Riding On The Wings of Victory

Deck: Blackwings
Tier: 2

Spoiler:

Monsters: 18

3x Blackwing - Shura The Blue Flame
3x Blackwing - Bora The Spear
3x Blackwing - Kalut The Moon Shadow
3x Blackwing - Blizzard The Far North
1x Blackwing - Gale The Whirlwind
1x Blackwing - Sirocco The Dawn
1x Blackwing - Zephyros The Elite
1x Blackwing - Kochi The Daybreak
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells: 11

3x Black Whirlwind
3x Pot of Duality
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Dark Hole
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Book of Moon

Traps: 11

3x Icarus Attack
2x Vanity's Emptiness
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Warning
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra: 15

1x Crimson Blader
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Blackwing Armor Master
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Blackwing Armed Wing
1x Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth
1x HTS Psyhemuth
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1x Number 66 - Master Key Beetle
1x Ice Beast Zerofyne
1x Diamond Dire Wolf
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Number 50 - Blackship of Corn

Side: 15

2x Skill Drain
2x Imperial Iron Wall
2x Deck Devastation Virus
2x Maxx "C"
2x Gozen Match
2x Rivalry of Warlords
1x Blackwing - Sirocco The Dawn
1x Delta Crow - Anti Reverse
1x Mystical Space Typhoon

Well, this deck is finally competitive again. No, really. It is. The OCG list gave them a little boost, but in TCG, they are honest to God good again. Some may not agree, but I will explain why.

First and foremost, Black Whirlwind is at 3. Not only does more Whirlwinds mean you will draw it more, but you can use more than one at a time. Having double Whirl out is just broken. Triple Whirl means you win. Rai-Oh is at 1, so that's unlikely to stop you, and you have 3 Kalut to stop him, or even Sirocco for builds that play him. And also another reason that makes Whirlwind even better...

Heavy Storm is banned. This, coupled with the fact you run 3 Icarus means your opponent will not blindly pop your backrow. If they are, it's your advantage because they didn't save it for BWW or you can chain Icarus. If they don't, it's your advantage bc you have a ton of set backrow. Also, Blackwings are just really good in formats without Heavy. Icarus and Delta Crow means the opponent's backrow is never safe. And Kalut is essentially it's own trap that they can't see coming. Most of your deck is based around normal summoning beaters. Good in a format with heavy backrow. Being able to search like crazy with BWW is even better in an advantage based format. I realize that in previous formats without Heavy, Plants topped all the time. And Dragon Rulers and Water will surely top this format. But without Heavy, it is undeniably easier to slow down the opponent to your level.

Token spam is rampant. Scapegoats are at 3. Dracossack is still a thing that is easy for some decks to make. The new version of Dragon Rulers uses Plants, so your have Dandy tokens as well. Even Mecha Phantom Beasts the archtype are somewhat good now. This is good news for Bora and Armed Wing. Piercing damage may not seem like much, but it can win games. Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger is one of my favorite techs in Constellar. Combine it with Shark Fortress and it does a lot.

Also, new synchros and XYZ that have recently come out do a lot for the deck. Namely Vulcan the Divine, Armades Keeper of Boundaries, and Master Key Beetle. Vulcan is just awesome with 3 Whirlwind and 2Chainz. Need I explain why? Similarly, Master Key Beetle can protect your Whirlwinds as well as himself, and is super easy to make. Armades is very key in a format with lots of set cards. Before, a dangerous facedown would likely be Compulsory, but with Warning, Torrential, BTH, and CED all at 1 and Judgment banned, you're more likely to run into a Force or Prison, statistically speaking. Armades is not the best synchro you have, but he is very important. Other new cards like HTS, Zerofyne, and Dire Wolf have good use in this deck too.

And finally, the most important reason: EVERYTHING ELSE IS BANNED


Mind Control and Seven Tools of the Bandit I would really like to main. Lance is even a decent tech, just don't have room. I would like to run Mirror Forces but I felt that Fiendish Chains were more important to stop effects of crazy things like Infernities, and they are better than Veilers because it's not a minus technically, it stops attacks, it is reusable with Zephyros and Vulcan, and Key Beetle can protect it. I run Prisons over Forces bc the Dark World matchup is just bad, and even with Card Destruction banned, DW are also better now. This also helps in other relevant matchups like Boxers, Infernities, and TG. It does not help against Master of Blades and Yamato, but Dracossack is more likely to be used first in Dragon Rulers or Water anyway, and Yamato is unfortunate but it's worth it to cover every matchup except Bujins.

My build looks like this -

Spoiler:

More of a stun version, with vanity (which is a bit like oppression used to be for the deck) and you can protect it with key beetle and bw jin is good vs bujin yamato

Yeah you should put Emptiness in there, Key Beetle is too easy to make.

Also thoughts on Sirocco?

Triple Vanity's Emptiness seems like a really good idea. I only have 1 IRL though...even so I'll fit the 1 in there too, maybe I'll pick up 2 more from locals.

Jin is an interesting tech. Weird that it could be better than Vayu now...but it kind of is. Come to think of it, with 3 BWW Breeze may be good now too.

Sirocco is an ok tech. It lets you get over things well certainly. I usually only have him at 1. Might fit him in though I've been loving Mole. I would probably add in another Shura target before him but idk yet. I need to get sleep so I'll post the actual changes to fit in Vanity later.

-2Chainz
-1 Warning
-1 Mole
+3 Emptiness
+1 Jin

IRL I have 2Chainz, 1 Emptiness until I can get 2 more. Unfortunately Blackship, Cowboy, and Dire Wolf cost more than I want to pay right now so I won't be picking them up. Cowboy is being reprinted soon though so I'll get him eventually. Dire Wolf is semi important, Blackship not really, just nice to have. Vulcan is also pricey, but also important. So...we'll see.

I like the idea of Jin being a counter to Yamato, and I like having another Shura target. I will alternate between Jin, Sirocco, Mole, and Breeze to see which I like the best. Also I might test Warning over Book but Book has been great so far and I have Icarus and other things for removal. Book disrupts, which is important. Not that Warning doesn't but we'll see. Thanks for the input guys!

Also Vongy I would definitely run Vulcan and Armades in your extra. You have triple Blizz and only Gaia and Armed Wing for level 6. Vulcan is even better than Gaia imo, especially with BWW at 3. And Catastor is your only level 5 with triple Blizz and a Jin.

Do you guys really think that triple Emptiness is needed? (see reply in my Constellar thread)
idk...

Depends how it tests and how the meta goes. If I need a to stop special summons a lot it would be worth it, if it'll be mainly stun decks not really. Might end up with 2 and a Warning, we shall see.

That's why I think 2 is perfect right now, because the meta isn't defined yet.

Fair enough, so 2 and Warning for now. I'll need to save the money by not buying a third Vanity's Emptiness anyway since Armades literally went up in price overnight -_-

Don't have Armades yet, as for vulcan it is not legal in Europe, also blackship, but I only put it in cuz I was making the list kinda in a hurry anyway. Also trying mirror force now as well, seems to be ok.

Ah I see, it's your irl build. Well Armades went back down in price overnight again xD. So glad I didn't buy it with the other stuff earlier. Forgot Vulcan was a JUMP card, that explains the ridiculous pricing even with 3-axis dead. Meh I might just run HTS irl. I was unimpressed with Blackship when it first came out but now it's almost staple for me. Yet not quite important enough to spend what it's worth. It's not a huge part of my strategy like Key Beetle is, it's just great for toolbox purposes. So I'll probably just run a random Utopia instead and Mist Wurm until Cowboy's reprint. I'm running Prisons for reasons stated in the OP but Mirror Forces irl bc i only have 1 Prison. Time will tell which is actually better this format.

Deck has been testing great as expected, I now have almost the whole deck put together. Vulcan is way too expensive, as are Corn and Dire Wolf. Cowboy I bought for like 3 bucks now that the reprint is out but it's not here yet, been running a random Magical Android in the meantime. IRL version is:

-1 Vulcan
-1 Blackship
-1 Dire Wolf
+1 Crimson Blader
+1 Utopia
+1 Mist Wurm
-2 Prison
+2 Mirror Force

Might even drop an XYZ for Blader on DN as well. Level 8 synchros don't happen that much, but when you draw Kochi, Bora and Zephyros make it easy. First turn Blader when you go second is really nice. Any thoughts on Decisive Armor? With triple Blizz it's kinda easier to make than Wurm really, higher attack, better effect but only for matchups with light monsters. I am unsure about Jin over Sirocco, Breeze, or Mole yet. I would really like to run 2Chainz even though I run Emptiness too, but I like all my traps. Similarly, everyone seems to be running CFBF and I have always liked Mind Control in BW but what would I drop for that?

Also...lo and behold...Blackwings got 4th place at Toronto. Suck it BW haters. They lost only to the winning deck, Dragon Rulers which isn't the best of matchups for BW anyway. It is undeniably at LEAST Tier 2 now, but I still believe the side deck will be very important as they don't have the best raw power. Here's what I threw together but I need help:

2x Skill Drain (for...almost everything. BW work pretty well under Skill Drain sans Blizzard which can be sided out. Might bump it up to 3)
2x Gozen Match (also works for a variety of matchups, Dragon Rulers particularly are hurt)
2x Rivalry of Warlords (similar to Gozen but for differnt matchps. BW are all dark winged beasts)
2x Imperial Iron Wall (Dragon Rulers are a relevant matchup)
2x Deck Devastation Virus (you can do it with Sirocco, Armor Master, Armed Wing, Catastor, Key Beetle, and Blackship)
2x Blackwing - Sirocco The Dawn (to side in when I side in Skill Drain and DDV, great in mirror match as well, decent card overall)
1x Mind Drain (hurts lots of things, not the least of which is Dragon Rulers)
1x Delta Crow - Anti Reverse (trap version of Heavy. thought about maining it but I have 3 DDV and not everything runs traps. but for decks that run lots like Fire Fist, it kills)
1x Mystical Space Typhoon (it's MST)

I believe Skill Drain should be mained.

Depends on what the meta is around me I suppose. But it's definitely the card i side in most in past formats and now. What would I drop though?

Also dafuq happened to your TG topic? I was about to comment on it D:

I deleted it here is the link http://blog.coretcg.com/breaking-the-mold-t-g-tenki-garden/. For right now i would say Vanity's Emptiness we dont know what the meta is but what we do know is Skill drain hurts almost evry deck out there whil Vanity only hinders some.

You should make it again lol.

I hear what you're saying, but don't necessarily agree. We have a better idea of what people will play now that YCS Toronto is over. It's still a wide variety of stuff, but the top decks still spam special summons. Also, aside from Prophecy and Chain Beat, if it's not affected by Emptiness, it probably won't be affected by Drain either. Even stunnish decks don't really need effects too bad. If they do use effects, it's for special summoning, generically speaking. Against decks where Emptiness is bad, like TG, Drain is just as bad, if not worse. For Fire Fist Drain is better but for Mermails and Dragons Emptiness is much better. They'll discard 2 for their Redox and then they don't get anything out of it, and they lose the game unless they can Blaster or MST Emptiness. Also, Fire Fist is a good matchup for BW, so it's less important that Drain is a bit better.

I guess what I'm saying is Drain and Emptiness do very similar things, but for the things that are worse matchups, Emptiness does a better job. I'd like to run Emptiness AND Drains (or Chains) though. But meh. Perhaps instead of Prisons?

Drain shouldn't be mained imo. Prophecy can play around it via Wisdom , Dragon Rulers and Mermails aren't really affected by it and can side it themselves.
You can side it for rogue matchups, but it doesn't deserve main deck spots right now.

What about Chains?

-1 Jin
+1 Sirocco

As much as I like 3 Shura targets (really 2 since I always save Gale for emergencies), Sirocco has its merits. It's better for the side since I don't have to side 2 Sirocco now. Jin is useable when drawn but generally only if I have a Bora in hand, in which case Sirocco + Bora is a better combo. And my locals are going to have a lot more Blackwings than Bujin so there's that. Don't agree with all the people who main 2 Sirocco, 1 is enough. I might put Jin or Breeze back (or even Vayu...shudder) but I'd actually probably drop Rai-Oh over Sirocco. Shura + Whirlwind is a turn 1 play that happens often. If I have TKR I'm not summoning him over Shura. It's still a good card and versatile but I occasionally find myself not feeling like summoning it. I might use something more reactive than proactive (like Mole) since searching Kalut covers the proactive part.

Side is updated, only iffy about Gozens and Rivalries. Debunk/Mind Drain/DD Crow or Road could take their place. Not that Gozen is bad against Rulers but eh.

Got locals on Sunday, first time testing the fully completed deck irl (minus Dire Wolf and Blackship)