Yu-Gi-Oh! Rogue Report: Cowrie Bird Up
The various styles of deck in a trading card game don’t just play differently, they also operate within the meta in different ways. Control & Stun will often be strongest after a sweeping set of changes on the Forbidden/Limited list, as it’s an easy strategy to pilot which tends to affect unprepared opponents in drastic ways, and combo decks will rarely be left alive at full strength for too long, as we’ve seen with the several-times squashing of SPYRAL, for fear of an uninteractive metagame. One type of deck, however, that has recently become the flavor du jour of Konami’s design team, is that of Midrange — these decks are looking to play multiple-turn games with explosive starts, although less than Combo, and consistently repeatable gameplans, like Control, operating in the nebulous middle space of play patterns.
The issue with Midrange is that it outcompetes itself; the deck which grinds the best and opens the most consistently through interaction will rise to the top, unlike Combo & Control, which tend to survive on the sidelines by virtue of their differing gameplay styles. Now, we’re in the midst of a Tier 0.5 Meta with Snake-Eye, a Midrange deck, yet I feel there’s an inconspicuous card released in Phantom Nightmare poised to prey upon the Pyros. Presenting: Cowrie Bird Up.
Swallow’s Cowrie is a brand-new TCG exclusive Quick-Play Spell that came out in Phantom Nightmare, and while it might seem unassuming there’s quite a bit to it. First, unlike its predecessor, Swallow’s Nest, Cowrie both Tributes from, and adds to, the hand. This means you can more readily use it as a starter, not needing to commit to a Summon in order to port into another piece of your strategy. In that regard, it’s very similar to Cynet Mining, with a critical upside: It’s a Quick-Play. In a format where Droll & Lock Bird is everywhere, being able to use a card like Cowrie in ones’ Draw Phase is an immense benefit, effectively netting you another search.
In this breakdown, I’ll be using Cowrie as a means to tie together two very historically relevant archetypes, Lyrilusc & Tri-Brigade (who together have a number of tops). This pairing is usually referred-to as “Bird Up”, a name I’ll reference in the rest of the article. While you could just as easily use it as a means to dodge targeted negation in Floowandereeze, or port through a Legendary Fire King Ponix line, as the littlest Fire King is itself a Level 1 Winged Beast, this combination stretches the power of both strategies in a way neither could before. You can even search D.D. Crow at a moment’s notice in those strategies too, being yet another Level 1 Winged Beast. Just know that this is a consideration going forward, for every single Winged Beast deck they’ll print.
As background, Lyrilusc provides Tri-Brigade a few things it normally lacks, namely extension beyond the Normal Summon aside from exactly Tri-Brigade Kerass. You can open your plays with the little birds, building a board before you commit to the Summon of a Tri-Brigade, or readily make a massive Zeus going second. Meanwhile, Tri is a consistent backbone to the more extension-focused Lyrilusc, creating sturdy, recoverable boards that need extra Winged Beasts, Beasts, and Beast-Warriors in the GY.
Crucially though, connecting the two engines wasn’t an easy feat; you’d need to make Lyrilusc - Recital Starling before your Normal Summon, searching for Tri-Brigade Nervall in the process — Cowrie not only gives you an alternate path, but crucially lets you turn Tri-Brigade opens into Lyrilusc ones by way of Nervall, triggering his search in the process. That in turn means you can “hide” your Nervall search from Droll, if done in the Draw Phase.
The fact that these two engines now connect means we can play a greater density of non-engine, namely Triple Tactics cards & Harpie’s Feather Storm, brutal pieces that can help you get out of sticky situations, or ruin an opponent’s chance to play. This deck kills your opponent on the crack-back with ease, so simply forcing them into a bad position for their first turn can mean a clean game in your favor. This particular list is on ~13 pieces of nonengine, which while comparable to Snake-Eye, has fewer points at which it loses to the common interaction within the format. You’re essentially playing a Midrange deck that’s worse than the literal best deck in the room, but that opponents are ill-prepared-for in their Maindeck. Lyrilusc - Ensemblue Robin matches up exceptionally well to its competition, and pairing it with a Feather Storm or live Tri-Brigade Revolt presents an endboard that’s difficult for monster decks to surmount. And, unlike Voiceless Voice (the second best deck) you can play around Droll with relative freedom, meaning players hedging against VV & Snake-Eye have middling cards for your matchup.
In terms of archetypal ratios, we’re on 6 total copies of cards that are ‘best’ to Tribute with Cowrie, being Nervall & Lyrilusc - Cobalt Sparrow. Sparrow in particular is an unassumingly insane pick, as the cards you can search with Cowrie all resummon the monster for its effect. Then, in terms of premier targets, we have (again) Nervall, but then Lyrilusc - Turquoise Warbler on empty boards, or Lyrilusc - Beryl Canary for established set-ups. That said, we’re slim on other names, and this deck is intending to only really play a single turn cycle, but so so well — it can’t reasonably be expected to outcompete Snake-Eye in the grind, so we’re trying to efficiently resolve our gameplan against a single turn’s worth of interaction, and try to win via handtraps otherwise.
For the Sidedeck, I’d recommend more copies of D.D. Crow, and maybe even Phantazmay to hopefully dig for a copy of Feather Storm. Soul Release is another popular tech in this format, though Crow is the more responsive, targeted answer, alongside Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, another great 3-of in the Sidedeck. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in the Extra Deck to fit Super Polymerization, much to my chagrin, although in truth the only deck realistically using that card currently is Voiceless Voice, with little need for more than ~3 slots in the ED within its engine. It’s simply unfortunate that some of the best cards in the format are locked to decks not named Voiceless Voice or Floowandereeze; like I said in the beginning, Midrange outcompetes itself, and there’s a good chance Floo is the deck to beat when it comes to Cowrie strategies.
This list is essentially a modernized version of the classic version of Bird Up, taking into account current format considerations and tools provided to the strategy since its inception. Part of what made Lyrilusc Tri-Brigade better than other versions was its ability to extend beyond the low ceiling Tri is known for, and many ways that people innovate upon a strategy like that is to add in means of extension, or ways to raise the power ceiling, as we’ve seen in winners like Runick Despia, Superheavy Gishki, or Volcanic Horus. The biggest thing is that, unlike those paired strategies, this pile most easily combines its two disparate engines into a single cohesive whole.
I truly hope that Cowrie gets to see play in something, as it’s very rare for the TCG to get a genuine ROTA before the OCG! What do you intend to use Cowrie in? What other types need a searcher on this card’s power level? Let me know in the comments below!
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