The Great Escape - A Deck That Laughs At Traps

It has a dozen different names, from to Got Away Safely.dek to Hide-and-Seek.dek to Trap Evade.dek, but none of them change the basis of the deck. It’s original, it’s fun, it’s intelligent, and annoying as hell to the foe when it works. It’s inexpensive to build, with just no cards costing more than about $8 in the main deck (unless you run Cardcar Ds), and makes use of a few cards that haven’t had hardly any spotlight on them in their histories. Ah yes, and variants of it can utilize the famed Seal of Orichalcos.

What is this mystery deck I’m speaking of? Well, I call it, simply, Flee.dek:

Spoiler:

So what makes this deck so good and so entertaining to pilot? Simple: it dodges danger like a world-class criminal. Wind-Up Rabbit, Evilswarm Thunderbird and Winged Rhynos all con their way out of getting hit by such staples/semi-staples as Bottomless Trap Hole, Dimensional Prison and for the former two, Dark Hole, not to mention a veritable plethora of other cards and situations. They can easily slip out of bad situations with their effects, then return right back to the field. And, with plenty of control elements elsewhere, it's a strategy that's most definitely viable.

In essence, this deck’s main selling point is advantage. Wind-Up Rabbit and Evilswarm Thunderbird banish themselves to sidestep practically any bullet fired at them. Winged Rhynos bounces himself to your hand to evade a Trap. Madolche Magileine either replaces herself upon summoning or grabs a Butlerusk to fish out your copy of Seal, making your hoppers big beaters to boot (1900 ATK Rabbit? 2150/2450 ATK Thunderbird? <3). Compulsory Escape Device is versatile to begin with (though still overshadowed by its earlier counterpart), but if you chain the effect of one of the 8 hoppers you have to it, your monster avoids getting spun back to the deck while your opponent still loses theirs. The whole focal point of Flee.dek is to keep presence, both on field and in hand, and it passes with flying colors in that regard.

My build is somewhat standard, but there are some decent not-necessarily-essential choices I’m utilizing. 2 Cardcar D, Duality and 2 Shards of Greed all provide the deck with a pretty decent amount of draw power to make sure you have options available to you, for one thing. Such control decks as these are normally slow, but with 15% of the deck dedicated to drawing or Duality'ing (plus searching off Magileine, though the Madolches' shuffling back into the deck counteracts it a little), it's definitely got a decent pace to it.

I run heavy backrow as well to keep everything protected, in case they, say, try to Cydra over your Thunderbird, or other scenarios, and because it just fits the realm of a deck like this one. Torrential is amazing in here because ofwith the nature of the monsters, thus explaining why I maxed it out at two, and 2 D-Prison is great because it mitigates a bit of a weak spot with the dodging. Vanity’s Emptiness, as well as the T-Kings, add a stun element to the deck, with Emptiness acting as a pseudo-Oppression (And your hoppers won’t set it off, either). Few things are more satisfying than chaining it to your opponent’s normal summon of Tour Guide or Rescue Rabbit (or Wind-Up Magician, for that matter), then forcing them to pass to you.

The side deck I have there is relatively standard. I side a 3rd MST, of course, but added in a Twister as a counter-side, mainly to Royal Decree and Skill Drain. Needle Ceiling is even more impressive in this deck than usual as well, for pretty easy reasons to figure out. The rest speaks for itself.

I'll admit, I didn't suddenly get lightbulbs over my head and cook up the idea on my own. The deck concept stems from the boards of DuelistGroundz, where it's gained a decent amount of interest from the community. I was a bit intrigued by the origin deck, but once it morphed into something resembling what I posted above, I knew I had to try it (and man, I wasn't disappointed). You know how cool this deck is? In my second real duel with it I went against Gladiator Beasts, one of the banes of my YGO existence.

I proceeded to win that duel very handily.

Before that I had a duel against gutsberserk and his Dino Rabbit, and that too ended with a W for Flee.dek, the second duel cementing my fondness for this deck. Overall, I just found its creativity alluring, and with me naturally being attracted to control decks it's quite a good match, I think (whoa, when did this turn into YGOMatch.com?). At the very least it's a fun concept for a deck, but its competitiveness is certainly there.

...sorry, it's 11:30 at night, I absolutely cannot think of a good wrap-up for this article. XD

Anyways, thanks for reading! I'm currently working on some internal, systemic developments for the academy, and with the other staff members taking care of other obligations to varying extents it's taking longer than expected, but rest assured we're gonna get this place a bit more active, so that articles like this don't fall on deaf (or no) ears and more importantly, so that the users here now can enjoy what the site can REALLY offer with a bit of revamping. Until then, though, check out some other stuff I've bumped, try out this deck if ya want, and... yeah!
Gallade out~

I think Winged Rhynos isn't needed and Shard of Greed is way too slow.

I'd like to see double Mirror Force in here, this deck struggles against overextensions.

Consider Lances/Soul Takers as well. If your opponent plays a monster and doesn't attack you have a problem.(you don't have enough outs imo)

Emptiness is very powerful , but also situational. I'd keep it at 1.

If you want to stop Special Summons run Pachys. They don't require you to have field presence and they can be used as proactive and reactive cards unlike Emptiness which is too reactive imo.

You could give Tour Guide a shot, because you can go into zenmaity and search out Rabbits.

You could also try out Begone Knave, sounds very annoying.

That's it for now.

Interesting deck, I'm gonna try it out. But why no stardust with starlight? lol

gutsberserk wrote:

I think Winged Rhynos isn't needed and Shard of Greed is way too slow.

I'd like to see double Mirror Force in here, this deck struggles against overextensions.

Consider Lances/Soul Takers as well. If your opponent plays a monster and doesn't attack you have a problem.(you don't have enough outs imo)

Emptiness is very powerful , but also situational. I'd keep it at 1.

If you want to stop Special Summons run Pachys. They don't require you to have field presence and they can be used as proactive and reactive cards unlike Emptiness which is too reactive imo.

You could give Tour Guide a shot, because you can go into zenmaity and search out Rabbits.

You could also try out Begone Knave, sounds very annoying.

That's it for now.

Gonna test some of these cards you listed, as well as a couple I found that could be fun. Obviously my build ain't the be-all end-all of the deck, so... yeah. Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll see how testing goes.

TheHelixNebula wrote:

Interesting deck, I'm gonna try it out. But why no stardust with starlight? lol

Because FML. Fixed, though not in the picture. Gonna wait until I possibly make other deck changes to edit that.

Great idea, cool techs, and nice use of The Seal of Orichalchos. Good job Gallade. I had sort of started to conceive something of this nature with Wind Up Rabbit being annoying and trying to find a way to make Verz work and this gives me at the very least a better formed template and at best a winning deck. Thanks! I do think that Shard is a bad card though, I think I'll opt for Smashing or Soul Taker or Lance or some other such spell removal. Part of me thinks 3 Seals would be cool but it's somewhat pointless since you can't use more than 1 and you can search it pretty early on. Rhynos does seem a bit meh but you'd need to replace him with another monster. I'm thinking some other stunnish monster like tkr. Trags maybe? Seems like you'd have good hand advantage much of the time, extra protection cuz you're leaving yourself open. I too would like to see Mirror Forces, a deck like this would probably be the best place for them.

Double posting ftw! I was still thinking about how cool it is that the Seal is playable in this deck and thought about Raphael, the first person to ever defeat the Pharoah in the anime. He loved his cards so much that he refused to let any of them ever die and went out of his way to protect them, and his boss monster was Guardian Eatos. Sound familiar? Since stuff rarely if ever dies, a teched copy or 2 of Eatos wouldn't be a bad idea IMO, if only to try it out. If you can pull it off it's a random free 2500 beat stick out of nowhere. Downside of course is of adds possible inconsistency to a deck that is good because it is consistent, and it isnt friends with The Seal like in the anime. If you wanted to alter te deck even more you could try triple Eatos and triple D-Fissure to further stun the opponent and increase your chances of pulling off Eatos. You could try something similar with a Malefic/Skill Drain/maybe Barbaros engine instead of the Madolche dudes. Just some brother deck ideas I thought I'd throw out there

i believe solemn judgment shouldnt see play in this deck, considering the whole point of the deck is to flee, u will often be left open for atks and with that in mind, having to pay 4000 life points to activate solemn judgment isnt very appealing. maybe try a dark bribe? i would agree with gutsberserk, vanitys emptiness is quite situational and often prohibits u from using backrow, just for the sake of keeping the card on the field. i would run 2 pachys instead. i would take out the 2 shard of greed, as i think theyre unessecary and slow and add 2 soul taker, as the deck im guessing probably has some problems with big monsters.

Right now I have the 2 Pachys (in place of Vanity's Emptiness, of course), and I added a Mirror Force over Book of Moon.

I'm also adding 2 Tragoedia into the deck to also better manage swarming/OTK attempts, right now in place of Cardcars, but I could put the CCD's back to take out Shards. Definitely keeping one of those two draw cards in with the Dualities.

Oh, and obviously, subbed out Catastor for Stardust. Lulz.

New build!

Spoiler:

I tried out Trag but didn't like him, so I subbed in Soul Takers instead, which have actually been putting in work. I've used it a couple times where the LP didn't matter because I had game that turn (rare for a deck like this), so... yeah.

1 CCD because I still want more draw power than just 2 Dualities (plus minor deck thinning from Magileine) and am back and forth between it and a Shard.

Pachys put in sooooo much work. I've always <3'd the card, though.
But yeah, Pachys plus T-King plus all that backrow give it a bit more of a stun feel as well as control, which I love.

Finally decided to take out the Rhynos, and with space made by taking out things like him and a draw card I added more backrow, so that almost 40% of the deck is Traps. 2 SLR because of such a huge backrow (and Stardust is a nice beater with benefits).

Overall it handles swarms and such a good bit better than before, partly because of the added backrow (especially like 2 Mirror Force) and basically just smart play, knowing where the foe's combo hinges, etc. I've still gotten raped by stuff like Hieratic swarming (G1 anyways, G2 I won by slowing the tempo down), but not as much. I did just beat X-Sabers 2-0, an interesting matchup for sure, so... yeah.

Also, 16 traps is haxy. Soooooo much hate on the foe's moves with that.

I've been using basically the same build but -1 ccd -1 ced -1 chain +1 mole +1 bth. It's soooooooo good. it just is steamrolling over everything. i almost want to add a random Terraforming just so it's easier to grab Orichalcos, because the card opens up so many great combos and makes everything you summon a sizeable stick to beat the opponent over the head with. Also I still want to test Begone Knave...trolling galore...

Gallade, you never cease to impress me.
CREATIVITY FTW.

I've continued whipping people's asses with this deck, but i still find myself wanting Terraforming. Madolches add some fun plusses to the deck but ultimately it isn't needed because i already always have a monster. Plus Butler is kinda hard to pull off. You wouldn't think so but he is. I often find myself wishing I had Orichalcos. When I draw it or pull off Butler, I win. The deck functions fine without it but it excels with it. everything you have just runs over the opponent and if it doesn't they can run away. Plus by the time you use it, you have 2-3 monsters to easily make a lock, which is another useful trait of Magileine. The lock is invaluable. It gives them so little options. It also gets rid of whatever annoying field spell the opponent has and the opponent can't use another if I'm not mistaken. And finally, it seals away their soul forever when you win. Ever feel annoyed by trolls on DN? Just beat them in a duel!

The Madolches are useful, especially for the lock, but I really want to find room for a single Terraforming, or that monster dude that's like Terraforming. 2 would probably be too much but 1 would be nice. But what to drop?

Harper7000 wrote:

I've continued whipping people's asses with this deck, but i still find myself wanting Terraforming. Madolches add some fun plusses to the deck but ultimately it isn't needed because i already always have a monster. Plus Butler is kinda hard to pull off. You wouldn't think so but he is. I often find myself wishing I had Orichalcos. When I draw it or pull off Butler, I win. The deck functions fine without it but it excels with it. everything you have just runs over the opponent and if it doesn't they can run away. Plus by the time you use it, you have 2-3 monsters to easily make a lock, which is another useful trait of Magileine. The lock is invaluable. It gives them so little options. It also gets rid of whatever annoying field spell the opponent has and the opponent can't use another if I'm not mistaken. And finally, it seals away their soul forever when you win. Ever feel annoyed by trolls on DN? Just beat them in a duel!

The Madolches are useful, especially for the lock, but I really want to find room for a single Terraforming, or that monster dude that's like Terraforming. 2 would probably be too much but 1 would be nice. But what to drop?

I've actually been surprised by Seal's effectiveness myself. 1900 Rabbit and 2150/2450 T-Bird is nothing to sneer at, and with me running T-King and Pachy now it's deadly.

Honestly, I don't know what to remove... possibly my one-of Fiendish, as I want to keep the sole CCD around. Also, for what it's worth, guts has been a proponent of triple T-King or Pachy in my current build, which sounds great other than wondering what the hell to take out in return... still, I've been kicking ass too.

Best moment: Beat a guy using Infernities and who had 1170 rating yesterday. Got it down to a game state where I had a couple cards in hand, T-Bird on field, two backrow and a previously banished Rabbit, compared to his set-up grave (including a Launcher I Judgmented), one backrow and Mirage in hand. He Normal'd Mirage, I chained Escape Device and banished T-Bird, and this prompted an admin call. After about 15 minutes of waiting, LFN comes in. As soon as they see the field, they go "omg," then "NOCURRBOUTTRAPS.DEK"

I <3 this person. (Also, realized right after that LFN is from DuelistGroundz. WIN.)

So yeah, CED goes through, I get both T-Bird and Rabbit back on my turn, and win the turn after. My rating went up 20 points (all the way to 192 ), and I'm now 2 away from 75 wins.

...I need to duel rated more.

I decided to try the deck out in 3 duels so far. I like the use of the traps since it really gives any deck a hard time if not win. I won 2/3 duels and since i did, the deck is really easy and simple to use. Thunderking and pachy work wonders for the deck stopping the enemy's plays easily. I would use cards like torrential to blow everything up and use thunderbird and rabbit's eff to survive. I beat sixsams and plants. Though i lost to heroes, only because they used Royal decree to stop all my traps and replaced The Seal of Oric. But it was still a close game.

I agree with Harper about adding Terraforming in since it really helped me out wonders. I personally like the idea of many traps since I feel I can be safe with any hand given. But I'm gonna continue testing with it in rated duels again since I have confidence for this deck. It's a brilliant build and can be really competetive. But anyways, good job Gallade.

Pheonix KDA wrote:

Though i lost to heroes, only because they used Royal decree to stop all my traps and replaced The Seal of Oric. But it was still a close game.

I agree with Harper about adding Terraforming in since it really helped me out wonders. I personally like the idea of many traps since I feel I can be safe with any hand given. But I'm gonna continue testing with it in rated duels again since I have confidence for this deck. It's a brilliant build and can be really competetive. But anyways, good job Gallade.

That first part is exactly why I side a Twister along with a 3rd MST. In such a trap-heavy, almost reliant deck, Decree is your worst nightmare, so I definitely wanted to have an extra out at hand.

I'm gonna test out Terraforming right now... also, with Terraforming in the deck, I'm not sure if Butlerusk should stay in or not. Could take him out for a Madolche Chouxvalier if I'm looking for another Magi target (and one with higher ATK), could stick in a 3rd T-King or Pachy, or just some new one-of tech like, say, King Tiger Wanghu (which is great with Seal and doesn't stop WU Rabbit otherwise) or Cydra or something.

Also, a random card to bring up that I actually know because of the ABYR Sneak Peek yesterday (which I WON and got a MAT. ): Papa-Corn, or Oyacorn on DN. He's Lv. 4 and 1200 ATK, but with Seal on the field he goes up to 2700 ATK. I probably won't test him unless I really find Seal sticking around a lot, but he's still really lulzy, I think, a Normal Summonable mon that with Seal runs over anything from Hyperion down.

Random note: Favorite play of yesterday's sneak peek: SS Solar Wind Jammer, Mind Pollutant to take foe's mon, tribute summon Snowdust Dragon (at 3k because of foe's Lemuria).

I won that game.

^^^ All of the above is quite rambly except the first paragraph. xD