Grand Serpentine Combo Ver.1.3.

Overview:

This deck is the third version of a conglomerate deck featuring multiple engines with the main purposes of breaking and establishing hefty boards. This deck discussion will cover options, builds and possible avenues one could take when picking up this deck. Grand Serpentine Combo, which is affectionately named, is a result of fine-tuning and play testing various Ogdoadic decks since the archetype's release, and I hope to play various versions of GSC in the future.

Engines:

1. Ogdoadic

• Nunu, the Ogdoadic Remnant 3x

• Nauya, the Ogdoadic Remnant 3x

• Zohah, the Ogdoadic Boundless 1x

• Keurse, the Ogdoadic Light 1x

• Aleirtt, the Ogdoadic Dark 1x

• Aron, the Ogdoadic King 1x

• Ogdoabyss, the Ogdoadic Overload 1x

• Odgoadic Water Lily 2x

• Ogdoadic Serpent Strike 1x

This is what I find is the most effective lineup for the Ogdoadic Engine, utilizing the most important Ogdoadics for maximum Ogdoadic combo potential. For as to why the newer two Ogdoadic support cards aren't included, I don't have experience with playtesting the Spell Card, and the new Ogdoadic monster is rather unnecessary when playing a combo deck that benefits off of non-Reptiles. Amunessia, the Ogdoadic Queen is not particularly necessary, either, and the rest of the Ogdoadic cards should not be considered when playing combo decks.

2. Generic Reptile (Reptilianne)

• Reptilianne Coatl 1x

• Black Mamba 2x

• Vanguard of the Underground Emperor 1x

• Snake Rain 3x

The reason I consider this an engine is because these cards all come together when it comes to arguably the most important card in the entire deck, Snake Rain. Black Mamba is more or less 1/4 Snake Rain, and both Coatl and the Vanguard interact well with Snake Rain, mostly the latter.

3. Chaos

• Archnemeses Eschatos 1x

• Chaos Dragon Levianeer 1x

• Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair 1x

• White Dragon Wyverburster 1x

• Black Dragon Collapserpent 1x

• The Melody of Awakening Dragon 2x

• Duality 2x

• Shadow's Light 2x

Nobody in their right mind would want to play more than these respective ratios, unless bricking gets you off. I could relent in the case of Chaos Dragon Levianeer, but the rest of the ratios are more than fine at their current numbers.

4. Danger!

• Danger! Nessie! 3x

• Danger! Bigfoot! 1x

• Danger!? Jackalope? 1x

• Danger!? Tsuchinoko? 1x

As I came to play this deck more an more, I began to see the appeal for playing Danger! Bigfoot!, as it was an easy-access level 8 monster with a more than asked-for popping effect. Playing bigfoot meant more chances of Rank 8 plays past The Zombie Vampire, as in this deck 1 XYZ and a level 8 often end up in 3-4 XYZ. The other ratios are quite standard, and either though level 4s are integral to Hyperyton plays, Danger! Mothman! and Danger! Chupacabra! were cut out for more consistent hands.

Strengths

If I haven't stated it already, this deck has high combo potential as well as a high skill ceiling. There are myriads of turn 1 endboards possible with this deck, while still being able to have cards in hand, usually 1-2. This deck handles other decks quite well, namely Purelly, Variants of Spright Decks, and Sky Striker. If you pilot the deck well, Spell Management is quite easy, as your turn revolves around setting up multiple spell/monster negates, which can take as little as 1 spell and as many as 5 (if done efficiently). 

Recycling with Ogdoadics was always a sinch, though with a Chaos Engine as thin as this one, recycling with cards such as Aleirtt, the Ogdoadic Dark and the new card in Duality are mainly spent on Recycling the Levianeer, Wyverburster and Collapserpent, as they are each one ofs. Once your Generic Reptile engine is used up, it doesn't see much use outside of Vanguard of the Underground Emperor, which can recur itself every turn, including your opponents.

Overall, the deck is combo-heavy with excellent boardbreaking capabilities and resource-recycling abilities. It is also quite fun and relatively cheap to put together, so give GSC a try!

Weaknesses

The main weakness of GSC lies in its vulnerability to a myriad of handtraps. As such, I put together a list of handtraps based off of difficultly to play past, with the difficulty increasing as the list descends.

Easy

• Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit

• Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring

• Effect Veiler

• Infinite Impermanence

Medium

• Droll & Lock Bird

• Skull Meister

• Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion

• Nibiru the Primal Being

Hard

• D.D Crow 

• Bystial Druiswurm

• Bystial Magnamut

• Dimension Shifter

If you couldn't already tell, the hand traps that give this deck the hardest time all revolve around banishing cards in grave. This can make maintaining resources against Banish-Horny decks nearly impossible, notably Kashtira and Floowandereeze (Bystial Dragonlink, from experience, is actually quite doable). Kashtira is the deck that makes me want to main deck Vanity's Fiend, though playing it in main is up-in-the-air since there's no way to search it (Brotaur and Chaos Ruler are no longer played played in GSC). If you get your main Ogdoadic Core banished early game, this turns off a lot of the combo potential this deck contains.

Another problem this deck has is actually one of its strong suits - it's high skill ceiling. While this means you can build some pretty insane boards, it also means this deck has HIGH misplay potential. Messing up one or two choices can chump you out of potential extra deck pieces, or even lock you out of the majority of your extra deck (or lock you into reptiles) entirely. It is highly integral to weigh all of your options and pay attention to what effects have and haven't been used in grave, as your grave will stack up quite profusely during your first turn. Even so, don't be afraid to try the deck out and see what it can do!

Choices

I happen to play one synchro monster, and it's quite a strange one in a deck like this. Rather than playing any reptile synchros or any other popular Level 8 Synchro, I chose this one (see decklist), as I felt it met my desired goal when it came to opponent interaction. It could also become an even greater beatstick than it already is, which is why I chose this over any other synchro option. In all honesty, you could replace Draco Berserker of the Tenyi with any other extra deck monster you feel is adequate, along with the secondary number XYZ - instead of Number 1: Infection Buzz King, I personally went with Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon, as it cohesively aligns with the deck and has an excellent effect.

As for my other jewel piece, I played Archnemeses Eschatos. Now this is an interesting case because it can lock others out of their deck if they play a specific type, notably decks such as Sky Striker, Bystial Dragon Link, and thankfully, Kashtira. This card was solely played for it's destruction and lock effect, not to mention its easy summon condition. I feel as if GSC doesn't NEED Eschatos, but it definitely WANTS it, like that sweet craving we all can't help but go back to every time.

Then come the Duality and Shadow's Light targets. I play two of each because playing three of each was a bricky play hands down. As to what targets to play, I cut out the Reptilianne Synchros because they weren't that useful overall, namely Reptilianne Melusine, whom I played in previous builds. Instead of called by the Grave, you could instead play an extra level 4 Light reptile, namely Flogos, the Ogdoadic Boundless or Alien Stealthbuster (highly recommend), as these will be the primary summons for both spells. Heck, even older cards such as Gentlemander will do the trick! I've done countless playtests running the Gentlemander build, and I have to say, in some instances it is quite useful.

Hand Traps

GSC only really needs six hand traps, so I only play six. Effect Veiler and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring felt like the most effective ones against the majority of other decks, and are relatively cheap for those who want to pick up (low-rarity) copies of them. If people want to play more cards to make room for handtraps, I suggest playing a 50 card deck with three Infinite Impermanence and two Vanity's Fiend.

Sample Hand

Turn 1, "Best" Hand

• Snake Rain (*No longer dump Nunu)

• Danger! Nessie

• Shadow's Light (*That's why)

• Zohah, the Ogdoadic Boundless (Any L4 Dark Rep.)

• Vanity's Fiend/Duality/White Dragon Wyverburster 

Turn 2, "Best" Hand

• Snake Rain

• Danger!? Jackalope?

• Called by The Grave

• Shadow's Light

• Reptilianne Coatl

Conclusion

This deck is the ultimately a conglomerate deck featuring multiple engines with the main purposes of breaking and establishing hefty boards. This deck, Grand Serpentine Combo, is the current version of the result of fine-tuning and play testing various Ogdoadic decks since the archetype's release, and as such, is subject to undergo multiple changes in the future as more sets release. The deck could possibly make room for Bystials or Dinos, though I submitted this decklist with the intention to minimize brick potential. Even so, thank you for reading this deck discussion, and stay tuned for more GSC updates in the future.