If you’re like me, then you probably don’t own a Judgment Dragon right now. That’s perfectly understandable, especially considering that there’s no telling how many were actually pulled over the Sneak Preview weekend since people were actively hiding the fact that they pulled the card to keep the swarms of duelists looking to build a Lightsworn deck away. I mean, that’s all well and good for the people who pulled the Dragons, but what about the rest of us? We’re kind of stuck until the packs hit the stores and enough have been opened to put more Judgment Dragon cards into circulation, and even then it’ll be a tough time getting them. Personally, I refuse to pay the prices that people were asking for on the auction sites over the weekend, and I probably won’t pull them unless I get extraordinarily lucky. Unfortunately, that leaves me waiting for trading opportunities which, while economically friendly and a lot of fun, often take a long time to surface. This is problematic because I want to build a Lightsworn deck now, and I don’t want to wait until I can get my hands on Judgment Dragon. Fortunately, there’s a pretty good alternative to a Dragon-centered Lightsworn build, and it doesn’t require any secret rares.

How would you feel if I told you that Celestia, Lightsworn Angel could be a perfectly acceptable alternative to Judgment Dragon as long as you build your deck with her in mind? People scoffed at me at the preview . . . and then proceeded to not trade me their Celestias. Obviously, not playing Judgment Dragon if it’s available to you is silly, but a lack of access to the card shouldn’t be a reason to give up on the deck as a whole. If you think about it, on turns when an OTK isn’t taking place, how many cards is your opponent going to have on the field? I’d say two or three is the most likely number unless you’re playing against something like Counter Fairy. This is fortunate because that’s about the number of cards that Celestia can take out on her own. Her effect lets you send your top four cards to the graveyard to destroy up to two opposing cards when you tribute summon her by tributing a Lightsworn monster. You’ll recognize that as an upgraded version of a Monarch effect, exclusive to a deck that’s much faster than Monarchs ever were. Sure, Celestia only has 2300 ATK as opposed to 2400, but she also blows away the opposition first and has the potential to generate three free 2100 ATK monsters at the same time if you get lucky. Sounds good to me, so let’s take a look at how the deck comes together.

Monsters: 20
3 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
3 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
1 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1 Card Trooper

Traps: 9
3 Solemn Judgment
3 Threatening Roar
3 Glorious Illusion

Let’s start with the main difference between Lightsworn decks that do run Judgment Dragon and the ones that don’t. If you haven’t got Judgment Dragon, then you don’t need to count how many different Lightsworn monsters you have in the graveyard. This is a key point, as it opens you up to some deckbuilding choices that you just wouldn’t have otherwise. The big one is that you can play Pot of Avarice without being laughed at for actively making it more difficult to win the game. As a result, you can get your Celestias back into the deck, especially if you burn them away with your other Lightsworn monsters. With a deck as explosive as Lightsworn, it’ll probably only take one summon of Celestia to break your opponent’s field wide open and allow you to win, so don’t worry too much if you burn your other copies of Celestia away, especially if you happen to drop a copy or two of Wulf while you’re at it. It occurs to me, however, that things like that would simply fall into place if I explained how the deck works and how you’re supposed to play it.

Rule number one for playing a Lightsworn deck is emblazoned in large friendly letters on every copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Don’t Panic! Yes, you’re burning away somewhere between two and fifteen cards off the top of your deck at the end of every turn, but that’s no reason to start setting monsters that you ought to be attacking with or doing silly things like holding back on game-winning plays because you might have to drop nine cards in the end phase if it doesn’t go exactly as planned. The fact of the matter is, the Lightsworn have every tool at their disposal to ensure that your game-winning turn does go exactly as planned, so if your excuse for not winning is that you might not win, then you’re playing the deck wrong. Besides, every card you send to the graveyard with one or more copies of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast left in the deck is another opportunity to create some free 2100 ATK monsters, making your next turn (or this one if you sent them with Celestia) that much more deadly. Furthermore, you have the luxury of Pot of Avarice to give you extra turns and extra cards while restocking the deck with copies of your best Lightsworn monsters to be drawn and used again. Putting Wulf back into the deck might seem like a recipe for bad draws, but you send more cards from the deck to the graveyard than you draw, so the chances are always in your favor to summon the Wulfs for free rather than draw them. Even if you do draw them, they just become the automatic discard of choice for Lumina and Solar Recharge, so you shouldn’t worry.

The goal of the Lightsworn deck is to keep the opponent’s field as clear as possible while you summon huge monsters to capitalize on the lack of opposition. That’s right: huge monsters. Don’t let anyone convince you that 1700, 1800, 1850, and 2100 are small ATK values. I’m not even sure how people came to the conclusion that the Lightsworn monsters outside of Ryko and Lumina are small, and the ATK on those two cards are barely relevant anyway, owing to their powerful effects. Your basic tool for clearing the way for those monsters to hit home is Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress. She’s capable of destroying both a monster and a spell or trap card in a single turn depending on how you choose to play her, and since barely any defensive trap cards are played outside of Waboku in Gladiator Beasts and a stray Threatening Roar or two elsewhere means that you’re almost always in the clear to attack with Lyla first and then use her effect to blast a spell or trap and switch her to defense mode. It’s a slightly riskier proposition than just summoning Lyla and immediately using her effect, but the returns for aggressive play with her are extremely high. In fact, Lyla into Celestia is one of the strongest plays you have available to you, as you’ll usually destroy about four opposing cards and deal around 2500 damage, minimum, for the cost of your one Lyla and probably a Glorious Illusion or Threatening Roar. That’s not even taking into account the potential for dropping Wulf or generating other special summons off of Lumina or Glorious Illusion in the interim.

The key to doing this consistently is the trap lineup of the deck. Solemn Judgment is the catch-all negator of choice, allowing you the option of stopping game-breaking cards like Dark Armed Dragon or Gladiator Beast Gyzarus and keeping your own monsters safe. Glorious Illusion gives you a set of Call of the Haunted cards for your Lightsworn monsters and basically allows for insane aggressive plays with Lyla and Lumina. Finally, Threatening Roar keeps the Gladiator Beasts at bay and keeps your monsters around long enough for you to follow through with the likely game-ending Lyla/Celestia one-two punch that will leave your opponent’s field bare. All this is happening while you’re drawing bonus cards off of Garoth and Solar Recharge and generating extra summons with Wulf and Lumina. It’s a difficult set-up to break through no matter what deck you’re playing, and to do it successfully will require other decks to force their ace cards through a set of Solemn Judgment cards. Crush Card Virus and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus are the biggest threats, but any monster that your Lightsworn monster can’t break through on its own makes for a close second. Gladiator Beast Hoplomus is your mortal enemy, and being unable to break through Honest, Spirit Reaper, or Marshmallon is a huge pain, especially when you’ve put yourself on a clock. That said, even in the face of these cards you need to remember: Don’t Panic! Even without Judgment Dragon, the Lightsworn monsters are still a force to be reckoned with. Give them a try, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!