How I Cheated Synchro Fes With Counter Fairies
"Where the waifus at?"
I don't like Synchro summoning. There, I said it. I am an avowed waifuiist, so when majority of the boss monsters in Master Duel's latest event are not waifus, it kind of kills my enthusiasm for it. That said, I do want the gems from the event, so this is my story of how I went from nosynchro to playing Counter Fairies (which doesn't Synchro) in the Synchro Fes! (decklist below)
It Doesn't Pay To Play Fair
"Fair?! Ain't no word like dat round dese' parts!"
This is my third event in Master Duel, and after the experience of the N/R event, I realized that metafags are gonna meta, regardless of anything, so playing a weak deck, or a fair deck is practically suicide; and not even the fast kind.
Since I didn't have any good synchro monsters, I started off playing the loaner decks, which admittedly, are a big stepup from the previous loaners of the past. The three loaner decks hit some key playstyles that are common in Synchro Fes, namely Speedroid/ Junk turbo, and Baronne turbo. The loaner decks contain many key cards and can certainly help newer players play Synchro monsters, albeit at a lower power level.
One thing to note is that none of the loaner decks are fully optimized; they don't contain handtraps, and as a result have horrible going second winrates. The name of the game is really just turboing out multiple negates on synchro monsters, so if you don't have interruption for that, it is really painful.
I got to about 4k points before I gave up on the loaner decks. I still don't like synchro as a summoning method, so I had to try something different.
How Do We Win Without Synchro?
ASIDE: I now realize that Relinquished decks will NEVER be part of any Fes, because their key card is a fusion monster... that requires a ritual monster to fuse into. DOH!
At this point, I started seriously thinking about how to win without synchro summoning. Does this violate the spirit of the event? Sure, but I want my gemmies and I am a poorfag.
It seemed that a lot of people are in the same boat as me! As I made my way through Synchro Fes, I realized that there are loads of people running True Draco decks! True Draco found great success in the N/R Fes because it was workable with N/R cards, did not rely on the extra deck, and now they simply had to substitute in floodgates like [Skill Drain] to make the deck even better.
Restrictions Breed Creativity
With great restrictions breed great creativity, so I asked myself a question:
What are some decks which I currently have that do not rely heavily on the extra deck?
Gravekeeper's
Toon
Starry Knights
Counter Fairies
I've already tried Gravekeeper and Toons during the XYZ event to mediocre results (Gravekeeper's more because I didn't have a second [Supernaturalist], which is banned in this event anyway).
I ran Starry Knights for a bit after buying ten more packs to round out the last Starry Knight SRs I needed. Deck works okay... at a lower power level, but it isn't that great. The [Dragon Luster] packs will pretty much fill the deck with staples, but you are still vulnerable to random ashes, and the ace monster [Starry Dragon] has rather low attack. Play pattern-wise, it feels like a less reliable Live Twins deck where you use your Starry Knights and support cards to find and special summon [Starry Dragon] repeatedly for card draw.
In the end, the lack of consistency drove me off the deck. The deck would probably work way better with [Ties of the Brethren], which I think I will be crafting next alone with a second copy of [Called by the Grave] or [Ghost Belle].
If Everything Else Fails, Blame Da Patriarchy
ASIDE: And who thought it was a good idea to ban [Altergeist Multifaker] while letting True Draco decks run wild? I thought I would be able to run an Altergeist deck, but with the key card in [Multifaker] banned, there really is no reason to do so. And that was the one archetype where I actually had a legitimate synchro monster, so I was really bummed.
As I was fiddling with a scuffed Altergeist deck, a thought hit me: why not just ditch the Altergeists and run the Solemn cards with Parshath? I already have most of the Parshath cards because they came in the same pack as Altergeists, and since a lot of power comes from the "Solemn" counter traps, all I have to do is fit it with cards that give me hand advantage, and voila, I have a """Synchro""" deck, where I don't even synchro summon!
Counter Fairies for Syncro Event
2x Banisher of the Radience
2x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
2x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
3x Bountiful Artemis
2x Honest
3x Guiding Ariadne
3x Power Angel Valkyria
1x Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath
1x Cards From the Sky
1x Sanctum of Parshath
2x Twin Twister
2x Infinite Impermanance
3x Solemn Judgement
2x Black Horn of Heaven
3x Solemn Warning
2x Solemn Strike
3x Rebirth of Parshath
1x Imperial Order
Some notes while building the deck
I still run handtraps. The core of this deck is based off DarkArmedDuelist's Counter Fairies deck, but he only runs ash in his deck, while I run additional [Infinite Impermanance], [Twin Twister], and [Ghost Ogre] as meta calls. I'm still in Gold rank since I decided to take it easy this month to work on my visual novel, Conspiracy Girls, but handtraps are a real beating in Gold rank.
I cut the entirety of [The Sanctuary in The Sky] subtheme. The reason is deck slots and a lack of payoffs. [The Sanctuary in The Sky] is more of an Agent deck payoff, and it doesn't really help counter fairies very much. The main theme here is Counter-traps and 4 star angels.
This deck can be improved still with [Ties of the Brethren]**.** I liken it to {Collected Company} in Magic the Gathering, where it just pulls cards of a similar archetype onto the field instantly.
[Cards from the Sky] can be replaced with some other way to draw. I'm thinking [Card of Demise] if I ever get rid of the handtraps. The reason is that you run out of cards really quickly if you are just setting monsters and counter-traps. It might be counter-productive since I need to keep something in had for [Rebirth of Parsharth].
[Banisher of the Radiance] is a tech choice for this festival. Since a lot of Synchro summoning revolves around pulling creatures from the graveyard, if your opponent doesn't get rid of it before they start their combo, they will find their combo stopped for lack of a grave.
Some notes while playing the deck
[Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath] is a beating. If you manage to counter a key card or a special summon from your opponent's deck with [Rebirth of Parshath], you get to summon [Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath] straight out of your deck! This is huge, and it's not ashable since rebirth is a counter-trap with a higher spell speed!
A common line of play is to counter your opponent's play, get the turn passed to you, and you deal damage with Parshath, getting a [Solemn Judgement] which lets you say no to anything your opponent does next turn. Make sure that [Guiding Ariadne] is not on the pendulum zone if you want to turbo out Parshath, because even though you won't pay a cost this way, Parshath will not be special summoned because you don't pay the cost!
Nobody Expects [Honest]. Usually what will happen in this deck is that you summon a monster, hopefully it's something that works with Counter-traps, and set the rest of your hand on the field. It's quite hilarious really, when you are out of backrow and your opponent still declares an attack on you, nobody expects [Honest] to crack back by buffing the sole, unassuming monster on boards!
[Power Angel Valkyria] activates much less often than you think. She pretty much only works with the solemn counter traps, and does not work with [Infinite Impermanence], which is usually when key plays are made. If you do want to use [Solemn Judgement] to get value out of [Power Angel Valkyria],
In general, counter extra deck summons and destruction effects. I'm still learning about the vast array of archetypes out there in YGO, so my reasoning for how I use Counter Traps is really simple: I want to two-for-one my opponent, and usually the best time to do so is their first extra deck summon. usually this summon will lead to more summons, so countering the summon itself is the best bet going forward.
Why not counter their first normal summon as in Handtrap Logic? The reason is extenders: if you only have a single solemn card on the field, you will be put in a really bad position if you misread the situation. It's much better to let the opponent use up resources and then work with a weakened hand on their side.
Last Word
And that is how I cheated the Synchro event with Counter Fairies. It was a little scary that I enjoyed playing counter fairies at a lower power level, sure the deck didn't win a lot, but there are lots of back and forth and surprise Parshaths which ended the game in the gold ranks. I don't win all the time, but It's a really different kind of feel from the Platinum tier. A good kind of feel where I am not obliged to play the absolute best deck I can. This deck has tons of weaknesses in draw and consistency, but it's quite fun when it gets going!
Written 220419
