Supreme King Pendulum Magician [Trinity Format | April '24]

This is an updated version of the deck featured in October here. Unlike that version of the deck which highlights the Supreme King Z-ARC engine in its entirety and allows for us to get away with playing a very relevant amount of non-engine, this iteration of the deck aims to try and allow for the newly released Supreme King Z-ARC - Synchro Universe (48654267) to at least be attainable at the very top end of the deck's plays. While I wouldn't advocate for turboing it within the confines of Trinity's typical gameplay loop, it's there as something to potentially pull off and a back-up name of Z-ARC for our relevant Spells and effects who reference the Supreme King!

Statistical Breakdown

- Difficulty -
★★★☆☆
Since we gave up on a good chunk of non-engine in an effort to try and pull off Synchro Universe once in a blue moon, the deck's overall capabilities when it comes to just performing expected lines between matches has gone up as well. The top end has been significantly truncated without the inclusion of the extended Supreme King Dragon line and while that isn't a bad thing, it does present some linearity to the deck which it lacked in the previous build. Regardless, the gameplan remains the same. Summon out our 4000 ATK chungus that provides nothing besides a free scale if we have the space vacated. Due to this still being semi-highlander though, the actual consistency of that is up in the air and you will always have to contend with silver bullets on your scales and/or the Pendulum Summon itself.

 - Consistency -
★★★★☆
The majority of hands will find either Odd-Eyes Arcray Dragon or a Pendulum Magician Extra Deck play in which we can pivot into Beyond the Pendulum (which is honestly better on turn 3), Timestar, Majester Paladin, or Enlightenment Paladin going first. Follow-up plays come with the mastery over Celestial Magician, the floating effects of cards like Supreme King Dragon Lightwurm, Double Iris Magician, and the newcomer Pendulum Witch!

- Sackiness -
★★☆☆☆
Pendulum Call is the only real luck sacking card here. Everything else we do is literally setup. Though, we're technically on 3 copies of Pendulum Call and one way to loop it from the GY so... eh. If original Z-ARC wasn't banned this deck would sack quite a bit through resummoning it over and over. Our non-engine isn't really as sacky as what other decks tend to actually offer in Trinity, especially in topdeck scenarios. Pendulum Witch on a bricked situation does help remedy this quite a bit.

- Viability -
★★☆☆☆
I don't think in a truly competitive environment Pendulum could ever be terribly viable, especially with the open decklists now; however, the list can take wins against complacent opponents. Furthermore, Pendulum Call and Sky Iris will protect our scales and the non-Magician engines don't actually need to Pendulum Summon at all to be effective, they just need to be on field. What makes Z-ARC strategies stand out over a Goodstuff Pendulum Pile also harkens back to its ability to reliably play non-engine and just be fine. Theoretically speaking, Pendulum Summoning as a whole isn't even required for the combo to be achieved, just a way to Special Summon Gate Magician.

Primary Gameplan

1. Your standard play remains just finding Supreme King Gate Magician (14513273). This can be done with Pendulum Call or any avenue to Darkwurm on-field. If routed through Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm, scale Gate Magician then used its effect to scale Surpeme King Gate Zero.
   
   
2. When you Pendulum Summon Gate Magician, add Soul of the Supreme Celestial King (76840111). Alternatively, if you already opened Gate Magician, then just scale a Gate. Use Gate Magician's effect in hand by sending Odd-Eyes Rebellion Xyz Dragon to the GY and summon it for essentially free then search the Trap.
   
   
3. The Fusion Materials for the traps include any Dragons who meet the adequate requirements for the Fusion Summon; however, we'll tend to banish the Dimension Dragons themselves just to guarantee that the Z-ARC drops with its effects live. In the event we want to keep one in our Extra Deck, then we can banish an alternative Dragon and just have Harmonizing Magician banish the respective Magician subtitute whose name is always treated as that card in question (in our case, "Fusion Dragon" on Purple Poison Magician (48461764) tends to contest Starving Venom Fusion Dragon but Purple Poison's great on its own so it's hard to justify most games.

The consistency of this deck primarily hinges on how Supreme King Gate Magician is a "Supreme King," "Supreme King Gate," and a "Magician" Pendulum Monster. The Trap allows us to summon Odd-Eyes Arcray Dragon who is our stand-in for Z-ARC. As its name is always treated as Z-ARC, we can use it for all relevant effects but due to this as well, it means we can play it as an Unbound card under the Trinity ruleset in the event you actually wanted to play more than one Arcray.

Routes to SYNCHRO UNIVERSE

Things will be a little convoluted here as honestly Z-ARC and Pendulum Magicians are probably the worst at actually being able to summon this card reliably under the Trinity ruleset; however, that's besides the point. What matters is what's fun!

     Method 1: White Wing Magician, Tenpai Dragon, or Lightwurm + Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver (46136942).
Although this card is primarily here for defensive plays and potentially threatening a summon 1 Beyond the Pendulum or even a Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, it is a very accessible route to the Synchro 12 that conserves quite a few bodies in the process. 

     Method 2: White Wing Magician, Tenpai Dragon, or Lightwurm + 2 DARK Pendulum Monsters.
Between the Supreme King Dragon engine to find Darkwurm, our array of Pendulum Magicians who fit this criteria, and even Joker, this is one way of converting the 3 bodies into a single unit.

     Method 3: Wings of Light + Odd-Eyes Arcray Dragon + either method 1 or 2's materials.
This method should mostly be used for quickly Synchro Summoning on the opponent's turn thanks to Supreme King Dragon Lightwurm (41908872) and their ability to do so on-summon; however, it doesn't remove Synchro Universe from the discussion. This is also a pretty efficient way of cleaning up excess bodies during the opponent's turn and potentially threatening them with not only 8000 total attack, but another Synchro 8 or Rank 4 during the following battle phase in which Synchro Universe takes a swing.

Something important to note concerning the usage of Synchro Universe is that since it does need to destroy something by battle and thus summon 2 monsters from their respective locations, summoning it and attacking will net you free bodies, but you won't be able to convert them into anything under the Trinity ruleset. So, to maximize the value from this play, you'd have to play a bit of protect-the-castle, or use our Tenpai Dragon's quick effect to synchro summon Synchro Universe during the battle phase in which we successfully buffered with Dissolver or feature our respective other 2 materials alongside them.

Technical Choices

• Astrograph Sorcerer (76794549) is featured in the deck as another potential search target from Pendulum Evolution (55795155) and an alternative tribute for the Trap that summons Arcray as he does meet the criteria. It can also be used as a potential extender or defensive line during the opponent's turn and while we won't be adding with its effect, the ability to possess a free or replacement body helps threaten Beyond the Pendulum and Odd-Eyes Rebellion Xyz Dragon (30095833).
  
  
• Tenpai Dragon Chundra (91810826) may be a non-Pendulum monster but it's ability to Synchro Summon during the battle phase makes it quite the boon. Since our average searchable levels hang out at four, we can opt for going into very disruptive Synchro 8s during the opponent's turn that can completely swing a game in our favor. The most devastating of course being Supreme King Dragon Clear Wing (70771599) but Enigmaster Packbit (72444406) isn't too bad either.

45 Card Deck = 3 Points allowed with 3/3p used.
1p Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
1p Duelist Alliance (Extra Copy)
.5p Beyond the Pendulum
.5p Pendulum Call

Overall, this deck will always be a pet deck that's fun to play in Trinity and combines my enjoyment of making fun usages of the Pendulum Magicians. At the end of the day it is primarily built as a for-fun deck in the chaotic realm that is the Trinity format's endless possibilities of deck compositions; though, that isn't to say that with some optimizations it can't be decently potent in its own right. Just... maybe not when riding the coattails of a contrained for pain output Synchro Universe.

Have fun and thanks for checking out this deck profile.