Rage of the Abyss has been released, and with it, Snake-Eyes is back on the competitive scene (like it or not)! The September 2024 banlist has all but obliterated the consistency of Snake-Eyes, leaving it with 1 Ash and 1 Poplar, but with ROTA, that problem has been largely fixed!
"Deception of the Sinful Spoils" is functionally 3 more copies of any Sinful Spoils card you want, since one of the monster it summons (Mu Rcielago) searches for any Sinful Spoils with it's on-summon effect. Not only that, Deception also summons an omni-negate, Ilia Silvia - effectively rendering Snake-Eyes from interruptions like Nibiru and Bystials!
Not only has Snake-Eyes been "fixed" by it's Rage of the Abyss power-ups, it has been incredibly stronger! This is bad news for anyone who thought that Snake-Eyes has been phased out of the game by the recent banlist - this deck is currently here to stay in top competitive gameplay!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES, ENGINES AND DECKBUILDING
Diabellstar's crew post-ROTA is composed of 5 archetypes: SNAKE-EYE (deck core), the supporting sub-archetypes SINFUL-SPOILS and the new AZAMINA cards. A sizeable KASHTIRA package is also used so the duelist can play through Mulcharmy Fuwalos and for extra extension. Finally minimalistic FIENDSMITH package composed of only 1 Engraver is used. Despite the 5 archetypes present in the deck, STAPLES still form a large part of the deck due to its many 1-card starters and hyper consistent nature.
The SNAKE-EYE/SINFUL-SPOILS cards form the core of the deck. Although these cards have been thoroughly gouged by the September banlist, it is certainly still competitively viable with the new ROTA support. Due to the banlist, the Snake-Eye cards are greatly reduced in this deck - it is composed of x1 Ash, x1 Poplar, x2 Oak, x1 Flamberge Dragon, x1 Snake-Eye Diabellstar, x1 Temple and x1 Original Sin. This deck core is maximized around searching or summoning from deck Snake-Eyes Ash, the heart and soul of the strategy. Snake-Eyes Ash starts up the entire gameplan, so 10 cards search it (x3 Diabellstarr, x3 WANTED, x3 Deception, x1 Original Sinful-Spoils, x3 Bonfire) in addition x1 Ash granting a total of 14 starters in a 43 card deck! With that many starters, this deck is still very consistent.
AZAMINA is the new archetype debuting in Rage of the Abyss, and although it is an independent archetype, it greatly supports the consistency and power of Snake-Eyes. It is a small supplementary engine in the strategy. It is composed of x3 Deception and x1 Hallowed Azamina. It has two monsters in the Extra Deck - Ilia Silvia is the omni-negate and Mu Rcielago is the searcher.
The most minimal FIENDSMITH package is used in the deck - x1 Engraver. 1 Engraver is responsible for turboing out D/D/D Wave High King Caesar, an extremely oppressive boss monster that negates summons up to twice and is a natural counter to Nibiru.
The last archetype featured in this deck is a sizeable KASHTIRA package. It is composed of x2 Wraithsoth, x2 Unicorn, x1 Fenrir, and x1 Birth. Kashtira is played because it gives more cards on-field for Snake-Eyes/Sinful Spoils to use as cost for their effects. It also allows the duelist to somewhat establish a board when under the new Mulcharmy Fuwalos, since the engine doesn't summon from the Extra Deck or Deck.
The STAPLES featured in this deck are 12 of the best handtraps this format - x3 Fuwalos, x3 Ash Blossom, x3 Effect Veiler and x3 Impermanence. If Fuwalos is in your hand and you're going first, simply use it as cost for Diabellstar or Deception since you cannot use it anyways when you have stuff on your field. Since handtraps are so dominant, x1 Called By is also included.
The SIDING PATTERN for this deck is talking out x1 Snake-Eyes Oak, x3 Fuwalos (when you know you're going 1st), and parts or all of the Kashtira Engine. This allows the pilot to put in 10 boardbreakers to play through your opponent's gamestate to allow the engine with it's immense amount of gas to combo through and out-resource the opponent.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Snake-Eye Azamina is a powerful combo deck that can link spam like no tomorrow. What is different about this deck post-ROTA is that it has extra consistency and protection with the new Azamina support archetype.
A singular uninterrupted Deception of the Sinful Spoils, 1 monster and 1 card gets you 6 interruptions and provides you with incredible amounts of resources as follow-up for next turn. Here is the combo:
Deception of the Sinful Spoils + 1 monster + 1 card = Ilia Silvera (Omni-negate), D/D/D Wave High King Caesar (x2 special summon negate), S:P Little Knight (Made with I:P Masquerena, x2 target banish), Promethean Princess (x1 destroy monster), Follow-up (Deception on field, Poplar/Ash search during opponent's turn, Engraver in GY, Princess in GY, Draw 1 (WANTED recycling OSS)
Activate Deception of the Sinful Spoils. Activate Deception tributing the monster in your hand to add from deck Hallowed Azamina.
Activate Hallowed Azamina revealing Mu Rcielago from Extra Deck and sending Deception to the GY to summon Mu Rcielago.
Mu Rcielago searches from deck Sinful Spoils WANTED from deck.
Activate WANTED to search for Diabellstar from deck.
Use Diabellstar's summon effect to summon herself by sending any card from hand.
Activate Diabellstar's on-summon effect to set from deck Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye
Link summon Moon of the Closed Sky using Diabellstar + Mu Rcielago.
Activate Hallowed Azamina's effect to add itself back to the hand by returning Mu Rcielago from GY to the Extra Deck.
Activate Hallowed Azamina's effect revealing Ilia Silvera from Extra Deck and sending Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye to the GY to summon Ilia Silvera.
Link summon Fiendsmith Requiem using Moon of the Closed Sky. (The following is Fiendsmith combo to turbo out High King Caesar).
Tribute Requiem to summon from deck Engraver.
Activate Requiem's effect in GY to equip itself to Engraver.
Special summon Necroquip Princess using Requiem + Engraver.
Activate Engraver's GY effect returning Requiem to the Extra Deck to summon himself.
XYZ summon D/D/D Wave High King Caesar using Necroquip + Engraver.
Banish from the GY Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye placing Diabellstar on the bottom of the deck to search from deck Snake-Eye Ash.
Normal summon Ash. Search from deck Poplar. (The following is full Snake-Eyes combo).
Activate Poplar's effect to summon itself from hand.
Activate Poplar's on-summon effect to search from deck Divine Temple.
Link away Poplar to summon Relinquished Anima.
Activate Poplar's GY effect placing it in the backrow.
Activate Ash effect sending itself and Relinquished Anima to summon from deck Oak.
Activate Oak's on-summon effect to target Ash and summon it from the GY.
Activate Divine Temple, placing Poplar in the backrow.
Activate Oak's effect sending itself and Poplar to summon from deck Flamberge Dragon.
Link summon I:P Masquerena using Flamberge Dragon + Ash.
Activate Flamberge Dragon's GY effect to summon Ash and Oak from the GY.
Link summon Promethean Princess using I:P Masquerena + Ash.
Activate Promethean Princess' effect to summon from GY Flamberge Dragon.
Activate Flamberge Dragon's effect to place I:P Masquerena in the backrow.
Link summon Raging Phoenix using I:P Oak + Promethean Princess.
Link summon Worldsea Dragon Zealantis using Raging Phoenix.
Banish from GY WANTED targeting Original Sinful Spoils in the Banishment placing it on the bottom of the deck to draw 1 card.
During the End Phase, Deception sets itself from the GY due to it being sent there this turn.
During your opponent's turn, summon I:P Masquerena from the backrow during Draw Phase using Flamberge Dragon. Then you can link summon S:P Little Knight using Flamberge Dragon + I:P Masquerena for two banishes! You can also activate Promethean Princess during an opportune time to destroy any of your fire monsters and your opponent's monster.
HELP I GOT FUWALOS'D! WHAT DO I DO? Well duelist, here is the emergency back-up plan if you got Fuwalos'd in Snake-Eye Azamina:
Snake-Eye Ash = S:P Little Knight (Made with I:P Masquerena, x2 target banish) + Follow-up (Poplar/Ash search during opponent's turn), Your opponent only draws 1 card from Fuwalos!
Normal summon Snake-Eye Ash. Search from deck Poplar.
Activate Poplar's effect to summon itself from hand
Activate Poplar's on-summon effect to search from deck Divine Temple.
Link summon I:P Masquerena. (Your opponent only draws 1 card!) (DO NOT activate Poplar's GY effect to place in the backrow).
Activate Divine Temple. Place in the backrow Flamberge Dragon.
During your opponent's turn, summon from the backrow Flamberge Dragon with Temple's effect as soon as your opponent summons a monster. Activate I:P Masquerena's effect to link summon S:P Little Knight using Flamberge Dragon + I:P Masquerena for two banishes! At this point, we hope that your handtraps in-hand and the double banish from S:P Little Knight is enough for you to survive until next turn, because your resource generation with Flamberge Dragon + Poplar/Oak/Ash's resource loop is sufficient.
GOING FIRST, a singular Deception of the Sinful Spoils grants you an omni-negate with Ilia Silvia, double special summon negate with Wave High King Caesar, a targeted monster destruction with Promethean Princess, and lots of bodies + follow-up + set-up GY for next turn's OTK. If you also have the Kashtira extenders, you can also end on Unicorn's Extra Deck banish, Fenrir's targeted banish, and Birth's GY banish! Next turn, you can OTK easily with tons of link material to finish the game with the likes of Accesscode Talker. Remember this is from 1 and 2 discards, so your hand may also contain one of the 12 handtraps!
GOING SECOND, the Snake-Eyes Azamina strategy features a ton of handtraps and gas to weaken your opponent's gamestate or potentially end their turn on a suboptimal board so you can start comboing yourself. As you combo up, you can methodically remove your opponent's field using Flamberge Dragon's non-destruction removal, Knightmare Phoenix's S/T destruction, Engraver's targeted send, Accesscode can be made for up to 3 pops due to the different attribute link material in the GY (dark-Anima, fire- Knightmare Phoenix, light-Requiem).
GENERAL TIPS
Always try to insulate your plays with Ilia Silvia. Either your opponent will be forced to spend an interruption stopping Deception of Hallowed Azamina, or you get to continue full combo!
Good bait for your opponent's interruptions (like Ash and Imperm) is the Kashtira engine or the Azamina engine. After you bait their handtrap, you can move on to comboing.
If you have Snake-Eyes Ash and you drew into Original Sinful Spoils already, when you search with Poplar take Snake-Eyes Divine Temple instead so that it's an additional extender. The extra card in the backrow serves as an extender for your Snake-Eyes cost to send a card on the field to the GY.
Snake-Eyes summons so many times (even on the opponent's turn!) that you'd sometimes find yourself in the awkward position of having no more space on your board! Be careful of this scenario. A good way to get around this situation during your opponent's turn is to link away as much monsters as possible with I:P Masquerena.
Other builds of this deck include summoning Silhouhatte Rabbit for more interruptions or summoning Fiendsmith's Desirae. The Extra Deck is super tight so I opted to not use cards in my build. Feel free to customize the Extra Deck in your own build of this deck to for your own playstyle!
The siding pattern for this deck is talking out x1 Snake-Eyes Oak, x3 Fuwalos (when you know you're going 1st), and parts or all of the Kashtira Engine. This allows the duelist to side in 10+ cards!
- Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE. FOUR MORE MONTHS OF SNAKE-EYE.
GLHF Duelists!
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