Despite the banlist hits, Snake-Eye continues its Tier 1 dominance with it's many incarnations - this time with Fire King!
Fire King has finally arrived in Masterduel with the selection pack Lord of Dimensions, and when these royal beasts are mixed with Snake-Eye, they are a nearly unstoppable force! Fire King provides so much extension, recursion, bodies and utility to the Snake-Eyes strategy. Almost EVERYTHING floats you into either more giant beatsticks on field or more resources in-hand. Piloted properly, Snake-Eye Fire King definitely is the #1 deck on ladder, being able to deal with Maxx "C," counter stun decks, and dominate regular meta decks!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES, ENGINES AND DECKBUILDING
This strategy is composed of two archetypes, FIRE KING and SNAKE-EYE. Since this strategy has two full archetypes in it, there are less STAPLES that are in the deck but that is exchanged for more "gas" to propel the gameplan forward.
The SNAKE-EYE cards take a step aside and are merely a supportive crutch for the strategy. Snake-Eyes Ash starts up the entire gameplan, so despite the banlist hits, 10 cards search it (3 Diabellstarr, 1 WANTED, 2 Poplar, 1 Original Sinful-Spoils, 3 Bonfire) in addition to having 1 of Ash granting a total of 11 starters! With that many starters, this Snake-Eyes portion of the deck is surprisingly consistent.
The FIRE KING cards take the royal centre stage in this strategy. Compared to it's "pure" variant, the Fire King package in this deck is compact, comprised of 1 Fire King Island, 1 Sanctuary, 1 Ponix, 1 Sacred Garunix, 1 Avatar Garunix, 1 Arvata, 1 Sky Burn and 1 Circle of Fire Kings. 3 Fire King Consort is used since it's a great starter/combo piece and 3 High Avatar Kirin since it allows monsters to dodge targeting effects like Imperm and Effect Veiler.
The STAPLES featured in this deck are the usual suspects in Masterduel - the 12 card "Maxx C" package (3 Ash, 3 Maxx, 2 Called By, 1 Crossout and 2 Gamma + 1 Driver) so that you can come out on top of the "Maxx C Minigame." 1 Nibiru, Droll, and Imperm are popular staples and Crossout targets to negate.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Snake-Eye Fire King is a powerful combo deck that can link spam like no tomorrow. After the initial Snake-Eye combo, there are a ton of extenders such as Flamberge Dragon's "soul charge" of level 1 fires and Promethean Princess' summon of any fire monster from GY. Similarly to the "Cyberse pile" decks, Snake-Eye Fire King's immense swarming potential allow that enable the deck to link climb to incredible heights. Not only that, the deck is resilient enough to play through high impact handtraps like Nibiru, Droll, even Dimension Shifter!
The Fire King variant of Snake-Eye differs from the other Snake-Eye decks since it isn't a linear deck - depending on what Fire King cards you have, you can extend extremely far and break boards, even before normal summoning Snake-Eyes Ash. Sometimes, you can even get 4 bodies on field to create Apollousa before the 5th summon so you can insulate your Snake-Eyes combo. The great variety in boards that certain hands make and in certain gamestate depend on the skill and decision making of the duelist. So practice with this deck is key, since it is fairly more complicated than your regular Snake-Eyes deck!
A singular uninterrupted Snake-Eyes Ash gets you through everything and provides you with a whopping many interruptions and incredible amounts of resources as follow-up for next turn.
Snake-Eyes Ash = 1 targeted destruction of a monster (Promethean Princess) + 2-4 monster negates (Apollousa) or S:P Little Knight Banish + Linkuriboh (battle protection) + Heatsoul (draw 1) + Zealantis (destruction during Battle Phase) + Sacred Garunix (gigantic body that summons from GY and destroy 1 with Kirin) + Raging Phoenix (gigantic body that summons from GY) .
Normal summon Snake-Eyes Ash. Activate Snake Ash's effect to search for Snake Poplar from deck.
Activate Poplar's effect to summon itself from hand when searched.
Activate Poplar's effect when summoned to search for Original Sinful Spoils.
Link summon Linkuriboh using Poplar. Activate Poplar's effect when it leaves the field to place itself in the backrow.
Activate Original Sinful Spoils sending Poplar in the backrow to the GY to summon from deck Ponix.
Activate Ponix's effect to search for Fire King Sanctuary.
Activate Fire King Sanctuary to place Fire King Island on the field from deck.
Activate Snake-Eye Ash's effect to send itself and Sanctuary to the GY to summon from deck Snake-Eye Oak.
Activate Oak's on-summon effect to summon from GY Snake-Eye Ash.
Activate Oak's effect send itself and Ash to summon from deck Flamberge Dragon.
Activate Fire King Island's effect to destroy Ponix and search for Sacred Garunix.
Activate Sacred Garunix's effect to summon itself from hand. Activate Garunix's on-summon effect to destroy High Avatar Kirin from hand.
Activate Kirin's GY effect to summon from the GY Ponix.
Link summon I:P Masquerena using Flamberge Dragon + Sacred Garunix.
Activate Flamberge Dragon's effect to summon from GY Snake-Eye Ash and Oak.
Link summon Promethean Princess using I:P Masquerena + Linkuriboh.
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 Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf using Promethean Princess + Snake-Eyes Ash.
Tribute Snake-Eyes Oak with Linkuriboh to summon it from the GY, summon it underneath Sunlight Wolf so its link arrow is pointing to it.
Activate Sunlight Wolf's effect to take High Avatar Kirin from your GY to hand. (You can add any fire monster like Ash Blossom this way).
Link summon Heatsoul using Sunlight Wolf + Linkuriboh.
Activate Heatsoul's effect to pay 1000 lifepoints and draw 1 card.
Link summon Salamangreat Raging Phoenix using Ponix + Heatsoul.
Link summon Zealantis using Raging Phoenix as the whole material.
Activate Zealantis' effect to banish itself and all other monsters on your field and return them to the field. Place Zealantis in a Main Monster Zone where it can be easily co-linked Promethean Princess.
During your opponent's turn, summon I:P Masquerena from the backrow.
Activate I:P Masquerena to link summon. Either link summon S:P Little Knight or Apollousa as needed.
During your opponent's turn, when your fire monster gets destroyed, float into the field from the GY with Raging Phoenix and Sacred Garunix. Remember, Garunix can destroy Kirin from deck, and Kirin destroys a card as it reborns something!
GOING FIRST, a singular Snake-Eyes Ash grants you a TON of resources, materials and interruptions. You get several monster negates, and banishes, and you get an insane resource loop that constantly feeds your hand and field with immense amounts of resources. With that, you should be able to get ahead of your opponent and win in a grindgame or quickly OTK with overwhelming power.
GOING SECOND, the Snake-Eyes strategy features a ton of handtraps to weaken your opponent's gamestate and alot of gas to enable the duelist to power through interruption. As you combo up, you can methodically remove your opponent's field using Flamberge Dragon's non-destruction removal, Kirin's destruction and Accesscode can be made for about 3 pops due to the different attribute link materials in the GY. Finally, you can OTK in a heart beat with Zealantis, Promethean Princess and Raging Phoenix OTK.
GENERAL TIPS
Both Snake-Eyes and Fire King does a lot of actions that involves having no monsters on the field - meaning that Psy-Frame Gamma is almost always live! Alot of players on ladder leave their Ash Blossom for the Original Sinful Spoils summoning a card from deck, and since the card leaves your field empty, you can Gamma their Ash Blossom! When that interaction happens, people usually leave.
If you lose out on the Maxx "C" minigame, try to end your board on Flamberge Dragon. For the price of allowing your opponent to draw 1 more card, you can end on a 3000 ATK body and follow-up for next turn since the card floats into your searchers in the GY.
Hiita and Dharc can summon a monster from your opponent's GY (for example, summon your opponent's Ash Blossom or D.D. Crow) and you can either make Selene (typically for Accesscode) or more importantly, Promethean Princess. if your GY is already set-up, this play allows you to get back to your gameplan by summoning a crucial Fire monster from the GY, like Snake-Eyes Ash, Poplar or Flamberge Dragon.
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 Fire King 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 for I:P Masquerena.
Since all your interruption is centered around your monsters, be careful about your Apollousa being stolen by your opponent (happens surprisingly a lot). A "talents" or change of heart on your Apollousa is often devastating and is enough to break your board since you'll be facing down your own mass negates.
You'll encounter a lot of Snake-Eye mirror matches on ladder. When facing a rival Snake-Eyes player, negate your opponent's Flamberge Dragon, especially by using Crossout or Called By the Grave. This prevents their target removal of your cards and severely limits their link spam. Also, try to prevent your opponent from summoning or using Hiita, since she can also use your entire GY with all it's effect monsters!
- Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
It seems like Fire King's royal reign will continue for a while on Masterduel ladder, since Snake-Eyes still exists as a viable deck. Since Snake-Eye's consistency is being shafted by banlist after banlist, additional strategies need to be added on top so that the deck remains usable. I guess that's one way to coerce hardcore Masterduelists to buy new archetypes like the Fire Kings!
GLHF Duelists!
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