Insect Pile Post ROTA

Its been so long since I last posted any deck, the generic boss hits really made a lot of my fav decks much weaker :C

that aside im super happy insects got support in ROTA another very good engine since ragnaraika. dang the ragnaraika starters are expensive now, lifes rough when youre a student again 

that aside lets start with the deck build options:

Deck Over view

This deck focuses on more hand traps as another form of interruption, the battlewasp engine itself is pretty much powerful enough to start plays so additional free bodies and externders like Guard Mantis, praying mantis etc were used over more starters

Krawler Soma package:  still a very good option to provide field value for link climbing as an alternative starter, but I did not include it in this build as the 2x lv2 garnets can be quite annoying in a 40-45 card deck. This package is more for 60 card variants imo. Sure the krawler package would make the huge endboard easier but the risk of bricking is also higher.

Scout Buggies: another decent starter/ extender, 2-3 copies could work, but ultimately they need to be normal summoned or otherwise done in more gimmicky ways like Atlas effect or Saturnas revive . Used to be a nice starter but imo its a bit lacking now compared to battlewasp. The normal summon is usually dedicated to the battlewasps. There are other ways to make Cicada king (which will be mentioned below).

Starters: Bascially you want to open with the new Battlewasp Lv5 (Rapier) + 1 extra insect in your hand or ways to access it. Given the density of insect monsters in the deck this chance is high enough to be considered consistent. You can use the battlwasp lv2 (Sting) to search it, Resonance insect can search and Armed Rebeelion can make sure Resonance insect does its job. From there onwards you just combo off into the huge insect board. There will be situations when you only get to Rapier after some combos so by that time youd want to consider if you want to go through the full battlewasp line to attempt making grand partisan or just settle with what you have. 

Extenders: The deck has ample extenders that can ss themselves when insects are around but even with that, youll find situations of bad luck when you brick without enough stuff to link climb. Guard Mantis, 2x Twin bow and Beetrooper Descend are completely free bodies hopefully to reduce the brickyness as they can all add bodies to the field for free. 

if your combo goes well youll need 2 key discards, one from Rapier and one from Pickofalena, maybe more when fusion summoning, but usually by the time you need to fusion youve already accumulated enough resources that your hand wont matter greatly. For that sake, Goki pole, Praying mantis and Beargram were chosen, these are excellent discard targets or send-to-gy targets for Resonance insects. Goki-pole allows you to search any lv4 insect which can be extenders (Roller, Guard mantis), Normal summon targets (Resonance, "C"), or further discard fooder (praying mantis). Praying mantis can generate a token by banishing itself from the gy and beargram is main deck powerhouse as well as resonance insect banisher

The one copy of Retaliating "C" is played as an extra normal summon target or equip by the link 2 and can search Resonance insect or Supply Soldier.

Note that supply soldier is not easy to search, only resonance insect and "C" can search it, so plan your searches, as these 2 might also need to fetch you other useful stuff. 

Endboard: Your goal is to set a Ragnaraika Trap (Hunting Dance) + Heavy Cavalry of the Indestructible Insects + Grand Partisan on the field, but usually, you can do far more than that with an additional stag sovereign + followup + maybe Saturnas to plus off your quick effect banishes

Hidden effects (?):

1. Scale bomber and Sting the Poison are interrupts while on the field. Scale bomber can tribute itself, Sting cannot

2. Arbalest has an effect when destroyed by the opponent which allows you to ss a battlewasp from hand or Deck so crashing with it could benefit you

3. The Ragnaraika links can send ed monsters back to the ed to ss themselves from the gy but if its like the beetrooper link 2 that banishes itself or if its a token the ss wont work and you lose field value.

4. Based on 3 if you dont have enough discard fooder, you can first link climb to Mantis Monk and search the continuous trap monster then link DOWN to Picofanlena to discard the trap as effect fooder and then return the her back to the ed to ss mantis monk from gy to not loose link value and recylce 2 + set the trap during the endphase

Banishers: The deck needs some banishers to trigger Resonance insect and Grand Partisan. After much testing, 2x Resoance insects is usually enough to cycle in 1 turn. there were plenty of times when only 1 is in rotation or when i ran out of stuff to send to gy from banishing it so imo 3 is too many.

Ive decided to take Beargram and Roller as my banish 3 and banish 1 main deck monsters. Beargram's gy ss and boardwipe is also very powerful. I honestly dont think Doom Dozer is any good as an extender because Roller does the same job for less, sure Doom Dozer can enable both of resonance's effects but you need another insect to banish, not a good starter and neither a good early extender imo.

Beetrooper Spell Traps and Hercules: Since both Satrunas and Stinglancer can search beetrooper spell traps, theres a lot of flexibility in options.

If you have enough resources, search the trap as interuption. If you need extenders, search Descend, if you have either in your hand, search for the other 2. If you need a banish to trigger Saturnas, search Roller (which is also an extender). If you need to recycle some banished stuff or want an extra beat stick, search Hercules.

Honestly, Hercules is quite the brick, but its recycle-banished insect ability is really good. but in the end its just a cheaper replacement for the raika starters

Ragnaraika Traps: Most builds ive seen just carry the Hunting Dance as an extra pop, but Woe is surprisingly good for grind games and resource recycling, only downside is it is a plant monster when summoned so its limited by some beetrooper insect locks

Cicada King: Instead of using 2x lv3 monsters, this can be done during the battlewasp combo, but is more an icing on the cake. The deck can pushout enough interuption now so Cicada king isnt too necessary unless your build speciallizes in scary moth lock. 

SO, 1. do not use Pin's effect to burn.

2. After Sachi's effect to normal summon, activate Battlewasp wind, and normal Albarest

3. Albarest effect to revive Pin and  Battlewasp wind, search Twin bow and ss it

4. Banish Rapier to lower Albarest lv by 1 so you can xyz cicada king

5. Use Pin's Burn effect and Cicada king detach Albarest to negate pin

6. Cicada king's effect to change itself's battle position and revive Albarest so you can still make Grand Partisan

Extra Deck:

The only good insect cards are all there. a 2nd copy of Heavy Cavalry , Picofalena could be useful.

the Traptrix link 3 can be a decent beater and negate/pop given this deck runs 3x imperm and the searchable Hunting Dance

Shinobi insect is a wierd one honestly, its mainly used to convert non-insect monsters into link value, but the card itself doesnt do anything good. Its mainly used if your oppenet drops nib/kaijus or the likes on you or if you used TT-Talent to steal your opponent's monster. honestly insects could need a Insect type link 1 that uses generic materials. would be perfect if it had insect rearching too however limited.

Weaknesses:

The deck dies HARD to nib. evenly and early droll. Insects have no way to anti nib at all so your opponent could wait until you finish your full combo and drop nib and there's no way to recover. mid combo nibs in comparison are less scary as you have some gy resources and shinobi insect to convert the token to an insect. 

The deck can play through 2-3 interrupts usually but anything more than that can get tricky to manoeuvre around unless the hand is good.  

Overall im really happy with the insect support, its definitely much stronger now and fair rogue option imo. Though it still dies to nib and gets hurt greatly by boardwipes, given the deck doesnt have any s/t resistance. The presence of Heavy Cavalry and Grand Partisan helps to reduce the damage from your opponents boardwipes but its still not enough with just the 2. i think this deck one of the few decks that really has the link deck feeling to it.

Insects could definitely benefit from a good link 1 or another good link 2 that uses more generic materials. Its solid engine with a decent endboard, but could still use better endboard pieces and stuff to counter hand-activated effects or s/t.