Ancient Earth Machine (December 2021)

“Ancient Earth Machine” harnesses the full might of the Military Industrial Complex to turbo out monstrous mechas like Dingirsu, Rail Cannon Liebe, Divine Arsenal Zeus, Machina Ruinforce, and best of all - Ancient Gear Chaos Giant!

Functioning as a grindy aggro-beatdown deck, Ancient Earth Machine’s gameplan is to wear down your opponent’s resources while you maintain card advantage – preparing an ideal gamestate where you can certainly OTK. Ancient Earth Machine is designed as a “turn 3 deck.” Creating an ideal board turn 1, defending/interrupting opponent turn 2, then OTKing turn 3.

Going first, this deck seeks to blow up your opponent’s entire board with Machina Citadel’s field-wipe and create an nigh-unbreakable wall with an unaffected 4000 DEF Rail Cannon Super Dora. Hand advantage and resources are maintained with Urgent Schedule, Revolving Switchyard and by resolving Ancient Gear Box/Super Express Bullet Train multiple times.

On the play, his deck can easily generate enough lethal firepower to obliterate your opponent’s life points several times over by summoning several machine boss monsters on the field often playing through handtraps/interruption due to it's sheer resource advantage. Nothing much can withstand the assault of the likes of Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, Machina Ruinforce, and Rail Cannon Liebe! If your opponent manages to survive, Dingirsu or Liebe can make a 4 material Zeus, enough for two fieldwipes!

 

ARCHETYPES AND RATIOS

 

I describe this deck as a “Military Industrial Complex” because its 4 archetypes are designed for maximum firepower and peak productivity. Also, this deck is fairly complex to pilot!

The Military

Ancient Gear forms the main offensive force of this army, with all it’s units eventually coalescing into the general, Chaos Giant, obliterating everything in it’s path. It is very compact compared to other standard Ancient Gear decks, but it consistently accomplishes it’s job of turboing out Ancient Gear Chaos Giant. It is composed of 1 Wyvern, 2 Frame, 2 Box, 1 Fusion, and 1 GearTown. In the Extra Deck there are 2 Ballista, 1 Ultimate Golem, 1 Megaton Golem and 1 Chaos Giant.

Machina are the legions of soldiers that compose this army, eroding the enemy in defensive attrition-based warfare. Enabling battle operations with Redeployment, Gearframe, and Unclaspare – Citadel and Fortress thin out enemy forces before finishing them off with Ruinforce. It is composed of 1 Ruinforce, 1 Citadel, 1 Fortress, 2 Unclaspare, 3 Gearframe, 3 Redeployment, and 3 Overdrive.

The Industry

Trains supply the war machine with ammunitions and resources from behind the lines through it’s extensive network via Revolving Switchyard. Super Express Bullet Train’s salvage operations recycle dead metal into brand new war machines while Urgent Schedule rushes units to the frontline. Superdreadnought-class Rail Cannons “Liebe” and “Dora” provide cover through their fearsome artillery barrage. It is composed of 2 Super Express Bullet Train, 1 Infinitrack Tunneller, 3 Revolving Switchyard, 1 Terraforming, and 3 Urgent Schedule. In the Extra deck there is Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora and Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Juggernaut Liebe.

The Complex

Sky Striker is a special ops unit piloted by a single girl. She supports the army by extending supply lines and through pinpoint threat removal. Engage! add Hornet Drones, which can lead to Zeke (targeted banish of monster), Knightmare Phoenix (backrow destruction) and Kaina (Earth Machine Extender). It is composed of 1 Engage! and Hornet Drones. In the Extra Deck there is Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, Sky Striker Ace - Kaina, Sky Striker Ace - Zeke, and Knightmare Phoenix.

AA-Zeus is the most skilled pilot in the army, piloting one of the most potent mechas ever created. Capable of decimating entire regions, vast armies have been annihilated by Zeus’ overwhelming firepower and speed. AA-Zeus can be deployed by any XYZ, but it prefers to be summoned by it’s predecessors Liebe and Dingirsu so it has the maximum amount of XYZ materials (usually 4) to repeatedly wipe the field clean. In the maindeck it is composed of 1 Infinitrack Anchor Drill. In the Extra Deck it is composed of 1 Dingirsu the Orcust of the Evening Star, 1 Number 84: Pain Gainer, and 1 Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder.

 

COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN

 

Ancient Earth Machine’s combos are non-linear and are largely hand-dependent. The quality of your hand determines the resilience and power of your first turn board. Turn 1 boards greatly vary as a result, but ideally the field has a Rail Cannon Super Dora, any other machine monster, a set Machina Overdrive and Machina Citadel in the GY.

 Going first (Turn 1), this deck seeks to gather as much resources as possible while setting up the GY and field. Ideally, a fieldwipe with Machina Citadel is also set-up via sending the monster to the GY and/or setting Machina Overdrive.

This is this deck’s main combo if Machina Gearframe, Revolving Switchyard and any extender are in your first turn hand:

1. Activate Revolving Switchyard.


2. Normal summon Machina Gearframe. Gearframe searches Machina Unclaspare.


3. Machina Unclaspare summons itself, and it sends from deck to GY Machina Citadel.


4. XYZ summon Gear Gigant X. Detach from Gear Gigant X to search for Ancient Gear Box. Ancient Gear box searches Anchor Drill/Ancient Gear Frame.


5. Summon extender from hand. (Machina Fortress/Sky Striker Ace – Kaina and Super Express Bullet Train.)


6. If Machina Fortress/Sky Striker Ace - Kaina was summoned: Link away both Gear Gigant X/Extender for Double Headed Anger Knuckle. Use Double Anger Knuckle to summon Machina Citadel from GY. The level 10 Earth Machine summoned will trigger Revolving Switchyard’s effect, which will get you Rail Cannon Super Dora.


7. If Super Express Bullet Train was summoned: The level 10 Earth Machine summoned will trigger Revolving Switchyard’s effect, which will get you Rail Cannon Super Dora. Detach Super Express Bullet Train from Dora to get it’s end turn effect to recover a machine from your GY.


8. Set your other cards like Urgent Schedule, Machina Overdrive, and Impermanence.

 

With this first turn board (Turn 2), you have an near-invincible monster (Super Dora), a potential fieldwipe with Machina Citadel and 2-3 extra cards in hand from resolving Ancient Gear Box and Super Express Bullet Train.

 If you control a set Machina Overdrive, you can use it to summon Citadel from your GY or deck so you don’t have to wait for your opponent to trigger its summon for you. From there, fieldwipe your opponent with Citadel at the most optimal timing when it hurts them the most. Summoning Citadel also triggers Revolving Switchyard's summon from deck effect. Machina Overdrive can also get you an additional +1 draw later.

If you control a set Urgent Schedule and a Revolving Switchyard, you can flood the field with three monster cards that all float and net you additional resources.

Try to summon and send Super Express Bullet Train (It is an ideal target to destroy with Citadel) to the GY again this turn. It can retrigger the effects of Ancient Gear Box during the endphase, granting you more resources from deck!

 

The following turn, (Turn 3), assuming your GY was set up last turn and you gathered enough resources by resolving Revolving Switchyard, Ancient Gear Box, Super Express Bullet Train and Machina Overdrive as much as possible, you should have enough resources to break your opponent’s board and OTK. Overlay Liebe on Super Dora, summon Machina Ruinforce from GY, fusion summon Ancient Gear Chaos Giant and more!

 

The threats on your opponent’s board will determine your next course of action.

 

If you want to wipe the field with Zeus, Zeus can be made with Super Dora -> Liebe. Also, if you have Infinitrack Anchor Drill + another earth machine you can make a 4 material Zeus. Use Anchor Drill’s effect + another level 4 to make Dingirsu. Attack with Dingirsu, overlay it with Number 84: Pain Gainer -> 4 material Zeus which can wipe the field twice. If you can’t go for the OTK yet, Zeus is a great way to equalize the board so you can go for the kill next turn.

 

If you want to wipe the field of your opponent’s monsters with Machina Citadel, it can easily be summoned by destroying your earth machine monster (usually by crashing it into a stronger monster during battle phase). While it can destroy every monster under 3000 if it destroys itself with its effect, it can destroy Machina Ruinforce to destroy everything under 4600!

If you want to grind out your opponent's resources on board, try to get Machina Citadel and Machina Fortress in rotation (In the GY and field). These two machines form a very strong tag team. If one gets destroyed, they summon each other, while wearing picking apart or blowing up your opponent's board.

If you are certain you can go for the kill, it can be easily done by summoning Ancient Gear Ballista. It’s main goal is to gather the resources needed to summon Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, and to bring your opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF to 0. Ballista destroys Geartown with it’s effect and Geartown summons from deck Ancient Gear Wyvern so it can search Ancient Gear Fusion. Given the right conditions, Chaos Giant alone is usually enough to OTK your opponent.

 

If you know the opponent is going to disrupt your plays, keep Super Dora on the field to provide extra protection. It will make sure any monster is unaffected by card effect if anything tries to negate/banish/destroy/etc. ensuring your plays get through! Liebe can be overlayed on Dora anytime to offer extra firepower afterward and a potential 2 material Zeus.

 

If you know your opponent is going to destroy your card(s), make Dingirsu before going for your main play because it can protect any card from destruction with it’s effect. Use Anchor Drill’s effect + another level 4 to make Dingirsu. This card has an added bonus of sending a worrying card from your opponent’s field like backrow threats or a problematic monster.

 

GENERAL TIPS

 

• If you want to cut cards from this deck, you can do away with most of the Ancient Gear package (2 Frame, 1 Wyvern, 1 GearTown, 1 Fusion and all 3 fusions in the Extra Deck). Ancient Gear Chaos Giant is my personal ace card, and I placed it in this deck largely from my own bias. They can be replaced with staples, handtraps, or trap cards to make it similar to Pak’s LCS topping Machina list.


• The key to this deck is patience and timing. If you feel you can’t OTK your opponent, try to conserve your resources (keep your cards in hand and don’t banish from GY yet) until you’re sure you can deliver the finishing blow. While this deck has decent recovery options (Gear Box, Express Bullet Train, Revolving Switchyard), maintaining superior card advantage and depleting your opponent’s board with constant field wipes (Zeus/Citadel) is where it’s strength truly shines. When your opponent is weak and helpless, that’s when you summon your machine army en-masse!


• This deck discards a lot through it’s use of Revolving Switchyard, Machina Redeployment, Ancient Gear Frame and Double Handed Anger Knuckle. The best cards to discard are Machinas (Ruinforce, Citadel, Fortress, Overdrive, etc.), since they have so much utility in the GY. Discarding Super Express Bullet Train is very good, since it fulfills it’s recovery effect during the endphase if sent to the GY. Discarding spent Sky Striker cards are useful as well, since they usually are used once a duel. Discarding Infinitrack Anchor Drill is great as well, since its recycling effect in the GY is usually live with how much this deck goes through it's Earth Machines.


• Ancient Earth Machine sometimes dies to a well-timed handtrap/disruption. Common handtraps like Droll, Nibiru and Dimension Shifter can stop you cold mid-combo. An Ash Blossom or Impermanence on your starter can end your turn if you didn’t open an extender. Called by the Grave and DD Crow (normally reserved for Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer). banish your set-up GY monsters (Citadel and Ruinforce). This deck is only a rogue contender but can steal wins away from real meta threats.


• This deck has a hard time vs. backrow, especially floodgates like TCBOO and Zombie World. Side in backrow hate in matchups where these are common!


• Floodgate traps like Rivalry of Warlords, Skill Drain and Imperial Order work pretty well with this deck when used properly. Consider using them to choke out your opponent while you play unhindered.


• Since this deck is highly dependent on resolving your starter, always try to lead with cards that bait out handtraps like Engage! or Revolving Switchyard. Once you lured out their ash, you can go for combo as normal.


• If the game goes the distance and many of your starters, combo pieces and key cards are in the GY and Banished Pile, Infinitrack Tunneller (Searchable via Ancient Gear Box) and Machina Overdrive (Searchable via Machina Redeployment) can recycle your spent machine cards. Remember if you can't OTK your opponent, out resource them with your superior grindgame!

 

CONCLUDING COMMENTARY

 

Inspired by Kyle Galliw’s Machina list and Aerosol_TCG’s Earth Machine deck, I sought to create the perfect framework to turbo out my beloved ace monster, Chaos Giant and to make Ancient Gears as competitive as possible. This resulted in the creation of this monstrous machine mishmash (I think I’ve largely succeded)! This deck still dies to handtraps, has a difficult time dealing with established meta boards, and keels over to strong floodgates, but is it ever potent!

My favourite Yugioh cards as a child were machines like Machine King, Mechanical Chaser and Roulette Barrel. When I returned to Yugioh back at 2017 I purchased a copy of the “Machine Reactor” structure deck, and ever since then I’ve always been an Ancient Gear/machine-focused duelist at heart. Ancient Earth Machine combines all my favourite machines into one seamless synergetic deck with my ideal playstyle of Aggro/Beatdown. Best of all, it turbo’s out my ace monster, Chaos Ancient Gear Giant!

Harness the full power of the Military Industrial Complex and obliterate your opponent with your Ancient Earth Machine army! I hope you have as much fun as I do piloting this deck online or IRL. GLHF Duelists!

 

POV: You are about to be OTK'd!