Qliphort August 2021

A little history... Some research I did when building the deck and wanted to share.

Qliphort debuted on November of 2014 in The New Challengers, the second set of the Pendulum era, and saw quick competitive success thanks to the sheer power of their boss monster Towers and it's consistency tools. Their second wave of support came on January 2015 in Secrets of Eternity, giving them among other things Monolith for draw power and Skybase as a secondary boss monster. The November 2015 forbidden and limited list (TCG) saw the limitation of Scout and Saqlifice alongside the banning of Towers, knocking the deck out of the meta for good. The trap Qlife's End was released on November 2016 (TCG) in Invasion: Vengeance, as a way to turbo out Skybase. The release of Link monsters, which don't have a level/rank and therefore bypass the immunity of Qliphorts, meant that Towers could be unbanned in February of 2018 (TCG); that month Qlis also received on Extreme Force their own Link monster in Genius, a Link 2 that provides negation and generates advantage when making big Pendulum plays. Extreme Force would be, as of today, the last time that the deck, which also has all their cards unlimited now, received direct support, meaning that they are still stuck on a sea of Link meta decks and staples that force them to depend on floodgates to even have a chance at victory.

Debut and support over the years...

2014: 1 effect mons., 5 pendulums, 2 spells (1 field and 1 equip) and 2 traps	2015: 1 effect mons., 3 pendulums and 1 trap	2016: 1 trap (Trap monster)	2018: 1 link

New to Qliphorts? What they do

• All of their pendulum effect monsters have the ability to normal summon themselves without tribute, but in doing so their level becomes 4 and their ATK 1800, this also happens when they are special/pendulum summoned. They are also all unaffected by the activated effects of monsters with a lower level or rank than their own.


•  However, you want to save your normal summon to properly tribute summon them so they get their original levels and therefore increase their immunity, they will also get their unique effects, some from being tributed using Qli monsters, others for being tributed. You can facilitate tribute summons by pendulum summoning or getting an extra normal summon via Laser Qlip.


• Their boss monsters, the Apoqliphorts, can only be tribute summoned, and they need 3 Qlis as tributes. Their immunity goes beyond their high level, as they are also unaffected by spells and traps.

The strategy...

• To stun: As if Qlis weren't weak enough to backrow hate... Modern iterations of the deck run counter traps and floodgates in the form of traps such as Summon Limit and sometimes even monsters as well like Vanity's Ruler as it doesn't hurt it's playstyle too much and keeps their arch nemesis (Links) at bay.


• To beatdown (And stun at the same time): continuing with the trap line up, Skill Drain and Re-Qliate (Which can be searched by Scout so you only need to run one) are able to hurt the opponent and let Qlis go into the good ol' Skill Drain Beatdown mode, getting their original ATK values ready for combat. Another great and classic tool for beatdown this deck has access to is Limiter Removal which can close out games fast.


•  Ol' reliable Towers: I know that Towers isn't as strong as it once was, but I'm the type of player that always wants to build up towards a certain board or boss, so the simple path of pay 800 LP with Scout to search out Qlife's End, pay 800 more next turn to get Towers (Or Skybase if I sided it in in order to avoid my opponent building up their grave with Towers' effect) and summon said Towers with the Qlife's End I set last turn is a path I'm glad to take most of the time.

Some techs not every Qliphort list runs...

• Limiter Removal: Those that take the more stun route tend to avoid this card but as I said earlier I like it for giving more ways to do beatdown.


• Performapal Trampolynx: Allows you to get 2 searches with Scout's soft once per turn effect, also it feels good to play this one because I avoid playing more copies of Monolith and Stealth just because they have a scale of 1, as Trampolynx has a scale of 4 which is still perfectly fine for Qlis.


• Ballista Squad: Make your opponent extend and then punish them by combining this with Carrier or Helix in order to make you go even in card advantage while interrupting them, as both of the Qlis I just mentioned don't have their effects restricted to being tributed for a tribute summon.


• Machina Metalcruncher: At the cost of your normal summon you can get your hands on Scout if really needed and a body that benefits from the same Skill Drain effects as the rest of your monster line up.

Final considerations...

Those techs aren't some magic hidden combo I came up with that nobody else found yet, you can take them out if you don't like them. Also, staples like Ash and Pot can easily go up to 3 if that makes you more comfortable. Lastly, the side and extra deck (With the exception of Genius) are up to the particular player, obviously you need a big extra deck to fuel Pot of Prosperity or Extravagance if you decide to run them, but you can play anything, some good generic rank 4s and Link2/3s will do, it doesn't matter that much cause you will be locked to only special summoning Qlis most of the time. Okay so hear me out, how about a 3000 ATK Link 2 that requires not 2 Qliphorts but 2 Apoqliphorts and is inmune to everything Links included to give Qlis a somewhat fair boss monster to build up to? No?! No? Okay then, bye and thanks for your time.