Yu-Gi-Oh! Rogue Report: Ashened Ryzeal
One of the fascinating developments in a Tier 0 metagame, such as is currently present in Japan’s OCG for Yugioh, is that new takes on the top deck are bound to crop up. For the past couple of months, the OCG has been dominated by Ryzeal, a Rank 4 Xyz strategy that plays a safe, fair game…through quite literally any form of disruption. The consistency this strategy provides, both in pure versions as well as in an engine, means whatever else is in the list must be the difference maker in the mirror match. Hot off the presses, as one of the top competitors of the 196th Next Play Cup, is a new version of this strategy, incorporating a quickly-forgotten TCG Exclusive archetype. In order to understand why this Tier 0 shakeup is happening, we’ll have to get Ashened to Ryzeal.
Card names are not final
That’s right, Ashened is the secondary engine of choice for this particular build, adapted from the placing list for the Next Play challenge series. Ashened as a strategy revolves around cycling through their Field Spell, Obsidim, the Ashened City, through the use of their DARK Pyro monster lineup. While this strategy has some powerful cards, one crippling downside is that both of their best Spells, Awakening of Veidos & Extinguishing the Ashened, lock you in some way to Pyro monsters from the Deck/Extra Deck. This is far less of a problem when you consider that the best Xyz Monster in the game, right now, is Ryzeal Deadnader, a LIGHT Pyro monster.
With the ability to access the Extra Deck in a meaningful way, Ashened quickly showcases why they needed that lock in the first place. By going through a line of Veidos the Eruption Dragon of Extinction, Ashened is able to itself provided two Level 4 monsters, which can summon Infernal Flame Banshee, which in turn provides a search for Ex Ryzeal, the other half of the strategy.
You’ll surely see a lot of Ryzeal in the coming months, when it debuts in Crossover Breakers, but as a brief overview of just the engine component, it contains three monsters: Ex, Thode, and Ice Ryzeal. Ex Ryzeal summons itself from hand by sending an Xyz from Extra Deck to GY, and grabs a FIRE Thunder, Ice Ryzeal summons itself from hand by sending a card from hand or field to the GY (Notably here, There Can Be Only One) and grabs any Ryzeal from Deck, and Thode is a free Special that grabs a LIGHT Pyro. Altogether, these each find both other members of the package, making Rank 4s extremely easily. In particular, Ex can send either Garura, Wings of Resonant Life or Mereologic Aggregator from the Extra Deck to the GY, for either a draw or negation, and by itself can represent as much as +4 in card advantage. Due to the fact there’s both Level 4 crossover, and Pyro crossover, all of these tools combine to ensure each half of the deck readily accesses the other, truly completing the loop by way of Set Rotation, grabbing both Field Spells for a kickstart. Deadnader even allows your Xyz to survive the field wipe of Veidos itself, as it can detach material to prevent destruction, ensuring the big dragon’s wrath is entirely one-sided.
We’ve already mentioned Garura, but it has more than just a use by way of Ex — this deck makes exceptional use of Super Polymerization. One of the key effects of Obsidim is that it turns all Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls into Pyros, turning on Super Poly for either Garura or the in-theme Embers of the Ashened, but if Obsidim isn’t up, Mudragon of the Swamp is a perfect choice as well. Of course, Veidos can set up a similar effect by way of Ashened to Endlessness, although it’s a bit clunkier, and oftentimes he’ll be setting Ashened for Eternity, which usually grabs back either Priestess or Shaman, if discarded for Super Poly or your Ryzeal line.
This deck excels at setting up layered interaction, be it Veidos itself, Super Polymerization, potent Rank 4s like Abyss Dweller, and more. If you don’t find yourself Pyro locked, you can even go into Gallant Granite and search Nibiru — it’s so stupid, it’s brilliant.
Everything about this particular list just feels cohesive, which is why I’m shocked it took until now for the combination of Ashened & Ryzeal to be explored. While some of the ratios might need work (such as the single Bonfire, which to me seems odd given all our starters are Pyro), the proof of concept feels strong. One of the cutest interactions comes in the form of Infernal Flame Vixen, the original Pyro Xyz. If on the field with Ryzeal Deadnader, you can pop it using Deadnader’s effect, banishing 3 cards from the GYs, meaning the strategy even has GY interaction while Pyro locked in the Extra Deck. It’s interactions like that which fuel the strategy’s tight feeling, and I sincerely hope TCG players take a look when Crossover Breakers comes out.
The provided Sidedeck includes pretty normal stuff — Bystials, Book of Eclipse, and Droll — but one tech piece we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the coming months is Artifact Lancea. This card singlehandedly beats the second-best deck in the OCG, Maliss, by removing their ability to banish, and is set to be an important part of the game moving forward.
Not included in the side is a small Nemeses package, which would be 1 copy each of Nemeses Flag & Archnemeses Protos. If facing exactly Maliss, one could search Flag off of Banshee, use a banished monster, and find Protos, which in turn could DARK lock the opponent. This is all viable under your normal Pyro lock, and Flag itself is even a Pyro for the occasional Bonfire setup. Ultimately, this is down to preference. One of the bigger changes I needed to do, when transferring this list to the TCG, was swapping out Maxx “c” for Mulcharmy Fuwalos, which isn’t a 1:1 comparison, but is close. Given the deck draws cards using both Obsidim and Ryzeal Cross, it could be imagined that always-live handtraps could be better, hence the lack of Imperm.
Regardless of which part of the deck you begin with, your lines will take you through Infernal Flame Banshee, which is essentially the ‘gatekeeper’ to accessing both sides of the strategy in a single turn. While playing just one half of the deck at a time is all well and good, you really get your money’s worth when both come into concert. The only way you’re able to reset your Ryzeal engine, as well, is through Ryzeal Cross, meaning that finding it via either Terraforming or Set Rotation is paramount; you can always get it back from the GY with Embers of the Ashened once it’s in a public zone. You don’t always need your Normal Summon, so Fuwalos specifically can sometimes be a fine normal, given it’s Level 4, and a couple of my test games which I won included such an odd play. Banshee itself is generic, so additional Fuwalos can absolutely contribute.
If you’re Pyro locked, the only Xyz available are Deadnader, Banshee, and Vixen; this isn’t the end of the world, as your Maindeck for Ashened is potent and the aforementioned Vixen combo is quite solid, but ideally you want to find your way towards something like an Abyss Dweller in relevant matchups.
On the whole, this list excites me to no end, as I’m always a huge proponent of TCG-Exclusives. With Mimighoul doing okay in the TCG, and lists like this beginning to show up in OCG top cuts, I’m optimistic for the next exclusive strategy coming in Supreme Darkness.
How do you intend to play Ryzeal once it releases? Do you expect it to be Tier 0 in the TCG? What’s next for the exclusives available to English-speaking players? I’d love to hear what you’ve been thinking in the comments below!
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