Forum:Deck Guide/Gravekeeper's

by Gadjiltron

Intro

The Gravekeeper's archetype is well-known among many players of the card game - dating back to Pharaonic Guardian , the archetype was the first true archetype to be created in the game, and boy was it a persistent one. Several years after the archetype's first release, it received occasional, but potent, support from later packs - Force of the Breaker, Absolute Powerforce, and Legacy of the Valiant. Even before then, one of their key cards has played an important role in several other Decks, even if it means serving as mere Tribute fodder for the large monsters. In the present Graveyard-reliant metagame, the Gravekeepers have found a new life as a form of an anti-meta Deck.

Mechanics

The Gravekeepers are a set of Spellcaster-Type monsters, either bearing the DARK or EARTH Attribute, which also grants them access to some powerful Attribute supports. While each monster looks weak on its own, with each LV4 monster bearing an ATK that does not exceed 1600, their biggest force lies on their Field Spell, Necrovalley. The Field alone not only seals off any effect that attempts to target the Graveyard, but also gives all Gravekeepers a sizeable boost of 500 ATK and DEF, bumping their LV4 monsters to about 2000 ATK, turning them into great beatsticks with greater effects.

Analysis

Strengths

• Good stats paired with searchability - The most-played Gravekeepers have their base ATK scores not exceeding 1500 ATK, allowing them to be easily searched out using their own Gravekeeper's Spy, Gravekeeper's Nobleman or Mystic Tomato. Their field then boosts them to around 2000 ATK, turning all of them into impressive beatsticks.
• Seals off the Graveyard - Plenty of Decks these days use effects that target the Graveyard. This gives Gravekeepers an edge against said Decks.
• Prevents Special Summons - Almost any competitive Deck uses Special Summons to swarm the field and to bring out Synchro and Xyz monsters. Hidden Temples of Necrovalley puts a stop to these, except for Gravekeeper monsters.

Weaknesses

• Dependent on the field - Before they can put on a good offensive pressure, the Gravekeepers need their field out first. While it can be easily remedied with Commandant being able to search Necrovalley, if the opposing Deck has a competing Field, it presents a great problem to Gravekeepers. On the other hand, the Deck has repeated ways to search and reclaim Necrovalley, alleviating this issue.
• Easily checked by locks - Locking cards like Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind can be potentially troublesome since most of the well-played Gravekeepers are LV4 or higher. However, this is easily circumvented using Xyz Monsters or by simply popping them with Descendant's effect.
• Nobleman of Crossout - Once your opponent even sees Necrovalley in your Deck, they'll begin siding this card in for the exclusive purpose of Spy-checking. If they hit a Spy, your momentum gets terribly tripped up. The vulnerability gets increasingly egregious with the LVAL GK support that's mostly face-down.

The Basics

The Field

Before we get started, we should look at the most vital piece of the archetype - their playing field.

• Necrovalley - The heart and soul of the Gravekeeper's Deck. This comes with several amazing effects.

1. First, nobody can banish cards from the Graveyards. This shuts off a number of effects that rely on doing such things, be it revival, fiddling with your positions, blocking attacks, or blowing stuff up.
2. Second, any effects that targets the Graveyard is negated. Just like how Macro Decks can disrupt meta strategies, this effect just plain blocks out anything that tries to touch the Graveyard. Note that this does not say anything about effects that trigger in the Graveyard, so keep note of that.
3. Third, all Gravekeepers gain 500 ATK and DEF. Doesn't look like much, does it? Try saying this when you're getting pummelled by 2000 ATK LV4 monsters, or if you're having trouble surmounting a 2500 DEF wall.

Monsters

Now, on to the monsters.

• Gravekeeper's Spy - The first card of the Gravekeepers you'll notice, mainly because it is used in somewhat unrelated Decks. Spy serves as a pretty strong wall, with base stats of 1200/2000, with a powerful Flip Effect that can Special Summon a Gravekeeper with 1500 ATK or less from your Deck. Within a Gravekeeper's Deck, this means that it can fetch almost any LV4 or lower Gravekeeper, while also shrugging off many attacks with 2500 DEF. Outside of Gravekeeper's Decks, Spy is used to supply Tribute fodder - its Flip Effect and strong DEF means that the player will almost always have solid Tribute fodder for whatever big monster he's playing. Max her out. Always.
• Gravekeeper's Assailant - Another key player in the Gravekeeper's Deck. Its base stats of 1500/1500 allows it to be recruited by Spy and makes it a strong 2000/2000 with Necrovalley on the field. Even better is her effect - if she attacks while you have Necrovalley present, you can change the battle position of a face-up monster your opponent controls. This is quite powerful, since many monsters have high ATK but low DEF, or vice-versa. Run 2-3 depending on space available, since she doesn't do anything without Necrovalley around.
• Gravekeeper's Guard - Another defender of the Gravekeeper's, but weaker than Spy in a number of ways. His base stats are only 1000/1900, though that does not dismiss his ability to hold off attacks from regular beatsticks. On flip, he can return a monster on the field to the owner's hand, which is great for taking out Nomis, Synchros, and Fusions which happen to be all the rage lately. About 2 would do nicely.
• Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier - One of the less favoured members of the Gravekeepers, Spear Soldier has base stats of 1500/1000 with an innate Trample that does not need Necrovalley. Sure, he's a nice piercing beatstick, but nowadays he is cast aside in favour of other members of the family. Run a maximum of 1 if needs be, as there's a lot better things nowadays.
• Gravekeeper's Cannonholder - He's not as impressive as his brothers, at base stats of 1400/1200. His effect involves Tributing a Gravekeeper except for another Cannonholder to do 700 damage to the opponent. This is usually not favoured, since many players prefer to keep their big beaters on the field. Avoid.
• Gravekeeper's Watcher - By discarding this guy from your hand, you can negate any effect which involves your opponent discarding from his hand. However, the exact wordings mean that he cannot stop anything that involves discarding cards as a cost, greatly limiting his use. Avoid. I suppose you could side him against Dark World or something...
• Gravekeeper's Vassal - A small body, with a little trick. Any Battle Damage done by this card is actually treated as Effect Damage. However, with his small stats of 700/500, he's not going to do a lot. And his effect's not that impressive either. Avoid.
• Gravekeeper's Curse - On Summon, he can do 500 points of damage to the opponent. However, it just about stops there. There are a few fancy tricks to reuse him to make the most out of his effect, but there are better ways of dealing damage to the opponent, like, say, Spear Soldier. Curse's low base stats of 800/800 make him more fragile than the above, even. Avoid.
• Gravekeeper's Chief - The original boss monster of the Gravekeepers, but he tends to be overshadowed by someone even larger. Doesn't stop some people from running him, though. At LV5 he has base stats of 1900/1200, which go up to a decent 2400/1700 with Necrovalley, allowing him to compete with Monarchs. When he's Normal Summoned, he even gets to revive a Gravekeeper from your Graveyard. Wait, the field would negate that? Not a problem, since Chief will grant you free access to the Graveyard despite Necrovalley out, making the Grave lock one-sided. The only problem here is that you can only control one of him, so don't use too many copies. About 2 should do.
• Gravekeeper's Commandant - Introduced in FOTB, Commandant has one very useful effect: Discard him to the Graveyard, and he will fetch a Necrovalley for you. This essentially results in him replacing Terraforming in Gravekeeper's Decks, and if you don't need to search for a Field at the moment, you can still Summon him. With base stats of 1600/1500, he becomes a fearsome 2100/2000 beater! Run him in threes.
• Gravekeeper's Descendant - Introduced in ABPF, Descendant has started to replace Spear Soldier and Cannonholder due to his ability - by Tributing a Gravekeeper you control he can destroy a card on the field. Prominent tactics include sacrificing used Spies or Guards, or in dire situations, powerless Assailants. In the present day, field control is much more valued over Trample or Burn, and his base stats of 1500/1200 also make him slightly superior to both the above cards. Max him out.
• Gravekeeper's Visionary - The new boss of the Gravekeepers. AT LV8, he has low-looking base stats of 2000/1800, but he has an effect that can reduce the pain in Summoning him, since he can be Tribute Summoned using one Gravekeeper. With the field out, he's at 2500/2300 at least, stronger than any other keeper can hope to be, and he powers up as you allow Gravekeepers to accumulate in the Graveyard. What's more, he's difficult to destroy, since you can discard a Gravekeeper to prevent his destruction, and this just makes him even stronger. Run 1 copy if you can afford the space.
• Gravekeeper's Priestess - This addition to the Gravekeeper family is a little iffy among Gravekeeper players. She functions as a substitute Necrovalley, with none of the Grave-sealing and only a fraction of its boost. The low stats also don't help much, but if you need an urgent means to use any Necrovalley-reliant effects, she's the monster to take care of this. Run 1 copy if you really need her.
• Gravekeeper's Recruiter - Another TCG-exclusive addition. Recruiter is actually a fairly potent card, since it allows you to get a Gravekeeper of 1500 DEF or lower when he's sent from the field to the Graveyard. His presence actually bumps up the speed of Gravekeepers substantially - he either can fetch a Commandant who can in turn get the Field Spell they need, or snag a well-needed beatstick. Combo him with Descendant and you pretty much get a +1 in terms of card advantage. Run 2-3 of this guy, he's quite powerful.
• Gravekeeper's Nobleman - Yet another recruiter, this time hailing from LVAL, but with a slight twist. Apostle has stats of 1000/1000, and if destroyed in battle by an attacking monster, you can Special Summon any Gravekeeper (yes, any) from your Deck in face-down Defense Position. Prime targets for her include Guard, Spy, Recruiter, and Ambusher coming from the same pack as her. Run around 2 of her as it's difficult to trigger her on demand.
• Gravekeeper's Ambusher - With stats of 1700/0, he stands as an anomaly to the Gravekeepers but also works as their new beater. His main effect serves to work in tandem with Apostle. If flipped face-up, he can banish 1 card from your opponent's Graveyard, paying no heed to Necrovalley's presence, to help you check cards that can trigger in the Graveyard. Then, if sent to the Graveyard afterwards, he can retrieve any "Necrovalley" card from your Graveyard, also ignoring Necrovalley's presence. Retrieving destroyed or discard Necrovalley copies are cool, but what Necrovalley cards does LVAL have in store? More below. Run 1-3 of him.
• Gravekeeper's Shaman - 1500 ATK and DEF is rather substandard for a LV6 monster, but it puts her in prime searching range for both Recruiter and Spy. Fortunately, she also gains 200 DEF per Gravekeeper in your Graveyard to give her more staying power. She is also designed to synergize with Necrovalley. With exception to Gravekeeper monsters, no monster effects can activate in the Graveyard, patching up Necrovalley's loophole. Also, if you do control Necrovalley, she protects your opponent from removing it by replicating Field Barrier's effect, preventing your opponent from changing the field or destroying it by card effects. Definitely a must-play in Gravekeepers, though no more than 2 copies.
• Gravekeeper's Oracle - After all that, we are then greeted with this mild disappointment of a boss. Saniwa has mediocre-looking stats of 2000/1500, like Visionary, but he can be Tribute Summoned using 1 to 3 Gravekeeper monsters. For each Gravekeeper you Tribute for him, you can activate 1 of these effects:
  • Oracle gains ATK equal to 100 x the total Level of the Gravekeeper Tributes to make up for his disappointing base stats. On average, that could range from a 400-1200 boost to match monsters of similar Tribute requirements, or even more if you somehow Tribute a Saniwa for another.
  • Destroy all Set monsters your opponent controls - and if you combine with Book of Eclipse, this can nearly equate a boardwipe.
  • All face-up monsters your opponent controls lose 2000 ATK and DEF, allowing Saniwa and pretty much everyone else to freely crush your opponent's setup by battle.
• Charm of Shabti - An unusual variant of Kuriboh for Gravekeepers. While the wording says "reduce Battle Damage to Gravekeepers to 0 this turn", it is, in a sense, half a Waboku. You still take the Battle Damage, but your monsters survive the attacks for this turn. Avoid. Eh, if you want to stall, might as well make do with the actual Waboku.
• A Cat of Ill Omen and An Owl of Luck - Both these monsters have Flip Effects that can help you search for Trap cards or Field Spells respectively. If you control Necrovalley, they go into your hand, otherwise they go on the top of your Deck. Might as well use Commandant in place of the Owl, while the Cat might potentially come in handy at times. Still, under most circumstances, avoid.

Spells and Traps

Now, we look at the Spells and Traps in the archetype.

• Royal Tribute - One of the few reasons why Gravekeepers are able to compete with the meta is because of this card. It requires Necrovalley on the field, but when activated, both players discard all monsters in their hand. This is important as it defuses cards that activate in the hand, like Honest, Battle Fader, Effect Veiler, Gorz, and Tragoedia. Furthermore, your opponent also loses whatever monster they might prefer to actually summon, and would probably be unable to retrieve said monster as well due to Necrovalley being present, which is very disruptive. Run as many as the banlist would let you.
• Gravekeeper's Stele - Coming from ABPF, this is an amazing boost to the archetype. Circumventing any effects of Necrovalley, this allows you to add up to 2 Gravekeepers from your Graveyard to your hand, allowing you to reuse discarded Commandants or anything else that hit the Graveyard. Heck, you can even use this as a follow up to Royal Tribute, meaning you now get monsters while the opponent has nothing! Run anywhere between 2 to 3, the uses are worth it.
• Gravekeeper's Servant - This is pretty much here only because it has "Gravekeeper's" in its name. The actual effect does not mesh very well with the archetype, since it merely mills the opponent for declaring an attack. Avoid.
• Hidden Temples of Necrovalley - Requiring you to possess both a Gravekeeper monster and Necrovalley active at the same time, Hidden Temples outright prevents Special Summons of any sort, barring Gravekeeper monsters. While this would be an incredibly potent anti-meta tool since you can easily fulfill the requirement, what with Commandant and Ambusher around, note that if you are missing either Necrovalley or Gravekeepers, you lose Hidden Temples. But then again, we do have Ambusher to recycle this. Run 1-2 since while Hidden Temples is an amazing wrench to throw in your opponent's plans, it becomes a dead draw if you can't reach the Shrine of the Silver Monkey already have one active or can't fulfill its requirements.
• Rite of Spirit - The Gravekeepers' special revival card. You basically get to Special Summon a Gravekeeper from your Graveyard, regardless of Level, ATK, DEF, or even the presence of Necrovalley. Amazing, especially when you are able to spring this during the Battle Phase to call up an emergency wall or continue bashing away at the opponent. This card is known to compete with Stele for Deck space, but since it suffers from the slowness of Traps, avoid exceeding 2 copies of it.
• Imperial Tombs of Necrovalley - Hey, remember Divine Punishment and Infernity Barrier? Now Gravekeepers have their version that's recyclable by Ambusher, needing you to, once again, control Necrovalley and a Gravekeeper, in order to negate any card effect activation. Downside is that you can only use one per turn, so time it right and make sure that it counts. Run 1-3 copies.

With the release of the Marik Structure, most of the material needed for making a decent Gravekeeper's Deck can be easily purchased. Also, since most of the family can be found in the early packs, this makes the Gravekeeper's Deck a reliable Deck for the early portion of many video games, before you gain access to the more powerful archetypes.

Variants

The design of the Gravekeeper's archetype doesn't leave a lot of room for variants, but there are still a few noticeably different variants.

Gravekeeper's Bloodline

The basic Gravekeeper's Deck mainly makes use of all sorts of Gravekeeper's monsters to have different ways to cope with different situations. Its main theme is beatdown and swarming, and is often noted with its use of the higher-level Gravekeepers.

Cards likely to appear in this variant include:

• Gravekeeper's Chief and Gravekeeper's Visionary, which add some muscle which the other monsters lack, in exchange for being willing to take a risk of dead draws.
• Magical Dimension fits in nicely with the Gravekeepers since they're all Spellcasters. Played right, it allows you to dodge a targetting effect, replace the target with something bigger, and destroy a card in a way which Stardust Dragon can't do anything about.
• Solidarity provides a solid (pardon the pun) ATK boost of 800 since the Deck runs nothing but Spellcasters, which serves as a decent backup plan if Necrovalley isn't on the field.
• Magician's Circle is used to bring out any Gravekeeper from the Deck, since their strongest monster is Visionary which sits right at the upper bound of Circle's criteria of 2000 ATK.

An example of this Deck is as follows:

Gravekeeper's Rebellion

Naturally, with today's Graveyard-reliant meta, Gravekeepers have actually earned a reputation in being a form of anti-meta nowadays. However, the anti-meta build is quite different from the basic build.

Cards likely to appear in this variant include:

• Pot of Duality is used to help the Deck fetch what it needs. It doesn't do a lot of Special Summoning either, at least on its own turns.
• Dimensional Prison is most definitely a very useful way of keeping monsters that like to go into the Graveyard out of the game permanently.
• Royal Oppression freezes anything that Special Summons. Sure, the same can be used on their own Spy, but since it cannot trigger in the Damage Step, this means that a Spy flipped through battle can still grab a monster from the Deck. Use only where applicable, since this card's banned as of the Sept 2011 list.

An example of this Deck is as follows:

Tag Duel Options

The anti-meta nature of the Deck lets it pair well with other anti-meta Decks. Find partners that can easily answer to larger threats without needing to touch the Graveyard so that you don't hinder their progress. Alternatively, Spellcaster-themed Decks make for good partners since your entire archetype is capable of contributing.

Other Tips

Other cards exist to help out the Gravekeepers if they're in a pinch, or if the Deckbuilder has some trouble acquiring some of the cards used.

• Mystic Tomato is capable of searching out any Gravekeeper you might need, since a lot of them are DARK and have 1500 ATK or less. Furthermore, its effect activates in the Graveyard, meaning that it can bypass Necrovalley.
• Breaker the Magical Warrior fits the theme of DARK Spellcasters, and also helps out the Gravekeepers in S/T control with his own effect. Furthermore, when Necrovalley isn't present on the field, Breaker can serve as muscle for the Deck at 1900 ATK, provided you haven't use his Spell Counter yet.
• Forbidden Graveyard helps cover for the loophole in Necrovalley by blocking out any effects that activate in the Graveyard. The discard needed for this somewhat limits its usability.
• Malefic Stardust Dragon is easily Summoned since it just requires removal of a Stardust Dragon from your Extra Deck, and it helps keep the pressure on the opponent as effects cannot be used to destroy your Necrovalley. Just note that this prevents your other monsters from attacking.
• Wonder Wand equips only to Spellcasters, but that's the type which all the Gravekeepers belong to. The 500 ATK boost can let you plow through monsters that are larger than usual, and its second effect gives you draw power. Not to mention if you send out Recruiter with Wonder Wand, you also can use its search effect.
• Dark Illusion negates any effect that targets one of your DARK monsters and destroys it. Since almost all the Gravekeepers are DARK, this is a decent addition to the Deck.
• Imperial Iron Wall can be considered as a Side Deck since it prevents banishment in any form. Getting banished can mean some trouble for Gravekeepers since they cannot use their usual recycling methods.
• Deck Devastation Virus is easily triggered when the field is out, since almost all the Gravekeepers will have about 2000 ATK and are DARK Attributed. Furthermore, plenty of Synchro-centric Decks (like Quickdraw Doppelwarrior) involve Synchro material that have ATK of 1500 or lower, which result in said Decks being torn apart by the virus if they don't Synchro soon enough.
• Royal Prison also seals off the Graveyard in a way that is damaging to many Decks - it stops players from Special Summoning from it, which is the most popular means in which the Graveyard is touched. The longer-lasting effect and lack of a cost makes it somewhat superior to Forbidden Graveyard, too. Note that while it also cancels your Rite of Spirit, it does not stop you from recycling with Stele.
• Soul Drain is another means of patching up Necrovalley's weaknesses. Monsters have their effects negated while in the Graveyard or banished. This prevents "get destroyed in battle" effects from triggering, and is a good answer to the ever-annoying Elemental HERO Absolute Zero. Note that you cannot use Recruiter with this card.
• Rank 4 Xyz Monsters are also very useful in a Gravekeeper's Deck while Necrovalley isn't around, since they're relatively strong without the need of the field, and can be easily Summoned with the help of Spy.