Draitron Tzolkin Herald

Introduction

This deck aims to make use of the new Draitron Ritual archetype coming to the TCG in Genesis Impactors. Going first the goal is to set up as many negates as possible with Herald of Ultimateness, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess. Going second, the deck can break boards with Number 77: The Seven Sins and easily OTK with it and Draitron Meteornis=DRA. The deck is able to run in-theme handtraps like Artifact Lancea and Gnomaterial that double as discard fodder for Herald and help counter some of the top decks in the meta, particularly Phantom Knights or any deck that must banish cards. Since the deck also has many powerful Ritual monsters, it can play through Extra Deck lockout effects reasonably well too. And since the Draitron Ritual Spell allows summoning Ritual monsters from the Graveyard, the deck has surprising recursion and resilience so long as you have at least one Draitron or Ritual card in hand.

In anticipation of the inevitable ban of Crystron Halqifibrax, this deck instead uses Ultimaya Tzolkin as a combo extender/mini Synchro engine.

Unfortunately the TCG does not yet have access to the key combo piece Diviner of the Heralds, which allows for Tzolkin plays and significantly increases the consistency and ceiling of the deck. Unless Diviner is released soon this deck is only playable in the OCG or in automatic dueling simulators. Until then Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands must be used instead.

Two card combos for this deck allow you to end on a Herald of Ultimateness with two omni-negates as well as a Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and an I:P Masquerena. Three card combos increase the ceiling significantly; high roll hands can end on not only Herald with 3-4 negates, Crystal Wing and I:P, but also make Herald immune to spell effects (including Forbidden Droplet and Dark Ruler No More !), and link into a 3-material Apollousa on your opponent's turn.

With Called By The Grave now Limited, this deck can struggle against handtraps or well-established boards if you cannot access your ritual spell or combo pieces. It is fairly susceptible to Ash Blossom but can dodge some targeting effects like Effect Veiler because the Draitrons activate in the GY. Drawing any of the small Herald cards can also allow you to negate a handtrap and continue your plays. If you are looking for a Ritual deck that can build surprisingly strong boards and take games off of meta decks after the September banlist, and that doesn't utilize the combos we've all seen before with Halqifibrax, look no further!

Draitrons

Draitrons are a Ritual-based archetype of LIGHT Machine monsters with a unique mechanic: Ritual summoning using ATK values (of Machine-type monsters) instead of levels. All of them cannot be Normal Summoned or Set, and activating their effects (from the hand or GY) lock you out of Special Summoning monsters that can be Normal Summoned for the rest of the turn. While this restriction seems unworkable, you are still allowed to normal summon and summon from the Extra Deck as well as Ritual Summon. As their Ritual spell Meteornis Draitronis is generic, they are highly splashable and can support almost any Ritual archetype.

Each non-Ritual Draitron is level 1 with 2000 ATK/0 DEF, and their effects are activated by tributing another Ritual or Draitron monster from your hand or field, allowing you to Special Summon them in defense position with an additional effect. The 2 Ritual Draitron monsters are both level 12 with 4000 ATK/4000 DEF each and are untargetable by monster effects or Spell/Trap effects, respectively.

• Draitron Ban-Alpha is our main starter and searcher for the deck. You can tribute another Draitron or Ritual to search out a Ritual monster from the deck, usually Cyber Angel Benten if you don't already have it or Megalith Phul otherwise. The biggest worry with this card is being hit by an opponent's Ash Blossom, as without access to Benten most of our plays are out of reach. Sometimes you can bait a potential Ash Blossom if you already have Benten in hand by tributing it with Alpha. Since it is tributed for cost you can still use Benten's effect after the chain resolves.


• Draitron Al-Zeta is just like Alpha but searches Ritual Spells instead. Usually we'll want to use this card after having already used Alpha's effect, tributing the Ritual monster it just searched. We only run one Ritual Spell and access to it is crucial so this card is a three-of.


• Draitron El-Gamma is an extender, not a searcher, allowing us to tribute a Ritual or Draitron monster to special summon itself and another Draitron in the GY. This is one of the only ways to summon a small Draitron in Attack position, which can be useful when you just need a bit more damage to OTK your opponent and all of your Draitrons are in defense. Although the card lets you extend farther, it is not as useful as Alpha or Zeta so we only run 2.


• Draitron Meteornis=DRA is the first of the Ritual boss monsters. While it is untargetable by monster effects and has 4000 ATK/DEF, we will rarely summon this card unless we need to OTK or have no other options. Its effect--banishing monsters from your GY whose total ATK equal 2000 or 4000, to target and send to the GY up to two of your opponent's monsters--can only be activated during your opponent's turn. It's great that this effect sends to the GY rather than destroying, but unfortunately it targets and so is not the best removal. We'll most often use this card as tribute fodder for another Ritual monster since it can fulfill the ATK requirement on its own.


• Draitron Meteornis=QUA is the second Ritual boss and is rather situational, being untargetable by spells and traps and destroying all of your opponent's backrow when summoned. You should side this to replace DRA when facing decks with heavy backrow like Altergeist, Dogmatika or Phantom-Knights.

In addition to the main deck monsters there are 4 Draitron spells we will make use of:

• Meteornis Draitron is our Ritual spell, able to summon any Ritual monster from your hand or GY by tributing Machines whose total ATK exceed its ATK. For the cost of lowering the ATK of a Draitron monster you control for the rest of the turn, you can return it back to your hand to use it again. Since this card provides natural recursion and usually allows you to use it twice per turn, you generally don't need to run more than one copy.


• Draitron Nova special summons any non-ritual Draitron from the deck, destroying it during the end phase. This is an amazing starter, since we can link off the monster summoned into Linkuriboh and activate its effects from the GY. You'll want to always run 3, and almost always summon Alpha off of its effect.


• Draitron Fafnir is our Field Spell, almost like a Ritual version of Magical Meltdown, that primarily searches other Draitron spells/traps. It prevents your Ritual spell cards from being negated, but this is rarely all that useful as your opponent can still chain to their activation. It can also be very useful against Synchro or Xyz-based decks: When a monster is Special Summoned you can decrease its level by 1 for every 1000 ATK it has, once per turn, if you control a Draitron monster. If you time this properly you can prevent your opponent from Synchro or Xyz Summoning their intended monster by decreasing the level of the Synchro or Xyz material. Run 2-3.


• Draitron Asterism is an interesting Quick Play spell that provides targeted monster removal at the cost of decreasing a Draitron or Ritual monster's ATK by 1000. It can help you out of tight spots going second (for example, to destroy an opponent's Apollousa) and going first serves as another, searchable, disruption.

Fairies & More

The second half of our main deck monster lineup mainly consists of LIGHT Fairy monsters, mostly from the "Herald" archetype. In addition to their individual effects, all of them serve as extra discards/negates for Herald, so we want to run as many as possible, even for handtraps.

• Herald of Ultimateness is our big, non-once-per-turn omni-negate stick, discarding Fairy monsters to negate effects. With 2000 ATK/3000 DEF it can be summoned with one Draitron or a boosted Union Carrier and expect to survive a battle phase against whatever your opponent can normal summon. This can negate Special Summons as well, meaning it can stop monsters with effects on summon from activating at all. However, while Herald can negate the activation of Spell/Trap cards, it cannot negate their effects, meaning your opponent can use S/T effects in the GY or the effects of continuous or Field spells already on the field. You'll want to sit on this with as many Fairy monsters in hand as possible and carefully say "no" to whatever your opponent tries to do.


• Eva is a weird, alien looking Fairy that is the ideal discard fodder for Herald. When it hits the GY you can banish up to two other LIGHT fairy monsters from it to add that many other level 2 or lower LIGHT fairies to your hand. Using it to negate something allows you to search two more negates!


• Herald of Orange Light is the in-theme monster negate handtrap and our only hope of sometimes playing through Nibiru. Even though you have to go -2 to use it, discarding it and another Fairy, it is usually worth it if used on your opponent's key combo pieces or to save your board.


• Herald of Purple Light is just like Orange but for Trap cards. It can save you from Infinite Impermanence or other Normal traps, but it cannot negate the effects of traps already on the field like Personal Spoofing, nor counter trap cards like Solemn Judgment.


• Lee the World Chalice Fairy provides longevity in long games, returning itself to the hand at the cost of a monster from your hand or field, giving you a Herald negate each turn in combination with the Draitrons' effects. It's also another name to search off of Eva.

Next are the Fairy combo pieces, including the as-yet-unreleased Diviner:

• Diviner of the Heralds is a level 2 Tuner that sends a fairy monster from your Extra Deck to the Graveyard to gain that monster's levels. By sending Herald of the Arc Light or Elder Entity N'Tss we can fill our GY with Fairies and search a Ritual monster/spell or pop a card, respectively. This also sets up Diviner to be a level 6 Tuner which is how we'll summon Tzolkin. You could use this card to go into Halqifibrax, but we won't. It's also a Herald discard in a pinch.


• Cyber Angel Benten is what makes the deck go brrrrr. Its effect to search a LIGHT Fairy when Tributed is not once per turn, and we aim to activate it at least twice per turn. Search it with Alpha then Tribute it with Zeta to search Diviner, use it as Herald fodder at the worst, etc. The most broken card in the deck and one you'll always want at 2-3 copies.


• Cyber Angel Natasha is Benten's little, level 5 sister. You can use it to steal your opponent's monsters (and its effect to do so is not once per turn!), but only if it has been properly Ritual Summoned and is in your GY with another Cyber Angel to banish. Since it only has 1000 ATK it's incredibly easy to summon and can turn the Duel in your favor if you take something big with it. You could probably cut this for another Benten or handtraps if you like.

Lastly are a few cards that raise the ceiling of the deck significantly:

• Megalith Phul is a 500 ATK Ritual monster that returns a Ritual monster from the GY to the hand and gains its level. It can also tribute monsters to Ritual Summon a Megalith card from your hand or deck. This allows us to use Benten's effect a second time, by returning it to the hand and tributing it, and in the process it also becomes level 6 for Tzolkin. Later in the game it can also return a level 12 Ritual monster to gain its level so that you can make a Rank 12 Xyz.


• Megalith Och is another Earth Ritual that draws and discards 1 card when Ritual Summoned. You'll almost always want to chain Benten's effect to this and discard something that can be in the GY, making it essentially a free draw. We'll rarely use its second quick effect to Ritual Summon a monster (using levels). This is the only Ritual monster you don't want in your GY as it can only be summoned by Phul from the deck or hand.


• B-Buster Drake is our insurance against Dark Ruler No More and Forbidden Droplet. Equip this to Herald with Union Carrier and rest easily when your opponent activates either of those cards, as it will be immune to all of their spell effects. Be careful when dealing with cards like Mystic Mine, however, as they effect you and not your monsters. Not truly a garnet because if you draw it and can't equip it (if you used Union Carrier for Eva), it is Machine-type so can be used as tribute fodder.

Staples & Going First/Second Cards

• Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended: Discards itself to negate an effect that targets your monster. Great against Impermance or Dogmatika Punishment.


• Cyber Emergency: HOPT searcher for any Draitron monster. Also if your opponent doesn't read and negates + destroys it, you can add it back and use it again.


• Dark Ruler No More: Drop this on your opponent's board, banish it all with Seven Sins and set up with Herald, profit.


• Execution of the Contract: An equip spell that changes the levels of your monster to that of a Ritual in hand, and pops monsters if the equipped monster is tributed. The best way to make Sevin Sins and can be a quick effect pop if you tribute a Draitron with Linkuriboh's effect. Can provide an out to Apollousa or Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops, since Linkuriboh tributes for cost and Megaclops is susceptible to spell effects. Must run at 3 to be searchable with Power Tool Dragon.

Extra Deck

• Diviner targets: Herald of the Arc Light and Elder Entity N'Tss: Arc Light searches Rituals and N'Tss targets and pops an opponent's card. Generally, only run as many as you can expect to send with Diviner.


• Ultimaya Tzolkin: Level 12 monster made with Diviner + Phul. You can usually summon it two turns in a row, but you can cut one for something else if needed.


• Tzolkin targets: Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and Power Tool Dragon: The former negates and runs over things, the latter searches Execution and is a Machine, so can be tributed.


• Number 77: The Seven Sins: Banishes all your opponent's Special Summoned monsters. Usually made with Tzolkin and a monster raised to level 12 with Execution, but can be made other ways. It also has huge ATK and one-time destruction protection.


• Borrelsword Dragon: OTK potential. It's possible to replace this with Accesscode Talker if you prefer.


• Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess: Even more negates!


• Nephthys, the Sacred Flame: Sometimes you get disrupted and this is all you can make. Can be strong when made with 2-3 Rituals if your opponent can't remove it.


• Union Carrier: Can equip Eva to itself and be used to summon Herald, activating Eva, or can equip Herald with Buster Drake for spell immunity.


• I:P Masquerena: Use this and Union Carrier to make an Apollousa on your opponent's turn.


• Cross-Sheep: In a pinch, this can get you the card you need if you summon a Ritual monster to its arrow. Also nice for climbing.


• Linkuriboh: Incredibly easy to summon with any Draitron. Great synergy with Execution since it tributes, and you can pretty much use it every turn.

Combos

NS = Normal Summon

SS = Special Summon

RS = Ritual Summon

CL = Chain Link

You'll usually want to go first and set up Herald with as many Fairies in hand as you can get, preferably with protection for Herald.

Nova + Zeta

End board: Herald with 2+ negates, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, Linkuriboh and Megalith Och

1. Activate Nova to SS Alpha and link into Linkuriboh.


2. Activate Alpha to tribute Zeta and search Benten.


3. Activate Zeta to tribute Benten, searching the Ritual Spell and Diviner of the Heralds.


4. NS Diviner, sending Arc Light to search Phul.


5. RS Phul tributing Alpha, activating it to return Benten to the hand.


6. Return the Ritual Spell to hand and RS Och with Phul's effect, tributing Benten. Don't do these in the same chain in case you get Nibiru'd.


7. CL1 Och, CL2 Benten, searching Herald of Ultimateness (if you don't have it) or Eva (if you do).


8. Get a free draw off Och and discard Ultimateness.


9. SS Ultimaya Tzolkin with Diviner & Phul.


10. Set the Ritual spell to activate Tzolkin's effect, SS Crystal Wing.


11. Link Tzolkin + Linkuriboh into Union Carrier, since both are DARK.


12. Activate Union Carrier to equip either Eva, Gamma, or whatever you want in the GY to itself, bringing its ATK to 2000.


13. RS Ultimateness using Union Carrier.


14. Activate Eva in the GY, banishing Diviner & Arc Light to search two Herald negates.

If you already drew Eva, you can summon Power Tool Dragon instead and summon Herald with it, after using its effect, then equip B-Buster Drake to Herald to give it spell immunity.

If you drew the above but also Benten and another Fairy, you can tribute the first Benten with Alpha to search a second and a Herald of Orange Light (for protection from Nibiru), then tribute the second with Zeta to go into Diviner as normal.

Nova + Zeta + Gamma

End board: Herald with 2+ Negates, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, Linkuriboh, Union Carrier and I:P Masquerena.

Proceed as above, but discard Gamma instead of Ultimateness in step 8:

1. SS Ultimaya Tzolkin with Diviner & Phul.


2. Set the Ritual Spell to activate Tzolkin's effect, SS Crystal Wing.


3. Link Tzolkin + Linkuriboh into Union Carrier, since both are DARK.


4. Activate Gamma, tributing Ultimateness SS itself and Alpha. Take note on zone placement, ideally Union Carrier should be above the 1000 ATK Zeta.


5. Equip Eva to Gamma if you didn't draw it.


6. RS Ultimateness with Gamma, activating Eva's effect if necessary.


7. Link into I:P Masquerena with Zeta and Och.

On your opponent's turn, you can activate Linkuriboh's effect tributing the Alpha on field, or you can make a 3-material Apollousa with I:P, Union Carrier and Alpha.

Nova + Zeta (Going Second)

End board: Number 77: The Seven Sins, Herald of Ultimateness, Linkuriboh, Draitron Zeta

Proceed as in the going first Nova + Zeta combo, but keep Ultimateness in hand and discard something else in step 8.

Hopefully you have already turned off your opponent's board with Dark Ruler No More.

1. SS Ultimaya Tzolkin with Diviner & Phul.


2. Set the Ritual spell to activate Tzolkin's effect, SS Power Tool Dragon.


3. Activate Power Tool's effect to search Execution of the Contract.


4. Equip Execution to Och, using its effect to reveal the Ultimateness in hand and make it level 12.


5. Xyz Summon Number 77 with Tzolkin and Och.


6. RS Ultimateness with Power Tool Dragon.


7. Activate Number 77's effect to banish your opponent's board.

From here you can try to OTK or link into Union Carrier with Number 77 & Linkuriboh to protect Ultimateness, etc.

Side Deck

It turns out there are a lot of great Fairy-type handtraps and floodgates as well as Kaijus that work well with Draitron:

• Lava Golem: Draitrons lock us out of Special Summoning monsters that can be normal summoned, like most of the Kaijus. Since Lava Golem cannot be Normal Summoned, it is perfect for tributing your opponent's board, although it does lock us out of our Normal Summon for that turn.


• Vanity's Ruler: A powerful floodgate searchable off of Benten that prevents your opponent from Special Summoning. Side this in against decks with lots of Kaiju-based removal or if you know your opponent cannot out it. You can get a second Tribute off of Benten by summoning it then tributing it for this card, so with a good hand it's also possible to make this card immune to Dark Ruler No More like we would for Herald.


• Artifact Lancea: Instantly shuts down any deck that must banish unless they can negate it. This includes common engines like Invoked, Phantom Knights, and anything running Gren Maju Da Eiza. And it's searchable off of Benten!


• Gnomaterial: Unfortunately EARTH attribute and so isn't searchable, but only needs to discard itself to make one of your opponent's monsters unusable for Link, Fusion, etc material. If you can resolve this against an opponent's Halqifibrax or another combo piece they needed to get rid of into the GY, you can sometimes simply end their combo. Also very good in mirror matches--use it against your opponent's Alpha summoned with Nova, and they'll have no way to get it off the field to use its effect.


• Harpie's Feather Duster: Backrow hate.


• Card Advance: Probably unnecessary but useful if running Vanity's Ruler. If you chain Phul's effect to summon Och to this, you can stack the top of your deck and then choose whether to draw off the top or shuffle first when the chain with Och and Benten starts. This gives you the potential to summon Ruler and still combo after as well as drawing any 1 of the 5 cards on top of your deck.


• Dimensional Barrier: Mostly good against Fusion or Pendulum-based decks.


• Royal Decree: We're not running any Traps and this can stop Trap-based decks like Eldlich or Altergeist in their tracks. You could also run Red Reboot instead.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my first attempt at a deck article! I love this archetype and Ritual archetypes in general, and I hope that you enjoy playing the deck as much as I have. Hopefully Diviner finally gets imported to the TCG by the time Draitron come out so that we can see how well they perform against the meta!

There are a few other cards I considered including, namely Nekroz of Unicore, because it can be summoned easily with Och, but this build is what I've found to the most consistent at playing first or second and I'd rather not cut some of the handtraps/handtrap protection for it.