Notes & Combos
Shoutouts to the living legend Jesse Kotton for inspiration for the decklist. The main deck is almost the same as his MCS deck with the exception of Orange Light replacing the recently banned Instant Fusion. Orange Light can be cut for Foolish Burial Goods, but I like Orange Light because no one expects it anymore. When Orange Light is active, it steals games.
One small note before we move on. On my last Diamond 1 Tear list, I said that Snow wasn't ideal to run in MD Tear lists. I was completely wrong about that since it has a ton of utility in pushing for game, interrupting on your opponent's turn, and being another level 4 body on field. Banishing your own Tears doesn't come up often, and even when it does, it's worth it if Snow can win you the game.
For the extra deck, pretty much every card is useful depending on the situation. Mudragon is fantastic for being level 4 and for targeting protection. Exciton Knight can wipe boards before you go into Zeus, so you can force out negates and still be able to make Zeus. Aussa is used to steal your opponent's Ishizu shufflers or force your opponent to use them. Underworld Goddess is necessary because Tears don't have an out to Towers monsters. The second Dragostapelia doesn't come up often but is still useful to have. It's definitely cuttable though. I'm not a fan of the Zoodiac package because it takes up too many slots for my liking.
Overall, this build is slightly bricky going first, but you'll very often have handtraps when going 2nd since you play 13-14 of them. Even if you can't make plays on your turn, you will almost always have a play on your opponent's turn with Havnis, Scream, or Sulliek. The loss of Instant Fusion, 2x Foolish Burial Goods, and 2x King of the Swamp (lol) have not slowed down Ishizu Tear in the slightest. Don't expect a meta shift until a major banlist.
This format sucks btw. All of Diamond is either Tear mirrors, D. Shifter decks, blind-2nd cheese strats, or straight up stun decks. For those wanting to get to Diamond 1, all I can say is good luck lmao.