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Lions and Tigers and BEASTS, Oh My!
Wilson Tsang
6/22/2012 10:30:00 AM  Beasts have been an intriguing monster theme that I've played around with for a while now. I put my beast-warrior strategy into action at YCS Long Beach, with my Wind-Up Beast deck that caught alot of people off guard. The beast/beast-warrior themed decks that have seen play focus largely around Horn of the Phantom Beast, and for good reason: Horn allows a player to boost their monsters by 800 ATK, and by destroying a monster and sending an opposing defender to the graveyard, draw a card. Cards that can activate in the Damage Step in the current format are few and far between (Forbidden Lance, Forbidden Chalice and Honest are the only other big cards I can think of), so Horn of the Phantom Beast can really be a surprise. Also, just running a deck that has the possibility of playing Horn can make your opponent wary of attacking directly into your monsters. Horn of the Phantom Beast is a card that can help your cause whether you have it set or not! That's the main reason why I'm going to delve into this strategy with an almost complete beast/beast-warrior decklist.
Now some people may look at the deck and see the resemblance to my Wind-up Beast build that brought me to a Top 8 finish at YCS Long Beach. It's similar because it still runs some of the spell and trap lineup, and some of the most important monsters that were included in the Long Beach deck: Ape Fighter and Thunder King Rai-Oh. Ape Fighter is a force to be reckoned with, especially when it's equipped with Horn of the Phantom Beast. Thunder King Rai-Oh is a really powerful card overall right now, especially against Dragons and Dino-Rabbit. Thunder King plays an important role in negating Xyz summons generated by the likes of Tour Guide From the Underworld and Rescue Rabbit, and it stops the inherent special summons of cards like Lightpulsar Dragon and Chaos Sorcerer. It also stops search cards like Pot of Duality, E- Emergency Call, and Charge of the Light Brigade. King Tiger Wanghu is a great main deck choice, giving you another card that makes Tour Guide From the Underworld ineffective. It also shows Rescue Rabbit who's boss and Inzketor Dragonfly what's up. But now, let's take a look at some of the other monsters this build plays. Flamvell Firedog is a 1900 ATK beat stick that can recruit Flame Tiger to the field, even allowing the newly summoned monster to attack in the same turn. You can then overlay to make a rank 4 Xyz such as Number 39: Utopia. What's so special about Flame Tiger and why have I included it in the deck? What does this card bring to the table? The Tiger's effect allows it to be special summoned from the graveyard during the draw phase, by giving up your draw for the turn. Now that may sound blasphemous: why would you ever give up your free draw? But there are quite a few scenarios where that would work in your favor. First, let's say you have a Horn of the Phantom Beast set, but you're trying to topdeck a monster to abuse it with. Why Gamble on drawing a monster, when you can special summon one with the effect of Flame Tiger, guaranteed? Plus, in that situation, Horn of the Phantom Beast nets you a card anyways...so you didn't really even skip your draw, you just chose to do it later in the turn! Another Tiger-friendly scenario arose when I was playing against Dragons. My opponent had me at 500 Life Points. I had an Ape Fighter in hand, with a Flame Tiger in my graveyard. During my draw, I opted to special summon Flame Tiger, normal summoned Ape Fighter, then overlay for the Xyz summon of Utopia, and ultimately Number 39C: Utopia Ray to devastate my opponent's last 3000 LP! Flame Tiger is a great card for this deck, because it has so much synergy with such a defensive strategy. It's a guaranteed monster when you need one, especially for a deck that has a thin monster count. The spells seem to be very standard for the most part. Forbidden Lance is just a staple right now because of its ability to offer protection from traps and battle. One reason why Mystical Space Typhoon is only being run in twos by many competitions is that the constant presence of Dragons – which usually don't run trap cards – renders Typhoon a dead card in a significant number of your match-ups. Typhoon is just another dead draw there, but Forbidden Lance actually helps you in running over the big monsters that Dragons can unleash. I strongly promote the trade of one main decked Space Typhoon for a Forbidden Lance in almost every deck. Moving on, a single copy of Forbidden Chalice can be just enough to help your monster through battle, and it negates the effects of Ryko in the damage step. It stops Tour Guide From the Underworld and Inzektor monsters as well, along with alot of other threatening abilities. Pot of Duality helps you find the monsters you need, or add key pieces of the defensive strategy. The trap line is jam packed with many powerful cards. Bottomless Trap Hole should be a staple in the main deck, allowing you to blow away Dragons and Dino-Rabbits alike. Compulsory Evacuation Device blasts Xyz monsters back to the Extra Deck with ease. Fiendish Chain negates the effects of powerful monsters like Tour Guide From the Underworld and strands them on the field to be trampled by your monsters, often equipped with Horn of the Phantom Beast to net you free draws in the process. The one copy of Starlight Road is important to protect all your defensive spells and traps, and what more can I say about Horn? It's the focal point of this archetype and netting free cards usually ensures victory.
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How to Build the Side Deck and Extra Deck: The side deck should consist of cards that help defeat your most difficult matchups. Macro Cosmos is a good choice against Dragons and Inzektors. Skill Drain and Beast King Barbaros would also work against Dragons, Inzektors, Dino-rabbit and a lot of other strategies. Drain is currently an important card in most match-ups, and any deck that can main or side it has an advantage. Of course, you want to keep the third Mystical Space Typhoon in the side because a lot of people will be rotating in Royal Decree for games 2 and 3. D.D. Crow and Kycoo are great cards as well for graveyard control, and even Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo and Doomcaliber Knight are useful, because of their ability to stun your opponent and build on the disruptive elements of your main deck strategy. The Extra Deck is mostly all rank 4 Xyz monsters. Number 39: Utopia and Number 39C: Utopia Ray fit in the Extra Deck nicely, since they're so easy to make and defend. Steelswarm Roach can be Summoned to stop Dragons in their tracks. Maestroke the Symphony Djinn can help run over big monsters that are thwarting your plans. Gem Knight Pearl is a big beat stick that can even best big threats like Lightpulsar Dragon. One card that's a little less obvious, but that you may want to play is Number 16: Shock Master. This brand new promo card requires three level 4 monsters as its Xyz Materials, but that's not very difficult for this deck, especially since you can special summon Flame Tiger from the graveyard as needed. Shock Master prevents your opponent from activating Spells, Traps, or Monster Effects until the end of your opponent's next turn: that's killer ability that can win a lot of games. This strategy is built to control your opponent, dominating the Duel with big beaters backed by Horn of the Phantom Beast and other defensive spells and traps. Flamvell Firedog will do a lot of the work by recruiting more monsters to the field, while King Tiger Wanghu and Thunder King Rai-Oh control what your opponent can or cannot summon. Set up your field early, and your opponent will have a difficult time wresting control from your grasp. I built this deck to prove that a beast/beast-warrior deck is competitively viable, even in a format where faster decks reign supreme. I really believe that a strong control strategy will make it far at the North American WCQ next week; experimenting with different types of decks can help you find the best strategy to run, and how to go about taking out the top strategies of the format. I hope you guys enjoyed the deck profile, and remember to always keep innovating and define your own format! -Wilson “3zinferno” Tsang 
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this card!