Guide to Kozmos (TCG)
Ever wanted to be a pilot and destroy your enemies with multiple crashing rockets in succession?
…
No? Well how about if I told you that you can with 2 simple inputs?
…
That’s the spirit! Now, on with the deck guide. This is a deck that revolves around summoning big, higher leveled Kozmo monsters in general by banishing the weaker ones from the field. The best part about these guys though is that not only can the weaker monsters banish themselves at ANY TIME to summon these behemoths, but almost all of the higher leveled Kozmos, when destroyed can banish themselves and summon a weaker-leveled replacement from the deck instantaneously! Now isn’t that neat!
The Focus: The goal of this deck is absolute destruction by any means necessary. You use the utilities you have to clear out the opponent’s field as fast as possible, then abuse the ever living life out of the Kozmo’s banishing abilities to keep a string of attacks going until you run out of life points. It’s a very simple, but also satisfying formula to use and is hard to mess up in the wrong hands. Of course, with the increasing pace of the meta and the string of new viable decks coming in with impressive deck speed, Kozmos has trouble keeping up sometimes and getting that opening becomes increasingly harder. But for the most part, it’s definitely not impossible and once that opening does come up, it’s usually the end of the game in your favor.
Key Cards from the archetype: Kozmo is a special case, being that it has 2 mini archetypes of monsters within its own: Pilots and Ships. Pilots are the lower-leveled Psychic-Type Kozmos that you can banish at any time to summon a higher leveled Kozmo, while ships are the big Machine-type Kozmos with the special effects and the ability to banish and replace when destroyed. For this reason, I’ll be using these two categories to separate them.
The Ships:
Kozmo Dark Destroyer : Oh Dark Destroyer, how much you’ve been spat on by the tournament scene. Yea, despite arguably being the most useful card in the entire deck, TCG has limited you to 1. Still, even at 1, Dark Destroyer is an amazing asset and a must-have for any Kozmo Deck. It’s a level 8 ship with 3000 ATK that can’t be targeted by opponent card effects and can destroy any one monster on the field when normal or special summoned. It’s high power along with its destruction effect sets up for so many combo plays that it’s almost ridiculous what you can achieve when you get the chance, which is likely if Dark Destroyer is on board. If you need to play it safe, spamming Dark Destroyer and other ships can help form a powerful force, with fields of monsters exceeding 2.5K ATK each. And to top it off, its destruction gives access to 3 other Ships and all the Pilots. Run this at as many as TCG allows.
Kozmo Dark Eclipser : This one is should be run at one, or maybe even 2 due to the hit on Destroyer. With access to Kozmo Tincan and Kozmotown, searching the monster shouldn’t be too hard, and since this deck uses quite a bit of graveyard control in later variants, this one won’t be too tight of a fit over your other ships. Its effect, which negates the activation of a trap card on the field once per tern by banishing a Kozmo from the graveyard is situational at best. It can have its niches against very certain decks, but it’s not really worth it compared to the meta now. In addition, for 1 level higher it not only recieves no attack change from Dark Destroyer (3000), it’s one of the 2 ships that doesn’t instantly summon a monster on destruction: it instead lets you search for any but one of the Ships and all the Pilots from the deck and add it to the hand, which can ruin a lot of the momentum Kozmos are known for. However, it’s untargetable, and with a nice attack stat this thing is still great for keeping big attacks going.
Kozmo Forerunner : This is the last of the viable untargetable Ships. Forerunner should be run at 1, though some builds may include 2 to compensate for the lack of Destroyers. It’s a level 7 Ship with a 2800 attack stat that once per turn recovers you 1K Life points during your standby phase. Again, it’s effect can have it’s uses, but with the way the meta is progressing, using it might be a bit of a challenge. Much better than Eclipser’s, but that’s not saying much. Luckily, it works just like a regular ship, so you can destroy it yourself with Dark Destroyer and use its replacement effect to get extra attacks in or keep field presence and banish the Pilots into this for extra damage. In addition, running multiples (if you are) gives access to Rank 7 XYZs, including Number 11: Big Eye, who is the cream of the crop when it comes to rank 7s.
Kozmo Landwalker : Level 6 Ship with 2400 power. This card is mainly good in conjunction with Kozmotown to simultaneously protect your ships and get extra searches. Not much use for it beyond that. Run it at 1.
Kozmo Sliprider : Level 5 Ship with 2300 ATK that destroys an Spell/Trap card on normal/special summon. This card is absolutely worth it. First off, it gives Kozmos and option to take care of backrow, which is excellent in a format with Solemns/Twin Twisters, but more importantly, Pendulums. Being able to cut off Pendulum summoning and effects in a great tool to have and Sliprider is that tool. It’s got a nice attack power to boot, good for crashing into life points directly when you need it to. You can combo it into Kozmotown, using it to get free searches off of other ships and Pilots. Most importantly though, it gives you access to Rank 5 XYZs, which is arguably the second best XYZ ranking in the game. Volcasaurus, Durendul, you name it and and he can go into it. He can even go into Cyber Dragon Nova since he is a LIGHT-attribute machine, which of course leads to the infamous Cyber Dragon Infinity. Run this guy at 3.
The Pilots:
Kozmo Tincan : This deck’s key card and what gives you access to most of your options. Putting what I said into effect, you can banish this card at any time to summon into a higher level ship, but that’s not where it sells. At the end of the turns, you can pay 500 life points to search up to 3 Kozmo cards of any kind, your opponent randomly chooses one, the chosen gets added to your hand, and the rest go to the graveyard. This is where the graveyard control/searching comes in. This card is great for setting up combos and getting the upper hand early into the game, so don’t hesitate to use it. Run at 3, of course.
Kozmoll Wickedwitch : A Lvl 4 DARK Pilot with 1900 ATK that can, during either player’s turn, pay 1000 life points so it can’t be destroyed by battle or card effects until End phase. This card can definitely have it’s uses and is great as a high powered LVL 4 and protection card. It’s also a great option for attacking chain, as it is a LVL 4 Pilots, meaning lower level Pilots like Farmgirl can summon it, and Wickedwitch can promptly summon into a ship after attacking. It’s also good for giving access to the ever-powerful Rank 4s, which has cards such as S39 and Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer. This card can be run at 1-2.
Kozmo Goodwitch : A Lvl 4 LIGHT Pilot with 1800 ATK. You can pay 500 life points once per turn to flip a face-up opponent’s monster face-down. Ultimately, this card is inferior to Wickedwitch. It’s attack power is slightly lower, it’s ability is less useful, and it has fewer options in terms of Rank 4 plays. However, its effect still has its uses, and it can do the same job Wickedwitch does in terms of chain attacking. Run it at 1, no more.
Kozmo Farmgirl : Oh man, how far this card has fallen from grace. This one use to be a staple in Kozmos decks, as landing in attack with one usually meant the game was over. Now that the meta is advancing with strong decks like Metalfoes, Farmgirl doesn’t get the opportunities or raw power to get that job done anymore. Simply put, it’s a Lvl 3 LIGHT Pilot with 1500 ATK that, when it lands battle damage, you can pay 500 LPs to search for any Kozmo card from your deck and add it to your hand. Any of them. Farmgirl is still a great card when it can get in, but now that things have changed since release and the limiting of Dark Destroyer, it’s past its prime. Recommended to run this one at 1, though if you really want to you can run it at 2.
Kozmoll Dark Lady : This is a strange one, as it’s the only Pilot above lvl 4, meaning you need a sacrifice or a Pilot to call it out. It’s a Lvl 5 2200 ATK DARK Pilot, and once per turn during either turn, you can pay 1000 LPs to negate a monster effect and destroy it. Initially, this card wasn’t met with much expectation, but it’s surprisingly useful. On top of being at Pilot, meaning it can continue chain attacking with 2.2 K under its belt, it’s good for field presence, and that negation can come in useful, especially when paired alongside Cyber Dragon Infinity. Run this one a 2, as it has a tendency to clog, but it’s a great card nonetheless.
Kozmo Strawman : A Lvl 2 Pilot with 500 ATK. It has an effect that lets the player pay 500 LPs to summon a banished Kozmo, albeit with its effect negated and it being destroyed at the end phase. This is a great late-game card for closing out by reviving banished Ships to run over the opposition with high power. The fact that the monster gets destroyed EP means that you can also use the ship replacement effect to maintain field presence. It can also be great for combo plays and getting powerful XYZs out on the field to close out games. How many you decide to run it at depends on how much you think you need. It’s a great wild card, so go wild!
Archetype Spells/Traps:
Kozmotown : RUN AT 3, RUN AT 3, RUUUN AT 3! This field spell is so important it’s not even funny. Not only can you once per turn, add one of your banished Kozmos back to your hand (taking damage for that monster’s level x100), but you can also reveal and send to your deck any number of Kozmo monsters from your hand to the deck, shuffle and redraw the same number of card. This is vital for controlling and getting access to those banished monsters and is one of the reasons this deck shine. To top it off, when the card is destroyed you get a free search on any Kozmo card of your choosing from the deck. Don’t ignore this card.
Kozmojo : It’s a trap card that lets you destroy one of your Kozmo monsters and NON-TARGET banish one of your opponent’s cards. Please use this. Non-target removal is amazing and the destruction effect is negligable and can be actually helpful for chain attacking/replacement. I would run this at 2-3, unless your deck is very solemn-heavy.
Outside-archetype options/techs:
Call of the Haunted : This card is an amazing option for being able to revive various Ships and Pilots in the graveyard and is great not only for setting up some insane combo plays, but also getting back the units that were dumped by Kozmo Tincan, including Dark Destroyer. Highly recommended that this card is run in any Kozmo Deck.
Cyber Dragon Infinity (and beyond)/Artifact Durendel : Great Rank 5 cards that fit well into any deck that can summon them, but especially in this deck. Cydra the infinite is pretty self-explanatory. As a standalone card, it may not work as well as it use to, but its effects are still amazing and when pair with Kozmos can be devastating. Durendel also offers protection to your cards, but also lets you get searches off of Kozmotown, which is a nice plus to have in critical moments.
Cyber Dragon/Chimeratech Fortress Dragon : This is mainly either for the mirror match or up against ABCs, Metalfoes and others. It’s an ok just-in-case option to have if your ships alone can’t do the job, though it’s probably best to have this in your side deck, as a back pocket.
Honest : In conjunction with Kozmo Farmgirl, there was nothing this combo couldn’t get over in the early days of Kozmos. No monster was safe - once Farmgirl hit the searching and chain-attacking began and that game was over. Now that Farmgirl isn’t the cream of the crop anymore, every single Kozmo player has dropped this conniving little yellow fairy back down to the depths of obscurity. That’s not to say it can’t still have it’s uses - Farmgirl + Honest still gets over most things, but it’s not as optimal as it might’ve been before. Run this if you really want to.
Card Of Demise : Due to the nature of Kozmos abilities and the running of Call of the Haunted, Card of Demise suddenly becomes a lot more of a viable option. You either get a couple of free S/Ts to set for next turn or you get some monsters to use for Call of the Haunted targets. Regardless, it’s a great card to give just a bit more in terms of draw power/controlling the graveyard.
Kozmo Variants:
Fire King Kozmos : The use of Fire King Island to trigger Kozmo effects and search works well enough in the deck that it placed consistently high for a while. I don’t play this variant too much myself, but it’s definitely one worth checking out, as it’s the most successful as of today.
Metalfoe Kozmos : Ah, Metalfoes. One of the most splashable, and the best deck to date. There are so many decks you can slap Metalfoes on to make it better than it is. Kozmos work particularly well because they can use their pendulum effects to destroy ships, with leads to setups for a myriad of different options. It’s made all the better by the chain attacking and increased XYZ access.
Do NOT run:
Kozmo Dark Planet : This card is one with the potential to change the game that’s just not worth it. First off, in order to summon it in the first place, you have to banish Kozmo monsters from your hand only until their combined levels equal 10 or more, so you’re practically guaranteed to go -2 right off the bat to summon this guy unless you’re running multiple copies, which would clog the deck. It’s a 4000 ATK and DEF untargetable DARK ship that basically has the same effect as Eclipser, except it negates spells instead of traps. Again, an effect with some uses, but not many, though it could be seen as a semi-hard counter to pendulums. The sad fact is that it’s a boss monster, which means that it’s not that useful, as Rank 4s are very prevelant, and thus so is Utopia the Lightning, the boss monster killer. On top of that, just like Eclipser, this thing does not replace itself instantly when destroyed, but searches instead. Rather disappointing.
Kozmo Scaredy Lion : … No. Just no. Everything about this card, from it’s stats to it’s effect are lackluster and can’t be used for combos or consistency. Stay away from this one.