Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Debut: Dinomorphia Z-ARC
While we’re a ways away from the release of Cyberstorm Access in the Yugioh TCG, there’s still a ton to toy with using the cards we received in Maze of Memories that only become better once CYAC hits shelves. One card that’s been largely slept upon is the extremely thematic Soul of the Supreme King, a strange piece of support for one of the least-summonable monsters in the game, that effectively locks your opponent out of Spell Cards, for fear of an easy board of massive Extra Deck Dragons. While the card on its own is neat enough, the true strength of Soul of the Supreme King comes when we lean into its other aspects, namely, the fact you both pay half your Life Points, and Supreme King Z-ARC has a brutal Pendulum Effect that can be accessed upon his destruction. The natural pairing to these pieces of text is of course, Dinomorphia, a rogue sleeper archetype that was released in Battle of Chaos, and has laid in wait for a powerful-enough secondary engine to come along and boost its power to revolutionary heights! Presenting, Dinomorphia Z-ARC.
Dinomorphia is a deck whose core gimmick is antithetical to the long game in Yugioh: Dropping your LP to near-0, in order to access some of the most independently-powerful Trap Effects ever printed. While this works in theory, with the deck able to stop lethal damage via their Traps’ GY effects, in practice, this deck struggles with one of the major hurdles in competitive Yugioh, time rules. Once time is called, being at 2000 or fewer LP by default is a foregone loss, so Dinomorphia desperately needs a way to close out the game. That is of course, where Z-ARC comes in.
Z-ARC is a massive body on its own, but also ports into 4 massive dragons from a place without garnets, the Extra Deck. He disincentivizes Spells, and if you manage to pop him prematurely, he serves as a floodgate in the backrow, as a take on ‘Dark Law’. Everything about that assists Dinomorphia in their core strategy, and the synergies run deeper than one might think at first glance.
Dinomorphia excel at getting their gameplan in motion with only a scant few resources, and Dinomorphia Therizia or Dinomorphia Frenzy, which can be searched by Therizia, put you in the driver’s seat from minute one. Frenzy’s main line sends a copy of Dinomorphia Therizia and Dinomorphia Stealthbergia, to summon Dinomorphia Kentregina, whose effect then copies Frenzy, sending Dinomorphia Diplos and Dinomorphia Kentregina (this copy from your Extra Deck), to summon Dinomorphia Rexsturm. At the end of this simple line, you’re left with two massive Fusion Monsters, and an ongoing floodgate effect that prevents the activation of opposing monsters’ effects with 2k or more ATK (or less, once you continue playing). While this alone may not win the game, the fact that you only need to access 1 of 6 cards across your opening line means that, once you have those in rotation, you’re free to pivot to other searches or sets, as we’ll explore shortly.
Coming out in Cyberstorm Access is the sequel to the beloved Trap Trick, Trap Track. Instead of banishing a copy of a Trap from your Deck to Set 1, instead you destroy a monster you control to do the same; while this seems like a greater minus than the prior card, in this deck specifically, it’s an incredible boon. Destroying our own monsters not only triggers the effects of our Dinomorphias, which float into extra copies, but can also be used to place Z-ARC into the Pendulum Zone via its last effect, turning on his potent floodgate effect, and handrip. Trap Track also pivots between our two key starters, Dinomorphia Frenzy and Soul of the Supreme King, while triggering the on-field effects of either half, making it an incredible boost to our consistency. That said, Trap Track isn’t the only tech we’re adding into this pile, as there’s one other easily-accessible, Dinosaur-friendly engine that can find a home here: The Doodle Beasts.
The Doodle Beasts are an incredibly consistent little bunch of monsters, who collectively set up a Quick-Effect Normal Summon of Doodle Beast - Tyranno, who in turn pops a card on the field. Normally, that card is meant to be your opponents’, but here, it can also very readily be your own Z-ARC or Dinomorphia Fusions! Fossil Dig is an impressively potent searcher, being non-HOPT, and broad, accessing either our Level 4 Dinomorphias, specifically Therizia, or if we already have them, Doodle Beast - Stego, who grabs the searcher for Tyranno, Doodlebook - Uh Uh Uh!. Despite having an eyeroll-worthy name, Uh Uh Uh! is a fantastic Normal Trap, triggering during our opponent’s turn, and wanting to be in the GY, which couples with the brand-new Traptantalizing Tune, from Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix to draw through our options. Tune even shuffles back a banished Doodlebook - Uh Uh Uh! or Soul of the Supreme King in a pinch, making these normally-one-use engines far more versatile.
Also coming out in Cyberstorm Access is a brand-new Dinomorphia Trap that many have forgotten about: Dinomorphia Intact. While not only being a reasonable monster negate, it also transforms any battle damage into half your LP that turn, meaning you literally cannot die during the Battle Phase after this resolves. This is a very reasonable addition to the deck, at 1-2 copies, though it’s a shame Intact is a Counter Trap, as it cannot be copied by Kentregina. A card that absolutely can be copied, though, is Dinomorphia Brute, a fantastic way to trade through your Dinomorphia monsters, and trigger their float effects, so you can reserve other methods of popping like Tyranno for the Z-ARC.
This list is what I would consider to be an essentially optimized version, though that of course comes with a few caveats: Trap Track and Dinomorphia Intact come out in CYAC, and we’ve even just received word that Odd-Eyes Rebellion Xyz Dragon is coming out in Battles of Legend: Monstrous Revenge. That means this deck is going to be TCG legal across the board by this Summer, making it perfect for Locals, Regionals, or even a YCS! Prior to these cards coming out, though, you could very easily swap Track to Trap Trick (though this is a massive downgrade, for the reasons given prior), and more copies of Solemn Strike, as well as Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. That said, everything here works incredibly well together, from the digging enabled by both Fossil Dig & Traptantalizing Tune, and even the inclusion of Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju, as a secondary Uh Uh Uh! Target. We’ve also included a single copy of Evolzar Dolkka in the mix, as it’s a great way to use your extra Level 4 Dinomorphias in a pinch. For sidedeck options, cards like Ultimate Slayer could work well, given we play everything but Links, as well as cards like Evenly Matched, a Normal Trap, or Nibiru, the Primal Being.
As I tested this deck, I realized very quickly how incredible Soul of the Supreme King was for Dinomorphia, more than I had expected; this list was originally concocted as a thought experiment for new cards from Maze of Memories, but I feel it could have legs competitively. It’s certainly the best Dinomorphia has felt in a while, and the sheer joy of someone reading Supreme King Z-ARC’s Pendulum Effect is unlike any other. Please, give the deck a game or two, and I think you’ll realize the potential hidden within these life-halving half-dinosaurs.
I hope that this was a good show of Soul’s power within the Trap decks of our current format! I think there’s far more here than meets the eye, and in the future, perhaps I’ll pilot it out at locals! Do you think this particular Dinomorphia variant could show off the decks’ strengths? Could this be a brand-new take on control that makes a mark? Let me know in the comments below!
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