Deck Profile: Mezzo

In the build-up for our up-coming set, I've been tinkering with a few old decks and a couple of old faces for a strong Deck that would be able to compete with what will arrive in Deep-Sea Assault. Eventually, I settled on probably the most notorious Deck-Type in this fair CCG - Mezzos. The quintessential Synchro Summon Archetype, once feared for it's alarming consistency and its ability to put a host of powerhouse Synchro Monsters on the field in the blink of an eye. Since the Deck has suffered slightly in being hit by the ban-list, these Fairies fell out of favour, but with a bit of rejuvenation in the Decklist, could compete at the highest level once again.

3|Nasb|Mezzo Rogue

2|Nasb|Mezzo Chiptune

1|Nasb|Mezzo Galen

2|Flfs|Ghost Lanturn

2|Anv1|Goetia Conjuror

1|Rope|Vivian, Angel of the White Passage

2|Enil|Savior Soldier

2|Clpc|Nox Exploiter

1|Dirb|Eccentric Electron

3|Nwor|Swift Storm

3|Ww3|Vowing the Will

2|Dirb|Scrap Destruction

2|Flfs|Refueling

2|Dodm|Lifeforce Shield

2|Acrd|Depraved Extortion

1|Acrd|Quick-Chance

1|Anv1|Mitosis

1|Enil|Enchanting Circle

1|Dodm|Support Recharge

2|Anv1|Hostile Negotiation

2|Acrd|Twister of Rejection

1|Clpc|Gift from Diabolus

1|Enil|Twin Double Crossers

1|Acrd|Summoner Synchron

1|Dirb|Fiend Solider

1|Anv1|Shameful Artist

1|Flfs|Rumbler Tumbler

1|Dirb|Dark Swordlord

2|Nasb|Mezzo Beat

1|Dirb|Starshot Cannon

1|Enil|Fiend Magician

1|Ww3|Interdimensional Vortexlord

1|Res1|Rainbow Tail

1|Ww3|Ghora End Dragon

1|Flfs|Volcana the Dark Flame

1|Nwor|Meteor Force Dragon

1|Anv1|Monster of the Maelstrom

What I imagine is the first thing you'll notice is the small number of Traps run in this Deck, as I'm sure people are used to the line-up reaching double figures, especially in my case. However, space has been made by cutting out the more situational Traps, allowing me more space for tech choices, consistency cards and of course, a few hand Traps. That's not to say however that these Traps are an afterthought, Hostile Negotiation is my S/T negator of choice, Diabolus is a semi-Staple monster remover, Twister is a lovely and chainable Monster bouncer and Xyz/Synchro killer, while Twin Double Crossers is a personal tech I am experimenting with, which I will cover in more detail later.

Now, I suppose I ought to talk about the focus of the Deck. Quite simply, its goal is to summon huge Synchro monsters at breakneck speeds and pound your opponent into submission. With the rise and popularity of Xyz Monsters, this kind of Deck is declining, but you'd be a fool to discount the threat Mezzo Decks possess. Using the simple 6 card Mezzo engine, you have the ability to churn out the likes of Monster of the Maelstrom at no loss of card advantage. Yup. A simple Galen discard for Chiptune, Special Summon your Chiptune, pay 1000 to grab Rogue, Normal Summon Rogue and revive Galen. Level 9 Synchro hits the field and in the grand scheme, it cost you nothing. Failing that, any combination of just 2 Mezzo's can net you a Synchro, and if you can't reach Level 9, you can usually hit 6 and drop Mezzo Beat - the Archetype's boss monster. This Level 6 Generic Synchro monster swings for 2400 and has a plethora of effects that are triggered by banishing a card from your Grave, with perhaps the sweetest being the ability to banish cards from your opponents backrow by removing a Mezzo in your Grave.

Due to the listing of cards in the Mezzo engine, it leaves a lot of room in the monster department, which I have capitalized on by adding the Goetia engine. As covered by Leo before, Goetia Conjuror can Tribute a card, including itself, to Special Summon a Fiend from your Deck (provided it is the same Level as the Tributed Monster). This means Goetia can Tribute itself to Special Summon Ghost Lanturn. Now, Lanturn brings two important things to the table. The first is clear right off the bat, it's a Tuner that can Special Summon itself, which is also nice. However, its main use is its ability to bring Light Monsters, like your Mezzo's back to your hand, ready to refuel your combo's. This is the same reason Vivian is in the Deck, though she does have a very nice Summon block effect that can come in handy.

This is probably the most hand Trap heavy deck I've built in a long time, and this has been forced from necessity - as the TCG has evolved, so have we and we have a similar use and need for hand Traps against problem cards - Savior Soldier serves as an OTK blocker and beater, Electron stops opponents effects from getting out of hand and Nox Exploiter assists greatly in breaking up attacks and combos. As the Deck focuses on assembling combo pieces, it is important that they can be utilized safely, and the speed in which these Traps can protect you are of great significance.

As usual, there are various Staple to Semi-Staple cards which are run due to how effective they are, Scrap Destruction is fast chainable removal, Swift Storm deals with backrow quicker but less permanently to allow pushes to go through, and Extortion assists in taking down pesky self-protecting monsters. But in this Spell line-up are more than a few underused cards. Going down the list, we first have 3 copies of Vowing the Will. This is simple, the Deck lives and dies on how quickly it reaches Galen or Chiptune, and this will ensure that Chiptune reaches your hand (or Rogue, or if you need a hand Trap, Exploiter or Electron). This card aids the consistency that was lost when Galen was Limited, Chiptune was Semi'd and Ampule was banned. Next is Refueling and by association, Support Recharge - how effective is your Galen if its targets are in the Grave? These cards put Synchros and Mezzo's back into your Deck ready for another offensive push. We have Lifeforce Shield, which is a highly effective chainable protection card that replaces itself on use, and ensures that your Synchro's can carry on about their business, or make sure your opponent can't disrupt you midway through a play. Quick-Chance grants immediate access to a Level 1 Monster, which can be Electron or Lanturn for Synchro purposes, or Goetia to go into Lanturn. A useful tech card to have. There's also Mitosis, which bounces a monster to your hand to make Level 1 Tokens - this is simply for diversifying the Synchro monsters you can play but you can also combine this with cards like Twin Double Crossers. Enchanting Circle grants you the ability to take control of an opponents Monster, again this is handy for hitting different kinds of Synchro monsters. My teched Trap of choice, Twin Double Crossers is made live easily as the Deck can leave monsters about very often, which you can trade with your opponent. Even better, you could swap over a Nucleus Token and completely disrupt your opponent as they try to counter-attack.

Finally, the Extra Deck is built for variety. The deck has a lot more options than the basic engine would suggest and can adapt to so much through its Extra Deck options. The only card in multiples is Beat, as getting 2 on the field will wrap up a game for you very quickly due to its wide range of effects, not to mention the ease of which it can be Summoned.

Thanks for reading, and remember that with Mezzo's and Antennae's about, Synchro Decks are as strong as ever and more than ready to beat back any Xyz Monsters in their way.

LeoMence vs Ash (Single Duel)

This is a historic occasion for LCCG - our very first Duel Coverage Article! Our Duelists today were myself, piloting Plant Synchro, and LeoMence, who was using an Antennae Deck.

Leo wins the die roll and opts to start. He sets one card to each row and passes play over.

Ash sets one monster and two cards to his backrow and ends his turn.

Leo draws to 5 cards in-hand and activates Spell Search, discarding 1 card to add a Level 4 or lower Spellcaster to his hand, giving him his Antennae Inventor. He summons Inventor and activates its effect, adding a Machine Antennae to his hand - Antennae Preservationalist. He sets a card to his backrow and attacks Ash's face-down monster. Ash responds with Soul Spark Attack, attempting to destroy his monster and Leo's Inventor to get a draw, but Leo chains his Hostile Negotiation! Soul Spark fizzles without doing anything and Leo's Inventor smashes the set Nightglown Blossom.

Leo then flips up his face-down Keeper of the Arsenal and Overlays his monsters to Xyz Summon his RT-67 Gadgetron. This ends his turn.

Ash draws to 4 cards, and flips up his set Twister of Rejection, bouncing Gadgetron back to its Extra Deck. Next he Normal Summon Rilfsak and pokes away 1150 of Leo's Life Points, inflicting the first damage of the Duel. Ash follows this with a Set Spell/Trap and ends his turn.

Leo draws and sets a card to his backrow and Normal Summons Antennae Preservationalist, and then Special Summons Antennae Radar. Using Radars effect, he changes Preservationalist to Defense Position to destroy Ash's lone backrow, but the Scrap Destruction is chained! Ash gives up 1500 LP to try and destroy Antennae Preservationalist, but Leo continues the chain with Emergency Broadcast! His Trap returns Preservationalist safely to his hand and wipes out Rilfsak to boot, allowing Radar a free swipe, dropping Ash down to 5800 Life Points.

Ash draws and summons Iele, then uses Plant Attraction to add another from his deck to his hand! He sets a card to his backrow and Iele attacks over Radar to bring Leo down to 6550.

Leo draws to 3 cards in hand and 1 S/T set. He summons Antennae Preservationalist and attacks Iele, but Ash discards Iele from his hand to boost his other ones ATK by 1000! The Antennae falls and costs Leo a further 800 Life Points, but Leo revives his Antennae with Isis' Last Wish, also boosting Preservationalist's ATK to 1700. Leo then passes play to Ash.

Ash draws, and his only move for the turn is to switch his on-field Iele to Defence Position.

Leo sets a card to his backrow, and runs over Iele, though this triggers the effect of the other in the Grave, allowing it to return to Ash's hand. He then ends his turn.

Ash summons Verdant Dryad and attacks Antennae Preservationalist, discarding Iele to raise its ATK to 2400, but Leo responds with Soul Spark Attack destroying both Dryad and his Antenna, and then drawing because of it.

Leo draws for his turn, sets 2 cards to his backrow to join the other, and Summons another Antennae Preservationalist, which attacks safely to bring Ash down to 4600 LP.

Ash draws and activates his face-down Junk Salvage, paying 1000 LP to activate it. Leo chains Hostile Negotiation to try and negate it, but Ash discards another copy of Junk Salvage to see the original go through! Ash then returns his Nightglown Blossom and both Iele's to his hand via the effect of Junk Salvage.

Next, Ash Normal Summons Phoenixian Flytrap, and uses its effect to discard Blossom and destroy Antennae Preservationalist. Flytrap's direct attack goes on without a hitch, dropping Leo to 4750.

Leo activates a Junk Salvage of his own, going down to 3750 to return Radar, Inventor and Keeper of the Arsenal from his Graveyard to his hand. He Normal Summons the Inventor and uses its effect to bring an Antennae Preservationalist from his Deck to his hand, before ending his turn.

Ash draws and then Normal Summon Blooming Flower of Hope, a level 1 Tuner which gains 1 Level for each Plant in its owners Graveyard. He then used Flytrap's effect again, discarding Iele to destroy Leo's face-down Swift Storm. Blossom started at Level 5, and then used its effect, banishing Nightglown Blossom to Special Summon 1 "Flower Bud Token" which copied Blossoms' Level (1), also reducing Hope to Level 4 due to less Plants in the Grave. Ash then Tuned his 3 monsters to Synchro Summon the devastating Ghora End Dragon! Flytrap's secondary effect activated on hitting the Graveyard, returning the Banished Blossom to the Graveyard. Ghora End Dragon then attacked Antennae Inventor and destroyed it, reducing Leo's LP from 3750 to 2050. That concluded Ash's turn.

Leo simply drew and set a monster, before passing play back.

Ghora attacked and destroyed the set monster.

Leo Normal Summoned Antennae Preservationalist and ended.

Ghora End attacked, but Leo activated Emergency Broadcast to return his Antennae to hand and destroy Ghora, but the Synchro monster negated the effect by moving to Defence Position. During his Main Phase 2, Ash manually returned Ghora End Dragon to Attack Position before ending his turn.

Leo set 1 monster and ended his turn.

Ash drew and activated Amiable Bounty - by banishing 2 S/T's in his Graveyard (namely 2 Junk Salvage's) he could Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Plant from his Deck. He pulled out Verdant Dryad and used it's effect, discarding Hostile Negotiation from his hand to Special Summon Rilfsak from his Grave. He then Synchro Summoned Phoenixian Plant Fighter using Dryad and Rilfsak, and attacked the face-down monster with his Fighter. For good measure, he discarded Iele to boost it's ATK by 1000, letting his monster Pierce Keeper of the Arsenal 3400 to 1900, dealing 1500 damage and clearing the way for Ghora End Dragon to seal the victory!

Ash is forced to fight through a number of strong backrows and advantage gaining cards to eventually put his combo cards together and finish strongly with a pair of Synchro monsters!