1) Why is Painful Decision played over Summoner's Art?

Painful Decision has a wider range of targets in the deck, while Summoner's Art can only fetch you Metalfoes Volflame.

2) Why is Metalfoes Steelen preferred over Metalfoes Volflame?

And generally, you would want Volflame in the deck rather than in the hand, for a summon via Metalfoes Counter. You may argue that you can pendulum summon Volflame, but should you have fetched, searched and have all copies of him out of your deck, what is left to summon via Metalfoes Counter?

Personally, I would prefer Steelen over Volflame. With Steelen, I can summon him out, in ATK position for Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin's effect. This way, I can bounce monsters on both side of the field without having the need to return Kirin's by its own effect. I can't do that with the Level7 Volflame.
But of course, if you find yourself in the dire need of big guns and firepower, Volflame is at your disposal, and feel free to replace Decision with Summoner's Art, if that is to your preference. In my opinion though, with the constant summoning of Volflame via Counter, Summoner's Art ends up being a dead card sooner or later. And being a normal spell card means it can't be a destruction fodder for your pendulum effects.

3) Why do players play ABC-Dragon Buster and Treatoad in Metalfoes extra deck?

Is there a special way to summon them?


All for the sake of Ghost Reaper and Winter Cherries, my friends. All for the sake of that one card. Nothing to be overly surprised about. Metalfoes can afford to do so as they have the luxury of including them in their Extra Deck. After all, unlike Rank4 spam decks, their Extra Deck space and requirements aren't that demanding or strict.

4) Which is better spell trap removal option?

Cosmic Cyclone, Twin Twisters? I would say go for Mystical Space Typhoon. Mystical Space Typhoon is a good one-for-one card exchange which effectively clears Anti-Spell Fragrance. And you can use Mystical Space Typhoon on your own Metalfoes Combination to retrieve a scale for a first turn play. Sure it is a two for one exchange. But it will be worth your while if you can get out monsters via pendulum summon , (Kirin, Jowgen etc) which would otherwise be impossible if you don't have a complete scale.

That is my point of view for a Metalfoes deck user.

For those playing against Metalfoes however, I would strongly reccomend Cosmic Cyclone. Cosmic Cyclone also serves as a one for one card exchange in card economics. However, at an additional cost of 1000LP, it sets itself apart from Mystical Space Typhoon by banishing a S/T instead of destroying it. This is a crucial element as Cosmic Cyclone prevents the activation of Metalfoes Counter, and doesn't trigger Metalfoes Combination search effect. Target a scale and they would have lost a Metalfoes monster and possibly unable to recover it. This also explains why you may see some OCG decklists with Cosmic Cyclone sided at two copies. It is simply to replace the Twin Twisters in the Main Deck as it serves as a better card to use against a Metalfoes matchup.

5) Since they are normal monsters, is Skill Drain worth playing?

Yang Zing Metalfoes can abuse them to a larger extent. Your synchros can be crafted to be unaffected by traps, thanks to the extra effects and protection your non-tuner Yang Zing provides. Metalfoes, even Draco-Vanilla builds, should just stay away from this card. I feel it gets in your way of the Metalfoes fusion monsters.

And your opponents such as Kozmo and Blue-Eyes won't even faze at the sight of this card.

Majespecter Metalfoes. Don't. This is definitely one of the cards you don't wanna see on your opponent's field, let alone yours. This shuts down your deck's signature monster which gives all your opponents a hard time - Kirin, and disallows searches from Raccoon. In Majespecter Metalfoes, these two contribute the most to establishing your authority for board control.

This is Metalfoes guys, not Qli. You need skill to play Metalfoes. :X #justkidding

6) Why would you want Metalfoes cards in grave?

For Metalfoes Combination's first effect, in case your forgot all about it. And it can be abused during your opponent's turn with Fullmetalfoes Fusion. And for both of Metalfoes Mythriel's effect.

7) Qli engine or Ariadne?

I would vote for Guiding Ariadne. Cyber Dragon Infinity currently is way too weak to control the field. Also, I would hate to invest my resources into summoning Infinity, only for it to get removed from the field so nonchanlantly by a tribute special summon by the Kaiju monsters.

Solemn Strike is versatile- low cost, high range of targets. And being a counter trap means that Naturia Exterio can't respond to it.

But hey, personal preference. This is just my opinion. So if you have massive love for Cyber Dragons, go for it.

8) The fusion monsters are terrible...

Not sure how this is a question, but I shall express my point of view here.The non effect fusions are mostly used for Super Polymerisation, which TCG sadly does not have. Thus I understand your disappointment. Metalfoes Adamante is used for Ultimaya Tzolkin's summon, thus it is not completely useless.

Just because they don't have an effect doesn't make them terrible.

Metalfoes Orichalc can deal potential OTK and combined with Fullmetalfoes Fusion, and in my pure fusion build without Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow I can combine it with another Metalfoes monster to form a second Orichlac and pop another card. It is my favorite Metalfoes fusion monster, out of all of them.

Mythriel, Alkahest... wait for them eagerly. Even in the OCG, fusion wasn't favored much before these new support cards debuted. It was thanks to them that the fusion monsters increased in popularity. Before all that it was just Gofu into Tzolkin.

9) Desires: Two or Three copies?

Preference. So it is completely up to you. You run more to wanna draw into them more often.
3 Pot of Desires for 46 card decks and 2 for 40 to 45 card decks, that's my opinion and suggestion.
Feel free to challenge the math, but I recall three Desires for 46 card deck being the perfect fit.

10) Two of each Metalfoes or max it out at three?

Mentioned before in first article. 3 of everything except Goldriver/Silvered. This is for the sake of resolving Painful Decision successfully, as you require two of the same pieces to use this deck-searching card. Also, it decreases your chance, significantly, I might add, of banishing all copies of the same card, due to Pot of Desires.

Goldriver has better stats but Silvered has better synergy for xyz plays. Take your pick on who to drop. You can also max out both. It's just that personally, I find it redundant so I only play two Goldriver.

11) Dark Law kills my deck.

Learn from OCG. Swords of Concealing Lights to the rescue~! Gain double piercing and you can 'pop' it so it also serves as a destruction fodder.. It is a second-turn card though. I tech-ed in two copies in my Metalfoes. Gives me a good first game and surprise factor.

And for the record, I warned you about cards that does banishing in Part 3 of the article. LOL.

12) How many Metalfoes S/T to play?

2 Combination. 2 Counter
1 Metalfoes Fusion
1 Fullmetalfoes Fusion
Then work out your preference from there.

And for the last time, there is no best build. I can only say that Majespecter Metalfoes is the most consistent in the OCG. Feel free to test out your Yang Zing Metalfoes. Best for TCG? Only time will tell.

13) Fire King Metalfoes?

Too slow, if you ask me.. You have better options like True King Agnimazid, the Vanisher and Fire King's Island that can destroy straight from your hand. Until they come out with a Fire King pendulum monster, don't rely on Metalfoes to destroy your Fire Kings.

14) Why Sloth?

At 2250ATK, Amorphage Sloth is hard to be destroyed by battle by monsters from the Main Deck. Pendulum Scale of 3 makes it usable for a scale, although Scale2 would be better to as you have plenty of Level3s in the deck.
One Sloth on scale and One Sloth on field makes it a Thunder King Rai-Oh, where your opponent can't search. In OCG, this combination makes it harder in mirror matches as opponent can't search out Kirin, which is probably one of the few Main Deck monsters that can 'out' Sloth, the other being Eccentrick Archfiend.

Sloth destroys itself during the user Standby Phase, once the maintenance cost is not fulfilled, which is a neat opportunity to use Metalfoes Counter.

Doesn't stop special summons from hand and thus it ain't perfect. But it kills ABC decks that doesn't play Torque Tune Gear and PK BA in the OCG. Only bad against Blue Eyes, as Blue-Eyes start their plays with special summons from grave and hand. Then they will just destroy Sloth by battle and continue on with their synchros/xyz in Main Phase 2.

Sub-par in mirror as they can Kirin can out it, and it is searchable. They can summon it from the hand with relative ease. (Pendulum summon a single card for tribute or Kirin directly). Sloth causes trouble for D/D/D decks too, as their highest ATK Main Deck monster is D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnorak at 2200ATK, although its banish effect can be used to remove Sloth. They can also rely on Dark Contract with the Witch. Searchable via D/D Savant Kapler, but doing so means that they sacrifice their search for an 'out' card and thus can't invest in their combo plays.

15) But you have Jowgen...

Low attack. Only good against Blue Eyes and D/D/D as their normal-summonable monsters are low in ATK points, mostly at 0ATK. Jowgen the Spiritualist is more used for escaping lockdowns. Personally I play 2 Jowgen and 2 Sloths. Each has its merits.

16) Thoughts about playing other Majespecter monsters and traps?

Don't.
Cloggy and unneeded. You want more control? Go for Ariadne. The other Majespecters are too slow and Solemn Strike serves better purpose than the traps.

17) Frog Foes?

From personal experience, I would say it is too inconsistent. Peers who tried said the same too. You are better off with HEROes doing the job with Tin Goldfish and Elemental Hero Bubbleman. You don't need to play Elemental Hero Stratos! You can't play him in the Main Deck but he is with you in spirit.

18) is a bad card. Why do players play it?

I got a lot these type of messages. So many i can't list them all down.
Let me just start off my explanation by reminding you that Metalfoes have the ability to 'pop' stuff. So a double-edged sword like Jowgen can be removed, by using your Metalfoes pendulum effects, to either go for an OTK or remove it from stabbing you.

Which is why Sloth works unexpectedly well because you can pop it and pendulum summon it again, with the rest of your Extra Deck monsters. Jowgen can't replicate this element as he isn't a pendulum monster.

I can't even count the number of times I decide to pop Vanity's Emptiness. It is like I hold the button to out it while my opponent has to pray during every draw phase to draw a S/T removal.

And reminder: popping pendulums doesn't destroy Vanity's as nothing hits the grave. I recalled a game where I just kept doing my search-and-set and Goldriver won me the game with his direct attacks, and all the while Vanity's was active.

In short, it isn't a completely double-edged sword as you have the option of removing it as and when you want, as long as you have Metalfoes as scales. If you are up for a troll and challenge, you can even play Anti-Spell Fragrance in a mirror match and activate it after you paste your Metalfoes scales. Then destroy it when you need to replace your scales. (Just kidding, don't do it... Not worth your while.)

19) Pot of Desires is a crap card. I always banish the cards I need!

You can argue against the math but stats show that the chances of banishing all three copies of a card is very low.

Also, this is the exact reason why you should always attempt to search-and-set out your spell/traps like Metalfoes Fusion and Metalfoes Combination (these two take priority imo) before you activate and resolve Pot of Desires.

I do not like to deal with the fact that I purchased three copies of Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin for this deck, but end up banishing almost two copies every game and having to play with only one. Just kidding, I just don't like to risk involved and associated with this card's banishing cost. I rather play conservatively and slowly farm for resources. Thus I dropped it in favour for Painful Decision.

20) Thoughts on Magical Abductor? Noticed it isn't on your list for Techs and Friends.

Didn't really think it is needed since Metalfoes replenish and change their scales every turn. Ocg doesn't need the search as we have better options:

Its monster effect searches for a Level1 Spellcaster. But Effect Veiler isn't worth the -1 in card economy in the current metagame.
Metalfoes deck consist of little spells cards, and you usually use pendulum cards as scales more than spell cards. Thus, it might be a tall order to gather counters on Magical Abductor. Also, apart from off-theme cards like Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer and Guiding Ariadne, you have other searchers for your deck's pendulum cards. (Summoner's Art, Painful Decision)

21) Two or Three copies of Painful Decision.

Decisions decisions... (Pun definitely intended)
Three if you really wanna draw it. Don't think u need to max it out though. After two uses and all of your draw phases, the third copy usually ends up as a dead card which you can't even 'pop' because you can't t get a normal spell card to be face up for destruction.

22) No Apex Avian in the OCG lists?

Not being a pendulum monster and being a Level7 on top of it means that Mist Valley Apex Avian can't function without completed pendulum scales on your board. This inflicts the burden on the player to keep their scales intact, which may be counter intuitive as you get to do less searchers or you compromise on your deck's speed, damage and win condition all for the sake for a Winged-beast which can negate almost anything.

Don't be mistaken I am a fan of this card. It is just that competitive players go for consistency, and the fact that Apex Avian isn't seen on the top tables' list may imply that builds including it are meeting with consistency issues.

23) Supply Unit is wonderful why is no one using it?

The once-per-turn clause only gives you one extra draw per turn, per card. You might argue that with three copies of Supply Squad, you get three free draws for every card you 'pop'. But often can that happen? Especially with Pot of Desires? In addition, deck space constraints may prompt you to remove this card, as it is a non-combo and non-crucial piece of the deck. It is more of a bonus and luxury. And I believe, despite how alluring additional card advantage sounds, you don't really crave for the additional draws since you already do a lot of searching.

I reckon Vortex Trooper is a more useful addition as it even allows you to exchange your dead hand cards for new draws after a normal summon. His distant relative - Card Trooper - also offers an effect upon destruction, by blind milling doesn't suit the playing style of the deck. So nope.

Conclusion: Not a fan.