Burning Abyss: The Darkest Horse of the Format

Hello everyone! As you probably know, Burning Abyss won a YCS in Europe last weekend. Although there were several accusations of cheating and whatnot, we cannot deny Burning Abyss still has potential. Unfortunately, I don’t like the build that the champion used. My opinion is that the build is missing a lot of key factors that I wouldn’t be comfortable without. If I were to build Burning Abyss and participate in an event with it, this is the rough draft of the build I would utilize:

3 Tour Guide

3 Scarm

3 Cir

3 Graph

2 Farfa

2 Rubic

1 Alich

1 Libic

2 Vanity's Fiend

1 BLS

2 Mask Change 2

2 MST

1 Dark Hole

1 Raigeki

1 Book of Moon

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Beginning of the End

1 Foolish Burial

1 Snatch Steal

2 Phoenix wing wind blast

1 fire lake

2 mind crush

3 emptiness

Extra deck:

3 Dante

2 Virgil

2 Downerd

1 Giga Brilliant

1 Nightmare Shark

1 Acid Golem

1 Zenmaines

1 Angineer

2 Dark Law

1 Koga

Side deck:

2 Enemy Controller

3 Maxx C

2 Monarch Stormforth

2 Majesty's Fiend

1 MST

2 Fire Lake

1 Fairy Wind

2 Threatening Roar

I believe Farfa is crucial for overcoming the Djinn lock, which Nekroz can consistently establish. Alich is necessary for negating Unicore if it becomes a problem. Otherwise, these two monsters are easy Allure of Darkness targets. The other intriguing monster choice is Vanity’s Fiend. This card is another form of the Djinn lock. Against Nekroz, the deck cannot play until it is dealt with. And of course, it’s annoying against the mirror match.

Mask Change 2 I feel is necessary and mandatory now. Dark Law is a meta call that is powerful against Nekroz, and just as powerful against most other current decks. I’ve also adopted to play Masked Hero Koga, and this is due to a few reasons. First of all, it’s just a nice out to huge threats, like Apoqliphort Towers. Secondly, I might be attacking a Nekroz player with a Dante… If they activate Valkyrus to negate the attack, I can change Mask Change to dodge it, summon Koga and attack again. I’ll also get to add something back to hand with Dante. In regards to the other spells, I feel only 2 MST are needed now. Nekroz don’t play many reactive spells and traps. I can work around other deck’s spells and traps (which is why I like Burning Abyss so much) without a need for MST, though sometimes it does simplify things. I feel the rest of the spell and traps are self-explanatory…

I don’t think I need to discuss extra deck choices either… In regards to the side deck, I sorted it out based on match-up. Against the mirror match, Maxx C, E-con, Stormforth and Majesty`s Fiend will all go in, based on whether or not I`m going first or second. Against Nekroz, Stormforth and Majesty’s Fiend definitely go in, and maybe Maxx C if I’m going second. Against Qliphorts, MST, Fire Lakes and Fairy Wind go in. Finally, Threatening Roars are for those matches where I go into time…

Of course, this build is a draft right now. To be honest, I want to try to fit 3 Upstart Goblins in the main deck... That would be the only change I would make.

Anyway, let me know what you readers think about this build, and thanks for reading!