Archetype Analysis 1: True Draco, True King!

Hello Duelists! My name is SinDragonLord, and I will be posting Yu-Gi-Oh! related content here on ChaoticEspeon.com! For those of you who play competitive Yu-Gi-Oh!, the entire landscape of the game is going to change and with it meta relevant Decks are also going to shift. Due to the new link mechanic, we are getting 2 new zones above the now “Main Monster Zone” called the “Extra Deck” Monster zone. Both players have access to one of the extra deck monster zones, outside of mutually linking your way to both zones but I’ll explain that in another post. In this analysis series, I’m going to be talking about a series of decks which, I believe, will thrive in this new Yu-Gi-Oh! format.

The first Deck I’m going to talk about is the True Draco’s. The True Draco Archetype has a very unique way of playing; it plays very similarly to Monarchs but they have the ability to tribute their spells and traps to conduct a tribute summon. The spells have additional effects when they are sent to the graveyard for additional synergy. I will be going into detail about the Cards in the deck one by one and analyzing them

DinoMight Knight the True Draco Fighter

“To tribute summon this card face up, you can tribute a continuous spell/Trap card you control, instead of a monster. Once per turn, during either players turn when your opponent activates a card or effect while you control this tribute summoned monster: you can take one “True Draco” or “True King” continuous trap card from your deck and either activate it or add it to your hand.”

This is Probably the best monster in the deck outside of masterpeace. the ability to activate traps from your deck just because your opponent activates a card effect for an instant +1 is really good, after all, traps are naturally reactive and disruptive so having this on the board is essentially like having an extra trap on the board!

Ignis Heat, the true Dracowarrior

“To tribute summon this card face up, you can tribute a continuous spell/Trap card you control, instead of a monster. Once per turn, during either players turn when your opponent activates a card or effect while you control this tribute summoned monster: you can take one “True Draco” or “True King” continuous Spell card and either activate it or add it to your hand.”

This is a really good card in the monarch variant of true draco because its stat line up directly correlates with the stats needed to activate the monarch Spells like tenacity or searching it off return of the monarch. Having the ability, similar to dinomight, to activate spells from the deck is also pretty good for that instant +1 but, because they are spells, they aren’t as useful on your opponents turn as traps are. But still, a really hand effect which could potentially change the flow of a match.

Majesty Maiden, The True Dracocaster

“To Tribute Summon this card face up, you can Tribute a Continuous Spell/Trap Card you control, instead of a monster. Once per turn, during either player’s turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect while you control this Tribute Summoned monster: You can add 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster from your Deck to your hand.”

Just like with her fellow Dracos, the ability to instantly gain a +1 just because your opponent activates a card effect is pretty good.

Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying king

“To Tribute Summon this card face-up, you can Tribute Continuous Spell/Trap Card(s) you control, as well as monsters. Unaffected by the effects of cards with the same card type (Monster, Spell, and/or Trap) as the original card type of the cards Tributed for its Tribute Summon. Once per turn, during either player’s turn, if you control this Tribute Summoned monster: You can banish 1 Continuous Spell/Trap Card from your Graveyard, then target 1 other card on the field; destroy it.”

Allow me to introduce your boss monster of the archetype. Being able to tribute summon this on your opponents turn and providing disruption with its Effect is Awesome. Coupled with it being to immune to whatever it tributes for its summon makes it very similar to Towers *shudders*. Obviously this card has one main weakness though and thats kaijus but every “Towers” like monster shares that weakness.

Thats all the true draco monsters now on to the spells and traps that you play.

“All “True Draco” and “True King” Monsters gain 300 Attack and Defense. The first time a tribute summoned “True Draco” or “True King” Monster would be destroyed in battle it is not Destroyed. Once per turn: you can destroy one other card on your field or in your hand to Add one “True Draco” or “True King” card from your deck to your hand.”

Whilst not a direct True Draco or King Card (Meaning it cant be searched by an effect that states True Draco or King Card) its still the best starter card in the deck. The ability to pop your spells and traps and get those effects in grave, on top of searching literally anything you need is insane. Also it grants your tribute summoned true draco monsters a 300/300 stat boost in addition to not being able to be destroyed by battle once; seeing how its hard to run over these monsters more then once this can be incredibly vital. However since it is not a “Continuous Spell” you cannot tribute it for a summon.

“During your Main Phase: You can draw cards equal to the number of “True Draco” and “True King” card types (Monster, Spell, and Trap) sent from the field to the Graveyard this turn. During your Main Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Tribute Summon 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster face-up. If this card is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it. You can only use each effect of “True Draco Heritage” once per turn.”

This card is Basically a super rejuvenation for the deck. Whenever a spell trap or monster is sent to the graveyard whether it be by Diagram or sent for a tribute you essentially get to draw cards that replace the ones you lost. When its sent to the graveyard just like the other true draco spell you get to target a spell or trap on the field and destroy it. Finally its effect like all the other Continuous spells and traps grant you the ability to tribute summon, pretty handy!

“You can target 3 “True Draco” and/or “True King” cards in your Graveyard; shuffle them into the Deck, then draw 1 card. During your Main Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Tribute Summon 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster face-up. If this card is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it. You can only use each effect of “Disciples of the True Dracophoenix” once per turn.”

This Card is amazing for the grind game because you can recycle your lost true draco cards put them back into the deck and draw 1. So not only is it an immediate +1 but it also recycles the resources which you can search or activate straight from the deck again to use.

“If this card is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard: You can target 1 monster on the field; destroy it. You cannot activate the following effects of “True King’s Return” in the same Chain.
● You can target 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it in Defense Position, also for the rest of this turn, you cannot Special Summon.
● During your opponent’s Main Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Tribute Summon 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster face-up.
You can only use each effect of “True King’s Return” once per turn.”

Because its a trap card, the effect that allows you to tribute summon can be done on your opponents turn. So when you activate this effect to tribute sending, at the bare minimum, this trap or the other trap to the graveyard you can pop a monster your opponent controls providing disruption. You can also recycle your monsters so you can tribute it and the monster you brought back for a Master Peace (which is unaffected by traps and monsters) whilst getting a free activation from the trap for one Master Peace… SOOOO GOOD!!

“If this card is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard: You can target 1 monster on the field; destroy it. You cannot activate the following effects of “True Draco Apocalypse” in the same Chain.
● You can target 1 other “True Draco” or “True King” card you control; destroy it, and if you do, the ATK and DEF of all face-up monsters your opponent controls become half their current ATK and DEF (even if this card leaves the field).
● During your opponent’s Main Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Tribute Summon 1 “True Draco” or “True King” monster face-up.
You can only use each effect of “True Draco Apocalypse” once per turn.”

This card is very easily the best trap in the archetype, despite being a common! Being able to cut your opponents monsters in half by destroying another True Draco or King card, triggering that effect later makes your already big monsters even harder to run over – especially with diagram granting one destruction by battle being negated; not to mention being able to tribute on your opponents turn…

 

Now that we’ve gone over all the cards in the decks core, You can see how the deck plays. Tribute your spells and traps, stuff gets popped and can control the game state by consistently recycling resources.

Strengths:

The deck does very well at dictating the pace of a game and does increasingly well in a simplified game state. Its also very flexible in the way it works in other archetypes such as Zoodiac. The Best Variant post June 12th in my opinion however will Be the Demise variant. The amount of Draw power coupled with the amount this deck searches will make it super consistent and the “Not being able to Special summon” Is not even a problem because the only time they Special summon is on the opponents turn. Finally you are able to use and abuse every floodgate in the game and can shut them off at will by simply tributing, with the exception of the Domain lock. That’s one of the many reasons True Draco will thrive in the new ruleset, they don’t need an extra deck to play efficiently.

Weaknesses:

All the spells and traps need to be sent to the graveyard to be able to pick apart your board and to be used as fuel for Master Peace later on. Cosmic Cyclone works really well because it banishes the spell/traps, although I would probably main this in most instances. Abyss dweller also Shuts off the traps for the turn Since no grave effects can activate. The deck Struggles to deal with Kaiju’s especially when they use the resources to bring out Master peace.

Countering the sides:

Fear not True Draco players! Yes the deck does have weakness but just like every other deck you do have counter measures which can be taken. Since you can play floodgates, Imperial Order can be chained to the Cosmic Cyclone to negate the effect and you can tribute off the imperial order at will to turn your spells back on. You can play things like skill drain or lose one turn as well at the side to deal with monster effects, just play it smart for maximum efficiency. The last card I’ll bring up is Rivalry of the warlords, your entire monster line up consists of Wyrm type monsters so you are unaffected by the restriction and there are no Wyrm type Kaiju monsters so they cannot kaiju you with rivalry up! Since I am personally building this deck, I’ll post a completed deck list once I’m able to finish it up.

That’s all i have for you on this right now, thank you for reading!