Chaos Recruiter, in Goat Format, is a concept that is actually somewhat modern. Though recruiters have been around since Magic Ruler dropped, they only saw sporadic play. Mystic Tomato saw the most, especially before Goat Format was live, notably in Tomato Control during the era of Yata-Garasu. But they’ve fallen by the wayside in the modern era, be it current or in Goat Format. Except when it comes to Chaos Recruiter.

Chaos Recruiter relies on Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel to fill the graveyard to summon Chaos Sorcerer. It’s a surprisingly powerful and aggressive deck for a number of reasons. Like usual, we’ll take a look at the list, then talk about the card choices, then switch to basic strategy.

Let’s delve into it, shall we?

Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format – The Deck

You can head over to Format Library to learn more about Recruiter Chaos and its variants. The list in this article is pulled from Format Library, and is Kris Perovic’s build. The Seraphim build drops the two copies of Tsukuyomi for a third Mystic Tomato and a third Book of Moon. However, there’s debate as to which is better, so I recommend you try both and see which one is right for you.

Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format – Monsters

Let’s start from the top. Asura Priest is a great monster in this deck because it’s a LIGHT monster, it synergizes incredibly well with Creature Swap, and it gets over a lot of the things that can stop recruiters from getting in chunks of damage.

Asura Priest is great in just about any deck in Goat Format, especially in Pre-Exarion, but definitely shines here. Breaker the Magical Warrior is also a staple of the format, and a DARK, so its inclusion is natural.

Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer are your main Chaos monsters – these are staples. Unlike some variants of Chaos, Recruiter runs 3x Chaos Sorcerer and 1x Black Luster Soldier. It wants to see them as quickly as possible since the graveyard is generally easy to set up.

D.D. Warrior Lady and Magician of Faith are your main non-Angel pulls from Shining Angel. D.D. Warrior Lady tends to be the one you go into once you’ve exhausted your copies of Shining Angel, but Magician of Faith can work too if you have a Tsukuyomi in hand. Either way, both are seen at one and two copies, respectively, for this reason.

Mystic Tomato is played at two copies as is Newdoria. Tomato is the DARK recruiter, and it’s main use is to either fetch Sangan or Newdoria. Both are good cards. But Newdoria’s inclusion is quite useful as well. Note that Tomato, Sangan, and Newdoria all replace themselves if destroyed by battle (Sangan has the added benefit of searching if destroyed by a card effect).

This is a key tenet of this deck. Note too that Newdoria doesn’t have to destroy the monster that destroyed it, but rather it can destroy any monster on the field. This opens up a lot of options while simultaneously forcing your opponent to play around it.

Tsukuyomi, of course, is a prime Sangan target as well as the main out to Thousand-Eyes Restrict, a card this deck struggles against.

And considering this weakness, it’s almost surprising that Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format doesn’t play Tribe-Infecting Virus or Sinister Serpent. But that’s by design – this deck is streamlined to focus on recruiters and generating overwhelming card advantage. Tribe runs counter to that, and opposing Delinquent Duo plays really don’t hinder the deck as much as you might think.

Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format – Spells

Book of Moon of course is a pretty standard spell in most decks. The ability to out problematic monsters, protect your own by battle, stop opposing Thousand-Eyes plays, and recycle flip monsters are just some of the things that Book of Moon can do for a deck. It’s not surprising it’s included here.

Two copies works better than three considering the deck plays five recruiters, Sangan, as well as two copies of Tsukuyomi. So using Book to maintain board presence isn’t as crucial as it is in other Chaos variants. Two copies also compliments the two flip monsters the deck runs as well.

Creature Swap has insane synergy with both the recruiter monsters and the spirit monsters of the deck. You can swap over Tomato, Angel, Sangan, Asura Priest or Tsukuyomi with ease.

Note that using Creature Swap is technically a -1, so you’re going to want to use it when you know you can generate advantage off it. In this regard it’s important to know when to play it so as to maximize its value, which can be spotty. Typically, swapping over a recruiter to take an aggressive card is the way to play it. And the more you play with Recruiter Chaos, the more you start to understand just how good Creature Swap is in this deck.

The main drawback of Creature Swap is that an opponent can activate Scapegoat to swap a token over to you. That’s definitely a great way to mitigate the power of Creature Swap, so if you’re playing Recruiter Chaos you have to set your swap plays up appropriately so as not to simply waste it to get a useless goat token.

The rest of the spells of the deck are staples, with the notable omission of Scapegoat and Metamorphosis. Scapegoat has negative synergy with recruiters because the deck often has more than one monster on the field at any time.

Note too that this iteration of Chaos doesn’t need Card Destruction, as it doesn’t play any monsters that synergize well with it. And since the deck doesn’t play any Scapegoat – or, really, any 1 Star monsters other than Magician of Faith – Metamorphosis is going to be wasted in the deck.

This is part of the reason why Chaos Recruiter is built the way it is. It doesn’t have access to Thousand-Eyes Restrict or Ryu Senshi, so the deck has to make up for those disadvantages in other ways. It does this by playing unconventionally and maintaining card advantage at all times, then dropping Chaos Sorcerer at the most opportune moments to disrupt the opponent.

The deck also doesn’t play Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted. Really, there’s not a lot you can do with them, as once your recruiters hit the graveyard they have better synergy with the rest of the deck as chaos fodder than anything. Chaos often omits Premature and Call anyway, so it’s not surprising they are not included here.

Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format – Traps

The trap lineup of Chaos Recruiter is pretty basic. Two copies of Dust Tornado are useful in catching a lot of things, and is definitely a better choice over Sakuretsu Armor in this build. This is because you want your opponent to destroy your monsters, as you have plenty of other ways to get around their aggressive options.

But you still need to be able to destroy monsters you can’t easily out, which is why Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, and Ring of Destruction are all included.

Trap Dustshoot is one of the main cards that makes the deck function as well as it does. Dustshoot is phenomenal and if it’s not in your main deck it should probably be in your side deck. This goes for almost any deck in the format, not just Chaos or Goat Control.

Dustshoot is invaluable in Recruiter Chaos because the information you glean about your opponent’s hand allows you to play your cards more optimally while also limiting your opponent’s options. Being able to send back a problematic monster that you don’t want to face, or that your hand doesn’t match up well against, is a great effect. But knowing what else your opponent can throw at you is almost as important.

Dustshoot also helps mitigate the fact that the deck can’t play Metamorphosis. You don’t need to rely on cards like Thousand-Eyes Restrict if you’re maintaining field presence and you know what your opponent is trying to do.

It also allows you to change how you approach various matchups as well as your plays in-game. This is vitally important because you have to know when you’re able to get those chunks of damage in with your recruiters – or, conversely, play passively and wait for those shots to open up.

Chaos Recruiter in Goat Format – Strategy

Pre-Side Strategy

Like with any Goat Format deck, passive aggression is key to winning. And with Chaos Recruiter, it’s no different. But Chaos Recruiter is a much different beast than Chaos Control or Chaos Turbo.

The best way to get the deck going is to start by putting recruiters on the board and seeing how your opponent reacts to them. That’s a big part of Chaos Recruiter – it’s a passive deck that can be aggressive thanks to the recruiters.

I’ve talked before about how Shining Angel is an aggressive early game card. Mystic Tomato is the same in that regard. Chaos Recruiter takes this to the next level because the deck puts your opponent in a bind: do they destroy your recruiters by battle, or do they let them stay on your field?

With the first, they fill your grave while also allowing you to maintain board presence. With the second they end up letting you stay up on the summon and may not be able to mount an effective counter. Either way they’re going to have to deal with it eventually. But a lot of people tend to misplay against recruiters, especially if they’re unfamiliar with the deck itself, which gives the recruiter player a small advantage.

You should mostly be looking to put in chunks of damage while also maintaining card advantage and board presence. Rely on your recruiters to replace themselves and try to commit as little as possible to the board. You have fewer options for dealing with problem monsters, so you want to make sure that you use what outs you do have on cards that you’ll have a hard time getting over.

Using your traps effectively is a must. Gunning Trap Dustshoot as soon as you draw it seems like a good play, but Dustshoot needs to be used better than that in most instances. This is because your opponent will draw cards, and after a few turns the information you get from Dustshoot will be worthless.

So when you play Dustshoot, you need to know how you’re going to proceed afterward. Gunning Dustshoot just to have to play passive isn’t always the best.

Post-Side Strategy

I’m not as well-versed with Chaos Recruiter because I’m not a big fan of the deck itself. But that being said, you’re going to want to have a side deck that is versatile and able to handle decks that pose a threat to you. More importantly, you need to understand how your opponent may end up combating your deck.

Legendary Jujitsu Master is surprisingly good at countering Recruiter Chaos because it removes recruiters from the board. A Jujitsu master effectively nullifies any aggression that recruiters give you. More importantly, Jujitsu Master makes it harder to stay up on the summon. This is problematic since Chaos Recruiter really wants to stay up on the summon. I love Jujitsu Master in my Standard Goat side deck. It’s a versatile card that can punish aggression and get you up on the summon.

Other cards that are decent against Recruiters include Trap Dustshoot, of course, and Mind Control to an extent. Trap Dustshoot more so than Mind Control, considering Recruiter Chaos doesn’t play a lot of good targets for it. Mind Control works a lot better against Chaos decks that are packing a lot of flip effects.

Creature Swap is actually less useful against Chaos Recruiter, but cards like Solemn Judgment may be used instead.

Both Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and King Tiger Wanghu saw play in the most recent Format Library Championship. These could end up as prominent counters to Chaos as the meta evolves. Kycoo is a solid Chaos counter and can be detrimental against Recruiters, as the deck doesn’t really play anything to stop it.

King Tiger Wanghu forces you to play your recruiters face down, lest they be destroyed on summon. More importantly, Wanghu’s effect will destroy anything you summon off a recruiter card. This is rather devastating for this deck, so you’re going to want to find ways to mitigate the threat if you see them playing it post-side.

Solemn Judgment is an option for the Chaos Recruiter side, as it can effectively stop just about any threat. One-for-one destruction cards such as Smashing Ground are potential options, as are cards like Tribe-Infecting Virus. Mobius the Frost Monarch or Zaborg the Thunder Monarch can synergize well with the recruiters, too, as they’re tribute monsters.

Using them will depend on what you’re facing. If you know your opponent is packing cards like Jujitsu Master, Kycoo, or King Tiger, Zaborg may be a good side choice. I like Mobius in most of my side decks as it works well at countering spell and trap floodgates.

Ultimately, what you side will be up to you, but like always, you have to prepare for what you expect to face.

Conclusion

I personally don’t think that Chaos Recruiter is the best Chaos variant. But it is definitely one of them. And really, it’s not a bad deck. It can be explosive, especially if you’re up against an opponent who doesn’t know how to deal with recruiters. But overall the deck is resilient and can win games. It doesn’t see as much play as the other variants, but you should be prepared for it and understand how it works.

That’s it for this time. As always, make sure to bookmark us for all the latest in Goat Control, modern, Trinity, and everything else Yu-Gi-Oh!. You can contact myself any time at [email protected], and make sure to check out our server on Discord.