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
Last time we looked at the beginning of the Dracoslayer lore story with the first five archetypes involved, and overall it wasn't that great of a start. The Dracoslayers and their Dracoverlord friends did well competitively, and Majespecters was a decent strategy on its own. Still, the rest of the involved archetypes were leaving a lot to be desired. With that said, part two of this series will cover the cream of the crop regarding this lore, as the Decks are much better this time while also focusing far less on the Pendulum mechanic. The only Pendulum Deck involved in this part is the first one, which also focuses on Fusion Summoning, with it being followed up with a Synchro archetype and an Xyz archetype before going back to simple Tribute Summoning to wrap things up. It'll be a vast improvement from part one, so let's get into these Decks and see how they did.
Metalfoes
We start with the Pendulum and Fusion-based Metalfoes archetype, full of FIRE Psychic monsters to get you to your Fusion Spells and perform Fusion Summons. The first four monsters in this archetype are all Normal Monsters, and they all have the same Pendulum Effect to destroy a face-up card you control to set any Metalfoes Spell/Trap directly from the Deck. These aforementioned monsters are the Level 2 Metalfoes Steelen, Level 3 Metalfoes Silverd, Level 4 Metalfoes Goldriver, and Level 7 Metalfoes Volflame. It should be mentioned that Steelen and Volflame both have Pendulum Scales of 8 while Silverd and Goldriver provide you with your 1 Scale, so all these monsters can be Pendulum Summoned. Steelen and Sliverd are also Emergency Teleport targets if you need to get bodies on the field as fast as possible. The main card you'll likely set with your Pendulum Effects is Metalfoes Fusion, which is a simple Normal Spell that lets you perform your Fusion Summons, but the card can also shuffle itself from the graveyard back into the Deck to draw you a card, so you can always recycle it to set back with your Metalfoes Pendulums. It would also see play in Decks using Foolish Burial Goods and mill strategies, in general, to get an extra draw off it being in the grave. The card's best home outside Metalfoes was the Sky Striker archetype since Goods and Metalfoes Fusion were two Spells to buff the effects of your Sky Striker Spells before eventually being able to put Metalfoes Fusion back, plus it wasn't as much of a brick since you could just send it off Sky Striker Mecha Modules - Multirole or Sky Striker Airspace - Area Zero for their effects.
Speaking of Fusion Monsters, we started with two non-Effect Monsters in Metalfoes Adamante and Metalfoes Crimsonite, both Fusions that require only a Metalfoes and either 1 or 2 monsters respectively with ATK lower than their base original ATK. These were fine for certain combos and to get to big bodies, but their best use wasn't legal in the TCG for a long time due to Super Polymerization being banned. The third Fusion from the initial wave was Metalfoes Orichalc, which only needed 2 Metalfoes to Fusion Summon, and in return, it gave all your Metalfoes double piercing damage. Plus, it'll target and destroy any card on the field if it is sent from the field to the graveyard. The archetype also has two Normal Traps from their first wave of support. Metalfoes Counter summons any Metalfoes from the Deck if a card(s) you control is destroyed, plus it can banish itself from the graveyard during any turn it wasn't sent there to add a face-up Metalfoes Pendulum from your Extra Deck to your hand. Metalfoes Combination is a Continuous Trap that can revive a Metalfoes monster from the graveyard with a lower Level than one you Fusion Summon, plus it searches for a Metalfoes monster if sent from the field to the graveyard.
The initial wave of Metalfoes support was promising, as the Deck instantly had interesting plays it could access. For one, it could access the Majespecter Raccoon - Bunbuku and Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin line mentioned in the first part, and was one of the main reasons why Kirin was eventually banned for so long. It could also run Qliphort Scout to search Qliphort Monolith and then have your Metalfoes Pendulum in the other Scale destroy the Scout to place a Scale that doesn't limit your Pendulum Summons, which you would use to Pendulum Summon both the Scout and Monolith to summon Cyber Dragon Nova and then slap Cyber Dragon Infinity on top. You could also use Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow to provide two Tokens as fodder for your Metalfoes effects while also being able to use the Gofu and your Metalfoes Adamante to access Ultimaya Tzolkin, which synergizes well with Metalfoes setting Spells and Traps from the Deck to then let you summon powerful Synchros like Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and even Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer. The Deck can also very easily Pendulum Summon 2 copies of Metalfoes Volflame to overlay into Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, which you can then destroy with your Metalfoes to summon Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon for more negations. Some of the earliest cards thought of to destroy off Metalfoes were the Yang Zing monsters, which were sometimes run together as a hybrid to offer more Synchro potential with the Yang Zing archetype by having a Pendulum Summon ready plus getting access to Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing much faster.
The very next set after the debut of Metalfoes immediately gave us wave two of support. This time around, we only get one more Pendulum Monster in Raremetalfoes Bismugear, yet another E-Tele target, who has the same Pendulum Effect as all the other Metalfoes Pendulums so far, but it also has a Monster Effect if destroyed on the field to search for any Metalfoes monster during the End Phase. We also get a new Quick-Play Spell in Fullmetalfoes Fusion, which is just a simple Fusion Spell for Metalfoes you can use on the opponent's turn due to the Quick-Play aspect. The two new Fusion Monsters were some of the main support pieces in this wave, however. Metalfoes Mithrilium is a Fusion of any Metalfoes monster and any Pendulum Monster, can shuffle two Metalfoes cards from your graveyard back into the Deck to return a card on the field to the hand, and summons a Metalfoes Pendulum from your graveyard or face-up Extra Deck if sent from the field to the graveyard. We also have Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, a Level 1 Fusion of any Metalfoes monster and any Normal Monster, and must be Fusion Summoned. In return, you get a monster with a Quick Effect on the opponent's turn to equip an Effect Monster on the field to this card. Its DEF will equal the combined original ATK of monsters equipped to this card and said equipped cards can be used as Fusion Material to summon your Metalfoes monsters.
Wave two of the Metalfoes support was fairly strong and made the Metalfoes archetype even more of a respectable meta threat than previously before. It would stick to some of the plays it had been using when we only had wave one of support, added with the new things the Deck could now do. Besides Kirin getting banned, this archetype never got hit on the Forbidden and Limited List for either the TCG or OCG in any direct or indirect manner. Power creep was what slowed down the potential of Metalfoes as a Deck, though it would use some of the tools that power crept this Deck to get some results, which are all things I will discuss in this article very shortly.
We, however, are not done with the Metalfoes archetype as we now enter the era of Link Summoning, which massively changed the Pendulum Mechanic to moving the Pendulum Scales to the left-most and right-most Spell & Trap Zones as well as requiring Pendulum Summons from the face-up Extra Deck to go either to the Extra Monster Zone or to zones that Link Monsters point to. It was a massive nerf to Pendulums, but Konami eventually gave each summoning mechanic a dedicated Link Monster that belonged to other archetypes mainly by name only. Fusions got Predaplant Verte Anaconda and Xyzs got Bujinki Ahashima. I'll discuss the Synchro one soon as it also ties to this lore, but all this ties to Metalfoes because the Link designed to help Pendulum Monsters was Heavymetalfoes Electrumite. This Link-2 only needed 2 Pendulum Monsters to summon and had Bottom Left and Bottom Right arrows to help with Pendulum Summoning, but its effects easily made this one of the more infamous Link Monsters in the game.
On summon, Electrumite will place a Pendulum from your Deck into the Extra Deck face-up, being somewhat close to a searcher for any Pendulum Monster in the game. Now, what if you wanted that card in your hand? Well, Electrumite can destroy any face-up card on the field to add a Pendulum from your face-up Extra Deck to your hand. This was easily abusable with a card like Astrograph Sorcerer since Electrumite can just put it in the Extra Deck and add it back to the hand, which the destruction will trigger Astrograph's effect to summon itself and search for any card destroyed that turn. All effects involved here had no hard once per turn clauses at all, letting Pendulums gain a gross amount of advantage to where we saw hits to cards like Double Iris Magician and Performapal Skullcrobat Joker being banned to slow Pendulums down until eventually banning Astrograph Sorcerer itself. The only HOPT effect on Electrumite was to let you draw a card when a Pendulum in your Pendulum Zone leaves the field, an effect Electrumite itself can trigger.
Even after all these bans to the Pendulum Magician strategy, Pendulums as a Deck would continue with the Endymion support and some of the remaining Pendulum Magician cards that were still overall pretty solid. Chronograph Sorcerer was no Astrograph, but it was still a solid card. It was basically at a point where Pendulums were just a Deck of a bunch of good Pendulum Cards, which the TCG did not like. Therefore, Electrumite was finally banned at the beginning of 2020 to bring Pendulums down one massive peg. Some Pendulum stuff would then come back to the TCG after this ban, which all could have been argued for due to Electrumite being banned in the TCG, though the OCG would do the same Pendulum buffs on the list while also having Electrumite legal. You could argue the TCG is a super safe place for Pendulums now even with Electrumite, since generic endboard pieces like Baronne de Fleur, Borreload Savage Dragon, and Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess are all banned in the TCG, but that's a discussion for elsewhere. Now, Electrumite wasn't as big of a buff to Metalfoes as it was to other Pendulum strategies, but Metalfoes did still find a bit of success with the Link that did still belong to them by archetype.
Now, after the first two waves of support, Metalfoes didn't get any support cards dedicated to the archetype for several years if you don't count Electrumite, since it was generic for all Pendulum Decks to use. This would change in 2021 with Blazing Vortex and a new set of Metalfoes cards. Parametalfoes Melcaster is a second Level 7 for the Metalfoes Deck that also has the same Pendulum Effect as the rest of the Pendulums so far, but it also has an effect when destroyed, similar to Bismugear, where it will add a Metalfoes Pendulum from your face-up Extra Deck to the hand. The downside was you couldn't use that card or effects of cards with the same name as it in the Pendulum Zone for the rest of the turn, but it was a name back in your hand to Pendulum Summon without the Master Rule restriction, plus fodder for Fusion Summoning as well. Metalfoes Vanisher is another Pendulum for the Deck, but it has a unique Pendulum Effect where it adds any Metalfoes card from your grave back to the hand if a monster(s) you control is destroyed by a card effect (which is usually your Metalfoes Pendulum Effects). Vanisher also came with a Monster Effect to destroy 2 face-up cards you control, including a Metalfoes card, to Special Summon itself from the hand. In return, if Special Summoned by any Metalfoes effect, you can target a monster the opponent controls or in their graveyard to banish it. Melcaster and Vanisher are both 1 Scales to counteract Bismugear being a third 8 Scale in a Deck with only two 1 Scales.
It wouldn't be Metalfoes support without a Fusion, and it was fitting with Fusion Pendulums being a thing that Metalfoes would get one of their own. Parametalfoes Azortless is a Fusion of any Metalfoes monster and any Fusion Monster, and if Special Summoned from the Extra Deck can target a face-up card the opponent controls and destroy it by shuffling 2 face-up Metalfoes monsters in your Extra Deck back to the Main Deck. The summoning condition means you can either trigger it via Fusion Summon or a Pendulum Summon and being Level 7 does make it possible for Pendulum Summoning in Metalfoes. It also goes to the Pendulum Zone if destroyed in the Monster Zone, which is relevant since Metalfoes do destroy their cards. The Pendulum Effect of this card just targets and destroys a face-up card on the field if a Metalfoes card(s) is destroyed via effect. It's also the Deck's fourth 8 Scale to counter the Scales out.
Metalfoes would also get a second Link Monster with this support in the form of Heavymetalfoes Amalgam. This Link-2 needed two Metalfoes to Link Summon and has worse arrows than Electrumite with Left and Right, but that is meant to go with its effect. If sent from the Monster Zone to the graveyard via a card effect, it can either equip itself from the grave to a Metalfoes to give it 1000 extra ATK (meant to combo with Alkahest), or you could destroy a Metalfoes card you control to revive it, which will be in a Main Monster Zone for sure so you can get a Pendulum Summon with those arrows. The final card in the support is a third Fusion Spell in Parametalfoes Fusion, a 2nd Normal Spell to let you Fusion Summon your Metalfoes monsters, except this lets you use up to 1 monster each from the hand, field, and/or face-up Extra Deck for a Fusion Summon.
This support was honestly decent for Metalfoes, though it didn't help as much in the TCG where Electrumite was and remains banned to this day. This support didn't do much of anything to revive Metalfoes on a Regional or YCS Level. It might have topped some local events for players back when this support was brand new in 2021, but we are far removed from that time, so you don't see Metalfoes anywhere anymore. The Deck does need new support, whether we get Electrumite back or not. It can still do some solid plays, but it is not enough anymore when other Pendulum Decks can do the things it can do, but better. A disappointing end to this archetype's competitive history after a hot start, but that's how the cards unfold even when old meta strategies get legacy support.
Crystron
Going in the natural order of the release of the summoning mechanics and finally leaving Pendulum archetypes behind in this story, we now get to the Crystron archetype. This archetype is full of WATER Machines designed with non-Tuners to help summon the Tuners in the Deck and get you resources while the Tuners can Synchro Summon on the opponent's turn by getting monsters back from certain places to Synchro with. The boss monsters also pull a Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon when it comes to their Synchro Summoning requirements, which are both the intended end goal for the Crystron Deck.
We start with wave one for this archetype, which gave the archetype a majority of the non-Tuners it would receive for its initial run. All these monsters share a common effect to destroy any face-up card you control to summon any Crystron Tuner from the Deck, with the downside being that you can only summon Machine Synchros from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn. They all also banish themselves from the graveyard for various effects depending on which one you use. The Level 2 Crystron Prasiortle summons any Crystron from your hand, the Level 3 monsters Crystron Smiger and Crystron Thystvern both let you search for a Crystron Spell/Trap and a Crystron Monster respectively and the Level 4 Crystron Rosenix summons a Crystron Token to your field. Rosenix would be generically run sometimes in combo strategies that would put it into the graveyard to summon that Token for extension plays. In Crystron, it should be noted you can only use one effect between the summoning of a Tuner from the Deck and the banish from the grave effect per turn, so you'd have to pick the right one to optimize your combos.
For the Tuners in wave one, we only got two with the Level 1 Crystron Quan and the Level 2 Crystron Citree. Both can summon any non-Tuner with its effects negated to instantly Synchro Summon a Machine Synchro using only the given Tuner and non-Tuner as material during your opponent's Main or Battle Phase. Quan will summon the non-Tuner from the hand and Citree from the graveyard, but Citree will also banish the materials you use for the Synchro Summon you do with its effect. These both are meant to summon the Level 4 Synchro Tuner Crystron Quandax and the Level 5 Crystron Ametrix, though it is somewhat noteworthy that both these monsters are generic. Quandax simply lets you Synchro Summon any Synchro during the opponent's Main or Battle Phase by using it as material, as well as reviving any non-Synchro Crystron upon destruction. Ametrix has the same second effect as Quandax, but its first effect swaps all the opponent's face-up Special Summoned monsters into Defense Position upon being Synchro Summoned. These two Synchros are then intended to go into Crystron Phoenix, considering its materials to summon are a Tuner and non-Tuner that both have to be Synchro Monsters. Upon Synchro Summon, Phoenix will banish all Spells and Traps the opponent controls, and its destruction if it is a Synchro Summoned card will let you summon any other monster in the graveyard.
Between both waves of support for the initial run, the archetype would only receive two Normal Traps in terms of Spell/Trap support in general. Crystron Entry summons two Crystron Tuners (one from hand and one from grave) on activation and can banish itself from the graveyard during either player's turn (as long as it wasn't sent there that turn) to target a Crystron you control and send a Crystron with a different Level from your Deck to the grave to change the targeted monster's Level to that of the sent monster's. Crystron Impact summons a banished Crystron monster on activation as well as changes the DEF of all face-up monsters the opponent currently controls to 0, and it has a graveyard effect during either player's turn it wasn't sent there to negate a card or effect that would target a Crystron monster you control. 
Wave two of this archetype would only bring it three brand new cards, though they are some of the best cards in the Crystron archetype in general. Crystron Rion is a Level 3 Tuner that acts similarly to Quan and Citree, where it'll summon a banished non-Tuner with its effects negated to Synchro Summon a Machine Synchro using the two monsters as material, but they are shuffled back into the Deck instead of being sent to the graveyard. Crystron Sulfefnir is a Level 5 non-Tuner for the archetype, but its use wouldn't be for Synchro Summoning usually. You would normally use its summoning condition to discard a Crystron to summon itself from the hand and destroy a card on your side of the field, which would almost always be itself since it summons any Crystron monster from the Deck when destroyed. Crystron Quariongandrax is a secondary boss monster for Crystron, being a generic Level 9 Synchro that needs 2+ Tuners and a non-Tuner to summon, and upon Synchro Summon will target monsters the opponent controls and/or in their graveyard up to the number of Synchro Materials you used to summon this and banishes them, and its destruction as a Synchro Summoned card lets you summon any banished monster that isn't itself.
Crystrons as a whole are honestly a pretty fun Deck. Even with the Machine lock, they have access to some decent Synchros like Accel Synchron (if you want Quandax, but Level 5 basically), Powered Inzektron, and Vermillion Dragon Mech. If you can Synchro without that restriction via other plays, then you have access to many strong Synchro Monsters. You can even use the Accel Synchron you run to send Jet Synchron from Deck to grave to gain or lose a Level and then the Jet Synchron is live in the graveyard for another Tuner. The Deck having a few Level 5 monsters also means it has access to Cyber Dragon Nova and Infinity, you can even run Quickdraw Synchron as an extra Level 5 Machine that'll also pitch Crystrons to the graveyard for their grave effects. Scrap Recycler also sends any Crystron from Deck to the grave. As I mentioned, it's a fun strategy, but fun doesn't always equate to good. I did find a few Regional tops for this archetype in early 2017 after they had all their support, including a win, but that was about it for the Deck. It just didn't have the tools to keep up with the meta.
Crystron wouldn't get revisited with proper legacy support for 8 years after the second wave, all except for a single card. As I mentioned earlier, all the summoning mechanics before Links released did get a dedicated Link tied to archetypes by name to help boost them. This is again relevant because Synchros got arguably the strongest Link in Crystron Halqifibrax. This card was so strong that I can imagine the TCG intently delaying the release of it since it was released in the OCG towards the end of 2017 as we were beginning the Link Era while the TCG received the card in the beginning portions of 2020. This would mean the TCG would never get to play with this card with some of the strongest Links used alongside it in the OCG like un-errata Firewall Dragon and Summon Sorceress to make some of the most insane endboards that were possible. Halq existing in the OCG for so long before the TCG got the card allowed us to see some insane Decks we would never get the experience to work with, but eventually, we had to get the card over in the West.
Just before the official release of this card, however, there were some changes to the Forbidden & Limited List to accommodate it. Glow-Up Bulb, Blackwing - Steam the Cloak, and even Destrudo the Lost Dragon's Frisson were three Tuners that were banned before this card's release. Two of the most powerful Tuners to summon off of Halqifibrax, and another Tuner to help make summoning the card much easier. This is all because of what Crystron Halqifibrax does, which I should now go into. It's a Link-2 that takes any 2 monsters to summon, just as long as one is a Tuner. Upon being Link Summoned, it can summon any Level 3 or lower Tuner from the Deck with the caveat it cannot use its effects on field while it is on the field after being summoned off this effect, but note on the field only because you could use the graveyard effects of several Tuners like the earlier mentioned Jet Synchron, Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion, and Plaguespreader Zombie just to name a few. If you would summon the Tuner back after it leaves the field, you do get to use its on-field effects as well for cases where that might be relevant. Jet Synchron and O-Lion would eventually get banned as well due to this.
Halq also has a second effect, letting you banish it from the field during the opponent's Main or Battle Phase to summon any Synchro Tuner from the Extra Deck, with this being treated as a Synchro Summon. You could of course summon the aforementioned Crystron Quandax for a Level 4 Tuner, and some did, but there were other choices as well. You could go into Formula Synchron, which would let you draw a card if you didn't miss the timing of its effect, or summon T.G. Wonder Magician to destroy a Spell/Trap on the field, which would be experimented with Artifact Scythe from time to time to lock the opponent from their Extra Deck as well as having the Wonder Magician and Scythe to Synchro into Baronne de Fleur on their turn. Those are just some of the options this card was used for.
Crystron Halqifibrax had a ton of insane Synchro-related combos it helped cause in the TCG after its release. It was especially powerful with other Links like Linkross and Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon before both of them were banned as well, and it should be mentioned the TCG did eventually get Destrudo back into the format with Halq legal for a time, but there was eventually going to be the time where Halq had to go. There were many Decks this card was used in from Adamancipator, to Eldlich Synchro, to Dragon Link to name a few, but the final run of this card mainly involved it being run in P.U.N.K. variants to allow for a ton of Synchro shenanigans. Spright could even access the card for a short time as well. Halq was eventually banned in both the OCG in July of 2022, and the TCG later that year in October. With that, every Tuner that was banned due to the release of Halqifibrax eventually came off of the list excluding Glow-Up Bulb in the TCG. Halq had its run of some of the most degenerate plays this game has ever seen, but it will likely remain Forbidden for a very long time now.
Now back to Crystron as a proper archetype, as they never really got to shine with Halqifibrax in the game. As of writing this article, Crystron just recently received support in January 2025 with the release of Supreme Darkness. This support gave us a brand new Tuner and a new Level 5 non-Tuner, as well as a Level 7 Synchro and more Spell/Trap support in the form of a Continuous Spell and a Continuous Trap. We start with the second Level 2 Tuner in the archetype in Crystron Tristaros. This monster has a Quick Effect for when the opponent activates any card or effect, letting you summon any Crystron from the Deck and then immediately perform a Synchro Summon using monsters you control as material, as long as you include the monster summoned from the Deck. Tristaros can also banish itself from the graveyard and destroy a Synchro you control to summon two Crystrons from the Deck, but you can only summon Machines from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn. This should give you three bodies on board for Synchro plays, assuming you destroyed a Crystron Synchro with this effect, and it should be noted that Tristaros can use both effects in the same turn unlike some of the older Crystron cards. 
Crystron Sulfador is a second Level 5 monster for the archetype that is somewhat similar to Sulfenir, but different in some ways. Sulfador can be summoned from the hand or graveyard by targeting and destroying a Crystron card you control, with the same Machine lock from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn, and upon Normal or Special Summon can send any 2 Crystron cards with different names that aren't more copies of Sulfador from the Deck to the graveyard. Crystron Eleskeletus is a new generic Level 7 Synchro that debuffs all the opponent's monsters by 500 ATK and DEF while on the field, but that's not the main part of this card. Upon being Synchro Summoned, you can add any Crystron card from your graveyard or banishment back to your hand, giving the Deck a bit of recovery, and its destruction as a Synchro Summoned card lets you summon any Crystron from your graveyard or banishment.
Despite Simger being able to search for Crystron Spells, it took until this support wave for the archetype to finally have a Spell of their own with the Continuous Spell Crystron Inclusion. On activation, Inclusion searches for any Crystron monster, which can make it a 1-card starter for the Deck alongside Sulfador. While on the field, Inclusion protects your Crystron monsters from destruction by battle the first time each turn they would be destroyed, but it can also banish itself from the graveyard to summon any Crystron from your graveyard, which combos well with the Sulfador you'll likely summon by destroying this and sending 2 Crystrons from Deck to grave. Crystron Cluster is a new Continuous Trap that prevents the Crystrons you control from being banished by the opponent's card effects, and it can target any face-up card on the field each turn, or up to 2 instead if you control a Crystron Synchro, and destroy them by shuffling a Crystron from your graveyard or banishment back into the Deck.
This legacy support was overall really great for Crystron, giving them ways to pull off1-card combo now. That also added with other good generic Machine Synchros that released since the initial release like F.A. Dawn Dragster, Samurai Destroyer, Navy Dragon Mech, and Centur-Ion Legatia, plus now modern builds will run Hi-Speedroid Chanbara for some OTK potential. They even keep the old play of summoning multiple Level 5 Machines to get to Cyber Dragon Infinity, plus Clockwork Knight which was released alongside this support can be good for a Link-1 Machine to get Crystrons in grave and even tribute other Machines you control to revive your Crystron monsters if needed. This is not to mention a common play being using Speedroid Terrortop and Speedroid Taketomborg to summon Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss to send either Thystvern or more often Simger to help get access to the Crystron cards that start your combos.
The support was so good at giving Crystrons ways to start doing combos with a single card and accessing some of the powerful endboard pieces they have access to that they've become a more competent meta threat. In the OCG, the Deck has been consistently topping events with the new cards. It was never the best Deck, but you would see it fairly often to where it's a Deck that has to be considered when playing. The TCG once again just got these cards as of writing this, but there are also early results to show it will be a respectable threat over here as well. Whether pure or with engines like Adventurer or Horus, I can imagine seeing Crystron at a majority of events in the future, which is more than what it had going for itself after its initial release.
Zoodiac
With the natural progression of things, we are onto an Xyz archetype with arguably one of the most powerful archetypes ever released. The Zoodiac archetype is an archetype complete of Level and Rank 4 EARTH Beast-Warrior monsters, which instantly makes Fire Formation - Tenki a staple in the Deck to search for any monster in the archetype. Your Main Deck monsters all give your Beast-Warrior Xyzs bonus effects while they are attached to them as material, and all the Xyz Monsters can be Xyz Summoned using any 1 Zoodiac monster. Not any Zoodiac Xyz, but any Zoodiac monster in general. This was the first time since the Xyz Mechanic was introduced that we saw Xyz Monsters that could be summoned with any singular monster, and the Zoodiac cards themselves were fairly powerful, so you can see why this could have potentially been a Tier 0 threat.
To speak about all of the effects your Zoodiac monsters would give on your Xyzs, the most important one was without a doubt Zoodiac Ratpier. This monster gave your Xyzs the effect to detach a material to summon another copy of Ratpier from your hand or Deck. You could immediately use the first Xyz Monster to detach a material to summon a copy of Ratpier from the Deck, then put another Zoodiac Xyz on top to give it the same effect and summon a second copy of Ratpier from the Deck to make any other generic Rank 4. The most common would be Daigusto Emeral to keep the Deck's resource game going. This play would get Ratiper put to 2 just a little over a month after release, which didn't kill the ease of making other Rank 4 monsters, but it did make it slightly more difficult.
There were more relevant effects your Zoodiac monsters could give to your Xyzs besides Ratpier's, however. Zoodiac Whiptail would banish any monster that battled an Xyz that had it as material after the damage calculation, while Zoodiac Thoroughblade would give your Xyzs the ability to deal piercing battle damage. 3 other Zoodiacs would give your Xyzs that had them as material protection from targeting effects by detaching a material from them, with Zoodiac Kataroost protecting from monster effects, Zoodiac Bunnyblast from Spells, and Zoodiac Ramram from Traps.
All the Zoodiac Main Deck monsters also came with their own effects besides the ones they would give to your Xyz Monsters. Ratpier would immediately send a Zoodiac card from the Deck to the graveyard on Normal Summon, which can set up several different things you can do with the Deck. Whiptail had a Quick Effect while in the hand or on the field to attach itself immediately to any Zoodiac Xyz you control as material. Thoroughblade on Normal or Special Summon can discard a Zoodiac card to let you draw a card. Finally, Ramram could revive any Zoodiac from your graveyard if it is destroyed by battle or card effect. Kataroost and Bunnyblast were similar to Ramram, except they shuffled a Zoodiac card back from the grave into the Deck and added one from the grave to the hand respectively, but I can't think of a time where those two effects were ever relevant, both were mainly ran if you wanted their targeting protection.
As for the Xyz Monsters, they are all Rank 4 monsters and as already mentioned could be summoned using a single Zoodiac monster as material. They all also gain ATK and DEF equal to the combined ATK and DEF of Zoodiac monsters attached to them as material, which is how you would get stats on them. They all have regular summoning conditions as well since you can only summon them using a single material once per turn. Zoodiac Broadbull is the first monster in the line, taking 2 Level 4s to summon, and his unique effect lets you detach a material from himself to search for any Beast-Warrior monster in your Deck that can be Normal Summoned or Set. Zoodiac Tigermortar requires 3 Level 4s to summon, and her effect detaches a material to target an Xyz Monster you control and attaches a Zoodiac monster from your graveyard to it as material. Zoodiac Drident needs 4 Level 4 monsters and can detach a material from itself during either player's turn to target and destroy any face-up card on the field. Zoodiac Boarbow is the last in the line, needing 5 Level 4 monsters as material, can attack directly, and after dealing battle damage with 12 or more Xyz Materials, it will send as many cards from the opponent's hand and field as possible to the graveyard and swap itself to Defense Position, but that last effect will most likely never occur since 12 materials is a lot to ask for.
Wave two of the archetype that came with Kataroost also added two more Xyz Monsters to the archetype in the form of Zoodiac Chakanine and Zoodiac Hammerkong. Chakanine needs 2+ Level 4s to summon and can detach a material from itself to summon a Zoodiac monster from your graveyard, but its effects are negated for the rest of the turn and it cannot be used as Xyz Material as well. Hammerkong needs 3+ Level 4s to summon and gives all your other Zoodiac monsters targeting protection while it has Xyz Material, but you must detach a material from it during each End Phase. 
When it comes to the archetype's Spells and Traps, there were only two that ever saw any play. The main one is the Continuous Spell Zoodiac Barrage. Barrage would target a face-up card on the field and destroy it to summon any Zoodiac monster from the Deck, making it a way to get to any Zoodiac you want without Normal Summon. Barrage also upon destruction will attach itself from the graveyard to a Zoodiac Xyz you control to give you more materials. Zoodiac Combo is a Normal Trap that on activation would attach a Zoodiac monster from the Deck to a Zoodiac Xyz as material, but its main effect was in the graveyard to banish itself to return 5 Zoodiac monsters with different names from the grave into the Deck to let you draw a card.
Zoodiac was a very powerful Deck in terms of keeping card advantage since it took so little to get most of your plays started. Ratpier did get hit to 2 in the TCG just before wave two was released, but Zoodiac as a whole would not slow down as a Deck. The TCG had access to Elder Entity Norden at the time, so the Deck would run Instant Fusion to summon it out and use him to make more Rank 4 Xyz Monsters. With Chakanine in wave two, you also had the Fusion Substitute combo be much stronger since Broadbull could search for Lunalight Black Sheep, which in turn could search for Fusion Substitute. This would let you fuse two Xyz Monsters into Norden, since one likely can't be used as Xyz Material that turn via Chakanine anyways, and the Fusion Substitute could banish itself to put Norden back in the Extra Deck after it is detached to let you draw a card. The Deck would also use Speedroid Terrortop and Taketomborg mentioned earlier with modern Crystrons to summon M-X-Saber Invoker, which could summon any Zoodiac from the Deck as another way to kickstart your plays without a Normal Summon. All this would eventually get Terrortop put to 1 in the TCG for several years, as well as the banning of Elder Entity Norden where he sits to this day. Both these changes happened in June of 2016, but the list was revealed over a month in advance since Konami knew how players felt about full-power Zoodiac.
Even after the new Master Rule dropped and Link Summoning changed how Fusions, Synchros, and Xyzs worked until the 2023 update to revert them, Zoodiac remained a powerful force in the meta. It didn't help that one of the first Link-2s was Missus Radiant to let Zoodiac access multiple Xyz Monsters if they needed it, but Zoodiac only really needed a single Xyz Monster since they could just constantly slap more on top. This is why in September of 2017, the TCG would ban both Drident and Broadbull as well as put a limit on Ratpier. The OCG initially just banned Drident and Barrage instead of Broadbull, plus the limit to Ratpier, but Zoodiac was still good with Broadbull adding consistency, so they eventually banned it as well and the TCG learned from that to immediately do the same. Zoodaic was way too good at generating advantage, hence why we've never seen Ratpier or Broadbull move from their spots since they went to limited and banned status respectively. This would put an end to Zoodiac's run on top, but the story doesn't end here.
In January 2020, the OCG would return Zoodiac Drident to the game, a move which the TCG would follow suit with on the April 2020 list. This did help make Zoodiac more of a respectable Deck once again after losing so much towards the end of their dominance in 2017 and for the most part, they were fine as a Deck. To be safe, however, the TCG would put Zoodiac Barrage to 1 to lower the consistency of Zoodiac and ensure you can't get a Drident without Normal Summoning so simply. It should also go without mentioning that M-X-Saber Invoker was banned due to its power in Gokui, so that was a non-factor to worry about at this stage. Zoodiac would be decent, but things would get turned up a notch with the release of Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder.
ZEUS is one of the strongest Xyz Monsters released in the modern era, being able to be summoned on top of any Xyz Monster during the turn you battled with one. This gave new life to Zoodiac Boarbow since you could just attack directly with it and then slap ZEUS on top of him in the Main Phase 2. Many would do this because ZEUS had a Quick Effect to detach two materials from himself to send every other card on the field to the graveyard, which was not a once per turn effect for if you could get a ton of Xyz Materials onto this card, which Zoodiac excelled at with their Xyzs being so easy to summon. Zoodiac would not become Tier 0 again due to this, but it was a strong Deck once again in the meta, whether pure or with the Tri-Brigade archetype that was released alongside ZEUS. Zoodiac would also be able to make use of Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops as a boss monster since they had little issue getting 3 Xyz Monsters on the field.
Eventually, Zoodiac would anticipate another tool in the form of Number F0: Utopic Draco Future. This Xyz can be summoned using the original Number F0: Utopic Future as material, which you could simply summon with 2 non-Number Xyz Monsters with the same Rank. Zoodiac could provide this easily by just summoning the monsters, or using your own Drident to destroy your own Ramram to revive an Xyz Monster you can overlay with another to make Utopic Future. This would not last, however, because the TCG would re-ban Zoodiac Drident in July of 2021 after the OCG did the very same thing on their July 2021 list as well. To add salt to the wound, Zoodiac Barrage would be banned in the TCG for the first time in October 2021 to stop access to the Zoodiac cards from making an easy ZEUS as well, which finally put Zoodiac to an end.
As of writing this currently, the TCG did just get Zoodiac Barrage back to 1 in December 2024, and the OCG would even bring Zoodiac Drident back to their game in October 2024, a move the TCG anticipately awaits. This archetype has never received direct support outside their two support waves in 2017, most likely due to how powerful the Xyz Summoning off a single Normal Summon can be. Zoodiac had a very powerful run as a pure Deck, as well as being mixed into multiple different strategies. I stuck mainly to pure Zoodiac because I could write a whole lot more about all the variants that came in 2017, plus the Tri-Brigade variant in 2020/2021, which I plan to do one day. Just know if you could play Zoodiac effectively back in 2017, your Deck likely would be due to how little investment it took for your engine to start rolling and how much advantage it could give in return. Maybe Zoodiac will get support one day, and hopefully, the TCG will get back Drident very soon because I don't think Zoodiac would be so threatening with it, or with three Barrage again for that matter. Broadbull will be a completely different discussion, but one thing for sure is that Ratpier will remain at 1 for a very long time.
True King and True Draco
The final two archetypes might play completely differently from each other, but they are tied together with their support cards, that being the True King and True Draco archetypes. The True Kings are mainly gigantic Level 9 Wyrm monsters who work specifically with the FIRE, WATER, EARTH, and WIND Attributes respectively to potentially make a certain Rank 9, while True Draco is a Tribute Summon archetype that can use Continuous Spells and Traps to Tribute Summon. Both share one card, however, that being Dragonic Diagram. This Field Spell would give your True Draco and True King monsters a 300 ATK/DEF boost and protect them the first time they would be destroyed in battle each turn if they were Tribute Summoned, but we are mainly here for the fact that Diagram once per turn can destroy a card in your hand or on your field to search for any True King or True Draco card, which has multiple uses.
To start with the True Kings, we have 4 Level 9 monsters who each can be summoned from the hand by destroying 2 monsters from your hand or field (just as long as you include one with their Attribute) and will give you a bonus effect on summon if both destroyed monsters were of the specific Attribute. True King Agnimazud, the Vanisher is the FIRE monster who banishes a monster on the opponent's field or graveyard if you destroy 2 FIRE monsters to summon it, True King Bahrastos, the Fathomer is your WATER monster who banishes up to two of the opponent's Spell/Trap Cards from their field or graveyard if you destroyed 2 WATER monsters, True King Lithosagym, the Disaster is the EARTH monster who lets you look at the opponent's Extra Deck and banish up to 3 monsters with different names if you destroyed 2 EARTH monsters, and finally, Mariamne, the True Dracophoenix is your WIND monster who banishes the top 4 cards of the opponent's Deck exactly if you destroyed 2 WIND monsters. Mariame might be a True Draco by name, but it is a True King by function, hence why it'll be discussed here. Each True King has an effect if destroyed as well, with Agnimazud adding a non-FIRE Wyrm from your graveyard to your hand, Bahrastos summoning a non-WATER Wyrm from your Deck in Defense Position, Lithosagym summoning a non-EARTH Wyrm from your graveyard, and Mariamne adding a non-WIND Wyrm from your Deck to your hand.
All four of these would also come with their boss monster you could summon with any two of them. True King of All Calamities is a generic Rank 9, needing 2+ Level 9 monsters to summon, and has a Quick Effect to detach a material from himself to let you declare an Attribute to change all face-up monsters on the field to that Attribute for the rest of the turn. With that, also for the rest of the turn, all monsters with that declared Attribute in the opponent's possession cannot activate their effects or declare an attack, effectively locking the opponent from using their monsters on the field at all. Calamities would also let you destroy monsters on the opponent's field for the summoning condition of your True King and True Draco monsters. Calamities was a powerful Rank 9 that would be run in any Deck that would make a Rank 9 up until the card was banned in March 2021 due to its strength in the Virtual World archetype.
Before that time, however, the rest of the True Kings would be able to shine, mostly in the True King Dinosaur Yang Zing Deck. This Deck was able to use the True Kings effectively thanks to Dragonic Diagram and Lithosagym being able to destroy Babycerasaurus to summon Dinosaurs from the Deck like Souleating Oviraptor and Miscellaneousaurus. The Yang Zing part was useful for Denglong, First of the Yang Zing being able to send any of your True Kings from the Deck to the graveyard to become a Level 9 monster to help make True King of All Calamities. This was a contender during 2017, even when Zoodiac was running strong, and was able to win the 2017 World Championship in a format where Zoodiac was significantly nerfed thanks to the OCG. This run would eventually get Litosagym and Denglong banned in the TCG in September 2017 on the same list that ended Zoodiac's Tier 0 run, as well as Miscellaneosaurus limited. Both Lithosagym and Denglong would come back eventually, with Lithosagym even being legal alongside Calamities for about a year once again, and Misc would return to 3 eventually only to go back to 1 since Dinosaurs were still fairly powerful.
Now to focus on the True Draco side of things, we are working with monsters exclusively designed to be Tribute Summoned to work, and all of them are allowed to be summoned this way using any Continuous Spell or Trap for tribute. All of your Continuous Spells and Traps would also allow you to gain an additional Tribute Summon in addition to your Normal Summon or Set, with the Spells letting you do so on your turn while the Traps would do so on the opponent's. The Continuous Spells also destroyed any Spell/Trap on the field when sent from the field to the graveyard, and the Traps would destroy monsters if the same happened to them, which is an occurrence that's easy when Dragonic Diagram could destroy them and you can use them as Tribute Fodder.
To start with the monsters, the main three you would run for your smaller monsters were Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter, Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior, and Majesty Maiden, the True Dracocaster. Each one was a Level 5 or 6 monster, so you only needed a single tribute to get them onto the field, and each one was able to help you keep card advantage since they each could get you to a True King or True Draco card when the opponent activated a card or effect. Dinomight Knight would take an archetypal Continuous Trap and either activate it on your side of the field or add it to your hand, with Ignis Heat doing the same for your Continuous Spells. Majesty Maiden simply just added a True King or True Draco monster from your Deck to your hand. Each one of these three can only use this effect if they were Tribute Summoned onto the field, which isn't much of a hassle in the Deck.
The boss monster of this Deck is Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King. This is a Level 8 monster, meaning two tributes are needed to summon it as is tradition, and of course, you can use the Continuous Spells and Traps to tribute for this card. It will be unaffected by the card types used to Tribute Summon it between Monster, Spell, and Trap, so you could easily have this card be unaffected by two out of the three card types in the whole game. Master Peace also has a once per turn Quick Effect to banish any Continuous Spell or Trap in the graveyard to target and destroy any card on the field, meaning it could get rid of any threat to the card. Metaltron XII, the True Dracombatant was similar to Master Peace, but you needed 3 tributes to summon him and it being destroyed in its owner's possession by an opponent's card if it was Tribute Summoned will let you summon any Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck that is FIRE, WATER, EARTH, or WIND. This was not worth it however in most cases, since 3 tributes is still a lot for a body that'll likely sit there, and you wouldn't want or need an Extra Deck in this Deck because you would want to run cards like The Monarchs Erupt or The Monarchs Stormforth that either required no Extra Deck or wouldn't let you use it to begin with. You would typically stick to Master Peace when it was legal and there wasn't a massive shift to Metaltron XII when Master Peace was gone.
Now for the archetype's Spells and Traps that aren't Dragonic Diagram. The similarities between both Continuous Spells and Continuous Traps were covered, but each comes with its own unique effect as well. True Draco Heritage can let you draw a card for each card type (Monster, Spell, Trap) of True King or True Draco card that was sent from your field to the graveyard that turn. Disciples of the True Dracophoenix lets you shuffle three True King or True Draco cards from the graveyard into the Deck for a draw. True Draco Apocalypse can target and destroy another True King or True Draco card you control to half the ATK and DEF of all the opponent's face-up monsters. Finally, True King's Return would revive any True King or True Draco from your graveyard in Defense Position.
The True Draco Deck would overall have a very long run in the TCG. The OCG put this Deck to bed very quickly in their meta by simply just banning Master Peace and Dragonic Diagram while also limiting Dinomight Knight and True King's Return, but the TCG would take a different approach. We started in the TCG in September 2017 by banning Dinomight Knight and putting limits on both True King's Return and Ignis Heat, but the Deck was still very powerful thanks to Master Peace being legal, plus the Deck having access to a plentiful amount of floodgates like Anti-Spell Fragrance and Skill Drain. This would then make the TCG want to follow up by going straight for the problem and banning Master Peace in May of 2018, but in return, we also got a copy of Dinomight Knight back as well as the other copies of Ignis Heat to not leave this Deck completely dead in the water. The Deck would continue along, however. Their boss monster might be gone, but the other True Draco monsters are still overall very solid. The Deck is even somewhat consistent as well since Terraforming searches the Diagram you max out on, you could run Card of Demise and Pot of Duality without hesitation since you didn't Special Summon hardly any, plus the Deck would get more floodgate-like toys in Inspector Boarder, Amano-Iwato, and later There Can Be Only One, which the latter just added on with the Gozen Match and Rivalry of Warlords that remains legal. It should also be noted that the post-errata Imperial Order was great in this Deck as well since you could just tribute it off, but that was a problem in any Deck honestly, which is why it got banned. The TCG finally put True Draco to bed in January 2020 by finally putting Dragonic Diagram to 1, which the OCG did just bring Diagram from 0 to 1 in October 2019, a potential reason why the TCG didn't ban it. With Diagram to 1, True Draco was no longer that viable of a strategy in the TCG.
As it stands in 2025, the TCG does have both Dinomight Knight and True King's Return back at 3, which could have been enough to make something viable again. However, the TCG and OCG have both been on a spree of hitting floodgates. The TCG currently has Imperial Order and Summon Limit both banned while Skill Drain went back to 1 after a period at 3, and now cards like There Can Be Only One, Gozen Match, Rivalry of Warlords, and Anti-Spell Fragrance join it at limited status. The OCG has been kinder to this Deck since they do have Dragonic Diagram back at 3 as of January 2024, and they even brought Master Peace back to 1 and later 2 in October 2024 and January 2025 respectively. It can be safe to say that True Draco might be a fine Deck to deal with in the modern era. The floodgates are significantly less than before and Master Peace is not as hard to out as it was in 2017. Hopefully, the TCG moves those cards off the list eventually, but I don't know if I can ever expect support for this Deck since it's meant to signal the end of this lore and I don't know what they could add to it.
Conclusion
With that, we conclude the Dracoslayer and True Draco lore. The first half wasn't a very strong start, likely because Konami wanted to limit the power of most Pendulum Cards due to how inherently strong the mechanic is. The second half of this lore we covered today was a massive hit, with 3 of the 4 archetypes coming out of the gate as significant threats in the meta, with Zoodiac getting a revival in 2020, True Draco staying a respectable strategy until the TCG hit the Deck enough, and now even Crystron is a decent strategy due to legacy support to make 4 out of 4 of these archetypes historically viable in the meta. This is not to mention True Kings and their role in the Dinosaur Deck until True King of All Calamites got banned. The next lore will be the World Legacy lore, which is a project I will start on after I do a few other projects I've been wanting to do. It's fitting to take a break from these lore series after doing two in a row, which is only because of a slight connection with Metaltron XII and Zefra Metaltron that I previously referenced. Hopefully, we see more Metalfoes soon so they can have a revival, but I don't know if I can ever expect Zoodiac or True Draco support, but I hope I'm wrong on the former since I feel like legacy support might be easier to design without breaking the Deck more than it already is.
