General Strategy:

With Suship, there is 1 thing to keep in mind: this is not a hard deck. It is a very straightforward, simple strategy. You search/draw your monsters, make an xyz monster depending on the situation, and use handtraps/removal to deal with the rest of what your opponent does. The complexity of the deck comes from deciding what xyz monster to make, and how to play around interruption.


Opening Plays:

Ideally, you do want to go first with the deck. This seems relatively counterintuitive, since the Xyz Monsters you make are reactive, but its important since Gunkan Suship Daily Special allows you to choose which Suship monsters you want access to. You can also work with interruption when you're going first, using cards like handtraps, interruption traps, and Mimicking Man-Eater Bug (yes, a flip monster). However, the deck is perfectly able to go second, since you can play around interruption by working under the summon limit with normal monsters. So, irregardless of whether you go first or second, Suship can make it work.


Boss Monsters:

Now, with the Suship, its very important to decide which Suship effect monster and xyz monster to use depending on the situation. Overall, Gunkan Suship Uni and its xyz counterpart Gunkan Suship Uni-class Super-Dreadnought fit the most situations. Its effect monster allows for you to access either rank four or five and grab a copy of Gunkan Suship Shari, while its xyz monster allows for direct damage and can permanently negate a face-up card during each of your main phases and your opponent's battle phases. This means that your opponent can't use a Trap Hole when its summoned, since you can just negate it. Gunkan Suship Shirauo is perfect for setting up plays for the next turn, since a line with it and Shari gives you a guaranteed Uni for next turn, plus you can end on Drill Driver Vespenato to float if your opponent destroys it. Gunkan Suship Ikura-class Dreadnought, on the other hand, is perfect for aggressive plays and combos amazingly with Piercing the Darkness, which can give massive ATK buffs and is made even better by the fact that Gunkan Suship Ikura-class Dreadnought can attack twice, as well as pop an opponent's card when it deals damage.

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Closing Thoughts:

Now, the final point I would like to touch upon is building Suship with other decks. Due to the fact that the deck relies on access to Gunkan Suship Shari, you ideally should cap the decksize at 40 cards. At larger deck sizes, the odds of being able to make use of the Suship cards are reduced. Along with that, I recommend mixing them with level four monsters, since that allows you easier access to rank four monsters. One such archetype that can work well with Suship is Magikey, since they combo extremely well with level four normal monsters and allow the deck to pull off strong plays on your first turn. Overall, if you're looking for a simple deck that is versatile and had strong plays, Suship is a deck I highly recommend giving a taste.

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Written by 41 Flavors of Burritos

Edited by WideWalrus