Deck Building for Dummies: The Burn Deck

Dart Himself here, with the next chapter in my “Deck Construction for Dummies” series. Last time, we covered beatdown, a good beginner strategy to get used to the basic mechanics of the game. Up next is a strategy that has a love-hate relationship with many duelists: the “burn” deck.
A burn deck revolves around one basic idea: burn through your opponents life points as quickly as possible. This will revolve around Effect Damage instead of Battle Damage, and as such, it easy to see that you will not be busting out FGD any time soon with this deck. Instead, you will be using such cards as Sparks and Ookazi to destroy your opponent, without bothering with their monsters.
Now, there are MANY different strategies for burn decks, but they all keep one basic element: STALLING. You cannot take down their monsters (and in some cases, you don't want to), so you need high defenses. However, building a deck with a lot of high defense monsters is not the answer, as these take up space, and eat up potential for damage. Instead, use some of the ideas I'm about to present to you.
This deck is what I like to call an all-purpose burn deck. It can deal serious damage if need be, while still maintaining a strong presence on the field (I know, it sounds like I'm contradicting myself, but watch very carefully, and you'll see what I mean).
Monsters:
3x Nurse Reficule the Fallen One: key card to this deck
3x Des Koala: KOALAS!!! cause good damage, have ok defense
2x Des Wombat: good card to negate damage to you, can be abused
3x Solar Flare Dragon: Lockdown card + 500 damage per turn
1x Ameba: 2000 damage, or a minor wall
2x Lava Golem: 1000 damage and destroy 2 enemy monsters
2x Blast Sphere: anti-beatstick
1x Prime Material Dragon: looked up the rules, as long as brts is out, this card will only negate damage to you!
1x Marshmallon: 1000 damage + wall
2x Fire Princess: 500 damage every time you gain LP
1x Cat of Ill Omen: trap searching
1x Phantom Skyblaster: quick wall + burn
3x Amazoness Swordswoman: good wall monster that redirects damage
See the common theme? The reason Nurse Reficule is your key monster will be made apparent in a sec.
Spells:
2x Upstart Goblin: draw 1, and possibly inflict 1000
1x Heavy Storm: nuf said
1x Mystical Space Typhoon: nuf said
1x Swords of Revealing Light: nuf said (again)
1x Book of moon: des koala, anyone?
1x Reload: bad draw? Try again!
1x Creature swap: for ameba
3x Misfortune: you won't be attacking, so this can cause huge damage
3x Wave Motion Cannon: OTK burn card all on it's own
1x Dark Snake Syndrome: des wombat + this = long term kill
Your traps will round out your deck with, yep, more BURN (hehehehehehe)!
3x Bad Reaction to Simochi: nurse reficule trap card
3x Gift Card: with reficule/simochi, deals 3000!
2x Just desserts: up to 2500 damage!
1x Mirror force: just in case
1x Radiant Mirror Force: since you can't have 2 of the original
3x Zoma the Spirit: YAY! Another monster with potenential for serious burn!
2x Changing Destiny: negate an attack, and mess with LP
2x Paths of Destiny: you can't lose with this card when combined with PMD/NR
1x Solemn Judgement: just in case
1x Solemn wishes: gain life points, and combine with fire princess for a slow burn
Well, there you have it. Thanks to my friend lyndwyrm for the advice (burn decks are his specialty). In alpha testing, this deck won 100% of the time (no guarantees for when you use it though ;p), sometimes getting a lot of quick burn to finish it before turn 5, others getting slow burn/stall cards, taking up to 15 turns. Play it how you will.
Please post any questions, comments, or fixes. I'll try to get back to you a soon as I can. Next time (no clue when) we'll be going over the next one on our list of win conditions: the “deck-out”.

not that it's not a good deck but way to much cardsOo
I will give some suggestions when I have time but I have schoolD:

good article and deck, but Burn must be quicker.
yeah Koalas! Lol.
but to be more strategic than random, this deck needs key cards.
I woul take out non important cards like:
MST = U almost wont need it
Heavy storm = u wont even attack
fire princess = hard to use here, too much random
Book of moon = only 1 in the middle of too many strategies wont too good
Sollem= not much needed, if u want replace with dark bribe wich not only negates but gives ur opp cards to abuse des Koala.
- 1 Misfortune = what is too much is bad, here its not that good at 3

other fixs should be done, but i would like to show this just as a little tip to newbies reinforcing ur article.
keep on.

alright I think this has 20 cards to much and could use some improvement I'll try to help;)

monsters:
-1 lava golem(it can be really dead)
-1 prime material dragon(not good here)
-3 amazoness swords woman(altough it does quite some burn opponent will atk with weak monsters then)
-2 fire princess(not enough heal potential)
- phantom skyblaster(you will only do 300 to 600 dmg with it)
-2 des wombt(why would you hurt yourself)
-1 cat of ill omen(upstart goblin is better)
-1 ameba(not really good wth only 1 abuse card)

+1 sangan(great searcher)
+3 mystic tomato(nurse search)

spells:
-1 book of moon(only koala extra abuse to situational then)
-1 reload(it's a -1 for you)
-1 creature swap(ameba taken out)
-3 misfortune(there are better burn cards)
-3 wave-motion cannon(it's destroyed before you use effect)
-1 dark snake syndrome(you don't heal from it anymore)
- heavy storm(kills your continious cards)

+1 upstart goblin(it's 9/10 times 1000 burn + a draw)
+1 allure of darkness(12 targets)
+3 messenger of peace(stall)

traps:
-1 radiant mirror force(opponent needs 3 monsters there are stardust and this is burndeck)
-2 changing destiny(to risky)
-1 solemn wishes(you don't need to heal)
-1 solemn judgment(hurts you to much here)
-3 zoma the spirit(with messenger it can't suicide)
-2 just dessert(your opponent needs monsters wich is pretty situational then)

+1 paths of destiny(free 100% sure 2000 burn)
+3 secret barrel behind the door(like koalas but also field)
+1 magic cylinder(great card in burn decks)

that makes 40
I hope that helps good luck on your deck

I get what you are saying on a lot of these fixes. But you guys missed a combo: Dark Snake Syndrome+Des Wombat. Think it through, you should see what it does.

Also, cards lie swordswoman and Zoma are more of a psychological play. Sure, you can attack, but how much damage are you willing to take for it? Used correctly, this can be a lifesaver.

Dart_Himself wrote:

I get what you are saying on a lot of these fixes. But you guys missed a combo: Dark Snake Syndrome+Des Wombat. Think it through, you should see what it does.

Also, cards lie swordswoman and Zoma are more of a psychological play. Sure, you can attack, but how much damage are you willing to take for it? Used correctly, this can be a lifesaver.

The only way I'd play Wombat is if I also am running Mist Body, which also works excellent with Swordswoman. It would probably be a much different build altogether.

Also, Zoma is always an excellent choice for a card because its an unexpected defense, and can be an OTK stopper. And, if activated on your opponent's turn, it can become a good beatstick on your turn, making the opponent want to waste their monster/trap destruction on it rather than your other important cards so they don't attack it. And, if worse comes to worse, you can suicide it on your opponent's monster. With Zoma in attack position, its win-win unless they play trap negation things.