Disaster Dragon

Gameplay
Disaster Dragon is an Aggro Control deck that plays disruption strategies mixed with lockdown and high aggression to gain and maintain control of the board. It carries a lot of momentum and explosive power as the deck can consistently drop 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". This card is one of the most powerful dragons in the deck, outclassed only by a potential "White Night Dragon", or "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon". Red-Eyes' effect allows for the constant re-use of monsters from the Graveyard, as well as the ability to bypass the Normal Summoning limit and the requirements for Tributes that many decks suffer from. As a result, Disaster Dragon decks are packing some of the most destructive, 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 Summon, Xyz Summon, monster removal, etc and cards like Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and "Genesis Dragon" allowing you to reuse, manipulate, or trade dragons around. Cards such as "Foolish Burial", "Dragon Ravine" and "Future Fusion" allow you to dump dragons into your graveyard faster while also aiding in the deck's inherent synergy, but 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 do. Instead, the deck utilizes "Totem Dragon", a self-recurring dragon that can act as two tributes in order to Tribute 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 revived by Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

The idea with "Koa'ki Meiru Drago" is to play it after REDMD is on the field, after you complete your own field setup. This way it won't be interfering with your own monsters, while putting constant pressure on your opponent by blocking their Special Summon (in a LIGHT and DARK dominated meta).

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.

"Horus 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 (especially Legendary Six Samurai, Dragunity, Dark World, and also some variants of HERO Beat because most of them are Spell-reliant decks). This deck also utilizes the Graveyard with cards like Horus LV Dragon series, "Prime Material Dragon", "Stardust Dragon", "Mirage Dragon", etc, that prevent your opponent from destroying your monsters (and more in the case of Horus LV Dragon and Mirage Dragon), which are helpful. "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" is also helpful to get rid of the opponent's monster that has more ATK than your dragons, as you can easily summon this dragon using Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's effect. It also helps when trying to get rid of your opponent's "Gachi Gachi Gantetsu", "Number 39: Utopia", "Wind-Up Zenmaines", "Maestroke the Symphony Djinn" and numerous other troublesome monsters.

"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 instantly dump 5 dragons automatically into the Graveyard. Therefore, dumping key cards like "Red-Eyes Wyvern", "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon", "Exploder Dragon", "Totem Dragon", and "Delta Flyer" will give you a massive advantage, and (providing you didn't Normal Summon or Set anything) can get REDMD on the field if necessary, via "Red-Eyes Wyvern". If used with "Genesis Dragon", you have the ability to address almost any situation.

With the release of "Dodger Dragon" in Extreme Victory (TCG Exclusive), Disaster Dragon decks can be even more consistent than before, as it can protect all of your Dragons from the now-commonly-used Counter Trap Cards such as "Solemn Warning", "Seven Tools of the Bandit", and "Solemn Judgment". It can also used as "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's" Summon fodder, and has reasonably high ATK too.

Order of Chaos also gives many Disaster Dragon variants a welcome addition in "Divine Dragon Apocralyph", which allows you to add a Dragon from your Graveyard to your hand at the cost of discarding a card. With 1000 ATK, it's an easy "Masked Dragon" target. However as a DARK monster, it may have some clash if Koa'ki Meiru Drago is on the field. Nevertheless, it easily outclasses and can be used to replace Genesis Dragon due to having a non-specified cost.

"Future Fusion" also carries synergy with either "Genesis Dragon" or "Divine Dragon Apocralyph", allowing you to discard dragons from your hand to the grave and retrieve others in a form of reverse tutoring. They also carries synergy with "Yamata Dragon" and "Light and Darkness Dragon". Both dragons cannot be Special Summoned from the grave, but with either Genesis Dragon or Apocralyph they can be re-summoned again and again. An infinite loop exists with Light and Darkness Dragon and Genesis Dragon/Apocralyph in which you tribute Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Genesis Dragon/Apocralyph for Light and Darkness Dragon. When Light and Darkness dies you bring back Red-Eyes and use its effect to revive Genesis Dragon/Apocralyph, who returns Light and Darkness Dragon to your hand. Then, you can sacrifice them both to summon it again and continue the loop. 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.

Another loop combo involves around "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon", "Divine Dragon Apocralyph", and "Delta Flyer". If you have both Delta Flyer and Apocralyph in your Graveyard, you can use Red-Eyes' effect to revive Apocralyph, use its effect to return Delta Flyer to your hand, then Normal Summon Delta Flyer, Synchro Summon either Level 7 or 8 Synchro Monster, and just repeat it next turn.

All in all, 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. Yamata Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon can rack up a large advantage and disrupt/lock down the field, respectively. Prime Material Dragon covers your dragons from your opponent's destructive attempts. Koa'ki Meiru Drago stops the opponent from Special Summoning powerful Light or Dark-attribute monsters and also acts as another control measure (in most cases). Divine Dragon Apocralyph 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 is capable of assuming many different forms to suit the players taste, often utilizing different tech cards that either strengthen the deck's base or alter part of its play style while retaining its control ability. The most famous and well-known version of Disaster is often referred to as Standard Disaster, which is a well rounded, consistent deck that serves as the basis for the many different forms the deck can take. It's very balanced in terms of offense, control, and speed.

Variations includes:

Light and Darkness Disaster
Focusing on lockdown by summoning "Light and Darkness Dragon" via the "Totem Dragon" recruitment (either via its own effect or "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon"), as well as recycling him by the effect of "Divine Dragon Apocralyph" which can create an infinite loop, of course as long as you can maintain the cycle. "Dodger Dragon" is an optional aid (mostly used to prevent "Solemn Warning").

Frozen Ray
The WATER variant that can summon "Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier" since it's iconic card is "Blizzard Dragon", which can prevent your opponent's monster from attacking. You can also utilize "Frost and Flame Dragon" since you can easily remove "Blizzard Dragon" or "Dragon Ice" and "Masked Dragon" or "Dread Dragon" from Graveyard.

Spirit Well
This variant utilizes "Yamata Dragon", which acts as a generator for hand advantage through inflicting battle damage with the reward of drawing up to 5 cards. This variant requires "Totem Dragon" as a consistent Tribute fodder for Yamata Dragon. The rest of the cards in this build is often identical to the Standard variant or can be combined with Light and Disaster.

Catastrophe Dragon
Runs "Gandora the Dragon of Destruction" to decimate an opponent's field and follow up with summoning "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon". Although not necessary, "Totem Dragon" and "Divine Dragon Apocralyph" can help you to recycle Gandora to wipe the field more often.

Egg Turbo
Or commonly referred as "The SOL", focuses on gaining immeasurable deck speed via drawing power. This is done by utilizing "The White Stone of Legend" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", with some spell cards such as "Cards of Consonance", "Trade-In", and "Dragon Ravine". The new Structure Deck: Dragons Collide further increase this variant's power, because both "Lightpulsar Dragon" and "Darkflare Dragon" can be abused more efficiently in this deck type; "Lightpulsar Dragon" offers alternative method for Summoning "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon" and also excellent beater, while "Darkflare Dragon" accelerates the Graveyard set-ups and adds banishing abilities.

Horus Control
Focuses on Spell lockdown via "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8". Although normally hard to summon, Disaster Dragon can outrun this problem by Special Summoning "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" via the effect of "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon", and further protect it from destruction with cards such as "Prime Material Dragon" or "Mirage Dragon", until it reaches it's final form. The three mentioned cards above will sure make an almost perfect lockdown for the opponent. "Level Up!" can also help in this variant.

Assault and Disaster
This utilizes "Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode" for additional control, by recruiting tuners such as "Delta Flyer" and "Dread Dragon". "Delta Flyer" is searchable by "Masked Dragon", and when combined with any LV 4 monsters, it can easily tune for "Stardust Dragon", any other level 8 or level 7 synchro, while "Dread Dragon" can search for the required materials.

Pandemic Dragons
Incorporates "Deck Devastation Virus" and "Eradicator Epidemic Virus" to effectively stop the opponent from Synchro Summoning since most Tuner monster's are below 1500 ATK, and "Eradicator Epidemic Virus" serves to shut down either Trap or Spell usage depending on what deck it's up against or user choice.

Anti-Meta Disaster
This build use the same basic skeleton as Standard Disaster, but instead of "Totem Dragon", this build has more emphasis on Anti-Meta monsters such as "Thunder King Rai-Oh" and "Effect Veiler" to limit the opponent's options.

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.

Draginuity
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, while also eliminating as many dead draws as possible. This greatly benefits the deck, as they now have alternative for the Limited "Future Fusion", and gives the deck more consistency, regardless of deck variants.

Chaos
''This has proven to be a different deck entirely, not just an alternate build. More information can be found on the Chaos Dragon page.''

With the release of "Structure Deck: Dragons Collide" (and the limiting of "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning" in the year before) this new Chaos Dragon build became incredibly popular. It reprinted many useable Dragon and Lightsworn monsters as well as Chaos Sorcerer. These, combined with the new brand new monsters and spell support, proved to be very powerful. "Lightpulsar Dragon","Darkflare Dragon", and "Eclipse Wyvern" (from "Structure Deck: Dragons Collide") along with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Divine Dragon Apocralyph power the engine of this deck. It focuses on banishing Light and Dark monsters to get out Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Chaos Sorcerer, Dark Armed Dragon, etc. and beating down the opponent.

Monsters

 * Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (key card of this deck, regardless of variant)
 * Red-Eyes Wyvern
 * Delta Flyer (main tuner for any build except Egg Turbo)
 * Totem Dragon (main Tribute fodder, especially in Egg Turbo and Light-Disaster variant)
 * Exploder Dragon
 * Masked Dragon (main recruiter, especially in Standard variant)
 * Koa'ki Meiru Drago (the lockdown powerhouse in this deck, regardless of variant)
 * Divine Dragon Apocralyph
 * Prime Material Dragon
 * Light and Darkness Dragon (for Light/Disaster and Egg Turbo variant)
 * Lightpulsar Dragon
 * Darkflare Dragon

Spells

 * Book of Moon
 * Future Fusion
 * Dragon Ravine
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Trade-In (for Egg Turbo variant)
 * Cards of Consonance (for Egg Turbo variant)
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Pot of Duality

Traps

 * Burst Breath
 * Deck Devastation Virus (for Pandemic Dragons variant)
 * Eradicator Epidemic Virus (for Pandemic Dragons variant)
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Solemn Warning
 * Champion's Vigilance (for Egg Turbo variant)

Extra Deck

 * Orient Dragon
 * Iron Chain Dragon
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Exploder Dragonwing
 * Ancient Fairy Dragon
 * Stardust Dragon
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Scrap Dragon
 * Trident Dragion
 * Kachi Kochi Dragon
 * Queen Dragun Djinn
 * Thunder End Dragon (Only for Egg Turbo variant)
 * Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (Only for Egg Turbo variant/use with Future Fusion)
 * Five-Headed Dragon (use with Future Fusion)
 * Mist Wurm (Non-Dragon)
 * Ally of Justice Catastor (Non-Dragon)
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (Non-Dragon)
 * Leviair the Sea Dragon (Non-Dragon)

Weaknesses
Disaster Dragon, while 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, Dragunity Arma Leyvaten and Prime Material Dragon all require use of the Graveyard to take advantage of their effects leaving them extremely vulnerable to a Gravekeeper's, Macro or Chaos deck. Disaster Dragon decks are also extremely weak against decks with more brute force than themselves, such as Machina Gadget and Malefic. This deck's obvious reliance on the Future Fusion and Five-Headed Dragon combo makes it vulnerable against much faster-paced decks if you can't get Future Fusion out early. Pot of Duality and Gold Sarcophagus are very useful for getting Future Fusion faster, and in case you can't draw Future Fusion early, you can use Dragon Ravine. Bottomless Trap Hole can also be annoying, since it can easily bainsh Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon as soon as it is Summoned (usually at End Phase, via Red-Eyes Wyvern's effect). Cards such as My Body as a Shield or Forbidden Lance can be used to handle such threats (those cannot be used against Solemn Warning, though).

Some Disaster Dragon (most notably Anti-Meta Disaster) variants also having a hard time in a fast-paced meta environment, due to their over-reliance on their Trap Cards and setups (which often destroyed early with "Mystical Space Typhoon" and "Heavy Storm"), while they're also not as aggressive as their Chaos Dragon counterpart. Also, with many meta decks are now composed by non-LIGHT or DARK monsters (except Chaos Dragon and Inzektor), "Koa'ki Meiru Drago" is not as effective as it used to be, but still useful as a decent beatstick.

Another weakness of Disaster Dragon decks is that due to the existence of so many variants, players are often confused at which variant should be played at certain times, although veteran players can overcome this problem. It is also hard for this deck to recover from misplays, making it not so user-friendly. Despite all the flaws, Disaster Dragon is special one, because this deck can freely change variants between Duels, depending on the situation, making it quite flexible against any of your opponent's moves.