Rikka/Aroma Plant Control

Why play plants?

Pros: Extremely versatile answers, Generates massive amounts of card advantage, Great stalling potential, Access to multiple "Dridents", Powerful game ending disruption cards, Strong Mid-Late Game.

Cons: Difficult to pilot effectively, Weak to disruption, Sometimes bricky, Difficult to close games out with, Slow early game, long games (if you don't like that sort of thing)

Card/Engine Choices

Rikka: Your main advantage engine comes from Rikka Petal, when activated it searches you any "Rikka" monster and during our opponent's End Phase it summons itself back. Our choice of main deck monsters are Snowdrop the Rikka Fairy which is our XYZ/Synchro enabler, Mudan the Rikka Fairy who searches Rikka Sheet to disrupt our opponents or Rikka Tranquility that lets us stall or setup and Extra Deck play, Primula the Rikka Fairy who is a free body and helps us make our Rank 4 and 6 and lastly Erica the Rikka Fairy who lets us beat over big boss monsters and can revive itself from grave.

Next is the Extra Deck Rikka's, First is Rikka Queen Strenna which is how we recycle our Rikka S/T and when tributed can "rank-up" into the other 2 if needed, Then we have Kanzashi the Rikka Queen that protects our monsters by tributing a plant monster in hand or field if they would be destroyed and can also act as Monster Reborn when a card has been tributed, Lastly is Teardrop the Rikka Queen who is our main boss monster and 1 of our main disruption tools, her first effect lets us Tribute our opponents monsters at SS2 and the second effect booster her by 200atk every time a card(s) is tributed.

Aroma: This is our second advantage engine which has high synergy with Rikka and gives us access to strong cards like Aromaseraphy Sweet Marjoram, Aromage Marjoram, Aromaseraphy Jasmine and Blessed Winds. Sweet Marjoram does it all, SS2 Pop, Targeting protection and searches one of our key cards Blessed Winds which in tandem with her creates an infinite value engine that can either recycle our other engines, let us dodge banishing removal, Trigger sent to GY effs or revive something every turn all while keeping our lifepoints topped up. Aromage Marjoram is our GY Disruption and Battle Phase punisher while Aromaseraphy Jasmine is battle protection that synergises well with petal to tutor any plant we want out of our deck. These two engines together create an extremely potent control shell that is flexible and gives us a ridiculous amount of card advantage.

Predaplant: This give us more disruption with predaplanning, strong fusion boss monsters and access to Super Polymerization one of the strongest board breaking cards in the game. This engine really helps solidify our mid game and keep our opponent off of big boss monsters.

Traps: Our trap line-up is simple, Disrupt as much as possible. The rest are pure advantage cards that further push our greedy mid-late game.

 

 

Openers

 

Our deck isn't that dependent on getting a starter but knowing what your options are is important here's the most common openers for the deck.

Petal into Mardel: Summon Rikka Petal and activate its effect to search Mudan the Rikka Fairy, summon Mudan by tributing Petal and Activate Mudan to search Either Rikka Sheet for disruption or Rikka Tranquility for value. This is our standard opener and what we will typically do against most decks.

1 Card Marjoram Setups: Normal summon Mathematician, sending Dandylion and summon 2 Tokens, Link Mathematician and 1 of the tokens into Crossrose Dragon and activate its effect sending it and the other token to the GY, summon Aromaseraphy Sweet Marjoram and activate her effect to search Blessed Winds. This opener is really great against rogue or unrefined strategies since a single disruption is enough to derail these kind of decks but can punished by certain decks.

Jasmine/Mardel: Summon Mathematician in the Centre Column and send Dandylion to summon 2 Tokens, Link the 2 Tokens into Aromaseraphy Jasmine and activate its effect tributing Mathematician to summon Mardel, Generaider Boss of Light and search either Petal to get the Rikka engine started or Rose Girl if your engine is already going. This opener is really only ideal into control matchups since it gives us our engine as quickly as possible while also providing solid defense.

Set 4 Pass: This is probably the 2nd most common opener in this deck but not necessarily a brick, as long as we can continually disrupt the opponent they will eventually have the same ceiling for power that we currently do, which is exactly what we want because we have inevitability in that once we draw our engine cards we can easily start out advantaging our opponent and win from there.

Midgame

 

Midgame is tricky because its extremely dependent on what your opponent is doing and what you have access to but generally at this point you should be deciding how many turns you can realistically close the game out in and how you are going to accomplish it. Here are some things to look out for in the midgame.

Abusing Blessed Winds: Blessed Winds is one of your key cards in the mid game using each effect to its fullest potential is important.

Keeping your engine's going with the first of effect is crucial to get into a winning position, shuffling back your Rikka cards ensures you have the fuel to keep grinding out your opponent. Dodging removal with the 2nd effect is probably the single most important thing to keep in mind at all times, remember we only have 1 Rikka Petal and no way to recover it, if it's banished we are suddenly cut off from one of our main engines. The 3rd effect is basically just looping both marjoram's if they hit grave, it doesn't come up that often but can be strong when you get the chance.

Predaplant's: Midgame is where predaplants start becoming more relevant, Predaplanning can keep our opponent off of XYZ's and Synchro's while Predaplant Sarraceniant and Predaplant Drosophyllum Hydra can act as unconventional removal. Predaplant Verte Anaconda also spikes in the midgame turning any 2 monsters into Super Polymerization which can be game winning on it's own.

Establishing Bosses: In the midgame we really want to summon our boss monsters like Teardrop the Rikka Queen and Aromaseraphy Sweet Marjoram and keep reviving them with cards like Rikka Tranquility, Blessed Winds and Super Team Buddy Force Unite!, this often ends up being your win condition.

The Advantage Trinity: This is the point in the game where your secondary advantage engines start kicking in, Card of Safe Return, Dark Factory Of More Production and Supply Squad, These cards give us immense card draw and let us draw into our powerful trap cards in order to keep disrupting our opponent.

Making the most of our traps: Traps are our main way of controlling the pace of the game and defending ourselves from big pushes from the opponent, knowing when and how to use your traps is matchup dependent but there are some fundamental's you can apply to any matchup.

• Always keep your opponent's summon limit in mind when choosing when to use your disruption.


• Is the card worth removing? If the card is easily removed in battle refrain from using your removal too early and save it for a bigger threat.


• Am I on a clock? A clock refers to the amount of turns your opponent can lethal you from, if you feel like your opponent is trying to race you down then you can be more loose with your removal cards.


• How much has my opponent committed to a play? The more value you can get from each of your removal cards the better, shotguning your Ring of Destruction too early might leave you with less value than if you had waited.

 

Late Game

 

Ending the game: By this point we should have enough board presence to close the game out with our boss monsters, always keep cards like Super Team Buddy Force Unite! and Erica the Rikka Fairy in mind when trying to close out games.

Don't get too greedy: Ensure your plays are all trying to close out the game, don't keep playing for value as you may get punished by a top-deck from your opponent.