For anyone interested with the version I grew up with, here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Saint-George-Dragon-Margaret-Hodges/dp/0316367958, I'm not saying to buy the book, but it has some great illustrations. This book was an adapted variant of Book 1 of the epic poem The Faerie Queen, by Edmund Spenser. I'll link it here in case anyone is interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Faerie-Queene-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140422072
Anyway, here is a summary from the children's story book I'd read, this is from E. R. Bird on Amazon.com (the link is earlier, wouldn't be that hard to find as he is one of the top reviewers of the Children's book):
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"If you're not familiar with the tale of the Red Cross Knight and his fair lady Una I'll give you a little update. In this story, Una is the princess of a realm that has been threatened by a dragon. Because her parents are wussies Una takes it upon herself to find a champion who will do battle with the fowl beast.
Such a champion she finds in the Red Cross Knight and the two travel back to her land accompanied by her white donkey, pet goat, and dwarf servant (as per usual). In time, they find the dragon and three times does the Red Cross Knight fight with it.
The first time he collapses from battle and is restored by a magic pool. The second time he collapses and is restored by a magic apple tree (don't ask). The third time he mightily smites the evil creature and his hand is promised in marriage to Una. But the knight is sworn to the Faerie Queen and he must serve her further before he settles down with his lovely wife."
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Now, that is a summary of what I grew up with (well, one of the stories...the other was A Dragon in my Backpack).
What does this have to do with Yu-gi-oh? Well, fantasy elements make up just about any card game or role-playing game, and Yu-gi-oh is no exception. Today, and probably the next few days, is the time to talk about the legendary warriors of the game, and lead up to the Bushi-control deck that I have built (you might be disappointed with it's playability... but it is a blast to play. I'm really not trying to hype it, I just thought it would be fun to do some articles to lead up to it).
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| Remember me???????? |
All of the monsters within the deck were almost instantly accessible, and allowed for a one-for-one trade almost at any point in the game by using cards such as D.D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant. The deck also had some elements of hand control, which partially drew those origins from the chaos/hand-control era of the game. Don-Zaloog was the main player in that sub theme, since he had a relatively good attack and defense score for the time. I still remember the cries when people would swing with a recruiter monster into Don Zaloog and pluses ensued.
Jerome McHale actually wrote his first article on Metagame.com about a warrior deck and gave a nice little tidbit of history on the deck. This was way back in 2004.
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"The Warrior deck first became playable back in 2003, after the release of Legacy of Darkness. The set brought efficient searching in the form of Reinforcement of the Army, quick monster removal with Exiled Force, and swarm power from the Marauding Captain. Legacy of Darkness even gave the Warrior deck Freed the Matchless General to carry its flag into battle.
As time passed and more sets were released, the Warrior deck got more and more tools. What happened to it? Why did the deck all but vanish when Invasion of Chaos came out? The answer is that Warrior decks rely on over-extension for victory. By rushing the opponent hard and fast with multiple summons and heavy-hitting level 4 monsters, the Warrior deck attempted to overrun the opposition before a defense could be established. This led to a quick drop in the Warrior duelist’s hand size.
After Invasion of Chaos became legal, players of Speed Chaos and Chaos Control took advantage of that fact by sitting behind sheep tokens and Wabokus until they drew their Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, or any other mass removal card with a Yata-Garasu. After that, they would simply clear the field and peck you to death. With the elimination or restriction of the main mass removal cards in the game and the loss of Yata-Garasu, over-extension has once again become a viable strategy in major tournaments. Let’s take a look at a sample Speed Warrior deck.
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| And here is what the deck looked like, click to zoom in. |
Ah yes, the trip back to memory lane. The three Command Knight might be a bit excessive, but it was a different time I guess. After reading the article, I didn't agree with the choice to not include Black Luster Soldier: Envoy of the Beginning though, especially since the card was even more of a house in that era. The trap line-up is interesting, and I really like the Mirror Wall tech. I've always been a fan of that card since it has a lot more versatility than what the card initially shows.
You can see the basic ideas behind that deck. Swarm the field with Warriors, make even trades with cards like Exiled Force and D.D. Warrior Lady. Lockout the opponent from attacking with a Command Knight or Marauding Captain.lock. The deck doesn't have the small discard theme in it, but I think that was later in Yu-gi-oh anyway. There's a toolbox aspect to the deck, Freed and Reinforcement of the Army both let you search out warriors from the deck, and the Warrior Returning Alive lets you toolbox your graveyard. The deck has a little bit of everything.
So now what? I've told you a story about St. George, and then I talked a little bit about how the warrior toolbox deck first got developed, how is this information relevant? Well, the same themes from the Warrior toolbox decks laid the ground work for some of the decks that we have today.
But yeah, this article is pretty long for what I usually post, so I'm ending it here.
Next time, we'll talk about the Warrior deck of today, and the similarities between the old and new and a little bit on how we got there.
~E.P.B.
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