Here’s something I cooked up to test out the effectiveness of running Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn, and Constellar Pleiades – all in the same deck.
Artifact Harpies – Deck Profile
Whether you’re a Harpie or Artifact player, you’ll want to see what this combination can do.
I’ve been trying out the new Artifact monsters in a variety of things and thought they might work well with Harpies. It’s a fun combination that has access to some pretty cool cards.
All of the Artifact monsters have the following BOLDED effect:
Artifact Moralltach
Level 5/LIGHT/FAIRY
2100 ATK/ 1400 DEF
You can Set this card from your hand to your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Spell Card. When this Set card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard during your opponent’s turn: Special Summon this card. If this card is Special Summoned during your opponent’s turn: You can destroy 1 face-up card your opponent controls.
Decklist (40)
Monsters (19)
(3) Harpie Lady #1
(3) Harpie Queen
(2) Harpie Channeler
(3) Flying Kamakiri #1
(1) Harpie’s Pet Dragon
(3) Artifact Moralltach
(2) Artifact Aegis
(1) Artifact Caduceus
(1) Artifact Failnaught
Spells (12)
(3) Harpie’s Hunting Ground
(2) Elegant Egotist
(2) Hysteric Sign
(3) Artifact Movement
(2) Pot of Duality
Traps (9)
(3) Theosophy of the Artifacts
(3) Icarus Attack
(3) Call of the Haunted
Extra Deck (10)
(2) Gagaga Cowboy
(2) Ice Beast Zerofyne
(1) Daigusto Emeral
(1) Harpie’s Pet Phantasmal Dragon
(1) Constellar Pleiades
(1) Constellar Ptolemy M7
(1) Artifact Durandal
(1) Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossac
Flying Kamakiri #1
Level 4/WIND/INSECT
1800 ATK/1000 DEF
When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 WIND monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck, in face-up Attack Position.
Bug Bait
Flying Kamakiri #2 is a monster people want to attack. When it’s destroyed by battle, you can bring out Harpie Lady #1 (boosted to 1600 ATK with its effect). If you have Harpie’s Hunting Ground, you get to destroy a Spell or Trap on the field. This can be any number of the Artifact monsters, or Hysteric Sign. Blowing up an Artifact Monster, namely Artifact Moralltach, lets you destroy 1 Face-Up card your opponent controls, while blowing up Hysteric Sign (with Hunting Ground) obviously gives you Harpies galore.
Theosophy of the Artifacts
Normal Trap
Special Summon 1 “Artifact” monster from your Deck. You can only activate 1 “Theosophy of the Artifacts” per turn. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this card. If this card in your possession is destroyed by your opponent’s card: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy that target.
Harpie Theosophy Attack
Alone, the Harpie Ladys are pretty non-threatening. Opening by normal summoning one Harpie Lady (especially the rather lame looking Harpie Lady #1) and setting four Spells and Traps probably screams “my back row is scary!!”. Harpies run Icarus Attack because it’s good and it threatens your opponent out of committing too much to the field. Theosophy of the Artifacts combined with Moralltach is a great way to poke at your opponent, defend your lone ranger Harpie, and sweat them into playing more cards. That way, if you do have a set Icarus Attack, you can quickly interrupt them should they start making plays you aren’t comfortable with.
Artifact / Harpie Mix-Up
Artifacts have a very obvious playstyle: “Set 4, end turn.” But when playing Harpies, who generally play with cards like Fiendish Chain, Safe Zone and Icarus Attack, it becomes almost too easy to hide the fact that you’re playing Artifacts. You get to play a hide and go seek game, burying your reactive Spells and Traps among the Artifacts that await like landmines. I think it gives the deck a lot of confidence.
The Bad Parts
The deck is kind of a nightmare when things go wrong. And wrong is kind of a general term. Against decks that don’t run back row, the doesn’t gain advantage quick enough (at least in Game 1) against anything. Your hope is that you drew as many usable cards as possible and can utilize them where it counts.
The worst opening hand in this deck is one full of Artifact monsters, and where you then proceed to draw into Harpies. With 12/40 cards that shuffle the deck, the chances of avoiding that are pretty favorable though.
Call of the Haunted
With Harpie’s Hunting Ground out, Call of the Haunted is essentially an MST. Or, you could flip Call, bring back Artifact Moralltach and pop a card.
Those are the only tricks the deck can fall into pretty easily. I thought I’d share this with fellow Harpie fans.
I have a couple videos of the deck going through some gameplay:
Artifact Harpies vs Gravekeepers
Artifact Harpies vs Fire Fists
Artifact Harpies vs Ghostricks
Artifact Harpies vs Lightsworns
Artifact Harpies vs Lightsworn Chaos Dragons
For a more general overview of Harpies, check out my Harpie Deck Building article.
Till Next Time!
Episode 120 – January 1st 2014 Banlist Speculation
Dragon Rulers, Evilswarms, Mermail, Prophecy, Constellars, which of these decks deserve judgement? In anticipation of the new banlist, Matt and Kyle discuss their predictions, as well as their hopes, for the coming format.