Notes & Combos

I tried going first 'Noids for a while, but it never clicked for me, so I went back to my comfort zone of blinding second. While I'm reliant on my opponent not popping off into a huge combo board (or drawing the right out if they do), I feel like I'm fighting my own deck less in terms of drawing playable hands, which I prefer. No idea if it's the better approach (probably not), but I'm having more fun with it which is good enough for me.

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Besides a few of the new cards, the main difference between my list compared to my old blind second 'Noid lists (and others') is that I'm only running one Reasoning/Gate target, Destrudo. No Snow or Decatron. I really liked the arguments for using a single Reasoning/Gate target for improving average mill count from the Discord; I see now that the discussion around Shyama specifically is mostly because it's a self-summoning level 6 target to help turbo out Beatrice under Maxx C in as few draws as possible. But for me the lightbulb moment is that blue doggo returns to (the bottom of the) deck under non-XYZ-ly scenarios which solves my biggest issue with running a single Reasoning/Gate target.

I always wanted to run just Snow, but I hated the 10% chance of just blanking Reasoning/Gate if I drew her, and the rate grows when factoring in draw power so I never bothered. Shuffle-back techs do exist but they seemed too resource intensive while blinding second. Since I have little interest in running Beatrice for blinding second (or like, Anguish maybe), I went with Destrudo because I don't have to minus a card to summon by its own effect, and conveniently there's still a generically good level 7 Synchro target when blinding second in Black Rose Dragon. (Although in my experience I'm still just linking it off a majority of the time)

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I'm pretty happy with the main deck. The two cards I'm least happy with are the traps; they're mostly a holdover from when I was playing the deck before the new pack dropped and there was more people playing Tenpai. Even then it wasn't particularly reliable since I'm not running Beatrice. It ended up being helpful in a some White Forest matches so I put off cutting it. (I since have for the third Talent and a Black Goat, and overall I've been liking the switch at least somewhat) Since I rarely resolve Evil, there's also a case for shifting down the name spread of the mid-level 'Noids to more of the small ones since they function better when drawn. Thanks to Thetys/mila for that last consideration especially, though I'm not sure I can bring myself to committing to the full 12 copies even if it's correct.

The Extra Deck I'm also relatively happy with. The rate at which my Tierra gets negated (if I get to summon it all) makes my two dedicated ED sends (N'tss + Malong) my most flexible spots.

I think there's a cute line that can be done with Diabell, Queen of the White Forest + Shooting Riser Dragon:

• Reasoning/Gate to summon Destrudo→whatever link 2→small-ish 'Noid+Destrudo self-revive into Shooting Riser→ modulate its level into whatever you need to make an 8 with another 'Noid→ Diabell recycle a spell

I originally thought recycling Reasoning/Gate would mill the rest of the deck since Destrudo would be on the bottom, but that's only true if I can avoid level modulating with Riser's GY send by pairing with a level 1 like Pirmais or Hornet Drones token (or like, Kurikara), woops. I still think getting a do-over on a mediocre mill is pretty enticing though, and being able to toolbox the GY opens up other use cases like recovering Card Destruction. Resolving Diabell in general is far too pie-in-the-sky for the investment, so I don't it's correct to run the package. But I do think it's funny, which is why I currently am.

Realistically, I think the more correct approach would be to keep N'tss and drop Malong (I'd like to do the opposite but not being able to target facedowns is a huge drawback even if Malong's removal is usually safer) and adding Haggard Lizardose. At the end of the day the deck lives and dies by finding and resolving Reasoning/Gate, and a desperation draw is still draw power. Plus having more link-2s to make is quite helpful for the rare game that runs longer than two turns (plus attack modulation and also giving Hornet Drones token an actual link-2 target if Kagari was already used).

Since blind second builds have (rightfully) fallen off, as a quick reminder to those who might not be familiar with why Crusadia Equimax is included: Equimax getting attack from monsters he points to at the downside of those monsters being unable to attack is a continuous effect, which means you can attack with a juiced Equimax, then tribute him off with like a mid-level 'Noid and attack with whatever was under him anyway. This makes assembling lethal into empty (or near empty) boards way easier/less cost intensive (or forces interaction earlier to pivot into Zealantis OTK instead).