Rokket list updated for Oct. 2020. Not much has changed, still running the Garden Rose Maiden through Apollousa route. It's nice, since it makes Apollo early in the turn, and you can play to your whole board with just one tuner extender. I'm back on a second Striker Dragon, since it helps when playing through interruptions. The nice thing about Dragon link is you can abuse all the broken stuff in the format, Linkross, Halq, Dragoon even, maybe even Rusty, but you can also just play through the old combo routes effectively and make similar powerful boards, even if those get stopped. I still think Dragoon puts it up to another level - you're in a 3 hand trap situation a lot of the time, and even if you have them, and the right ones, and time them right, you still have to play on with way fewer cards in the hand, and often through a Dragoon. It's the best link 2, and since the deck is inclined to play more than 40 cards the risk of bricking isn't so bad - besides, if you see the fusion, you don't make Dragoon, or you just play the fusion.
The hawtnezz in this deck is the Artifact engine. Lancea is okay right now, good enough to main with the engine, but the real goal here is to set up Tracer alongside Unchained Abomination in your normal combos to pop Scythe on their turn (Rokket Tracer pops somethings, triggers A-Bomb, A-Bomb pops Scythe).
You can only run 1 of the bricks if you want to, but they're way less bricky at 2 since you can just use them in normal combos. I wouldn't run a 40 card deck for Rokkets anymore, personally. I understand why people want the best possible odds of seeing their important cards, but you can often actually improve your odds of seeing a TYPE of card but running multiples of the TYPE of card in a larger deck. In Rokkets in particular, you have so many amazing extenders you want to be able to abuse, and you want the highest possibility of seeing those extenders as possible - yes, you see your one card combo less often, but you combo off just as often, and through interruptions more often. It puts a strain on the hand trap line, only the best of the best here.
In terms of the side deck, I decided to run obligatory back-row removal and hand traps, to help more effectively tailor against the combo decks at the front of the meta. Token Collector is here mostly for Infernoble, but is good against virtually any dedicated Linkross/Auroradon combo deck, and so it has fringe applications. Effect Veiler is here for Verte Anaconda, vs Dragoon decks, and also to cut Triple Tactics going second or Lancea against bad matchups. Ghost Ogre is here because it is really effective against Lost World in particular. It has niche uses, and is great against Field Spells in general, and you can bump up your hand traps in the mirror with it, because it is really good against Romulus most of the time.
Added Tempest into the deck. You need a good target to send with Dragon Ravine and still extend into Verte Anaconda in certain multiple hand trap situations, especially with Droll and Nibiru heavy in the meta right now.
Cut Tempest. It doesn't do it's job well enough. I also cut Dragoon, although that's more to test the deck without it, and improve the hand trap game. This means 1 fewer interruption you can play through, but the combo is essentially the same, and now there's room for Borrelsword, who is situationally useful in combos and under Guarddragons, and gives the deck an alternative for going second to Dragoon. I do like having more space for hand traps, I feel pretty solid on this line-up, for the meta.
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