Introduction

Kashtira is a newly debuted archetype from Darkwing Blast and will recieve prominent support in Photon Hypernova.
Bearing striking resemblance to alien invaders, these seven starred intruders focus on banishing your opponent's resources face-down, and even implements zone locks, a feature last seen from Ojamas! This archetype, with its aggressive banishing tactics, is slated to stand toe-to-toe with the current best deck of the format, Tearlaments Ishizu. Let's talk about it.

Kashtira

The Kashtira are made up of several similar level 7 monsters with an ability to summon themselves onto the field for little to no cost. Most of their cards also includes an effect to banish one portion of the opponent's resources, like Kashtira Fenrir's ability to banish a face-up card face-down. Along with that, they each have one tutor effect, so you can constantly build resources every turn.

• Kashtira Fenrir (searches monster/banishes face-up card)
• Kashtira Unicorn (searches spells/banishes from extra deck)
• Kashtira Ogre (searches trap/banishes from opposing deck)
• Scareclaw Kashtira (extender)
• Tearlaments Kashtira (extender)

These banishing effects become more relevant when Kashtira Shangri-Ira comes into the picture. For every instance of banishing in its presence, it can lock one of your opponent's zones! 

Through the use of your Kashtira cards that can summon themselves easily, you can summon Kashtira Shangri-Ira and easily lock multiple zones. It also bears a handy effect to summon deadly Kashtira monsters every turn, showing its worth as the mothership of Kashtira.

And triggering this effect is extremely important, as it allows you to summon Kashtira Arise-Heart!

Kashtira Arise-Heart is the ultimate end goal for all Kashtira strategies. It packs an unforgiving Macro Cosmos like effect, and also wields a handy quick-effect banishing any time. Summoning this card onto the field successfully will definitely turn the tides in your favor, as many decks currently like Tearlament Ishizu are not equipped enough to deal with it. Your usual end board will usually result in Kashtira Arise-Heart and Kashtira Shangri-Ira on your field, along with either Kashtira Fenrir or Kashtira Unicorn summoned on the next turn, ready to banish everything face-down!

To supplement this sort of strategies, this deck packs a variety of consistency related tools to help.

• Prime Planet Paraisos (tutor)
• Kashtira Riseheart (extender/combo piece)
• Kashtira Papiyas (extender)
• Kashtira Birth (extender)
• Kashtira Preparations (extender)
• Kashtira Big Bang (combo piece)

These cards can either tutor relevant Kashtira cards for your combos, or be tutored by your Kashtira monsters. Kashtira Riseheart in particular is relevant for most of the Kashtira combos, along with Kashtira Big Bang's banished effect. Along with their individual effects, Kashtira Birth and Kashtira Preparations can also banish part of your opponent's resources.

By now, you may have noticed that this deck has a lot of searching power. That is absolutely true, and crucial to constantly developing its standard game-winning boards! Here are some standard combos to learn when playing the deck.

Kashtira Combos

Note that these combos are done by Lundrity. If you are interested in more Kashtira combos or other archetypical stuff, you can join his server here! You may notice that these combos can be easily performed through only one or two relevant cards.

• Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn  =>
  Kashtira Shangri-Ira + Number 89: Diablosis the Mind Hacker + Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn
  ► Link Here
• Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn  =>
  Kashtira Shangri-Ira + Kashtira Arise-Heart + Kashtira Fenrir + Kashtira Unicorn
  ► Link Here
• Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn  =>
  Kashtira Arise-Heart + Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds 
  ► Twitter Link Here
• Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn + any relevant extender =>
  Kashtira Shangri-Ira + Kashtira Arise-Heart + Number 89: Diablosis the Mind Hacker + Kashtira Fenrir/Kashtira Unicorn
  ► Twitter Link Here

The last combo is the most common one, as it usually allows the player to develop multiple threats, banish a significant portion of the opponent's resources AND lock up to 3 zones! This can go into 5 locked zones the moment the opponent plays a card. By using your Kashtira Arise-Heart to banish, and Diablosis the Mind Hacker to further pile on the banishing, it is simple to lock your opponent out of his zones during his turn! It is also important to note that if your opponent does not do anything, Kashtira Riseheart is the only card that can trigger the effect of Kashtira Shangri-Ira.

And the best part about this deck is that should your opponent attempt to use a handtrap to interrupt your plays, like the common Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, you can trigger your Kashtira effects like Kashtira Unicorn to punish them in return. Otherwise, leaving multiple maindeck monsters on the field can also be treated as both interruptions and disruptions.

So how do we go around building this phenominal deck?

Kashtira Decklists

Pure Kashtira

Pure Kashtira post PHHY uploaded by Therarely

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Pure Kashtira is built on the belief that the pilot will be able to establish the standard combos even under a few interruptions from the opponent. This sort of playstyle is very standard, yet reliable enough to win games against unprepared decks. There is nothing particular in this deck, only how the player chooses to optimize it. The rest of the deck relies on the player's ability to pilot their combos through unexpected situations.

SPYRAL Kashtira (OCG)

SPYRAL KASHTIRA OCG uploaded by B.B

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This list was taken from this link.

Admittedly, this deck is mostly SPYRAL cards, and the combos are mostly SPYRAL related. However, it showcases the Kashtira working as an engine, since they are able to put themselves onto the board and serve as free fodder. In fact, this Kashtira engine can be explored within Scareclaws and even Tearlaments! Aside from being engine pieces, both Kashtira Unicorn and Kashtira Fenrir are very capable monsters on their own, adding another level of aggression for the player using them. This is how flexible the Kashtiras are.

Countering Kashtiras

A deck that develops an universal Macro Cosmos, cards that banishes your stuff face-down, and even zone locks?! How can anyone survive this? Thankfully, it isn't that bad.

The most ideal solution to this is good old reliable Nibiru, the Primal Being. Dropping this card at any point of the game will decimate these invaders, and even potentially prevent them from recovering as the summoned token serves as an anti-measure against the condition of controlling no monsters on their side of the field. Using effect negations like Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence is also very strong especially on Kashtira Riseheart. Lastly, you can dismantle their boards with Evenly Matched or Raigeki, as the deck does not have any form of negation to counter your blowout cards. But remember! Dark Ruler No More does not do away with Kashtira Shangri-Ira's zone locks - it will remain there regardless if Kashtira Shangri-Ira is present on the field face-up.

Change of Heart and Triple Tactics Talent are very important cards to use too, because once Kashtira Shangri-Ira resolves its effect on the opposing field, BOTH players are now able to summon Kashtira Arise-Heart.

My Thoughts and Conclusion

At first glance, Kashtira seems to be the perfect counter to the latest meta deck Tearlament Ishizu. A banish centric strategy will naturally devour a graveyard reliant strategy. And this is true for most part. When Kashtira Arise-Heart is established, many decks are unable and ill-equipped to deal with it immediately without relying on specific cards. Kashtira Fenrir is already one of the best cards of the year, surely an archetype with it inside will yield even better results!

This deck has been part of the OCG meta since the introduction of PHHY, going toe to toe with Tearlament Kashtira (that is right, the only way to beat Kashtira is with Kashtira cards!) and I can fully expect it to be utilitized by top players in the upcoming TCG metagame. Until then, learning the combos and cards are a player's responsibility in order to improve at the game. Enjoy locking your opponent out of their cards, resources, even zones! 

If you are interested in learning more about the deck, here are some links for you.

• The Faz's Kashtira Zone Control
• DB Grinder's 10 hour testing
• DB Grinder's combo showcases