Pure Tenyi

You know how everyone has that one deck? The deck they default to when they want to play Yu-Gi-Oh? This is my deck. Tenyis are one of my all-time favorite archetypes and this might be the last format in a long time that you can play the deck completely unhit. Thanks to Swordsouls and their Wyrm-ness slurping up any cool Wyrm cards for their deck to abuse, Tenyis are sitting in the top tier of the current metagame. And unlike the boring token generators, they aren't new cards. So, as one final hurrah for the greatest archetype to ever grace Yu-Gi-Oh, let's take a look at Tenyi.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows how Tenyis work by now, but in case you don't I'll give a quick summary. Tenyis are a deck that supports non-effect monsters by swarming the board if you only control non-effect monsters and then gaining effects to be banished from the hand or GY to apply a powerful effect if you control a single non-effect monster. Each main deck Tenyi has a different of these second effects and they vary in power from a free special summon from deck to a simple combat trick.

Going through the main deck, the first and most important Tenyi is Ashuna. This card fucking rocks and if you open it, you can end on the best boards the deck can produce. Its effect is the best of all the main deck Tenyis and allows a special summon of a Tenyi from deck with a simple xeno-lock afterwards. Run three until they ban it on the next list for Swordsoul's sins. The next card is Vishuda, another level 7 that instead of providing advantage, it provides a targeted bounce of one card your opponent controls. Again, run three. It might not be the most amazing removal on Earth, but removal is still removal.

The next group of Tenyis are the level 4s. None of these cards have amazing effects, but a pure Tenyi deck needs as many Tenyis as you can run. Nahata is by far the worst of the Tenyis as it only provides a 1500 ATK boost to a non-effect monster. Run at least one since you need Tenyis in deck, but don't max out on it. Next is Mapura which provides a quick negate to any card that targets a non-effect monster. Pretty decent, but most effects don't target nowadays and most players would just target your effect monsters if they see this in grave. Run two or three depending on how much you want that protection. Shthana is the last level 4 and it's by far the best. It gives the deck recoverability that it desperately needs in order to maintain board presence. Run three.

The last main deck Tenyi is Adhara. It's a level 1 tuner which comes up once every 90000 games, but its effect is by far the best part about it. Since your Tenyis end up banished all the time, Adhara just lets you get them back to your hand. Now all the Tenyi effects are hard once per turns, but at least you aren't topdecking for your next turn's plays. Run three and if Konami hits this card, just cry like I will.

The Tenyi spells and traps are extremely good cards as well. Dragon Circle is your search card if dumped off of Foolish Burial Goods, or it can turn your non-effect monsters into Lonefires for Wyrms. Run three. Vessel is the deck's archetypal Foolish Burial and helps set up Tenyis in grave as well as that funky little sea horse we have yet to mention. Also run three. Flawless Perfection turns your non-effect monsters into Towers monsters and gives a Pot of Greed if your opponent special summons while you control a non-effect. Depending on how deep you want to be in the non-effect boss, run one or max out. Fists of the Unrivaled Tenyi is an archetypal Solemn that I basically never use. Run a few if you know for a fact you will die without negation on board, otherwise just ignore it.

The last main deck cards are pretty self-explanatory. Avarice recycles your links and main deck Tenyis so you don't run out of resources. Foolish Burial Goods lets you use Dragon Circle's better effect. Foolish Burial Not-Goods is your fourth copy of Vessel. Handtraps are handtraps, and you can change the ratios/the actual handtraps by preference. And finally Mare Mare. It's a token generator that you can summon off of one of the Tenyi links. Three tokens to be exact. And those tokens help with link climbing to your best possible boards or even dipping into the hard-to-reach synchro portion of the Extra Deck. I only run one to avoid bricks, but you can run three without losing too much power since it can be discarded for cost of one of their links.

Onto the Extra Deck. Monk is your starter card. Without it, you have no plays. Run three and recycle them often. Next is Shaman. This is your gateway to the sea horse. It lets you revive a Wyrm as long as you discard a card for cost. Now, this Wyrm can be the discarded card. Seeing a pattern? This is the sole reason Mare Mare can be run at more than one as it can be pitched for cost and revived by the same effect. Run two or three depending on how pure you want to be. Draco Masters is a pretty solid card going second. It gives a non-targeting destruction of effect monsters as long as it's the only effect monster you control. Pretty situationally useful given how few board states sit on no effect monsters in this deck (ironic I know), so just run the one. Berserker of the Tenyi is the first of your three boss monsters. As a non-effect monster, it benefits from all of the Tenyi effects as well as Flawless Perfection, but it is just a big dude. Run one or two depending on how many techs you add to your Extra Deck. Sahasrara is the second boss monster of the deck. Gives a token that copies an opponent's monster's stats and then provides protection to your Effect Monsters. Really fucking good, but you'll only ever need one given how recursive the deck is with three Avarice. The final boss monster of the archetype is Draco Berserker of the Tenyi. It gives a quick banish when an effect monster activates its effect (doesn't negate mind you) and can get to some insanely high ATK values if it battles effect monsters. Run one since that's exactly how many synchros you will ever have on field at once in the deck.

Finally, the tech cards. This covers the rest of the Extra and Side Decks. I:P Masquerena is a really solid card in this deck since you can use Mare Mare tokens to make it. The only issue is you usually run into the xeno-locks of the deck during the turns you use that effect, so don't rely on it too much. And with every Masquerena comes an Avramax. Same basic issue as with I:P, but it's a hell of a boss monster if you can bring it out. Apollousa has the same issue, but if you can avoid too many xeno-locks and make it, you get effect negation which is something the deck natively lacks. Another great option is Accesscode. Arguably way better than any card I just mentioned and provides a really quick finisher to the deck. I just hate this card. Yazi and Baxia are cool Synchro techs that get around your xeno-locks 9 times out of 10 and they can help clear boards in some cases.

In the side deck we have a few tech cards as well as general side deck stuff, so it won't be as in-depth. Lava Golem is such a good card in Tenyi thanks to how little they use their normal summon. Just swap it with a Kaiju if you know you never go against people who leave two monsters on board. Ryu Okami is honestly a pretty bad card with how good Dogmatikas have become, but it's a weird floodgate-esque effect that can impact some decks. Just don't side it in if your opponent is on Dogmatika or any other deck that doesn't care if their Extra Deck goes to grave. Mystery Shell Dragon is one of three Wyrm normal monsters, and the only you can normal summon without tribute. I've run into some board states where the Tenyis in hand have no way to make it on board so having a main deck non-effect monster isn't too bad. It just tends to make more bricks then it's worth. Backrow removal is cool and good and Called By is still a hell of a card.

And that about covers the deck. Sorry for the wall of non-colored text, but if you've seen my other decks you should know this is pretty much my standard. This build is definitely far from perfect, so please leave suggestions on how I could improve it. Before the banlist comes out that is. Poor Ashuna. Rip in kill sweet prince.

(Now watch me be wrong and they just ban Protos instead. Please Konami, Ashuna did nothing wrong)