Notes & Combos

Lifeless Leaffish is the best card to set up Ghoti plays, so almost every avenue to see it is maxed out. While likely to draw multiples, extra copies of these searchers can get Paces to summon Leaffish and get the second tuner in rotation.

Redundant copies can be further utilized with Ran Aegirine, which I've maxed out and then some with Icejade Cradle. It unfortunately doesn't make Ghoti synchros, but a discard for Gymir Aegirine, Chengying, or Coral Anemone is still really nice, esp since it can pitch Shif (hence why it's at 3). Gymir is usually the best choice t1. While this deck can trigger Chengying on your opponent's turn with the Ghoti, if your tuner gets negated Chengying is often just sitting there. That being said it still puts in a lot of work when your opponent's GY is more established. Coral is niche, but can effectively let you special summon a Leaffish from hand by discarding it to activate Ran, or let you revive it in grind games.

Why Zoodiac? One of the more annoying aspects I found with this deck is how trivially combat-checked the Ghoti tuners are, often forcing subpar disruptions. The idea with Barrage is that it adds a really easy quick pop to any set-up, which besides being generally good disruption specifically dissuades your opponent from just hitting Battle Phase ASAP. If they bring multiple monsters to get around this then White Aura Whale has a field day. Also, even ignoring the "Zoodiac" part, Barrage special summons a level 4 monster which gives it an added use in making Arionpos with a tuner. Zoodiac of course also enables really strong Zeus plays, though I don't think there's enough ED space for the full 6-mat.

I used Whiptail for the maindeck Zoo name because you don't really need the stability of Ramram in this deck. Imperm protection isn't helpful when it can just be used on other parts of your endboard. Whiptail can let you randomly get rid of defense position monsters for free, and also gets rid of whatever runs over Drident even after its used its pop.

While initially very strong, both the Zoodiac and Icejade parts of this deck lack the longevity they would have in their dedicated decks. So the end goal if possible is to resolve Leaffish by using the other parts to bait/force disruption, so that the powerful Ghoti resource loop can get going.

Gamma is insane in this deck, even going first Maxx C is almost always used on an empty board, and sometimes Ash and Droll. Plus you're already running the synchros for it.