Pure Koa'ki Meiru

Koa'ki Meiru is well known for it's Rock Stun Version with Adamancipators combined and the Anti Light & Dark Stun Game, but how do you even play them in a pure Variant? Today we take a deeper look at how to play Koa'ki Meiru and actually be good with them. Prepare your Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru and let's start looking at them in all of it's Detail: 

The Iron Core of What? 

The little yet obvious weakspot of many Koa'ki Meiru Monsters is their mandatory maintenance Cost of Revealing one Monster of the same type in your Hand or discard a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru during your End Phase. This can make it difficult to keep multiple different Koa'ki Meiru Monsters on the field. 

The pure Koa'ki Meiru Variant 100% depends on the key Spell Card Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru to get around this Weakspot. This is a normal Spell that doesn't even have an activated effect. If this card is in the GY during the Draw Phase you can add it to your hand instead of Drawing and/or discard 1 Koa'ki Meiru Monster to add it back to your Hand. You always wanna see this card in your opening Hand to activate your whole Deck.

To get this card into your Hand the Permanent Spell Card Core Transport Unit is your best Card to use. Once per Turn by discarding 1 Card you can add Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from your Deck to your Hand. The Discard might seem a bit harsh as a cost but it's worth it, trust me. 

Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru is even more versatile. It's a normal Spell which adds any Koa'ki Meiru Card except itself from your Deck to your Hand, which includes Monsters and Spell & Traps. You can also Banish this card from your GY to avoid the Self Destruction of your Koa'ki Meiru Monsters for one turn. There's not even a Once per Turn on this card so feel free to activate it 3 times in one turn. 

The Quick Play Spell Koa'ki Meiru Initialize! has been used in an earlier version of this Decklist but I felt it's lackluster when compared to the Counter Trap Cards of this Archetype so it made way for more Interruption instead. Iron Core Immediate Disposal is straightup unusable and shouldn't be considered at all. 

Finally Koa'ki Meiru Supplier can search for your Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru too but needs already established setup which makes him hard to use on your first turn for searching the Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru. Without Counting Koa'ki Meiru Supplier we look at 9 Cards which get the Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru into Rotation during your first turn. From that point we can now focus on the good part of this Deck, the pretty amazing effects. 

Kozaky's first Iron Core test subjects

Koa'ki Meiru Monsters tend to have very strong effects and can be put into roughly 3 Groups. 1. Without Maintenance Cost, 2. Revealing a Monster or discarding Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru 3. Only discard Koa'ki Meiru Monsters and/or Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru. Let's look at these Monsters group by group starting with the Monsters without a Maintenance Cost: 

Koa'ki Meiru Prototype: With L4 and 1800/1800 statline we are starting of strong already. When one or more Koa'ki Meiru Monsters would be destroyed during the End Phase you can destroy this Card instead and when a Koa'ki Meiru Monster is destroyed during the End Phase you get to special summon a L4 Token with 1800/1800 after that. He helps your other Koa'ki Meiru's to stay alive and can turn them into Tokens. These tokens may then be used as a tribute for your 3 Boss Monsters esepecially for Koa'ki Meiru Rooklord. You could also go into Link plays if you change up the Extra Deck a bit^^ 

Koa'ki Meiru Supplier: A L4 with 1400/1600 Statline. If a Face Up Rock Monster is sent to the GY you can special summon this card from the Hand. If he's Special Summoned you can search for Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru or any card that mentions it from your Deck. Both effects are hard once per turns. This card will trigger no matter how it's special summoned making it a perfect target for Koa'ki Meiru Urnight or even Core Reinforcement.This card can search otherwise unsearchable cards including Iron Core Specimen Lab , Core Overclock , Core Transport Unit and both Counter Traps making it a very welcome addition to the Deck. 

Koa'ki Meiru Tornado: A L4 with 1500/1200 Statline. Without a Once per Turn you can place 1 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from your Hand back on the top of your Deck to destroy all Special Summoned Monsters from your opponent. He's basically Raigeki but with a higher cost. To get your Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru back quickly be sure to have Core Transport Unit ready after using his devastating Boardwipe. 

Koa'ki Meiru Hydro Barrier: He's one of the two L3 Monster in your Deck with a 1000/1900 Statline. Without a Once per turn you can place 1 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from your Hand back on top of your Deck to negate the effects of all Face up Monsters except Koa'ki Meiru Monsters until your next Standby Phase. This effect is lingering so even if he leaves the field or the opponent summons new Monsters after that, they all have their effects negated. A pretty much one sided Skill Drain which you can't stop after it's been activated is pretty strong to have for sure. Summon this fella during your first turn with Koa'ki Meiru Urnight and you might just have won the game. 

So in total we play 6 Monsters that don't need an Maintenance Cost which is quite important to have. Let's continue with group Nr.2. From now on each Monster has to Reveal one Monster of the same type or discard a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru during each of your End Phases: 

Refining the Iron Core capabilities

Koa'ki Meiru Urnight: A L4 with 2000/1500 Statline who's needs a Beast Warrior reveal. Once per turn you can reveal a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru in your Hand to Special summon any other L4 or lower Koa'ki Meiru Monster from your Deck. This card can get out of Control pretty quickly. The more Urnights you control the more Monsters you can Special summon and since he's a soft once per turn you can easily loop him with Core Reinforcement or your Extra Deck All Stars Number 60: Dugares the Timeless and Drill Driver Vespenato Surely he's a key card in your Strategy. 

Koa'ki Meiru Crusader: A L4 with 1900/1300 Statline who's needs a Beast Warrior reveal. If he destroy's an opponents Monster by Battle you can add any Koa'ki Meiru Card from your GY to your Hand. He's a Beast Warrior which makes him perfect to be revealed with Koa'ki Meiru Urnight. In total you play 5 Beast Warriors which makes this "Reveal" engine the strongest of your Deck. Being able to recycle any Koa'ki Meiru card is pretty useful too since it's not limited to Monsters only. 

Koa'ki Meiru Ice: A L4 with 1900/1200 Statline who needs a Permanent Spell reveal. Without a Once per turn you can send 1 Card from your Hand to the GY to target and destroy any Special summoned Monster on the field. Since you play 5 Permanent Spells he's another easy to keep alive friend in your Deck. His effect is a much weaker Koa'ki Meiru Tornado but he creates GY setup for Core Reinforcement or Koa'ki Meiru Ghoulungulate through his effect, which can be nice to have. 

Koa'ki Meiru Drago: A L4 with 1900/1600 Statline who's needs a Dragon reveal. Neither player can Special Summon Light or Dark Monsters. He's one of the two Monster from the Anti Light & Dark Monster Trickbox that we use since he's simply to good to be ignored. You do play another Dragon who's a perfect reveal target in the form of Koa'ki Meiru Maximus for him.

Koa'ki Meiru Bergzak: A L4 with 2000/200 Statline who needs a Warrior reveal. He can attack once again in a row if he destroys an opponents Monster by Battle. You often want to finish the Duel quickly to avoid your maintenance Cost if possible that's why this card is a welcome addition to your strategy. You do play another Warrior to reveal with Koa'ki Meiru Rooklord so you can keep him around without the need of discarding an Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru.

Koa'ki Meiru Doom: A L3 with 1700/800 Statline who needs a Fiend Reveal. He's the other Anti Light & Dark Tool. He negates any activated effect of Light & Dark Monsters which activate during the Main Phase. With him & Drago on the field the opponent is 99% unable to play a Light/Dark Deck, nice. Also Koa'ki Meiru Valafar can serve as a Reveal during the End Phase since he's a Fiend too. 

Koa'ki Meiru Ghoulungulate: A L5 with 2500/1700 Statline who needs a Zombie reveal. If a Koa'ki Meiru Monster would be destroyed by Battle or Card effect you can banish 1 Koa'ki Meiru Monster from your GY instead. We play a 2md Ghoul sp that he can pay his reveal cost in this Deck. He enables great protection against Battle destruction or powerful Boardwipes and setup for Bujinki Amaterasu. Also the effect of Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru can setup your GY and your Hand for this Card. You might even wanna use Koa'ki Meiru Ice and target your own Monsters with it. Also the Discard Cost of Core Transport Unit can be transformed into protection thanks to this card. You might've noticed that I really like this card and that's why we play it:)

Koa'ki Meiru Rooklord: A L7 with 2800/2200 Statline who needs a Warrior Reveal. He can be tribute summoned with 1 Tribute if it's a Koa'ki Meiru Monster. When Normal Summoned you can Banish any Koa'ki Meiru Card from the GY to target and destroy up to 2 Cards from the opponent. Welcome back to 2009 were every Archetype needed a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus / Celestia, Lightsworn Angel to be good. Since you play Koa'ki Meiru Bergzak you can keep him easier on the field and he's easily summoned too. Destroying 2 Cards even today is something that's still okayish to use so we can play him at one and don't worry about it to much. 

In total we have 12 of these Monsters where we can reveal a Card to keep them around. The final 2 Monsters we look at now leave you no choice but to Discard the Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru and/or a Koa'ki Meiru Monster. 

Reaching the limits of the Iron Core

Koa'ki Meiru Valafar: A L8 with 3000/2100 Statline who needs a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru discard. He can be tribute summoned with 1 Tribute if it's a Koa'ki Meiru Monster. He can't be destroyed by Trap Cards and inflicts Piercing Damage. Thanks to his Trap Destruction immunity he can prevent the downside of Core Reinforcement and stay on the field even if that card leaves the field. He's easily summoned from the Hand or GY and thanks to Piercing Damage he helps you winning the game more then you would think. A Picture Book example of a Chonky Boy. 

Koa'ki Meiru Maximus: A L8 with 3000/2500 Statline who needs a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru or Koa'ki Meiru Monster discard. He can only be Special summoned by banishing a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from your Hand. Once per Turn he can target and destroy 1 Card from the opponent. He's an easy 3k Special summon who has the hefty cost of giving up one of your Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru's for the rest of the Duel. He's very nice to sit in your Hand acting as a "Reveal" for Koa'ki Meiru Drago until the Board is empty and you have the Chance for an easy OTK. 

You might've noticed there's no actual BIG payoff in the form of one specific Monster in this Deck, Koa'ki Meiru Hydro Barrier might even be the best of them all but it's the Unity between all of them which makes them strong. I also heard there's Spell & Trap support we still have to talk about so let's do that. 

Blast that Core to maximum proficiency! 

Iron Core Specimen Lab: The very own Field Spell for Koa'ki Meiru. As a Maintenance Cost you have to reveal a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru during your End Phase or destroy this Card. If a Koa'ki Meiru Monster is destroyed during the End Phase you can add to your Hand any Koa'ki Meiru Monster from your Deck. Loosing Field Advantage while gaining new Koa'ki Meiru Monsters to your Hand can be very useful to recover Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru during your Draw Phase easier or search for your all star Koa'ki Meiru Urnight. Use Koa'ki Meiru Supplier if you wanna get this card to your Hand fast. 

Core Overclock: A permanent Spell which gives a 500 ATK Boost to all Koa'ki Meiru Monsters. Also once per turn you can discard a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru to give an additional 1000 ATK Boost to all Koa'ki Meiru Monsters. Easily searchable with Koa'ki Meiru Supplier with an hefty ATK Boost available when you need it. All your 1900 guys become 2400 or even 3400 for a turn. If you have this card active and Koa'ki Meiru Maximus ready he could suddenly become an 4500 ATK threat and obliterate the opponent with ease. Or how about a 3500 ATK Koa'ki Meiru Bergzak that attacks Twice? This card can quickly get out of Hand and is your OTK friend Number 1.

Nega-Ton Corepanel: If you control a Koa'ki Meiru Monster and Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is in your GY you can negate the activation of an opponents Monster effect and destroy it. Since this is a Counter Trap without a Cost and only Condition it's a pretty strong tool to have. It's easily searchable with Koa'ki Meiru Supplier and has no restrictions at all. 

Iron Core Luster: Negates the activation of a Spell/Trap and destroys it by revealing a Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru in your Hand. Your 2nd Counter Trap with even less Conditions and no restrictions yet again. Also easily searchable with Koa'ki Meiru Supplier. Thanks to Core Transport Unit you can easily setup the Conditions for both of your Counter Traps and negate any hope for escape the opponent might have.

Core Reinforcement: Target a Koa'ki Meiru Monster in your GY and Special summon it in attack position. If it's destroyed through it's own effect you take Damage equal to it's ATK. When this card leaves the field destroy the Monster and when it's destroyed, destroy this Card. It's Call of the Haunted but worse (Seems to be a Trend). The downside can be prevented if you summon Koa'ki Meiru Valafar with it. So why do I play this one and not just Call of the Haunted? It's good against Crossout Designator and Cards which steal your cards like Exchange or Toadally Awesome. Your opponent can't use this card against you. This card is extremely useful when combined with our last Card. 

A little note on Core Blast: This card sounds pretty strong on paper but is kinda slow and easily stopped nowadays. I've been playing a lot of Koa'ki Meiru recently and this card couldn't proof it's worth it.

Inbetween the Iron Core

Koa'ki Meiru has no native Extra Deck Monsters and many L4 Monsters in the Main Deck. It's an obvious Choice to go with a Rank 4 Pile here to get a variety of options live whenever you need them. It's all up to your preferences in this area. Gallant Granite , Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir , Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder , Underworld Goddess of the Closed World and pretty much everything generic is possible here. Just keep in mind with Koa'ki Meiru Drago on the field you cannot use your Light & Dark Monsters and with Koa'ki Meiru Hydro Barrier they won't have any effects to use. Same applies to Koa'ki Meiru Doom which also affects you. 

For my Extra Deck I'm going with some rather odd choices just to show what's possible here and since I like to use these kind of cards in general. There are no LIGHT and DARK Monsters in this Deck to prevent having a downside from Koa'ki Meiru Drago or Koa'ki Meiru Doom. I won't go into further Detail here, it's all up to your imagination when it comes to the Extra Deck. 

Cards that look good on Paper are all the Rock Stun Koa'ki Meiru Monsters. They all need to Tribute themselves to get a single Negation which is great in a dedicated Rock Stun Deck but terrible in an actual Pure Variant. 

The Draw 2 Spell Core Compression is also kinda bad. You already need Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru in your Hand and have to Discard a Koa'ki Meiru Monster to even activate this Card. This kind of neutral Draw doesn't help out a lot. 

I experimented a lot with the other Cards this Archetype has to offer but ended up using what you see in this Decklist currently.

Iron Core immediate Disposal.... wait nooo!

Koa'ki Meiru Monsters have the very obvious weakness of being very reliant on Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru. If the opponent is using Hand Control against you, it's pretty much over for you. Be careful when you see Trickstar against you (I speak from experience). 

Another Weakness is Banishing in general. Spell & Traps which get banished are gone forever and some effects can't even activate if every Card gets banished. Your Maintenance Cost of discarding Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is unable to be used if Macro Cosmos is active. 

Lastly your Deck starts of slow. Koa'ki Meiru Urnight doesn't like it if Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is used against him. Thanks to Iron Core Specimen Lab and your Counter Traps you do have the possibility for recovery:)

Thoughts after the Experiments

Koa'ki Meiru is an Anti Meta Deck even in it's pure Playstyle. Koa'ki Meiru Drago , Koa'ki Meiru Doom , Koa'ki Meiru Hydro Barrier and your Counter Traps can completely shut off the opponents Deck while Koa'ki Meiru Rooklord , Koa'ki Meiru Maximus , Koa'ki Meiru Ice and Koa'ki Meiru Tornado will leave the opponents Board open for the finishing blow. 

This Deck is pretty fun. You have no other Strategy in Yugioh where you have to think about managing a whole Deck around a Single Card. Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is the true essence of your Deck. If you like this kind of Playstyle this Deck is handmade for you. 

Final Rating: 

★★★★★★★ OTK Potential

★★★☆☆☆☆ Defensive Tools

★★★★★★★ Control Options

★★★★★★☆ Removal Options

★★★★★☆☆ Recovery/Recycling

★★★☆☆☆☆ Card Advantage

Overall Rating: ★★★★★☆☆  31/42★

Instructions before using the Iron Core 

As usual older 5DS Archetypes have many different special rules you should know about before piloting this Deck: 

About Maintenance Cost: Revealing a Monster or Discarding Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is not an effect. This is a maintenance cost which can't be negated. 

Koa'ki Meiru Maximus: Summoning this Card is a Condition and not an effect. It can't be summoned through other ways. 

Koa'ki Meiru Valafar: You can summon him and Koa'ki Meiru Rooklord by tributing a Face Down Koa'ki Meiru Monster. These are summoning conditions and not effects. 

Koa'ki Meiru Ghoulungulate: He can prevent the destruction of one or more Koa'ki Meiru Monsters by banishing just one Koa'ki Meiru Monster from your GY.

Koa'ki Meiru Bergzak: This card can attack 2 times in total if one Monster was destroyed by Battle. 

Koa'ki Meiru Prototype: He can protect multiple Monsters at once if they are all destroyed at the same time during the End Phase only. 

Koa'ki Meiru Hydro Barrier: This is a lingering effect that even applies when this card leaves the field or additional Monsters are summoned to the field. 

Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru: 1. You cannot activate this card from your Hand. 2. Both effects in the GY start a Chain. 

Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru: 1. This card protects against the maintenance cost of your Koa'ki Meiru Monsters and against cards such as Torrential Tribute. 2. Monsters summoned after banishing this card are also unable to be destroyed.