Skill Drain Deck
From Yu-Gi-Oh!
| Complete Deck Lists by Type |
| A-C • D-F • G-J • K-O • P-S • T-V • W-Z |
A Skill Drain Deck uses the Trap Card Skill Drain to remove the negative effects from monsters like Goblin Elite Attack Force, Giant Orc, and Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei and use them for pure power purposes.
Aside from the cards listed above, Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast is a much-played monster and Beast King Barbaros is a high valued monster with Skill Drain. They can be Normal Summoned without Tributes being offered since it has a provision for it in its effect, which in turn, cuts their ATKs. However, Skill Drain would remove the ATK limit, so you'd immediately have their original ATK. A great combo is to also include Beast Machine King Barbaros Ür with the above monsters to surprise your opponent with a high ATK monster. Monsters such as Zombyra the Dark which can be played without skill drain are perfect for skill drain decks for versatility.
Cards like Chainsaw Insect, The Bistro Butcher, Majestic Mech - Ohka, Mist Archfiend, and Ultimate Obedient Fiend, cards with otherwise questionable advantages, suddenly become very playable with Skill Drain active. Giant Kozaky is perhaps the best to play with this deck, since it has 2500 ATK and 2400 DEF, and will not be destroyed by itself. Armor Exe can attack at the turn he was Summoned with Skill Drain, but due to its maintenance that's not negated by Skill Drain he shall only last one turn; so it's a nice addition, though is not as usable if Skill Drain is not available compared to other 4-Star monsters of their ATK.
And of course, since Skill Drain will not negate effects that do not resolve on the field, Solemn Judgment and Divine Wrath are very worthy choices. A Cat of Ill Omen and Mask of Darkness may be necessary in order to draw into Skill Drain or to recover them. Berserk Dragon is also a great addition to this deck since this deck has many lvl 8 monsters thats easy to summon like Beast King Barbaros and since its attack decreases, then, you have a great deck.
Other cards to negate with Skill Drain are Yubel, Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, since their first effects resolve on the field, and Skill Drain also takes care of Yubel's effect of growing into her other forms.
You may consider including Final Attack Orders in the deck as well, as it will negate the effects of many of the cards you will use, such as Goblin Elite Attack Force and Giant Orc.
With the release of Forbidden Chalice in the Raging Battle set, Skill Drain decks have seen a significant increase in power, as this card allows you to negate the effect of one monster, and increase its ATK by 400. An ideal use for this card in a Skill Drain deck would be to activate it on either Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast or Beast King Barbaros if Skill Drain is not on the field, effectively restoring their ATK back to its original amount and increasing it by a further 400.
Skill Drain decks work well with cards such as Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure and Necrovalley. Since many decks focus on Special Summoning quickly, Macro Cosmos and Necrovalley will shut down the Graveyard while effectively slowing the pace of the game to match the rate of Normal Summoning strong monsters. Another advantage of those three cards is that your opponent loses the ability to Synchro Summon, leaving their field with weak monsters that you can easily overpower. Solemn Judgment/Dark Bribe are very useful cards that not only forces opponents to waste cards such as Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon, it protects Skill Drain as well.
Contents |
[edit] Weakness
One deck type that can have an advantage over Skill Drain Decks is a Dark World Deck because they rely on sending cards in their hand to the Graveyard to activate their effects, which Skill Drain cannot stop.
Another weakness to Skill Drain decks are decks that revolve around Synchro Summoning. Since you usually don't need monster effects to summon Stardust Dragon or Colossal Fighter (which are nearly unaffected by Skill Drain), Synchro decks pose a problem for Skill Drain decks and usually whenever Colossal Fighter is summoned, you usually cannot destroy it with any cards in your deck. Skill Drain decks are weak against swarming to an extent because they require high ATK beatsticks which are slower to Summon to maintain the advantage. Beware of destructive Spell and Trap cards such as Lightning Vortex, Mirror Force, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon. Without powerful monsters on the field or any Spells and Traps to back them up, Skill Drain decks become very vulnerable.
[edit] Specific Types of Skill Drain
[edit] "Default" Skill Drain
This is the common Skill Drain deck, when the main purpose is cancel Beast King Barbaros and Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast's ATK-reducing effect, turning a non-Tributed monster into a real threat to opponent's Life Points. It can include even Beast Machine King Barbaros Ur, which can be easily Special Summoned removing both monsters - and you have a 3800 ATK beatstick which DOES damage. Usually, other monsters like Goblin Attack Force, Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei and Giant Orc are there for increasing the strategy.
[edit] Dark Skill Drain
Unlike TeleDAD, this deck revolves around the cards Skill Drain, Mystic Tomato and Forbidden Chalice. Because most of the monster effects work in the Graveyard (such as those of Tomato, Destiny Hero - Malicious, and Plaguespreader Zombie), Skill Drain does not hurt the deck - it just just hurts the opponent's deck. Cyber valley and machine duplication is a great choice along with destiny hero plasma.
[edit] Zombie Skill Drain
Zombie Skill Drain is a viable deck type because of the card Pyramid Turtle. The fact that it searches monsters based on DEF (with a high upper limit) means that it can search out powerful beatsticks such as Ryu Kokki, Malevolent Mech - Goku En, and Paladin of the Cursed Dragon, which other decks simply cannot do. With the recent semi-limitation of Mezuki (which is also unaffected by Skill Drain) this kind of deck is even more a viable option.
[edit] Plant Skill Drain
Though not as common an option as other types of Skill Drain, Plants have two large assets that still work with Skill Drain. The first is Lonefire Blossom, which will work under Skill Drain's influence if it tributes itself. The other is Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, which also works under Skill Drain's influence if it tributes itself, and has the advantage of having high ATK and the ability to be special summoned with Lonefire. Also of note is Mystic Tomato, Lord Poison, Dandylion, and Violet Witch which all also have an effect that activates off-field.
[edit] Light Skill Drain
Since the effect of Honest is not affected by Skill Drain, a good and solid version of this deck could be built around LIGHT Monsters. Thunder King Rai-Oh is a good choice, since it negates a Special Summon and it's a target to Honest. Some versions include Elemental Hero Neos Alius and Elemental Hero Stratos; the last one should be Summoned before activating Skill Drain in order to generate Card advantage. This version always mounts three copies of Beast King Barbaros and should not be confused with "Little City" (described below), since this deck is not Elemental Heroes-oriented.
[edit] Little City
Main article: Little City Deck
Little City uses Skill Drain in combination with Skyscraper, which can boost the ATK scores of attacking Elemental Heroes. This is combined with powerful, level 4 heroes such as Elemental Hero Captain Gold, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, and Elemental Hero Stratos. Honest is also often used in this deck.
[edit] Necrofear Skill Drain
This deck focuses on getting fiends in the graveyard to remove from play to special summon Dark Necrofear. Many of the monsters used in this deck have effects that activate in the graveyard such as Giant Germ, Newdoria, and Slate Warrior, so Skill Drain can be very effective & deadly choice for this deck.
