Wetlands Deck

Wetlands Beatdown, is a deck that utilizes Wetlands along with with cards that benefit from its effect ATK increasing effect such as Frogs and "Ice Barrier" monsters.

The goal of this deck is to lock down the opponent through cards like Gravity Bind, Double Dupe Frog Lock, or the effect of Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier. Then setting up Flip Flop Frog to allow huge direct attacks.

Before the September 2010 Lists, this deck type was extremely powerful because of "Substitoad. However it is currently Forbidden, but since then new cards have been released in the TCG such as Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier, Dewdark of the Ice Barrier, and Tradetoad which have improved the deck type a little since then.

Playing the Deck
When playing with Wetlands, you have to know the cards that work with it. Frogs and their support, Cryomancer and Dewdark of the Ice Barrier, and Star Boy are excellent cards to put in a Wetlands deck. Cryomancer and Dewdark also double as tuners, which can be very useful if you happen to have synchros such as Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier or Stardust Dragon.

However synchros are not always the best choice to have in a Wetlands deck. This reason being that your monsters you will be playing with are really low in level ( the highest level you normally have is 2). Also the strongest synchros will commonly be at levels of 6 or more, and since you have cards like Gravity Bind as well as Cryomancer, you will be hurting your own potential to dish out damage. This being because Wetlands gives out a a boost of 1200 ATK to all apporpiate monsters. Though this does not mean you do not have to throw in Starlight Road along with Stardust Dragon, for another copy of Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord will never hurt you. Malefic Stardust Dragon would go great with this combination as well since it will allow you to protect Wetlands due to its effect.

Also in a Wetlands based deck you do not want to really be adding cards that require tributes, such as Monarchs. This reason is because it really slows down your deck's speed and because most of the tribute monsters you will be likely using have too much of a cost to be summoned and if they are destroyed the loss is not worth it, or are simply outclassed by your Wetland boosted cards ( which can swarm and require no tributes ). In addition, you can really utilize the fact that your best monsters are level 2 and lower and use cards such as Gravity Bind, Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord, and Dewdark of the Ice Barrier.

Also another reason is that this is not Frognarchs, and should not be played like Frognarchs.

So how should you play this deck? Well from my experiences with this deck type it seems to be more of a stall OTK hybrid than actual beatdown. This is because I tend to just play defensively and build up combos and locks, like a lot of WATER decks. However, I often take advantage of the fact that I can summon monsters with 2400 ATK for free and have them tear through early-game monsters on turns 1 and 2.

Monsters

 * Submarine Frog: piercing is helpful, but Dewdark is better since it can attack directly for the same damage.
 * Unifrog: it is always good to attack directly and take out spells and traps.
 * Swap Frog: useful for swarming when combined with salvage and loading up the graveyard for Tradetoad.
 * Flip Flop Frog: a must for direct attacks and field control.
 * Dupe Frog: enables a lock down when two are on the field and gives decent searching/recycling.
 * Tradetoad: allows you to reuse Swap Frog's effect many times thinning out your deck. Dupe Frog does not mind being brought back over and over again either.
 * Ronintoadin: Tradetoad is better in general, but is still viable
 * Star Boy: attack boosts are always useful.
 * Testudo Erat Numen: excellent side deck choice for synchro decks, barely harms you at all.
 * Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier: necessary for lockdowns in addition to Gravity Bind, also has the most attack with Wetlands topping out at 2500.
 * Dewdark of the Ice Barrier: if you have Cryomancer, you might as well replace Submarine Frog with this since it out-classes it and allows for Cryomancer's lockdown.
 * Penguin Soldier: a decent side deck choice, 1950 ATK from Wetlands is nothing to ignore.
 * Malefic Stardust Dragon: does a great job of protecting Wetlands, you might as well add Starlight Road if you are going to be using this since it requires a Stardust Dragon in your extra deck.

Spells

 * Wetlands: makes this entire deck viable, 1200 attack bump is nothing to ignore.
 * Terraforming: searches for your viability.
 * Salvage: adds cards Swap Frog sent to the graveyard to your hand or just to bring back monsters that have been destroyed.
 * One for One: excellent for getting a frog in the graveyard and bringing in Tradetoad or Testudo Erat Numen in face up defense.
 * Dark Hole: essential for potential OTKs.
 * Level Limit Area B: necessary for stalling for combos and field control, can make your opponents monsters weaker since they are in defense mode.
 * Nobleman of Crossout: excellent for side decking against Gravekeeper's.
 * Kaiser Colosseum: a good side deck card. Great for field control, and good for initiation; allow swarming when you want to!
 * Foolish Burial: get frogs in the graveyard for Tradetoad or any monster for Salvage.

Traps

 * Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord: this card is an absolute must to have in this kind of deck. It keeps your monsters alive when you Dark hole or Torrential Tribute your opponent, protects you from Mirror Force and any other kind of monster destruction including by battle.  Does not stop enemy tribute effects or being sent back to the hand.
 * Torrential Tribute: acts like Dark Hole, but can also be used as defense.
 * Gravity Bind: allows for stalling and building up combos.
 * Bottomless Trap Hole: a great side deck choice for any deck in general.
 * Forgotten Temple of the Deep: acts as a another Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord, also allows for synergy with Umi monsters.
 * Starlight Road: another Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord does not hurt. Use this instead of Dewdark or Cryomancer if you want summon Stardust Dragon.
 * Return from the Different Dimension: useful check for DD decks. Ronintoadin becomes a lot more interesting combined with this as well.

Extra Deck

 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: is useful but it is outclassed by Flip Flop Frog.
 * Stardust Dragon: is nice to have but requires 4 monsters to even tune it, use Starlight Road instead to summon it.

Weaknesses
Your obvious weakness is Wetlands itself. If you do not have it on the field your monsters will often look very silly being out there with 1300 ATK being your highest possible. Though all is not lost, if you have a decent defense, you can stall while attacking directly with Unifrog or Dewdark, and even using Flip Flop Frog to keep the more dangerous monsters off the field. Which reveals the second main weakness of this deck is a weakness almost every deck has: a bad hand.