Flip Control

What is Flip Control?

​Flip Control (also known as “Flip Flop” or “Tsukuyomi Lock”) is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck distinguished by its 3 copies of Tsukuyomi, which it uses with several flip effect monsters, including but not limited to 2-3 Mask of Darkness, 2-3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and 2 Magician of Faith. It also plays a heavy trap lineup with 3 Solemn Judgments to protect its monsters and to add back to the hand with Mask of Darkness.
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Flip Control Strategy

​Flip Control is arguably the most passive deck in the entire Goat Format. It seeks to set monsters, back them up with set traps, and then repeatedly activate flip effects via Tsukuyomi. After accumulating enough card advantage, it will either peck the opponent to death with cards like Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive and Mask of Darkness, or play a Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning backed by Solemn Judgment, Book of Moon, or Compulsory Evacuation Device.
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Flip Control Core Interactions

​Flip Control’s one and only key interaction is any flip effect monster + Tsukuyomi. This leads to a +1 in card advantage on each turn that the combo goes unanswered, which can get out of hand quickly. Tsukuyomi + Mask of Darkness can setup soft locks by repeatedly getting Solemn Judgment back from the graveyard to negate whatever your opponent throws at you. If you have Time Seal in your graveyard, you can instead lock your opponent out of a draw phase every turn, much like the Yata-Garasu decks from the old days. Mask of Darkness and Magician of Faith are also good for just reusing power cards such as Mirror Force or Pot of Greed.
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Flip Control Deck Skeleton

3 Tsukuyomi
2 Mask of Darkness
2 Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive
2 Magician of Faith
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Book of Moon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
3 Solemn Judgment
2 Sakuretsu Armor
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Flip Control Example Decklists

Standard Flip Control: ​https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=2819149

Strengths and Weaknesses of Flip Control

​Flip Control has the tendency to be very annoying for chaos decks to deal with because of the fact that Chaos Sorcerer can only banish face-up monsters. Flip Control does even better against Chaos Control in particular, which plays 3 Metamorphosis without a way to tribute the Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Just Solemn Judgment their key threats and cruise to a win off of your Tsukuyomi combos.

Flip Control has a hard time dealing with Royal Decree due to its heavy trap lineup. This is a notable weakness due to the fact that Royal Decree is one of the more common sidedeck cards in the format. This can be mitigated by sidedecking Mobius the Frost Monarch, but that requires some setup. Otherwise, you’ll just have to hope to catch their Royal Decree with Solemn Judgment.

Solemn Judgment can put a Flip Control player in some awkward situations, which is arguably a weakness of the deck. You have to be careful about how you use them, as there are a few decks in the format that can bait one out and then easily finish off the rest of your lifepoints afterwards. These decks include Reasoning Gate Combo, Burn, and Anti-Meta Warriors. However, none of these matchups are unwinnable by any means.
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Common Misconceptions About Flip Control

​A completely different deck featuring cards that can flip themselves facedown (Des Lacooda, Swarm of Scarabs, etc.) is also sometimes mistakenly called Flip Control. We will refer to this deck by its more common name, “PACMAN.” PACMAN did not make our first usage-based tier list, but it may begin to see enough play to make a future one. In the past year or so, Flip Control has seen more play than PACMAN, but there’s some evidence to indicate that this trend may be reversing. We intend to keep a watchful eye on it.

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If you're building a Flip Control deck, you want want to consider an important question: Can I Play 3 of a Flip?

Do you have any questions about Flip Control or want to share your own Flip Control decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Want expert help to construct your own Flip Control deck? Then join our Discord server.

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ACP

​ACP is a co-founder of GoatFormat.com, along with Skully. He has been an active contributor to the revival of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Goat Format from 2012 onward. In 2017, he created the Angel Chaos deck, a notable contender in the Goat Format metagame. He has a long history of being a TCG content creator, first for The Game Academy (now defunct) and later for GatheringMagic.com. He has placed in the top32 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series three times. A mathematician by profession, he is known for his logical and analytical approach to gaming.