When the graveyard is dominating the metagame - who do you call..? The EXOSISTERS!!!
The 2023 tins are reprinting the Exosister deck core in the extremely beautiful Prismatic Secret Rare rarity and are about to become a cheap budget competitive deck - so I decided now is the time to make a deck guide on it!
Exosister is a deck specifically designed to counter a graveyard meta. The graveyard (GY) today might not be as dominant as it was a year ago when Tearlaments dominated the meta as a Tier 0 contender - but the GY still used a ton by most decks (except Kashtira which is on its way to getting phased out).
Today (as with the meta over the course of Yugioh history), the game is dominated by cards that move stuff out of the GY like Chimera, Runick, Bystial, Rescue Ace and Purrely cards running rampant! With literally almost every deck dependent on GY interaction, the beautiful combat nuns can still exorcise the evils in the graveyard in today's meta - The EXOSISTERS!
The Exosister gimmick is to transform their singular maindeck monster cards that are on the field into their power-up XYZ Extra Deck forms with various on-summon effects that lock out the graveyard for the turn. Their effects range from "neither player can activate effects in the GY" (Asophiel), "neither player can summon from the GY this turn" (Kaspitell), "monster negate" (Gibrine) and "banish" (Mikailis). To top it all off, a powerful board breaker and OTK enabler Magnifica can end games in a heartbeat! Magnifica can non-target banish a card on the field and attack TWICE! That means she is 5600 damage on-board, or 7200 damage with Gibrine's attack increase effect - meaning that OTK can happen very quickly with this deck once an ideal boardstate is achieved.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES, ENGINES AND DECKBUILDING
The Exosister deck core is standard and does not deviate from regular lists. It is tiny, compact but consistent due to various one card starters, especially with Pot of Prosperity (Martha, Pax, Aratama).
The only new addition to this is the "spirit package" which is arguably the best engine to enable rank 4 XYZ summons. Aratama searches for Sakitama, and Sakitama enables another normal summon of a Spirit monster (Sakitama itself). From that point on, you can make any Exosister rank 4, which is typically Kaspitell, which then searches out Exosister Martha.
Exosister shares a unique ability with their anti-meta bretheren Kashtira and Floowandereeze - the ability to use both Droll and Dimension Shifter without hindrance. Both of these high impact handtraps devastate most decks they come across, and after resolving these, you can OTK through your opponent's weakened board very easily!
This strategy can also field a lot of floodgates and can play unhindered. Most strategies this format fall to Gozen Match - hence it's main-decked rather than side-decked. In the side-deck Dimensional Fissure and Anti-Spell Fragrance are available - both cards can singlehandedly stop many strategies.
Pot of Prosperity is incredible in this deck. It can excavate your one card combo starters or your one missing combo piece. It can fetch that crucial boardbreaker to crack open your opponent's board. Also, when you do full combo, you generally have 28-31 cards left in deck, so excavating 6 cards is like digging through 1/4th of your deck! Doing so, you'll more likely see your side-decked cards that instantly end the game vs. your opponent! (I swear I think Prosperity is going to get hit soon - it's too powerful and free advantage/consistency for certain decks!) The 6 banish targets for Prosperity in this deck are Donner, Cowboy, Exciton, Bagooska, Zeus and Kaspitell.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Not only is this deck beautiful and fun - it is relatively simple to use. There is only one bread-and-butter combo you need to know. There is minimal complex combos or resource management. All you do is slap down some staple floodgates/boardbreakers, summon powerful XYZ monsters and OTK! Watch the opposing player's face contort in pain as you spam floodgates like Dimension Shifter, Droll & Lockbird or Dimensional Fissure!
Laugh as you slap down one of your many blind second field wipes on your opponent's established board that they've worked so hard to create! Missing a card? You can dig into your deck with Pot of Prosperity for 6 since you don't really need most of your Extra Deck!
Exosister is kind of a one-trick-pony when it comes to combos, it does the same combo everytime and it is amazing whether you're going first or second:
1. Get two level 4s on field to summon Kaspitell.
2. Activate Kaspitell effect to search for another maindeck Exosister monster to facilitate the summon of Mikaelis. (Usually its Martha. If you already used Martha to summon Kaspitell, grab an extender to normal summon + special summon -> Mikaelis).
3. Use your two level 4 monsters on-field to summon Mikaelis. Banish a card on-field or in the GY as needed.
4. Activate Mikaelis' effect to search for an Exosister spell/trap. (Going first, you'd generally you'd want to search Returnia to banish 1-2 cards on your opponent turn. If you already have it, get Vadis instead. Going second, you may want to search for Pax to summon another Exosister on field to push for game.)
5. Overlay Kaspitell + Mikaelis to summon Magnifica. Banish a card on-field as needed.
Going first, this combo from 1-2 Exorsister cards in-hand results in 4 banishes on your opponent's turn as well as a beefy hard-to-kill 2800 ATK Magnifica! Magnifica can also dodge targeting effects to it's unique ability to tag out into one of the XYZ materials under it.
Going second, this combo banishes 2 cards and can play through interruption especially if you've already simplified the game-state with your staple handtraps/floodgates/boardbreakers to push for game!
In an ideal gamestate and empty opponent board, OTK is achieved through Magnifica + Jibrine. If you've saved your Magnifica from turn one, all you have to do is summon Jibrine to push for an OTK. Jibrine + Magnifica on an empty board is 9400 damage to your opponent's life points!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
GENERAL TIPS
- When you opponent activates a card that moves a card out of the GY, like a Bystial Magnumut or Kashtira Birth, chain Exorsister Vadis to give yourself two free monsters + powerful lingering floodgate effects/interruption that lock the GY or clear the field!
- If you have Mikaelis (with her banish effect) and Martha on the field at the same time, you can transform Martha into an XYZ Exosister by banishing from your opponent's GY with Mikaelis! You can summon an additional Martha from deck if you have Pax in-hand and Elis is in the GY.
- You can side out Called By the Grave a lot of the time in this deck, since many cards in your arsenal render the GY useless/inaccessible anyways.
- If you're going first, side in all your going first floodgates that often insta-win you the game. (Thanks for the free wins Anti-Spell and Gozen Match :D).
- The cards in the Extra Deck commonly banished with Pot of Prosperity are: Donner, Cowboy, Exciton, Bagooska, Zeus and Kaspitell.
If you have plenty of extenders available for your mainline combo, try to save your normal summon for Sophia for an extra draw. Sophia can also be summoned from deck with Pax if Irene is somehow in your GY.
Remember, if you draw a card with Sophia or Irene, you cannot use Pot of Prosperity the same turn! Same goes vice-versa.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
The recent winner of YCS Niagara a couple months ago with Exosister got me interested in the deck's competitive viability again. They do the same thing again and again very consistently and it's backed by potent floodgates and handtraps. It's sheer simplicity backed by overwhelming offensive pressure catches many decks off-guard, something that clearly happened to earn Exosisters a World Championship spot.
Exosisters are also getting reprinted in the 2023 tins with a rarity upgrade! It's going to be more accessible and cheap - so now is the time to begin piloting the deck (again)!
It's also really cool to wreck your opponents with cute combat nuns, every duel is like an episode of A Certain Scientic Railgun or Lycoris Recoil. Now I get to live out my "cute girls destroy bad guys" fantasy in Yugioh matches! :D
Hope you folks have as much fun as I do EXORCISING the graveyard!
GLHF Duelists!
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