Prank-Kids are an archetype that has been released for about five months in TCG that revolve around Link and Fusion Summoning. There have been only a few tops to the deck, all with differing cards outside of its core. Prank-Kids have a unique mechanic, in which their Main Deck monsters reward the duelist in more Prank-Kids from the deck when used as material, while the Link and Fusion monsters provide resources and protection. Prank-Kids boast consistency and easily come back from board clears. However, it is weak to negation and may have trouble breaking boards. It has a lot of space outside of its core, and can simultaneously draw and deck thin.

Highs

+ Free Resources, Going Long

Each Fusion and Link Summon gives at least one more Prank-Kids monster from the Deck. Combined with the protection of Prank-Kids Bow-Wow-Bark and Prank-Kids Weather Washer, it is extremely difficult to out-grind Prank-Kids. Furthermore, Prank-Kids Dodo-Doodle-Doo searches a Prank-Kids Spell or Trap from the Deck, and can tribute itself to add back two Prank-Kids from the GY to your hand. In terms of raw card economy, Link Summoning Doodle-Doo with two Prank-Kids nets an amazing amount of advantage on its own.

+ Consistency

Prank-Kids Place is an amazing Field spell that adds a Prank-Kids monster from your Deck. With Terraforming, you have access to five extra Prank-Kids. Most Prank-Kids fusions need any two Prank-Kids monsters, meaning if you have a Fusion spell, you’re cooking.

+ Chain Blocking

Another boon of Prank-Kids Place is its buff/debuff effect. This may seem like a paltry throw in, but alas, it is useful in blocking the disruption of the most popular cards in the game: hand traps. Since Place starts a chain at the same time in which Prank-Kids main deck monsters and Doodle-Doo start a chain, you may place the chain links in whatever order you desire. This can stop the opponent from using, say, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. For example:

(Prank-Kids Place already active) Link Summon Prank-Kids Dodo-Doodle-Doo using Prank-Kids Lampsies and Prank-Kids Dropsies. Activate Place, Doodle-Doo, Dropsies, and Lampsies in this order: Doodle-Doo Dropsies Lampsies Place

Since Place’s effect is last on the chain, it is the only card that Ash Blossom could have attempted to activate on (if it could). This also applies to other hand traps such as Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit.

+ On-Board Presence

Once Prank-Kids gets going, it can have three to four Prank-Kids monsters on the field at the start of the turn. Without the restriction of Prank-Kids Pandemonium, it has access to powerful Extra Deck monsters such as Borrelsword Dragon and Toadally Awesome. It is difficult to remove four monsters that are completely protected from destruction.

With all of these advantages, why isn’t the deck very prevalent? The answer is a combination of linearity, lack of interaction on the opponent’s turn, and weakness to floodgates.

Lows

– Linearity

Past its many moving parts lies a Deck that has one real goal: to set up a board that can turn into high damage. While Prank-Kids can grind resources like crazy, it does little to advance the game state. Given enough time, any deck can break through the multiplying pranksters and threaten to set up a negation.

Speaking of which, if the opponent has even one negation, it may spell disaster. Prank-Kids plays usually start with a Fusion Summon into Prank-Kids Rocket Ride via Polymerization or Pandemonium. The other cards in your hands may be other Prank-Kids monsters or techs like hand traps. In this case, if a Fusion spell is negated, you may have to end your turn. Sometimes you can bypass this with cards such as Instant Fusion or Prank-Kids Prank.

– Lack of Interaction on the Opponent’s Turn

Prank-Kids have a lot to do on the opponent’s turn but disruption is not one of them. Unless you manage to XYZ summon Toadally Awesome, the Prank-Kids core cards have no way to disrupt or negate the opponent’s plays. High power decks that use Danger! or Orcust monsters have free reign to set up their combos.

– Weakness to Floodgates

While many top tier decks such as Sky Strikers and Salamangreats don’t main deck floodgates (at least, until recently with the release of the dreaded Mystic Mine), almost every deck has a floodgate in their Side Deck. Gozen Match, Rivalry of Warlords, Summon Limit, and Mystic Mine are all incredibly detrimental to Prank-Kids. The deck has no Prank-Kids core cards that can easily destroy Spell or Trap cards, and again have to rely on tech choices to get out of a tough spot.

Techs

Keeping these weaknesses in mind, what techs can help alleviate Prank-Kids weaknesses?

Hand Traps

Ever present, hand traps help Prank-Kids stop combo decks from setting up an unbreakable board. While hand traps are useful in almost any deck, Prank-Kids have Prank-Kids Rocksies, which allows you to draw one card a turn while deck thinning. Specifically, Rocksies can draw a card on the opponent’s turn when used for a Fusion summon via Pandemonium, and Prank-Kids Pranks draws at the end of your turn. No other cards could be used that immediately.

Instant Fusion

Instant Fusion plays many roles in Prank-Kids, such as playmaker and extender. If you don’t have access to Polymerization or Pandemonium, you will have to start with summoning two Prank-Kids. Instant Fusion can summon Prank-Kids Rocket Ride for a Link summon, or to extend plays by tributing Rocket Ride for its own effect. You can also use other utility fusions, but make sure you have a way to Link it off so it doesn’t block your Extra Deck monster zone.

Called By the Grave

The utility of this card is quite unrivaled, being able to banish pesky cards or negate hand traps. However, if it is used for the latter, Prank-Kids Place can be used to chain block Ghost Ogre and Ash Blossom. Its removal and negation effect is useful in the context of the meta.

Engines

The two engines present in topping Prank-Kids are Invoked and Thunder Dragon. Aleister the Invoker can be used as another search card for a fusion spell, and Prank-Kids don’t use their Normal Summon too often. However, this makes the deck more susceptible to hand traps. The Thunder Dragon engine allows Prank-Kids to summon Thunder Dragon Colossus by tributing Prank-Kids Fansies. Clearly, this is a powerful boon, but it assumes the best in that you are able to go off without having to use Pandemonium and its Prank-Kids locking condition.

Sample Decklist and Opening Hands Plays

Opening Hand Examples

End Board Tips

Make sure you have access to Prank-Kids Pandemonium on both your and your opponent’s turn. It’s the key tool that helps you survive your opponent’s turn and to set up a larger board on yours.

If your play involves Prank-Kids Rocksies, make note of which card in your hand you will banish while planning.

Opening Hand:

1 Prank-Kids Lampsies

1 Prank-Kids Dropsies

1 Prank-Kids Fansies

1 Prank-Kids Rocksies

1 Polymerization

1. Activate Polymerization, Fusion Summoning Prank-Kids Rocket Ride using Fansies and Rocksies.

2. Activate Rocksies effect (1), chain Fansies (2). Resolve Fansies, sending Prank-Kids Pandemonium from Deck to GY and Special summon Dropsies from Deck.

3. Resolve Rocksies, banishing Dropsies from hand and drawing a card, then Special summon Lampsies from Deck.

4. Activate Rocket Ride’s effect, Special summoning Rocksies and Fansies from GY.

5. Link Summon Prank-Kids Dodo-Doodle-Doo using Lampsies and Dropsies. Activate Lampsies (1), Doodle-Doo (2), and Dropsies (3) in that order to chain block Doodle-Doo.

6. Resolve Dropsies, gaining 1000 LP and special summoning Lampsies from Deck. Resolve Doodle-Doo to search Prank-Kids Pranks. Resolve Lampsies to Special summon Dropsies from Deck.

7. Link Summon Prank-Kids Bow-Wow-Bark using Dropsies and Rocksies to the downward arrow of Doodle-Doo.

8. Activate Doodle-Doo’s effect to tribute it and add Pandemonium and Dropsies from GY to hand.

9. Activate Pranks and set Pandemonium.

10. At the End Phase, use Pranks to return Rocket Ride, Doodle-Doo and Lampsies back to their respective Decks, and draw a card.

11. On the opponent’s turn, activate Pandemonium to Fusion summon Prank-Kids Weather Washer to your Extra Deck zone using Fansies and Dropsies.

12. Activate Fansies (1) and Dropsies (2). Resolve Dropsies, special summoning Lampsies from Deck and gaining 1000 LP. Resolve Fansies, send Prank-Kids Plan from Deck to GY, and Special Summon Rocksies from Deck.

13. Activate Bow-Wow Bark, adding Pandemonium and Prank-Kids Dropsies from GY to hand.

14. Activate Weather Washer, tributing itself and summoning Fansies and Dropsies from GY.

End board: Five Prank-Kids monsters immune to destruction, Prank-Kids Pranks, Pandemonium, Dropsies and Lampsies in hand with two other cards drawn. Prank-Kids Plan in GY.

Opening Hand:

1 Prank-Kids Dropsies

1 Prank-Kids Rocksies

1 Effect Veiler

1 Terraforming

1 Prank-Kids Pranks

1. Activate Terraforming, adding Prank-Kids Place to hand. Activate Place to search Fansies from Deck to hand.

2. Activate Prank-Kids Pranks, and activate its effect. Send Rocksies from Hand to GY and Special summon a Prank-Kids token.

3. Normal summon Prank-Kids Fansies, and Link Summon Doodle-Doo using the token and Fansies.

4. Activate Fansies (1), Doodle-Doo (2), and Place (3) in that order to chain block Doodle-Doo and Fansies.

5. Resolve Place, resolve Doodle-Doo to search Pandemonium, and resolve Fansies to send Pandemonium from Deck to GY and Special summon Lampsies from Deck.

6. Activate Doodle-Doo’s effect to tribute itself, adding Pandemonium and Rocksies from GY to hand.

7. Activate Pandemonium, Fusion summoning Rocket Ride using Rocksies and Lampsies.

8. Activate Rocksies (1), Lampsies (2), and Place (3) to chain block the Prank-Kids effects.

9. Resolve place, resolve Lampsies to burn 500 LP and special summon Dropsies from Deck. Resolve Rocksies by banishing Effect Veiler and drawing a card, and Special summoning Fansies from Deck.

11. Activate Rocket Ride’s effect to tribute itself and Special summon Fansies and Lampsies from GY to the field.

10. Link summon Bow-Wow Bark using Dropsies and Fansies. Activate Dropsies’ effect to gain 1000 LP and special summon Lampsies from Deck.

11. Set Pandemonium and proceed to End Phase. Activate Pranks, adding Doodle-Doo, Rocket Ride, and Rocksies to Deck and drawing a card.

12. On your opponent’s turn, activate Pandemonium to Fusion summon Weather Washer using Fansies and Lampsies.

13. Activate Rocksies (1), Lampsies (2), and Place (3) to chain block.

14. Resolve Place, resolve Lampsies to burn 500 LP and special summon Dropsies. Resolve Fansies, sending Prank-Kids Plan from Deck to GY and Special summoning Dropsies from Deck.

15. Activate Bow-Wow-Bark, adding Pandemonium and Prank-Kids Fansies from GY to hand.

16. Activate Weather Washer, Special summoning Lampsies and Dropsies from GY.

End board: Five Prank-Kids monsters immune to destruction, Prank-Kids Pranks, two cards from Deck, Pandemonium and a two Prank-Kids monsters in hand. Prank-Kids Plan in GY.