Thunder Chess

People have been asking me, "Tim, how would you play Chess with its new support"?  Well, I actually have tried many builds and many worlds, and I have actually settled on the build that is, without a doubt in my mind, the best mixer to use with Chess.

To start off with, due to King the Dominator's new impact monster form, Chess has the ability to set the opponent's life to 4.  This comes with some enormous implications.  First, you don't need to attack their face or commit a board early, because you will set them to 4 when you go for game.  Second, because you don't need to worry about damaging them directly, you can play for card advantage, swinging into their units over and over to drain their resources.  Finally, due to how the new Pawn and new King function, we have easy access to insane killing pushes with a large amount of attacks once we set them to 4 life.

Now, Demon Slay Chess is still a solid way to play the build, but it has its drawbacks.  Primarily, with the addition of Prism Dragons adding another center-based meta build with copious amounts of soul to try and break through, I just don't see Demon Slay Chess working when it flat out requires your opponent to have an open center to have its win condition, and Chess monsters and Danger Spells lack the ability to clear the center effectively.

Deep Chess is a valid option that gives you access to solid self-milling engines with Accel End and Million Edge.  The real reason you'd want to use Deep Chess is for Brutal Disaster!, which has an attribute specific discard cost, making it lose out in consistency, but setting them to 4 and then dealing 4 damage regardless of their field setup is an amazing concept.  winkyface.jpg

There are other builds circulating around, Katana Chess to have Snake Gaze against Thunder Empire, Magic Chess to have access to their spell and advantage cards, and Executioner Chess to have access to their mill engine and borderline guaranteed setup.  Or, if you are a meme, Dungeon Chess just to run Rolling Stone to clear the center and THIS STRIKE SHALL DETERMINE THE FATE OF THE WORLD!  HWAAAH!

However, none of these builds do as much as the build I'm presenting to you.  The true way to play Chess if you want to win with it is Thunder Empire Chess.  The first thoughts that would go through someone's head might be, "Tim, you can't even spell negate when you Checkmate!"  No, you can't.  But Checkmate doesn't have to be our win condition if we set their life to 4.  We have other win conditions available to us.

Flag - Dragon World
Buddy - The Promoted Pawn

Spells
4x Blue Dragon Shield (Staple McStapleton)
4x Fire Dragon Shield (Mill 3 to reduce damage to 0, sets up drop zone requirement for King and Checkmate)
3x Gambit (Return your Pawns back to your hand then play them again for more turbo, is also a Chess in the drop zone)
3x Dragonic Thunder, Rage of the Thunder Dragon (Mill 3 to pop a size 1 or less, sets up drop zone for King and Checkmate)
3x Batzz X Link (If your cards have attacked three or more times, you can check the top three cards of your deck, add one to hand, put the rest in the gauge.  Great for fishing out your win conditions AND giving you gauge acceleration)
2x Pawn Storm (+5000 attack when your weenies need to bop a monster, also a Chess in the drop zone)
2x Dragonic Exchange (This card will allow you to search your gauge and grab any card from it in exchange for a card from hand.  This is a hard minus, but if you haven't gotten Pawn by turn 2, it might be a good idea to have the added consistency so you guarantee your setup)

Items
3x Thunder Dragon Staff Sword (Gain a life when it attacks OR pay a life to pop a size 1 or less monster.  Solid stats and does amazing things.  We don't need their Dragoanthem clone because we only need 3 attacks for Link.  Our impact is 2.  These are practically conditionless)

Size 0s
4x The Promoted Pawn (Mill 3 cards, add a chess monster or chess impact from among them to your hand.  Then Gambit and do it again.)

Size 1s
2x Battle Unit, Knight Fighter (Vanilla)
2x Attack Unit, Flying Bishop (Vanilla)
2x Mobile Unit, Soldier Pawn (Vanilla)

Size 2s
1x Control Unit, Suppression Queen (Vanilla)

Size 3s
1x King the Dominator (Vanilla)

Impact Monsters
4x King the Dominator, End Game (If you have 5 Chess in drop, their life becomes 4.  Gives himself and all Chess double attack.  Has soulguard.  Makes lethal by himself if they have no attack negates.  Procs your impact with just its own attacks.  Amazing card.)

Impacts
4x Thunder Sword, X Tempest Blade (If your opponent has 4 or less life and you attacked two or more times this turn, deal 4 damage.  We set them to 4 with King and then boop them with this for game.  If they have a damage reducer, then we still have a good amount of attacks left to try and end the game or cripple them.)
4x Dragon Secret Arts, Dragonic Resurrection (After you have buddy called, you can use this card to buddy call Pawn during the final phase all over again.  Not only do you get to mill to potentially hit your Kings/Checkmates or just get free cards, because Pawn can attack in the final phase, it also gives you an extra attack.  Two if King comes out.)
2x Checkmate (RIP Zwei.  Extra wincon and has favorable match-ups against certain decks.  Keeps Drei/Retaliation Force from ever going live.)

The gist of the deck is to turbo Pawn to get out King.  You have added consistency increasing cards with Batzz X Link, Pawn, and Exchange.  You have alternative wincons, easily proc your Thunder Empire abilities, and can kill almost any builds regardless of what their field setup might be.

Potential sideboard cards:

Maximum Skill, Breaking Flames - If you're fighting a center monster that makes them immune to burn damage while it's in the center, or if you just want to go in for a Checkmate.

Thunder Spear, X Tempest Buster - Dead them deader.

More Checkmate - Zwei are you so sad?

I think I like impacts or something...  Anyway, give this build a few tests, you will see how much the Thunder Empire Engine does for the build.  I think there's still room for improvement as well, and it's already the strongest version of Chess, so that's saying something.  And with Thunder Empire being the new main attribute for the show, I wager it will only get stronger from here.