Goat Format Championship 23 Deck Tech: NovaEthos's Strike Ninja Return

We have not featured a Strike Ninja deck in our deck techs since Graceless' GFC 17 list. NovaEthos has brought their own innovations to the dark ninja strategy, though, and it seems to be paying off! 

Decklist

Overview

Strike Ninja decks tend to max out on Dark Monsters in order to abuse the warriors "blink" ability as much as possible. Many of these monsters will also be recruiters like Mystic Tomato or Giant Germ, which help to fill the graveyard as ninja fuel. D.D Scout Plane is sometimes paired with Ninja as a way to reliably repeat his blink effect while also gaining card advantage through tribute summons and other similar interactions.

Cards like Return From the Different Dimension and Dimension Fusion are also often used. These powerful cards allow the Nina pilot to create game-ending pushes in a single play, taking down underprepared opponents with ease. 

Player Insight

NovaEthos is committed to rogue strategies, finding joy in crafting unconventional builds that keep opponents on their toes. IT seems that this specific version of the deck came from the revisit of a previous build which played Dimension Fusion. It was apparently also inspired by Earth Aggro decks, as they explain in the following. ​

I’m always dedicated to playing rogue strategies - it’s how I have the most fun playing Goat. I built a version of this with Dimension Fusion that JDZ and I talked about on the YouTube channel, but wanted to revisit it this season with Return from the Different Dimension (RFTDD) instead. Strike Ninja is one of my favorite cards in Goat, I like how its effect sort of reflects its card art - by being able to disappear and dodge the opponent’s threat.

One of the reasons for switching from DFusion to RFTDD was being able to play Kycoo. I don’t want to be banishing my opponent’s monsters just to have DFusion Special Summon them back. Kycoo can be paired with Strike Ninja in an aggro push to force the opponent’s battle traps like Mirror Force, as well as act as a floodgate against decks like Turbo. Playing RFTDD also allows us to play Deko and Spy more comfortably so they can get NOC’ed and not worry about our opponent’s Deko and Spy going to the banished pile. Also, on a personal note, I wanted to see if I could build a list that only runs one attribute—this helps maximize Ninja; sometimes that one extra DARK monster has made a difference.

I decided to run an Earth Aggro style S/T lineup of 3 Smashing Ground and 2 Dust Tornado, as opposed to the more traditional RTFDD choice of Solemn Judgment. Smashing pairs well with Ninja in my opinion—if we remove the opponent’s monsters from the equation, it comes down to Ninja vs. their backrow, most of which we are able to dodge. Sometimes, players will make the strong play of baiting out Ninja’s effect with a battle trap like Ring, then chain something like Raigeki Break to make sure it goes to the GY. However, that is still a decent amount of resources committed and can allow our other beaters to get through unscathed. In testing, this deck really had issues with Gravekeeper’s Spy. 3. Smashing is helpful, but we really want to save that for our opponent’s Chaos monsters. To have some extra insurance against Spy, we are main decking 1 Giant Orc and 1 Zombyra the Dark. Jinzo and Blowback Dragon are also ways to out Spy, but Orc and Zombyra can also be strong against potential Blade Knights.

Despite playing such an unconventional deck, NovaEthos has started the event with a demanding 4-0 record, taking down powerful meta strategies like RGT and Warrior. 

I started 4-0, with wins against RGT, Warrior, Water Heavy Slump, and Blue Eyes. The deck is performing well, but I have also been pretty lucky with some hands (for example, I hit my opponent’s Pot with my Duo turn 1…can’t get luckier than that). The event fatigue set in and I made some misplays in rounds 5 and 6 that cost me those matches. I want to shout out Deck Devastation Virus in the side - I was able to resolve it every time I saw it, and it really helped me make some good reads and go for Return pushes. Having info on your opponent’s cards is really essential in this deck to be able to time your pushes correctly, and Dustshoot + DDV really helped with that.