Gravekeeper's
From Yu-Gi-Oh!
The Gravekeeper's are a series of monsters based on ancient Egyptians who guarded the Pharaoh's tomb. The Gravekeeper's Deck usually activates "Necrovalley" and gains power from it, while using loopholes to avoid being affected by its drawbacks. This deck tends to prevent the opponent from affecting cards placed in the Graveyard, as well as keeping field control with its ability to swarm. They were introduced in Pharaonic Guardian as the first true Archetype.
The Gravekeeper's Chief was present in the anime. He duels against Jaden Yuki, giving the duelist a hard time, but eventually Jaden manages to beat him. After the defeat, he gave Jaden a half of the Shadow Charm Pendant, telling him that another person (Atticus Rhodes) has the other half of the pendant.
The anime reveals that the Gravekeeper's Assailant is female. She is known as Yasmin. She fights alongside Gravekeeper's Chief, hesitating when asked to attack, which earns her a slap.
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[edit] Playing Style
A themed deck that revolves around monsters that have "Gravekeeper's" in their card name. All Gravekeeper's are Spellcaster-Type monsters, most have a DARK-Attribute, with the exception of Gravekeeper's Commandant that has an EARTH-Attribute.
The key card to the Gravekeeper deck is Necrovalley. Necrovalley is a field spell that will increase that attack and defense of Gravekeeper monsters by 500. Necrovalley also stops spells, traps, and monsters effects from targeting the Graveyard, like Monster Reborn, Magician of Faith and Call of the Haunted. Necrovalley also stops either player removing from play from their Graveyard for any reason with cards like Soul Release and Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End. Notice that Necrovalley does not prevent effects that activate in the graveyard, only those that target cards in the graveyard, so cards like Mystic Tomato and Pyramid Turtle will still have their effects activate.
Because of the effect of their field spell Necrovalley this deck tends to be some-what a anti-meta deck since it countered chaos back when it was still legal and still has the ability to counter Teledad decks as well as Lightsworn, Zombie, and to a certain extent Gladiator Beasts . Because this deck tends to be anti-meta it is good to use anti-meta style cards such as Burden of the Mighty, Thunder King Rai-Oh, and many others.
Because the most of the Gravekeeper's are dark-attibute they can also use Allure of Darkness, and some more dark attribute support, however be aware when building your Gravekeeper's deck that Necrovalley will stop Monster Reborn, and many other effects that involve the use of the Graveyard.
A Trap known as Rite of Spirit will allow you to Special Summon any Gravekeeper monsters from the Graveyard, even if Necrovalley is on the field. The monster, Gravekeeper's Chief, will also unlock access to your Graveyard while Necrovalley is on the field. Gravekeeper's Chief also allows you to Special Summon a Gravekeeper monster from your Graveyard when you Tribute Summon it.
A Combo with The End of Anubis will shut down the Graveyard COMPLETELY (except costs), but will also hinder your own swarming abilities by stopping Rite of Spirit and Gravekeeper's Chief.
The best Gravekeeper monsters to use include: Gravekeeper's Assailant, Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier, Gravekeeper's Guard, Gravekeeper's Spy, Gravekeeper's Commandant, and Gravekeeper's Chief. The best supporting monsters are Mystic Tomato and Sangan.
Dark Magician is an option when using Skilled Dark Magician as a 1900 beatstick, but may take too long to pull off without Dark Magic Curtain and that cost is too heavy for typical play, besides, single tribute cards like Great Maju Garzett or (especially) Brain Golem are more worth it.
Some useful cards for a Gravekeeper's deck are Magician's Circle and Magical Dimension since all Gravekeepers are spellcaster monsters, and also Book of Moon (perhaps in multiples]] as both Spy and Guard have flip effects.
A normal Gravekeeper can match a Dark Armed Dragon's attack by having both Necrovalley and Solidarity on the field. It makes Gravekeeper's capable of being a beatstick in low levels and cost for summoning!
[edit] Recommended Cards
[edit] Monsters
- Gravekeeper's Commandant
- Gravekeeper's Chief
- Gravekeeper's Assailant
- Gravekeeper's Guard
- Gravekeeper's Spy
- Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
- Breaker the Magical Warrior
- Mystic Tomato
- Sangan
- A Cat of Ill Omen
[edit] Spells
- Lightning Vortex
- Necrovalley
- Terraforming
- Brain Control
- Swords of Revealing Light
- Royal Tribute
- Allure of Darkness
[edit] Traps
[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses
The use of Necrovalley in this Archetype prevents the opponent from using the Graveyard as a resource. A very large number of opposing strategies, therefore, will be at a severe disadvantage when this card is on the field (Cyberdarks, Destiny Heroes, Lightsworn, Zombies, Dark Armed Dragons etc.). The ATK-boost of Necrovalley to "Gravekeeper's" monsters makes them very strong at low levels, making it feasible for a Gravekeeper user to press their advantage early, and there is enough variety in their effects for a number of variant strategies (aggro, stall/burn, control, etc.)
However, the strongest Gravekeeper's monster (the Chief) is only at 1900 ATK, so Gravekeeper's Decks tend to be weak at higher levels unless external support or non-Gravekeeper monsters are used. Their intense reliance upon Necrovalley make them very vulnerable to opponents who enjoy using Spell and Trap destroying effects, so cards to protect it (like Field Barrier) and traps that can help the player maintain an advantage over a stronger opponent are highly recommended.
[edit] Optional Support
- Charm of Shabti -- Saves your Gravekeeper's monsters from being destroyed, but allows battle damage to go through.
- The End of Anubis -- Strong, and further prevents the use of Graveyard effects by negating all effects that occur within the Graveyard. Note that using him will prevent Gravekeeper's cards from utilizing the loopholes that allow them to summon cards when Necrovalley is on the field.
- Magician's Circle -- A fast way to get Gravekeeper's Chief (or any other Gravekeeper) out onto the field early.
- Magical Dimension -- Another fast way to Summon a Gravekeeper like Gravekeeper's Chief to the field with the added bonus of destroying and opponent's monster.
- Allure of Darkness -- Adding draw power to any deck is helpful. All of the Gravekeeper's monsters are DARK, excluding Gravekeeper's Commandant and Charm of Shabti (EARTH), making this Spell Card useful for speed.
- Mystic Tomato -- This monster adds speed to the Gravekeeper's Deck. Searching out any 1500 ATK DARK monster is useful in this deck, such as Gravekeeper's Assailant and Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier.
- Sangan -- This helpful critter can get almost every monster in the Gravekeeper's theme of monsters. Add it to your hand to have swing at your opponent next turn, or stall with Gravekeeper's Spy or Gravekeeper's Guard.
- Solidarity -- Great way to increase the Gravekeeper's attack strength outside of Necrovalley. The only downside is that the user must give up the usage of Charm of Shabti in order to maintain graveyard dominance for the type spellcaster.
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