Notes & Combos

This submission marks meeting my newfound goal of submitting an uncommon deck for every attribute this event. Ursarctics taught me a valuable lesson: even decks that can play on the opponent's turn can be awful. 🤣 Power level aside, I do think they're pretty fun and enjoy that they genuinely feel like a sister archetype to Drytron. It would be nice if they payoff was at all comparable though.

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For those unfamiliar with the deck: the maindeck monsters all tribute a lv 7+ monster (i.e. each other, mainly) to special summon themselves out. The level 7s focus on card advantage, or rather going less negative when specialed (a search, a recycle from grave, an extra special from hand -> 1 less tribute needed), and the level 8 tuners all have opponent interactions (a backrow pop, a Book of Moon, a GY banish). One of each can make Polari from the ED, which activates Big Dipper. Importantly, even without any additional extenders in hand, Polari can tribute the lv 7 in GY (via Big Dipper's effect) to special summon back the level 8 tuner. A level 8 tuner + Polari makes either of the other Ursarctic ED monsters: Septentrion is the archetype's poster boy with a summon animation and floodgate + potential searches, Grand Chariot is pop 2 + questionable protection.

The spells other are consistency tools: Departure is a two-for-two-names, and Radiation is infamous draw 7 spell, or more specifically draw 1 each time an Ursarctic is SSed from the hand or ED (but not GY🥲).

One of the neat things about the archetype is that the maindeck monsters' self-summon effects are all quick effects, so the archetype is often able to play on the opponent's turn. In contrast to the advantage machine that is Tear, the robo bears minus heavily without Radiation up, so you have to make sure your likely one piece of interaction counts if committing.

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I originally tried Blake's list from here on MDM (check it out!) since it's basically all legal for this event, but it just didn't jive with me. I'm still not entirely sure whether to go first or second with it, but I'm guessing first where Pankratops is tribute fodder that can be flexed into removal when forced second.

One issue was I occasionally just bricked completely. I don't think that's particularly fixable for this archetype since getting anywhere productive usually requires 3-card+ combos. And beyond that, it felt like the deck has zero grind game unless I'm able to resolve Radiation. Likewise Septentrion-pass turbo feels like a bad gamble when a good chunk of the decks either barely use XYZ/Links, or have ways of playing under it (Miragestalio bouncing it from GY, Rikkas tributing it for cost with Kon Kon, etc.).

So I decided to play for going second's sixth card and run Pot of Desires, hopefully to help dig for Radiation and run into less unplayable hands.

The tradeoff is of course having to play through the opponent's board, but that hasn't been too daunting. Most end-boards I've encountered have no, or at most one, spell/trap negate, so Evenly Matched has often solo carried when drawn. I also had no issue throwing in more blind-second monster staples to hopefully eat interaction for cheap, plus they're never wasted draws since they can be used for archetypal tribute fodder.

I also bumped up Big Dipper to 2 copies due to Desires. Hasn't bitten me in the **** yet. I did see a Desires list that won a OCG Ranking Duel event that ran only one Big Dipper but I'm not that brave. ( twitter%2Ecom/YuGiOh_INS_INFO/status/1641373481840562176 )

Of course, things have to go in exchange. I dropped the Righty/Lefty Driver package even if they're a 1-card Polari, Desires conflicts too hard and I'm not willing to run a larger package. I also dropped Ursarctic Slider, as it requisitely needs to be part of a 3+ card combo to even function. And especially without the Drivers for extra material, I'm not even guaranteed to have a use for the extra body it provides.

Without the Drivers, a lv8 Synchro shouldn't be possible, but I'm running Crystal Wing as something to do when Umi Stun's level modulation from Legendary Ocean is active since it turns off the Ursarctic lv7 Synchros. Dragite is probably more correct, but I stan Crystal Wing.

The Links aren't very relevant due to Ursarctic's levels-only lock. Anemone is the main utility, as at the start of a later turn, she can recycle an irrelevant Septentrion + another name on field — probably something I summoned on the opponent's turn — into a lv 7 from grave to help get more names back in rotation on the crackback.

I'm running more Miktanus over more Mikbilis. In a vacuum of no opponent interaction, Miktanus can emulate Mikbilis anyway. Mikbilis requires 3 cards to maximize its effect: itself, a tribute, and an additional name to special summon. Miktanus can do the same by tributing the extra name, adding it back to hand, and having the extra name special itself using the tribute fodder.

Since each name has a HOPT on its own special summon, there are corner cases where Mikbilis can bring out an extra copy of an already special summoned name, but I find those cases exceedingly rare since unsummonable copies can simply be used as tribute fodder instead. What's much more relevant in my experience is a lack of 3-card combo: if there's only Mikbilis + a name, Mikbilis' on-summon effect is completely wasted. Meanwhile, Miktanus can still add back to hand and then I'm halfway to the next special summon after drawing more, either from Radiation, or later turns, etc.