



Banishing

Effects that banish your graveyard cards would probably be sufficient to give you a headache. Apart from not being able to capitalise on Metalfoes Counter‘s retrieve effect, you might end up losing the only fusion option in your deck – Metalfoes Fusion, should you not choose to include Fullmetalfoes Fusion. Common threats in this category you will likely face is D.D. Crow and the occasional rogue Infernoid deck.

Retaliating “C” is an interesting choice that some OCG players include in their side deck. Upon activation of Metalfoes Fusion, your opponent can drop the bomb and you end up banishing at least three cards upon resolution. (Your fusion materials and your fusion spell). If that doesn’t hurt enough, Retaliating C is capable of fetching a copy of its archetype monsters upon destruction, the most common option being Maxx C.

It is mainly used to counter Frog-HEROes, stop Blue-Eyes from having a Return of the Dragon Lords in the grave, and prevent the latter from spamming synchro/xyz without sacrificing some cards to be banished. But Metalfoes bear the brunt of this Insect-type’s presence as well. Thus I believe players should be made aware of this threat.







The most common activation would be pendulum effects, but personally I won’t go for the pendulum cards unless my opponent has dwindling resources. But every now and then, if you (playing against Metalfoes) sense that your opponent losing that single pendulum piece can be a game-changer, go ahead. This is especially so if they have to destroy their own Metalfoes Combination on their first turn (via Mystical Space Typhoon or Eccentrick Archfiend) to get a scale, then yes they are probably desperate.

And if they do end up having another card to replace the destroyed scale in your hand, take it like a man! After perhaps crying like a boy…

Apart from pendulum card effects, one can also target cards such as Ultimaya Tzolkin or Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow, as the latter’s effect to spawn tokens starts a chain.





Magical Spring

I previously mentioned it in my blog along with a list of techs, in an article dubbed CardWatch 2K16: July but I shall go into deeper detail now. Most commonly played in Blue-Eyes as they can benefit off the discard, Magical Spring is capable of stopping Metalfoes dead in their tracks. Not only does the card’s protection ability serve to slow Metalfoes from setting up their field, your opponent can end up gaining a net hand advantage even after the discard.

Discard a The Fabled Catsith and they can do further damage to your board. Discard a The White Stone of Ancients and they can summon out Dragon Spirit of White to banish one of spells/traps during the end phase of the turn.

So take note, don’t be so eager to place your mismatched scales just for the sake of destruction, especially during Game 2 or 3.





Skill Drain, Dimension Barrier

These two cards hurt Metalfoes plenty too, although Skill Drain mainly renders your Majespector engine dead. Dimension Barrier carries an element of Skill Drain in it, but the most problematic effect is the inability to summon pendulum monsters once your opponent declares it and successfully resolve.You can destroy Skill Drain with Eccentrick Archfiend, but you can’t stop Dimension Barrier without a negation. In the OCG, this card is responsible for the decline in performance for Metalfoes deck recently. So TCG readers, you have been warned.





Quaking Mirror Force, Book of Eclipse, Swords of Concealing Lights

Book of Moon isn’t mentioned on the list since it targets, and thus won’t work against Majespectors. Majespector Unicorn – Kirin is the sole protector in your deck. Apart from being an annoyance, it protects your “stun” and “floodgate’ monsters (such as Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon or Jowgen, the Spiritualist) from attacking threats. The most common being Number S39: Utopia the Lightning.

(It is worth noting that Burning Abyss players commonly use Number 30: Acid Golem to battle Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon to get rid of it.)

To stop Kirin, one simply has to flip it face down to render it useless. Even if you were to chain to the effect, your board monsters remain vulnerable to incoming threats afterwards. Concealing is capable of escaping most lockdowns, and is thus the most versatile option among the three, in my opinion. This is made worse in the TCG where Cyber-Stein isn’t available, and thus, the lack of Naturia Exterio may leave Metalfoes players with lesser options for a spell/trap lockdown, thus vulnerable to them.

Quaking has its own activation condition, being part of the Mirror Force series, and thus a limited window of opportunity than the other two, while the user has to capitalize on the turn Eclipse is used or risk the opponent gaining hand advantage. Concealing Lights carries both the needed [flip face-down] effect and a stall element to it – the card’s viability and usefulness accounting for its price spike and hype over the past months in OCG.

As Metalfoes makes it mark in the TCG, players are likely to drop Raigeki and Dark Hole, as destruction is neither preferred nor viable – You can’t destroy Majespectors, and destroying Metalfoes may end up allowing your opponent to activate Metalfoes Counter.





Super Polymerisation

Being unable to chained to it, Super Polymerisation lives up the the Super part in its name, and can escape most lockdowns as long as the suitable fusion materials exist on the board. Opponents can abuse the Metalfoes archetype for themselves and prepare a sided copy of Metalfoes Crimsonite for the sole purpose of utilizing Super Polymerisation in a Metalfoes matchup. Not even Naturia Exterio can stop it.

“Can’t beat them, join them” right?

Dracoverlords

Another common side-deck choice in the OCG, even for non pendulum decks, is Wavering Eyes along with a pair of Dracoverlord. Be it Lector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord or Vector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord depends on player’s preference. They will probably be placed on the scales to just act like a continuous spell applying its negation effect.





Others

As per every pendulum deck, overextending followed by dying to a summoning negation could spell your doom. Consider separating your pendulum summons or get rid of backrow threats before going all out. Spread your eggs into different baskets – spread out your monsters in different waves of pendulum summons, especially if you already have control of the game.

Just beware of the common staple Solemn Strike, the popular Side Deck option Pendulum Hole and the, despite limited, deadly Solemn Warning. Solemn Warning can even stop your Majespecter Raccoon – Bunbuku‘s normal summon, hence stopping you in your tracks long before you can even perform a pendulum summon.

Anti-Spell Fragrance, the bane of every pendulum deck’s existence, is no doubt the greatest challenge. During your deck building process, be it for the Main Deck or Side Deck, do not neglect spell/trap removal. This old continuous trap card has been in the game for over a decade, and certainly does not fear your Denko Sekka or Eccentrick Archfiend, as neither can get rid of it. Denko Sekka might stop your opponent’s other set cards, but with Anti-Spell Fragrance on the field, you can’t place your scales, which is pretty much kicking the bucket for Metalfoes as you can only now rely on Metalfoes Counter and Metalfoes Fusion monsters for brute force and damage.. As previously mentioned, you might want to give Starship Spy Plane a try.

Don’t be hasty: Metalfoes’ consistency is boosted to astronomical levels via Pot of Desires. Seriously. You can choose not to believe it, but the math speaks for itself… Okay maybe ‘taxonomical’ is being exaggerating. But my point is: the last thing you want is your Metalfoes S/T getting banished. So if you can, and you should, search-and-set them out before activating Pot of Desires. And also pray to your stars and lords, pray that you do not open your games with too much Metalfoes spells or traps in your hand. Not only will you then be unable to use the destruction effect of the scales, it will probably also lead to an unappealing field setup.



Due to the fact that Metalfoes got in bed with the Majespectors, non-targetting removal cards like Drowning Mirror Force are common Side Deck options and can turn the tables and make Metalfoes players drown in tears themselves.

The same case for Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit – timely destruction of your scales can be fatal especially if you do not have replacements prepared. Thus, Twin Twisters along with the other spell/trap destruction options can hammer a nail in your coffin. Pendulum Storm is a card I have seen in some decklists, but I ain’t convinced and ain’t a fan of it. It feels like a slower, and thus ineffective, version of Wavering Eyes.

Other floodgate options like Gozen Match and Rivalry of Warlords will force Majespector-Metalfoes players to pick a side, or rather, pick an archetype. It will slow, but won’t completely destroy the deck.

If there is anything else worth mentioning, I once had a matchups against a Black Magician deck and got shut down when he opened Secret Village of the Spellcasters early. Only made it out of the woods when I drew into Eccentrick Archfiend to destroy his lone spellcaster on the field. Game 2, I was desperate enough to summon out Effect Veiler to be able to use my spell cards, and thus place my scales. Few ‘pop’s later, along with some fusion summons and search-and-set, it was his turn to not be able to use spells.



Such a long list, did I overthink?

Conclusion

Knowing what is out there to make your dueling career miserable allows you to be prepared, be it a tech or a Side Deck option. Hope that this article is informative enough to help all present and future Metalfoes players. Instead of just merely listing the cards that rival the success of this archetype, I tried to mention every and any undesirable situation, that comes across my head, a Metalfoes player can face, even something as small as what you should wish your opening hand to be. (Don’t forget my friends! PRAY. But then again, you don’t have my luck so maybe you don’t need to.)

And if you are wondering why these series of articles are so focused on Majespector-Metalfoes, it is because it is the most stable and best-performing version of the deck in the OCG, as stated in the previous article of the series. Should you be interested in discussing about other builds, or have questions about my opinion on the other builds, feel free to drop my a message on my Facebook or something. Dueling Cancer also has a Facebook page for you to reach out. Otherwise, a comment below on this article is fine as well.

That’s all for now,. This is Ken Sir, and I hope you stay tuned to the next article [Intro to Metalfoes – Part 4: The not-so-secret techs]