Introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh! Empty Jar Mill

About Mill
In Yu-Gi-Oh! terms, to mill is to have cards sent from your Deck to the graveyard. You lose if you must draw a card and you have no cards left to draw, so mill decks work on this principle by making opposing players draw cards repeatedly from their deck, hence decking them out. Mill is considered a rogue strategy in that it is neither reliable nor competitive enough to compete with the top level decks, though unprepared Duelists will find themselves out of cards to draw, and as such, Mill is a strategy that must be understood. It is also cheap, and relatively easy to play, so for the beginner interested in Mill, the following deck is great.

Empty Jar 
Monsters - 11
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
3 A/D Changer
3 Deep Diver
3 Swift Scarecrow

Spells - 29
3 Book of Eclipse
3 Book of Taiyou
1 Book of Moon
3 Pot of Duality
3 One Day of Peace
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Magical Mallet
1 Card Destruction
3 A Feather of the Phoenix
2 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Heavy Storm
3 Gold Sarcophagus

The lack of Traps in this lineup emphasises the amount of speed in this deck. It is entirely possible to perform an FTK with this deck, that is, winning on the first turn of the Duel. The deck abuses Morphing Jar's Flip Effect, making opponents continuously draw five cards from their deck while sending all cards from their hand to the graveyard in order to stop potential plays. Morphing Jar replenishes the player's hand, due to all the minuses caused from playing deck thinners.

The key card of Empty Jar

A/D Changer, Book of Eclipse, Book of Taiyou and Book of Moon all serve to repeatedly flip Morphing Jar over and over, forcing its effect. The Spell lineup is dedicated to draw power, as well as searching key cards like Heavy Storm to prepare for a mill.

Decks with alternate win conditions often involve getting the correct pieces of a combo to the hand. For this reason, cards like Magical Stone Excavation and Gold Sarcophagus, usually slow cards, are used.

Swift Scarecrow is used because it activates from the hand (this card is known as a hand trap) and protects your Life Points while you stall for cards. It's pretty easy to understand - the main problem with this deck is the risk of decking yourself out before your opponent, but intelligent use of A Feather of the Phoenix and Card Destruction should save you.

Conclusion
Mill is an underlooked, strong strategy and a fun, budget way to win duels. It is a bit all-or-nothing though, so it isn't the most reliable way to win. However, don't let this stop you from trying this alternate win strategy. The most important thing to take from this post is that there are alternate ways of winning other than reducing your opponent's life points to 0.

Deck Profile: Wind-Up Inzektors Hybrid

Wind-Up Inzektors

Monsters - 33

Inzektor Hornet x3
Inzektor Centipede x3
Inzektor Dragonfly x3
Wind-Up Hunter x3
Wind-Up Rat x3
Tour Guide From the Underworld x3
Gallis the Star Beast x3
T.G. Warwolf x2
Tragoedia x2
Effect Veiler x3
Maxx "C" x2
Sangan x1
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning x1
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness x1

Spells - 7
Mystical Space Typhoon x2
Heavy Storm x1
Allure of Darkness x1
Pot of Avarice x1
Monster Reborn x1
Foolish Burial x1

Extra Deck
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity x3
Wind-Up Zenmaines x2
Leviair the Sea Dragon x2
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon x2
Number 20: Giga-Brilliant x1
Ally of Justice Catastor x1
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier x1
Black Rose Dragon x1
Stardust Dragon x1
Chimeratech Fortress Dragon x1

Part 1: Inzektor Destruction Engine
The Inzektor destruction engine revolves around Inzektor Centipede and Dragonfly repeatedly using their effects to either pull a Hornet from the hand or Graveyard, then sending Hornet to the Graveyard to destroy one card on the field, upon which their effects will activate for a +2. The most famous Inzektor combo ends up with a +4, destroying two of your opponent's cards, while putting one on your field and one in your hand.

With Dragonfly on field, at least two cards on your opponent's field, and Hornet in Graveyard:

• Activate Dragonfly's effect to equip a Hornet from the Graveyard (+1) [+1]

• Pitch Hornet to destroy one card (+0) [+1]

• Special Summon Centipede with Dragonfly's effect (+1) [+2]

• Activate Centipede's effect to equip a Hornet from the Graveyard (+1) [+3]

• Pitch Hornet to destroy one card (+0) [+3]

• Retrieve Dragonfly from the Deck with Centipede's effect (+1) [+4]

No matter what metagame you're playing, a +4 is incredibly strong and beneficial to have, at any point of the game. It can be a crushing turn 2 play when the opponent isn't backed by Solemn Warning, or a Dragonfly topdeck could bring you back into the game. The combo doesn't end there - with Dragonfly and Centipede on field after the combo finishes, as well as a Centipede in hand, you have other plays available to you, such as:

• Using the on-field Inzektors to Xyz Summon a Rank 3 such as Wind-Up Zenmaines or Leviathan Dragon
• Swinging for 2600 points
• Using the in-hand Dragonfly to produce a +4 the next turn

All this is very well and good, and it's certainly possible to have a deck with just this mass destruction, with staple cards like Black Luster Soldier and Tour Guide thrown in, as well as protection and negation to support big pushes. However, I believe with the existence of cards like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, this is impractical, and as such, the second part of the deck is as follows.

Part 2: Wind-Up Hand Destruction Engine
Wind-Up Hunter
Level 3 / DARK / Beast-Warrior
1600 ATK / 500 DEF
You can Tribute 1 face-up "Wind-Up" monster, except "Wind-Up Hunter"; send 1 random card from your opponent's hand to the Graveyard. This effect can only be used once while this card is face-up on the field.

This effect is relatively good at first impression, and some people have theorycrafted plays with Wind-Up Shark to force 1 for 1s, but it isn't the best card in most situations. However, combined with some Order of Chaos releases in Wind-Up Rat and Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity, a strong early is opened up to us, which can be performed in different ways.


With Wind-Up Hunter and Gallis the Star Beast in hand:

• Activate Gallis' effect, which has a (27 + x) / 34 chance of activating successfully, where x is the number of Spell cards in your hand, dealing burn damage and Special Summoning it (+0) [+0]
• Normal Summon Wind-Up Hunter (+0) [+0]
• Overlay the Gallis and Hunter for Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity (-1) [-1]
• Activate Zenmaity's effect, detaching Wind-Up Hunter to Special Summon Wind-Up Rat from your Deck in Attack position (+1) [+0]
• Activate Rat's effect, changing it to Defense position to Special Summon Hunter from your Graveyard (+1) [+1]
• Activate Hunter's effect, Tributing Zenmaity to discard a card from your opponent's hand (+0) [+1]
• Overlay Hunter and Rat for Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity (-1) [-0]
• Activate Zenmaity's effect, detaching Wind-Up Hunter to Special Summon Wind-Up Rat from your Deck in Attack position (+1) [+1]
• Activate Rat's effect, changing it to Defense position to Special Summon Hunter from your Graveyard (+1) [+2]
• Activate Hunter's effect, Tributing Zenmaity to discard a card from your opponent's hand (+0) [+2]
• Overlay Hunter and Rat for Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity (-1) [+1]
• Activate Zenmaity's effect, detaching Wind-Up Hunter to Special Summon Wind-Up Rat from your Deck in Attack position (+1) [+2]
• Activate Rat's effect, changing it to Defense position to Special Summon Hunter from your Graveyard (+1) [+3]
• Activate Hunter's effect, Tributing Zenmaity to discard a card from your opponent's hand (+0) [+3]
• Overlay Hunter and Rat for any Rank 3 Xyz Monster (-1) [+2]

It's quite a long play, but this simple loop results in an overall +2, with your opponent having only 3 cards at the end of their first Draw Phase, while you have a powerful Xyz Monster on the field. This is crippling to many decks, though this play is stopped dead in the water by a Maxx "C", due to the amount of Special Summoning it does. 


Part 3: Putting it together 
Though the two engines are powerful on their own, and could make a stand-alone deck, when put together they help each other out to win Duels. Firstly, the Inzektor engine is an out to field disadvantage often incurred through the physically weak Wind-Ups. It's an instant +4 that gets you out of a bad situation should your Wind-Up play be interrupted, and it just needs two cards to start. 


Wind-Ups support the aggressive field control of Inzektors by taking out hand cards that could threaten you, but haven't been played yet such as Dark Hole or Thunder King Rai-Oh. In essence, the theme of the Wind-Up Inzektor deck is mass simplification, forcing multiple 1 for 1s, and sometimes better, like in the case of the Inzektor's 4 for 0. Mass simplification allows for pushes made by Xyz Monsters such as Giga-Brilliant and Leviathan Dragon to be uninterrupted. It's basically a beatdown deck, with a complex, multi-faceted and dynamic simplification engine. 


Hand traps like Tragoedia also help us out in protecting ourselves. They have the bonus of not being able to be negated as easily as cards like Bottomless Trap Hole or Mirror Force. Veiler is a tuner, allowing for Synchro plays with big Synchro Monsters that have good, immediate effects. 


Conclusion
The deck is difficult to understand fully - I still am not happy with the way I've been playing it on Dueling Network. There are so many plays and so many options to take at any point of the game, and the standard dueling skills apply - reading your opponent, risk analysis, etc. I advise you all to try the deck out, as I feel that the amazing combos available to you when using this deck will have an impact on the metagame not seen since the devastating turn 1 Shi En plays of March.