Archetype Profile: Crystal Beasts

The Crystal Beasts have and always will be my favorite archetype. With the ability to manifest themselves in the form of crystals after death, a well-played Crystal Beast deck can really control the flow of a duel, allowing you to maintain card presence whilst using those cards to further expand upon your control of the game.

Best used as: Control Deck

Notable cards: Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle, Crystal Abundance, Crystal Tree, Rare Value, Crystal Blessing, Crystal Beacon, Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins, Crystal Release

Cards with good synergy: Card Destruction, Foolish Burial, Beast Soul Swap, Rescue Cat, Magical Merchant, Kuraz the Light Monarch

Strengths:
One of the best control decks out there
Almost impossible to lose advantage through battle
Has some amazing milling capabilities
Can easily maintain field presence
Ruby Carbuncle and Crystal Abundance both provide amazing OTK possibilities
Can put up a great defense with Ruby Carbuncle
When given time to set up, can be almost unstoppable

Weaknesses:
Low attack points
Takes some time to set up properly
Crystals can clog up your spell/trap zone if you aren't careful
Any form of consistent spell negation will tear this deck apart

Personal Outlook: The strategy I favor using with this deck is controlling the flow of the duel and playing defensively early on in the game, then pulling out Crystal Blessings and finishing the opponent with Crystal Abundance. I prefer to dump dead draw Crystal Beasts with cards like Hand Destruction or Card Destruction and revive them as crystals with Crystal Blessing. Because of this, the spell/trap to monster ratio in my deck is slightly larger than an average deck.
I haven't really had a look at Crystal Counter, but it seems like a decent card to use with Crystal Abundance. However, it is stopped with ease by Waboku/Threatening Roar, both of which are pretty popular nowadays.

The Crystal Beasts are often overlooked in the competitive metagame as second-tier, due to the amount of spell/trap destruction going around these days. However, I believe this shortcoming can be overcome with the help of Crystal Blessing. In fact, a crystal beast deck wielding this strategy has come close to a Day 2. So with some careful tweaking, Crystal Beasts do have the ability to reach tier 1.

Duel with Honor!
~Geno