Gusto has been one of my favourite archetypes in the game for a long time. Even though they have never been competitive, they have some really cool cards, and by mixing them up with some other Wind archetypes it is possible to make a decent and fun deck to play, that give you options for going both first and second.
First up, the Gusto cards:
- Pilica, Descendant of Gusto - Essencial card for the deck, allows you to summon a Wind Tuner from your GY on summon, making it a great extender or recovery card. Doesn't even need to be a Gusto tuner, it can be a Speedroid or one of the Windwitches. To make it even better, it's a Lvl 3 Psychic so you can special summon it from the deck with Emergency Teleport ! It looks you into Wind monsters for the rest of the turn, but that barely matters since we have plenty of good Wind monsters to go into.
- Gusto Vedir - Can be a good starter (especially if you also have Pilica on your hand) and helps setting up your combos. Can also be an extender, since its effect to special summon itself when a Gusto leaves the field doesn't miss timing like the older Gustos, and you can special summon it after using a Gusto as Synchro material for example. Overall, a solid card you want to see on your opening hand most of the time.
- Gusto Griffin - Another really cool card, when sent from the hand to GY allows you to special summon any Gusto from your deck. Pair that with Wynn the Wind Channeler or Tailwind of Gusto and it's all value. You can even use it with Forbidden Droplet when going second.
- Gusto Gulldo and Gusto Egul - Can be used to set up an OTK with Daigusto Sphreez . I only use 1 of each since you usually don't want to draw them, but it's not the end of the world if you do. Worst case scenario they are just extra Tuners to use on your combos, and can be summoned off Gusto Vedir for example.
- Gusto Falco - Having access to a Gusto Lvl 2 Tuner is useful, but just like Gulldo and Egul, it's not ideal to draw it, so I only use 1. It's effect is not very relevant, and another option would be Gusto Squirro , whose effect wouldn't even be usable in this deck, but it's a Thunder type so at least it gives you access to both Psychic (Pilica) and Winged-Beast Gustos when paired with Tailwind of Gusto , while Falco only gives you access to Pilica.
- Daigusto Sphreez - Lvl 6 Synchro that unfortunately isn't generic (requires a non-tuner Gusto), adds back to the hand any Gusto card from the GY when Synchro Summoned (either as a follow-up for a next turn or to extend your plays), cannot be destroyed by battle, and has makes it so all battle damage you would take from battles involving your Gusto monsters is dealt to your opponent instead - this last effect allows you to OTK and steal some games out of nowhere, even though it's not always easy to establish the right conditions through your opponent's interruptions.
- Daigusto Laplampilica - Somewhat situational, it can help you summon a Sphreez and protect it so you can go through with your OTK, but it requires some resources and it can be a big chokepoint, if it's negated (with Ash Blossom for example) your turn is most likely over. Still like to have a copy.
- Daigusto Gulldos and Daigusto Eguls - Somewhat situational as well, but I like having them in the Extra deck. Sometimes can also be used to climb into better Synchros.
- Tailwind of Gusto - Equip Spells usually aren't very good, but I'd say this one is an exception, it does a lot for the deck - it allows you to summon Gusto monsters from the deck to use for your Synchro summons, and also has a GY effect to search a Gusto Spell/Trap card from the deck (it can add another copy of itself) by discarding a Wind monster - you usually want to discard Gusto Griffin to trigger it's effect. The protection it gives to the equipped monster is just a bonus.
With the Gusto cards, it's possible to summon a powerful monster like Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon if you have Gusto Vedir + Pilica, Descendant of Gusto , with a combo like this:
The Windwitches have great synergy with the Gustos. The Windwitch engine allows you to get this boss monster in an even better way - it does not use your normal summon, it gives it protection against destruction effects, and does it within 5 summons so you are safe from Nibiru, the Primal Being . As a little bonus, you will burn the opponent for 1300 LP in the process. It locks you from special summoning from the extra deck for the rest of the turn, except Lvl 5 or higher Wind monsters (which means no link monsters for example), but that's fine, it doesn't affect your plays very much. The card you need on your starting hand is Windwitch - Ice Bell , and if you don't know the combo already, here it is:
- Activate Windwitch - Ice Bell to special summon it from the hand and get Windwitch - Glass Bell from the deck. You can activate Ice Bell's effect to burn for 500 LP, and with Glass Bell's effect get Windwitch - Snow Bell to your hand.
- Since now you have 2 Wind monsters, you can special summon Windwitch - Snow Bell .
- Synchro summon into Windwitch - Winter Bell with Windwitch Ice and Glass Bells, and you can activate its effect targeting Glass Bell in the GY, burning for another 800 LP.
- Now you can use Snow and Winter Bell to summon Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon , and since you used Windwitch - Snow Bell as material, you now have a big monster that negates monster effects and also cannot be destroyed by card effects.
- From here, since you didn't use your normal summon, you can extend into whatever you can. For example, if you have a way to summon Gusto Vedir and Pilica, Descendant of Gusto , you can use Pilica's effect to summon back Windwitch - Glass Bell from the GY (since it is a Wind Tuner) and now you have Levels 3+4+3 on the field, which means you can summon Baronne de Fleur .
One note about this, you might want to run 2 copies of Windwitch - Glass Bell , because if you are running only 1 and you draw it, you don't have another in your deck to summon with Windwitch - Ice Bell . However, for some reason I kept drawing Glass Bell instead of Ice Bell so I cut it down to a 3-1-1 ratio.
The Speedroids - Speedroid Taketomborg and Speedroid CarTurbo - are just free synchro materials to extend your plays and allow you to play through interruption to some degree, which is something I feel Gustos alone can't do. I run 3 Taketomborg and only 1 CarTurbo, because I feel like I already have enough Tuners but sometimes lack easy access to non-Tuners, and Taketomborg can get CarTurbo from deck if needed. Unfortunately, you cannot use Taketomborg to summon Sphreez, but you can still use it for other synchros. Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms is still somewhat of an experiment on this deck, but the idea is that it can help you summon Baronne de Fleur when paired with any of the Lvl 3 tuners of the deck.
Ok, going first you can put 1-2 boss monsters on the field to interrupt your opponent. Not exactly meta-defining, but not too bad either! But what about when you are going second? In this case, you can still try to use the Windwitch engine, even if only to bait out the negates, and then you can try to perform a Sphreez OTK, turning your opponent monsters' attack points against them.
- The first step is to summon Daigusto Sphreez into the field, easiest way to do is probably with Gusto Vedir + Pilica, Descendant of Gusto .
- Then, you need to summon one of the floater Gusto monsters, that when destroyed in battle summon another Gusto from the deck. Ideally, you want to summon Gusto Gulldo . Depending on your opponent's monsters and LP (the burn from the Windwitches can actually matter here), it might also work with Gusto Egul (which is easier to access because you can summon it with Tailwind of Gusto when equipped to Daigusto Sphreez )
- Having Sphreez and Gulldo on the field, go into the battle phase and crash Gulldo into your opponent strongest monster. They will take the damage because of Sphreez's effect, and you will be able to summon Gusto Egul in attack position. You then repeat the attack with Egul which will deal more damage, and allow you to summon another Gusto from the deck if your opponent hasn't lost yet. If you have Gusto Vedir in hand (perhaps you added it back to the hand when you synchro summoned Sphreez), that's another Gusto you can special summon to crash and deal more damage as well. If needed you can also attack with Sphreez, since she cannot be destroyed by battle.
Of course this combo is easier said than done, but it's funny if you manage to pull it off and sometimes you can steal games out of nowhere.
I didn't think much about the side deck, it's just a bunch of cards that might be helpful, Droll & Lock Bird is a good handtrap, Kaijus are a good option going second and can actually help setting up an OTK with Sphreez, etc.
This text is already quite long, but I hope you enjoyed the reading. I am open to any suggestions to improve the deck. Thank you, and good games!
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