And would you look at that, it’s another Complete Guide! Despite Magus’ lack of support (all-time, not just G-era), it’s certainly solidified itself as one of the most beloved subclans in Oracle Think Tank. It’s consistently praised for faithfulness and originality in its theme of clairvoyance. Though Amaterasu is similar to the Magi, there is nothing in the game that is quite like Magus. So without further ado, here is the complete guide!

Disclaimer: Magus is a fun subclan to play, but it certainly isn’t considered to be competitive. Perhaps further support may change that, but for now it’s mainly just a cheap, fun deck for beginners and veterans alike. This guide is applicable to pre-GBT12 Magus. After GBT12, the main deck is likely to stay the same, but the G-Zone will change.

The Lore:

The Magus is a group of mainly composed of humans and some elves who are gifted in the art of divination and fortune-telling. Their playstyle revolves around “predicting” the top card of the deck, and gaining skills for predicting correctly. They are led by the Grandmaster of all Magi, Hexagonal Magus.

Grade 0:

Starting Vanguard

The Magi only have one forerunner to their name, but don’t let that fool you! Semilunar Magus is AMAZING. Her ability activates on boost while you have a “Magus” Vanguard and allows you to use the skill to check the top card of your deck for free. This is great because you can combo it with skills like Rhombus Magus or Stellar Magus to ensure that their skills will go off when you need them. Furthermore, Semilunar is the free-est +1 in the entire OTT clan as she requires no counterblasts and no soulblasts (though you do lose the boost if you choose to pay the cost). Many Magus players will play multiple copies of her because of her amazing skill. However, I recommend limiting her to two copies as you don’t generally need more than that. Run 1-2.

Triggers:

As this is OTT, we clearly need vanilla draw, after vanilla draw, after vanilla draw, so here’s our vanilla draw. Triangle Magus is certainly a viable option for Magus as they don’t have that much draw power. She’s nice, but optional. Run 0-4.

Paisley is essentially a “Magus” restricted Battle Sister, Cocoa reborn as a critical trigger. She’s quite useful for setting off combos, however, you should rarely find yourself in a situation where you want to call a critical trigger to the field. Like Triangle, Paisely is nice, but optional. Run 0-4.

Above all else, Magus is best known for its heal triggers, with Lozenge Magus being one of the most iconic units in the clan. Since Sphere Magus and Lozenge Magus have the same skill, you’re more likely to run Lozenge, as she’s been reprinted numerous times. Sphere is a promo, and therefore harder to find. However, you may also choose to run Lozenge Magus Fine if you want to speed up your deck. In the end, it’s a meta call. If you expect yourself to end up in a grind game, then Lozenge is the unit for you. If you expect to die or kill before deckout then Lozenge Magus Fine is for you. Run 4 of either.

Grade 1:

Tetra is our Magus sentinel. She’s beautiful, but that’s about all she has going for her considering the fact that Magus is not an especial counter blast or soul blast heavy deck. The only card in the subclan that does use especial counter blasts is Pentagonal Magus, and her skill isn’t worth running vanilla PGs. Run 0, you’re better off with G-era PGs.

Circle Magus is one of the oldest cards in Oracle Think Tank, as she was first printed as a promo, and then re-printed in BT03 (and then again in EB05 and again in EB07). You get the point, she’s a classic and for a long time she was essential to pulling off Magus combos. However, the G-era gave us Cone Magus, whose skill is very similar to Circle Magus. The only difference between them is that Cone forces you to reveal the top card instead of just keeping it to yourself, but does offer the ability to counter charge two as a reward. However, Magus is not a counter blast heavy deck so you will rarely, if ever, actually need to use Cone to counter charge. At the end of the day, Circle and Cone are basically the same card, with essentially the same skill. Run 0-4 of each or either. These are the Grade 1s that you should use to fill in any gaps in your Grade 1 line-up. Both are good, neither is revolutionary.

Crescent Magus has a nifty skill that appears to be better than it actually is in practice. Like Semilunar, Crescent has the ability to reveal the top card on boost, which is helpful in resolving Rhombus and Stellar’s skills. However, she’s a 6k base which hurts a lot if you intend to whiff her skill to set up Rhombus or Stellar. Furthermore, if you do pull off her skill, all you get is a measly 3k (which does help to hit numbers against Dudley Jessica, Gavrail, or cross rides, but that’s about it). The only time that skill is useful is when you’re boosting Silent Tom as it will create a 17k column. Then, on a Dragon Destroyer Battle Deity, Kamususanoo turn, you can make a 21k Tom column. Which is great and all except that the combo with Tom requires a lot more set-up than it’s worth. Run 0.

Ripis is the standard Grade 1 10k attacker. Run 0-4 as you see fit. She’s great for early game rush, if that’s what you’re going for.

In my opinion, Octagonal Magus is more trouble than she’s worth. Sure, she can gain A LOT of shield. However, she requires a lot of set-up and generally her skill can only be pulled off if you just had a Globe Magus turn, or just used Sun of Eternity, Amaterasu to check the top card of your deck during your opponent’s turn. She’s a decent tech option, but she’s inconsistent. Run 0-1.

Grade 2:

Stellar and Rhombus are the two VIPs of the Magus subclan. These two are essentially the reason why Magus is any good at all. Stellar’s draw power is cheap (1 counter blast), and her skill allows her to check the top card of the deck for free on attack (provided you called it wrong). She allows the deck to gain a lot of advantage pre-GB. Run 2-4, I find 3 to be a good sweet spot.

Though Rhombus offers no hand advantage, she does offer POWER. Her skill can easily be used to make her a 14k body on her own or a 21k beater when boosted. Run 4.

Briolette and Cuore are the lesser known Magus Grade 2s. Thought neither of them are flashy, they do have their place in a Magus Grade 2 line-up. Briolette is unassuming, and typically does not attack. She is not always needed, but she is a useful way to increase the consistency of Stellar and Rhombus. She finds most use pre-GB or when Globe, Crescent, Paisley, or Circle aren’t available. She also has a nifty (though unadvised) combo with Floral Magus which allows you to draw indefinitely until you run out of soul or counter blasts. Run 0-2.

Cuore is a consistent beater. As the standard 12k attacker, she doesn’t contribute to the Magus’ theme. She’s not flashy, but she’s consistent. Run 0-2.

Grade 3:

Unfortunately Magus does not have a subclan strider yet. Therefore, it doesn’t typically matter which Grade 3 you ride, as long as you have the “Magus” name. However, there are some Grade 3 Maguses that have better skill than others.

Pentagonal Magus is the typical Grade 3 of choice as she has the best skill of them all. Her on attack skill is free and allows her to gain extra power and a critical. Her second skill is typically useless, however you can use it to reach high numbers if you want to as Magus generally has more counter charge options than counter blast. Play 4.

Floral Magus is affectionately referred to as “Budget Pentagonal”. She has a cute combo with Briolette which can draw you a lot of cards in a single turn and keep powering up Floral, however, nothing will replace Pentagonal’s inherent critical. Play 0-4.

Ring Magus is commonly seen as the back-up to Pentagonal Magus, and it’s easy to see why. Her skill allows you to draw an extra card on swing, as well as gain 3k, which paired with a 7k boost, makes an easy 21k column. However, I’m not a fan of Ring Magus, as I typically don’t like using Grade 3s as rearguards, and I’d rather use Stellar and Rhombus to accomplish the same thing. Furthermore, though Magus is a low counter blast deck, I’m not a fan of using Ring’s skill because, unlike Stellar, she doesn’t counter charge if you call the wrong card. Play 0-4.

Cyclindre Magus is a relic of its time. Play 0.

Finally we’ve gotten to Hexagonal Magus, the big boss of the Magus subclan. Unfortunately, she is a relic of the break ride era. Her skill is good, but breakrides are very slow in the current state of the game. However, since this is Magus and the name counts more than the skill, I still use her as my back-up to Pentagonal. Run 0-4.

Grade 4:

Magus only has two Grade 4s: a stride and a g-guard. Though Globe Magus is a great facilitator for your rearguard’s skills, she lacks the inherent pressure of Pentagonal’s critical. Essentially, she is practically a vanilla stride. Without rearguards to enable, she does essentially nothing other than force a perfect guard or a “three to pass”. I just wish that she did more for the subclan. Run 2.

Lozenge Magus Apex is also a Magus. However, her skill does nothing to enable Magus skills as she doesn’t allow you to place the card at the top of the deck. Essentially, Sun of Eternity, Amaterasu would be a better subclan g-guard than Apex. Run 1-2.

Recommended deck list:

Grade 0: 18

Though this deck seems like it would synergize well with stand triggers, as you typically attack with your rears first on non-Globe Magus turns, the reality I’ve found is that criticals work better. The reason for this is that the stand may allow you to re-stand a Rhombus Magus, but you wouldn’t have the ability to re-use her skill, as you wouldn’t know the top card of the deck anymore. Sure, you get the extra attack, but you lack the pressure to make that attack worth it.

Semilunar Magus x2

Lozenge Magus Fine x4

Battle Sister, Muffin x4

Muffin has excellent synergy in Magus as she allows you to bounce her from your field to the deck. This is good because it increases the number of triggers in your deck and delays deck-out.

Psychic Bird x4

Psychic Bird is great in Magus as he allows you to change the top card of the deck if you saw it, and would like to draw it instead of drive check it.

Paisley Magus x2

Triangle Magus x2

Grade 1: 15

Ame-no-Sagiri x4

The unflip perfect guard is preferred in this deck as you would rather counter charge than randomly bounce a perfect guard from the drop zone to the hand.

Ame-no-Murakumo x4

Cone Magus x3

Circle Magus x4

You can choose to switch the ratio of Circle to Cone. Generally, it makes no difference.

Grade 2: 10

Stellar Magus x3

You don’t need to use Stellar’s draw skill every turn. Three copies makes it useable, but not cumbersome. The main issue with the card is that it must attack a Vanguard to pull off it’s skill. This means that if your opponent is at Grade 3, you must boost this unit to be able to hit. Often, it is just not worth dropping the extra card.

Rhombus Magus x4

One word: Numbers.

Briolette Magus x2

One word: Consistency.

Cuore Magus x1

This card is great against a control match-up as it doesn’t need a boost to hit.

Grade 3: 7

Hexagonal Magus x3 Or Ring Magus x3

Use Hexagonal if you want another Vanguard target, use Ring if you want a Rearguard.

Pentagonal Magus x4

Grade 4: 16

One Who Views the Planet, Globe Magus x2

She’s useful, but she’s not amazing. She has her moments.

Sword Deity of the Thunder Break, Takemikazuchi x2

An excellent tempo stride in this deck. You could even consider playing him at 4.

Lord of Guidance, Wakahirume x2

Better in this deck than almost any other OTT build (except Tsukuyomi). Combos extremely well with Briolette.

Dragon Battle Destroyer Deity, Kamususanoo x2

Useful when you can make numbers. Useful if you need a first stride that gets you to GB2.

State Affair Subjugation Deity, Kamususanoo x2

Inherent crits are inherent pressure.

Chief Deity of the Heavens, Amaterasu x2

Sunrise-on-high Godhawk, Ichibyoshi x2

Preserving One, Lozenge Magus Apex x2

Sun of Eternity, Amaterasu x1