Criminal strategies, warcrime duelists and meta decks better watch out, because the police are on patrol with K9 Crystron! YCS Vancouver has shown that K9 Crystron is the third most dominant deck after K9 Vanquish Soul and Yummy, so this strategy certainly has a lot of potential!
While Vanquish Soul is the more popular choice to pair up with K9, Crystron also has immense synergy with K9! Both strategies can easily spam out level 5s for XYZ/Synchro summons and either archetype can pivot into the other. Simultaneously raising the power ceiling and consistency of Crystron, K9 offers extension when interrupted, insulation from handtraps, board clearance, and extra ways to access the Crystron engine! As a result of this consistency boost, the Crystron engine has transformed into a ultra compact set of cards! Wielding more non-engine than ever and packing a perfect support archetype, Crystron remains meta relevant as it carves a niche for itself in a post-Justice Hunters metagame!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING
As the name suggests, K9 Crystron is mostly made up of two archetypes.
The CRYSTRON archetype is minimal compared to earlier iterations of the deck because of the addition of the K9 cards, consisting of only 12 cards. It is composed of 2 Sulfefnir, 3 Sulfador, 1 Thystvern. 1 Smiger, 1 Tristaros, 3 Inclusion and 1 Cluster. The Extra Deck only has 1 Eleskeletus. The minimal Crystron count works fine since they are recyclable with Cluster should the duel be an extended grindgame.
The K9 cards are a support archetype designed in this strategy to strengthen and protect Crystron plays. It is composed of 3 Jokul, 1 Lantern, 3 Izuna, 1 Lupis, 1 "A Case for K9", and 1 Forced Release. In total, it consists of 10 cards.
The CONSISTENCY cards are used in this deck to search for starters and extenders. 3 Chaotic Elements (searches Jokul/Lantern) and Foolish Burial (sends Smiger/Thystvern for Crystron searches) are in the maindeck. In the sidedeck, 3 Foolish Burial Goods and 1 Clockwork Night are used to search for Recycler, which in turn sends Crystron monsters to the GY.
The rest of the cards in this strategy are STAPLES, handpicked to counter meta threats and to synergize with K9 Crystron. 3 Ash Blossom and 1 Called By are used to counter Mulcharmies. 1 Talents is used to punish your opponents for using handtraps or to draw 2 for extenders. 3 Fuwalos and 2 Imperm are used since they are strong generic handtraps. Finally, 3 Droplet is used since it can crack boards wide open while simultaneously setting up your GY with Crystron cards for additional plays. Droplet can also counter turn 0 plays made by your opponent, whether they be Izuna or Arthalion.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
K9 Crystron functions as an adaptable midrange combo deck, easily able to set up 8+ interruption boards, or low-to-the-ground set-ups if hit by a floodgate handtrap like Droll or Mulcharmies. Able to shrug off minor handtraps and interruption with ease due to the consistency of hands, the resilience of it's combo pieces, and the sheer power of its layered negate/destruction endboard, K9 can overpower most meta strategies when piloted correctly. Going second, the deck can power through interruption, especially with hands that feature a lot of gas (which is often the case). Boards can be broken easily as the combo naturally has ways to crack boards (for ex. S:P Little Knight and Cyber Dragon Infinity), especially in the battlephase as you hit over everything with Eleskeletus' ATK drop and the K9 ATK boost. Zeus is easily made in this deck, easily allowing the pilot to reset the gamestate and then combo off from there!
There are many combos available to K9 Crystron depending on what hand you have, but this is the most used standard combo:
Any level 5 + K9 Jokul = Crystron Cluster (1 targeted pop of a face-up card), Crystron Tristaros (Synchro summon F.A Dawn Dragster - S/T negate), K9 Ripper (negate of monster effect in hand/GY), K9 Izuna in-hand (XYZ summon of rank 5 toolbox during opponent's turn), Cyber Dragon Infinity (omni-negate), Follow-up for next turn
Activate Jokul's in-hand effect to summon itself and another level 5 from your hand.
Activate Jokul's on-field effect to search for K9 Lantern.
XYZ summon K9 Ripper using Jokul + level 5.
Activate K9 Ripper's effect to search for "A Case for K9" by detaching Jokul.
Activate Lantern's in-hand effect targeting Jokul in GY to summon both to the field.
Activate Lantern's effect to search for K9 Forced Release.
XYZ summon Infinitrack River Stormer using Jokul + Lantern. (Do not make the mistake of summoning this monster in the EMZ, it stops your entire combo if you do!)
Activate River Stormer's effect to search for Scrap Recycler.
(Normal summon Scrap Recycler and activate it's effect to send Crystron Smiger to GY.
Link summon Clockwork Knight using Scrap Recycler.
Activate Clockwork Knight's effect tributing River Stormer to summon Scrap Recycler from GY.
Activate Scrap Recycler's effect to send Crystron Thystvern to GY.
Link summon S:P Little Knight using Scrap Recycler + Clockwork Knight.
Activate Smiger's GY effect to search for Crystron Inclusion.
Activate Thystvern's GY effect to search for Crystron Sulfador.
Activate Crystron Inclusion to search for Crystron Cluster.
Activate Sulfador's in-hand effect to destroy Crystron Inclusion.
Activate Sulfador's on-field effect to send Crystron Tristaros and Crystron Sulfefnir to GY.
Activate Inclusion's GY effect to summon Tristaros from GY.
Synchro summon Crystron Eleskeletus using Tristaros + Sulfador.
Activate Eleskeletus' effect to retrieve Crystron Smiger from Banishment back to your hand.
Activate Tristaro's GY effect to destroy Eleskeletus on the field to summon from deck two Sulfadors from deck.
Activate Eleskeletus' GY effect to summon Tristaros from Banishment.
XYZ summon Cyber Dragon Nova using Sulfador + Sulfador.
Overlay Cyber Dragon Nova to XYZ summon Cyber Dragon Infinity.
Set any other spell/trap interruptions you have, especially K9 Forced Release and Crystron Cluster.
There are many more combos that K9 Crystron can do, especially with different hands. I highly suggest watching Yacine's combo video for more!
GENERAL TIPS
Going second, this deck can easily make a rank 5, XYZ summon a Zeus with 4 materials (typically with River Stormer), wipe then board, then combo from there! Be sure to simplify your opponent's gamestate and bait out interruption first to ensure that you can pull off this boardwipe.
If you drawn into your garnets Crystron Smiger and Thystvern, you can send them to the GY if you have Crystron Sulfefnir either in your hand or GY.
As you weave through your combo, the strategy has plenty of ways to crack your opponent's board. For example, you can banish a card with S:P Little Knight and suck up an opponent's monster with Cyber Dragon Infinity. The Battle Phase also is a great opportunity for the deck to destroy your opponent's monsters, especially with Eleskeletus' ATK drop of your opponent's monsters and your K9 monster's ATK boost.
For added consistency, bring in from your side deck x3 Foolish Burial Goods and x1 Clockwork Night to search for Scrap Recycler. You can also side in The Black Goat Laughs to act as a boardbreaker.
Clockwork Night turns every monster on the field into a machine so it acts as a floodgate vs. type-dependant decks such as Yummy and Dracotail who need specific summoning materials.
In the Yummy match-up, you can side out your K9 Izunas since the deck doesn't really do anything in the hand or GY. Side in Clockwork Night to disrupt their beast summons!
In the Ryzeal match-up, Chaotic Elements actually is a boardbreaker! After you search your K9 monster with the card, banish it from the GY to take control of your opponent's Detonator!
K9 Crystron might be easy to learn, but it's hard to master. Compared to other strategies, there are so many nuances, tips and tricks that you'd only learn by piloting the deck yourself. So you need to practice practice practice!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING REMARKS
We really got Zootopia in Yugioh before GTA 6 LMAOOOOOOOOO
But seriously, Crystron's continued evolution has the strategy now teaming up with furry police making both decks extremely powerful! After being rendered irrelevant due to the power of stronger meta decks and suffering from collateral damage of everyone sidedecking Lancea/Chaos Hunter vs. Maliss, it is now Crystron's time to shine in the metagame once again! The K9 police addition to the strategy allows the deck to comfortably play through almost anything the meta can throw at it, compete toe-to-toe with competitive heavyweights while being a easy-to-play, hard-to-master midrange strategy. These furry enforcers and crystal mechas certainly have a future in Yugioh's metagame, and it looks bright!
GLHF Duelists!
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