Iron Chain

Iron Chain「 Ｃ(チェーン) 」 is an all-Earth Archetype from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, included in the Crossroads of Chaos Booster. Iron Chain cards are also used by Mr. Armstrong in the anime. The name was changed from simply "Chain" to "Iron Chain" so as to not confuse support with cards that already exist with the word "Chain" in them, such as "Amazoness Chain Master" or "Chainsaw Insect".

Iron Chain cards focus upon a combination of milling the opponent's deck, manipulating the ATK and DEF of monsters on the field, and inflicting minor burn damage to the opponent. A deck dedicated to Iron Chain monsters can be relatively flexible because of this. The user can opt to stall the opponent with cards like "Gravity Bind" and use either "Poison Chain" to quickly make the opponent run out of cards, or use "Iron Chain Repairman" to constantly recycle "Iron Chain Blaster" to burn the opponent each turn (both can be used at once, and can be further devastating when combined with "Cemetary Bomb"). They could also go for a beatdown strategy by taking advantage of how Iron Chain Coil can increase the ATK and DEF of an Iron Chain card permanently, as well as how Iron Chain Dragon can temporarily increase its own ATK.

Most Iron Chain monsters are not very strong on their own. Without a card that can protect them during battle (like Scrap-Iron Scarecrow) or increase their ATK (such as Gaia Power), most cannot survive long (at least, not until Iron Chain Coil increases their ATK after a few turns). Since the Archetype is not fully dedicated to a single method of defeating the opponent, it may not be as easy to control as other Archetypes unless the user has a very good idea of what these cards are capable of as a group and what external support works well with their intended strategy.

Playing Style
Iron Chains are most basically used as a mill deck, however they can be used in a burn deck with Iron Chain Blaster and Paralyzing Chain. Iron Chain Repairman is useful for bringing back Iron Chain monsters from the graveyard. This is useful because of Poison Chain's need for Iron Chain monsters on the field. Iron Chain milling sends the top cards of your opponent's deck to the graveyard as opposed to letting them draw the cards. Well used this deck can quickly achieve a Deck Out.
 * By using multiple copies of Iron Chain Snake on a high-level monster, you will mill nearly (if not more than) half of your opponent's deck.
 * The Iron Chains have their own Synchro Monster, Iron Chain Dragon. Its effect sends the top three cards of your opponent's deck to the graveyard when it inflicts Battle Damage. Its other effect lets it remove all Iron Chain monsters in the graveyard to have it gain 200 attack for each.


 * Although a few decks prefer cards in their graveyard for effects, uncontrolled milling is different, causing those decks to destabilize. The Teleport Dark Armed deck requires exactly 3 DARK monsters in the graveyard to summon Dark Armed Dragon, and adding more monsters adds a step to the deck's key summon. Lightsworns Decks already mill themselves, so adding on to that should only damage them further. Zombie Decks may lose a few key magic/trap cards when discarding cards.


 * This deck has easy access to a Level 7 Synchro Monster by using Foolish Burial to dump a Iron Chain Coil into the grave, searching Iron Chain Repairman with Reinforcement of the Army, and then using it to revive Iron Chain Coil to Synchro.


 * This deck has many uses of Continous Spells and Traps, such as Gravity Bind, and Level Limit - Area B, as an addition to Poison Chain and Paralyzing Chain. Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames may be good additions to the deck.


 * If you are using your Iron-chain deck as a stall deck then the cards: Blood Mephist, Gravity Bind, and Stardust Dragon are great cards to have in your deck.


 * Using this deck you can easily get out your Iron Chain Dragon without having to lose some of your monsters by tunning Iron Chain Coil with Iron Chain Snake then use Iron Chain Repairman to bring them back from the graveyard.


 * This deck may also be good against exodia since it mills the opponents exodia pieces to the grave which may be hard to get back.

Signer Dragon Deck
If you were to use a field spell along with the trap card Skull Invitation you can use both Ancient Fairy Dragon and Black-Winged Dragon along with the other Signer Dragons. As a result this deck would be capable of using the Signer Dragons with ease.


 * Ancient Fairy Dragon- would support your field spells (recommended a total of 3).
 * Black Rose Dragon- destroys all cards on the field and send them to the graveyard fueling Cemetery Bomb's damage.
 * Black-Winged Dragon- protects you from direct damage caused by Skull Invitation.
 * Red Dragon Archfiend- can be used to help Iron Chain Dragon cause direct damage.
 * Stardust Dragon- protects your cards from being destroyed before the time that they are needed.

Also Black Rose Dragon and Ancient Fairy Dragon can easily be summoned by having Iron Chain Repairman special summon Iron Chain Coil from the graveyard.

Overall, Signer Dragons would go very well with an Iron Chain deck.

Monsters

 * Iron Chains
 * Salvage Warrior (allows you to bring Iron Chain Coil back for a level 8 synchro summon)

Spells

 * Book of Eclipse (great in a stall deck)
 * Gravekeeper's Servant (Control)
 * Reinforcement of the Army
 * Card Destruction
 * Hand Destruction
 * Shrink (So as to trump more battles and trigger more milling effects)
 * Gaia Power
 * Fairy Meteor Crush (Another option instead of Strike Slash)
 * Scapegoat (can be used in conjunction with Iron Chain Coil to pull off Iron Chain Dragon first turn)
 * The Shallow Grave (to bring back cards like needle worm)

Traps

 * Threatening Roar
 * Strike Slash (good combo with Iron Chain Dragon)
 * Waboku
 * Burn cards such as Skull Invitation, Coffin Seller, Paralyzing Chain, and Fatal Abacus
 * Cemetery Bomb
 * Scrap-Iron Scarecrow
 * Dark Bribe
 * Magical Thorn
 * Birthright
 * Gravity Bind (prevents your opponent from attacking with their strong monsters thus allowing you to use poison chain to its full effect).

Extra Deck

 * Ancient Fairy Dragon (can cycle Gaia Power and can summon Iron Chain Repairman to fuel Poison Chain).
 * Armory Arm (a great combo with Iron Chain Dragon)
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Black-Winged Dragon (can be used to keep yourself from getting damaged by Skull Invitation)
 * Blood Mephist (preferably in a stall deck)
 * Iron Chain Dragon
 * Goyo Guardian
 * Naturia Beast
 * Naturia Barkion
 * Naturia Landoise
 * Red Dragon Archfiend (great for destroying all their powerful defense position monsters like Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua, whom you can't attack).
 * Stardust Dragon (to keep important cards like your fellow iron chains on the field. Especially good if you are being passive and letting Poison Chain do all the work).
 * Voltic Bicorn
 * Junk Warrior
 * Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Dark Diviner's Return
This deck design is based off of using Dark Diviner(only in OCG) alongside your iron-chains in an attempt to maximize the amount of cards being milled from your opponent's deck. The cards listed below are cards that can be added to an iron-chain deck but not a deck designs in itself. Below are some tips for this strategy:


 * Use Junk Synchron along with Dark Bug in this deck as both cards can be used to revive the other from your grave-yard for an immediate tuning.
 * While you can't play Junk Synchron face-up on the field in the same turn you play Worm Bait, you can play it face-down on the field. Or next turn you can summon Junk Synchron and tune him with one of the remaining Worm Token to synchro summon Dark Diviner.
 * Regretful Rebirth can be used to summon back either a Shield Worm or Warm Worm that was destroyed by battle this turn to mile more of your opponents cards.
 * Worm Bait can also boost the number of cards sent from the top of your opponents deck when combined with Shield Worm's special ability.
 * Before you attack with Dark Diviner equip the opposing monster with Iron Chain Snake to boost the number of cards sent to the graveyard from 3 to 6.
 * Call of the Haunted is great for bring back Warm Worm or Shield Worm for more card drainage. As well as reviving a Dark Diviner that was destroyed by an opponent's trap, spell, or monster (especially if that monster attacked Dark Diviner).
 * Equip an opponents monster with Iron Chain Snake and then have Dark Diviner attack the same monster. Your opponent will have to send away 3 cards plus any number of cards equal to that monster's level from the top of their deck to the graveyard.

Monsters

 * Dark Bug
 * Iron Chain Snake
 * Junk Synchron
 * Shield Worm
 * Warm Worm

Spells

 * Monster Reborn (bring back Shield Worm, Warm Worm and Dark Diviner)
 * Worm Bait

Traps

 * Call of the Haunted
 * Regretful Rebirth

Extra Deck

 * Dark Diviner