Forum:Deck Guide/Normal Monster

By Lappyzard

=Normal Monsters= Normal Monsters, more commonly known as Vanilla Cards, are the original type of monster. They have no effect, and instead the card text contains a descritption of the card, and sometimes part of the story behind it. Normal Monsters used to be the only option, but have fallen out of play for a long time since Effect Monsters have become much more useful. However, Normal Monsters have a lot of powerful support, so they can still be played effectively.

Strengths
Normal monsters, being effect-less by nature, tend to have higher ATK to make up for their lack of an effect. They have a number of powerful support cards that give them strength, and having no effect, they are easy to use.

Weaknesses
Normal monsters suffer from a lack of effects, meaning they can only be used as beaters. While most decks can change the game state with any card in their deck, Normal decks are restricted to about half: their Spells and Traps.

Meta Ranking
Speed: 5/10 Normal decks are typically very slow, but they can draw a lot of cards thanks to Heart of the Underdog.

Power: 8/10 Normal decks are nothing but. Most monsters in a Normal deck can go toe to toe with any monsters of the same level.

Consistency: 4/10 Normal decks thrive on having a complicated game state to set up combos, but fall apart when they get down to topdecking.

Search/Draw Power: 10/10 Normal decks contain lots of draw power options, as well as hosting the single most effective draw card ever: Heart of the Underdog.

Overall: 6.75/10 Normal decks lack the consistency to be competitive, and just can't match the speed of most decks. Still, they have some neat tricks up their sleeves to surprise the opponent.

The Strongest Monsters
The strongest Normal monsters by ATK for each level are as follows:
 * Level 8: Blue-Eyes White Dragon Seto Kaiba's legendary monster, this card is an old favorite of many players.
 * Level 7: Wingweaver Coming in at 2750 ATK, this card rules the level 7s.
 * Level 6: Frostosaurus Sitting at 2600 ATK, this frozen dino packs a heavy punch.
 * Level 5: Cyber-Tech Alligator Boasting 2500 ATK, this strange Reptile.Machine hybrid is champion.
 * Level 4: Gene-Warped Warwolf The only monster to break the Rule of 2000, this is the strongest level 4 monster with no drawback.
 * Level 3: Jerry Beans Man This magical little fruit has a hefty 1750 ATK.
 * Level 2: Atlantean Pikeman This little guy takes the win with 1400 ATK; the highest of ANY level 2 for that matter, with or without an effect.
 * Level 1: Volcanic Rat With 500 ATK, he tops the chart for level 1s. It's worth mentioning however that there is a very old OCG-Exclusive card, Shadow Specter, that also has 500 ATK.

Standard Support
Normal monsters boast a large number of support cards, 60 to be exact. This is far too many to list here, so I'll just be mentioning some of the better ones.

Monsters:
 * Rescue Rabbit This card Special Summons 2 level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from your deck by Banishing itself. It destroys them in the edn Phase, but that's not a problem; just Xyz Summon with them.
 * Emissary of the Afterlife This card grabs you a level 3 or lower Normal Monster from your deck to your hand when it dies. Your opponent is forced to add one too, which they most likely will be unable to, allowing you to look through their deck.
 * Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth This card is the Synchro equivalent of a Normal Monster; it has no effect. Be careful though, it's not actually a Normal Monster.
 * Naturia Leodrake See Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth.
 * Gem-Knight Pearl This card is the Xyz equivalent of a Normal Monster; it has no effect. Like Gaia Knight and Leodrake though, it technically isn't a Normal Monster.

Spells:
 * Heart of the Underdog This card is the single best draw Spell in he game. During your Draw Phase, when you draw a Normal Monster, you can reveal it to draw again. If that card happens to be a Normal Monster, you can reveal it to draw another card. By repeating this process, it’s possible to draw out large portions of your deck in a single turn!
 * Dark Factory of Mass Production This card returns 2 Normal monsters from your Graveyard to your hand.
 * Ancient Rules This card lets you Special Summon your heaviest hitters straight to the field. Technically a minus but you can afford it thanks to Heart of the Underdog.
 * Enchanting Fitting Room This card lets you check the top 4 cards of your deck, then Special Summon all level 3 or below Normal Monsters.
 * Faustian Bargain This card lets you send a Special Summoned monster to the Graveyard to Special Summon a Normal Monster from your hand. It’s great for getting rid of troublesome opponent’s monsters.
 * Summoner's Art This searches out any level 5 or higher Normal Monster. Use it with Ancient Rules.
 * Swing of Memories For one turn, you can bring back a Normal Monster from your Graveyard. It has some potential but is outclassed by other revival cards.
 * Two-Man Cell Battle This can help deal with giant hands created by Heart of the Underdog and also gives a bit of swarming power. It can be used in some decks but isn’t the best choice.
 * White Elephant's Gift You Tribute a non-Effect monster to draw 2 cards It has synergy with Two-Man Cell Battle.

Traps:
 * Attack of the Cornered Rat This Continuous Trap lets level 3 or below Normal Monsters weaken any monster they battle at the cost of 100 Life Points per 100 ATK and DEF.
 * Birthright It’s a decent revival card but with Monster Reborn and 2 Call of the Haunted, this card isn’t needed.
 * Common Charity This card lets you draw 2 cards, then remove 1 Normal Monster in your hand from play.
 * Justi-Break This card is like Mirror Force, except even more potent. When your opponent attacks a Normal Monster, it wipes the field of everything that isn’t an attack position Normal monster.
 * Human-Wave Tactics This Continuous Trap replaces all level 2 or below Normal Monsters that are destroyed in battle during the End Phase. You’ll be throwing out more monsters than your opponent can handle.
 * Secrets of the Gallant This card lets you choose 1 Normal Monster you control; if it inflicts Battle Damage that turn, your opponent discards 2 random cards.
 * The League of Uniform Nomenclature This card lets you clone a level 2 or below Normal Monster; you summon another 2 copies from your deck.

All Normal Monsters
This deck uses all levels of Normal Monsters.

Level 3 Normal Monsters
This deck focuses on some of the better Level 3 and level 2 support.