[The Real] Necloth Thread

[Blake]

So, as well all know, Booster SP: Tribe Force introduced a new Ritual deck; The Necloths.
 
The Necloths are the successors to the Gishki, and have Avance, Emilia, Shrit (their son), and a dragon/fishman named Exa in their ranks, thus far. They gain the powers of some of the Synchros of the past, currently ranging from 3 to 10, including a card revealed to be in SECE.
 
Their mirrors also appear to have the ability to age/deage those using their powers.
 
Avance (and presumably Emilia) has grown old, but is present as the apparent leader of the Necloths.
 
Shrit is their son, and apparently has access to a special version of their mirror, apparently giving him the power to use the past souls directly to evolve, without a tribute, so to speak.
 
Exa and Emilia... WE DON'T KNOW! Exa's out of nowhere, but is seen in a Dragunity support card, and Emilia only has 1 Neclothed version revealed, no base form.
 
From the 8 Necloth Rituals we've seen so far, there is a trend.
 
Shrit [3] becomes Clausolas [3], Brionac [6], and Trishula [9]
Archmage/Avance [4] becomes Unicore [4] and Valkyrus [8]
Exa [5] becomes Catastor [5] and Decisive Armor [10]

As such, these all share the same type as their OG forms.
 
We do have Emilia left, though. She's a Level ? and becomes a Level 7 (Gungnir, who's a Spellcaster like Archmage). This means she can either be a Level 1 or 7, if the trend continues, and the latter is more likely.
 
Enough about flavor and such, though, let's move on to the actual deck.
 
As for the general theme, it's a bit muddled. The effect monsters lend themselves to consistency of summoning, the Level 3 to 6 rituals focus on both consistency and anti-Extra Deck, and the Level 7 to 10 rituals focus on both protection and furthering your game immediately, be it by harming the opponent or bolstering the cards you have. They each have facets reminiscent of the Synchros they wear and/or others close to them, and then they have another effect when discarded from the hand. 
 
All in all, it leads to a consistent (albeit very large) engine for the deck, that both outplays matchups and forces their way through the fight.
 
Finally, keep in mind that the level 3-6 rituals can't use copies of themselves for their summon, and the level 7-10 rituals can't use monsters of the same level for their summons.

As for the card themselves, we'll start with the Ritual Spells, the crux of the deck:
 


Necloth Exomirror
Ritual Spell
This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Necloth" Ritual Monster. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field and/or banish "Necloth" monsters from your Graveyard, whose total Levels equal the Level of that Ritual Monster. You can only use this effect of "Necloth Exomirror" once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can banish both this card and 1 "Necloth" monster from your Graveyard; add 1 "Necloth" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.

Necloth Kaleidomirror
Ritual Spell
This card can be used to Ritual Summon any number of "Necloth" Ritual Monsters. You must also Tribute 1 monster from your hand or field, OR send 1 monster from your Extra Deck to the Graveyard, whose Level equals the total Levels of that Ritual Monster(s). You can only use this effect of "Necloth Kaleidomirror" once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can banish both this card and 1 "Necloth" monster from your Graveyard; add 1 "Necloth" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.
 
So, the deck starts with 2 good ritual spells!
 
Exomirror is the main ritual, depicting the Mirror that is the heart of the Necloth arts. It is a basic Ritual Spell, but it has 2 Trade-offs; In exchange for being able to use the graveyard to pay the tribute for the Spell, it must use exact levels. It can also use the themed whole tribute monster from the grave, giving it double the value!
 
Then there's Kaleidomirror; This card, once again, requires exact levels for what you're attempting to summon... and the reward for such is that you get to use the Extra Deck to pay the cost. While this seems very powerful in-and-of itself, I'll go over cards that make this even more powerful than it seems later. Kaleidomirror can also send a higher leveled monster to summon multiple small ones. Like, say, a Level 9 for 3 Level 3s, or a Level 9 for a Level 5 and a Level 4.
 
However, if you use any monster that can use itself as the whole tribute, you may only summon 1 monster, as it copies that monster's level for the summon.
 
Then they can both banish themselves + a Necloth to search for any Necloth Spell. At the moment, this means another mirror, but they CAN self-search.
 
I will also explain ratios later, after covering the rest of the deck.
 

(Click Archmage for a link to his OG Self, and click Exa for his other appearance)

Shrit, Caster of the Necloth
WATER
Level 3
Warrior/Effect
If you Ritual Summon exactly 1 "Necloth" Ritual Monster, this card can be used as the entire Tribute. If this card is Tributed by a card effect: You can add 1 Warrior-Type "Necloth" Ritual Monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Shrit, Caster of the Necloth" once per turn.

Archmage of the Necloth
WATER
Level 4
Spellcaster/Effect
If this card is Tributed by a card effect: You can add 1 Spellcaster-Type "Necloth" Ritual Monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished: You can send 1 "Necloth" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard, except "Archmage of the Necloth". You can only use 1 "Archmage of the Necloth" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Exa, Warrior of the Necloth
WATER
Level 5
Dragon/Effect
If this card is Tributed by a card effect: You can add 1 Dragon-Type "Necloth" Ritual Monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished: You can target 1 of your banished "Necloth" monsters, except this card; Special Summon it. You can only use 1 "Exa, Warrior of the Necloth" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
 
Now, Shrit should draw your eye the most. Not only does he eat the cost of an entire summon, but he searches a Warrior-Type Necloth Ritual when you tribute him with a card effect. This looks amazing at first glance, and it's even better than it looks, but we'll go over that later. He is, hands-down, a 3-of for the deck, and you can't really get away with running fewer.
 
Next up is Archmage/Avance. He looks neat enough; He's not the worst size for NSing, he searches out any Spellcaster-Type Necloth Ritual, and when he's banished from the Graveyard, which our Ritual Spells can enable. The problem is that... Exa and Shrit are all you'd want to dump in most situations, and Shrit is one you'd rather have in hand/on board. It also lacks the ability to eat an entire cost, making it a meager Level 4. It's definitely not a bad card, but it seems more like a 1-of for combo potential that will be covered later.
 
Then we have Exa... A level 5 with lackluster stats. Like the other 2, tributing it means you search for another ritual with its type; This time Dragon. It's banish effect targets and special summons another banished Necloth, which is half decent. The issue is... These three are all you'll be Special Summoning with him. Yeah, really. It cannot SS the rituals, which is a major point against it. There may be a deck for it in the future, but not quite yet, it seems. No more than a 1-of, and even then it's not great.
 
The effect monsters, bar Shrit, are just kind of... there. But,the good news is that the Rituals make up for this!
 
I'll cover these guys one at a time, because each of them is a doozy.
 


The Necloth of Clausolas
WATER
Level 3
Warrior/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. You can discard this card; add 1 "Necloth" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. During either player's turn: You can target 1 monster on the field that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, its effects are negated. These changes last until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Clausolas" once per turn.
 
So here's our first: Shrit donning the Necloth of Mist Bird Clausolas. It is odd that it has more attack than the Synchro it emulates, but apparently some of its data from when it was turned into an Ally of Justice slipped through. So its stats are reversed from the AoJ, not the Synchro.
 
As you can see in its monster effect, it took the effect of Clausolas and amped it up in exchange for some restrictions. It's faster, but it can only hit monster summoned from the Extra Deck. This isn't that bad, but it can be a nuisance, particularly in the mirror.
 
However, this card excels in 2 regards: Its typing/level and its "spell" effect. I'll cover why the typing/level is amazing later despite its obviousness, but I don't think I need to explain the discard much at all. It is effectively 3 more copies of both Kaleidomirror AND Exomirror. It searches the one you need at the time, and can be searched by a whopping 5 different cards. All of which are at 3, provided you're using the TCG's Banlist for this.

He also hints that there will be Necloth traps in the future.
 
A 3-of beyond debate. The first effect isn't too amazing, seeing as it depends on the matchup, but the discard more than makes up for it.
 


The Necloth of Unicore
WATER
Level 4
Spellcaster/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. You can discard this card, then target 1 "Necloth" card in your Graveyard, except "The Necloth of Unicore"; add it to your hand. You can only use this effect of "The Necloth of Unicore" once per turn. Negate the effects of all face-up monsters on the field that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.
 
Now, this one isn't quite as true to its original self in its translation. The power that Archmage gains from wearing Unicore's magic is that he negates the effects of all monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. While this does make some sense, it feels a bit more like the stretch. And just like Claus before it, very matchup dependent. For example, leaving this out v. Qliphort screams deathwish.
 
Again, though, the "spell" effect is what sells it. It is just any other Necloth card in your Grave; Mirrors, Clausolas, other Rituals, Shrit, and so on. Sure, it's once per turn, but that's still becoming a free card in your grave.
 
Then there's the matter of its LEVEL... It's a level 4. This gives it a particularly good Synchro Monster to use with Kaleidomirror. I'll go over that later, along with another Synchro Monster or 2 of note, but that's all for now.
 
Suffice to say, this is another 3-of. Being any card in the grave in a deck that filters as fast as this one does is amazing.
 


The Necloth of Catastor
WATER
Level 5
Dragon/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than "The Necloth of Catastor", and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. You can discard this card, then target 1 "Necloth" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. You can only use this effect of "The Necloth of Catastor" once per turn. At the start of the Damage Step, if a "Necloth" monster you control battles a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck: Destroy that monster.

Behold! Exa wearing Catastor (and this shows us that Exa is f***ing huge...)!

He sucks.

Okay, that's not fair. He's not awful, but he's by no means good.

His first effect is matchup dependent (broken record, etc.), and isn't all that bad. The only real issue with it is the fact that destruction removal isn't what it used to be, and you can't beat on it for that because it's not bad, just not great.
 
Then for the "spell" effect...

As was the problem with his base self, Exa's still trying to revive cards that cannot be revived. It revives Shrit, which isn't too bad, or Exa for a 2000 beater but that's really it. It's essentially a worse Unicore in almost every sense. Worse level, worse monster effect (usually), worse discard... worse.
 
Wouldn't run more than 1, and only run that if you run Exa. Even then, meh.
 


The Necloth of Brionac
WATER
Level 6
Warrior/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than "The Necloth of Brionac", and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. You can discard this card; add 1 "Necloth" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "The Necloth of Brionac". You can target 1 or 2 monsters on the field that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck; shuffle them into the Deck. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Brionac" once per turn.
 
Shrit makes his return, having aged twice! He now wears the, currently banned world-wide, Brionac. Just like Unicore, he only kinda does the original effect justice, considering it doesn't cost but has the anti-meta tone. It's even designed to punish Pendulums!
 
And like Unicore and Claus, his "spell" effect is the amazing part. He's a searcher for any Necloth monster; Yes, that means the non-Rituals and Rituals alike! So he's also a S/T searcher. And any card in your Graveyard. And a monster reborn. And a full tribute. And all the other cards!
 
Though, his Level also means a lot... If you're holding 2 of him. Again, more on that later.

3-of. It's anything in the deck and has a combo to be disclosed.
 


The Necloth of Gungnir
WATER
Level 7
Spellcaster/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than Level 7 monsters, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. During either player's turn: You can discard this card, then target 1 "Necloth" monster you control; this turn, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. During either player's turn: You can discard 1 "Necloth" card, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Gungnir" once per turn.
 
Remember, this card is not yet released. It is in SECE.

This is Emilia (Necloth Version unknown) wearing the Ice Barrier Dragon, Gungnir. This one is fairly loyal to its original self, but with the trade-off you'd expect... But we've grown out of anti-meta! In exchange for only discard one card per turn to target and destroy one... You can use it during either player's turn. Theoretically, this is better than the original.
 
So it's basically a once-per-turn Raigeki Break.
 
And on top of having an amazing effect as a monster, it has a good "trap" effect, too. You can discard it to target a Necloth and make it immune to all destruction for the turn. While destruction isn't as common as it used to be, it's still a very real protection.
  
This card seems like it could change how the deck is played, and I won't give a number to run for now.
 

 
The Necloth of Valkyrus
WATER
Level 8
Spellcaster/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than Level 8 monsters, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can banish 1 "Necloth" card from your Graveyard, then discard this card; negate that attack, then end the Battle Phase. You can Tribute 1 or 2 monsters from your hand and/or your side of the field, and if you do, draw 1 card for each card Tributed. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Valkyrus" once per turn.
 
My personal favorite of the Necloth. I'd have it as an avi right now, but Halloween beckons!
 
So let's go over this card. While it's not as true to the original as our next Ritual, it actually does something neat. Its effect is reminiscent of not one Fabled, but two.
 
His effect tributes 1-2 monsters on your board/in your hand once per turn to draw cards equal to them. This feels like they put Fabled Ragin and Valkyrus together into the effect, and it really makes me appreciate the card even more, as the archetype has now made a nod to every half decent Fabled boss. The other two... ick.
 
Anyways, this card combos well with its effect self, Archmage, and Shrit/Exa. It allows you to plus while thinning when used in tandem with those cards. You can even have a small set of +1-2 off of his effect per turn, if you play it right.
 
Even without them, it uses up monsters on the board that you don't need, can ditch itself to set up a Ritual's searching, and dig into your deck for your non-Necloth cards.
 
Then it's "trap" effect is a Threatening Roar that can combo (Archmage/Exa). Tehnically costs more than T-roar, but it's searchable and doesn't have to be set, meaning you can hold it until you absolutely must use it as a Roar.
 
1-2 of. I'd love to play more- maybe even a variant based around it- but it's tough to find space in the deck with everything else you need to run. And this is before Gungnir.
 

 
The Necloth of Trishula
WATER
Level 9
Warrior/Ritual/Effect

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than Level 9 monsters, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. During either player's turn, when a "Necloth" monster(s) you control is targeted by a card or effect: You can discard this card; negate the activation. When this card is Ritual Summoned: You can banish 1 card from your opponent's side of the field, hand (at random) and Graveyard. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Trishula" once per turn.
 
And now we have Shrit's final (for now) incarnation and the posterboy for the archetype! Shrit now wears the dragon that once froze the Duel Terminal world over, Trishula!

 
His monster effect is basically the same as Trishula's, but it can be outplayed. The opponent must have 1 card in hand, 1 card in grave, and 1 card on the field or more to activate, because it does not say "up to 1". This means it's not going to be live T1 unless you build something silly to make it live.
 
The "trap" effect is pretty good, too. It stops any effect that targets a Necloth, making them harder to remove with cards like Number 101, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, No Gungnir, or Castel.
  
All in all, a powerful boss. 2-3 of, though definitely leaning to 3, at least for the time being.
 

 
The Necloth of Decisive Armor
WATER
Level 10
Dragon/Ritual/Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Necloth" Ritual Spell Card. Must be Ritual Summoned by using monsters other than Level 10 monsters, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. During either player's turn: You can discard this card, then target 1 "Necloth" monster you control; it gains 1000 ATK and DEF until the end of this turn. You can target 1 Set card your opponent controls; destroy it, and if you do, banish it. You can only use each effect of "The Necloth of Decisive Armor" once per turn.
 
Hoo boy, the last one! Exa returns merged into... something even f***ing bigger.
 
On one hand, it copies one of the effects of Decisive Armor and buffs it. While Shaddolls are gone in the era that Exa exists in, it makes sense to be prepared should they rise again.
 
However, the heart feels a bit sucked out. It's not a bad card, but... Compare it to the 3 below it. They're all better bosses. This effect is kinda overkill, although good in the right matchups. It's also a minor example of intelligent design from Konami, because destroy then banish is better design tha=n straight banish... Though it does make the card weaker.
 
The "trap" effect isn't the best, either, but it's not bad. Just, again... Overkill. Theoretically the 1000/1000 buff is very good, but the deck's space is really right, and it doesn't really have room for a card that's primarily just a weak but more versatile Kalut. It might be good later, but for now... Overkiiiiiiiiiiiill.

I'd say you could side 1 or 2, but I wouldn't really main it. Still inferior to Trish most times.
 
And that's all for the Necloth cards!

There's a number of non-archetypal cards to run, but... They're mostly searchers and deck thinning.
 

 
The first three basically search every card in the deck. While Senju is a bit overkill (albeit usable), the other 3 are 3-ofs. They give you the absolute consistency the deck eats up and loves. Manju is a Level 4 that can also be sacked for Valkyrus, as well, giving it utility beyond a searcher. Rites gets used up Rituals back, so that you don't have to use their effects as soon and can use them again the next turn.
 
RotA gets Clausolas and Shrit, which means RotA searches your Rituals and your Full Tribute; While not as powerful as Preparation of Rites or Manju, it's still a very powerful searcher considering it just adds that much more consistency and thinning.
 
For the rest of the cards you can use, there's 6 in particular that come to mind.

 
Denkou Sekka
LIGHT
Level 4
Thunder/Effect
Cannot be Special Summoned. If you control no Set Spell/Trap Cards, neither player can Set Spell/Trap Cards nor activate any Set Spell/Trap Cards on the field.
 
Solemn Advice
Counter Trap
While you control no other Set cards in your Spell & Trap Zone, when a monster(s) would be Summoned, OR when a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect is activated: Pay 3000 LP; negate the Summon or activation, and if you do, destroy that card.
 
MST is needed because the deck loses to Vanity's. Hard. That's its main weakness.
 
This is also why you play Vanity's. Also because you'll never have to break it, really, unless you want to.
 
Trap Stun fits similarly to MST.
 
Necroface is great in the late game for Avarice-esque purposes, but hasn't been tested much.
 
Now the two new cards; Denkou Sekka and Solemn Advice
 
Solemn Advice works well here... but in the mirror it is so bad you will want to stab yourself. So side it if anything, but not really worth it, IMO. Also conflicts with the other new card.
 
Denkou Sekka laughs at large backrow (like Trap Stun) and makes you feel safe. They can't flip Vanity's if they hadn't already flipped it, meaning they're in a tough spot. Level 4 isn't the worst level, either. Also laughs when you use it with your Vanity's.
 
Finally, 4 ED Mons of Note:

 
Herald of Rainbow Light
LIGHT
Level 4
Fairy/Synchro/Effect
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Any monster sent from the hand or Main Deck to the Graveyard is banished instead. When a Spell/Trap Card or monster effect is activated: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can add 1 Ritual Monster or 1 Ritual Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.
 
Herald is good to ditch with Kaleido for Unicore because it sets you up for more plays.
 
For the others, it's a combo. The set up is Kaleidomirror + 2 Brionac in hand. Send Quasar from the Extra for the two via Kaleido. Overlay the Brionacs into Exa-Beetle. Exa-Beetle equips the Quasar in grave to itself, then ditches it for its effect, getting Shooting Star from the Extra.
 
Follow this up with Gaia Dragon on Exa-Beetle, and you put 5900 damage on the board and can negate destruction effects once per turn. You can also negate attacks, but... you don't  wanna do that cause SSD won't come back.

Exa-Beetle can also get back Herald of Rainbow Light for another search.
 
Finally, we need to revisit Exomirror and Kaleidomirror. Both of these rituals are clearly essential to the deck, but they can brick a bit in multiples. People are currently playing 3 Exomirror and 2-3 Kaleido, but 2-2 has also been suggested.
 
That said, these cards are essential to the deck working, so I wouldn't drop below 3-2. Kaleidomirror is the one that isn't as consistently live, being fairly combo dependent, so it makes sense to cut that one down if you cut either.
 
So a sample list would look something like:
3 Denkou Sekka
3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
3 Shrit, Caster of the Necloth
0-1-2 Necroface
0-1-2 Manju of the Thousand Hands
0-1 Archmage of the Necloth
3 The Necloth of Brionac
3 The Necloth of Clausolas
3 The Necloth of Unicore
2-3 The Necloth of Trishula
1-2 The Necloth of Valkyrus
3 Necloth Exomirror
3 Preparation of Rites
3 RotA
2-3 Necloth Kaleidomirror
0-3 MST
3 Vanity's Emptiness
0-3 Trap Stun
 
Out of the 3-of Rituals, I'd say that, bar Trish, the one most likely to go to a lower number in this build would be Unicore. Not now, but in the future as we get more stuff.
 
This can change in the future, though. As said, Gungnir may cause a great change in the deck, as she enables the deck in a lot of new ways. Tidal, Gold Sarcophagus, Exa, Catastor, possibly Decisive Armor... Her level allows these cards to better synergize with the deck, and can make a new variant. Also seems like this deck would be much kinder to Valkyrus, making him stand out more, with more tribute targets, including the Dragon Ruler.
 
Now, let's take a look at the only cards this deck fears:

 
These are all cards that can shut you down. Luckily, 3 of them are limited, and the other is a floodgate that Trishula, MST, Trap Stun (kinda), and Gungnir (in the future) can take down. Vanity's Emptiness is another issue, and it has the same weaknesses as Mistake and then some in exchange for being stronger.
 
You can also side Solemn Advices to answer these, just not against Necloths... who won't run these anyways.

Afterword:
There is a major argument for going second with this deck, at least ATM. Given that Trishula is live only when they've hit the grave, field, and have a hand, you'd rather garner resources early. This seems to hold true from my testing, but I would like to keep testing before saying it is 100% true.
 
I find that, if you do end up going first, you want to dig into Valkyrus and set him up ASAP. Hell, even keep him in hand until your second turn if you can't drop him T1, he's a good hand trap. Valkyrus on the board means you're digging into your advantage and putting yourself in a superior position to your opponent because you're more likely to hit your good cards (Denkou, Vanity's, MST/Stun, etc.) or just more combo pieces. It's like how Dragon Rulers were a fucking amazing deck, but they ran a bunch of draw cards to hit more backrow/more draw cards to win the game with.

Remember to value your cards properly, really. Each card has a ton of value, and you shouldn't be willy nilly with it, no matter how tempting it is. Valkyrus, for example, is something I commonly use as sack 1 draw 1. Because 1 extra/advantage garnering card is all I have. More is great, but that's not going to be the case a lot of the time.

And that's all, for now. Let me know if I missed anything, and please discuss!

[Toffee.]

Considering the blatant weakness to Vanity, and how the self-discarding effects of the Cloths pretty much covered all forms of protection.... Safe to say they might, at some point, make a Cloth that either destroys Spell/Traps or just destroys Set cards.
As a self-discarding effect, of course.

....Though, I am just speculating, but ehh, what else is new.

[Slinky]

Be careful, though. You cannot use the Mist Bird effect the same turn you use it to search, so keep track of your movements.

 

This is wrong. If you read Clausolas. It clearly states you can only use /each/ effect once per turn. It does not have the Dragon Ruler restrictions of "you can only use one effect per turn, and only once that turn." 

 

That said, this applies to all the Necloth Rituals from what I'm seeing.

 

After further reading, you utilize this same "misread wording" with Gungnir and Trishula as well.

[Blake]

Be careful, though. You cannot use the Mist Bird effect the same turn you use it to search, so keep track of your movements.

[font='comic sans ms']This is wrong. If you read Clausolas. It clearly states you can only use /each/ effect once per turn. It does not have the Dragon Ruler restrictions of "you can only use one effect per turn, and only once that turn." [/font]

[font='comic sans ms']That said, this applies to all the Necloth Rituals from what I'm seeing.[/font]

[font='comic sans ms']After further reading, you utilize this same "misread wording" with Gungnir and Trishula as well.[/font]

Apparently the translations changed since last I actually read them. Weird, will edit later.

[Maeriberii Haan]

subbing for mahou shounen

The theoretical Tidal variant that would be usable post-Gungnir, what does it actually offer to the deck aside from rank 7, recurring beater, a mill card, easier exa abuse, and easier catastor (lol) and decisive armor access?

Would it be a more banish focused build?

Also, if the deck is popular enough, Necroface could be a pretty risky option. You may want to mention that.

[Dracoswag]

scribing for Water Cosplay.dek

[CLG Klavier]

On DN I faced a pretty weird version that tried to abuse Hieratics with Valkyrus's tribute ability. Seemed kind all over the place, but it worked pretty well o.o

[Blake]

subbing for mahou shounen

The theoretical Tidal variant that would be usable post-Gungnir, what does it actually offer to the deck aside from rank 7, recurring beater, a mill card, easier exa abuse, and easier catastor (lol) and decisive armor access?

Would it be a more banish focused build?

Also, if the deck is popular enough, Necroface could be a pretty risky option. You may want to mention that.

On DN I faced a pretty weird version that tried to abuse Hieratics with Valkyrus's tribute ability. Seemed kind all over the place, but it worked pretty well o.o

I'll answer both with the same thing I added to the OP.
 
"This can change in the future, though. As said, Gungnir may cause a great change in the deck, as she enables the deck in a lot of new ways. Tidal, Gold Sarcophagus, Exa, Catastor, possibly Decisive Armor... Her level allows these cards to better synergize with the deck, and can make a new variant. Also seems like this deck would be much kinder to Valkyrus, making him stand out more, with more tribute targets, including the Dragon Ruler."

That said, Hieratics seem like a bad idea. In theory it could do well, but the issue is that it takes up too much space in a deck that ALREADY lacks space. You have like 3~ extra spots, and even if you cut Denkou Sekka you still don't have enough for a Hieratic engine.

[Blake]

2 things further testing has brought up for me. Cards will link to their wiki page.

 

 

With Valkyrus and Trishula, I'd like to make a case on ratios.

 

While it's certainly not bad there, Trishula feels less than best in the mirror. It feels like, unless you hit them T2 or you used Vanity's for great effect on them, it's not doing enough to further your game. Which says a lot, because it's fucking Trishula.

 

Valkyrus, however, feels like a really, really good card early on. It really helps you dig, as described earlier, to get to your goodstuffs. I really do go for this early 9/10 because it's setting you up for the rest of the game so well.

 

I'm gonna be testing 2-2 just because of the fact that the both have merits that advance your game, and I can't tell which one I think is the more consistent boss overall.

 

Then there's Decisive Armor.

 

It can be really, really good for breaking Vanity's; It's happened to me a few times. Granted, this is only when paired which, say, Archmage, so it's not a constant. In fact, it requires you to run a card you may not want to. But it can help break Vanity's, which is its biggest point. I'm not running it just yet, but it seems like more reason to side it just from the times it's shut down my Vanity's. So I can see merit for discussion, at the very least.

[Slinky]

From my testing, 2 Trishula works better than 3 (mainly because you /need/ Shrit for it, unless you want to run catastor.bad or pitch a brionac/clausolas, both of which are terrible terrible options)

 

That said, I only run 1 Valk though. Aside from the superior battle fader effect, I haven't really found much use for it, even with its powerful draw effect that sets off Shrit/Archmage.

[Blake]

From my testing, 2 Trishula works better than 3 (mainly because you /need/ Shrit for it, unless you want to run catastor.bad or pitch a brionac/clausolas, both of which are terrible terrible options)
 
That said, I only run 1 Valk though. Aside from the superior battle fader effect, I haven't really found much use for it, even with its powerful draw effect that sets off Shrit/Archmage.

Um... I banish Brio/Claus from the grave all the time for Trishula summons. More often than I banish Shrit for it.
 
Valk's bigger than Trishula and is good if you have to go first against anything not Necloth. Setting it up will set you up for the rest o the game, most times. And it tributes for an effect, so Veiler/BTS doesn't cost you a dime.

And tbh, unless you're actually summoning Valk, there's no reason to run Archmage.