Chapter 153. Trap-Beat Zoodiac Develops! The Terrifying Advantage of a Small Engine!
This Ratpier mill effect.
Is basically a precise search for any in-archetype Zoodiac card.
After all, combined with their traits, Zoodiacs' use of Graveyard resources
is something they can also achieve.
People like Seto Kaiba, Kite Tenjo, Joey Wheeler, and Soulburner—who originally thought the Zoodiac engine was just average—have to reassess.
It seems.
This Zoodiac is stronger than they imagined.
And this
is only the very beginning for Zoodiac.
Zoodiac Player: "Since all Zoodiacs are Beast-Warriors, we can even search with the Spell Card 'Fire Formation – Tenki'!"
Zoodiac Player: "At the same time, the in-archetype Continuous Spell 'Zoodiac Barrage' that released later also lets you Special Summon from the Deck and access the engine!"
Zoodiac Player: "In terms of extending, your bricking rate drops dramatically!"
"Not only that, the Speedroid engine's own 'Speedroid Terrortop' also became the go-to card choice in those builds!"
"Run three Terrortop, plus two to three 'Speedroid Taketomborg'!"
"And with that, a single card can route into a Rank 3 to make 'M-X-Saber Invoker'!"
"This 'Invoker' effect is once per turn!"
"You can detach 1 material from this card to Special Summon 1 Level 4 EARTH Warrior or Beast-Warrior from your Deck in Defense Position, and it's destroyed during the End Phase."
"In other words, Terrortop + Taketomborg equals Invoker equals Ratpier."
"And Tenki equals Ratpier."
"Therefore the Ratpier engine, as a starter, effectively equals having a live opener in hand."
"That massively guarantees consistency."
"Forty-card Deck, twelve starters."
"With a five-card opening hand, you have roughly a one-in-four chance to see a Ratpier."
"Just think about how terrifying this Ratpier engine is."
"And Zoodiac Barrage even became a breakout meme."
"But at the time, many in the meta still weren't that optimistic about Zoodiac."
"Why?"
"Naturally because the in-archetype on-board interruption was just the Quick Effect pop from 'Zoodiac Drident'."
"Since it's not a three-negate board—just a targeted destruction."
"Plus the archetype's low ATK issue."
"At the time, Zoodiac's floor was consistent, but the ceiling was too low."
Indeed.
As the Zoodiac player in the short video laid out those skeptical takes,
Duelists across the various Duel Worlds deeply related.
Because that's exactly how they were seeing Zoodiac right now.
Even though Ratpier's one-for-many line gave them a small surprise.
The problem was.
This deck's win-condition lines didn't look plentiful.
Your first-turn end board boss is Drident.
And that doesn't look strong, either.
Even if you're consistent enough to be a one-card starter.
It still feels like something's missing.
5D's World.
Yusei Fudo had already recovered from the collapse of the Scrap-2 board state.
When he finished listening, his first reaction was a pause.
Then he showed a shocked expression.
Yusei thinks differently from other Duelists.
His dueling philosophy is: every single card has its own value.
And for Zoodiac,
he saw a deeper layer of value.
That is.
Ratpier plus Barrage plus Terrortop plus Tenki
already equals a small engine.
Even a generic small engine.
"The true power of Zoodiac."
"Is about to begin."
Yusei's words left Jack Atlas and Crow Hogan a bit at a loss.
What do you mean?
Zoodiac can get even stronger?
Zoodiac Player: "If you Duelists also think Zoodiac is only a stable floor and a weak ceiling…"
Zoodiac Player: "And that one Drident soft interruption isn't enough…"
Zoodiac Player: "Then my next breakdown should quickly show you how terrifying Zoodiac really is."
"First, you've learned Ratpier's high start rate and its one-for-many trait."
"Next you need to understand what the Zoodiac Deck actually does."
"At the time, players who rated Zoodiac as average were basically applying combo-vomit logic to understand it."
"A simple example."
"When Burning Abyss pulls a full-house board, is that end board strong?"
"Definitely strong, no question, right?"
"If you don't have specific answers, you simply can't break it."
"Then let me ask you: Eldlich with one monster and five backrow."
"Is that end board strong?"
"Ask yourselves honestly: if you don't have Harpie's Feather Duster or other backrow hate,"
"and you're staring at five sets, do you clench up?"
"Likewise, whether an end board is strong isn't judged only by the monsters you end on."
"You also have to consider the overall field state."
"In the era before 'Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring' existed, Ratpier's lines were hard to stop."
"So if Zoodiac guarantees its start, the next step is to push its ceiling."
"How do you push ceiling? No surprise: hand traps, Trap Cards, and generic staples."
"So then, the Zoodiac build basically becomes obvious, doesn't it?"
After the explanation, the short video quickly showed several Zoodiac builds from that meta.
And other decks from that period before Zoodiac released.
Plus how the meta shifted once Zoodiac arrived.
The first thing all the Duelists looked at
was naturally the decklists.
After reading,
they collectively fell silent.
The core engine.
3 Ratpier + 3 Barrage + 3 Terrortop + 1 Taketomborg + 3 Tenki—no big surprises.
What differed was the volume of generic staples.
Kaijus, Maxx "C", other generic hand traps—present.
That's not the focus.
The focus is the Trap count.
From an initial 5–7 Traps in lists,
later swelling to 7–11.
The count of heavy Traps was exploding.
And the number of targeted generic answers also went up.
Trap-beat.
Absolutely trap-beat.
So Zoodiac…
turns out to be a degenerate deck.
DM World.
"It's all traps and spell/trap removal!"
"Now I get it!"
"Leaning on that tiny engine size!"
"They can slot in most of the traps and S/T removal!"
"And all sorts of interrupting hand traps!"
"That's Zoodiac's real crutch!"
Yugi Muto isn't slow on the uptake—after seeing this, he immediately had an epiphany.
Zoodiac.
At first glance, it's Drident as the lone on-board pop.
In reality.
The threat lies in the unknown facedowns in the backrow.
And the unknown hand traps gripped in hand.
GX World.
Students and teachers at Duel Academy couldn't hold it in after watching.
"Whoa, a degenerate deck? This? Solemn Judgment, Bottomless Trap Hole, Ring of Destruction—everything's in here!"
"The Ratpier engine ensures the low end; the trap core pushes the high end; the support packages and others ensure flexibility!"
"Sick! Triple 'Compulsory Evacuation Device', triple 'Solemn Strike'! Plus backrow removal to clear sets! I said we should wait and see!"
"And other packages too—it seems they also slotted 'Zoodiac Whiptail' and 'Zoodiac Thoroughblade' at higher counts!"
Hearing the surrounding chatter, Jaden Yuki and Aster Phoenix,
who had originally thought Zoodiac was a bit overhyped,
now had to re-understand it after seeing these lists.
Zoodiac Player: "If you've reviewed the lists, you should have a baseline grasp of the Zoodiac engine."
Zoodiac Player: "Next is the primary engine—the Ratpier line."
Zoodiac Player: "Everyone knows the Ratpier line is a one-card start."
"So, as long as we have 1 Ratpier in hand,"
"we can perform the muscle-memory line."
"Normal Summon 'Zoodiac Ratpier', use its effect to send any required in-archetype card from Deck to the Graveyard."
"If it's summoned by Barrage, the Ratpier it summons can't activate its effect—Ratpier can only mill when it's Normal Summoned."
"Then overlay Ratpier to make 'Zoodiac Boarbow'."
"Boarbow uses the effect it gained from Ratpier to send Ratpier, and pulls out a second Ratpier."
"Rank-up the Boarbow into 'Zoodiac Tigermortar'; Tigermortar activates, detaches Boarbow, and attaches the Ratpier from the Graveyard as material."
"With Ratpier attached, Tigermortar activates again, detaches Ratpier, and Special Summons a third Ratpier from the Deck."
"Rank-up Tigermortar into 'Zoodiac Broadbull'."
"Broadbull activates to detach Tigermortar and searches either 'Zoodiac Whiptail' or 'Zoodiac Thoroughblade' from the Deck."
"Rank-up Broadbull into 'Zoodiac Drident'—and that's your Drident end."
"Then the other two Ratpier on your field can stack into a Rank 4 as usual."
"For example, you can make 'Daigusto Emeral'."
"Shuffle back Broadbull and the two Ratpier to draw 1."
"You can also stack into 'Number 39: Utopia', overlay 'Number S39: Utopia the Lightning' on top, and push for game."
"Or make 'Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King' to set a 'Fire Formation' and guarantee next turn's start."
"That is the terror of Ratpier's one-card lines."
"We used 1 card, drew 1, and searched 1."
"The resource loop is extremely strong."
"That is the strength of the Ratpier engine."
"On that basis, now let's look at the pie-chart shift."
Before anyone could recover from the shock of the Ratpier engine,
the pie-chart comparison popped up.
Before Zoodiac, the field was ABC, Metalfoes Kozmo, Toadally Awesome variants, Darklord, and so on.
You could call it a flourishing of many decks.
But after Zoodiac appeared,
ABC, which originally occupied one-third of the pie, got knocked down to just one-fifth.
Putting up a ton of tops right from the start.
Which already means the power isn't low.
Now Duelists across all worlds were getting restless.
Just from hearing the one-card Ratpier lines,
they realized how serious this was.
Hearing is one thing; executing in a Duel is another.
When you hear "Ratpier," maybe you just think "one-for-many."
But in an actual Duel,
the resources it yields
are terrifying.
One Ratpier effectively gifts you a search, Emeral gives you a draw.
In hand, by rough count, you still have six cards.
Your resources actually snowball.
Absurd.
Is this the terror of a small engine?
Zoodiac Player: "Of course, to raise consistency,"
Zoodiac Player: "we can even cut some useless bricks."
Zoodiac Player: "Max out both 'Zoodiac Whiptail' and 'Zoodiac Thoroughblade'."
"In that case, it's basically nineteen cards that all route into Drident."
"Twenty-card engine—nineteen of them can one-card into Drident."
"For the remaining twenty cards, you just max out interruptions and traps."
"Then you'll have two duel states."
"First: you bricked and can't make Drident—then your hand is all interruptions."
"Just keep interrupting and wait for a window to start with a single card."
"Second: your hand is all starters—then, as per usual, Zoodiac extends to the biggest board."
"That's Zoodiac."
"So, back to my opening point."
"Is a single Drident still not enough as an end board?"
"I think at this point the answer can be ruled out."
"Unknown set cards in the backrow, unknown hand traps in hand."
"All of that unquestionably amplifies Zoodiac's end board."
"Next, 'Zoodiac Whiptail' held in hand."
"This card proactively equips to Drident and grants the battle banish."
"If you want to out Drident, you'd better think twice."
"This is far stronger than the single-card Drident people theorized."
"Now, everyone should have a deep understanding of Zoodiac."
Indeed.
They had realized—and recognized—the terror of Zoodiac.
Every Duelist across the worlds furrowed their brows, deep in thought.
If before
they naively thought Zoodiac lacked finishing lines,
and that the end board was just a single targeted pop from Drident,
then they were gravely mistaken.
Yes.
Zoodiac is strong because the unknown hand traps and backrow are strong.
And Whiptail's banish.
Sometimes it's absolutely clutch.
If you attack, getting banished hurts.
If you don't attack, next turn they pop your card anyway.
You say you cleared the Zoodiac board.
With Broadbull's search, and if you opened Daigusto Emeral first,
the Deck could still have two Ratpier left—next turn brings another explosive sequence.
At that thought,
the group chat exploded.
Yugi Muto: "So the deck's strength is in its ultra-high compatibility!"
Jaden Yuki: "And, and, the rich resources! After one wave, they refill immediately!"
Yuma Tsukumo: "Tch, what can I say about this Xyz deck? It even uses my Utopia and The Lightning—honestly, if The Lightning is online, the power isn't low!"
Yusaku Fujiki: "Key point is, he can do the same line again next turn. You might not."
That round of discussion in the chat further deepened their understanding of Zoodiac.
This isn't just Xyz Zoodiac.
It's outright degenerate Zoodiac.
Zoodiac Player: "Under such conditions—"
Zoodiac Player: "Zoodiac immediately swept the OCG."
Zoodiac Player: "The period I remember most is probably around October 2016."
"In the first few weeks, Zoodiac's top-cut share skyrocketed."
"Eventually, it swallowed half the pie to a terrifying fifty-five percent."
"That top-cut share is scary."
"It means when you go to a tournament, one out of two players is on Zoodiac."
"Possibly, you are Zoodiac."
"And the first hit to Zoodiac came right away."
"The January 2017 list."
"Terrortop and Tenki were Limited."
"Most Duelists could predict those limits—cutting Zoodiac's starters."
"But I have to stress those limits didn't change the Zoodiac rampant state, nor the surge of Zoodiac engines splashed in other decks."
"On the contrary, after those limits,"
"Zoodiac's share reached a terrifying sixty-two percent."
"That top-cut share—sixty percent of the pie."
"Of course, many players then noticed something interesting."
"Ratpier for the Zoodiac main deck didn't raise its own ceiling that much."
"But as a splash engine, it was different."
"Simply put, splashing the Zoodiac engine could turn a failing deck into a passing one."
"For Zoodiac itself, it only turned a passing deck into a slightly better passing deck."
"And thus, the ensuing landscape"
"became a craze of splashing the Zoodiac engine."
Splash engine? Craze?
Hearing those words,
Duelists in every world stiffened.
Then wore looks of shock.
Holy—.
You can do that?
Make the Zoodiac Ratpier engine a splashable core for other decks?
It looks like you really can.
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