Aliens

Aliens are a solid tier 3 deck, maybe capable of competing at the local/regional level but definitely not on the SJC or Nationals/Worlds circuit. Like Spellcasters, the deck suffers from the inherently flawed Counter mechanic which requires a stable field of monsters to be truly effective; the current game's immersion in Synchroing, tributing, and tagging (GB) makes controlling monsters, and by extension any Counters you may put on them, extremely difficult. The difficulty for Aliens is compounded by the archetype's overall weak monster base and abundance of subpar support.

Two cards, however, make Aliens worth considering. Alien Ammonite is a powerful "instant Synchro," a la Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North or Black Salvo, i.e., it revives the necessary non-Tuner material monster upon its Normal Summon. Its corresponding Synchro, Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar, is arguably the game's most powerful Synchro outside of the banned Dark Strike Fighter, yet its power is sharply hemmed in by its requirement of both Alien Ammonite and Alien non-Tuner monsters as materials. Still, the ability to clear out any face-up Spell/Traps, generate A-Counters for free, and destroy any card while retaining the ability to attack that turn, makes Gol'gar a powerhouse. Its 2600 ATK is unmatched for a monster of its Level Stars (5). Ammonite also retains the ability to instantly bring out Magical Android and Ally of Justice Catastor, and its status as a LIGHT tuner gives you access to the unusual Ancient Sacred Wyvern, too.

In my experience, the Alien deck must focus simply on accelerating toward Gol'gar. Aliens are not an overly speedy deck, though; as such, the slack must be picked up by tutors like Gold Sarcophagus and Mysterious Triangle, and card filtering like Card Trooper and Alien Grey. Here's a sample decklist for the March 2010 format:

3 Alien Grey
3 Alien Ammonite
3 Alien Warrior
2 Alien Telepath
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Junk Synchron
1 Sangan
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Card Trooper

3 Mysterious Triangle
3 Code A Ancient Ruins
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Book of Moon
1 Brain Control

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Widespread Dud
2 Planet Pollutant Virus
1 Starlight Road
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment

Like Koa'ki Meiru, Alien inherently sacrifices some consistency for redundancy and later game combo potential. Triple Code A Ancient Ruins bolsters the consistency of Gol'gar: it gives you both the fuel for Gol'gar's destruction effect, and can be used with Gol'gar's A-Counters to revive your Alien monsters, too. Mysterious Triangle increases the utility of our otherwise pedestrian Alien Greys, and turns Planet Pollutant Virus into a real menace.

You may have noticed that I have excluded both Alien Overlord and Alien Dog from this list. My reasoning is that they only add inconsistency to an already inconsistent archetype. Overlord has a remarkable capacity to be completely dead in-hand, and is really a "win-moar" card, i.e., a card that only benefits you when you're already in an advantageous position, in this case, having 2 A-Counters to remove at will. Its A-Counter generation effect is ok, but unneeded. Alien Dog's requirement of a clean Normal Summon also makes it a dead card barring your access to Alien Warrior, Telepath, or Ammonite, not a good position to be in especially in light of its mediocre stats.

Alien Warrior is your primary offense, alongside Cyber Dragon. CyDrag also synergizes with our two copies of Junk Synchron. Synchron can revive Grey for an instant LV5, can make Junk Archer with any our of level 4s, and makes a level 8 in tandem with CyDrag or one of our level 5 Synchros. Card Trooper performs several functions. It sets up Ammonite and Code, provides offense, and gives us more card filtering to dig toward our Ammonites and Codes. Gorz is ridiculous in nearly every deck, but in here he can especially nasty if you happen to have access to Ammonite on the turn after. By Normal Summoning an Ammonite, reviving a second Ammonite, and tuning with Gorz and its token, you can end up with two level 8 Synchros on the field in one turn. Alien Grey digs through our deck and generates A-Counters. It's passive, but the momentum we sacrifice can usually be recouped with an advantageous Telepath (which operates like Breaker the Magical Warrior) or Triangle. Grey into Triangle + Ammonite will accelerate our Gol'gar swarm.

Gold Sarcophagus should almost always be used for Ammonite or for a card to bounce with Gol'gar effect (Call of the Haunted, Code, Swords of Revealing Light). Gol'gar effectively gives you access to infinite SoRL and Call, and turns your in-hand Codes into actual monsters on the field. If Gol'gar lives to see 2+ turns on the field, you are probably going to win due to his unique ability to provide removal and revival in one robust package. Book of Moon, Solemn Judgment, Starlight Road, and Bottomless Trap Hole all help to protect our Gol'gar from threats.

This deck will be very strapped for Extra Deck space: after the 3 Gol'gars, be sure to include at least 1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern, a Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Junk Archer, the level 5 generic Synchros, and Synchro staples like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Black Rose Dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Goyo Guardian. The side deck should include massive hatred for Gladiator Beasts, who have a highly favorable matchup with this deck. Prohibition is also a strong choice against decks like Lightsworn. Aliens can't effectively use Light-Imprisoning Mirror due to their own preponderance of LIGHT monsters, so other alternatives must be used.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Aliens. My next article will look at some of the expected trends of the upcoming March 2010 Advanced Format.