As the Duel Terminal lore climaxed in mid-2015, Konami decided they had more stories to tell with their cards. In Clash of Rebellions, we were introduced to two new archetypes to the TCG/OCG that would start a new lore series. This lore would go into mid-2017's Maximum Crisis set, plus a few revisits every once in a while afterward, and during its time introduced nine (or technically eleven) brand new archetypes to the game. Konami was able to create several successful meta strategies towards the tail-end of the Duel Terminal lore series after a rough start, so I want to analyze the next set of archetypes in this lore to see what Konami might have learned during that period and if they were able to create some more successful strategies, or at least better casual-level strategies.
Introduction
In the first part of this two-part series, I will cover the first half of the Dracoslayer lore that went from Clash of Rebellions to Shining Victories. Being in the Pendulum era, this first half of the lore is very Pendulum-heavy with all 5 of these archetypes being Pendulum-based to help get the new mechanic off the ground even more, considering at the time this lore would have started, Qliphorts were the only Pendulum archetype to have performed in the meta. Some of these archetypes were hits, and others were misses, so here we'll analyze some of the early Pendulum-era archetypes to see how they performed.
Dracoslayer/Dracoverlord
The first archetype to cover would be one of the face archetypes of this story, the Dracoslayers and Dracoverlords. This archetype started not as its own Deck but as generic Pendulum good stuff that could be run with other Pendulum strategies. We began with Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer, and Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer to kick things off, and these two had a major role in certain Pendulum strategies. Luster Pendulum would mainly be used for its Pendulum Effect to destroy the card in your other Pendulum Scale to search for a card of the same name from your Deck, putting a Pendulum in the Extra Deck for you to Pendulum Summon while getting another copy of that same monster to reset the Scales or Pendulum Summon as well. This was an overall great effect to use in several Pendulum strategies to make your Pendulum Summons more explosive, but it was also used to trigger Performage Plushfire to summon Performages from the Deck to perform Xyz Summons, a key component to Performage Dracoslayer strategies and later on the Tier 0 Performages and Pals Deck that got Plushfire banned and Luster Pendulum limited.
Luster Pendulum's Monster Effect where it could only be used as Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Material if you were summoning a Dracoslayer monster was a sign of things to come, especially being a Tuner itself, but we started with Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer. Ignister Prominence was a powerful Synchro for any Pendulum strategy to summon any Dracoslayer out of your Deck, as well as having the effect to destroy a Pendulum you control to shuffle any card on the field back into the Deck. This also wasn't an effect that targeted, letting you out monsters like Kozmo Dark Destroyer that was popular around this period. Ignister Prominence was so powerful that most Pendulum Decks would run multiple copies, especially considering its effects had no HOPT clause on them, so that got Ignister Prominence eventually limited alongside Luster Pendulum.
After those two, Dimension of Chaos came with Majester Paladin, the Ascending Dracoslayer for the Xyz Monster of the archetype, along with the first Dracoverlord in Vector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord. Vector Pendulum was one of the many Normal Monsters that were also a Pendulum with a Pendulum Effect, this one negating the effects of all cards in the opponent's Pendulum Zones, which is useful as the meta is starting to swing more towards Pendulums. Majester Paladin was also a decent Xyz for Pendulum strategies since it could detach a material from itself to summon your Dracoslayers back from the face-up Extra Deck, as well as searching for any Pendulum Monster during the End Phase of the turn it was summoned, setting you up for the next turn.
Wave three of Dracoslayer support brings one of the most relevant cards to running your Dracoslayer and Dracoverlord stuff, that being Draco Face-Off. This card would take a Dracoslayer and Dracoverlord for the opponent to randomly pick for you to either be able to summon or set into your Pendulum Scale, while the card not chosen will go face-up to the Extra Deck. This would either help you set your Pendulum Scale or get a body on the field to make an Extra Deck play while also putting a monster in the Extra Deck for you to be able to Pendulum Summon. You would commonly see this ran with 3 Luster Pendulum, 1 Vector Pendulum, and 1 of the new Master Pendulum, the Dracoslayer. Master Pendulum is yet another Normal Monster with Pendulum Effect, this one destroying any card in the Pendulum Zone once while it is in the Pendulum Zone yourself. Once the Luster Pendulum went to 1, however, you would see 3 Draco Face-Off ran with 1 Luster Pendulum, 1 Vector Pendulum, and 2-3 Master Pendulum so the Face-Off you drew wasn't a brick if you drew the 1-of Luster Pendulum, while hoping you stitll didn't draw Vector Pendulum. This support wave also came with Dinoster Power, the Mighty Dracoslayer for your Contact Fusion of the archetype to protect your Pendulums from destruction and being able to summon your Dracoslayer Pendulums from the hand or graveyard. 
The final bit of initial cards for this series gave us Lector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord, and Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord. Lector Pendulum is another Dracoverlord name for you, with its Pendulum Effect negating all the opponent's face-up Pendulum Monsters and its Monster Effect destroying itself along with any Pendulum Monster it battled. Amorphactor Pain is a Ritual Monster whose Ritual Spell is a Field Spell that's associated with the lore archetype that was released alongside this wave of Dracoslayer/Dracoverlord support, but the only time Amorphactor would see play itself was later on in Drytron Decks that would summon it to skip the opponent's next Main Phase 1 after you summon it.
These cards were great for Pendulum Decks during their time, but eventually, the limits to some of the best cards in this series would make them fall off. You would no longer see any Draco Face-Off plays shortly after the card was limited, therefore you wouldn't see much of the Dracoverlords anymore. Luster Pendulum and the Extra Deck Dracoslayers would remain having a spot in Pendulum strategies for years after since they still offered some utility, even in limited copies, but all this stuff would still eventually return to 3 copies per Deck, just in time for 2022 to offer brand new Dracoslayers to turn the archetype into an actual playable Deck.
This wave of support would give us three new monsters that would also belong to respective archetypes that are part of this lore. Ignis Phoenix, the Dracoslayer is the Igknight monster of this support, and would be one of your main combo enablers since it being destroyed anywhere on the field would let you summon any Dracoslayer or Igknight from your Deck and treat it as a Tuner. Majesty Pegasus, the Dracoslayer is the Majespecter monster with a Pendulum Effect to search for a Dracoslayer monster with a different name from a Dracoslayer or Majespecter monster that's in your other Pendulum Scale, then it lets you destroy a card in your Pendulum Scale, which combos well with the aforementioned Ignis Phoenix. Majesty Pegasus also has a Monster Effect to discard itself as a Quick Effect to give your Dracoslayer monsters protection from the opponent's targeting and destruction effects that turn, if you would Special Summon it via a Dracoslayer effect or Pendulum Summon it, you get to search for any Field Spell from your Deck and discard a card, useful to search for combo extenders like Sky Iris in your Pendulum Deck, or floodgate Field Spells like Necrovalley, Zombie World, or Secret Village of the Spellcasters. The final name is Dinomight Powerload, the Dracoslayer for your Dinomist name, with a Pendulum Effect to summon a Dracoslayer or Dinomist in your other Pendulum Zone, and the Monster Effect to add a Dracoslayer or Dinomist from your face-up Extra Deck back to your hand if tributed, which works well with the summoning condition for Dinoster Power.
This support for Dracoslayers was pretty strong for reviving the archetype to a certain degree. It hasn't become a Tier 1 meta threat again, nor was it even that much of a rogue strategy you'd commonly see. With that said, Dracoslayers have seen play every once in a while at a local and regional level to some degree of success. Whether it was pure Dracoslayer, or mixed with other Pendulum good stuff like the eventual Pendulum support for the Superheavy Samurai archetype, dedicated players will still play the Dracoslayer Deck and manage to top with it, which is nice in a TCG landscape where Heavymetalfoes Electrumite is banned.
Igknight
The first non-Dracoslayer/Dracoverlord archetype part of this lore is the Igknight archetype, which might be one of the most simple to explain archetypes out there. A majority of the monsters in the Deck are Normal Monsters with the same Pendulum Effect to destroy itself and another Igknight in your Pendulum Zone to search for any FIRE Warrior from the Deck. All monsters will either have a 2 or 7 Scale for your Pendulum Summons, with each Normal being between Level 3-6. You have 2 Level 3s with Igknight Squire and Igknight Crusader, 2 Level 4s with Igknight Templar and Igknight Paladin, 2 Level 5s with Igknight Margrave and Igknight Cavalier, and 2 Level 6s with Igknight Gallant and Igknight Veteran. 
The intended goal with this is to get 3 Igknights to destroy to summon either Igknight Lancer or Igknight Champion, but the little success this Deck has had never included these cards. Ignition Phoenix is the only Spell/Trap that belongs to the archetype that ever saw play since it can destroy an Igknight to add another Igknight from your Deck to your hand to help with massive Pendulum Summons. Outside Igknights, however, some Pendulum Decks would use Igknight Reload to return Pendulums from the hand to the Deck to draw the same number of cards +1 from what you returned, helping against potential bricky hands.
When it comes to any success this archetype has had besides Igknight Reload and Ignis Phoenix, the Dracoslayer, all I could find are two Regional Top 8 lists. The first one looks to use mass Pendulum Summons with your Igknights to summon Rank 3-6 monsters while also having Tyrant's Throes to lock players from summoning Effect Monsters while you beatdown with your Igknights. The other Deck uses only the Level 4 and 6 monsters of the archetype to combo their way into summoning Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL by trying to make your Rank 4 Utopias and using Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal to send Rank-Up-Magic Argent Chaos Force to help get you to it faster for Utopic ZEXAL's summoning condititon. Both lists also use Royal Magical Library since you will be activating a lot of Pendulums with this Deck, so you should generate a lot of Spell Counters to keep drawing off of your Library to make up for the advantage lost via your Igknight effects. All Igknights also being searchable off either Reinforcement of the Army or Summoner's Art also helps with consistency at least.
It should go without mentioning that this is a Deck massively hurt by the Master Rule 4 updates to the Pendulum mechanic. The Deck always wanted to make up for the advantage lost by constantly destroying your Igknights by performing a big Pendulum Summon from the Extra Deck with the last two Scales you end up with. Now the Deck can't perform that massive Pendulum Summon since you need Link Monsters to point to your Main Monster Zones to get multiple monsters Pendulum Summoned from the Extra Deck. There were some cute things you could do with Sublimation Knight since all the Igknights could search for him, equipping Squeaknight from the Deck to it and then summoning it to summon Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights, but the ban of Isolde negates any last use Igknights might have, so it's an archetype in desperate need of its support wave.
Majespecter
From Normal Monsters with Pendulum Effects to Effect Monsters with no Pendulum Effects, the second archetype in this lore is the Majespecter archetype. This archetype is full of monsters who do nothing for you in the Pendulum Scales besides allowing for Pendulum Summons, but most of them also search for cards on summon. Every Majespecter in the Main Deck also has protection from Majespecter Raccoon - Bunbuku is your monster searcher for the archetype on summon, getting you to whatever missing monster you might want to Pendulum Summon, or help get you to a piece to complete your Pendulum Scales. This was useful in almost every Pendulum Deck besides Majespecters because you could Normal Summon it to search for a Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin you would want to Pendulum Summon for a Quick Effect bounce of your Pendulum Monsters and any card the opponent controls each turn, which eventually got Kirin banned for how good this was for any Pendulum strategy to be able to access, but we got Kirin back to 3 for Pendulum players in 2024 at least. Funny enough, Majespecters on their own can't Pendulum Summon out Kirin due to most of their Scales being either 2 or 5, only allowing for the summon of Level 3 and 4 monsters.
Besides that generic use, all the Majespecter stuff has stuck to dedicated Majespecter strategies. Majespecter Crow - Yata is your Spell searcher for the archetype and Majespecter Fox - Kyubi is the Trap searcher. You could also directly set the Spells and Traps from the Deck with Majespecter Toad - Ogama, but you can't use the card the turn it was set, which is only relevant for Normal Spells in the archetype. The only Majespecter in the Main to search for any Majespecter card is Majespecter Cat - Nekomata, but that's a search you can only get during the End Phase.
For the archetypal Spells and Traps, most of it is built to remove the opponent's monsters. They do have an archetypal Field Spell in Majesty's Pegasus to tribute any WIND Spellcaster to summon any Level 4 or lower Majespecter from the Deck. Majespecter Storm is the only Normal Spell for Majespecters, which lets you tribute a WIND Spellcaster to target an opponent's monster to shuffle it into the Deck. All the relevant Majespecter Spells and Traps in this regard require you to tribute a WIND Spellcaster to activate, the only change is how it would affect monsters. The exception in this regard is Majespecter Sonics, which doubles the stats of your Majespecter monster for the turn. Majespecter Cyclone is the other Quick-Play Spell, which targets an opponent's monster and destroys it. Majespecter Tornado is a Normal Trap that targets an opponent's monster to banish it. Finally, Majespecter Tempest is an archetypal Counter Trap to negate the Special Summon of an opponent's monster or the effect of an opponent's monster and destroy it.
Majespecters having access to all this monster removal did make it a respectable Deck during its peak, which was for the first year after release. There were several ways to play the Deck with some of the earliest variants being Performage Majespecter builds, but there were also a ton of pure variants of the Deck, some of which used either Ties of the Brethren to get more of your Majespecters on the field, or running a low monster count and Card of Demise to draw three cards and rely on your back row. All the Majespecters being Spellcaster monsters does mean you could run Secret Village of the Spellcasters to turn off the opponent's Spells from being activated unless they also had a Spellcaster. It was a decent strategy that could top Regional and YCS events for a short period, but it eventually became a Deck that power-creep caught up to, especially after Master Rule 4.
Majespecters, however, would eventually get a revival with the Dracoslayer support that was released in 2022 as well as its dedicated legacy support at the start of 2024. This wave came with a brand new Level 4 for the archetype, along with its own Pendulum Xyz and its dedicated Link Monster, plus a new Spell to boost consistency. Majespecter Porcupine - Yamarashi is a great search target off your Raccoon since it could summon itself from your hand if you control a Majespecter, on summon your Porcupine can set a Majespecter Spell back from your graveyard. The new Spell, Majespecter Wind, is a Quick-Play that can summon any Majespecter from your hand or graveyard, or if you choose to tribute a Majespecter monster to activate this, you can instead summon a Majespecter from the Deck. This can help make your Crow another 1-card starter as well to search this and summon the Raccoon from the Deck to search Porcupine to make a Link-2. Said Link-2 will likely be Majespecter Orthrus - Nue to return 2 face-up Majespecters in your Extra Deck to the hand to then put 2 Majespecters with different names from your Deck into your face-up Extra Deck, which helps you complete Pendulum Scales and have monsters to Pendulum Summon, though it will lock you to summoning Majespecters and Dracoslayers for the rest of the turn. Majespecter Draco - Ryu is your dedicated Xyz Monster who could be Pendulum Summoned from the face-up Extra Deck if you could Pendulum Summon any Level 4 monsters, plus it has a twice per turn effect if you tributed a monster, letting you detach a material from itself to summon a Level 6 or lower WIND Spellcaster from your Deck, which gives the Deck a way to summon Kirin besides Wind as well. If it's destroyed, it can go to your Pendulum Scale, which is relevant since it is the only Majespecter Pendulum with a Pendulum Effect, which you can trigger if you have a Majespecter or Dracoslayer in your other Pendulum Scale to search any Majespecter card and then allowing you to destroy a card in your Scale, which again works with Ignis Phoenix.
The legacy support for this Deck is a nice revival of the strategy, but it has only really performed at locals or OTS Championship events. There are two ways to play the Deck now, the first being the pure route to use all your Majespecter stuff to gather as many disruptions for the opponent as possible. The other is generic Pendulum good stuff that mainly only runs Raccoon, Crow, Porcupine, and Wind to help do Pendulum combos to make a big endboard including cards like Firewall Dragon Singularity, Tri-Gate Wizard, Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess (before it got banned), and an I:P Masquerena you could use to get into S:P Little Knight. It's a Deck that would need more support to perform beyond the smallest competitive level, but it's at least something more than the Deck collecting dust.
Dinomist
Next up on the list is Dinomist, an archetype full of Level 4 or 5 Machine monsters, meaning the Pendulum Scales you'll be working with are 3s and 6s. All the Pendulums in this archetype have effects in the Pendulum Scales to protect your Dinomists by destroying your aforementioned Scales, with your 3 Scales protecting your Dinomist cards from destruction via battle or card effects and the 6 Scales protecting from targeting effects. The monster effects are the only parts of the Deck that vary.
When it comes to the Level 4s of the archetype, you immediately start with your main monster to search your other monsters, with Dinomist Pteran searching for any Dinomist card when it destroys an opponent's monster in battle. This kinda gives an idea to the Dinomist archetype when it comes to what they do as monsters, mostly working with battle-related effects. Dinomist Ankylos banishes any monster your Dinomists destroy in battle, Dinomist Plesios debuffs the opponent's monsters by 100 ATK and DEF for each Dinomist you control, and Dinomist Stegosaur destroys a Pendulum Monster you control and an opponent's monster it battles. 
As for the Level 5 monsters, we thankfully have two monsters that can Special Summon themselves (in case you can't set your Pendulum Scales). Dinomist Brachion can Special Summon itself if you don't already control one and the opponent has the monster with the highest ATK on the field, while Dinomist Ceratops just Special Summons itself if all monsters you control are Dinomists and none of them are Ceratops. The other two Level 5s in the Deck require you to tribute a Dinomist to get an option between two choices for their effects. Dinomist Spinos tributes a Dinomist to either have the option to attack directly that turn or make two attacks during each Battle Phase that turn, while Dinomist Rex tributes a Dinomist after it battles to either attack once again in a row with piercing damage added on or shuffle a card from the opponent's hand or their side of the field into the Deck to give your Rex a 100 ATK boost.
When it comes to relevant Dinomist Spells and Traps, Dinomist Charge is the main searcher for the Dinomist archetype since it searches for one on activation, plus it has a once per turn effect to add a Dinomist monster that's added from the field to the face-up Extra Deck back to the hand. Dinomist Rush is a Normal Trap that summons any Dinomist from your Deck while having it unaffected by other card effects, but it is also destroyed during your End Phase. Finally, we have Dinomists Howling for a Continuous Trap that can place up to 2 Dinomists from your Deck into your Pendulum Zones, though you cannot Pendulum Summon until the end of the next turn except for Dinomist monsters, plus it's the lone disruption in the archetype since it can let you tribute a Dinomist every turn to bounce an opponent's card back to their hand.
Overall, we are working with a gimmick that was honestly starting to get archaic by the time this archetype was released in 2016. As the game progressed throughout the years, it got much harder to make a Battle Phase-focused strategy work in a competitive sense. There was a Performapal list that ran a small Dinomist package to help make Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity, but besides that, I could only find a single Top 16 Regional top for this Deck in 2019. This Deck of course ran Cyber Dragon Infinity, but it also ran 3 Thunder Dragons in the Deck for its in-hand effect to search for two more Thunder Dragons, since Pendulum Summoning those out could potentially let you summon 2 copies of Thunder Dragon Colossus. All the Dinomists being WATER monsters also means you could run Bahamut Shark and Toadally Awesome for another negate, but that's about all Dinomist has going for it, and other Decks could honestly do plays like these better. Dinomists will need some more legacy support and it'll need to be very strong to revive this Deck and make it viable, otherwise, it'll always remain a fun casual strategy.
Amorphage
The final archetype in this part is easily one of the worst ones in this entire series, and arguably one of the worst Pendulum Decks ever printed. It's ironic considering how strong floodgates have been in this game's history, yet Amorphages could never find a niche in the meta at all. The monsters read good, with all of them preventing both players from summoning from the Extra Deck unless they summon Amorphage monsters, with Amorphage Sloth and Amorphage Goliath not needing to be Pendulum Summoned or flipped face-up to have this ability live. With that said all the Scales in this archetype are either 3 or 5 Scales, meaning those two cannot be Pendulum Summoned in the Deck along with the archetype's Level 2 monsters, so you could only Pendulum Summon the Deck's four Level 4 monsters with these Scales.
While these Amorphages exist in the Pendulum Scales, they all also come with their unique floodgate effects as well while you control an Amorphage monster. Amorphage Lechery prevents players from activating Spell Cards and effects that aren't Amorphage cards, while Amorphage Gluttony does this for monster effects, and Amorphage Greed does this for Trap Cards and effects. Amorphage Pride turns off all effect damage either player would take, Amorphage Wrath prevents players from tributing any monsters that aren't Amorphage monsters, and Amorphage Envy prevents Chain Links of 2 or higher from occurring. Amorphage Slothprevents players from adding any cards from their Decks to their hand unless they draw them, and finally Amorphage Goliath banishes any non-Amorphage card that would be sent to the graveyard. Now all of these floodgates do sound nice, but they all also come with the cost to tribute a monster you control or they are destroyed, which can potentially make this Deck fall apart very fast.
Now, how can the Spells and Traps help with the maintenance cost for all your Amorphages in the Pendulum Scales? Amorphage Infection is a Continuous Spell that gives your Amorphage monsters a 100 ATK boost for each Amorphage you control, and when a monster(s) in your hand or that you control are either tributed or destroyed by battle or effect, you can add an Amorphage card from your Deck to your hand. Amorphage Lysis is a Continuous Trap that debuffs all non-Amorphage monsters on the field by 100 ATK for each Amorphage card you control, and if a card in your Pendulum Zone is destroyed, you can place an Amorphage from your Deck into the Pendulum Zone. Finally, Amorphous Persona is the archetypal Field Spell that gives your Amorphages a 300 ATK and DEF boost, lets you draw a card up to twice a turn if an Amorphage is tributed, and can banish itself from the graveyard to tribute Pendulum Monsters from your hand or field whose combined Levels equal exactly 8 to Ritual Summon an Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord from your hand, which was discussed earlier.
That's it for the archetype, they got all their support in Shining Victories and have never received a single card of direct support since. It looks very strong on paper, but it can fall apart very fast if you can't keep monsters on the field to tribute for your maintenance costs of the Pendulum Scales. Being Pendulums also means you only get 2 floodgate effects, so you'll have to pick wisely and the two floodgates you might want potentially will have Scales that don't allow for a Pendulum Summon. Lechery and Gluttony might be the best cards to have in the Scales in theory for their floodgates, but both being 5 Scales means you can't have both up if you want to Pendulum Summon. The only cards to ever see play outside the archetype are Sloth and Goliath being run in Pendulum and Dragon strategies to lock the opponent from the Extra Deck after you have built your board, sometimes being played alongside Lechery to turn off the opponent's Spells as well. The Deck is in desperate need of legacy support, especially since this Deck can fall apart much faster with the Master Rule 4 changes to Pendulums, but honestly being a floodgate Deck naturally might make this something players or Konami won't want to revisit at all.
Conclusion
For the first part of this, the Dracoslayers and Dracoverlords are easily the stars of the show, being the best of this bunch in the meta with the high amounts of success the archetype has seen in other Pendulum strategies and eventually having a decent showing as its own Deck with 2022 support. Majespecters are the next best here, pulling decent results throughout its time and giving us one of the best generic Pendulums for a time with Unicorn - Kirin. Besides those two, it's a massive decline. There are very few Igknight and Dinomist lists that have ever found any regional success, let alone on a higher scale, and Amorphages are a complete flop. These Decks might function better than some of the early Duel Terminal archetypes, but it doesn't reach the level of some of the later archetypes in that lore either. This lore didn't have a great start besides the face of the story, but thankfully the later half of this story comes with much stronger and more successful archetypes to look at, but that'll be a story for next time.
