The first thing I always check is how many copies of Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress players use. Arthur’s got three copies in here: a solid choice for a metagame packed heavy with Solemn Judgment. Because of the current spell and trap line-ups seeing play and the fact that people like to save their traps for your best cards, Lyla becomes one of your best targets for Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. There are also three Summoners in here, which makes sense because of the Safe Returns.

Using Lumina to special summon Lyla is a great opening play. Solemn Judgment gets taken out, Mirror Force and Dimensional Prison just get swept aside, and even Torrential Tribute isn’t going to be optimal. Chances are your opponent has a monster (because that player should have had a turn or you wouldn’t be playing Lyla) and that evens out the trade on the Torrential. This play allows you to have a defense-mode Lyla and Lumina on the field without having to use any other cards.

That means you’ll have lots of cards for support, which this play really needs. Your opponent probably has something in the way (such as Elemental Hero Stratos), and you’ll need Honest or Foolish Burial to get over him. Foolish special summons Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, giving you enough ATK to hit over almost anything your opponent can play on the first turn. At the end of your turn you’ll send six cards to the graveyard. Optimally a Necro Gardna will be amongst the cards sent or you’ll have a copy of Honest still in your hand.

And yes, this can all be done on turn 1. This is the play you’ll probably want to make if you go second. The only problem is that Lumina needs a Lightsworn already in the graveyard. You can open with a monster like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter or Ehren, Lightsworn Monk to help achieve that goal, but thanks to some new cards it’s possible to do it earlier. Charge of the Light Brigade is probably going to send at least one Lightsworn monster to your graveyard for its cost. It’s possible it will even load the Lyla you want to special summon. With just one spell, you can fetch the card that special summons a monster and send the target you want to special summon to the graveyard at the same time. Sweet.

When going first you’ll want to make a similar play, only instead of special summoning Lyla, you’ll want Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior. With two copies in the deck, chances are still pretty good Rogers will either draw one or send one to the graveyard on the first turn with Solar Recharge or Charge of the Light Brigade. If you can do so using Lumina, Garoth sends extra cards to the graveyard and gives you potential draw power. Almost half the deck consists of Lightsworn monsters, so there’s a good chance you’ll be drawing a card or two off of Garoth’s effect. Send a Wulf with his effect for extra pain.

I’ve talked a lot about special summoning, and that’s why Card of Safe Return is so good here. All the optimal plays revolve around Lumina and Wulf, and complimenting those plays perfectly is a card that lets you draw every time you special summon. Drawing more cards is beneficial for this deck for more than the fact that you’re getting more cards. It’s easy to run out of cards quickly in this strategy, but with Card of Safe Return you can keep your hand size up. That keeps cards like Solar Recharge and Card Destruction live in the later stages of the game while also allowing you to speed through a rough patch of draws like Wulf, followed by another Wulf, and then Celestia. Drawing those three cards could mean losing the game due to your inability to defend yourself. With Card of Safe Return on the field though, you could draw through all three on one turn, and next turn pick up Solar Recharge to put one of them to use. The result is a balanced hand and a game that can be won. Never underestimate the power of speed.

Speed is exactly what the Lightsworn possess, and it’s the reason I love Card Destruction in this deck. How many times playing Lightsworn are you digging for answers? Probably all the time. Winning is usually only a Judgment Dragon or a Beckoning Light away, and staring at a bunch of useless Lightsworn monsters in your hand is always a shame. Card Destruction turns those gloomy dead draws into potential outs.

In this deck, the word "potential" can almost be scratched from that sentence. Lightsworn players usually know exactly how many cards are left in their decks and what those cards are. The later the game goes, the more and more Card Destruction turns into raw card search, because you can just draw the final cards in your deck. Lightsworn also play tons of monsters they wouldn’t mind pitching to the graveyard, and as previously stated they have a tremendous advantage when they’re able to draw multiple cards in one turn.

This really is just the oldest version of Lightsworn brought back to fight in an era where Gladiator Beasts are virtually non-existent. It’s built to do almost the same thing: take advantage of Solemn Judgment-hording players and win the battle phase. Turns out that beats TeleDAD too.

—Matt Peddle