This will be the fourth Constellation Archetype the game has introduced so far. Unlike the previous successors of the stars, (Constellar, Tellarknights, Drytron), I will boldly declare that these Ursartic will never take the top spots amongst other competitive decks of its era. So what are the Ursarctics, what can they do, and are they fur real? Some say you can find the answers through stargazing. But for the more restless ones, here's my breakdown and analysis of the deck.
Back to Bear-ginnings
The Main Mammals
This archetype is heavily inspired by the Big Dipper, and has a recurring "7" motif all over their cards. In fact, many of them are at least Level 7, and they can all be Special Summoned by Tributing a Level 7 or higher monster from the hand.
The Main Deck crew is split into two factions. One are Level 7 BEAST monsters when summoned that seek to recur resources. The other are Level 8 beast-warrior monsters, that when summoned, will disrupt the opponent in some form.
All the Main Deck Ursarctic Monsters share a similar effect to Special Summon itself during ANY Main Phase. Paired with unique on-summon effects, duelists are recommended to utilize these as quick interruptions against the opponent with the right timing.
Polar Opposites of Synchro
Despite boasting massive levels, Ursarctics are more known for adopting a Synchro strategy.
The unique characteristics of Ursarctics are to Dark Synchro Summon, if any readers are familiar with the term from Yugioh 5Ds! By using the Tuner's monster's Level to subtract the non-Tuner's Level, the user can summon Ursarctic Synchro Monsters with the net difference! In fact, none of the "Ursarctic" Synchro Monsters can be Synchro Summoned normally.
In order to tap into the Synchro part, the player usually summons Ursartic Polari first, due to the other summoning requirements. Thankfully, Ursarctic Polari has an effect that allows it to spawn another Ursarctic Tuner to tap into either of the Ursarctic Boss Synchros.
Ursarctic Septentrion boasts an powerful negation effect similar to Skill Drain, and can tutor specific Ursarctic Cards on the opponent's summons. This effect is relevant, as Ursarctic monsters can suddenly summon themselves on your opponent's turns, and disrupt their whole gameplan!
Ursarctic Grand Chariot on the other hand, wields an anti-targeting skill to protect your cards. Its main effect, when summoned, can destroy and deny your opponent's cards! This effect is made stronger with Ursarctic Quint Charge, allowing you to activate this during your opponent's turn!
The Grizzlies possesses abundant power for sure, with quick interruptions from the Main Deck monsters, and disruption from the Extra Deck Monsters. What raw power!
Support from Space
The Ursarctic are backed with several consistency spells and traps, notably to amend the heavy tributing costs needed for the Monsters.
Ursarctic Departure and Ursarctic Slider are both Spells that seek to offset the tributing costs with banishing instead. Departure will tap into the specific names you need, while Slider will recur the banished resources you will often have used.
Ursarctic Big Dipper, namesake of the deck's origins, provides yet another alternative play style for the deck. Directly activated through the presence of Ursarctic Polari, Big Dipper offsets the tributing costs by banishing cards from the GY instead. Its additional effect, which requires 7 counters to steal an opponent's monster may seem steep at first, but it can be easily manipulated through your own Ursarctic summons!
Despite Ursarctic Quint Charge being the only Ursarctic Trap card, it fulfills the roles of two! Quint Charge has an atypical effect to recur monsters from the GY, which is pretty useful to reuse the monsters for disruption or tributing fuel. The second effect is just as good! Similar to the card Urgent Tuning, the player can summon Ursarctic Grand Chariot on the opponent's turn, destroying so much more, and interrupting the opponent even more! This Trap Card allows the Synchro part of this deck to shine brighter.
With Spells discounting the costs and boosting consistency, while having a busted Trap that allows for both recursion and interruption, Ursarctic may seem like quite a solid deck, but let's take a look at the lists.
Build-A-Decklists
Are Ursarctics just limited to the stars above? Probably not, as the Ursarctics conveniently only require unnamed Level 7s and above, and their restrictions only apply AFTER the resolutions of their monsters. All the Ursarctics rely on Special Summoning to bear their heavy levels, so you could easily include a Normal Summon Engine within this deck. Let us take a look at several variations I have prepared.
Pure Ursarctic
As of this article, there are not especially many beneficial Level 7s and above wanting to be tributed; therefore the inclusion of Carpiponica, Mythical Beast of the Forest.
The Ursarctic play style is simple. Constantly harass your opponent with on-summon disruptions, then "Synchro summon" Ursarctic Polari. This will open up additional win conditions like Ursarctic Big Dipper and Ursartic Septentrion, where you eventually beat down your weakened opponent. Unfortunately, due to the universal costs needed to even summon your Ursarctic Monsters, this deck will suffer from resource management and recursion, which is a key component in many successful decks now. Players will suffer in an attrition match given this pure build, which is why these other mixes of Ursarctic may help boost this deck's gameplan.
Atlantean Ursarctic
Or as many would say, the galaxy is just a sea of stars.
The Atlantean version completely ignores the Ursarctic's desires for Inverse Synchro Summoning, the Motif for "7s" and their beastial ties to fully occupy the Normal Summon slot for this deck.
With only the Water Attribute and Synchro Monsters in common, the Atlantean portion will develop a nasty combination of unfair Synchro Monsters; while the Ursarctic portion will clean up any opposing survivors.
This deck also takes advantage of Ursarctic Polari's summoning conditions. Instead of the usual LV8 - LV7, you can perform combinations of LV4 - LV3 or even Deep Sea Diva being LV2 - LV1. Along with Ursarctic Big Dipper which can accumulate counters in this combo-orientated deck, you can expect to put out nasty disruptions within 1 turn!
I believe this is the most playable version, though I feel it does not represent the ideal playstyle intended. But I believe so long as players have fun winning, this deck should be your best shot!
As the original promoter of the deck (whom I took this list from), TeamSamuraiX1 has kindly coupled the list with his explanations, along with a cool combo! Be sure to check it out here.
Tri-Brigade Ursarctic
But wait, doesn't Ursarctic have a restriction that prevents Special Summoning monsters without a level? No worries, its only for the rest of this turn, which means anything before is a-okay!
Many should be familiar with the antics of Tri-Brigade by now. But for those still unaware, I will link several resources detailing the power level of this archetype.
My Tri-Brigade Article
Yugi Papi's Zoo-Brigade Article
Now, these archetypes may conflict with each other, but the Ursarctic portion easily suppliments an established Tri-Brigade board. Ursarctic monsters from hand will constantly trigger Shuraig, while Revolt will replenish Ursarctic Monsters back to the GY for reusage. These combined archetypes may seem unlikely, but constant disruption from both archetypes is the key to winning!
Although Ursarctic may not be the bear-st of decks, there are a surprising variety of ways to play it! Main Deck monsters that can disrupt at any moment's notice and strong Synchro Monsters. Along with a vague requirement of Level 7 costs, this archetype could beary well be re-considered in the future. Needing a tribute to start off the game is the biggest reason why this archetype has failed.
Playing Dead
Do we really need a section to cover counters against this unbearable deck? Against this uncommon deck, you should NOT treat this as a Synchro deck, so do not bother with anti-Synchro strategies. The Ursarctic Monsters commonly rely on another's presence to trigger their effects. So make sure to quarantine their members on the field by spot removing any bears you see. Bewear of their constant disruptions that could snowball along with Ursarctic Quint Charge and Ursarctic Big Dipper; do consider some Spell/Trap Removal.
Ursartic will gradually suffer from lack of resources. So just playing any tiered deck should win the game of attrition against them.
Like every aspiring new archetype created in 2021, this deck will lose to Nibiru too! There is absolutely no fear of it getting negated, so feel free to launch the rock anytime.
My Thoughts and Conclusion
Hey there, it's really been a while. It was really difficult to digest the playstyles of the archetypes from Ancient Guardians and many others. But this is what I'm excited to introduce. Ursarctic looked promising at first, by re-introducing "Dark Synchro" into the actual game. This archetype feels quite fresh to me, as there are multiple win conditions spread amongst the cards. Be it through main monster disruptions, sitting on Ursarctic Septentrion, Big Dipper Control, or even just Quint Charging all the way. However, this deck does not negate. It does not ensure its combo reliably Synchro Summoning. And most notably it does not generate resources of any form. In fact, it does the opposite faster!
Thus, I do not see Ursarctic being anywhere even playable in a casual setting. But when it does, I hope this article will be a good re-introduction back into a currently ignored archetype. What do you think about this archetype? What exactly makes it so, unbearable to play? Let me know! Thank you for reading.
