Piper Chaos in the March 2012 format.

You know how sometimes there is that deck you take one look at and say "wow, I really want to run that!" For me, Piper Chaos wasn't that deck. In fact, Dragunity was the last theme/strategy to suck me in and turn me into a die-hard player. I enjoy summoning Dux way too much, and it has become my favorite deck of all time (second would be Debu Hime, which sadly had a short life). Mystic Piper, to me, was a stupid card with a dumb effect that wasn't broken and didn't do good stuff. Okay, that's an exaggeration. I just wasn't interested, especially in the format that it was released. EXVC was all about T.G. for me.

Fast forward to the current banlist, and I'm now sitting on a nearly complete Piper Chaos deck wondering where to go from here. The format is still very young, and the competition is steep. I have no desire to give up Dragunity, but I feel that branching out would be a good thing, especially given the hugely varied play styles of both strategies. More on that in a bit. At any rate, Piper peaked my interest about two months ago and I've been toying with the idea of running it ever since then. Now, with this new format, I'm thinking that Piper might actually be even better than people give it credit for.

Piper Chaos: T1.5?

There are three main reasons why this deck is not only great this format, but near top tier (if only people would play it).

1. It's a defensive, low field-commitment deck.
2. Many plays are difficult to disrupt
3. Counter-tech is easy to run

Playing Goalie

If I could describe Piper Chaos in one word, it would be 'defensive'. The deck, much like Lightsworns, is based around keeping your lifepoints safe and interacting with the opponent only when you want to. In the case of LS, you are waiting to summon Judgment Dragon. With Piper, it is Caius and your Chaos monsters putting in most of the work. Battle Fader, Tragoedia, and Gorz serve as a defensive wall that keeps opposing monsters from dealing too much damage, while at the same time allowing you to keep most of your cards in hand. Even if your field is destroyed, you still can block attacks and make a strong play next turn.

This is almost exactly the opposite of Dragunity, where protecting your field with Stardust Dragon is the basic strategy. Committing large numbers of cards to the field is a necessity, and board control is your win condition. Piper doesn't care if it has a field or not, it just wants to stay alive and make plays. It's interesting to note how the two decks differ. Is one more well suited for the format that the other? Last format we saw Courtney Waller win a YCS with a deck that plays very similarly to Piper Chaos. 

With the prevalence of Xyz monsters Tragoedia has lost some of its luster. Alternatives like Threatening Roar come to mind, but Enemy Controller is probably just as useful at times. Other options like Reckless Greed or Forbidden Lance open up plays to beat out most Xyz monsters through sheer attack, and make Tragoedia very threatening again. You can actually use it for your own Xyz summons too, or make Utopia with their level four monsters by discarding, then targeting in the grave, one of your own. It's certainly an interesting card that few people are playing.

Battle Fader is simply amazing in Piper Chaos. At level one it fulfills Piper's effect and will occasionally net you an extra draw. It is also great food for Caius, a devastating card this format if you can dodge Effect Veiler. The key to playing Fader is to wait until the opponent tries to secure a field position. Caius and the Chaos monsters mop up opposing positions pretty easily, and it's almost too funny to watch the opponent run out of outs just as you drop another heavy hitter. Fader lets you keep cards off the field and out of Hornet's reach. It forces the Rabbit player to summon Dolkka, and leaves them exposed to Creature Swap and Smashing Ground.

"I Got Nothin"

Yes, Kinka-Byo loses to Veiler, Chain Disappearance, Fiendish Chain, and to a lesser extent, D.D. Crow and Maxx "C". On the other hand, the bigger monsters in the deck can easily follow a failed Kinka-Byo play and are often much less susceptible to those counters. If the opponent wants to put another dark in the grave, they certainly can. The beauty of this strategy is that you don't have to rely on that basic play. It's not your win condition. Even if the opponent counters you that turn, the deck packs enough defense to hold out until next turn. Rinse and repeat.

"I Got Everything"

Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow are so easy to run in Piper Chaos that it seems as though this format was made for them. I can easily see a Piper deck running two each of the three major hand traps. This gives the deck most space to side, and more mained outs to the top tier (and most rouge matchups). It can also run Rai-Oh effectively, a card that has fallen out of play due to many of this format's decks either not needing it, or being unable to run it themselves. Rai-Oh is still as good as ever and is simply underplayed. Nothing stops Xyz monsters better than the Thunder King himself.

It's late so I'll have to wrap this up quickly (I've got a lot to write tomorrow too, so I can't wear myself out). tl;dr, Piper Chaos has a lot of potential this format, mostly because it plays very differently (and advantageously) than many of the other decks commonly used. Until next time then.