Season's greasons, Duelists! A very merry Zarcmas to all!!
(Oh God it's the 8th time now what the fuck-)
Today I present you a very silly, very convoluted, veeeeery sacky decklist in the spirit of the holidays. Ever wondered how it'd feel like to end the duel before it begins? Well, you're in luck, because I have one such method of highly fluctuating consistency!
Introducing.... Tricksturbance Strategy Turbo!
The premise is very simple, in spite of all the variables. You need to go first, punt Z-ARC into the Pendulum zone, and set down either (or both) of Trickstar Reincarnation and Disturbance Strategy, all before your opponent's main phase.
Every card in the deck plays a part in that (to the best of its barely coherent ability)- and that's what I'll be detailing below!
Main Deck (40 cards):
1x Odd-Eyes Arc Pendulum Dragon: Just fodder for Celestial Soul, really.
3x Supreme King Gate Magician: The main playmaker on the Z-ARC side of the combo; he can search out either of the two Souls to get you to your dragon overlord.
2-3x Supreme King Gate Zero: A pendulum scale for Gate Magician's self-summoning effect, nothing more, nothing less. Ratio interchangeable with Darkwurm. Oh, speaking of...
2-3x Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm: Self-summoning little guy that searches Gate Magician or Gate Zero, in case you didn't open with both.
2x Cup of Ace: Card advantage. RNG-dependent, but oh well.
3x Dragon Shrine: Mill Darkwurm, summon Darkwurm from grave, profit.
1x Upstart Goblin: Card advantage again.
1x Foolish Burial: Darkwurm mill. Again.
3x Pot of Prosperity: More card advantage, with the added bonus of potentially jackpotting a missing combo piece.
3x Wings of Light: Universal Supreme King searcher (have you noticed how that side keeps searching itself? Yeah it's still janky as fuck. Somehow.)
3x Trickstar Reincarnation: Key card #1! Basically resets your opponent's hand (and can revive a Trickstar, but that's irrelevant here.)
3x Oops!: Self-destruction button. Pops 1 of your own monsters, which is A Lot more useful than it looks on the surface.
3x Trap Tracks: Great role consolidator, and arguably the lynchpin of this deck. Pops 1 monster, sets 1 trap from the deck- precisely what you need to pull off the combo. It does have antisynergy with Trap Trick, though, so do watch out for that.
1x Soul of The Supreme Celestial King: First (and better, and costlier) choice of your two gateways to Z-ARC. If the opponent somehow interrupts your silly goofy combo, you can spring this on them midway through their own combo, and..... uhhh.... pray for a win by beatdown. Lmao.
3x Disturbance Strategy: Key card #2!! Alternate option to Reincarnation, resets your opponent's hand via shuffling instead of banishing their starter opening.
2x Trap Trick: Worse Trap Tracks, but useful in a jiffy. Gets you to Oops, Reincarnation, Disturbance, or one of the two Souls. Whichever it is you're missing. Again, do beware this can't tutor Trap Tracks (or you won't be able to resolve more Traps for the turn).
3x Soul of The Supreme King: One good ol' Z-ARC at the small cost of, uh, half your LP. This isn't half as bad as it looks, trust me- it's actually more reliable than its Celestial counterpart, since it doesn't need Gate Magician to stay on field.
Extra Deck (15 cards):
Up to 9x Dimension Dragons (or variants), as fodder for Gate Magician and Celestial Soul.
3x Flex spots where you put whatever, because empty ED spots lowkey look bad.
3x Supreme King Z-ARC: Key card #3!!! The star of this hotpot of cards, widely known for board wipes... and significantly less so for his Pendulum effects. This is why you need a self-destruct button, by the way.....
...Figured out the combo yet?
Steps:
1) Go first. If you go second, then what are you even doing? Magic your way into it, idk (I did say this was of highly fluctuating consistency).
2) Cycle through the bajillion searches and draws in your deck to end on 1 each of Z-ARC (or a way to summon him at the start of turn 2), a way to destroy him (Oops or Trap Tracks), a hand reset (Reincarnation or Disturbance- or Trap Trick, if you can't get to either), by the end of turn 1. If Trap Tracks was your choice of pop, this excuses not having a hand reset because you can just dig it out from the Deck.
3) Turn 2 begins. In the draw phase, flip your pop. This gets Z-ARC to the Pendulum zone, and from there you proceed to the standby phase.
4) In said phase, flip up the hand reset so your opponent has to redraw a hand. This is where Z-ARC's second Pendulum effect triggers... and promptly destroys the new hand they just drew.
Yes.
Every single card of it.
Congratulations; they can't start a thing now, and will either quit on the spot or... watch you tickle them with battle damage?
(Sometimes they can still play, but kicking off a combo from the GY is something special to just a few decks. Besides, the sight of their hand going POOF! is still priceless, even if it doesn't win you the game then and there.)
Aaaand there you have it! Results are pretty much guaranteed to be atrocious, but hey, it's still a fun experience to pull off at times!! Here's your cookie for sticking around, by the way- have fun dueling, and happy holidays!
The time to explore Ixalan is upon us and you need to prepare!
In this article you’ll find the complete decklists from the upcoming Explorers of Ixalan game, as well as some pretty, pretty previews. A few old favorites even have new art.
Just when you thought it was never going to happen again, it’s time for a new decklist post! Today we’ve got a slightly more eccentric build than my usual lists as we take a look at my colorless Hope of Ghirapur deck. This deck started as something of a local meme in my area, as myself and a few others used to joke about building a list for Hope as far back as the spoiler season for Aether Revolt. There were -- and still are -- other colorless lists within the local playgroup, but for some reason the idea of building this little thopter never really progressed past a silly idea that we chuckled about.
A few months ago, though, I was looking through my big storage binder of older rares and I realized that I had a lot of cards that would make sense in a list for Hope, and so I decided to try putting it together just to see how it fared. The deck came together fairly quickly and garnered several responses of “Oh, you actually did it!” and “Finally!” when I first sat down with it. After a few games and some minor tweaking, I actually came to like the way it played a lot, and now it’s one of the decks I keep in active rotation.
With a guaranteed turn-one play in the Commander, this deck can start moving pretty fast, and so it has a large Equipment suite to make the most of its quick setup and the fact that Hope needs to swing in to activate its ability. While the lack of color limits access to support options for the Equipment strategy, options like Hammer of Nazahn and Armory Automaton help to keep things moving. It’s very possible to do a substantial amount of Commander damage very quickly with this list, but the deck is not a centrally-dedicated Voltron deck because its spell options are so limited and so it has very few ways to ensure the damage will connect once the other players start to get set up.
As such, this deck can organically switch gears to a more defensive role and develop an engine through cards like the Myr Retriever family, Krark-Clan Ironworks and Treasure Keeper, among others. Through massive cost reduction and cards that grant the ability to dig down into the library, the deck can start to sculpt its turns to its own liking without too much trouble. This allows it to build up into incredibly dense turns, sacrificing and retrieving cards over and over to net increasing value and playing card after card. While the abundance of artifacts makes this deck more fragile in a vacuum, it has ways of protecting itself or quickly rebuilding if it has to, and the activated ability on Hope can help grant a couple of turns to get things reorganized. Despite going entirely without the capabilities afforded by color identity, this list is pretty fun to play because it has a surprising amount of options and a deceptively deep toolbox. Even if it’s still a little silly.
It’s time for the first decklist post since my return to the blog! Today, we’ll be looking at my personal Red-Green list for Mina and Denn, Wildborn. These twin Zendikari elves are among the allied forces that fought against the Eldrazi, and they’re all about getting maximum value out of the lands on the board. This list is also unique among my personal decks as it runs absolutely zero traditional “mana rock” artifacts, instead opting to increase its mana production through additional land plays to maximize the use of the many Landfall triggers in the list.
Mina and Denn's deck is an aggressive combat-centric list that uses the benefit of its many additional land drops to fuel a constant barrage of attacks as well as a backup supply of explosive spells. The core of the list revolves around quickly setting up multiple extra land plays and then pushing ahead of the other players at the table to the point that they are unable to catch up. Cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Oracle of Mul Daya are empowered when sitting next to a Horn of Greed or Tireless Tracker, adding additional card draws and filling the hand with useful ways to spend all that extra mana. To replenish itself quickly, the deck also runs cards like Experimental Frenzy, an easy way to power into more playable cards if the player's hand starts to get low on gas.
One of the most interesting pieces in this deck's toolbox is The Great Aurora, a card that serves as a combination board wipe for the opponents and a full refresh for the deck itself. Utilizing it at the right time allows the player to remake the board completely in their own favor and puts the opponents behind a turn as they must spend their resources doing the same. With the multitude of ways to get additional lands out onto the field, using the Aurora is heavily skewed in the player's favor and is often backbreaking if paired with cards like Ember Swallower and Ulvenwald Hydra to make use of the imbalanced boardstate. Overall, this deck's greatest claim to fame is the fact that it can quickly power itself out and consistently remain on the offensive throughout the game, giving it a strong presence at any table it sits down to.
When it comes to decks in ARC-V, I’d say the Fusion dimension probably hit the jackpot.* So many great, versatile, interesting and powerful decks. Serena’s deck, of course, is no exception. They have a enough cards for a pure deck, and nearly all of them are good. Not many decks can say that.
This is my latest version of Lunalights. And thanks to newer releases, it definitely won’t be my last.
The name of the game is fusion. But this game has a gimmick: you climb up a ladder of Monsters to build stronger and stronger monsters. You fuse to create Cat Dancer, fuse it to make Panther Dancer, and then finally fuse it to make Leo Dancer. It’s kind of like evolving a Pokemon, and it’s a very interesting concept for a deck. Even better, the monsters get more and more powerful as you climb the ladder.**
But you’re probably thinking, “It’s that very limiting? I need to do all these steps to make Panther or Leo,” or “I’m using up so many resources to bring them out, smh.” You’d be using a lot cards to bring out Leo Dancer: 2 monsters and Poly to fuse for Cat; Poly, Cat and another Lunalight for Panther, and then Panther, 2 Lunalights and Poly to make Leo. Assuming you’re not recycling cards somehow, you need 10 cards to pull out their best card, and several of them are specific. And you’d need to do it before your opponent tries to wreck it all.
This deck has it all covered.
Polymerization is searchable via Black Sheep, who can discard itself to search Polymerization from the deck. You can then use cards like Luna Light Perfume or White Rabbit to revive it.
The Lunalight Pendulums aren’t really that good for Pendulum Summoning, especially since you can’t easily search both Scales. Plus special summoning your Main Deck monsters isn’t as big here as it is with Predaplants. Their Pendulum Effects, however, are the big playmakers here.
Wolf lets you fuse by banishing material from the Field or Graveyard, which is an amazing way to quickly bring out the powerful Fusions, or even multiples of those powerful Fusions.
Tiger can revive a Monster for the Graveyard for Fusion Summoning. This also lets you use Black Sheep’s discard effect to nab a Polymerization, and then easily revive it and use it for fusing.
These Pendulums are great for reusing monsters, keeping up your resources, and summoning one or more of the Fusions.
Kaleido Chick is this deck’s Elemental HERO Prisma: you send a monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the Graveyard, and it takes their name. This is useful for Lunalight Fusions, as you can bypass the fusion requirements. I mostly like to rely on Fusion Tag though, since it also lets me pass the Predaplant name of Chimera Rafflesia, which lets me summon Rafflesia itself, or Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon.
Blue Cat’s also pretty neat: when destroyed, it can special summon another Lunalight from its deck, including itself. It’s not limited to once per turn, so you can summon two other Blue Cats in a turn to protect you. It also has an ATK-boosting effect, which facilitates OTKs or inflicting heavy damage.I recommend using this on Cat Dancer to bring its attack to 4800, then Tribute it for Cat Dancer’s multiple attack effect.
Blue Cat’s not the only Lunalight with a battle-oriented effect; you also have stuff like Purple Butterfly, which can boost a Lunalight’s attack by 1000 by being discarded. Crimson Fox, when used for a Fusion Summon, can make an opponent’s monster’s attack 0, in addition to having another effect that lets you negate an effect that targets your Lunalight monsters.
Fusion Recovery has always been a good way to recycle cards and fuse again. It’s incredibly useful here.
Fire Formation - Tenki is a huge help for this archetype. It lets you search your deck nearly any Lunalight you need, providing you with a helpful card and some material for Fusion Summoning. It also gives all Beast-Warrior monsters 100 extra attack, which doesn’t exactly hurt the OTK strategy.
I mentioned Fusion Tag earlier, but let me explain what it can do some more. Summon a monster, use Fusion Tag to name it Cat Dancer, and fuse it with a Lunalight to make Panther Dancer. Or summon a monster, use Fusion Tag to name it Panther Dancer, and fuse it with 2 Lunalights for Leo Dancer. This makes both Panther and Leo more accessible, and saves you a ton of time and cards. It’s a fantastic card for a deck like this.
Upstart Goblin helps you to draw one of Serena’s fursonas, but the opponent gains 1000 LP. Normally this might be risky idea for OTK decks, but since this deck has such heavy output, I don’t usually mind. However, I’m going to try subbing it out for Fusion Recycling Plant. (See below for details.)
Other options for the deck:
There’s a new TCG exclusive announced today: Fusion Recycling Plant. It’s a really good Field Spell that lets you search and recycle Polymerization, and it’ll even nab you a monster from the Graveyard during your End Phase. It’s also searchable via Terraforming, which is a necessity for Field Spell-reliant decks.
Hmm, this deck has a ton of DARK monsters.
Dragostapelia is a good card to help trip up your opponent. it just needs a Fusion monster + a DARK monster; this requirement is very possible for the deck, and it’s less restrictive than Chimera Rafflesia, Greedy Venom, Leo and Panther Dancer.
And there you have it. Lunalights are a deck with a unique, fun style of play that has easy answers to deal with its inherit issues. Its offensive power is great, and it’s a great way to let your opponent know that you’re a furry.
Fun fact: YGOPro AI can’t seem to handle playing this deck most of the time. Probably because it struggles to grasp the more complex elements of the deck, and thus can’t make an effective move. But if you mastered the deck, you can blow the AI out of the water.
Monsters (20):
Lunalight Wolf x3
Lunalight Crimson Fox x3
Lunalight Blue Cat x3
Lunalight Kaleido Chick
Lunalight Tiger x3
Lunalight Purple Butterfly
Lunalight White Rabbit x3
Lunalight Blue Cat x3
Spells (16):
Fusion Recovery x3
Polymerization x3
Luna Light Perfume x2
Fusion Tag x3
Upstart Goblin
Cattle Call
Fire Formation - Tenki x3
Traps (4):
Lunalight Reincarnation Dance x2
Bottomless Trap Hole
Solemn Warming
Extra Deck:
Lunalight Leo Dancer x2
Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon x2 (I recommend replacing one with Dragostapelia)
Lunalight Panther Dancer x2
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
Predaplant Chimera Rafflesia
Lunalight Cat Dancer x2
Number S39: Utopia the Lightning
Number 39: Utopia
Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
The Phantom Knights of Break Sword
Sky Cavalry Centaurea
* Of the non-Standard dimensions, Fusion got the best decks, imo.
Synchro: Has Jack’s Red/Resonator deck. It’s a big improvement over his old Resonators, but doesn’t really deal with its issues like Lunalights, another high-offensive deck. Crow has Blackwings, but these are hit-and-hiss as always. Goyo was fleshed out as a series, but not as an archetype.
Xyz: Phantom Knights, Lyrical Luscinia and Raidraptors, real good. And then you have shit like Kaito’s Ciphers. The issue with Ciphers is that they work with Galaxy cards, but not with the Photons they’re meant to replace. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if Galaxy’s worked well with the Ciphers. And right now, there aren’t enough Ciphers to actually replace the Photon cards. While Ciphers have a great idea to them, Galaxy-Photon is a much better deck. But at least their RUM and ED monsters are good. And also, lol no R4NK Trains for Allen, no “Fairy” archetype for Sayaka, but we’re not missing anything particularly special.
Fusion: Ancient Gears, Predaplants, Fluffals/Frightfurs, Lunalights, Performage (before half the deck was banned) Amazoness (the Fusions and new cards weren’t printed, but they were still great regardless.)
** This really isn’t relevant to anything here, but I thought I’d mention it for fun. This Fusion climbing is somewhat reminiscent of many Synchro decks: you’ll Synchro summon a monster, then use it as material to summon another Synchro with a higher level. You might need to do this because the first Synchro can recycle your Tuner and let you Synchro again, or you have the total levels needed to summon something, but you have 2 Tuners.
I’m shit at explaining, so take a good visual example. In one episode of 5Ds, where Yusei tunes Speed Warrior with Junk Synchron to Synchro Summon Junk Warrior, then tunes Junk Warrior with Nitro Synchron to Synchro Summon Nitro Warrior.
As I said, this isn’t relevant to anything. I just think it’s neat how this Fusion deck features a common Synchro deck element.
