Enter the Dragon : Episode I - Deck Types

Welcome to the first official ETD! In this episode, I'll explain a few dragon deck types, their win conditions, and a "staple" backbone build.

Starting off, there are a plethora of Dragon builds. Many created, some soon to be created. So, pick one that will better soot your style of gameplay.

Let's get things going simple with a standard Dragon Build. It's main focus is swarming the field with Dragons, and overpowering your opponent. It utilizes cards such as Luster Dragon, Cave Dragon, Blizzard Dragon, Vanguard of the Dragon, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Tyrant Dragon, and many more powerful beefy dragons to basically pick your opponent apart. Back row destruction and negation is highly recommended, for a single Mirror Force, or even a simple Sakuretsu Armor will cripple the decks attack power and leave you open for a direct assault.

A sample build might include:
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
X Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Tyrant Dragon, anything with a high capability to deal damage... and a lot of it.
X Totem Dragon to use as fodder for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, or to use his Treeborn effect to tribute for your big beaters, or even the occasional Synchro Summon with Delta Flyer, Debris Dragon, etc.
X Luster Dragon (powerful 1900 beater), Blizzard Dragon (1800 beater, lockdown one monster for a turn), Spear Dragon (1900 piercer), anything level 4 or lower that can run over little things while setting up for the bigger monsters
1-2 Red-Eyes Wyvern (1800 beater, get back your Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons)

1 Future Fusion (NECESSARY IN EVERY DRAGON DECK. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH.)
1-2 Dragon's Mirror (Use it to fuse into Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Five-Headed Dragon, King Dragun if you decide to run them)
X As much backrow hate as you find necessary
Optional 1-3 Trade-In (You get to draw new and dump your Dragons to the grave)
Optional 1-3 Cards of Consonance (If you decide to run Debris Dragon AND/OR The White Stone of Legend)
X Staples and cards you prefer

As for Traps, you can either run the Standard line up, or the Decree Build; it's up to you. HOWEVER, do NOT run cards like Burst Breath, Dragon's Rage, etc. They ware to situational and waste space for cards that can save you.

This deck is better used for fun play, as it really can't hold a candle to many of the decks that are played in the meta today.

The next build I will be explaining is probably the most well known: Hopeless Dragon. This is an OTK based and focused build, utilizing Dark Dragon type Monsters to overwhelm the opponent. It's main win condition is using Future Fusion to dump the grave full of Dragons for the Fusion Summon of Five-Headed Dragon, then use cards like The Dark Creator and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to revive them and destroy your opponent. Even then, should the OTK attempt fail, then you still have the 5000 point face eater on his way in 2 turns if you can survive it... or if your opponent can.

A sample backbone build might include:
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (Pretty self explanatory. He's a Dragon duelists best friend.)
3 Dark Horus (3000 Beatstick, Dark, it's perfect)
0-2 Dark Creator (Run him if you want, I personally don't like him, but testing with him won't hurt)
1 Dark Armed Dragon (This is up to you, like Dark Creator, can be a dead draw)
2 Dark Grepher (2 is necessary. You need the grave full as quickly as possible)
1 Gorz (You WILL have times that dead hands will prevent you from doing anything. Gorz is there for those times)
1-2 Phantom of Chaos (Just another way of setting up)
1 Morphing Jar (Completely necessary. I wouldn't run this deck without it)
2 Red-Eyes Wyvern (Needed)
XWhatever else you want. Prime Material is recommended, and is a nice addition to any Dragon Deck.

1 Future Fusion (You NEED this card for ANY Dragon deck based around swarming. It's Foolish Burial x 5. Your win condition is this card.)
0-3 Trade-In (Not really needed. Use it if you want)
1 Allure of Darkness (Pretty much staple in Dark Decks)
2 Gold Sarcophagus (NEEDED to get Future Fusion ASAP. Plus search out anything else you need)
1 Card Destruction (Bump comment on Morphing Jar)
0-1 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation (Not really needed, but can aid in the OTK)
+ Staples and that's really all you need. Giant Trunade, Mystical Space Typhoon, even Cold Wave could severely help this deck, so include those as well.

Standard Trap line up or Decree build is really all this one needs.

There are MANY more Dragon decks, but I really can't get them all in here, or I'll be here all day. Any other decks could be found on Wikia, Google, Youtube, or even your own head! If you have a deck type that you would like explained, or one that you discovered, post it here so you can get feedback from me or others!

This concludes Enter the Dragon Episode I. Thanks for reading!