Gishkis Part 3 – Gishki Support – The Ritual Djinns

The Djinn of Rituals monsters are an archetype whose main goal is to be used as material for ritual summons. They can all be utilized from the hand, the field, and even banished from the graveyard when used as ritual material. This allows them to be tributed at least twice, once from the hand or field, and once from the graveyard.

In this article, we’ll discuss the different ways in which Gishkis can use them. However, I will not be discussing the Level 1 Djinn Disserere of Rituals because it has extremely low playability with Evigishki Mind Augus and Evigishki Soul Ogre. Gishki Vanity would provide adequate protection, is searchable, recoverable, and can be used to summon Mind Augus effectively. So, without further ado…

[yellow]The King and Queen of Mischief[/yellow]

Tour Guide From the Underworld and Sangan

Let’s just get this out of the way now, shall we? Sangan can search many valuable cards; Gishki Beast, Gishki Shadow, Summoner Monk, and Gishki Abyss can all be accessed from the deck when its effect goes off. So, there’s a lot of great follow-ups when it’s sent to the graveyard.

However, when using Sangan and Tour Guide as ritual tributes, and after the monster is summoned, Sangan’s effect becomes Chain Link 1. In the case of Mind Augus, its effect to return cards to the deck would become Chain Link 2. So, you could return the Tour Guide and the Sangan back to your deck and then return the Tour Guide to your hand.[divider]

[yellow]When you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. While the monster Ritual Summoned using this card is face-up on the field, your opponent cannot Special Summon.[/yellow]

Djinn Releaser of Rituals and Tour Guide from the Underworld

Releaser is an incredibly accessible, nail-in-the-coffin monster. It even has enough attack and the right amount of defense to be a generally good monster if you need it. It helps to make a really good Mind Augus. However, Releaser doesn’t quite flow with the other ritual monster, Soul Ogre. We’ll discuss some effective ways to summon that after we talk about the following Level 3 Monsters.

Tour Guide makes summoning Mind Augus easier by pulling Releaser out of the deck and setting up such ridiculous shenanigans. Early game, this play allows you to go into Wind-Up Zenmaines. Zenmaines is an incredibly powerful card and always provides access to destruction for decks that are lacking in that area. Tour Guide and and Zenmaines can even be recycled back into the deck with Mind Augus.

Mid-to-late game, this play provides the tributes required for summoning Mind Augus, allowing you to instantly put back the Tour Guide and anything else you may have already used. If you already have a releaser in the Graveyard, you could summon a Sangan alongside your Tour Guide. Using the Releaser in the Graveyard and Sangan as tribute, you could easily set up for a Tour Guide play next turn.

When we talked about Mind Augus in the last article, it was clear that the 2500 ATK it possesses is good, but not quite enough to stack up against some of the big threats in the game, or even common boss monsters. Combining this with a Releaser may give you the edge, since you can draw into your power cards again while your opponent struggles to find a way over your monsters.

Cards like Fiendish Chain and Skill Drain do not negate the effects of Releaser and other Djinns because it is their effects that do the dirty work, not the ritual monster’s.[divider]

[yellow]When you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. When the monster Ritual Summoned using this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent, your opponent must select and discard 1 card.[/yellow]

Djinn Prognosticator of Rituals Tour Guide from the Underworld

Pumping a Prognosticator into your Mind Augus is a good option when you just need to attack over an opponent’s monster. When compared to the end-of-game scenarios Releaser creates by preventing comebacks and cards like Gorz and Battle Fader, Prognosticator is a considerably more passive option.

Since you can rely on Prognosticator to be in your graveyard, you’ll have it there when you need to play it slow. Since Gishki ritual monsters are so recoverable, you will eventually whittle down their resources and take a card from their hand.

Tour Guide inevitably brings access to Leviair the Sea Dragon. This is INCREDIBLE if you already have a banished Releaser. You can special summon the Releaser back by detaching the Prognosticator you summoned from your deck with Tour Guide. This sets up a really, really gross Mind Augus. No Special Summons? More of your power cards back in your deck? AND it plucks a card from their hand? The only way this isn’t amazing is if the Tour Guide doesn’t go through and get its effect off. But if at least the Tour Guide goes through, things get crazy.[divider]

[yellow]Partners in Crime[/yellow]

Summoner Monk and Armageddon Knight

Kicking off the Level 4 block, we have the delinquent duo, the deadly alliance and… other dynamic duo references. In Gishki’s Part1, I went over some of the great plays Summoner Monk brings to Gishkis. Here we can extend Armageddon Knight a welcome. This monster brings the “ways Gishki’s can XYZ for 4” count up even more.[divider]

[yellow]When you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. While the Ritual Monster this card was used in the Ritual Summon for is face-up on the field, negate the effect(s) of Synchro Monsters.[/yellow]

Djinn Cursenchanter of Rituals and Djinn Presider of Rituals

Bringing out an Armageddon Knight allows you to dump all of the Djinn of Rituals monsters, but more specifically, the Level 4 Djinns. One of them, Djinn Cursenchanter of Rituals, is not effective in the current meta-game, while Djinn Presider of Rituals will always be useful.

Essentially, Monking (it’s a verb) into an Armageddon Knight to ditch one of the Level 4 Djinns gives you access to the Level 8 ritual monster, Soul Ogre. This also allows you to retain the Summoner monk for use next turn. With Soul Ogre, since you have to pitch a card with its effect, it would make the most sense to combine it with a Presider so that you have the best chance of replenishing your hand.[divider]

Against the Grain

The Level 4 Djinns do not provide a lot of synergy with the deck, as their main purpose is to allow you to harvest them for Soul Ogre. They do not make effective Utopia material, and their stats do not compete with or threaten any of the current meta-game decks. Presider, with its 1800 ATK is at least somewhat of a reliability, since it really isn’t a problem if it’s sent to the graveyard.

In the right situations, you could combine a Presider with an Abyss after it has gotten its effect. Often times Abyss sits on the field, or is used as material, along with another Level 4 monster, to make a Mind Augus. With Presider, it gives more importance to having an Abyss on the field and somewhere to go once it is there.[divider]

Summoner Monk and Armageddon Knight with Blackwing – Zephros the Elite

Moving further and further down the page – and ironically, further away from Gishkis – Zephros brings an extra option for summoning Utopia or Soul Ogre, and also enables the re-use of Summoner Monk. If you’re curious on some of the other directions Summoner Monk can lead you in, check out our Summoner Monk Card Review article.[divider]

Allure of Darkness

All of these dark monsters – Tour Guide, the Djinns, Monk – work along with Leviair to give you a lot of control around banished cards, making Allure a must-run.

Hand Destruction

Gishki, almost all by themselves, warrant the use of Hand Destruction. But with the Djinns, it provides an almost flagrant disregard for any -1 plays you might have the pleasure of making. Digging into the lost Gishki treasure trove that is your deck will be a delight every time. Filling the graveyard with Djinns, Aquamirrors or ritual monsters and Gishki Markers to be used or recovered later… with cards like Gishki Beast or Preparation of Rites? …it borders on preposterous.

 

Fusing Djinns with Gishkis brings such a great addition to an already substantial pool of options. Tour Guide from the Underworld, Summoner Monk, Gishki Shadow, and Gishki Marker, provide an incredibly efficient XYZ engine, while the Djinns and Ritual Monsters color that engine with great recycling, removal and lock-down effects. We haven’t even gotten to established archetypes yet, like HEROS or Heratics, and there are already so many place to go.

In next week’s articles, I’ll be exploring HERO Gishkis and how Rank 6 XYZ monsters and HERO Fusions provide considerable synergy.

 

Was it just me, or do you guys think Darkworld Gishkis… … nah.

[important title=”Gishki Article Series”]This article is part of an ongoing series on the Gishki Archetype. If you would like to see a topic addressed (combos, decks, etc) please comment and let me know![/important]

 

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