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The Potential Disaster
Amanda LaPalme
9/12/2011 10:34:00 AM 
Players often refer to all Dragon decks as “Hopeless Dragon.” The deviations and potential in a Disaster build can heavily vary, but there's a definitive line drawn between the two main categories, in both structure and playstyle. Hopeless and Disaster, respectively focus on two contrary styles: aggression and control. The former was well-known and played years ago, focusing on power cards like Dark Armed Dragon, Dark Horus, and Phantom of Chaos along with standard Dragon support cards, like Red-Eyes Darkness Metal and Wyvern, to accomplish an overwhelming aggression-based field of large-bodied monsters. For its time, it was viable. But the game has changed since then, and Solemn Warning, Effect Veiler, easy access to Synchro Summoning, and a multitude of other factors make that mass swarm strategy nearly obsolete for today's metagames. Disaster Dragon, though equally capable of fleshing out large monsters, runs heavy backrow alternatives to control the field. Though the swarm potential still exists in Disaster, its strategy is centered on cards that act as a response to popular decks, such as Koa'ki Meiru Drago or standard anti-meta choices like Thunder King Rai-Oh. Disaster Dragon establishes its advantage via knowledge of the opponent's engine, forming a strategy around that, and overcoming it. That being said, the format in its current state is crucial in displaying the potential of this strategy, as game-winning cards like Master Hyperion and Black Luster Soldier are going to be reoccurring themes throughout the next months. Now couldn't be a better time to take advantage of Koa'Ki Meiru Drago's benefits. Seldom do we see players commit and explore the competitive ability of this deck, but there is great potential here.
Main Deck Lineup Choices With key cards like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Tour Guide from the Underwold molding the beginning of the format, it is more than an Appropriate time to fully utilize the power of Disaster Dragon and its star player, Koa'ki Meiru Drago. Drago covers a multitude of plays, shutting down the opponent from going into a Level 5 Synchro or Rank 4 Xyz, pushing through Gorz, Fader or Tragodeia, and having a 1900 body that goes toe-to-toe with any anti-meta beater on the board. It gives an extremely strong game 1 opening against Agents, Chaos Plants, and a mass of other decks seeing play during the beginning of this format, and it's going to get even stronger later on with the release of more Dark World support. I had the option of going with a build that went straight into great anti-meta choices: Thunder King and Effect Veiler are considerably powerful. But since they aren't Dragons, they'd interfere with Totem Dragon: Totem provides a vast toolbox of potential, and I wanted to make use of that. After the recent confirmation of the Xyz rulings, it also has the potential of becoming a Leviathan Dragon with Delta Flyer, detaching Totem so you can reuse it from the graveyard, even if it was summoned by its own effect and would otherwise be banished. Totem also lets you summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (REDMD), Light and Darkness Dragon (LaDD), and Yamata Dragon at low to no cost. Cutting Totem Dragon would mean no Yamata or LaDD, and game 1 those cards have been definitive in winning me games. Yamata Dragon can't be ignored given the current state of the format. With Mystical Space Typhoon at 3 and Heavy Storm back, the way is always clear for the massive plus Yamata Dragon generates. Even if he's hit by Effect Veiler, Yamata will remain on the field as a 2600 ATK threat. Heavy Storm's return means the opponent will habitually play the conservative, investing little into the back row without a Starlight Road. This keeps plenty of cards in the opponent's hand, allowing Trap Dustshoot to be a live card beyond turn 1. In devastating combination with it, Mind Crush also consumes key cards the opponent may Duality into, while getting you a free look at the opponent's hand. Needless to say, with Duality's reprint, Mind Crush and Dustshoot will always be active cards. Side Deck Lineup Choices: The side deck is essential to address: it's just as significant as Disaster's main. The predictable cards for the opponent to side against you are Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo and Thunder King Rai-Oh. Though they both do little to stop Disaster, the matchup is not expected and oftentimes I find my opponent openly admitting his discomfort in siding against the deck. Game 2 and 3, I side out the Totems, LaDD and Yamata (along with whatever's Appropriate in the matchup), and go straight into anti-meta choices. There are very specific reasons for some of my tech choice on this. I wanted to go with cards that are versatile in any matchup, and lock down commonly seen strategies. Covering cards that aren't completely obvious as to why they are sided - you'll notice maxed out Forbidden Lance. In the T.G. matchup, it can be chained on the opponent's monster in the Damage Step when they activate Horn of the Phantom Beast. If swinging over a Thunder King, that'd be a -2 in terms of card presence, and most other situations simply getting rid of Horn is more than enough. This is a better answer than Seven Tools of the Bandit, as Lance gives you the flexibility of protecting your own monsters from spells or battle if need be. Chainability from the hand makes it a more flexible tech. In the Gladiator Beast matchup, summoning a Drago, Thunder King, or Wyvern in attack mode, and setting Lance will bait out the opponent's Lance tricks. If they go into the common “swing and Damage Step Lance” play, you can counter with your own Lance for a -1 drop on the opponent, costing them both a monster and a spell in return for just the Lance on your side. Greenkappa addresses heavy backrow matchups, without you having to stress over the obvious Starlight Roads the opponent has set. Wait for Greenkappa to be flipped by battle, and since Starlight Road cannot be chained in the Damage Step, it'll clear out those threats. Chaos Trap Hole is overwhelmingly active against an array of commonly played decks; Agents, Blackwings, Lightsworn, Chaos, and universally sided cards like Kycoo, Banisher and Thunder King. At Regional Qualifiers in L.A., it singlehandedly won my matchups against Gravekeeper's game 2 and 3. With the ability to remove the threat completely from the game, it postponed the activation of Stelle. By focusing on removing Descendant from play via Bottomless and Chaos Trap Hole, I crippled the deck's ability to remove larger threats from the board and thus regained control. The third Wyvern is sided in when taking out Totem, as a replenishing target for REDMD and Future Fusion. Dark Hole is better relegated to the side deck: as Disaster often invests heavily in the field to control it, It's is often stuck remaining in hand. Since Starlight Road is also seeing more play with Heavy Storm back, the opponent will rarely invest in the field without an answer to it. To meet the unavoidable “why aren't you running (insert)?” questions, the answer has more than often been the same: I want to minimize dead draws. To be consistent as possible, I avoid Starlight Road or any other common choices of that nature in the main. Prime Material Dragon and Gold Sarcophagus were both removed from my lineup for that reason. We cannot rely too much on slow setups, and drawing into these cards mid-game creates a tight situation. Though Disaster relies on control, not speed, too much setup can unavoidably cause us to fall behind in card presence.
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Advantages and Shortcomings Flexibility is a quality most decks fall short of. A lot of decks often rely on a single game-winning strategy that is easily shut down with the right side deck choices. That predictability leaves a player unable to break beyond a single set of tactics, which is the shortcoming of the majority of most top decks. Disaster gives you the option of focusing on either control or aggression - or even both - and can toss out a multitude of different plays. Often, I find my opponent stressing during Game 1: is the set card a Masked Dragon or Totem Dragon? And what will she bring out with the Totem Dragon next turn? This is only in addition to the number of times the first reaction of my opponent was a blank stare when I played a card. Disaster also has an easy time playing against commonly used control cards being main decked right now, like Effect Veiler and Compulsory Evacuation Device. The opponent is often forced to use these cards against REDMD, which doesn't address the reoccurring 2800 ATK problem on the board. Winning a duel is as easy as the opponent not knowing how to play around the deck's cards, due to how rare it is to see at top tables. Additionally, few players will have sides that can answer the deck, since Disaster does not center on a single card or strategy. That puts the opponent at a severe disadvantage. Why haven't we seen much success here, despite this deck's supposed potential? Oftentimes I get my wins on individual rulings or semantics alone. I've realized while playing Disaster on a competitive level, a majority of my wins relied on this. Causing my opponent to miss timing on cards like Geartown and Dimensional Alchemist, playing conservatively with MST, and manipulating Chain Links to my advantage- this adds up, and may be the reason people assume Disaster is “inconsistent”. The deck is very capable, but it's up to the pilot to steer it in the correct direction. Despite its flexibility in a given situation, it is extremely difficult to recover from misplays that are often generated from the lack of ruling utilization. It's less forgiving than other strategies, and there are few second chance opportunities. Disaster is seen as far too low-key of an option, and players find it unappealing when they want to choose a deck to effectively win with. As a huge enthusiast of Dragons, I hope players will give Disaster Dragon a try for this format. The potential is more than there, and even if you may not have success with it, the learning experience the deck provides is more than worth it. Over the course of time I've played competitively, I learned so many rulings, and the deck has inspired a new way of creatively thinking when playing. Hopefully it may provide the same to others! -Amanda LaPalme 
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this card!