ShaddollBox

Future Shaddoll Ideas

This week I;ll take a look at some cards to be affecting Shaddolls in the future.

Once again, Yu-Gi-Oh! is kind of lacking in topics of interest at the moment for myself due the current lull in the format. Nats is coming up and I suppose I could make an article about preparing for that, but personally I’m not all that interested in Nationals myself because I’m expecting the same pretty stale meta there. I’m always interested in the results for Nationals of course, or about any unique decks that pop up, but other than that there’s not much for me to write articles about, so I figured I would once again to write what was on my mind. I basically only have been using my Shaddoll deck recently and I’ve been mentally speculating about future cards we’re going to be getting/just got that may be of interest to the deck. So with that intro, here’s some interesting cards and strategies for Shaddolls I’ve been looking at in the future.

Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit:

The first 2 cards on my chopping block shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone familiar with Shaddolls. This first one, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit (which I will now refer to as just Snow Rabbit because its name is stupid) is a pretty clear choice in every Shaddoll deck for the foreseeable future as long as Construct doesn’t get banned, even if it’s at 1 Snow Rabbit is a clear choice.

In general, Snow Rabbit is just one of those cards that Yu-Gi-Oh! as a whole is going to get used to. Because of the general nature of its design it can be run in just about any deck successfully and has at least 1 point of relevance in every match-up, even when it’s not that great. So at the very least it’s always applicable. Imagine if your copy of Smashing Ground could also be set because it had high defense or could be normal summoned because it’s also a Tuner monster, that’s basically how I see this card in my mind. On top of those benefits the card is a hand trap, meaning it’s generally difficult to respond to, difficult to read, and is completely safe from the opponent’s removal bar Mind Crush.

All the general powers aside, Snow Rabbit has particular synergy with Shaddolls by not only filling in one of the most annoying holes in the Shaddoll strategy but also working together with all the the already standard plays the deck has to offer. It’s obvious to most that LIGHT monsters are good in Shaddoll decks. You can use the LIGHT monsters to fusion summon El Shaddoll Construct, the definitive power card of Shaddolls, but also provide the utility that each LIGHT monster would provide on its own. Even if that LIGHT monster’s utility is unnecessary in the match-up you can make up for that by using the monster as Fusion material. For example, Effect Veiler fits quite nicely in Shaddolls; it provides the all important effect negation, but even against Qliphorts where that utility is useless, it provides and easy Fusion material for Construct, being a really important part of the match-up. What’s particularly wonderful about Snow Rabbit though comes back to that example; Effect Veiler is bad against Qliphorts, but Snow Rabbit is good against Qliphorts. They both form two halves of a coin in a way, fulfilling utility roles in different match-ups. Whenever Veiler is good, Snow Rabbit is probably bad, whenever Veiler is bad, Snow Rabbit is probably good.

Particularly against the Qliphort match-up Snow Rabbit really eases the suffering of Shaddolls. There are multiple continuous traps in Qliphorts that give Shaddoll grief, particularly Re-Qliate and Lose 1 Turn, but both have effects that activate. This means that in response to those effects you can chain Snow Rabbit and destroy them, and as per the rules of continuous spells/traps, causing them not to resolve. So, for example this scenario would be likely to occur, you special summon some fusion monster, say Construct, and Lose 1 Turn will activate attempting to switch Construct to defense position and the Shaddoll player can chain Snow Rabbit to destroy Lose 1 Turn. At the resolution of the chain, Construct will not go to defense mode allowing you to continue you aggression. The bad news is, in this scenario you cannot activate the effect of Construct because that would put Construct’s effect at chain link 2, meaning you can no longer chain Snow Rabbit to Lose 1 Turn’s effect. The same can be done to destroy Re-Qliate and of course the same can be done when the opponent attempts to use Qliphort Scout’s effect to search.

Instant Fusion:

I mean, what deck isn’t going to run this card, right? Elder Entity Norden will be coming our shortly, and assuming we don’t get Instant Fusion preemptively limited to 1 (although I really hope it will be on this next list), the decks that come out on top during next format will be the decks that utilize Norden to the maximum extent. Norden causes a similar power creep to the game that Soul Charge did back when it was at three. During that format, you didn’t top unless you used a deck that best utilized Soul Charge because the power that Soul Charge gave decks that fully utilized it couldn’t be ignored. Norden and Instant Fusion are similar in that they give extreme power to the decks that can utilize their power to the furthest extent. It’s not completely clear what decks will be best with the card as of yet because the ban list will play a very important role in determining which decks will be good, but assuming Shaddolls don’t hit the bucket too hard they have a good chance of being one of the best decks for the card.

First off, the deck naturally sets up Norden because it almost always immediately puts 1 Level 4 monster in the graveyard, Shaddoll Squamata. On top of that there are addition Norden targets that are really easy to setup and frequently graveyard bound that Shaddolls typically run: Felis, Lightsworn Archer, Effect Veiler, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Shaddoll Falco, etc. If the Star Seraphs don’t get hit you can also add those to the list of super unfair things to revive with Norden.

Norden warrants some basic Rank 4 XYZ for the deck. The spot removal and flipping effect(which is very relevant in Shaddolls) of Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer is always a first choice, then probably Evilswarm Exciton because it allows extreme blowouts without even normal summoning when using Norden, then lastly probably Lavalval Chain for the utility it brings to Shaddolls by being able to send any Shaddoll, Felis, Lightsworn Archer, Shaddoll Core, or simply stacking a Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning.

Norden also finds synergy in some more commonplace cards run in Shaddoll decks: Call of the Haunted and Soul Charge. Elder Entity Norden’s effect doesn’t simply apply when it’s fusion summoned it also applies when special summoned from the graveyard, meaning you can get a quick plus 1 by reviving Norden from the graveyard. This can make for some really easy OTKs with Call of the Haunted because even the most simple play, reviving Norden and having Norden revive Squamata puts 3800 damage on the board. By just summoning a Construct along side you practically have game right there because Construct can send Hedgehog and search the extra damage to make the OTK.

But that’s not where it ends because there’s some icing on the cake. Not only is Instant Fusion good for bringing out Norden, but it has the added utility of being able to bring out Winda. This makes Synchro and XYZ plays even easier and allows recursion of fusion spells more readily. Also, another additional bonus is that Norden is a WATER monster, giving Shaddolls a further leg up on Nekroz. This makes makes pretty much any way to summon Norden and El Shaddoll Fusion the ultimate disruption tool versus Nekroz.

Sibyl:

This idea is a little more interesting, but not necessarily original. What’s especially interesting to me about this concept is that even if Shaddolls get massively hit on the ban list like they did in the OCG, the Sibyl archetype is still a potentially powerful deck when fused (no pun intended) with Shaddolls. Sibyls are an archetype coming out in the Dragons of Legend 2 being released soon-ish, that are based around ritual summoning and Flip effects. They have a boss monster that’s a Ritual monster that has a quick effect to either flip a monster on the field face-up or face-down, giving you unprecedented control over your own Shaddolls flip effects. In addition, because it’s a ritual archetype, this has additional synergy with Shaddolls because Shaddoll monsters will get their effects when sent to the graveyard for a ritual summon, similar to a fusion summon.

There’s further interesting synergy in the fact that all the Sibyl monsters have different attributes playing to the omni-fusion nature of Shaddolls. The addition of a ritual archetype also allows the addition of Manju and Senju of the many different number of hands, being LIGHT monsters to more readily summon Construct.

I haven’t really done any testing, but I can say I have really high hopes for the fusion between these two archetypes.
Eccentric Archfiend:

In the same vein as Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Eccentric provides a similar utility while also being a LIGHT monster. Eccentric Archfiend is a Pendulum Monster being released in the next set, that is so good in fact that a lot of decks may just end up maining it for its massive utility, Shaddolls being no different. The card is not only an on demand MST, but also an Exiled Force (making it an out to the Djinn lock, but also a pendulum scale 7.

Eccentric Archfiend has two effects. One is that while it’s a scale you can destroy it and 1 other Spell or Trap on the field, meaning you can play it from your hand as a scale and then immediately pop any other back row your opponent may have. It’s second effect is its monster effect: you can tribute it on the field to destroy any monster, literally the same effect as Exiled Force. On top of all that it’s a Pendulum monster that’s level 3, with a 7 scale. Being a pendulum monster is ridiculous for any deck that can utilize that aspect because they will always have on demand monster removal whenever they can make a scale that includes 3. Whenever you tribute Eccentric Archfiend for its Exiled Force effect it just goes to the extra deck to be used again later.

In addition to its supreme utility, it’s also a LIGHT monster making it the perfect addition for Shaddolls, once again assuming Construct does not get banned, for all the same reasons Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit is good. I not only expect this card to be relevant in Shaddolls, but I expect this card to become a huge force in the future meta because it’s so versatile.

 

QOTW? Question of the Week:

Now that the new Dragons of Legend 2 is mostly spoiled, what do you think of the pack? Any cards of interest?

Written by: Kyle Oliver

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