Forum:Starlight Road Analysis by Lappyzard

When it was announced that Heavy Storm was returning to legal status, many duelists immediately went looking for one card that they thought would allow them to continue playing in the Set Four Format, henceforth referred to as the Set Fourmat: Starlight Road. It was a logical decision; if you have Starlight Road set, you almost welcome a Heavy Storm. However, duelists are rediscovering that Starlight Road is an on-paper card - that is, it doesn't work the way it should. I'll be discussing the many reasons for that.

1. Triple MST - With MST once more unlimited, it's much more likely that a duelist will open with Mystical Space Typhoon than Heavy Storm. This makes it easy for a duelist to either remove the other set cards, leaving a dead Starlight, or hit the Starlight and then freely play Heavy Storm.
2. Consistency - To avoid dead draws, duelists can only play Starlight Road at a maximum of 2. To avoid relying heavily on luck, duelists can only play Starlight Road at a minimum of 2. This means that duelists using Road to return to the Set Fourmat are hinging their entire strategy on drawing 1 of 2 cards. The result is extreme inconsistency and dead topdecked Roads in the mid to late game when every draw is critical.
3. Targeted Removal - With a vast increase of one for ones available, mass destruction has become much less common. The only common mass destruction cards now are Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, and Black Rose Dragon. That means you're playing 2 cards in the hope that you'll be able to negate one of four cards in your opponent's deck.
4. Playing Around Stardust - This point has been true for several formats now. Ever since it became easy to summon a Stardust Dragon, duelists are increasingly using effects that don't destroy, such as Compulsory Evacuation Device / Dimensional Prison and Caius the Shadow Monarch. This leaves Starlight Road with less and less negation potential, since like the Dragon, it can only negate effects that destroy.

Another reason is that Stardust Dragon just isn't as good as it used to be. Many decks are running easy Stardust removal or monsters bigger than 2500 like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Master Hyperion, and Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World. Like the Road, the number of cards Stardust can negate is sharply decreasing.

A more appropriate card to shut down the opponent would be Naturia Beast. Karakuri has been seeing recent success due to the ease with which it is summoned and the impact it has. It's as simple as summoning Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi" followed by Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi". The most devastating fact is that they can still plus while doing this, and with 3 Karakuri Cash Cache, the chance of opening a first turn Naturia Beast is 24%. With 3 Genex Neutron, the chance of a second turn Naturia Beast is even higher.

Naturia Beast is an excellent card this format because of the number of cards it stops. Many decks are playing with low Trap counts to avoid devastation via Heavy Storm, so they are turning to Spell Cards to fill the gap. Plant Synchro's options are sharply reduced when they can't use Mind Control, Enemy Controller, Mystical Space Typhoon, Book of Moon, or Dark Hole. Agents lose much of their consistency without Pot of Duality. Dark World flat out loses to Naturia Beast. Their main method of destruction is Grapha, and with no Spells, he can't be discarded. The main hope for all 3 of these decks is to summon a Tour Guide and make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. Backed by Fiendish Chain, Effect Veiler, Solemn Warning, or even a simple Bottomless Trap Hole, Naturia Beast can become a game-winning force. Naturia Beast also allows you to return to the Set Fourmat in order to protect it; you don't care about Heavy Storm or MST. Finally, unlike Stardust Dragon, Naturia Beast can be used as many tmes as you want: it's not a once per turn effect, and the cost is actually beneficial to most decks.

Thoughts? Lappyzard (talk • contribs) 02:41, November 5, 2011 (UTC)

Well, I have to agree with you on that. SD is an extreme dead draw in mid-to-late game, and I've lost some games because I drew SD instead of something else. That's mainly the reason I'm updating all my decks, and would love more thoughts on those.. By the way, I kinda felt like I was reading an article written by Jason Grabher-Meyer, all in all a nice Analysis Lappy. ---Dark Ace SP™ (Talk) 03:48, November 5, 2011 (UTC)

It can be usefull but it requires luck to trigger the starlight road mostly it is useless, it should remain in the side deck instead of then main deck so that it doesen't hinder your stragedy, and if you do happen to need it, you could just swap a card from your main deck.

[email protected] (talk • contribs) 22:27, November 5, 2011 (UTC)

I'll point out a few things: other than Mirror Force, every mass destruction card from last format remains big this format (although BRD is less common due to Debris Dragon being Limited). Targeted removal still isn't very common. Starlight Road is actually amazing in Gladiator Beasts - it negates Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute, and Mirror Force, which are deadly for the deck, and Heavy Storm, allowing me to truly set four. With three Dualities I can draw it consistently if I need to and it even works in Fissure Gladiators - Stardust wouldn't come back anyway so he can still negate. Other than that, I've been maindecking Magic Drain in any deck using a number of Field Spell/Continuous Spell/Trap Cards quite often recently. It's very good in decks that rely on simplification - Dragunities and Macro Decks are a good example. If they lose two cards to get rid of your cards, that's all the better for you. Judgment of Anubis works really well in Gadgets with your extra card advantage. Dark Bribe, on the other hand, is still good, but I would only use it in Macro-Skill Drain decks because the draw is probably useless for them. BF2 Talk Deck Guides 13:44, November 6, 2011 (UTC)

Karakuri doesn't completely end Dark World 'cause of Smog, "Mind Crush" & Jar. But for the most part, they will be struggling quite a bit, and Karakuri doesn't really give them time to cope.

207.233.120.2 (talk) 02:30, November 10, 2011 (UTC)