Duelist Advance has been released as of July 4th, 2025, with support for existing meta-relevant decks! Let's take a look at what these powerhouses stand to gain.

A New Shine for the Primitive

Primite is coming in as its own engine, having been fully integrated into other decks thus far. The first of this new route is Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius , a new “boss monster” for this archetype. It wields a serviceable 2600 ATK points minimum, and negates activated effects of opponent’s monsters if their Level, Rank, or Link Ratings are less than or equal to the amount of Normal Monsters on your Field and GY. Most notably, this shuts off Link-1 monsters immediately, and has a good chance of shutting off Link-2 monsters as well! Berzelius isn’t too hard to summon due to Primite’s next card…

Primite Fusion is an archetypical shuffling Miracle Fusion that can also include the Banishment. Since Primite Dragon Ether Beryl can revive itself multiple times, you will often find yourself out of Primite Drillbeam – meaning Primite Fusion can slot itself into any deck to provide a walking floodgate. Primite Fusion’s secondary effect won’t be too useful since most Primite engines want to run the minimal amount of engine pieces, perhaps Primite Imperial Dragon will find a place in a future meta deck.

Could You Repeat that?

The “Onomat” archetypes have always been used for its swarming and XYZ capabilities, and their new forms are no different! Dodododo Warrior is a beast of a one-card starter, being able to send the previously released Dodododwarf Gogogoglove from the Deck to the GY for its own Special Summon, and the latter reviving itself. Warrior has the restriction of only being able to summon XYZ monsters from the Extra Deck, but in decks like Ryzeal variants, that’s hardly an issue.

Dododododwarf Gogogogoglove also synergizes with Gogogo Goblindbergh since the latter searches for Dodododo Warrior! Whether you need Ryzeal Duo Drive or King of the Feral Imps to start your combos from scratch, the "Onomat" archetype can summon these XYZ monsters with little investment!

The New Moon

Lunalight is no stranger to the competitive scene, but this time, it’s coming back pure! The new boss in town is Lunalight Liger Dancer , a “Towers” type monster that can swing with its massive 3800 ATK points twice per Battle Phase. While Towers monsters aren’t new or terribly difficult to remove nowadays, Liger Dancer has another trick up its sleeve: once per turn, it can destroy all of the opponent’s Special Summoned monsters as a quick effect.

Most answers to Lunalight Liger Dancer are high-material Extra Deck monsters, like Accesscode Talker . In this sense, Liger Dancer can play chicken with how far the opponent wants to use their own monsters as bait before having them blown to bits. Not to mention, Liger Dancer’s destruction effect is a soft-once-per-turn – if you manage to summon two Liger Dancers, that’s two Raigeki -esque effects!

Stake Your Soul - Again!

Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue marks the start of a new trend: in-archetype hand traps. Hollie Sue can summon herself on the opponent’s turn, then active one of her two stellar effects depending on the attributes of the monsters in your hand. Earth & Dark combine to take one of your opponent’s monsters – an excellent disruption that doesn’t trigger any destruction or banishment effects. Fire & Dark sees you summoning a Vaniquish Soul monster from the Deck.

This can further extend into Vanquish Soul Dr. Mad Love , which searches for a VS Spell or Trap while providing a different kind of disruption. Or, if you have an additional Earth monster in your hand, Vanquish Soul Caesar Valius can destroy a card on the field without targeting it.

Speaking of Vanquish Soul Spells, Vanquish Soul, Start! gives Mad Love an excellent target to start the game off with! Vanquish Soul, Start! is a much-needed consistency piece, but it also protects your on-board disruption effects once-per-turn for no cost aside from revealing a monster in-hand.

Sky Striker Forever

The meme, the myth, the legend, Raye is back with yet another form – perhaps her most powerful form yet! Sky Striker Ace = Zero is a Link-2 that can’t be used as Link Material, so you can’t tag her out with any of the other Link-1 forms. But when Zero is summoned, she searches your Deck or GY for a Sky Striker spell, removing the need to go into Sky Striker Ace - Hayate to send Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage! to the GY, then returning it to your hand with Sky Striker Ace - Kagari . And don’t worry if you only have a Sky Striker Ace - Raye on hand, as she can tag into Zero with her own effect.

Then, Zero can tag into Sky Striker Ace - Raye and Sky Striker Ace - Roze from the Deck and or GY and pop a card on the field, no target required! Zero is a magnificent starter and consistency piece for Sky Striker.

…But a new set of Sky Striker support wouldn’t be complete without a new maneuver! Sky Striker Special Maneuver - Lemnisgate! demonstrates the awesome power of Zero by returning equal amounts of Sky Striker monsters and Spells from the GY to the deck to return cards on the field for every three cards shuffled – no targeting required, of course. Then, you can banish Lemnisgate to Link summon a Sky Striker Ace monster. Lemnisgate is valuable as a piece of interruption, but don’t look down upon its recoverability as well. Sky Striker has always been a grindy deck, and Konami isn’t willing to let that title go yet!

Conclusion

Duelist's Advance isn't the ground-breaking set that Justice Hunters will be, but the support it gives to existing decks separates it from the chaff. While most of this support gets scooped up by the already high-tier Mitsurugi and Ryzeal, it gives Sky Striker, Vanquish Soul, and surprisingly Lunalight an update that lands their end boards more on the end of a modern deck.