Goat Format Championship 19 Deck Tech: Logos Soup's Chaos Monarchs

Two of the most powerful and popular strategies of the format combined into one?! What could be better? This was likely the thinking of Logos Soup when they decided to enter today's event with this sweet "Chaos Monarch" brew! 

Deck List

Monarch decks have always been some of the more popular of the non-chaos strategies out there. While Soul Control is the version that has seen the most success, pure Monarch "aggro" lists do see play from time to time. These versions opt to play Brain Control in higher numbers instead of Soul Exchange as a way to steal opposing monsters and use them as tribute fodder for powerful Monarchs like Zaborg and Mobius. Recruiters are also used as a way to apply pressure while still keeping up monsters to use as tributes. 

Logos Soup seems to have taken this shell of Monarchs + Brain Control + Recruiters and applied it to a Chaos list. Here, Zaborg is supported by both Shining Angel and Gravekeeper's Spy, which act as LIGHT and DARK fuel for Chaos Sorcerer and BLS. It's notable that all of these Monarch elements make it possible to also run the powerful Dark Magician of Chaos, who is rarely seen outside of OTK decks like Reasoning Gate. 

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Player Insight

Thankfully, Logos Soup was willing to give us an in depth look at the reasoning behind their card choices. After ending the day with a record of 4-2, it's clear that there's something to the strategy, so hearing from the pilot themselves in regards to the deeper level thinking that went into the design of the deck is quite the treat! 

I love Goat Format but none of the Tier One decks really speak to me — Deck Theorizing and building is where I have the most fun, and my goal is to eventually shake up the metagame.

This deck was extremely fun to play. With 7 boss monsters, it packs a huge punch, and has room for all of Goat Format's most menacing threats (Black Luster Soldier, Chaos Sorcer, Dark Magician of Chaos, Zaborg, and Jinzo) PLUS thematically cool boss monsters like Dark Ruler Ha Des, Chaos Command Magician, and Airknight Parshath.

In a sense, the deck is what I imagine a "Pure" Chaos deck to look like — Choosing LIGHT/DARK monsters for their individual strengths, rather than their draw power.

This deck is a competitive evolution of my more casual Strike Ninja deck.

In Goat Format, DARK monsters dominate most Monarch lists. Cards like Kycoo, Sangan, Breaker, Gravekeeper's Spy, Cyber-Stein, Spirit Reaper, Don Zaloog, and Mystic Tomato are so strong that I initially opted out of LIGHT & Chaos Monsters entirely. My Strike Ninja deck regularly topped my (reasonably competitive) locals, and different builds flip-flopped between Hand Control and Return From The Different Dimension strategies. 

No matter what the iteration, Dark Ruler Ha Des was the star of the show —  He's a powerful counter to Flip effects, Recruiters, Sangan, and Sinister Serpent. Also, with 2450 attack, he's the best level 6 who can beat over Ryu Kokki in a Zombie Matchup.

Watching the World Championships in October inspired me to play Goat Format more competitively, and Dingosig's list proved the power of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch.

My favorite interaction in the deck is Dark Ruler Ha Des + Royal Decree. When building a deck, I find that beating Chaos Turbo is the most important litmus test. Dingosig's Chaos Recruiter deck showed that 2x Zaborg and 2x Nobleman of Crossout is a powerful counter against Flip effects. I found that Dark Ruler Ha Des was a strong edition, but ultimately became a Raigeki Break Magnet — Once I added Royal Decree, and I could consistently make my attacks connect, I was confident I could beat Chaos Turbo. Though it never came up, my side deck idea was to swap Dark Ruler Ha Des for Chaos Command Magician in the Goat Control matchup.

3x Brain Control is possibly the boldest design decision I made. Im not sure if it was correct, but I'm sure that I did not want to play Soul Exchange. The deck is aggressive and cards like Dark Ruler Ha Des need the battle phase. Plus, Brain Control is a 1-card-answer for Chaos monsters, a game-closer against Warriors, and (most importantly) a consistent way to summon Dark Magician of Chaos.

Shining Angel is an interesting card — Its toolbox of generic staple cards is much smaller than Mystic Tomato's, but it's viable simply because it's a LIGHT attribute tribute fodder. In my experience, it really "shines" in games two and three — Shining Angel can cheat out Banisher of Light against Chaos, Jowgen the spiritualist against Combo, or Roulette Barrel against warriors. It's an easy insurance policy that doesn't take up too many side deck slots.

New to the tournament series, Soup came out strong despite the spicey list. It's clear they had a great time, and we can only hope to see them in future events continuing to shake things up! 

​I was VERY intimidated playing InsiDS — He's the highest-level player I've gone up against in a tournament. He even drew strong opening hands, but my deck did exactly what it was supposed to do — In game two I won with a massive combo, summoning BLS, banishing a set monster, tributing BLS for Zaborg, Brain Controlling back my own Jinzo, and summoning Chaos Sorcerer 

My first loss was against Gote's Goat Control. My sidedeck strategy was focused on King Tiger Wanghu, Chaos Command Magician, and Airknight parshath. During our game three, I summoned Airknight Parshath twice, and tried setting up a DMOC play, but got walled out by Gravekeeper's Spy. My future iterations of the deck will drop Parshath and lean into more interactions with Chaos Command Magician