A Jolly Good Fellow

Ever since Chaos Dragons dominated the TCG everyone saw Future Fusion entering the list and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon eventually going to one. This has indirectly caused the downfall of another deck. No shit, that deck is Hieratics. While people exaggerate on with Hieratics being dead due to REDMD going to one, some parts remain true the rest bull. 3-Card-OTKs were no longer possible unless you hold a Tefnuit or Eset with double Su while running triple Atumus in your Extra Deck. Applying that technique means your end result consist of triple Gaia Dragoon, a zero stats REDMD, and a random dragon (usually Wattaildragon) making a possible final push of 10300 damage (2600+2600+2600+2500). So, what’s the problem here? Problem to that is consistency and variation in terms of tactics. By doing so you are effectively leaving yourself vulnerable to Gorz or Tragoedia due to the absence of Photon Streak Bouncer and Force Focus in your attempt for victory. 2600 and 2500 aren’t exactly big enough at times.

One of the most adopted methods was switching to defensive builds like Hanzo Hieratics or dropping the deck straight up (talking about Asia Advanced format in the past before promos were legalized.) Hanzo Hieratic gives you that added consistency and variation by sacrificing one-two-punch combinations. Super-Transformation plays were effective enough either way as offensive and defensive tactics. The deck also opens up to the addition of more Traps which standard Hieratics never had due to tight slot. I enjoyed playing Hanzo Hieratic but never liked it compared to pure OTK builds. Eventually I went for a rabid tech hunt looking for an innovation that would bring Hieratics to the next level. Before introducing the tech I have been playing with I would like to clarify that I am not claiming to be the first person ever to have implemented it in Hieratics but I am certainly one of the first few to have experimented with it. Here’s the card!

                       (http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Exodius_the_Ultimate_Forbidden_Lord)

Exodius is a Level 10, DARK, and a free summon. It isn’t hard to see why Exodius is the prime candidate to replace Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon in Hieratics and with that kind of stats it isn’t that far off to assume what Exodius does best in Hieratics. Yes, having the ability to consistently aid Hieratics in their OTK combos by bringing out the dreaded Gustav Max is why this card is as important as Tragoedia in this deck. Exodius gives Hieratics back their best in terms of 3-Card-OTK strategy. While Tragoedia has been giving Hieratics access to Nasty Gustav as well I find it best to rely on Tragoedia as a means of defense instead of dropping it then go YOLO with your hand cards attempting a knock out (unless you are sure that you absolutely have game of course.) In a nutshell, running Exodius translate to you getting to keep Tragoedia for other purposes while constantly have what It takes to drop Nasty Gustav on the field. Though I would comment on how well both cards work together as a means to pressure your opponents (depending on the situation you are in.) However, I do hate this card very much. While it deserves credits for bringing back Hieratics to their best form it will contribute to turning them into a no-brainer-deck at the same time. I’m not saying it’s bad for a deck to have a standard go-to-combo but effectively abandoning other winning conditions the deck has is just plain stupid. So, yeah, shit gets turn into auto-pilot. 

What I do love about this card is the ability to recycle back your monsters for free. Reloading your combo pieces back helps prevent you from encountering situations whereby you want to make a play but lack certain cards (applies to monsters only.) Other than that it helps you recycle back important hand traps. Exodius helps put your Extra Deck back intact as well. I am talking about moments when Atumus or M7 got busted by Solemn Warning and shit like that. Or those times when you failed to OTK and ate Dark Hole the next turn. Usually Hieratics go bye-bye as soon as they empty out their Extra Deck of reliable boss monsters so having Exodius’ Pot of Avarice ability really does help prevent some of those moments from happening. But beware that doing so also means you lose Graveyard advantage and I would advise readers to keep an eye on it regarding that matter. You don’t want to draw into a BLS during top-deck moments and have no targets in your Graveyard. Apart from everything that has been said I don’t think there’s more to add to. Do comments if you have questions or more to add in. That’s all for today folks. Thank you for reading!