Stall

Overview
Stall cards are cards that are used to prevent your opponent from attacking you.

Common Stall cards include:


 * Monsters - "Spirit Reaper", "Big Shield Gardna", "Destiny Hero - Defender", "Marshmallon" "Shiba-Warrior Taro", and the "Solar Flare Dragon" / "Solar Flare Dragon combo


 * Spells - "Level Limit - Area B", "Scapegoat", "Swords of Revealing Light" and "Nightmare's Steelcage".


 * Traps - "Gravity Bind", "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow". "Wall of Revealing Light", the "DNA Surgery" / "Insect Barrier" combo, and the "Macro Cosmos" / "Gravekeeper's Servant" combo.

Decks usually include stall cards as part of a larger strategy, such as a Burn deck or an Exodia deck. They are also used to buy time for a player if their opponent gains an advantage over them.

Playing Style
A Stall Deck is designed to slow your opponent down and make it difficult to either inflict damage, or even to attack. Stalling is not a way to win by itself; it is usually used as a means to an ends. Although it is most commonly used in the Exodia Deck, it is also used in the Destiny Board Deck and the Burn Deck. In rare cases it may succeed in running opponents (especially those with decks of 50 cards or less) out of cards to draw from their deck, or to win with cards such as Final Countdown and Wave-Motion Cannon.

Decks consisting of Low level monsters are often Stall Decks, as your own monsters can often get around cards that stall your opponent; examples include Skull Servant Deck or Low Level Normal Monster Deck.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Spirit Barrier, D.D. Borderline, Nightmare's Steelcage, Gravity Bind, Level Limit - Area B, Swords of Revealing Light, and Wall of Revealing Light, all stall your opponent.

Another Final Stall method would be the "Ultimate Field" Strategy. The Strategy is a combination which can alternate between cards that negate your opponents opportunity to summon monsters, play spell cards, or play trap cards. Although it may not defeat your opponent, it does guarantee that you will control the duel. The Ultimate Field consists of: Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, Jinzo, the powerful Armed Dragon LV10 and the meek yet strong Mystic Swordsman LV6 or Ground Collapse Times Three. The Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 can be replaced with Spell Canceller, Silent Swordsman LV7. The Jinzo can be replaced with a Royal Decree, and the three Ground Collapses can be replaced with any combination of Ojama King, Ojama Knight, Ojama Trio, and Ground Collapse.

Another version of the ultimate field strategy is using Ojama Trio, destroying one and using another. Then using Spatial Collapse.


 * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 assures that your opponent can't play/activate spells.


 * Jinzo/Royal Decree assures that your opponent can't play/activate traps.


 * Three Ground Collapse assures your opponent can't play or take control of your monsters.


 * Thousand-Eyes Restrict assures your opponent can't attack.

The Ultimate Field Strategy can be stopped by cards such as Spiritualism as it can not be negated by Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, after using Spiritualism on a Ground Collapse/Royal Decree the opponent could summon a monster and could in turn set a Man-Eater Bug and destroy either Horus or Jinzo and destroy your combo. To stop these dangerous flip effects you could include Mystic Swordsman LV2 and Mystic Swordsman LV4. Add in a Final Countdown card or Wave-Motion Cannon cards which will be for winning during your stall for time. Spiritualism, however, is very rare and situational. Should you have that combo down (which itself is also hard to compose), defeat for your opponent is imminent anyways. The only way the Ultimate Field can be stopped if Ojama King, Ojama Knight, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 and Jinzo are used is via the effect of Exodia the Forbidden One or through sacrificing the opponent's monsters for Lava Golem.

Heal Deck
A Heal Deck focuses on healing, Stall, and some burn. Most of the individual cards that increase Life Points are meager on their own, but work finely in combos. For example, Griggle combined with Creature Swap gives you a hefty life point boost while trading your weak monster for your opponent's stronger one. Also, The Immortal of Thunder or Granadora combined with Dimensional Fissure would erase the monster's draw back effect. The currently most exploited combo is Necroface, Soul Absorption, and Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure.

A thing to note is that main weakness of the Deck is that Bad Reaction to Simochi will completely turn the player's strategy against themself. Another point to note is that there is currently no way to win the game by having a high amount of life points. Without some victory condition, the best this deck can hope to do is deck out your opponent to win.

Burn is one of them, through the effects of Fire Princess or The Agent of Judgment - Saturn. Beatdown is another, through monsters such as The Agent of Force - Mars and Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin that gain ATK power depending on the difference in number of life points that you and your opponent share. Injection Fairy Lily's powerful effect could also be used non-stop and you could possibly even utilize Mirror Wall.

The two most suggested support cards to add to a Life Point gaining deck are either Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure, to erase the draw backs of numerous cards, or The Sanctuary in the Sky, to exploit the effects of the numerous Fairy-type monsters.

Recommended Cards
The following are cards that increase a player's own life points. However, some cards (ex. Elemental Recharge) only work in certain conditions and some cards (ex. The Immortal of Thunder) may help you gain Life Points, but still make you lose Life Points in the end. Dark Snake Syndrome dishes out heavy damage to both players but you are virtually unaffected since you have an abundance of life points.

Monster Cards

 * Absorbing Kid from the Sky
 * Athena
 * Cure Mermaid
 * Dancing Fairy
 * Elephant Statue of Blessing
 * Fire Princess
 * Granadora
 * Griggle
 * Prime Material Dragon
 * Nurse Reficule the Fallen One
 * Golden Ladybug
 * Guardian Angel Joan
 * Hysteric Fairy
 * Mysterious Puppeteer
 * Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird
 * Nimble Momonga x3
 * Skull-Mark Ladybug
 * The Immortal of Thunder
 * White Magician Pikeru
 * Zolga
 * Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin

Spell Cards

 * Blessings of the Nile
 * Cestus of Dagla
 * Dian Keto the Cure Master
 * Emergency Provisions
 * Mystik Wok
 * Poison of the Old Man
 * Sebek's Blessing
 * Soul Absorption
 * Spell Absorption
 * Dark Snake Syndrome

Trap Cards

 * Aegis of Gaia
 * Altar for Tribute
 * Draining Shield
 * Numinous Healer x 3
 * Nutrient Z
 * Solemn Wishes
 * The Spell Absorbing Life
 * Rainbow Life
 * Gift of the Mystical Elf