It isn't that Dustons couldn't do anything before this – that's not the case, in fact, only one card was released in Primal Origin which means that they had practically everything they needed. It's just that they couldn't really do much with what they had. The strategy wasn't a "closer," so to speak. These furballs could fool your opponent into thinking they were harmless; instill a false sense of security; and then utterly tear down their infrastructure, and then… well, kind of stall out till a perfect opportunity arises or you died.

The latter happened a lot.

Of course, there've been plenty of attempts at really making the Duston family shine bright like a diamond, but always to lackluster results. Before it was Limited, many players had high hopes of making a Duston Final Countdown Deck and admittedly, the strategy had about as much of a competitive chance as any other Final Countdown deck I've seen. Really, the Dustons did push it up to the next level, but sadly that level was still subpar. Even our own beloved Jason tackled Dustons in his What The Fix!? column and created easily the best build I'd ever seen with the card pool available to him. He did well with what he had and made a deck that could seriously put up a fight but he just didn't have the cards to keep up with the Kardashians – until now. Let me show you:

If you haven't had the opportunity to check out the Duston cards before, let me give you a little crash course. You'll need this information if you're really to appreciate Starduston for all it's worth. To start right off, Konami released the first four monsters of the series – Yellow Duston, Red Duston, Blue Duston, and Green Duston – slowly over the course of last year. Each of them had a very particular pair of effects: Cannot be used as a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Material for a Summon. While this card is face-up on the field, it cannot be Tributed.

If the thoughts in your head fall somewhere close to "Wow! These guys suck!" – Well, you're not far from the truth. The Dustons are supposed to suck, and suck they do. The purpose for their major design flaws didn't become apparent until the release of House Duston farther down the line. Since House Duston Special Summons as many Dustons to the field as possible regardless of side, it's easy to see that there was a purpose all along to the Dustons' general awfulness – you're meant to ditch them onto your opponent's side of the field in an attempt to lock them out of their Monster Slots.

But then there's still that pesky clause with House Duston stating that you have to Special Summon an equal number of Dustons to both sides of the table. So you still get stuck with these crappy little pipsqueaks? Enter White Duston: the only Normal Monster in the theme and strangely enough one of the most important. You can load up your field with Normal Monsters that have not a care in the world when it comes to how you use them! It makes your life a lot more manageable.

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Once Starduston hits the field, it decides to let everyone know who's daddy by restricting your opponent from Flip Summoning or Special Summoning Monsters and activating set spells and traps. Now, if you have an Anti-Spell Fragrance active on the field it means that your opponent can't activate spells and traps at all. So then getting over Starduston all comes down to what your opponent can Normal Summon – that is, if they have any open Monster Slots left.

The only real trick when it comes to Starduston is its self-destruct clause that initiates if you have more monsters on the field than your opponent. That can seem like an insubstantial concern, but you'd be surprised at how much it shaped the construction of this deck. It's easily made Opti-Camouflage Armor a REALLY great card; your opponent loses in two turns with that sort of set-up. That said, you also get to choose what Battle Position the Dustons arrive in, when they hit your opponent's field. Since all of them have 0 ATK it's as good as making a direct attack.

The second of our specialized monster is the Starduston before we had Starduston: Goblin King. This little green meanie gains 1000 ATK for each face-up Fiend on the field except for itself. If you manage to get four Dustons on each side of the table, then that means you've got game with Goblin King. It's, like, a Double Obelisk Killer! Running two Starduston and a sole Goblin King as opposed to three Stardustons has its benefits. First off, you're never going to resolve three Stardustons in one game. If you need to resolve a third one, then you've already lost the fight. Plus, you Summon Goblin King with fewer restrictions and can truly OTK your opponent beyond all repair. They're two tools in the same Swiss Army Knife.

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Lastly, this strategy gets to use some of the coolest cards made because of how specialized it is! There're classics like One for One here, but there are also lesser known picks like Where Arf Thou? If you follow my work then you should know all about how awesome Where Arf Thou? can be. Since you're running a small fleet of Normal Monsters, it's well worth it play one teched-out copy of Tri-Wight in the Main Deck. It's a free +2 for your vanillas that you can leverage into another Starduston if you so choose, or a 3000 ATK Goblin King. Lastly there's Ceasefire, or as I like to call it, "Watch As Half Of Your Life Points Burn Up In Flames!"

Glory for such a glorious Little Deck!

I really love Dustons, and while this article's just the beginning of my work with the theme, I'm excited to share everything I find along the way with you guys! Have you had any experience with Dustons? Tell me about how you mopped up your opponent with them.

-Zach Buckley

Team Nofatchx