Deck Profile - Memento Mori (Outdated)

Darkness Dragon World has been given, ironically a new light and a new hope. Thanks to a series of fortunate cards, the Death archetype has been majorly buffed both in the form of monsters and spell support. Before, they played as a heavy rush deck with little form of recovery and field control. All they could do before was just hit face and hit face. But now, there's some really good options. From Size 0's to Size 3's, from board clear to salvage, even usable Set spells and complicated maneuvers, Death definitely got game now.

It's important to remember that the goal of Death is still death for your opponent. But there's a plethora of ways to skin a cat. Death for you opponent can now come from direct damage and Double Attack. There's other ways besides spells to clear the field, and weapons are no longer necessary as a crutch to fix the early game. You can now rush your opponents and cover your options safely without fear of too much backlash from aggro. Even beyond that, you can now create complicated maneuvers to beat your opponent at the very game they play. If you're interested in pulling off Katana World mechanics while hitting harder than Danger World, then you've come to the right place.

Death Rulers has a very straightforward playstyle: keep attacking the player. This is aggression at its finest. To fuel this non-stop aggression, they spend their time mostly countering opponent attacks - but they do have nice gauge-gain options through Devil Stigma and Death Wizard Dragon. Hand-wise, they have Abyss Symphony and Nightmare Revive to get cards but that kicks in towards the midgame. The winning image? Slamming down Judgement Day with a full field of 2-crit Shadow Dive Size 1's.

Memento Mori - Death Rulers

Size 3

• 3 Death Ruler, Thirteen

Size 2

• 4 Death Ruler, Gruen
• 2 Death Ruler, Mastermind
• 2 Death Wizard Dragon

Size 1

• 4 Death Ruler, Gallows
• 4 Death Ruler, Burial
• 4 Death Ruler, Averia

Size 0

• 2 Death Ruler, Gespenst

Spells

• 2 Abyss Symphony
• 2 Nightmare Revive
• 3 Judgement Day
• 2 Devil Stigma
• 4 Death Grip
• 3 Black Agenda
• 3 Accel End
• 4 Black Dragon Shield
• 2 Guillotine Cutter

Deck Deconstruction

My first order of business is to sing the praises of Death Ruler, Thirteen. This card is insane and rightly so, full of much BS that your opponent has to unwittingly deal with. It may not be apparent at first, but Thirteen's on-play burn ability is huge. First of all, don't even scoff at 1 direct damage. That little poke could win you the game, especially a close one. On top of that, realize that the 5 damage threat is very real and very threatening. Your opponent has to safely progress from 10-11 cards in the drop zone to 14 in a single turn. You know how hard it is to do that? It's surprisingly difficult. For instance, the average player will cast 2 spells every turn and make a payment of 1 gauge from effects. That's not going to cut it if they're at 10 cards. How are they going to churn out 4 cards into the drop zone? What if they don't have enough gauge to pull a fancy move off to get past the limit? I'm certain some players will do the craziest shit just to hit 14 cards in drop, including playing over their own cards. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of 5 direct damage (unless they can just Chillax! it).

If they're at 11 or 12 cards in the drop zone, you can actually fix that for them. With cards like Death Grip and Guillotine Cutter you can remove cards on the field for your opponent. If you want to support Thirteen even more, you can run the cheesiest of cards like Redupsion Blood. Your opponent has to take all of these factors into consideration during the entire early game as they warily count their drop zone. The reality is that the threat of Thirteen takes place as soon as the game starts. Your opponent has to carefully hit about 10 in drop, then rush to 14 in a single turn, which means before that your opponent can't stop at 9 and safely progress through a normal turn. When you realize just how brutal this card is for your opponent to deal with, you can start to see the various ways you can abuse this card to force your opponent to cry.

Even without dealing 5 direct damage (and just dealing 1), you still get a Double Attacker for 2 gauge. He even has the most ridiculous 13000 power backing him up (but a tragic 3000 defense). You should have a backup plan against specific matchups like Dungeon and Magic, where defense-based spell removal is a thing.

Death Wizard Dragon is really important to control your life and hit those ever-important Life Break points to access your hand-gaining spells. I'd run more, but unfortunately this deck works a bit differently than most DDW builds thanks to Gallows, to the point where self-inflicting damage isn't the best way to go around things.

New cards in the Size 2 lineup include Gruen. Lots and lots of Gruen. Gruen is love. Gruen is life. Gruen is 3-crit. Gruen is Sudden DEATH! as a monster. As a counter Act, you can pay 1 gauge (from his on-play) and destroy him to kill a Size 1 or less. It gets better. Since the effect says "destroys", you can use it to trigger the activation effects of Redupsion Blood and Black Agenda. Are you beginning to see how the plays work? I'll cover all of them in a future section, but start your imaginations now.

You also run Masterminds to get your field up early. The number of cards delegated to Gruen and Mastermind are actually flexible. I choose Gruen over Mastermind because 3 crit is better and Gruen synergizes well with other cards. Technically, they're the same in advantage and both work equally well as Death Rulers.

But the star lineup is in the Size 1's. 4 Burial 4 Gallows. 2-crit Shadow Dive for days. You just keep them coming, keep them swinging, keep them always gunning your opponent down. The new addition to the gang is Death Ruler, Averia. Averia is my new favorite card and what I personally think is the true avatar of this deck. Mr. Leper Gnome has some of the coolest synergies with this deck. Whenever it's destroyed, you can deal 1 direct damage that your opponent can't really deal with. The most obvious application is calling him to your center and letting your opponent hurt himself trying to hurt you. If you kill him on the side, you can trigger Redupsion Blood and Black Agenda simultaneously. There's more to say, but I'd like to introduce the rest of the cards first. We will surely have our fun later discussing the various tricks and gambits involving Averia.

Size 0's because they are good with your Size 2's and Size 3's.

2 Devil Stigma. "But Blaise, I thought you hated this card!" I do. I still do. "Blaise, you hypocrite!"...aargh, you know I don't want to do this myself! But the fact that you're completely losing out on Dark Energy means that you really need a way to bypass Penetrate and actually feel safe calling something to the center. And since you really don't mind getting a ton of life, Devil Stigma won't really bother you too much. This card actually overlaps with Accel End, and its up to the player to decide whether one is more important than the other. I prioritize Accel End, actually, to get the Death toolbox up to speed as soon as possible. Nothing hurts more than not having targets for Nightmare Revive or Black Agenda. If this isn't a problem, more Devil Stigma's should "theoretically" be better.

Nightmare Revive is prioritized over Black Revenger for fewer restrictions, even at the higher cost. Paying 2 life is actually preferable to 1 gauge because it hits you down to Abyss Symphony numbers faster. With Gallows, you don't really worry about dying that quickly. Judgement Day at 3 feels good, since you need a full field to wash so it's not the kind of spell you want to spam as you get it. 4 Black Dragon Shield is pretty standard. 2 Guillotine Cutter is a meta call, no matter how bad the timing might be you still need to be able to get rid of your opponent's weapons. Thanks to Nightmare Revive, you can now hit that timing on your own turn (finally!).

But the real highlight of new Death is definitely Black Agenda. This card is so important that I'm running it at 3 copies even though you can set at most 1. It's just as important as Green Dragon Song for control Armordragons. Every time a monster dies on your left or right, you can convert that into a free card that you salvage. You have to target Size 1's, but that's perfectly fine since your Size 1's are your stars. Normally you would think to just call Burial if Gallows died or Gallows if Burial died, but guess what? You don't have to call it to the same position. Oh yes.

If your opponent had the audacity to destroy your center position monster before destroying your left or right, you can use Black Agenda to call something to the center. Like an Averia. That's free damage and free shields for yourself. Obviously, your opponent will prioritize side over center - that's okay, since you'll just call Burials/Gallows as per normal. But guess what? Who says you have to let your opponent determine your strategies?

Let's go next level. Call Gruen to the side and Averia to the center. Let Averia die (your opponent isn't going to target Gruen lol). Then, before your opponent attacks again, activate Gruen and kill an opposing Size 1. Black Agenda triggers and you get to call Averia again to your center. Instead of dealing damage to you, your opponent just found himself eating 2 damage on 2 separate occasions. Gruen isn't the only card you can do this with. This also works with Devil Stigma on practically anything you can call to the side. The plays just simply never end.

Sideboard Ideas

More Death Wizards are always an option. If you feel like you need more control over your life, you can always bring them in. Monster-wise, more Size 2's can be fun. Try experimenting with Bloody Moon Dragon in place of Thirteens if you feel like your gauge is too precious. More techs like Soulbreaker are always welcome, especially against Jacks and Demongodol (your main two counters).

Spells are pretty set, though you should have some Death Shields and Midnight Shadows to use against certain matchups (Dungeon and Dragon). Oh, and Death Damage. Against Danger, that's a really good card to have (bye bye Demon). Redupsion Blood is the cheesy tech you might want to consider, but I wouldn't even bother. You could also run Death Counters but those won't be countering much in this deck.

Sample Sideboard:

• 2 Death Damage
• 1 Judgement Day
• 1 Abyss Symphony
• 2 Midnight Shadow
• 1 Devil Stigma
• 2 Death Ruler, Soulbreaker

Other Options

The Impact? Maybe? I mean, it's so cheesy, but it might work. If your opponent is stupid enough to call a 3-crit monster to the center, that card would make them oh-so sad. The good thing about Nightmare Despair is that you don't have to have your opponent under a certain life threshold to cast it. The bad thing is that you still have a really out-of-place drop zone restriction. And of course, if your opponent doesn't call anything to the center, then the card is absolutely useless. Yay.

Avoid Running

4 Deathgaze? Non-Death monsters?

I've already given my opinion on Death Shield. Sudden DEATH! is superior (and you're not even running those anymore), since you can get rid of threats like Tetsuya before they become a problem.

Oh, and don't run the Shadow Dive weapon. 1 crit is weak. You'd do better with Death Scythe, since it deals 2 damage direct and gets that 1 damage anyways from just killing something. But you don't even need weapons now that you have Averia.

Counters

Your counters now are actually few and hard to find. The main hard counter is an equippable item/monster with defense, like Goldritter. But even against those, you have Thirteen and Averia to continue poking and poking.

You rush hard, but some decks can heal harder. Ironically, you'll probably be crying against a Blue Sky Knights deck. Thunder Knights, on the other hand, will fare rather poorly as Moving makes literally no difference and you won't be proccing Dragobond, at least not on your turn. If you don't get your Black Dragon Shields, you'll pretty much immediately die against Dungeon but hey, that's probably the same for any deck. At least you won't have to be worried about proccing Nazaro Hot Spring (basically, since you're ignoring their monsters for the most part a lot of anti-destruction cards become dead in their hand). Death Rulers completely melts through Magic and Katana though, since their life gains are really poor. If you meet Ancient World, however, prepare to meet your maker. Facing Danger World is equally unfavorable. God help you if they manage to get Demongodol Ark out.

Final Words

I basically made this deck for Dekmori. Death.

This deck is so autopilot, any noob could play it, death. The most important decisions to make are what you charge away, death. Try to hold on to the Abyss Symphonies and Nightmare Revive for those rainy days, and feel free to say goodbye to Judgement Day in favor of more immediate gains, death. Also, be sure to attempt those OTKs because they do happen, death. Quite often, death.

I'll also be looking for deck names for this deck, death. The naming period will last for one week, death, after which I will choose my favorite (along with any others I liked). The chosen name will be granted to this decklist, death. I'm expecting great things, death!

...this death thing is getting old. Doesn't she get tired of saying "desu" in a very heavy accent at the end of every single sentence, even ones that don't need "desu"?

If the references in this decklist don't make any sense to you, just go watch Chuunibyou.

Update: I didn't get a lot of submissions for this deck, which is kinda depressing, but that's totally fine because somebody pulled an accidental genius play. So sly, referencing the one and only true lover of the Deko-chan in a Latin phrase that reminds the opponent of their only fate when facing Death Rulers. Because Mori means Death in Latin and Forest in Japanese, and that must be destiny. Also her name is freaking Dekomori.

Winner of the deck-naming challenge: Chris Colon @ Memento Mori

- updated to BT05, CP01, EB02, TD07 -

All images used obtained from the official Bushiroad website and used here solely for reference purposes. Future Card Buddyfight!, logos, and respective content belong to Bushiroad. Large images belong to the Buddyfight! Wikia.