Meta Pick Number 1: Spellbooks

     Today I want to go into a meta discussion of the January 2014 format about my overall number one pick.

Incoming Spellbook Deck List:

Monsters: 10
2 World of Prophecy
1 High Priestess of Prophecy
3 Spellbook Magician of Prophecy
3 Temperance of Prophecy
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 18
3 Spellbook of Secrets
2 Spellbook of the Master
2 The Grand Spellbook Tower
1 Spellbook Library of the Crescent
1 Spellbook of Power
1 Spellbook of Wisdom
1 Spellbook of Life
1 Spellbook of Fate
1 Spellbook of Eternity
3 Pot of Duality
2 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 12
3 Reckless Greed
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Divine Wrath
2 Raigeki Break
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Warning

Extra:
Shining Elf + Staples that I can make but nothing is really necessary and hardly ever comes out.

Side Deck:
***To be revealed at a later time, see below for details***

     The reason I love Spellbooks this format is the ability to grind the game so well, the ability to maintain advantage, and literally forces your opponent to make awkward plays that he/she isn't used to. Also, the deck has ultimate consistency that can ensure that you will always have your standard plays right from the start!

     

     Even with Spellbook of Fate now limited to 1, the deck can still recycle and abuse the only copy every turn through The Grand Spellbook Tower to help maintain control; needless to say, Tower has never been so important. But this is not the only way we can recycle our Fate! With a correct setup, we can get Fate back through World of Prophecy, and it even comes with a field wipe! With cards like Solemn Judgment banned and Solemn Warning at 1, there are very few ways to prevent the summoning of World of Prophecy. The obvious answer to World would be Effect Veiler which is seeing somewhat more play this format, but we have answers for that as well!

     

     Divine Wrath is an old Counter Trap card that at the cost of a single discard, we can negate any effect that we don't want to happen; in turn, preventing Veiler from stopping our World of Prophecy play. Discarding a card from hand has always been a cost that no one has wanted to pay, but when you are looking at a situation that you would gain so much advantage, its going to be as if there wasn't a cost to begin with. Literally every monster in the Fire Fists lineup is vulnerable to Divine Wrath, and when you stop one of their effects it puts them in a vulnerable stage to setup next turn for the win. In the Prophecy mirror match, a well executed Divine Wrath can turn the match in your favor and prevent the opponent from ever returning in that game. The list can go on for days, but to be blunt, effect negation is too heavily important and Divine Wrath should be put in every deck that can run it. Aside from the need to discard World of Prophecy from hand, Divine Wrath prevents anything that you don't want, effect wise, from ever happening.

     Is the draw necessary?! When has it never been good to draw extra cards? In a deck like Prophecy that already gets an extra draw phase through Spellbook Tower, is Reckless Greed and Pot of Duality needed? In short, yes! With cards like Mistake and Thunder King Rai-Oh being an end all to Spellbooks, there is little we can do without drawing into certain answers. The thought of drawing into World of Prophecy may make you want to reconsider this strategy, but reward outweighs the risks. With Hieratics on the rise and using cards like Wingbeat of a Giant Dragon to clear backrow, we want as many chainable cards(Reckless Greed, etc) and access to plays(Secrets, Pot of Duality, etc) as often as we can to get back into the game. With all the deck thinning and searching going on, its nothing to use a Reckless Greed on your turn to draw into a second as a bluff set to hopefully force an MST or Bear effect on it, or at worst, to use in the End Phase of your opponent's turn. I find that even if I do draw into a world, I have cards like Raigeki Break and Divine Wrath to ensure it goes to grave to setup a Spellbook of Life play. Typically when a game reaches mid-stages, I have double the card economy that my opponent has, and that is a very comfortable feeling when you are testing for a regional or YCS, as well as getting answers for cards like Mistake and Thunder King.

     Isn't Breaker the Magical Warrior supposed to be sided?! This was almost going to be the 3rd MST, but after testing Breaker in the maindeck, I've started to like it a lot more. There are going to be situations where you simply don't have a big enough normal summon to get over threats and with the aid of Spellbook of Power, Break can get over just about anything that could put you in bad positions, not to mention he helps to make Big Eye and Dracossack with a Life play should I need it. Also, unlike MST, this card is a +1 when you use his effect. A lot of players are using Stoic of Prophecy in this slot to help grab a Temperance of Prophecy, but I find that I'm sitting on 1 Temperance in hand, awaiting the optimal moment to bring out World of Prophecy. Also, that main deck out to Thunder King seems good assuming I don't hit backrow.

     I'm only running 1 Spellbook Library of the Crescent which has always been a 2-3 of in Prophecy Decks. I have a couple reasons for this, one is I don't want a dead card mid to late game, and two, everything is searchable for if I would need it. With Pot of Duality at 3 I'm comfortable with this decision. If I open 1 Spellbook Magician of Prophecy and Spellbook of Secrets or Crescent, I'm pretty much guaranteed a setup of Tower and Spellbook of Fate with 3 Spellbooks in grave. So far in my testing this is beyond a common turn 1 as the deck is in current form. I wanted to add room for 3 Reckless Greed and 3 Pot of Duality, and this was what I had to do and so far, I haven't regretted it.

      As stated earlier, I love Prophecy for its ability to side. One of the key things that a competitive player needs to learn is how to side and learn his or her limitations. Obviously you don't want to over-side, but what is over-siding? Is it siding more than 8 cards for one matchup or is it more  than 3? The answer is dependent on your deck! My Dragon Ruler deck for this format is setup for a 3-4 card side, what that means is I can only side 3-4 cards in order to maintain overall consistency and to not ruin the overall flow of the deck. Prophecy, at least this build, on the other hand can side 6 and maintain its flow. But before I get too deep into this, I will be making a new post on how to side at a future time to help all the players. On topic, having a build of any deck that can comfortably side 5-6 cards is outstanding. You have to know how cards are going to interact in a matchup to understand in great detail of the How's and Why's of siding, but in short this deck can side out Fiendish Chain for instance and still have Effect Negation with Divine Wrath. Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute can be sided out with cards like Overworked and Fairy Wind coming in. So with that, you already have the basics covered for a Fire Fists matchup and still have room for anything extra that you may want to bring in. These are the typical starting points of siding out for prophecy, obviously in some matchups, you may want to keep Torrential Tribute, but you then side out other means. Take Maxx "C" for instance. A lot of players have moved it to the side and as you can see, so have I. When I need to bring Maxx "C" in, the side is rather simple when I move 2 of my Pot of Dualities out for them. The idea is that Pot of Duality improves consistency by allowing you to pick one of your next three cards; Maxx "C", if used correctly, does the same thing but also puts your opponent in a position to stop playing. The deck has so many auto sides that allow it to adjust for virtually any matchup.

      I believe I have covered all the high points of this deck profile. I plan to do more throughout the week of all the proposed Meta with my touch on things. As stated, I feel this is the overall best deck of the format; if you can keep tower active on the field, I simply can't see the deck losing.

Thanks,
Peperm1nt