What is Thunder Dragon Chaos?
Thunder Dragon Chaos is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck distinguished by its 3-4 chaos monsters (1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and 2-3 Chaos Sorcerer) and 3 Thunder Dragons. It almost always plays 2 Night Assailants and a few ways to discard them: 1 Card Destruction, 1 Tribe-Infecting Virus, and copies of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast or Raigeki Break. It also has a noticeably high monster count, with a typical 18-21 monsters. This deck is sometimes also called "Turbo Chaos."
Thunder Dragon Chaos Strategy
Thunder Dragon Chaos is a high-synergy control deck that uses its chaos monsters as an easy, consistent source of card advantage. It can play a grind game just as well as most other decks in the format, but it can also flood the board with a bunch of chaos monsters and push for big damage quite easily. It can use cards like Card Destruction, Cyber Jar, and Morphing Jar to help setup its kill turns.
Thunder Dragon Chaos Core Interactions
The deck’s most important interaction is that it puts light and dark monsters in the graveyard very quickly. Thunder Dragon can immediately be a light monster in the graveyard (note: you can activate Thunder Dragon’s effect even if you have no copies left in the deck), and the deck plays a swath of dark flip effect monsters to dig through the deck and fill the graveyard.
Using Thunder Dragon, Night Assailant, and Sinister Serpent in conjunction with discard effects is also a key element of the deck. In particular, Thunder Dragon Chaos seeks to build up a hand of these monsters and fire off a Card Destruction, gaining massive card advantage and filling up the grave with chaos monsters. Night Assailant gives Thunder Dragon Chaos more access to its powerful flip effect monsters: Magician of Faith, Cyber Jar, and Morphing Jar. Thunder Dragon Chaos Deck Skeleton
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer 3 Thunder Dragon 1 Breaker the Magical Warrior 1 Sangan 1 Magician of Faith 2 Night Assailant 1 Sinister Serpent 1 Pot of Greed 1 Graceful Charity 1 Delinquent Duo 1 Card Destruction 1 Heavy Storm 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 1 Snatch Steal 2 Nobleman of Crossout 1 Mirror Force 1 Torrential Tribute 1 Ring of Destruction Thunder Dragon Chaos Example Decklists
Thunder Dragon Chaos with Jars: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2779979
Strengths and Weaknesses of Thunder Dragon Chaos
Thunder Dragon Chaos has a fairly straightforward gameplan and is substantially easier to play correctly than Goat Control, which makes it a popular deck among players who are newer to Goat Format. The deck is not auto-pilot by any means, but it does have less decisions to make compared to many other decks in the format. This makes it harder for a Thunder Dragon Chaos player to throw away a game with a big blunder.
Thunder Dragon Chaos has a notable advantage over other chaos decks in the format in that it can summon its chaos monsters quicker due to the inclusion of Thunder Dragon and self-discard effects. Thunder Dragon Chaos will simply be able to play more chaos monsters faster and more consistently than the other chaos decks in the format, on average. Its inclusion of more power cards, particularly Card Destruction and Morphing Jar, can help a fair bit in chaos mirrors as well. However, Thunder Dragon Chaos has the weakness that it is generally most vulnerable to the sidedeck out of all of the chaos decks. Trap Dustshoot is noticeably stronger against this version than the other chaos decks because of the fact that that Thunder Dragon, Night Assailant, Cyber Jar, and Morphing Jar keep the hand count high. Mind Control is also quite strong versus Thunder Dragon Chaos. The opponent can either steal a set flip effect monster and use its effect for themselves or steal a chaos monster and use its effect to banish itself. Like other chaos decks, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer can be an issue as well. As a high-synergy deck, Thunder Dragon Chaos is also notorious for its potential to draw “brick” opening hands. It will open multiple copies of Thunder Dragon about 5% of the time. It can also run into issues with having too many chaos monsters that it can’t summon, or just too many monsters in general. Its higher potential to draw poor hands effectively places a cap on its winrate, which can be frustrating. Common Misconceptions About Thunder Dragon Chaos
There has long been a rivalry between Goat Control and Thunder Dragon Chaos, and it can be a point of confusion for some as to which is better and which is more popular. The relative popularity of the two decks generally varies from place to place. There are certainly some online metagames where Thunder Dragon Chaos sees more play than Goat Control. There is not yet sufficient evidence to indicate whether one deck solidly beats the other. You’ll have to make that determination on your own.
There have also been etymological debates regarding the naming of Thunder Dragon Chaos. We have chosen this name because the presence of Thunder Dragon is a clear distinguishing factor between this type of chaos deck and other chaos decks. Some will insist that if Thunder Dragon Chaos chooses to play Metamorphosis (as one of the example decklists does), that it is actually a totally different deck. Both the strategy and the strengths/weaknesses are quite similar regardless of whether or not you choose to run Metamorphosis, so it makes sense to classify them together. You might also like...
Do you want to play a chaos deck but aren't sure which one? We have deck guides to other chaos strategies too!
Here are some articles that will help you play Thunder Dragon Chaos:
We also have some recorded games with Thunder Dragon Chaos so that you can watch it in action:
Do you have any questions about Thunder Dragon Chaos or want to share your own Thunder Dragon Chaos decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Want expert help to construct your own Thunder Dragon Chaos deck? Then join our Discord server.
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What is Chaos Control?
Chaos Control is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck that is distinguished by its 3 chaos monsters (1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and 2 Chaos Sorcerer), 3 Metamorphosis, and 2 Scapegoat. Staple monsters like Breaker the Magical Warrior, Sangan, and Tsukuyomi, along Thousand-Eyes Restrict serve as the deck’s dark monsters, while Magician of Faith, Magical Merchant, and either Shining Angel or Skilled White Magician are the lights (rather than Thunder Dragon). In most cases, the only non-chaos-typed monster that it plays is Sinister Serpent. Versions of this deck that play Shining Angel are often referred to as “Angel Chaos”, and the versions that eschew it for Skilled White Magician are called “Skilled White Chaos” or just “Skilled Chaos.”
Chaos Control Strategy
Chaos Control is an attrition-based deck that intends to answer whatever monsters the opponent throws at it with cards like Metamorphosis (for Thousand-Eyes Restrict) and Chaos Sorcerer. It is a very stable and flexible deck, with cards like either Shining Angel or Skilled White Magician that are always live in the early game and can play either offense or defense. The deck focuses entirely on card advantage and flexibility in lieu of trying to attack for big damage. It usually plays no Tribe-Infecting Virus or Asura Priest.
Chaos Control Core Interactions
Interestingly, Chaos Control is a fairly low-synergy deck that focuses mostly on individually powerful light and dark monsters, along with staple spells/traps. However, there are a few key interactions that are important to know.
Metamorphosis on a LV1 monster like a Magical Merchant for Thousand-Eyes Restrict can be a stronger play than it would be in Goat Control, because it not only can steal an opponent’s monster, but also provide you with the light and dark that you need later down the road. Having a Tsukuyomi to combo with your Thousand-Eyes Restrict is even better. The Shining Angel version of this deck has a few more cool interactions than the Skilled White Magician list. Shining Angel can search a Magician of Faith or Merchant Magical to be used with Metamorphosis or flipped face-down with Tsukuyomi or Book of Moon. Searching Magician of Faith can be especially strong if you have a powerful spell like Pot of Greed in your graveyard. Chaos Control Deck Skeleton
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer 1 Breaker the Magical Warrior 1 Sangan 2 Tsukuyomi 2 Magician of Faith 1 Magical Merchant 3 Skilled White Magician (or 3 Shining Angel with 1 D.D. Warrior Lady) 1 Sinister Serpent 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 Book of Moon 2 Scapegoat 3 Metamorphosis 1 Mirror Force 1 Torrential Tribute 1 Ring of Destruction Chaos Control Example Decklists
Angel Chaos: www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2758259
Strengths and Weaknesses of Chaos Control
Chaos Control is well equipped to do battle with Goat Control, especially with Goat Control players who do not have too much familiarity with the matchup. You are heavily favored to win any kind of war of attrition between these two decks; just make sure that you don’t get surprised by a big OTK or a Morphing Jar.
Chaos Control is also quite prepared to play a matchup against aggressive decks like Anti-Meta Warriors, Reasoning Gate Combo, or Chaos Recruiter. Both Skilled White Magician and Shining Angel can hold off a lot of aggression, and Chaos Sorcerer can clean up the rest of their threats. If the opponent’s plan to beat you involves a lot of attacking each turn, they’re going to have a hard time getting through. Chaos Control can have a difficult time dealing with hyper-defensive play, consisting of set monster after set monster for many turns in a row, because Chaos Sorcerer and Metamorphosis are more optimized to deal with faceup threats. In this case, you will need to pressure those facedown monsters with your Shining Angel or Skilled White Magician. Chaos Control also notably has a harder time dealing with Scapegoat than most decks, but luckily 3 Scapegoat is pretty uncommon. Chaos Control is more prone to goat-locking itself (filling up all of your monster zones because of Scapegoat) than Goat Control is, so be careful. This is because of the fact that it plays no tribute monsters. If you activate Scapegoat, always consider what happens if your opponent decides to leave all four goats. Using Scapegoat at the right time will take a considerable amount of planning. Common Misconceptions About Chaos Control
Some players are quick to disregard chaos decks that play Shining Angel or Skilled White Magician over the more popular Thunder Dragon, insisting that Thunder Dragon is required in any chaos deck. This is not the case, and the advantage of choosing Chaos Control over Thunder Dragon Chaos is superior early game options. Thunder Dragon Chaos, on the other hand, has more explosive plays with Card Destruction. Whichever one that you choose to use will depend a lot on your playstyle.
Another common assumption is that opening multiple copies of Shining Angel and/or D.D. Warrior Lady is very bad, but this is also not the case. Remember that your opponent won’t know what your hand is, so they will often be operational under the assumption that your Shining Angel has really juicy targets and not attack it, even if it would in reality be better for them to do so. Just use your first Shining Angel to bait some sort of removal (like Nobleman of Crossout or Sakuretsu Armor), and then play the next one. The name “Chaos Control” can itself be misunderstood. This is because that nearly every chaos deck in the format could be described as some sort of control, and yet we don’t call every single chaos deck “Chaos Control.” Admittedly, a better name for this deck would probably be something like “Good Stuff Chaos,” because of its lower synergy and lower variance than most other chaos decks. However, the name “Chaos Control” has become the accepted convention by the rest of the Goat Format community, so we’ve chosen to stick with it. You might also like...
Do you want to play a chaos deck but aren't sure which one? We have deck guides to other chaos decks too!
Here are some articles that will help you play Chaos Control:
We also have some duel reviews so you can see Chaos Control in action:
Do you have any questions about Chaos Control or want to share your own Chaos Control decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Want expert help to construct your own Chaos Control deck? Then join our Discord server.
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