Gravekeepers: A deck for beginners.

A cheap and easy to obtain set of cards that can carry you through most of the game.
This deck will make you some fast and easy money as well as get you familiar with some of the core aspects of yu-gi-oh!.

The Deck

Monster Cards

• 3x Gravekeeper's Commandant
  
• 3x Gravekeeper's Decendant
  
• 3x Gravekeeper's Headman
  
• 3x Gravekeeper's Recruiter
  
• 2x Gravekeeper's Shaman
  
• 3x Gravekeeper's Spiritualist
  
• 3x Gravekeeper's Spy

Spell Cards

• 1x Gravekeeper's Stele
  
• 2x Hidden Temples of Necrovally
  
• 3x Necrovally
  
• 3x Necrovally Throne
  
• 3x Royal Tribute

Trap Cards

• 3x Imperial Tombs of Necrovally
  
• 2x Necrovally Temple
  
• 3x Rite of Spirit

Extra Deck

• 3x Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist

Obtaining the Cards

All the cards can be found in booster-packs in Grandpa Muto's Shop. This is probably the fastest way to obtain them, since the card packs only cost 200 and most are common drops.

Alternatively if you unlocked Odin in Duellist Challenges, you can unlock some of the cards by starting a duel, and then instantly surrendering. You will earn a consolation price witch will be one of the cards in his deck. This reward will always be a card you don't already have 3 copies of. (see: Deck Edit > #X Empty > The Gravekeepers)

Playstyle & Combos

This is a Control Deck with Swarming elements. At its core cards manipulate what your opponent can and cant do while simultaneously you will build a board of Monsters and Effect Cards.

Your objective will be to lock the Graveyard and prevent special summoning from it.
With Necrovally, Gravekeeper's Shaman & Hidden Temples of Necrovally on the field you can prevent a wide range of summons.

1. Necrovally

First priority will always be to get Necrovally on the field. It will boost your monsters with 500 ATK/DEF, prevent your opponent to access the Graveyard, but most importantly it is the primary requirement for some key Cards.
Necrovally Throne can search for Gravekeeper's Commandant witch can then be discarded to search for Necrovally

Afterwards there are two options; Summoning the Boss Monster or protecting and expanding control of the field (see: 3. lock-down).

2. Boss Monster

Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist provides a 3000 ATK+ beatstick with build-in protection. Additionally it can search any card from the deck allowing flexibility when new problems present themselves.Gravekeeper's Spiritualist is polymerization + fusion material all-in-one. If it is in the Graveyard, Gravekeeper's Headsman can Special Summon it and be used jointly as fusion material.

3. Lock-down

Gravekeeper's Shaman protects Necrovally as well as further restricts your opponent's Graveyard.
Hidden Temples of Necrovally can be extremely powerful as it prevents special summons, further locking down your opponent.
Gravekeeper's Spy can search and Special Summon Gravekeeper's Shaman from the deck. It's a slow method but with the 500 DEF boost from Necrovally it's more probable than not to survive your opponents Battle Phase. Not exceedingly reliable but an option for sure.
Hidden Temples of Necrovally is a powerhouse of a card and should be searched for with Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist effect.

4. Card Removal

Gravekeeper's Descendant should be used to remove any cards that challenge your board control. Continuous Spell/Trap Cards, big beatsticks, Field Cards...
It shouldn't be to hard to get material for Gravekeeper's Descendant but i remind you of the following:
Gravekeeper's recruiter is the ideal material for Gravekeeper's Descendant as his effect triggers in the graveyard without a destruction condition. Meaning that if he is tributed you can search your deck and add a Gravekeeper Monster to your hand.
If Gravekeeper's Recruiter is in the graveyard and you have Gravekeeper's Descendant on the field, Gravekeeper's Headsman can Special Summon him. He can then immediately be used as tribute for Gravekeeper's Descendant together with herself (optionally) to remove up to 2 cards.
Gravekeeper's Headman can also special summon Gravekeeper's Descendant form the Graveyard and then sacrifice herself to remove a card from the field.

5. Protection & Support

Royal Tribute and Imperial Tombs of Necrovally are hands down my favourite cards in this deck. If Hidden Temples of Necrovally is already on the field i will 95% of the time search for Imperial tombs of Necrovally with the effect of Gravekeeper Supernaturalist. It offers great spell speed 3 protection at no cost.
Royal Tribute is amazing if you can play it first turn; play all Monster Cards you can from your hand then use Royal Tribute. Remember that your opponent will have a harder time accessing his Graveyard and you, in most cases, will prefer having your Monsters in the Graveyard. (for Gravekeeper's Headsman, Rite of Spirit and Gravekeeper's Stele)
Necrovally Temple is OK together with Necrovally in creates a 1000 ATK difference witch can make battling much more difficult for your opponent.
Gravekeeper's Stele is there in-case you make a mistake or your opponent manages to make a exceptionally good play. It allows you to add 2 Monster Cards to your hand for the price of 1 Card. However this is not really necessary since monsters in your graveyard are not difficult to cycle through.

6. Swarming

For the most part the deck possesses quite reliable ways to summon multiple Monsters. A little on the slow side, sometimes not in the same turn it was played, but enough to make ends meet.
These additional Summons can be used as tribute for Gravekeeper's Descendant or as Fusion Material with Gravekeeper's Spiritualist. Get creative, adapt to the situation at hand, and when in doubt, count on your opponent having a Mirror Force or Dark Hole... so you know, maybe hold back on blowing all your cards on the table.

Flowchart for Apes

< Seach Tools / Materials < ---------------------------------------- > Power Cards / Boss Monster >

Other Tips

• Gravekeeper's Commandant in combination with Necrovally and Necrovally Temple is can serve as a small beatstick with 2100 ATK. He becomes useless relatively quickly after having searched Necrovally.
  
• Necrovally Throne can be used to search any Gravekeeper card if you already have Necrovally on the field. Gravekeeper's Spiritualist, Gravekeeper's Headsman and Gravekeeper's Recruiter are of note since they can Fusion into Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist or serve as tribute for Gravekeeper's Descendant.
  The additional Summon can also help getting Monsters on the board to tribute for Gravekeeper's Descendant.
  
• Gravekeeper's Headsman can special summon monster face down defence position. This means Gravekeeper's Spy can be Summoned this way from the graveyard to use her Flip Effect.
  
• All Gravekeeper's Recruiter needs to do is move from the field to the graveyard to trigger his effect. This can be a alternate way to get Gravekeeper's Commandant to your hand and then Necrovally. Otherwise, this is a good effect, get creative.
  
• Be aware that when you play Gravekeeper's Stele you move cards from your graveyard to your hand. This might be counterproductive if you want to play Gravekeeper's Headsman or Rite of Spirit.
  
• Hidden Temples of Necrovally will instantly be destroyed if Necrovally or all Gravekeeper Monsters are removed from the field. Caution when fusion summoning; make sure to have at least one other Gravekeeper Monster on the field. Otherwise, you will lose Hidden Temple of Necrovally due to there being a short interval where no Gravekeeper's Monsters are on the field.

Edits I Recommend

To Remove

• I suggest removing 1 Necrovally as soon as you feel comfortable. Later on the additional copies will bother you more than serve as substitutes. Additional Necrovally Temple already adds a recycle mechanic to obtain them from the Graveyard (although unreliably). This brings me to my next point:
  
• Necrovally Temple: Its an OK card and that wont cut it. Remove at-least 1, maybe 2 if you are planing on running 3 copies of Necrovally.
  
• Rite of Spirit. It's to slow. Maybe run 1 or 2 when you feel more comfortable with the deck.
  
• Gravekeeper's Spy. Is also to slow but still on the reliable side. Maybe take out 1 or 2.
  
• Gravekeeper's Descendent. You really need only 2. Take 1 out if you can reliably search it when you need it.
  
• Gravekeeper's Stele. Very situational in my opinion. It's really a 50/50 but you wont catch me running 2 copies. Take it out if you feel like it. If in doubt leave it in.

To Add

• If you want more reliable protection try adding Field Barrier or:
  
• An additional copy of Gravekeeper's Shaman. However 3 copies of each is overdoing it.
  
• You can add a Terraforming instead of a 3rd copy of Necrovally. But it becomes more of a gamble since statistically speaking you will draw Necrovally before Terraforming more often. The upside is that you deck will be cleaner since you wont draw as many Necrovallys.
  
• A 3rd copy of Hidden Temples of Necrovally. The only reason i don't run 3 is because i rarely reach a point were they destroy my 2nd copy. If you find yourself in need of a 3rd copy don't doubt it, add it.
  
• Gravekeeper's Heretic. This would be in my top 3 best cards for this deck if it wasn't for the fact that he is also immune to his own support card... Yes, he doesn't receive the 500 ATK/DEF bonus from Necrovally. Never the less don't be fooled by me, 1800ATK is still nice and immunity to all effects is no joke. Seriously consider adding 1, 2 or 3 of him if you struggle with card effects.
  
• Gravekeeper's Nobleman is a also nice; acting similarly to Gravekeeper's Headsman. I personaly dislike the destruction condition as well as it beeing on the slow side. on the other side it allowes you to Special Summon ANY gravekeepers Monster facedown defence position. Very usefull to summon Gravekeeper's Spy and:...
  
• Gravekeeper's Guard: Nice defence stats (+500 DEF from Necrovally), similar to Gravekeeper's Spy. However, I belive that, returning a Monster to the hand, in most cases, is inferior to sending them to the graveyard. Gravekeeper's Descendent can do his job beter with more versatility. If you want to remover more Monsters, add 1 or 2 (especialy if you want to remove any summons from the Extra Deck).
  
• Gravekeeper's Chief. It can help with swarming the field but most importantly it will allow you to target the Graveyard for Monsters other than Gravekeepers. A must if you are going to run this deck in tandem with another archetype or other Monster Cards.
  
• Gravekeeper's Servant. Just remember that whatever is in your opponents Graveyard is extra difficult for him to reach with Necrovally and Gravekeeper's Shaman in play.
  
• Wonder wand. Equipping this to Gravekeeper's Recruiter is very nice. Run 1 or 2 at most. Its also very versatile.
  
• Allure of Darkness. +2 wa can i say.
  
• Gravekeeper's Visionary. Don't recommend him but if you want a thicc beatstick for the mid-late game look no further. Discarding Gravekeepers shouldn't be a problem either.
  
• Gagagashield. Excellent protection however, unlike Imperial Tomb of Necrovally, it cannot be searched for. Ideal target would be Gravekeeper's Shaman.
  
• Dark Renewal. Works very well with Gravekeeper's Recruit. Can search almost any Gravekeeper aswel as serve as removal.
  
• Card Destruction. Can be very interesting in combination with Royal Tribune.

[mt;]

The Goat

[DeScruff]

This is a *really* good deck for how quickly and early you can put most of it together!
Hidden Temples of Necrovally, Necrovally Temple, Royal Tribute were giving me some trouble in getting them. (They are literally the last cards I need to get 3 of from the pack) But the deck still works fine with some generic good stuff substituting in their place.

Thanks for making and sharing this! Now I can quickly unlock the duelists that give cards for the kinda decks Ive been wanting to play around with.

[HEY_LITTLE_CUZ]

polymerization & support is great because even though it -3s you, supernaturalist gets you value back almost all the time and it doesn't eat your normal summon. it makes the deck significantly more explosive.

[@realCousinOkri]

Thanks mate, this deck rocks! Carried me through a lot of the campaigns.

[Mezzo]

On duel masters i run this deck with solemn judgement and torrential tribute. hands down just goes in.

[Christo Artistz]

i got gravekeeper's desk and they are op if you know how to use them

[Sergio the Wanderer]

Gravekeeper's é um ótimo baralho, com estas configurações citadas de fato fica bem nível iniciante, mas se você quer torná-lo um baralho capaz de finalizar qualquer campanha, tu pode dar uma tunada neste baralho acrescentando algumas cartas off-deck, e inclusive retirando algumas originais do mesmo, que eu julgo serem inúteis.

[micmic25]

Gravekeepers carried me all the way to link era. Thanks!

[kha-sandra]

This deck is amazing, i am short of a couple of cards, had to replace with a couple of raigeki and Gravekeeper's servant but it hit so hard and fast that it flatten all the other duelist.

[jomami]

Thank you guys so much for all the kind comments and insights it really means a lot to me. The guide took me a while to make and I haven’t played the game much since but it’s nice to know that its being red. Thanks a lot for checking it out and commenting!