Madoltrick

Cards used (incomplete):

Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Twin Twisters, Borreload Dragon, Madolche Fresh Sistart, Ghostrick Mary, Ghostrick Jiangshi, Ghostrick Specter, Ghostrick Lantern, Ghostrick Parade, Ghostrick Renovation, Madolche Chateau, Wee Witch’s Apprentice, Ghostrick Dullahan, Ghostrick Angel of Mischief

 

This is probably going to be a (few) wall(s) of text, so be ready for it. There are so many card references in the texts that I simply have compiled a list that should be (most because of incompleteness until further updates) all the cards found within. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but simply cannot be helped.

This deck is called Madoltrick, a Link-Friendly, modern version of a previously popular deck known as Trick-or-Treat. Trick-or-Treat is a deck style based around combining the incredible stalling and negating power of the Ghostrick archetype with the swarming and all around strong attack and effects of the Madolche archetype, in order to provide the Madolches with the time they needed to set up, and give the Ghostricks the attack power they lacked. However, this build is more of a Madolche deck running a Ghostrick engine for support. This was not the original intent, but has provided me with the best results so far. Also, some cards have been teched in, such as Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Twin Twisters, and Borreload Dragon. The Side Deck contains other techs that might be needed against certain decks (Borrelsword for decks that run multiple high-attack monsters, Ghost Ogre for decks that rely heavily on the effects of monsters, spells, or traps).

PART 1 – The Main Deck

The first part of the deck to look at is the Ghostricks. Although they are meant mostly to stall (and what stalling power they have!), they can also combo rather well alongside the Madolches. The first combo is with Madolche Fresh Sistart. Ramming an opponent’s monster with Sistart can result in you taking a small amount of damage and being able to shuffle one of your Madolche monsters back into your deck (or add back to the hand if you have Chateau on the field). This can be used alongside Ghostrick Mary in order to Summon a Ghostrick Jiangshi from the Deck, and once Jiangshi has been Summoned into face-down defense position, that gives you a free 1800 defense monster. If your opponent attacks Jiangshi, you can add a Lantern or Jackfrost from your deck to your hand to negate another attack, or if your opponent inflicts piercing damage, you can add another Mary to summon another Jiangshi. Although Specter could be added into the deck, I found he was a dead draw most times, and took him out to improve both deck size and deck consistency. Ghostrick Parade is another great combo card. It can be used to stall for time as you gather your Madolches, and can also be used to search out for Lantern, Jackfrost, or Mary. After finishing gathering the resources you need, it can be used to search for Ghostrick Renovation, allowing Reno to saves your Ghostrick Parade and get a free Madolche Chateau. Afterwards, it can be used to change your Ghostrick Xyz monsters to get the effect you need. The Ghostricks can give you extra searching and summoning power, to help Link Summon into either Wee Witch’s Apprentice or Borreload Dragon. The level 1 hand-traps give you access to rank 1 Xyz monsters like Ghostrick Dullahan, who combined with Ghostrick Angel of Mischief, can get over any monster with 4000 or less attack.

Next, the “meat” of the deck, the Madolches. And by “meat”, I mean “sweet”. The most famous Madolche combo is using Madolche Anjelly to Special Summon Madolche Hootcake from your deck, then using Madolche Hootcake to banish Anjelly, allowing you to summon another Madolche out of your deck. If it is a level 3, you could Xyz with it, and previously you would Xyz summon M-X-Saber Invoker, but now with the Extra Deck Zone, and Invoker banned, this is no longer possible. Now, however, with this new monster, you could Xyz into Mechquipped Angineer, Ghostrick Alucard, Leviar the Sea Dragon (this monster allowing you to return Anjelly to the field for a play next turn), or you could Link Summon into Madolche Fresh Sistart, with whom you could combo alongside Ghostrick Mary. If you summon don’t summon a level 3, you can summon Madolche Messengelato to search your deck for one of your Madolche Spell/Trap cards. Afterwards, you can link summon into Sistart. A new option is summoning Madolche Puddingcessoeur. Puddingcessoeur is a strong enough card to warrant its own section, but this combo is used to jump start one of the other combos it can pull off. Another way to jump start a Puddingcessoeur combo is to search it out with Madolche Magileine. Magileine is used to search out for the other Madolches as needed, can be used very effectively to combo alongside Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode, and is yet another stalling card. If not searching for Madolche Anjelly or Puddingcessoeur, Magileine can search for Madolche Magileine, then take some damage from one of your opponents attacks next turn. When it comes to your turn again, you can simply repeat this. Madolche Lesson might seem like an odd card to add, but it doesn’t seem so odd when you have a 2800 ATK Madolche Fresh Sistart and a 3800 Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode. Madolchepalooza simply can swarm the field with Madolche monsters to protect yourself, or activate their effects (Puddingcessoeur, Messangelato). I have fought Madolche decks that use this card to summon Madolche Chouxvalier in order to protect their other monsters from that battle, and is one of the most annoying combos I have ever faced.

The main card to jump start nearly all of all of the combos, other than Madolche Anjelly, is Madolche Puddingcessoeur, the newest Madolche card. It can be Special Summoned with Madolche Hootcake, Madolche Anjelly, Madolche Mewfeuille, Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode, Madolche Ticket, and Madolchepalooza, all but Mewfeuille and Madolchepalooza summoning from the deck. It can Special Summon itself from your hand, as long as you don’t have any monsters in your GY, which means if you Normal Summon Madolche Magileine, it can search for this card, which can then activate its own effect to Special Summon itself. Aside from the fact that Special Summoning any monster is good, this one is especially good because it Special Summons another Madolche monster from the deck, and then lowers its level by one, the only negative effect being that you can only special Summon other “Madolche” monsters for the rest of the turn. This opens up a world of possibilities. The most obvious one is to summon Madolche Puddingcess from your deck, overlay them both to go into Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, then use Tiaramisu to go into Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode with its ability that before was nearly impossible to get. However, other possibilities include Special Summoning this card to get Anjelly, Madolche Anjelly summons Madolche Hootcake, Hootcake banishes Anjelly to Summon Messangelato. Messangelato can then add Madolche Ticket, Madolche Chateau, Madolchepalooza, or Madolche Lesson from your deck to your hand. The strongest combo that I have found personally, with Madolche Magileine and either Madolche Ticket or Madolche Chateau in your hand, relies heavily on this card. Normal Magileine to search Puddingcessoeur, Special Summon Puddingcessoeur to Summon Anjelly, use Anjelly to summon Hootcake, Hootcake to summon Messangelato, who can search for Madolche Ticket or Chateau, whichever you don’t have. From there, you should have Magileine, Puddingcessoeur, Hootcake, and Messangelato. Now, use Hootcake and whichever other monster you want back in your deck to Link Summon into Madolche Fresh Sistart. Activate Ticket, if you haven’t already, and once that is in play, active Chateau. Chateau shuffles your monsters back into the deck, activating Madolche Ticket (Note: if you are going second, it might be wiser to wait before activating Chateau). You can summon whatever, but if you are using Chateau, Madolche Puddingcess is a smart choice, because it will be a monster with spot destruction and 2300 ATK by the end of this combo. Otherwise, I would suggest Madolche Chouxvalier to protect your monsters from at least one battle, not to mention his ATK will be decent with Chateau. After activating ticket, use 2 of your monsters, which you will have if you have followed the steps correctly, to go into Madolche Queen Tiaramisu. If you did not activate Chateau because you are going second, this gives you Madolche cards to activate her ability to get rid of 2 of your opponent’s cards. If you want to, you can rank up into Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode, for the 3000 ATK beat stick, though I would save her for only if you need the extra cards. But enough on this combo. There is so much more to do with, it is not even funny. With other combos alongside Madolche Puddingcessoeur, a rather overlooked one is using Puddingcessoeur to summon Anjelly, Anjelly summons Puddingcess, and you can Tribute Summon a Puddingcess from your hand using Puddingcessoeur. Puddingcessoeur can also be Special Summoned from the dec during your opponent’s turn using Madolche Ticket, thereby bypassing its negative effect of only being able to summon “Madolche” monsters for the rest of the turn (although this does leave your Ghostrick hand traps useless, so be careful if Special Summoning this card and activating its effect during your opponent’s turn.

As much as I could go on with her, we need to move on to other parts of the deck. The final part of the main deck is the tech cards. At the top of the tech cards is an old favorite, Twin Twisters. TT Can use its cost to your advantage: By sending a monster, it can send the cards you need in the GY to activate Tiaramisu, Chocolat-A-La-Mode, Lesson, Hootcake, or you could send Ghostrick Renovation to activate its second effect without having to use a field card first, which might be detrimental to your strategy at the moment. Twin Twisters also can get rid of pesky Spells and Traps your opponent controls, or even get rid of a leftover Ghostrick Parade or Madolche Ticket. The second tech is Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. She has one major use – disruption. Almost all deck strategies in the meta nowadays require at least one card from your opponent’s deck. This instantly puts a stop to their plans. This card also can be used to summon Synchro Monsters, but 99 out of 100 times Tiaramisu: 1) Won’t take up your Normal Summon. 2) Gets around pesky targeting and destruction protection effects. And 3) Activates effects like Ticket, alongside allowing effects like Puddingcess and Puddingcessoeur to activate. In other words, you don’t use Ash Blossom as anything but a hand trap. Still, against rather odd decks specific non-meta decks, even summoning her can disrupt your opponent, so never count it out.

Next, the Extra Deck. I have composed the Extra Deck based on my own experience, but it cards could easily be replaced for preferred cards, Like removing a Downerd Magician for a Ghostrick Angel of Mischied (The Dorklord). First up are the Ghostricks. Although I do run quite a few hand traps in the deck that are level 1 Ghostrick monsters, I only ever need the one Ghostrick Dullahan. Once he comes out, he not only halves the ATK of one of your opponent’s monsters, but he also ranks up into either Downerd Magician, for the extra power and piercing damage against a defensive monster, or Mischief, who allows the searching of either another hand trap, Parade, or Reno, if you already have Parade in your hand or on the field. Add that to the fact that she can reduce your hand size, gives this deck a (though probably never going to happen) alternative win condition, easily summoned by using two level 4 Madolches, and a decent DEF of 2500, she is certainly a strong card, though I found that I usually needed the extra Downerd Magician rather than her. Either of them ranking off of Dullahan will allow you to detach Dullahan quickly to return one of your Ghostrick cards, whether Reno, Parade, or one of the monsters. Ghsotrick Alucard helps with spot removal, and surprisingly effective against any kind of flip effect archetypes. Alucard also helps with a bit of backrow removal, or forcing your opponent to play cards they would rather not play yet.

Next, the Madolches’ Extra Deck. I have already gone over them extensively, so this is more for formality than anything else. The Madolches’ rank 4 monster is also one of the most broken cards of all time, Madolche Queen Tiaramisu. Returning your monsters to your deck, as well as non-target, non-destruction removal, and a monster she can rank-up into for free? The only penalty is the archetype restriction. She can be used to activate Ticket, can be used to recycle Madolches you have in your GY that you will need to have back, such as Extra Deck Monsters, and can be used as a 2700 ATK beatstick with Chateau. There are too many combos to list here with just her, so I am just going to leave it at what has already been said about her. The other Madolche Xyz monster is Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode. I, again, only run two of her because she can recycle herself, or one of the other many returning cards can do it for her. As a rank 5, she would be hard to get if she couldn’t be ranked up onto any other Madolche Xyz monster that is rank 4 or lower (Tiaramisu), but she can be, so that allows for some pretty awesome combos. My favorite is using Puddingcessoeur to Special Summon out if your deck Madolche Puddingcess, and thanks to the level-lowering effect, they can be overlayed to go into Tiaramisu to rank-up into Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode. Chocolat-A-La-Mode also has 3000 ATK with Chateau, meaning that she can play around with the big monsters like Galaxy-Eyes, Blue-Eyes, and other beatstick archetypes. They also have a link monster, Madolche Fresh Sistart. She has made this archetype very playable, even with links now. Only requiring two Madolche monsters, she can first and foremost be used to get two linked zones for your Xyz monsters. A strong combo, assuming you have this card on your field, is to Summon Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, then use both this card and one more Madolche monster you control to Link Summon into another Madolche Fresh Sistart. This gives you two monsters in your GY to then activate Tiaramisu’s ability. Another thing to use with Sistart is during your opponent’s turn; activate her protection effect in order to shuffle a Madolche monster back into your deck. With that, you can activate Madolche Ticket, allowing you to summon a Madolche monster from your deck, with either Messangelato or Puddingcessoeur recommended (personaly, I would go with Puddingcessoeur). During your turn, if you don’t mind giving up your Battle Phase this turn, you can do the same thing by attacking a stronger monster than her to activate her ability.

Finally, the tech-in Extra Deck cards. The most recognizable of these monsters for most Madolche users is Leviair the Sea Dragon. Leviair combos extremely well with Madolche Hootcake, Hootcake banishing a monster from the GY (most notably Anjelly, who was Tributed to summon Hootcake), Summoning a level 3 Madolche monster, and using them to go into Leviair. Leviair can then send one of the Madolches to the GY to summon back Madolche Anjelly from the banish. Although perhaps less usable thanks to M-X-Saber Invoker being banned, Master Rule 4 being in effect, and Puddingcessoeur being released, Leviair does not quite warrant 2 in the deck, but still has too many good combos to pass up. In a late game grind, Leviair also can be used to recover from all of your banished hand traps, such as returning a Ghostrick to be able to Normal Summon your Ghostrick monsters, or bringing back a banished Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, to rank up into Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode. The other rank 3 Xyz monster is Mechquipped Angineer. Although with the introduction of Kaijus he isn’t as useful, Angineer certainly can stall for time if needed. A simple Anjelly to Hootcake to level 3 monster to this gives you an almost guaranteed 2 turns to gather yourself. Mewfeuille and any other level 3 Madolche monster gives you a quick defense with this, and Angineer helps remove Jiangshi from the field, once you have the hand traps you need, without leaving an opening in your defenses for doing so. Finally, for other Madolche builds based around Fairy Madolche, Angineer doubles as a Fairy type for Fairy support. The last Xyz monster is Downerd Magician. I have already used Downerd to explain combos above, but a small list here won’t hurt. Downerd can be ranked up onto any rank 3 or lower Xyz monster (Dullahan, Angineer, Alucard, Leviair), turning it into a pretty decent beatstick, with piercing capabilities. Downerd’s greatest effect, in my opinion, is its negative effect: Having to detach an xyz material if it attacks or is attacked. This can be used to get monsters into your GY when it would otherwise be empty, for effects like Madolche Puddingcess or Madolche Puddingcessoeur. It also gets monsters for Madolche Hootcake’s effect. Downerd also can activate Alucard’s or Dullahan’s effect. Finally, piercing damage is simply all the more power to Downerd Magician. Next, the link monsters. The first tech in is Wee Witch’s Apprentice, simply there to help remove your Ghostricks and Downerd, as well as give you extra link fodder for the other tech in, Borreload Dragon. Although Borreload doesn’t combo with anything in the deck, he is very helpful when facing a deck that runs multiple high ATK monsters, such as Blue-Eyes, or Monarchs. It also can be used to remove other pesky monsters without running any risk to yourself. Finally, it has the highest base ATK stat in the deck, and is instrumental in dealing with decks that run cards like Full Force Virus (the viruses are probably the #1 major weakness to this deck, alongside Majesty’s Fiend and other Special Summon-negating cards.

More to come on the Side Deck and Weaknesses for the deck later…