Forum:Deck Guide/Volcanic

by Gadjiltron --Gadjiltron (talk • contribs) 09:33, October 29, 2013 (UTC)

Intro
Axel Brodie has been a pretty cool guy, having been able to force a draw against Jaden Yuki, the (mostly) invincible main character in GX. Perhaps the other thing he's known for is his strange Duel Disk that can apparently use cards as ammunition.

Much like how his Duel Disk functions like a gun, his Deck's archetype utilizes cannons and ammunition that destroy the opponent's monsters while laying waste to the opponent's Life Points via effect damage. Most of his cards were released in Force of the Breaker, with an occasional boost in a few of the later packs.

Mechanics
The Volcanic archetype is a group of Pyro-Type monsters focusing around the Blaze Accelerator series of Continuous Spells. It destroys threatening monsters by discarding their smaller members using the Accelerators while allowing their stronger members to stick around and inflict damage via their effects.

A number of the burn effects also exchange the monsters' ability to attack, but this is to let them work in tandem with the Blaze Accelerator cards that also revoke the ability to attack when used. While this usually leaves players at a "attack or burn" dilemma, some players decide to forgo their Battle Phase entirely and play a stall-burn variant with a dash of monster control.

Strengths

 * Field control - With ways to search out any form of Blaze Accelerator and gather "ammunition" for them, the Deck has the ability to destroy any possible threat the opponent could Summon while grinding away at the opponent's Life Points with various damage abilities.

Weaknesses

 * Battle Phase lockout - In exchange for the ability to indiscriminately destroy monsters, Volcanic players lose the ability to attack when they do so, leaving them to rely on effect damage rather than direct attacks with their bigger monsters.
 * Stardust Dragon - Since most of the Deck is focused around clearing out monsters with effects, this one card can stifle its entire strategy. Fortunately, it can be remedied by using other means of monster removal, like bouncing or banishing.

The Centrepiece

 * Blaze Accelerator - The most important part of the Volcanic Deck, and the source of their field control. Critical enough to warrant a monster that can search and recycle it. By sending a Pyro monster with 500 or less ATK from your hand to the Graveyard and forgoing your Battle Phase, you get to destroy a monster your opponent controls. The best part is that you can do this multiple times a turn, but the problem lies in that you can't attack the turn you use this effect. Pick your targets carefully.
 * Tri-Blaze Accelerator - An upgraded version of Blaze Accelerator which needs you to send the original to the Graveyard first. You now can send any Pyro-Type monster to the Graveyard to destroy monsters, and when you do so, you inflict an additional 500 damage to the opponent.

The Monsters

 * Volcanic Rat - A rather disappointing Normal monster. At 500/500, it snugly fits the bill for being used with Blaze Accelerator, but the Volcanic archetype has better ammo to use.
 * Volcanic Shell - The smallest member of the Volcanic family. Standing at 100/0, Volcanic Shell is not going to be winning any battles, and is instead designed to be used on Blaze Accelerator. After discarding it, you can then pay 500 LP to add another copy of it to your hand from your Deck, replenishing your ammo to let you destroy another monster. And then the second shell, after being fired off, can add a third. Such convenient monster destruction combined with Deck thinning in such a small package.
 * Volcanic Scattershot - Slightly bigger than Shell, but with stats of 500/0, it too will not be winning any battles. Instead, it inflicts 500 burn damage if sent to the Graveyard from anywhere, and if you fired it off from (Tri-)Blaze Accelerator, you can send 2 copies of it from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard to destroy all monsters your opponent controls, wiping their field of monsters while doing a net of 1500 damage. You'll definitely want to run 3 of them in there.
 * Volcanic Counter - With stats of 300/1300, it allows Counter a limited ability to deter attacks from small monsters while being ammo for Blaze Accelerator. The best part is that you'd want Volcanic Counter in your Graveyard, because that's where its effect can activate. When you take battle damage, you must banish this card from your Graveyard, then afterwards if you have a FIRE monster that's not another copy of this card, your opponent takes damage equal to what you took. Since multiple copies of Volcanic Counter will trigger on a single attack, you're best off taking care that you don't put too many in your Graveyard, or your opponent will trick all Counters into replicating an instance of 100 damage.
 * Volcanic Blaster - Now we're moving away from ammunition monsters and towards stuff you'd want to Summon. Unfortunately, with stats of 1200/600, Blaster isn't so good at holding the field and would rather get destroyed in battle, and when it does, you can place a Volcanic monster on the top of your Deck. We would have preferred it if Blaster actually puts that monster in your hand, because doing so rather than just rigging the next draw would have aided the Volcanic Deck's speed. But I suppose beggars can't be choosers...
 * Volcanic Slicer - Now we're talking. Volcanic Slicer has decent beatstick stats of 1800/1200, allowing a player to supply good offensive pressure while they still have the ability to attack. When they can't attack, Slicer backs up with a 500-per-turn burn in exchange for not attacking.
 * Volcanic Rocket - A wise addition from the TCG that later appeared in the Extra Pack. 1900/1400 lets it beat better face than Slicer, and when Summoned, you can add (Tri-)Blaze Accelerator from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. Since one would only need one copy of Blaze Accelerator active at any one time, the recycling ability of Volcanic Rocket lets a player run only one copy of Blaze Accelerator for more space to use other cards without risking excess Blaze Accelerators becoming dead draws. A definite must for Volcanic Decks.
 * Volcanic Hammerer - A Tribute monster that stands at 2400/1500, allowing it to tie with the Monarchs. In exchange for attacking, Hammerer can inflict 200 damage for each Volcanic monster you have in your Graveyard. Generally, you'd want to use Hammerer's burn effect after you've used enough ammo, otherwise it would be easily outdone by Slicer.
 * Volcanic Queen - A lesser Lava Golem which Special Summons itself to the opponent's side of the field by Tributing one of their monsters. While she forces its controller to Tribute 1 other monster or take 1000 damage, Queen herself also grants its user the ability to inflict 1000 damage by sending 1 other card they control to the Graveyard, making Queen a rather nasty double-edged sword. You're better off running Lava Golem which can get rid of 2 opponent's monsters at once.
 * Volcanic Doomfire - The ace card of the whole archetype. It's a semi-Nomi, requiring you to send a Tri-Blaze Accelerator to bring it out. When it destroys an opponent's monster by battle, it destroys all other monsters they control, inflicting 500 damage for each monster destroyed, and with 3000 ATK, it's very easy to do. Not to mention it also clears the way for your smaller monsters to attack directly, letting you squeeze as much damage out of a single Battle Phase after being denied it for so long. And during your opponent's Battle Phase, they have to attack it with any Attack Position monsters they control, giving more opportunities for its pseudo-Raigeki to trigger. Awesome as it seems, you'd normally want to keep your Tri-Blaze under most circumstances, so keep this at 1 maximum.

Spells & Traps
We've already covered (Tri-)Blaze Accelerator, so let's see what else is there...


 * Wild Fire - At the cost of 500 LP, you get to destroy a Blaze Accelerator and all monsters on the field, and then follow up with a 1000/1000 Wild Fire Token. Since you can't attack the turn you activate this card, this is best performed during the opponent's turn. You can then push for damage with what you summon afterwards, be it Hammerer or Rocket or Slicer.
 * Volcanic Recharge - Shuffle 3 Volcanic monsters from your Graveyard into your Deck. Naturally, you'll want to use this to recycle your ammo after using them. But we have Royal Firestorm Guards, which affect any Pyro monster and shuffles 4 in, in addition to having nice stats. Recharge has been utterly outclassed by the Firestorm Guards.

Supplementary Cards
The annoying part is that while Volcanics have some impressive monsters, they also lack good support due to Axel not having much Duel screentime (though, admittedly, he made that lacking time count). Thus, as with many other underdeveloped archetypes, we resort to supporting with other cards.


 * Solar Flare Dragon - Combos very nicely with the rest of the archetype since they're all Pyro monsters. Solar Flare Dragon provides a continuous burn source at 500 LP per turn, and becomes unattackable if you control another Pyro monster. During times when you are unable to attack for various reasons, you can simply sit on SFD and your other Volcanics' effects.
 * Royal Firestorm Guards - Upon Normal Summon, you shuffle 4 Pyro monsters into your Deck, then draw 2 cards. Essentially a replacement for Pot of Avarice which got hit in September 2013, and lets you recycle your ammo while getting more draws. With 1700/1200 stats, it can also engage in its own battles.
 * Lava Golem - An unstoppable means of monster removal. You Tribute your opponent's monsters, and Special Summon it to their side of the field. Even if they negate the Summon, they still lose the monster. Then, you can let it sit on the opponent's field and burn 1000 damage, or if its stats look intimidating, you can shoot it down with (Tri-)Blaze Accelerator.
 * Pyrorex the Elemental Lord - In a Deck that's nearly filled with FIRE monsters and ways to pick them out from the Graveyard, Pyrorex can provide an offensive edge to the Deck and help push for damage without needing to sacrifice the Battle Phase. Once you have 5 FIRE monsters, you can Special Summon Pyrorex, you destroy a monster your opponent controls and inflict half of that monster's ATK as damage to both players, clearing the path and allowing you to crush the rest in battle with its 2800/2200 body. If Pyrorex leaves the field, you skip your next Battle Phase, but when you're running Volcanics, this is something you already deal with regularly.
 * Lavalval Chain - A little excuse to run Mind Control and deny your opponent a LV4 monster. Doing so lets you save your ammunition for other targets that matter. Chain itself can let you either set up your Graveyard (like milling a Counter or Shell) or rig your next draw with a monster you'll need. Far more efficient than Volcanic Blaster.
 * Burial from a Different Dimension - If you think you can absorb a hit but your opponent can't take 2 to 3 times that damage, pop this to immediately recycle multiple Volcanic Counters at once when Battle Damage is imminent. They'll all trigger at once and inflict 2 to 3 times the damage you took, leaving you with the last laugh.
 * Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai - The monsters you want to Summon naturally have high ATK. If they come under threat of removal, create one heck of a parting shot by Tributing them with Kurenai, inflicting massive burn along the way.

Tag Duel Options
Volcanics are best buddies with Slow Burn Decks, as they can support the Slow Burn's style of multiple chips of effect damage while supporting with monster removal. The loss of Battle Phases is something Volcanics are already used to.

Other Tips

 * Flame Spirit Ignis - After a long duel where the Graveyards are filled with monsters from both sides, bring out Flame Spirit Ignis to do that last bit of effect damage you need to clean off the opponent's LP.
 * Snipe Hunter - Need ways to destroy your opponent's S/Ts and in an unpredictable way that Stardust Dragon can't stop? Discard a card, roll a die, and play Russian Roulette with a card of your choice on the field. As long as it's not 1 or 6, it's destroyed. Feel lucky, punk?
 * Creature Swap - Wait, you're seriously using Volcanic Queen? Better take this with you. With a good enough play, Queen gets swapped over to your side, allowing you to take potshots at the opponent's Life Points and attack with it. Mind the burn.
 * Foolish Burial - Need a bullet? Mill Shell with this card, then you can start tutoring the other copies to fire off.
 * Molten Destruction - When you end up entering the Battle Phase, make it count. Molten Destruction grants FIRE monsters a 500 ATK boost (and 400 DEF penalty, something you shouldn't really be worrying about), letting you destroy more monsters in battle with your beatsticks and conserve ammo for the targets that really matter.
 * Coffin Seller - "Never mind the bullets, how much these coffins costin' ya?" Gain another source of damage by burning for 300 LP each time you destroy an opponent's monster. Best utilized when sniping things with the Accelerators rather than blowing things up with Scattershot.
 * Final Attack Orders - If you brought out Doomfire and your opponent is cowering, use this to goad their monsters into suiciding into Doomfire. If they don't summon, all the better - you are free to attack directly.
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast - Well, with TCG hitting Compulsory Evacuation Device, this is a good sidegrade to Comp Evac. The Chainable Trap lets you put a target monster on the top of its owner's Deck, bypassing destruction-proofing and screwing up the opponent's next draw if you topdecked their Main Deck monster.