'Eavy Sturm

Everyone runs Heavy Storm.

Oh! That one deck out of two hundred that doesnt run Heavy Storm? It runs Giant Trunade.
And, the other 4 decks the same person owns runs...

Thats right! Heavy Storm.

Everybody loves backrow wipes. So, whats stopping you from using more than just one or two?

Yeah "Starlight Road". But One or two starlight roads isnt enough to tackle 4 or 5 heavy storms, is it?

Well, if one Heavy Storm goes, players will take that into account and not fear storm again, letting them set heavily.

This is where more than just one heavy storm really helps.

Today I'd like to go over each "Destroy Entire Backrow" and discuss how to run them.

Today's post will not take into account Giant Trunade and other cards that bounce the backrow. Why? Because theyll be there next turn.

Lets start:
Heavy Storm

The classic. We all know heavy storm, right?

Why dont people use it?
Its Limited.

Why DO people use it?
And you DONT?

Next.

Wingbeat of Giant Dragon.

Essentially, a Heavy Storm that isnt limited. However, it comes with a drawback: You need to bounce a level 5 or more dragon from the field to your hand.

Dragon decks in general suffer greatly from the standard meta cards: Opression, Dimension Fissure, and Royal Wall.

Hence, why not just blow it all up at once?

The problem with the card is that you need to bounce a high leveled monster. Why bounce a high leveled dragon that you spent so much effort summoning?

There are other options!

For example: Bouncing a Vandalgyon or Dragon Knight is fun.
If you use monsters such as Vice Dragon or Dragon Ice, suddenly the heavy cost and hard to summon Dragon monster is not so hard to get back out!

The final option is to use recruiters to grab out Excelion or Twilight Zone Dragon and bounce that.

Also when using this card, remember that returning the monster to your hand is part of the effect.

Which in turn means that a mind controlled Stardust Dragon can be sent back to the extra deck to trigger this card!

Unfortunately theyre not too many good Dragons with a "When Normal Summoned" effects that are good, so the use of this card to re-use said Dragon is a bit limited.

Next Card:
Cyclone Boomerang.

First: Its a specific equip card. For Wildman.

Also, the decks that use Wildman are trap heavy anyhows. If hes being used anymore at all.

General Consensus: It sucks. Just use some of the other heavy Storm alternatives being shown today.

Benefits: Can be searched by Arms Hole
Gives Attack Buff.
Deals Damage!(Very little though.)

Cons: Everything else
Needs to be destroyed by effect.


Gigantes

Gigantes is an easy to summon 1900 beatstick.
And not only is it just summoned, its special summoned with near zero cost!

However, Gigantes has two drawbacks:

It requires a number of Earth monsters in your deck.
To be honest, a lot of Earth monsters downright suck.

And it needs to be Destroyed by battle to get its effect off.

In Core Chimail decks that use Creature Swap for Core Chimail Rock, its possible to use Gigantes for its backrow clearing effect, even if you arent using it just as a 1900 beatstick.

Of course, sending it to its doom just to trigger its Heavy Storm effect works too.

Also, it becomes a high priority target for Dimension Prisons and Mirror Force. Destroying it by battle just isnt an option sometimes.


Sacred Pheonix of Nephtys.

This dies to everything IN the meta and everything AGAINST it.

Long story short, even if you do get it out, and DESTROYED by an effect, chances are, itll never get its effect off.

Because it not only demands a backrow light deck, to ensure you dont get demolished by yourself, but a backrow heavy deck, to ensure you DO get to demolish something, the conflict causes either an imbalance of deck balance or a really bad deck.

It dies to Trishula, D.D.Crow, etc.

Also, it dies to the things people use additional heavy storms to get RID of.


Alongside Gigantes and Wingbeat of Giant Dragon is Malevolent Catastrophe.

Malevolent Catastrophe is, unlike Wingbeat, costless, and unlike Gigantes, almost controllable by you.

However, unlike Heavy Storm, Malevolent Catastrophe is used when youre being attacked.
Most of the time, you will want to get rid of spells/traps when you're attacking, instead of coming under attack.

Oh, and it works well with Mirage Dragon or Black Warewolf. The opponent wont be able to respond with Counter Traps!

Also, because it doesnt see much play, some players have yet to learn to set during Main phase 2.


Thats all for today.

Tommorow(?): The other options for dealing with pesky backrow!

/Rauzes