Ancient Warriors

I was cleaning out some bulk and found my Ancient Warriors Deck from like over 3 years ago. I’m not going to continue playing it, but it would be fun to revisit it. Ancient Warriors is yet another archetype that really tried to lean heavily into going second and OTKing your opponent. This archetype is based on the Three Kingdoms, more specifically their versions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Their WIND monsters are based on the Shu, the WATER monsters are based on the Wu, the FIRE monsters were based off of the Wei, and the DARK monsters are based on figures from Dong Zhuo’s faction, which was independent from the other kingdoms. The first wave of Ancient Warrior monsters was released in IGAS in 2020, and these cards were a majority of the WIND and WATER monsters in addition to some of their archetypal Spell/Traps. At this point, the Deck was only cool aesthetically and didn’t have much to work with yet. ETCO released the same year and brought along all of their FIRE monsters, a key WIND Ancient Warriors monster, and more Spell/Traps. The FIRE monsters massively helped the Deck out with OTKing, but the Deck was still severely lacking. ROTD was also released in 2020 and it brought along Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords alongside Ancient Warriors Saga - East-by-South Winds. While East-by-South Winds is a good card for their archetype, Double Dragon Lords was the Deck’s first Extra Deck monster, but sadly, it is a card that was and still is much better in Tri-Brigade as they can cheat it out with their effects. In 2021, BLVO gave the Deck Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng and a Trap (ignore the Trap). Lu Feng is a card the Deck really needed as a good card for both going first and going second. Finally, after another year in DIFO in 2022, the Deck got Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying and Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal, both excellent cards for the Deck. Even so, Ancient Warriors is still not a very good Deck. The Deck has some good upsides, but its downsides just bring it down from any sense of viability.

Like I said, there are some pretty good upsides to the archetype as a whole. Most of these upsides lie in the fact that the Deck knows what it wants to be doing and its cards are designed to do their best to get there. Their multiple starters all tutor from the Deck, their Continuous Spells all focus on either extension or give your monsters some added benefit, and your high Level Ancient Warriors monsters are all designed for removal through battle and card effect to hopefully perform an OTK. But that’s really the end of the upsides to this Deck, and even with these upsides, they come with plenty of downsides. Probably one of the most obvious issues with this Deck is the sheer lack of in-archetype tools for going second. Yes, they have a ton of effects that are devastating going second, but those are only good when you can actually establish your own plays. Any form of interaction can put a stop to your plays, so the Deck relies heavily on drawing non-engine. But if you don’t draw the right combination of non-engine or not enough non-engine, it will still be unable to play into a board. This is especially true when playing into any form of removal. Ancient Warriors relies so heavily on their Continuous Spell Cards, and if they happen to be removed from the field by means other than through paying the cost for your Ancient Warriors monsters’ effects, you are losing out on a lot. And as good as the Ancient Warriors monsters are for their own archetype, they don’t accomplish much without their Continuous Spells helping to provide the resources and extension to allow you to actually OTK your opponent. Even removing your starters is enough to stop your plays because your starters are all Ignition Effects instead of Trigger Effects on Normal or Special Summon. If your opponent removes your Normal Summon before you activate its Ignition Effect, there’s not much left you can really do.

They also can’t make use of their Extra Deck that well. Yes, they have Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords, but it is not a card you want to aim to make every chance you get. The Deck just really lacks a way that would not actively minus you a majority of the time it makes its own archetypal Extra Deck monster going second, and by that, I mean that this Deck has no inherent ability to Special Summon or add back cards from the GY. Spending 2 Ancient Warriors monsters to make a LINK-2 that pumps your guys up by 500 ATK and spends a card to bounce another card isn’t always worth the cost. The only other time you go into your Extra Deck, at least for a pure Ancient Warriors Deck, is if you are going first and are making Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir or you are going second and you are making a Rank 4 to punch your opponent before putting a Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder on top of it because you don’t have enough damage to OTK this turn. It’s a big letdown how going into your Extra Deck using only Ancient Warriors monsters as material usually hurts you more than it helps you. And I guess one of the last issues that this Deck has is its reliance on the hands you open. This Deck doesn’t have a Medallion of the Ice Barrier or anything. You need to draw the right monsters and right Continuous Spells to make meaningful plays. But again, that doesn’t even factor playing into interaction.

Has the Deck gotten better? Yes and no. Ancient Warriors as an archetype is kind of a mess and the only real upgrade it can get outside of an insane wave of support is more new powerful going-second tools. The Mulcharmies and specifically K9-17 Izuna and K9-ØØ Lupis really do help the Deck going second. But, you are still very limited to the number of non-engine you could play as you do really need to see a good number of the right Ancient Warriors cards in your hand. There are no set combos for this Deck as you are a slave to your opening hand, but I really like whenever I open Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou + Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits. Activate Three Visits, Normal Summon Sun Mou. Three Visits triggers to add Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying to hand. Activate Sun Mou’s effect to send Three Visits from the field to GY and add Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong from Deck to hand. Trigger Chain Link 1 Three Visits in GY and trigger Chain Link 2 Zhuge Kong in hand. Zhuge Kong Special Summons himself as he was added from Deck to hand by the effect of an Ancient Warriors card. Three Visits Special Summons an Ancient Warriors monster from hand, that being Don Ying. Don Ying triggers on Special Summon to add Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng from Deck to hand. Because you control the highest ATK Ancient Warriors monster on the field, you can Special Summon Lu Feng from hand. Going first, you can keep your board like this, or if you had another Ancient Warriors Continuous Spell, you can activate it to allow Zhuge King to send it to GY for cost to negate an activated Spell/Trap Card on your opponent’s turn. Or, you can Link Sun Mou and Zhuge Kong into Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords which can Quick Effect send a card from hand/field to GY to target and bounce a face-up card your opponent controls. You also have Lu Feng who is a Quick Effect to destroy your opponent’s monster with the highest ATK. Don Ying forces your opponent to pay 400 LP to activate cards and effects while you control a Level 7 or higher Ancient Warriors monster, which is Lu Feng. Also, if a monster is sent to your opponent’s GY, you can target a card in their GY and banish it and draw 1 card. This is also solid going second also. It isn’t an OTK, but deals with a good amount of your opponent’s board and was all done off of 2 cards.

For the Main Deck Monsters: 3 Dinowrestler Pankratops. If your opponent controls more monsters than you do, you can Special Summon it from hand, and this is not an activated effect. Also, you can Quick Effect Tribute a Dinowrestler monster to target and destroy a card your opponent controls. I love Pankratops as a card, and it is really useful in the context of this Deck, especially against Spell/Traps. Also, because Pankratops tributes itself to activate its effect, it doesn’t interfere with one of your Ancient Warriors gimmicks of needing your opponent to control more monsters than you do. 3 Mulcharmy Fuwalos. I was originally also playing 3 copies of Mulcharmy Purulia in the Main Deck alongside it, but it still made me miss playing Pot of Extravagance. Also, it is kind of awkward having to side out your 6 Mulcharmies when going first, in addition to siding out the rest of your purely going second cards. So, I decided upon 3 Fuwalos and 3 Extravagance just to make things feel nicer, but you can still play 3 Purulia if you want to. 1 Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng. He can once per turn be Special Summoned from your hand while you control an Ancient Warriors monster with the highest ATK on field. As a soft once-per-turn during the Main Phase, you can Quick Effect destroy the face-up monster your opponent controls with the highest ATK, but you can only activate Ancient Warriors monster effects the turn you do so. Also, as a soft once-per-turn during the End Phase, if your opponent controls the highest ATK monster on the field, control of Lu Feng is given to your opponent. Lu Feng is one of the best and worst Ancient Warriors monsters to ever exist. He is big damage, he is a free Special Summon, he can even Quick Effect pop a monster. But, being restricted to only Ancient Warriors monster effects during the turn you pop a card is so bad. No handtraps, no Pankratops, no K9 cards. It is really not worth the trade most of the time. So, while you could make use of his soft once-per-turn pop effect by playing multiple copies, 1 can be considered enough. Also, he literally defects to the player controlling the strongest monster, which isn’t ideal. 2 Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying. While you control a Level 7 or higher Ancient Warriors monster, your opponent must pay 400 Life Points to activate a card or effect. If he is Normal or Special Summoned, you can add 1 Level 7 or higher Ancient Warriors monster or 1 Ancient Warriors Continuous Spell/Trap from Deck to hand. Finally, if a monster is sent to your opponent’s GY except during the Damage Step, you can target and banish a card from your opponent’s GY and then draw 1 card. Similar to Lu Feng, Don Ying is a good card to end on going first, but he’s also a good card for damage and extension going second. Being able to interact with your opponent’s GY is also very welcome since no other card in the archetype really does in the same way. 1 Ancient Warriors - Ambitious Cao De. While you control another Ancient Warriors monster, he cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. While he is in your hand, if a card(s) your opponent controls is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can send 1 other card from your hand or field to the GY and Special Summon Cao De from hand. And when he destroys an opponent’s monster by battle and sends it to the GY, you can Special Summon it to your field in Defense. Cao De is the largest Ancient Warriors monster, he can easily Summon himself from hand, he is relatively hard to remove, and he also steals whatever he destroys by battle and sends to GY. A really useful card that can be accessed off of Don Ying if you don’t want to bother with Lu Feng’s restrictions. 1 Ancient Warriors - Fearsome Zhang Yuan. While it is on the field, your other Ancient Warriors monsters cannot be destroyed by battle. At the start of the Damage Step, when your opponent’s Ancient Warriors monster battles an opponent’s face-up monster, you can Special Summon Zhang Yuan from hand and lower that opponent’s monster by 1000 ATK. Also, if a card(s) your opponent controls is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can target and destroy another card they control. Zhang Yuan is also another Special Summonable body who provides even more damage and even more removal. Usually, I would recommend people to either play 1 copy of Cao De or 1 copy of Zhang Yuan, either one or the other. But, because I do not want to be restricted by Lu Feng’s restriction going second, I am playing 1 of both. 3 Ancient Warriors - Virtuous Liu Xuan. He cannot be targeted for attacks while you control another Ancient Warriors monster. If your opponent controls more monsters than you do, you can send 1 card from hand or field to GY to Special Summon 1 Ancient Warriors monster from your Deck except for himself. Also, when your other Ancient Warriors monster you control declares an attack, you can draw 1 card. 3 Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou. He also cannot be targeted for attacks while you control another Ancient Warriors monster. You can send a card from your hand or field to the GY to add 1 Ancient Warriors monster from Deck to hand other than another copy of himself and if another Ancient Warriors monster’s effect is activated except during the Damage Step, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls and return it to hand. Liu Xuan and Sun Mou not being able to be targeted for attacks is meant to force your opponent into attacking your bigger Ancient Warrior monsters so that you can use Liu Xuan’s and Sun Mou’s ignition effects next turn to make a comeback. While both their Ignition Effects are really good for tutoring for cards and triggering the GY effects of your Ancient Warriors Continuous Spells, they are the BIGGEST handtrap magnets ever. 3 Ancient Warriors - Graceful Zhou Gong. He can target 1 Continuous Spell/Trap you control and send it to the GY to add an Ancient Warriors Spell/Trap from Deck to hand and if another Ancient Warriors monster’s effect is activated, you can target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls to negate its effects until the end of the turn. How is Zhou Gong a starter compared to Sun Mou and Liu Xuan? Well, being able to search for an Ancient Warriors Spell/Trap means that he can get Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal, which Special Summons an Ancient Warriors monster from hand. This is great for hands where you’ve opened another starter (in addition to Zhou Gong) or if you’ve opened a high Level Ancient Warriors monster, both of which can help the ball continue rolling. 1 Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong. If he is added from Deck to hand by the effect of an Ancient Warriors card, you can Special Summon him. When a Spell/Trap Card is activated, you can Quick Effect send 1 face-up Ancient Warriors Continuous Spell/Trap you control to GY to negate the activation. When a monster effect is activated while you control him and Liu Xuan, you can do the same thing. Almost all of the time, Zhuge Kong is either an extender of Spell/Trap Card negate. Requiring Liu Xuan to also be on field to negate an activated monster effect is a big ask. But, being somewhat of a free Special Summonable WIND Ancient Warriors monster does mean he can help access Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords. 

For Spell/Traps: 3 Pot of Extravagance. Drawing 2 is great, and you would like to see as many cards in your hand as possible, especially for this Deck that primarily Summons from hand. 3 Book of Eclipse. Basically, this card is like a Dark Ruler No More, but you can actually damage your opponent the turn you use it. And unless your opponent is literally filling up all of their Monster Zones, you will still be able to OTK your opponent a decent amount of times out of ten. 3 Fire Formation - Tenki, which adds a Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior monster from Deck to hand and pumps your Beast-Warriors by 100 ATK. The ATK boost is actually welcomed in this Deck, but it is great in the sense that it searches for one of your starters and then can immediately be pitched from your S/T Zone for their effects. 3 Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits. During your Main Phase, if you Normal or Special Summon an Ancient Warriors monster(s) you can target 1 of them and add an Ancient Warriors monster with a different name from Deck to hand. Also, if it is sent from the Spell/Trap Zone to the GY, you can Special Summon an Ancient Warriors monster from your hand. This is a really really good card for the Deck. You activate Three Visits, Normal Summon your starter, trigger Three Visits targeting your starter to search for another Ancient Warriors monster, activate your starter’s effect sending Three Visits to GY to do something, and then Three Visits Summons an Ancient Warriors monster from hand. That’s called synergy. 3 Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal. During your Main Phase, you can Special Summon an Ancient Warriors monster from hand and then take damage equal to its Level x100. About 70% of the time, that is all you are using this card for, and it works out really nicely as it is giving you board presence and more damage on board. Its other effect allows you to send it from Spell/Trap Zone to GY to target an Ancient Warriors monster on field and change it to any Attribute. But, if you targeted your opponent’s Ancient Warriors monster, you can take control of it. Other than being a strange card for the mirror match, this card is more or less supposed to take back your Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng that may have defected to your opponent. But, the real usage of this card is to target your Ancient Warriors monster and make it a WIND monster so you can make Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords. 1 Ancient Warriors - East-by-South Winds. You can toss a coin and if it is heads, you can send it to GY. If it is sent from the Spell/Trap Zone to the GY, it makes your opponent unable to activate cards or effects in response to the activation of your Ancient Warriors cards and effects also all Ancient Warriors Effect Monsters gain the effect that when they declare an attack, you can destroy 1 card your opponent controls. Because it is not an extender like Three Visits and Deception and Betrayal are, it is just a 1-of and isn’t that great. Your opponent not being able to respond to your Ancient Warriors activations seems good until you realize that it needs to be sent from S/T to GY first. The only reason why this card is even good is because it allows all of your Ancient Warriors monsters to pop a card your opponent controls on attack declaration. Even so, extension to help get to an OTK is much more valuable and needed. Finally, 3 Infinite Impermanence. 

Extra Deck: 1 Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder as an option to go into when you are unable to OTK your opponent. 1 CXyz N.As.Ch. Knight and 1 N.As.Ch Knight. Nasch Knight can Quick Effect detach 2 during the Main Phase to attach a Number Xyz Monster from Extra Deck with a number between 101 and 107 in its name to itself and then you can attach 1 face-up monster on the field to it. CXyz Nasch Knight can be Xyz Summoned using Nasch Knight and you can detach 1 Xyz Material from it to Special Summon a Number Xyz Monster with a number between 101 and 107 in its name from your Extra Deck using CXyz Nasch Knight as material. It is treated as an Xyz Summon, you transfer materials, and that monster is destroyed during your opponent’s next End Phase. We are siding K9-17 Izuna and K9-ØØ Lupis, which is why we are playing from Rank 5 cards and other Xyz Monsters that k9 usually plays. All you are doing with the Nasch Knight is attaching Number 104: Masquerade from Extra Deck to it, making bigger Nasch Knight, and then detaching to make Number C104: Umbral Horror Masquerade with 104 underneath it. Because of this, we are playing 1 Number 104: Masquerade and 1 Number C104: Umbral Horror Masquerade. C104 can target a Spell/Trap on field and destroy it on Special Summon and if it has 104 attached to it as material, it can once per turn detach 1 during either player’s turn when a monster effect is activated on your opponent’s field to negate the activation, send a random card from your opponent’s hand to the GY, and then halve their Life Points. All of this off of Izuna in hand is really good for helping to clear some cards off the field, give some protection, and even get you closer to an OTK for Ancient Warriors. For the K9 cards, 1 K9-17 “Ripper” and 1 K9-ØØ “Hound”. Ripper can detach 1 to add a K9 card from Deck to hand, but the rest of this effect is irrelevant since we aren’t playing any K9 Quick-Play Spells. Also, when your opponent activates a monster effect in hand or GY, you can Quick Effect detach 1 to negate the effect. Hound cannot be destroyed by battle or your opponent’s card effects the turn it is Special Summoned. Each time your opponent activates a monster effect, it gains 500 ATK (already starting at 2500 ATK), and once per turn during the Standby Phase, you can detach 1 from it to target a card on the field and banish it. I personally really like Hound for this Deck because it gives you removal and a big attacker on the field. For the Rank 4’s: 1 Full Armored Utopic Ray Lancer. It can be made using a Rank 4 or lower Xyz Monster by discarding 1 Spell/Trap. Monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK and at the start of the Battle Phase, you can negate the effects of all face-up Attack Position monsters your opponent currently controls. Also, when it attacks and destroys an opponent’s monster by battle, you can detach 1 from it to give it a second attack in a row. It presents a good amount of damage on board and removal by battle through just using a Rank 4 or lower Xyz as material and discarding a Spell/Trap. 1 Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir which, again, is great for trying to wall up going first with nothing better to do. Your other Rank 4’s in Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King and 1 Tornado Dragon can literally be any Rank 4 you want. Tiger King is just a cool card you can access off of Level 4 Beast-Warrior monsters while Tornado Dragon can Quick Effect detach 1 to target and destroy a Spell/Trap Card on the field. Again, you go into your Extra Deck for things other than non-Zeus-related Xyz Monsters and/or Double Dragon Lords that you can really put anything in here. 1 Fire Fighting Daruma Doll which is just kind of a cool card that can be made using Beast-Warriors. It gains 100 ATK for each Beast, Beast-Warrior and Winged Beast you control. Once per turn, it can target a Spell/Trap on each field and destroy them and when it destroys a monster by battle, you can target and add to your hand, 1 of your Beast, Beast-Warrior, and/or Winged Beast monsters in GY or banishment. Lastly, 3 Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords. Really important to remember that it requires 2 Beast-Warriors including a WIND Ancient Warriors monster as Link Material. It can’t just be made with any 2 Ancient Warriors monsters. All your Ancient Warriors monsters gain 500 ATK/DEF and on Link Summon, you can search for any Ancient Warriors card from Deck. Also, you can Quick Effect send a card from hand or field to GY to target a face-up card your opponent controls and return it to hand. Double Dragon Lords is a good card for this Deck, but it doesn’t play too well into the OTK aspect of this Deck. You are using 2 monsters to go into this card and once you do, its effects would maybe translate into usually 2 additional bodies on field. That is far from an OTK into an established board, so it is important to be mindful of Life Point math when you are actively trying to OTK. Other than that, this is a solid card going first as it searches and provides interruption. 

Side Deck: 3 Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju. Removal without needing to activate a card or effect is pretty good. Also, if you are going to play a Kaiju in this Deck, it has to be Gameciel since it's the lowest ATK Kaiju and this Deck doesn’t have any insane ATK-increasing effects like Crusadia or any unique ways of performing an OTK like Mikanko. 3 K9-17 Izuna and 1 K9-ØØ Lupis. During the Main Phase, if your opponent has activated a monster effect in hand or GY during this turn, you can Quick Effect Special Summon Izuna from hand and then on Summon, she can dump a K9 card from Deck. Lupus, during the Main Phase of a turn in which your opponent has activated a monster effect in hand or GY, can Quick Effect Special Summon himself from hand or GY, banishing himself when leaving the field. And during your opponent’s turn, he can Quick Effect perform an Xyz Summon. This K9 package, essentially using Izuna as a handtrap, is really good. But, we are siding it because it would be best to feel out your opponent first and see what they are playing before siding them in. Otherwise, you may end up in a scenario where you can’t activate some of your Ancient Warriors monsters’ effects since you control more monsters than your opponent. 2 Forbidden Droplet. 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster. 2 Triple Tactics Thrust and 1 Triple Tactics Talent. 1 Anti-Spell Fragrance and 1 Different Dimension Ground.