Ishtar Clan (Odion_Ishizu_Marik)

Ishtar Clan [ Odion(Temple of the Kings), Ishizu(Exchange of the Spirit), Marik, Gravekeepers, Egyptian Gods ]

Deckmaster: Pharaonic Advent

Domain: DARK, Spellcaster, Fairy, Fiend, Reptile 

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For some time, I wanted to make a Domain deck using the cards of the Ishtar Family, with *Pharaonic Advent* as the deckmaster. It is clear based on its effects that these archetypes were meant to work together. I am aware based on the current rules, Advent cannot use its effect to summon itself since it is an activated effect, and there is perhaps a more seamless deckmaster that just uses EARTH, but I want to commit to Advent, and he can still be tribute summoned.

I wanted to wait for the reveal of the Odion cards as well. Now that it has happened, I simply threw together the cards of Odion, Ishizu, Marik, Gravekeeper’s, Egyptian Gods Ra and Obelisk, as well as cool tech cards I like. I will admit, I quickly realized how cramped this deck would be, and I will have to go back and prune a bit if I want to make it more consistent and fit more staples. But I think this deck can still be fun and has interesting ideas. It will be a great foundation for me and others to build off from.

Odion and Ishizu (Temple of the Kings/Exchange of the Spirit)

The retrains of Odion and Ishizu have clear synergy, as we can get many cards into the graveyard and start up our engine, for example, using the of *Treasures of the King* by having a trap in our graveyard. *Gravekeeper’s Trap* can search for *Merciless Scorpion of Serket* as it’s an EARTH Fairy, and if we have *Temple of the Kings* in play, we can search for *Treasures of the Kings*, and Vice versa. If we already have our Odion engine up, we can instead get the OG Serket, then cheat out monsters from the Main Deck, or a Fusion from the Extra Deck. *Temple of the Kings* also allows us to activate a trap the turn it was set, which can really help with our suite of trap monsters and techs.

The two archetypes come with many ways to control the board. The Odion cards working together will be able to negate and pop cards on the field, most notably *Apophis the Swamp Deity*. There will be plenty of chances to use *Defense of the Temple* to Superpoly an opponent’s monster away, and then we can fetch *Dangers of the Divine* to bring out Ra from banishment and non-destruct wipe the entire board. I would also love to resolve *Exchange of Despair and Hope* in a domain game, which can either be powerful if *Exchange of the Spirit* is in grave, or incredibly funny to have all players summon monsters from each other’s graveyards.

Another form of control is good ol’ handripping! With that long-forgotten Ishizu card *Zolga the Prophet*, we can take a peek at our opponent’s deck and use *Gravekeeper’s Trap* to have them toss their card draw. But that can only do so much in a Domain game, and we can do better. I threw in *Convulsion of Nature*, so that all players must play with their deck flipped upside down, allowing the top card of the deck to be seen. So, all we need to do is ask what card is on top of our opponent’s deck and simply resolve the effect to discard. Your opponents will love you!

Marik (Egyptian Gods and Gravekeeper’s)

Looking at the deck list, you can tell there are not too many cards specific to Marik in the deck, as most of them are not great and do not mesh with his siblings, as well as cards falling out of domain (A lot of WATER/Aqua monsters). But we are committed to the bit, and we can run fiends. So we have *Lava Golem* which is a solid removal tool in general, and *Makyura the Destructor* does help us get a vital trap activated from the hand. I imagine there is some great fiend support we can run to get bodies on board for summoning Advent and tributing to fetch a Continuous trap.

*Winged Dragon of Ra* is also a Marik card, and you better believe we’re running Ra cards. *Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode* is excellent removal, especially in Domain as it can be used on the 3rd or 4rth player in rotation from you and they won’t be able to link it away, meaning it will come back to you after your next opponent’s turn. Ra also works with Odion’s deck, as mentioned before, we can turbo it with *Danger’s of the Divine* and then it will come back to our hand.

*Obelisk the Tormentor* and his support cards work very well with Ishizu, as we can mill *Soul Energy Max* to get Obelisk to our hand, then immediately summon it if we have the tributes on field. This could be an excellent combo with *Exchange of Despair and Hope*, for if our opponent has 3 monsters on field, we can summon 3 and then tribute them for Obelisk. We can also combo *The True Name* with *Convulsion of Nature* or *Zolga the Prophet* to get an extra draw and summon Obelisk. We could run Slifer as well, but for now the deck is already crowded as it is, and Ra and Obelisk are more thematic.

So, why are Gravekeeper’s here? Well, they are one my long-time favorite archetypes, they represent the Ishtar family as they are protectors of the Pharaoh’s tomb, and they were even part of Marik’s structure deck that released some time ago. But do they work with the deck? *Necrovalley* is critical to the archetype, but can lock down our graveyard, which can inhibit our plays. This is where the Field Spell techs come in. *Cosmo Queen the Queen of Prayers* is a card I have been excited about for some time. She allows us to switch out *Treasures of the Kings* into *Necrovalley* after our plays are done to inhibit our opponents. *Gravekeeper’s Trap* can also search for Gravekeeper’s monsters in addition to EARTH Fairies. We can get Gravekeeper’s Chief to open up our GY while still locking down our opponents. 

Here’s to hoping we get Marik’s retrain deck soon!

Themes and Tech Cards

[Field Spell Engine] – As mentioned with Gravekeeper’s, with cards like Cosmo Queen, *Multi-Universe*, and *Krishnerd Witch*, we can cycle through and protect our field spells. *Terraforming* and *Metaverse* will fetch our field spells from the deck. *Krishnerd Witch* in particular can work great with *Treasures of the Kings*. Once the spell’s effect is activated, Krishnerd can summon any monster that mentions *Temple of the Kings* from the GY or BZ, as the field spell’s name is treated as such while face up. Cosmo Queen can destroy our field spell and we’ll get a new one from our deck with a different name. For example, we can destroy *Necrovalley* and then search for Treasures. If we already used Treasures however, we can shuffle it back into our deck with *D.D. Post*. This way we are able to recycle it and use it’s activation effect to set an Apophis trap repeatedly. Cosmo Queen can also negate an opponents field spell and search any from our deck, which is sure to occur often in a domain game. I also threw in *Land Flipping* as a funny way to swap field spells. You can give them *Necrovalley* and still use *Treasures of the Kings*.

[Tribute Summoning] – Between the Egyptian Gods, *Pharaonic Advent* and our Gravekeepers, there quite a bit of Tribute summoning occurring in our deck. Luckily there is *Ultimate Offering* and *Ultimeat Offering*, which allow us to summon many times during our main phase as well as our opponent’s battle phase, which will come up quite often in a domain game. This actually combos well with *Makyura the Destructor* as we can summon him, then tribute him to summon a level 6 so that we may activate a trap from our hand. More tribute support like *The Monarchs Stormforth* might also be considered.

[Trap Monsters] – There are a plethora of trap monsters that we can run. We of course have the Apophis monsters for our Odion engine. The Tiki monsters, *Angel Statue – Azurune*, *Statue of Anguish Pattern*, and *Kuekibo* act as great disruption and protection. We are further protected by *Imperial Custom* from battle and card effect destruction. Trap monsters are either very vulnerable or very tough, as they can be destroyed by Spell/Trap and Monster removal. But at the same, a card like *Imperial Custom* will protect them from both Spell/Trap and Monster destruction. So *Dark Hole* will not destroy your trap monsters when *Imperial Custom* is on the field. *You’re Finished* seems like an excellent card for domain, as mid/late game will have many effects activating. *That’s 10!* is a perfect card for our domain deck, as it will build up many counters and allow us to set a Trap Monster from deck that can activate that turn! And it can be reset over and over again! A cool fact with trap monsters, when they are used as material or an XYZ summon, they are treated as trap cards, so going into *Time Thief Redoer* with a Level 4 trap monster will give him an instant bounce. *Booby Trap E* and *Boogie Trap* are great for getting our traps from grave, and of course, our deckmaster *Pharaonic Advent* can search all of these.

[*Shapesister*] – A cool Trap Monster that is also a Tuner, thus we have Synchros with our level 4’s. We can search for Krishnerd with Rciela, flip the field with Silvera, Take control of a monster with *Mind Castlin, or Fusion summon with *Muddy Mudragon*.

[*D.D. Post*] - an excellent card for recycling our resources. We can shuffle back anything from our hand, grave, or banishment. We can get our millers back in the deck and retrieve them with *Gravekeeper’s Trap*, our Odion cards and retrieve them with Treasures and *The Man with the Mask*, and even our *Winged Dragon of Ra*, which means we can cycle through our Sphere and Phoenix modes easily.

[*Metamorphosis*] - This card gives us a number of options from our Extra Deck. We can go into *Elder Entity Norden* to then summon that same monster we tributed, giving us two bodies on board for a tribute or XYZ summon. *Dark Magician the Dragon Knight* can protect our spells and traps from card destruction, and *Gravekeeper’s Supernaturalist* can protect our *Necrovalley* and search for other Gravekeeper’s Cards. I thought about adding a Dark Magician Package, that centered around Dragon Knight, *Eternal Soul*, and *Magician’s Combination*. With DM, DMG, and Palladium Oracles Mahad and Mana, there would be some more spellcasters and a little bit more of that Ancient Egyptian flavor. It’s just one of the many routes I can take with this deck.

[*Summer Schoolwork Successful!*] - Now this card I just had to fit in the deck. While it’s not likely that the win condition can be resolved, many players in a Domain game will be running cards like *Painful Choice*, *Slash Draw*, *Burial*, and other cards that send from deck to grave. 4000 is a lot of LP too, and it can reset itself from the grave! And since it is a continuous Trap, it can be search by Advent.

Conclusion

As one might tell from this deck, my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh show was Duel Monsters, and my favorite arch by far was Battle City. I loved the characters, the epic Egyptian God Cards, and I’ve always been heavily drawn to the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic and backstory of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. So I hope this deck gets even more support and gets better over time. There are so many directions to take this deck, and so many more archetypes to try and swap in and out. I’m just a novice when it comes to deck building, so I’ll be sure to explore even more possibilities. Domain in particular is great for this kind of deck because you can throw all these themes together and still have fun, even if they don’t perfectly combine. Thanks for your time, and I hope this list will help you.

KanaanBaal