TCG SHADDOLL

Monster(22)
3x Shaddoll Beast
2x Shaddoll Squamata
2x Shaddoll Dragon
3x Shaddoll Hedgehog
2x Shaddoll Falco
3x White Dragon Wyverburster
2x Black Dragon Collapserpent
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1x Felice Lightsworn Archer
3x Mathematician

Spell(9)
3x Shaddoll Fusion
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Book of Moon
1x Foolish Burial
1x Soul Charge

Trap(9)
3x Sinister Shadow Games
1x Shaddoll Core 
2x Breakthrough Skill
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Solemn Warning

Extra(15)
3x El Shaddoll Construct
3x El Shaddoll Winda
1x Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Arcanite Magician
1x Leo, Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer 
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1x Number 106: Giant Hand

EVILSWARM ADAPTATION IN SHADDOLL FORMAT

I wrote about Evilswarm in my past post, which is shown below:

http://goaychanhong.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-versatility-of-evilswarm.html

However, Evilswarm would have to adapt in order to survive. The question is, how would we adapt? Forbidden Dress would be replaced by Forbidden Chalice simply because it can get around all kind of flip effect as well as El Shaddoll Winda. Unlike other effect negation cards, Forbidden Chalice can be activated during damage step, meaning that it can stop the flip effect even if you attack into a face-down monster. This alone makes this card better than other effect negation cards. Evilswarm don't really fear El Shaddoll Winda because we usually don't rely on special summon to swarm the field. Evilswarm Castor and Evilswarm Kerykeion both give us an additional normal summon. However, our Rescue Rabbit and Evilswarm Mandragora are both being shut down by El Shaddoll Winda since we can't Xyz summon after we use the effect of these monsters. Forbidden Chalice as a quick play spell, enable us to shut down El Shaddoll Winda's effect and make play right away.

Evilswarm Ophion can shut down Shaddoll Fusion. However, Evilswarm Ophion is not an auto win since shaddoll has many outs to him. Protecting Evilswarm Ophion is important and can be determining point between winning and losing. Both Shaddoll Dragon and Shaddoll Lizard can kill Evilswarm Ophion with their flip effects. In addition, Black Dragon Collapserpent and White Dragon Wyverburster are popular main deck card in shaddoll deck. These card enable shaddoll players to spam rank 4 to get rid of our Ophion. Forbidden Chalice can deal with these problems quite effectively.

I have make some small changes to the deck list:


DECKLIST

Monster(16)
3 Evilswarm Castor
3 Evilswarm Heliotrope
3 Evilswarm Mandragora
3 Evilswarm Kerykeion
3 Evilswarm Thunderbird
1 Rescue Rabbit

Spell(12)
3 Infestation Pandemic
3 Mythical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Chalice
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole

Trap(12)
3 Fiendlish Chain
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Vanity Emptiness
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Infestation Infection
1 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck(15)
3 Evilswarm Ophion
2 Evilswarm Excition Knight
1 Evilswarm Bahamut
1 Evilswarm Ouroboros
1 Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer
2 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Number 66: Master Key Beetle
1 Number 82: Heartandraco

The Versatility of Evilswarm (2014)

Evilswarm is a control deck with stun option against certain decks. When Evilswarm is not played as a stun deck, it can be played as a rank 4 toolbox or a beatdown deck.  

For me, I don't like meta decks that much, hence I must find a way to deal with them or I will suffer a lot of losses. Dueling became more and more challenging over time. Meta decks constantly evolve and become much harder to side against. For example, Hand Artifact Traptrix of today is much harder to side against compared to Lightsworn of 2010. Most of the meta decks of today are versatile, means that they won't auto-lose to side deck any more. The XYZ monsters obviously changed the game. In the past, you can't get rid of Macro Cosmos unless you draw a MST, now you can get around that just by summoning 2 monsters with the same level. Even worse, some of the side deck cards may hurt you as well, just not as much as it would hurt your opponent. Hence, it is very important for me to have a versatile deck, so that I can adapt to the meta without changing my main deck.

Evilswarm is my choice. This is because it is one of the most versatile deck. Basically, most of the meta decks are highly dependent on:
1) Special summon
2) Graveyard
3) Searching
Evilswarm is still helped by these, but if compared to the meta decks, it is a non factor. This makes Evilswarm harder to side against. All of the Evilswarm main deck monsters can be normal summon, and have respectable ATK in today's standard. Meaning that, Evilswarm can still do things even without special summon. Special mention to Evilswarm Thunderbird, as it is very hard to get rid of. Sometimes, Thunderbird alone can apply enough pressure to my opponent and force them to waste cards on him. Evilswarm do not care about their graveyard as much as other decks do. Evilswarm Kerykeion is the only card that utilize the graveyard. As we all know, Kerykeion is the best monster in the deck as its effect is basically one card XYZ. For me, other monsters in the deck are good standalone monsters too, just not as good as Thunderbird and Kerykeion.

However, the main reason why this deck is so good is because of its boss monster, Evilswarm Ophion. This card searches Infestation Pandemic which protects all Evilswarm monsters from S/T for a turn. This is why he is so hard to get rid of. Also, he single-handedly shut down Artifacts and Dragon Rulers and other high level monsters. In the past Dragon Ruler format, Evilswarm gained its place in the meta because of this card. Due to Evilswarm Castor, this card can be summoned in first turn, and lock down your opponent. He has respectable 2550 ATK for an easily summonable monster. In the future, I believe he will be a great card since he can also shut down Qliphoth.

Get rid of the mind set that Evilswarm is an Ophion deck only. This deck is more than just Ophion. This deck can function as a rank 4 toolbox or a beat down deck. When I play against decks that don't special summon high level monster such as Fire Fist, Ophion can become a huge beat stick since he is protected by Pandemic. In such match-up, summoning Ophion is no longer priority, but he is still useful in this situation. Evilswarm Excition Knight is also another great boss monster for this deck. Although every rank 4 decks can use him, pandemic might makes a different since he is also protected by pandemic.

Back to the topic, why is Evilswarm my deck choice? It is because they are highly adaptable. It is no longer the top deck, however it still survive every format and adapt to the meta. This is because the deck is not a combo deck. A combo deck need to maximize its consistency, hence siding is often not as beneficial because it lowers the consistency of the deck. Evilswarm has no such problem. Also, Evilswarm can utilize Vanity Emptiness very well to lock down the opponent. Evilswarm can also main or side float gate cards like Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure without difficulties. Besides that, as most control decks do, Evilswarm has the ability to run hugh amount of back row. Unlike Dragon Rulers which can't run trap effectively, this is a huge advantage. And that is the reason why we don't describe dragon ruler as adaptable.


DECKLIST

Monster(16)
3 Evilswarm Castor
3 Evilswarm Heliotrope
3 Evilswarm Mandragora
3 Evilswarm Kerykeion
3 Evilswarm Thunderbird
1 Rescue Rabbit

Spell(12)
3 Infestation Pandemic
3 Mythical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Dress
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole

Trap(12)
3 Fiendlish Chain
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Vanity Emptiness
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Infestation Infection
1 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck(15)
3 Evilswarm Ophion
2 Evilswarm Excition Knight
1 Evilswarm Bahamut
1 Evilswarm Ouroboros
2 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Number 106: Giant Hand
1 Number 66: Master Key Beetle
1 Number 82: Heartandraco


CARD CHOICES

Forbidden Dress VS Black Horn of Heaven
I fell that Forbidden Dress is a better choice here simply because it is a good card in most of the match up. When I play against deck like Geargia, although not as usefull, Dress can still act as an ATK modifier. Evilswarm has good match up against Lightsworn Ruler as Ophion just shut down most of their cards. However, a random Lightsworn Ryko can still blow up the Ophion. If my Ophion attacks a face-down Ryko, Dress can safe my Ophion. However, be reminded that Ryko can choose another target (if any) that is not protected by Dress. I do not care that much as long as I can protect my Ophion when I play against Lightsworn Ruler. Dress can still protect Ophion when he attacks into random flip effect monster such as Penguin Soilder but it will not protect the Ophion when the Penguin Soilder is flip summoned. Against Mermail, Dress also protect Ophion from Atlantean Heavy Infrantry. In the Fire Fist match up, Dress is also extremely good since it protect Evilswarm monsters from Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear and leaves Ophion at 1950 ATK which is still bigger than most of the Fire Fist monsters. Black Horn of Heaven is just Bad against Shadoll since it can't stop fusion summon. Besides that, Dress is a very good card against Shadoll Dragon and Shadoll Lizard. For the HATE match up, although Ophion can shut down the artifacts, we still need Dress against Fire Hand. Hence, running Dress is probably a better choice. One extra tips I would like to share, you can activate Dress and target your Ophion when they summon their Number 101. If you do, your opponent can't target Ophion with Number 101. But, your Ophion's ATK will drop down to 1950 which is lower than 2100 of Number 101.


MATCH UP

H.A.T.E.
We are both good and bad against them. The good thing is Ophion can shut down the Artifact monsters, the bad thing is both the Hand and Traptrix engines are generally big problems. My win rate against HATE is about 40%, certainly not impressive. Ophion is far away from auto win in this match up, since it can be easily destroyed by a Fire Hand. Even cards like Traptrix Dionaea can give me some trouble in this match up. Evilswarm Thunderbird is amazing in this match up, you can force them to waste their resource to get rid of your Thunderbird. Based on my personal experiences, Dimensional Prison and Forbidden Dress is good in this match up since both of them help me to deal with Hand monsters. I usually will not try to attack a set monster unless I have a Forbidden Dress since the set monster is Fire Hand most of the time.

GEARGIA
I have only about 40% win rate against Geargia. In this match up, Black Horn of Heaven is a much better card than Forbidden Dress and you should side out the Dress. I can't write much here since my experience against this deck is quite lacking.

MERMAIL
Ophion can shut down their level 7 monsters, but they have many ways to get rid of Ophion. If possible, spare your Mystical Space Typhoon(MST) for their Abyss-sphere. Do not blind MST since if you hit their Abyss-sphere, they can just chain it. They use Atlantean Heavy Infrantry to get rid of your Ophion, and they do it easily. Hence, it is a good idea to have a Forbidden Dress set. You should also watch out for their Rank 4 play since they can do it quite frequently. Try to side in some graveyard hate cards such as Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos. Vanity Emptiness can also lock them down since they rely heavily on special summoning. Remember not to chain Dress to the effect of Number 101, it will be too late. You must activate the Dress when they xyz summon Number 101.

LIGHTSWORN RULER
One of the best match up, Ophion alone shut down the deck. I have around 70% win rate against this deck. The possible ways for them to get rid of Ophion are Lightsworn Ryko, Honest and Rank 4 XYZs. If you play smart, you should probably have Dress when you attack a face down monster to get around Ryko effect. You should also attack an attack position monster with your less important monster to avoid Honest. I do not worry about their back row since Lightsworn Ruler deck run low amount of traps. Vanity Emptiness is godly in this match up. I can chain Vanity Emptiness to their play such as Lightsworn Lumina, Soul Charge or Lightsworn Wulf which I can stop them from special summoning any monster. I can also flip up my Vanity Emptiness when they manage to have 2 level 4 monsters to stop them from summoning a XYZ monster. However, do watch out for Royal Decree since they will probably side in this card in game 2 and game 3. Pure Lightsworn is slightly more troublesome, but at least they can't drop Judgement Dragon on me easily.

FIRE FIST
This match up is quite easy. Spare your MST for their Tenki, with that I stop the search and I also get rid of a Bear's food. I try to use my back row wisely to stop their play. I tend to have advantage in back row game with Evilswarm Ophion, Infestation Pandemic and Evilswarm Thunderbird. Forbidden Dress is extremely good in this match up since it protect my monster from Bear's effect. If I use Dress on my Ophion, Ophion still has 1950 ATK which they can't beat without using a XYZ monster. This match up used to be hard, it became easy since Coach Soldier Wolfbark was limited.

BUJIN
Hard match up, but not unwinable. I just rely on small good plays instead on Ophion. Numbers 103: Ragna Zero is good in this match-up since they usually have a face-up Fire Formation - Tenki. Since her effect is a quick effect, you can get ride of 2 Bujingi cards with her effect.