All About Turbo Tower (or Tower Control)
Let's be frank, playing standard Qliphort is just like playing Geargia. Both are grindy decks with a lot of traps and can main floodgates who can sometimes explode and kill people out of nowhere. Only difference is, Qliphort is more consistent in exploding and they can main the best floodgate ever, namely Skill Drain.
Well, I honestly don't have any problem with grindy decks, except that I'm suck at playing them. It's always like, should I activate this trap now or should I wait one more turn? Should I react against this or should I react against his next draw? Should I this, should I that, fuck! The ability to spend resources wisely is not in me, hence I always suck at playing those kind of deck.
This frustation led me back to questioning what I loved about Qliphort when I first saw them and the answer is the pendulum's mechanic that basically gives you a pseudo-limitless resources. By abusing pendulum's mechanic, no matter how many times you're fucked up by MST or Mirror Force or Torrent or anything, you can regain those advantages you lose, simply by placing the correct scale at the right time.
This led me to an idea about playing Qliphort deck with less traps and focused more to abuse this pendulum mechanic and overwhelm the opponent with this seemingly endless barrage of Jewish spaceship. This idea was translated into this decklist that I used to reach Top 8 of Yugioh Online Championship Trial Game 2:
However, one thing that I noticed after playing this deck is how easy it is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in the first turn when you draw a Qliphort Scout and 4 random Qliphort monsters. So I think again, what if I build a deck that can consistently draw those kind of opening hand? Then I came with the answer: just put every playset of Qliphort monsters and Towers, then fill the rest with cantrips or searcher.
But when I think about it again, it's not enough to just summon Towers in turn 1 as there are a lot of card that can beat Towers down. What I want is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in first turn and then gain advantage by using Monolith's draw effect. This way, it's not only Towers who become the threat but also the card advantage I got from Monolith. Therefore, what I want exactly is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in turn 1 with Qliphort Monolith face-up in pendulum scale. This idea then translated into this decklist that I used to reach Top 32 of Shadow Tournament 7:
I fell in love with this deck, although it's still imperfect. I originally wanted to use 3 Qliphort Monolith but I can't find enough copy of it in Indonesia (nobody loves SECE, eh?). But believe it or not, in 6 out of 8 matches I played in SH7, I managed to pull out the Towers + Monolith combo in first turn, which led me to believe that 1 Monolith and 3 Monolith won't make much difference, but we'll need more data to conclude that.
Now as I promised in my previous post, I'll explain how this deck works. But honestly, though, this deck is no-brainer. Everyone can play this deck and can beat anyone as long as that 'anyone' doesn't play a deck that have an out to Towers. Basically, to play this deck, you'll only need to assemble these opening hand combinations:
1. Qliphort Scout + Qliphort Monolith + 3 Random Qliphort Monsters
The most simple combination. Just put Scout and Monolith, search for Towers, dump the 3 randoms to extra deck and draw 3 cards. Note that you can replace Qliphort Monolith with Apoqliphort Towers to get the same result, hence why I put 2 Towers in the main deck to get a better chance in drawing him.
2. Qliphort Scout + Qliphort Helix + Saqlifice + 1 Qliphort Monster with Scale 1 + 1 Random Qliphort
This is a bit tricky, but can still result in Towers + Monolith combo. Put Scout and search for Towers. Put the scale 1 monster in pendulum scale. Pendulum summon Helix and 1 random Qliphort. Equip Saqlifice to any of them. Tribute Summon Apoqliphort Towers, then use Helix to destroy the scale 1 pendulum and use Saqlifice to add Monolith. Put Monolith and draw 2. Again, you can replace any of those combo pieces (except Scout) with Apoqliphort Towers to get the same result.
3. Qliphort Scout + Performapal Trampolynx + Saqlifice + Random Qliphort Monster
This is the rarest opening hand, since you can't search for Trampolynx. The most special about this hand is that you can summon Towers with just 4 card. First you put Scout, search for Helix. Then you put Trampolynx to pendulum Helix and 1 random Qliphort. Use Trampolynx's effect to bounce Scout and put it again to search for Towers. Equip Saqlifice to any of those monsters then Tribute Summon Apoqliphort Towers. Use Helix to destroy Trampolynx and use Saqlifice to search Monolith. Then put Monolith to draw 2.
To assemble those opening hands, you'll be helped by Upstart Goblin, Into the Void, One Day of Peace, Trade-In and Summoner's Art. Note that Into the Void interacts perfectly with Qliphort Monolith since its discard effect doesn't start a chain, hence allowing you to activate Monolith's draw effect after you discard your hand. Now since this deck is consisted only of your combo pieces and those cantrips, you'll get a 75% chance to summon Apoqliphort Towers in first turn. The 25% of not being able to summon Towers in first turn comes from these situations:
1. Not drawing Scout
2. Drawing 2 Saqlifices
3. Drawing 2 Trampolynxes
4. Drawing 2 Towers
The situation number 1 is inevitable since you only have 6 way to access Scout, but the situation number 2,3, and 4 can be mitigated by playing only 2 copy of each which will dramatically reduce the chance of drawing 2 copy of them in opening hand. However, since I can't find enough copy of Monolith, I was forced to play 3 copy of Saqlifice. Luckily, I didn't draw 2 Saqlifice in my whole matches.
Now you have Apoqliphort Towers in your field what are you gonna do next? You just sit like a boss and watch as your opponent gets frustrated. Or if your opponent managed to beat your Towers down, you'll just need to summon the second Towers or Qliphort Disk if you can OTK them.
Now what will you do if you went second? If you went second, all you need to do is simply to throw away every spaceship that you draw to finish your opponent in a single stroke. Don't even think about defense because you simply don't have it. Moreover, don't you ever worry with opposing MST since they will do nothing to affect you. If your opponent MST'd your Scout then you can just replace it with Shell or Cephalopod and summon the destroyed Scout, essentially making your opponent -1 and their MST useless. What you do when you go second? Just charge, charge, and kill, no mercy.
This deck's easier matchup are Yosenju, Ritual Beast, Volcanic, Shaddoll, and Burning Abyss. Yes, Burning Abyss is our easier matchup, I'm serious. Those deck become our easier matchup simply because they have no easy way to remove Apoqliphort Towers.
The tricky matchup is with HERO and Sattelarknight. Those matchup become tricky because they have access to Excalibur. Moreover, those deck usually don't have many monsters, hence making Apoqliphort Tower's effect null. It's easy to lose your Towers against them, especially because Sattelarknight can sometimes get an Honest. However, if they happened to have a discardable monster in their hand during first turn, you can still get an upperhand against them.
Lastly, our worst matchup is against standard Qliphort and Nekroz. Both of this deck can consistently beat Towers while still maintaining their advantage and pressure. Qliphort can just summon Disk, playing scale 1, punch Towers in the face, and proceed to OTK. Nekroz can just summon Trishula, banishing Scout and 1 random card in hand, add Decisive Armor, kick Towers in the face, and leaving us defenseless.
To approach this worst matchup, I'd advise to remove all Apoqliphort Towers in main deck and side in every front row removal available and just focus on OTK-ing them. This isn't really a good plan, but this is your best chance, and I manage to win some game against Qliphort and Nekroz this way.
I realized that this explanation is probably to simplistic. I actually want to make like Tom Ross' Infect deck primer, explaining every matchup with details, what card to side-in and what card to side-out. But then I realized that I'm just to lazy to do all of that. So, I guess I'll just give you the grand concept of this deck and leave you to improve it yourself.
One last thing I'd say this deck is really good to be played in a big tournament because it have very little and specific play, hence making you not thinking too hard, and lowering the chance to get misplay. The deck is fun if you define fun as watching your opponent frustrated. The deck can also be very unfair if played against the easier matchup, which add to the fun. I guess you can say, I'm a psychopath, lol. Hope this article will be useful for you :)
Well, I honestly don't have any problem with grindy decks, except that I'm suck at playing them. It's always like, should I activate this trap now or should I wait one more turn? Should I react against this or should I react against his next draw? Should I this, should I that, fuck! The ability to spend resources wisely is not in me, hence I always suck at playing those kind of deck.
This frustation led me back to questioning what I loved about Qliphort when I first saw them and the answer is the pendulum's mechanic that basically gives you a pseudo-limitless resources. By abusing pendulum's mechanic, no matter how many times you're fucked up by MST or Mirror Force or Torrent or anything, you can regain those advantages you lose, simply by placing the correct scale at the right time.
This led me to an idea about playing Qliphort deck with less traps and focused more to abuse this pendulum mechanic and overwhelm the opponent with this seemingly endless barrage of Jewish spaceship. This idea was translated into this decklist that I used to reach Top 8 of Yugioh Online Championship Trial Game 2:
However, one thing that I noticed after playing this deck is how easy it is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in the first turn when you draw a Qliphort Scout and 4 random Qliphort monsters. So I think again, what if I build a deck that can consistently draw those kind of opening hand? Then I came with the answer: just put every playset of Qliphort monsters and Towers, then fill the rest with cantrips or searcher.
But when I think about it again, it's not enough to just summon Towers in turn 1 as there are a lot of card that can beat Towers down. What I want is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in first turn and then gain advantage by using Monolith's draw effect. This way, it's not only Towers who become the threat but also the card advantage I got from Monolith. Therefore, what I want exactly is to summon Apoqliphort Towers in turn 1 with Qliphort Monolith face-up in pendulum scale. This idea then translated into this decklist that I used to reach Top 32 of Shadow Tournament 7:
 |
| I'd like to call it Turbo Tower, but Arman called it Tower Control. Well, whatever. |
Now as I promised in my previous post, I'll explain how this deck works. But honestly, though, this deck is no-brainer. Everyone can play this deck and can beat anyone as long as that 'anyone' doesn't play a deck that have an out to Towers. Basically, to play this deck, you'll only need to assemble these opening hand combinations:
1. Qliphort Scout + Qliphort Monolith + 3 Random Qliphort Monsters
The most simple combination. Just put Scout and Monolith, search for Towers, dump the 3 randoms to extra deck and draw 3 cards. Note that you can replace Qliphort Monolith with Apoqliphort Towers to get the same result, hence why I put 2 Towers in the main deck to get a better chance in drawing him.
2. Qliphort Scout + Qliphort Helix + Saqlifice + 1 Qliphort Monster with Scale 1 + 1 Random Qliphort
This is a bit tricky, but can still result in Towers + Monolith combo. Put Scout and search for Towers. Put the scale 1 monster in pendulum scale. Pendulum summon Helix and 1 random Qliphort. Equip Saqlifice to any of them. Tribute Summon Apoqliphort Towers, then use Helix to destroy the scale 1 pendulum and use Saqlifice to add Monolith. Put Monolith and draw 2. Again, you can replace any of those combo pieces (except Scout) with Apoqliphort Towers to get the same result.
3. Qliphort Scout + Performapal Trampolynx + Saqlifice + Random Qliphort Monster
This is the rarest opening hand, since you can't search for Trampolynx. The most special about this hand is that you can summon Towers with just 4 card. First you put Scout, search for Helix. Then you put Trampolynx to pendulum Helix and 1 random Qliphort. Use Trampolynx's effect to bounce Scout and put it again to search for Towers. Equip Saqlifice to any of those monsters then Tribute Summon Apoqliphort Towers. Use Helix to destroy Trampolynx and use Saqlifice to search Monolith. Then put Monolith to draw 2.
To assemble those opening hands, you'll be helped by Upstart Goblin, Into the Void, One Day of Peace, Trade-In and Summoner's Art. Note that Into the Void interacts perfectly with Qliphort Monolith since its discard effect doesn't start a chain, hence allowing you to activate Monolith's draw effect after you discard your hand. Now since this deck is consisted only of your combo pieces and those cantrips, you'll get a 75% chance to summon Apoqliphort Towers in first turn. The 25% of not being able to summon Towers in first turn comes from these situations:
1. Not drawing Scout
2. Drawing 2 Saqlifices
3. Drawing 2 Trampolynxes
4. Drawing 2 Towers
The situation number 1 is inevitable since you only have 6 way to access Scout, but the situation number 2,3, and 4 can be mitigated by playing only 2 copy of each which will dramatically reduce the chance of drawing 2 copy of them in opening hand. However, since I can't find enough copy of Monolith, I was forced to play 3 copy of Saqlifice. Luckily, I didn't draw 2 Saqlifice in my whole matches.
Now you have Apoqliphort Towers in your field what are you gonna do next? You just sit like a boss and watch as your opponent gets frustrated. Or if your opponent managed to beat your Towers down, you'll just need to summon the second Towers or Qliphort Disk if you can OTK them.
Now what will you do if you went second? If you went second, all you need to do is simply to throw away every spaceship that you draw to finish your opponent in a single stroke. Don't even think about defense because you simply don't have it. Moreover, don't you ever worry with opposing MST since they will do nothing to affect you. If your opponent MST'd your Scout then you can just replace it with Shell or Cephalopod and summon the destroyed Scout, essentially making your opponent -1 and their MST useless. What you do when you go second? Just charge, charge, and kill, no mercy.
This deck's easier matchup are Yosenju, Ritual Beast, Volcanic, Shaddoll, and Burning Abyss. Yes, Burning Abyss is our easier matchup, I'm serious. Those deck become our easier matchup simply because they have no easy way to remove Apoqliphort Towers.
The tricky matchup is with HERO and Sattelarknight. Those matchup become tricky because they have access to Excalibur. Moreover, those deck usually don't have many monsters, hence making Apoqliphort Tower's effect null. It's easy to lose your Towers against them, especially because Sattelarknight can sometimes get an Honest. However, if they happened to have a discardable monster in their hand during first turn, you can still get an upperhand against them.
Lastly, our worst matchup is against standard Qliphort and Nekroz. Both of this deck can consistently beat Towers while still maintaining their advantage and pressure. Qliphort can just summon Disk, playing scale 1, punch Towers in the face, and proceed to OTK. Nekroz can just summon Trishula, banishing Scout and 1 random card in hand, add Decisive Armor, kick Towers in the face, and leaving us defenseless.
To approach this worst matchup, I'd advise to remove all Apoqliphort Towers in main deck and side in every front row removal available and just focus on OTK-ing them. This isn't really a good plan, but this is your best chance, and I manage to win some game against Qliphort and Nekroz this way.
I realized that this explanation is probably to simplistic. I actually want to make like Tom Ross' Infect deck primer, explaining every matchup with details, what card to side-in and what card to side-out. But then I realized that I'm just to lazy to do all of that. So, I guess I'll just give you the grand concept of this deck and leave you to improve it yourself.
One last thing I'd say this deck is really good to be played in a big tournament because it have very little and specific play, hence making you not thinking too hard, and lowering the chance to get misplay. The deck is fun if you define fun as watching your opponent frustrated. The deck can also be very unfair if played against the easier matchup, which add to the fun. I guess you can say, I'm a psychopath, lol. Hope this article will be useful for you :)
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