Agent Evaluation

This title is funny because I work full-time as a technical support “agent”… get it… funny right…


Anyway, before I start discussing Agents, I had a couple of questions concerning Dave’s tournament report from the tournament on the weekend, with Chaos Dragons. This is a basic summary, and as much as I know:

Round 1 vs Ganon (six sams): 2-0

Round 2 vs ???: He won

Round 3 vs myself (agents): 0-2

Round 4 vs Rori (Dark Worlds): He won, but I’m not sure if it was 2-0 or 2-1

Round 5 vs Richard (Mermails): 2-0 I’m pretty sure

Top 4 vs Raymond (Dino-Rabbit) 1-2 (However, I watched their game 3 since my Top 4 match went by quickly. Dave misplayed and likely would’ve won the match if he didn’t.)

Now, quite a few people have requested an analysis of my Agent deck, along with my thoughts and research. This post should hopefully contain enough detail to satisfy the readers that are specifically interested, while increasing everyone else’s knowledge as well. I will start by posting the build I used on Saturday:

Main deck (40):

1 BLS

2 Hyperion

1 Kristya

2 Earth

3 Venus

3 Balls

2 Thunder King

1 Sangan

2 Tour Guide

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Card Trooper

1 Honest

2 Herald of Orange Light

1 Effect Veiler

2 Maxx “C”

2 Tragoedia

1 Gorz

3 MST

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Book of Moon

1 Mind Control

1 Creature Swap

1 Enemy Controller

1 Forbidden Lance

1 Treacherous Trap Hole

Extra Deck (15)

1 Armory Arm

1 Catastor

1 Gaia Knight

1 Black Rose

1 Stardust

2 Gachi-Gachi

1 Daigusto Phoenix

1 Zenmaines

1 Leviathan Dragon

1 Leviair

1 Photon Papilloperative

1 Maestroke

1 Utopia

1 Utopia Ray

*Side Deck (15):

2 Gemini Imps

2 Banisher of the Radiance

1 Maxx “C”

1 Kristya

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Forbidden Lance

1 Forbidden Chalice

1 System Down

2 Twister

3 Royal Decree

*This may be slightly different from Saturday, but I’m 90% sure this was it.

This deck list is similar to Simon He’s deck list that earned him a spot in the Top 8 of YCS Seattle. This has always been my approach to Agents from the beginning (many monsters, not many spells and traps), since I build Frog Fairies over a year ago and destroyed people with it. I took his deck list into consideration and altered some card choices that I found more beneficial. I’ll analyze all of the “odd” card choices:

2 Hyperion – 99% of these decks play 3 Hyperion. My reasoning behind 2 was quite simple: I have 5 targets to special summon Hyperion with its ability. I also don’t play Call of the Haunted. I’m unsure of whether I want to play 2 or 3, but 2 served me well on the weekend, and in testing so far.

1 Kristya – Again, most players play 2 of these. I main 1 only because I don’t have great graveyard manipulation with the lack of Call of the Haunted. I do side the extra one for the decks that like to special summon a lot.

1 Spirit Reaper – We are in an explosive format, so being able to stall is good, and Reaper is great for the job. The fact that it can discard a card is crazy.

1 Card Trooper – I really don’t like this card. Maybe it’s my bad luck, but I would always mill good cards. Also, I don’t play Call of the Haunted, so it isn’t necessary at 2. 1 is fine, and I might even cut that.

I think the rest of the main deck is self-explanatory. Now I will discuss the extra deck:

2 Gachi – A lot of people are playing 1 and I can understand it. I like 2 because it is extra stalling power.

1 Daigusto Phoenix – I feel like I should discuss this card. I borrowed my friend’s Phoenix for the tournament because I don’t own one. I only summoned it once the entire day, and I didn’t need to. I can’t tell whether or not I want to play it. I guess we will see what happens.

1 Utopia Ray – The main reason I played this is because I play a few cards that can take a Utopia from the opponent. It’s a dirty play.

Everything else should be self-explanatory. I’ll now go into detail about some of the strange side deck choices:

2 Banisher – I like this card in Agents a lot. I can side it against the mirror match to surprise them. I can side it against any deck that Macro hurts. The fact that it’s a fairy makes it ridiculous.

1 Forbidden Chalice – I sided this in as extra effect negation. It’s also a card no one would expect seeing. Surprise factor is useful.

2 Twister – Extra removal of face-up spells and traps. It destroys cards like Macro, Necrovalley, Call of the Haunted, Wind-Up Factory… Need I keep going?

3 Royal Decree – I usually always side 3 of them. I need them for trap-heavy decks and most alternate win condition decks.

Now that I’ve finished talking about the cards I did use, I will mention a few cards that I would like to use and try:

Gellenduo – It’s a wall that’s better than Reaper in terms of keeping alive, and it’s a fairy…

Night Assailant – It’s an extra Tour Guide target that can destroy a monster. People wouldn’t suspect it, so it’s a good choice.

Dark Mist – That extra deck monster that requires 3 level 2 monsters, and can increase its attack during damage step to kill a monster by battle. During testing, there has only been one situation where I wanted to use, but I needed it to get ahead. I’m not sure if I will use it or not.

Gaia Dragoon – I would play this because I can steal a rank 5 and 6. I actually took this card out on Saturday for the Phoenix

The final section of this post will describe my match-ups and how I feel about fighting against certain decks:

Chaos Dragons – In my testing, Agents completely stomp this deck. Kristya is too good, and Herald of Orange Light stops Ryko. Plus, it is a little more consistent than Chaos Dragons, since the Dragon deck heavily relies on what you mill.

Wind-Ups – In testing, I won 66% of my games with Agents. This deck has outs to Shock Master, and can rip apart their field, sometimes. Wind-Ups can be extremely powerful, but if not, the game normally belongs to Agents.

Dino-Rabbit (Macro) – I want to say this deck wins a little more against Rabbit, but its close enough to 50/50. The big monsters can get over Dollka, and it’s easy enough to bait out Laggia. Macro is the main issue, and games can be lost simply because of Laggia and Macro, unfortunately.

Mermails – I haven’t had enough testing against this deck, but I built it to have a good match-up against it. I’m honestly not that worried.

Geargia – This is another 50/50 match-up. If I can stop the Geargiarmor with a Herald, I’ll probably win, though.

Inzektors – I have a slightly favourable match-up against these insects. If I can protect the Kristya, or blow through their field with Hyperion, I have a strong chance of winning the game,

This is my analysis of Agents. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask. I feel fairly confident in Agents, and I’m now considering this deck a little more, for Regionals, than I was before.