The Deck That Never Was #2

I am too lazy to put any links to cards but I am sure most of the cards you know or can search on your own. Now, today’s deck revolves around one of my favorite monsters - Gaia the Fierce Knight.

The Main Card: Gaia the Fierce Knight (“OG Gaia” for short) is a normal monster with nothing really to it. A level 7 with 2300 ATK isn’t great, but it was pretty awesome on the show.

Why This Card: At the beginning, the Gaia Deck idea was bland, with only a fusion supporting it. Throughout the years, though, Gaias started to get more cards and there was a chance that they would have some synergy and become a great deck, like the Red-Eyes Black Dragons. Sadly, they don’t necessarily work together, but a deck can definitely be made with them.

The Strategy: The whole point is to get out your main attackers out quickly and beat your opponent to submission! The deck relies on OG Gaia being a normal type, having decent access to your fusions, and your main synchro being easy to summon.

Useful Cards: I am going to break this deck down by each Gaia card and what works well with them.

1. OG Gaia: Despite being relatively weak for a high level normal monster, it benefits from this fact in many ways. It is easy to search for with Summoner’s Art and later summoned with Ancient Rules. If you want to normal summon it, Trojan Horse and Earth Effigy make it easier to do so. Summoning from the graveyard is a piece of cake as well with cards such as Birthright, Soul Resurrection, and Silent Doom. Even though it may not be the best monster to have on the field considering the options after this, OG Gaia has other benefits. Champion’s Vigilance is a free Solemn Judgment while you have OG Gaia face-up and Justi-Break destroys all monsters that are not Normal Monsters in attack position. Use Non-Spellcasting Area with caution because then you won’t be able to target a face-up OG Gaia with Polymerization.
2. Gaia the Dragon Champion (Fusion Gaia): The fusion isn’t much of an upgrade from the original, but it does become quite interesting. It only gains 300 ATK, but it becomes a fusion, WIND, and Dragon monster as well. Sadly, there is no Hex Fusion for winds yet, but summoning this card is easy with cards like Future Fusion and Dragon’s Mirror (back in the day you’d just use Metamorphosis on OG Gaia). I wouldn’t recommend using Curse of Dragon as material necessarily since it becomes a crappy draw in the game. Being a fusion monster makes it eligible for cards like Re-Fusion, Branch!, Paradox Fusion, etc. Meh, being a WIND type doesn’t change much…
3. Spiral Spear Strike: This card gives all of your OG Gaias, Fusion Gaias, and Dark Gaias the ability to do Pierce Damage, getting through those pesky defense monsters and dealing damage. As an added bonus, if you inflict damage with Fusion Gaia through this effect, you draw two cards and discard one (this is a mandatory effect…). To optimize damage done, I would recommend cards like Ballista of Rampart Smashing, Blind Spot Strike, or any generic card that increases attack. 
4. Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight (Dark Gaia): Dark Gaia is helpful in a pinch. When it is the only card in your hand, you can normal summon it without tribute, but in attack mode. I wouldn’t recommend running too many of these (if any at all) unless you plan to go through your hand quickly, have many traps and spells, or figure a way to make an interesting Gaia/DARK hybrid deck. 
5. Gaia Knight, the Force of the Earth (Synchro Gaia): With the addition of synchro monsters, Gaia decks become more viable. Synchro Gaia is a vanilla monster level 6 synchro with a great 2600 ATK. Since chances are that you are going to be running level 4 monsters (Trojan Horse and Earth Effigy), level 2 tuners are recommended. The best ones are Torapart (makes it safer for this card to attack) and Jutte Fighter (switch monsters to defense mode and have your other Gaias benefit from Spiral Spear). Though Synchro Gaia is a good beatstick and is mainly the building block to your ultimate attacker, you do get access to Synchro Gift (before you fuse) and Battle Waltz (extra beatstick) to reinforce your beatdown strategy.
6. Gaia Drake, the Universal Force (Super Gaia): Though summoning this card does not guarantee a win, he is pretty damn cool. Monster effects can not touch him! His summoning conditions can be easily met with two Synchro Gaias and Miracle Synchro Fusion is pretty handy, tough you can substitute the necessary Synchro Gaia with a fusion substitute (The Earth - Hex-Sealed Fusion to fuse on the field!). Summoner of Illusions actually might be viable here as well because Super Gaia survives Summoner’s negative effect at the end of the turn.
7. Other Cards: You’d probably want to use generic warriors and support here, to go with the theme. Since this deck does revolve around synchro and fusion summoning, why not use Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste. Also, Elemental HERO Prisma can be useful for summoning Fusion Gaia and also adds the E-Hero dimension to the deck, which can then use E-Heros like Elemental HERO Gaia (FITS THE THEME!). Since you might be removing from play a lot to summon your stronger monsters, cards like Return from the Different Dimension, Dimension Explosion, and D.D.R - Different Dimension Reincarnation might be helpful.

Problems With This Deck: Gaias are not self-sufficient and rely A LOT on support from other cards when it comes to summoning themselves and overrunning the opponent. OG Gaia and Fusion Gaia are relatively weak compared to other powerhouses of the same level. Despite Gaia branching out to almost every kind of monster (Normal, Effect, Fusion, Synchro, and maybe XYZ later?), it has received little support. I am still waiting for a Gaia evolution card! If that comes out, I will definitely play a Gaia deck!

Highlights: The Gaia deck is actually pretty versatile and can lead to many variations. Remove from play, E-hero, and even a general EARTH deck are all possible. XYZ monsters can be helpful as well, especially if you want to use Rank 7s. 

So, for now, I will wait off on my Gaia deck. It actually seems like it would be pretty fun to play with and is definitely better than the last deck I reviewed. :)