The Gold Pride were released in Indomitable Pride, and despite being massively overshadowed by the Superheavy Samurai, they are still a very decent archetype. They have massive synergy with the P.U.N.K. archetype, which not only are also composed by Level 3 tuners and Level 5 and 8 monsters, but also pay life points to activate their effects, turning on the better Gold Pride effects, including their ability to freely Special Summon from the hand when your LP are lower than your opponent. Both archetypes can also summon monsters from the Extra Deck on the opponent's turn. Combining these 2 archetypes, along with some tech cards and handtraps, gives you a Rogue deck that is fun to play, decently powerful and capable to climbing to Master rank (with some grinding I was able to get to Master I).
With that said, here's a breakdown of the cards on the deck, and the ratios I feel are the best:
The P.U.N.K. core: Most of them require paying LP to activate their effects. Allow for powerful synchro plays (and help with Xyz plays as well) and provide significant card advantage through their field spell draws.
- Main Deck:
- Noh-P.U.N.K. Ze Amin (x3) - A great starter for the deck, searches any P.U.N.K. monster by paying 600 LP. Usually you want Foxy Tune or Sharakusai, but might be useful to search other cards in niche situations. The good thing is that you pay 600 LP as cost, so even if the effect is negated you still turn on the Gold Pride abilities. Also, its GY effect to grant a P.U.N.K. monster 600 ATK can help you chain block in some situations and can be useful for OTKs or getting rid of large monsters as well.
- Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune (x3) - One of the best cards of the deck, a great starter and combo piece, allowing you to send it from the hand (or field) to the GY, along with another card from your hand, in order to Special Summon a P.U.N.K. from deck, except a Level 8. Notably, if the effect gets negated, you don't discard the 2nd card from your hand. Can get you to Ze Amin, Sharakusai or Deer Note. The 2nd effect to special summon itself from the hand by tributing a P.U.N.K. monster is also situationally useful for certain plays (when you're trying to get to a Psychic End Punisher fast for example). Also has a 3rd effect to gain LP when destroying monsters in battle, which is not really relevant except in extremelly grindy games (which you won't find easily with this deck).
- Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Sharakusai (x1) - Fusion Summon the Rising Carp with its effect by using itself and another P.U.N.K. as material, and then the Rising Carp will get you 2 more P.U.N.K. monsters from the deck (usually Deer Note and Wa Gon / Ze Amin), allowing you to cycle through the names in your deck, use their effects and making your synchro plays possible. It's also part of many endboards, since combining it with a Lvl 8 (usually JAM Dragon Drive) allows you to Synchro Summon the Amazing Dragon on your opponent's turn to basically bounce all of their cards (+ draw 1 and possibly chainblock its effect if you have the field spell). This can be activated in any phase, including End Phase, so if your opponent is on a trap deck like Labrynth wait until they set everything, then bounce them all during the End Phase to basically win the duel instantly.
- Gagaku-P.U.N.K. Wa Gon (x1) - It's another P.U.N.K. monster, Lvl 3 tuner that searches the field spell, and that's good enough. The effect to draw a card if your opponent targets a P.U.N.K. with an effect or for an attack can be useful sometimes but it's not something you care too much about.
- Noh-P.U.N.K. Deer Note (x1-2) - Level 5 monster, crucial to both your synchro plays (it and one of the Lvl 3 tuners gets you a Lvl 8 synchro, usually JAM Dragon Drive) and to pivot from P.U.N.K. to Gold Pride, allowing you to special summon another P.U.N.K. from the GY when itself goes from the field to the GY. I only play 1 copy since it doesn't feel amazing to draw (you want to summon it with Rising Carp or Foxy Tune), but you can play 2 if you want to make sure Runicks or Kashtiras don't ruin your day that easily, and also 2 would be better for the grind game, allowing you to go through your P.U.N.K. combos one more time if you need.
- Noh-P.U.N.K. Ogre Dance (x1) - Good consistency card, discards itself to add a P.U.N.K. monster (except a Lvl 8) from deck to hand, usually Ze Amin, and also has the same effect as Foxy Tune to special summon itself from the hand by tributing a P.U.N.K. monster, which is useful if you need a large monster (notably, tributing a Ze Amin will trigger its effect and you can bump Ogre Dance to 3100 ATK). It also can get more attack when your opponent activates a monster effect, which is not very relevant most of the times. Not the best card in a format where Droll & Lock Bird is one of the best handtraps, but still useful to have at least 1 copy.
- P.U.N.K. JAM Extreme Session (x1) - One of my favourite field spells of all time. Gives you insane advantage with its free draws and special summons, what more can you ask? Searchable of Wa Gon, so you only need to play 1 in this deck (if you were to play more copies in a different P.U.N.K. deck, remember that the special summon effect isn't even a hard once per turn!).
- Extra Deck:
- Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Rising Carp (x1) - Lvl 8 Fusion that you access of Sharakusai, that allows you to tribute itself to summon 2 P.U.N.K. monsters from the deck (when Fusion Summoned! does not have this ability if you revive it from the GY). The 2nd effect to give a P.U.N.K. monster 2 attacks during the battle phase comes up in OTK lines as well. Great card, but also a chokepoint of your P.U.N.K. combos, so sometimes you are able to skip it and go directly into JAM Dragon Drive with Deer Note + a Lvl 3 tuner
- P.U.N.K. JAM Dragon Drive (x1) - Lvl 8 Synchro that either searches or sends to the GY a Lvl 3 Psychic monster from the deck when it's summoned. Essential card in your combos, as it can provide you with another Lvl 3 body, or just search a hand trap (Ghost Ogre). Also has another effect to revive itself from the GY when your opponent responds to a P.U.N.K. effect, which is kinda useful, especially if you're trying to OTK through an opponent's board and they try to do something in response to Amazing Dragon. Just remember you need a Psychic tuner to summon it!
- Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Amazing Dragon (x1) - One of my favourite monsters, and the ace card of the P.U.N.K. archetype! Generic Lvl 11 synchro, that bounces cards your opponent controls, up to the number of different Lvl 3 Psychic monsters in your GY (if you go through the P.U.N.K. combo you should have 3-4 names in GY). Since you can Synchro Summon during the opponent's turn with Sharakusai, this effect is useful both going 1st and 2nd! Also has another very useful effect to revive any P.U.N.K. monster from your GY, but you cannot use both effects in the same turn, so if you are summoning it on your turn, choose carefully!
The Gold Pride core: All of the Gold Pride monsters have the ability to special summon themselves from the hand when you have less LP than your opponent, then each one of them has special effects and extra deck forms. The extra deck monsters have strong effects but return to the Extra Deck (and re-summon their Main deck counterparts) during the End Phase if they use them.
- Main Deck:
- Gold Pride - Captain Carrie (x2-3) - Level 3 monster, searches a Gold Pride trap card (Start Your Engines) on summon. Also has an effect when it goes to GY to banish up to 3 Gold Pride cards from the GY and increase the attack of a Gold Pride extra deck monster by 500 for each, and banishing 1-2 cards can be useful in some OTK lines, or even just to chain block something if needed. Can be run at 2 copies, but I liked it at 3, rarely feels bad to draw.
- Gold Pride - Leon (x2-3) - Level 3 tuner, can Special Summon a Gold Pride from the GY on summon (but locks you into summoning from the Extra Deck, except for Gold Pride monsters, so be sure to not use it on the beginning of your combos!). Also allows you to Synchro Summon during your opponent turn, by using Gold Pride monsters as material - unlike Sharakusai, you can summon generic synchro monsters (like Dragite to avoid Evenly Matched, maybe even the P.U.N.K. Amazing Dragon if you don't have Sharakusai, or PEP if you're desperate), but you will also often go for its Extra Deck form, Star Leon, which can pop an opponent's monster if you have less LP. You should play 3 copies, but I only had 2 copies (due to bad UR luck on my pulls) and it was ok, so if you are low on crafting materials it's possible to play with 2.
- Gold Pride - Roller Baller (x1-2) - Level 5 monster, allows you to access the Gold Pride Fusion Monster, Pin Baller, as a quick effect, to basically "Relinquish" your opponent board away! Useful both going 1st and 2nd, and sometimes it can also be used just as a free Level 5 body to use on your Synchro plays (if you have access to Leon later in the turn you will end up with it on the board anyway!), so you can play 2 and not feel bad when you draw it.
- Gold Pride - Nytro Head (x1) - Level 8 monster, which can summon a token to your opponent's field (that can't be used as link material) during their standby phase, and then as a quick effect destroy that token and all cards in its adjacent zones. Of course your opponent can play around it, but it has some neat applications: stops the Kashtira special summons, turns off some board breakers like Evenly Matched or Lightning Storm, you can put the token under an extra monster zone if you occupy the other to force your opponent to place their links where you can pop them, or maybe even put it next to a pendulum zone if you know that you are against a Pendulum deck. Also a big free Special Summon for OTKs or Synchro/Xyz plays. I like to have it at 1 copy.
- Gold Pride - Better Luck Next Time! (x2) - The Gold Pride starter, a Continuous Spell that searches any Gold Pride monster by losing LP equal to its ATK (turning on their effects), and also gives you draws when your extra deck Gold Pride monsters return to the deck, which usually happens during the end phase. It's not bad to draw, but it's also searchable by Chariot Carrie, so 2 copies feel perfect in this deck.
- Gold Pride - Start Your Engines! (x1-2) - Excelent trap card, searchable of Carrie, allowing you to destroy an opponent's monster on summon and summon a Gold Pride from the deck (it has some randomness, but if you reveal Leon/Roller Baller you'll have a useful effect no matter what). Can be negated by Ash Blossom though, so I don't like relying on it, but it is very powerful to resolve. I don't like drawing it though, especially going 2nd, so I only play 1 copy, but 2 copies can help on the grind game. Also you need at least 3 Gold Pride monsters in deck to resolve it, so be careful if you don't have many in deck, or if you activate Maxx C!
- Extra Deck:
- Gold Pride - Chariot Carrie (x1) - Extra Deck form of Captain Carrie, Rank 3 Xyz that allows you to detach a material to add a Gold Pride spell (Better Luck Next Time), also allowing you to send a Gold Pride monster from deck to GY if you have less LP, very useful if you want to search Leon and revive Roller Baller for instance. It's the card that links P.U.N.K. and Gold Pride - After doing your P.U.N.K. combos you can easily have 2 Lvl 3 monsters on the field, and overlaying for Chariot Carrie kicks off your Gold Pride combos. If you are going second and don't OTK you can also overlay Zeus on top of it. Some decks run 2 but I have never needed more than 1.
- Gold Pride - Star Leon (x1) - Extra Deck form of Leon, Lvl 6 Synchro that you usually summon with Leon + Carrie (like on its artwork), can gain ATK equal to an opponent's monster original ATK and destroy it if you have less LP. Very useful for both disruption (since you can even summon it on your opponent's turn) and some OTKs!
- Gold Pride - Pin Baller (x1) - Extra Deck form of Roller Baller, who can Fusion Summon it as a quick effect using 2 or more Gold Pride monsters from field or hand. It has a very useful "Relinquished-like" effect, equiping to itself monsters your opponent controls up to the number of fusion materials used (does not target!), and cannot be negated if you are behind on LP! However, your opponent can still interact with it in other ways, so if they respond with something that removes it from the field, it resolves without effect. Again, very useful both going 1st and 2nd!
Tech cards:
- Speedroid Terrortop (x3) + Speedroid Taketomborg (x1) - Turbos out a Rank 3 Xyz without using the normal summon. We have a few options: you can go for Chariot Carrie and immediately start the Gold Pride plays (but you don't get to send from deck to GY since you don't have less LP), Fortune Tune for a Zeus play when going 2nd, or Bamboozling Gossip Shadow to protect your other plays from handtraps like Nibiru. Even Taketomborg is not the worst to draw, since it's a free special summon if you have another wind monster like Leon. Unfortunately this also plays into Droll, since Terrortop searches for Taketomborg, but it was still very important in my climb to Master I so I recommend it.
- Virtual World Hime - Nyannyan (x1) - Part of your combos, it's a great card to send to the GY with JAM Dragon Drive (which works under Droll unlike other extenders like Psychic Tracker/Wheeleder!) or discard with Foxy Tune if you happen to draw it, since it later revives itself when you summon a Lvl 3 monster (it gets banished if it leaves the field but you can even get around that if you Xyz into Carrie with it). It locks you into only summoning Level/Rank 3 or higher monsters, which has little impact on our deck, but it means no Links (which I am not playing anyways) or Gamma plays after!
- Cosmic Cyclone (x1-3) - This is one I was reluctant to play, but I have zero regrets, such a simple effect but won me so many games. Gives you a chance against Stun and Runick decks, also useful going first against any deck that uses Field/Continuous spells (like Kashtira or Mannadium) or Pendulum monsters (like Superheavy). On top of it all, it's can also function as a starter going 2nd, since you pay 1000 LP! I like playing 2, but play whatever amount you feel like it, depending on how much you hate Stun decks.
- Emergency Teleport (x2) - One of the best cards we get to play, gets full combo without using the normal summon, or gets an extender, can get Sharakusai or Ghost Ogre on the opponent's turn if you don't have another choice, etc. It's semi-limited at the moment but play 3 if it ever gets unlimited.
Handtraps: These can be adjusted depending on the format and your preferences, but right now this is what I'm playing
- Maxx "C" (x3) + Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (x2-3) + Called by the Grave (x2) - Unfortunately we have to play the minigame. Deck space was already somewhat tight so I was only playing 2 Ash but I also have Gamma as an out to Maxx C in a lot of situations. I feel like this is enough.
- PSY-Framegear Gamma (x2) + PSY-Frame Driver (x1) - Many lists I've seen don't play this one, maybe because Gamma requires a garnet in the deck, but it is one of the most powerful handtraps in the game (there's a reason it's semi-limited). Many times you can bait out a handtrap like Ash, Maxx C or Droll when using cards like Emergency Teleport, Foxy Tune, Ogre Dance, Better Luck Next Time, etc. and then drop Gamma to protect against that handtrap and also make a Baronne de Fleur (you can synchro Gamma and Driver into Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon, revive the Gamma and make a Lvl 10 synchro). Also protects your Rising Carp, since it tributes itself for cost, leaving an empty field ready for Gamma to make an appearance should your opponent try to Ash your chokepoint. If that wasn't enough, it is a Lvl 2 tuner you can Special Summon with Emergency Teleport, making it easy to summon a Baronne de Fleur if you have an extra Emergency Teleport you didn't need (and aren't yet under the Nyannyan lock!)
- Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit (x1) - Searchable with JAM Dragon Drive, also summonable with Emergency Teleport during your opponent's turn if you have nothing better to do with it (it's a Lvl 3 Psychic so in the GY it counts for the Amazing Dragon bounces). Useful against some decks like Superheavy Samurai.
- Nibiru, the Primal Being (x1-3) - I only have 1 copy of this card (from the bundle), so it's basically a punish against my opponent if I drop Maxx C and my opponent tries to OTK under it, but you can play more copies if you want. It's also a Rock monster so it has a funny interaction with Dragite, being able to non-target bounce an opponent's card if you're lucky to reveal it from the top 5 cards of the deck (it won me a game against Mikanko lol)
Generic Extra Deck Monsters:
- Adamancipator Risen - Dragite (x1) - Rising Carp and Carrie are water monsters, so you have access to a spell/trap negate, which is great. Leon+Roller Baller can go into it during the opponent turn to protect against Evenly if they suspiciosly try to go to the battle phase with nothing on board. The bounce effect is funny since the only rock in the deck is Nibiru but it's absolutely free and you might get lucky, so go for it.
- Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon (x1) - Useful to make Baronne de Fleur along with Gamma.
- Baronne de Fleur (x1) - Omninegate, one of the best generic Synchro monsters, you can make it in this deck with Gamma + any Lvl 8 (such as Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon, Nytro Head or an extra Foxy Tune/Ogre Dance summoned with the field spell or Deer Note effect)
- Psychic End Punisher (x1) - Amazing card, able to finish games on its own, unnafected by your opponent's activated effects if you have less LP, can banish cards on your opponent's field by paying LP (also triggers the P.U.N.K. field spell to draw a card, since a Psychic is paying LP to activate an effect), and gets huge during the battle phase. Watch out for floodgates though, since continuous effects still affect it, and try to use it to OTK (if your opponent survives the turn with less LP than you he becomes just a beatstick).
- Number 75: Bamboozling Gossip Shadow (x1) - Kind of a negate, turns an opponent's effect into "Both players draw 1". Giving your opponent cards is not good but if you can make it "for free" with the Speedroid package it can be useful to protect your plays against handtraps. Helped me a lot, but feels bad when your opponent draws Maxx C with its effect so use it carefuly.
- Number 49: Fortune Tune (x1) + Downerd Magician (x1) + Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder (x1) - This deck really wants to go 1st, so if your handtraps aren't enough, you rely on ZEUS to break boards when going 2nd (especially against decks like Kashtira, Fortune Tune can't be targeted so if they don't banish the Lvl 3 monsters before you xyz summon it they are in for a world of pain).
- Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy (x1) - Sometimes it's useful to have a Rank 8 Xyz, Number 38 is a spell negate on a big body which is not bad. If you don't have the card and don't want to spend materials just replace it with something else.
On the Side Deck I included cards that you might consider but I either removed or chose not to use them. Notably:
- Droll & Lock Bird - Very useful against decks like Superheavy or Mannadium, almost useless against others like Branded or Labrynth. Also doesn't feel good in a format with Maxx C. It is good but I don't like it. If you're playing Crossout Designator definitely play 1 copy since this deck suffers against it as well.
- Joruri-P.U.N.K. Madame Spider + P.U.N.K. trap(s) - Many decks run this package, and I like it a lot in some other P.U.N.K. decks, since it improves your end board with one more disruption; however, it felt too bricky in this specific variant of the deck, plus I am already over 40 cards. The Gold Pride trap is enough.
- Psychic Tracker / Psychic Wheeleder - Free Lvl 3 extenders, I chose Nyannyan over those since it works under Droll and is better for the grind game. Also have decent effects if you synchro with them.
- Gold Pride - The Crowd Goes Wild! / Gold Pride - Nytro Blaster - I tried these Gold Pride cards but they didn't feel good enough. The Crowd Goes Wild does the same thing as Better Luck Next Time, and Nytro Blaster (the link monster) is cool but too specific and situational, not worth the investment 99% of the times, also does nothing going 1st.
The Basic Combo / Endboard:
- Get Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Sharakusai on the field + another P.U.N.K. monster (usually Ze Amin or Wa Gon, don't forget to use their effects on field for free advantage, but can also fusion with them from the hand if needed). This can be achieved through many ways, including Ze Amin, Foxy Tune and/or Emergency Teleport.
- Fusion Summon Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Rising Carp with Sharakusai effect.
- Use Rising Carp effect to tribute itself and summon 2 monsters from the deck, which will be Noh-P.U.N.K. Deer Note + a Lvl 3 tuner (Ze Amin or Wa Gon).
- Synchro Summon into P.U.N.K. JAM Dragon Drive with those 2 monsters. Multiple effects will trigger: you will want Deer Note as CL1, JAM Dragon Drive as CL2 (Ze Amin as CL3 to chain block everything if you used that tuner). This order is important, and you might need to change the game settings to allow you to manually choose the chain order, since it doesn't work like that by default.
- With JAM Dragon Drive you will send to the GY (not add to hand!) Virtual World Hime - Nyannyan, and with Deer Note you want to revive Sharakusai (this one is the best but another Lvl 3 could do).
- Since you Special Summoned a Lvl 3 (Sharakusai) while Nyannyan was on the GY (hence why the order matters!), you will be able to revive Nyannyan to the field as a tuner.
- At this point, you have gone through the P.U.N.K. combo and have JAM Dragon Drive, Sharakusai and Nyannyan. The next part depends on whether or not you have a Lvl 3 extender in your hand, such as Gold Pride Leon/Carrie, Taketomborg, or another copy Ze Amin (that you can summon with the field spell effect).
- If you have an extender, summon it (if it's Carrie, use the effect to add the Gold Pride trap card), then use it and Nyannyan to go into Gold Pride - Chariot Carrie. This allows you to keep Sharakusai on the field in order to summon Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Amazing Dragon on your opponent's turn.
- If you do not have an extender, you'll use Sharakusai and Nyannyan to summon the Chariot Carrie. You'll most likely lose the ability to summon Amazing Dragon, but the advantage you get from pivoting into the Gold Pride cards is worth it.
- After summoning Chariot Carrie, use it's effect to search Gold Pride - Better Luck Next Time!, and you can also send Gold Pride - Roller Baller to the GY (or Gold Pride - Nytro Head if you already have access to Roller Baller).
- Activate Better Luck Next Time, and search for either:
- Gold Pride - Captain Carrie - searches for Gold Pride - Start Your Engines! on summon.
- Gold Pride - Leon - Allows you to revive whatever monster you sent to the GY with Chariot Carrie on summon. It locks you from the Extra Deck except for Gold Pride, but it doesn't matter since you are already on the end of your combo. I like this option more, unless I couldn't send a monster to the GY previously (for example, if I summoned Chariot Carrie with the Speedroid package while the LP was intact).
- Set the trap card if you have it, and go to the End Phase. Chariot Carrie will return to the Extra Deck and summon a Captain Carrie, and the continuous spell will let you draw a card.
If everything went smoothly, you should end on:
What about going 2nd?
This guide turned out very long, but if you have reached this point, I hope you enjoyed the reading. If you have any suggestions let me know. Now, Start Your Engines and make The Crowd Go Wild!
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