A Beginner's Guide to Mannadium (June 2023 Post-CYAC)

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Deck Primer

The Mannadium archetype released in Cyberstorm Access is the designated modern synchro successor to strategies like Adamancipator, Virtual World and the (now defunct RIP) Superheavy Samurai - these decks "play solitaire" for several minutes, burning through half of their deck to build an unbreakable board with a gazillion negates. The opposing player cannot play due to the negates. With their gamestate heavily limited, the following turn it is an easy OTK your opponent on the counterattack. On the draw going second, the amount of extenders Mannadium has gives it a decent amount of resilience to play through interruption, breaking boards naturally as it navigates it's combo lines to OTK.

The first wave of Mannadium cards is merely a shell that summons generic boss monsters like Baronne De Fleur, Apollousa, Dis Pater and Chaos Angel.

In honour of the inferior Mannadium Prime-Heart who will never be competitively viable (card designers what are you thinking?!), here is the infamous Mannadium copy-pasta:

"Mannadium Prime-Heart has a special defensive ability that stops your opponent from targeting it with card effects. No monsters facing Mannadium Prime-Heart will be safe due to its multiple energy blades! Find this powerful card in Cyberstorm Access, releasing on May 5th!"

Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!

ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING

This build of Mannadium is played pure without any other archetypes mixed into it. Most combos require two cards to get started, requiring a Mannadium ball + Starfrost himself - so this deck is maxed out on finding these two cards as much as possible. With this current iteration of the deck, if this combination isn't present in your hand, boards will be suboptimal or non-existent (essentially you bricked).

A small hero engine is included with 3 "A Hero Lives" and 2 "Elemental Hero Prisma." Prisma is extremely useful in this deck representing about two resources upon summon, being able to foolish burial Visas Starfrost (material for Astraloud) and act as Visas on-field, turning on your Mannadium monster's special summon. Since he is "Visas Starfrost" on-field,you can also link him off to summon Scareclaw Light-Heart, further enabling your plays.

9 slots are saved for staple cards, and they are the most impactful handtraps of the meta, Ash Blossom (counters Branded and Labrynth), Droll (counters Mannadium and PUNK Gold Pride) and Impermanence is very versatile in every situation. These 9 slots can be exchanged with side deck cards, allowing your deck to be ready for different match-ups.

This deck's limiting factor is consistency. It faces the problem that a similar older combo deck had, Virtual World. It needed combo pieces to be present in hand or else you've straight up bricked. There aren't any "one card starters" in this deck like Branded Fusion, Mathmech Circular or Weclome Labrynth - you'll need at least two combo pieces, and three is optimal. This problem will soon be fixed (I think) with the upcoming DUNE support. However with CYAC, this deck suffers consistency issues, leaving it prone to bricking and having less room in-deck for staple cards.

COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN

The strategy for Mannadium is straightforward (summon level 10 synchros + 3 mat Apollousa) while combos are linear, despite hands being different. Any combination of cards generally leads to the same end board. Here is the main combo for Mannadium:

Riumheart + Mannadium Ball (for this example, we're using Meek) + Calarium = Dis Pater (Negate OR Destroy) + Baronne De Fleur (omni-negate/destroy) + Gymir Aegirine/Chengying (Protection/Banish) + 3 Mat Apollousa (3 monster negates) + Set Reframing (omni-negate) + draw 2.

Normal summon Riumheart to search for Abscission.
Activate Calarium, searching for Visas Starfrost.
Special summon Meek. Activate Abscission targeting and destroying Meek, adding Reframing from deck.
CL1 Meek to summon another Meek from deck increasing it's level by two, CL2 Calarium to summon Meek from GY.
Synchro summon Accel Synchro Dragon using level 4 Meek + Riumheart. On summon, Accel Synchro summons Meek from GY.
Synchro Summon Dis Pater using Accel Synchro Dragon + Meek. (Summon it to the middle, left-most or right-most column so that Cross-Sheep points to it in the future).
Special summon Visas Starfrost targeting and destroying Meek. Meek's effect upon destruction summons a 3rd Meek from deck and increases its level by 2.
Link summon Light-Heart using Visas Starfrost (be sure the zone below your Light-Heart is empty). Light-Heart searches for Primitive Planet Reichphobia.
Activate Reichphobia to search for Reichheart. Reichheart special summons from hand to the zone below Light-Heart. On-summon, Reichheart searches for Scareclaw Arrival and draws you an additional card.
Link summon Cross-Sheep using Light-Heart + Reichheart. (Summon it to the EMZ so that it's pointing to Dis Pater, while leaving the other column empty for the future summon of Astraloud).
Special summon from GY Reichheart using Scarelaw Arrival.
Synchro summon Charge Warrior using Reichheart + level 2 Meek. Draw 1 card.
Synchro summon Baronne De Fleur using Charge Warrior + level 4 Meek.
"Contact" Fusion summon Astraloud banishing Visas Starfrost + Riumheart in GY to a zone Cross-Sheep points to.
Cross-Sheep trigger effect boosts all monster's attack by 700 while simultaneously summoning Meek from GY.
Synchro summon Gymir Aegirine using Astraloud + Meek. (If you're not using Meek, you can summon Chengying instead).
Activate Bystial Dis Pater's effect to summon Visas Starfrost from banished pile. Summon Light-Heart from GY.
Link summon Apollousa with 3 materials using Cross-Sheep + Light-Heart + Visas Starfrost.
Set Reframing and any other cards.

Left unchecked, this Mannadium's main combo ends on 2 omni-negates, 3 monster negates, 1 banish, fieldwide protection and draw 2. You also have materials in GY next turn to create a Astraloud and if Dis Pater survives until next turn, he can summon Riumheart from banished pile to as follow-up to get more resources from deck. What makes this board extra special is that it can withstand a Dark Ruler no More/Forbidden Droplet since Reframing is a backrow omni-negate.

The optimal deck's endboard is an extremely potent powerhouse that all decks would be hard-pressed to deal with. Depending on the cards in-hand and whatever interruptions your opponent has, your resulting endboard from this combo vary in power, depending on how much you bricked and how many times you've been interrupted.

This deck can also sustain being hit by several handtraps and keep on comboing, since it offers many extenders and different lines of play.

Going second, this deck naturally breaks boards with Primitive Planet Reichphobia, Astraloud, Baronne and Chaos Angel removing cards. However, as it combos, the strategy is vulnerable to interruption, preferring to go first. The good news is that the Mannadium "ball" combo pieces float (not once per turn btw) when they are destroyed, so you can keep on going if your opponent opts to destroy them.

Mannadium can easily churn out over 9000ATK on board with at least 4 removals requiring minimal investment. When you've baited out all their interruptions going for the regular combo, you can pivot your strategy for the Astraloud + Accesscode OTK. First Link two monsters for Cross-Sheep on board. Contact fuse Visas Starfrost + Visas Clone in GY for Astraloud (1 pop) to a zone Cross-Sheep is pointing to so you can summon another monster from the GY. Link Cross-Sheep + another monster for Knightmare Unicorn (1 spin). Link Knightmare Unicorn + monster for Accesscode Talker (2 pops). And there we have it, 4 removals and over 9000ATK on board for OTK!

GENERAL TIPS

As you combo, be aware of the zones you're summoning in, or else you may stop your combo in it's tracks! For Light-Heart, keep the monster zone below it empty, so you can summon Reichheart below it. For Cross-Sheep, make sure to leave space for both a synchro and fusion monster to summon underneath it so you can get an ATK boost and a monster reborn.
High impact handtraps like Dimension Shifter, Droll & Lockbird, Nibiru and Artifact Lancea all stop this deck in it's tracks and severely limit it's play. While it is possible to play through these cards if your starting hand is strong, your board will be weaker. An option to use for this is 3 Crossout Designator + 1 of each handtrap to stop them.
An interesting variant of the deck is True King version, where level 9s summon themselves from hand by destroying your Mannadium "balls," triggering both of their effects! They simultaneously act as extenders, starters and board breakers, making them immensely valuable. Both archetypes hold immense synergy with each other, so I may begin testing the True King variant for their viability.
Is your combo stopped by a pesky floodgate? No problem! One of your combo pieces, Primal Planet Reichphobia, destroys 1 card on the field! All it needs are at least 3 monsters on the field in defense position, which is an easy feat for this deck.

Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!

CONCLUDING REMARKS

So far, I honestly don't find Mannadium particularly interesting as a playstyle and aesthetic. The playstyle is a straightforward combo with little variance. I find that there is no uniqueness with this deck, since its only used as an engine to turbo out generic boss monsters, (Baronne, Apollousa, Dis Pater, etc.) rather than something in-archetype. Even their iconic level 10 boss synchro, Mannadium Prime-Heart is abandoned in favour of more competitive level 10s! With my complaints being said, I believe the next wave of support from DUNE will give this deck an actual personality and identity with "Visas Amritara." When that buster blade wielding badass is released, Mannadium will be more thematic, rather than merely being a shell to summon generic boss monsters. This deck is only getting stronger with future support!

In honour of the inferior Mannadium Prime-Heart who will never be competitively viable (card designers what are you thinking?!), here is the infamous Mannadium copy-pasta, ran through the "OwOifier:"

"Mannadium Pwime-Heawt has a speciaw defensive abiwity thawt stops youw opponent fwom tawgeting iwt with cawd effects. No monstews facing Mannadium Pwime-Heawt wiww be safe due tuwu its muwtipwe enewgy bwades! find thiws powewfuw cawd in Cybewstowm Access, weweasing own May 5th!" (sorry for this)

GLHF Duelists!

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