard to compensate against a thrall of aggressive decks out there.

DO NOT suggest Spirit Reaper. There are two reasons why you would run reaper, neither of which is here in this deck

1.He is a zombie, but since it would be a waste to use book of life or turtle on it, that really doesn't matter

2.On the off-chance he could be useful, I can pull an instant fusioned Reaper on the Nightmare with book of life in a pinch, it has 800 ATK and can attack directly.

Looking forward to some suggestions. Also just read that Jason will be reviewing a zombie/phoenix build tomorrow on metagame, curious to see what his take is. He was certainly interested in Andrew Novoa's build this weekend at Orlando. Novoa finished a respectable 29th and definitely proved this decktype is extremely viable in this format.

I find your deck to be a great build overall. Not much to say about it, except have you considered using Creature Swap? I pose this question because I noticed that you run Instant Fusion.

Other than that I see nothing wrong with this deck. :classic: (unless I am blind...)


If you get the opportunity, can you please check out my Fiend deck? Thanks! :classic:

Yeah, Zaq made the same suggestion, and I agree, but don't know where to fit the swaps in ...

That is a problem.. unless you wouldn't mind having a 43 card deck... :grin: ...
Why not just use it as a sidedeck option, if you're having trouble finding a place for it?

- Last Will
- Call of The Haunted

+ 2 Creature Swaps

Looks good 9/10.

- 2 mirror wall
+ 1 torrential tribute & 1 ring of destruction

Meh, I think the defensive traps will work better in this sort of build. Help overcome a cydra or monarch that are threats to my key monsters. And I have a personal aversion to ring. That card hates me.

wiat im having a blonde moment........ why are the instant fusions there? to provide tributes?

Primarily. When you need a quick trib for V-lord or Kokki, a second trib for hand of nepthys' effect etc. Then you pull a reaper on the nightmare and trib it away. If later on you decide you can really use one of those reapers on the nightmare, you book of life them back and you have an 800 attack direct attacking spirit reaper.

Does it make sense to build a deck based totally around gadgets? no offence but what will happen when you face something else?

It's not. It started as an anti-gadget, and with the changes listed right below the deck, it really focusses on gadgets. As the deck stands, it holds its own against all top decks. It ran my gauntlet with favourable results.

Its a core principle of building any anti-deck. You start with a core of cards that will give you the edge in the match-up, then you finish the deck in a way that makes it competitive in the current environment. I assumed that was common knowledge. I'll be sure to mention it next time ...

No problem but all in all it looks good, i'm a huge fan of any kinda zombie deck, vampire lord if my fav card, i sent you a pm, thanks

I just read metagame, now the deck Jason fixed today (also a zombie/phoenix build), THAT is a deck that wouldn't win against anything but gadgets.

Still an interesting read, he made good point about scapegoat and hand of nephthys. That's a fix I'll need to test.

If this is for the March 1 Advanced list, and you can get these cards:

-1 Magician of Faith
-1 Last Will
-1 Graceful Charity

+1 Cyber Dragon
+1 Sacred Phoenix
+2 Hand of Nepthys


*And have you considered Spirit Reaper?*

Just kidding

-2 Mirror Wall
-2 Skill Drain
-MoF
-Last Will
-Graceful Charity

+ Bottomless trap Hole
+ SPIRIT REAPER

Why skill drains? that would negate all your zombies effects. Maybe drop a Book of Life since theres not too many zombies. What do you bring out with Instant Fusion? Would you mind having a look at my Zombies.