Why Are We Weak? A Look Into Volcanics by an old friend

[Steve The Bug]

Hey everyone!  It's your old friend Welche here with something I haven't really discussed before: why aren't Volcanics viable?  I plan to look at a few things ranging from what Volcanics were intended to do, where Konami went wrong, and why the format isn't helping plus anything that comes up along the way.  Anymore of an introduction would be pointless ramblings so why don’t I just jump right in.

 

Table of Contents

 

1. The Original Objective
2. The Hits
3. The Misses
4. Why The Format Doesn't Help
5. In Short

 

1. The Original Objective

Volcanics were created during the GX era, which I’ll admit I know nothing of the meta at the time.  I can’t say much about what direction Konami was looking to move the game in at the time, but I do know what kind of deck they wanted Volcanics to be.  Volcanics were set to fill a niche in Yu-Gi-Oh that no other deck really occupied at the time and no other deck as filled since.

 

Volcanics were based around the idea of not attacking, while using card effects to simulate the effects of attacking.  Blaze Accelerator allows the player to destroy enemy monsters without declaring attacks while Volcanic Slicer and Hammerer were capable of hurting the opponent with inflicting battle damage.  This damage would also be reinforced by the effects of Volcanic Scattershot and Counter who were capable of also causing burn damage.

 

2. The Hits

When I say “the hits”, I’m referring to the cards Konami created that were a success.  The Volcanic cards that served their purposed wonderfully.  These are the cards that make Volcanics playable right now.  I wont say too much about these cards though because they don’t contribute to the weakness of Volcanics.  They are more here to show the kind of cards Volcanics need more of to be successful.

 

[Volcanic Shell Image]

 

Volcanic Shell is the most popular and well-known Volcanic card because it’s effect is so perfect.  It is effectively a weaker version of Sinister Servent, but with cards like Volcanic Recharge it can be almost as good.

 

[Volcanic Rocket Image]

 

I can’t for the life of me remember what this type of card is called.  Basically Konami realized that 3 Blaze Accelerators might not be enough to consistently have on the field, so they created this.  Blaze for days.

 

[Volcanic Scattershot Image]

 

Blaze Accelerator is inherently a -1, but this card can be up to a +4.  Also does burn and stacks the grave setting up Avarice and Royal Firestorm Guards.  Very solid design without being overwhelming.

 

[Royal Firestorm Guards Image]

 

It’s Pot of Avarice but in monster form.  Konami had the foresight that Pot of Avarice was overpowered and would eventually be limited so they created this for Volcanics.  It generates constant advantage.

 

3. The Misses

While Konami is capable of good design, sometimes they just miss by so much it’s hard to believe they were aiming for the same target as you.  I hope to explain what Konami intended with a card, why that intention failed and what they should have done (in my opinion).

 

[Volcanic Blaster Image]

 

The concept of a floater is as old as Yu-Gi-Oh!  Now-a-days, every archetype (ish?) has on and Volcanics got Blaster.  In Blaster, Konami wanted to make a floater that could search for any Volcanic monster regardless of attack power or level without overpowering it. 

 

To do so, they made the card slow.  They forced it to be destroyed in battle.  To wait until your opponent destroys this is a long process, and on that is not even guaranteed.  It is so easy for you opponent to just blow this up with a card effect.  However, this is not really what Konami did wrong.  There were other cards like UFO Turtle that functioned fine at the time.  The real issue was that Volcanic Blaster provided no card benefit.  It only let you rig your next draw.  Floaters need to be +0s when destroyed, not -1s.

 

Personally I see two paths Konami could have taken.  The first path would be to change the activation condition for the effect.  If it activated when Blaster was discarded for Blaze Accelerator (and it only had ~500 ATK), it would function as a +0 while still being useful.  Alternatively they needed to make it add the card straight to a player’s hand.  As is, Blaster just isn’t useful.

 

[Volcanic Recharge Image]

 

Volcanic Recharge was Konami’s first attempt at supporting Volcanics with their own Pot of Avarice.  The goal of Recharge was to allow a player to recharge their deck with more Volcanic Shells or Volcanic Scattershots (or to add any other cards back I guess).

 

What really happened?  Recharge is a -1 that gives no real instant advantage and it was greatly outclassed from the onset by Pot of Avarice and no player ever felt the need to run it.  Fortunately this is a success story.  Konami created Royal Firestorm Guards that I already talked about.  Good on you Konami!

 

[Volcanic Counter Image]

 

I’m actually not to sure what niche in the deck this card was designed to fill.  I think it is just an idea that Konami had that they put into action.  As demonstrated in the anime (in a somewhat illegitimate way) the burn effect from Counter can be quite effective but it is not all-powerful.

 

Counter has such a huge drawback in that it is mandatory.  I’m honestly not quite sure what Konami was thinking when they added it.  This is the easiest card to fix.  If it was not mandatory it could be saved until it would offer a huge burst of damage and it could act as a deterrent from huge monsters beating on you directly.  It’s a shame really.

 

[Volcanic Rat Image]

 

hue

 

4.  Why The Format Doesn’t Help

The format has done nothing to help Volcanics since their release.  This can be boiled down to the speed of the game and the cards Konami banned.  To start: Pot of Avarice.  I’ve said that name a lot before and I will emphasize it again.  Pot of Avarice was amazing in Volcanics.  You could reload your deck with 3 Scattershots and 2 Shells AND draw 2 cards.  It was a Pot of Greed on steroids.  Unfortunately, the formats that followed managed to abuse Pot of Avarice in top tier decks so much that the card needed to be hit by the banlist.

 

They were able to abuse Avarice because of their speed.  Decks could bring out monster after monster after monster each turn filling their graves instantly.   It was fast.  Volcanics on the other hand thrive in a slower meta, where they are given enough turns for the slow 500 a turn burn from Slicer and the 200x burn from Hammerer can take effect.  If the game only lasts three turns, you need to summon Slicer turn 1 and sacrifice it later and you only deal a couple thousand damage at most before you lose.

 

With the advance of the game has also come a huge advance in the amount of Spell and Trap destruction.  Three Mystical Space Typhoons are only the start of a decks ability to remove backrow cards and even with the help of Volcanic Rocket it is really hard for Volcanics to keep up today.

 

5.  In Short

In short?  Volcanics are a victim of poor card design and a card game that is accelerating without any brakes or other way to slow it down.  The only way to survive as a Volcanic player has been to bastardize the deck and shrink it down to the bare bones of Blaze Accelerator and Volcanic shells which is not rewarding to play in the same way as a true Volcanic deck is.

 

Is there any hope?  Not really.  If Konami do not release new support to Volcanics it’s going to keep becoming harder and harder for them to compete with the top decks.  For now we must sit and pray for SD ## The Volcano or something of the sort.  That is all for now, Welche out.

 

 

PLEASE COMMENT <3

yes i got kinda lazy in the end

[Wizarus]

Shell/Rocket/Accelerator is a cool engine but apart from that, nothing. Scattershot is a gimmick now, counter is worse, Firestorm wastes your Normal summon and is waiting to be Veiler'd. Tri-Blaze doesn't bring enough to the table to run it, and Doomfire is a -2 waiting to be hit by a trap. The passive damage just doesn't amount to anything anymore. Volcanic Wall being released would be a step in the right direction, but that's not enough anymore. Volcanics could really use their own Pot of Duplicity, a way to search your Volcanic monsters would be great. Summoner Monk moving to 3 would give them a slight boost. 

[evilfusion]

I like Volcanic Counter, but it doesn't help Volcanics as a Deck. It's more a card to help FIRE based Burn Decks, and it's fun in Fire Kings.

[Steve The Bug]

I like Volcanic Counter, but it doesn't help Volcanics as a Deck. It's more a card to help FIRE based Burn Decks, and it's fun in Fire Kings.

 

That proves that Konami failed when making Volcanics.  The Volcanic deck was meant to be a FIRE based Burn deck, but as Wizarus points out, the real Volcanic deck that sees play is Shell/Rocket/Accelerator.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Ahhh but the thing with counter is that it is completely viable ammo for either accelerator. Combined with having reasonable defense for the archetype it is a three-of in my Volcanic deck, though it goes behind shell, scattershot, and even charcoal inpachi in importance.

[Steve The Bug]

While it is good fodder, I stand by my point that being mandatory makes it too easy to play around.  You're opponent wont be dumb enough to deal too much damage to themselves with it.