Mermails. The newest tier 1 deck that made it's debut in the current set, Abyss Rising. When we first saw how the deck ran, we were amazing on how many ridiculous moves you could make to win the game. I even played the deck myself on Dueling Network, and should I say that I was pretty comfortable running the deck from the start. Now that I have enough knowledge to explain how the deck works, allow me to do so.
It all starts with Genex Undine or Mermail Abysspike. Undine Genex Controller the hand while paying the cost from the deck. Abysspike pays the cost from the hand, but adds any Mermail monster to your hand. These 2 cards jump start your hand to make bigger plays later down the road.
The Atlantean monsters are the cost abusers. These graveyard effects activated when used for a cost of a water monster's effect. Dragoons add ANY Sea-Serpent from the deck to the hand. This means you'll have 7 cards in hand after applying this effect first turn! Heavy Infantry destroys face-up cards, while Marksman destroys face-down cards. Also, Marksman has a neat effect that if he does any form of battle damage, you get to special summon a level 4 or lower Sea-Serpent monster from your deck! Your main target though is Dragoons to push for another 1800 points of damage.
Now that we got the small fish out of the way, lets get to the big monsters! First and most importantly, we have Mermail Abyssmegalo! This 2400 fishy can be Special Summoned from your hand by discarding any 2 water monsters! Since this is ruled an effect, you can use your in-hand Atlantean monsters to bring it out, and then use their effects to do what needs to be done! In addition, you an Abyss Spell or Trap card from your deck to your hand! In competitive builds, you would get Abyss-Sphere, which we'll get to later. Abyssmegalo also has the effect to tribute 1 face-up attack position water monster to allow him to attack twice this turn! It's another way to abuse the Atlantean cost effects! This makes the deck play really aggressive if played right!
The other big boss monster that we typically use is Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord. With exactly 5 water monsters in grave, you can simply drop it from your hand and discard 2 cards from your opponent's hand! Not to mention that he's a massive 2800 beater! However, if he ever leaves the field, you have to skip your next battle phase, so be very careful with this card!
The last side card that's used is Deep Sea Diva. It's essentially your Tour Guide of the deck, but you get to Synchro for usually a level 5 monster. The way these cards come out, you're able to expand from level's 4 through 9 when you try to Synchro Summon! Since this deck expands so much on Xyz ranks and Synchro levels, it can be difficult to make your extra deck exactly the way you like it. This will depend on your playstyle.
There isn't but 2 cards that you should use to support this deck. No more than 1 copy of Salvage, and 2-3 Abyss-Spheres. Sphere is a continuous trap that allows the player to Special Summon ANY Mermail monster from your deck! However, you cannot play any spell cards the turn you use it. On your next end phase, this card gets destroyed, and when it does, it destroys your monster. However, we did forget about one more Mermail that makes this card really good! Mermail Abysslinde! When it's destroyed and sent to your grave, you get to Special Summon any Mermail from your deck! Typically if your Sphere get hit by MST, you could chain it to get Abysslinde, then it gets destroyed, then out comes Abyssmegalo! Do realize that you can use Abysslinde's effect once per turn. The rest of the deck should be staples until you hit around 40 cards.
Now that I've covered the deck, lets find out how to beat it! The first thing we know is that the deck sends to the graveyard for everything! This means that cards like Macro Cosmos will fit perfectly against this deck. The next thing we know is that there are the Atlantean monsters' effects activate in the graveyard. If you think about it, Soul Drain will stop them all from doing anything! It will only prevent that one element though as the player can still beat you down with effects in the hand and on the field. My favorite, if banishing them will conflict with your deck is Mind Crush! Despite the deck carrying a big enough hand all the time, it's only good if they can discard it all for Abyssmegalo. Without it, the hand will probably be garbage. However, you might want to play the card proactively since the Abyssmegalo can come out at anytime! This includes at the very beginning of his first turn, so time it right!
Another thing this deck seems to lack is the ability to get over anything over 2400. Yeah they got Moulinglacia, Synchro's, and Xyz monsters to use, but if you can counter everything, you should come out on top with just something like a Master Hyperion or Lightpulsar Dragon. Not saying they won't have other answers against that, but that's something you should keep in mind.
There are other weaknesses of the deck, but those are the ones that you can take advantage of the next time you play against Mermails. Well guys, stay classy and make sure your brain's working at the card shop! =D
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