• Pojo Home Page
  
• Message Board
  
• Contact Staff
  

Endphase on Yu-Gi-Oh!
Fairy Tales 3: Fate and Perfection
Sept. 22, 2010

High risk/high reward play is arguably best personified with First Turn Kill decks. Either you win on your first or second turn, or you lose. The Ronintoadin/Mass Driver FTK was the last format’s most dominant FTK, now joining Last Turn and Magical Scientist as decks that will live in Traditional format for as long as this game exists.

Outside of FTK’s though, any deck that can self destruct on itself without major benefits won’t see much play outside of casual matches. The Arcana Force monsters debuted alongside Lightsworn as mono-attribute decks with unique, new mechanics that included secondary effects meant to give the deck a high risk for a high reward. While Lightsworn duelists could deck themselves out if they weren’t careful, flipping tails at an inopportune moment with Arcana Force monsters could mean an imminent loss.

Lightsworn has thrived since its creation due to the fact that the best Lightsworn builds play several cards that they want milled to the grave, turning a weakness into a strength, like Plaguespreader Zombie or Necro Gardna in addition to their powerful, game winning cards such as Judgment Dragon. You can mill out most of your deck in an opening turn and win the next with Lightwsworn, balancing or overcompensating for the risk of playing the deck in the first place.

The same cannot be said about the following archetype. With one direct support card and no additional support since Light of Destruction, the Arcana Force has stagnated since its release. This is a shame, as a deck based off of something as cool as the Tarot with wicked, chance based effects could have been a blast to play if most of the effects were worthwhile, which as you will see, is sadly not the case.

 Arcana Force
Released: Light of Destruction May 2008.
Cards Released: Arcana Force 0 –The Fool, Arcana Force I – The Magician, Arcana Force III – The Empress, Arcana Force IV – The Emperor, Arcana Force VI – The Lovers, Arcana Force VII - The Chariot, Arcana Force XIV – Temperance, Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon, Arcana Force XXI – The World, Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler, Light Barrier, Reversal of Fate, Arcana Call
Further Direct Support: Shonen Jump Magazine
Cards Released: Arcana Force Ex – The Light Ruler

I won’t spend too much time on the Magician, the Emperor, the Empress, the Lovers, the Moon, and the Chariot. Gellenduo does the Lovers job without a coin flip and with better stats, Goyo Guardian is a generic Chariot without the coin flip, the Magician can become slightly bigger than Cyber Dragon the turn a spell is activated, the Empress can help swarm the field with monsters that could as soon ruin everything with a bad coin flip as they could  help win the game, the Moon can generate tokens that can be tributed for larger monsters (like Goka, the Pyre of Malice, only with a possible horrible effect and a higher tribute summon cost), and the Emperor can give a smaller boost to your Arcana Force monsters than Solidarity. All this could be yours with a lucky coin toss, otherwise you are just throwing the summoned monster (and possibly more) away.

Temperance is unique for a few reasons, so I’ll start with it. Odds are, you’ll never find it in anyone’s main deck or even summoned for that matter, although I suppose it would not be a bad side deck choice against decks that attack for large amounts of damage, such as Chimeratech Overdragon or Lightsworn.  It’s discarding effect differs from Kuriboh slightly because unlike Kuriboh, Temperence can be activated on your turn as well, possibly as a response to an Honest that would cost you the game otherwise. While Battle Fader and Gorz, Emissary of Darkness are popular “battle-stoppers” at the moment, cards that restrict special summoning keep this card in the back of my mind whenever I put together a side deck for fairy builds. It’s not near as useful as the cards below it, but it’s not near as bad as those above.

I have had personally seen two different deck that played The World as a win condition. The more recent of the two relied on using Substitoad to mill enough frogs to the graveyard to continue to fuel The World with enough Ronintoadins to ensure that the opponent would never have a turn. The deck also played Light Barrier to guarantee that The World would not be giving extra cards to the person playing against it. Substitoad’s ban stole what consistency the deck had (which wasn’t too much to begin with) and in all honesty, the only reason I think the person who played this deck played The World was simply for the novelty (it was cool when it worked). It’s not often that someone beats someone with three direct attacks in three consecutive turns without the person receiving the attacks getting to have a single turn in between, but The World makes it possible.

The other deck ran Strike Ninjas and DD Scout Planes to fuel The World. While the strategy was somewhat outdated when I saw it (played not long after Light of Destruction’s release), I think The World would be a very fun card to play in a Macrocosmos build, especially when even his tails effect won’t be totally disastrous against a deck that destroys and even prevents graveyards. I may come back to this idea in a much later article, as I have much more to say about the remaining three Arcana Monsters.

Arcana Force 0 - The Fool is most likely the only Arcana Force monster that the average Yu-Gi-Oh player is somewhat familiar with, as it is the only one splashed into other decks. Even then, most don’t know about its effects outside of the one that doesn’t allow it to be destroyed in battle. Basically, it cannot manually change to defense position from attack (card effects can circumvent this), and on the summon a coin is tossed. If heads, your monster effects, spells, and traps that target don’t effect it and on tails your opponent’s do not. Oddly enough, tails seems to be the better effect of the two, although both can be useful depending on what other cards you are playing. Setting The Fool won’t give you his coin flipping effects unless you flip summon it yourself, but without a way to shift it back to defense mode, you open yourself up to indirect attacks on your life through The Fool.

While not being able to be destroyed by battle is nice, on its own, The Fool is no better or worse than the plethora of other monsters that have this ability. There are several combos that make the most out of him though that make him worth considering in several strategies. As mentioned earlier, normal or flip summoning The Fool would be a… wait for it… a foolish choice. That is, so long as it stays on your side of the field. Creature Swap does not target, so no matter what you flip on the summon, you can give The Fool to your opponent waiting to be attacked turn after turn unless they can do something to remove him from the field. If you flipped tails and sent it over, that Book of Moon they were going to use to reset it won’t do them any good. Things that can attack multiple times can slam into The Fool for as many attacks as they can muster, each doing the equivalent of a direct attack on their life. Outside of Creature Swap, Nova Summoner is a great way to summon The Fool to defense mode and get one of its effects, allowing it to serve as a near unbeatable barrier between you and your opponent. One for One, Kinkya-Byo, and Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing also provide methods for you to summon The Fool to defense mode, the latter of which will give you two Fools, doubling your chances of getting the flip you want. Finally, while not commonly played, cards like Shift that redirect card effects can be useful provided you have The Fool in defense mode, destroying whatever you redirect at The Fool. Against a deck like Gladiator Beasts where virtually every monster targets, The Fool could be an unbreakable barrier that provides you with the breathing space you need, forcing them (or any deck that plays several cards that target) to use up a valuable syncro summon, forcing them to play Red Dragon Archfiend instead of Stardust Dragon when it would be preferred.

The final two Arcana monsters do not have corresponding cards in the Tarot, hence the EX or Ex in their name (there is no typo, the Light Ruler has a little ‘x’). Both have the same summoning requirements: sending three monsters on your side of the field to the graveyard. While this may mean that tokens are not usable, anything else, provided it’s on your side of the field is fair game. That means that Mind Control, Archfiend’s Roar, Ronintoadin, Wiseman’s Chalice, and anything else that has special conditions effecting the monster in question are allowed for the summon.

With Obelisk finding himself played mid-way through the last format, I was honestly surprised nobody tried either of the two boss Arcanas. The Dark Ruler, with heads strikes for 8000 damage total with his two attacks and blows the field when he’s destroyed from tails. The Light Ruler is even better. Heads lets you hand pick anything from your grave if it can kill something in battle. With four thousand attack, you would be hard pressed to find something too big for it. His tails effect is arguably the best between both the Light and the Dark Ruler. If it’s targeted, your Arcana loses 1000 attack and the card is negated. That means Ryko, Dimensional Prison, even Effect Veiler do nothing once this is active. Your opponent would have to burn at least two different targeting cards before even hoping to be able to take this down via battle, and unlike Light and Darkness Dragon, The Light Ruler chains again to a second card activated. Currently, there are no sets of monsters that can consistently put three creatures on the board, although the upcoming Chaindog does have my attention for a possible deck using the Light and Dark Rulers.

Unlike Cloudians or even Agents, salvaging Arcana Force as an archetype will need more than a couple of new support cards to be make the theme remotely close to competitive. If you play and or like the deck, more power to you, it’s just something I fail to see the allure of. While some themes have received that type of boost in the past (like what The Shining Darkness did for Infernities), the outlook for the Arcana Force as a whole is grim indeed.

Not since Demise, King of Armageddon (but really Advanced Ritual Art) has a ritual monster seen the popularity of Herald of Perfection. A bizarre looking fusion of the Heralds of Orange, Green, and Purple Light, this monster is meant to do one thing and do it well – prevent its foe from doing anything. Being able to negate all spells, continuous and normal traps (but not counter), and virtually every effect monster (even those such as Honest that trigger during damage calculation), summoning Herald of Perfection in an opening turn has beaten countless duelists by invalidating their hand before they even draw their first card.

The trick, if you want to call it that, is simply summoning Herald. Dawn of the Herald, the ritual spell used to summon it, adds a monster used in Herald’s summoning back to the owner’s hand. This is especially useful if a level 6 Fairy is used. The cost is paid and then returned for Herald fuel. Advanced Ritual Art is possibly even more effective though, summoning Herald of Perfection and then strategically filling the grave with fairies that are normal monsters. Archlord Kristya, which can be summoned if exactly four Fairies are in grave, cuts off all special summons, meaning that overpowering Herald of Perfection is all but impossible. Backup Soldier, Salvage, and Dark Factory of Mass Production can pull multiple Fairies back to the owner’s hand (the lattermost of which is the most often used) for even more Fairy fuel for Herald.

There are several problems that I’ve seen that the deck has (not counting cards side-decked specifically to combat Herald of Perfection). The issue are hands in which Herald of Perfection cannot be summoned. Even with Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, Senju of the Thousand Hands, Sonic Bird, and Preparation of Rights, it’s not always possible to put Herald of Perfection on the field. This gives your opponent time to prepare for it and counter the main cards needed for Herald’s summoning. The problem of bad hands is something all decks have, but opening with a hand full of Mokey Mokeys and Smoke Balls is just one of the worst case scenarios Herald of Perfection has.

The second problem is one that anyone who has summoned Herald of Perfection can tell you about. If Archlord Kristya is not summoned on the first turn or two, and you have no way to summon anything larger than Herald of Perfection, then you are in for a very long game. Clocking in at 1800 attack points, Herald of Perfection can’t stand up to much, even with up to two Honest in the deck at their disposal. The game ends up being a long, drawn out match in which the winner is eventually decided by deck out.

Decking out can also happen even if Herald and company find themselves face to face with something that cannot be destroyed by battle. Due to the high monster count and several cards the deck plays to speed up Herald of Perfection’s summon, there is very little room for monster removal, such as Smashing Ground or Fissure. What’s more, if the Herald player does achieve the Herald/Kristya lock, they cannot use Herald of Orange Light or any other tuners to syncro summon something to take out the defensive monster.

Of course, the older the deck becomes, the more answers become available from either new cards or entirely new builds. As mentioned on the Konami Strategy page, Forbidden Chalice could become a key card in Herald of Perfection, blocking Archlord Kristya for special summons for a single turn or negating the ability of a monster that prevents Herald from getting rid of it. Older cards such as Mudora may find their way into Herald builds, providing offense that only grows as Herald of Perfection continues to negate threatening cards.

There’s also untapped potential in several other series of monsters. The Darklords are all fairies, providing Herald with fuel and loading the grave for a well timed Superbia, as well as giving the deck more muscle, access to Trade In (which the deck can already run with level eight ritual Fairies, Kristya, and Majestic Mech – Goryu), and DARK support like Allure of Darkness and even Dark Armed Dragon. The Djinn monsters, while not Fairies, can give Herald of Perfection even more effects, such as a one sided special summoning lock and an immunity to traps (such as to counter traps like Gladiator Beasts War Chariot and Divine Wrath). Also, as Dark Fiends, the Djinns open up the full potential of the Sky Scourge monsters. Sky Scourge Invicil, in particular, can block out all spells or traps depending on what was used for his summon. The Djinns don’t mind being tributed like this, as they can be used for a ritual summon while in the grave! A Djinn/Herald deck would have to be mindful that Perfection requires exactly six stars for its summon, but pairing a Djinn with a matching Fairy shouldn’t be too hard. For example, Marshmallon pairs with Djinn, releaser of rituals and Tethys pairs with Djinn, Disserere of Rituals. Since more than one Djinn can be tributed for the summon, pairing Disserere with perhaps a Skelengel would do the trick.

Even though it’s a young deck, Herald of Perfection has already made a name for itself as a very competitive choice that will more than likely only improve when more cards to assist it are printed and new builds are innovated. Next week, Valhalla Fairies and Vairons!