KC Cup: 1st Stage (Feb 2019)

A comment from Makrov Krauz:

The current meta is very OTK heavy with less back rows than before and here where Geargias shine.

• Magic deflector steals games against koa'ki, AGs, hero and other spells dependent decks but still, the card is pretty much replaceable with a 3rd floodgates.
• Cosmic cyclone to set your field and it's also good against AGs.
• Super rush headlong is pretty much useless against koa'ki and AGs so I took it out.
• Enemy controller worked way better for me than a 2nd pulse mines.
• Make sure to regularly check your LP.

A comment from nicigomo:

With gem knights each duel is always dynamic, it is not linear like other decks and that is precisely why it is a deck that serves against everything, the skill "specialist in magic" is better than balance because it guarantees a magic card even if the deck has 30 cards.

The use of cards like Gemini spark and supervise is important because in situations you can extend another turn while getting cards like grass is greener, additionally if you make a fusion with a monster that is equipped to supervise will make a special summon and you will have another material of fusion or a monster that can be used by bright diamond lady to bring in a special way another extra deck, as a prismaura to eliminate another card face up in the field (perfect for dragon reactor or some koaki meiru).

• Obisdian will always be perfect for fusing from the hand, special invocation of a normal monster from the cemetery.

• When the opponent has backrow I try to take out amethyst and then make another fusion and it activates its effect (when it leaves the field works like a giant trunade)

• Bacon saver is used to save some otk if it gets to the graveyard with Grass is greener.

• When it is possible the order of fusions must be: amethyst THEN lapislazulli (to activate the effect and send lazulli to the cemetery and recover another knight and perform 500 damage for each monster invoked in a special way) or zirconia (in both cases it seeks to activate the effect of amethyst) then any other strong fusion (prismura to eliminate face up or lady brilliant to go for the otk if there is no backrow).

• This deck with grass is greener plus triramid pulse Works awesome

• Econ is occasionally

A comment from Splittercore:
Hoplomus is great it survives wyvern, also I like to attack def monsters with it - gives lots of options and sometimes you don't want to destroy them by battle. Always play def when going first. Even if you have laquari - set it and defend don't let them know you play glads. Gravity lash is a must - makes ancient gear/blue eyes monsters super weak.

Impenetrable attack is awesome, but I would replace one with candida/floodgate if I had them. Holy guard is mandatory imo because most monsters in the meta have high def.

A comment from Spiido:
This deck is more focused on defense than offensive, of course you can go to the attack on specific occasions. The ideal starting hand would be to come a Gulldo Gusto (since he is the only one that can activate something if it is destroyed by effect, different from the others Gusto that depends of being destroyed in battle) or a Floodgate Trap Hole to delay the opponent's turns. Once Gulldo is in the field you can start a combo in which you can call Winda> Egul> Pilica.

Important note: You can vary this sequence as you wish depending on the situation of the duel to reinforce your defenses almost creating a "looping" or to make Sychro, the ideal occasion to be offensive and to call Pilica in the field.

One of the problems with this deck is the risk of deck out or running out of monsters to create the "looping" I've talked about before. Here comes the cards Contact with Gusto and Daigusto Gulldos. Both have the function of recycling and destroying some card of the opponent. The Caam was an options I used but the final version I removed to make the deck more dynamic.

Here comes the "Burn essence", as the deck can be recycled in some way with the "Gusto looping combo", Lava Golem can surprise your opponent and Jade Insect Whistle to disrupt the draw. What made the deck lethal was Burning Land, only use it when you have a considerable Life Points advantage (fatal against Vampires) as it will be a "countdown" along with the Lava Golem.

With a little luck, this deck can face Koa'ki Meiru and even Ancient Gear. Another complicated match is DNA Buster Blade because you will have to be cautious and incredibly have a lot of players playing with this deck in this KC Cup.

A comment from Yourmichael:

Made it to rank 20 with a completely free to play deck! Pretty much the deck is straight forward. Summon Peryton to special summon sphinx and Manticore, use Sphinx’s effect to get another hazy flame, use beat down and that’s game usually!

The main pro of this deck is that all hazy flame monsters can’t be targeted by effects so there were times where the opponent had to target their own cards for destruction if they don’t know the effects which got me quite a few wins!

Manticore can usually kill any boss monster at 3100 atk. and if that's not enough summon Giganticastle and that would do it. The deck is super consistent for a free deck so I recommend this strategy for anyone who doesn’t want to spend money on the game! Good luck and see you at Stage 2!

A comment from xan:
Note: was an easy climb, AG is susceptible to OTKs, less back row rn and when they do it's 90% targeting spells. Cerb is MVP making SSA decks a pushover.

A comment from PHARMACIST:
Karakuri are fun to play and compete at the same time. Level augmentation helps to get level 7 buire (the new level 5 nanishi +2) or to go directly to armades and rarely but crucial situations for stardust.

For protection. I use 2 offering 1 TTH 1E-con
For back row removal I used 2 cosmic cyclones, their non-destructive banishing helped me a lot against ancient gear players and to synchro easily.

A comment from Ming:

This deck is similar to my KoG deck, except I added back row removal cards and set the skill to Switcheroo.

A comment from Monty Talks:

I opted to only run two Maximus's because I have three Diamond cores to search and I find that having the extra Sandman to be extremely beneficial.

Two core compression as it's seriously underrated and it helps with follow up turns if you burn everything - also helps a lot when you go first to guarantee a Kuriboh or two.

I played against mostly Ancient Gear, Koa'ki, Spellbook, and Vampire on the way and I felt like this deck has everything needed to deal with all of them.

• Ancient Gear is pretty simple - Urnight into Wall and then Pull Maximus; found that most AG players aren't running any back row

• Spellbook is very similar; Urnight into the wall - ran into a couple of spellbook decks that are running Canadia so that was annoying but wall really shuts down Fate. Can be hard if you run into Silent Magician as she can negate Diamond Core - but Ice shut's that down pretty well.

• The vampire was difficult if I went first; however going second is pretty easy. Just watch out for Vamp as that can turn the duel if you aren't prepared.

• For other Koa'ki decks going second is pretty much auto win - barring a kuriboh and using wall + sphere kuriboh can usually shut down the OTK.

A comment from KaiserRinger:
I was able to reach the maximum level the first day. This with a lot of struggle, suffering, and even anger, faced with an extremely aggressive metagame, where those who reach the 2nd Turn with more resources win. I faced Koa'ki Meiru, Ancient Gear and Buster Blader most of the time.

Koa'ki Meirus has the best 2nd Turn in Duel Links, and using Balance, duels become faster. I used 21 cards, out of anger, since I always had problems with this ability while using 20 cards.

The most problematic matches are Buster Blader DNA Surgery and Parasite Infestation. And when facing someone using Grit, either take some of the opponent's LPs, or try to clear the field to attack with three monsters at once. And watch out for the Kuribohs who block that precious OTK.

A comment from Bdog:
I had 8 win in a row to get this lv max. I put koa ki boulder which i guess got me this far. Koaki ice is a beast also delete all special summon by deleting a card. Only reason I have galaxy cyclone it because dont have three (diamond core) .

A comment from JR5333Y:
Hi, I was able to complete the 1st stage of the Kaiba cup with this Koa'ki Meiru deck.Just 1 Urknight because I only have 1 but once I get the 2nd I will change 1 Wall for it. I prefer the Balance skill over Last Gamble because you will get at least 1 trap in your inital hand.

A comment from Videy:

Basic Koa'ki Meru deck that mixed with parasite infestation and jade insect whistle, it helps to make the last attack if you somehow only get to attack with maximus. its good against mirror match, spellbook, and vamp. not too consistent but I got 4 wins out of 5 duels.

A comment from Giresunlu Mümin:

İm lucky because I spend 10k gems this deck. İf old packs and dream tickets have existed, I am not able to pass Level 2. İ passed since level 19 I use balance version. My main problem was first turn and long games so I making this deck.

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