Let's take a stroll down Logic Lane, shall we? We all want to win games. The best way to win games is to reduce your opponent's Life Points to 0. The best way to do that is by attacking with monsters, and therefore monsters win games. So then the more monsters you have, the more games you win. And if we have all the monsters then we win all the games! Logic!

If you haven't caught my drift yet, today is all monsters all the time. We're talking Monster Mash and I for one, am incredibly excited. This is a strategy that's been on my bucket list for a long time and it's nice to finally have an opportunity to say something about it. It's often my goal to bring something new to the table with each article I write, and while that can often mean holding my tongue until I've found something worthwhile or inspiring, today I'm holding myself to that standard.

Traditionally speaking, Monster Mashes are usually focused on the interactions between Light and Dark monsters and the synergies they carry. Up until very recently, Lights and Darks have been the most powerful monsters in the game, and if you're making the choice to forgo spells and traps then you absolutely HAVE to have powerful monsters to compensate. There's really no way around that. But over the years, the other attributes have had some time to catch up to the Chaos attributes in terms of power and utility and it's made for a cornucopia of options for players everywhere. The troubling thing is that there hasn't been any relevant discussion in regards to how that trend's impacted Monster Mash, so today is all about that issue. Here's the list:

DECKID=100376I've said it from the get-go: for all the horror the Dragon Rulers caused when they were allowed to run rampant, they're just SO good when coupled with other strategies. This deck's no exception to that claim. With a game plan that focuses on milling perhaps more than any other deck, you have to have a contingency plan for when you excavate and bury things that you might not have necessarily want to send to your graveyard.

Magical Merchant can send upwards of twenty cards to the graveyard when its effect resolves. The Dragon Rulers afford you a precious security in your plays and reassurance in those moments of incredible deck thinning. Chaos Sorcerer and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning are completely dead to you in the graveyard, but Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos? Yeah, not so much. Truly, what worth is a muscle if it isn't flexible?

The Dragon Rulers give you the power boost you need to guarantee that you won't have to fall back on your typical Chaos boss monsters. When Chaos Sorcerer's your bread and butter you'vegot to make sure that you've got enough monsters to reach its Summoning requirements – which does often leave little room for any other monsters, regardless of their usefulness. So now instead of focusing on running a bunch of Lights and Darks, you can explore the unique interactions all of the other attributes can offer.

Dancing In September!
Some of the most powerful Earth, Wind, and Fire monsters happen to be Plants, and it's incredibly easy to see the dominant position they hold in this strategy just from glancing over the deck list. I can only imagine that some players are probably annoyed with the constant attention drawn to the same four or five Plant cards over and over again, but you simply have to understand that they just work undeniably well together. Very few monster types manage tobalance synergy and utility to such crazy heights; the core Plant engine just does it better than anything else. With only four or five monsters, you can set up any number of large plays without costing you heavy investments of card presence. The addition of some newer Plants to the garden only help to bolster that notion.

I did an installment of MBFYB a while back that covered the ins and outs of playing a Plant Princess deck, and in the process I discovered how incredibly versatile Chirubime, Princess of Autumn Leaves truly was. Besides Tytannial, Princess of Autumn Leaves, Chirubime's the one other Plant Princess that has enough utility to see play beyond dedicated Princess decks. Even at one copy, the Princess of Autumn Leaves can create powerful onboard presence with relative ease and can protect your plays before they even happen, thanks to her massive 2800 DEF and her ability to draw attacks away from your other Plants.

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This deck runs a healthy number of Level 3 Earths, and in doing so it makes Meliae of the Trees a big part of your strategy. This little tree sprite can Special Summon any Plant monster from your graveyard in Defense Position and to fully take advantage of that you need to have a strong defender in your arsenal.

The second new Plant to come to light, and one that many readers expected to be in my Princess deck, was Mystic Macrocarpa Seed. The nifty little Tuner can reduce any Earth monster's Level by 1 and it can do that up to twice per turn. Being an Earth monster itself, Macrocarpa Seed can be a Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 Tuner whenever you need one in a pinch. Its ability gives you access to Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion at almost any time you'd need them. Historically, Plants couldn't make that happen for themselves unless you were running an actual Naturia deck.

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
Despite the fact that you're running only a select few Water monsters, they're all incredibly important. Believe it or not, your Water monsters will finish off your opponent more frequently than any of the others all thanks to Berserker Soul. Released in Dragons of Legend to a relatively divided response, Berserker Soul's got an effect that can slash over half of your opponent's Life Points away, even continuing to beat them when they've already lost. How couldanyone dispute the potential of such a horror? At one copy in this build, it's the arsenic-laced cherry on top of your milkshake of hurt.

While most of Berserker Soul's detractors would say that trying to hit eight monster cards in a row is the hard part, the truth of the matter is that guaranteeing yourself the attacker with 1500 ATK or less at the drop of a hat is actually the real challenge – and that's where your aquatic army comes into the fold. Treeborn Frog looks incredibly out of place here, but with some context it's easy to see the synergies at work. On top of being the missing number whenmatching up Levels for a Synchro Summmon, Treeborn Frog's also the necessary "1500 ATK or less" for Berserker Soul, and you can Summon it for free every single turn. Imagine clearing your opponent's field away only to seal the deal with a tiny Treeborn Frog!

But what happens when you can't do that? What happens when you're opponent has less than 4000 LP left and you just can't break through their field to get that quick shot in? At that point, you call in Elemental Hero Ice Edge to do the dirty work for you. By discarding a card during your Main Phase 1 you can make Ice Edge swing at your opponent's Life Points directly. Since it's got 800 ATK, it's right in range to steal games out from under your opponent's nose.

It's A (Quick) Draw!
Aside from all of the hand traps, the Dragons, and the Plants, the last big picture monster that begs to be discussed is Quickdraw Synchron. To be completely honest, up until I played this deck I absolutely despised Quickdraw – and the worst part is that I don't really have any justification or inkling as to why. For me it was just a matter of finding the right place for it, and man does it really work here!

Opening Quickdraw almost always guarantees you a commanding board on Turn 1 – often just by using one monster! If you're going first, you'll almost always Synchro Summon for Chevalier de Fleur so that you can force your opponent to pick which spell and traps they want to waste, turn by turn. But if you're going second, you can build big card advantage by clearing away some cards with Junk Destroyer.

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With all of these Level 3 monsters running around, dropping a Synchro Monster of that size first turn is totally doable. Mathematician works great: you can begin to sculpt your graveyard andthen trade up into a stronger monster. Gallis the Star Beast is a great compliment for QuickdrawSynchron as well. If you already have Treeborn Frog set up, Junk Gardna's a card away too. It may sound silly, but it's the little pushes that win the war for you with a deck like this, andQuickdraw Synchro's built for exactly that.

Alright, Buck. Where's The Bang?
This one most definitely caps off at the $100 mark and it's a benchmark that can easily be exceeded if you so choose to. There're always bigger and pricier Synchros and Xyz you can splash in as needed. I mean, who doesn't love a big honkin' Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack to smack someone with?

What about you? Do you have any crazy Monster Mash stories? What insane concoction has worked for you in the past? Let me know down in the comments section; I'm eagerly waiting!

-Zach Buckley
Team Nofatchx