Ben Kei Warriors

[raybomb]

This thread is for the discussion of the article "Ben Kei Warriors" by Eddie Quesada. You can find it here - http://www.duelyugioh.com/db/article.asp?id=1048

Discuss!

[Gil Grissom]

When I did a few test draws with this deck, and then over viewing the deck again, I found one major flaw. Not enough removal. You hardly have anything to counter possible traps such as Sakuretsu Armor and Dust Tornado which are two of the most popular trap cards currently played in the metagame. In addition, though your Ben Kai can handle a lot of this, you don't have much monster removal. I wouldn't 100% rely on Ben Kai being your number one monster removal. Fix these areas with cards like Giant Trunade and the deck may duel better than what I test drawed.

[Rurikarakusa]

I have played a successful Ben Kei deck before, winning 5th at Regionals with it, during the reign of Chaos no less.
Playing a Ben Kei deck takes alot of skill and perfect timing.

Let's first look at the strengths and weaknesses of a Ben Kei deck...

Strengths:
Obviously, Ben Kei is a OTK card.
Being a Warrior gives him advantages from Command Knight and RotA, and being Dark makes him searchable by Mystic Tomato (if you so desire).

Weaknesses:
Biggest one - Card Advantage. If you run a fully equipped Ben Kei into a Sakuretsu Armor, that will usually leave you with one or two cards left in your hand. That is not good in a deck that uses equip cards like this. Not only do you lose your main monster, but you lose two, three, maybe even four equip cards also.

You have to be able to do two things before you can attack with Ben Kei: stall and clear the field.

With that in mind, here is a sample Ben Kei deck...

Monsters:
Cybernetic Magician
Airknight Parshath
D.D. Assailant
D.D. Assailant
D.D. Warrior Lady
Command Knight
Command Knight
Big Shield Guardna
Armed Samurai - Ben Kei
Armed Samurai - Ben Kei
Armed Samurai - Ben Kei
Mataza the Zapper
Mataza the Zapper
Marauding Captain
Marauding Captain
Spirit Reaper
Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu
Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu
Morphing Jar
Magician of Faith

Spells:
United We Stand
Mage Power
Axe of Despair
Axe of Despair
Axe of Despair
Big Bang Shot
Big Bang Shot
Heavy Storm
Dark Hole
Mystical Space Typhoon
Giant Trunade
Giant Trunade
Premature Burial
Snatch Steal
Swords of Revealing Light
Reinforcement of the Army
Reinforcement of the Army

Traps:
Royal Decree
Collected Power
Good Goblin Housekeeping
Good Goblin Housekeeping
Call of the Haunted
Sakuretsu Armor

Now, and explaination.
Monsters:
Cybernetic Magician has very nice synergy with Ben Kei. If you can manage to get them both on the field at the same time, you can boost Ben's attack to 2000, then equip it up for a bigger hit.
Airknight is one of the only decent drawing power cards left.
D.D. Assailant is awsome removal. Plus, it can help you out of alot of tight spots. Great synergy with Command Knight and Marauding Captain.
D.D. Warrior Lady - same as D.D. Assailant.
Command Knight - Attack-boosting warrior. A must have in this deck!
Big Shield Guardna - Great Stall, an excellent Nobleman detterent, and a big surprise for your opponent!
Armed Samurai - Ben Kei - No explaination needed.
Mataza the Zapper - Awsome in this deck. Equipped with even one Axe, this little double-attacking warrior becomes a monster.
Marauding Captain - Swarm, plain and simple.
Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu - Equip searcher. Watch out for Noblemans though, if these get hit, it will significally slow your deck.
Spirit Reaper - Stall incarnate.
Morphing Jar - The biggest draw engine there is at the moment.
Magician of Faith - Self-explainitory

Now, the spells...
United We Stand - Awsome with the swarm!
Mage Power - Awsome with the amount of equips you're using!
Axe of Despair - Best ATK-boosting equip there is. No flaws, no drawbacks, just plain and simple ATK boost.
Big Bang Shot - This is the ultimate multi-purpose card. Enemy monster removal? This and Giant Trunade make that possible. Great defense? Equip it to your enemy's Jinzo with nothing but a Magician of Faith in DEF, and go ahead and let them attack! Piercing effect? Yes, it does that too.
Heavy Storm
Dark Hole
Mystical Space Typoon
Giant Trunade - All this is removal. Ben Kei needs to attack an open field. If there is anything on the field, you risk losing your advantage.
Reinforcement of the Army - Warrior search. 'Nuff said.

And lastly, the traps.
Royal Decree - Lets face it, the biggest thing Ben Kei has to worry about is a well-placed trap. This is the stop-all for that. Run one, please.
Collected Power - I bet many of you are like "Eh? Collected Power?". Yes, this is a great card for this deck. Imagine this; two Ben Keis on the field, one equipped with two axes, and the other is equipped with none. Attack three times with the equipped Ben Kei, then use Collected Power to change all those axes to your other Ben Kei and finish the job. Try it, you'll like it.
Good Goblin Housekeeping - Your Pot replacement. Try it out, you'll like it.
Call of the Haunted - Need I explain?
Sakuretsu Armor - Removal. Good removal.

Well, there's my two-cents.
Have fun with your Ben Kei decks!

[ensabehnur]

Ben Kei seems to work well, i have read before its a hand management issue and patience is important in a ben kei deck, you wait for Trunade, Ben Kei and as many equips as possible, (is premature considered an equip if used to bring back Ben Kei), You trunade the oppponents spell trap zone and you want meteor crush and axe and another good srong equip like mage and then you break loose, it works well and patience is important.

1200+1000+1500(mage power)+0(trample)=3700x4=GAME, with two equips you get 3 attaks, ben kei is really powerful and can easily be seen taking regionals or SJC at this point.

Why not run a swords to stall for time. Never mind you got one.

Great article, great deck

[Drift]

his deck was alright but the one rurikarakuse amde is alittle better, Gil is right you need more removal and decree is a must.

[Shadowknight]

To Rurikarakusa, this deck does not, has not and never will contain Chaos cards, this includes D.D. Assailant and D.D. Warrior Lady. I don't like Parshath becuase he is only 1900 for a five star, You don't use morphing jar becuase you might discard all of your equipments, and your deck is a Warrior Swarm with an attempt at trying to run a full Ben Kei. Jar of greed is a better thinner than Good Goblin Housekeeping because nothing goes back to your deck. Now, onto the Cybernetic Magician. I don't have it so I can't use it. Anyway, I've playtested my deck the way it is, and I've beaten every deck i've played. ((I went to a tourney last week and won first....again....)) Anyways, back to my point. Your deck is a Warrior with Ben kei as an OTK just in case. My deck has plenty of stallers, Obnoxious and Command Knight. If I get both command knights in my first hand and I can easily boost my Obnoxious to over 1900 attack to prevent him from gettting destroyed. I have plenty of stallers, plenty of draws and I run Sangan so that I can search any monster in my deck.

[Rurikarakusa]

Sorry~
I wasn't bashing your deck or your deck-building skills.
Don't get me wrong, when I ran Ben Kei, my deck looked nearly identical to the one you built. Over the many months that I played it, however, I realized the weaknesses of the deck, and found ways to improve it. But that's just me. Everyone has thier own style of play, thier own personal banned cards (for me, it's Jinzo ;)), and thier own way to win. I was just showing an alternative way to play Ben Kei to yours, not a replacement.

But, just because I'm a bastard like that, let's look at your arguments.
D.D. Assailant and Warrior Lady are "Chaos" cards? Wow, that's a new term for them, and D.D.A. being Earth-attribute and all... I used to not want to run them because of thier popularity (overuse), but I can't help but admit that they are overused for a reason. They're good. And just because they remove stuff from play does not make them Chaos.
Parshath is weak, yes, but how many cards in the game in this new format allow you this drawing power? And let's not forget, you are running an Equip deck! Worried about his ATK? Boost it!
Morphing jar is the best bet for drawing a person has anymore. Remember what I mentioned about timing? Right after your Ben Kei hits an uncleared Sakuretsu Armor, you're going to need something to replinish your hand.
If you prefer Jar of Greed over Good Goblin Housekeeping, that's your choice also. Again, that's just my preference and an offered alternative.
The line-up I have for my deck isn't a "just in case" line-up, it's too weak for that. My chosen line-up is only for clearing the field so that my Ben Kei can have an open attack.
Lastly, not that I'm doubting you, because I have no reason to, but if you've beaten every deck you've played, then you haven't played any seriously competitive decks. I've played Ben Kei since BEFORE FET was released, I built a proxy deck when I heard about the card. I've tried this deck every way it can possibly be played. I've tried it by itself, with Chaos, with Gearfried, with weenie warriors, with Zombies, even with Guardians. I've playtested this deck an unbelieavable amount of times, and this is just what works best for me.
Again, sorry I stole your thunder on that article, but Ben Kei is what I'm best at, I had to add my two-cents.


P.S. If you'd like, we could playtest these decks against each other, just for fun! PM me if you're interested!

[Drift]

Chaos cards, this includes D.D. Assailant and D.D. Warrior Lady.
are you kidding dont ever put those word CHAOS in front of D.D. Assailant and D. D. Warrior lady. Warrior lady was out way before "Chaos" even came out.


Now, onto the Cybernetic Magician. I don't have it so I can't use it.
You should def get it think about ben kai starting at 2000 instead of 500. and its a 1 tribute card so your not going to hurt your self.

Now you guys both have great decks that have alot of different cards and tactics in them, so to go off and say mines better, no mines better is insane. if everybody played the same decks i again bring up "Chaos".

you guys probbly both play in defferent areas where different things work. Where i play a ben kai deck would get ripped apart even if it is as good as these.

[Shadowknight]

You are right Drift, We play in different areas, so what is competitive is prolly different in our areas, I have played guys that made 2nd and 3rd in Regionals with this deck and won, that's why I even bothered to post it. Anyway, there is no point in arguing about it, so I won't anymore, oh and something else, I call the DD assailant and Warrior Lady Chaos cards because they are one of the main staples in a chaos deck