4 Shadoll Variants: Spirit, Bujin, Chaossworn and Zombie - April 2014

[Ultravires]

 

Spirits allow for rank 4 plays to dig into the engine, searchable LIGHT fodder in Nikitama and potential advantage through pitching Nikitama for Fusion.

 

 

Bujins take full advantage of the self-milling properties of the Shadoll engine. In addition every Fusion turns into an advantage swing by toolboxing Bujins into the grave while recycling Fusion and setting up your next Roots/Fusion play with Nephilim. I'm going to fit a third Nephilim in, after about 20 or so games I've found myself really needing the third one every few games.

 

 

Speaks for itself, Lightsworn mill and free plusses off Shadolls.

 

 

Resetting plays with Plaguespreader and pitching from the deck for Midrash is amazing. As usual with the Zombie engine, however, you can run your advantage into the ground; Shadolls mitigate this somewhat. Locking a field with Beelze, Void Ogre and Midrash is very possible.

[Maeriberii Haan]

How well does triple Fusion and double roots works for you? Also, no BTH?

 

And man, just as I was going to post my Spiridoll build.

 

Creeping Darkness seems like a nice idea since shadolls can't recur the grave much, I think I'll try it if it work well for you.

 

Though, why not 3 Dealings?

[Ultravires]

How well does triple Fusion and double roots works for you? Also, no BTH?

 

Been playtesting the engine for a while, feels like the splashed engine at 3-3-3-2 works the best. Roots can be kind of dead if I don't already have a Fusion pitched to grave, and I can fetch either so I don't really care if I see Roots that often. Seeing Fusion is key so 3 is a must no matter what you're splashing it in. I may drop something, perhaps Caingorgorm, for a Lavalval Chain in the Bujin build.

 

EDIT: Also, regarding BTH. I have face-up pops in the form of Nephilim and Quilin. It came down to deciding whether I wanted to prevent a summon or Bottomless it. Warning is arguably the better card since I can prevent a play from going off. If I had the space I'd run it alongside TT and Warning but space is really tight right now.

[Maeriberii Haan]

What about 1 Roots? Also, opinion on Castel over DDW?

[Ultravires]

 

What about 1 Roots? Also, opinion on Castel over DDW?

 

I like Castel better in other r4.deks but I feel that with Hirume and Hare existing I have potentially better plays because I can get another pop off of DDW in certain situations by using Hare to save my target. DDW goes well with Bujincarnation plays into recycled Hares over my Tenki targets.

 

1 Roots has potential since it's searchable anyway, I do like having the 1950 body but not all the time.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Hmm, how was Lightpulsar in the LS variant?

 

Though otherwise, I think they look quite nice. Just curious though, from testing, how often the LS/Zombie build opened with unplayable/weak hands?

[Ultravires]

Hmm, how was Lightpulsar in the LS variant?

 

Though otherwise, I think they look quite nice. Just curious though, from testing, how often the LS/Zombie build opened with unplayable/weak hands?

 

Lightpulsar was decent for setting up plays, and I managed to get off the Beyond the Hope play several times. Zombies opened up with relatively strong hands for the better part of 20 games, I did brick once with 2 Breakthrough, 2 Roots and 2 Recharge though. I feel like the Chaos LS variant needs more speed so I'll probably ditch the Chaos engine and go full LS with JDs and two Wyverns.

 

I've been semi-bricking a ton with the Bujin build because I've literally opened 13 games in a row with both Hirume, a Crane, a Hare and 2 random cards. I still haven't lost a game with it though, closest I came was a double JD drop but he didn't have enough LP to get over my Kagutsuchi and I OTKed next turn with Crane and Nephilim.

[Darj]

So you turned Shadolls into kind of an engine, interesting. I had the suspicion that it could be possible because once you drop an El-Shadoll the Fusion cycle basically sustains itself and relies less on the rest of the deck; also I was playing with the idea of finding a way for splashing Midrash on other decks, especially on those that can perform multiple Normal Summons (Shadoll Verz?). How about adding 1 Shadoll Dragon to the engine? The Flip effect, reusable through Falcon, provides control over monsters, while the second disrupts backrow. Lizard is an option too, but I think Dragon would be better for its ability of removing both monsters and S/Ts.

 

From your tests, which would you say is the best number of copies of "Shadoll Roots"?

 

On the Spirit Shadoll variant:

I have not tested it, but I don't see the appeal of "Creeping Darkness": Dedicating deck space to a searcher for Aratama/Lizard/Dragon doesn't look great when you could, let's say, run a 3rd copy of "Facing the Shadows" or Dealings for deck thinning, or perhaps apply Rabbit logic and try BLS; after all, with Aratama and Shadoll Fusion you should be able to put a LIGHT on the grave and set BLS up early game.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Because Shadolls in graveyard doesn't do anything other than becoming targets for Falcon.

[Darj]

I understand that part, but my point was that you could be running better things than a Aratama/Lizard/Dragon searcher. However, as I said, I have not tested Creeping Darkness yet, nor "Spiritolls" for that matter, so I may not realize how good the card actually is.

[Ultravires]

So you turned Shadolls into kind of an engine, interesting. I had the suspicion that it could be possible because once you drop an El-Shadoll the Fusion cycle basically sustains itself and relies less on the rest of the deck; also I was playing with the idea of finding a way for splashing Midrash on other decks, especially on those that can perform multiple Normal Summons (Shadoll Verz?). How about adding 1 Shadoll Dragon to the engine? The Flip effect, reusable through Falcon, provides control over monsters, while the second disrupts backrow. Lizard is an option too, but I think Dragon would be better for its ability of removing both monsters and S/Ts.

 

From your tests, which would you say is the best number of copies of "Shadoll Roots"?

 

On the Spirit Shadoll variant:

I have not tested it, but I don't see the appeal of "Creeping Darkness": Dedicating deck space to a searcher for Aratama/Lizard/Dragon doesn't look great when you could, let's say, run a 3rd copy of "Facing the Shadows" or Dealings for deck thinning, or perhaps apply Rabbit logic and try BLS; after all, with Aratama and Shadoll Fusion you should be able to put a LIGHT on the grave and set BLS up early game.

 

Haven't tried out Verz yet, I suppose it could be possible since Kerykeion benefits from dumping other Verz but the problem is that you can't go into it with the mindset that "Oh, they're DARK so it'll work like Constellarfacts." That's the main thing I see people doing wrong with the Shadoll engine; they treat it like the Artifact engine when the concept is entirely different.

 

Dragon is pretty legit as a one-of, I think I'll add it because getting Falcon from pitching Hedgehog is really lackluster. Pitching Beast for a free Upstart is nice too but Bujins do have potential to brick, and the other builds are relatively solid so I'll just add Dragon for now.

 

The number of Roots you should run depends on two things. First is the number of LIGHTs you have access to, and the second is how consistently you think you can thin the deck to reach Roots. I like having two copies because it kickstarts the engine without having to wait for my Midrash/Neph to get popped before I recycle Fusion. I also like having two copies because I enjoy having access to a different Neph target to pitch (if I already used Hedgehog/Falcon effects that turn) to recycle my Fusion, assuming I didn't use Roots to kickstart the engine in the first place. This'll probably change ever so slightly when I add 1 Dragon. I don't like to run 3 copies all that much, and I'll probably drop the third from the last two builds and replace them with that Dragon.

 

Creeping Darkness is integral to the Spirit build. Getting to your Aratamas is imperative to take advantage of the engine. The go-to combo is Ara into Niki into Fusion'd Neph to draw a card, trigger a Shadoll then pitch a Roots to recycle Fusion. Niki or Ara on the field against an Extra Deck card is an instant +3 off a Fusion in hand as well, and Creeping Darkness digs for Aratama. You never waste Creeping Darkness on Dragon or Lizard, you have other ways of searching those. If you get Aratama off a couple turns in a row, which is common because unless they're stupid the opponent will save removal for the Xyz play you telegraphed by putting Aratama on the board, you'll have Nikis padding your hand for a clutch R4 play down the line as well.

[Darj]

Haven't tried out Verz yet, I suppose it could be possible since Kerykeion benefits from dumping other Verz but the problem is that you can't go into it with the mindset that "Oh, they're DARK so it'll work like Constellarfacts." That's the main thing I see people doing wrong with the Shadoll engine; they treat it like the Artifact engine when the concept is entirely different.

 

Yes, I understand combining Verz with Shadolls is silly, considering that Midrash is arguably better at restricting the opponent's Summons than Ophion, and having 2 locks on the field is more of an overkill. I mentioned Verz as an example because I was fighting them when I realized that they, Sacred and Hunders could bypass Midrash's restriction, so it just ocurred to me that it would be awesome if you could lock the opponent with your own Midrash, while still allowing yourself Xyz plays through the multiple Normal Summon capabilities of those archetypes.

 

 

Creeping Darkness is integral to the Spirit build. Getting to your Aratamas is imperative to take advantage of the engine. The go-to combo is Ara into Niki into Fusion'd Neph to draw a card, trigger a Shadoll then pitch a Roots to recycle Fusion. Niki or Ara on the field against an Extra Deck card is an instant +3 off a Fusion in hand as well, and Creeping Darkness digs for Aratama. You never waste Creeping Darkness on Dragon or Lizard, you have other ways of searching those. If you get Aratama off a couple turns in a row, which is common because unless they're stupid the opponent will save removal for the Xyz play you telegraphed by putting Aratama on the board, you'll have Nikis padding your hand for a clutch R4 play down the line as well.

 

I get it now. Thanks for your explanation.

[Ultravires]

I mentioned Verz as an example because I was fighting them when I realized that they, Sacred and Hunders could bypass Midrash's restriction, so it just ocurred to me that it would be awesome if you could lock the opponent with your own Midrash, while still allowing yourself Xyz plays through the multiple Normal Summon capabilities of those archetypes.

 

Hunders, now there's an idea. I could possibly see Constellars too since Midrash is a 5... Splashing the Constellar engine into Artifacts with 3-3-2 Sombre-Kaus-Tenki actually did well at several tourneys even in Chronofact meta, I'm gonna try to make something work.

[Darj]

Indeed, on Hunders or Sacreds the Shadoll engine could definitely work: Pleaides and Midrash on the same side of the field? yes please.

However, Verz have things to offer too, such as access to DARK-material Rank 4s and Bahamut; you don't necesarily have to go for Ophion with Kerykeion + a Verz, and locking the field with Midrash + Verz Nightmare would be hilarious (although regular Shadolls can go for Nightmare as well).