For a long time, players were waiting for something that could stop Dark Armed Dragon and its cronies. Dark-based decks had been on top for too long and players were eager to take it down. The key to beating a deck is knowing what makes it so strong, and in the case of Dark Armed Return it was the ability to lean on opponents with big monsters and swarm the field for the win.

After the Forbidding of Dimension Fusion and the Limitation of Return from the Different Dimension, Dark Armed Return lost the ability to perform the second goal. Swarming the field late-game probably wasn’t going to happen, so duelists couldn’t afford to play as aggressively. If your early game push was all you had and it wasn’t enough, there was no Dimension Fusion to bail you out. Players had to take a more controlled approach to the game.

Then the Lightsworn monsters were released. The Lightsworn deck shares a similar playstyle with the Dark Armed strategy, but with a completely different monster base. Instead of all the out-of-battle tricks the Dark monsters use, Lightsworn are dominant on the field of battle. As such, their tricks revolve entirely around the monster zone. Dark Armed players are used to being able to sit on the advantage created by Elemental Hero Stratos or Dark Grepher because of their large ATK scores and good effects. Lightsworn take away that advantage, and with few late-game comeback cards, ruining the early game of a Dark Armed deck might be all you need to do to win.

Dale Bellido certainly thought so, and he used this Lightsworn deck to finish among the Top 16 at Shonen Jump Championship Saint Louis:

Monsters: 27

3 Judgment Dragon
3 Honest
2 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3 Necro Gardna
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Sangan

Here’s what the deck wants to do: power through the early game with tons of offense and either finish the opponent quickly, or force him or her into costly trade-offs to survive. The aggressive nature of the deck is reflected in the fact that Dale only played one trap card. Crush Card Virus made the cut because activating it can win games. The Necro Gardna cards meant that Crush Card Virus had enough legal targets, so it was an automatic inclusion.

was the card most players didn’t have in their Lightsworn builds, and it was a good part of the reason why Dale was so successful on Day 1. Gardna was more of a metagame call than anything. Gladiator Beasts were going to be very popular (and indeed they won the tournament) so being able to stop them from conducting battles allows you to prevent them from activating their best effects. Dark Armed Return also suffers when it runs into battle negation.

Gardna just make sense in this deck. They’ll most likely be sent to the graveyard thanks to your Lightsworn effects, so drawing into multiple dead copies isn’t really an issue. Gardna’s purpose in the graveyard is to protect your Lightsworn monsters from being destroyed in battle. This is extremely advantageous for many reasons. The first is that protecting your Lightsworn monsters means they’ll be there next turn to counterattack. Secondly, having them survive the end phase of that turn means you’ll send even more cards from your deck to the graveyard. This is how you get Wulf, Lightsworn Beast into play, so you’ll want to be sending lots of cards.

Additionally, fuelling the graveyard with more copies of Necro Gardna or the requirements for Judgment Dragon helps to advance the turn in which you can win. Finally, protecting a Lightsworn monster to tribute it next turn for Celestia, Lightsworn Angel can break the game apart. Keeping monsters on the field would normally be hard without any spell or trap cards to defend them. Necro Gardna does that work for you.

So does Honest. It offers the same protection Gardna would to any face-up Light monster, only better. Honest will destroy the opposing monster as well, and deal damage to your opponent equal to its attack. That’s quite a lot from one card. It’s like Magic Cylinder and Sakuretsu Armor in one, but you get to activate it from your hand. And you can use it when attacking. Simply put, Honest is amazing, and protecting the Lightsworn monsters while also removing opposing monsters and dealing damage is just plain unfair.

The Lightsworn monsters you want to protect are the ones that send cards to the graveyard during your end phase. Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress, and Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner are your primary weapons. Each sends three cards to the graveyard during each of your own end phases, so all three are great to protect. In addition, each one offers a unique effect. Ehren can remove a face-down monster with ease and Lyla can wipe a spell or trap card off the field the same turn she’s summoned. Both effects are amazing and will really disrupt any deck that plays defensively at some point.

Lumina is the offense generator for the deck. In addition to Card of Safe Return turning Lumina special summons into free draws, having extra Lightsworn monsters means even more cards will be sent to the graveyard. This makes Lumina an incredible early game play, as well as a late-game finisher. At the start of a duel, Lumina can build you a small field, which, after a Card of Safe Return or Wulf, Lightsworn Beast activation, can suddenly become a very powerful field. Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior only adds to the fun, creating a potential snowball that can leave you flooded with monsters and cards.

Judgment Dragon is the man for this deck. For a measly 1000 life points, this Dragon can drop 3000 ATK on the field and remove everything else from it. You don’t even have to use your normal summon. How easy is it to simply drop Judgment Dragon, clear the field, play Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner and revive a Wulf, then follow up with a Foolish Burial, discarding another Wulf to special summon it to the field? You’ve got over 8000 points of direct damage right there with no opposing defenses to stop you.

That’s how frighteningly easy the Lightsworn deck can finish off its opponents. To make sure Judgment Dragon can drop, the deck always plays aggressively. As such, Cold Wave and My Body as a Shield were added to the deck. Both protect an offensive swarm of monsters and leave your opponent without defenses he or she thought were reliable. Both cards can also lock up an opponent who’s trying to play a specific way. If your opponent’s relying on a big Dark Armed Dragon or Torrential Tribute, he or she is going to be surprised to find My Body negating the card entirely. Similarly, players relying on Monster Reborn or Brain Control to get them back into the game after a devastating turn are going to be crushed when confronted with Dale’s side-decked copies of Cold Wave.

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter adds a small element of control to the deck, providing a means to destroy any given target. It’s the deck’s best answer to Gladiator Beast Heraklinos besides Honest, and (as previously mentioned) is the perfect card to take advantage of with Celestia, Lightsworn Angel.

The Lightsworn are an impressive archetype. With the power to do everything in the battle phase, (and with Judgment Dragon doing everything, period) there’s no question as to why Dale was able to break into the Top 16 with his first attempt at the deck.

—Matt Peddle