Bakura’s Deck Strategies

Bakura basically has three decks, his Duelist kingdom deck, his Occult deck used during Battle City, and his Undead Lock Deck. This essay is basically designed to go into the deeper strategies of Bakura and learn a little more about his character.

Bakura’s first deck is the most unique out of the three decks. All of his other decks are built around a very complex combo designed to be implemented and used relentlessly. This deck though lacks any extreme combo. Instead this deck has two themes: use annoying effect monsters, and magic and trap cards designed to use the enemies resources against him. This suggests that this is not Yami Bakura’s deck but instead the deck of Bakura himself. The very use of no DARK-type monsters shows that Yami Bakura had no design in this deck. Also this deck’s main victory condition is to reduce your opponent’s life points to zero, as opposed to the other two decks. Another possible card in his deck could be Princess of Tsurugi because she is BOTH an effect monster and uses the opponent’s resources against himself. Also Witch of the Black Forest may be in his deck because it is also an effect monster and can fuse with Lady of Faith. Also Fiber Jar and Morphing Jar #2 also could be in his deck since they are both very annoying effect monsters and also both EARTH type monsters, which make up a strong portion of Bakura’s known monsters.

 Bakura’s second deck is the Occult Deck that is used during the Battle City tournament. His first duel against Bones does not show the true nature of his deck. The deck’s really powers are shown in his duel against Yugi. Bakura first lures his opponent into attacking his monsters and quickly sending three of them to the graveyard. Then he removes them and summons Dark Necrofear. He keeps attacking with Dark Necrofear until the opponent finds a way to deal with her. Once Dark Necrofear is sent to the graveyard her true abilities shine. Now she can control one monster each turn and whenever that monster attack’s, the monster’s controller loses life equal to half that monster’s attack and Bakura gains that much life. Bakura also activates Dark Sanctuary since it only works when Dark Necrofear is in the graveyard and Dark Door forcing his opponent to attack with one monster each turn. Due to Dark Sanctuary’s effect he can place magic cards directly onto the field. With this he activates Destiny Board and slowly spells out the word FINAL (DEATH in Japan). Once this word is spelled out he wins. Also he uses cheap monsters such as Sangan because Dark Sanctuary requires a monster sacrifice each turn. Now his opponent has to defeat Bakura before FINAL is spelled and he can only attack with one monster each turn and one of his monster’s is possessed by Dark Necrofear.

Bakura’s third deck is his most tricky one yet. It is his Undead Lock Deck and he uses it against Yugi in Memory World. This deck’s combo starts by using Curse Necros. This card gives each player one of the two options: either he gains 200 life points each turn or he loses his graveyard. The opponent chooses one effect and Bakura gets the other. Since most people would choose the life points Bakura loses his graveyard. Since he has no graveyard all monsters of his comes back to the field as spirits and they cannot attack nor be attacked. Bakura then summons Necro Soldier which is a level four monster with a zero attack and defense. This card has a powerful effect that creates another Necro Soldier during each of the opponent’s standby phases. Bakura then uses the trap card Narrow Cloister which negates the attack of the third monster during each turn. Also I believe this card limits each players monsters on the field to three (not too sure since this is all translation). Now for the final piece of the puzzle, the permanent magic card Kill the Dead Treasure (bad translation). During the end phase of each player’s turn, that player must discard cards from the top of his deck equal to the number of monsters on the field (including spirits) to his graveyard, but since Bakura does not have a graveyard this card does not effect him. Since Necro Soldier even if destroyed still remains a spirit on the field his effect activates meaning all Bakura has to do is put one monster on the field each turn and wait until his opponent has no more cards.

There is some evidence suggesting that Bakura’s Undead Lock Deck is the same as his Occult deck. Both decks contain Dark Necrofear, which is one of Bakura’s key cards in the Occult deck. Also he uses a trap card in his Lock Deck called An Invitation of Earth Spirits which is similar to Dark Spirit of the Silent. Since this is all translation from a Manga summary I need to see a picture of the card and see if it is one and the same (it might not be). Still his Lock deck is based on stalling, and the cards in his Lock deck could easily help stall for his Occult deck.