MW: The New Upcoming Format Techs that Keep On Teching

New format? More like a new food chain. Yummy’s cooking, K9’s hunting, and Dracotail’s making potions. Justice Hunters is your menu of counters, so pick wisely… or be the next course.

With Yummy, Dracotail, and K9 all going to be the top decks as of August 1st. As such, there are many cards to pick up before these themes arrive, all thanks to Justice Hunters. This week we will be taking a look at many of techs for the upcoming August 1st format.

First off, let’s take a look at one particular way to stun Yummy out of the game, and that particular way is Ally of Justice Quarantine. While this card is face-up on the field, neither player can Special Summon LIGHT monsters… And the entire Yummy archetype just so happens to be LIGHT. This card does have many accessible prints, thanks to Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1 a few years back. Along with shutting out both Yummy and Blue-Eyes, it also stops the opponent from activating Nibiru, the Primal Being, and it is especially useful in decks like Vanquish Soul, as it works perfectly as a simple DARK monster you can reveal for their effects.

Even with it having multiple printings, it seems that Ally of Justice Quarantine has only been seen in a few lists to counter Yummy, where many others are playing Dimensional Barrier.

While Ally of Justice Quarantine is busy holding off Yummy, many builds have been using Knightmare Corruptor Iblee as a way to stop your opponent from using Nibiru, the Primal Being, Infinite Impermanence, and other monsters that Special Summon themselves from the hand. Iblee is also a great Side Deck option against the K9 engine, as both K9 – #17 Izuna and K9 – #ØØ Lupus can Special Summon themselves from the hand if you activate a monster effect in the hand or GY that turn, thus stopping the opponent from Summoning both of those K9 monsters, which prevents them from going into N.As.H. Knight, Artifact Durendal, or K9 – #17 “Ripper” during your first turn. 

One of the many, many ways Yummy players are getting to Knightmare Corruptor Iblee is by using Piri Reis Map, a Spell Card that came in both Brothers of Legend as a Secret Rare and in Amazing Defenders as a Rare. But don’t worry about getting Piri Reis Map now, unless you want to max out your deck, as it is going to be in Justice Hunters for the TCG, like how it was in the OCG. So… what is special about Piri Reis Map anyways? Well, you can add any monster with 0 ATK from your deck to your hand, but at the cost of losing half your LP afterwards. With the added monster in your hand, you cannot activate its effects until you Normal Summon that monster, which is somewhat of a downside. This is perfectly fine, though, as it allows you to grab your copy of Iblee from your deck ASAP, and you simply Normal Summon it so you can use it to either Link Summon Linguriboh to negate the effects of a Trap later on or Link Summon Salamangreat Almiraj to use as a Level 1 Tuner for your Yummy Synchro Monsters.

Another interesting tech that we saw from the OCG with Yummy has been Number 2: Ninja Shadow Mosquito. This Rank 2 monster is utilized if you hit a dead end. To Xyz Summon this card, it takes 2+ Level 2 monsters, which are all the Yummy Synchro Monsters. While this card is on the field, it cannot be destroyed by battle, all your opponent’s monsters must attack, and you take no damage from battles involving this card, which is a great bonus for living for a turn if they cannot destroy it by card effects. The main thing about this card is when an attack is declared, you can activate 1 of 2 specific effects, both of which involve Hallucination Counters. These Counters negate the effects of any monsters they are placed on, making them real nuisances. Anyhow, when it comes to these effects, the options are simple. You either detach 1 material from it to place 1 Hallucination Counter on 1 face-up monster your opponent controls or inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of 1 monster on the field with a Hallucination Counter on it. This could be deadly going into the final game, or in time as that damage stacks over time and could completely end the game for your opponent if they cannot remove this card off your field.

Overall, the techs for and against Yummy have been interesting, as it has been showing that it can hold its own without K9, but it is still as strong as the other two.

Next up on the hit list is a card that is useful and harmful against Dracotail. Retaliating “C” has been the go-to option for many duelists, as it can be Special Summoned from your hand at instant speed the moment your opponent activates a Spell Card that includes an effect that Special Summons a monster(s). While Retaliating “C” was Special Summoned this way, any card sent to the GY is banished instead, which can spell doom for Fusion Decks as they normally want their cards to go to the GY. In addition, if Retaliating “C” is sent from the field to the GY, you can add 1 other EARTH Insect monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck to your hand, which for OCG players means a free Maxx “C” most of the time, while in the TCG, we just shrug and keep going.

Along with Retaliating “C” banishing cards, many players are also using Mysterion the Dragon Crown as their Super Polymerization target of choice, as all the Dracotail monsters are Dragons and Spellcasters. Mysterion has been seen in many Dracotail lists along with the new Sacramentum Dragoon (YGOrganization Translation) from Duelist’s Advance as a way to break the opponent’s board if needed. Why is Mysterion the Dragon Crown important, though? For starters, it cannot be used as Fusion Material, so the opponent cannot use their own Super Polymerization on it, which is great if you need additional damage on the board, but be wary, it loses 100 ATK for each of your banished cards. Then, the effect that deals the major blows to the opponent occurs when a monster uses its activated effect to Special Summon itself or a monster with its same original type. By targeting 1 of those Special Summoned monsters, you banish that monster, and then you banish all monsters from the field with its same original type. This can be powerful against decks like Yummy, as they are all Beasts; useful against Dracotail because of the Spellcaster/Dragon split; and even other Tier 2 or Rogue Decks.

Going off of the techs against Dracotail, let’s now take a look at some techs that Dracotail is using. For the top version of the Deck, Magistus Dracotail, players have been using a copy of Snake-Eyes Doomed Dragon as a way to send 2 face-up Monster Cards in their Spell/Trap Zones to the GY, thanks to the Magistus engine. When Doomed Dragon is Special Summoned, you can target 1 face-up monster on the field, then place it face-up in its owner’s Spell/Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. This is great as it can clear out monsters on the board that are causing issues or just remove a monster off the field to attack for game.

It seems like many things have been solved going against these two titans in the OCG and hopefully will translate well over to the TCG, but only time will tell.

Now… let’s finally talk about the elephant in the room…. Vanquish Soul K9, the top deck to look forward to from the OCG. This deck has been making players creative in how they deal with it by either playing cards like Forbidden Droplet for its non-targeting antics or Yummy playing Gravity Collapse. But one VSK9 player in particular utilized Saryuja Skull Dread to draw the top 4 cards of their deck to find a copy of Mind on Air that they sided in for Game 2 or 3. 

One of the major things to note with cards like Mind on Air or The Eye of Truth is that the opponent has to keep their hands revealed while those cards are face-up on the field, and Vanquish Soul monsters must reveal cards to activate their effects. They cannot reveal cards that are already revealed, so being able to shut them off in this manner can be a great way to stun them for a turn or two so you can end the game/match.

Without a doubt, this next card is one of the most interesting techs that Vanquish Soul can run because of how many decks are running Field Spells now, and Veidos the Eruption Dragon of Extinction is just the card for this occasion. Being a DARK monster to help facilitate the cards you can reveal, it can also take care of Field Spells on the field by targeting and destroying them to Special Summon itself to the opponent’s field. Now it may seem insane to give them a monster with 3000 ATK, but there is a catch. If it leaves the field, it destroys all monsters on the field. This is great when it is paired with Vanquish Soul Razen, as you can reveal a FIRE & DARK monster to destroy all other monsters in Razens column, creating the perfect combo to wipe the full board of monsters that could leave your opponent devastated.

It’ll be interesting to see what players think of next to tech into and against Vanquish Soul K9, as it is still looking like the deck to beat in their current format.

For our final card, we have to head to outer space to find this entity. Outer Entity Nyarla has been appearing in the Extra Decks of Lunalight players as it has been a useful card overall. By simply detaching all materials from it to target 1 card in your GY and attaching said target to Nyarla, it sets up a constant loop for the next turn. The upside of this is that it triggers the effects of your Lunalight monsters that have the text “If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect,” and it can be useful if you’re in a pinch since all it takes to Xyz Summon Nyarla is 2 Level 4 monsters you control, although luckily, there aren’t any Outer Entity Azathot plays here… Using this effect can trigger many of your Lunalight monsters, from the likes of Kaleido Chick, Crimson Fox, Emerald Bird, and even Yellow Marten. The main 2 you do want to detach are Kaleido Chick, as she adds 1 Polymerization from your deck to your hand, and Yellow Marten, as she searches for 1 Lunalight Spell/Trap Card from your deck. Another cool tech about Outer Entity Nyarla is that whatever it attaches to it as material, it becomes the original Type and Attribute of that monster, so potentially you can attach a Mulcharmy Fuwalos, and it’ll become a WIND Winged Beast, so you have the option of using Harpie’s Feather Storm in Lunalights as well.

Overall, the techs that we have been seeing from the OCG have been crazy, and I am here for it because this is the innovation that Yu-Gi-Oh! needed for its upcoming format.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon.