The World was changing. Against the invasion of the Worms, no tribe of the original Terminal World could stand alone. And none could ignore the fight, even the most peaceful of the Duel Terminal Tribes. Hiding in their Forest, the Naturia tried to avoid getting caught in the conflict; but now, the fight had come to them for the first time.
WARNING: This article is considered a Mega Article by my standards, which is equivalent to approximately three of my normal CDS articles, on a good day. So massive article incoming.
|File 01 – The First Terminal War
|Data Manifestation Code: Helio.550.580||590
Lore Background:
The Naturia archetype is a Duel Terminal archetype, a member of the original tribes of the First Terminal World, that is comprised of EARTH monsters of various types, mainly Plant and Insect-type monsters but there are also Rock, Beast, and Dragon-type monsters as well! While I normally don’t spend much time in my normal Casual Deck Strategy Articles discussing lore, I think it is fascinating in the case of the Duel Terminal and all of the connections between the archetypes, card arts and effects. As with my previous article I am going to continue writing a section about card lore and neat connections, so if you are completely bored by this kind of thing, skip to the Table of Contents below the picture of Gaiastralio. Otherwise, prepare to be illuminated by some really cool facts and similarities. For additional information beyond what I have included in this section, check out some of the information in the Master Guides, specifically Master Guide 3. (Please note most of what is written below has been confirmed by the various master guides and lore updates; HOWEVER, most of the second half of the Legacy portion is still inferred based off of the card arts of upcoming cards, but we haven’t yet had time for the next batch of lore to come out to confirm/refute the theories)
The First Terminal World:
As for the Naturia Tribe, it is not an unknown fact that every single monster is based off of human imagination of the natural world, except for the Fusions which are just combinations of other imagined Naturia monsters. But before we can dive into this wonderful tribe, we have to do some exploring in the Naturia Forest. As the only Spell Card named as a “Naturia” card, it speaks volumes when they created the home for the Naturia above anything else as a support card for the archetype. In the Duel Terminal Storyline, the Naturia were a peaceful tribe. The most peaceful tribe in fact, as they were the only ones who managed to evade the conflict for quite some time, and some of them even managed to avoid the end of the original Terminal World brought about by Trishula. Their home, Naturia Forest, was the Garden of Eden for the Terminal World. Lush, full of life, full of happiness; it was a community living together in peace in its own corner of the world. But this peace was not meant to last.
When the Worms invaded, all of the other Tribes immediately rose to the challenge to defend their homeland. And most of these early combatants fought valiantly only to fall in the early stages of the war. The X-Saber Tribe, led by Commander Gottoms, Swordmaster, the Flamvell Tribe, led by Flamvell Uruquizas, the Mist Valley Tribe, led by Mist Valley Thunder Lord, and the Ice Barrier Tribe decided to form an alliance to combat these invaders, known henceforth as the Ally of Justice. This alliance was beneficial for all parties, as they combined all of their technological prowess to create Anti-Worm weaponry, which is known as the Ally of Justice Archetype to players and lovers of the DT. While I won’t go into more generic DT details in lore summary of the Natruia, the development setting the stage for our story is that the X-Saber and the Flamvell Tribes fell so quickly that the rest of the tribes were quickly outnumbered by the wave after wave of Worm reinforcements. As a result, the Ice Barrier were left to fend for themselves as the Mist Valley fighters retreated back to the Mist Valley and get out of the fight. Therefore, their line of defense versus the invasion was pushed back, exposing the Naturia Forest to the invading Worms. Now that the scene has been set, let’s get to the real story – the story of how a forest banded together to defend their home…
At this time, the Naturia tribe, who had tried to be isolated from the war, was forced into action to protect their forest. Naturia Leodrake began the charge, leading small coalitions of Naturia monsters to defend the forest. While his strikes were efficient and effective at driving back the invaders, he was seriously injured by the constant fighting, forcing Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion to take up the helm of defending the Forest from the invasion. As the two legendary defenders of the Forest fought on, the peace of the forest was sustained. With the help of the second Ice Barrier Dragon combined with the newly developed Ally of Justice Quarantine, the Worms had finally been defeated. As the world took a momentary pause of relief, the Fabled readied itself to strike.
Due to fighting alongside the Ally of Justice in specific instances, the Fabled knew how to defeat the Anti-Worm devices, so they decided to cash in their power play and focus their initial attack on the two tribes who had isolated themselves during the Invasion. While the attack in the Mist Valley was not as successful against the Dragunity, the reinforcements upon the winds, the Fabled were positive that they could strike down the Naturia with one strong push. And for a time, they were successful, severely weakening the defense of Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion. As a result, the two ancient guardians were forced to retreat into the depths of the forest. With the surrender of the front line, the plants and flowers that flourished on the fringe of the forest were quickly overrun by the Fabled. Running out of options with 3 of their main defenders too weak to fight, the final Naturia was called in to defend the heart of the Forest – Naturia Landoise.
Landoise was by far the oldest and wisest of the Naturia, but he knew how to ensure peace. Alone against the brunt of the Fabled, the tortoise could only hold off for a short while before he was forced to retreat as well. Running out of options, the 4 Natruia Synchros decided to make one last ditch effort to defend their home. They each removed the source of their power, empowering the other Naturia tribesman to make their stand to defend the true heart of the forest. Landoise contributed his Luminous Moss, Barkion contributed his Bark, and Leodrake contributed his Mane. Still in a severely weakened state, Naturia Beast could not contribute a portion of his power to his cause, so Naturia Beast donated his entire strength and lifeforce to Natruia Barkion, in order to form a true guardian of the forest. Thus Naturia Exterio entered the fray, the Naturia’s last-ditch effort to repel the Fabled.
At the same time, the rest of the tribes were mobilizing to finally combat the threat of the Fabled. Another tribe targeted by the initial assault, the Jurracs had executed their final option to form Jurrac Meteor. While the Meteor did substantial damage to the Fabled, it had also destroyed whatever remained of the FIRE Dinosaurs. But there was some good to come out of their sacrifice, as from the ashes, the Neo-Flamvell re-ignited to take up the cause of defending the Terminal World under the leadership of the Ancient Flamvell Deity. In the other half of the world, the evolved R-Genex fighters had joined forces with the Ally of Justice who had taken on a mind of their own. Absorbing and fusing the technology of the two groups, the Genex Ally formed and became the new frontline of the Terminal World. Joining them, the Ice Barriers had finally combined the strength of their top three Generals, looking to end the fight there and then. Lastly, the last of the Dragunity Knights had arrived on the battlefield. Everything was looking up for the Terminal World.
And then it was extinguished in a matter of minutes, as the seal on Trishula was broken by the chaos unleashed by the Fabled. Despite the best attempts of the Medium, the dragon’s rage could not be quelled, and his rage ravaged the entire world, freezing it in time… But even the deepest of freezes could not destroy the Naturia Forest under the protection of Exterio…
The Legacy of the Naturia
While many of you may have been exposed to the above story and had known many parts of it, you may not be aware of the post-Trishula impact of the Naturia. For after Sophia was defeated by the combination of Evilswarm Kerykeion and Constellar Sombres, the Naturia Forest still existed in the Terminal World. Let’s introduce the latest card to reveal insights into the Naturia, Naturia Sacred Tree. The Sacred Tree is literally the heart of the forest, dominating the surrounding forest. The roots of this massive tree are so large, that they reach all the way into the core of the planet itself. With the enhanced abilities of the Sacred Tree, monsters were able to travel into the heart of the forest to be purified and enhanced.
For example, let’s talk about the non-Naturia monster with the strongest connection to the Naturia Forest – Steelswarm Roach. Raoch definitely lived up to his name, as he was able to survive many apocalpyses in the Terminal World, any of which should have ended him. First the freezing by Trishula, then the annihilation by Omega, then the world-resetting of Sophia… He was definitely a survivor. We can even tell that he stayed around to watch all of the events unfold in the terminal world, as we can even see him watching the moment when Sombres and Kerykeion are drifting back off into the sky (depicted by “Breath of the Valiant” pictured above). After all of these events, Roach found his way to explore the Naturia Forest, where he uncovered his true potential and was transformed into the pure Evilswarm Exciton Knight!
But Roach was not the only monster to be transformed. Sensing approaching danger, the Sacred Tree called Naturia Leodrake, the hero of the initial days of the invasion, to come fulfill his duty to the heart of the forest, and yet again defend the Naturia Forest, his home. Following the call, he arrived at the center of the forest, and through as similar method as Roach, he was transformed into the pure guardian, Leo, The Keeper of the Sacred Tree, to defend the tree with everything he had. Sadly, we know that he failed in that quest, as the Sacred Tree was destroyed by El Shaddoll Winda, as depicted by the art of El Shaddoll Fusion, so Leo must not have been able to defend the tree alone. (Also, you can see the action unfolding in Apoqliphort). To try and atone for his failure, Leo sought out the other remaining Naturia, the wise Naturia Landoise, for guidance on how he could make up for the loss of the Sacred Tree. Despite knowing that it was a last resort, the two remaining Naturia decided to fuse their power, creating one true guardian of the Natural World – Naturia Gaiastralio. Carrying a new tree on its back, Gaiastralio is hopefully set to continue the legacy of the Naturia for years to come… (With hopefully more OCG World Premieres!!!)
Table of Contents:
- Introduction to the Naturia Archetype
- Deck 1 | Bamboo Lockdown!
- Strategy, Deck Example, Discussion
- Deck 2 | Natural Swarm
- Strategy, Deck Example, Discussion
- Deck 3 | Pineapple Princess
- Strategy, Deck Example, Discussion
- Deck 4 | The Forbidden Forest
- Strategy, Deck Example, Discussion
- Conclusion
- Common Misconceptions, Closing
Introduction:
Now that you know a little bit of the backstory behind the Naturia, let’s meet the archetype that is designed to give you a little more out of your opponent’s effects! Before we can introduce the monsters, let’s first introduce their namesake Field Spell – Naturia Forest. You may remember this from the lore section as their home, but in terms of the real game of Yu-Gi-Oh, Forest fills a niche role of giving you a Naturia to your hand each time you successfully negate the activation of an opponent’s card or effect. Because your opponent chose to activate something, and you had a way to negate it, you just increased your overall card advantage. Yup, that’s basically what the majority of the theme boils down to – giving you a bit more bang for your buck. So how does this theme translate to the monsters? This doesn’t hold true for everything, but for the most part, each different ‘type’ of Naturia monster seems to give you a different reward at a different level of risk. Please note, I’m only going to spend time introducing the monsters that actually have a place among various Naturia Builds or are key in defining different themes the deck can take on!
Let’s start with the first set of Plant-type Naturia monsters, the flora of our mighty forest. As two of the weakest Naturia plants, the uncommon Naturia monsters like Naturia Vein or Naturia Sunflower let you negate your opponent’s activation, while triggering Naturia Forest, while setting up your Graveyard. Sure, it is a risky investment, giving up 2 Naturia monsters you control, but the swings in advantage can be huge if you time their effects right. Continuing this trend is Naturia Rosewhip, first off, it is a tuner monster that carries the effect of Great Shogun Shien, limiting your opponent’s options to one Spell or Trap per turn. Yes, you have to let the first through, but your opponent has to find a way over Rosewhip before activating another Spell or Trap. It’s a great limitation or floodgate for S/T heavy strategies, but sometimes it only takes one Spell or Trap for your opponent to take control of the duel. Basically Rosewhip 2.0, I should bring up the showstopper of the Naturia effect monsters, Naturia Bambooshoot. Sure, it locks your opponent out of Spell and Traps entirely, but it requires a Naturia monster to tribute and can be run over in battle or just flat out removed by a monster effect. That’s a big investment if your opponent can just wipe it out, but a great success if it lets you lock down the duel.
Let’s introduce the fruits of the forest, for we have arrived at Naturia Cosmobeet. This little guy is good at chumpblocking in a pinch, but his best applications are on the first turn. If you choose or are given the chance to go second, you can use your opponent’s Normal Summon to trigger Cosmobeet and get a free Tuner or Tribute Material straight from the hand. It’s a niche option, and you really can only get the most out of it in the most situational cases. Perhaps you may be more familiar with another Naturia monster that has found its way outside of pure Naturia – Naturia Cherries! This little tuner turns from one Cherry into 2 Cherries from the deck, as long as your opponent destroys it in some way. If they don’t, or you happen to draw 2 Cherries at once – not so great of an option or play. Naturia Marron, one of the latest main-deck additions, is the godsend that makes any Naturia variant go from ‘possible’ to ‘succeeds expectations’. Instead of relying totally on the opponent to maximize its use, you can recycle fallen Naturia comrades for free draws. While this seem slow for some, Marron gives the Naturia deck a ‘gusto’ recycling aspect, as you can keep recycling your floaters for more and more advantage. I will definitely bring up Marron’s star power in even greater detail later, so if you don’t believe me yet, you will by the end of the article. Also, Pineapple gets to be a star, so check out Deck 3 for more information on that one!
While the Plants were more risk-reward based, the bugs of the Naturia tribe are all based around sacrifice and combos. Naturia Mantis and Naturia Horneedle are your two summon-responses, each requires an investment to destroy a monster your opponent attempts to summon. Unfortunately, Mantis is the more common option for most Naturia builds, as it is more frequent to have an additional Naturia in the hand rather than another Naturia on the field that you are willing to tribute. Naturia Butterfly involves a similar sacrifice, except in this case from your deck to negate an opponent’s attack. She is a key inclusion in most Naturia builds because of her versatility; stalling on a tuner can be really nice for making the Synchro monsters of the archetype. Next up, we’ll talk about the last Insect to have a widespread impact, and that is Naturia Dragonfly. This little bug really will get on your opponent’s nerves quickly, especially near the end of the duel when you have built up a large Graveyard of Naturia monsters. It is common for this monster to hit 3000 or higher, which is very nice for a Level 4 monster.
Moving onwards, we have two Rock-type Naturia monsters to discuss. The first, Naturia Rock, has a small application of being a flexible Special Summon when needed. Sadly, with the arrival of Crane Crane and other Rank 3 enablers, he is simply outclassed, but he is still Let’s talk about the more important Rock-type, Naturia Cliff, who is this archetype’s floater monster, and he fulfills this role quite well. Special Summoning whichever Naturia you need whenever he goes to the Graveyard as the last thing to happen, Cliff lets you stall through attacks until you can put them back in deck with Marron. Cliff gives you the ability to bring whichever Naturia you need to the field, and combined with our next card, makes a ton of the ‘crazy’ Naturia Variants work. (Only one of the builds in this article is going to include Cliff, because he is better in other variants, so please don’t ever consider him as being useless.)
Now, let’s intrudce the newest addition to the strategy, the Naturia Sacred Tree, which has literally become the new heart and soul of the Naturia deck. Even though this card only helps Insect and Plant Naturia, it gives them a greater range of responses. Hopefully this makes sense: Tree gives the deck a way to cycle through their situational options to bring each out at the moment where they are needed. So what is the strategy of the Naturia? With so many archetype members and option, the Naturia build you choose is how you answer this question: “What Win Condition would you like your deck to execute?” Each deck listed below has a different one, and each employs a different batch of Naturia monsters in various ways. I will warn you now, there are many more options than the ones listed below; however, these 4 combined are simply an overview that lets you see the extent of what the archetype can do. Without further ado, let’s jump into the first deck whose Win Condition is preventing the opponent from playing Yugioh!
Deck 1: Bambooshoot Lockdown
Introduction and Basic Strategy:
I’ll be honest, most of you have heard of this sort of Naturia strategy before, so I will go light on explanation. For those of you who haven’t, the following sums it up nicely: Naturia Bambooshoot + Vanity’s Emptiness = Sad Opponent. The Goal of the variant is to pop out Bambooshoot with some protection, and watch as your opponent squirms and tries to get rid of the monster that is preventing the activation of approximately 20/40 cards in their deck. When you add Vanity’s Emptiness into the equation, that makes it so that your opponent cannot even use an Xyz Summon or Synchro Summon to get over your Bamboo. Or any inherent Special Summon, such as Chaos Sorcerer or Judgment Dragon. Just with those 2 cards, Satellarknights cannot do anything except for Honest. Burning Abyss can’t do anything period. But there is one main weakness to this strategy, monster effects. So why not take it a step further and giving yourself more chances to stop your opponent from breaking your Bamboo lockdown. That’s right, we’re bringing in the big guns with the Traptrix!
The Traptrix monsters may be popular due to their easy Rank 4 capabilities, they may be popular due to having the ability to search a limited trap, they may be popular due to having the ability to search monster negation, but they are even better in this deck because they can be Special Summoned straight from the deck with a Naturia support card. That’s right, Naturia Sacred Tree works with any EARTH monsters! With the combination of searchable and reusable trap cards, you are able to protect your Bamboo even without Vanity’s.
So you may be asking yourself why very few people have run this deck in the past, since neither Vanity’s nor Bamboo are that old… And that’s because it has been way under the radar as the pieces have fallen into place. With Cherries and Cliff as your main floaters combined with Butterfly as another backup “Naturia” tribute, you have a strong foundation. But in previous iterations pre-Marron, such a strategy went flat extremely quickly with no way to recycle your floaters once they were run over. With Marron, the strategy was possible; however, there was not a good way to get Marron summoned whenever you needed it. Before the Traptrix duo was released, there wasn’t a way to rely upon Xyz monsters as a backup if your lock went down in flames. Now, Tree let’s everything come into place by giving you Marron, Butterfly, Myrmeleo, or even Cherries when you need them! Just combine Bamboo with Armades to deal with the pesky Shaddolls, and you got a great rogue deck for giving the meta a run for its money! That is, as soon as Sacred Tree is released in the TCG!
Completed Example Deck:
I’m sure you’ve all seen this portion before, so this time I’m keeping it short and sweet. The following link is a screenshot of my personal Bambooshoot Lockdown build. It may not be the best build for them, but it can serve as a baseline for your deck construction in the future – http://i.imgur.com/r2wArnD.png .
Discussion:
Alright, so let’s talk about this deck. As I’m sure you noticed, I put a major priority in setting up a solid Naturia core to work from. That’s because the duels you will win will be a result of your Naturia effects. You can play all day long relying on the Traptrix, but they alone can’t win you a duel; especially in this case, when the deck is not built to steamroll off of interrupting your opponent’s summons. Fact of the matter is, the Naturia are going to slowly snowball advantages for you, just in different ways. As I said before, Cliff and Cherries are your go-to tribute fodder, but they can also serve another key role for the deck – filling the Graveyard. You can have all of the negation in your deck, you can have every answer under the sun, but it means nothing if you cannot draw into them. The Naturia archetype doesn’t only function as the key Spell and Trap prevention, but Marron is the absolute beast in this variant. You’ll see this pattern repeating, but a monster that gives you a free draw every turn is amazing, especially when there are many ways to protect him and/or Special Summon him right out of the deck!
More importantly, I want to talk about my trap choices for this specific example deck. Namely, I want to talk about Fiendish Chain. As the game has progressed through this format and the previous, we have seen a lot of competitors switching over to Breakthrough Skill for its ‘double negation’ utility. If you’re including a card to specifically negate monster effects, why wouldn’t you give you the option that gives you more for your investment? But in this variant, you need multi-purpose options. As I said in the introduction, the Naturia are all about getting more out of your opponent’s attempts to play. While that certainly is true and the key central strategy in the core design of the Naturia archetype, you also are given the wonderful ability to excel with multipurpose options. Remember back when I first introduced this deck and talked about the importance of shutting down monster effects and preventing attacks in order to defend Bambooshoot? Yeah, Fiendish Chain is literally the perfect card, because it does both! And you know what, that weakness to Mystical Space Typhoon that got on everyone’s nerves simply doesn’t matter one bit, because Bambooshoot prevents that from throwing a wrench in your plays! On a final note, Call of the Haunted is essential in any Naturia variant that chooses to take advantage of the Cliff/Cherries/Marron synergy. It brings back Marron in the case that all 3 of your Marrons end up in the Graveyard, it brings back Synchro material when needed, and most of all, if COH is targeted for destruction by any of the S/T hate cards that are flying around at the moment, you simply bring back Cliff to get a free Naturia from your deck! Call of the Haunted is even better in a deck that runs Myrmeleo, as it gives you access to your own Spell or Trap destruction.
Last but not least, let’s talk Forbidden Lance, because above anything else, that has to be the card that made you confused as to why I would even consider running it. If you are running Bambooshoot to lock down Spells and Traps, what is the point of running a card who’s primary use is to protect a monster from Spells and Traps? Again, it comes down to the fact that it is multipurpose; it is a versatile card for a variety of situations that you really needed the support in. Firstly, Lance gives you the chance to win battles with Bamboo that you have no business winning, due to the 800 drop in ATK. Sure, some decks can play around this, but it’s just there as another option. More importantly is the second part of the card’s utility and that is to protect Bambooshoot from a specific trap card that activates in the Graveyard…. Oh right, we’re back to Breakthrough Skill. Bambooshoot may be able to block Breakthroughs on your opponent’s side of the field, but once they hit the Graveyard, they are fair game for your opponent to exploit. Also, take note that if Bamboo’s effect is negated, it loses the ability to prevent Spells or Traps, even if the negation wears off! So Breakthrough really is Bambooshoot’s Achilles heel, and therefore I choose to run Lance in order to combat that!
So this first deck I chose to present in the Naturia article was probably pretty familiar to you. For some time, the Naturia ‘identity’ has fallen to Spell and Trap negation, due to their main powerhouses Naturia Beast, Naturia Barkion, and Naturia Bambooshoot. But if that’s all I was going to say on the Naturia tribe, then there would be no use whatsoever in writing this guide, so let’s start talking other variants, because the Naturia archetpye can do more than ignore Spells or Traps! Who would have thought that the Naturia tribe has a win condition through fighting battles they simply can’t win…
Deck 2: Natural Swarm
Deck Introduction and Strategy: 
Now let’s start getting into some unknown territory for most, but for those who are lovers of the Duel Terminal archetypes like me, nobody can forget the Gusto imitator of the Naturia Tribe! Introducing Natural Swarm, also commonly known as Mosquito OTK. The goal of this deck is simple, use the power of Naturia Mosquito to keep ramming a Naturia Beans into your opponents monsters and making them take all of the damage. While the deck has seen some different alterations throughout its history as an actual Naturia variant, the one I will be featuring later on is the less ‘go big or go home’ version that chooses to run a series of consistency cards to back up the OTK, instead of relying on drawing into the OTK or Cliff to set up the OTK with the help of a ton of useless Equip Spells. But before I can actually talk about how this deck accomplishes that, we have to meet one more new Naturia insect, the inspiration behind the “Swarm” – Naturia Antjaw. Antjaw has one amazing effect, and that is to Special Summon a Level 3 or lower Naturia monster straight from the Deck when your opponent Special Summons. Can you guess which Naturia you will be summoning?
Of course, how else would you set up the OTK. Worst case scenario involving Antjaw’s effect, your opponent Special Summons 1 monster, you get a Mosquito and your opponent must attack into Antjaw and take the battle damage you would have taken. But decks nowadays don’t normally summon just once. See Satellarknight, they love doing Vega into Altair into Deneb. The bigger question you should be asking is why would your opponent ever attempt to Special Summon if they see an Antjaw on your field. Why not run it over first before doing their Special Summons. And this is the key moment where you realize just how good Antjaw has become when you think back to the heart and soul of the Naturia, Naturia Sacred Tree! That’s right, for the first time ever in Naturia history, you can chain a trap card to your opponent’s effect to Special Summon, summoning Antjaw without warning from the deck, then when your opponent resolves his effect, you get another Naturia monster from the deck. Talk about coming out of nowhere, all that’s needed for that combo is Sacred Tree and a Plant-type. The only issue with Antjaw is that it can miss timing very easily, but that is avoided if you build your chain with their effect to Special Summon as Chain Link 1.
Lastly, I just want you to marvel for a second at how powerful Antjaw can be in the right situations. While it does not straight up prevent your opponent’s Special Summons, it is sort of like Maxx “C” where it is forces your opponent to make a choice between stopping their plays or giving you free cards. Unlike Maxx, you get this jump in cards straight to the field, where the Swarm needs to be to function perfectly. Just watch out for resolving Antjaw so many times that it sets you up for an Exciton….
Completed Example Deck:
I think it’s best if you check out this example deck, that way you have a literal example in front of you when I discuss more combinations ‘on paper’. The following link is a screenshot of my personal Natural Swarm build. It may not be the best build for them, but it can serve as a baseline for your deck construction in the future – http://i.imgur.com/fL7c068.png .
Discussion:
Let’s begin our discussion with the plant you probably saw in the last decklist, but that I didn’t talk about. Of course I’m talking about our recent returnee from the underworld, Glow-Up Bulb! This little plant-type tuner may have had its chance to shine back in the day with the Plant Synchro variants of the time, but it also gets another heyday now with the Naturia. (1) It is an EARTH Plant. Hello Sacred Tree. (2) It can special summon itself back. Hello 2 EARTH Plants to tribute for Sacred Tree. (3) It is an EARTH Tuner, so hello Naturia Synchros when you get the right levels on your field. This card literally is everything you can ask for, wrapped into one tiny package. But let’s move onto to some of the more powerful card choices in the example decklist.
Introducing the newcomer Naturia monster onto the scene, Naturia Pumpkin! This country bumpkin is a neat little Naturia monster, because it simply takes what this deck is already based around, then pushes it to the next level. A Naturia Swarm or Mosquito-centric variant is built around the interactions between Naturia. Beans and Mosquito are best-friends, Butterfly protects one or the other from attacking monsters, even Antjaw lets you bring them out when your opponent goes for insane Special Summoning plays… moral of the story is that this deck is all about combos. Pumpkin is just an automatic way to get 2 Naturia on the field. It may not be elegant, you may even think Naturia Cliff can be better at this role, but let me put it plainly. Cliff requires the opponent to attack into it or send it to the Graveyard with an effect. Pumpkin allows you to control when you get that extra Naturia out. Also, Cliff requires you to defend the Naturia you special until your next turn to set up the combo. So in all honestly, it’s going to come down to personal preference. But this choice, like many others in all 4 of these Naturia variants, just prove that there is more than one way to run an effective Naturia variant. It is definitely not this archetype that should be thrown in the can and forgotten, there are still tons of unique things they can do!
Next up on my list of discussion points, we return to our god and heavenly power, Naturia Marron. Marron is THE BEST CARD FOR NATURIA. He lets you loop advantage, backing up for the requirement of commuting combos of at least 2 Naturia to the field at a time. Even in a deck like this that shouldn’t be mass turbo’ing through monsters, he still has a place, even if it is only to prepare the Graveyard for Call of the Haunted or the other recursion card of choice… Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane! When making this deck and testing it, I found quite a few interesting applications for this card, most notably its ability to recycle and allow you to use multiple Naturia effects twice in the same turn… Or simply switching out for a new Beans to clash into an opponent’s monster. Naturia Antjaw will clog up your field with Special Summons if your opponent attempts to run the gauntlet like people used to do for Maxx “C”, therefore it sometimes helps to be able to swap out for what you need if it is in the Graveyard and not in the deck! But if you aren’t worried about that, you can always run Powerful Rebirth instead!
So now we’ve covered a variant based on locking down options. We’ve covered a variant that can swarm the field to keep up with any aggressive special summoning play the opponent attempts to make…. So let’s actually talk about a variant that does something completely different – Beating over the opponent with powerful Plant-type monsters, all with the help of one very special Pineapple…
Deck 3: Pineapple Princess
We’ve traveled far and wide through the Naturia Forest thus far… We’ve been at the fringe of the forest, with the tiny flora and fauna everyone was aware of. We dove deeper into the more secretive clearings of the forest to meet the swarm of insects and plants ready to bombard the opponent with their unique strike tactics. Now, we’re going to visit the one Naturia who plays alone! Introducing Naturia Pineapple. First off, this little guy has a ton of potential combos, and I will go into more details about other variants in which he can shine, but the specific variant I will be focusing on is using him as fuel for the Plant Princesses. For those who are unaware, the Plant Princess theme is comprised of the four Level 8 Plant-type “Princess” monsters which each represent a different season. They create pseud0-locks with each other in various ways, but most of all, they simply interrupt the opponent’s strategies. So how does a little tiny plant-type version of Treeborn Frog mesh with the Princesses? Oh right, Treeborn Frog itself!
If you are pausing for a second trying to figure out how in the world I am going to try to spin this variant, worry no further. Because if you truly think about it, Treeborn doesn’t prevent Pineapple despite being a non-Plant or Beast type. By having no Spell or Trap cards on your side of the field, that allows you to Special Summon Treeborn during your Standby Phase. Then, since you no longer have an Aqua-type monster in your Graveyard, Pineapple returns to the field as well. Let me tell you, it is very tough to contend with 2 free monsters every single turn. Especially when you can steal away your opponent’s monster with Enemy Controller and end up with 3 monsters going into your Main Phase. Not bad, not bad at all.
Lastly, before we let an example decklist steal the spotlight, let’s shed some light on one amazing card you will most probably be using for your milling requirements – Koa’ki Mieru Gravirose! While this FIRE Plant never had its time to shine in a pure KM variant, the ability to send a Level 3 or lower monster every turn is great for a deck that loves sending a large variety of monsters. Also as a little tidbit, it is one of the few monsters that work with Pineapple that can send other monster(s) from your Deck to the Graveyard! And you can never have too much of that. In fact, there is even more options than what I am running in my example build as for stuff you can send with Gravirose, such as Amarylease or Dark Desertapir, since each of those monsters have some amazing combos with the common engines of Princess variants! Let’s get to that example so I can stop being around the bush!
Completed Example Deck:
You’re quite brave for venturing this far into the unknown. And I really do appreciate people taking the time to read all of this, even if you probably don’t read this part. The following link is a screenshot of my personal Pineapple Princess build. It may not be the best build for them, but it can serve as a baseline for your deck construction in the future – http://i.imgur.com/bb3yo0R.png .
Discussion:
Where to start, where to start… Let’s start with the Continuous Spells, since those make the least sense in a deck that loves bringing back Treeborn and Pineapple for days! Our first participant is Super Solar Nutrient. While this card may seem kind of useless and actually a detriment, as you are trading a Spell and a Plant-type you control for a Plant from your deck, there is quite a large benefit to being able to summon a Lonefire straight from the deck for the small cost of a Pineapple that returns every single turn. In fact, once a Pineapple begins jumping from the Graveyard, Solar is always a one-for-one trade in card advantage. If you have a Lonefire in your deck, that Solar just turned into a Princess. Otherwise, your Solar turned into a Gravirose or Dandylion, depending on what you need at the time. The best thing about Solar is that it disappears when the monster you summoned leaves the field; therefore, your Solar will almost never be blocking your backrow for long. Another continuous card following this trend is Miracle Fertilizer. Being a showstopper in the Sylvan strategy, this themed Plant-type ‘Call of the Haunted‘ allows you to keep bringing back Princess after Princess. If your opponent somehow gets over your new Princess, your backrow is immediately freed up as Fertilizer destroys itself, leading into a Treeborn and Pineapple summon on your next turn so you can begin to mount a comeback! Last up as for Spells that happen to stay, Mark of the Rose works in a similar fashion, for if you are forced to allow your opponent to get back the monster, they are forced to choose to get rid of it, allowing you to get Pineapple AND Treeborn back, or they are forced to choose to let you get their monster for a second turn. It’s an interesting interaction added to the card.
As with any Plant Princess deck, you have one amazing card that is your absolute best friend, and that is Meliae of the Trees. Meliae has been a powerhouse driving Plant-based strategies to new heights ever since her release in Shadow Specters! While you really should only have to send a Plant-type from the deck to the Graveyard with her effect in the most dire of situations, her second effect to bring back Lonefire is where Meliae shines. A common combination to make Meliae, and the reason you even run Crane Crane, is Crane + Dandylion – Simply detach Dandy with Meliae and Special Summon Lonefire back from your Graveyard. Dandy’s effect gives you 2 tokens, so you can tribute one of them for Chirubimé, Princess of Autumn Leaves, the tutor of the Plant Princessess. What makes her the best to summon in this situation is her first effect, preventing your opponent from attacking your other Plants! And if your opponent does happen to get over Chirubimé, that is another Plant-type monster from the deck for your troubles. Not bad for a Plant variant! Last up on the ‘weird options Quincy included’ is the small Madolche engine that is always present in Princess builds, and that is due to one reason alone: Hootcake OR Anjelly = Meliae. Meliae is that powerful that you can commit an entire little engine to it. Not only does this solve the issue of having more ways to access your most powerful Xyz monster; but it also allows you to banish monsters from your Graveyard, giving you more options in the long run as you can always resort to Leviair in a pinch! (Also, take note that Hootcake and Mewfeuille are both Beasts, as to not interfere with Pineapple. Anjelly is there to start the combo, and should always be banished by Hootcake immediately to avoid problematic interactions.) Also, I chose to run Mobius for the same reason… very powerful, its a level 8 for Trade-in, and can blow away 3 cards just for your free summons you get every turn! Not bad, eh?
So how does the Princess build shine above the rest? Well, I’ll be honest when I say it like this – the Princess variant is not better at locking your opponent’s options. It is not amazing at forcing your opponent to make tough decisions. So what can it be good at? Summoning strong monsters consistently that have terrorizing effects when combined correctly. Tytannial, Princess of Camellias combined with a face-up Talaya, Princess of Cherry Blossoms can be devastating, as most of the time, your opponent will only be able to remove one at a time from your field. Next up, add our final Princess into the mix and Marina, Princess of Sunflowers will destroy one of your opponents cards each time he or she removes one of your Princesses from the field. So let’s return to my question, how does the Princess build excel? The simple answer is that it can use the powerful ‘generic’ plant-type support cards to great effect, in addition to being able to effectively run a wide range of engines without sacrificing a ton of consistency. And while it is accomplishing both of those goals, it can sit on powerful (and beautiful) flower princesses that exert a ton of pressure indirectly as well as directly, limiting the opponent’s options.
As with my last DT Mega Article, I will be concluding with a build that may not be the absolute best game-wise, but rather it is a perfect execution of a few of their cards to really showcase the pure power hidden inside of the Naturia. My name for this deck is the “Forbidden Forest”, obvious reference is intentional, but it takes the Counter Fairy approach of drawing 1 card each time you negate something, to adding a Naturia each time you add something. While this means that you might not draw into new Spells and Traps based on this increase in card advantage, it does mean that you can start stacking your advantages through the power of Naturia Marron. Let’s return to our nature walk, and explore the last piece of the Naturia Forest!
Deck 4: Forbidden Forest
Deck Introduction and Strategy:
Welcome to the crazy variant of this Mega Article. Heh, and I bet you expected a Synchro Fusion deck to appear somewhere. Anywho, this deck is quite comparable to Counter Fairy, just the only difference is that instead of choosing to run Bountiful Artemis to get the most out of Counter Traps, you are running negation Counter Traps alongside Naturia Forest. Yes, that field spell that we established early on to almost never be amazing. The key fact about this variant is something I’m sure you’re yelling at me for saying for the millionth time in this article, but the key is yet again Naturia Marron. He was epic in providing speed to the Bamboo variant, he was instrumental in making sure that the Swarm variant actually had enough cards in hand to make combinations in order to win the duel, and now he plays an even better role – Bountiful Artemis 2.0.
You think I’m joking? There is one thing that has made Counter Fairy variants niche at best – There is no way to search Artemis from the deck, and Artemis is your key draw engine to get going and stay going until your opponent can do literally nothing. Yes, it’s awesome if you get started and get the duel under control, but until then? Not so much.
I’ve tried to answer this issue in the past with one of my other CDS articles, specifically the CDS article on Counter Dragons, which worked due to being able to search Van’dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord. This variant may not be able to pull Dragon Lords out of thin air, but you definitely have the speed to draw into them with Marron. And this is my key point – Marron, the draw power for this variant, IS SEARCHABLE. (drops the mic). That’s right. You can fix the Counter Trap issue by searching our Dragon Lord OR you can fix the issue by having a searchable draw engine. Either way, the fun just keeps going higher from there when you throw Naturia Forest into the mix. We’ve come full circle, so we can finally explain how this card works – It fuels the hand. You have only 7 Level 3 or lower Naturia monsters in your deck, that’s correct. But can you ever resolve more than 5 Counter Traps in a turn to negate stuff? No. You should always have 5 Level 3 Naturia in your deck, because if you don’t, you are doing something terribly wrong. Since Marron is searchable by Forest as a Level 3, you should always return 2 Naturia from the Graveyard to your deck to Draw a card if you have 2 other Naturia in the Graveyard. So even in a perfect scenario with chain negation, you should have enough Naturia to keep plussing off of. (Note that this is a PERFECT scenario and will probably never happen).
But other than Marron, what is the use of adding Naturia monsters to the hand? This is the question you should be asking yourself. But we’re going to pause on the answer, as I think you should take a look at the example decklist first.
Completed Example Deck:
Yes, I get it. You know the drill by now, so just suck it up and click the link! The following link is a screenshot of my personal Forbidden Forest build. It may not be the best build for them, but it can serve as a baseline for your deck construction in the future – http://i.imgur.com/DoydzUs.png .
The Unused Naturia Emerge:
Look at all these Naturia monsters coming out of the woodwork for this final variant! The Summon response Insect pair are the first ones you should notice, mostly because they will be doing all of the heavy lifting to ensure your field doesn’t get run over while you are sitting there negating activations left and right! As for the cost of Naturia Mantis, it is literally a joke for this variant, as you should always have a ton of Naturia sitting in your hand for fuel for your effects… Naturia Horneedle is a bit more tricky to resolve, but just remember, he can respond to a summon by effect, so if you get out a Plant Type Naturia with any other, simply activate Sacred Tree in chain to your opponent’s effect to Special Summon, and you got a dead monster. Next up for weird Naturia monsters I haven’t used just yet, Naturia Dragonfly checks in as the unsung hero of the theme. Yes, it is true that you will probably never get it to high levels of ATK, simply because Marron should be recycling stuff for card advantage. But the ability to stall against a field of powerful monsters, its ability to be someone to rely on to beat beatsticks… it has potential. Lastly, Cosmosbeet makes an appearence because it is a Level 2 Naturia, AND it is a tuner! Sometimes you just need that Naturia or that Plant-type monster on the field to negate stuff, and that can make all the difference.
Speaking of negation, let’s look at the choices I decided to go with. First off, Exertio’s Fang. It is effectively a Dark Bribe locked to the Naturia theme, just you discard instead of your opponent drawing. This would definitely be an issue for a control deck, as you want to be able to set your hand to have a laundry list of responses at the ready, but the fang is amazing due to Forest. The fang can be ran due to Forest. Forest is love, Forest is life. Because every time you negate a card’s activation, forest refills your hand with another Naturia ready to be tossed away for another negation trap. This is also how you can fuel Divine Wrath, the very same reason of resource replenishment applies! As the second trap in our disposal, Divine Wrath is simply the best ‘negate the activation’ against monster effects, because it also destroys the monster. Don’t forget the Dark Dragon Lord’s effect when you negate a monster – That moment can be priceless, and another chance for you to take another advantage swing in your favor! Next up on our negation list – Pollinosis. This
card has never had the chance to shine outside of Black Garden variants, so let’s describe its power in 2 words. Negates anything. Simple as that. You’re going to have plenty to tribute, especially when you factor in Dandylion and the ability of Sacred Tree to bring out any plant you need if you only have an Insect in the hand. Last up as our core negation lineup, Rose Archer. Rose does the unexpected, it is a hand trap. Most duelists aren’t ready to watch their prized trap be negated out of the blue, especially for a counter trap deck that seems like its defenses and negation is down without set cards. Spring it on the opponent for a negation AND a free search under Forest! We’re just keeping the advantage train a-rollin’!
So how does this deck win? The basic principle is simple, out-advantage your opponent, and then you basically steamroll a victory as your opponent runs out of options to stop your slow rolling offensive. Just note, your opponent will throw anything and everything they can your way to try and stop the Naturia Advantage Engine. They may try to stop it, but it will require quite the perfect draws and setup in order to defeat a well-ingrained Naturia backrow! Sure, this deck is definitely not like the others in which you have clear control over your destiny; however, you do have the clear control once your advantage engine starts rolling and you are given a second to breathe, set up, then win back control of the duel!
Four Common Misconceptions about the Naturia Tribe:
- The Naturia are like the Ice Barrier – Impossible to summon their Synchro monsters with their own archetype and better off in other decks – FALSE
- The Naturia actually have no problem whatsoever summoning Barkion, Beast or Landoise; however, they generally aren’t prepared to summon all 3. Landoise requires a heavy Spell investment in order to make full use of its effect, and most Naturia variants that can make Barkion or Beast either run low spell counters or extremely unlikely tuner and non-tuner combinations. Unlike Ice Barrier where it is god impossible, there are many plays such as Marron + Cosmos, Marron + Butterfly, Pumpkin + Tuner, Cliff + Tuner etc to make a Naturia Synchro.
- They will not ever become more competitive – FALSE
- I think that the release of Naturia Sacred Tree speaks for itself on this one. Tree is a godsend, and it is an amazing card both inside and outside the archetype. With the release of that simple continuous trap, it can be used across a wide variety of Naturia builds, as proven with its use in 3/4 of the variants featured above!
- Changes to the Forbidden/Limited List will never help the Naturia – FALSE
- The Naturia tribe can be affected by the Semi-Limited and Limited Plant-type support, if it ever moves up to a higher number permitted for each. The October did just that with Glow-Up, now look at how it can be splashed around as just a generic EARTH tuner! Dandylion would be the godsend if anything would have a shot of pushing Naturia into higher tiers, although if the trend of legacy support continues, there is still hope for more Naturia cards.
- There are only a couple combinations of Naturia cards that function as different variants – FALSE
- I definitely did not name all of the possible decks when writing this article. Other options include – Miracle Synchro Fusion variants with Naturia Exterio and Naturia Gaiastralio, Naturia Ladybug builds to loop Synchro Summons, Naturia/Spider Hybrids and MORE. Again, this archetype is an open book with which you can go crazy!
Closing:
Thank you very much for spending your precious time learning about the peaceful group of the forest mastered by a sole few. You may not be indoctrinated into loving the archetype, you may not even believe that some of the variants I posted actually work. But since you’ve gotten this far in the article, you’ve clearly indicated that you have some thought that the theme might actually have some potential. In this article, you’ve seen a deck that is great at preventing Spells and Traps from being activated, a deck that just shrugs off battle damage onto the opponent, a deck that runs 2 floaters you get back every turn, and a deck that literally steamrolls advantage off of negating the activation of your opponent’s cards. But while I write here bidding you adieu, there is one final thing I need to touch upon – Push the boundaries of the game and redefine what it means to be a top-notch deck! Mind games play a major role in tournaments, especially if your deck’s functions are solid in theory and practice, while still being a new opponent. You just gotta surprise your opponent, and the tables are already tilted in your favor. Because let’s be honest, your opponent won’t be expecting the Naturia to take them for a difficult duel.
