Hello Everyone, this is my 2nd place Swordsoul Tenyi list that I've been playing for a few months now. I'll use this space to go over a few key choices I made for the WCQ, some tricks people may not know, and my match history.
40 Card Main Deck:
One thing I was certain of this meta is that I had to be on 40 cards and it was not optional. This is because many matchups in the format are NOT WINNABLE without seeing side cards. Scythe locks, floodgates, giant boards, and cards like Zombie World are everywhere this format. Often times, drawing just engine makes the game impossible to win. I kept my deck to 40 specifically to increase my chances of drawing side cards. Both for going first and for going second. This paid off immensely today as the majority of my games I opened a blow out side card in backrow removal or something like anti-spell. Some of my ratios are a little weird because of this with things like Adhara at 2, but it was more than worth it.
Droll & Lock Bird:
I respect the Floowandereeze matchups a lot more than I feel other players do. If you are going second, it is almost impossible to win without seeing a side card. This is one of the reasons I main decked droll over Nibiru. This format Swordsoul plays exceedingly well into weaker boards. Often clearing the board as part of their normal combo for setup through Baxia combo lines. I am not a huge fan of Nibiru turning off your Tenyis and Droll was an excellent substitute. Every game I drew Droll, even in multiples, I won the game. Would highly recommend trying it out for those who haven't.
Heavenly Dragon Circle vs Vessel:
I play 3 circle and no vessel for my spell ratios. In my own experience, I dislike vessel alot as its only great when you open it with another Tenyi. Past that its only hand advantage and doesn't contribute to the board if you have to use it after making a token. Swordsoul boards are often fairly weak and getting otk'd before you can use your resources is a major problem. I play 3 circle for a few reasons.
- Circle is effectively Crossout Designator. Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence are the 2nd and 3rd most popular handtraps behind Ash Blossom in every deck right now. Circle was a card I wanted to see in my opener every game (played 3) as it would protect my normal summon. This came up so often and completely saved me at least 5 times throughout the tournament.
- Second is the fact that it can turn any Tenyi into any Swordsoul. When doing your Chixiao search, you often have to decide between searching Longyuan and Blackout. With circle, you can special a Tenyi, and use it to search your starter, or a Longyuan so you can get Blackout later. This further increases the consistency of the deck as you have 14 ways of getting to your normal summon.
- Circle is a main deck out for Mystic Mine. In the months since the latest banlist. I looked back at my games and the majority of my losses were either to a trap floodgate, Artifact Scythe, or Mystic Mine. With circle you can tribute summon a lvl 7 Tenyi over your board and tribute it off with circle to out Mystic Mine. You can either do this on your own turn to guarantee Mystic Mine being destroyed, or you can tribute set a Tenyi over your board and set circle. During their End Phase you can tribute your monster with Circle and catch them by surprise.
- Many people dislike circle as many times you don't use it and they see it as a minus 1. Often times this isn't quite the case. If you have circle and go through your turn without using it, then you didn't need it. You must already be in a winning position and it didn't need to resolve in the first place. In these scenarios I set the card before passing the turn. You can combo Circle with Blackout as a cl2 to tribute your Blackout target and get your search. Furthermore, you can tribute your Wyrm on field when do a removal effect. Many times I would tribute off my own Chixiao or Monk in the End Phase to search a starter for the next turn. Then on my own turn I could use the second effect to add a Tenyi to discard for Longyuan. Furthermore, this would be a Vishuda to remove problems, or Ashuna, to get extra bodies on board for lethal.
Forbidden Chalice vs Forbidden Droplet:
I chose to run Chalice over Droplet today primarily because I was main decking Droll & Lock Bird. Many times there is a single card on the board that is stopping your turns from going smoothly (Barrier Statue, Rexterm, Standard Boss Monsters). I found I didn't need the extra punch that Droplet provided and allowed me to keep more of my hand in the process. Furthermore, I don't play many spells in which to combo Droplets with as it was often the only spell I drew for turn. Finally, I found my biggest issue was token collector, and just having a quick 1-for-1 to deal with it instead of a 2-for-1 in Droplets was better for me. I am also siding DRNM to deal with the board breaking issue.
Geomathmech Final Sigma:
I have run Final Sigma over Dragite for many months for a few reasons. The first is decks like Floowandereeze and Sky Striker. These are decks that not only need to setup, but also overcommit to beating Final Sigma. Some Floowandereeze players do not run the Extra Deck outs as there is not a single card in their main deck which beats it. This came up round 6 when I played against the Floowandereeze player who won the tournament. He used Dimension Shifter in SP and I immediately made Chixiao and used its effect to banish Blackout from deck instead of searching to make Final Sigma. It took him 4 turns to eventually waste his turn outing the card and by then I had built up enough cards in hand to easily OTKand beat him 2-0. In these matchups, Final Sigma often serves as a pseudo Mystic Mine. Against Sky Striker their only out is Accesscode Talker. If you save a monster negate, when they gain the attack, on resolution you can negate Accesscode and it loses the attack and they no longer have a way to beat it. Finally, many times on turn 3 you do a Baxia line with Taia that often banishes Blackout in the process. You have an extra token and I use Baxia and that token to make Final Sigma to OTK since it deals double damage through monsters. This comes up very often.
Important Tricks:
Outing Gozen Match:
There is one specific hand going first that can beat this card. Say you Special Summon Vishuda to the board and they flip Gozen Match. You can use Heavenly Dragon Circle to tribute Vishuda off and search Adhara. You can then SS Adhara and make Monk as they are both earth. From here if you have Vishuda in Graveyard or in hand you can bounce Gozen.
Outing Necroworld Banshee and Baiting with Tenyis from Hand:
In my round 3 I won game 1 by doing the following line: My oponent ended their turn with a Banshee face up on the field. For those that don't know, they can banish Banshee as a quick effect to put Zombie World on the field which is a huge lock for us. In this game I SS Vishuda first and linked it off for Monk. I then normal summoned Taia and banished Vishuda. My opponent seeing that the threat was gone and that I could synchro summon used Banshee to put Zombie World in play. I then activated adhara from hand to add the banished Vishuda back to hand and use its effect in hand to bounce the Zombie world and win that game. It is very important to be aware of when you can activate Tenyis from hand when your opponent isn't expecting it. In this scenario he could have stopped my play with Huaquero but held it as I was removing my own threat. A few other times I drew Shthana and stopped my opponent from OTK'ing me by leaving a monk on field and using Shthana to disrupt their Battle Phase.
The best tip I have besides the first two is take things very slowly. Often times you can sneak a Tenyi on board or get an additional card in hand if you fully think out your plays.
Match History (going 1st/2nd)
Adamancipator: 2-0 (1st)
Trap Eldlich: 2-0 (2nd)
Trap Eldlich: 2-0 (2nd)
Swordsoul: 2-1 (2nd)
Swordsoul: 2-1 (2nd)
Floowandereeze: 2-0 (1st, first place finisher)
Dragon-Link: 1-2 (1st)
Punk Pendulum: 2-1 (1st)
Punk Synchro: 2-0 (1st)
I personally wouldn't change anything about the main deck as I never lost game 1 the entire day. If you have any questions or just want to talk theory feel free to reach out to me and best of luck with your own lists!
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