Experience the first archetype centered around a single Spell Card! And this Spell Card can’t even be activated from the hand! Check out the Koa’ki Mieru, a hodgepodge of monsters spanning various Types and Attributes, strategies and play-styles, and even restrictions and costs! The only thing holding the archetype together is the core and your skills as a deckbuilder in order to tap into its potential! Are you devoted to the core?
Origins:
The Koa’ki Meiru archetype began its undervalued and unappreciated life in the Raging Battle set as an archetype that was seemingly designed to defeat LIGHT or DARK focused decks. With powerful effects geared to negation, prevention, and even annihilation of them, the Koa’ki Meiru were seemingly designed to handle the swarms of Blackwings and Lightsworns in the format. And yet, it had absolutely no impact.
Fast forward 6 more sets, 9 TCG World Premieres, and 1 OCG import later, the deck still was not performing well. Konami had released polls to figure out what people wanted for the archetype, which ended up being numbers 8 and 9 of the World Premieres. Both of which were decent cards in their own right, but neither was powerful enough to bring the deck into the spotlight, nor were they what was required in order to boost the deck to even Tier 2 status. However, not was all bad for the fate of this archetype; Konami had rectified one of their greatest issues, the overall goal of the archetype: the archetype that hates the LIGHT and DARK attributes, but can’t do much else. After the first few releases, almost all Koa’ki Meiru monsters and support Spells or Traps were simply control or power oriented. Speaking of Spells or Traps, the archetype has its own themed Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, Harpie’s Feather Duster, Gladiator Beast War Chariot, Mirror Force, Spell/Trap-negating Counter Trap Card, Draw spell, Trap Hole and Solidarity. Yeah, this was unprecedented for the game of Yu-Gi-Oh!, having such a range of archetype-specific support, and yet the theme was held back by their defining quality, the reliance on the Core.
The Core:
The Koa’ki Meiru were Konami’s first attempt to make an archetype reliant on a single card. This somewhat useless in its own right. Iron Core of Koa’ki Mieru only served to unlock any potential out of the archetype; resulting in duels where you either get the core and dominate or simply fail to gain access to the core at all. This polarity made Konami quite afraid to give any support to the archetype after a point, for fear of creating the next monster of a meta deck. As a result, the Koa’ki were dubbed useless by many and ignored by almost all others. Those who remained dedicated struggled to find a working build to compete, and yet, only a handful managed to climb to the top over the last 4 years since the archetype’s debut in small tournaments!
You see, the reliance on one card seemed stupid at the time, as are most of the revolutionary ideas brought to the game. But that is not quite so anymore. Boasting a collection that can be argued as some of the best monster effects of the entire game, the Koa’ki Meiru have no trouble gaining up to 3 cards in advantage in a single turn. But due to the depth of members and support, the Koa’ki can also function as an effective control deck that forces the opponent to make poor decisions in attempts to regain control of the duel. The deck is versatile, and can achieve many goals through use of its many different forms.
So I must ask you again, are you devoted to the core? If you say no, I don’t blame you, because you haven’t seen the might of the Koa’ki Meiru yet. I can accept ignorance for now, but just wait to unleash the full power of the deck upon the masses… I can assure you they will be left dumbfounded.
This overview to the Koa’ki Mieru archetype is only the beginning: Stay tuned for the deck articles to come!
