Forum:Deck Guide/Slow Burn

by Gadjiltron

Intro

The traditional way of finishing an opponent in Yu-Gi-Oh! is to drop your opponent's Life Points to 0, often accomplished via attacking monsters or Direct Attacks. This led to players needing to manage both offense and defense where they had to prevent their attacking monsters from incoming attacks.

One of these means avoids such micromanagement - Burn. The early Burn decks avoid needing to worry about offense by inflicting damage through Effect Damage, and utilizing stall tactics to avoid battle through all costs.

Mechanics

The traditional Burn tactics, unlike more explosive builds, seek to lock the opponent down while using "damage over time" damaging effects to wear down the opponent's Life Points. Battle is not an issue for the Burn Deck, but the generally low stats of the monsters employed by the Burn Deck often mean that it's not an option either.

Analysis

Strengths

• Aggravating - A well-constructed Slow Burn Deck will have set up multiple layers of locking if the opponent cannot break the first one soon enough. Combined with many burn effects taking place across each turn, all those little numbers will add up.
• No need for attacking - Most Decks will have packed some cards to defend against attacks (e.g. Dimensional Prison), only to find that said cards are useless when they realize that they cannot activate them.

Weaknesses

• Easily countered - Konami hates Burn. Several cards are available to utterly negate Effect damage, or something of the like. A crazy-prepared player may have a Black-Winged Dragon sided in case they face such a Deck. Even Psychics have very potent LP regeneration abilities that let them win a war of attrition against Slow Burn.
• Slow - Uh, there's a reason why this type is called Slow Burn. Decks wielding many means of card destruction can almost always find a way to break the locks set up by Slow Burn and attack once given the chance.
• Trap-reliant - A good portion of the lock and burn damage originates from Continuous Traps. A simple Royal Decree or Jinzo will shut the Deck down.

The Basics

Even in Slow Burn, the different forms the Deck can take vary widely. However, there are several things which all these Decks employ for their cause.

• Gravity Bind - This simple Trap prevents anything of Level 4 or higher from attacking. Not a problem for Burn, but a headache for any aggressive tactics deck.
• Level Limit - Area B - Similar to Gravity Bind, it turns everything Level 4 or higher into Defense Position, preventing large monsters from attacking.
• Messenger of Peace - An awesome old card that locks out anything with 1500 or more ATK. The LP cost is very low, and you can also control when to release this lock to allow your larger monsters to attack this turn... if they need to attack, that is.
• Swords of Revealing Light - A standard one-sided stall card that allows you to recuperate whenever things go awry. It completely slipped off the List, giving all Stall-based Decks another option for defense against the Xyz Monsters that slide through Level-affecting lock cards.
• Threatening Roar - A Chainable Trap that stops the opponent from attacking for this turn. Good in many situations, and perhaps that extra turn to live will get what you need.
• Ceasefire - Effect Monsters are all the rage today, and so this card is likely to deal at least 2000 damage in one shot depending on the field.
• Marshmallon - This squishy unkillable sweet will help hold off attacks on your LP, and if it gets struck while face-down, it takes 1000 LP off your opponent too.
• Spirit Reaper - Much like Marshmallon, Spirit Reaper is unkillable. Just be wary of targetting effects that will cause it to self-destruct.
• Morphing Jar - It's likely that you'll exhaust your hand by setting your lock up and placing backup defense. The hand reset is always helpful. Banned in TCG as of April 2014.
• Sangan - Lots of monsters employed by Slow Burn variants have an ATK low enough to be fetched with Sangan. Well, too bad the March 2013 list banned it.
• Secret Barrel - 200 LP per opponent's card on field and in hand doesn't look like much, but when the opponent is clogged up with many other things like Tokens on his field, this can do substantial damage.
• Magic Cylinder - Punish an opponent for attacking with a large monster by negating the attack and smacking him with the full force of that monster's ATK.

Variants

Life Shaver

The traditional Burn/Lock Deck. In addition to the above cards, it also features the following:

• Solar Flare Dragon - During your End Phase it hits for 500 LP to your opponent. Have 2 or more on the field, and these guys cannot be attacked at all.
• Volcanic Slicer - Each turn, it can inflict 500 damage to your opponent in exchange for attacking for the turn. It serves as a good means of offense while the lock is not around, and a secondary source of burn while the lock is up. It can even support Solar Flare Dragon, since it's a Pyro-Type.
• Lava Golem - This monster can be Summoned to your opponent's side of the field using 2 of his monsters as Tribute, thus getting rid of potential threats while inflicting 1000 damage to your opponent's Life Points at the same time. High stats? No problem, the stall will take care of that.
• Stealth Bird - Decent DEF value can stave off most medium-sized beatsticks, and each time it gets Flip Summoned it takes 1000 LP off of your opponent. For even more fun, it can turn back to face-down Defense each turn.
• Des Koala - Another monster with solid DEF, and a decent burning effect that takes off 400 LP per card in the opponent's hand. Good as a follow up to Morphing Jar.
• Stumbling - Monsters are switched to Defense Position on Summon. This allows you to quickly turtle into Defense, and denies the opponent the opportunity to attack on the same turn they Summon monsters.
• Just Desserts - Punishes swarming (which is very frequent these days) by burning 500 LP to the opponent for each monster they have, potentially doing up to 2500 LP in one shot. If the opponent plans to Synchro Summon, use this card right after they successfully Summon the last monster they need for a Synchro (by right, you should have an opportunity to do so) to maximise damage done.
• Ojama Trio - It locks up the opponent's field by spawning 3 useless Tokens, keeping his summons in check, while also adding "cards" to heap on the burn damage from Just Desserts or Secret Barrel. Just be wary of Tuners, as they are easily used for Synchro Summons.

Red Deck Wins

A slight variation of the above, this Deck tends to focus more on FIRE and Pyro-Type monsters, all of which are capable of doing good effect damage.

• King Pyron - A somewhat lackluster Gemini monster at first glance, King Pyron holds the ability of being searchable to circumvent his Tribute requirement. Once Gemini Summoned, he puts the opponent on a short time limit as he does 1000 damage a turn.
• UFO Turtle - Naturally, a great recruiter in a FIRE Deck to fetch out Solar Flare Dragon, King Pyron, etc.
• Flame Spirit Ignis - Its effect looks rather lackluster, but late-game it can do enough damage to finish your job, while the opponent is on their last ropes.
• Pyrorex the Elemental Lord - A slightly watered-down Ring of Destruction with a body. Pyrorex fits nicely into a FIRE Deck, providing an aggressive out, destruction, and burn at the same time. The damage you take will be irrelevant since the opponent would worry more about that, and missing your next Battle Phase is also negligible because you won't be using the Battle Phase that often.
• Morphtronic Datatron - What's a lighter USB drive that SPITS FIRE doing here? It does a relatively low amount of damage in Defense Position, but sometimes those chips are enough to let you win a little earlier.
• Royal Firestorm Guards - After the TCG banned Pot of Avarice, there's little that this monster has to compete over for what its effect does. Shuffle 4 of your used Pyro monsters and draw 2, so that you don't run out of options so soon.
• Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai - The Deck is entirely FIRE monsters, so there's no reason not to run it. Your opponent threatened your monster with a card effect? That's cute. You'll get a huge chunk of burn damage and the last laugh.

Princess of Flame

This Deck revolves around searching out Fire Princess and using her ability to consistently inflict damage to the opponent, while also healing oneself so that they can afford LP payment for some stall cards. Most notably, Wall of Revealing Light is best used by this Deck since it can easily regain its steep LP cost. When push comes to shove, Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai is squeezed in for a last-ditch attempt at a burn at the opponent's LP.

• Fire Princess - The key card of the Deck, and centre of its burn engine. Each time you get a LP increase your opponent takes 500 damage.
• UFO Turtle - Capable of searching out Fire Princess, but it also serves a secondary purpose in bringing out Solar Flare Dragons, if the player wants to be more direct with burning.
• Marie the Fallen One - While it's weak healing, it's in your Graveyard and hence harder to stop. Fortunately, Fire Princess accepts any degree of healing to damage your opponent.
• Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird - A powerful healing card that ups your Life Points by 500 per card in the opponent's hand. Usually this will net you 1000 or more LP, and gives Fire Princess another chance to hit the opponent's LP.
• Nimble Momonga - Its death gets you 1000 LP, and sets up to 2 more of these to block off other attacks. What's not to love?
• Skull-Mark Ladybug - An old, underused card that gets you 1000 LP when it hits the Graveyard from anywhere.
• Number 49: Fortune Tune - One of the new Xyz Monsters from NUMH, Fortune Tune proves to be incredibly irritating to get rid of (permanently), and provides a constant stream of 500 LP per Standby Phase. Couple with a Safe Zone-protected Fire Princess and you'll take down the opponent quickly.
• Poison of the Old Man - A potent healing card that can net you 1200 LP by itself, but if Fire Princess isn't around you can take the other option and burn 800 LP to the opponent.
• Goblin Thief - This card does the two things the Deck likes - first, it burns 500 LP to the opponent, which goes right with a Burn Deck; second, it heals you by 500 LP, which also means an opportunity for Fire Princess to activate.
• Solemn Wishes or Golden Ladybug - 500 LP a turn is nice since it will also mean 500 LP damage to your opponent at the same time.
• Draining Shield - Your opponent would be keen on taking out Fire Princess, since she's not exceptionally powerful. This card helps hold off attacks while getting you about 2000 or more LP depending on what monster tried to attack.
• Red Screen - With so much lifegain in this Deck, you can certainly afford to pay this card's steep compulsory 1000 LP cost to completely prevent the opponent from attacking you.
• Safe Zone - Nothing hurts more than your centrepiece of the Deck getting destroyed. Use this to protect Fire Princess from other forms of removal so that your LP gaining at least goes somewhere. Alternatively, chain it to any S/T removal and target opponent's monsters so they go down.

Big Bang Princess

Main Deck Monster Cards Fire Princess x3 Marshmallon x3 Solar Flare Dragon x3 UFO Turtle x3 Nimble Momonga x3 Golden Ladybug Raging Flame Sprite x2 Spell Cards Messenger of Peace x3 Swords of Revealing Light x2 Book of Moon Goblin Thief x3 Poison of the Old Man x3 Trap Cards Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai x2 Wall of Revealing Light Draining Shield x2 Safe Zone x3 Ceasefire Red Screen Extra Deck Xyz Monsters Number 49: Fortune Tune x2

Fallen Angel

See here for the Quick version.

The Reficule build is an unusual one, which uses effects that turn healing effects on the opponent into damage. This opens up potential use for other cards with a normally bad side effect of giving your opponent extra LP. Because the healing numbers tend to be greater than burn numbers, reverse-healing usually does larger hits than normal burn, with each one averaging 1000 or more. It can backfire horribly if the opponent times a destruction effect such that all that reverse-burn turns back into healing.

• Nurse Reficule the Fallen One - The star of the Deck, she turns anything that heals the opponent into damage of the same degree.
• Mystic Tomato - Nothing like helping to seek out the centerpiece of the Deck.
• Burning Algae - When this weak card enters the Graveyard, it heals your opponent for 1000 LP. Well, it would, unless the main backbone is present to turn this into burn.
• Bad Reaction to Simochi - An older card than Reficule which does the exact same thing. If Reficule doesn't survive for long on the field, this is good backup.
• Soul Taker - Destroys a face-up monster, and gives removes 1000 LP from the opponent in exchange for that.
• Upstart Goblin - Draw power is always good, but not in a burn Deck where you undo your work by giving 1000 LP. However, Reficule will, as usual, turn this into both draw power and burn power.
• Gift Card - The OTK potential of this Deck, which makes it fuzzy when it comes to differentiating between Fast or Slow Burn. Play 3 of these with Reficule or Simochi out, and that's a grand total of 9000 LP damage to the opponent.
• The Paths of Destiny - Use if you're feeling lucky. You can either gain or lose 2000 LP, and the same would apply for your opponent. Have Reficule/Simochi out and your opponent is guaranteed a loss of 2000 LP though.
• Rain of Mercy - On the other hand, if you don't like being restricted to luck, this guarantees a 1000 LP gain for you and the opponent. Of course, the backbone of this Deck will have something to say about the opponent being healed.
• The Eye of Truth - Forces your opponent to reveal their hand, but if there's a Spell Card in there they gain lose 1000 LP. It's a decent way of continuously damaging your opponent, and it forces them into panic mode to exhaust their Spells once their LP falls low enough.

Direct Hit!

Eventually, some players take the idea of Burn and take it up a notch. Rather than just letting effects do the work, they circumvent the opponent's monsters and go straight for his Life Points. This hybrid of Aggro and Lock includes:

• Raging Flame Sprite - At Level 3, she slips under most locking cards. Each time she scores a hit on the opponent, she gets 1000 more ATK. If left unchecked she will take out the opponent in 5 hits or so.
• Drill Barnacle - A new card to be introduced in GENF, this is similar to the above Raging Flame Sprite, but with a base 300 ATK instead.
• Inaba White Rabbit - A 700 ATK Direct Attacker is decent. While you don't get to keep it on the field, it also means that the Rabbit escapes from harm through battle.
• Sky Oni-Eating Ray - Similar to Inaba White Rabbit, Oni-Eating Ray does direct attacks at 600 damage a pop, and dodges being counterattacked by removing itself from play till your next Standby Phase. Unlike Inaba, it can be Special Summoned, and doesn't continuously eat your Normal Summons.
• Spell Striker - A free Special Summon almost all the time, can attack directly, and if it ever gets attacked, you take no damage.
• Wattgiraffe, Wattpheasant - These guys may be weak for LV4s, but at least they can go under Messenger of Peace. They can hit directly and have additional effects each time they score hits, but that's not much of a concern for the Deck.
• Watt King Cobra - A new addition to the Watt archetype. Like the other members above, it can attack directly, and when it does, you can add a Watt monster to your hand from your Deck. Use this if the direct-attack Deck has a large number of Watt monsters, so that you get to consistently gather monsters to peck away at the opponent's LP.
• Jinzo - Returner - Direct Attackers that can go under lock effects are hard to come by, so nearly anything goes for this deck.
• Cyber Tutu - ...Yup, anything goes.
• Demotion - If you're playing anything LV4 or higher by any chance, this is good for sliding under your own lock.
• Robbin' Goblin - Because you'll be dealing damage so easily, you get to take control of your opponent's hand, too.
• Any of the Earthbound Immortals - These are the hardest-hitting direct attackers you could ever find. However, you'll end up needing to go out of your way to use a hard-to-remove Field Spell to keep them on the field.

(Credit to AceCloudKicker for helping out.)

Tag Duel Options

The lock cards employed by Slow Burn tend to affect both sides of the field, so find partners that are not as badly hindered by your attack restriction efforts. Pair up with Quick Burn so that you can provide the defense against direct attacks while Quick Burn helps defeat your opponents faster. Alternatively, pair up with a Final Countdown stalling Deck so you can supplement each other with defenses and alternate win conditions. Watt Decks can also slip under locking cards to inflict damage and suppress the opponent.

Other Tips

There are several other cards that can be employed to aid the Slow Burn variants. See the Stall guide for more details on putting up defensive measures.

• Scapegoat - Spawns 4 Tokens to help deflect damage for a while. Effective? Perhaps.
• Giant Germ - Burns 500 LP on death, and spawns 2 more copies once done. Helpful in absorbing impacts like Nimble Momonga, but since they're in face-up Attack Position...
• Mecha Bunny - When flipped by any means, it can burn 500 LP to a target card's controller. Similar to Nimble Momonga, its death will bring out another copy to help absorb more attacks.
• Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua - Sure, you need a field for this guy, but just seat him in DEF and your opponent cannot attack at all, while doing 1200 damage a turn. My hats off to you if you actually build a decent deck around him.
• Tower of Babel - As both players play Spell cards, Spell counters will accumulate on this card. By the 4th counter, the Tower collapses on the player who just added the 4th counter for 3000 damage. Be careful that it doesn't fall on you, tough.
• Dark Room of Nightmare - Amplify any Burn you do with an additional 300 LP burn. Note that this does not stack with itself or other copies.
• Imperial Custom - You might have realized that a number of Slow Burn damage sources or defenses are Continuous Traps. Use this to protect them from the inevitable Heavy Storm coming your way.
• Nightmare Wheel - Restrict an opponent's monster from attacking, and burn 500 LP to him each turn.
• Minor Goblin Official - Finish your opponent off when you have him on the ropes with a constant 500 LP burn.
• Nightmare's Steelcage - Similar to Swords of Revealing Light, but prevents both players from attacking for 2 turns. Not that you'd need to attack, anyway...
• Thunder of Ruler - Unlike Threatening Roar, Thunder of Ruler can only be activated during the Standby Phase, but the results are the same. Only this time your opponent knows he won't be able to conduct his Battle Phase ahead of time and can prepare accordingly.
• Shackles of the Underworld - It's a buffed-up version of Mask of the Accursed and Nightmare Wheel. Not only does it deal burn damage and prevent the monster from ever fighting back, if you do need to remove it in battle it's ATK and DEF is now 100, easily crushed by any of your monsters.
• Card Car D - Chances are you'll be concerning yourself more with S/Ts rather than battling with monsters. If you have a loose Normal Summon and no need to battle, might as well use it to draw extra cards.

There are several weaknesses of Slow Burn styles though...

• Des Wombat can negate any Effect Damage, effectively rendering your efforts moot. Even worse...
• Prime Material Dragon does the exact opposite of what Reficule/Simochi do - turn Effect Damage into LP gain. This applies to both players though, and if both Reficule and PMD are out their effects cancel each other out.
• Black Feather Dragon does something similar to Des Wombat, though it weakens itself for each instance of Burn you do. Unfortunately, it's quite strong against Slow Burn, since if you don't kill it off quickly after it loads up on counters, it can barf those counters all over your face-up monsters used for Burn to deal massive damage to you. It gets worse since there's no limit to the number of counters it can load up, so about 3 turns of absorbed burn and it's all set to kill you in one hit with your own trick.
• Life Stream Dragon will be a bit of a pain to deal with if your opponent doesn't die soon enough and plays Morphtronics. Like the above Signer dragon, it nulls out burn damage, but at zero cost, and will restore your opponent's LP to 4000 on Synchro Summon. Either find a way to shut off the opponent's Synchro Summons or you're dead meat when LSD shows up.
• Rainbow Life poses a problem for the Deck as well, as it turns all instances of damage this turn into LP gain. Slow Burn, being based on damage-over-time, does not suffer as much of an issue about this as much as Quick Burn.
• Similarly, Nature's Reflection turns all instances of Burn on yourself for a turn. The same goes for Spell of Pain, though that only works for one instance. Once again, since this is based on accumulation of chips of damage over several turns, Quick Burn, which does bigger hits within a turn, has more of an issue with this.
• Surging Dragon Knight Dragoequites is also capable of reflecting Burn damage as long as he remains in face-up Attack Position. He doesn't show up often due to Extra Deck space, but your opponent might just side him in just in case...
• Psychic Decks can go either way against Burn. They pay a lot of LP to use their effects, which makes your job easier. However, they also regenerate a lot of LP, which can spell trouble for you. 2 Magical Androids equate 2400 LP a turn, something you can't keep up with.
• Any S/T removal is something to watch out for, as it can break your lock, leaving you and your monsters vulnerable. Royal Decree is particularly infuriating as it can block off a lot of your Continuous Traps that either protect you or inflict damage.