FLIP, Synchro, and Control the Field With Phantom Revenge!

With the new support for all three Phantom Revenge themes, this week will be fully dedicated to the set itself to show how their new support affected the prices. With each theme receiving a grand total of 3 cards apiece, they have changed the Decks enough to become competent strategies for the future of the game. There will also be slight changes to the format of the article, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Stopping the Chain Links

Our first stop will be looking at Enneacraft, as they don’t really have much to go over in terms of techs or cards to look for since they were given one Ultra Rare in the set, that being Enneacraft – Atori.MAR. The gimmick with Enneacraft is that all the Level 9s have the same Pendulum Effect that places 1 E.C. Counter on them, and at the end of the Battle Phase, if there is an Enneacraft card in the other Pendulum Zone, you can target and destroy 1 monster your opponent controls with less ATK than the Enneacraft card in the first Pendulum Zone. As for the monster effect, all share the effect that you can reveal them in your hand to Special Summon 1 monster from your hand in face-down Defense Position, but you cannot Special Summon face-up monsters the turn you use that effect. Atori is an interesting Boss Monster as when your opponent activates a card or effect on the field during your turn, you can quickly change this face-down Defense Position card to face-up Defense Position in order to negate that activation and destroy it. Then if this card was flipped face-up, you change all monsters your opponent controls to face-down Defense Position, and those monsters changed face-down by this effect cannot change their battle position. With their new cards, this Deck has even more ways to add any of their cards needed to your hand, and with Enneacraft – Atil.SPIA (YGOrganization Translation) turns the game into something less focused on Chain Links and more focused on one-for-one trading. So hopefully, you are ready for this post-Blazing Dominion.

One of the few techs I wanted to talk about is Zaborg the Mega Monarch, as I’ve heard murmurs of players using this card in their Enneacraft Decks with the Level 9 monsters being LIGHT to synergize with that card’s effect. We have seen Mega Zaborg over the years from Nekroz to Dogmatika, but now, Enneacraft has taken use of it as if it is Tribute Summoned; you can target 1 monster on the field and destroy it. Then if it was a LIGHT monster, both players send as many cards as possible from their Extra Decks to the GY, but not more than the original Level/Rank of that destroyed monster. And if you Tributed a LIGHT monster to Tribute Summon Zaborg, you get to choose the cards your opponent sends to the GY. Being able to send up to 9 cards from the opponent’s Extra Deck is extremely powerful these days, as many themes rely on the Extra Deck to function.

Enneacraft didn’t have much to talk about, as it has been streamlined enough to where there is little room for differentiating what is in each list, with anywhere from 11 to 13 non-engine cards being run. The newer cards do so much for the deck, bringing it to the attention of the player base as a potential Meta Deck in the future.

Synchro with Stylish Tunes

Kewl Tune ended up being a big winner from Blazing Dominion, as Kewl Tune Rotary (YGOrganization Translation), Kewl Tune Crackle (YGOrganization Translation), and Kewl Tune Back 2 Back (YGOrganization Translation) raised not only the ceiling of the Deck but also the prices on the market by quite a bit. Kewl Tune Cue is still one of the best starters for the Deck as on its Normal Summon, you can Special Summon any Tuner from your hand, Deck, or GY, but you are locked into Special Summoning Tuners for the rest of the turn. All the Kewl Tune Main Deck names and Kewl Tune Track Master share the same effect that makes it so if you use them as a Synchro Material on the field, you can use 1 Tuner in your hand as 1 of the other materials. This works really well with the PSY-Framegear Tuners, Effect Veiler, and the Yokai Ghost Girl line of Hand Traps. Finally, if Cue is sent to the GY as a Synchro Material, you can excavate the top two cards of your opponent’s Deck, banish one of them, and put the other on the top or bottom of their Deck. With the addition of Kewl Tune Rotary (YGOrganization Translation) and it being a Level 1, this can help you grant access into Kewl Tune Track Maker, which can add any Kewl Tune card from your Deck to your hand when it is Synchro Summoned, and when it is sent to the GY as a Synchro Material, you can return 1 card your opponent controls to the hand as a way of breaking the opponent’s board.

Kewl Tune Reco is another strong card for the Deck, since when it is Summoned you can add 1 Kewl Tune monster from your Deck or GY to your hand, except a Level 3 monster, which lets you access the new Kewl Tune Rotary (YGOrganization Translation) for your Level 4 Track Master, or Kewl Tune Clip and Kewl Tune Mix to Synchro Summon the Level 5 Kewl Tune Loudness War, Kewl Tune RS, or the new Kewl Tune Crackle (YGOrganization Translation). For each of the Synchros, they have their own utility, such as RS gaining 300 ATK for each Tuner in the GYs and increasing the Levels of monsters your opponent controls with 1700 ATK or less by 1. This is a great Synchro Monster since you can quickly banish 1 Tuner from your GY during the Main Phase to target and negate the effects of 1 face-up card your opponent controls until the end of the turn. With Loudness War, it prevents other Tuners you control from being destroyed or targeted by card effects, and then when your opponent activates a card or effect, you can banish 1 Kewl Tune monster from your GY to apply that banished monster’s effect when it is sent to the GY as a Synchro Material. The choices include Cue’s previously mentioned excavation effect, Clip’s effect to banish an opponent’s random face-down Extra Deck card, Reco’s effect to destroy an opponent’s Spell/Trap, Mix’s effect to destroy an opponent’s monster, and finally, the effect of Rotary (YGOrganization Translation), which lets you either place an opponent’s card in their GY or at the bottom of their Deck, or look at your opponent’s hand while adding 1 Kewl Tune Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand.

Being the best Spell Card for the Deck and with Duelist Genesis being able to fetch it out, Kewl Tune Synchro can add any Kewl Tune card from your Deck to your hand, and then you can immediately Synchro Summon 1 Tuner Synchro Monster, but you cannot Special Summon for the rest of the turn, except Tuners. The bonus to this is that you can activate it up to twice per turn or on the opponent’s turn, as it is a Quick-Play Spell. This makes it a guessing game for the opponent, as they need to figure out which Synchro Monster you will be Summoning on their turn and for what type of interruption/destruction you plan to use. It is a solid card and a main 3-of for Kewl Tune and will always be good going into the future with whatever support is given to the Deck.

One tech that I’ve seen pop up in multiple lists has been Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon, as on its Synchro Summon, it can Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower Tuner from your GY, which revives your Clip or Mix. Some have opted to run a copy of Stardust Dragon to Special Summon off of Accel’s effect to make Bystial Dis Pater, which can Summon back banished LIGHT or DARK monsters and help shuffle back your LIGHT/DARK monsters in order to destroy a monster that activated its effect or to shuffle back your opponent’s LIGHT/DARK monsters to negate that activated effect. The Extra Deck hasn’t been explored much, as there are plenty of other techs you can run; even the new Zaren the Chainbound Dragon (YGOrganization Translation) will be worthwhile in the Deck with it being a Level 7 DARK Dragon Synchro Tuner that requires 1 Tuner and 1 or more Synchro Monsters to access plenty of other Extra Deck monsters.

Overall, Kewl Tune has been tuned up enough to be a powerful contender with how much they can use for their Deck from running plenty of Tuner Hand Traps in the Deck for interruption, but also as combo pieces going into the future.

Control the game with your powerful effects.

The starter Spell for Hecahands, The Hidden Hecahands, has shown its worth, as it can add any Hecahands monster from your Deck to your hand, depending on what you need. Special Summon a Hecahands monster from the Deck? Ibtel. Searching for a Hecahands Spell/Trap? Yadal. Excavate the top 3 cards of your opponent’s Deck and possibly Special Summon a monster from it? Gaigas. Look at 1 random card from your opponent’s hand and Special Summon it if it is a monster? Breus. Revive 1 monster from your opponent’s GY during their turn? Godos. It gives a wide variety of options for your turn, as you can also banish The Hidden Hecahands from your GY to make your opponent draw 1 card and then discard 1 card. This can trigger the in-hand effect of Breus, Gaigas, and Godos to Special Summon themselves to the field. Post-Blazing Dominion, you can add the new Hecahands Makibel (YGOrganization Translation), and this card can reveal itself in the hand to Fusion Summon 1 Hecahands Fusion Monster by using monsters from your hand or field, including Makibel. If an Illusion Fusion Monster is sent to the GY while Makibel is in the GY, you can add Makibel to your hand as a form of recovery so you can set up another Fusion play on the following turn.

Hecahands Ibtel is another key piece of the Deck as you can reveal it from your hand, shuffle it into the Deck, and then Special Summon a Hecahands monster from your Deck. Allowing you access to every Hecahands Main Deck monster possible is great for extra advantage. Most of the time, you want to Special Summon Hecahands Gaigas from the Deck, which provides you free knowledge by excavating the top 3 cards of your opponent’s Deck. If a monster was excavated this way, you can Special Summon it to your field. The other great thing about Ibtel is when it is sent to the GY, you can target and Special Summon 1 other Hecahands monster from your GY, and if you Special Summon Hecahands Yadal, you can Set 1 Hecahands Spell/Trap card from your GY to your field when Yadal is sent to the GY. This helps in certain situations for the following turn with Hecahands Tartaros or either of your Hecahands Counter Traps.

Finally, Nightmare Apprentice is one of the best cards to have for any Illusion theme, as it can Special Summon itself from the hand by discarding 1 card, and if it is Normal or Special Summoned, you can add any Illusion monster from your Deck to your hand. This card can search for both Hecahands Ibtel or Yadal, depending on the situation you’re in. If you need a Hecahands monster on the field or to search for a Spell/Trap for further plays, Fusion Summon Hecahands Xeno with Hecahands Tartaros, or grab one of the two Counter Traps that Deck holds for your End Board. Apprentice being a Level 6 is also great since you can pair it with an opponent’s monster, Hecahands Ibtel, or Yadal to Xyz Summon Dhampir Vampire Sheridan or use Apprentice with a Hecahands monster to Fusion Summon Hecahands Jauzah.

Hecahands did end up getting the shorter end of the stick but could give promise for the future if Konami decides to give the three themes an additional wave of support like they did back with the themes from Valiant Smashers. Only time will tell what they have planned.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon