The Thieves of Heart steal the Win! (Persona 5)

[iexzxx]

The Thieves of Heart are based on the critically acclaimed videogame Persona 5, one of the most influencial games in the last years.

The game follows the story of the Phantom Thieves of Heart as they try to clean the rotten side of society: They punish the strong that oppressed the weak. The main message is a message of Rebellion, which is reflected in our cards. Persona 5 also represents each of their antagonist as a Deadly Sin, and our main characters can also be associated as Sin: and that's where our gimmick comes in. 

Each of the Thieves of Heart has a pretty annoying restriction with them representing each of the sins, but we need to Rebel against this! We can turn these restrictions around and make them into some useful part of our strategy. Let's see the cards.

THIEF OF HEART, ZORRO

ATTRIBUTE: Wind       LEVEL: 2

[Beast/Tuner/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can use the (2) and (3) effect of "Thief of Heart, Zorro" once per turn.

(1) If you activate a card effect that would target a "Thief of Heart" monster you control: Change the target to this card instead.

(2) When a "Thief of Heart" monster(s) is Summoned to your Field: Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your hand or GY with a different name.

(3) If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: Add 1 "Persona" Equip Spell from your Deck to your hand.

1000 ATK/100 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Greed, Zorro retargets any effect to itself, wanting more and never satisfied. This is one of the harshest restrictions, since the benefit are hardly there (maybe some mind games with the opponent). Zorro is a great extender, allowing for a swarm of Thieves on the Field. As Synchro Material it searches for an Equip Spell and we got some very good ones coming up. Being a Level 2 Beast, it has also some synergy with Melffy: Cute!

THIEF OF HEART, CAPTAIN KIDD

ATTRIBUTE: Light     LEVEL: 3

[Warrior/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate the (2) and (3) effect of "Thief of Heart, Captain Kidd" once per turn.

(1) This card must attack if able and it must be the first monster to do so, and if it does, it must attack the monster your opponent controls with the highest ATK.

(2) When this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon this card and another "Persona" Monster in your GY, and immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon a "Thief of Heart" Monster using monsters you control as Synchro Material.

(3) If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: All monsters you currently control cannot be destroyed by battle, also increase the ATK of all monsters you control by 500.

1900 ATK/700 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Wrath, Captain Kidd rushes to battle without thinking of consequences and of the opponent it faces. While the (2) effect of Captain Kidd can be activated any time it sent to the Grave, being destroyed by battle is one way to do it, and it can go into some pretty cool combos. Also the (2) does not require to Synchro Summon with only the monster you summoned, but any monsters you control, giving you some pretty flexible plays. As Synchro Material it grants 500 ATK + Battle Immunity permanently: pretty good.

THIEF OF HEART, CARMEN

ATTRIBUTE: Fire      LEVEL: 3

[Spellcaster/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You use each effect of "Thief of Heart, Carmen" once per turn.

(1) If this card's Level is increased, except by its own effect: Increase its Level by 1.

(2) If this card Level's is reduced, except by its own effect: Reduce its Level by 1.

(3) You can target a monster with a lower Level than this card (Quick Effect): Destroy it.

(4) You can target a "Persona" Monster in your GY with a higher Level than this card, except "Thief of Heart, Carmen": Special Summon it, and if you do, you can increase or reduce its Level by 1.

1600 ATK/600 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Lust, Carmen desires more or less Levels than she's given or taken. This can be a pretty useful effect, but you really need to always remember about it. Its (3) and (4) effects are also very good: Carmen's low Level allows her to Special Summon a lot of "Persona" monsters and then modulating their Level, even being able to go into various Xyz monsters; being able to destroy monsters with low Levels is pretty good since it's a Quick Effect, but can be used for some advanced combos as well (by changing our monsters Level, we can destroy it we the (3) effect, and then Special Summon it with (4) effect triggering an effect like Zorro's).

THIEF OF HEART, GOEMON

ATTRIBUTE: Water      LEVEL: 4

[Warrior/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate each effect of "Thief of Heart, Goemon" once per turn.

(1) If this card's Level is increased, except by its own effect: Reduce its Level by 2.

(2) If this card's Level is reduced, except by its own effect: Increase its Level by 2.

(3) If this card is in your hand: You can target 1 monster on the Field; change its Level to 4, and if you do, Special Summon this card, but you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of the turn, except "Persona" Monsters.

(4) If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: Destroy 1 card your opponent controls.

1700 ATK/400 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Gluttony, Goemon doesn't realize the bonus he is given, instead he reverses the increase or reduction of his Level. This can get around some effects that only increase or reduce Levels, or double Levels, etc... Either way keep in mind about this effect. Goemon is a very easy Special Summon, setting for some Link or Level 8 Synchros. And if used as Synchro Material, it destroys an opponent card without targeting. 

THIEF OF HEART, JOHANNA

ATTRIBUTE: Light     LEVEL: 4

[Machine/Tuner/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate each effect of "Thief of Heart, Johanna" once per turn.

(1) If you Summon a "Persona" Monster with a different Level than this card: Change this card's Level to the Level of the summoned monster, but you cannot summon monster from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn, except "Persona" monsters.

(2) While this card remains face-up on the Field: You can Normal Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set, except "Thief of Heart, Johanna".

(3) If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: Draw 1 card.

1500 ATK/DEF 200

By the Deadly Sin of Envy, Johanna changes her Level to whatever "Persona" you summon. This can actually work really well with the "Seekers of Truth", since it's easy to change Johanna to Level 8 (Link at the bottom for Seekers of Truth archetype). Johanna is also just a really good card, allowing for an additional Normal Summon and drawing us a card if used as Synchro Material.

THIEF OF HEART, NECRONOMICON

ATTRIBUTE: Earth      LEVEL: 1

[Cyberse/Tuner/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can use each effect of "Thief of Heart, Necronomicon" once per turn, and only one effect per turn.

Cannot be Summoned.

(1) You can reveal this card in your hand; then apply one of the following effects.

•Target a "Persona" monster you control, it can be treated as a Tuner or a non-Tuner while it stays face-up on the field;

•Target a "Thief of Heart" monster you control, increase or reduce its Level by 1;

You cannot Summon monsters from the Extra Deck the turn you activate this effect, except "Persona" Synchro monsters.

1000 ATK/900 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Sloth, Necronomicon does not come out of the hand and won't be summoned. This effect is compensated by Necronomicon basically being a Continuous Spell in our hand, which changes Levels and can make our monster Tuner or Non-Tuner to facilitate our Synchro plays.

THIEF OF HEART, MILADY

ATTRIBUTE: Fire      LEVEL: 6

[Psychic/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can use each effect of "Thief of Heart, Milady" once per turn.

Cannot be Special Summoned from the hand. Must be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 1 "Persona" Monster in your hand.

(1) When Summoned this way: Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your GY.

(2) You can destroy 1 card you control: Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck, but its effects are negated.

(3) If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your hand. 

1800 ATK/300 DEF

By the Deadly Sin of Pride, Milady can only be summoned with the most prestigious of summons: the Tribute Summon. This is easily recovered by Milady great ability to Special Summon her companions from everywhere: She can Tribute summon herself by tributing a monster in the hand, and immediately Special Summon it back, she can then destroy it to summon Zorro from the Deck allowing for a Level 8 Synchro, then as Synchro Material she lets us Special Summon a Thief of Heart from our hand.

THIEF OF HEART, ROBIN HOOD

ATTRIBUTE: Light     LEVEL: 7

[Fairy/Effect]

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can use each effect of "Thief of Heart, Robin Hood" once per turn.

(1) If this card is the only "Persona" card in your hand: Discard this card.

(2) When a "Persona" Monster is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck: You can Special Summon this card from your hand or GY, but its ATK becomes 0.

(3) You can target a different "Persona" Monster you control: Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck which Level is equal to the difference between this card's Level and the targeted "Persona" Monster's Level/Rank, but you cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except "Persona" monsters.

2500 ATK/800 DEF

By the Unforgivable Sin of Despair, Robin Hood discard himself if it's alone and thinks there's no possible comeback. This effect is mildly good for us, his own effect doesn't matter since it can be summoned from either hand or Grave, but various effect that take in account only the hand or only the Grave can be an interesting workaround. Its (3) has no Level 1 and Level 5 targets, so beware of that.

THIEF OF HEART, ARSÈNE

ATTRIBUTE: Dark     LEVEL: 8

[Fiend/Synchro/Effect]

1 "Persona" Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "Persona" monsters

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) This card cannot be destroyed by battle.

(2) If this card is Synchro Summoned: Add 1 Level 2 or lower "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck to your hand.

(3) You can Tribute this card (Quick Effect): Negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls, and if you do, take control of an opponent's monster.

(4) You can control only 1 "Thief of Heart, Arsène".

2500 ATK/2000 DEF

And here we are at our first Synchro: Arsène. Immune to Battle, but it won't stick around much. It searches Zorro and Necronomicon, which are pretty great searches. The highlight is by tributing itself it negates the opponent entire board, and even steals a Monster for our own selfish needs.

THIEF OF HEART, LOKI

ATTRIBUTE: Dark     LEVEL: 8

[Fairy/Synchro/Effect]

1 "Persona" Tuner + "Thief of Heart, Robin Hood"

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) Your opponent cannot target this face-up card with cards or effects.

(2) If this card is Synchro Summoned: Add 1 Level 6 or higher "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck to your hand.

(3) Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can reduce this card's ATK by 700, then target a card your opponent controls; destroy it.

(4) You can control only 1 "Thief of Heart, Loki"

2000 ATK/2500 DEF

Loki is very interesting, it does require Robin Hood as material and we have no easy access to Level 1 Tuners, so it's going to be a bit more complicated. When Synchro Summoned it adds Milady, Robin Hood or a future piece of support (we'll see in the future). His last effect is similar to the popular "Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess", but it does not reduce its Original ATK, meaning that an effect like Captain Kidd's will give Loki an additional destruction.

THIEF OF HEART, CENDRILLON

ATTRIBUTE: Light     LEVEL: 6

[Warrior/Synchro/Tuner/Effect]

1 "Thief of Heart" Tuner + 1 or more "Persona" monsters

(1) This card cannot be destroyed by card effects.

(2) When this card is Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Persona" Synchro Monster from your GY, but reduce its Level by 2 and its effects are negated.

(3) During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can Synchro Summon using this card you control and another Synchro Monster on your Field, and if you do, your opponent cannot target "Persona" Cards you control with card effects for the rest of the turn. 

1800 ATK/2000 DEF

Accel Synchro anyone? Cendrillon is a great enabler for our Boss Monster, and allows Quick Synchros, on top of putting a strong monster on board for attacking. When we do Accel Synchro, Cendrillon gives targeting protection to all of our "Persona" cards.

SAVIORS OF WORLD'S REBELLION

ATTRIBUTE: Light      LEVEL: 12

[Warrior/Synchro/Effect]

1 "Persona" Synchro Tuner Monster + 1 non-Tuner "Persona" Synchro Monster

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) Unaffected by Spells/Traps effects.

(2) If this card battles a monster: At the start of the Damage Step, destroy that monster, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of this card's current ATK.

(3) During the Battle Phase (Quick Effect): You return this card to the Extra Deck; Special Summon as many "Thief of Heart" Monsters from your GY, but negate their effects and their ATK is halved. You cannot summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except "Thief of Heart" Monsters.

(4) You can summon only 1 "Saviors of World's Rebellion" per turn.

3000 ATK/3000 DEF

And here's our boss monster, it has a couple of really strong Battle Tricks getting rid of really big monsters, and Special Summon a bunch of Thieves from our Grave for an elegant victory. Saviors of World's Rebellion can easily resetup your board if you fail to win: With the monsters summoned during Battle Phase, we can go into Cendrillon again and have a really good board all over again.

ACE CUSTOMIZATION

EQUIP SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can equip this card only to a "Shadow Hunter" or "Thief of Heart" monster.

(1) Once per turn: You can activate one of the following effects.

•If this card is equipped to a "Shadow Hunter" monster: Add 1 "Persona" Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your hand;

•If this card is equipped to a "Thief of Heart" Monster: Destroy 1 card on the field.

•If this card is equipped to a Synchro Monster: Change the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls to 1000.

You can control only 1 "Ace Customization".

A piece of support for both Shadow Hunters (see down for link to Shadow Hunter Archetype) and Thieves of Hearts. Either way, this card is pretty great, it searches Pendulum monsters for Shadow Hunters, but even for other "Persona" strategies, it grants removal and a battle trick for a pure Thief of Heart strategy.

SALVATION WISH

NORMAL SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate only 1 "Salvation Wish" per turn.

(1) Special Summon 1 "Persona" Monster from your hand or GY in Defense Position, but negate its effects.

(2) While you control a "Thief of Heart" Monster: You can banish this card from your GY; change the Levels of 2 monsters you control to 3 and 5. The turn you activate this effect, you cannot Synchro Summon monsters, except "Persona" Monsters.

A generic "Persona" Special Summon from hand or Grave. If we are on a Thief of Heart strategy, Salvation Wish will set up our Levels for Level 8 Synchro (We do need a Tuner though). Be careful of Carmen and Goemon since they change their Levels.

SLACK OFF

CONTINUOUS SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) When this card is activated: You can add 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck to your hand.

(2) While you control a "Thief of Heart" Synchro Monster: Apply the following effects.

•Monsters you control gain 1000 ATK;

•"Persona" Monsters you control cannot be Tributed by your opponent;

•Other "Persona" Cards you control or in your GY cannot be banished by your opponent;

You can control only 1 "Slack Off".

A generic Thief of Heart searcher which grants great but more niche protection. Since tributing monsters is the best form of removal in the game, a Spell that protects us from that is prettt great; banishing is also very strong since it's hard to get those monsters back; 1000 ATK is very good for Loki since it gives him 4 total destructions. Be careful though: Since you can only control only 1 "Slack Off", you won't be able to search multiple Thieves of Heart without destroying this card first. If you do, you can activate unlimited copies of this card!

AFFINITY READING

NORMAL SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate 1 "Affinity Reading" per turn.

(1) Banish 1 "Persona" card from your hand face-down; draw and reveal the top 3 cards of your Deck, then place them face-down in their respective zones, and if you do, apply one of the following effects depending on the type of the drawn cards (Monster, Spell, Trap).

•If you drew 3 cards of the same type: Shuffle 2 of them into your Deck, then add the other card to your hand;

•If you drew 2 cards of the same type: Add 1 of those cards to your hand, then place the other 2 cards at the bottom of your Deck;

•If you drew 3 cards of different types: Your opponent shuffles 1 of them into the Deck, then add the other 2 cards to your hand.

Ooh boy. This card has some great potential, basically being an in-archetype "Pot of Prosperity", but a bit more gimmicky. If you drew cards of the same type, you will be able to add only 1 to your hand, but if you drew a monster, a spell and a trap, your opponent chooses one that they do not want to deal with, and you get 2 cards.

LEGENDARY SCOOP

QUICK-PLAY SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate the (2) effect of "Legendary Scoop" once per Duel.

(1) Target 1 Monster your opponent controls and 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster you control: Negate the first target's effects, and if you do, the second target becomes unaffected by your opponent's cards and effects.

(2) If "Thief of Heart, Arsène" is Synchro Summoned while this card is in your GY: Add this card to your hand.

This card is pretty damn strong, negating an opponent's effect and rendering one of yours unaffected by cards effects. This card must have both targets to activate, and it must negate the opponent monsters effects to give your monster the buff, so be careful there. Once per Duel, a copy of this card can return to your hand if you Synchro Summon Arsène.

RESUSCITATION

EQUIP SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate only 1 "Resuscitation" per turn.

You can only equip this card to a "Persona" monster.

(1) The equipped monster gains 1000 DEF points.

(2) When the equipped monster leaves the field: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon the monster originally equipped with this card, but negate its effects, then draw 1 card.

Searchable by Zorro, Resuscitation can allow some wild plays. If equipped to a monster like Johanna, you will be able to draw plenty of cards, and set up multiple Synchro monsters in one turn. Either way, we have plenty of ways to abuse this card, and have massive card advantage.

BATON PASS

QUICK-PLAY SPELL CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate only 1 "Baton Pass" per turn.

(1) Target 1 "Persona" Monster you control: Return it to the hand, then Special Summon 1 "Thief of Heart" Monster from your Deck, and if you do, increase its ATK by 1000, also you can increase or reduce its Level by 1.

Another pretty insane card, that can work even on a hybrid "Persona" strategy. It can bring out a 2900 ATK Captain Kidd, or you can bring our a Level 5 or 1 Carmen; this card is pretty vital to the Deck, and helps consistency a lot.

CHARISMATIC TALKER

NORMAL TRAP CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) When your opponent summons a monster(s): Take control of the summoned monster(s) until the end of your turn.

(2) If the activation of this card in its owner's possession was negated by your opponent's card effect and sent to your GY while you control a "Persona" monster: Set this card to your Field, also it can be activated this turn.

(3) If this card is destroyed by a card effect: You can draw 1 card.

This card is pretty hard to deal with for your opponent: If steals a monster, but if your opponent negates it can just come back and be activates again, and if its negated AGAIN it can come back AGAIN, ans so on... It they destroy it instead, you can draw a card. 

TOGO SYSTEM

COUNTER TRAP CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

You can activate 1 "Togo System" per turn.

(1) When a "Thief of Heart" monster(s) on your Field is being targeted by an opponent's card effect: Negate that effect, change the targeted monster Battle Position, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Persona" Monster from your Deck.

(2) If your LP are at least 3000 lower than your opponent's: You can activate this card from your hand.

A pretty strong counter move, negating an effect and giving us advantage and maybe even some strong response against our opponent (since it's any "Persona" Monster). If we are 3000 LP behind, we can activate this from the hand, which can be pretty devastating if activated during our turn.

DOWN SHOT

CONTINUOUS TRAP CARD

(This card is always treated as a "Persona" card)

(1) If you control a "Thief of Heart" monster: You can activate this card, but destroy it when you control no "Persona" monsters.

(2) Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can destroy 1 Monster you control or in your hand, then target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy it. If you control a "Thief of Heart" Synchro Monster: You can destroy all cards your opponent controls instead.

You can control only 1 "Down Shot".

This can be some generic "Persona" removal, which works very well with both Shadow Hunters and Seekers of Truth. But if we have Thief of Heart Synchro it's completely devastating, causing a board wipe!

 

SHADOW HUNTERS: 

 

SEEKERS OF TRUTH:

 

[Kokoroshi]

I love the archetype (mostly cause I love persona) but I do have a question, why did you choose to name the thieves after their personas instead of their their names or confidant. For example ex. Instead of Captain Kidd you could have used Skull or Chariot, especially since the artwork is of the character, not their persona.

Also, will you update this with the striker’s characters like Sophia and Zenkichi.

[iexzxx]

  On 4/3/2022 at 9:07 PM, Kokoroshi_Games said:

I love the archetype (mostly cause I love persona) but I do have a question, why did you choose to name the thieves after their personas instead of their their names or confidant. For example ex. Instead of Captain Kidd you could have used Skull or Chariot, especially since the artwork is of the character, not their persona.

Also, will you update this with the striker’s characters like Sophia and Zenkichi

Expand  

I chose their Persona names because:

1-It sounds better than "Thief of Heart, Ryuji Sakamoto", and yeah I know I could have used their codenames ("Thief of Heart, Skull" does sound better) but I made Persona 3 and 4 archetypes, and they do not have codenames unfortunately.

2-The Personas are meant to be yourself, so it makes sense that they became one and the same in this case.

Also, I never really played strikers yet, but I could definitely make some support in the future (I didn't even play Royal, and we have Cendrillon, so...). In fact I already made a Sojiro card, so you probably will see other characters in the future!

[Kokoroshi]

  On 4/4/2022 at 7:09 AM, iexzxx said:

I chose their Persona names because:

1-It sounds better than "Thief of Heart, Ryuji Sakamoto", and yeah I know I could have used their codenames ("Thief of Heart, Skull" does sound better) but I made Persona 3 and 4 archetypes, and they do not have codenames unfortunately.

2-The Personas are meant to be yourself, so it makes sense that they became one and the same in this case.

Also, I never really played strikers yet, but I could definitely make some support in the future (I didn't even play Royal, and we have Cendrillon, so...). In fact I already made a Sojiro card, so you probably will see other characters in the future!

Expand  

Oh, ok, that makes more sense, also, would love to see other cards for the archetype, even if you haven’t played strikers or royal (which are great games). Anyway, enjoy making what ever cards you work on next!