Krawler Magicians' Souls

I've been working on a series of Krawler decks, trying to test out as many different builds as I can to see what creative deck-building solutions I can come up with. This list sorta fits into that category, but I'm not going to be doing as in-depth a review as I normally would, as its mostly a proof-of-concept build to test out the inclusion of Magicians' Souls in the build.

This is a fairly standard Krawler build; we have the 3 Soma, 3 Girsu, Lib in the extra, and a variety of link plays. Where this list diverges is the inclusion of Magicians' Souls, a tech card used in many other builds like the BASED pile and Prank-Kids decks. This card can special summon itself by sending Illusion of Chaos from deck to GY, and Illusion of Chaos can be placed from hand to the top of the deck to search Magicians' Souls. Once Souls is on the field, we can use its effect to send up to 2 Spell/Trap cards from hand or field to GY. In this build, we use this effect to get rid of dead-draws or once-per-turn spells that we have already used, as well as to get Mind Meld from hand to GY.

How does this card help the consistency of a Krawlers build? Well, our main play on turn 1 is to normal summon Girsu, sending Mind Meld, then use Girsu to make a token. We flip Girsu down with Soma's effect, summoning Soma, then use Soma to summon 2 more Krawlers from deck, face-up. We link off Soma and the token for Lib, setting Pawns to the field with Lib's effect. Then we link off the 2 Krawlers for Shaddoll Construct and fuse Construct with the face-down Girsu for Winda. Finally, we activate Mind Meld in GY, banishing it to summon Deus X to a zone a link monster points to. This is a very solid open, but we can't always guarantee that we will draw both Soma and Girsu, even if we include Small World. With Magicians' Souls included, we have a greater chance of drawing into a dark that we can use with Soma to make Winda, and we can sometimes fix a bad hand by sending Spell/Traps to draw. If we open Soma and Souls, with any normal-summonable monster, we can special summon Souls and discard any excess or unusable cards to draw. Then, we flip down Souls to summon Soma, and use Soma to get 2 face-up Krawlers to the field. We summon our other monster in hand, then link them off with Soma for Lib, using her effect to search Pawns/Mind Meld. Link the 2 Krawlers for Construct, and fusion summon Winda with Construct and Souls.

To take best advantage of Souls, we are running Cosmic Cyclone, which can be used from the GY to pop a face-up Spell/Trap (likely a floodgate/field spell). There are definitely arguments to be made about what fits and what does not in this list; Prosperity, a Spright/Frog package, and then there's the budget consideration. Speaking of budget, I'll start with that: I know this build is obscenely expensive for a Krawler list. If you wanted to run this list, but found the price prohibitive, you could always trim the Magicians' Souls and Illusion of Chaos to 1 a-piece. Also, there are many budget alternatives to extra deck staples, potentially using Pitknight Earlie as a substitute for Apollousa and Borrelsword instead of Zeus/Avramax. Pot of Prosperity is not just the most expensive card in the list, but it also lacks synergy with Magicians' Souls. If we use Prosperity, we can't draw off of Souls, and vice versa. We could try Extravagence, but I think Pot of Desires is the budget/alternative pick for this list. It does run the chance of hitting vital cards to our combo, but it is a +1 in card advantage, and it can always be used partially through our combo, once we have searched the necessary cards, to provide resources for next turn or extend our play. Another option, which will only add to the large price on this deck, is running a small Spright/Frog package. The advantage of this package is that if you don't find Souls or Girsu, you can still make Toadally Awesome and Spright Elf. This could be done with 1 Blue, 1 Jet, 1 Carrot/Red, 2 Starter, 2 Swap Frog, and 1 Ronintoadin. I don't think this is a good fit for the list, since we would be forced to choose between making Winda and making Toad, but it is an option.

Just to clarify a choice; Iblee is in the deck as a possible Small World bridge, but also to summon off of Gigantic Spright and then link into Spright Elf/I:P Masquerena if we draw Soma and don't find Girsu or Souls. Maybe this should be taken out of the list, but I like their inclusion for now.

Small World bridges:

Starter  ->  Bridge  ->  Goal

Any Krawler (but Axon) / Souls / World Armor / Girsu  ->  Magical Hound  ->  Any Krawler (but Axon) / Souls / World Armor / Girsu

Any Level 2 Krawler / Illusion of Chaos / World Armor  ->  Iblee  ->  Any Level 2 Krawler / Illusion of Chaos / World Armor

Girsu / Iblee / Soma  ->  Illusion of Chaos  ->  Girsu / Iblee / Soma

Magical Hound / Souls / Girsu / Soma  ->  World Armor  ->  Magical Hound / Souls / Girsu / Soma

I got a bit carried away on this one; I just meant to write a short summary! But I am glad I was able to spend some time on alternatives for the list, something that I wish more decklists included! Right now its very tricky to play yugioh on a moderate budget with several staples exceeding the $50 mark, and some propelling past $100 (US dollar). As always, please let me know what you thought! Do you agree with the list, disagree with the choices I made, or do you have an idea for a totally wild build that could use this core? Thanks for reading, and have a great day!