Alliance Insight is upon us now, and alongside a stellar second wave for Mitsurugi, support for the format’s two best decks in Maliss & Ryzeal, and tons of legacy callbacks, one particular card slipped through spoiler season unnoticed. Not unlike Mitsurugi, this card is a TCG-Exclusive, and thus hasn’t seen play in the OCG before, meaning we’ll be the first to get games with it; the division between TCG & OCG doesn’t normally matter very much, as our exclusives tend to be lackluster, yet ALIN is anything but. This format, I won’t be playing Maliss, Ryzeal, or even Mitsurugi—I’ll be playing Regenesis, with the help of the brand-new Replicard LAD. Let’s dive into why I think this deck is so well-positioned, what gives it that edge, and how you can flex this pliable pile of 2500-statted monsters for your local meta.
First, Regenesis is one of the major new archetypes debuting in Alliance Insight. This group of monsters with 2500 ATK and/or DEF plays a low ceiling, high floor grind game with nearly infinite recursion so long as you use their effects on your opponent’s turn. In the OCG, this strategy sees a modest amount of play, with a few recorded Top 8 and ~3 Top 4s, but akin to Voiceless Voice in the TCG, that largely comes down to variance. Regenesis Archfiend is the deck’s starter, able to get through the entire line by revealing 1 monster with 2500 ATK or DEF in hand, but the OCG’s taken to playing awful cards like Doomdog Orthros in order to search it, as the deck lacks a Normal Summon of its own.
Ultimately, if this version of the archetype landed in the TCG with no further help it’d be aggressively fine, and likely forgotten about outside of its devotees. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit would be its scrubbing of biblical references as it made its way stateside. Luckily, not only does Replicard LAD raise the ceiling on the strategy, but coupled with Formud Skipper, it blows the roof sky-high.
Formud Skipper is an oddity, being a Cynet Mining target that’s essentially never seen play, but its ability to mimic Type & Attribute, and natural means to search Replicard (A Level 5 or higher Cyberse) slots in wonderfully here. One of the major components of the meta which went unhit in the most recent banlist was Fiendsmith, and Formud just so happens to be a LIGHT Fiend monster, provided you reveal any Fiendsmith name in Extra for its effect. This means a Normal Summoned Formud not only performs the entire Fiendsmith line, it also fetches a Replicard, which in turn helps unbrick your hand and potentially pivot into Regenesis as well. At worst, Formud is the entire Fiendsmith line with a Rank 7 of choice, that adds back either Regenesis Sage or Regenesis Warrior back to hand, and at best, it allows you to fully perform the Regenesis line with another name available.
Supplementing this, we want a bevy of monsters that are reasonable reveals and/or banishes for our effects. That means we’re looking for 2500 ATK and/or DEF, and preferably Level 7+: Enter the Bystials, Nibiru, and Lava Golem. One should already be aware of how good Bystials are, but here they perform a secondary purpose, not only being able to be revealed for Sage, Warrior, & Dragon, but also Magnamhut being able to search for Regenesis Dragon itself. Nibiru can be a banish for Replicard, and is a LIGHT for Bystials, and Lava Golem (between 1 copy Main, and 2 copies in Side) helps us go second, and provides a second target for our Dark Spirit’s Mastery.
Beyond that, once you do get to the Side Deck, Chaos Hunter is a Level 7 DARK Fiend that crushes Maliss, and has the appropriate ATK, and Kashtira Unicorn stomps Ryzeal with the same, beautiful 2500 in its statline. The ability to flex into so many different competent answers for the format is phenomenal, and that’s all without taking into account the interaction inherent to Regenesis. Sage is a negate, Dragon banishes Spell/Traps, and Warrior is a bounce; layering so many different forms of interaction that all cascade will eventually overwhelm any opponent.
The only hard lock in the deck comes in the form of Regenesis Code, which locks you for a whole turn cycle from the Extra Deck after it resolves. While this does hurt, the fact that it’s a Quick Play means you can Set it for your opponent’s turn (As every Regenesis is functionally a Quick Effect), or use it after expending your tools from the Extra, like Formud’s line. Replicard’s banish does seem harsh at first, similarly, but both Code & Birth recur from banishment, so there’s not really anything to worry about in that regard.
Then, there’s also Regenesis, referring to the Normal Spell and not the archetype, which can itself search Replicard as well. This speaks to the consistency present within this strategy, as you have an effective 13 copies of Regenesis Archfiend, being the entire Regenesis line, and an effective 5 copies of Formud, or 10 of Replicard, keying into the other side of the strategy. It is nearly impossible to open a hand that doesn’t do something, and with so many of the enablers being independently good or functionally non-engine, you can comfortably go second as well, something that cannot be said of many other Rogue archetypes.
I’ve spoken about the Side Deck briefly, but to recap, Chaos Hunter and Artifact Lancea are there to handle Maliss, a small Kashtira package is there to handle Ryzeal, and Fuwalos alongside more Lava Golems help us go second. Further changes might be leaning into something like Ultimate Slayer or Metaltronus, if the meta is solved, Triple Tactics Thrust to fight back against non-engine, or Kajus for more names to reveal with Regenesis monster and improve our going second capabilities.
In testing, I’ve been absolutely blown away with how consistent and competent this deck is, especially given how many 1-ofs are present (19, in the Main Deck), and the fact we also get to play occasional auto-wins like Skill Drain and There Can Be Only One does scam victories once every few sets. You can absolutely tailor this strategy to your local meta, but I would recommend this variation first and foremost, followed by Dogmatika (as has been played in the OCG).
There should be a lot you’re familiar with when you see this list, such as the Fiendsmiths & Bystials, but to cover the oddities, let’s go over the quintessential Regenesis line. First, you Summon Archfiend…and then, you have a wealth of options available. You could search a Level 8 and make Hope Harbinger, recurring both Archfiend & that 8 during your opponent’s End Phase, or Regenesis Lord, and grab Regenesis Birth for layered interaction that will eventually go +3, or pivot into the Fiendsmith line by way of Moon of the Closed Sky. All that’s to say, I was kidding when I mentioned a “quintessential” Regenesis line—the deck is fluid enough, and simple in its combo lines, that you can tailor your plays to interaction. For this reason, I believe this strategy is absolutely phenomenal for new players as a means to teach the game theory within Yugioh, when to negate, how to build a board knowing your opponent’s hand/deck, etc. If you’ve gotten into the game recently, this could very well be your ticket to winning locals, and learning to be a better player at the same time.
What will you be playing first from Alliance Insight? How do you feel about the TCG-Exclusives from this set being potentially stronger than most of the imports? Do you plan on exploring Regenesis in the coming format? Let me know in the comments below!
