Hell's Kitchen: All-Stars

After playing this deck in a simulator for two months and finally getting the chance to play it in an actual paper format with the Age of Overlord Premiere! event, I'm finally feeling confident enough to say this: the support pushes this deck to being much better than either I or anyone else has been giving it credit for. I'm going to try to give these cards a legitimate write-up, in the hopes that I can get players to give it a try.

I'll start with an explanation on the ratios of the Nouvelles and their adjacent support in the deck, to help you understand why you're running it like this.

• Foie Glasya and Confiras are both at 1 since neither of them actually do anything to start your combos and are purely extenders - Foie Glasya is a valid target for Poeltis's summon if you don't need a second Balameuniere while simultaneously acting as GY interruption if brought out during your opponent's plays, while Confiras is mainly there if all of your Poeltis are tied up, or you specifically need a backrow pop or to force your opponent's cards into attack. Even if that's not really much, Confiras and Meat Recipe can be simultaneously added with Pre-Preparation of Rites, since Meat Recipe specifically lists Confiras in its effect, so it can be grabbed in an emergency.
• Every other Nouvelles Ritual Monster is at 2 - Nouvelles has some pretty solid search power, so running less than 3 of each Ritual Monster works, in addition to reducing the brickiness that Ritual Decks often have.
• Poissoniere at 3, as well as Culinary Confrontation - you almost always want to see these, as Poissoniere searches either Buerillabaise or a Recipe, and Culinary Confrontation is an E-Tele for Poissoniere.
• Fish Recipe is at 3, while Meat Recipe is at 1 - Fish Recipe is just better to start your Ritual Plays, since it's searchable with Pre-Prep and itself can search Meat Recipe.
• Today's Menu at 3 - it's a free search. Even if it does give your opponent some agency in what you add, you're still going to go +1 by using it (or Neutral if your opponent gives you Poissoniere - which, as mentioned before, is still good).
• Nouvelles Restaurant can be run at 1, but I prefer it at 2. It'll be on your first turn endboard quite often whether or not you draw it, but having a second copy does create a small resource loop that can constantly shuffle the first back into your deck to repeatedly grab Chef's Special Recipe after it's been spent.
• Chef's Special Recipe is run at 1 - you don't want to start with it, but like Restaurant, you can often end with it. It's also able to be grabbed from the GY by activating another Restaurant as part of that resource loop, meaning you never really need a second.
• Hungry Burger is at 1 - it purely exists to be a valid target for Baelgrill's Quick Effect. It's the brickiest brick in your deck, but is still required for that one last removal.

As for the non-engine cards, it should be fairly obvious why you run those ratios. Pre-Preparation of Rites and Diviner of the Herald are at 3 because they search engine pieces, start combos, or do both. The Impcantations are run at 2 of each, which creates a balance of both being able to see them consistently while also not crowding your deck with them. And Ash Blossom and Imperm are both at 3 because hand trap great.

The Extra Deck is a combination of Ritual Fodder and Game-Closers, with a couple of things in-between. 

• Patissciel Couverture is run because it turns Culinary Confrontation online - you're giving it to your opponent to serve as fodder for your plays. 
• Herald of the Arc Light and Elder Entity N'Tss are both pitch fodder for Diviner of the Herald; Arc Light helps you set up by searching for a Ritual piece, while N'Tss can remove a piece of the opponent's board in a pinch. 
• Nephthys, the Sacred Flame is your primary game-closer - if you're doing the math and need just a bit more damage to clear an opponent's board, you can sack three of your lower-power Ritual Monsters to bring out a 4800 ATK, indestructible, untargetable beater to finish things off. 
• Dyna Mondo is a panic option if you're running out of plays and need to get rid of something. It also lets you bring back a Nouvelles from the Graveyard on your opponent's turn, which does let you do some interesting plays while getting a Nouvelles floodgate back on the field.
• Relinquished Anima can be summoned with Poissoniere or Buerillabaise and just punishes an opponent for careless zone placement - non-destruction removal is always nice, even if this deck already has no shortage of it.
• Knightmare Unicorn has its bounce, but is mostly there for a Link Climb into Accesscode Talker, for if you still need something a bit more powerful than even Nephthys can provide.
• Chaos Angel and Baronne de Fleur are generic Synchro bosses that won't come out often, but are able to be brought out with a small amount of set-up. Your Nouvelles can mostly do the job, but if you need a little push in power, they are an option. 
• Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis is a floodgate on legs that can block anything above 3000 ATK - which all of your main deck monsters slip under easily. If your opponent brings out some high-level Extra Deck monsters, you can get something out, go into this, and block them for a turn.

Finally, the Side Deck is packed with your generic counterpick tools.

• Nibiru is run for the blow-out against summon-heavy decks. I prefer running it over Evenly Matched since it gives your opponent a Token that you can use for your own Nouvelles plays.
• Dark Ruler No More helps you overcome stacked negate boards, which is very useful going second, especially since you need plenty of effects to get this deck going.
• Kaijus help get rid of your opponent's immune bosses, like Expurrely Noir. You could alternatively run Herald of the Abyss, but I prefer the Kaiju to, once again, get a useless body on your opponent's field for your own plays.
• Lightning Storm and Harpie's Feather Duster just help clear out the backrow - removing potential floodgates really helps to keep this deck online.
• Gozen Match's uses are two-fold. Its basic play is just a good floodgate that stops some decks like Floo and Kashtira, while your mostly-DARK Monsters can play under it. However, you can perform a lock if you draw it along with Culinary Confrontation, which puts a monster on your opponent's board - if your opponent doesn't run DARK monsters or backrow removal, they're out of luck.

The most common pieces on an end-board you'll be going for are a Balameuniere summoned with a Nouvelles effect and a set Chef's Special Recipe. Anything else you can get on the field is gravy, especially if you can summon Poeltis or Foie Glasya on your turn 1 and keep it on your field, but these cards by themselves are capable of forcing your opponent to second-guess quite a lot of their plays, especially when their Normal Summon is involved.

I'll start with a basic combo line. Your hand will start with Poissoniere de Nouvelles, Poeltis or Foie Glasya de Nouvelles (either works), Fish Recipe or Buerillabaise de Nouvelles (either works), and one Monster of level 3 or higher. This seems a bit complex and specific at first, but this deck is running plenty of search power and generic cards that can turn into these cards (Pre-Preparation of Rites gets you both Fish Recipe and Buerillabaise, Today's Menu can snag either Foie Glasya or Poeltis, etc.) - with a bit of experience, you'll be able to grab what you need or extend even further.

1. Normal Summon Poissoniere de Nouvelles
   • On Summon: Activate Poissoniere
   • Resolve: Add Fish Recipe/Buerillabaise (Whatever you're missing)
2. Activate Fish Recipe
   
   • Resolve: Tribute Poissoniere, Ritual Summon Buerillabaise de Nouvelles, add Meat Recipe
   • On Resolution: Buerillabaise CL1, Poissoniere CL2
     • Resolve: Scale Poissoniere, Excavate and add (if anything is hit)
3. Activate Meat Recipe
   • Resolve: Tribute Level 3+ in hand, Ritual Summon Poeltis/Foie Glasya de Nouvelles
   • On Resolution: Activate Poeltis/Foie Glasya
     • Resolve: Whatever effect was activated (NOTE: If you summoned Foie Glasya to field, keep at least one Recipe in your own GY)
4. Use Poissoniere target Buerillabaise CL1, Trigger Poeltis/Foie Glasya CL2
   • Resolve: Tribute Buerillabaise + Poeltis/Foie Glasya to Summon Balameuniere de Nouvelles, Special Summon Poissoniere from scale
   • On Resolution: Activate Balameuniere
     • Resolve: Add Nouvelles Restaurant ~ At Table
5. Activate Nouvelles Restaurant
   • Resolve: Add Chef's Special Recipe
6. Set Chef's Special Recipe
7. If you have a valid target in hand, use Nouvelles Restaurant to mulligan for a hand-trap
8. On End Phase: Use Nouvelles Restaurant, target one Recipe + one other GY target
   
   • Resolve: Return to deck, draw 1

With this board, your Balameuniere (which was summoned using a Nouvelles Monster's effect) can snipe your opponent's Normal Summon (or any Attack Position monster they bring out, if they choose not to summon in Defense) to bring out Baelgrill de Nouvelles on your opponent's turn. When done this way, Baelgrill will DRNM your opponent's Monsters and any face-up Spells/Traps they might have, as well as completely board-wiping their monsters, regardless of whether or not they're in Defense Position. Chef's Special can omni-negate something if the opponent would have Evenly Matched or Dark Ruler No More to try to stop Balameuniere as well, and when Baelgrill is on field, you get one more Quick Effect Tribute to remove one more thing your opponent might try to bring out.

This is also an incredibly basic opening board - Nouvelles is pretty interesting in that, while its pure-engine plays can get you going, a few non-engine pieces can not only extend you even further, but can sometimes do it with less resources burned. If your starting hand contains either Diviner of the Herald, an Impcantation, or Culinary Confrontation, you're able to extend much farther and get a more complex Nouvelles setup. To be more specific with each, Diviner, if Tributed (which all of your Ritual Summons do) will be able to Special Summon Poissoniere from your Deck for the extra search power and extension. The Impcantations grab a missing piece for your Ritual plays while simultaneously getting more bodies on the field for both Ritual Summons and Nouvelles Summons. And Culinary Confrontation is one of the most versatile Spells for the Nouvelles archetype - it can be used both for preparation, as it E-Teles Poissoniere while getting a second body on the field for your Nouvelles Summons, and it can be used to break walls, as you can use it on your opponent's turn if they're summoning in Defense to get an Attack Position body on the field for Balameuniere to use to bring out Baelgrill and break the opponent's field.

Such a fun deck. It's obviously not perfect, but it has a winning matchup against decks like Floowandereeze (who have trouble getting monsters in Defense) and various Link Climb decks. It's easy to pick up and learn, but has enough of a ceiling where there may be plenty of good plays in any situation. I've even been able to land match wins against Swordsoul-Tenyi and Purrely with this exact profile. It's a deceptively difficult deck for opponents to work around that specializes in non-destruction removal of anything and everything that can be thrown at it, and even though it revolves around the funny Hungry Burger, you'll be hard-pressed to call it a meme when you're cooking up opponents left and right.