Have you tried "asking your friends" for a copy of Trident Dragion (good joke btw Komoney lmao)? Or did you randomly have the guy in your bulk from 2009? Well you're in luck, since Tenpai Dragons have made this card extremely powerful and competitively viable!
For the "year of fire's" finale and acknowledgement of the "year of the Dragion" for the Chinese New Year, Konami has really outdid themselves this time. Through a field full of monsters, hand full of handtraps, gamestate with plentiful interruption, Tenpai Dragons can still obliterate all your opponent's lifepoints EASYYYY!
One turn kill your opponent with the force of a million suns with the combined absurdly high attack power of Tenpai - up to 36400 total lifepoint damage! Not only are these dragons unaffected during Main Phase 1 through their archetypal field spell, these cards are so consistent with 16 1-card starters that you can jam about 25 staples into the deck! You can inundate your opponent with a flurry of handtraps and boardbreakers then proceed to their final reckoning as you go to your battle phase.
My personal twist to Tenpai is the "smokescreen" and "bait n' switch" mindgames I play with the Side Deck - the entire sidedeck is the Centur-Ion core. The fiendishly cunning strategy first blind-second OTKs your opponent with Tenpai, then you side in your entire Centur-Ion Side Deck to "Calamity Lock" FTK when your opponent forces you to go first!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING
Not mixed with any other archetypes, Tenpai Dragon is usually played "pure." This deck has so many staples in it while being consistent that duelists sometimes say the Tenpai player is using a OTK engine in a handtrap deck!
The TENPAI cards are a potent, compact and consistent OTK strategy composed primarily of 1-card starters. Almost every Tenpai card has as much potential and gas as "Branded Fusion" and "Snake-Eyes Ash!" This deck core uses 3 Sangen Summoning (searcher field spell), 3 Sangen Kaimen (emergency teleport), 3 Tenpai Chundra (summons from deck), 3 Tenpai Paidra (spell/trap searcher) and 2 Fadra (quick efffect synchro summon - the only non-starter). Terraforming and Pot of Prosperity count as additional 1 card starters, effectively granting this deck 16 1-card starters.
The funny twist with this strategy is that the Side Deck is composed entirely of CENTUR-ION cards. These 15 cards in the Side Deck give you incredibly consistent access to a Calamity Lock, essentially giving you 16 1-card starters just like Tenpai. The 3 Primera, 3 Trudea, 3 Stand-Up, and 3 Emblema Oath combined with the Main Deck's Terraforming and Pot of Prosperity allow this deck incredible access to it's strategy.
The rest of the deck are STAPLES! The board breakers consist of x3 Kashtira Fenrir, x2 Droplet x2 Lightning Storm and x1 Harpie's Feather Duster. These board breakers disproportionately eliminate your opponent's resources to make a breakthrough and OTK with Tenpai much easier. There are handtraps aplenty in this deck - so much so that your opponent will most likely have a sub-optimal board facing down your OTK juggernaut.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
The GAMEPLAN with this deck is straightforward – Slowdown your opponent with handtraps, break their board with boardbreakers, then OTK/FTK with your many 1-card starters!
You'll always win the die-roll since you want to go second. Here is the main going-second COMBO for Tenpai Dragon:
Sangen Summoning + Discard = 30000+ damage!
Activate Sangen Summoning.
Use Sangen Summoning's effect to search Paidra from deck. Discard a card.
Normal summon Paidra. Search Sangen Kaimen from deck.
Enter the Battle Phase. Activate Sangen Kaimen to add Chundra from deck to hand then summon it.
Attack with Chundra. At the start of the damage step, summon Fadra from deck.
Attack with as many monsters as possible (make at least 3 attacks so that your Extra Deck Tenpai's effects are live).
Activate Chundra's quick synchro effect to synchro summon Sangenpai Bident Dragion using Chundra + Fadra.
Sangenpai Bident Dragon's on-summon effect to summon from GY Fadra.
Activate Fadra's effect to summon Chundra from GY. Attack with as many monsters as possible.
Activate Fadra's effect to quick synchro into Trident Dragion using Bident Dragion + Fadra.
Activate Trident Dragion's on-summon effect to destroy Sangen Summoning and another card you control so it can make 3 attacks.
Activate Sangen Summon's trigger effect in the GY targeting Trident Dragion to double it's attack.
Attack three times with a 6000 ATK Trident Dragion! As needed, you can summon Bident Dragion from GY to destroy a spell/trap and for additional damage.
Obviously, this deck can deviate from the above combo to fit the situation as needed. For example, can use Rose Dragon + Sangen Summoning to destroy everything on the field to clear your opponent's board, then proceed to OTK in the battle phase with your singular Sangen Kaimen. You can also access your synchro toolbox like Samuri Destroyer or Quantum Dragon to counter specific hard to out threats like Yubel or rival Tenpai duelists.
If you haven't finished off your opponent yet, you can link off your remaining Dragons to Hieratic Seals or S:P Little Knight, which are both powerful monsters in a simplified gamestate. Next turn, you can attempt to OTK again!
Congrats duelist, you've cheesed your way to a win/loss in the first match. You've mentally imprinted into your opponent's brain that you are a stinky dirty blind second player who wants to go second. Now more likely than not, your opponent will force you to go first. Your opponent may have sided in anti-Tenpai cards like One Day of Peace and taken out their handtraps like Nibiru.
To hardcounter and metagame your opponent's predicted mentality, we "cheese" them with some super secret tactics! Time to take out all your Tenpai cards, bring in your entire Centur-Ion Side Deck and Calamity lock! Take out the 14 Tenpai cards and 1 Lightning Storm and side in our 15 Centur-Ion cards.
Your opponent will likely force you to go first after experiencing your Tenpai onslaught. Here is the Centur-Ion 1-card COMBO:
Primera/Trudea/Stand-Up/Emblema Oath = Legatia (Pop highest ATK monster, draw 1 and resource generator) + Calamity Lock (Or omni-negate with Blazar Dragon) + follow-up
Normal summon Primera to search Stand-Up!
Activate Stand-Up! Use Stand-Up's effect to send 1 card from hand to GY to place Trudea on the backrow as a continuous trap.
Special summon Trudea from the backrow.
Activate Trudea's effect to place itself on the backrow and Gargoyle II from deck on the backrow.
Special summon Gargoyle II from the backrow.
Synchro summon Legatia using Primera + Gargoyle II.
Activate Legatia's on-summon effect to pop a monster with highest ATK your opponent controls (if applicable) and draw 1 card.
During the End Phase, activate Legatia's effect to place Primera on the backrow as a continuous trap.
During the opponent's Main Phase, special summon Primera (CL1) and Trudea as a level 8 (CL2) from the backrow.
CL1 Primera to search a Centur-Ion card (usually Bonds since it's excellent follow-up), and CL2 Stand-Up to synchro summon using Primera + Trudea for Crimson Dragon.
Activate Crimson Dragon targeting Legatia to synchro summon King Calamity from Extra Deck. (If your opponent interrupts Crimson Dragon so that King Calamity loses it's timing window to resolve it's on-summon effect, summon Supernova Dragon instead). Activate King Calamity to prevent your opponent from activating any cards on the field.
You can also opt to summon Auxilia instead of Legatia if you've excavated with Pot of Prosperity so you can search instead of draw. Auxilia has the added bonus of protecting your backrow, so they can't be Ghost Ogre'd (common handtrap nowadays) to death. Auxilia allows you to place a Centur-Ion into your backrow from Banishment, so it can play through Dimension Shifter. Auxilia is a safer play, while Legatia is a slightly greedier play with it's draw 1.
GENERAL TIPS
Since this deck contains a ton of handtraps, remember to handtrap your opponents at the most opportune time! Knowing when and where to handtrap is essential to this deck's success since a weakened opponent vastly increases your chances of OTK or FTK. Be sure to study up!
If you can't finish off your opponent with your first OTK attempt with Tenpai, make Seals/S:P with your remaining monsters and maintain your handtraps. You'll likely place your opponent in a simplified gamestate after your onslaught. So a single/couple interruptions is enough to slow them down so you can OTK them again next turn!
Sometimes in games 2/3, your opponent may still go first (perhaps they think you'll use Heatwave or some other kind of floodgate). Worry not! Your Centur-Ion deck has 25 staples/handtraps/boardbreakers to slow down your opponent so you can still play a regular grindgame with their simplified gamestate with the Centur-Ion cards. The only problem
The "bait n' switch" and "smokescreening" of this strategy requires a lot of mindgames with your opponent. You have to predict your opponent's mentality and confidence to determine if you think they'll force you to go 1st.
While not optimal, both Tenpai and Centur-Ion can achieve their goals under Dimension Shifter.
If you're worried about the price of Trident Dragion's hefty $120 price tag, it is not mandatory for the Tenpai strategy. You may not be able to OTK through Prosperity and Shifter however. 9 times out of 10 however, from personal experience I find that games finish with Tenpai before Trident Dragion comes out.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This strategy has won me quite a few cheesy quick matches in online duels and in real life Locals. My opponents were often dumbfounded and caught unawares by the strategy, since their sided anti-Tenpai cards had little to no effect on Centur-Ion! They often tell you to go 1st, leaving them wholly vulnerable to a full Calamity lock combo! "Bait n' switch" and "smokescreening" are now back with a vengeance in 2024 with Centur-Ion as players pretend to play one strategy only to blindside their opponent with 36400 DAMAGE from Tenpai or a Calamity lock from Centur-Ion! I personally had hilariously short rounds at Locals as I'd blaze through my opponents with your surprise tactics.
Players are sure to catch on to this "cheesy" style of dueling so it's competitive viability might not be around for long. In the meantime while folks are blissfully unaware... Lets enjoy our free wins! ?
GLHF Duelists!
-
30
180
840
