To get the ball rolling on these budget decks, we’ll be looking at a Yugioh deck thats certainly had its fair share of the spotlight, both past and present, and with the last couple of banlists practically giving them all of their toys back, there’s never been a better time to give Blackwings a shot! Many players at my store have played Blackwings and topped tournaments, casual and otherwise (win-a-box tournaments have often inhabited Blackwing decks for us, even when they had restrictions on them, and they’ve never done badly). After Black Whirlwind was unrestricted in 2013, it started to make a showing in YCS’s and regionals alike, before they started to fall off the radar in favor of the Dragon Ruler deck that was dominating the format. However, now that the Dragon Ruler strategy has been severely weakened in the January 2014 banlist, there’s no reason why Blackwings can’t make more of a showing, and this decklist will allow you to go into local tournaments and/or play with friends at a perfectly competent level, while giving wiggle room for you wallet either way; it can easily be improved with rarer cards, or made even cheaper by adding even more economic choices. Most of the Blackwing cards have been repeated numerous times, and their prices show this, meaning it’s really easy to pick these guys up!

(All prices given are the lowest prices taken from various UK websites and eBay averages and are shown in UK£, US players may find that these cards are even cheaper! Prices are also subject to change over time.)

Monsters – 19

Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame (Common – £0.10) x3

Blackwing – Bora the Spear (Common – £0.20) x3

Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow (Common – £0.25) x3

Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn (Common – £0.45) x2

Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind (Rare – £1.50) x1

Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North (Common – £0.25) x3

Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite (Rare – £0.40) x1

Dark Armed Dragon (Common – £1.50) x1

Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness (Rare – £1.50) x1

Total Cost of Monsters – £8.20

Spells – 12

Black Whirlwind (Common – £0.80) x3

Pot of Duality (Common – £2) x3

Mystical Space Typhoon (Common – £0.80) x3

Allure of Darkness (Common – £0.70) x1

Dark Hole (Common – £0.50) x1

Book of Moon (Common – £0.30) x1

Total Cost of Spells – £12.30

Traps – 9

Icarus Attack (Common – £0.50) x3

Mirror Force (Common – £2) x1

Bottomless Trap Hole (Common – £1) x1

Torrential Tribute (Common – £0.50) x1

Compulsory Evacuation Device (Common – £0.30) x1

Delta Crow – Anti Reverse (Common – £0.50) x1

Solemn Warning (Common/Super – £3) x1

Total Cost of Traps – £8.80

Extra Deck – 15

Blackwing Armor Master (Gold Rare – £5) x1

Blackwing Armed Wing (Rare – £1.50) x3

Vortex the Whirlwind (Ultra/Super – £1) x1

Ice Beast Zerofyne (Rare – £1) x2

Number 39: Utopia (Common – £0.25) x1

Gem-Knight Pearl (Rare – £1) x1

Number 50: Blackship of Corn (Super – £3) x1

Maestroke the Symphony Djinn (Super – £2) x1

Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth (Common – £0.50) x1

Stardust Dragon (Super – £2.50) x1

Ally of Justice Catastor (Super – £1) x1

Gagaga Cowboy (Super – £1) x1

Diamond Dire Wolf (Super – £2) x1

Total Cost of Extra Deck – £25.75

Side Deck – 15

Blackwing – Jin the Rain Shadow (Common – £0.10) x1

Mind Control (Common – £0.50) x1

Starlight Road (Rare – £1) x1

Prohibition (Common – £0.30) x2

Gozen Match (Common – £0.80) x2

Delta Crow Anti-Reverse (Common – £0.50) x1

Overworked (Common – £0.70) x2

Seven Tools of the Bandit (Common – £0.10) x1

Swift Scarecrow (Common – £0.50) x2

Battle Fader (Common – £0.50) x2

Total Cost of Side Deck – £7.90

Total Cost of Deck – £62.95

This deck can be made even cheaper if your budget is particularly tight, you can change Pot of Duality to Card for Black Feathers, another common available and save about £4-5, but Duality is card you will likely find yourself using often, so I would recommend grabbing those if possible. Solemn Warning can also be changed for a multitude of cheaper traps, such as Call of the Haunted, Magic Cylinder or Trap Hole, but again, even though Solemn Warning is restricted, it’s well worth getting hold of.

You can improve upon this deck with cards that might cost a little more, but will more than pull their own weight not only in this deck, but in many others. Effect Veiler and Maxx ‘C’ are cards that get used an awful lot by the most competitive of players, and they can be used in almost any deck. The cheapest ones cost around £5-9 on eBay, which might be out of the price range of some, but they certainly pay dividends. The extra deck can be improved with a second Blackwing Armor Master, an Orient Dragon (around £15), Number 66: Master Key Beetle (around £8) and multiple other cards like Evilswarm Exciton Knight or Lavalval Chain, though cards like that cost significantly more.

You have a lot of changeable options available with this deck too, from simple things like adding Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor, to adding a chaos engine with Lightsworn monsters and Chaos Sorcerer/Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning, the choices are quite vast with this deck!

The general Blackwing strategy is relatively well known, though for those who haven’t played them before, the general purpose is to generate card advantage through cards like Black Whirlwind and Shura the Blue Flame, while keeping your creatures persistent with Kalut the Moon Shadow and Blizzard the Far North. Blackwing Armor Master provides a great finisher, as it is difficult to remove from the field, and still supportable by Kalut. Dark Armed Dragon and Gorz provide great aces-in-the-hole that come out of nowhere and proceed to wreck face. A good opening play with the deck is to play Black Whirlwind, and then Shura. This allows you to either search for Kalut, making it difficult for your opponent to attack Shura safely, search for Bora, which can be special summoned and then Rank 4 XYZ plays can be made, or search for Gale, which can be special summoned and then tuned for a Level 7 Synchro. Ice Beast Zerofyne is the Rank 4 go-to card here, as she negates everything on the opponents side of the field, while making herself really big in the process, and stays that way until your next turn. Armor Master will be your obvious Level 7 Synchro play, as again, he provides a solid blockade to your life points, while still being a target for Kalut.

Cards to be aware of that Blackwings don’t like very much are floodgates like Kaiser Coliseum (commonly played in Bujin decks) and persistent monster spot removal, like High Priestess of Prophecy or Machina Fortress. Be aware of these cards and play around them by always having a back up plan, which you should be able to search for through Black Whirlwind. Playing a Sirocco followed by a small swarm can punch through a Priestess or Fortress with enough power to really hurt, if not kill, your opponent. Delta Crow and Mystical Space Typhoon should be sufficient to deal with Kaiser Coliseum and its ilk, provided you know when to use them.

So there is the first of hopefully many decklists posted both by myself and submitted by others, if you have any ideas on how to work on this deck or you’ve played this deck and had some degree of success with it, do leave a comment or post on the Zer0shifted Facebook or Twitter page @zer0shifted, have fun! I also want to hear from you, if you have any budget decks you’d like to see posted up on this site, do send a message on Facebook or Twitter and maybe I’ll be able to put your decklist up on the site too!