Crusadia has always been a solid budget option for playing Yugioh, cheap to get while also teaching the fundamentals of Link Summoning for players. While it's not a meta contender, it's decent enough to get you some wins at your locals or so.
True to its IRL incarnation, the Master Duel version of the deck remains one of the cheapest decks to build and is surprisingly decent in a best of 1 format! This is because most decks want to go first. You aren't as necessarily hampered by losing the coin flip, giving you a fairly decent edge. With this in mind, a decent duelist can pilot the deck well and see Platinum success!
Today we'll be going over a quick rundown of the deck, some sample builds, how much you need to spend in terms of Gems, CP, and so on! I'll be showing off some tech choices and plays that might not have come to mind. Without further ado, let's dive in!
Crusade Briefing
Since it's been a while, let's go over the basics of the deck. The four Main Deck Crusadia monsters all have the handy ability to Special Summon themselves to your zone a Link Monster points to. This is great, as you get to use the Link arrows of key pieces such as Magius and Regulex. In some situations, you are able to make use of the opponent's arrows, such as when staring down Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess. All of them have effects that can come up often. Maximus is the most important for its double damage effect, Leonis helps clean up murky board states with piercing, Reclusia can out backrow that can give you trouble, and Arboria gives your monsters some protection.
The process is simple, climb up all the way to either Equimax or Avramax, depending on the situation while getting key Crusadia cards along the way with the double search. Your Spell lineup is critical to your strategy. as all three of them perform well if timed correctly.
Crusadia Revival gives you the pushing power to go for game, while the other two let you secure the win handily. Crusadia Testament is insanely powerful in this regard, able to stop the opponent from being able to respond to your monster effects. Shutting down certain hand traps or hard monster negates is nothing to scoff at. Apollousa who? Orange Light what? The second effect to draw 3 or 4 cards can be a nice clutch against control matchups.
Now there are some cards that Testament can't stop, and that's where Crusadia Power comes into the mix! It's a protean card that lets you protect a key member on the field, making sure that they stick on the field and get their effects off.
Execute the Crusade!
The deck has a couple of ways to get lethal, depending on how your opponent's board is positioned. Equimax is the most well-known way with its three arrows. Kaijus are a perfect match for Crusadia, removing an opponent's key threat while strategically placing them under the Link-3's pointer. Paired with Revival's ATK boost and Maximus' double damage, you're able to hit for at least 8200!
Another way to make this work is if you have an extra extender to go into Crusadia Spatha. The days of moving Elpy and Pisty have long since passed, but there's still some merit to running her in the budget builds. If you don't see a Kaiju, you can actually use Spatha to move the opponent's monster to Equimax's pointer! That way, you can still reach the OTK threshold if needed.
4100 x 2 is game! (Effect Veiler was used up on Magius earlier, but we had the Power anyway.)
Aside from that, Crusadia Revival's second effect is a great way to finish as well. While you may not get it in one shot, you can still rip through your opponent's board and drop their LP to 0.
While scuffed, Regulex + Maximus can pull through if things get dicey. Last but not the least, don't count Avramax out! Armed with Revival, you can swing for a total of 10500 with three attacks. The effect to gain the ATK of the opponent's Special Summoned monster is not once per turn, after all, it's once per battle.
Fundamentals for the Crusade
This is roughly what a core of the Deck would look like. Ratios are not 100% set in stone for the deck. Some people prefer maxing out on Leonis, playing more Kaijus, and running the third Power or Testament. Parallel Exceed is one of the deck's best extenders and it comes in common in Stalwart Force!
As you can see, it's inexpensive to build the deck pure. You can complete the core in roughly 2 10x pulls of Star-Studded Futures + crafting. Feel free to add the 1 Ash Blossom and Lightning Storm from the bundles. Reinforcement of the Army is available from the Duel Strategies tutorial. If you have staple cards such as Maxx "C" and friends, they're a nice addition to the deck.
Refined Options
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFIDr-4f0o&ab_channel=OzoneTCG
If you want something that can give the deck some extra kick, here are two suggestions that come to mind. The first one is Mekk-Knight Crusadia, courtesy of OzoneTCG and co-writer Eric Meadows!
Mekk-Knights bring a strong offensive presence going second and play quite nicely with the Crusadia monsters, as they don't need their Normal Summon. Purple Nightfall and Blue Sky are excellent at eating Hand Traps, baiting disruption, and getting you extra Mekks to work with. Sangan shines quite a lot in this variant too as a bonus. Check out the video for the in-depth analysis!
Striking the Sky
The second option should be fairly available if you opened some packs from Stalwart Force. I present to you all, the Sky Striker engine!
Sky Striker Spells splendidly synergize with our Star-Studded soldiers, thanks to their power and utility. Hornet Drones in particular does so much for the deck all for 1 card, making it the best extender a Crusadia player can ask for. Allow me to explain.
Crusadia is a deck that often relies on seeing 2 names to get itself started. Hornet not only lets you play with hands that only see 1 monster, but it also makes it difficult for the opponent to respond to either of your Link searchers.
Hornet Drones goes into Kagari, which then lets you SEGOC with Magius. (Chain Link 1 Magius, Chain Link 2 Kagari). This nets you the Crusadia search and you get the Spell back! Link the two away for Regulex, Drones into Kaina and you get to perform SEGOC again!
Hornet shores up one of the deck's weaknesses, which cannot be overlooked. If your Normal Summon gets stopped you often have trouble playing the game. With Drones, you can go into something like Link Spider or Kaina and get the ball rolling. Lastly, it helps make Avramax should the situation call for it.
Aside from that, the other Striker spells give the deck some leeway against tough spots. Widow Anchor is played similarly to how you would use Forbidden Chalice, with the upside that Engage can search it. Jamming Waves assists vs backrow, Eagle Booster can act as a second copy of Crusadia Power, as you can only activate 1 per turn. It's up to personal preference on how the ratios would look here.
One last thing to note is that Testament's draw effect gets better if you're on the Striker package, as you can possibly draw into them in order to protect Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax from harm and keep yourself in the game.
Here's my current list that I used to climb from Gold V to Platinum this season. Once again, you can use budget going second R or SR cards for some of the Ultra Rares if you don't have them available. You can run Jamming Waves over the second Lightning Storm if you're short on CP. The deck has 4 essential URs to pull/craft in total: 2 Engage, 1 Kagari, and 1 Avramax. 2 copies of Equimax are nice to have, with the second one acting as a failsafe.
Conclusion
And that wraps up our look at one of Master Duel's interesting budget options available! Join us next time as we cover more Master Duel articles. I'll see you fellow Crusaders soon! Renren out! Special thanks to OzoneTCG for lending a hand on this guide.
