Introduction

Mitsurugi was released as a TCG exclusive archetype and quickly became a dominant aspect of its meta. It is a midrange deck that consists of DARK Reptile monsters, focused around tributing and generating resources when they're tributed, as well as floating their monsters back on the field. Mitsurugi is a very flexible Deck, being able to be splashed together with lots of different archetypes and tech. This is a result of it having some strong combos from Habakiri and few other cards that get us to it, being capable to be self-sufficient and making a board by itself, but also having the right levels to abuse generic Extra Deck cards like Zombie Vampire, Dragluxion, Banshee or more specific cards like Duo Drive. But that's not all the reasons for Mitsurugi's dominance, in fact, most Mitsurugi bridges can be two ways, as it's very easy to get access to your Mitsurugi cards from outside of their archetype through cards like Loading... or Loading... . In essence, all roads lead to Loading... .

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

1. Mitsurugi has a good number of cards that get your starter, both in archetype and outside of it, making it relatively easy to get your lines going.
2. Insane search power, being able to directly search any Mitsurugi card by tributing the Ritual Monsters, as well as slightly more conditioned searches via spells and effect monsters.
3. Great disruption, having a lot of powerful interactions during the opponent's turn.
4. The Deck is very good at generating bodies, as well as being able to access both rank 4 and 8 monsters with ease.
5. Very cheap Archetype with foreseeable long-term meta relevance, its core only having around 10 UR cards.
6. Somewhat playable under GY blockades like Shifter, as the monsters require only to be tributed, not to be sent to GY, which means if your rituals get banished by a tribute effect, they can still come back on the field. This, of course, is not ideal, and starting your turn under shifter/fissure or similar floodgates may mean a weaker board.
7. Very resilient - Because of the built-in recursion and cards like Prayers, once you get the line going it's very hard for the opponent to get rid of your monsters for good. The deck is also somewhat Nibiru proof.
8. Because of cards like Wousu and Murakumo, Mitsurugi has decent chances at breaking boards going second.

Weaknesses:

1. Loading... .
2. While Mitsurugi have a very high search power, one of their biggest strengths is also their biggest weaknesses, we still need to be able to search, not only to create a lot of resources and control the board, but also just to resurrect the rituals from GY. Cutting that option is very detrimental, making the deck very vulnerable to effects that would prevent cards being added from the deck to hand.
3. Because the ritual monsters can do multiple things when tributed, that also means they can be hit by twice as many more handtraps too.
4. Cards that would move your rituals from the GY before they can resummon themselves, like Bystial, can hurt your lines quite a bit.
5. Like every single other ritual deck ever, it can sometimes create awkward hands.

Archetype Cards

Ritual Cards

Mitsurugi has 3 level 8 Ritual monsters in their archetype, each of them has the effect that when they are tributed, they can search any Mitsurugi card (except their own name), then summon themselves back on the field (if they were properly summoned).

Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi

Mitsurugi used to be pretty powerful in TCG even before the release of their second set, but this card alone skyrocketed that power. Habakiri effect makes Mitsurugi a 1 card combo, by gaining access to Loading... or Loading... through Loading... . This is the most important card in the deck and the best starter for Mitsurugi lines.

Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi

Effect Monsters

Spells and Traps

Non-Archetype Cores

Engines, tech and variations