Hello,
This short article will present some of the different Goat Control builds that I often reference by their nickname. I do not claim that all of these lists are by any means famous, these will just be all of the nicknames and decks that I personally know by heart. I will also try to provide a brief explanation of why I think some of these changes were made.
Goat Control build popularized by the team of the same name during the transition to Exarion-less Goat Format (the correct format). I will reference every other build in the context of how it differs from this one, because I believe this one is the most flexible and coherent. Please check out this list if you do not know it by heart already :P
Merchants: Merchants are played because they are LIGHT level 1's, good both for BLS and Metamorphosis fodder and of course establishing Tsukuyomi loops. Dekoichis aren't level one and Dark Mimics are DARK, this is why this build chooses to play Merchants (as do most other builds).
Asura and DDWL: most Goat Control decks play some additional beaters other than AKPs and Breaker, because it is important to be consistently able to out opposing sets. DDWL and Asura are versatile and can be played in such manner that they are immune to opposing Chaos Sorcerers. DDWL is an important card because it is also NoC bait.
Sakuretsu and Dust Tornado: 2 of each is the most standard ratio. Sakuretsus are important part of the deck because they help our flips survive in order to establish Tsuku-loop or Tribute Summon AKP. They are also very good vs mirror match and aggro. Dust Tornados are also really important to help the important plays go trough, such as AKP pushes, but their big role is also to answer opposing Snatch and revivals.
Scapegoats, Metas: 3 + 2 ratio is the most common one, because our monster line-up takes care of level 1 accessibility the deck can run 2 Scapegoats. Metamorphosis should be run at 3, end of discussion.
Everything same as above, except replace Asura and DDWL with 2 Exarions. They are just better cards in almost every aspect the deck cares about.
1.2.) Abyss Goat Control
Everything same as above, except replace Asura and / or DDWL with 1 / 2 copies of Abyss Soldier. Why Abyss Soldier?
Pros: Works really well with revivals, because they can be recycled with Serpent. Card is just overall broken when combined with Serpent. Milling Abyss with Merchant is a small bonus as well. It is good vs Aggro and alt-win decks.
Cons: not that good without Serpent. Can't be used as NoC bait. Can't blind opposing Chaos. Can get run over in battle.
This one is called the Boston build because it was used by Kris Perovic in SJC Boston with a slight change since nowadays we play Exarionless. The difference in this list is addition of Spirit Reaper instead of one Merchant. To compensate for this loss of level 1 monster, one Sakuretsu is cut and 3rd Scapegoat is added.
Pros: most pros as far as I can see are mostly due to the surprise factor – Reaper changes the early game dynamics where people usually feel relatively safe by just passing – Reaper punishes that. Reaper also creates an interesting conflict between playing around Breaker and playing around Reaper. 3rd Scapegoat in the main deck is unusual to say the least and it may caught some opponent off guard, especially in the late game when 2 Scapegoats are already in the graveyard and he goes for Heavy Storm play for the kill.
Cons: Reaper does not have a great synergy with the rest of the deck: you can't Tsuku loop him, Meta him, or profitably Tribute him for AKP.
»Spy Goat« is usually any GC deck that usest he GK Spy + Guard engine in the main deck, usually instead of Mercant. The most famous version of this deck is Soul's build, called after the player Soul who used this list in the DGZ warring. If my information is correct, he built his deck to answer the growing Chaos Recruiter meta – Spies are really devastating answer for the Chaos Recruiter decks. His deck had some other interesting choices as well, such as playing 3 copies of Magician of Faith – I encourage you to check this list out on goatformat.com.
Pros: Spy changes a lot of how the GC deck plays, mainly it encourages complex gamestates by slowing the game down, so you should probably do this only when you clearly know why – just like Soul knew. Other notable example is SBE, who is also trying to enter the complex gamestates with his deck with some questionable tech-choices that work better in those gamestates (Lightning Vortex, Jinzo…). Spy without a doubt shines in Aggro heavy meta.
Cons: Spy does not do so well in Chaos Control / Chaos Turbo heavy meta, because those decks have a handy out to it It requires some good thought when incorporating Spy in your deck, since it will mess up standard Detox ratios for level 1's / LIGHT's if you cut Merchants for it. Spy package often includes Guard, which is not very good stand-alone card. Spies can often minus vs Torrential Tribute when you try to Tsuku-loop or tribute them or just advance the gamestate.
Probably the least known build in this article, because it was only played by my team in the Colosseum tourney hosted by Luxury gaming. I am including it here because I think it is interesting.
This deck was created for the said tournament, where heavy Chaos and Goat Control meta was expected. I have already explained the whole theory in my tournament report, but here is the summary: the focus of the deck was to counter Chaos / mirror + we wanted to explore Dekoichis, because we saw great potential in them. In order to play Dekoichis instead of Merchants, we had to adjust our LIGHT and level 1 count. For this reason, we, similarly to Boston build, cut Saku for 3rd Scapegoat but also swapped DDWL for 2nd Asura Priest – thanks to the Chaos matchup. So, the changes from DETOX were -2 Merch -1 Saku -1 DDWL for +2 Deko +1 Goat +1 Asura.
Pros: Deko is better flip when it survives, since it has 1400 attack (the price for this has to be paid in the deckbuilding, like I explained above). 2 Asuras allow constant pressure without fear of getting banished, and they make opposing Scapegoats a liability.
Cons: Deckbuilding problems, as explained above. Asuras require constant summon, so it is a bit harder to summon AKPs. Lack of DDWL means some lack of versatlity as well. More awkward Aggro matchup, even post-side.
This is an exception to this article, because I do not know the list by heart, but due to it being very distinct from others, I think it deserves it's name. If I am not mistaken, this list is maining Royal Decrees together with GK Spy to really capitalize on AKP, and shutting down the Aggro heavy meta. I think MMF should write more about it, so I will stop here
I do not know exact decklists for these ideas that I will list here, nor do they have established names.
This is all for this article, I hope that you enjoyed reading or learnt something new.
Until next time,
siwski