Breaking the Meta - Gravekeepers are Back!?!

I can remember when these crazy guys got a HUGE amount of support thanks to the Marik Structure deck, and they came around at the PERFECT time. I was of course playing Plant Synchro, so I really hated this deck, but after Karakuri came along, I was happy again :D

Gravekeeper Control is a known decktype and for the life of me, I can not come close to finding out why Gravekeepers were not EVERYWHERE!! at the US WCQ or any other WCQ that had Dragons and Spellbooks!! This deck mains 3 Necrovalleys which SCREAM hate on all of the top 3 decks! Necrovalley is VERY very searchable and depending what techs the player chooses to main can make the duel lopsided, very fast. First the decklist:

Gravekeeper Control - (Skeleton Build)

Monsters: 16
x1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
x2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
x3 Gravekeeper's Spy
x3 Gravekeeper's Descendant
x3 Gravekeeper's Recruiter
x2 Gravekeeper's Commandent
x2 Effect Veiler

Spells: 13
x2 Pot of Duality
x2 Royal Tribute
x3 Necrovalley
x2 Gravekeeper's Steele
x1 Dark Hole
x3 Spellbook of Power

Traps: 11
x1 Starlight Road
x1 Solemn Judgment
x1 Solemn Warning
x3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
x2 Bottomless Trap Hole
x2 Dimension Prison
x1 Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck:
**This deck doesn't rely on the extra deck too much, but these are needed for certain situations. Master Key Beetle is probably the only one you would want to make, next to Shock Master/Dweller. Crazy Box is for Virus Cards**
x1-2 Shock Master
x1-2 Crazy Box
x2 Master Key Beetle
x1 Steelswarm Roach
x1 Abyss Dweller
x1 Stardust Dragon

So how does this beat the Meta?

Meta as of current is Elemental Dragons and Prophecy. Evilswarms are scattered about, as well as Mermails here and there. I'm sure there are plenty of Tier 2 decks that could beat GKs with ease, but that is why we have Side Decks and Traps. Look at any of the tournament winning decklists and you will see a key spell card missing in about 90% of the Main Decks and almost every Side Deck; Mystical Space Typhoon!! Deck building is going away from running this card, for good reasons, but allows curious deck builders to play into that trend. Common Spell and Trap removal in the top tier decks are: Heavy Storm(most decks), Blaster(E-Dragons and Fire Fists), Spellbook of Fate(Prophecy), and that is just about it!! So that means less worrying about whether or not Necrovalley will die.

Necrovalley stops cards from being affected in the graveyard and also prevents cards in the graveyard from being banished. That means Spellbooks only have 1 card in the main deck that can beat it which is Heavy Storm, which means Fate and Priestess are next to useless and have no protection from your traps, unless Wisdom sees play and even then, you can chain the obviously chainable cards to it. Elemental Dragons can only use the Baby Dragons to summon the bigger ones to bring out Dracossack or Big Eye to kill Necrovalley or use Blaster to kill it; which is why I suggest to main 1-2 Mind Drain for an insta-win. In the Evilswarm match-up, this deck runs enough traps to deal with Ophion, and if you deal with him quickly, Evilswarms have a hard follow-up; especially when Kerk is dead while Necrovalley is live.

One Setup to Rule Them All!!

Necrovalley + Gravekeeper's Spy + 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device

This is a VERY powerful setup in the current format. Typically, most decks will have trouble dealing with 2 CED on the field, and when you add a 2500 def wall that SS's something and Necrovalley, you have almost a game win assuming the rest of your hand wasn't dead. This setup seems simple, but any good player can tell you how mean CED is if it's well timed. It could also be 1 Solemn Warning and 1 CED, 2 BTH, or a combination of all!! Necrovalley just limits so many Meta plays and if the opponent were to kill it, just grab a recruiter with Spy, grab Recruiter into Commandent and get Necrovalley again next turn.

MOST BROKE PLAY EVER!

Necrovalley + Royal Tribute

Many times this has happened to me and seeing as to how I play Karakuri, I have raged everytime(until I started Maining Instant Fusion and Emergency Teleport). This is another insta-win vs E-Dragons. Typically, E-Dragons have a hand full of Monsters and seeing as to how they all would go to the grave with a live Necrovalley, watch as they scoop and go to game 2! If Royal Tribute goes to 3 I will sale my Dragon deck and buy every card in this at a 1/5 the price and buy dragons again in 5 months for $50. Against Evilswarms, you would only have to play into traps which is why I suggest to Main 1-2 EEV for added hate! That's right.. die Evilswarms.

HOW MUCH HATE CAN ONE DECK RUN!??!?!?!!!

Look at the typical side deck cards for the format: Erradicator Epidemic Virus and Imperial Iron Wall (there are plenty of others, but they are used for what these two cards accomplish, but in other ways; Deck Devastation Virus is not a common side, but kills several rouge decks and decks wish they could run it. This deck has the capabilities of maining these cards without a hindrance on how the deck works. This is pure stun and not all these fancy combo plays; just simply well timed counters. Depending on how deep you want to go into your side deck, you can side several cards in and several cards out without hurting the deck.

This is not a completed build, but to be used as a skeleton for the format at which Gravekeepers would be good in. At a locals, this current build would/could do very good; but if I were going to a YCS or Regionals with this, I would probably main 1-2 Mind Drain to help out vs Effect Veiler abuse and E-Dragons running wild. Dimensional Prison could be replaced with 2 Main Deck Spellbook of Wisdom or an extra Torrential Tribute and Effect Veiler. Tweak to your liking and rock the Meta!! Don't let this format bring you down and don't forget all the skills and talent previous formats have taught you. After my first WCQ/Nats event I must say that I have learned a lot on how to counter the meta and big shout outs to my friends in Lexington, KY for helping me achieve this awesome feat!

Peperm1nt