World Chalice

Like how I imagine a lot of people felt when they were introduced, I used to hate link monsters. I thought they were the end of Yugioh and blah blah blah. But I've been playing with them for a while now, and a good chunk of my favorite archetypes are heavily focused on links: Tenyis, Krawlers, Live Twins, Mekk-Knights, and of course World Chalice. For those who aren't aware, World Chalice is an archetype that focuses on spamming normal monsters to use for link summoning a ton of monsters. It also used to include a busted synchro card, but that's been banned forever and probably will keep being banned forever, so pour one out for the real play maker of the deck. Gone but not forgotten. Anyways, your end boards in this deck could range from super cool link bosses like a Borrel or an Arrival Cyberse or even a Topologic. All of these are solid options, Arrival Cyberse just requires a ton of investment to be Kaiju bait, and I personally just hate the Borrels and Topologics. So, we'll be playing the deck as Takahashi intended and making Avramax or Apo instead. Keep in mind that any of those other options can absolutely work as well, it's just all personal preference.

First, let's go through a quick card by card of the deck and side deck.

MAIN DECK:

Monsters:

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  • 3x -Beckoned by the World Chalice, Chosen by the World Chalice, Crowned by the World Chalice: Yes, they are all normal monsters. Yes, you will brick sometimes. But you need three of each since starting your combo basically requires a normal monster to be summoned. Some people run two of each, but unless you run a supplementary engine that spams normal monsters (like the Agent of Creation - Venus), you need as many of these cards as you can run.
  
  
  • 3x - World Legacy - "World Chalice": This card seems like a bit of a bizarre include at first glance, but it acts as an amazing combo extender in the deck. Since Imduk gives you an extra normal summon, you can tribute summon this card very easily during your combo and it brings out resources from deck if sent to the GY after being tribute summoned. It does add to the brick potential, so you can run one or two instead, but having more World Chalice monsters in your hand extends your plays so I try to max out on them.
  
  
  • 3x - Lee the World Chalice Fairy: The archetypal Stratos that helps keep your hand full of World Chalices to extend plays. Its grave effect also allows you to send a card with a good effect in the grave (*cough* *cough* the next card) or proccing all your World Chalice link monster's effects in a pinch. Run three to ensure you see it most games, but just be warned it can't be used as link material for your combo starter.
  
  
  • 3x - World Chalice Guardragon: While the in-hand (or on-field) effect lets it work as a solid handtrap, its grave effect is what makes it so important in the deck. It lets you summon a normal monster from grave to a zone a link monster points to, which helps extend your plays that extra bit farther to end on a more formidable board than you otherwise could. Run three but try not to normal summon it unless you have no other choices since it does even less than Lee does when normal summoned.
  
  
  • 3x - Rescue Rabbit: On paper, Rescue Rabbit sounds awesome. It fetches two materials straight from deck by only taking your normal summon and it dodges Called by the Grave by banishing itself. It also happens to be the biggest handtrap bait in the deck, so you'll rarely see it pop off. Still, run three since in those one in a million games where it does work, it makes the best end boards the deck can produce.
  
  
  
  

Spells:

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  • 3x - Unexpected Dai: Summons a normal monster straight from deck. You run nine of them, so unlike some combo decks that run just one normal monster as a target, this will always have live targets turn one. Run three because it's the best way to start your turn.
  
  
  • 3x - Emergency Teleport: As it turns out, Chosen is a psychic-type, so you get to run E-Tele in the deck. This also opens the possibility of including Gamma and/or Ghost Ogre as a both handtraps and potential combo extenders if needed.
  
  
  • 1x - One for One: Summons the dragon straight from deck while potentially setting up the grave for its effect to work. Run one because you can't run more, but if One for One ever moves off the limited list (it won't unless it's getting banned instead) run more copies. Just be warned that unlike Dai and E-Tele this has a pretty good chance to brick and is an awful card to top deck if you make it to the late game.
  
  
  • 3x -World Legacy's Heart: This lets you refill your hand with World Chalices and offers some ok protection to your link monsters when in grave. Run three all the time.
  
  
  • 2x - World Legacy Succession: A Monster Reborn if you have a free link zone open. Run two because it's searchable and a hard once-per-turn and run the actual Monster Reborn as well if you find the space for it.
  
  
  • 3x - World Legacy Discovery: The archetypal field spell that isn't as important as most other archetypal field spells. Gives a teeny stat boost that comes up every once in a million duels and a nice recovery effect. You can run anywhere from zero to three, so if you're looking for some space to fit more handtraps or other tech cards, this is the card to trim down on to fit them in.
  
  
  • 1x -Called by the Grave: Solid handtrap defense that the deck desperately needs. Crossout might be a better choice since you can run more copies, but it requires way too much main deck space to function properly, so I never use it.
  
  
  
  

Traps:

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  • 3x - Infinite Impermanence: My favorite handtrap, but it could be replaced by any other handtrap instead. Ash is always a good pick and Ghost Belle is useful against a solid number of decks. Same with Ghost Ogre and Gamma but Gamma needs an extra card's worth of space to work.
  
  
  
  

EXTRA DECK:

• 3x - Imduk the World Chalice Dragon: You’re gonna see this card a whole lot if you play the deck. Every turn that doesn’t end immediately will summon this boi at least once, and there’s a good reason why. An extra normal summon in a deck that uses a monster who needs to be tribute summoned is just incredible. Through a normal turn you end up going through one or two, so you can shave one copy off. But personally, three always works the best for me with how many normal monsters the deck needs to link away.


• 2x - Ib the World Chalice Priestess: This card acts like a mini towers but you’ll rarely see it used for that effect. It mostly just serves as additional extension with its grave effect as well as giving good arrows to complement Auram’s. Run two since you’ll never need the third, but you might sometimes need the second.


• 2x - Auram the World Chalice Blademaster: Can occasionally serve as a solid beatstick in a pinch, but you really need its tribute effect and grave effect to help extend plays. Run two for the same reason you run two Ib.


• 1x - Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior: The original “boss monster” of the archetype. Can draw up to three cards when summoned and allows you to non-targeting send a card to the grave by sending one of your own. A good card, but you’ll only ever summon him once.


• 1x - Lib the World Key Blademaster: The best World Legacy support card ever released other than Girsu. Two completely generic materials can set any World Legacy spell/trap from deck and the pool of good World Legacy cards is just insane. You can grab Succession as a reborn spell, Heart as extra World Chalices in hand, Clash for some attack manipulation, Awakens if you want to run a link that you’d want to summon on your opponent’s turn, Struggle as easily accessible spell/trap removal, Cliffhanger as a really funny way to shift a game in your favor, and Sorrow as a good counter trap. Run one or two depending on how many targets you put in deck.


• 1x - Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax: A solid boss monster to end on, especially if you summon it using I:P. Has great protection and redirects any attacks to itself while dodging targeted effects. Plus, its amazing battle phase effect helping close out games. Run one because you will only ever need one


• 1x - World Chalice Guardragon Almarduke: This is mostly just here because I wanted every World Chalice in the deck, but it can also help with OTKs. Especially against link-focused decks. It’s also a good Super Poly target against those decks as well, but that does sort of kill its OTK potential if you Super Poly into this card. Run one because you probably won’t even use one most of the time.


• 1x - Linkuriboh: The best way to get World Chalice Guardragon in grave in a pinch. You’ll only ever need the one tho since it’s only used to get Guardragon in grave.


• 1x - Link Spider: Summoning Spider gives you the easiest access to additional tribute fodder for Chalice, but you’ll only ever need the one since past turn one, you’re trying to kill your opponent as quickly as you can.


• 1x - I:P Masquerena: Just a solid card to summon Avramax with. You won’t always have the extra material for it, but when you do you can make a very tough to out Avramax. You could also use it to summon Apo or a different boss monster to provide that same protection tho.


• 1x - Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess: The best generic way to get negates for a deck, which this deck desperately needs to not die instantly. Only run one since you’ll only ever use one per game.

SIDE DECK:

• 3x - Avida, Rebuilder of Worlds: This seems like a strange card to include in the side deck, but it does come up sometimes. Since this deck spams link monsters like almost no other, you can easily have the grave filled with different named links after turn 1, and if your board is broken on the next turn, you can sometimes fulfill the summoning condition on your own and just reset the gamestate in your favor. If you’re going against another link deck, this becomes even easier to achieve. And besides, you’re running World Chalices. Avida is like the very end of the World Legacy lore so you’ve gotta play it in the deck that features the very beginning of it.


• 3x - Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju: Any Kaiju works here, but Gameciel is just the best. Do not play Lava Golem or Sphere Mode unless you desperately need the extra tributes though. This deck almost always needs its normal summon to start its plays, so using that up on a Lava Golem doesn’t always work super well.


• 2x - Lightning Storm: Just another two copies of Feather Duster. This could be Twin Twisters or something like Raigeki instead, but I just like having a ton of anti-backrow insurance.


• 1x - Harpie’s Feather Duster: The best anti-backrow card ever printed, but it isn’t always enough to break through backrow decks.


• 3x - Cosmic Cyclone: Helps with backrow removal that also completely ruins some Eldlich cards as well as the ever-spooky Mystic Mine.


• 3x - Super Polymerization: You’re already running Almarduke so you might as well run a way to summon him without sending your whole field to grave. You can honestly skip this one though unless you make space for more targets for this card.

EXTRA OPTIONS:

• More handtraps: This deck can make some space to fit in about 6-9 handtraps if you wanna cut down on the field spell and maybe Chalice and Rescue Rabbit as well. Just don’t cram too many handtraps in the deck because you need to see your starter cards as consistently as you can.


• Other link bosses: Avramax is a good card and all, but just passing on an Avramax doesn’t really win the game on its own. Apo is good as well, but both leave you open to Kaijus completely stopping your gameplan. You can try and make a triple co-linked Tri-Gate work, but it requires some specific links to be on board for the co-link to work. It’s still a good card though and gives an additional negate to your end boards if you manage to successfully do the co-link. The previously mentioned Borrels and Topologic monsters are also good options, but it depends on how you want to deck to work. Just be careful if you run Topologics since this deck loves summoning stuff to link arrows, which the Topologics don’t enjoy all that much. Arrival Cyberse still works as an end boss, but it takes more resources than anything else mentioned. Underworld Goddess is a good option in the deck, but it does require going second to make full use of its effect, which this deck struggles with. Other than that, there are the Knightmares as well, but I didn’t wanna include them for lore reasons.


• Painful Decision: Acts as a search card that for your normal monsters that also sets up the grave. It’s an ok include, but you generally want as many normal monsters in deck as you can so Dai, Chalice, and E-Tele have as many targets as possible.


• Guardragons: If you trim down some of the excess World Chalice cards, you can put a Guardragon engine in the deck as well. It’s not nearly as good as it was before Elpy and Agarpain were banned, but it still gives some nice extension to the deck if you find yourself in need of it.


• The Agent of Creation - Venus: A good initial normal summon for the deck that can make way better endboards than the World Chalices can make natively. It just tends to brick me more than it helps me since all the Mystical Shine Balls clog your hand easily.


• Crossout Designator: This deck summons an absolute ton of monsters to perform its combo, and it doesn’t really summon a negate until it reaches its endboard. Crossout is the only real Nibiru protection the deck can make use of, so it might be a good idea to include it either in addition to Called by or instead of it.


• Triple Tactics Talents: This card is a ton of money for a reason. If you get handtrapped you can draw some more cards, Forceful Sentry your opponent, or just snag one of their monsters. All three of these effects work well in the deck so having three copies isn’t a bad idea.


• Change of Heart / Mind Control: Since this is a link deck, snagging an opponent’s monster helps a ton with extending your plays. It also forces out negates since this deck doesn’t work well through interaction.


• Dark Ruler No More / Forbidden Droplet: Both cards are useful in shutting down negate boards when going second and Droplet even helps with graveyard setup.


• Salamangreat Almiraj: This is the only link 1 monster that can use Lee as material turn 1 (from what I could find anyway). So, it’s useful for getting her into the grave if you brick, but it doesn’t do much other than that. At least Linkuriboh does something when it’s on board. Almiraj just kinda sits there and prays your opponent bricks as well. Still, it does have a single corner case where it can be useful, so it’s a valid option to run.


• Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight: Makes your turns play much differently than they otherwise would, but Girsu and Lib play super well with each other. If you run him just be mindful that you’ll have to adjust your plays around him. I also just really love running all the “final stages” of the original World Chalices in the same deck as the originals. (Auram becomes Avramax and then Avida, Ib becomes Lib and I guess Lee does too but that’s a complicated explanation, Imduk becomes Almarduke, and Ningirsu becomes Girsu)

I was originally planning on going through every potential combo the deck can produce, but there is just so much variation in the deck to realistically cover them all. So instead, I’ll just go over the basic steps of the combo.

1. Summon a normal monster (Dai, Rabbit, E-Tele, or Normal Summon)


2. Link summon Link Spider (if you have another normal in hand), otherwise summon Imduk


3. If you summoned Link Spider, summon a Normal from hand and link it into Imduk


4. Tribute summon Chalice


5. Link away Chalice and any remaining card to summon Auram


6. Activate Chalice, then Imduk in that order to chain block


7. Resolve the effects to gain three more material on board


8. Make sure one monster is in a zone Auram points to and that that zone is not the center monster zone.


9. Link the two materials Auram doesn’t point to into Ib


10. Tribute the other material using Auram’s effect to summon Imduk from grave


11. If Guardragon is in grave, activate its effect and summon to a zone Ib points to. Otherwise, use Lee’s effect to send Imduk to grave to summon another card from hand. And if that isn’t available either, just link everything into Apo or Avramax and pass turn.


12. If you used Guardragon, summon Lib with the Imduk and the extra material on board to set World Legacy Succession from deck. If World Legacy Succession is already in hand, set World Legacy’s Heart instead. If you summoned Lee instead, summon Apo or Avramax here and then pass turn.


13. Special summon Imduk to the zone Lib points to.


14. Link away Imduk and Lib to summon Ningirsu


15. Activate Ningirsu and Imduk in that order both to chain block and to maximize the draws


16. Summon the monster for Imduk’s effect to the zone adjacent to Ningirsu, and then draw 3 cards. Those three cards help you play during the next turn as by now your hand is almost entirely empty.


17. From here, you can either link away Ib and Auram into Avramax, link away Ib, Auram, and the extra monster for Apo, link away the extra monster (if it was a normal) to make Imduk and have the whole World Chalice crew there or summon Almarduke to flex on your opponent. It’s up to you really.

 

Hopefully that explains the basic combo the deck can do. There’s a ton of variance between hands so the combo won’t always work exactly as intended, but that’s what practice is for. Test a ton of hands and see how far you can take the deck. It may not be the next meta-contender, but it really is a fun deck to learn and play. And I hope I was able to present a good way to run the deck here. If you have any questions about the deck or any suggestions, please comment them so I can either help you out or improve on a deck that I absolutely adore.