Deus ex Machina Gearframe

Deus ex Machina Gearframe or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Machine.

This all started with a thought experiment: What's the most I can make when I Normal Summon Machina Gearframe?

I'll start by giving you the combo, then go more in-depth about card choices and alternatives. Apologies in advance for being over-specific with the language, I wanted to make sure that the steps of the combo were clear.

1. Normal Summon Machina Gearframe (#1). Trigger Machina Gearframe (#1); add Machina Unclaspare from your Deck to your Hand. Trigger Machina Unclaspare; Special Summon Machina Unclaspare from your Hand to your Field (you can now only Special Summon Machine Monsters for the rest of the Turn). Trigger Machina Unclaspare; send Machina Ruinforce (or Fortress, or Citadel, but we'll go over that later) from your Deck to your GY.

2. Overlay Machina Gearframe (#1) and Machina Unclaspare to Xyz Summon Gear Gigant X (#1).

3. Detach Machina Gearframe (#1) to activate Gear Gigant X (#1); add Superheavy Samurai Motorbike from your Deck to your Hand.

4. Discard Superheavy Samurai Motorbike to activate Superheavy Samurai Motorbike; add Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi from your Deck to your Hand.

5. Activate Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi in your Pendulum Zone.

6. Activate Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi's effect; Special Summon it to your Field while placing Superheavy Samurai Monk Big Benkei in your other Pendulum Zone.

7. Activate Superheavy Samurai Monk Big Benkei; add Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster from your Deck to your Hand.

8. Activate Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster, targeting Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi; equip Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster to Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi.

9. Activate Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster; Special Summon Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia to your Field.

This is Phase 1. How to combo spirals from here can vary greatly, but every time you start by Normal Summoning Machina Gearframe, regardless of your end-goal, you usually want to get to this point.

Now, for where my thought experiment splits off from what would be considered this deck's "standard" combo.

10. Overlay Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi and Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster to Xyz Summon Gear Gigant X (#2).

11. Detach Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi to activate Gear Gigant X (#2); add Infinitrack Harvester from your Deck to your Hand.

12. Use Gear Gigant X (#1) and Gear Gigant X (#2) as material to Link Summon Ancient Gear Ballista to your Extra Monster Zone. Trigger Ancient Gear Ballista; add Ancient Gear Box (that's where the cat goes). Trigger Ancient Gear Box; add Superheavy Samurai General Coral from your Deck to your Hand.

13. Activate Superheavy Samurai General Coral in your Pendulum Zone.

14. Banish Machina Unclaspare, Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi and Superheavy Samurai Soulgaia Booster from your GY to Special Summon Machina Ruinforce from your GY.

15. Use Ancient Gear Ballista and Machina Ruinforce as material to Link Summon Qliphort Genius (#1) to your Extra Monster Zone.

16. Pendulum Summon Ancient Gear Box and Infinitrack Harvester to the Zones Qliphort Genius (#1) points to. Trigger Qliphort Genius (#1) (Chain Link 1) and Infinitrack Harvester (Chain Link 2); add Infinitrack Tunneler from your Deck to your Hand and add Therion "King" Regulus from your Deck to your Hand.

17. Activate Therion "King" Regulus, targeting Machina Gearframe (#1) in your GY; Special Summon Therion "King" Regulus from your Hand to your Field (to a Zone other than the Zones Qliphort Genius (#1) points to) and equip Machina Gearframe (#1) to Therion "King" Regulus.

18. Activate Machina Gearframe (#1); Special Summon Machina Gearframe (#1) to your Field.

19. Overlay Ancient Gear Box and Machina Gearframe to Xyx Summon Gear Gigant X (#3).

20. Detach Machina Gearframe to activate Gear Gigant X (#3); add Machina Gearframe (#2) from your Deck to your Hand.

21. Tribute Gear Gigant X (#3) to activate Infinitrack Tunneler; Special Summon Infinitrack Tunneler from your Hand to your Field in Defense Position.

22. Activate Infinitrack Harvester, Targeting Infinitrack Tunneler; make the Levels of both Infinitrack Harvester and Infinitrack Tunneler Level 7.

23. Overlay Infinitrack Harvester and Infinitrack Tunneler to Xyz Summon Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack (to a Zone other than the Zones Qliphort Genius (#1) points to).

24. Detach Infinitrack Tunneler to activate Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack; Special Summon two Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens to the Zones Qliphort Genius (#1) points to. Trigger Qliphort Genius (#1); add Machina Irradiator from your Deck to your Hand.

25. Use the two Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens as material to Link Summon Qliphort Genius (#2) to a Zone Qliphort Genius (#1) points to (This can also be Barricadeborg Blocker if you use one of the Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens and Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack).

26. Use Qliphort Genius (#1) and Qliphort Genius (#2) as material to Link Summon Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale to your Extra Monster Zone.

27. Banish Infinitrack Tunneler from your GY to activate Infinitrack Tunneler's effect, targeting Gear Gigant X (#1), Gear Gigant X (#2), Gear Gigant X (#3), Qliphort Genius (#1) and Qliphort Genius (#2); return Gear Gigant X (#1), Gear Gigant X (#2), Gear Gigant X (#3), Qliphort Genius (#1) and Qliphort Genius (#2) to your Extra Deck ("shuffle them into the Deck"), then Draw two cards from your Deck.

28. Use Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale and Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack as material to Link Summon Qliphort Genius (#1) to your Extra Monster Zone.

29. Discard Machina Gearframe (#2) to activate Machina Irradiator's effect; Special Summon Machina Irradiator from your Hand to your Field (to a Zone other than the Zones Qliphort Genius points to).

30. Banish Machina Gearframe (#1), Ancient Gear Box, Infinitrack Harvester, and Superheavy Samurai Motorbike from your GY to Special Summon Machina Ruinforce from your GY (to a Zone Qliphort Genius points to).

31. Activate Machina Irradiator's effect, targeting Machina Ruinforce; Special Summon Machina Gearframe (#2) from your GY (to a Zone other than the Zones Qliphort Genius points to) and Destroy Machina Ruinforce. Trigger Machina Ruinforce; Special Summon Machina Gearframe (#1) and Machina Unclaspare from your Banishment to the Zones Qliphort Genius points to. Trigger Qliphort Genius; add Heavy Freight Train Derricrane from your Deck to your Hand.

32. Overlay Machina Gearframe (#1) and Machina Gearframe (#2) to Xyz Summon Gear Gigant X (#1).

33. Detach Machina Gearframe (#1) to activate the effect of Gear Gigant X (#1); add Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede from your Deck to your Hand.

34. Use Gear Gigant X (#1) and Qliphort Genius (#1) as material to Link Summon Platinum Gadget to your Extra Monster Zone.

35. Use Machina Unclaspare and Machina Irradiator as material to Link Summon Double Headed Anger Knuckle to a Zone Platinum Gadget points to. Trigger Heavy Freight Train Derricrane; Special Summon Heavy Freight Train Derricrane from your Hand to your Field.

36. Banish Machina Gearframe (#1), Machina Gearframe (#2), and Machina Unclaspare from your GY to Special Summon Machina Ruinforce from your GY.

37. Overlay Machina Ruinforce and Heavy Freight Train Derricrane to Xyz Summon Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora.

38. Activate Platinum Gadget; Special Summon Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede from your Hand to your Field. Trigger Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede; Special Summon Machina Irradiator from your GY.

39. Activate Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede, Targeting Machina Irradiator; make the Level of Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede Level 8.

40. Overlay Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede and Machina Irradiator to Xyz Summon Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star. Trigger Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star; attach Infinitrack Tunneler from your Banishment to Dingirsu, Orcust of the Evening Star.

End-Board:

- Therion "King" Regulus (Omni-Negate)

- Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora with Heavy Freight Train Derricrane as Xyz Material (4000 Defense and can make any Monster a Towers, detaching Heavy Freight Train Derricrane will trigger Heavy Freight Train Derricrane's effect to target and destroy an opponent's card)

- Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star with 3 Xyz Materials, including Infinitrack Tunneler (Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star can prevent the destruction of a card(s) by detaching an Xyz Material, and Infinitrack Tunneler can Banish itself to shuffle five EARTH Machine Monsters from your GY into your Deck (or Extra Deck) and then draws two cards from your Deck)

- Double Headed Anger Knuckle (can send any Monster from your Hand or Field to the GY in order to Special Summon a Level 10 Machine Monster from your GY, we'll come back to this)

- Platinum Gadget (doesn't really do anything at this point, we'll come back to this too)

- Superheavy Samurai Monk Big Benkei (Pendulum Scale)

- Superheavy Samurai General Coral (Pendulum Scale)

- Two cards drawn from your Deck.

Total Cards: 9

Total Advantage: +8

Total Interruptions: ~4 (Therion "King" Regulus, Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora, Heavy Freight Train Derricrane, Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale in your GY)

Other Board Presence: Pendulum Scales, Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star can detach Xyz Materials to prevent any of your card(s) from being destroyed by battle or card effects, Double Headed Anger Knuckle can revive a level 10 from your GY by sending an otherwise useless card like Platinum Gadget to the GY.

Now for the technical stuff.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Highlights and Combo Notes.

Strengths:

- Ending on most of the usual End-Board but coupled with a Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star while recycling Infinitrack Tunneler gives the board a lot of protection while enabling follow-up.

- This combo is the absolute most I can produce (for now) - any 1-time interruption theoretically limits some of what I can produce, but between extenders and draw power most interruptions can be played around, or at the very least put up everything an the End-Board bar DIngirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star, which is what the deck was already doing anyway.

- Despite the write-up, I'm still working on the combo, I just wanted to flag my progress after finally assembling an End-Board that included the usual fare of Therion "King" Regulus, Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora and Double Headed Anger Knuckle with the theoretically incredible value of summoning Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star and attaching the previously banished Infinitrack Tunneler so that I can re-use it without having to include Machina Overdrive in the Deck (that's another conversation).

Weaknesses:

- The combo itself is extremely fragile because it's so self-sufficient (fuel-efficient?); a Bystial/D.D. Crow on Ruinforce or even Wakaushi or Unclaspare starves the combo of the resources it uses - I guess it's a good thing it has so many extenders, but that also turns a lot of First-Turns into coin-flips.

- The nature of the deck heavily limits your tech options; a deck that's as combo-heavy as this desperately needs strong tech to help with going second and dealing with interruptions, but the Superheavy Samurai engine means no Called by the Grave or Crossout Designator to stop Hand Traps, no Triple Tactics Talent/Triple Tactics Thrust to punish Hand Traps, no Forbidden Droplet, Dark Ruler No More, Lightning Storm or Evenly Matched to break the opponent's Board - sure, we have Hand Traps of our own, and there are a couple of Monster Board Breakers like Kashtira Fenrir, Dinowrestler Pankratops, and Kaiju Monsters, but such a heavy limiting of options will radically affect the type of meta a deck like this can perform in, and other combo decks do the sort of degenerate things that this deck does without that sort of handicap. That doesn't mean I'll stop playing the deck, nor does it mean that you should, it's just a pretty heavy concession to take on when building around this combo. If a Gear Gigant X search that's less restrictive and more potent than Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi gets released, I'll re-visit this point.

- An extension of the second problem this deck has is the problem the deck has with going second. While it can easily pull off an OTK and the Hand Traps usually provide it with what it needs to prevent the opponent from setting up a board (just remember that most Hand Traps are low-impact by themselves, try to use them in conjunction with one another and be selective about when and how you use them, don't mindlessly throw your Ash Blossom away - Ash Blossom is used specifically to counter Maxx "C" in the OCG, so in any given match-up, try to figure out the opponent's Maxx "C" you're holding your Ash Blossom for), this is a "Weaknesses" section so I'm trying to emphasise the difficulties the deck can experience. This isn't the Top Meta Deck, it's not even a footnote, you can't be mindless in 90% of match-ups and expect to win anyway.

Alright, that's enough negativity.

Highlights:

- The combo uses Gear Gigant X's effect four times and Qliphort Genius' effect three times. "Once per turn" is just a mindset.

- The combo starts with Machina Gearframe or Superheavy Samurai Motorbike, but can't do it with one card if you start with Machina Redeployment or Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi; ironically, the stronger starters are "weaker" in the context of this particular combo.

- My goal was the find a way to make Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star so that I could recover Infinitrack Tunneler, all without having to start with more than Machina Gearframe. I have succeeded in that goal.

Combo Notes:

- The "standard" version of this combo ends on Therion "King" Regulus, Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora (with Heavy Freight Train Derricrane attached), Double Headed Anger Knuckle and Gigantic "Champion" Sargas (with Infinitrack Goliath attached), as well as the standard draw two from Infinitrack Tunneler, and Machina Citadel in the GY, which you can pre-emptively set up with Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora and Gigantic "Champion" Sargas if you commit one more Monster (any monster will do) to the combo. Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale is a poor substitute for Machina Citadel, but I'll take the trade-off of Gigantic "Champion" Sargas and Machina Citadel for Ampibious Swarmship Amblowhale and Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star and a recycled Infinitrack Tunneler, at least for now while I try to find ways to clean up the combo.

- Machina Irradiator is the progenitor of this version of the combo. Essentially each enabler in the combo has a sort of "break-point" where I determine exactly what I can do and what would be best to do in order to achieve my goal (in this case, ending on the "standard" board but with Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star to recycle Infinitrack Tunneler). Machina Gearframe and Machina Unclaspare interact with a "Machina" Monster, Qliphort Genius interacts with Level 5 or higher Machine Monsters, and Infinitrack River Stormer interacts with EARTH Machine Monsters (Infinitrack River Stormer, sadly, did not make the final cut of the current build; it's too inefficient without Infinitrack Brutal Dozer, and Infinitrack Brutal Dozer locks you into EARTH Machine Monsters, and getting out Infinitrack Tunneler without Infinitrack Brutal Dozer and getting Dingirsu, Orcust of the Evening Star and still getting out Infinitrack Brutal Dozer, while also having any space in the Extra Deck, is very hard, at least while committing to the stipulations of the thought experiement). I kept coming across Machina Irradiator as a result of looking at cards within these filters, and regularly dismissed it because I held that it was a bad card. I still do, to be honest, but in addition to its role in the combo, I've found it to be a useful search for Machina Gearframe when you open Machina Unclaspare, or even just opening with Machina Unclaspare in general.

- There are many, many, many cards that I have considered in the process of assembling this combo, the most obvious being the Orcust cards themselves, but in addition to having to run too many cards that could easily be bricks, locking you into Machines so early means that you can't make I:P Masquerana for Orcust's big Turn-Two play. I'll keep toying with things though, this is a work-in-progress. 

If you've come this far, you might enjoy a little story about my journey with Machina (I guess if recipes can have them, deck recipes can have them too).

The reason I started working on this combo is because Machina Fortress is my favourite combo of all time and, by extension, Machina Gearframe is my favourite card to Normal Summon.

Machina was the first deck I ever topped a tournament with back in 2013, during Dragon Ruler Format; don't worry, it was the second phase of Dragon Ruler Format, after the babies were banned, I was using Redox myself, I only faced/defeated one Dragon Ruler player in Swiss, and I immediately lost in Top Cut, it just sounds more impressive when I reduce it to "I topped a tournament with Machina during Dragon Ruler Format"... something I also did with Battlin' Boxers, but that's a story for another time.

The point is that I have a long history with Machina. Even after I dropped out of the game in 2014 with the introduction of Pendulum Monsters (I don't have a particular bias against the Pendulum mechanic, I was just already losing enthusiasm in the game and the introduction of a new mechanic made that transition out of the game easier), I still held deep in my heart the sheer joy I found in the degeneracy of Machina Fortress being able to discard itself as part of the cost of its own summon by its own [unclassified effect], and being able to repeatedly revive it by discarding level 8 Machine Monsters (like I said, this was Dragon Ruler(-adjacent) Format, being able to summon Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack was the name of the game, detaching a Fortress only to revive it again hit different in 2013 - sidebar: Does anyone else say "Machine Monster" in their head like Joey did in his duel with Bandit Keith?).

When I got back into the game in late 2020/early 2021 (between Phantom Rage and Blazing Vortex) the only deck I was interested in was "the best deck that runs Machina Fortess." Obviously my attention was turned to Earth Machines and the then-dead Orcust. While I was happy to be playing my favourite card again, the base Earth Machine build at the time was little more than Anger Knuckle Turbo; it wasn't the deck's fault, so to speak, the cards just weren't there yet for a truly combo-heavy Earth Machine deck to emerge. Then the new Supherheavy Samurai support came out, and after playing it to death until the banning of Superheavy Samurai Scarecrow, I realised that Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi/Superheavy Samurai Motorbike were able to produce a Gear Gigant X without using your Normal Summon. The fact that you can start there and get to Machina Gearframe, or start with Machina Gearframe and get to Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi/Superheavy Samurai Motorbike, is just gravy for me - I love combos that flow into each other like that, for a while I tinkered with a Libromancer P.U.N.K. deck because I worked out a combo that could start either with the Libromancer side or the P.U.N.K. side and it would inevitably develop into the other, though I haven't revisited it since the banning of Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights, but I digress.

If you read this far, I thank you for your time. If you have any advice on more optimal routes I could take to still end up with a recycled Infinitrack Tunneler (which itself was the whole point of getting to Dingirsu, not just recycling it but having it back immediately) and/or more threatening End-Board that I haven't already mentioned, let me know.

Good luck and Godspeed to anyone who tries this degenerate insanity.