Dream Mirror Post DUAD

Dream Mirror is not an interesting Deck. It is a tragic one. Like you can literally compare the absolute travesty that is Dream Mirror’s archetypal gimmick to the tragedy of Oedipus. The archetype debuted as a TCG exclusive archetype in RIRA in 2019 and got its second wave of TCG support also in 2019 in CHIM. I don’t know how you could play the Deck out of RIRA, and while it got more cards in CHIM, the Deck was still pretty much near unplayable due to its archetypal gimmick. After its BLVO support from the OCG in 2021, the Deck had better tools to work with, but because the other 75% of its cards were locked into their stupid gimmick, the Deck still was bad. After a single other piece of support in BACH in 2022 in the form of Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Traitor, the Deck finally had a good starter. Actually, it finally got A STARTER because you can’t convince me that activate Dream Mirror of Joy and Normal Summon Ikelos, the Dream Mirror Mara is a viable starting point for the Deck. Was the Deck playable after Neiroy? It was more playable, but still bad. However, it did trick some people into experimenting with Fiendsmith Dream Mirror since last year, because Dark Neiroy is a DARK Fiend who can change its Attribute to LIGHT. And now here we are: Post DUAD, going into DOOD. With the TCG exclusives of Buio, the Dawn’s Light, Mutiny in the Sky, and Luce the Dusk’s Dark, Dream Mirror is a little more playable, but not by that much. Dark Neiroy is still the Deck’s only starter, the Deck still is tied down by its dumb gimmick, and like 90% of the ways the Deck tutors its cards are nightmarishly bad.

Dream Mirror’s gimmick is that the Deck revolves around its 2 Field Spells: Dream Mirror of Joy and Dream Mirror of Terror. They actually don’t do much for the Deck other than allow your Dream Mirror monsters to access their effects. Other than for the 2 Neiroys, the DARK Dream Mirrors can Quick Effect Tribute themselves when Joy is in a Field Zone to Special Summon their LIGHT version from your Deck while the LIGHT Dream Mirrors can Quick Effect Tribute themselves when Terror is in a Field Zone to Special Summon their DARK version from your Deck. Save for the 2 Neiroys again, each Dream Mirror has an effect that triggers when they are Special Summoned by the effect of a Dream Mirror monster. But you need the Field Spells to even allow them to tag into each other to even access their trigger effects on Special Summon. And you can probably see where the Deck begins to falter. Without the right Field Spell and the right monster, the Deck produces so many dead hands, and most hands where you can do something usually result in going extremely minus for no real benefit. So what is the Deck’s goal? Before BLVO, the Deck aimed to end on Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Erlking with some number of Main Deck Dream Mirrors on field because the Main Deck Dream Mirrors Tribute themselves to tag out, which triggers Light Oneiros’s effect to target and destroy a card on the field. You also had some Traps you could end on, but mainly you’d be playing either Dream Mirror Hypnagogia or Dream Mirror Oneiromancy because I’d be damned if I have to play Dream Mirror Fantasy. After BLVO, the Deck got a new boss monster in Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Tormentor who was a Quick Effect monster negate while Terror was in a Field Zone and could also Quick Effect tag itself out into Light Oneiros if Joy was in a Field Zone. And then we get to BACH where we get the Deck’s first starter in Dark Neiroy. If anything, Normal Summon Dark Neiroy was a 1-card combo to get to Dark Oneiros. All you had to do left was draw the Traps.

In this Deck here, we are going to not play a Trap-heavy version of the Deck in exchange for some consistency cards and some pieces of non-engine. But, we have Mutiny in the Sky and Buio to give us more to end on. You want to open Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Traitor and a Level 3 extender. Dream Mirror Hypnagogia would also be nice, but whether or not we actually have it depends on how we open. Let’s say that our extender is Psychic Tracker. Normal Summon Dark Neiroy and activate its effect on Normal Summon to add Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Disciple from Deck to hand. If you were playing Fiendsmith, you’d be making Neiroy LIGHT by its own effect at this point, but because we aren’t, you don’t have to. Activate Light Neiroy in hand to Special Summon it because we control a Dream Mirror monster. At this point, Neiroy has a mandatory effect that activates when it is Special Summoned by a Dream Mirror monster’s effect which bounces a Spell/Trap your opponent controls. It still has to activate even if there aren’t any Spell/Traps on your opponent’s field. Activate Dark Neiroy’s other effect to Tribute Light Neiroy. This has you choose a Dream Mirror monster with a different Level than Light Neiroy from Deck and add either Dream Mirror Field Spell that is mentioned on it to hand and then you can Special Summon the monster you chose. Add Dream Mirror of Terror from Deck to hand and Special Summon Ikelos, the Dream Mirror Sprite from Deck in Defense. Light Ikelos triggers on Special Summon to add Dream Mirror of Chaos from Deck to hand. Activate Dream Mirror of Terror from hand and then activate Light Ikelos’s effect to Tribute herself and Special Summon Ikelos, the Dream Mirror Mara from Deck. Because you control a Level 3 monster, Special Summon Psychic Tracker from hand. Link Psychic Tracker and Dark Neiroy into Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss. Activate Cherubini’s effect, sending Buio the Dawn’s Light from Deck to GY as cost and targeting itself to pump itself up by 1000 ATK. Buio triggers off of being sent to GY to add Mutiny in the Sky from Deck to hand. Link Cherubini and Dark Ikelos into S:P Little Knight. Activate Dream Mirror of Chaos to Fusion Summon a Dream Mirror Fusion Monster. Because Terror is in a Field Zone, you can also banish materials from GY. Banish both Neiroys from GY to Fusion Summon Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Tormentor in your leftmost or rightmost MMZ. Next, activate Mutiny in the Sky to Fusion Summon Luce the Dusk’s Dark in your leftmost or rightmost MMZ by shuffling Cherubini and both Ikelos’s into the Deck. With this, you have a monster negate with Dark Oneiros, S:P to banish itself and another monster on field until the End Phase when your opponent activates a card or effect, and Luce protects the monsters in your rightmost and leftmost MMZ from being destroyed by your opponent’s card effects but it can also target and pop a card on field if another card you control is destroyed by card effect. This is probably the best that you can get out of a seemingly pure Dream Mirror Deck at this point in time. But, let’s say that you drew Dream Mirror Hypnagogia. In that case, you can Fusion Summon with Mutiny in the Sky for Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Erlking instead of Luce. The same applies if you hard-open Dream Mirror of Chaos which means that you can search Hypnagogia with Light Ikelos instead. Hypnagogia places a Dream Mirror of Joy and a Dream Mirror of Terror from your hand and/or Deck in either player’s Field Zone (one in each). Because of this, we can use Dark Oneiros’s effect when Joy is in a Field Zone to Quick Effect tribute himself to tag out for Light Oneiros from Extra Deck. This would trigger the Light Oneiros you already have on field in order to target and pop a card on field. Again, this is probably the best that you are going to be able to get with pure Dream Mirror in this day and age. 

For the Main Deck monsters: 3 Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Traitor. Dark Neiroy adds a Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Disciple from Deck to hand on Normal or Special Summon and then you can change Dark Neiroy’s Attribute to LIGHT. You can also Tribute 1 other Dream Mirror monster you control to choose a Dream Mirror monster with a different Level in your Deck and add either Dream Mirror of Joy or Dream Mirror of Terror, whichever is mentioned on the chosen monster, from your Deck to your hand and then Special Summon the chosen monster from Deck in Defense. Dark Neiroy, as I have said before, is a 1-card combo that gets you to either Dream Mirror Fusion Monster. Really good card for a bad Deck. The Attribute change is there because it is supposed to help out with getting the correct Attribute for your Dream Mirror Field Spell that is in play and for Fusion Summoning either Oneiros. 3 Neiroy, the Dream Mirror Disciple. Light Neiroy can activate in hand while there is a Dream Mirror monster on the field to Special Summon itself, and then you have the option of changing Light Neiroy to DARK Attribute. Then, if Light Neiroy is Special Summoned by the effect of a Dream Mirror monster, including its own effect, it has a mandatory effect that activates which bounces a Spell/Trap your opponent controls to their hand and then you can draw a card and shuffle a card in hand back into the Deck if Dream Mirror of Joy is on field. Light Neiroy’s second effect could come up, but you are mainly searching it off of Dark Neiroy and be able to immediately Summon it from hand to then Tribute for Dark Neiroy’s other effect. Why are we playing 3 of this card? Well, that is because Light Neiroy can actually act as a Level 3 extender if you already opened a copy of it in your starting hand. Dark Neiroy searches for another Light Neiroy and you can do the rest of your combo with the searched Light Neiroy, but as soon as Light Ikelos tags out into Dark Ikelos, Dark Ikelos can Special Summon Light Neiroy from hand as your Level 3 extender. 2 Ikelos, the Dream Mirror Sprite and 2 Ikelos, the Dream Mirror Mara. Light Ikelos adds a Dream Mirror card from Deck to hand except itself if Special Summoned by a Dream Mirror monster’s effect while Dark Ikelos can Special Summon a Dream Mirror from hand also if Special Summoned by a Dream Mirror monster’s effect. If Dream Mirror of Terror is in a Field Zone, Light Ikelos can Quick Effect to Tribute itself to Special Summon Dark Ikelos from Deck. And Dark Ikelos can also tag out for Light Ikelos from Deck in the same way if Dream Mirror of Joy is in a Field Zone. If anything, Light Ikelos is the better card as it is a searcher for the archetype (albeit a bad one), but Dark Ikelos is here for Light Ikelos to tag into to provide the Fusion Materials for Luce of either Oneiros. We aren’t playing any other Main Deck Dream Mirrors, and while you can make an argument for either Morpheus, the Dream Mirror Black Knight or Phantasos, the Dream Mirror Friend, their usage would only come up in very specific situations. But if I had to say, Dark Morpheus is the more acceptable card to consider playing. 3 Buio the Dawn’s Light who can target a Fiend Effect Monster you control to negate its effects and Special Summon Buio from hand. Also, if Buio is sent to GY, you can add Mutiny in the Sky from Deck to hand. Level 3 extender who can also search for a Fusion Spell, really nice. 1 Psychic Tracker and 1 Psychic Wheeleder as more Level 3 extenders. I did consider 3 Speedroid Terrortop and 1 Speedroid Taketomborg, and while they would provide more material for us to use, the difference in endboards is negligible. Finally, 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, 3 Droll & Lock Bird, and 3 Effect Veiler. 

Spell/Traps: 3 Dream Mirror Phantasms which searches a Dream Mirror monster from Deck on activation and while Dream Mirror of Joy is in a Field Zone, your monsters gain 500 ATK/DEF and while Dream Mirror of Terror is in a Field Zone, your opponent’s monsters lose 500 ATK/DEF. 2 Dream Mirror of Terror and 1 Dream Mirror of Joy. Both can banish themselves during the End Phase to activate the opposite Field Spell from hand or Deck, but I will just tell you that this is really bad and never actually do this. Not only are we playing none of the Dream Mirror Traps that actually recur your banished Dream Mirror Field Spells, but Hypnagogia literally exists which means that you never actually need to banish the Field Spells for their opposite version. While you control a DARK Dream Mirror, Terror inflicts 300 damage to your opponent each time they Special Summon a monster(s). While you control a LIGHT Dream Mirror, Joy prevents your Dream Mirror monsters from being targeted by your opponent’s card effects or for attacks except for your Dream Mirror monster with the highest Level. These continuous effects literally do nothing gamebreaking, or anything really helpful for you. 2 Dream Mirror of Chaos which Fusion Summons a Dream Mirror Fusion Monster using materials you control. But, if Joy is in a Field Zone, you can also use materials from hand, and if Terror is in a Field Zone, you can also banish materials from GY. Being able to banish from GY is much more useful. 1 Mutiny in the Sky which Fusion Summons a Fiend or Fairy Fusion Monster by shuffling Fiend and/or Fairies from your GY into the Deck as material. Also, while it is in the GY, you can send a Fiend or Fairy from hand or your face-up field to GY to add it back to hand, which is nice for going into Luce for follow-up. 1 Pot of Prosperity. 3 Small World. I originally had 3 Infinite Impermanence here, but I decided to cut them for 3 Small World for the sake of consistency since Dark Neiroy IS our ONLY starter. 2 Dream Mirror Hypnagogia which chooses a Dream Mirror of Joy and a Dream Mirror of Terror from your hand and/or Deck and places 1 into your Field Zone and the other into your opponent’s Field Zone. BE VERY CAREFUL because this card is not Set Rotation. Your opponent can literally just activate their Field Spell over the Dream Mirror Field Spell you give them, so it would be best to activate Hypnagogia in response to your opponent’s Field Spell activation or after they already have a Field Spell up. 1 Dream Mirror Oneiromancy which is a Spell/Trap Card negate and destroy while Dream Mirror of Joy is in a Field Zone or it can negate an opponent’s Special Summon of a monster(s) and destroys them while Terror is in a Field Zone. The more I look at this card, the more I want to play Solemns instead. You can cut this card for the limited Solemn Judgment or Morpheus, the Dream Mirror Black Knight like I mentioned earlier. 

Extra Deck: 2 Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Erlking which requires 2 Dream Mirror monsters with different Attributes as Fusion Material. Light Oneiros is both LIGHT and DARK Attribute while face-up on the field, which is here in order to help enable whichever Dream Mirror Field Spell you have up. If another monster you control is Tributed, except during the damage step, you can Quick Effect target and destroy a card on field. And if it is destroyed by your opponent’s card, you can Special Summon a Dream Mirror monster from your GY except for itself. Light Oneiros is supposed to work alongside the tag-out effects of the Main Deck Dream Mirror monsters. Yes, you can still make that happen in this Deck, but it is more or less still not great. The best way we can trigger Light Oneiros’s pop effect is through Dark Oneiros’s own tag-out effect. We are playing 2 Oneiros, the Dream Mirror Tormentor which also requires 2 Dream Mirror monsters with different Attributes as Fusion Material and it is also both DARK and LIGHT Attribute while face-up on the field for the same reasons as Light Oneiros. If Dream Mirror of Terror is in a Field Zone, Dark Oneiros can Quick Effect negate an activated monster effect. If Dream Mirror of Joy is in a Field Zone, you can Quick Effect Tribute Dark Oneiros to Special Summon Light Oneiros from your Extra Deck. The idea behind Dark Oneiros tagging out into Light Oneiros is that once you’ve used Dark Oneiros’s monster negate, you can tag it out for LIGHT Oneiros who may or may not pop another card on field. But more importantly, once your opponent destroys Light Oneiros, it can Special Summon back Dark Oneiros from GY or any other Dream Mirror in GY (which would then trigger their on Special Summon effect). 1 Luce the Dusk’s Dark which requires 3 Fiend and/or Fairy monsters in your GY as material. While it is face-up on the field, your monsters in your rightmost and leftmost MMZ cannot be destroyed by card effects. It can target a card your opponent controls and then send a Field or Fairy from Deck to Gy to destroy that card and if another card(s) you control is destroyed by card effect, you can target and pop a card on field. 1 Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder. 1 Varudras, the Final Bringer of the End Times, which you can technically make because both Oneiros’s are Level 10. 1 Downerd Magician. 1 Leviar the Sea Dragon. 1 Number 3: Cicada King. 1 Number 49: Fortune Tune. 1 Muckraker from the Underworld which can protect your monster(s) from being destroyed by battle or card effect by Tributing a Fiend instead, which can trigger Light Oneiros’s effect to pop a card. Also, you can target a Fiend in GY to discard a card and Special Summon that monster, but you are locked into Fiends for the rest of the turn. 1 Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss. Finally, 1 S:P Little Knight and 1 I:P Masquerena. 

Side Deck: 3 Dinowrestler Pankratops, 3 Mulcharmy Fuwalos, 2 Mulcharmy Purulia, 3 Dark Ruler No More, 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster, and 3 Evenly Matched.