Princess of the Sea: DP26 Marincess Support! In DP26, Marincess finally gets a new wave of support. Will it be enough to let them finally see some play?

Prologue

Marincess is an archetype that debuted in the VRAINS era of Yu-Gi-Oh. It's an archetype that consists of Water Cyberse monsters and specializes in link climbing and controlling the field. 

In the VRAINS era, Marincess is an archetype that many players had high hopes for. As a Cyberse archetype, Marincess could take full advantage of the abundance of Cyberse support in the game. And as a Water archetype, Marincess also had access to a large pool of Water support cards. The attributes were right for Marincess to be a success, but unfortunately, this reality would never come. After release, many players quickly realized the weaknesses of the archetype and viewed it as nothing more than a meme. The problem was that the deck was too vulnerable to hand traps and didn't have any strong threats. Marincess's main selling point is their 1-card combo which is weak against most hand traps. The deck also lacks strong threats since most of their monsters don't really interact. This meant even if you couldn't stop them, it isn't much of a problem anyways. 

In the modern meta, Marincess is a pretty rare deck to see. It's nowhere near the competitive scene and even seeing it at locals is quite out of the ordinary. However, this might change after the new OCG set; Duelists of the Abyss. In this set, Marincess receives seven new cards which increase the consistency and power level of the deck. And in this article, we'll be taking a look at these cards to see what they do for the deck. Will it be enough for Marincess to finally see some play? 

New Cards

Marincess Springirl

Marincess Springirl is Marincess's new Level 4 extender with 2 effects. 

Springirl's 1st effect is very simple. Banish a Marincess monster from your GY, to special summon it from the hand. This effect is easy to trigger since the deck has no problem filling the GY with Marincess monsters.

Springirl's 2nd effect activates if it's used as a Link material for a Water Link monster and lets you mill cards from the top of your deck equal to the number of Marincess monsters you control. This effect also inflicts 200 points of damage to your opponent for each Marincess card you milled. This makes it great for not only filling up your GY but also for chipping away at your opponent's life points. 

Overall, Springirl is a pretty good card. It's a solid extender and great for helping setup the GY. If I had to name a flaw, I'd say it usually won't mill too many cards with its 2nd effect. Since Marincess isn't a deck that floods the board with monsters, it's unlikely for you to mill more than 2 cards with this effect. But still, Springirl is a strong card and a great addition to the archetype. It's also worth mentioning that since Springirl is a level 4, it can be used to XYZ into Bahamut Shark

Marincess Sleepy Maiden

Marincess Sleepy Maiden is Marincess's new Level 5 extender with 2 effects. 

Maiden's 1st effect starts by targeting a Marincess card you control. Then, Maiden special summons itself and gives the target an effect that makes it immune from your opponent's destruction effects. This effect makes Maiden a good extender since the only requirement is controlling a Marincess card. Additionally, this effect is also great for adding another layer of protection onto your boss monster or field spell. Since cards like Marincess Battle Ocean are so important to keep on the field, you'd want to ensure that it doesn't get blown away by something like Twin Twisters or Knightmare Phoenix

Maiden's 2nd effect lets you banish it from the GY to equip a Marincess Link monster from your GY onto a Marincess Link monster on your field. This effect is here since it supports Marincess's gimmick of equipping their Link monsters back from the GY. Although this effect won't usually come up, it can be useful if you don't have access to Marincess Battle Ocean or if you're trying to equip to a monster not in the Extra Monster Zone. 

Overall, Maiden is a good extender that doubles as a way to protect your Marincess cards. Although the 2nd effect isn't too useful, a free summon is always nice and nothing to complain about. 

Marincess Coral Triangle

Marincess Coral Triangle is a new Link-3 with 2 effects. It can be summoned using 2+ Marincess monsters as link materials and has both a consistency effect and a recovery effect.

Triangle's 1st effect lets you send a Water monster from your hand to the GY to search a Marincess trap from your deck. This effect is great since it finally gives Marincess a way to search for Marincess Wave. Since Wave is one of your best disruption and utility cards, it's nice that we finally have a way to search it. Alternatively, this effect can also search for other Marincess traps. Although Wave is probably best in most situations, having additional options is always nice. 

Triangle's 2nd effect lets you banish it from the GY to special summon Water Link monsters from your GY whose total Link Ratings equal 3. This effect can only be used if only your opponent controls a monster and is a good way to recover from a board wipe. Since Marincess is great at building boards with just a few cards, you should have no problem building your board back up after using this effect.

Overall, Triangle is a solid link monster that provides a lot of utility. Being able to search for traps is nice and the added recovery is just the cherry on top. 

Marincess Aqua Argonaut

Marincess Aqua Argonaut is Marincess's new Link-4 boss monster with 3 effects. 

Argonaut's 1st effect is a continuous effect that makes your opponent only able to target it with attacks while it's in the Extra Monster Zone. This effect synergizes with Marincess Battle Ocean since Battle Ocean provides Argonaut with a lot of extra ATK.

Argonaut's 2nd effect lets you bounce a Water monster you control to bounce a card your opponent controls. This effect gives you a good way to deal with monsters that can't be destroyed by battle or card effect. For example, Number F0: Utopic Draco Future is a card that has been recently increasing in popularity and this is a great answer to it. Furthermore, you can also use this to bounce monsters you want back in your hand. 

Argonaut's 3rd effect lets you negate the activation or effect of a S/T on the field during your opponent's turn by special summoning a Marincess monster equipped to it. This effect is fine but could have been much better if not for its issues. For one, this effect can only negate effects on the field. This means it can't negate effects that activate in the GY which is popular in the modern meta. Another issue is that it can only negate during your opponent's turn. This is problematic since it means you can't negate cards like Forbidden Chalice and Infinite Impermanence on your own turn. And lastly, this effect must summon a monster in order to negate. This can be problematic if your opponent manages to get rid of the monsters equipped onto Argonaut.

So overall, Argonaut is a decent boss monster that could've been much better. While it is the Marincess monster with the most interactive tools, it still falls short of being impressive.

Marincess Dive

Marincess Dive is a new spell card with an effect that special summons a non-Link Marincess monster. 

Dive is a pretty simple card. When you activate it, you choose to activate 1 of 2 effects. The 1st effect let's you target and special summon 1 non-Link Marincess monster from your GY. And the 2nd effect can only be used if you have Marincess Battle Ocean on the field and lets you special summon a Marincess monster from your deck instead. While both of the effects are good, the 2nd effect is generally better as it allows you to summon a new monster. This lets you utilize cards like Marincess Blue Tang and Marincess Pascalus if you haven't gone through them already. It also helps that Dive is searchable with the effect of Marincess Sea Angel so you'll have no problem seeing this card.

Overall, there isn't too much to say about Dive. It's a searchable extender that gets even better if Battle Ocean is on the field. Although it can't summon back link monsters, this isn't usually a problem since Marincess can link climb so easily anyways.

Marincess Circulation

Marincess Circulation is one of the two new Marincess trap cards in DP26. Like Marincess Wave, if you control a Link-3 or higher Marincess monster, you can also activate it from your hand. 

Circulation's effect returns a Water Link monster you control to the Extra Deck to special summon a Marincess Link monster with the same Link Rating but a different name. The monster summoned also can't attack directly or be destroyed by battle that turn. This effect is nice to dodge targeting effects or to surprise your opponent with a new monster. The problem with this is that there isn't really anything notable you can summon. Since Marincess is an archetype that inherently lacks interaction, swapping out a monster isn't really too scary. It's also worth mentioning that without Battle Ocean, this effect becomes much weaker since the monster you summon won't even be strong.

Marincess Bubble Ring

Marincess Bubble Ring is our last new card and is Marincess's new battle trap. It has 2 effects; one which can be activated when a monster declares an attack and another which can be activated by banishing it from the GY. 

Bubble Ring's 1st effect activates when a monster declares an attack and negates that attack to special summon a Marincess Crystal Heart from your Extra Deck or GY. While getting a free Crystal Heart is nice, the problem with this effect is that it might be too difficult to activate. Since it's a battle trap, it'll have to be on the field for a turn before you can flip it, which is rare in today's meta. This effect would have been better if it could be activated from the hand like Marincess Wave but unfortunately, it can't be. 

Bubble Ring's 2nd effect lets you banish it from the GY to grant a Marincess Link monster extra attacks up to its Link Rating. Your opponent also takes no battle damage from battles involving it. This effect is nice if you need to clear out multiple big monsters. Since Marincess Link monsters are usually pretty strong due to Battle Ocean, you'll usually be able to beat over any monster with under 4500 ATK. Shame that this card doesn't let you OTK though.

Overall, Bubble Ring is an alright card that's alright on paper but seems impractical in actual play. The issue is that even if you do manage to activate its 1st effect, it doesn't usually amount to anything anyways. Like most other Marincess cards, Crystal Heart isn't the scariest thing in the world and even if you do manage to link it off for a Link-4, even that isn't too hard to deal with either.

Overall Thoughts

While some of the new support is good, the original problems of the archetype still remain. The archetype just isn't threatening. Yes, the new extenders are good and the added consistency is nice, but it's all for naught if it doesn't result in anything. In this case, while Marincess Aqua Argonaut is an upgrade from the previous Link-4s, it's still not good enough. The other new support are great for establishing your setup but your setup just isn't scary. Most players wouldn't feel threatened by just a Link-4 with Battle Ocean and Wave. Perhaps the archetype would do better if they had a Link monster that has an effect while it's equipped. After all, that is their main gimmick and it feels like not having this mechanic is a missed opportunity.

Overall, this is a good wave of support for an archetype that isn't so good. While Marincess does have excellent resources, it's lackluster in exerting pressure. While the deck is great at what it does, it just doesn't do enough. Going forward, if Marincess does manage to get another wave of support, I'd really like to see the archetype receive more ways to pressure or interact with their opponent. If that happens, the potential is still there for something great. 

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