Yu-Gi-Oh! Gravekeeper’s Deck Guide

Yu-Gi-Oh! Gravekeeper’s Deck Guide by Cam9024

Hey guys, as promised here is my Gravekeeper’s deck guide. I decided to do a deck guide on my favourite deck as I have had the deck for a year and have seen a fair number of people posting about GK and wanted to help them out, so I’m basically going to run through cards that either I or other people think should be run in Gravekeeper’s and I will give you my thoughts and how many should be run. Firstly though I would like to run through how I think the deck should be run. Decks are mostly a mixture of 2 of the following: aggro, control or stun, with one being the primary focus and one as its secondary. An example of this would be shadows as they are primary aggro (as they plus off of you going into the extra and they can OTK quickly and like putting big monsters on board) and are secondary control (due to their effects, Winda etc…) Anyway back to Gravekeeper’s, I believe that the way this deck should be run is primary control and secondary stun. This is because of the floodgates and other traps and effects that they have access to as well as them not having access to large beaters. So lets get into it:

Monsters:

GK Spy – This card is a key card to the deck as it gives you access to most of the monsters in the deck. It is slow but you want this card 1st turn so that you can get the deck up and running. She is also good for the descendant recruiter combo as you can flip her, grab the one you are missing,normal the other and then start to pop cards whilst also searching. Either way she is a big bootied wonderful card that should be run at max and set ASAP. RUN 3

GK Recruiter – This card can be set as a bluff instead of spy to get your opponent to waste resources to get around it. It searches commandant which gets you Necrovalley and other great monsters that you need for niche situations, for example assailant to get over problem monsters. It is my second favourite GK and should absolutely be run at max. RUN 3

GK Commandant – This card is so good. It searches Necrovalley for gods sake. It’s also a 2100 beatstick with Necrovalley up and a level 4 so it helps out if you need to go into your xyz plays. I like it at 3 because I want Necrovalley ASAP and so running 3 is like running 6 Necrovalley. Other people run it at 2 because they don’t want it to be dead and you can recycle it with GK Stele and search it with recruiter. RUN 2-3 (3 is better in my opinion)

GK Descendant – This card is great at spot removal and is a 2000 beatstick and triggers recruiter so that you don’t go minus whilst your opponent does. This is where the pros end. It has a very niche function as destruction is no longer as good as it was. I mainly use it to bait traps or clear floodgates and in the very rare occasion that they have a problem monster that won’t let them suddenly plus if I pop it. RUN 1

GK Assailant – This card is absolutely nuts in this meta and let me explain why. The big 5 are the current meta and their boss monsters tend to be difficult to get over if my trap lie up doesn’t work. Dante, Winda, most nekroz monsters that get left on board, all Qlis (as long as they aren’t tribute summoned as then her effect wont work) and a lot of xyz have 1 high stat and 1 low stat so she can just switch them and beat over them with almost no consequences as Necrovalley locks the grave. She is niche however and so should be run at 1 in my opinion. RUN 1-2

GK Heretic – Despite this card not getting the 500 boost I think that it is a great card that gets overlooked a lot of the time by players as 1800 isn’t the hardest to get over. However what he offers is an amazing effect that is extremely good in simple game states which this deck is very good and maintaining due to the control aspect. He lets you poke away at their life and there is nothing they can do about it. He is also not affected by Malefic Cyber End Dragon and so can clear the way so that MCED can deal 4000 straight to their face. RUN 1

GK Shaman – This card has a wonderful effect for this meta as hit can kill dolls and BA as well as protecting Necrovalley. She can be summed off of Spy to lock your opponent out of the grave, even more, very early in the game. However she requires a tribute if you draw her which puts you further behind and applies no pressure on your opponent. She simply protects one of your important cards but Necrovalley is not your win condition, it merely aids it. your win condition is your control. This makes her very slow and a waste of a space (this is my opinion feel free to disagree) and so I run 0. RUN 0-1

Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo – In this meta this card can do wonders. You can set this card as a bluff for spy so that your opponent swarms the field with special summoned monsters and then just sit back and watch them attack into it as they lose all of their monsters and advantage. If you summon this against; Ritual beasts, Nekroz or BA and can protect it with your numerous traps (believe me that is easy) then you basically win. Great card for either the main or the side and I consider it to be the cheap alternative to Lose 1 turn. RUN 2

Thunder King Rai-Oh! – One of the best stand alone monsters in todays meta game. He puts in work against Nekroz and any synchro or xyz deck (BA and Tellars) I would love to run more but sadly it’s at 1. RUN 1

Malefic Cyber End Dragon – This behemoth of a monster can get over Towers and most other problem monsters as well as constantly applying pressure every turn that he is still alive. His restriction can hurt a little bit but if you use Descendant and heretic to clear the board then you can do some serious damage to your opponent. It also surprises most people when you drop this big guy, I never leave the house without this guy in my deck. RUN 2

Malefic Stardust Dragon – Ergh I really dislike this card. Its effect is good as it protects necrovally but it only has 2500 ATK and has the same restriction as MCED so you lock yourself into having a weak monster as the only monster that can attack as well as the fact that 2500 is very easy to get over. RUN 0-1

Dynatherium – Lets you go into your rank 4s a lot easier however not that many of them appley pressure or control the board an so don’t aid your game plan. I have always viewed the generic rank 4s as problem solvers rather than pressure appliers. You can also use him to go into Masked HERO Divine wind but i will go into that more in my Mask change II Paragraph. My opinion run 0 but if you are running the HERO build then run 2. RUN 0-2

Blackwing tuners – Now this is an idea I have tried out myself but it was asked of me to discuss this by one of you guys and so here I go. The tuners give you access to some very powerful synchros like Stardust or Beelze. I haven’t tested this enough, only 1 or 2 duels but on paper this seems viable and potentially a great new direction to take the deck. If you guys have tested them more than I have and would like to contribute then please comment bellow.

Spells:

Necrovalley – This is the main card of the deck and without this the deck would be terrible and not worth playing competitively. That being said this is not your win condition. If this card is not on the field then the rest of your back row should be able to control the board until you can either get another Necrovalley or win the game. This card shuts down the recursion factor of Nekroz, hurts BA and hinders Shaddolls and Tellars by preventing Altair and stopping Dolls from getting their fusions back. A must in the deck. RUN 3

GK Stele – The main problem with this deck is the speed and the recursion. The latter of which is helped tremendously by this card. It is a good top deck mid-late game but awful early game. It gets you recycle Commandant so that you can search Necrovalley again if it gets destroyed and so helps in the grind game. RUN 2

Royal Tribute – Even though this is a one of it can win you games if you go first. It ruins Nekroz and Tellars and can force Dolls to use effects that they weren’t planning on using which can force them to use resources early. That can cause them to not be able to recover and can lose them the game. RUN 1

Hidden Temples of Necrovalley – This is basically an archetype specific Vanity’s Emptiness that is at 3, so it sounds good. However this card is very fragile as it requires both a GK monster and Necrovalley which means that it can also be a dead card or gotten around easily. I have tested this card but personally I wasn’t worth the space or the effort to keep it up. RUN 0

Pot of Duality – Gravekeeper’s is a slow deck that doesn’t special summon much and so only benefits from this card as its restrictions do not slow you down any more than you already are. This adds more consistency as well as letting you pick which card you actually want and so can give you the best card for a situation. RUN 2-3

Mask Change II – A lot of people that i talk to about this deck always tell me to run this card as it gives you access to Dark Law who as we all know is an amazing card especially when used in tandem with recruiter as you get a search. My only issue with it is that Dark Law is easy to get over (Trish, Valk, Construct, Shek, Virgil etc…) and you have to discard and send a monster to get him out, so you go -2 (-1 if you use recruiter) and he only lasts a turn. The biggest problem with the deck is if you go too negative it can be hard to recover and this card makes you neg. Feel free to disagree but that is what makes me stay clear of this card. RUN 0-2

Wonder Wand – It adds consistency whilst making you go +0 or +1 with recruiter but you lose your field presence which is part of your control which in my opinion is not worth it. RUN 0

Traps:

Fiendish Chain – This card is one of the best back row that you run. It offers effect negation and prevents your opponents monster from attacking you. It gives you so much control over your opponents monsters and can force them to “waste” an MST (Rather than on Necrovalley or your other floodgates) or forces them to waste a turn or make a suboptimal play. Max this card out no less than 3 should be played. RUN 3

Mirror Force – Battle traps are so under rated this format and I feel that they still offer a surprise factor in the deck that can cause your opponent to lose a lot of resources and can single handedly cause you to gain control of the duel and make it a very simple game state which is where this deck thrives. RUN 2-3

Dimensional Prison – This is a nice alternative to Mirror force as monsters like Winda cannot be destroyed and it offers you an out to them. RUN 1-2

Imperial Tombs of Necrovalley – Our very own negate anything counter trap. It would appear to be very strong and indeed it is, if you meet its conditions of both Necrovalley and a GK monster. This makes it a situational card which in todays format I do not think is worth the risk as dead cards can lose you the game. If you want to run this then run Dark Bribe instead. I for one run neither as Dark Bribe is better but it gives your opponent a draw which isn’t worth it. If you really want to then RUN 0-2

Lose 1 Turn – This card is disgustingly good in this deck. Most special summoned monsters that cause problems tend to have low DEF but good effects and this card neuters then for the turn, which is all you should need as beating over it should not be an issue. You also rarely use the extra deck and so this card never hurts you. The amount of control the card gives you is almost unparalleled. RUN 2-3

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure – I do not recommend running these in the main deck as they hinder you recruiter plays, however I firmly believe that they should be sided as they cripple BA and Shaddolls and can definitely hinder a lot of other decks. SIDE 1 of each

Skill Drain – If you run MCED then this card is a must. It also evens the playing field and really simplifies the game. Your back row can deal with their monsters whilst your monsters or rather beatsticks decimate the opponents life points. RUN 1 only if you main MCED

Storming Mirror Force – Whilst browsing through the latest set looking for more tech cards this was the only one that caught my eye. You can already see the love that I have for mirror force and so you can correctly presume that I love this card. The only issue is that I don’t think its that great right now and will get better with time. This is because it doesn’t hurt the current decks the same way mirror force does as it gives them their resources back rather than locking them away in the grave. Yes it can really hurt the extra deck monsters but then so does Mirror Force and so I always find myself preferring the old version of this card, however it’s one to keep an eye on. FOR NOW RUN 0-1

Anti Spell Fragrance – Another card that I think will get better with time. Activate Necrovalley and set this as it will prevent pendulum decks from setting up and will also prevent MST from hitting Necrovalley as this is the new target. You also run a small spell line up and so it doesn’t hurt you. IN FUTURE RUN 2-3

So that was my take on this great and fun deck. If you guys have any ideas you would like to discuss then please feel free to comment. If you liked it and want me to do another on a different deck then please let me know. I cannot make any promises as I am about to start med school and so will have a lot of work but I will do my best. Thanks for reading.