Last time I talked about Performapals, the show was only just getting started, but now with Clash of Rebelliosn, Dimension of Chaos, and the Master of Pendulum Structure Deck, we have a whole new set of show-stopping tactics! Join me beyond the break as I go over a whole new set of tricks, some of which are coming soon for the TCG!
Last time I introduced you to the main cast of Performapals. The theme is filled with quirky characters that manipulate monster stats (among other power-ups), as they swarm the field to try and overpower an opponent.
As of CORE, we have two new members to add to our troupe. Performapal Drummerilla and Performapal Camelump are both scale 2 Pendulums. Like most Performapals, they don’t look like much on the surface, however both monsters fill a niche. Drummerilla boosts any attacking Pendulum by 600 ATK once during the turn. This is important when combined with Silver Claw and Mufflerlion when Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer is nowhere to be found. As I mentioned last time, the deck’s main power plays consist of beating face with Silver Claw, powered up by various effects. Camelump weakens opposing monsters’ defense while giving you the ability to pierce them. What’s most important though is that they’re scale 2. They aren’t ideal Scale 2s to be sure, but now Pendulum Sorcerer can search a Scale 2 and a Scale 6, which he couldn’t do before. This lets you Pendulum Summon level 3 monsters much easier, like Performapal Lizardraw, Fire Mufflerlion, and most notably, a new card also from CORE.
Archfiend Eccentrick is among the most powerful of new, generic Pendulum monsters. As a Spell, she removes other Spell and Trap cards, and as a monster, she removes other monsters. She’s an extremely versatile card with just her effects alone, but being a Scale 7 makes her all the more perfect for the Performapal deck. She helps take the pressure off of Lizardraw, letting you use his Pendulum effect more freely knowing you have other monsters with scale 6 or higher. You don’t have to worry about running out of your high scales as much anymore. Odd-Eyes can easily search her out too. Everything about her is perfect in this deck, and it’d be criminal not to max out. The fun doesn’t end here though.
Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer is the first Pendulum/Tuner monster to be released in the game. With him in your deck, you have access to the mighty Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer, and any future Dracoslayer support that we know is to follow, (such as the one in DOCS). For us though his Pendulum Effect is probably the most useful. He destroys any other Pendulum in the Pendulum Zone to fetch you a second copy of that monster. This works amazingly well with Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer. Luster’s Scale of 5 lets you Pendulum Summon the Sorcerer you destroyed with its effect, triggering it. Now you can destroy Luster (putting it in your Extra Deck to summon back later) and search your deck for Performapals for next turn’s Pendulum Swarm! It’s truly never been a better time to be a Performapal.
Or is it? The latest Structure deck out in Japan has brought us a fantastic addition to the cast with Performapal Skullcrobat Joker. Normal Summon him and grab any Odd-Eyes, Performapal, or Magician Pendulum Monster! You can search him with Sorcerer with each Pendulum Summon, so the fun never ends until the duel is done! What’s more, DOCS gives us yet another searcher with Performapal Secondonkey. If that’s still not enough searching, the Structure deck brings us the field spell, Arc in the Sky, which, in addition to targeting protection, searches out Odd-Eyes. The searching never ends! Speaking of Odd-Eyes, Joker’s scale of 8 let’s us finally summon Yuya’s ace in Performapals!
The Structure deck also brings the Magician Pendulum Monsters that further support Odd-Eyes. While they have a fairly splash-able Scale 8 we could use, I found that once you start mixing in the Magicians with the Performapals, the Magicians and Odd-Eyes start taking over the deck. Admittedly, because the Magicians are so good at supporting Odd-Eyes on their own, Performapals that don’t directly interact with Odd-Eyes can find themselves pushed out of Magician Builds. It’s certainly possible to take a minimalist approach and only include a few Magicians, but for this article, I’m only going to focus on a more pure version of Performapals. (The Odd-Eyes / Magician deck will be saved for another article).
To summarize what this all means, more searching and more high scaled cards has increased consistency exponentially for Performapals. This translates to much more aggressive plays. Skullcrobat Joker gives you yet another 1800 ATK beater that Sorcerer and Silver Claw can make into a 3100 ATK titan. Dracoslayer too adds a powerful Synchro boss to the theme’s arsenal that can remove threats without battling or targeting them. Eccentric Archfiend makes for a good high scale and additional removal, clearing the board for aggressive pushes for game-ending damage. In even shorter terms, the deck can hit harder and faster than ever!
Given all the new support from CORE, DOCS, and the Master of Pendulum Structure Deck, here’s what the most recent Performapal Deck can look like.
28 Monsters
3x Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
3x Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer
3x Performapal Lizardraw
3x Performapal Silver Claw
1x Performapal Fire Mufflion
1x Performapal Drummerilla
2x Performapal Secondonkey
2x Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
3x Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer
3x Archfiend Eccentrick
2x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
2x Effect Veiler
9 Spells
2x Arc in the Sky
1x Terraforming
1x Raigeki
1x Book of Moon
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Wavering Eyes
3 Traps
1x Ring of Destruction
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Solemn Warning
This is a fairly stable sample deck I crafted with the current OCG card pool in mind. By the time the structure arrives in the TCG however, the approach to hand traps and the spell and trap lineup may have to differ. It depends on what kind of effect the TCG Premiers have on the game, and on how prevalent Pendulum Decks become. Since this decklist is set up to DOCS / Structure deck levels, I’m basing this on a format where Pendulum decks like the Odd-Eyes / Magician deck are common. If you disagree with this assumption you have plenty of room here to tailor the build to suit whatever format you anticipate. Because of how Sorcerer and Joker interact, you can easily enough add some Magicians by removing things like Drummerilla, perhaps a Lizardraw, or even an Archfiend Eccentriick or a Luster Pendulum..
Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit gets a lot better as Pendulum Decks get more popular. Because of Dragon’s Lair Magician being as common and searchable as he is, I felt that it’s becoming a bit difficult to rely on your backrow to defend you from a Pendulum Swarm. So I opted to go for Ogre & Rabbit, who can disrupt opposing pendulum effects, and interfere with an Apex Avian effect, or otherwise possibly stop an OTK. Effect Veiler actually negates a monster’s effect, and she also lets us access Trishula with 2 level 4 monsters.
Wavering Eyes (yet another card from CORE) is a huge card bound to shake up Pendulum mirror matches. It has enough utility to be used in the main deck, even if you aren’t in a mirror match, since it can grab a Sorcerer or a Joker. Plus your destroyed Pendulums can come right back with a swing of the Pendulum. Due to it being a quick-play, the card is extremely flexible, so when using it against your opponent, you have to be wary that they can chain their own copy to yours. The popularity of Wavering Eyes combined with the plethora of cards that destroy Pendulum monsters as part of an effect to search or destroy other cards, makes Pendulum Impenetrable a tempting card to have in the side, and maybe even main deck, but time and testing will tell. Going back to Wavering Eyes, be sure to have that 3rd copy in the side if you don’t main it.
I didn’t want to focus too much on the Pendulum mirror, so I opted to still include some traps that I can side out, according to whatever deck I play against. If it’s a pendulum mirror, we go for more Gazes and Ogre & Rabbits for example. If it isn’t a Pendulum mirror, I can side out some hand traps to bring in some match-up specific floodgates and / or other reliable traps, like Fiendish Chain. Again, you can always feel free to change your approach to the main deck and side deck as you see fit.
The Extra deck below is fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll touch on a couple notable mentions below.
1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2x Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer
1x Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon
1x Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Black Rose Moonlight Dragon
1x Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1x Number 52: Diamond Crab King
1x Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Muskateer
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Stellarknight Constellar Diamond
1x Tellarknight Ptolemaeus
Neither Cyber Dragon Infinity nor Utopia the Lightning have TCG release dates in sight, so I’ve included a few more Synchros as placeholders, along with a Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. If Shaddolls are no longer relevant by the time this deck is, Constellar Diamond and Ptolemaeus may come out entirely. Diamond Crab King of course may also fall out of favor if Towers Turbo does.
The Performapal deck is still a ways away from its last line of support. There are still anime-only performapals that have been used to search and draw even more cards. At this rate, by the time the curtain falls, we might have search prowess that rivals the infamous Dragon Ruler, Spellbook, and Mermail decks of the 800 series!
Swing, pendulum of souls! Draw the Arc of Light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Come forth my loyal monsters!
The show must go on, and I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am. Let me know in the comments if there’s any other combos or strategies that should be covered that I may have missed. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter if you enjoy our content. Thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoyed the article!
The next Arc V-themed article I’ll have stitched together for you will be the Frightfur Deck. I’m also working on the next TCG World Premier theme, the Kozmo deck. Please look forward to them!
