One of the biggest Yugitubers in the community, Jon Moore aka House of Champs, talked about his thoughts on goatformat.com in today's Yu-Gi-Oh! Market Watch. For those who don't know, Jon Moore and his good friend Billy Brake are both big fans of Goat Format, and we hope to see them do some Goat Format videos or streams soon. From one Yu-Gi-Oh! content creator to another, thank you House of Cards for the work that you do for the community.

You heard right, free Goat Format tournaments, and the winner gets a DuelingBook donation code. See this thread for the first one: 
https://forum.duelingbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3868

You can get notifications about future tournaments using the #tournaments channel of our Discord server. Do you know of any other Goat Format tournaments happening online? Let us know in the comments, and we'll be happy to advertize them for you.

Author's Note: The format of this deck guide is a bit different from the others due to how under-explored burn is at this time. This deck guide may be updated later.

In Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Goat Format, Burn is simply any deck that wins via effect damage rather than attacking. It does this by using cards like Des Koala, Stealth Bird, Tremendous Fire, Secret Barrel, Ojama Trio, Just Desserts, Nightmare Wheel, Ring of Destruction, Magic Cylinder, and Ceasefire. The specific burn cards that are used depend on that deck's specific strategy.
​

At a high level, all Burn decks have the same strategy: to stop their opponent in their tracks and kill them with a flurry of burn (effect damage) cards. However, Burn as a whole has a variety of different sub-strategies that take the deck in different directions.

Drain Lockdown Burn shuts the opponent out with Skill Drain and Wall of Revealing Light protected by Solemn Judgment and Fake Trap. It eventually kills the opponent with some combination of Nightmare Wheel, Secret Barrel, and Just Desserts.

Thousand-Eyes Burn is a Burn deck that hedges its bets by being very similar to Goat Control. It uses the classic Scapegoat+Metamorphosis combo to lock up the field and then can kill the opponent with Wave-Motion Cannon and Des Koala.

Speed Burn plays cards like Tremendous Fire, Meteor of Destruction, and Dark Room of Nightmare along with some of the other standard Burn choices in order to kill the opponent very quickly, sometimes as early as turn 3.
​

Although not included in all burn decks, one of the most common interactions in a Burn deck is synergy involving Ojama Trio with Secret Barrel or Just Desserts. Ojama Trio makes each Secret Barrel do an extra 600 damage and each Just Desserts do an extra 1500 damage. Burn's fastest kills usually involve Ojama Trio with multiple Just Desserts.

Another common interaction is many spell/trap cards backed up by Solemn Judgment or Fake Trap. This provides you with the stabilization needed to survive Heavy Storm.

Stall cards are also typically paired with Burn. Using Level Limit Area - B or Gravity Bind, you can prevent the opponent from really doing anything. Then you can just sit there, let them draw and summon more cards, making your Just Desserts, Secret Barrels, and Des Koalas deal more damage.
​

Drain Lockdown Burn: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2846301

Thousand-Eyes Burn: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2846381

Speed Burn: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2846507

Regardless of the variant that you use, all Burn decks have the same strength and weaknesses: Their viability is largely dependent on the metagame. If players are focusing on beating decks like Goat Control and chaos variants, it might be a good day to bring Burn. However, if everyone is packing their sidedeck with cards like Jinzo, Royal Decree, Giant Trunade, Wave-Motion Cannon, Mobius the Frost Monarch, and Chiron the Mage, Burn is going to struggle. Burn can be the definition of a high risk, high reward deck.

In particular, Burn has a hard time dealing with Reasoning Gate Combo. It plays Jinzo, which can be found quickly with Reasoning and Monster Gate, and it also usually plays multiple copies of Giant Trunade. In addition, the deck can setup a game shot out of nowhere. However, Burn usually has a good time against Thunder Dragon Chaos and Chaos Control, which are slow and do not play Jinzo or Dust Tornado in the maindeck.
​

In the 2005 Goat Format, people had the tendency to pack their sidedeck with effect damage and lifegain cards like Des Koala, Cannon Soldier, Wave-Motion Cannon, Poison of the Old Man, Ceasefire, and Magic Cylinder. When some people look back at 2005 top decklists and see these cards, the assumption is that they were sidedecked to beat Burn decks. In reality, they were sidedecked because rounds were limited to 40 minutes, and matches would often end in time. These cards all happened to be a guaranteed source of damage in time while also as being good against Burn.

Do you have any questions about Burn or want to share your own Burn decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Chaos Recruiter is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck distinguished by its 3-4 chaos monsters (1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer) and 5-6 "recruiter monsters" (Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel). It plays Sangan, Newdoria, D.D. Warrior Lady, or others to search with these recruiter monsters.
​

Chaos Recruiter is an aggressive deck that seeks to pressure its opponent with recruiter monsters and then later take over the game with its chaos monsters. It has a very consistent early game and does well in topdecking wars. The deck's gameplan is to start off strong to get in damage, make 1-for-1 trades, and then pull ahead further with a chaos monster. It plays quite differently from other chaos decks in Goat Format due to its aggression.
​

Chaos Recruiter's most important interaction is to use Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel to fill up the graveyard with light and dark monsters. You can do this by waiting for them to be attacked or just ramming them into your opponent's monster yourself. You'll then have a fully stocked graveyard to summon your Chaos Sorcerers.
​
​Chaos Recruiter is also known for its Creature Swap combos. Creature Swap can be used to give the opponent a recruiter monster, which can then be triggered after it's destroyed in battle. Creature Swap can also be used with Asura Priest, which will return to your hand in the end phase. Creature Swap is also great for stealing opposing chaos monsters, because it can just banish whatever monster you give them.
​

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Newdoria
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Shining Angel
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Creature Swap
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
​1 Ring of Destruction
​

Chaos Recruiter with Dustshoots: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2845546

​Chaos Recruiter with Returns: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2845790

Chaos Recruiter has a straightforward gameplan that is pretty easy to play: attack with monsters, summon Chaos Sorcerer. This makes it a good starting choice for newer players to Goat Format as well as people who just prefer to be more aggressive. Like other aggressive decks in the format, it has the ability to take advantage of slow starts from the format's control decks, which is always valuable.

Chaos Recruiter's biggest weakness is that it has trouble dealing with walls such as Gravekeeper's Spy and Legendary Jujitsu Master. These are both fairly common sidedeck cards. If the opponent plays defensive monsters all game, Chaos Recruiter won't be able to get its recruiter monsters in the graveyard for Chaos Sorcerer. However, this can be potentially mitigated by using Creature Swap to steal these walls and give the opponent a recruiter monster.

Unlike some of the other chaos decks in the format, Chaos Recruiter can't effectively take advantage of the power cards Card Destruction and Metamorphosis. However, it can make up for this by playing Return from the Different Dimension in order to get an edge in chaos mirrors. If you expect to see a lot of opposing chaos decks, Return can be a good meta call.
​

Chaos Recruiter is sometimes confused with a different deck, Angel Chaos Control. While both decks typically play 3 copies of Shining Angel, they use entirely different strategies. Chaos Recruiter prefers to be aggressive with its recruiter monsters and Creature Swap, whereas Angel Chaos prefers to be controlling with cards like Metamorphosis. Both decks are viable choices in Goat Format.

Do you have any questions about Chaos Recruiter or want to share your own Chaos Recruiter decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Did you know that there are card shops that hold Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format tournaments offline? If you live in the northeastern US area, consider coming out to Fire and Dice for their Goat Format cash tournament. If circumstances permit, coverage of the tournament will be streamed at our twitch channel. All of the tournament info is below.

Where? Fire and Dice: 589 Bridgeport Ave, Milford CT 06460
When? January 26, 2019, 12:00 PM EST
Entry fee? $20
Prizes? All money collected for entry fees will be paid out in cash prize support. 70% for 1st place, 30% for 2nd place.
Rounds? If more than 16 entrants, swiss rounds with top cut. Otherwise, double elimination.

Do you know of any other Goat Format tournaments happening soon, online or otherwise? Let us know, and we will advertise them for you!

Two of the unique aspects of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format are the ubiquity of the card Metamorphosis and the fact that there is no legal limit on number of cards that you can play in the fusion deck (Yu-Gi-Oh! changed the term “fusion deck” to “extra deck” in 2008). Thus, making sure that you have included the correct fusion monsters in your fusion deck is an essential element of building any deck that includes Metamorphosis. Sorted below by level, we have listed every fusion monster that is a viable choice in Goat Format.

Empty Jar is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format combo deck that wins via deckout. It does this through its 1 Cyber Jar, 1 Morphing Jar, 3 Book of Moon, 3 Book of Taiyou, 3 The Shallow Grave, 1 Card Destruction, and 1 Serial Spell.
​

Empty Jar is the notorious “mill deck” of the format, securing its wins by forcing the opponent through whatever means necessary to draw from an empty deck and therefore to lose the game. The Empty Jar player abuses the flip effects of Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar. Specifically, it does so by using Book of Taiyou in combination with The Shallow Grave or Book of Moon to repeatedly trigger Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar several times in a single turn. Empty Jar is a high-synergy, spell-heavy combo deck that will seek to avoid damage until it has one of its Jar combos, which could be as early as turn 1 or as late as turn 10.

Empty Jar's key interaction is to use either Cyber Jar with Book of Taiyou and The Shallow Grave or Morphing Jar with Book of Taiyou and Book of Moon. Either of the combo pieces can be added back to the hand with Spell Reproduction or put on top of the deck with A Feather of the Phoenix. This interaction allows you to repeatedly draw 5 cards at the cost of only 2-4 cards, netting your more combo pieces and continuing the engine.

The Jar combos cause the opponent to draw cards as well, with Cyber Jar's effect causing the opponent's hand size to grow larger and larger. This sets up perfectly for the finishing combo of Card Destruction + Serial, which will cause the opponent to draw 20 cards or more, ending the game in deckout. Additionally, you will not be at risk at decking yourself out as well, since Serial Spell discards your entire hand as a cost.
​

1 Morphing Jar
1 Cyber Jar
1 Sangan
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Serial Spell
2 Upstart Goblin
3 Spell Reproduction
3 Reload
3 Book of Taiyou
3 Book of Moon
3 The Shallow Grave

Standard Empty Jar: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2833549

Empty Jar with Goats+Meta: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2833575

Of the alternate win condition decks in the format, Empty Jar is one of the hardest ones to disrupt. The only commonly maindecked cards in the format that has stop its combo cold are Solemn Judgment, Raigeki Break, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Compulsory Evacuation Device, or Metamorphosis into Dark Balter the Terrible. Because there are so few ways to interact with the deck and the most popular decks are not very aggressive, Empty Jar will win the first game a high percentage of the time. If the opponent is not specifically siding for the deck, winning games 2 and 3 against a deck like Goat Control should be a piece of cake as well.

Empty Jar can struggle against many of the aggressive decks in the format, like Anti-Meta Warriors, due to their Solemn Judgments and hand disruption effects A slow hand is fine against Goat Control, but it is not fine when your opponent is summoning a beatstick every turn. Playing against Flip Control can also be frustrating sometimes due to how the deck can repeatedly recycle Solemn Judgment with Mask of Darkness.
​

Neko Mane King is a crucial sidedeck card against Empty Jar, but it is often woefully misunderstood. Generally speaking, it is the best single effect to shut down an Empty Jar combo, as it ends the turn immediately when discarded by a Morphing Jar or destroyed by a Cyber Jar. However, the Empty Jar player will always be looking to sidedeck counters to Neko Mane King; the most notable of these are Prohibition and Mind Control. When used correctly, each of these cards can be used to nullify Neko Mane King’s trigger effect, either by putting it on the Jar player’s side of the field for a Cyber Jar activation or by Prohibiting its effect from ever activating in the first place. This can make in-hand Neko Mane Kings more of a liability than an asset against the Jar player, leading to situations where a control player can be paradoxically punished for having too many Neko Mane Kings and not enough of other cards. Aggressive decks like Anti-Meta Warrior usually do not need to side Neko Mane King at all.

Empty Jar is sometimes classified as a first turn kill (FTK) deck, but in most matchups, the deck enjoys a remarkably lax amount of time in setting up its combo. Thus, a prudent Empty Jar player rarely goes for the FTK at all, instead opting to use the first few turns to ensure an extended combo.

​Do you have any questions about Empty Jar or want to share your own Empty Jar decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Goat Control is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck distinguished by its 2-3 Scapegoat, 2-3 Metamorphosis, 2 Tsukuyomi, 1-3 Airknight Parshath (but usually 2), and the presence of many powerful 1-ofs that some other decks don't play: Tribe Infecting Virus, Morphing Jar, and Premature Burial/Call of the Haunted.
​

​Of the popular decks in the format, Goat Control’s strategy is the least linear. It can take on one of many different roles depending on the matchup, the gamestate, and the cards in its hand. Goat Control is unique in its ability to accumulate card advantage, attack for big chunks of damage, and also make sudden comebacks off the back of its power cards. Goat Control has a better late game than most other decks in the format; it just needs to get there by dealing with the opponent’s threats in the early game.
​

Unsurprisingly, Scapegoat is a key component of Goat Control’s strategy. It can be used to avoid taking too much damage or serve as a level 1 monster for Metamorphosis. Goat Control often features Creature Swap in the sidedeck, sometimes in the maindeck, which is also a powerful synergy with Scapegoat.

Tsukuyomi is a staple 2-of in modern Goat Control decklists. It can be used to reset Thousand-Eyes Restrict and suck up a new monster each turn or reuse one of the deck’s many flip effects. It can also deal with key threats like Blade Knight or an opposing Thousand-Eyes Restrict.

Goat Control is unique in its incorporation of Airknight Parshath as a key element of its strategy. In many ways, the deck is built around it. Goat Control’s Dust Tornadoes make it easier for Airknight Parshath to get in for damage. Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted are mostly used for special summoning it from the graveyard. Thousand-Eyes Restrict is also commonly tributed for Airknight Parshath in order to remove its lock from the field and start attacking your opponent. If Airknight Parshath is not dealt with quickly, Goat Control will take over the game with it.

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Airknight Parshath
2 Tsukuyomi
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Sangan
1 Sinister Serpent
2 Magician of Faith
2 Book of Moon
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Scapegoat
2 Metamorphosis
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted

Standard Goat Control: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2827282

Spy/Airknight Goat Control: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2827331

​Goat Control’s biggest strength is that it’s the Swiss Army knife of the format. It has a wide array of options both in the maindeck and the sidedeck. It can be fine-tuned towards any particular metagame, which is why Goat Control has seen substantial revisions as the years have passed by. Goat Control doesn’t have any unwinnable matchups, nor does it have any blowout matchups. Goat Control’s results are less dependent upon the posture of the metagame and more founded upon the knowledge of Goat Control’s pilot.

Both a strength and a weakness of Goat Control is how difficult it is to play the deck without misplaying. On one hand, it takes more time to become proficient with Goat Control than the various chaos decks of the format, which makes some newer players shy away from Goat Control. On the other hand, the deck has a very high skill cap, with the most dedicated Goat Control players having exceptionally consistent results.

Arguably, the biggest weakness of Goat Control in the modern era is its popularity. More and more players are focusing on beating Goat Control specifically and exploiting the deck with gimmicks that it is not naturally built to handle. King Tiger Wanghu is seeing more play than it used to, which stops many of Goat Control’s most important synergies. Combo decks like Empty Jar and Reasoning Gate Combo take advantage of the deck’s passiveness by setting up one-turn kills within the first few turns of the game without much trouble. However, Goat Control can mitigate these weaknesses with a well-constructed sidedeck.
​

The name “Goat Format” is sometimes taken to imply that Goat Control is the only good deck in the format. It is still the most popular deck, but it sees much less play than it used to. Goat Format certainly has some interesting history in this regard. When the revival era started in 2012, nearly everyone played Goat Control, but as the years have passed by, players have discovered more and more viable alternatives. Originally perceived to be a “mirror match format,” Goat Format has instead blossomed into a remarkably diverse and balanced format.

Do you have any questions about Goat Control or want to share your own Goat Control decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.