Melffy Tri-Brigade v3

Note: The English name for Excited Melffys has not been revealed at the time of posting.

Introduction

With the release of Phantom Rage around the corner, I figured some people might be looking for how to use the new Melffy support card or perhaps interested in a more unique Tri-Brigade variant than Zoo. This is the most up to date version of the Melffy Tri-Brigade deck that I have been toying with over the past couple of months.

General Deck Theory:

The Melffy engine generates plenty of advantage and interaction off of their one card starters, but lacks ways to push damage and affect the board on their own turn. This is where the aggressive Tri-Brigade sub-engine, Alpha, the Master of Beasts, and Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus - Sky Thunder come into play, as they all provide big bodies and effects that chew through the opponent's field. Also, given that Melffy play off of 1 card starters, we are free to include a generous helping of handtraps (13!). Combined with the instant board breaker Alpha, the Master of Beasts, it reasons that going second is not necessarily a death warrant for this deck, even against combo. However, this is still a blind first deck, as we would prefer to set up our wall of Melffy advantage before the opponent gets on board.

Common Opening Lines:

Note: When I refer to a "pop," I am referring to an effect that destroys an opponent's card, in this case at quick effect timing.

Obedience Schooled = 2 pops + 1 search for follow up or negation

Activate Obedience Schooled to summon Kalantosa Mystical Beast of the Forest, Melffy Puppy, and  Melffy Catty. Overlay the 3 Level 2 Beasts into Excited Melffys. On the opponent's turn, use Excited Melffys to resummon the 3 Level 2 beasts, which will no longer have their effects negated. Kalontosa will pop a card when it is resummoned, Puppy can summon another Kalantosa from deck, and Catty can search for a follow up play, like Alpha, the Master of Beasts, or it can search Hop Ear Squadron to immediately summon a Herald of the Arclight on the opponent's turn. Be very careful to not search Hop Ear when the opponent can already run over Herald in battle, as wasting the search can be costly, especially if you have no follow up.

Rescue Cat = 2 pops

Activate Rescue Cat to summon Kalantosa and Melffy Puppy. Similar to the last opening, we overlay these 2 Beasts into Excited Melffys, which can bring back the 2 Beasts without their effects negated.

Nimble Beaver = 1 pop and 1 conditional negation

Activate Nimble Beaver's effect on summon to summon another copy from the deck. Overlay the Nimble Beavers into Melffy of the Forest. Activate Melffy of the Forest to search Melffy Puppy, or, if you have a copy in hand already, search Melffy Cat. Assuming we only end with Puppy in hand, summon it in the End Phase using its own effect. During the opponent's turn, when Puppy returns to the hand to summon Kalantosa from deck, you can activate Melffy of the Forest to negate one monster permanently and prevent it from attacking. This negation is rather situational, since it only triggers  exactly right after a Melffy returns to hand and thus cannot stop on summon effects, but it is important to know that it is there.

Rescue Cat/Nimble Beaver + Tri-Brigade Airborne = 1 Banish + 1 Pop + 1 or 2 Floating Effects (effects that search when the monster is sent to GY)

Activate Rescue Cat to summon two Melffy Puppys from deck or Nimble Beaver to summon a copy of itself from deck. Overlay the two Level 2 monsters for Melffy of the Forest. Activate Melffy of the Forest  to search Melffy Puppy, or, if you have a copy in hand already, search Melffy Catty. Now, activate Tri-Brigade Airborne Assault by targeting Melffy of the Forest to summon Tri-Brigade Nervall from deck. Link Summon Tri-Brigade Ferrijit the Barren Blossom using Forest and Nervall as material. Since it was sent to the GY, activate Nervall's effect to search Kerass from deck. Next, activate Ferrijit's effect to summon Kerass from hand. There will now be 4 or 5 monsters in the GY at this point, depending on which starter you opened with. Either way, activate Kerass and banish 4 cards from the GY to summon Tri-Brigade Shuraig the Ominous Omen. If there are 5 cards in GY, avoid banishing Nervall. Lastly, Link Summon Tri-Brigade Rugal the Silver Sheller using Ferrijit and Kerass as Material. When Ferrijit is sent to GY, you get a small redraw to fix the hand. During the End Phase, summon from hand the Melffy Puppy that we searched earlier. During the opponents turn, we can resummon Kerass or Nervall (better because it floats) using Rugal to trigger the banish effect of Shuraig at any time during the Main Phase and we can pop a card with Kalantosa off Puppy. Shuraig also floats into almost any card in our deck, because why not.

 

Card Choice Discussion

I don't claim to be an expert deck builder or believe that I have completely broken the meta with this semi-casual Melffy deck. I do, however, believe that I have put enough thought and experimentation into this deck to justify every inclusion and exclusion, with room for disagreement. Below, I talk about some deck build choices that may be surprising or flat out incorrect to many people.

Why no Simorgh with Barrier Statue or Mist Valley Infinite Negates?

• They aren't fun. The great thing about Melffy is that you are slowly building up advantage while interacting with your opponent in a very careful and meaningful way. Building the deck around setting up one of these locks removes all of that complexity and strips Melffy of its unique identity and strengths.

The Tri-Brigade ratio seems weird. You should be playing Fraktall, he's the best one to open with.

• Fraktall sends Nervall, who searches Kerass. With the discard from Kerass, you have 3 cards in GY. Now you banish them all to summon the Link 3 Rugal. You can even link off what you have into Shuraig. Now what? You used 2 cards in hand to end on a big guy that sits there and floats. In short, Fraktall is not a starter.


• Airborne Assault is clearly not a starter either, so why play it over Fraktall? Well, as an extender, it's just pound for pound better card advantage than Fraktall. It summons Nervall from deck, who then gives you a +1 when used as material. Meanwhile, when you send Nervall to GY with Fraktall and search a Tri-Brigade monster, you only go neutral in terms of card economy

1 D.D. Crow?

• The D.D. Crow is included strictly in lieu of playing a second Nervall, which is not great to draw. Crow is more of an engine piece that doubles as a handtrap. In the combo I mentioned earlier with Rescue Cat/Nimble Beaver + Airborne Assault, if you draw both your 1 Nervall and an Airborne Assault, then you use Airborne to summon D.D. Crow from the deck, Link Summon into Ferrijit, and summon from hand the Nervall that you opened with. You still have 4 or 5 cards in GY to banish for Nerval's effect, so the rest is the same.

Hop Ear Squadron kind of sucks...

• I agree. 80% of the games I would rather search a more impactful and less risky card with Catty. However, those 20% of games where we pop their normal summon and can successfully Herald negate their next play make the 1 of Hop Ear better than playing a single extra handtrap. Also, a funny play going second is to Gamma the opponent on their turn and immediately use the Driver on field and Hop Ear to summon Draco Berserker of the Tenyi (or Psyframelord Omega, both have merit).

Why so little Melffy cards? They're all searchable, you know.

• The other Melffy cards are mediocre to bad. Melffy Pony is reasonable, but it relies on you already being extremely set up and your GY is often taxed by the Tri-Brigade already. If Pony could recycle Rescue Cat, my opinion of it might be higher, but often the only Level 2 beast in GY is Kalantosa.  Now that Excited Melffy, which wants all of it's materials intact, is our go to Melffy XYZ, Melffy Playhouse doesn't play well with our opening board. Bringing back one Melffy with Melffy Tag does not push any significant plays through, and if we really want to get a Melffy back in rotation, we can just use Excited Melffy. Melffy Hide-and-Seek is a slow Upstart Goblin that conflicts with the Tri-Brigades' GY resource usage. Melffy Mommy and Melffy Fenny I won't go over because just glancing the card text, it's evident they do nothing. Overall, I would nearly always rather search either Melffy Puppy or Melffy Catty over any of the cards I mentioned.

If this is a go first deck, why play 3 Alpha, the Master of Beasts? You could just play 1 and search it with Catty.

• The card is just that powerful. Going second, it is the best card in the deck. Going first, it ensures that you have a follow up to control the board. All of your duels are going to be grindy because of the Melffy playstyle, so having access to beater that can preserve itself by returning to hand will always impact the duel. Given the low attack of Melffy, you can freely summon this card, even on the third turn with monsters on your field. It doesn't hurt that it has synergy with Rescue Cat and Obedience Schooled in bouncing back the negated cards they summon. For example, you can access the Tribrigade engine by summoning Kerass off of Rescue Cat, bouncing it to hand, and then Special Summoning the Kerass from hand. Additionally, you can bounce back some Melffy summoned off Obedience Schooled, who will then summon themselves back from the hand.