Yu-Gi-Oh! Rogue Report: Azamina Voiceless Voice
With the conclusion of YCS Cancun, Fiendsmith Yubel has secured another top placement, and aside from a few of the funnier brews (shoutout to Jesse Kotton’s Crystal Beast Snake-Eye), the previous meta dominator of SE-Fiendsmith seems to have been eclipsed. This leaves a blind spot where that deck once existed, which is largely just a competent midrange pile which puts up negation prior to resolving its core gameplan. Luckily, there’s a strategy that’s been floating near Tier 2 which I feel might be able to pick up the slack: Voiceless Voice. Alongside the new tools of the Azamina, this deck has the ability to extend further than it ever could, and do so using both in-engine and external components. While a pure version works, certainly, I’d like to pitch its mixed-together cousin: Azamina Voiceless Voice.
Voiceless Voice is the newest in a long line of strategies which are based on Ritual monsters, and therefore are allowed to functionally do whatever they want. Voiceless Voice is a fair strategy, though, relying on their 1-card starter Lo, the Prayers of the Voiceless Voice, or Lo in a trenchcoat, Diviner of the Herald. Lo adds Barrier of the Voiceless Voice, which then adds Saffira, Dragon Queen of the Voiceless Voice, and you go from there. Some would say 3 are cloggy, but we’re very able to rid ourselves of anything bricky, by way of the secondary engine, and new star of the strategy, Deception of the Sinful Spoils.
The obvious reason Deception is good is that it’s a way to trigger Diviner from hand without committing to a Normal Summon, if you already have access to a Lo, or otherwise can’t Normal Summon (Such as siding in Lava Golem or Sphere Mode, hint hint). That said, Voiceless Voice can be a tad bricky at times, and Deception can make use of spare cards that the core engine produces very easily, especially by way of its inclusion alongside WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils, and The Hallowed Azamina. Much like in Snake-Eye, which could afford to play an obnoxious amount of non-engine, this deck instead attempts to highroll its Voiceless Voice package, and whatever isn’t necessary to the core combo gets churned into Azamina fodder.
This fodder goes towards two main pieces: Azamina Mu Rcielago and Azamina Ilia Silvia. Mu is extension, the best card to go into if you know you’ll be able to loop through the non-HOPT Hallowed Azamina twice in a turn, whereas Silvia is an omni-negate that helps win battles, and even floats if you choose to play a soft garnet Sinful Spoils Trap Card. This means you can readily set up fully into scenarios where the opponent isn’t able to interrupt you, or play far more conservatively, and lead Silvia to ensure your Lo resolves. This package is precisely what’s needed for a deck so contingent on its 1-card resolving, and has seen success in the OCG.
That said, the synergies don’t stop — Blessings of the Voiceless Voice let you “dirty” Summon Skull Guardian, Protector of the Voiceless Voice using only Diabellstar the Black Witch, as they’re the same Level, and Azamina Voiceless Voice is uniquely positioned to resolve both the Fusion & Ritual effects of Cross-Sheep in a single turn. Via Mu, you can get enough material to have both a Link-2 and Silvia live, meaning you can then Ritual Summon something like a Skull Guardian, and filter 2 cards, while bringing back a Diviner or Lo. In addition, you’re relatively immune to a Protos lock, and can get over Thunder Dragon Colossus by way of either Hallowed Azamina or Lo (given Lo places, not searches); this combo only truly loses to Dimension Shifter, insofar as you cannot do any Azamina things while it’s active, as you send to GY as part of the resolution.
Not counting the Azamina cards, you have about 8 slots for non-engine, which is pretty light, but if you’re only considering Voiceless Voice as the core strategy, that number jumps up to 17 — extremely competitive with the top decks. So long as you can dodge Shifter, you can pretty reasonably get around your worst matchups through heads-up play, but luckily there’s some great sideboard options in that case.
Artifact Lancea is a shockingly reasonable choice in this format, given it’s a LIGHT Fairy (accessible by our VV package), and stops banishing in its tracks, without itself requiring to go to the GY. Eva is also a consideration with the Diviner line, as you can banish Diviner + Herald of the Arc Light to then search Lo & Herald of Orange Light, raising the ceiling on your hand to include a potentially-live handtrap. That said, this line is of course contingent on finding both Diviner & Sinful Spoils Deception, which while common, is not every time. For that reason, this is more of a sidedeck pick in my opinion.
In time, this deck is a breeze to pilot, as Deception singlehandedly creates a 3000LP disparity with your opponent from normal play, also meaning that Voiceless Voice no longer needs to jump through hoops to kill the opponent through their mainline combo. Azamina in general just makes this strategy impossibly painful to handtrap outside of exactly the Standby Phase, as both Silvia & Deception disincentivize opposing interaction in different, layered ways. Nibiru gets negated, Ash gets split with 1500LP in your favor for both players, and even removing Deception can mean it returns in the End Phase. It’s truly a house of a card, and the actual issue has been finding a deck that’s good at using its finer details not named Snake-Eye Fiendsmith. In truth, while Yubel Fiendsmith is the best Fiendsmith deck, Azamina Voiceless Voice is the best Azamina deck.
The ratios here are quite standard, but we’ve generally pivoted from the standard Dogmatika package to one inclusive of the Azamina cards, and frankly I think that’s a change Voiceless Voice players will have difficulty disagreeing with following this build’s success. There’s still tuning required, of course, and it’s entirely possible going above 40 cards is correct given the mild garnets which all Ritual strategies are beholden to (being Saffira & Prayers of the Voiceless Voice but frankly I feel this is all offset by the new capability to actually do something with the spare advantage lying around, especially additional copies of Barrier, and the like. As I’ve stated in previous articles, this modern sensibility in design to allow all resources to be convertible as costs for effects is strong, and concerning, and we see that on full display here.
In terms of what’s next for the strategy, I think Voiceless Voice is going to be decently positioned for the future, not unlike how Kashtira was for the longest time following the ban of its actual wincon. There will always be diehard players willing to force a midrange deck with a 1-card combo, because that style of strategy naturally ebbs and flows with the structure of modern Yugioh, period.
How have you been approaching the ‘flavor of the month’ midrange deck following ROTA? Is there a change you’d make to the above ratios? How could one improve other strategies using Azamina? I’d love to hear what you’ve been thinking in the comments below!
Community
Related Products
Accessories
