C.G.'s Goat Thoughts: Samurai Soul Control
This article provides a deck guide for a Samurai Soul Control build inspired by top players and community feedback, focusing on its effectiveness against popular June 2022 meta decks like Chaos Warrior and Chaos Turbo.
A decklist inspired by Evan Vargas, a little WorldGoneMaad, and revised with help from my buddy pkx and the users of the GoatFormat.com Discord server, especially Levi and LongKun. Let's cut to the chase:
The 55:
(06/14/2022) EDIT: Trade one Mobius in main for the Jinzo in side: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=10866046
Why Monarchs?
At time of writing, June 2022, two of the most popular decks are Chaos Warrior and Chaos Turbo. Goat Control has recently topped again, and did so maining Royal Decree. Panda Burn is all the rage and also topped recently. What this says to me is: let's play some tribute monsters!Warrior is extremely vulnerable to Brain Control and Creature Swap, so we know all of our theft spells will go off, and it has difficulty climbing over anything bigger than 2000 ATK (or DEF) as Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning is their only way to do so via battle. D.D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant remain somewhat problematic but not enough to matter, as we can use more tribute monsters than they have D.D.s. Our Royal Decree, if played proactively, can completely shut off 25% or more of their deck. We also don't play monsters face-down by default, so their Nobleman of Crossout and Mystic Swordsman LV2 are also potentially blank. Scapegoat slows down Warriors significantly as well.Chaos Turbo is fairly vulnerable to Brain Control, and would be more vulnerable to Creature Swap if we had our own Gravekeeper's Spy, though you are still fairly likely to steal a Magician of Faith or Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Chaos Turbo's best monsters, BLS and 2-3 Chaos Sorcerer, are all killable with Snatch Steal or Brain Control and Monarchs can run over more than half of them. Soul Exchange is battle position-agnostic and will remove a GK Spy as easily as a BLS. Creature Swap can backfire, as can Flying Kamakiri #1 somewhat as Chaos Turbo will occasionally run recruiters of their own like Mystic Tomato. Turbo decks have also recently been playing Solemn Judgments in their 55 cards if not battle traps and Trap Dustshoots, so Decree will put in work here as well. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch can hit Chaos monsters that tend to linger in the hand but is equally likely to hit a Thunder Dragon. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer gives Chaos decks a hard time no matter what so we have two in the sideboard to improve this matchup. Our Warrior toolbox, which I will go into below, also helps against Chaos Turbo.Goat Control is a somewhat tough matchup because they run one more Metamorphosis than we do and they also pack the Monarch's nemesis, Tsukuyomi. Swords of Revealing Light, Mirror Force, and Ring of Destruction are in our sideboard almost entirely because of this vulnerability. Our Warrior toolbox can carry us pretty far in the Goat Control matchup since it loves Royal Decree and doesn't particularly fear Tsukuyomi. It does feel bad when a Sasuke #4 loses the coin flip to an attack mode Dekoichi, so be mindful of that play and try to save a Kamakiri for when that happens.Panda Burn is hopefully an easier fight, as they depend on Traps to lock down your field and burn you. Sasuke #4 can get a lot done by itself, should you find yourself with only one monster zone available, but the Ojama Trio lock is generally weaker against decks that main Decree and Swap. While your field is locked down though, your other theft spells will be dead draws. Tribute monsters also allow one to make the most of what few monster zones one has--Mobius and Jinzo are particularly good here. Two copies of Mystik Wok appear in the sideboard to help with this matchup, as Monarchs can provide serious life gain opportunities and can also do a lot with just one freed monster zone. Scapegoat is obviously very bad here, and thusly Metamorphosis becomes a brick, so it's best to side those out in game 2 and 3 (though Metamorphosis on a Monarch gets you Ryu Senshi, a mini-Jinzo). Additional battle traps were heavily considered for the 55 to deal with Gyaku-Gire Panda, but the SoRL/Mirror Force/Ring package can help.
