Creatures from the Deep - Burgesstoma Archetype Discussion

[Atypical-Abbie]

Burgesstoma is an Archetype of Pseudo-Trap monsters that become Aqua-Type/WATER and Level 2, starting in the Korean version of CORE. They are a quite unique Archetype, since they are the first one that's Psuedo-Trap monster based, even Trap monsters didn't get one before Psuedo-Trap monsters did.

 

They have a generic effect when you activate them normally, for example Burgesstoma Hallucigenia halves the ATK and DEF of a monster and Burgesstoma Olenoides destroys a Spell/Trap Card on the field. They each Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard in response to other Trap Cards being activated. Note, this is a Quick Effect, meaning that it MUST be in response to others being activated, so you cannot Chain multiple at once, but Trap Cards must be activated each time.

 

Along with that, they also have Rank 2 Xyz Monsters as well, which have some quite powerful effects, so making those is good since they have low ATK and DEF.

 

Their playstyle mostly focuses on quickly getting a lot in the Graveyard so you can Special Summon as many of them as possible, as such, they require a lot of techs to function properly. They are a quite a fragile Deck, they are banished should they leave the field after being Special Summoned, so you can easily end up not being able to play, however you can prevent this with cards such as Imperial Iron Wall, Burgesstoma Leanchoilia or by making Xyz Monsters with them.

 

They also lack high ATK/DEF, as each only have 1200/0, so you need protection cards such as Mirror Force, Bottomless Trap Hole etc. so you don't get OTK'ed easily. They also can easily die in late game, since they lack draw power a lot, and if you don't have many cards left you can use to activate them in the Graveyard, you will suffer quickly, as such, I suggest using a few monsters and Trap Monsters such as Shapesister to make it easy to something out.

 

[spoiler=Archetype Cards]

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Canadia]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; change it to face-down Defense Position. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

I will only talk about the first effect for these cards, since they are each the same otherwise. This one changes a face-up monster to face-down Defense Position, a pretty good effect to avoid an attack or to make it easier to run over certain monsters, prevent Synchro/Xyz Summons etc.

 

I suggest playing at 2-3.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Hallucigenia]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 face-up monster on the field; its ATK and DEF become half its current ATK and DEF until the end of this turn. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

Halves ATK and DEF, a pretty simple card, but also very useful since you have quite low ATK/DEF on these cards, so you can surprise your opponent by halving their ATK/DEF. There is not much else to say about this card, what it can do is quite obvious, these are not super complex cards, which is of course intentionally since you want to be able to use them as often as possible.

 

I suggest playing at 3.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Olenoides]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when leaves the field.

 

It's a MST clone pretty much, it can target on either side of the field, meaning that you can use it to get your Burgesstoma in the Graveyard more easily as well, which can be useful at times, but for the most part, you would probably want to destroy your opponent's cards, even if it's blind MST'ing, you still need to do it to activate your cards.

 

I suggest playing at 3.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Pikaia]

Normal Trap Card

Discard 1 "Burgesstoma" card, then draw 2 cards. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

Similar to Trade-In, it discards and draws 2. For the most part, you would want to activate them instead, however drawing 2 cards can be pretty good as well, since you could get more Trap Cards and you now have something in the Graveyard you can Special Summon as well, which you may not always be able to at the start of the game, so you may have to waste some Trap Cards to get them in the Graveyard, but now you have 2 in the Graveyard after using this card.

 

I suggest playing at 2-3.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Eldonia]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 face-up monster on the field; it gains 500 ATK and DEF until the end of this turn. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

Allows you to boost your own guys, but only for a small time so it doesn't really seem worth it. It would have been better if it reduced the ATK/DEF instead, since you don't want to use this on an opponent's monster, though you may need to at times to activate the others in the Graveyard, so that makes this a pretty bad card really, and they have enough cards now that you don't need to play all of them so...

I suggest playing 0.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Dinomischus]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 face-up card on the field; discard 1 card, and if you do, banish that target. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

A quite powerful card that banishes a face-up card on the field. The only problem is that you have to discard, which can be useful to trigger things in the Graveyard, but it's an effect to do so, meaning that you can't Chain them in the Graveyard you would discard, similarly to Pikaia. Still, good removal card, can even be used against Pendulum Scales.

 

I suggest running 2-3.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Marrella]

Normal Trap Card

Send 1 Trap Card from your Deck to the Graveyard. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

Sends Trap Cards to the Graveyard from your Deck, not only Burgesstoma, but any Trap Card, which can be useful by sending things like BTS or other cards you can then get with Mask of Darkness or what not, it's a quite good card since it fills the Graveyard quickly and can almost always be used.

 

I suggest running 3

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Leanchoilia]

Normal Trap Card

Target 1 banished card; return it to the Graveyard. When a Trap Card on the field is activated while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Aqua/WATER/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card is unaffected by monster effects, also banish it when it leaves the field.

 

A decent card, allows you to return banished Burgesstoma or BTS, Galaxy Cyclone etc. Can also be used against your opponent's cards, either to just activate the card so you Chain, or against them in Decks such as Ritual Beast. It may be a bit more situational, and Imperial Iron Wall may be more useful, though you don't always have it, and returning them can never hurt.

 

I suggest running 1-2.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Opabinia]

Aqua-Type/WATER/Xyz

Rank 2

2 Level 2 monsters

Unaffected by other monsters' effects. You can activate "Burgesstoma" Trap Cards from your hand. If this card has a Trap Card as Xyz Material: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; add 1 "Burgesstoma" Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Burgesstoma Opabinia" once per turn.

 

Another Xyz Monster, this one requires 2 monsters instead. It's unaffected by card effects, allows you to activate the Burgesstomas from the hand and searches by detaching, all with a 2400 DEF body. Quite good, as it's not once per turn to activate them either, so they basically become Spell Cards, plus being Trap Cards, you can activate them at any time in either player's turn, which is just fantastic.

 

You can play 2-3 copies of this, the Extra Deck is not super tight for these guys, so if you feel you need 3, you can do that no problem.

 

 

[spoiler=Burgesstoma Anomalocaris]

Aqua-Type/WATER/Xyz
Rank 2

3 or more Level 2 monsters

Unaffected by other monsters' effects. Once per turn, if a Trap Card(s) is sent from your Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard: You can excavate the top card of your Deck, and if it is a Trap Card, add it to your hand. Otherwise, send it to the Graveyard. Once per turn, during either player's turn, if this card has a Trap Card as an Xyz Material: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it.

2400/0

 

The boss monster. It can't be Trishula'ed, which is always a plus for something that requires 3 monsters, and it has a Quick Effect pop effect as well, which is quite good. This card can combo quite nicely with your Burgesstoma Trap Cards if you play correctly. If you can manage to get multiple copies out, you have some very strong plays at your hands. This should probably be your go-to guy for the most part, but they have options for other good Rank 2s as well.

 

You can play 2-3 copies of this, the Extra Deck is not super tight for these guys, so if you feel you need 3, you can do that no problem.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Techs]

[spoiler=Imperial Iron Wall]

Continuous Trap Card

Neither player can banish cards.

 

This card works very well with these guys, since it protects them from being banished when they would leave the field, which can be problematic since they don't have many copies, plus it allows you to re-use your guys much more.

 

It's a good card for yourself, but also works well against your opponent's cards as well, it makes a lot of Decks suffer, even if you only planned to use it for yourself.

 

I would run 3, though you can reduce it depending on how much you want to use Burgesstoma Leanchoilia.

 

 

[spoiler=Shapesister]

Continuous Trap Card

Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Fiend-Type/Tuner/EARTH/Level 2/ATK 0/DEF 0). (This card is also still a Trap Card.) You can only activate 1 "Shapesister" per turn.

 

It's a rather simple Trap monster, it doesn't have any effects, the only thing that makes this noteworthy is that it's a Tuner and it's the only Level 2 Trap monster that exists so far, however that shouldn't be a bad thing, since it works very well with these. You can trigger their effects and get 2 monsters at once, something that's very good, also you can Synchro Summon as well, but be careful since the Burgesstoma will be banished if you do, unless you have Imperial Iron Wall up of course.

 

I suggest running 2-3 copies of it, depending on what kind of Deck you are trying to make, also make sure to put in some Level 4 and 6 Synchro Monsters if you want to use this.

 

 

[spoiler= Temple of the Kings]

Continuous Spell Card

You can activate 1 Trap Card the turn it was Set. You can send 1 "Mystical Beast of Serket" in your Monster Zone and this card you control to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 monster from your hand or Deck, or 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck. You can only use each effect of "Temple of the Kings" once per turn.

 

A recently errata'ed card, this allows you to play a Trap Card the turn it is sent. What makes this good is that you need a lot of set-up to get these to work, so being able to play something right away speeds it up a lot. You can only try to throw in Serket if you really wanted to, but I have not tried that yet.

 

With Burgesstoma Opabinia, you can take this card out, it's still good, so you can run it at 0-2

 

 

[spoiler=Mask of Darkness]

Fiend-Type/DARK
Level 2

FLIP: Target 1 Trap Card in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.

900/400

 

A pretty simple card, it returns your Trap Cards to your hand. This can be pretty useful late game. As you don't really need to Normal Summon, this can easily be Set, or you can Normal Summon in and go into a Rank 2 if you want.

 

I would run 2, since it's alive quite a lot, depending on how many Trap Cards you use, you can put it up or down as you please.

 

 

[spoiler=Kuribandit]

Fiend-Type/DARK
Level 3

During the End Phase, if this card was Normal Summoned this turn: You can Tribute this card; excavate the top 5 cards of your Deck, you can add 1 excavated Spell/Trap Card to your hand, also send the remaining cards to the Graveyard.

1000/700

 

Another searcher, and can be used with A Cat of Ill Omen as well. It allows you to easily put a bunch in the Graveyard as well as get something to the hand as well, it speeds up the Deck a lot, especially the first turns where you don't have a lot to work with. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it's a Level 3, if it had been a Level 2, it would be so much better for this Deck.

 

I would run 2-3 depending on how many Spell/Trap Cards you use.

 

 

[spoiler=Cardcar D]

Machine-Type/EARTH
Level 2

Cannot be Special Summoned. During your Main Phase 1, if this card was Normal Summoned this turn: You can Tribute this card; draw 2 cards, then it becomes the End Phase of this turn. You cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect.

800/400

 

A quite good draw card, plus it's a Level 2. It does end the turn, so you can't Set the cards you drew, a good idea is to use it when you Set  Pikaia or Dinomischus, since you can then discard the cards you just drew.

 

I suggest running 2-3.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Other Techs]

Here are some techs you could also try out, but I currently have not tested out, or have done so and not felt them as useful as before:

 

Reckless Greed

Necrovalley

Trap Reclamation

Bait Doll

Wetlands

Waboku

Accumulated Fortune

Anti-Spell Fragrance

Plaguespreader

Scrap Iron Scarecrow

A Cat of Ill Omen

Abosolute King Back Jack

 

 

[spoiler=Sample Deck]

 

[Hexanort]

how about waboku? it can protect your burgesstoma and your LP for the turn (and since burgesstoma already immune to monster effect, only card like dark hole/raigeki can remove them)

 

accumulated fortune can also be useful since you're gonna be chaining a lot

 

anti-spell fragrance also works well since you barely running any spell and it stop pendulum 

 

and i dont think you want to run cat of ill omen, since its kinda slow and unless you're searching a very important trap it just isnt worth it

[The Warden]

I had some success with RUM - Astral Force, as after nuking at least twice with their boss you can AF him into 101, snatching their probably last monster. I also tried it with Frogs, with limited success. Burgess don't like me much.

[Progenitor]

Another interesting tech formula (and the one I use) is Quillbolt + Plaguespreader/shapsister.  Since you're running Imperial Iron wall you can synchro with plaguespreader and Quillbolt without fear, or loop Quillbolt by Xyz with ur Burgesstomas and continually detaching it and reviving it while you control Shapesister/Plaguespreader.

[Atypical-Abbie]

how about waboku? it can protect your burgesstoma and your LP for the turn (and since burgesstoma already immune to monster effect, only card like dark hole/raigeki can remove them)

 

accumulated fortune can also be useful since you're gonna be chaining a lot

 

anti-spell fragrance also works well since you barely running any spell and it stop pendulum 

 

and i dont think you want to run cat of ill omen, since its kinda slow and unless you're searching a very important trap it just isnt worth it

Waboku is a decent card, I like Mirror Force better myself since it gets rid of their monsters as well, of course againt some Decks that's bad but still.

 

Decent card, but can easily die if you don't have enough cards to Chain, can be risky, and I would go with Reckless Greed or possibly Jar of Greed.

 

Could be a good side card I suppose.

 

I am still testing some things out, I do see it being a bit slow, but my Deck has cards that can manage the top Deck as well, so it does have some benefits.

[ÆƵ–]

Scrpa Iron Scarecrow? It prevents attacks, summons burgs, and can off again if you have temple out. 

[Atypical-Abbie]

Scrpa Iron Scarecrow? It prevents attacks, summons burgs, and can off again if you have temple out. 

Interesting, being able to keep on activating it over and over could be pretty useful. I think I'll test this out.

[Toffee.]

I seriously wish they had a searcher...

[ÆƵ–]

I hate to rain on this underwater parrade, but gantetsu doesn't really work well with burgs because all burgs are unaffected by ALL monster effs. Also double socuteboss makes a cool little attack lock that can make locking monster zones possible too. Just fyi

 

Also, what about Planckton as a possible tech? It boost your Xyz and can stop the opp from going in if they're using rank4+.dek. And it's a trap!

[Atypical-Abbie]

I hate to rain on this underwater parrade, but gantetsu doesn't really work well with burgs because all burgs are unaffected by ALL monster effs. Also double socuteboss makes a cool little attack lock that can make locking monster zones possible too. Just fyi

 

Also, what about Planckton as a possible tech? It boost your Xyz and can stop the opp from going in if they're using rank4+.dek. And it's a trap!

Hm right, I didn't really think about that, I had in mind to boost my guys with it. I will swap a copy out for something else, still has some decent wall abilities at times.

 

Planckton seems underwhelming to be honest, plus it's situational as well.

[goodfusion]

I haven't really played this archetype much (mainly because DN make it annoying to play) but how about Lemuria, the Forgotten City as a tech? It allows your Burgesstomas to be used for higher Rack Xyz (a Rank 4 is as easy as a Rank 2 with it) greatly expanding your Extra Deck choices. It could also be useful in a more Synchro-based variant for higher Level Synchros. The ATK boost is small but is still nice.

 

It might be unnecessary, but I think it's worth testing.

[ÆƵ–]

So, this got new stuff. Should we talk about it?

[Tinkerer]

My older version of this wanted to make a Rank 1 supplement that worked around Back Jack but swarmed enough to make Sylvan Princessprout on demand.

...it didn't work out well...

[Atypical-Abbie]

Alright, updated the OP with the new cards, my thoughts, changes in the techs and other techs, and a new version of the sample Deck.

[Spinny]

In your sample deck, try running 1 more mask and a cat of I'll omen and 2 caligo Claw crow, turn 1 opinibia is amazing in theory.

[Atypical-Abbie]

In your sample deck, try running 1 more mask and a cat of I'll omen and 2 caligo Claw crow, turn 1 opinibia is amazing in theory.

I had Cat before, I took it out though since it was slow, I dunno about 3 Mask, I wouldn't know what to take out. Caligo Claw Crow sounds very situational, they are WATER, not DARK.

[Spinny]

I had Cat before, I took it out though since it was slow, I dunno about 3 Mask, I wouldn't know what to take out. Caligo Claw Crow sounds very situational, they are WATER, not DARK.

NS mask/cat > Claw Crow > Opinibia 

[Atypical-Abbie]

NS mask/cat > Claw Crow > Opinibia 

As I said, it's situational, but if you want to do that, I ain't stopping you.

[Progenitor]

Accumulated Fortune is just plain stupid in this deck.  Like seriously I would run it at 3 before Jar/Reckless/Yata. (just some experience from practice)

Trap Reclamation can lead to some really, really stupid plays.  However it bricks super hard.  I've brought it down to 1 just for the chance I can draw it when on positive advantage.

Aegis of the Sea Dragon Lord is seriously freaking amazing in the deck.  It's literally Waboku but better.

Back Jack should now be a staple at at least 2.  Why?  Because Leanchoilia exists.  Send it to the grave as cost for Dino or something, then OP standby banish it, later Leanchoilia can return it to the grave to let you check your top 3 again.  Freaking Amazing.

Another staple that has yet to be discussed is Xyz Reborn.  Remember it's a trap that attaches itself as material to whatever it revives.  Kinda broken late game.

I've also been messing around with Burst Rebirth.  It's a trap that you can chain on your opponent's end phase to summon a Burg and Mask of Darkness, then on your turn you can flip Mask to add back a trap and you just so happen now to have 2 level 2s.

[Tinkerer]

I've been doing some testing with the new cards and I've come to the conclusion that these have 2 main variants:

Imperial Iron Wall Variant

Back Jack Variant

 

They can't operate side by side that well for pretty obvious reasons (not that it stopped me from trying anyway). The IIW deck has a lot more offensive/defensive capability but is more prone to running out of steam. BJ offers more consistency; it doesn't mind being tossed from hand/deck since it pays for itself and sets things up for Anomalo.

 

Personally, I've now been finding the Back Jack variant to fit my playstyle more. I think the decks has enough resources now that it doesn't necessarily mind if a couple of them are banished, and with their 2 mat R2, it shouldn't be that often that you wouldn't be open to making an XYZ play.

 

A couple more techs:

Card of Demise is a hilarious addition to the deck. It essentially amounts to a +2 in most situations and, if you need to, you can use it to effectively toss away any Burgs that can't fit in the S/T Zone.

 

Pot of Duality has pretty much the same, if not worse uses than Card of Demise. However, you don't have to discard, so there's that. Duality into Cardcar D is a pretty effective opener though.

[Hexanort]

i personally never think of putting any monster, card car D might help because its a +1, but mask of darkness, dont think i've ever need to recycle any trap before, and about kuribandit, with opanibia and marella around, its unlikely that you'd be lacking burgesstoma in grave that you need a mill effect, for getting new resource, pikaia and fortune is usually enough, not too mention opanibia and anomalocaris also give you more plus

 

tested card of demise...its actually pretty situational, most of the time your s/t zone would be filled up, and since you cant activate your trap for xyz play the turn you used it, the card you draw will likely be wasted

[Toffee.]

Burgesstomas can play Breakthrough Skill very nicely. It's partially because the one Burg can mill Traps, and Breakthrough can be used on your following turn to negate stuff that would otherwise get in your way.