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Cloudians: Calm Before The Storm
Doug Zeeff
5/21/2012 9:34:00 AM  Cloudians were introduced in Gladiators' Assault, and they got a little bit more support in Light of Destruction. They didn't get alot of new cards in LODT, but what they got was important. Cloudian strategies have taken many different forms over the years, from Final Countdown stall builds to a Shooting Quasar Dragon OTK. The best version today, though, is control-oriented. I think that taking a deck like Cloudians, which is filled with a variety of monsters that are reminiscent of other, more popular cards, and then just using them for an OTK is a waste of time. Cloudians are capable of so much more.Getting Your Head In The Clouds: Before we venture into the deck list, I'd like to give a quick overview of what Cloudians do. For the most part, the Cloudians are low level fairy-type water-attribute monsters that gain effects when there are Fog Counters on the field. Most of them can't be destroyed by battle, but their own effects do destroy them if they're in defense position. What's interesting though, is that they aren't like most Counter-placing decks. Cloudian monsters actually tend to place Counters on themselves, based on how many other Cloudian monsters you control. That's really different from other Counter-driven strategies, since most of them involve the use of a single card that places the Counters, and other cards that then benefit from them. The driving force of the Cloudian deck actually plays alot like Tour Guide From the Underworld. When you Summon Cloudian - Turbulence, you get a Fog Counter, and you can remove it to Special Summon Cloudian - Smoke Ball. The Smoke Ball may not be great on its own, but it has a number of key uses. First of all, it's a level one monster, so if you Tune it to Effect Veiler you can synchro summon into Formula Synchron. Smoke Ball can also be used as a free destruction for Scrap Dragon's ability, or you can Tribute it for Spiritual Water Art - Aoi. Since the Smoke Balls come from the hand, deck, or graveyard, they're accessible almost all the time. Cloudian - Nimbusman also makes nice use of Cloudian - Smoke Ball, allowing you to tribute summon Nimbusman and generate Fog Counters. So what do the other Cloudians do? Well, Cloudian - Acid Cloud destroys spells and traps. Cloudian - Altus, on the other hand, makes your opponent discard cards from their hand. Those are both useful, but Cloudian - Cirrostratus is the most useful of the three: it can blow up opposing monsters for two Fog Counters a piece. Of course, most of these guys require Fog Counters, and some only get one when they're summoned. Cloudian - Storm Dragon solves this issue. You can special summon it from your hand by banishing a Cloudian from your graveyard, and once per turn it can place a Fog Counter on any monster of your choice. It's notable that most of the Cloudians are level four, so you can overlay them for xyz monsters. Cloudian - Sheep Cloud on the other hand, is similar to Dandylion in that it puts tokens on the field, which are a good source of tribute fodder. The two tribute monsters we'll be playing are Cloudian - Eye of the Typhoon and Cloudian - Nimbusman. Typhoon can mess with opposing monsters' battle positions, while Nimbusman can constantly increase its ATK. Nimbusman is particularly good with Cloudian - Storm Dragon because you can use Storm Dragon's Counter-generating ability to constantly increase Nimbusman's attack power. There are two stand-out spells in the deck. The first one is Cloudian Squall, which places Fog Counters on all face up monsters during your standby phase. While most of the Cloudians, like Cloudian - Acid Cloud and Cloudian - Cirrostratus, can only use their own Fog Counters, Cloudian - Altus can actually use any three Fog Counters on the field. I've actually been able to discard six cards from my opponent's hand with Altus. Squall sort of works like Shard of Greed, where the other player basically has to destroy it, letting you keep another defensive spell or trap safe from a Mystical Space Typhoon. The other really good spell card here is Salvage, which can Return to your hand any monster we're playing aside from Cloudian - Eye of the Typhoon and Effect Veiler. It's a quick +1 that allows you to combat the opposition at hand. With all the main cards highlighted, I'll reveal the decklist.
I won't go over the Cloudians I already mentioned in too much detail: let's just stick to what might be strange or unexpected. Snowman Eater is a really powerful card, and can take out monsters in a heartbeat. He also makes synchro summoning into level 8's a lot easier. This deck runs very few traps. That's because you have a lot of monster removal, in the form of Cloudian - Cirrostratus and Snowman Eater, so you don't need to run a lot of 1-for-1 removal cards. The extra deck is pretty standard, but you can include some other cards like Wind-Up Zenmaines and Leviathan Dragon if you find you want them. You should also notice that, aside from a few cards in the extra deck, this entire strategy is very affordable. Most of the themed cards cost very little, and the other stuff is commonly-played to the point that you probably already own it. How To Play It The play style of this deck is very simple, and can be broken up into three parts. Part one is setting up. This can be done right away with Cloudian - Turbulence creating a Cloudian - Smoke Ball. Ideally, you want to get two Cloudians on the field so that your other Cloudians can get their effects. Setting up can also be as easy as summoning Cirrostratus and playing Squall, effectively allowing you to destroy a monster next turn while keeping a face up Cloudian on deck. The second part is controlling the duel. You do this over several turns by withering your opponent's resources down with Acid Cloud, Cirrostratus, and Altus. Don't be afraid to take damage, and don't forget that you can always just overlay your Cloudians for rank fours. You're essentially just aiming to make your opponent lose cards, while you maintain field presence. The last part is the game ender. If you haven't won the duel through several turns of part two, this is where you finish the opponent off. You'll normally close things with either Cloudian - Eye of the Typhoon or Cloudian - Nimbusman. Typhoon packs massive ATK, and can just totally mess with your opponent thanks to its effect. A lot of high ATK and high level monsters have low DEF, so Typhoon's ability is perfect. Nimbusman, on the other hand, can sit on the field pretty inconspicuously while gaining huge attack. Your opponent probably won't even know that the 4000 attack Cloud is going to smack them in the face until it happens. Adaptability And Variation It's important to keep in mind that all of these steps are interchangeable. In general, having a step by step linear game plan - one that's rigid and can't be adapted - creates an inconsistent atmosphere. Cloudians are all about adapting to the situation. While they may not be winning a YCS any time soon, I think they're still very interesting. Builds between Cloudian players could differ, so I'd like to bring up other possible cards to include in your Cloudian build that I haven't played in mine. The Sanctuary in the Sky and Spirit Barrier - These cards address the issue of Cloudians remaining in attack position, by preventing damage. You won't lose life points from attacks, so you're free to use their effects without taking any big risks. While these cards are good, I didn't find them necessary because you can always overlay your monsters if you don't want to take damage. On top of that, if you're leaving a Cloudian in attack mode it's probably because you want to use its effect, in which case the monster damaging it will likely be destroyed in a turn or two anyway.
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The other Cloudian cards - There are a few other Cloudians, such as Cloudian - Poison Cloud and Cloudian - Ghost Fog, but I feel like they detract from the central control strategy. Poison Cloud needs to be face up when it's attacked for its effect to go off, so you're going to be taking some damage. Also, 1-for-1 cards like Poison Cloud aren't really needed with Cirrostratus present. Ghost Fog is useless, in that it just places Fog Counters on things. This was one of the problems facing previous Counter-based decks: Ghost Fog just places counters and doesn't do anything with them. The other spell and trap cards didn't seem too important to the build, and they really aren't worth mentioning. Mother Grizzly - In my first build I ran two Grizzlies, but they're just not that good. The Cloudians all get their effects when they're normal summoned, so a lot of the time, the monster summoned with Grizzly won't even get to use its effect. It's also a little too slow for the current format, and doesn't yield as much payoff as a card like Cloudian - Sheep Cloud. Solemn Judgment and other trap cards - You may have noticed that in my Infernity build from my last article, there was no Solemn Judgment, either. While I could go into more detail about this, I'll just quickly detail why. If you use two Solemn Warning and one Solemn Judgment, you're unable to use all three unless you play them in a specific order (Solemn Warning > Solemn Judgment > Solemn Warning). Even then it leaves you with 1000 life points, and that's assuming you take no other damage. In addition, most other trap cards aren't needed because your monsters aren't destroyed by battle and you tend to not need much defense because of that. Cloudians are really fun to play. While you can draw some bad hands, you can also open up really huge and just go off on your opponent. It's difficult to say why Cloudians haven;t been used in the past, but I think it's because people often go into a one-track mindset. Trying new decks, experiencing new situations, and learning different plays often helps you grow as a Duelist. Don't be afraid to try random decks if you're having fun. You might be surprised at how much that experience benefits you when it's time for real competition. -Doug Zeeff 
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this card!