Death Cage

[Basa Benejan]

Mondoappears tied on a custom designed motorcycle, apparently belonging to the Crazy Diamonds according to the writing on the back of the seat. Monokuma is sitting in front of the steering handles with a blonde wig that appears to imitate Mondo's hairstyle in a mocking fashion. A spherical motorcycle death cage is set up with a red circus tent standing behind it and two large tiger heads bobbing on both sides. Monokuma steers the motorbike straight into the cage, and at the last second jumps out; leaving Mondo to go straight inside.

Once within the death cage, Mondo is spun around continuously, much like real death cage performers do (though uncontrollably) - meanwhile, standing at a safe distance from the contraption, Monokuma (now wearing a party hat) is spinning a hula-hoop. Four electric generators then appear atop the cage and charge up with magnifying volts of electricity which quickly envelope the entire metal cage. Mondo, dizzy from the accelerated spins, gets electrocuted as Monokuma starts to dance faster and faster. Once the subsequent burst of light fades away, the motorcycle, now without a passenger, rolls to a stop along with Monokuma who was sitting down after he overexhausted himself. A nearby machine connected to the cage gives out three beeps and produces a small tub of what appears to be "butter" with a photo of Mondo on its cover labeled "Mondo Butter"; implying that the high speed of the motorcycle combined with the electric shock caused Mondo's body to liquify.

The picture then switches to a childlike drawing of Monokuma sitting at a table in the outdoors, enjoying two large stacks of pancakes topped with melted butter; leading to believe Monokuma is about to enjoy Mondo Butter with his breakfast meal.

Hey everyone, I reached dumpster legend with this deck last season and it's fun to play if you're looking for a different take on death knight. Full disclosure and honesty, while my final push to legend was 80%, it was post nerfs and early pre-nerf versions of this deck were more at around 55% in diamond as I spent some 200 games to refine this deck. If you want a deck with a lot of flexibility while also giving you an excuse to play your Cage Head or Ravenous Kraken maybe give this one a go.

Gameplan: Early on you'll build a sticky board with your Foul Eggs, Nerubian Eggs, Ravenous Krakens, Yelling Yodelers, and Death Growl while also pushing the excavate package. Play for tempo at first if you have a Death Growl or Yelling Yodeler. In the mid to late game we can shift to one of three game plans:

The first is to create an immortal board of Infectious Ghouls. With Yelling Yodelers, Death Growls, and Ravenous Krakens it's not hard to make a pretty ridiculous board of resummoning minions. With your sticky board from the early game you should already have a good base when it comes time to slam down your Infectious Ghoul. Just be careful against Reno, Lone Ranger if you don't have duplicate plagues shuffled in yet.

The second path is to go the combo route with Cage Head and your Death Growls. If you have two small minions already on board then you should be able to plant Cage Head between them, spread the deathrattle, suicide them into the enemy, and surprise with 18 burst. It'll be 27 if you can use your Construct Quarter on your Cage Head. There are a lot of different ways to pull this combo off that will require experimentation. While Cage Head is expensive, you can generate either coins or 0 cost minions from the excavate package that can assist. If you haven't used Reska, the Pit Boss yet your Azerite Rat will bring back your Blight Boar. It'll have reborn, and then you can Ravenous Kraken it into Yelling Yodeler for some fun shenanigans.

Finally, you have the option to go all in on plagues. We only have three direct plague generating cards, but with the deathrattle shenanigans we have you can really multiply those quickly if you use your Distressed Kvaldirs well.

Matchups: Most of my losses came to Sludge Warlock. They're strong, but remember if they have sludges on the bottom of their deck shuffling plagues in at the right time will shuffle those around as well. This greatly decreases the power of their cards like Waste Remover as well as their draws. Treant Druid was also difficult if they got the nuts, but I haven't seen as much of them recently. Other than warlock nothing seemed like much of a struggle.

Of course, the ROH fans knew this and had fully accepted Homicide as the hero that could turn the tide in this war. When the Cage of Death was announced, the fifth man of each team would remain a mystery until the day of the fight. The ROH faithful not only expected Homicide to take the final slot for the company, they practically needed him to do so.

A few have probably already come to mind for you after reading that. I\u2019m talking about the kind of spine chilling, bone shaking burst of euphoria that blows out audio feeds. The glass shattering as Austin came down to help Mankind win the WWF Title, the roar of the Sendai crowd when Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kenta Kobashi when they win the All Asia Tag Titles, or even the Alamodome exploding for Sami Zayn finally turning on Roman Reigns.

As with most great payoffs in pro wrestling, it wouldn\u2019t be half as wonderful without all the groundwork laid down before it. The war between CZW and ROH has been raging across both companies throughout the first six months of 2006. Tensions have risen from a rather straightforward ROH World Title challenge by Chris Hero in January all the way to crazed, blood-soaked brawls like the six-man tag match at ROH\u2019s 100th show. Through the various invasions and shit talking, there have been twists and turns with the likes of Claudio Castagnoli turning his back on ROH to side with his Kings of Wrestling partner Chris Hero.

Through it all, even with Samoa Joe leading the charge for ROH, one man who\u2019s been a difference maker through the war has been Homicide. At one point considered the most dangerous and contemptible man in ROH for throwing a fireball into Samoa Joe\u2019s face in 2004, Homicide now finds himself an invaluable member of the ROH roster in a conflict without rules. Homicide has spent the last few years in the company wrestling outside the bounds of the Code of Honor. This is a man that has attacked people with forks, rolled about in barbed wire, even attempted to poison a man in public by pouring Drano down his throat.

No wonder then that the company denies Homicide that honor. In a segment early in Death Before Dishonor IV, Jim Cornette\u2014who held a commissioner role in ROH at the time\u2014would lay out that Homicide had agreed to join the ROH contingent, but only if ROH gave into three demands of his choosing. Bryan Danielson, the reigning ROH World Champion at the time, would step in to take the spot instead. Of course, to sweeten the deal, Danielson would join the match for free, no special requests attached.

The first half of the match plays out, more or less as an extended babyface shine, with ROH having won the right to the numbers advantage under the WarGames rules. The early entrants all play to this dynamic extremely well. Claudio, the turncoat, spends a long time running and cowering from Samoa Joe, and when Joe finally gets his hands on him the beating is a delight. Joe\u2019s effortless cool and charisma makes him this perfect vehicle of righteous violence, laying in a beating in just the funniest and best ways. Take for instance, an early highlight in the match that sees Joe punting a garbage can into Claudio\u2019s head.

The ring quickly populates with BJ Whitmer coming in for the ROH team, then Chris Hero for the CZW team. Hero immediately stands out in this environment, as even in a no disqualification match, his tactics come off so petty and cheap that they can\u2019t help but raise the ire of the ROH faithful. How does one play a chickenshit heel in a hardcore setting like this? Easy, poke people in the eyes and grab a cravat while celebrating like it\u2019s the most complex move on earth. Just pitch perfect heel stooging from Chris Hero in this, and his best bit in the match is still yet to come.

The big turning point for CZW though is Danielson\u2019s entry. At first, this house of fire taking out the Kings of Wrestling left and right, Danielson\u2019s selfishness reveals itself when he literally cuts Samoa Joe off at the knees during an attempted Muscle Buster. When Dragon has made it clear that his participation was simply a means of weakening upcoming title contender Joe, he vacates the cage while Joe is carried out of the ring.

The CZW advantage gets occasionally broken up upon the entry of the ROH contingent. Both Adam Pearce and Ace Steel bring a lot of fire to the proceedings here, despite not being top of mind selections to represent ROH in this high stakes battle. They more than acquit themselves in this match by bleeding and bumping a ton and, in Ace Steel\u2019s case, swinging a cow bell with reckless abandon.

The match threatens to devolve into something just a little silly when Chris Hero grabs a mic to cut a mid-match promo introducing the final member of Team CZW. It\u2019s not a bad promo, and it gets a lot of heat from the fans in attendance, but it does feel slightly out of place in the moment.

Until Ace Steel chucks a trash can full force at his head mid-promo, which pretty much justifies the whole thing in my eyes. Almost as good as the cut off is Chris Hero\u2019s tantrum when he recovers to continue the promo. Again, just pitch perfect stuff from Hero.

Eddie Kingston\u2019s the final member of Team CZW\u2014a choice that highlights how this interpromotional rivalry is bigger than the personal conflicts that populate each individual promotion, at least temporarily. As the last entrant before the big climactic final reveal, Eddie\u2019s contributions to this match can be easy to overlook but there\u2019s a lot he adds. Most notably, his absolute refusal to get along with Chris Hero adds a nice new layer to the proceedings. It starts off small with refusing a handshake offered by Hero, but it quickly escalates to the point that Hero strikes his own teammate.

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