Notes & Combos
Handtrap.dek feat. Marincess. Even 18 handtraps do not feel like enough during this slogfest of a climb. Marincess works decently in the grindgame, but the meta decks are too fast. So many decks on ladder are Tenpai or decks designed to ftk Tenpai. If you open too many engine cards and not enough handtraps, you are boned regardless if you go first or second. This is why I omitted some cards previously ran like Cynet Mining or Marincess Mandarin for a suite of handtraps.
The saving grace is Aqua Angel that allows you to peer into your opponent's soul. With hand knowledge, your handtraps will take you farther if you anticipate what chokepoints to interrupt. I was previously trying to be cute with Abyss Dweller (rip), so that I could summon it if Aqua Angel revealed that I was playing against a graveyard deck. This never came up so, I ran Bagooska instead. Bagooska pass with handtraps is the ideal endboard if you get Maxx-C'd on Pascalus summon. Otherwise, a standard one card combo will get you Bubble Reef + Wave. With an extenders, you could get the field spell into unaffected Argonaut for a Spell/Trap negate.