Stall

Overview

Stall cards are cards that are used to prevent your opponent from attacking you.

Common Stall cards include:

• Monsters - "Spirit Reaper", "Big Shield Gardna", "Destiny Hero - Defender", "Marshmallon" "Shiba-Warrior Taro", and any of the many attack lock combos, such as the "Solar Flare Dragon" / "Solar Flare Dragon combo, Marauding Captain/Marauding Captain combo or the "Dupe Frog" / "Dupe Frog" stall.

• Spells - "Level Limit - Area B", "Scapegoat", "Swords of Revealing Light", "Nightmare's Steelcage" and "Messenger of Peace".

• Traps - "Gravity Bind", "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow". "Wall of Revealing Light", the "DNA Surgery" / "Insect Barrier" combo, and the "Macro Cosmos" / "Gravekeeper's Servant" combo.

Decks usually include stall cards as part of a larger strategy, such as a Burn deck or an Exodia deck. They are also used to buy time for a player if their opponent gains an advantage over them.

Playing Style

A Stall Deck is designed to slow your opponent down and make it difficult to either inflict damage, or even to attack. Stalling is not a way to win by itself; it is usually used as a means to an ends. Although it is most commonly used in the Exodia Deck, it is also used in the Destiny Board Deck and the Burn Deck. In rare cases it may succeed in running opponents (especially those with decks of 50 cards or less) out of cards to draw from their deck, or to win with cards such as Final Countdown and Wave-Motion Cannon.

Decks consisting of Low level monsters are often Stall Decks, as your own monsters can often get around cards that stall your opponent; examples include Skull Servant Deck or Low Level Normal Monster Deck.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Spirit Barrier, D.D. Borderline, Nightmare's Steelcage, Gravity Bind, Level Limit - Area B, Swords of Revealing Light, and Wall of Revealing Light, all stall your opponent.

Another Final Stall method would be the "Ultimate Field" Strategy. The Strategy is a combination which can alternate between cards that negate your opponents opportunity to summon monsters, play spell cards, or play trap cards. Although it may not defeat your opponent, it does guarantee that you will control the duel. The Ultimate Field consists of: Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Vanity's Fiend, and Destiny Hero - Plasma. The Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 can be replaced with Spell Canceller, Silent Swordsman LV7. The Sorcerer of Dark Magic can be replaced with a Royal Decree or Jinzo. In traditional format, you can use Yata-Garasu to stop your opponent from drawing.

• Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 assures that your opponent can't play/activate spells.

• Sorcerer of Dark Magic assures that your opponent can't play/activate traps.

• Destiny Hero - Plasma assures that your opponent can't activate monster effects.

• Thousand-Eyes Restrict assures that your opponent cannot attack.

• Vanity's Fiend assures that your opponent can't Special Summon any monsters.

• Yata-Garasu assures that your opponent is unable to draw.

The Ultimate Field Strategy can be stopped by cards such as Spiritualism as it can not be negated by Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, after using Spiritualism on a Ground Collapse/Royal Decree the opponent could summon a monster and could in turn set a Marshmallon for a counter, thus slowng down your combo. For a concession against that you could include Sasuke Samurai. If you do use Silent Swordsman LV7 and/or Sorcerer of Dark Magic in this strategy, a Puppet Plant should take control of either monster in order to counter this combo. Add in a Final Countdown card or Wave-Motion Cannon cards which will be for winning during your stall for time. Spiritualism, however, is very rare and situational. Should you have that combo down (which itself is also hard to compose), defeat for your opponent is imminent anyways.

The "Dark Simorgh maximum lockdown" is a well-known method of Ultimate Field Lockdown. It basically uses Dark Simorgh and Anti-Spell Fragrance for a lock, but it uses many other tactics to proceed this strategy and take over the Duel. One of the most famous is the one that uses Dark Simorgh, Anti-Spell Fragrance and The Last Warrior from Another Planet, blocking your opponent from Summoning monsters and activating Spells and Traps (absolute Lockdown). Another version uses Ojama Trio to lock your opponent's Monster Card Zones. Its indeed effective.

The only way the Ultimate Field can be stopped is via the effect of Exodia the Forbidden One or if you activated Final Countdown before the Ultimate Field was set up. Effect Veiler can also prove to be a combo breaker if your opponent has a suitable counter-attack waiting in their hand.

Heal Deck

A Heal Deck focuses on healing, Stall, and some burn. Most of the individual cards that increase Life Points are meager on their own, but work well in combos. For example, Griggle combined with Creature Swap gives you a hefty life point boost while trading your weak monster for your opponent's stronger one. Also, The Immortal of Thunder or Granadora combined with Dimensional Fissure would erase the monster's draw back effect. The currently most exploited combo is Necroface, Soul Absorption, and Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure.

A thing to note is that main weakness of the Deck is that Bad Reaction to Simochi will completely turn the player's strategy against themself. Another point to note is that there is currently no way to win the game by having a high amount of life points. Without some victory condition, the best this deck can hope to do is deck out your opponent to win.

Burn is one of them, through the effects of Fire Princess or The Agent of Judgment - Saturn. Beatdown is another, through monsters such as The Agent of Force - Mars and Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin that gain ATK power depending on the difference in number of life points that you and your opponent share. Injection Fairy Lily's powerful effect could also be used non-stop and you could possibly even utilize Mirror Wall.

The two most suggested support cards to add to a Life Point gaining deck are either Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure, to erase the draw backs of numerous cards, or The Sanctuary in the Sky, to exploit the effects of the numerous Fairy-type monsters such as The Agent of Force - Mars, or The Agent of Judgment - Saturn, which can be very effective when the player have higher Life Points.

Recommended Cards

The following are cards that increase a player's own life points. However, some cards (e.g. Elemental Recharge) only work in certain conditions and some cards (e.g. The Immortal of Thunder) may help you gain Life Points, but still make you lose Life Points in the end. Dark Snake Syndrome dishes out heavy damage to both players but you are virtually unaffected since you have an abundance of life points.

Monster Cards

• Absorbing Kid from the Sky
• Athena
• Cure Mermaid
• Dancing Fairy
• Elephant Statue of Blessing
• Fire Princess
• Granadora
• Griggle
• Golden Ladybug
• Guardian Angel Joan
• Healing Wave Generator
• Hysteric Fairy
• Marie the Fallen One
• Mysterious Puppeteer
• Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin
• Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird
• Nimble Momonga
• Nurse Reficule the Fallen One
• Prime Material Dragon
• Skull-Mark Ladybug
• Spirit of the Breeze
• The Immortal of Thunder
• White Magician Pikeru
• Zolga

Spell Cards

• 7
• Blessings of the Nile
• Cestus of Dagla
• Dark Snake Syndrome
• Dian Keto the Cure Master
• Emergency Provisions
• Mystik Wok
• Poison of the Old Man
• Sebek's Blessing
• Soul Absorption
• Spell Absorption

Trap Cards

• Aegis of Gaia
• Altar for Tribute
• Draining Shield
• Numinous Healer
• Nutrient Z
• Solemn Wishes
• The Spell Absorbing Life
• Rainbow Life
• Gift of the Mystical Elf

Note

Since Stall Decks rely heavily on blocking effects, and require a great deal of tactics, due to their effectiveness, they go from Stall Decks to Lockdown Decks