Melodious

I wanted a strong Pendulum deck to get to the next level of the Master Duel Proficiency Test, and also Melodious seemed like a fun midrange deck to pick up and play. It has space for a lot of non-engine, which is important to me, it has some good one card combos, although it's rather lacking in that capacity by modern standards, it has tools to beat Nibiru which is pretty popular at the moment, and it can play Herald of the Orange Light, one of the strongest hand traps and a good tool in a meta full of Mulcharmys and Maxx "C". The goal of the deck is to put up Etoile + Schuberta + Aria, giving your monsters targeting protection, battle protection, the ability to dodge effects, 3 GY banishes, and 3+ compulses. More advanced combos add Herald of Mirage Lights to beat Raigeki and Talent, and Bacha to make it harder to defeat the board with Forbidden Droplet.

For one card starters I'm on 3 Refrain, 3 Ostinato, and 3 1st Movement Solo. Ostinato is the best of these. Ostinato by itself represents a draw one, beats Nibiru, and puts up the standard end board of Etoile + Aria + Schuberta, all without using Bloom Harmonist, saving it for follow-up and making it harder to interact with. Ostinato + any name puts an extra Herald of Mirage Lights and recurs the fairy material to discard to it. Ostinato + 2 names can add I:P, a second Schuberta, or a Bacha to make your board even harder to negate. Refrain is a 1 card combo all by itself, but also factors into a lot of the 2 card combos that beat common hand traps such as Nibiru. 1st Movement Solo is another 1 card starter that features in 2 card combos that make Etoile under Nibiru and play through common hand traps. 1st Movement Solo is the most restrictive starter, since it xenolocks you into only Melodious monsters, but the free special summon is still incredibly strong. When I see both Ostinato and 1st Movement Solo I like to start with Ostinato, because the reward is higher if they don't Ash it, but the risk is low, since you're usually not missing out on much besides a spell negate if they do Ash Ostinato. It's notable that if you don't think they have Nibiru or Talent, it might be better to start with Solo, combo to the full end board, banish your own board, and then Ostinato to put up a second Schuberta or add a Bacha to the end board, but that play loses to Nib or Talent, so I wouldn't say it's generally worth it unless you're confident your opponent can't disrupt you. Refrain makes this possible by being a Stratos and Foolish Burial all in 1.

We're on all 3 Couplet, all 3 Sonata, and all 3 Soprano. The deck suffers from minor consistency issues, and since Prospy is banned we can't use it to make up the difference. All 3 of these feature in the deck's 2+ card combos, and Couplet and Soprano are important pieces of your 1 card combos as well. Couplet and Refrain have effects that allow you to scale them out of extra deck when you summon a fusion monster, so a common play is summon Refrain, search Couplet, Scale Couplet, search Concerto, fusion summon Bacha, scale your scales. Couplet also has an effect to summon a level 4 or lower when added to the hand outside of your normal draw in the draw phase. This allows you to play turn 0 off of Maxx "C" and Fuwalos, and also allows you to make use of Soprano and Shopina's add back to the hand effect to summon an extra monster from the graveyard, and also make Refrain search Couplet an even stronger start. Soprano's effect to add back to the hand is a HOPT, but it's effect which fusion summons using monsters on the field is a soft once-per-turn, meaning it can be used to fusion summon multiple times in sequence. Sonata is a free extender that comes up in some combo lines, and because it isn't a HOPT you can summon her multiple times in a turn sometimes. Sonata also enables access to Bloom Harmonist, which is an important back-up plan, given the decks minor consistency issues. I'm not on Canon, because I cut Bagooska. Honestly, D Barrier isn't particularly common right now, the Bagooska Ostinato board is both win-more and easier to break than the standard board, and also Bagooska is a little cringe (I don't like playing floodgates). I'm running a single Shopina, which is a taketomborg, almost a garnet, but allows you to add back light fairies in virtually any turn you don't Ash a Maxx "C", picking up Herald of the Orange Lights on occasion, and also being essential in your main combos. Aria is obvious to run, targeting and battle protection for your board is one of the big perks of the deck. Because Aria prevents targeting, you can't use Refrain's scale effect to dump a card if you summon it early, and summoning either Soprano or Refrain off of 1st Movement Solo is better into more hand traps anyways, so I wouldn't reccomend summoning Aria early in your combo in most circumstances, but technically an early Aria is good into hands with multiple Veilers and Imperms, so if Nibiru becomes less popular and Veiler more popular it would be better. Concerto is your final fusion spell, the only searchable one off of Couplet's scale effect, and it allows you to fusion summon using your hand, field, and pendulum scales, making it crucial in some of your combos.

For non-engine, I'm on a hand trap approach. Called By and Crossout are important vs Maxx "C" and Fuwalos and just generally good into Ash Blossom, which can cook the deck. These and Ash alongside Maxx "C" are the first non-engine I add to almost any deck, and they're pretty good here. I'm not on Nibiru or Bystials which are usually pretty standard rn, but are bad in the deck because of the restriction on Ostinato and 1st Movement Solo which requires you to control no monsters, and the restriction on Couplet that requires you to control only Melodious monsters, and they're also worse because of the Xenolocks in the deck. Ash is weaker here than normal, because while it works well into Maxx "C" style effects, if you Ash on your turn you can't use Shopina to recur anything, which isn't necessary to put up a board all the time, but is very commonly used 2-3 times per turn in your combos. Imperm is here, it's a board breaker and a hand trap, mostly because we're on Dominus Purge, but also because you can use it without conflicting with Shopina. Purge is similar to Ash, and in some ways is better, and because our entire engine is Light Fairies you don't lose anything but a couple of the less common extra deck monsters from using it from the hand, meaning you basically don't have to ever set it, making it a lot stronger in this deck than some. It does turn off I:P, S:P, and Ty-Phon, so it's not completely free, but those are less commonly made than, say, Schuberta, Etoile, Aria, maybe Bacha or Herald of Mirage Lights. Herald of Orange Lights is the final hand trap. It's costly to activate, but it can come up in some combos by virue of being a Light Fairy, it can negate Maxx "C" and other hand traps you protect your plays, it gives you access to monster negates that the deck is otherwise lacking, and activating it doesn't turn off Shopina, so I do think you must play 3 of this card.

My Extra Deck looks a little different than the standard, so I'll go through it in detail. I'm only on 2 Bacha. This is a little bit risky, as some games you'll want 3, either 2 turn 1 and 1 turn 3, or 1 on 1, 2 from Etoile, and then again on 3. However, lots of the combos recycle your 2 Bacha, and also you can make do with only 2 provided your play is clean. I'd rather not eat up space in the extra deck in case I screw up, not because I don't screw up, but because I need the space for generic monsters. Bacha's effect on summon summons a Melodious monster from the deck, and when sent to the GY it revives a monster, meaning it's a great tool for starting your combos, and it's almost always the first thing you make. I'm also on 1 Etoile, 2 Schuberta. These are your main interruptions. Schuberta is pretty good rn in a world of Fiendsmith and Blue-Eyes, and the fact that it also gains attack can close out games and allows you to banish during the Damage Step, making it very hard to interact with. You can reset Schuberta's "once while on the field" effect with Etoile, and also you can make multiple Schuberta for multiple GY banishes. Etoile is the deck's tool to play under Nibiru, and helps protect your monsters while also allowing you to return your opponent's cards to the hand. If it leaves the field it can summon Schuberta or Bacha from the extra deck as well, it's a very strong card. 1 Bloom Harmonist is a must run. Your best combos don't use this card at all, but it provides extra consistency, provided you're mindful of your zone placements, and it is also important when playing through disruptions. Lastly I'm on a single copy of Bloom Prima. This is mostly here for the Herald combo lines, as picking up a monster enables more powerful combo lines. However, it can also help OTK in some situations, which is not super relevent but is nice upside.

For more generic extra deck staples, we have Herald of Mirage Lights, which provides a spell negate in your best combos, Protector of the Agents - Moon to out floodgates, Gravity Controller to send a Bacha to the GY after you summon it to the EMZ, which enables you to play through imperm and Veiler in some situations, Haggard Lizardose to clear a Nibiru token and draw a card, enabling 1st Movement Solo and Ostinato, I:P and S:P, which are just good generic monsters to make when you see hands full of engine, Ty-Phon to help give you that final push, and Underworld Goddess, which is here to out Towers monsters such as light and dark Chaos Angel