Masterduel Selection Pack Revived Legion has premiered the "Horus" archetype that provides PUNK a much needed power boost in the form of many level 8 bodies on board! The Horus quartet of Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef enable PUNK to do pretty insane plays! Cyberpunk aesthetic combines with Ancient Egyptian motifs to form a visually amazing and powerfully fun rogue deck!
Horus allows PUNK to play through handtraps especially Droll, since King's Sarcophagus sends Horus card to the GY rather than adding them to the hand. If your PUNK deck was stopped by too much interruption, you can pivot to the Horus engine instead! The extra bodies on board and the level 8s for synchro/XYZ/link summons allow PUNK to draw up to 6 cards per turn and summon double Psychic End Punisher! If you haven't been lucky enough to draw into one of your 15 one card PUNK starters, Zombie Vampire Coach King Giantrainer made with the level 8s that Horus provides also gives you another chance to get your starter! The PUNK duelist can also end of a board of Sharakusai (for Amazing Dragon), I:P Masquerena (for S:P Little Knight), and Nashiwari Surprise (1 pop) while drawing 6 cards!
While not the strongest deck on Masterduel ladder, Horus certainly gives PUNK a much needed power boost to enable it to compete toe to toe with meta heavyweights like Snake-Eyes and Branded.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING
In contrast to other iterations of this PUNK, I prefer a sizeable PUNK deck consisting of 55 cards. It is 55 cards since one Ze Amin + discard is full PUNK combo, and there are 15 copies of Ze Amin (3 Ze Amin, 3 Ogre, 3 Foxy Tune, 3 Emergency Teleport and 3 Small World) giving the duelist a fair chance of drawing into it with their starting hand. 55 cards also make it less likely that you will hard draw your garnets (Sharakusai, Deer Note, Wa Gon and Jam Session) that are essential for the combo. Trust me, 55 cards is still surprisingly consistent and totally not bricky, especially since you can draw up to 4 cards with the Horus engine!
The two archetypes in this deck are of course PUNK (16 cards) and Horus (9 cards). PUNK cards are your starters for the main combo while Horus are extenders that enhance your board while obtaining more resources.
The usual "Maxx C" package is included with 1 Crossout, 2 Called By the Grave, 3 Ash Blossom and 3 Maxx C. The Gamma packahe also is there to counter Maxx C and any other handtraps with 2 Gamma and 1 Driver. The rest of the handtrap staples are included as Small World bridges to search your starters.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
The strategy of PUNK Horus is to interrupt your opponent as much as possible while building as much resource advantage as you can with multiple draws and searches. The turn after, if your opponent hasn't surrendered yet, both Horus and PUNK have massive follow-up to enable an easy OTK. If King's Sarcophagus is intact until the next turn, your opponent will have to contend with 4 giant beatsticks summoned basically for free! The PUNK cards have follow-up to, since Jam Session and Amazing Dragon is on the field and Dragon Drive is in the GY. Both engines can OTK independently!
The combo for this strategy is the standard PUNK combo -> Horus combo. Here is the main combo for PUNK Horus:
PUNK Ze Amin + Horus Imsety + 2 discards = Draw 6 cards (several handtraps in hand) + I:P Masquerena (S:P Little Knight's x2 banish) + Horus Monsters and Sharakusai (Amazing Dragon's x4 bounce) + PUNK Trap (1 pop/negate) + King's Sarcophagus with Horus in GY (Follow-up)
- (The following is standard PUNK combo) Summon Ze Amin. Ze Amin searches for Foxy Tune.
- Foxy Tune effect to discard 1 card in hand to summon Sharakusai from deck.
- Sharakusai fusion summons Rising Carp, using Sharakusai + Ze Amin.
- Tribute Rising Carp to summon Deer Note and Wa Gon from deck.
- Activate Wa Gon's effect to search for Jam Session from deck.
- Activate Jam Session.
- Synchro summon Dragon Drive using Wa Gon + Deer Note.
- CL1 Dragon Drive to search for Madame Spider from deck, CL2 Deer Note to summon Sharakusai from GY.
- Jam Session's trigger effect draws you 1 card.
- Special summon Madam Spider from hand using Jam Session. Madame Spider searches for PUNK trap (I prefer Nashiwari Surprise targeted pop for this current meta) from deck.
- Jam Session's trigger effect draws you 1 card a second time.
- (The following is the Horus combo) Activate Imsety Horus' effect in hand to search for King's Sarcophagus and draw 1 card.
- Activate King's Sarcophagus.
- Activate King's Sarcophagus' effect to send one card from your hand to the GY to send a Horus monster to the GY (A Horus name that already isn't in the GY).
- Summon Imsety from the GY and another Horus monster since you control King's Sarcophagus.
- XYZ summon Coach King Giantrainer using 2 Horus monsters + Dragon Drive.
- Draw 3 cards with Coach King Giantrainer, activating it's effect 3 times.
- Activate King's Sarcophagus' effect twice more to send the rest of the Horus monsters from deck to GY.
- Summon the two Horus monsters from the GY since you control King's Sarcophagus. (Preferably you keep Duamutef and Hapi on the field, since they both float if any of your cards are removed from field).
- Link away Madame Spider + Coach King Giantrainer for I:P Masqurena. (Alternatively if you have an extender, you can Synchro Madame Spider + Horus monster for End Punisher, while you Link away Giantrainer + extender for S:P Little Knight. This is a beefier board)
- Set the rest of your spells/traps, especially the PUNK trap that was searched earlier.
With Ze Amin + Imsety + 2 discards, you get many interruptions and resources! The PUNK duelist gets a draw 6 (many cards are handtraps/interruptions), S:P Little Knight's double banish, Amazing Dragon's x4 bounce + 1 draw with Jam Session, and a set PUNK trap! This is the ultimate combo available for PUNK Horus, but chances are, you aren't going to achieve this board because of handtraps being very commonplace during this meta.
Even if you're board wiped, Horus Hapi would recover two cards from the GY/Banished for follow-up or interruption. Also, if you're board wiped S:P Little Knight can save your monsters by banishing them until the endphase so you can keep your board for next turn!
You'll generally have 5+ cards in hand if you're allowed to full combo, so you'll have plenty of handtraps and follow-up.
Technically, the combo can draw up to 7 cards since you can draw 1 more card on your opponent's turn with Sharakusai's quick synchro as well.
If you're interrupted mid-combo by a turn-ending card, your plan B is to summon Psychic End Punisher to stall for next turn's counterattack, since most decks cannot out it easily.
Generally, a fully set-up Horus engine in the GY with King's Sarcophagus on the field flattens every single deck/board during your counterattack on turn 3 since all the Horus monsters are gigantic beatsticks backed by King Sarcophagus' powerful battlephase removal.
Going second, hopefully your handtraps simplify the gamestate enough to the point your in-engine combo and extenders are enough to allow you to play the game through your opponent's interruption. Triple Tactics Thrust can also fetch you much needed board breakers like Evenly Matched to obliterate your opponent's board so you can combo off in Main Phase 2.
The PUNK Horus pilot has a plethora of options to clear the board and OTK going second based on the gamestate:
A 4 material Zeus is easily summoned with 2 level 3s -> Fortune Tune -> Battle Phase attack -> Downerd -> Zeus. a 4 Material Zeus can also be summoned with 2 level 8s -> Dingirsu (send card to GY) -> Battle Phase attack -> Pain Gainer -> Zeus.
If you have Imsety/King's Sarcophagus in-hand, you can activate King's Sarc 4 times to set up your Horus engine in the GY. Summon all 4 Horus monsters and that's 12700ATK on board while King's Sarc sends a monster to the GY!
1 Ze Amin + 1 discard can make Amazing Dragon synchro summoned with Rising Carp + Ze Amin clears 2-4 cards from the board while enabling it to attack twice with 3600ATK accompanied with Dragon Drive (2700ATK) totalling 9900 ATK!
PUNK Ze Amin + 1 discard = 3600ATK Amazing Dragon that can attack twice, bounce 4 cards your opponent controls with Amazing Dragon, 2700 ATK Dragon Drive.
- (The following is standard PUNK combo) Summon Ze Amin. Ze Amin searches for Foxy Tune.
- Foxy Tune effect to discard 1 card in hand to summon Sharakusai from deck.
- Sharakusai fusion summons Rising Carp, using Sharakusai + Ze Amin.
- Tribute Rising Carp to summon Deer Note and Wa Gon from deck.
- Activate Wa Gon's effect to search for Jam Session from deck.
- Activate Jam Session.
- Synchro summon Dragon Drive using Wa Gon + Deer Note.
- CL1 Dragon Drive to search for Ze Amin from deck, CL2 Deer Note to summon Rising Carp from GY.
Jam Session's trigger effect draws you 1 card.
Special summon Ze Amin from hand using Jam Session.
- Synchro Summon Amazing Dragon using Ze Amin + Rising Carp.
- CL1 Amazing Dragon to bounce up to 4 cards your opponent controls, CL2 Rising Carp targeting Amazing Dragon enabling it to attack twice, CL3 Ze Amin targeting Amazing Dragon boosting it's ATK by 600.
GENERAL TIPS
- If you get hit by Droll & Lockbird, Dimension Shifter, or even Maxx "C," your typical plan B is to synchro summon Psychic End Punisher. Chances are that your opponent cannot out this monster and you'll be alive next turn to continue counterattack without committing too much of your resources.
This deck absolutely sucks vs. backrow floodgates or backrow, meaning that the common Stun decks and Labrynth duelists absolutely body this deck. Thankfully, Triple Tactics Thrust can search Evenly Matched.
- Not only does Small World search Ze Amin to start your combo, it also for your Horus engine! From my experience nobody really negates Small World since they'd rather negate a choke point in a combo, so Small World is a great card to open with so you can start clearing your opponent's board.
Photon Lord is an excellent card to help insulate your PUNK combo from monster-based interruptions, especially handtraps. If you can make Photon Lord before starting your PUNK combo, do it to ensure the success of your PUNK plays.
- PUNK Horus can pivot into other playstyles of one aspect of the game has been floodgated to you. Has the opponent resolved D-Barrier calling out Synchros? You can play with XYZs instead! Has your PUNK combo been stopped in it's tracks? Use the Horus engine!
If you don't have access to your PUNK starters and you have the Horus engine available, you can draw 3 with Coach King Giantrainer. There is a high chance that you'll draw into one of the the 15 copies of Ze Amin in your deck! You can also summon Zombie Vampire with 2 Horus monsters to potentially summon a starter from your mills.
- The Zombie Vampire is also another viable extender and luck based "searcher" in this deck. Simply XYZ summon him with 2 Horus monsters, activate effect to mill 4, and you may likely find a PUNK starter! Later on in the combo, Zombie Vampire can be linked away into S:P Little Knight with her on-summon banish effect active.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Ever since I've picked up the PUNK deck when Grand Creators came out January 2022 - I've been a total fan of this strategy, playstyle and aesthetic of the deck. With Horus, not only does the Egyptian aesthetic makes the deck look cooler, PUNK's powerlevels have received another boost with all the level 8 bodies it has access to! Drawing 6+ cards and ending on a full PUNK board is a gamestate most duelists would have difficulty dealing with, making PUNK stronger than ever!
Now, this strategy is available in Masterduel! It may not be the strongest deck in the cutthroat meta ladder, but it is still a potent threat that any strategy would be hard pressed to face, especially if allowed to go first!
GLHF Duelists!
150
150
720
1050
