Disaster Dragon


 * See also: Hopeless Dragon.

Disaster Dragon is an aggressive control oriented Deck created by Richard Clarke. It plays disruption strategies to gain and maintain control of the Duel. An evolution of the popular Hopeless Dragon deck, Disaster Dragon is one of the most popular dragon decks in the competitive scene and easily the most consistent. This can easily win in the first 8 turns against non-meta decks. Played right, this deck can hold its own with about any deck.

Gameplay
NOTE: This deck can easily recover from many situations through the use of Vice Dragon, Exploder Dragon, Totem Dragon, and Red-Eyes Wyvern

Disaster Dragon is a control OTK deck that plays disruption strategies mixed with lockdown aggression to gain and maintain control of the board. It carries a lot of momentum and explosive power as the deck can consistently dropc two or more monsters per turn without losing advantage and often times they will be big monsters. This is done through the use of the deck's backbone card, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Weighing in at 2800 ATK, this card is easily the most powerful or one of the most powerful dragons in the deck, outclassed only by a potential White Night Dragon. Red-Eyes' effect allows for the constant recursion of monsters from the graveyard as well as the ability to bypass the normal summon limit and the requirements for tributes that many decks suffer from. As a result Disaster decks are packing some of the highest ATK monsters in the present Metagame because they can bypass the tribute mechanic required to summon them.

Through the usage of cards such as Koa'ki Meiru Drago, Exploder Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon the deck is capable of shutting down and eliminating a majority of plays made by the current popular decks. The deck plays like a toolbox, with Masked Dragon working to recruit the dragons you need for tributes, Synchro Monsters, battle, monster removal, etc and cards like Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Genesis Dragon allowing you to reuse them.Some dragons such as Yamata Dragon or Light and Darkness Dragon cannot be Special Summoned, thus they are unable to bypass their two-tribute requirement via Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon as most dragons would. Instead, the deck utilizes Totem Dragon, a self-recurring dragon that can act as two tributes in order to summon a dragon-type monster. Being a dragon itself, Totem Dragon is a viable target to search with Masked Dragon or to dump with Future Fusion. It can also be easily revived by Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

The idea with Koa'ki Meiru Drago is to play it after REDMD is on the field, or remove him from the field by other means in order to summon REDMD. One of the most common analogies for Koa'ki Meiru Drago's usage compares it to a switch, courtesy of a feature match involving Richard Clarke, the deck's creator, where he flipped Koa'ki Meiru Drago on and off the field, allowing himself all the Special Summons and locking his opponent out of any.

Hours the Black Flame Dragon LV8's ability allows it to negate and destroy the activation of any Spell Card(s). This not only restricts the amount of options your opponent has, but can shut down many popular deck types. Even though this deck uses the graveyard, cards like Hours Dragon, Prime Material Dragon, Stardust Dragon, Mirage Dragon, etc. that prevent your opponent from destroying your monsters (and more in the case of Hours Dragon and Mirage Dragon) are helpful.

Future Fusion (by selecting Five-Headed Dragon) not only allows you to summon a very strong monster in 2 turns, but also enables you to dump 5 dragons automatically into the Graveyard. Therefore, dumping key cards like Red-Eyes Wyvern, REDMD, Exploder Dragon, Totem Dragon, and Genesis Dragon (along with a tuner) will give you a massive advantage, and (providing you didn't summon anything) can get REDMD on the field if you don't have it already.

Future Fusion also carries synergy with Genesis Dragon. Allowing you to discard dragons from your hand to the grave and retrieve others in a form of reverse tutoring. Genesis Dragon also carries synergy with Yamata Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon. Both dragons cannot be Special Summoned from the grave, but with Genesis they can be re-summoned again and again. An infinite loop exists with Light and Darkness Dragon and Genesis Dragon in which you tribute Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Genesis Dragon for Light and Darkness Dragon. When LaDD dies you bring back Red-Eyes and use its effect to revive Genesis, who returns the Light and Darkness Dragon to your hand. Then, you can sacrifice them both to summon it again and spam LaDD. It's fairly unstable for obvious reasons but the ability to infinitely reuse a monster as powerful as Light and Darkness Dragon is definitely an option the deck has at its disposal.

In summary, Disaster Dragon is a control oriented deck that utilizes a full deck of dragons. As it doesn't rely on any combos to go off, it's by far the most consistent dragon deck and is one of the favored choices online. Future Fusion is the power house dumper of the deck, and, although it's not needed, it kicks the deck into high gear instantly by giving you five dragons of your choice in the grave which is right where you want them. Masked Dragon acts as a recruiter-toolbox engine. Red-Eyes can swarm the field or reuse dragons. Yamata and Light and Darkness Dragon rack up a large advantage and disrupt/lock down the field. Prime Material covers your dragons from your opponent's backrow. Drago stops the opponent from summoning powerful Light or Dark-attribute monsters and also acts as another control measure. Genesis Dragon allows you to recycle lost dragons, trading in dead ones.

The deck does not pilot itself and requires forethought and careful consideration of options. Every choice made with what you dump, search, and revive can tilt the scales in either player's favour. It plays aggressively, as almost every monster in the deck has higher ATK than opposing monsters. It can utilize this in its favour and play a momentum game. By locking down the opponent's options while you continue to amass your own it is quite easy to take complete control of a duel in a matter of turns.

Variations
Disaster Dragon in addition to its control is capable of assuming many different forms to suit the tastes of a player, often utilizing different tech cards that either accent the deck or alter part of its play style while still retaining its control ability. The most famous and well known version of Disaster is often referred to as Standard which is a well rounded and consistent deck while also serving as the basis for the many different forms the deck can take. Variations include Catastrophe Dragon which runs Gandora the Dragon of Destruction to decimate an opponent's field and follow up with summoning Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, The Egg which focuses on Blue-Eyes White Dragon and numerous Draw based spells (Trade-In, Cards of Consonance) granting the deck immeasurable speed, Horus Control that focuses on Spell locking, Assault and Disaster that utilizes Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode for additional control or the surprising Stellar Destruct that summons Majestic Star Dragon with the goal of either winning in that turn or baiting the opponent into triggering Majestic Star Dragon's effect and decimating their field. Many more variations exist and others will come as new cards are released with future sets and Disaster Dragon enthusiasts look for ways to improve the concept.

With the arrival of Structure Deck: Dragunity Legion, it is possible to combine this deck with a bit of Dragunities (most notably Dragunity Arma Leyvaten for Leyvaten Rider build). Beside Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Wyvern, Totem Dragon and Genesis Dragon can be used as an additional auxiliary monster, since this deck also runs Light and Darkness Dragon. Most importantly Dragunity Legion's release allows the deck to run Dragon Ravine to quickly get specific dragons to the graveyard faster such as Totem Dragon in order to set up mid to late game plays; all at the cost of discarding a potential in hand Red-Eyes Wyvern or Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to the graveyard where they benefit regardless. The result ultimately takes pressure off Future Fusion by giving the deck another means to get dragons to the graveyard to eventually go off on the opponent and improves the consistency of several builds with Standard Disaster, Light and Darkness Disaster, Spirit Well, Frozen Ray and The Egg being considered the strongest versions of the current format.

Monsters

 * Masked Dragon
 * Strong Wind Dragon
 * Red-Eyes Wyvern
 * Totem Dragon
 * Prime Material Dragon
 * Genesis Dragon
 * Blizzard Dragon
 * Dread Dragon
 * Delta Flyer
 * Light and Darkness Dragon
 * Exploder Dragon
 * Vice Dragon
 * White Night Dragon
 * Blue-Eyes White Dragon
 * The White Stone of Legend
 * Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
 * Koa'ki Meiru Drago
 * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
 * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8
 * Mirage Dragon
 * Yamata Dragon

Spells

 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Book of Moon
 * A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon
 * Stamping Destruction
 * My Body as a Shield
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Dragon Ravine
 * Forbidden Lance
 * Future Fusion
 * Giant Trunade
 * Shrink
 * Super Polymerization
 * Pot of Avarice
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Trade-In

Traps

 * Burst Breath
 * Royal Oppression
 * Trap Stun
 * Rivalry of Warlords
 * Seven Tools of the Bandit
 * Solemn Warning
 * Dark Bribe
 * Proof of Powerlessness
 * Royal Decree

Extra Deck

 * Stardust Dragon
 * Ancient Fairy Dragon
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Dark End Dragon
 * Exploder Dragonwing
 * Iron Chain Dragon
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Trident Dragion
 * Five-Headed Dragon
 * Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste (Used with Super Polymerization to take an opponent's Warrior Monster such as Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En with your own Dragon Synchro)
 * Red Nova Dragon
 * Shooting Star Dragon (Will require Formula Synchron and a LV1 non-tuner used w/ Dragunity Brandistock or The White Stone of Legend to summon Formula Synchron.)
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Colossal Fighter
 * Scrap Dragon

Weaknesses
Disaster Dragon whilst being a very versatile deck does have quite a few vulnerabilities such as high reliability on the Graveyard. Red-Eyes Wyvern, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Light and Darkness Dragon, Masked Dragon, Totem Dragon and Prime Material Dragon all require use of the Graveyard to take advantage of their effects leaving them extremely vulnerable to Macro Deck. Including an Imperial Iron Wall to prevent the removal of your Dragons is a good idea, but it hinders Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's and Red-Eyes Wyvern's Special Summon effects. Hand Destruction cards can also hinder the use of Disaster Dragon as it lacks effective hand control and can run down very fast. Disaster Dragon also extremely weak against deck with more brute force than themselves, such as Machina Gadget, Blackwings, and Gravekeeper's decks, since the strongest monster in the Disaster Dragon deck usually never exceeds 3000 points and they don't have any internal sources for increasing their ATK power. To avoid this you can use Solidarity, and if used correctly you will be able to overpower almost any monster that does battle with your Dragons (assuming the Deck doesn't include any other support other than Dragon-type, such as Morphing Jar). Gravekeeper's deck can even bring more trouble, since Necrovalley prevents any access to the Graveyard, thus shutting down this deck's entire progress (however, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's effect can still be used to Special Summon Dragons from your hand). Jurracs are an upcoming archetype that shows that brute force and quick play cards that increase attack, really hit this deck hard. Venom decks are also decks that will give Disaster Dragon's a tough time. The effects of such monsters will defiantly slow the fast and fairly strong Dragons down. Royal Decree also can shut this deck down alot combined with an competitive deck. Protection for Disaster Dragons run around Traps or Light and Darkness Dragon. (As of March 2011 Banlist).