Mono Mermail and Undine Mermail

Everyone knows that Mono Mermail is getting hyped for the past month, after Billy Brake's success at YCS Miami

From there everyone is calling it the best Mermail, the standard Mermail, etc. I was impressed too. But after a month, let's take a deep look

What is the difference?

The classic Mermail plays 3 Undine, 2 Controller, 1 Moulinglacia and all those standard Mermail cards. The new Mermail plays 3 Abyssteus, 2 Abyssgunde in those slots, along with more Abysspikes and Abyssleed

First thing in sight, the Mono Mermail doesn't have to play any vanilla, which is classic Mermail's worse disadvantage. Drawing Genex Controller is really, REALLY painful. Mono Mermail also seems (SEEMS) faster, more explosive because of the ability to drop everything into the field (mainly thanks to Abyssteus and Abyssgunde).

The access to Abyssgaios is also Mono Mermail's advantage over everything else. 2800 ATK Skill Drain is too much to handle for some decks out there

Really that good?

Something that Mono Mermail lacks:

• The ability to search Abyssmegalo to hand. People say Linde can bring Megalo directly to the field and that's enough. I prefer searching the Abyss traps, and everyone does
• The access to Atlantean Dragoons: This is really important. Looking back, Dragoons is the card that everyone wanted to get restricted when the March banlist came (even I did). No Dragoons in hand = no Megalo, no Moulinglacia, no Deep Sea Diva. You have to draw those power cards yourselves, which is obviously not ideal because the searching ability is what people fear the most
• Moulinglacia: the game-finisher. Too good when you are ending the game, don't need to argue
• The use of Abysspike: Mono Mermail doesn't have really good target for Abysspike. Abysslinde and Abyssgunde can be searched with Abyssteus, leaving Marksman as the only decent target
• Salvage: I don't have a freaking idea why Billy and Jeff hate this card. Too good when you need to drop your hand to the field, better during late game when a Deep Sea Diva can change the whole tempo of the game, and 2 Divas can finish the game. 

I'm not saying Mono Mermail is worse than classic Undine Mermail. However, the weaknesses cannot be unseen

The (new) power of Mono Mermail mostly comes fom Abyssteus and Abyssgunde. But why can't Undine Mermail play the 2 cards? That takes 3-5 slots in the deck, which means you can simply take out your tech cards for the "Mono" elements

The fix?

This is one of those typical Mermail deck at YCS Seattle, when CBLZ wasn't released (Source: http://elbrarian.blogspot.com.au/)

To add the "Mono" elements to the deck (2 Abyssteus, 2 Abyssgunde, 1 Abyssmegalo 1 Abyssleed, 1 Abyssquall, 1 Salvage) let's take out:

1 Genex Undine (you have Abysspike/Abysslinde/Abyssphere for that)
1 Allure of Darkness (not really needed)
1 Mind Control (same reason)
2 Mirror Force (as above)
1 Ultimate Offering (really nice tech card, can make Undine become a 1-card OTK, but space is tight)

The ultimate searching power can afford the deck size of 42. To me, I don't play Dark Hole and Pot of Avarice

It's just me, I prefer it. Everything is up to the player of course. But after all the testing I came to the conclusion that this is the best Mermail variant that I've played

See you next time ~