Black D'Sceptyr

Where darkness has purchase, where silence has lease, the Illuminate are there to blind them and bind them! Illuminate, the encompassing term of the sub-archetypes "Illuminatemplar" and "Illuminatender", are a collection of Level 4 LIGHT monsters of different Types that center around maintaining hand size. Each of them has an effect that activates when they leave the hand, except to be Special Summoned, that allow them to Special Summon a different "Illuminate" monster from your GY. However, their true talent shines in what happens when their effects resolve, and the number of cards in your hand is the same as when they left it. They can end the Phase being conducted immediately, perform quick Xyz Summons, even place taxes on your opponent's monster abilities that require them to discard cards to activate them! And speaking of Xyzes, they've got their own triplet to spare. They work amazingly well with the handdrop-to-draw Number 10 Illuminight, to be sure. But, they own star-bordered bosses have some deadly tricks of their own to shed light on. Illuminatemplar Patriarch, for example, is a fierce Psychic whose detach effect dumps your entire hand (so long as its two cards or less) to restock it with cards from your opponent's GY. And of course, it modifies the Level and Attribute of monsters you control to Level 4 LIGHT, to make sure they're prime card for conversion to the Illuminate cause. Then there's Illuminatender Prodigal, an equally capable Zombie that can banish any card on the field for three turns; provided you can discard a card and add 1 with the same name from your field or Deck or its own material stash to your hand. And then there comes the Rank 8 Illuminate Incarnation Providence, a Fairy any two Rank 4 Illuminate Xyzes can make, and whose effect gives you an automatic victory in three turns so long as you lock three of your zones at the start of each of those turns. (And, of course, discard to fetch "Illuminate" cards of different types from your GY.) With the sky as the limit - and, well, the activation of only LIGHT monsters' effects during the turn any of them activate their hand-departing abilities - you won't go wrong hitching your wagon to the bright future of the Illuminate! __________ Next Up: PAINTag

Genie of Egypt: The Seven Millennium Items were not the first artifacts to be bred from greed and tragedy being wrought upon an innocent populace. But this story, unlike the one that led to the Thief King, does have a happier ending. With the lamps that used to keep their small town afloat financially now keeping their spiritual forms floating literally, these spirit vow to vowed to protect Egypt and the new Pharaoh Atem, as he and his friends had honored their memory by defeating their slayer, Aknadin. Enter the Genies of Egypt, a collection of DARK Fiend monsters with either 1000 ATK or DEF. Despite not having their archetype name as their text, their power comes from two resources few monsters are prepared for. First off, the main Deck Genies - which are all Level 4 - can bring out "Lamp of Egypt" Spell Cards, based on the various Lamp monsters in the game. These are wonderfully powerful Spells that linger on the field and allow the Genies of Egypt to not only hamper the efforts of the opponent's monsters during the Main Phase 1 while you control a Fiend with 1000 original ATK or DEF - from choosing the targets of card effects to burning your opponent. They each also allow you to, once while each is on the field, bring out a Lamp Link Monster from your Extra Deck with a Rank equal to the number of Lamp of Egypt Spell Cards you control, while forgoing Special Summoning Links of their Link Rating or higher for the next two turns. Their second resource comes from the Extra Deck, whether its those three Lamps of Egypt Links and their ability to boost your Fiend monsters by 1000 for each monster they point to while negating their effects, or their Fusion trinity that comes out through their range of ferocious Fusion Traps. The Fusions are the biggest threats though, super-powered spirits either force attacks from your opponent on their over-powered, damage-tripling bulk or ruin your opponent's backrow, with the big boss Silver Jinn the Azure-Eyed Genie of Egypt being able to do both. Either way, whether its the lamps you cheat out through your spells, the Fusions you bring from your Traps, or the pain you bring from the sheer aggro strategy, the Genies of Egypt are sure to leave your opponent wishing they were facing anything but them. _______________ Next: Polterheist

For you and this game I love, I'll do one for BOTH. Hypnosnakes: Apparently, the Hypnosister lives in a far more dangerous world than any would think! Chasing her throughout the dimensions are translucent threats of all shapes, sizes, and scales, ready to paralyze and prey upon any who would dare ruin her fun in the space between stars! Basically, the Hypnosnakes a group of DARK Psychic monsters, shocking considering their namesake. They are also Pendulums, running the gamut from Levels 1 to 4 , and Pendulum Scales of either 0 and 5. They don't have Pendulum Effects - or any Spells/Traps besides their Field Spell Undiscovered Country, which allows you to conduct one additional Pendulum Summon of 1 Psychic Pendulum Monster each turn upon a monster being Summoned from the ED - but they gain effects in the Monster Zone and face-up in the Extra Deck, much like Hypnosister herself, based on the number of Spells/Traps in the Leftmost and Rightmost columns of the field. What effects do they gain, you ask? Well, they are utterly devastating to all that are not Level 4 or lower monsters; they shuffle themselves into the Deck to negate effects, fly into the Pendulum Zones to drain ATK, and even draw you cards if a monster's ATK hits 0 by their effects. And to cap it all off, the Hypnosnakes can ladder into Link-2 and 3 DARK Reptile Links, including their Link-3 3000 ATK boss Gogia the Star-King Hypnosnake, a devastating creature whose all-diagonal arrows pave the way for more Pendulum Summoning. Well, that and the Quick ability to wreck 1 card in the same column as each Monster Zone it points to, while gaining 400 ATK for each destroyed card to further its fanged fury! ____________ Desert Threat: Pray the thirst gets you before this band of brutal raiders do! Having been shipwrecked in the hazardous Basin of Bones thanks to a freak storm, these longshoremen (and women!)-turned-larcenists seek to decorate the husks of their homes with the valuables of anyone they come across! So yeah, imagine a gang full of people like Gaara, with far less honorable intents and somehow less mental stability, and you have the Desert Threat. They're a group of EARTH Beast-Warrior monsters, with either 1300 ATK or DEF, and they are either Levels 1, 3 or 5. All of them have the same effect: paying 1300 LP on your opponent's turn to hustle into the Spell & Trap Zones as Traps, then Special Summon a Desert Threat of a different Level from their Deck. They then then come back during the Draw Phase of the next turn after they're destroyed while Set in the Spell & Trap Zone. Downside? Well, you can't Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck, of any monsters of the same Level from your Main Deck, during the turn they come out from the Deck. And considering there are only three unique Levels among them, you'll have to be careful what Threats you turbo. Thankfully, their head honcho and all-Trap lineup help them out too. The powerful pull of the Level 5 Desert Threat: Baron Dustbuster will make sure your threats turn online, by refusing to let each player control more than 1 face-up non-EARTH monster while you control 3 or more cards in back-row. And speaking of the Basin of Bones, it's a Continuous Trap, able to Set out Desert Traps - that even retrieve spent Desert monsters from the GY when destroyed!- and destroy face-down cards you control to wreck face-up cards your opponent has, as well as vice-versa. Basically, its down-and-dirty control, and one that even benefits from your opponent's Dusters and storms. Beware the Desert Threats, my son. _______________ Next: Light-Pilots