The new Duel Links pack, Truth Universe, is full of new archetypes like Malefic and explosive new support for already loved decks and play styles. Is any of it good?

Malefic

Malefic are dark versions of already existing iconic monsters from the Yu-gi-oh anime. They come from the Yu-gi-oh movie Bonds Beyond Time, in which the protagonists of the first three series meet. Go watch it, it’s super fun. Named literally just “Sin” in the Japanese format, Malefic are extremely rad.

If this article were about whether you would look cool if you played Malefic, I would give a resounding thumbs up. But if we’re talking about how good Malefic are, it’s a bit rocky. Malefic have a plethora of restrictions, and while cards are built into the archetype to remedy these restrictions, you still have to draw those cards or your deck will fall apart.

Malefic Restrictions

Let’s list off the restrictions:

• Malefic need a field spell on the field to be summoned and die if the field spell leaves the field.
• Malefic need to banish the original cards they are based on from the deck or extra deck to be summoned.
• If you control a Malefic monster, only that Malefic monster may attack.
• You can only control one Malefic monster.

These restrictions are inconvenient, but they are not a death sentence.  For starters, players can use the Kaiba skill “Peak Performance” to start each duel with a field spell already in place. Furthermore, Malefic have cards within the archetype built to escape these restrictions. Malefic Territory fixes three of these all by itself. Malefic Territory searches the Malefic field spell on activation and protects that field spell from targeting. It allows you to control multiple Malefic monsters at once. Lastly, it allows your Malefic monsters to all attack. It’s a godsend for the deck, but you cannot always draw it in time.

Malefic Paradox Gear is also helpful to the deck. It provides much-needed searching and allows Malefic monsters to forgo banishing a monster in the deck. Unfortunately, it relies on having a Malefic Parallel Gear left in your deck. You could certainly run three Malefic Parallel Gear to maximize the possibility of this. I’m not sure if I would recommend it. Malefic Parallel Gear can summon two level 10 synchros using a level 8 Malefic, and one level 12 synchro using a level 10 Malefic. These Synchros are Ascension Sky Dragon, Malefic Paradox Dragon, and Assault Blackwing - Onimaru The Divine Thunder.

Malefic Paradox is the most useful card among these, as it can potentially revive a fallen synchro, or swipe an opponent’s synchro. It’s still far from amazing. Malefic Parallel Gear is not a bad card by any means, but most of the time it’s just trading a high attack monster in hand for a high attack monster in the extra deck. If you’re using it because you have no field spell and you just need something on the field, you’re likely to lose. Plus, you need some of those extra deck slots for Stardust Dragons.

Malefic Stardust Dragon is a good card, because you cannot at any point, draw the card Stardust Dragon. The same cannot be said for Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Rainbow Dragon. Malefic’s potential to brick is enormous. It will certainly be a recurring problem for those who want to play the deck. That being said, Malefic are a really cool beatdown deck. I welcome anyone to try to make them work. I’ve provided my own potential deck list below.

D/D/D

Conversely, I think D/D/D have a lot of potential. D/D/D stands for Different Dimension Demon. They are used by Reiji Akaba, the rival character in Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V. D/D have insanely explosive potential, easily able to summon three or more high-level extra deck monsters in one turn with cards such as D/D Swirl Slime, D/D/D Flame King Genghis, and Dark Contract with the Swamp King. They have consistency in the form of Dark Contract with the Gate, and a great first turn trap in the form of Dark Contract with the Witch. 

A possible weakness of D/D/D is that Dark Contract cards deal 1000 damage each to you as your turn starts each turn. This is not a huge deal in my opinion, and D/D/D can actually gain that much life points with D/D/D Oracle King D’arc. I can’t guarantee that D/D/D will be the next big meta pick, but the deck has undeniable potential. It has a dynamic extra deck and very generous spell support.

Dinos

Dinosaurs get Miscellaneousaurus, a level 4 hand trap that protects your dinosaur monsters from card effects. When Miscellaneousaurus is in the graveyard, it can banish dinosaurs including itself to summon a dinosaur as well.

If you have Miscellaneousaurus and Giant Rex in your graveyard, you can banish them both. This summons both Giant Rex and Babycerasaurus. You can then banish Survival’s End from your graveyard, destroy Babycerasaurus and an opponent’s monster, and summon another dinosaur. Dinosaurs get a huge boost in deck building potential thanks to this card.

Crystal Beast

I’ll be the first to say that Crystal Beasts are not very good in Duel Links. They just can’t accomplish much in the game’s fast pace. The support in this pack doesn’t necessarily solve this. Crystal Beasts are still easily the worst deck in this article. But I love them so just listen to my spiel.

Crystal Beasts get two cards this pack: Rainbow Bridge and Crystal Concave. Rainbow Bridge gives the deck the ability to search it's one copy of Crystal Bond, which is the easiest way to make Rainbow Dragon turn one. Rainbow Dragon is not a good card, and many may consider simply forgoing running it, but I’m here to tell you that Crystal Beast are going to be bad either way so you should include poor rainbow dragon. With Rainbow OverDragon it is at least a 5600 beater.

The other card Crystal Beast gets is Crystal Conclave. It’s a continuous trap that summons a crystal beast from the deck. You can summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, put a monster in the spell and trap zone, summon Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle off of Crystal Conclave, and special summon Pegasus and the card Pegasus sent. It also has a second effect, that lets you send it to the graveyard to send one crystal beast card, and one card your opponent controls to the hand. Considering that this card is searchable with Rainbow Path, and provides a decent first turn board. They didn’t have a first turn board at all before this pack, and progress is progress. I’ve provided a potential deck list below. It's worth noting that the skill for this deck is "Transcendent Crystal," considering how much Crystal Beast rely on it.

Conclusion

This pack is full of fun, interesting cards that just reek of potential. However, I’m not positive if anything will end up making a dent on the established metagame. D/D/D has the potential to be great, but we’ll have to see how they pan out. Dinosaur fans have an amazing new tool to use in their decks in the form of Miscellaneousaurus. Crystal Beast fans can pretend their decks are functional as they sit on their singular trap. I’m Crystal Beast fans.

Malefic is an extremely cool deck, but they suffer from too many restrictions to be consistent. That being said, Malefic do have explosive power, and players drawn to the deck’s unique and twisted premise should not hesitate to build them. Pull from this pack if you like the really cool archetypes and themes it gives us. Or if you’re willing to take a chance on D/D/D’s competitive potential. But if you’re looking for a sure thing, don’t bother. I for one, am going to pull for the Crystal Beast support immediately.