The Phantom Knights of Eldlich Adventure Scythe Lock

Backstory:

On paper, this deck should not work. Well, the PK/Adventure/DPE part of the deck would obviously work, but why am I playing an Eldlich engine and a 60-card deck?

The answer: I am insane.

I also really enjoy confusing my opponents. Now I am a firm believer in the 40-card deck. It's mathematically sound, extremely consistent, and promotes good deckbuilding. However, I truly believe that the Phantom Knights, thanks to the addition of Predaplant Verte Anaconda, Artifact Dagda, and the Adventurer cards into Master Duel, have such absurd degrees of consistency that you can get away with running this deck at 60 cards. This deck just somehow doesn't brick. Every hand is playable, and going first or second, the deck is capable of playing through an incredible amount of disruption. Due to this incredible consistency, you are able to add 3 Crossout Designators and as many targets for it as you desire to a standard PK deck. When you're done with that, you're left with just the perfect amount of cards to splash in an Eldlich engine. Though it may just be my sweet spot for the Eldlich cards, I actually do believe it has incredible synergy with both the PK and Adventurer engines. Due to the major cost of cards in both engines being to discard a card from your hand, this 'cost' is quickly turned into another power boost for the deck, as your Eldlich cards are free targets for this cost. The Eldlich cards are also extremely good at covering for the weaknesses of the remainder of the deck. It is really easy to power through your resources with Phantom Knights, only to have your entire board broken and wiped by a deck designed specifically to do those things; this is where Eldlich steps in. His incredible recyclability and generally sticky nature allows you to power through the game even after most of your powerful cards have been extended. He is also the best way this deck can deal with powerful field negates, as Eldlich's GY effect is a floating effect, allowing Eldlich to be immune to targeted field negation. Overall, I think Eldlich was a good choice for rounding out the basic concept of a 60-card Phantom Knights deck.

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The Decklist, Explained:

Main Deck:

Effect Veiler - This card was put in as a target for Crossout Designator, but in niche situations can be made into Predaplant Verte Anaconda or Artifact Dagda. In hyper-specific scenarios, it can also be used to make Crystron Halqifibrax to facilitate a link climb into Knightmare Unicorn for those particularly hard-to-out cards.

Maxx "C" - This card is easily the most powerful handtrap ever printed and if its effect resolves, will single-handedly win you the game, as it will either floodgate your opponent out of summoning, allowing you to easily gain an advantageous board position, or fill your hand with half the cards in your deck, allowing you to combo out of or break any board you may face. It's also a target for Crossout Designator, as you will likewise automatically lose if this card is resolved against you.

Junk Forward - Junk Forward is your basic combo starter; with this card plus any other level 3 monster in the deck, including itself (of which there are 22), you are capable of making Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss which is your free ticket to every single card in the Adventurer engine without even drawing it. If you open Junk Forward and Water Enchantress of the Temple or Rite of Aramesir, you can just use him to make Predaplant Verte Anaconda or Artifact Dagda as you see fit.

The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak - This card is a basic Phantom Knights engine piece, when it's in the GY, you are capable of searching ANY Phantom Knights card from your deck. Typically, you will do this to search The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots, which is PK's basic combo extender.

The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots - This card is Phantom Knights' basic combo extender. When you have any other PK monster on the field, you can summon this card from your hand. If you open Silent Boots and any other PK, you can normal summon the other PK to special Silent Boots and make Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss which is your free ticket to every single card in the Adventurer engine without even drawing it. Silent Boots also has the neat GY effect of searching the powerful PK traps.

The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves - Ideally, you want to get Ragged Gloves in the GY as fast as possible, as he allows you to swap him out for any other PK monster in your GY, and there are many, many good targets for this.

Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring - This card is incredible for three different reasons. One, it's an incredible hand-trap that if played wisely enough can effectively end your opponent's turn prematurely. Two, it's a level 3, meaning you can use it to make Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss, which is your free ticket to every single card in the Adventurer engine without even drawing it. Three, it's a tuner, which means it can be used to make Crystron Halqifibrax in a crunch to link climb into Knightmare Unicorn for those hard-to-out cards.

Danger?! Tsuchinoko? - This card fits this deck perfectly for countless reasons. It's a level 3, so it's capable of making Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss, which is your free ticket to every single card in the Adventurer engine without even drawing it. It's a free special summon regardless of it gets hit by its own effect or not, but if it doesn't get hit by your effect, it's also a free card draw. It can also be discarded for the cost of The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche or Fateful Adventure to summon it for free. You can also summon multiple Tsuchinokos per turn with this effect, meaning opening multiple in your hand isn't even a downside. Having this card in your hand ever is just a straight-up advantage for you in literally any scenario.

Psychic Wheeleder - This card is a free special summon with any other level 3 on the board, meaning it's capable of making Cherubini Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss, which is your free ticket to every single card in the Adventurer engine without even drawing it. It's also a target for Emergency Teleport.

Psychic Tracker - This card serves the same exact purpose as Wheeleder, but has a different name allowing you to use both Wheeleder and Tracker in the same turn.

Virtual World Hime - Nyannyan - Nyannyan is in the deck specifically as a target for Emergency Teleport. When any level 3 (there are 22 in the deck) is summoned to the field, she can be revived from the GY for free to make either The Phantom Knights of Break Sword or Leviair the Sea Dragon and by extension, Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus - Sky Thunder in niche situations. Just be careful when you use her GY effect, as you will be locked into only the deck's Xyz monsters (a hard-drawn Fusion Destiny for Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer is allowed, too) for the turn.

The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales - Torn Scales is easily the strongest Main Deck monster for PK, as he has an on-field and in GY effect to gain advantage. His field effect allows you to discard a card and send any PK to the GY, which are both beneficial things for the deck. His GY effect allows you to summon him after banishing any other PK card from your GY, making him your best monster to chain into more Link monsters. Be careful with his field effect, however, as activating its effect after Normal Summoning him locks you out of the Adventure cards.

Water Enchantress of the Temple - This card being at 2 in Master Duel means nothing to this deck thanks to Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss. If you don't hard draw her, you can just send her to the GY by his effect and gain access to every card in the Adventurer engine.

Destiny HERO - Celestial - Celestial is one of your targets for Fusion Destiny to make DPE, chosen due to its GY effect to Pot of Greed (draw 2 cards) if your hand is empty.

Artifact Scythe - An obscenely powerful card you only have to play one of thanks to the absurdly accessible Artifact Dagda, requiring only 2 monsters with different names as its materials. Destroying this card during your opponent's turn allows you to lock them out of their Extra Deck, winning you the game instantly (when going first) against most decks.

Destiny HERO - Dasher - Dasher is one of your targets for Fusion Destiny to make DPE, chosen due to its GY effect to Special Summon a monster you draw.

Wandering Gryphon Rider - A free, recursively searchable negate with the added bonus if it being really hard-to-out due to its effect to send itself back into the deck after negating an effect. This is typically your target from Fateful Adventure.

Eldlich the Golden Lord - Eldlich is an obscenely powerful monster on his own, and is capable of fitting into many, many places. Has a powerful hand effect and a powerful GY effect and is the deck's best answer to field Monster negates. He is also extremely recyclable and decently hard to out.

Nibiru, the Primal Being - Though primarily a target for Crossout Designator, as Nibiru happens to be a great weakness for this deck, if you somehow draw it going second it will single-handedly win you the game against a lot of decks.

Foolish Burial - An extremely diverse card with an endless amount of applications for this deck. Good targets include: Water Enchantress of the Temple (for access to the entire Adventure engine), The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak (for a free PK search), The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales (for a free summon), and Eldlich the Golden Lord (for a powerful and hard-to-out boss monster).

Reinforcement of the Army - Another extremely diverse card with an endless amount of applications for this deck. Good targets include: Junk Forward (for a free summon), The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak (for a GY search), The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots (for a free summon), and The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales (for a +3 in card advantage if all of his effects are used properly).

Fusion Destiny - Target for Verte to make DPE. If hard-drawn, makes your life easier, just make sure it's the last thing you play on your turn, as it will lock you out of summoning in this deck.

Rite of Aramesir - One of the most heinous one-card combos ever put in the game; this card allows you to have the entire Adventurer engine at your disposal. It's searchable by Water Enchantress of the Temple (who is, by extension, searchable by Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss), and when played, summons a Token and allows you to activate Fateful Adventure. You can then activate Fateful Adventure to add Wandering Gryphon Rider, Special Summon Wandering Gryphon Rider to get Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon for free and equip it to the Token. At the end of this card's combo, you have a once-per-turn negate and bounce to hand. This deck also makes it incredibly easy to gain access to all of these cards.

Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon - You typically don't want to hard-draw this card, and thanks to the deck being 60 cards, it's incredibly rare you will. When equipped to a Token, allows you to bounce 1 card to your opponent's hand per turn. Also, has a revival effect on send to GY.

Fateful Adventure - Card can be activated by Rite of Aramesir. Another card you don't typically want to hard-draw, but it's not even that bad of a situation if you do. It allows you to search any Adventure monster, which you will typically use to grab Wandering Gryphon Rider. This card will also give your Token Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon when you summon.

Emergency Teleport - This card is a great combo starter, allowing you to summon any level 3 or lower Psychic from your deck. You will typically want to target Virtual World Hime - Nyannyan with this effect, as it can be recycled into a Rank 3 Xyz monster later on in your turn.

Called by the Grave - This card is a powerful answer to handtraps and also a fantastic counter to decks which need their GYs to play the game. It also is a fantastic target for Crossout Designator, as your deck would really enjoy access to its GY.

Crossout Designator - This card is obscenely powerful in Master Duel, due to many staples and hand-traps being relatively copy-pasted from deck to deck. This card allows you to negate any card in the game so long as you have it in your deck. Due to this, this deck runs many 1-ofs of problematic cards which may stop you in your tracks.

Forbidden Droplet - This card is really good for breaking boards, and it has the incredibly nice added bonus to load your GY with monsters from your hand or field, which, in this deck, is a fantastic thing.

Phantom Knights' Wing - This card is a good way to provide protection to monsters that typically do not have protections, and in your GY, allows you to summon a PK monster for free.

The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine - This card is a free summon if you don't have any cards in your GY, at the cost of being a level 4. It's searchable by Silent Boots' GY effect, making it particularly useful for making Artifact Dagda and Predaplant Verte Anaconda (though it will have to become Link Spider first).

Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine - This card allows you to Special Summon Eldlich from your deck and can be set by the GY effects of Huaquero and Conquistador.

Phantom Knights' Fog Blade - This is PK's scariest trap card, allowing you to the negate the effects of a face-up monster on the field, which can severely hinder your opponent's gameplan.  It has a nice GY effect of allowing you to summon any PK from your GY for free.

Huaquero of the Golden Land - Eldlich support card that essentially acts as an extra Called by the Grave if you have an Eldlich. Can also be discarded by any discard effect to get an Eldlich during your opponent's turn.

Conquistador of the Golden Land - Eldlich support card that allows you to destroy any face-up card if you have an Eldlich. Can also be discarded by any discard effect to get an Eldlich during your opponent's turn.

Extra Deck:

Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer - One of the most powerful boss monsters in YGO history. Can be easily made by practically any deck with any two Effect Monsters linked into Predaplant Verte Anaconda, which this deck is more than capable of doing. It destroys one card on your side of the field to destroy any other card as a Quick Effect, and can revive itself each Standby Phase after its destruction. It has the added bonus of being able to destroy a Set Artifact Scythe on your opponent's turn to lock them out of the Extra Deck, automatically winning you the game against most decks when going first.

Leviair the Sea Dragon - One of the deck's two Rank 3 Xyz Monsters. They are incredibly easy to make in this deck, though Leviair is intended for games that have drawn out a bit long, allowing you to re-summon a monster that was previously banished, either to revive your Eldliches or recycle your PKs who have already used their GY effects.

The Phantom Knights of Break Sword - One of the deck's two Rank 3 Xyz Monsters. They are incredibly easy to make in this deck. Break Sword is essentially a diet DPE, allowing you to detach a material to destroy one card on your side of the field and one card on your opponent's field. It's a very efficient way to get out Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus - Sky Thunder, as it has an okay body and a way to free up a way for it to attack directly. If this monster attacks at all, you can make Zeus for free in Main Phase 2 to board wipe the opponent without triggering destruction effects or immunities.

Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus - Sky Thunder - If you manage to attack with either of the deck's two other Xyz monsters, you can make Zeus in the Main Phase 2 for a Quick Effect board clear that doesn't trigger destruction effects or immunities.

Link Spider - Link Spider allows you to turn any of the Trap Normal Monsters (i.e., The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine, Huaquero of the Golden Land, and Conquistador of the Golden Land) into an Effect Monster in order to use them as materials for Predaplant Verte Anaconda, Accesscode Talker, or Underworld Goddess of the Closed World.

Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss - The easiest monster for this deck to make, as well as the most important. If you have any two level 3s on the field, you can make Cherubini. His effect allows you to send any level 3 monster from your deck to the GY as a cost, allowing you to do it even when Cherubini is negated. You will typically use this effect to send Water Enchantress of the Temple to the GY, which will gain you access to any card in the entire Adventurer engine with its combo. If you hard-drew Water Enchantress of the Temple or Rite of Aramesir in your starting hand, you can instead use this card as a Foolish Burial. He can also be used later on to make The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche.

Crystron Halqifibrax - Crystron Halqifibrax was primarily added to the deck to help make Knightmare Unicorn a bit easier to access, as this deck can sometimes only afford to Link away two of its monsters, as many of the other ones you'd rather stick around. With any monster and a tuner, you can make Crystron and then make Unicorn.

Knightmare Phoenix - With its extremely generic materials, Phoenix is an easy and great way to remove frightening backrow from your opponent.

Artifact Dagda - This card allows you to Set Artifact Scythe directly from your deck, allowing you to lock your opponent out of their Extra Deck extremely easily with DPE.

Predaplant Verte Anaconda - This card is so incredibly powerful in practically any deck in the game, as it allows them to access powerful Extra Deck monsters that the deck should probably not have access to. It was even recently banned in the TCG due to its power. Luckily, it's still legal in Master Duel and can be abused extremely easily in this deck. Use its effect to make DPE, then pop your Artifact Scythe in their Draw/Standby Phase to make your opponent cry.

Knightmare Unicorn - This deck relies heavily on destruction effects, so monsters immune to destruction pose a serious threat to this deck, making Knightmare Unicorn a necessary addition to this deck's toolkit. It can get rid of those monsters without actually destroying them, saving you a lot of headache.

The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche - This card makes an incredible amount of tempo for you in PK decks, allowing you to send any PK from the deck to the GY and giving you a free PK Trap. It can be made with Cherubini plus any DARK Monster after you use Cherubini's effect.

Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess - As it is not very rare that you will end up having boards of 4, 5, and sometimes even 6 monsters by turns 2, 3, and 4, Apollousa is a no-brainer in the deck, as it allows you to negate many effects from your opponent's monsters on a non-once-per-turn effect.

Accesscode Talker - Accesscode is your deck's easiest way to close out games. Any time your opponent has taken any amount of damage, they are in serious threat of you being able to kill them due to this card. This card will gain 1000 ATK times the Link rating of a Link monster used for its creation, which in this deck can possibly be as high as a 5000 ATK gain. On top of this powerful stat boost, his effects cannot be responded to by opponents. He also gets the ridiculously strong non-once-per-turn effect to destroy enemy cards at the cost of banishing a Link monster from your field or GY, which you will gather an obscene amount as this deck plays 11 of them.

Underworld Goddess of the Closed World - Underworld Goddess is another way to get rid of problematic boss monsters that your opponent has, bypassing nearly every protection in the game, as it is using your opponent's monster as a material. When on the field, it also grants you some pretty powerful effects. When the card is summoned, it negates all of your opponent's face-up monsters until they die, and it can once-per-turn prevent your opponent from summoning from the GY, which something a lot of decks do nowadays.