Tenpai Dragon (Post-Sept. 2024 Banlist)

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0 Comments 1,516 Views Edited 7 months ago

Meta Decks Tenpai Dragon Sangen Harpie 40

TCGplayer $196.75 / Cardmarket €131.57

180

900

Playtest

Deck Primer

The September 2024 Banlist took away 4 integral starters to Tenpai Dragon, somewhat hampering the consistency and resilience of the deck. We lost 2 Pot of Prosperity and 2 Sangen Summoning! Okay, we expected the deck to be hit in this fashion since they are low rarity and cheap anyways - Konami loves to destroy budget decks. We got away with only a slap on the wrist this banlist, so the Tenpai strategy is very playable!

Losing 2 POT OF PROSPERITY kind of hurts because it is often used to dig for that ideal boardbreaker to split open our opponent's board. It can also be used to dig for a starter, since Tenpai can still reliably OTK despite Prosperity's "half-damage" clause.

Losing 2 SANGEN SUMMONING is very painful because it's such a cracked card for the strategy. Sangen summoning renders our Fire Dragons basically invincible during Main Phase 1, so we can start nuke apart our opponent's board with Black Rose Dragon, or combo unimpeded straight into Transcendant Dragion to prevent our opponent's activations during the Battle Phase. Instead we only have 1 copy now, which makes Tenpai plays more vulnerable since we'll run into Sangen Summoning less often. It's also a searcher for Tenpai monsters!

I replaced the 4 lost cards in my decklist with:

1 copy of BLASTER, DRAGON RULER OF INFERNOS with 1 GOLD SARCOPHAGUS. Blaster is a very good utility card in Tenpai - it can search for any Fire Dragon once banished with Gold Sarcophagus! It is also a boardbreaker since it can discard itself and 1 other card to destroy a card on your opponent's field, such as a pesky floodgate or monster preventing your OTK.

I added 1 more copy of TENPAI GENROKU, bringing the number up from 1 to 2. Now when you hard draw it, you won't feel as bad since you have another in your deck! It's the deck's "Poplar" being able to summon once added to hand, so it's crucial that this semi-garnet/starter stays in your deck so you can search it with Bystial Magnumhut, Sangen Summoning and Sangen Kaimen.

For the last card, you can add anything else you want. I personally used only 2 Pot of Prosperity in my decklist, so I only lost 3 cards from the banlist rather than 4.

If you're like me who refuses to buy into approx. $100USD per copy Fiendsmith Engravers, I HIGHLY recommend Tenpai this format! Snake-Eye Fiendsmith and Yubel Fiendsmith got somewhat weaker, especially losing Apollousa in their endboards, so boards are much easier to crack open nowadays.

Tenpai is only going to get stronger with the release of Rage of the Abyss in October as well, because Mulcharmy Fuwaross will grant this blind second strategy so much gas and turn-stopping power that you'll OTK most opponents when you resolve the card!

Despite the limit of both Sangen Summoning and Pot of Prosperity, Tenpai Dragon still functions the same way post September banlist, albeit less consistently and reliably.

If you want a detailed guide and combo on how to use the deck, check out my earlier article by clicking here.

GLHF Duelists!

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