Forum:Deck Guide/Slow Burn

''by Gadjiltron

Intro
The traditional way of finishing an opponent in Yu-Gi-Oh! is to drop your opponent's Life Points to 0, often accomplished via attacking monsters or Direct Attacks. This led to players needing to manage both offense and defense where they had to prevent their attacking monsters from incoming attacks.

One of these means avoids such micromanagement - Burn. The early Burn decks avoid needing to worry about offense by inflicting damage through Effect Damage, and utilizing stall tactics to avoid battle through all costs.

Mechanics
The traditional Burn tactics, unlike more explosive builds, seek to lock the opponent down while using "damage over time" damaging effects to wear down the opponent's Life Points. Battle is not an issue for the Burn Deck, due to the generally low stats of the monsters employed by the Burn Deck.

Analysis

 * Speed: Of course, it takes time for this form of Burn to set up the lock and begin working on the opponent. That's a reason why it's called "Slow Burn".
 * Power: Not an issue with the Deck. Rather than getting by through brute force, this form eats away directly at the opponent's Life Points.
 * Consistency: You're more or less done for if you can't set up the lock or keep it in place for long.
 * Risk: There come various times where you're relying on a single S/T to keep your opponent from tearing through your Life Points. Be wary of any backrow destruction they carry.
 * Meta Ranking: The meta's all about speed lately, and it's unlikely that Slow Burn can get far before that Breaker ruins their plans.

The Basics
Even in Slow Burn, the different forms the Deck can take vary widely. However, there are several things which all these Decks employ for their cause.


 * Gravity Bind - This simple Trap prevents anything of Level 4 or higher from attacking. Not a problem for Burn, but a headache for any aggressive tactics deck.
 * Level Limit - Area B - Similar to Gravity Bind, it turns everything Level 4 or higher into Defense Position, preventing large monsters from attacking.
 * Messenger of Peace - An awesome old card that locks out anything with 1500 or more ATK. The LP cost is very low, and you can also control when to release this lock to allow your larger monsters to attack this turn... if they need to attack, that is.
 * Swords of Revealing Light - A standard stall card that allows you to recuperate whenever things go awry. There's a reason why it's Limited.
 * Threatening Roar - A Chainable Trap that stops the opponent from attacking for this turn. Good in many situations, and perhaps that extra turn to live will get what you need.
 * Ceasefire - Effect Monsters are all the rage today, and so this card is likely to deal at least 2000 damage in one shot depending on the field.
 * Marshmallon - This squishy unkillable sweet will help hold off attacks on your LP, and if it gets struck while face-down, it takes 1000 LP off your opponent too.
 * Spirit Reaper - Much like Marshmallon, Spirit Reaper is unkillable. Just be wary of targetting effects that will cause it to self-destruct.
 * Morphing Jar - It's likely that you'll exhaust your hand by setting your lock up and placing backup defense. The hand reset is always helpful.
 * Sangan - Lots of monsters employed by Slow Burn variants have an ATK low enough to be fetched with Sangan.
 * Secret Barrel - 200 LP per opponent's card on field and in hand doesn't look like much, but when the opponent is clogged up with many other things like Tokens on his field, this can do substantial damage.
 * Magic Cylinder - Punish an opponent for attacking with a large monster by negating the attack and smacking him with the full force of that monster's ATK.

Life Shaver
The traditional Burn/Lock Deck. In addition to the above cards, it also features the following:


 * Solar Flare Dragon - During your End Phase it hits for 500 LP to your opponent. Have 2 or more on the field, and these guys cannot be attacked at all.
 * Lava Golem - This monster can be Summoned to your opponent's side of the field using 2 of his monsters as Tribute, thus getting rid of potential threats while inflicting 1000 damage to your opponent's Life Points at the same time. High stats? No problem, the stall will take care of that.
 * Stealth Bird - Decent DEF value can stave off most medium-sized beatsticks, and each time it gets Flip Summoned it takes 1000 LP off of your opponent. For even more fun, it can turn back to face-down Defense each turn.
 * Des Koala - Another monster with solid DEF, and a decent burning effect that takes off 400 LP per card in the opponent's hand. Good as a follow up to Morphing Jar.
 * Stumbling - Monsters are switched to Defense Position on Summon. This allows you to quickly turtle into Defense, and denies the opponent the opportunity to attack on the same turn they Summon monsters.
 * Just Desserts - Punishes swarming (which is very frequent these days) by burning 500 LP to the opponent for each monster they have, potentially doing up to 2500 LP in one shot. If the opponent plans to Synchro Summon, use this card right after they successfully Summon the last monster they need for a Synchro (by right, you should have an opportunity to do so) to maximise damage done.
 * Ojama Trio - It locks up the opponent's field by spawning 3 useless Tokens, keeping his summons in check, while also adding "cards" to heap on the burn damage from Just Desserts or Secret Barrel. Just be wary of Tuners, as they are easily used for Synchro Summons.

Princess of Flame
This Deck revolves around searching out Fire Princess and using her ability to consistently inflict damage to the opponent, while also healing oneself. The variant features:


 * Fire Princess - The key card of the Deck, and centre of its burn engine. Each time you get a LP increase your opponent takes 500 damage.
 * UFO Turtle - Capable of searching out Fire Princess, and potentially Solar Flare Dragons.
 * Marie the Fallen One - While it's weak healing, it's in your Graveyard and hence harder to stop. Fortunately, Fire Princess accepts any degree of healing to damage your opponent.
 * Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird - A powerful healing card that ups your Life Points by 500 per card in the opponent's hand. Usually will net you 1000 or more LP, and gives Fire Princess another chance to hit the opponent's LP.
 * Nimble Momonga - Its death gets you 1000 LP, and sets up to 2 more of these to block off other attacks. What's not to love?
 * Skull-Mark Ladybug - An old, underused card that gets you 1000 LP when it hits the Graveyard from anywhere.
 * Poison of the Old Man - A potent healing card that can net you 1200 LP by itself, but if Fire Princess isn't around you can take the other option and burn 800 LP to the opponent.
 * Goblin Thief - Opponent loses 500 LP, you gain 500 LP, and Fire Princess gets another chance to activate. What's not to lose?
 * Solemn Wishes - 500 LP a turn is nice since it will also mean 500 LP damage to your opponent at the same time.
 * Draining Shield - Blocks off attacks, and nets you extra LP.

Fallen Angel
The Reficule build is an unusual one, which uses effects that turn healing effects on the opponent into damage. This opens up potential use for other cards with a normally bad side effect of giving your opponent extra LP.


 * Nurse Reficule the Fallen One - The star of the Deck, she turns anything that heals the opponent into damage of the same degree.
 * Mystic Tomato - Nothing like helping to seek out the centerpiece of the Deck.
 * Bad Reaction to Simochi - If Reficule fails to stick around, this is good backup.
 * Soul Taker - Destroy a potential threat, and burn 1000 LP to the opponent if Reficule's out? Sure.
 * Upstart Goblin - Draw a card, burn 1000 LP to the opponent if Reficule's out? Sure.
 * Gift Card - The OTK potential of this Deck, which makes it fuzzy when it comes to differentiating between Fast or Slow Burn. Play 3 of these with Reficule or Simochi out, and that's a grand total of 9000 LP damage to the opponent.
 * The Paths of Destiny - Use if you're feeling lucky. You can either gain or lose 2000 LP, and the same would apply for your opponent. Have Reficule/Simochi out and your opponent is guaranteed a loss of 2000 LP though.

Direct Hit!
Eventually, some players take the idea of Burn and take it up a notch. Rather than just letting effects do the work, they circumvent the opponent's monsters and go straight for his Life Points. This hybrid of Aggro and Lock includes:


 * Raging Flame Sprite - At Level 3, she slips under most locking cards. Each time she scores a hit on the opponent, she gets 1000 more ATK. If left unchecked she will take out the opponent in 5 hits or so.
 * Inaba White Rabbit - A 700 ATK Direct Attacker is decent. While you don't get to keep it on the field, it also means that the Rabbit escapes from harm through battle.
 * Spell Striker - A free Special Summon almost all the time, can attack directly, and if it ever gets attacked, you take no damage. What's not to love?
 * Elecgiraffe, Elecpheasant - These guys may be weak for LV4s, but at least they can go under Messenger of Peace. They can hit directly and have additional effects each time they score hits.
 * Jinzo - Returner - Direct Attackers that can go under lock effects are hard to come by, so nearly anything goes for this deck.
 * Cyber Tutu - ...Yup, anything goes.
 * Demotion - If you're playing anything LV4 or higher by any chance, this is good for sliding under your own lock.
 * Robbin' Goblin - Because you'll be dealing damage so easily, you get to take control of your opponent's hand, too.

Example Decks
(Credit to AceCloudKicker for helping out.)

Other Tips
There are several other cards that can be employed to aid the Slow Burn variants...


 * Spirit Barrier + Astral Barrier - This combo renders you and your monsters invincible. The former negates Battle Damage done to you while you control monsters, and the latter allows you to change attacks on your monsters into Direct Attacks on you. This allows you to redirect attacks away from your monsters onto you, but no matter since you'll take no damage.
 * Scapegoat - Spawns 4 Tokens to help deflect damage for a while. Effective? Perhaps.
 * Giant Germ - Burns 500 LP on death, and spawns 2 more copies once done. Helpful in absorbing impacts like Nimble Momonga, but since they're in face-up Attack Position...
 * Mecha Bunny - When flipped by any means, it can burn 500 LP to a target card's controller. Similar to Nimble Momonga, its death will bring out another copy to help absorb more attacks.
 * Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua - Sure, you need a field for this guy, but just seat him in DEF and your opponent cannot attack at all, while doing 1200 damage a turn. My hats off to you if you actually build a decent deck around him.
 * Tower of Babel - Punish your opponent for playing Spells by potentially striking 3000 damage on him. Just be careful not to let that 3000 damage hit you.
 * Dark Room of Nightmare - Amplify any Burn you do with an additional 300 LP burn. Note that this is not stackable.
 * Nightmare Wheel - Restrict an opponent's monster from attacking, and burn 500 LP to him each turn.
 * Minor Goblin Official - Finish your opponent off when you have him on the ropes with a constant 500 LP burn.
 * Nightmare's Steelcage - Similar to Swords of Revealing Light, but prevents both players from attacking for 2 turns. Not that you'd need to attack, anyway...
 * Thunder of Ruler - Unlike Threatening Roar, Thunder of Ruler can only be activated during the Standby Phase, but the results are the same. Only this time your opponent knows he won't be able to conduct his Battle Phase ahead of time and can prepare accordingly.

There are several weaknesses of Slow Burn styles though...


 * Des Wombat can negate any Effect Damage, effectively rendering your efforts moot. Even worse...
 * Prime Material Dragon does the exact opposite of what Reficule/Simochi do - turn Effect Damage into LP gain. This applies to both players though, and if both Reficule and PMD are out their effects cancel each other out.
 * Rainbow Life poses a problem for the Deck as well, as it turns all instances of damage this turn into LP gain. Slow Burn, being based on damage-over-time, does not suffer as much of an issue about this as much as Quick Burn.
 * Similarly, Nature's Reflection turns all instances of Burn on yourself for a turn. The same goes for Spell of Pain, though that only works for one instance. Once again, since this is based on accumulation of chips of damage over several turns, Quick Burn has more of an issue with this.
 * Any S/T removal is something to watch out for, as it can break your lock, leaving you and your monsters vulnerable. Royal Decree is particularly infuriating as it can block off a lot of your Continuous Traps that either protect you or inflict damage.