Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Debut: LEDE Ashened, 2 Ways
With another set, comes another wave for our newest TCG exclusive archetype — Ashened, with 7 new cards in Legacy of Destruction. Ashened was more divisive than most TCG-exclusives recently, seeing wide outcry about its lack of playability, coupled with some genuine exploration by some of the game’s greatest minds, notably Jesse Kotton. The archetype had just enough power to show potential, yet not enough to stand on its own two legs, and the hope was that this second wave might change that.
Not only did it fail to do so, I would argue that the strategy has only become more reliant on external engines than ever, as despite receiving an absolutely phenomenal searcher in Extinguishment of the Ashened, due to a small pool of Extra Deck options, the strategy simply cannot be used as anything but a line of extension for decks with better starting lines. That said, I want to take a shot at giving the deck some new spice, courtesy of our most recent banlist. Presenting: LEDE Ashened Adventure, and a bonus LEDE Ashened Prank-Kid list.
Due to the recency of the reveals, some images may be of a lower quality than others.
As background, Ashened focuses on searching and resolving Veidos the Eruption Dragon of Extinction, which pops a Field Spell to summon itself to the other side of the board, setting an archetypal Continuous Trap. Alone, he’s essentially a proactive Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit versus Field Spells, that sets a card which steals himself back and recurs the big Pyro. That said, his archetype supplements these facets by way of powerful equalizers, most notably now, several high-quality targets for Super Polymerization, now assuredly a staple in this strategy.
The fact that this archetype doesn’t necessarily need its Normal Summon, coupled with a reliance on having freely accessible Field Spells to pop, pushes it towards utilizing one of the many engines that exist which contain such pieces. Last time, we covered Veidos in the context of Kozmo, but now we’re taking a look by way of Adventure (and Nemeses).
So what does Adventure bring to the table for Ashened? For starters, it gives the deck something more concrete to do going first — if the opponent isn’t reliant on a Field Spell, they won’t care much about the traditional interruptions put forth by Ashened, meaning your fallback comes down to handtraps. With the help of things like Wandering Gryphon Rider and Illegal Knight, now you have two powerful, free interruptions you can hold onto against more midrange strategies. Illegal Knight in particular is a godsend for the deck, as not only can you bounce back your own Veidos in order to reset its effect, you can actually steal it from your opponent via Ashened for Eternity, meaning you can readily bounce 4 cards per turn cycle. In a format where Snake Eye doesn’t have a great way to deal with Flamberge being placed back in hand, this is a massive potential swing.
Similar to that, Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon can likewise bounce your gifted monsters, and Forest of Lost Flowers is a reasonably accessible Field Spell through the Adventure line, tying together both Veidos and these plucky heroes.
Another bit of spice, courtesy of the banlist, is Nemeses Corridor, as well as Protos & Flag. These cards make heinous use of two cards now freed from the Forbidden section: Thunder Dragon Colossus, and the aforementioned Archenemeses Protos. Between these two, you can lock your opponent from draws or Summons, and each is easy to pivot into via Bonfire, which also searches Ashened monsters, or Infernal Flame Banshee, a generic Rank 4 Xyz Monster. The concept behind this strategy is that you have enough going for you, going second, so it’s best to try and bolster a going-first board on the off-chance your opponent puts you on the play after winning the coinflip.
This facet is all the more important given LEDE is also releasing the Tenpai monsters, which are going to be cheap, consistent, and dominant at your local tournaments. If you aren’t prepared to grind out a midrange deck like Snake-Eye, and beat a going-second OTK strategy like Tenpai, there’s no chance your rogue deck has winning lines versus most opponents.
Critically, deck building with Ashened needs to be understood as a use of its best cards to their fullest extent, and cutting as much fat as possible. The more I work with these cards, and build around them, the more I want to find ways to use exactly Extinguishment and Awakening, and trim away the cards that aren’t explicitly those two cards. When you’re fully resolving either, the deck feels like it has the teeth to go toe-to-toe with the top dogs, and when you aren’t, it’s a bit of a mess much like its sister strategy, Tistina.
The first list I went with, as shown, is Adventure with a Nemeses package, and quite a large Ashened core. This is aiming to make use of the synergies described above between cards like Illegal Knight and Veidos, and while I think Adventure is well-positioned, oftentimes the Ashened cards beyond the bare minimum felt extraneous. These two lists are explorations of what Ashened can do in the current format, namely do its best to synergize with the Nemeses package, the true stand-out following the Forbidden/Limited List.
This actual list is less of a surefire solved variant of the strategy, and more of a ‘proof of concept’ for what the deck can do. Perhaps it’s better to cut down some of the less impactful 1-ofs, such as King & Hero of the Ashened City, and Spearhead, and hone in on finding your powerful cards, being Awakening of Veidos and Extinguishment of the Ashened. Each of these cards is genuinely worthwhile as build-arounds, but only truly work best when used to extend.
As some general ideas, I’ve played the deck using a Lonefire Blossom engine, with Predaplant Orphys Scorpio and Cattycorn as targets, the latter of which readily finds and loops your Obsidim twice over. You could also test the strategy as part of Prank-Kid, given they want to find and reuse their Field Spell, and Prank-Kids Rocket Ride and Bow-Wow Bark are both Pyros in the Extra Deck, working insanely well with Awakening of Veidos. Again, if you’re building Ashened, you want to try and use as few as possible, for the greatest possible gain.
Speaking of which, the Prank-Kids variant is the one I’m by far the happiest with, even though I haven’t played more than a half-dozen games with it. It began as a thought exercise as to how we could generically utilize the GY effect of Extinguishment, when it hit me: Prank-Kids Bow-Wow Bark & Rocket Ride are Pyros in the Extra Deck, meaning we can access them through our lock. Prank-Kids also naturally have a Field Spell they want to play 3 copies of, in Prank-Kids Place, so that’s another check mark for the archetype. From there, it came down to recognizing a few micro-synergies, such as Rocksies banishing a monster, thereby turning on the hand effects of your Nemeses monsters, which is genuinely quite neat! Place can also be looped, via Embers of the Ashened, which helps you play into turn 3. Finally, because both of the archetype’s biggest haymakers are hard-lock Quick-Play Spells, in Prank-Kids Pandemonium and Awakening, you can essentially play around the others’ lock on each opposing turn, pivoting when you need to.
Rocksies also helps to make Infernal Flame Banshee with Priestess or Corridor, the latter of which can be expended given we have Fansies as another Thunder for Colossus! I think in this version I’d consider playing one card we haven’t yet discussed, Shaman of the Ashened City, which shuffles 3 Pyros from GY/Banishment into the Deck, and adds Obsidim from Deck to hand if you shuffle an Ashened. This helps recur things like Flag, Priestess, and Lampsies, and is another 4 for Banshee. As you might see, this is by no means a truly finalized version of the strategy, but it goes a long way to showing the merits of the strategy, and the raw power held within the few stand-out cards.
With that, I hope this shows off a few possible ways to approach Ashened! I have a soft spot for TCG Exclusives, as you could likely tell from Tistina, and this is no different. What are you playing the new wave of Ashened with? What else do you want to see me cover from Legacy of Destruction? Let me know in the comments below!
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