Common Charity Megalith

MEGALITH

A Rock Solid Ritual Deck.

Megalith has been a deck I've enjoyed ever since it came out in Ignition Assault around the time I started playing Yu-Gi-Oh!. It's a ritual combo deck that abuses the non-hard once per turn on ritual summon effects of their level-4 ritual monsters to gain advantage, and their ability to use those monsters to ritual summon more Megalith monsters or any other ritual monsters. This combined with the fact that they are rock monsters and thus could use Gallant Granite to search, the Adamancipator monsters as tuner extenders for Crystron Halqifibrax, and Block Dragon as a repeatable +3 allowed the deck to see niche high-level play during 2020. The archetype was also released on Duel Links in Chronicle of Glory in July 2020 and would see niche play there too especially after the release of Xyz monsters to that game as a deck that could repeatedly destroy 2-6 cards with Megalith Bethor, then attack for large amounts of damage using Megalith Phaleg's boost and could search cards like Cyber Angel Dakini as an out to Invoked Cocytus or make use of a toolbox of Rank-4 and Rank-8 Xyz monsters.
In Common Charity then deck functions similar to the Duel Links version in some regards, the deck is built to repeatedly destroy the opponents' cards with Bethor, gaining advantage through the deck's field spell, Megalith Portal, and continuous trap, Megalith Emergence, it has access to a toolbox of Rank-4 and Rank-8 Xyz monsters like Time Thief Redoer, Tornado Dragon, or Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon and it can deal with opposing strategies through searchable cards like Cyber Angel Dakini, Amorphactor Pain, or Artifact Lancea, but it also has access to some of the most powerful set-up pieces of the archetype, Megalith Unformed, which allows you to ritual summon from the deck by tributing twice that monsters level, and Megalith Phul, a level-2 ritual monster that on ritual summon adds a ritual monster from your GY and becomes that monsters level and can ritual summon Megalith monsters from the deck by tributing monsters from hand or field during both players' main phases. Additionally, the deck plays well into some of the more common removal in the format - Kaijus. Most of the boards the deck makes lose very little to a Kaiju, you can still pop 2-4 on your opponent's main phase using Bethor's effect if you bring back Phul using Emergence, and you can use the Kaiju as ritual material, Jizikiru and Dogoran can be the entire requirement for summoning a level-8 Megalith using Phul or the level-8s, the level-4 monsters can use themselves and a Raidan in order to summon a high-level ritual monster, and Dogaran specifically can be used as the entire requirement to summon a level-4 monster off of Unformed or be overlayed with another level-8 to make one of the deck's rank-8 monsters.

2-Card Combos

This Version of Megalith is built around having multliple two-card combos that set up Phul + Portal + Emergance. There are 2 main ways the deck facilitates this Unformed and Advanced Ritual Art. Each of these two card combos can be expanded upon in different ways depending on the other cards in your hand, and most combos that don't start with a piece tend to do similar things just with a higher investment.

Unformed + Senju/Manju:

1. Normal summon Senju of the Thousand Hands or Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, use their effect to add Megalith Och.


2. Activate Megalith Unformed tributing Och in order to summon Megalith Phul. Phul adds Och back to hand becoming a level 4 in the process.


3. Tribute the Senju/Manju in order to summon Megalith Hagith from the deck, Hagith's effect adds Megalith Portal.


4. Activate Megalith Portal, then activate Hagith's effect in order to ritual summon Och from hand using itself as material, this proccs Portal which adds back the Hagith. You can also activate Och to draw a card, and then discard a card.


5. Activate Och's effect to ritual summon the Hagith from hand. Activate Hagith's effect again to search Megalith Emergence. Set Emergence.


6. You now have 2 level-4 monsters on field - Hagith and Phul, Portal and Emergence, and 1 Ritual Monster name already in the GY. You can overlay the two monsters for a rank-4 or keep them around as ritual material or allow you to play through removal on Emergence depending on the situation.

Advanced Ritual Art + Senju/Manju:

1. Normal summon Senju/Manju, use their effect to add Megalith Hagith.


2. Activate Advanced Ritual Art to ritual summon Hagith by sending a level 4 normal monster from your deck like Dunames Dark Witch. Hagith effect adds Unformed.


3. Activate Unformed tribute the Hagith for Phul. Phul adds back the Hagith and becomes level-4.


4. Phul effect tribute the Senju/Manju for a Hagith from deck. Hagith adds Portal.


5. Activate Portal. Use the Hagith to ritual summon on field to ritual summon the Hagith in hand. Hagith adds Emergence. Portal can add the Hagith in GY to hand.


6. You're in a similar position to the first combo except you a second Hagith in rotation rather than an Och, and you've used the garnet in the deck. This can be worse in certain situations where you want to revive Och with Emergence to ritual summon a non-Megalith Ritual Monster during your opponent's main phase.

Hagith + Manju:

1. Normal summon Manju, add Advanced Ritual Art


2. Step-2 on from combo 2.

Apart form the Megalith cards and cards mentioned in combos there are a bunch of cards that can be played in this deck in the main, side, or extra deck that have specific applications in this deck compared to others

• Cyber Angel Benten is a level-6 ritual monster that when tributed can add a Light Fairy monster from your deck to your hand, such as Manju or Senju. This effect is not once per turn and could search itself leading it to be limited because of its interactions with Drytron monsters in advanced. It also has an on field effect that never comes up which is that it does burn when it destroys a monster by battle equal to that monsters defence.


• Cyber Angel Dakini is a level-8 Light Fairy ritual monster that makes the opponent send one of their monsters to the GY, this is non-destructive, non-targeting, non-effecting removal, which means it can out a boss with any protection if your opponent does not have any other monsters on field. This gives the deck a searchable out to Gouki The Powerload Ogre or Lunalight Leo Dancer among other problematic bosses. It also gives your ritual monsters piercing and can return a ritual monster from your GY to your hand during your end phase.


• Cyber Angel Vrash is a level-10 Light Fairy ritual monster that on summon destroys all monsters your opponent controls that were special summoned from the Extra Deck and burn for 1000 for each and attack twice that turn. It also has a Stardust Dragon effect by shuffling a ritual monster from your GY into your deck. If there were less indestructible Extra Deck monsters around I might run this. Being a level-10 changes the ritual maths a little - you can't tribute 2 level-4s, but you can tribute a level-4 and a level-6 or higher monster.


• Artifact Lancea is a level-5 Light Fairy non-ritual effect monster that can be tributed from hand or field during your opponent's turn to stop players from banishing cards. It is a searchable way to deal with Tenyi's follow up for a turn, which is normally long enough to turn the tide such that you can establish control of the game.


• Demise, Agent of Armageddon is level-4 ritual monster that is a non-targeting pop when ritual summoned and if it is sent to the GY, you can target one of your ritual monsters then while that monster is on the field your opponent can't respond to any of your ritual monsters effects - even ones in the GY.


• Amorphactor Pain is a level-8 ritual monster that after it is summoned your opponent skips their next Main Phase 1 (Which at time of writing is bugged on EDO Pro) and negates the effects of face-up Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monsters on the field. This can shut down Lunalight as their main forms of interaction are through Xyz and Fusion monsters and the effect to skip their main phase 1 also allows you to effectively Threatning Roar them on subsequent turns when you have dealt with their current field.


• Lord of the Red is a level-8 ritual monster that can destroy 1 target spell/trap and 1 target monster per turn each when a card or effect is activated. This is a decent Pre-Preparation of Rites target that allows you to potentially destroy 2 cards per turn, however the deck already has an in archetype way of destroying even more cards every turn.


• Transonic Bird is a level-4 ritual monster that can send a ritual spell from the deck during your opponent's turn to copy its effect, it's ritual spell Sonic Tracker makes the Bird's level equal the level of its material and can be banished from the GY to target a ritual monster then send a monster with the same type or attribute from the deck to the GY. This enables a 3 card way to resolve Amorphactor Pain before your opponent's next main phase and can set up additional names and target in the GY for your Megaliths, however this is pretty gimmicky, requires more bricks in the form of Earth Chant, and the other effects of Transonic Bird don't synergise with any of the other ritual monsters the deck runs.


• Trade In is a spell that can discard a level-8 monster in order to draw 2 cards. This deck is playing a reasonably high number of level-8 monsters already, so this card could give the deck more consistency, however it can still be dead and when it is, it's only use is to be discarded with Och. I would like to test this card out in the Future.