Weekly Article #2 : Stay out of the tall grass!

I'd like to introduce you to one of my favourite card and one of the reason Plants are one of my favourite types; Black Garden. For those who are unfamilliar with the card:

Spoiler:

A. How to use Black Garden

Although you can't see ways to abuse it with a first glance,breaking the effect down will reveal many tricks.

1. When a monster is Normal or Special Summoned, except by the effect of "Black Garden", halve its ATK....

An nice way to start keeping the game under control with Black Garden is to summon Tytannial via Lonefire Blossom or to normal summon a strong Level 4 monster and then activate Black Garden. However,you cannot win with 1 monster and that monster could be easily destroyed in a turn or 2. That means that you'll need to know how to work under Black Garden. As you see,the words "Flip Summon" appear nowhere in the first sentence. That means that if you set your monster first then Flip Summon it in a later turn,your monster is unaffected by "Black Garden. You can take advantage of this by setting monsters with strong DEF,like Botanical Lion,a monster with 2000 DEF and 1900 ATK (at first) with a nice Mind Control immunity.

In addition,Black Garden's first effect is a mandatory one,which means that it will be Chain Link 1 during a summon,which means that neither player can call priority to activate the effect of a monster as Chain Link 1. You can take advantage of this by using Bottomless Trap Hole to that JD/DAD/Whatever before it can threaten your cards.

As for the attack halving,it also "freezes" the ATK of the monster. If it affects a monster that increases it's own ATK like King of Skull Servants or Botanical Lion,both monsters' ATK will remain the same even if the number of Skull Servants on the graveyard or the number of Plants on the field, (respectively) changes.

2. ...and Special Summon 1 "Rose Token" (Plant-Type/DARK/Level 2/ATK 800/DEF 800) to its controller's opponent's side of the field, in Attack Position.

This means that your opponent gets tokens when you Normal/Special Summon and you get tokens when your opponent Normal/Special Summons. Since your Deck will be build around Black Garden,you shouldn's have much trouble. However,most Decks rely on Special Summoning lots of monsters. Having their big monsters' ATK halved combined with the free tokens you get will put a lot of pressure to your opponent.

These tokens can be used in numerous ways. Firstly,tribute fodder for Tytannial,rendering you immune to targeting as long as you have tokens,or Pollinosis,making it a free Solemn. You can also Tribute Set a strong monster like Tytannial to escape from Black Garden's effect. However,I suggest doing this only if you are desperate or you have complete control.

You can also boost the tokens with Solidarity to a respectable 1600 ATK if you run pure Plants,as well as the rest of your monsters,or you could use Rampage Fight to boost only the tokens to 1800 (both yours and your opponents) and make the Attack Position ones immune to battle destruction (again,both yours and your opponents).

The tokens also boost Botanical Lion. It is not uncommon for it to reach 2800 or 3100 ATK in a game.

Last but not least,you can summon a monster when you have a stronger one to use the token your opponent gets as an opening to his/her life points.

3.You can destroy this card and all face-up Plant-Type monsters on the field and Special Summon 1 monster with ATK equal to the total ATK of those monsters from your Graveyard.

Finally,we have a self-popping effect,even though its a situational one. Since Rose Tokens have 800 ATK,you can Special Summon a monster with ATK dividable by 800 and then summon without being restricted by Black Garden. Some monsters worth mentioning are Botanical Lion with 1600 ATK and Black Rose Dragon with 2400 ATK (remember,it is not limited to Plants). There are also many other combinations of Plant monsters that can be on the field and monsters that can be revived,but I won't mention them here,since most are hard to pull off and it would take up too much space.

B. How to counter Black Garden

Like every card,Black Garden has it's counters (if it didn't,it would probably be in the banlist).

Firstly,Black Garden is a field card,so you can take advantage of the weakness to Spell destruction. Even without Heavy Storm,there are numerous ways to destroy Black Garden. Mystical Space Typhoon,Dust Tornado,Spell Shattering Arrow (trust me,you'll have this in your side deck for Six Sams),Malevolent Catastrophe and many more. For people who use Field Spells in their deck,bear in mind that activating a new Field Spell will remove the old. This is a double-eged sword,since both players can destroy easily each other's field.

If you cannot destroy Black Garden,try to turn the tide to your favour. The first thing you must do is get rid of the opponent's monster. Cards like Smashing Ground,Fissure,Dark Hole,Dimensional Prison and Mirror Force will work fine. If you are in a situation where your opponent has Tytannial and a bunch of Plant monsters,effects that target are out of the question. If you're in that situation but you also fear Pollinosis,activate a Trap Stun/Royal Decree beforehand.

When you leave your opponent monsterless (yay for new words!), try to Flip Summon one of your own. Do not worry about setting something with 900 DEF,since if you count the half attack from Black Garden,the opponent will need to summon something with more that 1800 ATK to destroy your monster. In case your opponent pulls something with more ATK,be sure to have some protection cards like Book of Moon and Dimensional Prison.

C. Sample Decklist

Monsters:

X3 Botanical Lion (beatstick that works well under Black Garden due to strong DEF)
X1 Glow-Up Bulb (Staple in Plants)
X2 Lonefire Blossom (Staple in Plants)
X1 Spore (Staple in Plants)
X2 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias (Staple in Plants,I use 2 here because it has potential here to lead to victory)
X2 Cactus Bouncer (Beatstick that locks Special Summons.)
X1 Dandylion (Fodder for Tytannial/Pollinosis. I use 1 beacause it's not that useful under Black Garden)
X3 Thunder King Rai-Oh (Beatstick with a nice effect)
X1 Snowman Eater (Filler. This + Debris + Gungnir and is a nice way to open)
X2 Debris Dragon (Easy Dragon Synchros)

Spells:

X3 Black Garden (read the article)
X2 Terraforming (Black Garden searcher)
X1 Dark Hole
X1 Monster Reborn
X3 Book of Moon (Defence)
X2 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps:

X2 Bottomless Trap Hole
X1 Mirror Force
X1 Torrential
X1 Solemn Judgment
X2 Pollinosis (Easy to activate with Black Garden/Dandylion)
X3 Solemn Warning

Bear in mind that this is a sample decklist, not the best one. Experiment with the deck and feel free to alter it so that it fits your playstyle.


I guess that concludes the article. I believe that Black Garden is a card with a lot of potential and an experienced duelist can do something wonderful with it.

Awesome and detailed. Easy to read. Really helpful :D
+1 rep and 300 credits cashed.

Very good article Terra i always got confused over priority with black garden!
The decklist is very good as well!
You earned your +1 from me :)

Really nice article.I guess +1 from me too

Edit:Just saw that i don't have nuff posts for the rep. xD

Thank you all. Sorry for making it so late. I'll try to meet the deadlines next time.

This article is very nice and easy-to-read. I liked it's structure.
+1

To fend off Black Garden you need to have side choices so it's realy annoying, at least for the kind of decks i usualy run.

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