Welcome back, people, to Beat Connection. It's been a long while (with a lot of procrastination), but now, of course, my second half of my article about Chain Beat is here. This one isn't as in-depth as Part 1, but it gives you a very good idea of what these decks look like, and might even give you some ideas if you wanna build it.
First, let’s take a look at how my own Dueling Network build has shaped up since my previous article (at least as of the time I wrote this part):
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I chose to go with a relatively generic style rather than a strict theme, but there is a Beast-Warrior tinge to it. Thus, after the obligatory playsets of Rabbit and Thunderbird, I first sprang for the newest addition to this group of friends: Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear. Anyone in the game who hasn’t been living under a rock knows how huge this guy is right now (and how huge his price tag is). He’s searchable off and searches Tenki to gain us advantage in that regard (and just needs to poke to do it), and can deal with problematic monsters right then and there, whether it’s a big gun we can’t get over, or a set monster standing in the way of game set match, or something else entirely. He’s not necessarily essential for the deck, but incorporating both him and Tenkis provides removal, searching, and consistency.
Next, I went with a more underrated advantage gaining monster of the deck, Madolche Magileine. At 1400 she can’t get Bottomless Trap Holed, and she ties with Wind-Up Rabbit (which, if I have both of them and Seal of Orichalcos, locks out attacks completely), but she hits 1900 under Seal for a very solid beatdown. She searches another copy of herself upon summon, then if she gets destroyed by the foe goes back into the deck to get searched again (this obviously also makes her a solid target for Escape Device). This also applies if she’s destroyed from my hand or deck, or even if the summon is negated (thanks to a slight disparity between TCG/OCG wording), so it’s quite a robust semi-circuitous advantage system. While she hasn’t necessarily won me games (though she likes giving me the Rank 4 access), her role in the deck cannot be underestimated, especially in keeping monsters around when I run so few.
Finally, 2 Cardcar D’s give an injection of draw power into the deck, and with the deck’s nature, one can either use one of the numerous backrows to keep damage on the foe’s subsequent turn to a minimum, or just take the possible hit and next turn be all set up. It’s also a very solid first-turn play, especially when combined with the other deck thinning in the build.
The Spells are pretty standard, with 2 Tenki and 2 Duality giving much-needed speed. Mystical Space Typhoons are eschewed by some when making the deck, but I personally always run them unless I literally have no room for them, as 1. I’d rather spend my time beating face with my monsters than dodging backrow after backrow and constantly leaving myself open and 2. It’s even more important than ever with cards like Factory, Fiendish, Abyss-Sphere, and Fire Formations running rampant. Forbidden Lance is a meta call-ish pick that slaps Fire Fists hard, ducks Mermail bosses under our monsters depending on the field state, and can help our monsters get around the abundance of backrow that’s being seen in several decks in the meta. Lastly, Seal of Orichalcos is an addition I’d highly recommend, as it basically takes the weenie out of your weenie beatdown. 1900+ Rabbits, 2150/2450 Thunderbirds and 2100+ Brofist Bears are a frightening sight for anyone, and I’ve seen people double MST Seal or something of the sort in order to get it out of the way.
Trap lineups are basically whatever you can stuff in there, but you have to get quite a bit of backrow in. All that hopping with Rabbit and Thunderbird mean little if your foe keeps making their plays as well, so make sure you have enough. Solemns, Bottomless, Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, etc. are all musts in here.
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However, my build isn’t by any means a “standard” one; at this stage there isn’t really much of one, and even then some of my choices aren’t common. Very often you’ll see fewer monsters in the deck (with Magileine being a more personal choice), with the number usually ranging down to around 8-10.
One example of this is a build focused more on draw power, which ranges more towards a Chain Burn style of play (and, yes, I have seen Chain Beat morphed into Chain Burn). Obviously, this will involve the draw traps of Jar of Greed and Legacy of Yata-Garasu, plus Accumulated Fortune, in order to replenish the hand:
- Spoiler:
Many users of the deck will even slip just Accumulated Fortune without the other draw cards in here, though it obviously can encounter some issues. Obviously, the plus of this type of Chain Beat deck is that it can keep the hand replenished a little bit to draw into the needed mons and backrow; however, let it be said that the space taken up by the draw cards could be used either for techs/mini-engines, or even just to have an actual increase in backrow; personally, I’d rather have the backrow and the cards like Seal or Bear than the draw cards to access the slightly smaller backrow and such. Still, of the OCG decks I've found on Shriek for Chain Beat, most of them run at least Accumulated, if not more draw traps.
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For those that want a bit more of a theme to the deck, the best way to go is the Beast-Warrior route, utilizing the main cards of the new Fire Fist support. At the very least, this involves Brofist Bear and Fire Formation Tenkis, and stretched further this can encompass Gorilla, Tiger King, and other Fire Formation S/Ts. This style also uses Winged Rhynos more often than the other builds, him being the main beatstick of the deck and obviously a monster to keep presence with his effect along with Rabbit. While he’s not the recurring banisher that Rabbit and Thunderbird are, he’s just as frustrating, as without a Solemn or a well-timed effect negation (which itself many times draws out 2 cards to hit your one) he can dodge any attempts to stop his repeated tries at a successful summon-and-swing and just come back the next turn. Here’s an example of such a variant:
- Spoiler:
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Finally, maybe the most ‘out there’ of the builds (and one I haven’t tested much) is a Chain Beat deck using Black Garden. Right off, you can tell there’s a decent bit of synergy: Rabbit and Thunderbird will essentially always keep their ATK power while everything else gets reduced, which has Rabbit running over basically everything short of a Black Luster Soldier. Brofist Bear, if used, also gets his effect off easier, and can even be SS’d off Garden’s effect if there are 2 Plants on the field. While I personally don’t like the bit of anti-simplification it seems to bring, among other things, it’s still a neat idea worth mentioning. Plus, you have a playset of a field spell now, in case you have to rid yourself of a Spellbook Tower, Gates, etc.
- Spoiler:
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The best part about all this is that there are still even more directions to take the deck. There's anti-meta possibility for sure, with how flexible the skeleton is, or there could be a deck that drifts more towards one of the archetype cards in the deck (i.e. Wind-Ups, Evilswarms or Fire Fists); you could literally just run WU Rabbit and Thunderbird (maybe CCD too), or broaden it up to 15 monsters with cards like Madolche Magileine. I've made, on a whim, Glad Beast Chain Beat and HERO Chain Beat (ft. Wildheart). Heck, I didn't even put up the build I JUST tweaked it to today, nor a hopeful post-LTGY build, and I still managed to get this article to so many words.
It's a deck very much able to conform to the meta, one of its major plusses, and with its rogue (very rogue) status, it's quite easy for the foe to mis-side against the deck (though again, they'll probably have the right idea in siding, say, Dust Tornados). Chain Beat is a very modern control deck, I'd say, and even though it might never go beyond the low heights of decks like Falcon Control or other control-ish/stun-ish decks, it's still got a competitive edge to it for sure.
Thanks for reading, anyways, and... *insert awesome closer here*
