Quick note: I was hoping to be as lazy as possible when posting this deck list so I can get caught up in college, but every time I looked at it, no, even thought about it, EVERYTIME, I ended up wanting to add something to it. "Just one more edit. No more after this. It's fine enough on its own." Lies, all self told lies. Even though I did catch up, I'm still pissed because I could have gotten literally anything else done besides this, like going outside and living a life. Anyways, lets get into to it:
I couldn't stand the thought that Calamities being banned meant that pure scraps were unplayable. "Level 9 Synchros were their whole thing! What now?"
Then I remembered that I can summon the Simorgh link in Scraps thanks to Scrap Searcher
Before we talk about that let's start off with the basics:
What Do Scraps do exactly?
If you don't know what they do already despite being a well known engine in machine decks, soon to be even more well known when Scrap Raptor comes along, I really don't know what to say. To some it up, they are basically the older synchro brother of Unchaineds and Fire Kings, except some of the effects only go off when they are destroyed by other Scrap monsters. Of course, they make up for this by having one card that Fire Kings, Unchained, and every other self-destruct archetype wish they had, Scrap Searcher
What is Scrap Searcher?
Scrap searcher is not a searcher, but it is a really good card that summons itself from the grave when a Scrap monster is destroyed, besides Scrap Searcher. The good thing about this effect is that it is not a hard once per turn, so if you have 2 of these in your grave, you can get off this effect up to 6 times a turn, which is funny when you do it. It also helps you avoid ash sense you can use it to chain block some effects that would summon monsters from the deck. Not to mention the fact that it is also a winged beast monster, so we can use it summon 'Simorgh, Bird of Sovereignty' for cards like Apex Avian and Wind Barrier Statue (That's right, Bird up 2! Electric Boogaloo)
How will you protect the barrier statue?
Well, their are two ways:
- We summon Drident and use its effect (Daniel)
- We can use Cloudcastle's second effect (the cooler Daniel)
Cloud castle is a level 9 synchro well known for being used in Virtual World decks because it is able to reuse XX-Saber Gottems to hand loop your opponent. Scraps can do this as well, but they also make use of Cloudcastle's forgotten second effect: being able to prevent level 8 or lower monsters from attacking the turn they are normal or special summoned. This makes it so unless our opponent can normal summon a level 9 or higher monster Or special summon a level 9 or higher wind monster, they will be unable to attack wind barrier statue, thus the lock is safe. Plus, we can rip two cards from their hand with Gottems which can sometimes help us avoid things like Dark Ruler No More.
What if the Opponent is actually playing a Wind Deck?
Every deck needs a back up strategy in case their stun fails. Unless you're playing Evilswarms and Monarchs, in which case, your back up plan is 'even more stun.' Scraps back up combo gives you up to 3 negates in the case that your opponent is running an actual wind deck, so it is very adaptable. The board will have Admancipator Risen - Dragite, Borreload Savage Dragon, and Apex Avain. I'm pretty sure that will be enough to deal with all the pure wind decks we currently have out there.
The Deck's Playmakers
(skip if you're already know how scraps work)
- Scrap Golem: Poster boy of the deck. Your goal is to summon him as many times as possible to abuse his No-HOPT revival effect. Sadly The last place you want him is in the hand sense two of our cards can summon him from the deck. We run three begrudgingly because if we ran 2 and draw into even 1 of them, our combos are severely hampered.
- Scrap Factory: the field spell. When a scrap monster is destroyed by a card effect, you can immediately summon another. You will almost always be summoning Scrap Golem. If not, then probably raptor or scrap searcher.
- Scrap Wyvern: every now and again Konami releases a single, bloated card for a random, old archetype that no one remembers. This either does nothing for the deck cause it needed way more than 1 card (Cloudians) or raises the deck to rouge/local status for a time (Volcanics). This card is the latter. It revives a scrap monster in exchange for a card and acts as a scrap factory in exchange for a card (including your opponent's). This card feels like Sunlight Wolf in a way. On one hand, it's attack and link rating are way too low for it to be a boss monster, but Just like a boss it screams at your opponent "If I go off, your probably dead." If you're running out of wyverns in the extra deck, pop a Scrap Goblin and recycle one.
- Scrap Raptor: Remember that random, single card I was talking about? Scraps got that card twice. It gives you an additional normal summon while setting off cards like factory and searcher, then searchers a card. Scrap raptor is your starter and not opening with it means your turn may be slightly awkward, which is perfectly fine sense Scraps an awkward archetype already.
- Scrap Chimera: Zero to Hero, just like that. Scrap Raptor being a tuner that gives you a second normal summon is exactly what was needed for this card to be good. If you don't open up with Factory/Raptor, Chimera/Raptor will do just fine sense Raptor searches Factory.
- Scrapyard/Fossil dig: Searches Raptor. That's it, simple and efficient.
Why I run:
- Tri-brigade Fraktall: Scrap searcher is able to be sent to the grave through Fraktall. Doing so before you play any of your scraps will force your opponent to use their ash blossom if they have one, otherwise we can chain scrap searcher's effect as the final effect in most chains of monsters with in our deck, so our cards like Scrap Wyvern, Scrap Factory, and Scrap Raptor will be safe.
- Fire formation Tenki: Searches Fraktall and can be popped with scrap wyvern instead of factory or a monster.
- Infinite Impermanence: a literal hand trap is great thing to have. In emergencies we can set this card and pop it with wyvern, which will help save a monster to ensure our plays can continue.
- Phantazmay: we don't like to see quite a few cards in our hand with this deck. Luckily this card can shuffle those monsters back in to the deck so we can summon them later while giving us better cards to play with.
- Wynn the wind charmer, Verdant: so you can link away the barrier statue when it's time
Why I don't run:
- Scrap Recycler: Scraps have no good machine monsters. The only way I could add good machine monsters in here without bricking it up any worse is by making the deck less synchro based, which is something I don't personally want to do. Also, Scrap Raptor is searchable by two unlimited spells. That's 9-8 starters practically, any more than that is overkill.
- Scrap dragon: You can replace Drident and Chakanine with Scrap dragon and Bagooska if you want. Bagooska is sometimes a nice back up option if wyvern is negated and makes the wind barrier statue much more of a pain to deal with. Drident, however, can allow us to combine both main end boards occasionally, so the deck ends up having a higher ceiling.
- Rank 9/Second cloud castle: Overkill and too much extra deck devotion.
- More hand traps: If you feel the absolute need to main 2 more handtraps or the 2 Forbidden Droplets you 'borrowed' from your friend, you can replace One for One and Monster Reborn. They aren't as important as one might think.
- Accesscode: Borrelsword feels like a much better card in this deck. With 1 scrap golem on your field and your opponent's field empty, you can inflict 8300 damage. With Accesscode, only up to 7600 lp, not enough to otk. Plus if you plan to build the deck IRL when raptor comes out, it's much cheaper, and the deck already has pretty decent board breakers in the form of Scrap Twin Dragon and Wyvern. That's my opinion though. If you prefer Accesscode, well go ahead and run it then, no ones stopping you.
- Supply squad: Bro wake up, it's 2015 again. In all seriousness though, Grind game decks that destroy monsters during every turn, including their opponent's, can turn this card into a pot of greed, so Fire Kings and Machinas can use this. This is a combo deck that only destroys during their own turn, and they are no longer as good as a grind deck sense they don't have many consistent control options. As result, this card is just to slow for it to be any use.
Cards I wish I could run:
- Trishula: It is very easy to summon this card in this deck, but sadly XX-Saber Gottoms is just so much easier to use.
- Adamancipator Signs: Scrap golem is a rock monster. Before scrap raptor was announced I could summon Golem with signs, allowing the deck to somewhat function properly. But with Scrap raptor, we can use scrap factory consistently, so there is no longer a reason to use signs.
- The tricky: I tested it in the deck, and it was a very interesting card. It could summon itself by sending a monster to the grave, which allowed cards like Searcher, Golem, and Goblin to be brought back later. Plus it was level 5 so I could easily use it for synchros. If scraps do get an additional card soon, I would love for it to be similar to the tricky except with destroying a card instead of sending one
The Niches each card has
(skip if you want to regret losing to sacred beast that one time)
Scraps have some weird interactions, so here's a small guide on them:
- Scrap storm: if your opponent is about to use Effect Veiler or Impermanence on your monster, this card will be your saving grace. It can target a Scrap monster you control and destroy it, saving them from effect negation, and it draws a card while putting a Scrap Searcher in the grave. On top of that, you can use it on your opponent's turn in combo with Scrap Wyvern by targeting another Scrap monster you control, allowing you to go plus three by using Wyvern's effect and pop a card your opponent controls, but this is a much slower strategy we don't normally use.
- Scrap Orthros: If your Chimera or Raptor get's hit with a Impermanence or Effect Veiler, You can summon this card while Searcher is in the grave and Scrap Factory is on the field to set off their effects and continue your plays. We run one sense it's searchable by Scrapyard
- Scrap Searcher's second effect: Scrap Searcher has a second effect that blows up all your monsters besides Scrap monsters when it's summoned. This may be painful for us, but with Scrap Golem, we summon it to our opponent's field and nuke it. This also get's around cards like I:P Masquerena or Marincess Battle Ocean because Searcher is on their field so it's technically their own card.
- Scrap Goblin's second effect: It can not be destroyed by battle, but if it is attacked in defense position, it will be destroyed at the end of the battle phase. By summoning it to our opponent's field in attack position, we can attack it as though we're attacking directly. This effect can also come in handy when our opponent uses cards like summon limit or majesty's fiend. For summon limit, because it blows itself up with an effect, we can then summon Scrap Searchers from the grave for tribute fodder next turn for Scrap Golem and then up their field with the Searcher combo from earlier and you can add chimera back to the hand to resummon goblin. As for majesty's fiend? Scrap Goblin's effect is a forced activation, but is an activation none the less, so it won't even blow itself up at the end of the battle phase. I know these are very small niches, but they give the deck some hope it can stall out until you top deck a miracle.
Mind Set
(also known as the pep talk)
Listen, if you're looking for a deck that always has some easy pathways, this is not your deck. You will get hands that look terrible. You may just have to tribute summon Golem. You may have to dump Goblin to the grave instead of Searcher just to use Chimera. It's painful when in it happens, but the fun in this deck is overcoming those moments and using those janky plays to your advantage. And the best part: you can constantly evolve this deck. If you don't like the objective of this deck, that's fine, you can run Scrap Recycler and add in stuff like Machina Colonel or the Kaiju engine to make it much more aggressive. Insert Topologic Bomber dragon Along with the Gizmek Orochi for a quick field nuke. Maybe try mixing it with another archetype and see how well that does. There's no 'right' way to build a Scrap deck, this is just my preferred method. So, if you find some interesting tech that gives this deck the 'edge' that it needs, don't be shy to test it.
With that in mind, here's a video that shows off a couple of decent combos to get you started because I can't be bothered to write them out (sorry for bad sound quality):
2 Card Combos
https://youtu.be/5z7qInHse7s
90
330
600
630
