Trains, officially known as “Railway”, is a series of train-themed EARTH Machine monsters introduced in Galactic Overlord. They are piloted by both Anna Kaboom in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL and Allen Kozuki in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. Each card of this series is based on either real life trains or railway infrastructure. Upon its initial release, the deck lacked a proper game plan until the release of The Dark Illusion introduced Loading...
, which pushed Trains into a Towers strategy where you'd opt to go first, turbo out Dora, and back her up with a multitude of Trap Cards. At the time, the deck was a large pile of various Level 10s that had little to no synergy with each other. This all changed in 2019 with the release of Legendary Duelists: Sisters of the Rose. We not only got a wave of support that synergized well with the existing cards, but also a proper win condition in the form of Loading...
, pivoting the deck from a going-first Towers strategy to a going-second OTK strategy.
Trains is a blind-second OTK deck, opting to let the opponent go first, and then breaking the opponent’s established board with Kaiju, Lightning Storm, and other going-second staples to open up the path for an OTK using Rank 10 Xyz monsters. Many games end on that very same Turn 2 as you swing for 8000 damage. Railway typically doesn’t run Infinitrack and Machina, and instead sticks to summoning Level 10s to quickly go into our Rank 10 Xyz boss monsters. It shoots for fast games and big numbers, making it easy to pilot. If you’re running Infinitrack and Machina monsters, you might be mistaking your Earth-Machine deck for a Trains deck. A guide for Earth Machine decks can be found here.
Night Express Knight
The absolute most basic of starters. It does absolutely nothing special aside from being a Level 10 EARTH Machine that you can Normal Summon without tribute, thus letting you use all the other extenders in the deck. There's very little to say about this card in comparison to other cards in this deck. Run 2-3x.
Heavy Freight Train Derricrane
Where Knight is your most basic starter, Derricrane is your most basic extender. On Normal or Special Summon of any EARTH Machine, once per turn you can Special Summon it from your hand. Its ATK and DEF get cut in half, but that doesn’t matter, it’s being used as either Xyz or Link Material anyway. Derricrane has a very powerful secondary effect: when you detach it for the activation of an Xyz effect, you can destroy a card on the field. Note that this isn’t once per turn, if you detach a Derricrane, pop a card with its effect, then summon another Xyz, and detach a second Derricrane from it, you can pop another card! This effect occurs on a new chain, so if you’re detaching it to activate an effect in response, you won’t get the prompt for it until the current chain is resolved. Don’t worry, you won’t miss timing. The last bit of important nuance to this is that the pop effect activates upon being detached for the activation of an effect. Many Xyz effects detach their Xyz material for cost, so even if your monster has its effects negated, you can still activate its effect to detach Derricrane for cost, have the effect be negated on resolution, and then have Derricrane’s effect trigger to destroy a card! Always run no less than 3x.
Super Express Bullet Train
Bullet Train is a secondary extender. So long as you control only EARTH Machine monsters (min. 1), you can Special Summon this big boy from your hand for more Xyz and Link Material. This poses obstacles in some situations – If you happen to have something like
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or
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on your field, you will not be able to summon Bullet Train. There are two ways out of this. The first is to use up the non-EARTH Machine cards: Overlaying Jizukiru with something to make one of your Rank 10 EARTH Machines will mean Bullet Train is active again. Ranking up Skypalace into Liebe will do the same. Linking off a card for
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is also a possibility. The second way out is to use Bullet before you start using your non-EARTH Machine cards. If you control a
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, summoning Bullet Train before summoning Jizukiru is a wise idea. Despite these occasional difficulties, the card is more than worth it. It offers some moderate recovery by returning a Machine monster from your GY to your hand during the End Phase the turn Bullet Train hits the GY, and can sometimes be used to attack the opponent in a pinch, provided you have two cards to send to the GY. Run 3x.
Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede
Pegasus is your secondary starter and the best Normal Summon in the deck. On summon, it Special Summons a Level 10 EARTH Machine from the GY, and has a secondary effect of changing either Pegasus’ Level to match another card, or change another card’s Level to match Pegasus. This is absolutely fantastic – if you have a Level 10 in the GY, be it from a discard effect or some other reason, you can instantly go into a Rank 10. And even if you don’t, assuming you have an extender in the form of Derricrane or Bullet Train, just Normal Summoning it is good enough, since it will let you activate Derricrane or Bullet Train to summon them and then you can change Pegasus’ Level to 10 to match. It’s essentially a better
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in most circumstances. This is the best target
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can return from your GY, since next turn Pegasus can summon said Bullet Train, and then change its own Level to go into a Rank 10. The other option is to make another monster Level 4 to match Pegasus, which allows you to go into either
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or
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if you happen to be running it. Using the Level modulation effect locks you into only attacking with Xyz monsters, but this isn’t usually a problem given that you’re probably attacking with Liebe anyway. Still, there’s the occasional circumstance where you need to attack with a non-Xyz monster, so pay attention to your cards. Run no less than 3x.
Revolving Switchyard
The undisputed king of unbricking your hand. Switchyard allows you to discard a card to add any Level 10 EARTH Machine. Add either your starter or an extender. Switchyard can also act as an Ash Blossom bait if you’re trying to make sure another card resolves. Switchyard’s other effect is rarely used but bares mentioning. If you haven’t used its first effect to search for a card, summoning a Level 10 EARTH Machine will allow you to summon a Level 4 EARTH Machine with 1800 or more ATK (usually Pegasus), and make it a Level 10. As great as this sounds, it comes with the unfortunate downside of making your opponent take no battle damage for the rest of the turn. This means you can’t OTK your opponent to win the game that turn, so this effect goes mostly unused except when you’re forced to go first and just want to make Dora and pass, or are looking to wall up by using
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on your opponent's turn and getting an extra monster out of it, possibly recovering if you summon
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and they destroy it. It doesn't prevent effect damage though, so Gustav can be used to get you across the finish line in the late game. Run 3x.
Urgent Schedule
Both a starter and an extender, this fantastic card finds its home in many decks due to its versatility. So long as your opponent controls more monsters, which they usually will, you can Special Summon a Level 4 and a Level 10 EARTH Machine from your deck. Your Level 4 target will usually be Pegasus, and the Level 10 will be whatever is most useful at the time, usually
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. Unfortunately, their effects are negated, so you won’t be getting Pegasus’ effect to change its level or summon a monster from the GY. That’s okay, just having Link and Xyz Material is great, especially since this counts as a summon which activates Derricrane in your hand, and gives you EARTH Machines to work with which means Bullet Train is also live. It has a secondary effect where if it is sent to the GY by your opponent, you can search out a Level 10 EARTH Machine from your deck. This effect usually goes unused, but might sometimes be useful in a pinch if you can’t quite OTK that turn. Urgent Schedule will also lock you into only attacking with Machine monsters, but this isn’t a problem given that all our monsters are Machines. Run 3x.
Double Headed Anger Knuckle
Anger Knuckle is a decent recovery option in case the OTK doesn’t get through. It’s a leftover card from the bygone era of Master Rule 4 that's meant to be a Link Monster that could allow you to extend into further cards in your Extra Deck, with a down and right arrow to allow for other Extra Deck monsters. Nowadays, we can summon Xyz Monsters into any zone we want, so its utility has taken a sharp nose-dive beyond its recovery effect to Special Summon a Level 10 Machine from the GY. It does combo wonderfully with
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's summon from Deck effect if you're not trying to OTK with battle damage and is also sometimes used to re-use a Derricrane that you detached earlier that turn. This card usually won’t be part of your combos, but its handy to have in a pinch. Run 1x.
Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
The train that started it all. Based on World War 2-era German railway cannons, the Superdreadnoughts are the centerpiece of this deck. Gustav is your bread-and-butter Rank 10 with high ATK that can detach an Xyz Material to burn the opponent for 2000 damage. In combination with Liebe, you can deal 8000 damage in a single turn. Due to how generic and simple its effect is, Gustav finds its home in any deck that can conceivably have two Level 10 monsters on the field at the same time, or in some flashy FTK that recycles its effect an additional 3 times. Run 2-3x.
Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora
The first train card that gave the deck a proper game plan. Dora acts as a Towers, a card that has high ATK and DEF stats and is immune to other card effects. It is your defensive pivot when you find yourself in a situation where you need to stall, and is your “my opponent forced me to go first” panic button. Dora’s effect is a Quick Effect, meaning it can be used on the opponent’s turn and in response to your opponent’s actions. If you happen to have made Dora using
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, that’s effectively a “Quick Effect: Destroy a card”. Dora’s protection effect doesn’t necessarily have to be used on itself either - sometimes the correct play is to have it protect another monster you have, like Liebe or Zeus to avoid being hit by an opponent’s removal effect, or even targeting an opponent's card to prevent your opponent from interacting with it and using it to combo. Run 1-2x.
Skypalace Gangaridai
Gangaridai is an honorary Superdreadnought and absolutely a staple of this deck despite not being part of the archetype. Using any two Level 10 monsters, it’s easy to summon and offers removal in any situation. The 1000 burn damage effect is just icing on the cake. Detaching a Derricrane gives you an additional pop on top of it. Gangaridai’s card text is worded oddly and has often caused some confusion. "Cannot attack the turn you activate this effect" is referring to Gangaridai itself, not the player. If you use Gangaridai’s effect, it's Gangaridai that cannot attack, you can still attack with other cards like Liebe. Speaking of Liebe, it’s important to point out that while Gangaridai is not an EARTH monster, you can still rank up into Liebe as Liebe only needs a Rank 10 Machine. This not only means you can use Gangaridai’s effect to pop a card, then go into Liebe and mount your attack, but also that you can clear your field of a WIND monster to turn Bullet Train back on. Keep in mind that Gangaridai burns for 1000, not 2000, so just one attack from Liebe usually won’t do the trick, you may be forced to compromise and go into Zeus afterwards. Run 1-2x.
