Triamid Guide Published on June 22, 2019 by Kazaarus Vanitur Updated on January 21, 2020 New Matchups and Techs

Introduction

Welcome to our guide on the best rocks from the box, Triamids! This deck’s playstyle is unique, fun, and challenging. Of all the Duel Links decks that have existed, this is by far the most difficult and interactive. Matches can run very long, and resource management is essential for any victory. As you will see from this guide, there are definitely standard plays that must be learned about this deck. The beauty of this deck, however, is in the new situations that arise constantly. Every few duels I discover a new interaction I haven’t encountered before or some insane play that feels amazing to pull off properly. There are infinite ways to misplay, but also infinite ways to outplay your opponent. This deck is easy to pick up, but difficult to perfect. Hopefully, after reading this guide, you’ll be one step closer to becoming a Triamid Master! (Haha the guide man made a pun.)

Core Cards

Before we go into strategies and interactions, let’s first cover the card pool.

Within the Triamid archtype there are 3 different Monsters, 3 different Field Spells, and 1 Trap:

Triamid Master (2-3x): The only Super Rare monster from the box definitely earns its rarity. This monster is the biggest of the three, sitting at a solid 1800 ATK. Master’s primary effect allows you to send any face-up Triamid card you control to the graveyard (including himself) to target any set card on the field and destroy it. This effect is great against backrow, but specifically good against Subterrors. We’ll dissect matchups later in the guide. Master’s second effect is shared between all three Triamid monsters. Every single one will allow you to send one field spell card from your field to the grave and play another field with a different name from your deck. This is where the deck’s creative playstyle comes into effect. Master should be a 2-3 of, depending on whether you play 1 or 2 . Triamid Hunter (2-3x): This monster is easily the best of the three. While you control a field spell, Hunter allots you an additional normal summon of any Rock monster. This effect allows you to establish two monsters on board, which in turn allows you to cycle through two different field spells on your opponent’s turn while also fueling your graveyard for ’s effect. Hunter is extremely important, but is also very weak, at a measly 1400 (1900 with Kingolem.) For this reason, some choose to play him at 2 and play 3 copies of Master.

Triamid Dancer (1-2x): Arguably the worst of the three, but definitely important. Dancer is very weak with only 600 ATK, but has a sizeable DEF of 1900. Resolving her primary effect will be your main goal in every single game. By shuffling any Triamid card from your grave into the deck, you can boost the ATK and DEF of all your Rocks by 500. This is a permanent boost. If she remains on the field for more than a turn and resolves her effect twice, your Master will sit at a sizeable 2800 attack and will be a huge 3300 attack with the Kingolem field spell, as you’ll see in a second. Dancer should be played at 1-2 copies. She’s not very good to open, however establishing two Dancers allows you to boost your Triamids at twice the speed, letting you hit astronomical amounts of attack very quickly. If you opt for two Dancer, cut Master or Hunter down to two, since 7 monsters is the sweet spot. Triamid Cruiser (3x): The Super Rare field spell of the archetype is amazing and boosts the consistency of the deck. You will be utilizing this card endlessly in games, more times than the simple three copies would seem to allow. These field spells have effects while on the field and effects when they’re sent to grave. While Cruiser is face-up, you gain 500 Life Points each time a Rock monster is normal summoned (by either player.) Also, when a Triamid monster is normal summoned (also by either player) you can draw one card and discard one card. At the very least, this will allow you to stock your graveyard turn one for usage with your trap and other field spells. At best though, it’ll draw you into one of the techs that you play and help establish a fantastic board. This effect will also be great for seeing side deck cards more quickly than normal. When Cruiser is sent to grave you can search your deck for any Triamid monster. This deck has three ways to send field spells to grave: you can use Master’s effect to send a Triamid and pop a set card, you can use your Triamid monsters during the opponent’s turn to send your field spells to grave, or you can simply play one field spell over top of the other. Yes, this works. The field spells just need to go from the field to the grave, and this game mechanic fulfills that requirement. This will allow you to turn Cruiser into any monster you need when you open it in tandem with another field spell on turn one. Needless to say, Cruiser is an absolute mandatory 3 of.

Triamid Kingolem (3x): Despite my long-winded explanation of Cruiser, Kingolem is arguably the best field spell. This card is the deck’s win condition. While on the field, Kingolem increases all Rock monsters’ ATK by 500. More importantly, it stops your opponent from using any cards or effects when your Triamid monsters battle. Yes, this field spell turns all of your Triamids into . This deck’s tiered potential all stems from this simple clause. Kingolem’s other effect happens when it’s sent to grave, and it allows you to special summon a Triamid monster from your hand. The deck’s plays can get even more hectic because of this effect, as you’ll see in some scenarios I describe below. Again, all 3 copies are mandatory. Triamid Fortress (1-2x): This field spell is the normal rarity one, and deservedly so. It’s definitely the more niche of the three field spells. Fortress gives all Rock monsters a 500 DEF boost and protects your Triamids from card destruction effects, living up to its name. When it’s sent from field to grave, you can add a Triamid monster from your graveyard to your hand. Normally this is better beyond the early turns, however if you utilize Cruiser’s drawing and discarding effect then Fortress can be useful much earlier than normal. These reasons leave it cut before any of the other field spells, so it should be played at 1-2 copies. You don’t really want to see it in your opening hand, but you definitely want it to cycle through and get fuel in your graveyard for Pulse. Triamid Pulse (1-3x): And finally, the one and only archetypal trap card in the deck. This card has been around for quite some time and saw use in Magnets way back in the beginning of 2018. However, it was only able to banish Rock monsters in that deck. Now, we can utilize it to its full potential in the deck it was made for. Pulse allows you to banish two cards (Rock-type Monsters, Field Spells, or a combination of the two) to activate one of its three effects. The first effect is the best and by far the most utilized: destroy one face-up card on the field, plain and simple. I have never seen the second or third effects be utilized until the release of this archetype. The second effect allows you to special summon a Rock monster from your graveyard in defense position, which can be very handy to block attacks. You can also use this effect during your opponent’s End Phase in order to use another Triamid monster’s effect to filter through and trigger another field spell. The third and final effect I have barely used, and I’ve only ever needed to in severely grindy games (upwards of 20 or 30 turns.) The third effect allows you to shuffle back up to three field spells and draw one card. Keep in mind though that this is after you banish two cards from the graveyard, so you don’t have infinite resources. You will deck out slower though, which is great if stall decks ever become relevant again.

Tech Cards

Being a mostly pure deck that benefits off of maximizing its archetypal cards, it’s very difficult to fit tech cards into this deck. There are limited slots for non-archetypal cards because the deck loses consistency when it can’t maximize its resources. That being said, the tech choices that we do play need to be very high impact in order to warrant slots in the main deck. The least important cards of the archetype that are cuttable in order to make room for techs are and . Fortress, however, is the first card to go because it bricks when you open multiple copies, and you don’t want it in your opening hand. Pulse also bricks in multiple copies, however it has much more value than Fortress because it pops cards and resummons monsters from grave turn after turn. Cutting Fortress down to one or two copies frees up some space in the main deck. Also, since we’re playing Balance, we can freely add more trap cards without throwing off the Balance ratio of our main deck, because as long as we have 7 of each type while playing 21-23 cards, we’re guaranteed to open at least 1 of each. Once you hit a new number that is divisible by 3, you need to play that many of each type to guarantee opening at least 1 of each. For instance, if we were to bump our main deck count to 24, we would need to play 8 of each. A main deck count of 25 or 26 would still need at least 8 of each, but once we hit 27, we would need to play 9 of each, and so on and so forth. Here are some tech cards to consider.

Treacherous Trap Hole: The main problem this deck faces is getting over big monsters; backrow is not an issue. We have Kingolem to prevent effects on attack and Master to pop set cards preemptively. Treacherous helps us deal with the monster issue and will allow us to easily attack directly with a Kingolem active, ensuring a victory the majority of the time it’s used. Absolutely a mandatory tech card to play, use at least 1 copy.

World Legacy Clash: The interactions this card has with the deck are fantastic. World Legacy Clash allows you to use its effect in the Damage Step of an opponent’s attack and banish a monster you control. If you banish the monster being attacked, you can both block the attack of the opponent’s monster (because your opponent won’t be able to redeclare an attack after entering Damage Step) while also reducing the attack of a second monster your opponent controls. However, the truly amazing interaction comes during the End Phase when your monster returns to the field. If your toggle is ON, you will be able to reuse the monster that was just returned and cycle through another field spell in your deck. Since each monster has a soft once per turn effect (meaning you can only use that specific card’s effect once per turn), its effect will be ‘refreshed’ when it returns to the field, as if it’s a brand-new monster. This is essentially the same as having two separate monsters, allowing you to filter through two field spells on your opponent’s turn. The only downside is that it will conflict with your spell ratios in Balance builds, so there isn’t any room for it unless you choose to play The Ties That Bind or Sealed Tombs.

Paleozoic Canadia: Both a tech and a counter, this card has very good synergy with Triamid Master. Since Master is able to destroy set cards, you can easily flip down something like and destroy it without your opponent being able to protect with Neos Fusion. This also offers crucial protection and allows you to get to your following turn without losing resources, effectively placing you in a great position to begin snowballing with Dancer boosts. Fiendish Chain: Brand new in Selection Box Vol. 3, this card is a great addition to any control deck. Both preventing monster effects and attacks gives it the versatility that’s needed in a backrow card to fit multiple situations. With this card, we can negate Blackwing synchros, Darklord monsters, Shiranui synchros, Molehu and Aleister, Magician’s Rod, and Cyber Dragon Core or any Cyber Dragon fusion. This card is expensive but will certainly be a staple in more decks than just Triamids. It’s worth getting if you can afford it.

Mirror Wall: This old but gold trap has floated in an out of metas since its release in the second main box. Stopping your opponent from attacking over your monsters for up to 2 battle phases (if you pay the 2k LP) allots this deck the time needed to snowball or recover from a poor position. Definitely a solid battle trap to consider. Wall of Disruption This battle trap reduces your opponent’s monsters by up to 2400 if they’re attacking with a full field of monsters. This creates an attack differential that’s massive, and either outright wins you some games or prevents your opponent from clearing any of your monsters, allowing you to easily clear the monsters on the following turn. This card isn’t chainable though and is easily destroyed by your opponent outside of the battle phase, leaving you unable to respond. It’s a decent side deck card, and only really shines against decks that swarm the field.

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror This card negates all Dark monster effects on the field and in the graveyard. This hits Darklord effects (except Ixchel and Tezcatlipoca in hand,) Blackwing effects (except Simoon in the hand,) Aleiser’s search effect, both of Molehu’s effects, Magician’s Rod and Magician of Dark Illusion, and even Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. It’s definitely worth side-decking all the time, however some might even argue that it warrants a spot in the main deck. Regardless, it should be included somewhere because of how useful it is.

Counters

And here’s where the interesting part comes in. Even if you’re not thinking about playing this deck, this section still pertains to you. Let’s discuss some cards that counter this deck.

Cosmic Cyclone: A well-timed Cyclone can be this deck’s kryptonite. Using this card on a field spell will normally be a waste because Triamids can just chain their own effect, however, if you hold your cyclone until your opponent runs out of monster effects to switch field spells, this card will leave them top decking. At worst it slows their resource advantage, but at best it shuts them down entirely. Definitely worth siding for this deck as it also deals with many other decks. Gate Blocker: This unknown card absolutely destroys Triamids. As long as you can protect it, you will win the majority of your Triamid matchups. This card negates all field spell effects, including in the graveyard. This simple clause is all that’s needed to shut down any Triamid deck. Unfortunately though, it’s not useful against any other meta deck so this will likely only see play if Triamid becomes the most represented deck. Something to look out for, but nothing to worry about for now.

Closed Forest: This card is in the same vein as . However, this card simply prevents field spell cards from being activated while it’s on the field. Ideally you want to go first and open this card so that Triamids can’t establish a field spell to begin with. However, if you happen to play this card while Triamids already have a field spell and a monster effect established, then they’ll be able to respond to your activation of Closed Forest before it resolves. This little downside will allow Triamids to trigger their field spell effect in grave while also quickly reestablishing a more needed field spell before your Closed Forest has the chance to lock them down. Because this card doesn’t prevent field spell effects, it’s significantly worse than Gate Blocker, especially since Triamids also side . Play Gate Blocker instead, unless your deck relies on its normal summon. In that case, generic cards like Cosmic Cyclone are still a better option than Closed Forest. Paleozoic Canadia: We need our monsters face-up in order to activate their effects. Otherwise, we won’t be cycling through our field spells and we won’t be gaining advantage. Thankfully, very few decks play Canadia in the main deck. Overall, this card falls into the same category as : very good against our deck while still versatile in its use against other meta decks. Definitely consider this card.

Floodgate Trap Hole: Canadia against this deck is annoying, but Floodgate is especially obnoxious. We need our monsters to be face-up in order to trigger their effects, however if we have a monster face-down and also locked on our field then our ability to cycle field spells is severely hindered. Eventually, we’d like to get to the point where we can have 3 monsters on board and start gaining serious steam. With a locked zone, or potentially even two locked zones, our ability to cycle is very minimal. If your deck can play Floodgate then absolutely use it. Skull Meister: Just like Ancient Gears, Triamids have field spells that need effects to resolve in the graveyard. This card is an obvious choice to stop that. If both Ancient Gears and Triamid see more meta use, this card will be a great side deck option to answer both decks.

Playing Around Cosmic Cyclone (and other counters):

Cosmic Cyclone is the bane of this deck’s existence. Being a quickplay, a well-timed Cyclone can throw a wrench in the entire deck. A good opponent will either use Cyclone at the end of your turn or when you try to activate your last Triamid monster effect on their turn. Both plays will leave you unable to respond with your quick effect Triamid monsters. So, knowing this, how can we play around it?

First, we need to recognize which decks will most likely have Cosmic Cyclone in the main deck. Ancient Gears, for example, only have Double Cyclone, which is nowhere near as detrimental. You’ll still get the graveyard effect of the field spell and it’ll still be fodder for Triamid Pulse. Just pay attention to delays (no delay on a summon, but delay on a field activation) and act accordingly, keeping in mind that a Double Cyclone isn’t the end of the world. The new Vendreads don’t have room for Cosmic Cyclone, neither do Spellbooks or other Triamid decks, since their archetypal cards take up the majority of the main deck. The deck that most likely has Cosmic Cyclone in their main deck is Desperado/Cyberdark. Six Samurai, Magnets, and maybe Subterrors or Crystron play Cosmic as well, but don’t stress about it, there are other threats to worry about in those matchups (Dual Wield, Dragon Spirit, Umastryx, etc.)

Now that we know WHERE to look for Cosmic Cyclone, we need to know WHEN to look for it.

Pay attention to delays. If you’re going second and there’s a delay on your field spell activation, don’t get greedy. Make sure you’re saving a field spell in hand for the following turn in case you get Cycloned. Just summon your monster, set your trap that you drew, and either attack/pass turn depending on the rest of their board. If you get Cycloned at end phase, use your backrow to try and save your monster for the following turn, knowing that you held another field spell in hand.

If you’re going first, do your plays like normal. Establish 2 monsters whenever possible, set your backrow and end on either Cruiser/Kingolem, unless you’re forced to end on Fortress. Your board is pretty formidable, so react to your opponent’s plays as necessary. Also, remember your matchups to know when you should be looking out for Cyclone. Are they playing Sartorius? Be weary of the Cosmic, don’t shotgun your field swap effects. If they go for the Blast Spider on your monster, swap to Fortress. Spider will die and they can bring out Desperado, but you still have Fortress up, so they’re forced to attack, in which case you protect with your trap. A good opponent will HOLD the Cyclone in hand until the End Phase or until you attempt to use your last monster effect, that way you can’t respond with a switch out. This is where you can play mind games with them. If it reaches the End Phase and you have the ability to swap field spells, consider the option of not swapping. Did you Canadia their Desperado? If so, you can just use Master on the following turn to send that Fortress and pop Desperado (or a backrow, if you have Kingolem to clear the defense of Desperado.) There wouldn’t be a need to swap fields in that scenario if you’re afraid of Cyclone, and now they’re left with a Cyclone in hand during your turn because they thought they could catch you with it in the End Phase. If you can recover from Cyclone in the case where you do swap at End Phase, do it anyway. Get that Cyclone out of the way and then proceed to recover on your following turn. Now that it’s your turn again, you should be firmly in control, since they won’t be able to potentially summon a second Desperado when you attack with Kingolem active.

I’ll talk about Canadia/Floodgate briefly, since there isn’t much you can do to play around them. You have to commit a monster to the board, at which point your opponent will flip it facedown (immediately if it’s a Hunter to prevent the double summon, or at any other point before the end phase.) You need to hope to have either Kingolem or Pulse in this case. With Kingolem up, if you get flipped facedown on your normal summon, you can play another field spell over top of the Kingolem to allow you to special summon another monster from your hand. Your hand has to be very good in this instance, meaning you didn’t open 2 traps. If you do have to rely on a trap though, Pulse will allow you to revive the monster that was flipped when your opponent clears it on their turn and then swap out your field spell since your monster is now faceup again.

Hope this counter section helped! TLDR: pay attention to delays, consider which decks have Cosmic Cyclone in their main deck, and don’t overextend to the point where you instantly lose to it.

Builds and Skill Options

As of right now, there are two dominant deck styles, each with their separate builds and gameplay. The first is to use is to use a more generic utility skill like . The other is to use as the skill. After a few weeks of testing, the Balance build has the most success in high-level play.

The Balance Build Originally, we were attempting to force both techs and resources into a 20 card Balance build, but it just wasn’t strong enough. By simply adding more cards, this allows us to play more techs without sacrificing crucial field spell resources, while also maintaining the perfect balanced hand of 1 monster 1 spell and 1 trap, with the potential for an additional field spell or monster as the fourth card. Because having a trap card for protection is crucial in a lot of matchups, the balance version is preferred over The Tie that Binds and Sealed Tombs. Luke Tyler ’s MCS 20 Top 4 Decklist.

The Generic Build

The generic build is dubbed that because of its ability to run multiple different options for skills. While many options are available, the two predominant ones are and as the former provides lack of interaction with the opponent through graveyard lockdown, and the latter provides a very appreciated ATK boost for Triamids. Other skills that could help the generic Triamid build in the future include, but are not limited to, for the synergy with Triamid Pulse and Triamid Hunter’s first effect and the ability to be sided for in some matchups, for its synergy with Triamid Master, for its recycling ability, and for its ability to unbrick otherwise dead hands. The main advantages of this build include: the general versatility while still maintaining high (but not guaranteed, like balance) consistency. This deck is significantly cheaper to buy or build with Gems or cash as most cards can be acquired through either free in-game means (like the Card Trader) or are all in the same box as each other. The weaknesses of the build include: the incredibly large core causing a lack of protection/tech space, lack of build variance, and reliance on destruction and/or banishing for most interruption. Below are some builds that Top Players have used for tournaments.

Small_cheese DLE 4 1st Place Decklist. Sasuke’s PCT 38 Top 4 Decklist.

Gameplay and Example Scenarios

So, now that we’ve covered the deck and cards that supplement it, let’s go over some example hands together. We’ll be discussing how to maximize advantage in any hand. Interactions will be discussed in the matchups section.

Example 1: Ideal Hand

Activate Triamid Cruiser Normal summon Triamid Hunter and gain 500 LP. If your hand needed correcting, here is where you would utilize Cruiser’s effect to draw and discard. We won’t need that in this scenario. Use your additional normal summon (provided by Hunter) to normal summon Master. Gain another 500 LP. If your hand still sucks, go ahead and draw/discard once more. Set your tech card, in this case we’ll say it’s Treacherous. End your turn. During your opponent’s turn, you’ll be able to trigger both Triamid effects. Try not to shotgun them, since you’ll want to use their effects in response to your opponent’s plays, i.e. switching to Fortress to prevent destruction, or Kingolem during the Battle Phase to boost your Triamids. To prevent needing a flowchart of decisions, we’ll say they set a few cards and end their turn. Now, during their End Phase, use one of your monster’s effects to send Cruiser to grave and activate Kingolem from deck. Search Dancer with Cruiser, then use your other Triamid to send Kingolem to grave and play Fortress from deck. Activate Kingolem in grave to special Dancer from hand in DEF position. Then, use the Dancer you just summoned (your THIRD Triamid effect of the turn) to switch Fortress for another Kingolem. Chain your Treacherous to this effect if you so wish, even if they only have one monster to destroy. Your Triamids will be protected from effect destruction until your Fortress leaves the field. Now, at the start of your turn, you’ll be able to use Master’s effect to pop a set, Dancer’s effect to recycle a field and boost everything by 500 ATK and DEF, and you also have Kingolem to boost ATK by an additional 500 and make all of your monsters Armades. That is undoubtedly very good.

Example 2: Average Hand

Activate Kingolem from your hand. Normal Summon Triamid Master. Set World Legacy Clash and end your turn. During your opponent’s turn, you’ll be able to activate Master’s effect, sending Kingolem to grave and playing Cruiser from your deck. Do this as soon as possible, this way you can utilize Clash to reset your Master and block attacks. Kingolem will then activate in the grave, allowing you to special Dancer from your hand in defense position. Then use Dancer to send Cruiser to grave and activate either a Fortress or a Kingolem from deck, depending on the situation. If you needed to use Clash this turn to protect, then activate Fortress so that you can then send Fortress with the returned Master in the End Phase and play Kingolem from deck. This thins your deck by 1 more card and gives you a slightly better chance to see Treacherous or Pulse.

Example 3: Poor Hand

Unfortunately, this hand is very lackluster. Not necessarily a brick since you can still make plays, but opening only Fortress without a way to establish 2 monsters isn’t ideal. Regardless, we need to make the best of it.

Activate Fortress from your hand and normal summon Master. Set Pulse and end your turn. During your opponent’s turn, you’ll be able to swap Fortress for Cruiser. Also, your Master will likely die since you don’t have protection. This will stack your grave with 2 Triamid cards, giving you an activatable Pulse effect. You can either pop a card if there’s an immediate threat, or wait to see what you top deck on the following turn. Ideally, you’ll top deck a field spell. Since you played optimally and maximized your resources from the beginning, you’ll be able to make some cool plays this turn. Let’s say you draw Kingolem in this instance. Play the Kingolem over the Cruiser, allowing you to search for Hunter. Cruiser then gives you a third Triamid card in the grave if you didn’t use Pulse on the previous turn. You can use Pulse’s second effect to banish 2 field spells and special your Master from the grave. Master can bait backrow with his primary effect if needed. If you successfully bait backrow, or even if you don’t need to, proceed with summoning Hunter. This will then allow you to also normal summon Dancer. Unfortunately you won’t be able to utilize Dancer’s boost, but you now have 3 monsters on the field, allowing you to cycle through all 3 field spells on your opponent’s turn. This will stock your grave for a Pulse effect on your opponent’s turn, and then another Pulse effect on your following turn, assuming one of your Triamid monsters died giving you the fourth card in grave. This is how the deck snowballs very quickly, even from lackluster hands.

Matchups

Right now, the meta is extremely diverse with 7 decks to look out for, with Dragunity on the horizon. This section is here to help Triamid players in each of the matchups they could face off against in a tournament by briefly explaining core interactions and some strategies.

Blackwings

Blackwings: These birds are actually fairly simple to shoot down from the sky, assuming they don’t blow you out with Trunade. Going first, they don’t establish much, if anything at all. It mainly depends on the player and their hand, some will establish Chidori, others will setup Hawk Joe and Raikiri, that way Hawk Joe can just summon back Raikiri if it dies on the following turn. And some players will just do nothing. Either way, your goal is always the same. Setup your monster(s), your field spell, and your backrow. You have Fortress to protect your monsters against Raikiri destruction, if they target the field spell you can just dodge. Your backrow will be chainable, allowing you to pre-emptively pop Raikiri and Joe with Treacherous, or if you went first you can just use Treacherous to prevent the synchro summon in the first place. Triamid Pulse can pop Whirlwinds to prevent your opponent from searching, or it can bring back monsters from grave to reestablish your field if you opponent managed to clear some of your Triamids in battle. Overall, the matchup is fairly trivial, and you should have full control of the game with your Treacherous, Pulse, Floodgates and/or Canadias (unless you bricked and end up playing from behind.)

Darklord

Darklord: This is somewhat more difficult of a matchup, since Cosmic Cyclone is more frequently main decked. You should have a good idea of how to play around it though after reading this guide. It’s tough to play around Darklord Tezcatlipoca though, because even if you know your opponent has it, you still have to be able to destroy your opponent’s Darklords twice. Ixchel has huge defense, and at 2900 it’ll take 2 Dancer boosts of Master and a Kingolem on the field to clear it (Master hits 3300 attack, barely missing at its other 2800 benchmark.) If you can stall your opponent with Floodgate and Canadia, this will give you ample time to boost your monsters high enough and setup for a big push. Essentially, you just need to have enough backrow to slow your opponent down and get control of the game. The matchup is pretty straightforward though, and your goal is ultimately the same as any other: establish your field, cycle through your field spells, and boost your monsters to high attack values. Also watch out for Desire, as Fortress can’t protect from its Send effect.

Dark Magician

Dark Magician: This matchup is a pain. This is a control deck, but their deck is inherently equipped to deal with ours. Dark Magical Circle will banish one of our cards nearly every turn, slowly wearing us down. Not to mention that they also main deck Cosmic Cyclone, just to add insult to injury. Going first is key if we want to have any hope of controlling the game in our favor. Destroy Circle with Pulse at every opportunity you have. They won’t get to search with it if it’s destroyed before resolution, which is just a bonus to stopping its constant banishing. If they get 2 Dark Magicians out, destroy them with Treacherous that same turn, as otherwise they’ll be able to negate you Treacherous by banishing Magician Navigation on any turn except the one it was sent to grave.

Elementsaber-Invoked

Elementsaber-Invoked: Another tough matchup where going second is a nightmare. Get your monsters constantly flipped down means you won’t be able to swap field spells on your opponent’s turn. You’re going to need to open Treacherous to destroy their Molehus, along with enough monsters to play through their Canadias and Floodgates. Utilizing Triamid Pulse’s effect to reborn your monsters from grave (after they get flipped facedown and killed) will be necessary to keep pressure on your opponent and give you more opportunities to cycle through field spells. Going first is ideal, because that’ll give you more control of the game, allowing you to deal with your opponent’s Molehu before it’s established and cycle through field spells pre-emptively.

Shiranui

Shiranui: Whether it’s the 30-card build, or the 20-card build, this matchup is in our favor. We can Floodgate Squiresaga before it has a chance to destroy our cards, and also prevent them from making Sunsaga in the process. Spiritmaster can only destroy our faceup cards, so our backrow is safe, and we can cycle to Fortress if they target our monsters, or we can just swap to another field spell if they target our current one. 20-card builds typically have 1 normal summon per turn and fewer extenders than 30-card builds, so they run out a steam faster and are more easily stopped. If a 30-card build opens That Grass Looks Greener, they’ll likely have a summon off of Gozuki as well as a Spectralswords setup for following turns. This makes it a little more difficult to slow their roll, but as long as we continue destroying or flipping down their synchro summon, we’re squarely in the lead because their other monsters are too weak to clear ours.

Cyber Dragon

Cyber Dragon: This matchup is difficult. We can’t dodge Cybernetic Overflow because it doesn’t target, so if they activate it and we chain our monster effect to switch a field spell to Fortress, they can still destroy our Fortress and our other cards. Now we’ve lost a field spell, and if we don’t have another then we’re playing from behind. Chimeratech Rampage Dragon also destroys two (usually, sometimes more) spell or traps on summon. We can activate our backrow in response, but we’re losing more cards than them in the process. Going second is harder than going first (as usual,) but we can use Master effect to try and hit their Overflows before they can destroy our cards, or their Cyberload Fusions before they have enough materials to fuse. Destroying Overflow unfortunately allows them to search Cyberload Fusion, but we can’t commit to the board without getting wiped. And even though committing too many cards to the board may spell disaster, with Cosmic Cyclone being rampant it’s dangerous to set only one card and risk getting blown out by a Rampage attacking 3 times. Overall, the matchup comes down to how well your opponent opened, and how quickly they play through your field. If you can slow them down enough to the point where they’re only destroying a card or 2 per turn and losing fusion materials in the process, then you might have opportunities to get in some damage. Overall, the matchup is in Cyber Dragon’s favor.

Ritual Beasts

Ritual Beasts: With so much backrow, this deck is easily interrupted. The flip cards (Canadia and Floodgate) aren’t too useful though, because they can just chain the fusion effects to tag out and dodge the flip, and they can still contact fuse even if we try to flip down their initial summon of Elder. Treach and Pulse can pop one or both monsters though, so they won’t have enough materials to fusion anyway. We also have Kingolem to allow us to freely beat over Winda and prevent her special summon effect. Plasma doesn’t do much, because again with so much backrow it’s easily flipped down or destroyed. Going second puts the matchup more in their favor, but not by much. They can setup their ambush with a fusion to tag out, but their onslaught of monsters won’t do much since they’re so weak and easily beatdown by our monsters with Kingolem on the field. And if their turn 1 play is just setting Winda, again we can just beat over it with Kingolem up. Overall, you shouldn’t struggle with this matchup much, if at all.

Triamid (Mirror Match)

With Triamids continuing to rise in power and popularity, the Triamid Mirror is one of the most important matchups to know because it can mean the difference between winning and losing an event. Furthermore, the Triamid Mirror is one of, if not the most technical mirror match to appear in the history in Duel Links. With low ability to OTK through an established board and both sides benefiting from each player’s field spells, the mirror is extremely complicated. If the person going first opens Triamid Pulse they definitely have an advantage… unless their opponent opens Triamid Master or Triamid Fortress to force it out. Since almost all Triamid decks run Balance now, tech cards, side deck cards, and timing make a huge difference. The key to the matchup is to think further ahead of your opponent and use what resources you have to your advantage. Because field spells give their stat buffs to both sides, timing backrow is incredibly important. The best backrow to side or main is , , and as these will allow you to interrupt them without destroying the monsters they can easily protect. Otherwise, this is a matchup of skill and planning. Important to note, the field spells interact differently with your opponents monsters. The controller of Cruiser will be prompted to draw and discard each time the opponent normal summons a Triamid, and Fortress will protect their monsters as well as your own. However, Kingolem will only give the battle negation effect to its owner. Also, if there is a Kingolem on both sides of the field, Kingolem will not cancel the other Kingolem. Instead, both players will be locked out of effects and then priority will pass to the turn player. If you feel shakey in the matchup, find a friend to practice against.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, congrats! Thanks for reading and supporting the work we put into this. As you can probably tell, this deck is complex. We hope this helped you immensely with your plays and allowed you to get a big brain like us! Continue practicing and you’ll be a pro in no time!