Spells: 11

No doubt one of the best plays Lightsworn decks have to offer is flipping Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter to destroy a card (hopefully sending Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to the graveyard in the process!) and tributing the Ryko for Celestia, Lightsworn Angel. This gives you the ability to destroy up to three cards on the field and to send seven cards to your graveyard. Factor in Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior, Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, and Judgment Dragon, and the potential for free cards and damage is everywhere.

From there, the Lightsworn player usually likes to either win the game with Beckoning Light combos for Judgment Dragon and Honest, or lean on the opponent with big monsters. Unfortunately, those big monsters tend to get taken care of, leaving the Lightsworn player out of ways to destroy opposing threats. A lone Honest or a stranded Celestia, Lightsworn Angel spells doom for the deck, as it simply doesn’t have time before Gladiator Beast Hoplomus becomes Gladiator Beast Heraklinos.

Tom Mak has solved that problem by mixing some Monarchs into the strategy. Soul Exchange gives you more chances to summon Celestia, Lightsworn Angel—even if she doesn’t destroy anything—as well as providing a means for monster removal. An opponent with a field of Gladiator Beasts and Test Tiger in hand is going to feel pretty confident until you drop Brain Control and Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. Suddenly you’re back in a game that your opponent thought he or she had locked up.

I actually got to see Mak pull that off first-hand at Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia. While my opponent and I waited for the deck check team to return, I watched Mak, who was playing next to me. Things looked hopeless. His opponent had Vanity’s Fiend and Prime Material Dragon on the field with two spell or trap cards set. Normally no Lightsworn deck can come back from a scenario as bad as that one, but Mak had Soul Exchange and Raiza the Storm Monarch, which cleared both monsters and forced his opponent into a poor top deck on the following turn. Mak then proceeded to draw Foolish Burial to send Treeborn Frog to his graveyard, and he just went off from there.

Treeborn Frog is a crucial part of Mak’s strategy. Most players don’t use the Frog anymore because it’s a poor play against Gladiator Beasts. It’s easily destroyed in battle and gives your opponent a means to tag out for any Gladiator (most importantly Gladiator Beast Murmillo or Gladiator Beast Darius). Frog works against you in that match, and you never really want to set it. Luckily Lightsworn already plays two copies of Foolish Burial because of the combo with Wulf, Lightsworn Beast.

This means that Mak can afford to play lots of tributes. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, Raiza the Storm Monarch, and Prime Material Dragon are the best single tribute monsters for this type of strategy, and those are the cards Mak went with. In addition to those, he also has three copies of Celestia, Lightsworn Angel. When Frog is tributed for Celestia she’s really just a 2300 ATK beatstick, but at least she’s still playable.

This deck functions almost like Perfect Circle did, but with more power. Instead of using the Destiny Hero engine, Mak’s build capitalizes on what the Lightsworn have to offer. Solar Recharge replaces Destiny Draw quite nicely, and Wulf, Lightsworn Beast has special summoning abilities that rival Destiny Hero - Malicious. The graveyard-fuelling effects that the Lightsworn monsters have only increase the chances of sending Treeborn Frog right to the graveyard, and they give Mak ways to destroy his opponents that much faster.

Monarchs have always been about doing one of two things. A Monarch duelist could either eliminate so many opposing cards that the opponent could not make a comeback, or deal significant damage while avoiding negative card trades until blowing his or her whole hand to wipe out the opponent in one turn. This is what made Card Trooper and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive so good in Monarch builds and it’s what makes the Lightsworn engine so compatible. Free monsters mean either taking away from the opponent’s answers or dealing hefty chunks of damage.

The Monarchs can both take advantage of this position and force it on the opponent. Lightsworn are better at taking advantage of an opponent who’s already down. Judgment Dragon is extremely punishing to a player who’s low on life points or cards, because most players tend to invest their remaining cards to the field when card counts get low. That makes Judgment Dragon a power card in Mak’s strategy, and because he only has one copy, his deck doesn’t focuses on it to a detrimental degree. Rather, it’s an answer to all answers instead.

Mak also included three copies of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Necro Gardna in his build. Gardna offers free protection for the Lightsworn player and gives him or her a good way to deal with Gladiator Beasts, preventing them from tagging out. Wind Blast is an extremely effective card, and with so many potential dead draws in the deck, it shouldn’t ever be without discard fodder.

Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress is the final card I will touch on. Lyla exists in this deck mainly to make way for bigger plays. Taking out Solemn Judgment, Book of Moon, and other important defensive cards sets up for the Soul Exchange + Monarch play next turn, and ensures that it will go through. Monarchs have seen little play this format because of the impact Solemn Judgment has on them, limiting their effectiveness and leaving the Monarch player wide open. Lyla breaks Solemn’s antics up before they can happen.

Although it’s hard to see at first, Monarchs and Lightsworn really do compliment each other quite nicely. Tom Mak may just be on to something here.

—Matt Peddle