PUNK has been slaughtered by the banlist. Dying for the sins of the current meta decks - Tearlaments and Spright, PUNK lost two key combo cards - Halqifibrax and Chaos Ruler. Effectively cut off from most of it's combo lines, PUNK has been reduced to a shell of it's former self.
Losing its two MVPs, PUNK can only turn to incorporating other archetypes and enablers to pack a competitive punch, and I present to you - PUNK Reptile Lock.
After seeing an incredible combo video by /u/Armytile on Reddit, I was inspired to make my own tweaks and Youtube video featuring this strategy.
PUNK Reptile seeks to perform a one sided "Mystic Mine" like lock on your opponent, while having enough resources afterward to OTK with a classic PUNK board.
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES, ENGINES AND DECKBUILDING
- Seeking to turbo two level 8s on the board for Bishbaalkin, the PUNK cards in the Main Deck consist of 15 cards:
3 Emergency Teleport, 3 Ze Amin, 3 Ogre Dance, 3 Foxy Tune, 2 Deer Note and 1 Sharakusai. In the Extra deck, there are 2 Amazing Dragons and 1 Dragon Drive. I chose to not include the other PUNK cards like Madame Spider, Wa Gon or the PUNK S/T since they do not enable the main combo.
- Forming the basis of the "Reptile Lock," the various Reptile cards from different archetypes in the Main Deck consist of 6 cards:
1 Reptillianne Coatl, 1 Reptillianne Lamia, 1 Reptillianne Nyami, 1 Danger!? Tsuchinoko?, 1 Alien Kid, and 1 Evil Dragon Ananta. In the Extra deck, there is 1 Alien Shocktrooper M-Frame, 1 Cosmic Slicer Zer'oll, 1 Reptilianne Echidna, 1 Reptilianne Hydra, and 1 Reptillianne Melusine. All the Main Deck Reptile cards are searchable through the regular combo as you make Reptilianne Echidna and Zer'oll.
- Generic Staple cards assist the Pure Punk strategy and consist of 19 cards.
The handtraps consist of 2 Ash Blossom, 1 Ghost Belle, 1 Ghost Ogre, 2 D.D. Crow, 1 Effect Veiler and 2 Infinite Impermanence. The blind second cards consist of 2 Dark Ruler No More and 2 Evenly Matched. Support cards consist of 1 Called by the Grave, 3 Crossout Designator and 2 Cosmic Cyclone. A particular part of the combo allows you to draw FIVE cards, and these cards are ratio'd so that they can be easily drawn into after the deck is thinned out through the regular combo. Lots of common staples are here as well for Crossout Designator targets.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Ideally, this deck likes to go first so it can make a board and you lockdown your opponent with a minimum of a 2 negate Apollousa, Alien Kid + Zer'oll forming the "Alien Lock," Melusine which destroys your opponent's ATK, + handtraps/backrow interruption you might've drawn into when you draw 5.
This combo search 6, draw 5 and board lock combo is achieved with one card - PUNK Ze Amin.
- Normal/Special summon Ze Amin. Activate Ze Amin’s effect to search for Foxy Tune.
Activate Foxy Tune’s effect in hand and discard one card. Summon Sharakusai from deck.
Activate Sharakusai’s effect to fuse Ze Amin + Sharakusai. Fusion summon Rising Carp.
Tribute Rising Carp to summon another Ze Amin + Deer Note from deck. Synchro for Mathmech Magma.
Deer Note effect in GY to summon from GY Rising Carp. Synchro Rising Carp + Magma to summon Bishbaalkin.
Bishbaalkin effect to summon to both fields 5 tokens.
Link away Bishbaalkin + token for Reprodocus.
Reprodocus effect and declare change type. Declare type reptile.
Link away reptile token + regular token for Reptilliane Echidna.
Link away 2 last tokens for I:P Masquerena.
Link I:P Masquerena + Reprodocus for Apollousa.
Activate Reptilliane Echidna's effect to search for 5 reptile monsters from deck. Search for Coatl, Lamia, Nyami, Tsuchinoko, and Ananta.
Activate Coatl in hand to summon Coatl, Lamia and Nyami to field.
Link away Echidna + Nyami to summon Alien Shocktrooper M-Frame.
Activate Shocktrooper's effect discarding Tsuchinoko. Put 3 Alien Counters on Apollousa. Tsuchinoko summons itself from the GY due to it's own effect.
Link away Shocktrooper + Tsuchinoko for Cosmic Slicer Zer'oll. Zer'oll searches for Alien Kid on summon.
Summon Alien Kid from hand with Zer'oll's effect, removing Alien Counters from Apollousa.
Summon Nyami from GY with it's own effect.
Synchro away Nyami + Coatl for Hydra. Hydra effect on summon to draw 5 cards.
Synchro away Lamia + Hydra for Melusine.
You should have 6+ cards in hand, many of which are hand traps. Set cards on your field so you don't have to discard any.
With this completed board, your opponent has to deal with a 2 monster negate Apollousa. Alien Kid + Zer'oll force your opponent's monsters in defense position and have their effects negated. Melusine turns your opponent's monsters ATK to 0 once per chain. You also should have many handtraps and backrow interruption, due to the draw 5 from Hydra after you thinned out your deck.
A highly respectable board that originates from 1 card, even for today's meta - all accomplished without Halqifibrax and Chaos Ruler!
GENERAL TIPS
- If you have an extender like Emergency Teleport or Foxy Tune in hand as well as Ze Amin, try to bait out your opponent’s interruption by activating Ze Amin’s search effect. She is excellent hand trap bait. Summon Sharakusai from deck afterwards and proceed to full combo!
- All that is needed is 1 Ze Amin to start the combo. There are 12 copies of Ze Amin in this deck - 3 Foxy Tune, 3 Ogre Dance, 3 Emergency Teleport and 3 Ze Amin herself. If you don't have Ze Amin in your starting hand, then you unfortunately bricked.
- This deck's main combo dies to almost every handtrap. This is why I've opted to maximize on Crossout Designator and Called by the Grave to protect your combo lines.
- This deck loses hard to common floodgates like Gozen Match, Skill Drain and Mystic Mine. That is why 7 backrow removal cards are available.
- As incredible as this deck's uninterrupted first turn board is, it can still be cracked by S/T-based board breakers like Evenly Matched, Dark Ruler No More, Super Poly, etc. However, even after you get board wiped, this deck features ample follow-up with Ananta and PUNK monsters in hand/GY!
- Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
Again, shoutout to /u/Armytile on Reddit for labbing out this strategy and inspiring me to make my guide featuring this strategy.
After being devastated of the losses of Chaos Ruler and Halqifibrax for the sins of the meta, I've been searching far and wide for a competitive strategy that I can use PUNK in. PUNK Reptile offers some comfort, as the flashy SEARCH 6, DRAW 5 combo and BOARD LOCK bears some semblance of meta viability. The question is - is this fragile combo able to last in the brutally fast and ferocious competition of Tearlaments, Sprights, Mathmech and Exorsisters? Only practice, time and experience will tell.
Hopefully PUNK gets more viable options in the future so I can start my Cyberpunk shenigans again - competitively. For now, we have this beautiful crazy combo to enjoy.
That’ll be all for now, GLHF Duelists!
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