OVERVIEW:
Empty Jar is an explosive combo deck that aims to win via deck out. It enjoyed modest success in the Historic Era, notably securing 2nd place in the 2005 World Championship. In the Modern Era, the deck has gained renewed popularity, as it is widely acknowledged to be the most effective combo deck.
The engines that make the Empty Jar deck go are its namesake cards, Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar. The primary objective of the deck is to quickly access and successfully resolve a Jar. The secondary objective is to recycle and resolve a few more Jars on the same turn. Finally, the Empty Jar player typically achieves victory with a 2-card combination of Card Destruction and Serial Spell, decking out the opponent.
DETAILS:
In order to access Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar as quickly as possible, the deck employs a suite of deck thinning and drawing cards including Thunder Dragon, Upstart Goblin, Dragged Down into the Grave, Card Destruction and Reload, as well as searching cards like Sangan and Mystic Tomato. Bear in mind it’s not simply enough to see a Jar; we also need to activate it as quickly as possible. Setting one like a typical flip effect monster and ending our turn is not recommended. Quick activation is typically achieved by setting a Jar then activating Book of Taiyou, or in some builds, Desert Sunlight.
The Empty Jar player preferably wants to see Cyber Jar first, but he can begin the combo with Morphing Jar as well. Cyber Jar allows us to accumulate a larger hand with each resolution, making it less likely that our combo will stall mid-turn. It also increases the size of our opponent’s hand, which makes forcing a deck out with Card Destruction easier. It’s possible to string together multiple resolutions of Morphing Jar, but it is considerably more difficult to achieve a victory this way. That means we want to transition to resolving Cyber Jar as soon as it’s available to us.
After the first Jar resolution, the deck has a variety of tricks up its sleeve to to resolve the subsequent Jar. In order to recycle Cyber Jar, we usually want to use The Shallow Grave in combination with Book of Taiyou, since Cyber Jar will place itself in the graveyard after it resolves. We can also use a 3 card combo of Premature Burial, Book of Moon, and Book of Taiyou. In order to recycle Morphing Jar, we usually want to use Book of Moon in combination with Book of Taiyou, since Morphing Jar, unlike Cyber Jar, remains on the field after it resolves. A rather nifty way to reuse Morphing Jar is to chain Book of Moon from your hand to its effect activation. That means we can set Morphing Jar, activate Book of Taiyou, then activate Book of Moon from our hand in response to Morphing Jar’s flip effect triggering, targeting Morphing Jar to reset it before it technically resolves and discards Book of Moon. This is important because Book of Moon cannot be activated on the same turn it is set, and it would otherwise get discarded by Morphing Jar.
The deck runs a variety of spells to keep this cycle going and start the next combo. It’s fairly likely that 5 new cards, whatever they might be, can be parlayed into another Jar resolution. One such card is Spell Reproduction, which can recycle any spell in the graveyard. A Feather of the Phoenix can also be used in conjunction with any card that lets us draw another card to recycle any card in the graveyard. The main targets to recycle with these two cards are Book of Moon, Book of Taiyou, or The Shallow Grave--whichever is most needed to resolve the next Jar. Also note that Giant Trunade allows us to use any quickplay spells that were set to the field that turn, like Book of Moon, Reload, or Serial Spell.
After a few Jar resolutions, we can usually deal the final blow with a combination of Card Destruction and Serial Spell. This combo will force our opponent to draw twice as many cards as they are currently holding in hand, forcing him to deck out. Because Serial Spell discards our entire hand as a cost, we will not draw any cards when Card Destruction resolves, ensuring that we do not deck ourselves out. Do note, these two cards are typically used in single copies. Card Destruction is limited to one, and Serial Spell isn’t very useful until the end game. That means we often need to resolve several Jars or creatively recycle drawing spells to dig deep enough to reach these final pieces.
Some variants of the Empty Jar deck are known to employ other flip effect monsters like Magician of Faith, Night Assailant, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but their effectiveness is questionable. Other variants might use additional draw engines including Royal Magical Library and Card of Safe Return, or perhaps some protective spells like Level Limit - Area B and Swords of Revealing Light. Finally, a quirky card called Rock Bombardment can be an alternative means to search for a Jar, although it places it in the Graveyard, requiring us to use Shallow Grave or Premature Burial to begin the combo sequence. Note that one reason these options may be less popular is that they reduce the spell count of the deck, making Spell Reproduction less reliable.
STRATEGY:
In Game 1, the longer the Empty Jar player can survive and hide the fact that he is playing Empty Jar, the more turns he will get to draw into his combo pieces. Against a typical Goat Control deck, the primary concerns will be cards like Metamorphosis (used to make Dark Balter the Terrible and Fiend Skull Dragon), Spirit Reaper, Delinquent Duo, Mystical Space Typhoon, Scapegoat, Dust Tornado, Ring of Destruction, and Torrential Tribute--all of which can disrupt the components of the combo. Also concerning but less common main deck cards would be the likes of Solemn Judgment, Compulsory Evacuation Device, and Trap Dustshoot. This means that time matters to some extent--the quicker we can begin the combo, the safer we will be from these potential disruptors. Notably, Dragged Down into the Grave can disrupt any of the above disruptors if they are in the opponent’s hand, or at least provide information on what to play around. Giant Trunade can also clear the field of most potential threats.
If you want to win against Empty Jar, devoting at least 3 spots in your Side Deck against it is practically required. The most reliable disruptor of the combo is probably Neko Mane King, which acts like a prehistoric hand trap. Neko Mane King will end your opponent’s turn as soon as it is discarded from your hand or sent from your field to the graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, which is quite likely to happen during the repeat Jar resolutions. Siding 3 copies of Neko Mane King is very much in vogue these days. Other potential counters include Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, Solemn Judgment, Compulsory Evacuation Device (which can be chained to Book of Taiyou to stifle a Jar), Mind Crush, Trap Dustshoot, Skill Drain, and Royal Command. Note that as traps all these cards are somewhat susceptible to Giant Trunade, unlike Neko Mane King.
You can also expect the Empty Jar player to bring in counters to your counters--especially Neko Mane King, which aside from an early Dragged Down into the Grave, has no natural counter in the Main Deck. Some counters to Neko Mane King include Mind Control (for when the Neko Mane King is summoned off Cyber Jar), Prohibition, and Divine Wrath. Mind Control is also great for stealing opposing flip effect monsters. Do note that your opponent is allowed to randomize the positions of the monsters they special summon facedown off Cyber Jar, which can interfere with using Mind Control.
Empty Jar is an explosive combo deck that aims to win via deck out. It enjoyed modest success in the Historic Era, notably securing 2nd place in the 2005 World Championship. In the Modern Era, the deck has gained renewed popularity, as it is widely acknowledged to be the most effective combo deck.
The engines that make the Empty Jar deck go are its namesake cards, Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar. The primary objective of the deck is to quickly access and successfully resolve a Jar. The secondary objective is to recycle and resolve a few more Jars on the same turn. Finally, the Empty Jar player typically achieves victory with a 2-card combination of Card Destruction and Serial Spell, decking out the opponent.
DETAILS:
In order to access Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar as quickly as possible, the deck employs a suite of deck thinning and drawing cards including Thunder Dragon, Upstart Goblin, Dragged Down into the Grave, Card Destruction and Reload, as well as searching cards like Sangan and Mystic Tomato. Bear in mind it’s not simply enough to see a Jar; we also need to activate it as quickly as possible. Setting one like a typical flip effect monster and ending our turn is not recommended. Quick activation is typically achieved by setting a Jar then activating Book of Taiyou, or in some builds, Desert Sunlight.
The Empty Jar player preferably wants to see Cyber Jar first, but he can begin the combo with Morphing Jar as well. Cyber Jar allows us to accumulate a larger hand with each resolution, making it less likely that our combo will stall mid-turn. It also increases the size of our opponent’s hand, which makes forcing a deck out with Card Destruction easier. It’s possible to string together multiple resolutions of Morphing Jar, but it is considerably more difficult to achieve a victory this way. That means we want to transition to resolving Cyber Jar as soon as it’s available to us.
After the first Jar resolution, the deck has a variety of tricks up its sleeve to to resolve the subsequent Jar. In order to recycle Cyber Jar, we usually want to use The Shallow Grave in combination with Book of Taiyou, since Cyber Jar will place itself in the graveyard after it resolves. We can also use a 3 card combo of Premature Burial, Book of Moon, and Book of Taiyou. In order to recycle Morphing Jar, we usually want to use Book of Moon in combination with Book of Taiyou, since Morphing Jar, unlike Cyber Jar, remains on the field after it resolves. A rather nifty way to reuse Morphing Jar is to chain Book of Moon from your hand to its effect activation. That means we can set Morphing Jar, activate Book of Taiyou, then activate Book of Moon from our hand in response to Morphing Jar’s flip effect triggering, targeting Morphing Jar to reset it before it technically resolves and discards Book of Moon. This is important because Book of Moon cannot be activated on the same turn it is set, and it would otherwise get discarded by Morphing Jar.
The deck runs a variety of spells to keep this cycle going and start the next combo. It’s fairly likely that 5 new cards, whatever they might be, can be parlayed into another Jar resolution. One such card is Spell Reproduction, which can recycle any spell in the graveyard. A Feather of the Phoenix can also be used in conjunction with any card that lets us draw another card to recycle any card in the graveyard. The main targets to recycle with these two cards are Book of Moon, Book of Taiyou, or The Shallow Grave--whichever is most needed to resolve the next Jar. Also note that Giant Trunade allows us to use any quickplay spells that were set to the field that turn, like Book of Moon, Reload, or Serial Spell.
After a few Jar resolutions, we can usually deal the final blow with a combination of Card Destruction and Serial Spell. This combo will force our opponent to draw twice as many cards as they are currently holding in hand, forcing him to deck out. Because Serial Spell discards our entire hand as a cost, we will not draw any cards when Card Destruction resolves, ensuring that we do not deck ourselves out. Do note, these two cards are typically used in single copies. Card Destruction is limited to one, and Serial Spell isn’t very useful until the end game. That means we often need to resolve several Jars or creatively recycle drawing spells to dig deep enough to reach these final pieces.
Some variants of the Empty Jar deck are known to employ other flip effect monsters like Magician of Faith, Night Assailant, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but their effectiveness is questionable. Other variants might use additional draw engines including Royal Magical Library and Card of Safe Return, or perhaps some protective spells like Level Limit - Area B and Swords of Revealing Light. Finally, a quirky card called Rock Bombardment can be an alternative means to search for a Jar, although it places it in the Graveyard, requiring us to use Shallow Grave or Premature Burial to begin the combo sequence. Note that one reason these options may be less popular is that they reduce the spell count of the deck, making Spell Reproduction less reliable.
STRATEGY:
In Game 1, the longer the Empty Jar player can survive and hide the fact that he is playing Empty Jar, the more turns he will get to draw into his combo pieces. Against a typical Goat Control deck, the primary concerns will be cards like Metamorphosis (used to make Dark Balter the Terrible and Fiend Skull Dragon), Spirit Reaper, Delinquent Duo, Mystical Space Typhoon, Scapegoat, Dust Tornado, Ring of Destruction, and Torrential Tribute--all of which can disrupt the components of the combo. Also concerning but less common main deck cards would be the likes of Solemn Judgment, Compulsory Evacuation Device, and Trap Dustshoot. This means that time matters to some extent--the quicker we can begin the combo, the safer we will be from these potential disruptors. Notably, Dragged Down into the Grave can disrupt any of the above disruptors if they are in the opponent’s hand, or at least provide information on what to play around. Giant Trunade can also clear the field of most potential threats.
If you want to win against Empty Jar, devoting at least 3 spots in your Side Deck against it is practically required. The most reliable disruptor of the combo is probably Neko Mane King, which acts like a prehistoric hand trap. Neko Mane King will end your opponent’s turn as soon as it is discarded from your hand or sent from your field to the graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, which is quite likely to happen during the repeat Jar resolutions. Siding 3 copies of Neko Mane King is very much in vogue these days. Other potential counters include Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, Solemn Judgment, Compulsory Evacuation Device (which can be chained to Book of Taiyou to stifle a Jar), Mind Crush, Trap Dustshoot, Skill Drain, and Royal Command. Note that as traps all these cards are somewhat susceptible to Giant Trunade, unlike Neko Mane King.
You can also expect the Empty Jar player to bring in counters to your counters--especially Neko Mane King, which aside from an early Dragged Down into the Grave, has no natural counter in the Main Deck. Some counters to Neko Mane King include Mind Control (for when the Neko Mane King is summoned off Cyber Jar), Prohibition, and Divine Wrath. Mind Control is also great for stealing opposing flip effect monsters. Do note that your opponent is allowed to randomize the positions of the monsters they special summon facedown off Cyber Jar, which can interfere with using Mind Control.
Modern Era Deck Lists (2017 - present):
The Modern Era of Goat Format coincides with the release of DuelingBook.com, which offers a Goat Format dueling lobby. These lists are a collection of personal, contributor, and tournament winning decks. If you are looking to copy a list to play, choose one of these.
The Modern Era of Goat Format coincides with the release of DuelingBook.com, which offers a Goat Format dueling lobby. These lists are a collection of personal, contributor, and tournament winning decks. If you are looking to copy a list to play, choose one of these.
EMPTY JAR - FEATURED LIST
This is a modern stock list. It is primarily differentiated by its use of 3 copies of Mystic Tomato to target Sangan.
EMPTY JAR - LIBRARY VARIANT
This is an example of a list that uses Royal Magical Library and Card of Safe Return. Note that these cards have positive synergy. Royal Magical Library can dig quite far into the deck without repeatedly needing to use a Jar. This might increase our win rate over Neko Mane King, but this variant is considerably under-tested.
Historic Era Deck Lists (2005):
The Historic Era of Goat Format coincided with the Advanced Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG tournaments that took place between June and August of 2005. The purpose of displaying these decks is to give historical context to the decks of the Modern Era. It is strongly recommended that you do not copy these decks and instead copy decks from the Modern Era.
The Historic Era of Goat Format coincided with the Advanced Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG tournaments that took place between June and August of 2005. The purpose of displaying these decks is to give historical context to the decks of the Modern Era. It is strongly recommended that you do not copy these decks and instead copy decks from the Modern Era.
EMPTY JAR - JORGE LIZARRAGA
This is the deck that placed second in the 2005 World Championship, piloted by Jorge Lizarraga, who represented Mexico. This was definitively the peak achievement of any combo deck in the Historic Era.
EMPTY JAR - JONATHAN NAVARRO
Jonathan Navarro is largely credited with being the first player to pilot the deck at a major tournament in the TCG. He placed 10th in SJC Los Angeles in April 2005, barely missing the top cut.
References:
SJC Los Angeles Deck Profile: Jonathan Navarro
http://kperovic.com/metagame/yugiohc911.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=1627
2005 World Championship Top 4 Deck Lists:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_World_Championship_2005
SJC Los Angeles Deck Profile: Jonathan Navarro
http://kperovic.com/metagame/yugiohc911.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=1627
2005 World Championship Top 4 Deck Lists:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_World_Championship_2005
