Introduction to Phantasm Spiral
Introduction
Hi there, my name is
. If you are here you might be looking for help building your own Phantasm Spiral deck, i will try to help you, so that you can build your own version of the deck.It was around 2017 when i returned to play Yu gi oh! after almost 10 years. I was bombarded with Pendulums, Synchros and XYZ, i thought to myself that there wasn't really a good deck for me to play until one day i faced against Phantasm Spiral. It was love at first sight and from that moment i dedicated the following years to optimizing and perfecting my deck, until it reached a state where i feel comfortable to share my thoughts and what i learned after all these years playing this archetype.
To begin, i should describe the Phantasm Spiral archetype as a series of support cards that revolve around a single monster card: Loading... . As you can see it's a normal monster, the whole archetype benefits from not using Effect monsters, normally that would be detrimental but in this guide i'll show you how this can be to our benefit.
The core of this deck is being able to bypass enemies effects and strategies with our normal monsters, by using spells and traps that support our use of normal monsters we can achieve some things that no other archetype can, while not having to worry about limitations that would normally affect negatively to other playstyles.
The main strategy is bringing about our core monster Loading... to the field, this is facilitated thanks to the equip spells that allow you to summon him after certain requirements are met during the battle phase.
Alternatively this deck is designed to have several contingency strategies so that you can face various different situations without only relying on Loading... .
The point of this guide is to show the potential of Phantasm Spiral as a whole. In the past this deck has been played as a stun deck, taking the fun out of playing with and against this deck. I want to show that this Archetype can be fun to use, with a bunch of unique and interesting interactions that no other playstyle have.
Benefits of not using Effect monsters
For Starters, not using effect monsters shuts down a lot of strategies that our opponent relies on. After all, 99% of decks use effect monsters and of course there are multiple cards and effects that can only be activated while your opponent has an effect monster, and since we don't have any, those cards become useless and are totally unusable by our opponents.
Another advantage is that we get to use a lot of support that's only reserved for normal monsters, and the game has a very good ammount of normal monster supports to compensate for their lack of effects, and some of those supports can be extremely broken if used correctly.
Still, we DO use some effect monsters (only in the Extra Deck, we use none in the Main deck) for certain and specific circumstances.
Core Cards
Phantasm Spiral Dragon (x2)
The only reason we play 2 instead of 3 it's due to bricks, after years of experience i determined that the most optimal number is 2. Normally thanks to his high attack by the moment you have 2 on the field is already over for the opponent.
This bad boy can be special summoned by the effect of any of his 3 Equip spells cards Loading... , Loading... , Loading... by equipping any of them to a normal monster and fullfilling their requirements will allow you to bring our core monster into the field be it from Deck, Hand or GY.
Of course as stated before, once he hits the field, even if he's removed from it, its still a Normal Monster with no special summon restrictions, so it can be brought back with any revival card like Loading... or Loading... and Loading... in case it's banished.
Pacifis, the Phantasm City (x3)
This is our most needed card as it not only can produce an infinite ammount of tokens for us to use, it can also allow you to search for specific cards.
The first effect can only be used once por turn, and it allows you to search for any Phantasm Spiral Equip spell, Trap or Monster card and add it to your hand whenever a Normal monster is summoned to your side of the field.
The second effect allows you to summon a token to your side of the field whenever an effect is activated anywhere on your opponent's hand, field, GY or Banish zone. This effect can be activated as many times as you want per turn as long as you don't have a Token. That means, if your opponents uses Loading... on your field, after clearing your monsters it will trigger the second effect of pacifis and will give you a 2000 ATK token, which in turn activates the first effect of pacifis which will allow you to search for a convenient card to add, the card that you add will depend on your judgement
The best part about Pacifis that most people don't know is that as long as it remains on the field, it's also considered as Loading... so the Phantasm Spiral Trap cards can be activated FROM THE HAND on the same turn you searched for them.
Your success with this deck will mainly come from knowing which trap or equip spells to search for, since you only get 1 search per turn, you have to think and try to predict your opponent's line of thought, of course that can only be achieved by playing with this deck A LOT, but trust me, once you identify the perfect moment to use the handtraps you will be able to shut your entire opponent's strategy off.
Equip Cards
Phantasm Spiral Grip (x1)
- Only equippable to a Normal Monster
- +500 ATK
- If the equipped monster destroyes another monster by battle: Special Summon a Loading... From your Hand, Deck or GY
- Inflict 1000 Effect Damage to your opponent after the Special Summon.
- This equip spell will automatically equip itself to the summoned monster
Loading... is the perfect target as it will allow you to reach 2500 Attack easily
I'm sure we all faced a board of strong monsters, that normally have more than 3000 ATK, but normally on those boards, there's also a weaker monster that's been used to summon the big ones, so with this spell card you can take advantage of that small monster, destroy it and bring your own big monster to the field.
Phantasm Spiral Crash (x1)
- Only equippable to a Normal Monster
- The equipped monster can now deal Piercing Damage
- If the equipped monster inflicts battle damage to your opponent, Special Summon a Loading... from your Hand, Deck or GY.
- After a succesful summon, you can change 1 ATK position monster from your opponent's field to DEF.
- This equip spell will automatically equip itself to the summoned monster
This card's third effect is good if you are dealing with a big ATK but Low DEF opponent's monster.
This card allows you to deal with monsters that can't be destroyed by battle but can still be punched thru them and deal damage, of course if you again deal damage the next turn with your equipped Loading... , you can bring a second dragon and he himself can deal even more damage.
This is one of the best cards that you can draw if you also used Loading... the last turn since of course, your opponent couldn't summon a monster so your opponent had either set a monster or not set at all. Either way gives you free way to use the piercing damage to activate it even in case a monster is set on the opponent's side of the field.