Goat Format World Championship 2024 Deck Tech: Riksaah's Thunderclap

The interesting tech continues as we look at Riksaah's Thunderclap list featuring Embodiment of Apophis! 

Deck List

Overview

​Thunderclap is fairly new to the world of Goat compared to many of the other strategies that made their way to the World Championships. The deck is characterized by its focus on Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, while also utilizing many cards commonly seen in Warrior and Chaos Turbo strategies. This separates the deck from pure monarch strategies like Soul Control. 

One card that clearly separates Riksaah's list from other Thunderclap decks (or monarch lists for that matter) is Embodiment of Apophis. This trap-turned-monster provides a decently sized body through special summon, which means it can be utilized to more easily tribute summon Zabrog when needed. 

Player Insight

In discussing the deck, Riksaah notes their approach to deck-building and how it was inspired by their experience with midrange strategies, as well as the desire to explore ways to push the boundaries of standard Warrior decks. 

I've enjoyed playing more midrangey decks in other card games, so a combination of flips, ROTA packages, and swingy monarchs felt up my alley from when the deck was getting popular last year. 


Thunderclap (warriors with 2-3 spies and 1 Zaborg) seemed to be missing something to really make it different from warriors, and IMO that's finding a way to consistently play more than 1 Zaborg. After playing around with Granny Clap (earth core of 2-3 Granmarg some Gigantes, etc.), I felt that finding the way to get more special summons is the way to make tributes more consistent, as well as being able to push more damage than warriors are usually able to.


The idea from above led me to play Embodiment of Apophis, a trap monster that you can special summon, which also has solid stats for damage as well as a body to tribute for Zaborg. Now losing the earth package, I'm able to play better cards, lights and darks for BLs, as well as solemn judgement (with no Gigantes to get ran over or Lily eating life points). The rest of the list isn't anything too special in my opinion, just trying to be prepared for a wide meta while maining for Turbo. 

I was 2-0 after beating RGT r1 and CT r2, but the current world champ on control was a crushing loss in r3. Hopefully I'll bounce back in later rounds.
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I think there are ways to make it better and more consistent. Try it out if you liked it and make it better.