Nephthys Libromancers (Master Duel)

Introduction

As a Nephthys fan, I've been pretty disappointed with how the deck performs nowadays in comparison to other Ritual decks. Sure, Conductor of Nephthys is an insanely powerful retrain that the deck so desperately needed to extend its combos, but it wasn't enough. Enter Libromancers!

To summarize both archetypes, the Nephthys cards revolve around summoning the Ritual spellcasters, and then using them to go into the other Nepthys cards. They accomplish this with the powerful Conductor of Nephthys, who essentially brings out two other bodies onto the field for free. Their Ritual Spell, Rebirth of Nephthys, can also non-target pop a card under certain conditions, which is very useful. I recommend playing the solo gate to see them in action.

Libromancers are focused on generating lots of card advantage and Ritual summoning multiple times in a single turn, while also being fairly straightforward to pilot, as most of their cards loop into each other. All they need to get going is a non-Ritual Libromancer (preferably Libromancer Fire or Libromancer Geek Boy) and any other Ritual monster in your hand, including a Nephthys.

As a disclaimer, this deck will mainly be carried by the Libromancer cards, simply because they are far more powerful and consistent than Nephthys (Konami please print more support for my girls). However, the Nephthys cards will provide some much-appreciated extra support. For example, Pre-Preparation of Rites gets you both Rebirth of Nephthys and Devotee of Nephthys. If you have any non-Ritual Libromancers in your hand, you can get the Libromancer line started from there. Overall, the deck is pretty simple to use, with a lot of room to extend further.

Some combos and tips

1. Libromancer line (Libromancer Fire and any Ritual): Libromancer Fire reveals a Ritual monster and summon, effect to search Libromancer Geek Boy, Geek boy eff to summon and search Libromancer Origin Story, Origin Story eff search Libromancer First Appearance, First Appearance adds a Libromancer Ritual monster, and finally Ritual summon.

2. Nephthys line (Rebirth of Nephthys + Conductor of Nephthys): Rebirth of Nephthys to summon Conductor of Nephthys (if you use Devotee of Nephthys or Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys as tribute, you can pop a card for free as well), Conductor eff to summon second Devotee from deck, Devotee eff to summon Disciple of Nephthys, Disciple to pop and search another Conductor. Link off into the Link-2 Nephthys, the Sacred Preserver (preferably leave Conductor on the field) to search a level 8 and recycle Rebirth. NOTE: If you have any non-Ritual Libromancers in your hand, make sure to play those while you have still have Rituals in your hand.

3. Going first example: Continuing from the Nephthys line above, revive Devotee by destroying whatever Nephthys card you added from the Link-2, use both to go into Gigantic Spright, Gigantic eff to summon Diviner of the Herald, Diviner send Herald of the Arc Light to the GY to add another Ritual card. You should have Gigantic Spright, Diviner, and Conductor on the field now, in addition to any Libromancers if you had any (like Libromancer Doombroker with Libromancer Intervention set). Link off Diviner and Gigantic for Spright Elf, Elf eff to revive Disciple, link off Disciple and Conductor for I:P Masquerena. Now you can summon Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax on your opponent’s turn.

4. Going second: Standard Libromancer Fireburst OTK line (see combo #1). You can clear pieces of the opponent’s board before attacking, with cards like Libromancer Origin Story, Rebirth of Nephthys, or Dyna Mondo. Another good OTK option is Borrelsword Dragon.

5. Diviner of the Herald: This is the deck’s main Normal Summon. Use her effect to dump Herald of Arc Light (or Elder Entity N'tss if you’re going second and already have a Ritual in hand). She will then be level 6, which is perfect for Ritual summoning or using her with Libromancer Fire to go into Baronne de Fleur .

6. Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys: This is the level 8 Ritual Nephthys monster. You mainly use it as fodder for Rebirth of Nephthys or a search target for the Link-2 Nephthys, the Sacred Preserver. Rarely do you actually summon it, but if you do, it has a pretty great non-target destruction effect and comes back every turn if it’s destroyed!

Tech Options

1. Libromancer Magigirl and Libromancer Mystigirl: The idea with Magigirl is that you use her effect to Ritual summon Mystigirl on your opponent’s turn for a monster negate. She’s fine, but is outclassed by Dyna Mondo. Mystigirl might be worth playing though.

2. Nephthys, the Sacred Flame: This is the almighty Nephthys boss monster, a Link-3 that basically requires 3 Ritual monsters to be any good and is essentially a more expensive Avramax. It’s not really worth the effort to bring out, but it is hilarious in low power events where Avramax is banned, such as the Ritual Festival, since it has the potential to be a 4800 attack pseudo-Towers.

3. Fire Kings: Not really a tech option, but should be noted anyway. The only Fire King monster currently in Master Duel that really matters is Fire King High Avatar Garunix because he is searchable off of the Link-2 Nephthys. The rest of the Fire Kings are not as useful because the Nephthys spellcasters are Wind and not Fire, so there isn’t too much other overlap.

4. Secret Village of the Spellcasters: The Nephthys girls are all spellcasters, which means you can use Secret Village to lock your opponent out of spells. However, even the strongest Nephthys girl (Conductor) has only 2000 attack, which means she can easily be destroyed by battle. Luckily, both Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax and Nephthys, the Sacred Flame (the aforementioned Link-3) provide battle protection.

5. Imperial Iron Wall: Since this deck relies on the GY often, we don’t want our cards to get banished, so this is an excellent floodgate to play. We don’t really use any banish effects ourselves either, so it doesn’t hinder us at all. Not really necessary to play, but nice to have in the current meta.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you enjoy playing this deck! There are way more combos and techs you could do than the ones I've listed here since there are no summoning restrictions on any of the cards, so play around and have fun!