Vendread Deck

Here is my take at building a "Vendread" deck. "Vendread" is quite an interesting archetype since it features a Ritual monster theme with Zombie-Type monster, which is still a combination that no other archetype went for. If you heard of "Vendread" before, you might be aware of the fact that the hype around them died rather quickly when the powerful support was missing, leaving them in the limbo of semi-playability. Nonetheless, I think they are functional enough to build a deck around and they do have some aces to work with that might surprise the unaware opponent.

Starting with the monster line-up, I chose to include every "Vendread" Main Deck Effect monster except for "Vendread Core", since I did not need more Link material. That means one copy of "Vendread Revenants", which feature the worst revive effect but the absolutely insane Quick Effect banish when used as tribute for a "Vendread" Ritual monster. One copy of "Vendread Houndhorde" for the okayish revival and solid "Cosmic Cyclone" imitation effect for Rituals, one copy of "Vendread Striges", which features a very good revival effect but a subpar Ritual monster one, and one copy of "Vendread Anima" for added plays with banished monsters. "Vendread" does need some help from generic Zombies though, so I also included three "Gozuki" as "Foolish Burial" helpers, three "Uni-Zombie" for the same reason but they also work as Tuners for the deck, two "Shinobi Necro" as additional resources when banished for the Ritual Summon of a "Vendread" monster, one "Plaguespreader Zombie" as yet another Tuner and more material, one "Shiranui Solitaire" for potential "Uni-Zombie" setup, and three "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" for the obvious handtrap effect, but also as a Zombie Tuner option for "Vendread".

The Ritual part of the deck is where it's at though, so I included both three "Preparation of Rites" and three "Pre-Preparation of Rites" as consistency tools, alongside three copies of "Revendread Origin" and three copies of "Revendread Evolution". To make the most out of "Preparation of Rites", you need to Ritual Summon first, then activate the card to make it a +1 in card economy terms. "Pre-Preparation of Rites" is always a +1, but comes with the caveat of only being able to search for the combination of "Revendread Slayer" and "Revendread Origin". Talking about "Revendread Slayer", he is in the deck at three copies but is also a pretty subpar Ritual monster on his own. However, by using the "Vendread" Main Deck Effect monsters as material you can give him some additional power and he is the easiest Ritual monster in the archetype to summon. "Vendread Battlelord" is the Level 7 Ritual and an absolute powerhouse in my opinion that can catch the opponent off-guard if they are not aware of what he does. You can easily summon him as the first action during your turn by ditching one copy of him from the deck via "Revendread Evolution" and then activate his effect to disallow the opponent from using monster effects, which in turn locks the opponent out of using handtraps and therefore gives you the opportunity to build your board in piece. I also included one copy of "Revendread Executor" for his protection effect, but he rarely saw play when I tested the deck. The rest of the Main Deck is made up by one "Foolish Burial" as graveyard setup and three copies of "Vendread Charge" to get your "Vendread" non-Ritual monsters on the field easier and to save resources from removal by dodging the effect in form of gaining another monster.

The Extra Deck has a lot of colorful options, since "Vendread" on its own really does not need that much of the space in there. Both "Shiranui Sunsaga" and "Shiranui Shogunsaga" work as beatsticks, "Borreload Savage Dragon" can equip Link monsters for negates and is fairly easy to make, "Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon" is a situational option with battle focus, "Black Rose Dragon" serves as the usual field nuke, "Herald of the Arc Light" can work as a negation tool as well as searching for Ritual cards, "Formula Synchron" can be summoned via "Crystron Halqifibrax" which itself provides more resources, "Knightmare Phoenix" is the usual backrow removal option, "Vampire Sucker" can have merit in some situations, "Avendread Savior" is the only archetypal Extra Deck monster and can recycle resources, provides graveyard setup and can even potentially run some opposing monster over, "Abyss Dweller" is the counter option against another graveyard-heavy deck and "Evilswarm Exciton Knight" is more of an emergency tool if you cannot manage to make something more useful and want to potentially stop the opponent from going crazy with summons.

"Vendread" has some interesting interactions and is quite a deckbuilding challenge; however, they do have a small number of dedicated players that experiment with various options, like using "Spirit Sculptor" in order to search for other helpful engine parts. The deck provides a number of effects that can surprise the opponent that did not read the cards, since "Vendread" Main Deck monsters tend to revive themselves, the "Vendread" Ritual monster provide searches upon their demise, "Vendread Battlelord" disabling entire card types and the Ritual Spell "Revendread Origin" serving as protection for some of the archetypal monsters while in the graveyard. Granted, you will find better (Zombie) decks if you look for them, but "Vendread" is not that bad and certainly unique enough to give them a spin; and if you are really interested, you might want to check out my archetype analysis on them, which you can find here: https://cubiccreativity.wordpress.com/2021/08/07/archetype-analysis-vendread/