This edition of the Casual Deck Strategy articles features an archetype that began in the GX era! And no, before you guess it, I’m not talking about Aliens, my absolute favorite archetype (and my first IRL deck). This archetype doesn’t even share common effects or trends, and they may have one of the largest number of almost 100% unusable support out of any archetype. And yet, this archetype has 2 of the most powerful draw spells ever, once of which that can draw up to 7 cards! It’s time to upgrade and join the fray with our Spacian friends! NEX!
Let’s Meet this Unknown Archetype:
The Neo-Spacian archetype has never had a chance in the spotlight, for many reasons, you just have to pick one. Perhaps it is their effects, which range from gimmicky to useless. In fact, the only time that a Neo-Spacian has ever been used in competitive play was back in the Rescue Cat era, when Neo-Spacian Dark Panther could become a true beast by assuming the effect(s) of an opponents monster. Or perhaps you’re thinking of the card that is well past its highest point, as Neo-Spacian Grand Mole has definitely fallen off of its pedestal as one of the best reusable non-targeting, non-destruction monster removal, resulting in its current position in the Limited Section of the Forbidden/Limited list. But let’s be real, when has the effect of Neo-Spacian Glow Moss ever rocked your world? When has Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin ever had a chance to destroy cards consistently? When has Neo-Spacian Flame Scarab ever climbed to above 1300 ATK? Oh, and we’re all aware that card advantage is king and life points mean nothing until you are dead so Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird is useless. Right?
We’ll get to defending that beautiful monster soon enough, as I haven’t yet covered the important parts of what makes the Neo-Spacian archetype so unique. And that mainly falls to their mighty searcher and their EPIC draw cards. Cross Porter is hands down amazing, a card well before the time of the ‘When this card is sent to the Graveyard’ effects. Send him to die in battle, gain a Neo-Spacian. Send him to the Graveyard with Foolish Burial, gain a Neo-Spacian. Send him to the Graveyard with Mathematician, gain a Neo-Spacian. In hand, these Neo-Spacians give you outs to various situations, but when combining them with Porter’s first effect, you are able to flood the field with monsters, if you so wish. But another use for the Spacians in your hand is the first of the 2 amazing draw cards!
Convert Contact is amazing, sending a Neo-Spacian from the hand and a Neo-Spacian from the deck in exchange for 2 draws. Deck thinning, sending the Spacian to the grave so you don’t have to draw into it, this card is amazing. Sure, you have to use it when you don’t control a monster, but it gives you so much setup potential in a deck that relies on one or two massive combos to push for game. On the flip side of the coin, Space Gift is an amazing draw spell when you do control monsters, specifically when you control Neo-Spacians. Sure, it’s a breakeven if you waste your normal summon on a Spacian and desperately need the draw. Add Call of the Haunted and it becomes a +1. But perhaps the greatest in-theme combo is using Cross Porter to search out various names, flood the field with Neo-Spacians, then refill your hand with brand new draws for each Spacian you just summoned.
As to the whole, “Neos” element, let’s just say that I’ve devoted an entire section to it later on in the article, so this is your warning so you aren’t disappointed.
Overview – Off-theme Support Makes the Deck!
So, I’m sure you are wondering how in the world this rag-tag group of Neo-Spacians is going to have any impact whatsoever in any duel, let alone as a rogue option. But to answer those concerns, I need to bring up 2 more generic cards that literally break the deck wide open and give it the extra speed and closing strength it needs. The first is Pot of Dichotomy. While this seems like just a generic ‘smartpick’ due to running 7 or 8 different types in the main deck, it serves the even more important role of adding another +1 draw spell to your arsenal, while recycling back new Neo-Spacians to search out with Porter or to send when resolving Convert Contact. In addition, this allows you to also recycle your Rank 3 Xyz monsters, which are the stars of the deck in their own right.
The second… well you should have guessed it by now. Everyone’s favorite Spell Card out of Dragons of Legend, the one and only Soul Charge! So what does this deck like to do, gain advantage through drawing, getting Neo-Spacians in the Hand and Graveyard. Soul Charge gives you combos, and you don’t even have to worry about the Battle Phase restriction, since you should be resolving a Pot of Dichotomy first in order to gain an initial +1 before going into a Soul Charge play. But the combos don’t end there, because Soul Charge is literally PERFECT with the pool of effects for this archetype to play with. If you combine Soul Charge with Space Gift…. that’s literally doubling your pluses off of a single Soul Charge. If you combine Soul Charge with Cross Porter, well, you’ve literally just set up your flood from the hand. And you know what the perfect piece that makes these plays worth it for either of the above situations? That ‘useless’ Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird, that in all honesty, you probably forgot about by now. +2500 life points if you go first is no laughing matter. Open Soul Charge alongside a Hummingbird and a Convert Contact, and you convert the humming and another from your deck for 2 draws, soul charge back both Hummingbirds, gain 5000 life points (offsetting your 2000 cost for charge), and Xyz for Totem Bird. Your opponent has to play around your Xyz for the second situation, but in either, you just made their chances of OTK’ing you much lower. And if you can remove that threat of an OTK, it will push your opponent to overextend. And you and I both should know the problems of overextending.
So if you’re justifying your continued lack of appreciation of the Neo-Spacians due to them being a ‘one-trick-pony’ of a deck, they actually have a wide pool of boss options to choose from, no matter which direction you wish to take the archetype. If you wanna take the Chaos Route, a single Convert Contact sets up a BLS or Chaos Sorcerer summon. If you wanna take the Synchro Route, the ‘Junk and Debris’ combination really can’t be outshined using any other non-tuner base. Access to Level 5 Synchros using Junk and Porter, access to Michael and Black Rose using Debris and Neo-Spacian Glow Moss… yeah, Synchros are definitely a major option. But perhaps most important of all, this deck has the single most control over the number of DARK monsters in your graveyard out of any deck I’ve ever come across. With Pot of Dichotomy, you can easily limit how many DARKs are sitting in your grave. With Convert Contact, you can choose when to load that Neo-Spacian Dark Panther into the Graveyard, or you can simply wait until you’ve milled your 3 Cross Porters, searched off of each. And just to be clear, this powerhouse that all of this setup supports is obviously Dark Armed Dragon.
With the rise of heavy-backrow format we currently are in, of course DAD will fall out of favor. It also doesn’t help that there isn’t a DARK deck in the meta that can control their Graveyard, nor will there be in the near future. But Dark Armed Dragon fills a niche of being a win condition on its own. Nuking their cards down the line is amazing, but even if you don’t get it off, it is a master at baiting those last-resort trap cards your opponent has for a last resort.
Fine, enough talking about the deck in theory and the potential combos, let’s check out a skeleton!
Core Lineup for a Neo-Spacian Variant:
3 Cross Porter
2|3 Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird
2|3 Neo-Spacian Dark Panther
1|2 Neo-Spacian Glow Moss
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
2|3 Junk Synchron
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
3 Convert Contact
2|3 Space Gift
3 Soul Charge
2|3 Pot of Dichotomy
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Foolish Burial
1 Mind Control
2|3 Call of the Haunted
This may be an extensive skeleton, but seriously, the deck aligns around combos. I guess I just like writing about combo decks as of late, but that truly is where this deck outshines many other ‘forgotten’ archteypes. While a diverse field of Neo-Spacians definitely benefits Space Gift, it also allows for more combos or responses in and of itself. With 3 Panther, you are almost guaranteeing that you win the Lightsworn matchup. Call me crazy, but copying an opponent’s Judgment Dragon wins games after they explode and cannot OTK you through your astronomical life points.
Detriments to Success and Alternate Options
It may be obvious, but basically decks that like to spit their hand onto the field are generally poorer matchups, as you do not have a reliable number of cards in your opponent’s hand to let Hummingbird benefit from. On the other hand, this allows you to manipulate your opponent’s emotions, by playing tech cards that punish them for overextending. Malevolent Catastrophe? Dark Hole? Torrential Tribute? Just remember, you want options that don’t conflict with your consistency engines, but there are a TON of options available to you. If you prefer to build your deck more Rank 3 focused, other awesome cards that you consider in a Neo-Spacian deck include: Tour Guide from the Underworld, Crane Crane, Mimimic, and Spell Striker. Remember, the Djinn xyz monsters are actually pretty sweet if you can manage to summon multiples at a time. If you want to go for the longer grind game, since you will out-advantage your opponent eventually, perhaps you may wish to try one-for-one removal, as in a low-resource gamestate, all it takes is for you to draw Junk Synchron, Debris Dragon, Soul Charge, Mathematician, Pot of Dichotomy, and more and you can wrestle control of the duel right back from your opponent. You also have the choice to forgo milling Porter with cards such as Mathematician, and instead focus on simply special summoning him from the deck. Reinforce Truth andLittle Trooper are amazing at doing this. I mentioned the Chaos bosses before, but other monsters that special summon themselves by banishing attributes are good as well. Cards like Dark Simorgh and Desert Twister could have a spot if you build the deck to support them.
If I don’t draw into Dark Armed Dragon…
What’s my win condition? Well you could always choose to go ham and beat down with the miniature Neo-Spacians, but probably the way you will be winning most of your duels is through rank 3 Xyz Summons. With access to most rank 3s in the game, this deck can summon Totem Bird to be a pain if your opponent needs to resolve a spell or trap. It has access to Fortune Tune for even more life point gaining. It can summon the Symphony Djinn like no other, and combinations of those Djinn can really inflict mega pain on the opponent. If you want to play using an OCG cardpool, Humhumming the Keyboard Djinn is AMAZING as it allows you to bring back another Djinn when special summoned, including another Humming. So the longer the duel goes on, the longer chains of Djinns returning to the field. And what’s the importance of 2 seemingly useless Xyz monsters of the same rank? That’s right, Number F0: Future Hope! By the end of the duel, you can make a combo of 3 Humming into another Djinn, then overlay for 2 F0s. And he is not exactly the easiest monster to get over, let alone get over twice. But even if you are playing just TCG, you can rely upon Synchro monsters to win games for you as well. Everyone knows the power of Goyo Guardian. But Armades, Keeper of Boundaries and Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn both put in heavy lifting, especially when you need to remove threats or attack safely.
The Last Key Card(s):
So what are these AWESOME key cards you want to draw into? Soul Charge and DAD may seem obvious, alongside a chaos boss monster or three if you choose to run it, but surprisingly Mind Control is even stronger in a Neo-Spacian deck than in most other decks at the current time. Sure, being able to steal your opponents monster for its effect is epic. Maybe in other decks you get to Xyz with it as well. You definitely have this option, but don’t forget that you also can send your opponent’s monster away for Cross Porter!
I alluded to this once before in the article, but the absolute BEST reason to play Neo-Spacians is your unparalleled ability to use your opponent’s monster effects against them with Neo-Spacian Dark Panther or get around monsters entirely with Neo-Spacian Grand Mole. As I said earlier, Panther’ing a Judgement Dragon feels awesome. Panther’ing an opponent’s Mecha Phantom Beast Dragossack or Mermail Abyssleed gives you even more options to hurt the opponent. And then Grand Mole is your problem solver. Your opponent controls El Shaddoll Winda? No problem, throw Grand Mole at it. Your opponent controls Leo? Key Beetle? Baxia? Again, no problem. Just remember, Breakthrough Skill is really his only main enemy!
Related Archetypes that deserve a mention:
Yes, I almost wrote an entire article on an archetype without mention of their intended bosses. But let me be quite clear: Elemental HERO Neos SUCKS to have to run. Even though Miracle Contact is literally the best thing ever to happen for the Neos fusions, it’s not enough to warrant the drop in consistency you get from running Neos. In addition, there are a few key problems:
- Miracle Contact returns your yarded Neo-Spacians without gaining you any card advantage
- Even if you do get Neos into the grave consistently such as with Elemental HERO Prisma, who can also help mill all of your Neo-Spacians, each time you resolve Miracle Contact, you are adding additional dead draws back into the deck
- The Neos fusions have one turn to knock your opponent dead. If you run Neo Spaceto circumvent this, I will literally track you down for running such a useless card.
- The most powerful Neos fusions require you to run the worst Neo-Spacians. No Storm Neos without Aqua Dolphin. No Magma Neos without Flare Scarab.
- Giving yourself new boss monsters including an easy win condition in Elemental HERO Air Neos is simply not worth it for the drop in consistency, especially when the deck is built around the Spacians, their direct support, and other cards to augment their skills.
No, regardless of popular belief, the Neos Fusions is not the only directly related archetype. Say hello to the Chrysalis archetype, literally the cutest little things ever. They aren’t really gimped on decent support when tied to the Neo-Spacians, as Cocoon Party lets you summon 5 monsters from the deck if your Graveyard is setup properly. Cocoon Rebirth then lets you tribute any mini for the Neo-Spacian in your Graveyard as many times as you want per turn. And last but not least, you can swap a Chrysalis for a Neo-Spacian from the deck with Cocoon Veil. I can definitely see an interesting Rank 2 | Rank 3 deck working off of this, but quite frankly, if you want to focus on the Neo-Spacians, don’t try some random cards that mess with your consistency. Please!
And then lastly, while not technically qualifying as an archetype, the NEX Fusions. Basically, konami came up with the plan to release alternate forms of the Neo-Spacians that resided in the extra deck with powered up effects and could be summoned by the effect of a random spell card named NEX. From the pattern established by the 2 of these ‘evolved spacians’, they were to have more powerful effects than their lesser forms in addition to being always treated as the Neo-Spacian they represent. Sadly, this really doesn’t work out well for them, as the 3 cards of the same name rule applies to the Fusions as well. And they didn’t even release enough of these ‘evolved spacians’ to make trying them out worth it. Sadly, I just see this as a missed opportunity. There is one AMAZING quality that just MIGHT make these guys playable: They count as 2 different names for Space Gift. So in a perfect world, you could draw 7 cards off of the resolution of one spell. That is definitely one for the record-books.
Completed Example Decklist:
The following is my personal Neo-Spacian build. Thank you very much for reading all the way through this article! I realize it may not be perfect, so please don’t jump down my throat for it. It is simply a starting point for your own deck-building endeavors in the future, if you wish to use it as such: http://i.imgur.com/b9Algbb.png
