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Building Lava Golem Lancer!
Loukas Peterson
12/24/2012 9:31:00 AM 
Greetings, duelists young and old! My name is Loukas Peterson, and I'm here on TCGPlayer today as a guest writer, to bring you a new twist on Sea Lancer that you've probably never seen before. It's a build I've been messing around with for quite some time now. Ever since Sea Lancer came out in Generation Fish (err, Generation Force), I've been playing around with decks that revolve around the strangely labeled Beast-Warrior.When you look at this particular deck, you'll hopefully be a little puzzled. Sea Lancer strategies typically run a focused selection of several other Tribute monsters like Monarchs, Light and Darkness Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor, and even Jinzo, but the boss monsters in my build are all over the place: Caius, Sea Lancer, Quickdraw Synchron, and... Lava Golem? A few months ago when competitive play was ruled by Dino Rabbit, I was struggling with Sea Lancer variants. Yes, the deck had an easy matchup against Inzektors and Chaos Dragons at the time, but it was manhandled by Dino Rabbit. I remember staring down Evolzar Laggia and Evolzar Dolkka with their Xyz Materials intact; a Starlight Road; Solemn Judgment; Solemn Warning; and Forbidden Lance. And when things couldn't seem to get worse, my opponent flipped Macro-Cosmos on me during my Draw Phase. Quite unwinnable, right? Lava Golem thought differently.
Yes, I did say Lava Golem. This version was encouraged by that turnaround victory at my local's finals that day in Nashville. The deck was quickly named "Sea Golem," which wasn't very creative, but it was accurate. In that format, and in our current one, I still think that Lava Golem is a strong card for its ability to get around virtually any monsters, barring Fossil Dyna and Archlord Kristya. Similarly, it makes alot of monsters miss their timing and throws a wrench into your opponent's plans when they think they have complete control over the field thanks to their monsters' effects; cards like Elemental HERO - The Shining, Legendary Six Samurai - Shie En, Wind-Up Zenmaines, and Lightpulsar Dragon to name a few. Lava Golem's like common monster removal, but on steroids. It gets rid of face-ups, face-downs, and circumvents certain forms of negation. Sea Lancer's primary strength is that it's a strong beatstick that's tough to escape, and it only generates more card advantage when your opponent struggles. However, a well-timed Solemn Warning or Effect Veiler spells doom for Sea Lancer. Without being too redundant, the core of this deck is really Sea Lancer and Lava Golem; the rest of the deck revolves around punishing your opponent. So back to the card itself; Lava Golem makes your opponent's Torrential Tributes, Solemn Warnings, Bottomless Trap Holes, Compulsory Evacuation Devices, and Solemn Judgments much less effective. Sure, your opponent can waste Life Points and cards to get rid of your Lava Golem, but once the dust settles and the exchange is over, it may end up being a +1 or +2 overall. I like those numbers. Yes, giving up your Normal Summon the turn you play Lava Golem can be frustrating, but you'll have lots of defensive options. Hand traps like Battle Fader and Gorz; resilient monsters like Ronintodin and Mother Grizzly; walls that are hard to break through, like Gachi Gachi Gantetsu or Sea Lancer; and the ever-present Treeborn Frog all protect you from reprisal. Chances are good that Lava Golem is going to be doing some damage to your opponent before it gets to your Life Points, if it ever does. Yes, you gave your opponent a giant 3000 ATK monster, but I'd rather be looking at that than a Naturia Beast and a Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. So Is the Deck Just Lava Golem? This strategy as a whole does revolve around Lava Golem, but that doesn't mean you're completely dependent on it. If you don't draw the Golems, you do have the Sea Lancer and Monarch cards to build towards a win. That's already proven effective on the YCS level. The last piece of this strange puzzle is Quickdraw Synchron. Yes, Ronintodin can't be used as Synchro Material, but Treeborn Frog can. Special Summon Ronintodin, Tribute it off, and Tune it with Treeborn Frog! With Quickdraw as your Tuner you have access to Drill Warrior, a card that was notoriously effective in past formats. Not only can you Recycle your Caius, Sea Lancer, and Lava Golems with Drill Warrior's recursion ability, but the ability to attack directly can win games. Golem's burn damage adds up quickly, especially when you factor in the Life Points your opponent might pay for Solemn Warning, and the impact of your attacks as you beat opposing monsters off the field.
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Remember that Drill Warrior is just one of the Synchro Monsters you can Summon with Quickdraw Synchron. You can also use it to unleash monsters like Turbo Warrior, a beefy attacker; Junk Gardna, which provides defense, aggression, and an answer to Spirit Reaper; Junk Destroyer for its destructive ability; Junk Archer, which can strip the Materials off an Xyz Monster; and Chevalier de Fleur, which bears a striking resemblance to Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. How To Play The Deck Sea Lancer decks can be slow to set up and get going, so there's a decent number of ways to speed things up. This build puts a heavy emphasis on Swap Frog's effect, Mother Grizzly, Dupe Frog, and the draw power of Poison Draw Frog. Allure of Darkness and Tuning are invaluable as well. There's alot going on here, so if you haven't played Sea Lancer before, it might be a bit confusing. I showed this to my teammate Will the other day, and a few blank stares later, he thought I was the strangest person he'd ever met. That may be true, but that's beside the point. Let's talk about how to play this thing. Step 1 - Your First Set or Summon Opening with Swap Frog is great, but sadly, you can't do it every game. This strategy would be far easier to run if Swap Frog was magically added to your hand at the beginning of every duel, but sadly that's not the case. Luckily there's no need to despair, because there are plenty of other good cards you wouldn't mind opening with. Any Frog card is a strong Turn 1 play; Gorz the Emissary of Darkness stalls so you can set everything up; Mother Grizzly blocks attacks and searches the cards you need; and Sangan is very similar. Call me crazy, but sometimes I'd say take the damage and summon your Poison Draw Frog. You can open with 13 of your 41 cards and find yourself in a pretty good position. Step 2 - Loading the Graveyard Using most of the cards above, use your Swap Frogs to throw everything you possibly can into the Graveyard. Ronintodin and Treeborn Frog are good attack stoppers, and your Xyz Monsters can stall even longer than your Ronintodins, especially Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. Step 3 - Summon Lava Golem! Unless your opening hand is perfect, steps 1 and 2 will take a few turns to execute, carrying you into the end of the early game or well into the mid-game. With Salvage and Swap Frog, plus the crazy number of Special Summons your deck can make, you may even have a Drill Warrior or Sea Lancer in play. But most likely, your opponent has some monsters too. Is that Master Hyperion or Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning starting to get to you? Solve it with a Lava Golem! Step 4 - Weather the Storm If you hadn't summoned Gachi Gachi Gantetsu or Sea Lancer the turn before, then the turn on which you summon Lava Golem might be a little difficult (worst case scenario, you can bounce it to your hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device). But by the time your opponent gets rid of that pesky Lava Golem, you'll have had a few turns to make more problems with cards like Caius the Shadow Monarch or various Synchro Monsters. If things go fairly well, your opponent will be trying to manage so many threats at the same time that your diverse strategy will overwhelm them. You'll be hitting them hard from every side, so they won't have a chance!
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I like this deck a lot because it has a ton of options, and you're not limited to the same play patterns seen in more simple Monarch and Sea Lancer strategies. "Summon Treeborn, Tribute for [insert big monster], Attack." That's predictable. But depending on what combination of cards you draw with this deck, you could beat your opponent down with Daigusto Phoenix, blow away their cards with Junk Destroyer, or maybe even bring out Photon Strike Bounzer. Feel free to test out any ideas you might want to try, and see what works for you. Lastly, there are a few important things to keep in mind when you play this deck. First, remember that Dupe Frog can get Frog monsters from your Graveyard - they can be used as fuel to Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron. Swap Frog can return your Sea Lancers and Monarchs to your hand, but you'll miss the timing on your Frog effects if any Frogs are attached to Lancer. Don't be afraid to summon Gachi Gachi! You need that ATK and DEF boost from time to time. And finally, don't forget that you can manipulate your graveyard with Ronintodin. You can tribute a Ronintodin for Sea Lancer, and then summon Ronintodin again to banish another Frog before activating Sea Lancer's effect to attach Frogs you removed. Until next time, -Loukas Peterson 
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this card!
