Notes & Combos
Last month was supposed to be my last one playing Ritual Beasts for a while. I started the season on Memento, but quickly got sick of constantly running into banishing and face-down effects, so I went back to the deck that isn't really bothered by these effects.
With Crystron sitting at Tier 1 now, some major adjustments were needed - both in terms of deck building and playstyle. Blind-calling LIGHT with Archnemeses Protos no longer works consistently enough, and the handtrap-heavy version struggles because Crystron can just push through it. Atlantean Mermail has dropped off a bit, so I shifted the focus of the deck accordingly.
I made the following updates to handle the current META and improve consistency:
-
+1 Bystial Druiswurm
-
+1 Bystial Magnamhut
-
+3 Forbidden Droplet
-
-1 Ritual Beast Inheritance
-
-3 Infinite Impermanence
-
-2 Dominus Purge
-
+1 Relinquished Anima
-
-1 Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir
This brings the deck back to a neat 40 cards, and honestly, it feels like the most polished and consistent version I've played so far.
The Bystials serve as both engine pieces and handtraps, especially against Blue-Eyes and Fiendsmith. To make them work as part of the engine, you need to run a Link 1 monster that can use Spiritual Beast Tamer Lara as Link material. The choice fell on Relinquished Anima in my case, as I see it as the best option for breaking boards. Bagooska seemed like the least frequently used Extra Deck card, so I replaced that one instead.
Unfortunately, I couldn't quite hit Master 1 this month. I reached Master 2 multiple times and was always just 2-3 wins away before running into awful RNG such as coin-flip loss streaks (up to 8 in two cases), opening full combo hands when going 2nd, or bricking completely when going 1st, which dropped me all the way down to Master 5 multiple times over the course of the season... Between that and limited time to play, the climb just didn't happen, even though the deck was definitely capable.
If you're curious, there's a replay below against Crystron from Master 2 (both of us were playing to avoid a demotion, lol). You'll see the updated list in action there. Check the video's description for the Deck Building Optimizer results as well.
Hope you learned something new. Have fun! :)