Disaster Dragon: A Closer Look

I received a request from a loyal reader for my analysis of Disaster Dragon. For those of you unfamiliar with this decktype, it is fairly recent archetype pioneered by Richard Clarke of Florida. As its name suggests, it focuses on the Dragon-type, and seeks to exploit massive Special Summoning via the Red-Eyes monsters (Wyvern and Darkness Metal Dragon) and antimeta lockdoown via Koa'ki Meiru Drago. We looked briefly at Drago in my article on the Koa'ki Meiru deck: its ability to lock down all LIGHT and DARK Special Summons has been, and will continue to be, huge in a metagame overrun by Lightsworn, Blackwing, and Infernity decks. REDMD (Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon) is one of the most powerful piece of theme support in YGO, boasting not only a 2800 ATK body and an easy Special Summoning condition, but also the ability to Special Summon any Dragon other than itself from either the hand or the Graveyard.

With that in mind, let's look at the monsters from my version of this deck:

3 Masked Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Totem Dragon
2 Exploder Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon
1 Lava Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon

The Red-Eyes pair are the heart and soul of the deck. REDMD toolboxes Dragons from your Graveyard (ideally dumped there by Future Fusion; see below), and Wyvern brings back REDMD. Masked Dragon maintains solid field presence while also searching out options such as Totem Dragon, Exploder Dragon, or either of our Dragon-type Tuners. The stability provided by Masked will lead to easier REDMD drops, Synchro Summons, and removal through Exploder. Drago is both a beater and solid antimeta pick; its maintenance cost is no sweat in a deck running 20 Dragons. Prime Material is an amazing revival target for REDMD's effect, due to its ability to lock down the abilities of Gladiator Beasts Murmillo and Gyzarus, Judgment Dragon, and Icarus Attack, among other widespread cards. The single Yamata Dragon is often painlessly brought out via a Totem tribute, and can inflict major damage while accruing ridiculous card advantage. The single Lava Dragon can bring back Drago, Masked, or Totem in pairs.

Let's move onto the Spells:

2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Future Fusion
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Lightning Vortex
1 My Body as a Shield

Sarcophagus is here mainly for Future Fusion, the Spell which gives this deck so much of its power. A Future Fusion targeting Five-Headed Dragon can fill your Graveyard with REDMDs, Wyverns, Prime, Tuners, etc, with which you can toolbox your way through the rest of the duel. Burial recycles Wyvern and Dragons which have fallen victim to cards like Caius the Shadow Monarch or Bottomless Trap Hole. Book and MBaaS are versatile offense/defense cards, and Vortex lets you resolve a complicated field, especially against LS.

Lastly, the Traps:

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Burst Breath
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Starlight Road

Fairly self-explanatory. Burst Breath can remove most monsters from the field if it tributes one of the Red-Eyes monsters. Starlight Road is in here as tech against commonly played mass removal; see my article on Starlight for more details on why maining one copy is a good idea.

The Extra Deck will look something like this:

2 Stardust Dragon
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Five Headed Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor

Fairly self-explanatory. This deck has unique access to Trident Dragion and Exploder Dragonwing, both of which require Dragon-type monsters as Synchro Materials. Iron Chain Dragon can be used with Debris Dragon to make Trident, actually. The single Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is largely a tech pick based on Cyber Dragon returning to 2 per deck for this upcoming format.

My next article will look at some of the subtleties of a very popular card: Mystical Space Typhoon.