Deck Analysis: Zane's Karakuris

After getting through a mountain of wires that was more tangled than a bowl of spaghetti, I finally managed to get Xbox live without electrocuting myself too much or burning my house down in the process.

So yes, that's my excuse as to why I haven't made a post in a few days. But on to the actual post I was meant to do a while ago. After the positive response I got from Stitch's worm deck, I also got a request from Zane to do an analysis of his Karakuri deck. Unlike the previous post, I have actually had a little bit of experience on both ends of the Karakuri archetype. One of our previous authors (who randomly disappeared) was a fan of the archetype, so I have a decent idea of how to work the deck. I was going to pick the deck up myself, but after the ban list came, my friend was left deckless so I sold it to him.

So enough backstory, here's the deck list:

Monster [23]
[3] Machina Gearframe
[3] Machina Fortress
[1] Machina Cannon
[3] Karakuri Soldier 236
[2] Karakuri Ninja 919
[2] Karakuri Strategist 248
[2] Karakuri Komachi 224
[1] Karakuri Guard 313
[2] Gear-Gearano
[2] Grow Up Bulb
[2] Effect Veiler

Magic [9]
[1] Monster Reborn
[1] Limiter Removal
[1] Giant Trunade
[1] Book of Moon
[1] Foolish Burial
[2] Pot of Avarice
[1] One for One
[1] De-Synchro

Trap [8]
[1] Mirror Force
[1] Solemn Judgement
[2] Solemn Warning
[1] Trap Dustshoot
[2] Trap Stun
[1] Starlight Road

For those of you who can't tell, this is an OCG build, so I will analyze the deck according to the OCG meta.

This deck is pretty well built, it has many of the key threats of the OCG covered. For those of you who play in the TCG, you will know how important Veiler has become. This is even more true for the OCG. Whilst Plant decks in the OCG don't have access to Tengu, they do have access to the most powerful synchro monster ever to set foot in this game: Shooting Quasar Dragon. If you don't know what SQD is, just rest assured that if it hits your opponent's side of the field, you've almost certainly lost. Veiler also really dents Samurais and Hyperion Angels, so thumbs up to Zane for having those 3 decks in check.

Many of those who play in the TCG may be shocked at the usage of Starlight Road, however, Blackfeathers are still very popular in Japan and having a card that hurts their power plays is always a good thing. Again, Veiler has cards like Sirocco covered. SLR covers Icarus Attack, a nasty card that can hurt a lot of decks. SLR also acts as a pseudo-Trap Stun, removing Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute as threats. It also covers Dark Hole, something I've noticed Karakuri can be troubled by.

I applaud Zane for not using the entire Plant engine. From having used the deck, I can say that having Dandy, Lonefire and Spore don't really do much for the deck. You already have plenty of Synchro power thanks to Komachi, having the Plant engine is just unnecessary and often leads to clogging.

It's hard to criticize the build once you see the reasoning behind everything, and the only massive issues I see with the deck is space issues.

Trap Dustshoot is a great card, but I just don't feel an aggressive deck like Karakuri can utilize it well enough to make it worth the slot. I've only used Trap Dustshoot in 2 decks in the past, both of which have a lot of draw and search power, and one of which died eons ago. I just doesn't seem like the deck can support it well enough to make it worth a slot, so if space is an issue, it seems like it could be a drop.

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but Dark Hole/Black Hole isn't in the main. It may be weak against Samurais and not particularly effective against Plants, it does do wonders against the Agent and Blackfeather match-ups who tend to swarm without much back up. Dark Hole can follow up against a Trishula+Hyperion play, and is one of the few cards that will let you counterattack against Kristya, so I would highly advise Dark Hole even if its just for those situations. You can also use it to activate your own Starlight Road if need be.

In a previous post I mentioned that Gear-Gearano was pretty good. After testing, I noticed I couldn't support it properly. However, I do think Karakuris can support it, and if need be it can be food for Machina Fortress. It seems like the deck doesn't need it though. Whilst it may have a bit of fun with Saizan and Nisamu, it doesn't have much use outside of that due to its strict condition on what it can summon (it only summons level 4s).

I can understand why 2 Glow-Up Bulbs are being mained, but only getting the effect once between them does dampen their effectiveness. Though that said, unlike Plant decks, Karakuris don't main any sort of milling, so the Bulbs will normally be obtained through drawing and their effects will only be used on occassion. They also let the deck hit Natural Beast and Bulb is the best tuner to be used with Fortress, so I could understand why Zane would want to keep both in there.

Aside from that, I must say that I do like his build a lot and obvious thought went into making it. I hope my suggestions have been helpful and I hope you all like this analysis. If any of you want to have your decks analyzed, just leave it in the comments below. Just remember to add an extra deck if you are using one. ^^;;

~Valafar123