After going through the structure of Time Thief, we've seen that the deck has a good enough ceiling AND follow-ups after turn 1. In this installment, we'll be going through a couple of variants and combo lines that could potentially catch your opponents off guard. This is Onomat, but I like to call it ZuGaGoDo variant.
Time Thief - ZuGaGoDo?
The Onomatopoeia - I mean, ZuGaGoDo Time Thief variant does exactly what is stated above - put rank 4's on the board. It has a myriad of extenders available to the archetype, in the form of Zubaba, Gagaga, Gogogo, and Dododo monsters. Yes, you read that right (or did you?). Those are actual archetypal classifications. It's almost akin to Tri-Brigades! Only they're four and based on names.
Weaknesses
The weakness of it is, as it is for many other decks, the normal summon. If your first effect to special summon a monster from hand gets negated (e.g. Utopic Onomatopoeia), you could potentially be in trouble - just like with Time Thief.
Another problem that you could potentially encounter is bricking. There might be instances that you open something like a Dododo Witch with no other Dododo monsters in hand. Lastly - Droll & Lock Bird. This engine has a couple of draw cards and another that searches, making it vulnerable to Droll. It doesn't help that this specific hand trap is extremely famous in today's meta.
Strengths
Drawing / Searching
As just mentioned, this engine for Time Thief has the capability to play a total of 9 search/draw cards. That could be a weakness when facing droll, but can also be a valuable edge when it comes to consistency.
If you would remember, having your normal summon negated by something like Infinite Impermanence could make it tricky to navigate through your combo - or to even combo off at all. And that's not even just for the engine. Thankfully, with all the search/draw power (namely, Onomatopaira, Onomatopickup, and Dodododraw), you're bound to get to your proper extenders.
Gagagacoat, for instance, is one of the best, if not THE best, ones to search. You just need to control any Zubaba or Gagaga monster, and you can special summon it from your hand for free! In addition to that, you can even use its effect to actually reborn another Gogogo or Dododo monster from the grave. Onomatopaira and Dodododraw can unbrick your hand by sending some of your monsters to the grave! All this will help in getting you to that double Rank 4 sweet spot to get to your Time Thief engine.
Rank 4 Monsters, D'oh!
Aside from putting out Time Thief Redoer and Perpetua, being able to spam level 4's is quite a ride, especially with an array of useful utility Rank 4's available to us.
Worried about Nibiru? We gotcha! Traptrix Rafflesia is a readily available answer to that! With the release of Gravedigger's Trap Hole, any 2 level 4's will give you a blanket of protection against the pesky rock.
Gagagaga Magician (yes, that's four Ga's) is a little bit more gimmicky. It can, of course, get you the typical interaction with Number F0: Utopic Future. Not only does it give you the option to extend further, but you could also, in the future utilize Number F0: Utopic Future Dragon! Once this card is released, your options broaden even further with this monster-negating, control-taking, big XYZ body. Who would've thought that you could summon Utopic stuff in Time Thief?
Did you stop your opponent or did they brick and just normal summon? Want to OTK without playing into Nibiru? Easy. Just do the classic meme play! In tandem with Number 39: Utopia Double and Double or Nothing!, Rank 4's facilitate a quick, clean kill.
Ah, of course. The classics. Who could ever forget? Abyss Dweller to kill a myriad of decks. Plan B (Bagooska) to stall for resources. Tornado Dragon for pesky control decks. And last but not the least, Gagaga Cowboy for the potential to burn for game. The Rank 4 pool really does have answers to everything.
Honorable mention: any 2 level 4's is Zoodiac Chakanine and you can then overlay Zoodiac Drident for an extra interruption!
How is this Time Thief?
You have to remember that Utopic Onomatopoeia and Gagagacoat both have restrictions that will prevent you from summoning monsters from the Extra Deck aside from XYZ monsters! Not that it matters in a deck like Time Thief (unless you decide to play Parallel EXceed here, which is risky).
That being said, one good thing about Time Thief is the fact that you don't necessarily need to play a heavy Time Thief line-up in the main deck. If you can figure out a way to splash some rank 4's on board, then you're good to go! Again, this is all because of Time Thief Perpetua. Let's see this in action in the next section.
Lines that Lead to Time Thief
The usual starters / normal summons are Dododo Witch and Gogogoglove, for the reason that they can summon another body from your hand. You can count Utopic Onomatopoeia as a starter in that sense, but it feels exponentially better for it to be the one being special summoned off from the hand.
Alright so for the sake of example let's say the 9 in-archetype draw/search cards got you 3 pieces for this combo. You normal summon Dododo Witch to special summon Utopic from hand. You then special summon Gagagacoat for free. No effects yet! You go for Gallant Granite and detach Utopic (important!) to search for our next extender - Gogogoglove, because he just happens to be Rock. You then activate Utopic to get Gogogoglove on the board. You can now XYZ summon into Time Thief Redoer via the Gogogoglove and Gagagacoat. We need to leave Utopic in order to summon back the Gogogoglove from the gy. In low-resource scenarios, you would have to banish Redoer to get Gogogoglove to grave to be able to use its effect to revive itself. That'll give you the extra body needed to overlay with Utopic to get into Time Thief Perpetua!
And that gets your Time Thief Engine live, since Perpetua, at the End Phase, can attach any Time Thief card to Redoer. Winder, Bezel Ship, Flyback, Chronocorder - anything really. Here, I made a little chart to help you visualize this.
(Another) Partial Conclusion
The combo line shown above is only partial and can vary extremely depending on the hand and the interruptions thrown by the opponents. You could even opt to go for a different route and make a utility Rank 4 along the way. Rafflesia instead of Gallant if you can search Gogogoglove, an additional Abyss Dweller (or instead of Perpetua in low-resource scenarios), Chakanine-Drident for an interruption, or if you're extremely tight or have been interrupted heavily, you can just end on Bagooska and sit tight.
Abyss Dweller is extremely powerful in this format, so this Rank 4 spam idea is definitely plausible. However, is this the ceiling of the deck? I don't believe so. In the next (and probably final) Time Thief installment, we'll take a look at the variant that I believe shines the brightest - its engines and its combo lines.
If you have questions or requests, let me know in the comments down below!
