Mystic Mine has been gaining popularity in the competitive scene.

It has seen initial success in burn decks, but has been adopted by other standard deck such as Sky Striker and Altergeist to great success.

This article will explore the depth of the Mystic Mine and its usage against the metagame.

Mystic Mine

①: If your opponent controls more monsters than you do, your opponent cannot activate monster effects or declare an attack.

②: If you control more monsters than your opponent does, you cannot activate monster effects or declare an attack.

③: Once per turn, during the End Phase, if both players control the same number of monsters: Destroy this card.

The purpose of Mystic Mine is straightforward. Simply control less monsters than the opponent, and that would prevent them from activating monster effects or declaring an attack.

This would essentially shutdown decks that relies on swarming such as Salamangreat, Orcust and Thunder Dragon.

Metaverse

①: Take 1 Field Spell from your Deck, and either activate it or add it to your hand.

But the true strength of Mystic Mine lies in Metaverse.

Metaverse essentially turns Mystic Mine into a Fast Effect that can be thrown out at the appropriate timing to disrupt the opponent.

For example, when the opponent Normal Summons Aloof Lupine and activates its effect, Metaverse can be chained to it to bring out Mystic Mine.

Chain 1: Aloof Lupine ① effect, banish Thunder Dragondark.

Chain 2: Activate Metaverse.

Resolving the chain,

Chain 2: Metaverse‘s effect takes Mystic Mine and activates it on the field.

Chain 1: Aloof Lupine‘s effect banishes Thunder Dragonroar.

Typically after resolving Aloof Lupine, the Trigger Effects of Thunder Dragondark and Thunder Dragonroar would activate in a new Chain. However, as Mystic Mine is already in play, it prevents the opponent from activating both Thunder Dragondark‘s and Thunder Dragonroar‘s effects.

The best part about this play is that the opponent can do nothing about it even if they have a Mystical Space Typhoon in hand. As Mystic Mine is activated through Metaverse, the opponent cannot activate Mystical Space Typhoon while the Chain is resolving. In the new Chain, Trigger Effects has to be activated first before the turn player gets priority. This means that the opponent has to give up activating both Thunder Dragondark‘s and Thunder Dragonroar‘s effects due to Mystic Mine, before they even get priority to activate Mystical Space Typhoon.

As Metaverse also allows adding the Field Spell card from deck to hand, it can be negated by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring.

Mystic Mine Burn

Mystic Mine Burn uses Mystic Mine to lockdown the opponent, before dealing direct damage to the opponent for the game.

Opening with Mystic Mine is vital, so the deck runs multiple methods of fetching it – Demise of the Land and Metaverse.

Trap Trick also double up as Metaverse, but should be avoided if possible. When using Trap Trick to set Metaverse and then activating it subsequently, the opponent could simply counter with a Red Reboot. Solemn Judgment or Dark Bribe could no longer be activated due to Trap Trick‘s effect that allows only 1 Trap Card to be activated for the rest of the turn.

Sky Striker

One of the tricks that Sky Striker has against Orcust is to activate Mystic Mine after the opponent has Special Summoned The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche and followed with summoning another monster.

As The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche cannot be used as a Link Material, the Orcust opponent is now stuck with 2 monsters. This opens up an opportunity to simply direct attack with Sky Striker Ace – Hayate every turn for the game.

However, the Orcust opponent would likely have Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade to stop Sky Striker Ace – Hayate. In this case you can simply Link Summon Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku and then go for Hayate again on the next turn. Just take note of the amount of Hayate left in your Extra Deck.

Against other decks where they could use all their monsters to Link Summon until they are left with just 1 monsters, Sky Striker could stall using Mystic Mine until they have accumulated enough cards to OTK the opponent with Borrelsword Dragon.

Sky Striker would then simply send Mystic Mine to the graveyard using Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole.

Altergeist

Altergeist can utilise the same Mystic Mine trick against Orcust, by simply direct attacking with Altergeist Meluseek every turn for the game.

But with Personal Spoofing, they can setup the lockdown even if the opponent has only 1 monster.

After direct attacking with Meluseek, Personal Spoofing‘s effect can be used to shuffle Meluseek back into the deck, and then adding Meluseek to hand again. This would keep your board empty. On the next turn, Normal Summon Meluseek and direct attack with it again, and then repeat with Personal Spoofing.

For Altergeist to break their own Mystic Mine, Altergeist could Special Summon using Altergeist Multifaker or Altergeist Manifestation during the opponent’s End Phase. By matching the opponent’s monster count on the field, Mystic Mine would self-destruct during the End Phase, allowing Altergeist to go all out on their next turn.

Conclusion

Mystic Mine has been traditionally seen as a hard stall especially in Mystic Mine Burn, where the gameplan is having Mystic Mine stick on the field.

However, Mystic Mine could also be used as a temporary stall. When the opponent is able to overwhelm you with their board, Metaverse for Mystic Mine would keep them in check, often buying you a few turns. After stablising, you can simply break your own Mystic Mine by playing another field card.

In the final match of YCSJ Osaka 2019, Ito Hiroki took early control over the game with his Subterror and had Arikawa Ryuhei on the ropes. However, Arikawa was able to stall with Mystic Mine and was eventually able to stablise as Ito had no answer to Mystic Mine. Unfortunately Arikawa still eventually lost due to time, but he could almost mount a comeback with Altergeist Meluseek while Ito has two set monsters.

This temporary stall strategy could be also be adopted in Trickstar and Subterror by running Metaverse and then splashing 1 Mystic Mine. Metaverse would also function as additional Terraforming for adding Trickstar Light Stage or The Hidden City to hand.

This application of Mystic Mine definitely has potential.