Spectral Duke Dragon is one of the top decks in the TCG, earning the top spot on the 2012 world tournament and still prevalent among the DOTE/MLB format today. Why is this deck still good, even though the highest it'll hit for is 19,000? The answer isn't in the card itself. It's what leads up to the card, otherwise called the "Ride Chain". SDD is one of the best ride chains in the TCG today, with each stage of the chain you can retire one Gold Paladin unit to call 2 cards from the top of your deck to your field, with an exception to Black Dragon Whelp, Vortiemr, which allows you to check the top 7 cards of your deck for either the grade 2 or 3 of the ride chain.
Grade 0:
Of course the deck starts with Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer, the starting Vanguard is extremely important to any deck. The trigger lineup of SDD can vary. Some players like to play a balance of 6 draws and 6 criticals, others like to play 8 criticals and 4 draws. It all depends on how you like to play.
Grade 1:
The start of the chain is Scout of Darkness,Vortimer, so it's an easy given for 4 of him. The trick to this deck is the grade 1 lineup, however. I play an aggro build myself, so I run 4 Gareths, 4 Halo Shields and 2 Sleygal Dagger. Other builds can use cards like Dindrane, which when called from the deck can soul blast 1 to draw 1 card. Others use War Horse, Raging Storm which allows you to fix the ride chain should you miss it.
Grade 2:
The usual 4 Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer. This lineup can vary, either an aggro build, runnign 4 Beaumains, the 10k beater. Or using Lop Ear Shooter, discard 1 Gold Paladin when called from the deck, to check the top 3 cards and call a Gold Paladin unit at rest. Almost all Gold Paladin decks use Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane, it's a counterblast 1 to call a unit from the top of your deck, pretty decent imo.
Grade 3:
3 or 4 Spectral Duke, given. Here's where you can have some fun. I like to run Giagantech Destroyer, boosted by Gareth for 20k columns. Garmore can be teched in for emergency purposes, and Chrome Jailer Dragon can be played with this deck for the lulz.
Well that's my breakdown of the Spectral Duke Dragon deck and its variants, let me know what you think, comments, tips, anything I missed, let me know.
