Introduction to Goat Format Power Cards: Part 2

Welcome back to our Introduction to Goat Format Power Cards series, in which we breakdown the basics behind how to best use (and counter) key power cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Goat Format. Our last entry in the series covered Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Morphing Jar, Heavy Storm, Snatch Steal, Mirror Force, and Torrential Tribute. This time we will be going over Tribe-Infecting Virus, Sinister Serpent, Graceful Charity, Delinquent Duo, and Ring of Destruction. We will analyze other power cards in the next installment of the series.

Goat Format Power Card #7: Tribe-Infecting Virus

Tribe-Infecting Virus is at heart a game-shot enabler. Goat Control gets value of out Tribe-Infecting Virus by waiting for an opportunity to use Heavy Storm, summoning Tribe-Infecting Virus to clear the field of all face-up monsters (most importantly Scapegoat tokens), and then using Black Luster Soldier, Premature Burial, and/or Ring of Destruction to end the game. If you’re playing a deck like Thunder Dragon Chaos, you can instead use Tribe-Infecting Virus more as a way to take advantage of the discard. Sinister Serpent, Night Assailant, and Thunder Dragon are all more-or-less “free” discards, which makes Tribe-Infecting Virus a great way to clear a field at little cost. When playing against Tribe-Infecting Virus, it’s best to banish it if possible so that your opponent doesn’t have a chance to revive it for an OTK later. Otherwise, try to run it over in battle with a card like Tsukuyomi, Blade Knight, or Abyss Soldier. Depending on the matchup, it’s often a good idea to put pressure on a deck like Goat Control so that they don’t have all the time in the world to setup a game-shot.

Goat Format Power Card #8: Sinister Serpent

​Sinister Serpent is free fodder for Abyss Soldier, Metamorphosis into Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and of course Tribe-Infecting Virus. When you have Sinister Serpent, you need to consider how valuable it is to your gameplan and not just let your opponent banish it with Nobleman of Crossout if you don’t have to. When Sangan is destroyed, you’ll often want to search Sinister Serpent because of how powerful it is. Depending on the situation, however, Sinister Serpent can be set to bait out your opponent’s cards like Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Blade Knight, Mystic Swordsman LV2, Mind Control, and so on. Or it can just wall attacks for awhile. This going to be situation and matchup dependent. Sinister Serpent can be one of the most frustrating cards to play against, and there aren’t a lot of counters to it. If you’re playing against someone who you know likes to set it, I would manage your Nobleman of Crossout, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning well so that you can banish it. Trap Dustshoot can also be a good way to take care of Sinister Serpent, but this strategy is only recommended for aggressive decks. ​