Flip Effect Deck

A Flip Effect Deck is similar to a Beatdown deck in that it focuses on the utilization of strong monsters to inflict damage but the difference is that instead of clearing out your opponents monster with strength you use Flip Effects to destroy, remove from play, and return opponent's monsters to their hand or deck.

Playing Style

Flip Effect Decks involve setting a lot of monsters face-down before attacking. It requires patience and timing. Even if your opponent has no monsters on their side of the field and you want to attack directly, if strong monsters are not under your control for that turn, set a Flip Effect Monster down instead of attacking directly as you may want to. Proper utilization of Flip Effects will result in your opponent rarely having monsters on their side of the field. Once you have achieved this state, stronger monsters added to your deck can attack directly often. With a Flip Effect Deck, you have no reason to fear the strength of an opponents monster, because after all, a "Blue Eyes White Dragon" will always fall to a "Man-Eater Bug". Flip Effect monsters are truly a great way to escape the fear of your opponent's strength and even if a Flip Effect monster is attacked while it's face down, its effect will usually take care of the attacking monster by removing it from the field in some way or another without you losing any life points.

Using a good combo of Spell and Trap cards also comes in handy in a Flip Effect Deck. The flaws of a Flip Effect Deck is that without the right balance of Flip Effect monsters and Beatdown monsters, you may end up with many Flip Effect monsters on the field and no way to attack your opponent AND Flip Effect monsters are often extremely weak. However, with good timing and good judgment, Trap, Spell and Flip Effects will not only take out many monsters of your opponents, but will also make up for the fact that the strength of your monsters is quite low. With cards like "Negate Attack" and "Threatening Roar", although you may want your opponent to attack your face down Flip Effect monster, the monster will not be destroyed because it will not be attacked. On your next turn, you can flip a Flip Effect monster that has already been on the field for one turn, possibly destroy a monster of your opponents, and then tribute the same Flip Effect Monster to summon a "Frostosaurus" for the direct attack (if possible). Spells and Traps in a Flip Effect Deck should either assist in destroying monsters on your opponents side of the field and/or prevent your opponent from attacking long enough for you to activate a flip effect.

Deck Types

Classic Flip Effect Deck

A good Flip Effect Deck (commonly known as PACMAN - Pure Advantage Camels Munch All Noobs) should use many monsters that can flip themselves face-down, including "Des Lacooda", "Swarm of Scarabs", and "Swarm of Locusts". It doesn't need particularly strong monsters due to the field clearing capabilities of the weaker monsters.

Monsters

• Nightmare Penguin
• Penguin Soldier
• Magician of Faith (Traditional Format)
• Night Assailant
• Swarm of Scarabs
• Swarm of Locusts
• Des Lacooda
• Guardian Sphinx
• Golem Sentry
• Worm Apocalypse
• Spear Cretin

Spells

• The Shallow Grave
• Swords of Revealing Light
• Nightmare's Steelcage
• The Dark Door
• Book of Moon

Traps

• Negate Attack
• Threatening Roar
• Michizure
• Liberty at Last!

Extra Deck

• Mainspring Armored Zenmeister

Recycling Deck

This deck is set up so you can reuse the effects of your Flip Effect monsters repeatedly. Most Flip Effect monsters are weak, therefore making "Creature Swap" a very useful card. When you flip over one of your monsters after the effect happens, play Creature Swap. When Creature Swap is played with "Penguin Soldier", it makes it easier to get the monster you want(providing the fact that it's face down on the field). Another combo with Creature Swap is to play "Brain Control"(traditional format) first then play Creature Swap(This works best when opponent only controls two monsters). You can also flip up one of your Flip Effect monsters and activate their effect. Then you can play Creature Swap and give them the monster that you flipped(Only do so while you have Penguin Soldier face down on the field). Flip up penguin soldier and return to your hand the monster that you sent to your opponent's side of the field and Penguin Soldier. This allows you to use Penguin Soldier's effect again.

A combo with "Des Koala" and "Penguin Soldier" (you can achieve this by having a Des Koala and a Penguin Soldier face down on the field). If you have "Gravity Bind", first Flip Summon Des Koala and inflict damage equal to the number of cards in the opponent's hand x400. Then Flip Summon Penguin Soldier and return them both back to the hand. Thus, allowing you to do the same combo repeatedly.

• "The Creator" can also help you recycle your monsters, together with "Penguin Soldier". First, summon The Creator then activate it's effect and get a monster from your graveyard by discarding 1 card. Then Flip Summon Penguin Soldier and return the monster that you Special Summoned with the effect of The Creator to your hand. Thus, allowing you to do the same combo repeatedly.

Note: (you can only do this if Penguin Soldier is face down already).

• "Monster Reincarnation" is a good card for bring back monsters from the grave since it allows you to return a monster to the hand. Therefore, you can recycle Flip Effect monsters when needed, depending on circumstances.

• "Share the Pain" can help you get rid of your opponent's monster. It is best used after you Flip Summoned of your Flip Effect monsters and you want to destroy one of their monsters.

• "Begone, Knave!" is a useful trap card for recycling your monsters effect and to keep the field clear of attacking monsters. A good combo with it is to use "Penguin Soldier"'s effect and returning 2 monsters back to the hand(only works if they have two monsters), thus leaving their side of the field empty for direct attack/s. Because of "Begone, Knave!"'s effect, Penguin Soldier returns back to the hand allowing you to recycle it's effect.

To help you get these combos, you can throw in cards like "Spirit Reaper" and "Marshmallon" to help you stall.

Monsters

• Dark Cat with White Tail
• Greenkappa
• Mask of Darkness
• Des Koala
• 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom
• Spirit Reaper
• Penguin Soldier
• Marshmallon
• Old Vindictive Magician or Night Assailant
• Worm Apocalypse
• Morphing Jar
• The Creator
• Summon Reactor・SK
• Saber Beetle
• Spear Cretin
• Worm Apocalypse

Spells

• Monster Reincarnation
• Creature Swap
• Swords of Revealing Light
• Lightning Vortex
• Magical Mallet or Card Destruction
• Share the Pain
• Giant Trunade (Traditional Format)

Traps

• Begone, Knave!
• Spell Shield Type-8
• Magic Cylinder

Example

Weaknesses

There are many single cards that disrupts the game plan of "Flip Effect" decks. "Light of Intervention" stops your Flip Effect monsters from being set face down. "Nobleman of Crossout" removes from play your Flip Effect monster, including its copies in your deck. "Wattmole", "Ehren, Lightsworn Monk", and monsters with identical effect as the ones given can also give the Flip Effect decks a hard time.

The deck has a difficult matchup against the "Inzektor" deck, because "Inzektor Hornet" will destroy face-down Flip Effect monsters before they can activate their effects. To counter the "Inzektor" deck, cards such as "Effect Veiler" should be used. "Effect Veiler" can negate the effects of "Inzektor Dragonfly" and "Inzektor Centipede" so they cannot equip "Inzektor Hornet" and destroy Flip Effect monsters. If possible, "Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror" should be used to negate all their effects for the duration of the time the card remains on the field. All of the "Inzektor" cards will be powerless without their effects. However, if you play several dark monsters, this card shouldn't be used.

Conclusion

Flip Effect decks use the Flip Effects of monsters to clear the field of your opponents monsters, and then using stronger monsters to attack directly. Their advantage is that they are very sneaky, but their disadvantage is their low ATK and DEF. However, if your opponent uses a lot of cards that destroy, you can't activate the Flip Effects. A good Flip Effect Deck will bring the ultimate downfall to any regular Beatdown deck, no matter how strong your opponents monsters may be.