Welcome to Breaking The Meta. This class will be a series where we go over many of the dominant decks of the meta, we find out why there so good, and notable cards they use. We will also look at cards that can be used against them.

Without further ado, let's get to the first deck, and the most dominant deck of this format, Dragon Rulers.

If you don't know already, the reason Dragon Rulers are so strong is because they can swarm the field with level 7 monsters, and then can overlay them for Xyz monsters like Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack and Big Eye. They can also normal summon an effect veiler and use it and a Dragon Ruler to make a synchro summon.

Dragon Rulers also have amazing consistency, getting you a rank 7 xyz or level 8 synchro every turn, and rarely not being able to summon enough monsters.

The Dragon Ruler archetype is made up of four different elements and is separated into what is referred as the "baby" dragons and the "adult" dragons.

The effect of the adult dragons is as follows;
"If this card is in your hand or Graveyard: You can banish a total of 2 (Attribute) and/or Dragon-Type monsters from your hand and/or Graveyard, except this card; Special Summon this card. During your opponent's End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Return it to the hand. You can discard this card and 1 (Attribute) monster to the Graveyard, then target 1 card on the field; destroy that target. If this card is banished: You can add 1 (Attribute) Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use 1 "(Card Name)" effect per turn, and only once that turn."

The effect of the baby dragons is as follows:
"You can discard this card AND 1 Dragon-Type or (Attribute) monster; Special Summon 1 "(Adult Dragon With Same Attribute)" from your Deck. It cannot attack this turn. You can only use the effect of "(Card Name)" once per turn."

Now, let's look at some notable cards inside of Dragon Ruler decks.

Effect Veiler [Spellcaster/Tuner]
"During your opponent's Main Phase: You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard to target 1 face-up Effect monster your opponent controls; negate that target's effects until the End Phase."

Not only does it have an annoying effect negating ability, but it also is a tuner. Make sure to watch out for this if you are making a rescue rabbit play or trying to OTK.

Vanity's Emptiness (Continuous Trap)
"Neither player can Special Summon monsters. Destroy this card when a card is sent from the Deck or the field to your Graveyard."

This lets Dragon Ruler players prevent there opponent from special summoning, not to mention that it can easily be destroyed by the dragon ruler player by tributing a dracossack token. (Note: The only way they can destroy it with dracossack is to target Vanity's Emptiness, because tokens do not go to the graveyard.)

Light And Darkness Dragon [Dragon/Effect]
"Cannot be Special Summoned. While face-up on the field, this card is also DARK-Attribute. Once per Chain, during either player's turn, when a Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect is activated: This card loses exactly 500 ATK and DEF and that activation is negated. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 monster in your Graveyard (if possible); destroy all cards you control, also Special Summon that monster (if any)."

This is easily one of the best cards in the Dragon Ruler deck's arsenal. Thankfully, not all builds run it. They summon it by tributing two of dracossacks tokens, and then it will negate 4 monster effects or spell and traps. Not only that, but when it's destroyed, you can special summon one monster from your grave, making sure you don't have an open field.

Now, let's look at some cards you can use against Dragon Rulers

Compulsory Evacuation Device (Trap)
"Target 1 monster on the field; return that target to the hand."

This card works against all of there Xyzs, returning them back to the extra. It's extremely helpful for ridding the field of Dracossack, doesn't matter if he has tokens or not.

Mind Drain (Continuous Trap)
"Activate this card by paying 1000 Life Points. Effects of monsters in the hand cannot be activated."

This card works great in the early game. Note that Dragon Rulers have several ways to destroy your spell and traps, so you have limited time to lock them down.

Soul Drain (Continuous Trap)
"Activate by paying 1000 Life Points. Monster Cards that are banished, as well as monsters in the Graveyard, cannot activate their effects (that start a Chain)."

This card works great in mid game and late game. It keeps them from bringing there Dragon Rulers back from the grave.

Anyways, that was our lesson on Dragon Rulers. Unfortunately, there's not to much to side against them, since neither macro cosmos or imperial iron wall hurts them too much. Anyways more decks will be coming.

-King

That was really great good job on this. I would like to add that Jowgen is another great card against this deck but is mainly only played in Prophecy.

Not exactly against Dragon Rulers, as any of the Baby Dragons can get over him, and Blaster could easily destroy him.

NetherApprentice wrote:

That was really great good job on this. I would like to add that Jowgen is another great card against this deck but is mainly only played in Prophecy.

The reason I did not add jowgen and also fossil dyna pachycephalo is because of the fact that it is very hard to have them in any deck. They hurt you too much, not to mention it can be destroyed by blaster. With Xyzs, Synchros, and even fusions you rarely are using a deck where you don't special summon.