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Casual Codarus and Crystal Beasts
Doug Zeeff
7/24/2012 11:00:00 AM  By now I have sort of made myself known for coming up with strange deck ideas and putting them into action (Cloudians and Spellcasters). I enjoy playing strategies that are different from others', because I find it to be more fun and it forces you to adapt to a different play style. The problem with these casual, mostly local-level decks is that sometimes it can be difficult to write a whole article on them, no matter how cool or interesting they may be. I have tons and tons of less-competitive but still fun decks that I'd like to showcase; thought they might not be worthy of a whole article by themselves, I thought it would be fun to fit two of them into one typed piece.Deck One: Codarus Control Codarus is the younger version of Levia-Dragon - Daedalus, and has what I believe to be one of the coolest artworks in Yu-Gi-Oh. This little Sea Serpent-Type has a killer effect, and it completely outclasses its older self in terms of playability. Searchable via Sangan, Special Summonable via Mother Grizzly, and able to be Normal Summoned without any Tributes allows Codarus to be on the field pretty much all the time, which is amazing. If you are unfamiliar with the Umi cards, allow me to explain them. Umi was printed the very first packs of this game, and it's not anything special. Our substitute will be A legendary Ocean, which is treated as Umi. Our second pseudo-Umi will be Forgotten Temple of the Deep, a trap card that can also banish Codarus for a turn to protect it. Playing three of each means Codarus can demolish up to twelve cards throughout the Duel, an ability that when played carefully, should allow you to win. This strategy's called Codarus Control because it does just that: control the opponent's moves. Codarus is constantly sending cards to the graveyard, which means you're in control of how many cards your opponent commits to the field. Numen erat Testudo, which roughly translates to "the deity was a turtle" in Latin, limits summons while not really affecting our deck at all, besides Xyz Monsters.
I didn't include a specific Extra Deck because it's not really important. For the most part you'll just pack in some generic rank 3's and 4's, and then add Formula Synchron, Ally of Justice Catastor, and Stardust Dragon. In reality you won't be going into many Extra Deck cards besides Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. The Good This build is a watered-down version of Inzektors, no pun intended. While this deck may not have the speed of Inzektor Dragonfly and Inzektor Hornet, you'll still find yourself making your opponent rage at the flip of Forgotten Temple of the Deep or the activation of A legendary Ocean. One of the biggest tips I can give for this strategy is that unlike most Water decks, you actually want to hold off on activating Ocean until you have Codarus out. That's because you need to get Codarus' ability off every time you use it to secure wins. Another cool part of this deck is that you'll take Game 1 almost every match. Alot of people won't know what your cards do, and they wouldn't stop the cards they should. You'll also frustrate your opponent when you're popping two or more cards every turn with Codarus, and a frustrated enemy is always an easier target. The Not So Good While you may be able to stall for several turns with cards like Numen erat Testudo and Snowman Eater, this deck basically revolves around Codarus and needs it to function. If you find yourself not getting to Codarus fast enough then you'll also find yourself losing pretty speedily. Cards like Skill Drain demolish this deck, so make sure to pack your Side Deck with Fairy Winds, a third Mystical Space Typhoon, and maybe even a Dust Tornado. Deck Two: Crystal Beasts Introduced in Force of the Breaker, Crystal Beasts never really had their moment in the spotlight. While receiving some rather strange "support" in the form of Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, they still never had the take-off that they deserved. It's actually very odd, considering Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus is extremely good and can be run at three. Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle can provide quick finishes and, with the right set up, can give you massive field advantage. I thought that it was important to share with you, the reader, what I believe is the best version of Crystal Beasts.
The Crystal Engine If you're unaware, Crystal Beasts generally work by using Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus to put Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger in your spell and trap card zone. You then set up plays with Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle and Crystal Beacon, to special summon massive amounts of monsters. As you keep loading up more and more crystals you unlock different levels of Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins' effect. While three Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncles may seem like a lot since you don't really want to draw it, you need to make sure that the Ruby / Beacon play is live as often as possible. Another out-there choice I made was the inclusion of three Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth. Most builds only run one or two copies, but I feel that you always want to have a crystallized Beast in your spell and trap zone, so running three Mammoth ensures this. Crystal Blessing allows Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins to go up two ability levels, and it helps us set up more Ruby plays. This deck functions as a turbo strategy, and you can draw a massive amount of cards with Rare Value and Ruins' fourth effect. Keep in mind that it is completely legal to draw a card with Ruins, only to play another Ruins and draw yet another card on the same turn. I felt that you really only need a single Crystal Abundance because when it goes off you usually win anyway. The Other Stuff Kicking things off with the non Crystal Beast monsters, we have Malefic Cyber End Dragon. In most decks with Field Spells, such as Dark World (The Gates of Dark World) and Gravekeepers (Necrovalley), you'll see Malefic Stardust Dragon played over Cyber End because Stardust's effect protects the Field Spell. Well, in this deck our Field actually has a built in protection effect, so there's no reason to limit ourselves to a smaller monster when we could have a 4000 ATK beater on the table. The Summoner Monk/Scrap Beast mini engine lets you do this neat combo where you target an Ancient City with a Crystal Beast loaded into your spell and trap area. When you summon Scrap Beast you can go into Scrap Dragon, then use its effect to target an opponent's card and your City. Ruins will protect itself from Scrap's effect, but the opposing card will still be destroyed. Ruins provides never-ending fuel for Scrap Dragon, and that kind of destructive force is just downright scary.
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To wrap up the monster list, I put a single Spirit Reaper in here to prevent OTK's. Realistically, the only reason that this build isn't ultra-competitive is because it's so bad at taking heavy damage. Since your backrow prevents you from protecting yourself with Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Tragoedia conflicts with your need to commit to the field, you're pretty much doomed if your opponent gets a huge turn. Luckily you won't be taking too many big hits throughout the duel, because Ruins' second effect will protect you from some damage. Spirit Reaper is important because he stalls for several turns while you draw into an out or a one turn kill. While most of the spells are archtype-specific, there are a few that aren't. A deck that focuses so much on its Field Spell needs three Terraforming, extra copies of which can be put to use with Summoner Monk. Running Heavy Storm just isn't a good idea in this deck, so triple Mystical Space Typhoon should take care of all your back row hate need. Double Duality is included because you really, really need to get to Sapphire Pegasus. Monster Reborn and Dark Hole are both obvious picks, but Pot of Avarice may not be. The fact of the matter is that sometimes you'll get Heavy Storm'd or Mystical Space Typhoon'd, and your Beasts will just take some hurt in general. Avarice allows you to Recycle power cards like Pegasus and Malefic Cyber End Dragon (which is why we run three Cyber Ends in the Extra Deck instead of two). Avarice also puts back Summoner Monk and Reloads your deck with Carbuncles for Beacon. All in all, it's a really nice fit in this build. Final Thoughts I really do like these two decks, even if they're only competitive on a local and Regional level. More importantly though, they're both fun and interesting. That's definitely a big perk for any deck you'll be playing in these last two months of the season, because let's be honest here, there's no reason to be uber-competitive these last six weeks unless you're going to worlds. You can drop your Chaos Dragons, Dino Rabbits, and Inzektors and just enjoy Yu-Gi-Oh for what it really is: a complicated yet enjoyable card game to be played with friends and fellow enthusiasts alike. -Doug Zeeff 
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this card!