Notes & Combos

This event sucks. It sucks so much it made me revalue all of the previous events. *Yes, even Zero-EX".

Normally I would and should stop here, but I decided, at the very last minute, that me suffering alone won't suffice. You will also partake in my suffering, by reading this article. **Save yourself now, for you will not be able to escape the grasp of my rage, verbosity, and line theorycrafting-sickness once you have started reading.

Still on? Good. Heh.

I'll keep it simple: this event is a travesty, with pretty much only Maxx C banned, but pretty much everything else being legal, most notably Ash, Called and Impermanence, completely untouched, all while not banning cards that have nothing to do with Rituals outside of the greatest stretches possible (especially Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes and Mikanko), which doesn't really influence their gameplay, and the fact, that, well, *every Extra Deck card except Cross Sheep, Dyna Mundo, Herald of the Arc Light at 1. Herald of Mirage Lights, and a Link nobody cares about.

Thanks to this simple, but immensely damaging, series of "hits", the resulting format (at the time of writing, November 15th) is at its third age, within only 3 days, in a high-octane nightmare fuel atmosphere that has almost nothing to do with Rituals, and whose "meta" (if we can even call it like that), shifting from Experimental to Anti-Ritual to this, can easily be summed up into "NOUVELLES VS MIKANKO".

AND GUESS WHAT I PICKED? NOT THE RITUAL ONE OF THE TWO! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So here what's we've got: a list that cares about Ritual Monsters as much as Dark Magician, deprived of 2 copies of Mikako Water Arabesque, is entirely focused on OTK, using the Extra Deck only as fuel (yes, Arc Light exists EXCLUSIVELY because of Extra Foolish Burial. Just to add Ohime. Really.).

Ah and it's technically not mine: this build was made by TimoKitsune (thanks Tim), passed to me in a moment of need when I was tired of all the bollocks this RNG mess of an event kept throwing at me: overall a pretty solid list, if only plagued by running Psy-Frames, only 1 TTTalent, no Evenly Matched, no handtraps outside of a single Nibiru, and in general the suffering the hit to Arabesque and the Extrav ban brought. YOU HAVE. NO. IDEA.

Mikanko is a deck that aims on suffering, a deck that exists to claw on the flesh of its target and make sure they too feel the suffering of the bo1 grind. Must be why I have chosen.

Having all 0/0 stats, outside of the vastly superior but immensely harder to summon (only Ceremony works) Ohime (often called Oomfie. Yes. Oomfie.), it needs an equip spell to mimic the "Dimensional Wall" effect (the opponent gets all the damage you'd get. Ah and your monsters survive unlike that card), and both need an opponent monsters with the fattest stats possible, while having all of the Kaiju-like (except for Lava Golem) of superior ATK than Kumongous (2400) banned. And Double-Edged Sword. That's banned too.

You win by reflecting damage. And tributing their best monsters, protection, quick effects and all, with Kaiju-likes. And by hoping Nouvelles doesn't have better hands than you, due to their anti-targeting and Attack Position stealing that ruined this event. And not bricking, in general. And this garbage (relatively speaking. It's gold by comparison) is STILL the second best deck. WHAT.

What you don't do is using Mikanko Kagura (the actual Ritual Spell). Because Ritual Summoning without a devoted engine to make them work sucks. And because Ceremony cheats it anyway (despite Kagura being a decent card), as well as the limitation being bypassable entirely via Arabesque, making it useless. SO MUCH RITUAL, MAN.

Let's just move on to the list, before my brain starts waving the white flag out of despair. And let's get down right into the despair bringer's list, shall we?

• Psy-Frame Driver - He's the shared summon target of both Delta and Gamma. Works from anywhere except the banished zone. Which is where he's heading if you leave it there by the End Phase of the turn you summoned via Delta or Gamma. Ah, and it's a brick you don't want to summon, if possible (if anything you can use him as fodder for Oomfie)

• Psy-Framegear Delta - He's like Gamma, but for Spells. Like Called or the Ritual Spells. Basically a free-for-all, for the Spell-heavy matchup, albeit not as strong as Gamma. And being a brick if you have any monsters on the field, just like Gamma. Or Lambda, but he's banned too. Heh.

• Psy-Framegear Gamma is the most practical of the various Framgears, with the monster version of their effects, but the same bricking problems. And sharing a Driver that is going to get banished if not used as material (which is NEVER) or bounced with Arabesque. breathes deeply to hold the pain

BUT BEFORE CONTINUING WITH MY TIRADE, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR: RITE - MAIDEN LEGENDS The Maiden Legends have finally descended to the Duel Field, packing EXTRA powerful effects, that are basically all the same except for the specific one when you use an Equip on them! Use their INCREDIBLE damage reflect power to give any kind of utility! And writhe in agony when your starting hand isn't good enough or the Nouvelles player has flipped their in-archetype counter-trap. Coming up in 5 distinct flavours: Red, Blue, Green, The Same BUT STRONKER and-oh wait, that's not released yet. Ahem . RITE - MAIDEN LEGENDS, WITH A RIVALLING LORE NO LIVING SOUL BUT THE MANIAC WILL CARE ABOUT UNTIL THE SOLO GATE ARRIVES! "ITS GAEM"

• Ha-Re/Red Miko - Normally the best Mikanko, Red suffers greatly from having Arabesque at 1, and will have to compensate by searching Mayonnaise and Fire whenever Hidden Armory messes up the mill or the hand isn't good enough. Which will happen a lot. A lot. Unfortunately said search also comes with the Equip Spell requirement. And Arabesque is still at 1. UwUs in pain.

• Ni-Ni/Blue Miko - Ni-Ni proves once again to be the best girl, with that monster steal that will leave Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes scarred for life... But unfortunately doesn't come with protection and said steal is both on their turn only and temporary. Ah, and it needs the Equip Spell to do that. And she... doesn't search when you do, unlike the two. OwOs in contemplation.

• Hu-Li/Green Miko - Same damage reflect, gives protection when equipped, still needs the equip to work, but, unlike the other two, IT ACTUALLY SEARCHES UPON BEING EQUIPPED! ...But it's a Trap that is run at 1. frantically swaps from UwU to OwO and back

• Kumungous - Kaiju, 2400 ATK. See that advantage the opponent made with their long combo line, protection and all. Now it's gone. Pray you don't brick tho.

• Lava Goldem - An actually legal Kaiju-like that kills 2 monsters instead of 1. But still needs 2 monsters instead of 1. Pray you don't brick

• Gameciel - Kaiju with a summoning animation, 2200 ATK. Pray you don't brick.

• Nibiru - Not a Kaiju-like, but has a similar effect. It's legal. Shao Kahn's Mortal Kombat 2 laugh . Please study your opponents instead of throwing it blindly. Don't say I didn't warn you.

• Oomfie - The efficient version of the Legend Trio, not needing the equip, indeed getting them from the GY (...ONLY the GY), and not just the Miko ones, ANY, and being able to attach them to your opponents... and needs to be cheated by Ceremony to be summoned in the first place, only to then be bounced to the hand anyway at the end of the turn, either by itself or via Arabesque. Unlike them, though, she can be used as free searcher from the hand (her main use, in fact) for ANY Mikanko card, including Ceremony... at the cost of having to discard something. Good thing Fire exists to revive what you discard. So true- I MEAN- YEET!

• HFD - It kills backrow, I guess?

• Hidden Armory - Non-OPT equip searcher. It will only cost your Normal Summon, the top card of your deck getting milled, several consistency issues as a result, and the souls of everyone you love. That's why I had it for free. And after you'll play this deck, you'll join me. JOIN ME.

• Prep - Calls Oomfie from the Deck to hand, as your friendly neighboorhood Uber Driver. Ah and the second effect? She ate it.

• Extra Foolish Burial - It activates Herald of Arc Light. For only half of your LP. And a personal ticket to the Netherworld if you happen to be facing Timelord. Which are also legal. AGAIN

• LStorm - It will save your match. But you'll never draw it, so why bother?

• TTTalent - It will save your match with 3 possible broken effects. Or maybe it'll make you brick. The possibilities are endless.

• TTThrust - It can add anything that's Normal and not a Monster, including Talent... or you b-yeah, you get it

• Mage Power - Little heads-up: YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO EQUIP THE OPPONENT. You're welcome

• Axe of Fools - Mage Power, but with less ATK, a nice burn damage, an effect negate, and more bricking. Oomfie can shove it down the opponent monsters' throats to negate their effects and amplify the reflect damage. Isn't that adorable?

• Rondo - Rondo is the quartenary Equip of the deck, but, much like the best girl it belongs to, the most impactful, as it can steal their monsters... assuming the equip goes through and you control a Miko even if currently equipped. Even then, you're fundamentally giving protection while only preventing but not negating effects, whether on your turn or theirs, something you can do with Rivalry, but fundamentally tied to the current capability your board has at making sure you can keep it and you can keep on preventing the effects of the equipped, all of which can only be applied to an opponent's monster, with the effect on the chain (if equipped on their turn) still going through. Keep it in mind

• Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise is ths tertiary Equip of the Deck, being the easiest to activate without any particular repercussions from disruptions, that the other 3 happen to have (blocked by Ash, Called, only working if you have a Miko and/or on the opponent turn with Rivalry), but also the least impactful one as, outside from being an easy equip in a deck that gets super protection and reflect damage once equiped, it does nothing until the Battle Phase.

• Fire - Fire is the secondary Equip of the deck, and, along with Mayonnaise, one of the few equips which can revive Mikos from the GY, in different ways. Fire, specifically fixes the penalty that comes with Ohime's search, without the need to be milled like Mayo, but it will also need to be activated from the hand. For that reason, it's played at 1, but since Arabesque is also at 1, every equip is played 1, including the non-Miko ones. Still, it allows for instant activations of the Miko you can revive, especially Green Miko, which can buy extra turns, or Red Miko, for an Equip-related comeback

• Water Arabesque - Water Arabesque is the main searcher of the deck, limited at 1 because Konami deluded themselves into thinking it would be enough. It wasn't. The broken thing about it is that you ca equip your opponent's monsters, even if not originally theirs (like Kaiju/Kaiju-like), to then SS a Miko from the Deck, and re-equip Arabesque with it, activating their effects, on the same turn, at the very same time. Of course, the issue arrives if it gets milled by Hidden Armory or you have to discard it with Ohime, but Ohime could recover it, and Rivalry can recycle it

• Ceremony - Ceremony cheats Ohime and can mill another equip spell if an Equip gets milled while it's already on the GY. It's also notably a Quick-Play Spell, which, while useful for chain shenanigans, it also means it can't be added or equipped by several Miko cards that only work with Equips, as Ceremony isn't indeed one.

• Rivalry - Rivalry is the one trap, played at 1 for consistency reasons, that can be added by Hu-Li, able to equip either Arabesque on your turn or Rondo on theirs, and, from the GY, the recycler of previous Miko equips.

• Arc Light - Read Extra Foolish Burial

• Every other Extra card - Only exists to act like you're not playing Miko until you play the first card. DON'T SUMMON THEM. ~~unless it's to send Driver to the GY but let's act like it doesn't exist even I stated the exact opposite

The Mass is over. I'm playing Fortnite to forget about this monstrosity and ignore any errors I made while rushing to get this guide written.