Archetype Game

[Tinkerer]

An anti-token pendulum archetype that likes replacing the opponent's monsters with tokens. As for the monsters of the archetype, despite going all the way up to level 7, they all have a pretty low stat line, but have continuous effects that hurt token owners and can all attack directly if the opponent only controls tokens. They have no in-archetype Extra Deck bosses.

 

Geargoyle

[Draconus297]

Geargoyle

This is yet another of those multiple-piece archetypes: Their Main Deck Tuners are Machines, their primary Main Deck monsters are Fiends, and a solid chunk of their Synchros are one or the other. However, they do have a few Dragon-Type Synchros in a kind of diverged evolution tree starting with the Level 8 Geargoyle Dragon, because this archetype takes after cards used by Yusei and Jack, following in the footsteps of Synchrons, Resonators, Junk, and Arc-V Jack's "Red" support, on top of the non-Tuners taking after certain non-Tuner monsters each of them favored, with clones of Quillbolt, Vice Dragon, and Tuningware being most prominent.

 

Generally speaking, the archetype just likes to spit out Synchros at alarming speed, but being especially good at making Level 8 because you really should be making Geargoyle Dragon. Also, that dragon can evolve either the Accel Synchro way or via Double Tuning, and if you can consistently get it into the field you might wind up with several boss-level Synchros on the field at once.

 

However, because of this reliance on Synchro raw power, enemy backrow is your worst enemy (although you do have done pretty good sheet of your own for consistency's sake, and to protect your big bosses). Solemns, battle traps, Book of Moon, they all really hate you, and you'll hate all of them, so . . . pack some Twin Twisters and Harpie's Feather Dusters.

 

Wheelady (wheel + lady)

[The Nyx Avatar]

Archetype of LIGHT Machine-Type monsters. Their effects differ depending on what Battle Position they're in; kind of like Morphtronics, but not as slow. They don't really have anything for Extra Deck monsters. However, their Spell/Trap Cards help keep them alive through protection, ATK/DEF increase, removal of opponent's cards, and changing Battle Positions of Wheelady monsters. Each Spell/Trap Card has a secondary effect to banish themselves in order to change the Battle Positon of 1 monster you control. So it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Underneath

[ChampionZero]

Underneath is a series of Trap monsters, kind of like Paleozoics/Burgesstoma, except you have to option to summon them not when another trap is activated, but instead whenever a monster is summoned. And they can keep coming back, since they aren't banished when they leave the field after being summoned. They're named after creepy things like "The Crawling Underneath your Skin" or "The Whispers Underneath the Floorboards." They have great ATK, but no DEF, and can easily take on most Level 4 and below monsters. They're good for whatever summons you need to make, as long as various-element Fiends aren't a detriment to your deck.

 

 

The Forgotten One (Y'know, like The Forbidden One? No? Ok)

[Yuya-Kun]

All those years ago, and Exodia's been forgotten. He's been sealed up and left to rot. And he's tired of it. This deck is like a backtrack edition of Exodia, Where you Summon as many L2 and L1 Pieces to Synchro into the Level 10 Exodia The Oblivion Forgotten One. When you want to go for game, you banish the 5 pieces in the Grave and then wazooya! The Exodia's ATK becomes 10000. But, theres a catch. The Exodia Peices have an effect that when their used as Synchro Material, you return them to your hand. Which means getting them to the Grave isn't easy. Especially when they can't be sent from the Deck to the Grave, except by the effect of the New Exodia Trap. That means you make the boss, set the trap, pass, and then activate the trap, destroy a piece and send a piece. But even so, Exodia is angry you've forgotten him, and so, when you control him, all Monster's your opponent control gain 1000 ATK, but their effects are negated and their Names Become "You Forgot One" 

 

Negative Hope

[Tinkerer]

Negative Hope

 

An archetype that pretty much NEEDS its Field Spell to even operate.

 

The field spell, Negative World, can search an Archetype member on activation and it changes the Attribute of all monsters on the field to their opposite (LIGHT becomes DARK, EARTH becomes WIND, etc.). All monsters with a different attribute than their original cannot declare an attack.

 

As for the monsters, they are unaffected by the effects of your own cards, but need Negative World to activate their trigger effects. They also have a powerful floodgate effect that only works when the opponent has a monster with the same attribute.

 

The deck has only traps as backrow options, however these traps are generally interesting and quite useful as they let you do things that you normally wouldn't be able to (activate 1 of your monster effects during your opponent's turn, NS 1 Negative Hope during your opponent's turn, declare an attack during your opponent's turn, etc.) They can also banish themselves and 1 archetype member from the Graveyard to search out another copy of that monster.

 

They have a single Xyz boss monster that can be summoned off a variable number of materials and, when it is summoned, can attach a number of banished "Negative Hope" monsters to itself as materials equal to the amount of monsters used for its summon (so it can automatically double the materials it has). While the MD monsters focus on control and lock tactics, the Xyz's whole shtick is that it can OTK if given enough materials.

 

Sway

[Draconus297]

Sway

 

A pendulum archetype. No, no, not a Pendulum archetype! A pendulum archetype!

 

Jokes aside, this is literally an archetype of pendulums, ironically with no actual Pendulum cards to their name. It's very hypnosis-focused, with the primary gimmick of most members being to change the effect text of your opponent's cards to something negative. Like Artifacts, they Set themselves in the backrow because they lack any monsters that wouldn't normally need Tribute (6 being their Level of choice), and Special Summon themselves if destroyed in the backrow. Then, if they use their text-changing effects, they reset themselves in your backrow to be triggered again. Naturally, a lot of their support plays with this mechanic, including a Field Spell that shuffles your Set cards around, members that pop other members to get more of your board online, and a few ways to just get members on board (in fact, one of their members changes the text of your opponent's card to letting you Special Summon a member from the Deck! Unfortunately, given the way their effects work, banishing them kills them forever, Counter Traps kill their fun, and effect negation prevents them from resetting (thus leaving you with a Level 6 with crappy stats). They don't even have a Durandal equivalent to make them plus faster, although with how they work it'd kinda break them.

 

Chevmor (chevron, or the upside-down V seen on Spartan shields, + armor)

[Darj]

Chevmor

An archetype of Equip Spells and pseudo-Equip Traps (e.g. Blast with Chain, Horn of Phantom Beast) and Contact Fusion monsters that require only 1 monster equipped with an Equip Card, not necessarily an archetype Equip, as material, and thus have a semi-generic approach, intended to be splashable in most decks, specially those that already have equipping capabilities; Union monsters or otherwise monsters equipped by effects (e.g. Relinquished) will be valid materials, too. For instance, some require a monster of X Type equipped with any Equip card; while others that require a "Chevmor" Equip Card specifically come with effects that directly support the archetype.

Meanwhile, the Chevmor Equips have their own degree of splashability, further empathizing the generic approach of the archetype. Think of the Paleozoic and Phantom Knights Traps, that some have generic effects that can be splashed in other decks. They predominately have battle and Battle Phase-related effects, but not in the sense that they rely on battle to work or activate, but instead make the Battle Phase safer, or more dangerous for the opponent, or in a way empower it, or otherwise mess around with the battle mechanics. For example, a battle-related effect would be an Equip that allows the monster to attack during the opponent's Main Phase 1. Another effect could be to, only once, make the opponent conduct its Battle Phase after its Standby Phase instead of MP1, preventing it from setting up a board on MP1 and proceed to attack with it.

 

 

Next:

Seventh Heaven

[Fruiota_Hiroshi]

Seventh Heaven is an archetype of LIGHT monsters with a theme based on multiple concepts of paradise from around the world. They try to bring perfection (in this case, strong protection and high stats) to your field and then use said perfection to tear through your opponent's LP. Unfortunately, they can be kind of slow.

 

Their boss monsters are special. Currently, the Egyptian Gods are the only DIVINE monsters in the game, including Horakhty. Now, Seventh Heavens have boss monsters whose written Attributes are LIGHT, but they all have a clause in their card text that makes them DIVINE at all times as well, including in the deck.

 

ETrestrial (because ET is on Sci-Fi rn, so why not)

[Draconus297]

ETrestrial

 

The alien menace has come, and they shall warp the surface of the planet.

 

This archetype takes after popular movie aliens, including ET, the Predator, and . . . well, Aliens, and has a distinct theme of taking over your opponent's board, and not in the way you'd think. You can activate their Field Spell in your opponent's Field Spell Zone, clog their backrow with Continuous Spells that benefit archetype members on both sides of the board, and build up a wall of useless Tokens on your opponent's board a la Ojamas. Then, your own monsters take out the weak little Tokens over and over again for cheap damage, and because your opponent can't use their backrow and their front row is too full of Tokens that can't be used as Synchro, Tribute, or Link fodder to do anything with, they just sorta slowly die.

 

Luckily for anyone wanting to play the game, they're very inconsistent barring one amazing search card, so said slow death scenario is rather unlikely.

 

Krakentamination (Kraken + contamination)

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

"Someone better have a good explanation for why that biohazard waste dumped in the ocean resulted in this." - US Coast Guard commander

 

But yeah, think of the big old kraken from fishermen's tales combined with biohazardous materials and you get these. They are DARK Aqua-Type monsters and have a wide range of Levels from 4 to 10. All of the members involve contaminating the opponent slowly but painfully, with the upper Levels doing it instantly and/or continuously. They play rather slowly, but do have access to several tools that let them spam faster and/or use the opponent's cards as summon fodder. Just make sure you have the Field Spell up that protects you from their side effects (or if you can't, invest in a hazardous material suit and wear it while playing), because the side effects hurt like hell. 

 

====

Wyvern Officer

(In honor of police week) 

[Draconus297]

Wyvern Officer

 

Salute these brave officers of the law as they lay down the smackdown on opponents who think they can get away with being reckless.

 

This Wyrm-Type Synchro Fusion archetype takes after cards used by enforcers of order in the anime, including Trudge's Stygian cards, the solid Goyo support in Arc-V, and even some Genex and Crowler's OG Ancient Gear stuff mixed in. They've got a defined flavor of "battle, burn, deprive the enemy of resources", designed to cripple even the most powerful of archetypes by simply smacking them until they're out of stuff, be that stuff field presence or Life Points. They don't have any negation (or any Traps in general), preferring more honest police work.

 

Their Main Deck is admittedly kinda schizophrenic, with a good roster of low-Level monsters to get off quick burn and go into Synchro plays with, and some high-Level powerhouses with a united Ancient Gear clause and some decent battle effects. Their Spell lineup pulls it together, however, with an archetypal Machine Dupe being most prominent among their absurdly good lineup designed to spit out field presence.

 

Said field presence will usually culminate in a Synchro, and they have one each at Levels from 3 to 11, all focused on more battle and burn effects, including nods to Goyo support, friendly assistance from Genex's better cards, and even an archetype-restricted clone of pre-errata Dark Strike Fighter.

 

Their Fusions are more limited in scope, but bring the power in the best way- they get stupid huge and wreck house, and each float into a specific member if your opponent actually does kill them.

 

All in the name of laying down the law, with various cards named after law-related things, with most monsters in particular taking inspiration from real and fictional cops, and the Fusions making up references to those who laid down the law on a more massive scale, as political leaders.

 

All in all . . . straightforward, honest, and dedicated to their cause, if admittedly unnecessarily brutal at times, much like real police forces.

 

Duallum Wing

[Darj]

Duallum Wing

Archetype of LIGHT Winged-Beast monsters with different effects that activate either when they are Special Summoned, or when they leave the field but or are used as Xyz material but were Special Summoned previously. Their catch is that you have to choose which effect to apply: if you choose to activate on-Special Summon effect, then their sent-to-grave effect won't apply, and if you prefer the latter effect instead, then you have to not activate the other effect. This is intended to be a reference to the "dual" in their archetype name.

To further empathize their duality theme, they all have a subtype, be it Flip, Tuner, Gemini, etc. However, they are not bound to the standard effects of said subtypes; for instance, the Duallum Flip has a Flip effect in addition to the aforementioned 2 on-Special-Summon effects; the same goes for the Gemini Duallum monster; in the case of a Spirit Duallum, it would be Special Summonable, but would bounce itself during the End Phase, like Yamato-no-Kami. Likewise, their Extra Deck monsters have 2 subtypes as well, such as Synchro/Tuner, Xyz/Pendulum, maybe an Union, etc.

Moreover, most of their support don't directly apply on "Duallum Wing" monsters, but instead on LIGHT Winged Beasts, and thus making of Sacred Crane a solid tech that also fits their on-Special-Summon effect theme.

 

 

Next:

Hell Stinger

[Draconus297]

Hell Stinger

 

Immortal swarms of Insects would truly be hell.

 

This is a FIRE Insect-Type archetype of huge wasps, scorpions, literal fire ants, etc. Their "poison", as it were, is focused around killing the opponent's resources, similarly to how the Monarchs worked- killing the opponent's hand, field presence, and even doing some burn and Grave banishing. Notably, though, the way they do it is . . . more uncomfortable.

 

Like the abominable combination of BA and manga Vision HERO, their effects trigger when sent to the Graveyard, and if you get hurt they jump from the Graveyard into your backrow. Then, they jump back into the frontrow by killing existing frontrow members . . . giving the vast majority of members exactly three effects. One in the Graveyard, the "jump to the backrow" clause, and the "pop a frontrow member to come to the front" clause.

 

And the best part? They're a Fusion archetype, meaning that using Poly makes them plus. Their Fusions aren't slouches, either, and they provide the big stats so you don't just . . . die.

 

However, because their trigger to get going is taking damage, most of their support is literally self-damaging just to get the Deck to function, so they don't have much of a way to fight OTKs. They function best in the grind game, which they're pretty good at forcing if you get a good Foolish or Dante set up on the first turn, but if you brick first turn you might as well scoop.

 

X-Gate

[ChampionZero]

X-Gate is a Pendulum archetype that consists mostly of Level 4, scale 4 monsters. Their monsters meant for battle are several monsters called "X-Gate Guardians" and they have two abilities: Destroying themselves when your Pendulum Scale isn't 4 on both sides for draw power, removal, or Special Summoning, and whatever battle effects they need. Now, if all of them are Scale 4, how do they unbalance their Pendulum scale? Well, they have two members for just that, members that you'll want to run at 3 each for efficiency purposes. X-Gate Red allows you to lower the scale of the monster in the Blue Zone by 1, and X-Gate Blue does just the opposite. Of course, they don't specify Blue or Red, so you can have them in reverse order, even if it's wrong. Red and Blue can also form a battle lock kind of like Performapal Thunderrhino or Morphtronic Magnen, but only protects within the Archetype. Finally, they have a Level 7 Effect Monster who would probably make for a decent protagonist Ace: X-Gate Quantum, the brilliant young mind who invented the machine and bends its power to his will (dude kinda looks like Rick Sanchez). As long as you've got your scale locked at 4, he can un-summon one of your opponent's monsters, sending them back to the hand once during either player's turn.

 

Redscarf (please don't do more RDA support.)

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

// something about Japanese romance and red thread of fate //

 

But yeah, this Archetype focuses on pairing your monsters with that of another monster on the opponent's end (but in this instance, the monster on your opponent's end becomes an Equip Card to your monster). It starts with the key monster: "Redscarf Destined Lover" and then with the help of various Spell/Trap Cards (all of which can retrieve selves from the Graveyard once per turn), control as many monsters as you want from the opponent while absorbing their effects and powers. You can't absorb Xyz monsters, but the hilarious thing is that if a Link monster is equipped, it is treated as having Link Markers in the same areas, so Link stuff w/out ever having to waste your EMZ. 

 

Just make sure your opponent's backrow is sealed off though and negation handy, because having multiple links by the red scarves of fate cuts off your access to your own backrow. 

 

=====

Winter O.T.C.G.

[Dokutah]

ah sakura. neing a kind mod as always to remembering all banned member

 

Winter OTCG is an archetype that consist of Ice themed WATER Dragon and Wrym type monster including some Link and Synchro for their bosses. the main deck members is a slightly xenophobic version of all meta Synchro (same goes to Link) deck blended together like board-spam of Quasar Deck, advantage generating like DARK Synchro (with a bit of YZ and T.G), and so forth. and they have the cruelest playing Style imaginable: Banishing either player card in an interchangeable Aggro and Control effect. if that not scary enough each card literally says "screw Banlist and differing format" since no matter how konami limit the number of card you play.. each card has its own unique way to implement its effect more than once ranging from effect copy and recycling making even a single cards you run feels like having built in 3 copies of it.

 

Maximum Dark-Fender

[Draconus297]

Maximum Dark-fender

 

Protecting you from the dangers of winning!

 

This fun little DARK archetype has the most helpful of effects across the board: preventing costs for effects from being paid. This sounds almost ridiculous, until you realize that it's not skipping over the cost, it straight-up prevents costs at all! This means that any card with a cost for its effect or Summon (Desires, Solemns, Instant Fusion, Chaos monsters, every Xyz ever) becomes an unsalvageable brick. To get around their own rules, not one card in the archetype has a cost to be Summoned or use its effects- just conditions. Sometimes said conditions are absurd, but that's the price you pay for an archetype that gives almost every Deck ever a colossal middle finger. That, and having extremely low ATK (if admittedly very high DEF) across the board.

 

Skeletal Dragon (note that this is Cyberdark Dragon's title in the anime)

[Tinkerer]

Skeletal Dragon

 

A boss archetype of level 7 and 8 Zombie-types that can only be Summoned from the Graveyard.

 

All of them have their own discard effects that seal the opponent off a certain aspect of play as long as you control no monsters. However, once you're ready for the war of attrition to end, you can use their frankly absurd arsenal of Spells/Traps to revive these giant bone structures en mass.

 

The worst part about it all? Whenever they would be sent from the field to the Graveyard, they return to the hand instead. Fusion material? Synchro material? Link material? Yup, straight back to the hand.

 

Unless you can figure out a way to keep these from hitting the Graveyard, you are guaranteed to have a bad time.

 

Diesel

[Draconus297]

Diesel

 

GIVE ME FUEL, GIVE ME FIRE, GIVE ME THAT WHICH I DESIRE

 

Ahem. Anyway, does anyone remember how Ko'aki Mieru was supposed to work? Huge beatsticks that you'd keep alive by either revealing a certain monster category in your hand, or discarding an archetypal Spell? How about the Bamboo Sword draw engine?

 

Congratulations, there's this archetype. These are almost all Level 4 Machines (although there are a few members at other Levels) of different Attributes that treat the rule of 2000 as more of a suggestion. The ATK is uniformly uncomfortably high (when you have a Level 4 that can swing over a Monarch you start questioning your life choices), and each one has either a suicidal stun effect or a very solid battle effect. During each End Phase, you have three options:

1. Reveal a "Diesel Can" Spell Card in your hand

2. Discard a monster of the same Attribute as that monster

3. Let your robot kill itself

 

And this is on every single monster in the archetype. While you're probably going to cling to your Diesel Cans for dear life, they can also be splashed into just about any Deck you damned well please as a solid draw engine, provided you bring along one or two Diesel monsters to actually resolve their effects.

 

Unfortunately, as a Deck, they have one fatal flaw: they can't actually recover from being boardwiped. None of their monsters can come back from the Graveyard (being either impossible to Special Summon at all, or at least unSummonable from the Graveyard), and their linearity means that your plays will probably be very predictable if you're playing them optimally. Still, they are not to be trifled with, given that with the right opening hand they can actually shut down even Zoodiac almost entirely.

 

Swarm Order

[Tojin]

Swarm Order is an... interesting archetype. The main deck monsters consist of three sets of Insect-type LV monsters, going 3 -> 6 -> 9, named Attack Swarm Order, Defense Swarm Order, and Heal Swarm Order, respectively. Their effects and stats are what you'd expect from the names; Attack Swarm Order monsters have very aggressive effects and high ATK, with level-ups contingent on inflicting battle damage to your opponent. Defense Swarm Order monsters are lacking in ATK, but make up for it with high DEF and some pretty solid protection effects. They have the most passive level-up effects, needing only to survive to your End Phase. Finally, Heal Swarm Order monsters focus on recovering resources, with a side order of messing up your opponent's, and their stats are pretty alright too. They only need to survive until the next Standby Phase.

 

Now, while these monsters are pretty decent in their own right (especially for LV monsters), they don't have that much in the way of internal cohesion, preferring instead to support Insect-type monsters as a whole. So what brings the archetype together? Why, the queen, of course! (And the Spell/Trap cards.)

 

Swarm Order Queen is a Fusion Monster that uses one each of the three Swarm Order sub-archetypes as materials (and can be summoned using materials from the hand and field - without using Polymerization), and she is, fittingly, one of the greatest consistency cards you could wish for. Unfortunately, the Queen has pretty lame stats and almost no protection to speak of (can't be attacked if you have another Swarm Order monster). That's where the other monsters come in.

 

The Spell and Trap cards deal almost exclusively in LV-oriented consistency, including a less-restrictive "Fusion Conscription" clone, a card that lets you search out the next monster in the list, and a powercrept version of "Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension." They have quite a few Spells and Traps to help out what would normally be a pretty inconsistent deck, so between that and generic Insect support, they can absolutely go nuts 9 times out of 10. Unfortunately, the archetype as a whole don't have much of a win condition, except for Attack Swarm Order LV9, but getting there won't be much of a problem.

 

Fritillaria

[Draconus297]

Fritillaria

 

In the deepest depths of the ocean, the darkest waters on Earth, you'll find . . . a concert?

 

This DARK Sea Serpent-Type archetype functions similarly to Melodious, gaining effects when Special Summoned and protecting their Special Summoned monsters. However, they also take tips from the Mermailantean engine, having a heavy focus on discards and dumps with an absurd amount of revival capacity. Your general Fritillaria Deck will easily be able to spit out frontrow presence with bucketloads of protection, and your ED options are pretty varied given that they run both Xyz (at R2, 4, and 7) and Fusions.

 

Their Spell and Trap support really just hammers home their love of Graveyard dumping and Special Summons further, with their archetypal Destiny Draw typically making you go +3 if you have the right setup beforehand, and a Valhalla clone typically helping you make your plays if you can't get off the discard.

 

But the best part of all is the thematic naming- despite ranging from merpeople to weird oceanic chimeras to abyssal horrors, they're all named after styles, genres, and general terms regarding to music.

 

Wanderneath

[shadowsapex]

Wanderneath is an archetype of spunky little level 1-4 monsters who float like Burning Abyss, though with not quite as much milling, and focus on swarm and face-down defense position. Their main tactic is shuffling all of your face-down monsters so your opponent will run into their offensive flip effects, which aren't super powerful but do sting. Basically, they fight by hitting the opponent fast and a lot of times, but not hard. Their stats are low and they don't have an in-archetype boss or extra deck options, so they're versatile and don't die easily, but don't quite have a clear wincon.

 

Lightkin

[Draconus297]

Lightkin

 

This is, fittingly, an assist archetype for other LIGHT archetypes.

 

Specifically, despite including members of several different Types, comprising of all the more common Types in the game (Dragon, Spellcaster, Machine, Warrior, Beast-Warrior, Fairy) and then some, these guys don't actually have much of a win condition of their own. They really shine as tech cards in other LIGHT Decks, essentially acting as support for various LIGHT archetypes without actually being members of those archetypes.

 

That said, as a pure Deck they're competent enough, and given that they're really good at Graveyard setup and field spamming, they're best friends with a lot of older LIGHT Decks that struggle to get field presence, as well as basically begging for Sephylon to get thrown in to be their boss monster.

 

They have archetypal ED monsters, but because they're basically half-baked LIGHT versions of popular monsters of other Attributes, you're probably never going to use any of them unless your Deck really can't use the originals for some reason.

 

Snypetracker (refers to a "snipe hunt", or a chase for an imaginary animal)

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Archetype of WIND and EARTH monsters that revolve around "hunting" the opponent's cards (getting them out of the opponent's hand, Deck or Extra Deck; even the banished cards) and then promptly burning the opponent when they find something. They activate whenever they are summoned and all of them have some way to force the opponent to have a specific card that they can kill off. Essentially, their strategy revolves around "hit the opponent's resources before they get a chance to use them". Whatever cards these manage to take out, the opponent cannot use again.

 

The drawbacks to paralyzing your opponent's entire strategy; you get burned if you can't get the opponent to have specific cards and the monsters themselves aren't particularly great as a pure build. However, Convulsion of Nature is an excellent way of helping these Decks function; that, and any card that lets you look at your opponent's Deck.

 

====

Metaphysical Beastborg

(Go on, make Barrett from ARC-V have an actually useful Deck)