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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Meta-Gaming #1 - Inzektors

I've decided to move my discussion about decktypes to my blog because the majority of my subscribers are not interested in watching a video about what I think about this subject.  So this will be the first installment of archetype and decktype discussions called Meta-Gaming!  In this series, I intend to introduce an upcoming or established decktype, talk about how it wins, and most importantly, HOW TO BEAT IT!  Allow me to introduce you to the Inzektor archetype.
In my opinion this archetype is Dragunity 2.0, except with Insects.  These little buggers equip from the Hand or the Graveyard, meaning that when they activate their "equip" effect, they do not target. I'll get more into why that is important later.  The main monsters of the deck are:

Hornet -
Once per turn: You can equip 1 "Inzecter" monster in your hand or Graveyard to this card. While this card is equipped to a monster, increase the equipped monster's Level by 3, and the equipped monster gains ATK and DEF equal to this card's ATK and DEF, respectively. You can send this Equip Card to the Graveyard to target 1 card on the field;destroy it.


Dragonfly -
Once per turn: You can equip 1 "Inzektor" monster in your hand or Graveyard to this card. While this card is equipped to a monster, increase the equipped monster's Level by 3. If an Equip Card equipped to this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 "Inzektor" monster from Deck, except "Inzektor Dragonfly".


Centipede - 
Once per turn: You can equip 1 "Inzektor" monster in your hand or Graveyard to this card. While this card is equipped to a monster, increase the equipped monster's Level by 3. If an Equip Card equipped to this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can add 1 "Inzecter" monster from your Deck to your hand.


There are other Inzektors, but none of them have the utility or the usefulness as these three.  Think about how Blackwings or Gladiator Beasts are.  There are a lot of them, but only a few really worth mentioning/using.  


How does this deck win?
The main focus of this deck is massive destruction effects followed by special summoning and XYZ summoning.  You generate several +1s by using Dragonfly and Hornet to destroy a card, then special summoning Centipede to equip hornet and destroy another card and then following up with a "Rota" type search.  To break it down, with Hornet in grave and just Dragonfly in hand -> Summon Dragonfly, equip Hornet.  Destroy a card with Hornet's effect.  Dragonfly's effect will special summon Centipede.  Centipede can then equip Hornet, then destroy another card with Hornet's effect.  Finally, Centipede's effect will allow you to add another Dragonfly to your hand ready to repeat and rinse the combo all over again.
Losing 2 cards per turn to your opponents 1 card combo (remember Hornet is in grave) is something that many decks cannot keep up with.  The Inzektor player uses no resources as the combo results in a at least a +1 via a special summon and/or a search to the hand.  This is probably the only deck in the format that actually benefits from going second and we haven't had a deck like this since Demise OTK, which coincidentally ran Insects as well.


How do you beat this deck?
This will be hard for many people to cope with, so brace yourself...


DON'T COMMIT TO THE FIELD!
Without anything to destroy, Dragonfly is merely a 1000atk monster and Centipede is just a 1600atk monster.  Once either of those equip a Hornet, the Hornet is stuck there, buying you some time to devise a strategy. Remember, the game is over when you are 0 Lifepoints, so you can easily take a few 1000 or 1600 pokes before you actually have to do anything.
Zenmaines is another problem for this deck.  If the Inzector player doesn't have an immediate out to Zenmaines, then they will just focus on your backrows and perhaps end their combo with a Zenmaines of their own.  Again, this buys you time to put together a strategy to overwhelm them in one turn.
DD Crow is a good card, but since their effect does not target, you are forced to prematurely play crow and they can then simply equip from their hand.  Maxx "C" can help you draw a card when Dragonfly fetches Centipede, but you while you draw cards, you are losing everything on your field.  Effect Veiler however is the superior choice.  If this deck becomes as popular here as it has in Japan, then Effect Veiler will be back in the maindeck at 2s or even 3s again.  Stopping that initial equip on Dragonfly is so crucial in preventing them from getting their engine started.  At 1000atk, Tour Guide into Sangan, Sangan crash into Dragon, Sangan search another Veiler is pretty much GG!  
I am absolutely in love with Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror again.  All of the relevant Inzektors are Dark Attribute so this card hits them hard!  Side decking this card is not as harmful as you think simply because it has so many other application in other matchups:  Gravekeeper's, Dark Worlds, and any other deck that relies heavily on Tour Guide from the Underworld.  I am currently siding this card, even though I run a Chaos deck, but I look at it like Oppression.  Once I have set up, then I can safely activate it.  Since I can control when I activate the card, I can make sure that I don't hurt myself while at the sametime, do maximum damage to my opponent when he tries to break my set up.  A note of caution, you have to be mindful of your side deck choices when you run this card if you are also running several Dark Attribute monsters, but again, you only activate the card when you have set up and have no relevant Dark attribute monster effects that need resolved.


Well, I hope this helped you in your fight against the Meta.  Please give me feedback about this article and I will post a Meta-Gaming article once a week.  

6 comments:

  1. this deck also dominates tour guide plants, i built it and tested it at pdc sunday, btw this is dakota

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  2. i expected to dislike this article as i hate inzektors. however, i read through and thouroughly enjoyed, it was short and to the point. how they win. how to win against them. another powerful choice against them is fiendish chain as they are a once per turn so if effect veiler stops them,, they just go off next turn. great segment and look forward to seing you back on youtube

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  3. I for one would certainly enjoy your take on how to run the deck.

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  4. ^ they are not hard to run, the combo is easy to play while the reward for so little commitment of resources is too high to be considered balance.

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  5. Skill drain is also a great card if you are running a deck that can support it :)

    ReplyDelete

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