Deck Doctor #1 - Light Drain

Hey guys, welcome to deck doctor.  My goal here is to try and help you make your deck more consistent while at the same time, trying to keep the spirit of the original build.  My card choices will be based on the deck creator's ability to obtain the cards, playability, and keeping within the creator's playstyle.  Let's take a look at tonight's build from SagetheBlackJoker:


**Yo D-man whats up r u good or are u MAD lol, u still geting the haters or what? Well as u can see im asking for help on this deck so this is it.

Light Drain


monsters 21

beast king barbaros 3
thunder king rai-oh 3
E hero aluis 3
reflect bounder 2
cyber dragon 2
majestic mech-ohka 2
honest 2
chainsaw insect 3
plaguespreader zombie 1

spells 10

book of moon 2
pot of avarice 2
forbidden chalice 2
burdon of the mighty 2
enemy controller 2

traps

dimensional prison 2
reckless greed 3
defense draw 2
bottomless trap hole 2
skill drain 2
call of the haunted 1 **

Two things stand out to me immediately: 1) Some of the monster choices are not as optimal as they could be. 2) Plaguespreader Zombie should not be used in these types of decks. So let's start off by making the cuts.
 
- Reflect Bounder x 2
- Majestic Mech - Ohka x 2
- Chainsaw Insect x 3
 
I dropped these monsters because they have been proven to be unreliable in Skill Drain variants, even when Skill Drain was unlimited.  More times than not, Bounder can become a Liability, you will have Ohkas in hand with no skill drain in sight and ditto for Chainsaw (free cards are not good for your opponent).   Next, let's cut some spells.
 
- Pot of Avarice x 2
- Enemy Controller x 1
 

I dropped Pot of Avarice because there is no way to fill the grave fast enough to put even one of these to good use, let alone two.  And drawing these early game, when you would rather draw skill drain or a more useful card is just UGH!  Enemy Controller is a champion.  But it is best when you can use it's theft effect and there isn't really anything in this deck that we want to tribute off, so we are gonna get rid of them.  On to the trap line up.

 
- Reckless Greed x 3
- Defensive Draw x 2
- Call of the Haunted
 

Reckless Greed is not a stand alone draw engine.  It only provides advantage when you draw it in multiples and if you happen to get caught up in a Faultroll loop while under Reckless Greed....well GG.  Defensive Draw is a cute card that acts like a Kuriboh and lets you draw a card.  The only problem is that we want their monster gone, as long as we have 1 life point left, we can still win. Finally, we are just gonna drop call of the haunted because where we are going, it won't be necessary.

 

I am going to put a twist on the deck that will allow our deck creator to still pump out big beaters, synchro, and allow for big damage with honest.  Allow me to re-introduce you all to Light Zombie Drain:

 

Monsters: 18

 

2 | Beast King Barbaros 

2 | Honest

2 | Cyber Dragon

3 | Thunder King Rai-oh

1 | Plaguespreader Zombie

1 | Goblin Zombie ** edit 4/7/10** too good not to include

2 | Pyramid Turtle

2 | Paladin of Cursed Dragon

1 | Mezuki

1 | Majestic Mech - Goku En

1 | Card Trooper

 

Spells: 10

 

1 | Smashing Ground

1 | Heavy Storm

1 | Mystical Space Typhoon

2 | Book of Life

2 | Book of Moon

2 | Forbidden Chalice

1 | Brain Control

Traps: 12

3 | Dimensional Prison

2 | Skill Drain

1 | Starlight Road

2 | Bottomless Trap Hole

1 | Torrential Tribute

1 | Mirror Force

1 | Solemn Judgment

1 | Dust Tornado

What I have done is converted the deck into a stable, well tested zombie drain variant that can swarm and synchro out the wazoo. Card Trooper is an unsung hero in this new build.  Even when Skill Drain is active, we can still mill as a cost (no attack boost however) and it will still net you a card when it is destroyed and sent to the grave. The zombie engine gives us something that we were lacking in the original build: SPEED.  We can now thin our deck on our way to big beaters and at the same time making sure that we are drawing into spells and traps and not more monsters.  Goku En and Paladin are both light monsters that allow Honest to lend its busted power.  What I like about the new monster lineup is that once you get your zombie engine online, you have access to recursion thru Mezuki and Book of Life, Beatsticks in the form of Paladin and Goku En...both of which are searchable by Pyramid Turtle, and synchros with plaguespreader.

The spells are now suited to handle the conversion.  Forbidden chalice is still present as it is great when we don't have skill drain available and we happen to run into face down Rykos, Spies, and Hamsters.  It also WRECKS Stardust because its effect activates on the field.  So feel free to Chalice a Stardust and hope they tribute it after you play storm!

At last we come to the traps.  The original build was lacking protection for his various set ups so we are going to be running Starlight Road and Solemn Judgment.  Mirror Force was added as well because its freaking MIRROR FORCE.  I know that people are afraid of opposing Starlight Roads, so we added a dust tornado to pick those off.  Finally, Torrential Tribute was added to make sure we are not getting over powered.  Since the deck now has a powerful recursion engine, destroying our own monsters in the progress of killing theirs hurts a lot less than it should. 

I hope you like these fixes.  If you have any specific questions about combos and card choices, feel free to leave a comment down below.  If you would like your deck fixed, please send a PM to my YouTube inbox.

-dubkdad1