For those intrigued by the title…….. today I’m going to be posting about a Zombie Lightsworn deck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just kidding.
Now depending on who you ask, the curse of the Lightsworn can refer to two ideas.
The first refers to the fact that a Lightsworn-based build has never won a major Shonen Jump Championship or Nationals in the United States. Seeing as how the set was released around the same time as Phantom Darkness, Lightsworn have been given ample opportunity to win an event. So what gives?
Well I personally feel the curse is rather arbitrary and meaningless. The Lightsworn archetype has swept multiple Nationals tournaments this past year in big markets such as Great Britain. And while it’s never actually won a major tournament in the United States, that’s in a relatively small sample of tournaments. Part of the problem was the dominance of Tele-DaD. Another huge problem was the otherwise kind-hearted Jeff Jones, a frothy-mouthed, rabid anti-Lightswornite who dashed the hopes of an entire generation in the finals of SJC Anaheim!
Nevertheless, some of the best duelists in the world (Anthony Alvarado and Dale Bellido to name a couple) showed up with Lightsworn at the biggest tournament of the year. I actually agreed with them, deciding to run a Lightsworn deck myself. Here is my build:
24 Monsters:
2 Judgment Dragon
3 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
1 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
3 Honest
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
11 Spells:
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Solar Recharge
3 Charge of the Light Brigad
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Foolish Burial
5 Traps:
2 Threatening Roar
1 Crush Card Virus
2 Beckoning Light
Unfortunately at Nationals I ran into the other definition of Curse of the Lightsworn. The deck can draw some terrible hands!
Prior to the event, I thought this was about as close to a perfect build of Lightsworn you could put together. I still stand by this statement, and have come to a few conclusions that you can conveniently use on your way to Lightsworn success.
1. You will win the games where you mill multiple Wulfs, Necro Gardna’s, and have three named LS by the end of turn one. It is the games that do not feature such fortunate millage that count.
This basically means you should not be running Dark monsters mixed into your line-up. While cards like Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon look sexy on paper (Salvosworn deserves its own post entirely), they really impede the flow of your deck. The goal is to put out Lightsworn monsters and send cards to the graveyard at the end of each turn.
This also means you should be running two copies of Beckoning Light and avoiding anything else (like Monster Reincarnation).
2. When you start running more than 25 monsters, you start becoming a failure at life.
3. You should be winning the majority of your game 1’s. To reach that goal, you need to have an even mix of cards that are good for going first and good for going second.
A few examples should suffice. Cards like Card of Safe Return and Gold Sarcophagus are extremely good when you are going first. Unfortunately, a card like COSR cuts down your deck’s consistency while leaving you more vulnerable to being OTKed. After all, it is a dead spell in hand until you can start milling.
On the other hand, cards like Foolish Burial and MST are amazing when you go second. I frequently sided into a second Foolish Burial and some Monarchs for game 2. But it’s a terrible card when you go first (again, another card you will be holding while getting OTKed and doing nothing for your mills).
You have to balance these goals in mind and create a no-frills LS deck if you want to win. Save the fancy stuff for Regionals.
4. Gorz is not needed, Ryko and Ehren are both far superior to Jain (which is a terrible choice for all LS players), and the above monster line-up is flawless for a 3 Wulf build. Max Celestia for it is the primary win condition.
5. An alternative build (that might be even better than the one I posted) would feature 2 Wulf to create more consistency. Anthony Alvarado played this version.
After starting either 3-0 or 4-0, I lost my first match to a Blackwing player. In the second game I lost, I got OTKed through Gorz. For game three, I opened Necro Gardna, Wulf, Honest, Dust Tornado, Beckoning Light, and Judgment Dragon.
I then played against a LS mirror match at 6-1. After winning game one, I lost game two to double Judgment Dragon + Aurkus versus my full board and about 4 cards in hand. I had just milled about 8 cards with a set Beckoning. Unfortunately I had no JD in my graveyard to respond to his. For game three, I opened Wulf, Wulf, Beckoning, Beckoning, Aurkus, and Heavy Storm.
So long story short, if I were to play LS again (I would choose it again for Nationals in a heartbeat), it would be the 2 Wulf version.
This concludes my tips on building a proper Lightsworn deck and averting both curses. Future articles will discuss why Lightsworn wins and play strategies for Lightsworn players.
Related posts:
What are your opinions on Lightning Vortex? In the UK (at the UkayPro Championship) it was being played everywhere in order to:
a] get around Aurkus
b] clear a Lumina, Garoth, Wulf field
c] avoid Honest
d] put Blackwing in its place
I believe that it is a card worth considering for the remainder of the format. Also, after some shockingly bad hands at the event I’ll agree that too many DARK monsters (I ran Gorz and Phantom in mine, going 5-3) will cause a lot of damage to your game 1 win percentage.
i like this deck list,im not just sayin it to kiss ass or anything i really do,even tho ur back row is chainable i dont really like lyla this format due to mind control,that isnt reason enough not to run her,id run too,but i like how u were willing to go to one
i like ehren bouncing a def armour master/colossal is just cash,tomatos are every where too
even since i saw how good aurkus was ive liked 2 in this
even tho i dont play this deck irl,i do like this particular list bad beats tho,also like how u said jain was bad i hate the thing too
thank you for showing a good list of lightsworn, i also ran a version like this three cards different.
I do not agree with you on dismissing Jain.
Jain runs over spy, bumps heads with a pumped up laquari, forces out honest and kalut in some situations, and its another lightsworn name. Ehren i have never felt the need for, except for the set tomato play. Ehren is easily ran over, and i hate the milling 3, which adds up overtime, since my playstyle for lightsworn is much slower than most players, I have my opponent waste their outs against my aurkus, then i explode. i try to limit as many un-necessary mills as possible, which is why i like Jain for she mills only 2 and is running over alot of creatures. I rather run a card alot more useful in different scenarios than Ehren.
I am glad to see you ran 2 aurkus, which is so good this format. Turn 1 Lumina+Aurkus is such a pain for all decks to play against, especially when you have a threatening roar, honest or gardna for protection. Then for the followup play of Celesting their whole board, which is why I love maining 3 Celestias.
If I was you, I would main Brain Control. The card wins alot of games, single-handedly. People have the uncanny ability to leave tuners on the field against Lightsworn, allows you to press for damage, steal another lightsworn then tribute for celestia, etc.
I believe I read on DGZ that you are going to Indy, if so good luck and prove to people Lightsworn is not a sack-deck, but can be built and played as a control deck with the power of Aurkus and triple Celestias.
I agree with most points but Jain is key imo. I find it much better than Ehren.
Also brain is amazing. I cant imagine not playing it this format. Its a game ender and stealing tuners is too good to pass up
Since I started playing LS I’m playing with only 2 Wulfs, and I believe it’s a very good and valid choice. I also play with 40 cards only.
The deck runs pretty solid and bad hands are very rare.
I think 2 Wulfs run better since I started. I’ ve been trying to justify it for a while too and found an interesting argument: when you play 3 Wulfs, chances you draw at least 1 of it in your starting hand are 38-40% (depending on your build). When you play only 2, 26-28%.
And since the deck is running, it’s far more likely you mill it instead of drawing it.
Of course it’s not the only reason, but I believe it’s at least significant and makes sense, and drawing Wulfs in starting hands many times means bad hands or at least not so good hands.
Also, I like to play exactly with 40 cards, because chances you draw at least 1 “draw” card (Charge and/ or Solar) are 65%. When you increase your deck size even to just 41, it’s about 64% and 63% if you play 42. And of course the deck runs better when you start with one of those cards, and 2% makes difference.
I also think MST is still very good, despite LS players almost never play it. Hit a BTH or TT and then making your move is pretty sexy.
Very nice and interesting article.
ROFL, I just read the Rastifari comment. I swear Jae, you are a ray of sunshine in a gloomy day, lol.
To keep this post on topic, I wanted to comment on some specific cards;
Gorz – It floats in and out of my main. I still don’t have a good feel for where it belongs. The card is life saving vs SynchroCat and pure Lumina fodder vs GB. I think its a tournament specific call. If you anticipate a lot of Sync Cat, you main it, if not, side it
Aurkus – obv you run at least 1. No question. I’m not convinced 2 is all that much better. I guess its nice to mill it faster and lumina it back to develop somewhat of a wall, but I really dont like drawing it as my only LS turn 1. Perhaps I’ll try 2 again and see how I feel
Celestia – you pretty much have to run 3 this format. You need outs to BAM, Colossol, etc.
Garoth – I like 2. Its like the arguement I made for Aurkus. I really WANT to mill an early Garoth so I can lumina it back. I find it is worth the drawback of increasing him in your opening draw. Lumina-Garoth is such a strong play. I’m also a big fan of turn 1 lumina-lumina-garoth, even though I get harshly criticized for it, but it wins games.
Wulf – I’ll be honest, I havent tried 2 wulf, but people at locals are starting to use this and it seems , not bad. I still cant say its super-amazing-awesome, but you have to weigh the benefit-cost. The big cost I find is that it slows the Celestia drop a lot. This makes me ansy. But I do admit that my losses at nats were due to double wulf/gardna hands, so, maybe it is the way to go.
What is the reasoning behind not running Gorz in LS?
<3 Snorlax
Can you explain Ehren? I really don’t like it.
The thing that separates players that just say that LS is a Luck sack deck and is actually a deck that requires skill is the “bad-hand” management ability. Just yesterday, I saw a SJC Champ that lives near me come back from a hand of double Necro, Plague, Wulf, and other bad early cards.
For this build, I’m not surprised you got bad tops. The deck loves going Lumina-Garoth first turn. That’s the reason why it has triple Wulfs and 13 target mills off of Garoth (best case scenario of course). Just one Garoth hurts you so much. I run just one in my build, but I don’t bank on Lumina-Garoth so much, if at all (Salvosworn).
Here, just try out Card Trooper to get things started. No one runs Banisher main deck, it gets past BTH and Crush, forces out Honest or Kalut for a plus, and could just be that +1 that wins the game.
Foolish Burial need not be stuck in your hand while you’re getting OTK’d. IMO you can play Foolish turn 1 for Necro Gardna. Protecting your monster from battle destruction via Gardna is simply changing the -1, but you get to keep a monster who can be tributed for Celestia or who at least mills more cards for you during your next end phase. Double Foolish is where it’s at.
Lightsworn is a combo deck. Almost none of the cards are good on their own and the deck’s going to win when it makes full use of it’s combos. Otherwise you’re going to lose. That’s just how it is with Lightsworn. I took a Lightsworn build to regionals once, drew terribly half the time and the other half couldn’t stop what my opponent was doing. I can honestly say I’ll never play it again.
I also disagree with your views on Jain. At the very least, I would run him over Ehren, as she doesn’t really help much this format except against Sangan and Tomato, and for the rare occasions, Hoplomus.
Garoth at 1 is also something I wouldn’t do, because of the possible advantage you can get with him with the extra mill and the extra draw. I’d put too.
May I ask what you feel the proper side deck choices are for LS??
Otherwise, I commend your choices. I really like 2 Aurkus and 2 Wulf. 3 Celestia I feel should be standard until next format.
Come on Jae. Only one zombie in zombie-sworn?
And what have you been doing to Judgment Dragon? The poor thing.
I’d say your LS build is pretty good, but Ehren simply isn’t, and Gorz is actually incredibly good.
Docternik
Aurkus has another effect, he is a threatening roar.
A 1800 defense wall that can’t be targetted, how many times I haven’t been OTK’d by just simply putting him in defense mode or just summoning him. People are afraid to attack into Honest. Cat synchro can’t OTK with Aurkus on the field. Aurkus’s huge defense and its ability allows at least 1 Lightsworn to survive that turn giving me the option to tribute for celestia.
Lightsworn’s major problem is its poor opening, and summoning Aurkus hinders people from going all out. All decks this format benefit from targetting opponent’s monster and Aurkus basically says NO. Aurkus forces so many people to do plays they don’t want to do, just to get rid of it ie. Blackrosing despite having more cards on the field than me.
Aurkus allows Lightsworn to slowplay. I force my opponent to play their outs, allowing me safely to summon JD.
In regards to your point on running 2 garoth, why run a card that is based on luck for something more consistent in Aurkus. The lumina+garoth play doesn’t guarantee going plus, and your susceptible to OTK, while the Lumina+Aurkus play forces my opponent to either simply give me another turn, which is so important in Lightsworn the more drawphases Lightsworn it has the better chance it is winning the match, or my opponent is forced to use an array of cards to get rid of Aurkus.
I used to be one of those firm believers in 1 Aurkus is just enough, but it really isn’t enough this format. Test it out and see how much consistent Lightsworn can be.
2 Wulfs is also superior to 3 Wulfs, just for the fact 3 wulfs gives you really bad hands to often, which is the only choice I regret running at nats, which costed me the matches I lost as well as getting OTK’d.
Haymaker
You obviously played Lightsworn wrong or you had a sacky build of the deck. The sacky build will top, for the fact the person either cheated or it was his day to do well. The slower consistent build, which Jae is showing, has the ability to slowplay, and then do what Lightsworn does and explode in 1 turn. No matter what Lightsworn deck you make, it will always get those hands or mill the wrong cards, and then you proceed to get OTK’d. That is why I like my build and my slowplay style with Lightsworn, I just had really bad luck at Nats.
i really like phantom of chaos in this deck especialy if you top deck him, but then again if your top decking w/ lightsworns either your overextending or playing horrible.. and i think 2 wulf and 2 celestia is the way to go.
is the 2 wulf version significantly different or is it more of a -1 wulf +1 card kinda thing?
oyola, your post is amazing and exhibits a great understanding of LS (the proper way to play it). The “slow play” factor is why I feel it is the best deck in the format (if you’re not an unlucky sop like me).
prince michael, you’re going to have to make better posts than that.
Mavrik, the 2 Wulf version would simply be cutting a Wulf and possibly a Celestia (along with the Foolish) for cards of your choosing
.
I am also pondering making a separate post just about Ehren the Lightsworn Monk. Duelists are not understanding what the threat of any COTLB into an Ehren brings to the table; this is likely to cost a few games over the rest of the format.
agreed with peddle on 2 foolish (and subsequently, 3 wulf), getting a free wulf to set up celestia (which is amazing in a format filled with bwam and colossal), force bth, set up beck/jd/lumina (rare), or simply atk over something else is huge and if dead, a necro is never a bad thing.
Why doesn’t anyone main cold wave in Lightsworn?
It’s soooo good and utilizes celestia so well
2 Wulf vs 3 Wulf argument has so many factors in it though. Obviously, drawing Wulf in the opening hand is horrendous, and it adds up to the dreaded death hand for LS. Every game you’ll draw 6 cards to begin with, and as others have calculated, the odds change a lot between 2 Wulf and 3 Wulf, up to like ’38-40% (depending on your build). When you play only 2, 26-28%.’
On the other hand, running Wulf in threes means you’re more likely to mill it in the end phase, and realistically, so long as you open with a typical lumina + X card play, it means you played either recharge or charge (2/3 card mill) + 5 card mill off Garoth and Lumina. I’m sure having 6 targets to mill is better than 5 targets to mill. Realistically, when you open with dead in LS, it’s only because you didn’t draw Solar Recharge/Charge of the Light Brigade. And when I don’t open with those, I sort of want to mill Gardna and Wulf with as high a probability as possible, because it means I can maintain field presence for next turn, and it generally helps you -not- get otk’d the next turn.
Aurkus is also the most ridiculous card ever in LS. It destroys the Cat matchup because there are so many combinations with aurkus that don’t let cat play how it wants to – explosive swings that either end the game or result in cat gaining large amounts of CA/field presence. Arcanite Magician can’t hit anything. Dark Armed Dragon does nothing. Dark Strike Fighter probably can’t otk you there either. Is X-Saber really getting past it, Mind Control? I don’t think so. Battle’s the only option, and thankfully for LS, Aurkus + Honest = The ultimate threatening roar for that turn. If your opponent opens with some crazy set up involving wave or whatever, you’ll be glad to have aurkus t1. Playing against the mirror? Aurkus can probably win you the game there too. Even BW and other such decks rely on targetting. Really, I think Aurkus is so good he should definitely be run in 2s, because it forces the opponent to waste power cards and make sub optimal plays, with the best part being that you survive up to the next turn – and every turn counts when you play Lightsworn.
Hey Jae, are you going to be tinkering around with Future Vision? I know I am.
Good post Jae. I hope I was included in that vague ‘best duelists in the world agreed’ comment =p
altho u can justify the 2 wulf version, i think u need to run it just because it is a tank. essentially a synchro needs to be summoned to attack over it in order for your opponent to not take a -1. since wulf is likely a floater, maximizing the opportunity of this happening is ideal against blackwing, gladiators and probably dark variants and synchro cat. if u have it in hand…that is unfortunate. u have 2 others left in deck and keeps your foolish burial live longer. ideally ull rip recharge or discard for lumina/beckoning.
Again, the Ehren vs Jain issue really isn’t up for debate. Jain is basically a normal 1800 monster. Ehren, on the other hand, is often the only answer you have in hand for clearing stuff like Necro Gardna and Mystic Tomato that prevent you from dominating the board.
Ehren is a card that single-handedly puts your opponent in a huge resource hole if they are opening in a Dark, GB, or mirror match and get caught. The point is that your normal summons are going to be devoted to Lumina, Aurkus, Lyla, and Celestia. So the extra monsters like Ehren and Ryko should be left to the toolbox of COTLB for specific situations. I have no clue what specific situation you would want a terrible vanilla monster like Jain for (what does it kill that Garoth doesn’t?).
You never *want* to summon an Ehren or a Jain. To realize why Ehren is amazing and Jain is garbage, think outside of the box. They are both basically 1600-1800 normal monsters. But Ehren gives you something extra (game-breaking) in the situations where you do need her. What is your play when the opponent sets a monster in g3 and you COTLB milling nothing with Honest in hand? Read the feature match between Jeff Jones and the LS player in the finals. Jeff specifically calls out a spot where Ehren ends the game.
Many readers and LS users are completely missing the point of LS and how to properly play it (and why it wins, which is a topic for another post). The goal isn’t to always drop Garoth on t1 and hope to lucksack a Wulf to draw a free card. There are much better ways to win.
Read oyola’s post again (it’s really that good). There is a specific way to play LS that doesn’t involve swarming 4 monsters on the field on t3 and decking out. If you play LS correctly, you should never deckout and should literally never lose if you don’t open unplayable and are not facing Skill Drain.
Jaelove
If I was going to SJC Indy, I would probable test your Ehren point, but due to it being too expensive and friends unable to travel from NY, I won’t be going.
Nats was disappointing due to the fact I mained triple threatening roars, double aurkus, and the staples charge, recharge, gardna, and honest;who all help prevent getting OTK’d, but I drew those hands with wulf and no other support and then proceeded to get OTK’d two rounds straight after getting to a good 4-0 start.
I firmly believe Lightsworn is the best deck, just for the fact it should win if you don’t draw the unplayable hands or get OTK’d. The deck can draw subpar, but still manage to surmont against a full monster and spell/trap field with JD, and Celestia. Lightsworn has the best matchups versus every deck this format.
The mirror match is 80% skill and 20% luck. Most lightsworn players are bad, and just go for the mill just to mill or hope to mill cards to get them back into the game. The one who commits JD onto the field without gaming the opponent, usually loses.
Versus rescue cat, the deck should always win as long as the open with aurkus and threatening roar. Lightsworn is the only deck this format that has card that stops mind control, arcanite magician. Aurkus is such a problem to Rescue Cat that they are forced to either blackrose the board, attack aurkus being at risk to honest, or just pass their turn. As I said before, the more drawphases Lightsworn has the better their chances are for winning the match. Rescue cat deck is hard deck to not overcommit the field, because it has so many ways to blowup the field or OTK, that it is too tempting for most players to simply just pass their turn. Reckless players are counting on my backrow not being a threatening roar, which is why I lost to a rescue cat player after seeing the game prior I mained triple threatening roar. If I had threatening roar in that situation, I had an array of ways of blowing up his full field of monsters, forcing him into topdeck mode.
Blackwings don’t do anything to Lightsworn, if they can’t otk me, Lightsworn should win. blackwings have huge trouble playing long drawn out games, for the fact that once their creatures are off the field, they lost the game. At least when rescue cat summons a full field they used very few resources or have a way to return it back via pot of avarice. Once blackwings field is gone its gone. The creatures blackwings run are all really for winning games in the first few turns. The deck has virtually no end game, since players choose to run only 1-2 blizzards, who is often allure’d away. If the deck ever is built to control and not to just OTK, the deck will always be meh.
Gladiator beast matchup is based on, who wins the diceroll on the basis both players drew good hands. Each deck requires there set up; Lightsworn needs to mill first allowing it to go Lumina+ Aurkus set threatening roar, and GB needs to go summon Laquari set 3-4 backrow. I have played Kohanim several times at my local and it really depended on how we opened and who won the dice roll. Gladiator beast depends on having at least 1 gb faceup and having a few backrow. The deck no longer has a consistent way to bring out gyzarus like it did before, and its backrow is key for a few factors: 1) just seeing set backrows affects you psychologically if you don’t have heavy storm or cold wave as a lightsworn player. You can be too reckless with your lumina because it can be chariot’d, you can’t just summon a lot of people and run into a torrential, mirror force or waboku. 2) if you don’t have heavy or cold wave, you are limited on your actions for the turn. Lightsworn needs the mill and their creatures to stay on the field. The more backrow they have the less likely your going to have an effective turn.
3)the backrow serves GB as a way to safely tag out. LS has an array ways of beating GB monsters in one on one battle. Without GB’s ability to tag in and out, the deck isn’t gonna win, they lost their ability to not rely on backrow as heavily when they limited bestiari to 1.
4)GB isn’t fast, it has no draw power or access to its boss monster as frequently, unlike Lightsworn, so their way to slowdown LS and make sure JD doesn’t show his face is through it backrow.
SkillDrain Dad and Other DAD variants should not pose a problem at all to LS. LS is faster, has access JD and Celestia the broken monarch, and is a lot more consistent than dad variants. Of course there will be those games where they had the nuts and forced to enter game 2, but those decks play too many dead cards. Skill drain is only good as the amount of protection it has, when your running dead cards like Malicious, plasma, etc and then have dead ddraws and other cards. The deck draws too many dead cards to beat you and the chances of playing against one outside of the first few rounds in a tournament are low.
Sorry if some of the stuff I said don’t make sense or spelt stuff wrong, I’m typing this off my phone and its hard to proofread it.
I think roar is crap in Lightsworn. Why? You have a deck that runs 3 Necro Gardna. This is more than every other deck runs. In my opinion you have problems by otking Lightsworn (Necro Gardna, Honest, Gorz).
All of you are big fans of Aurkus so why don’t you try to build a control variant with Bottomless to protect your key card? I don’t see roar as protection cause you need something to fire back. Bottomless is one of the best traps to play cause your oppenent will have to play arround.
I guess no one ever created a real control Lightsworn version with defensive traps. I would call the deck “Protect the Aurkus” =)
If you have the ability to mill necro gardnas and have honest in hand a good portion of the time, then you sir have the yugi gods on your side and wish to have half your luck. Why need bottomless traphole, when you can simply run-over your opponent’s creature or summon celestia and blow up their field. As I said before the more drawphases Lightsworn the better chances it has to win and threatening roar gives the deck more turns. The deck at its current state is forced to run cards like beckoning light, monster reincarnation, and other cards that give way to power plays. When the ban list comes around and hampers other decks and lightsworn, the deck will have space to add more monster removal, until then I will stick to “protect aurkus” deck. The deck can’t afford anymore dead cards, threatening roar is always a live card and keeps your creatures from dying in Lightsworn is key, it allows for one more turn to mill, another summoning from lumina, allows a monster to survive to tribute for celestia, etc.
Bottomless is only good, if you draw it before the monsters are summoned. Chainability is key this format. OTK is everywhere, whether it is coldwave, heavy, etc. I prefer a card that is always live then a card that can be dead. Bottomless is not a bad card, but I reserve him in the sideboard. Also threatening roar will affect your opponent psycholgically the next 2 games, they will not try to aim for the OTK after seeing you main a few threatening roars.
Also running protect aurkus deck is not bad since his effect is that good this format. No lumina, reincarnation, celestia, icarus attack, gale, mind control, arcanite, brain control, book of moon, gravekeeper guard, wingblast, murmillo, gyzarus, retiari, etc. Most of these cards are monster removal in some sort of way, and that is how you beat lightsworn. If lightsworn can’t mill or maintain a field with monsters, they will lose.
My teammate and myself came up with a build almost identical to this the day before our nationals, we thought it was perfect aswell but the hands that we eventually drew into after seven or so rounds just disagreed with everything. O well, glad we could have created something that basically mirror’d a deck ran by bellido and jae kim, shame we suck ;_;
First off I give a tip of the hat to Mr. Kim for having such great insight on the topic of Lightsworn. Second Mr oyola who is a good friend of mine, had a great point on jain, but forgot I great effect of his, that he is not shut down by light mirror which I took full advantage of in nats. I played the same build as oyola with one more reincarnation and I did fine because I played the deck like a monarch control deck and not like a sack happy piece of trash deck. Jae was right to call celestria the lightsworn (monarch) the win condition cause she is a bitch on wheels.
she can win games all on her own, and set up for dsf later.
So to finish LS is a great deck but you must play it with more skill then you think you do, for it is the only deck in the format that can beat itself, through bad hands and even worse mills.
Thanks Mr. kim for having such a great place for ppl to share the ideas.
We tested “protect the aurkus” before nats. It doesnt work. When they do get an answer to Aurkus, they will OTK you, I’ve even been OTK’d through Aurkus and 2 Gardnas.
Its good in theory but doesnt pan out in testing
As for double aurkus, I’m not saying its bad, just not needed.
Lastly, no decent LS player should ever deck out imo unless you hit really bad luck (mill every celestia and beckoning or they open with triple roar which happened to me once at nats, lol).
I’ve decked out less than 10 times (maybe less than 5 even) and I’ve been playing LS since March.
I agree with Claudio, I don’t like roar in LS at all. Protecting Aurkus generally shouldn’t be difficult between gardnas and honests, and usually simply the presence of Aurkus means no one will be gutsy enough to go for game anyway, because if they overextend without game LS will punish them severely. The way I saw it, Aurkus is a threatening roar all by itself that lets you set up in almost every situation and roar just doesn’t seem necessary. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d prefer to run TT/Force over Roar because of how much they can swing the game, their ability to take out BWAM/Colossal and their uses in the mirror and such.
Drawing/Milling a Gardna/drawing honest isn’t even that statistically improbable fyi. If you open ‘good’ with recharge/charge you will probably have seen 5+1cih, 2/3 cards milled, 2 cards drawn in the case of recharge, and 5-6 cards milled by lumina + LS. Ideally, in the case of Recharge, you’d've seen 13-14 cards in your deck that could be Gardna via mill or lumina discard and depending on charge/recharge 4-6 of those cards could’ve been Honest as well. Then about 7-9 of those cards could’ve been a free Wulf. Like I said, that’s not improbable at all imo to mill/draw into a hand that isn’t easy to otk by standard means between notably honest and Gardna, and to some degree Wulf as well. Of course you can’t open with recharge/charge every game, which is why roar seems more necessary than usual, but then again I feel that if I open that poorly I want to draw force/tt to prevent them from building up a field at all, and forcing them to play to a slower pace due to a number of their monsters being destroyed. As well as this, their uses when you go second are significantly better when you draw poorly. Playing an LS only to get it bth’d is painful, and roar doesn’t really do that much more than tt/force, aside from not losing next turn for certain (well, depends on sol/mst or whatever). And you lose next turn unless you top charge/recharge anyway, because you still won’t be able to make everything go online. If you have tt/force and you clear their field, you recover tempo and gain more turns for yourself. If they don’t play for game there, then you’re still fine, although it matters less whether you had roar or whatever down. The weakness is obviously that you cannot chain force/tt, but realistically in the situation I had given, wave beats you anyway, although storm and mst potentially allow them to win that turn.
Apart from a few things with card choices, I agree with almost everything else oyola says about LS based on the way you should play it. I think LS has the best g1 of any deck this format for reasons which various others have explained beforehand already. Oh, and doctornik, how did they otk you through aurkus and 2 gardna =/
I don’t feel that one situation where you get sacked extremely heavily should detract from how good/bad aurkus is btw.
Claudio: I’ve been using such a deck for five months.
Though I generally agree with the Ehren over Jain argument, I would like to point out it is an answer to Sirroco, Rai-oh and cyber dragon via her effect. And, for what it’s worth, she’s easier to get (though that probably isn’t a problem if you’re running Lightsworn).
King Qynar // Jul 29, 2009 at 4:28 PM
Just out of curiosity why is Peddle known as Haymaker? I’m not trying to make fun of the name or anything, I was just wondering (especially since its the name of an old Pokemon deck when Peddle plays Yugioh).
(This was getting ignored where I put it)
He likes to deal haymakers to the FACE!
Nik you know I love you, but it’s impossible to OTK through an Aurkus with 2 Gardna. I can’t think of a single hand (unless they have Smashing Ground) that would allow such a situation to happen.
smashing ground
kycoo the ghost destroyer
double summon
summon monk
spell for monk
heavy storm
lolol
Good deck for obvious reasons… but like Claudio, I hate Roar in LS.
I am going to be referencing my post from why cat sync wins in this post. Being primarily a GB/Cat sync/BW player, I have had to face a fair chunk of LS. Only reason I dont run LS is the simple reason I cant afford it. However, I have learned a few things:
Aurkus is godly in almost every match-up. Not only cant I target it, honest is a constant threat, but also retiari and other remove from the grave cards dont work. I am basically forced to use book of moon on it just to get rid of it and hope that I either have another for your lumina/wulf, or hope that you dont have honest, neither of which are very good game positions.
Next, I have stated before my firm belief in decks that have versatility and outs of many situations. LS has their very own toolbox enabling card in charge of the light brigade, similar to rota. For those of you who remember, when people ran warrior toolbox, how many included big beatsticks? most didnt. Now on the opposite side, how many including mystic swordsman lvl 2? Almost everyone. Why did that deck win? because it had an out for almost every situation. Ehren gives you another out if there is a fd you really rather not attack. It also allows you to push for game. From the opposite side, if I see ehren, I know I HAVE to get rid of it that turn. Jain? not so much. I can still set hoplo/spy and expect to at least get something out of it. Albeit I admit I am very inexperienced at playing LS, but I figure any card that grants versatility as well as furthering your aggro goals is good. I personally havent played LS, but I do knkow the power that aurkus and ehren create once they hit the field.
darkpaladin, BoM targets, so you can’t activate it targeting Aurkus or any other LS if he is face up on the field.
Also JAE, will you post some 2 Wulf build? I’m curious and although I myself use 2 Wulfs since I started playing LS, it’s so rare to see such a choice at major events…
And it’s also rare to see 40 cards only builds at major events, I don’t know why. IMO the runs better this way…
My 2 Wulf build would be -1 Celestia, -1 Wulf, -1 Foolish, +3 of any spell/trap cards you want (and maybe another Lyla)
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Claudio makes a great point about Roar vs BTH (he did not mention TT because it’s terrible in LS). Most players aren’t expecting SJ or BTH or any defense in a LS deck. While I prefer Roar, if I was running 2 Celestia or something I wouldn’t mind trying out 3 BTH + MF.
lol my bad, forgot about that. Basically, my point regarding aurkus is that it forces usage of removal on him rather than on other monsters that I end up needing for something else.
That’s a good point and nice post dark paladin. However the other important point is that there are no cards like BOM you can use on Aurkus. It’s either Smashing Ground or attacks through battle (which are shut down for obvious reasons). Then, any time you overextend it’s Celestia.
lol yup, hence I hate dealing with him. if he isnt in defense, I have to worry about honest on top of everything…. which is just plain a pain. if he is in defense… they I gotta make sure I have big enough attack to get through.
I don’t think you many people understand the importance of running Aurkus this format; Aurkus is just good. Aurkus allows Lightsworn to control the field through a single monster, shutting down any possible plays Cat Synchro, Black Wings (to an extent), Lightsworn, and Gladiator Beasts can make temporarily.
That being said, it CAN have a drawback, you just have to know how to play it. Threatening Roar protects Aurkus, allowing you that control aspect for another turn, possibly for a Celestia play. Garoth at 1 is really all you need this format, because if the deck you are playing isn’t OTK-ing you, it isn’t as fast as the previous formats have been (TeleDAD anyone?).
I was surprised at the amount of Lumina-Garoth plays against Cat Synchro over Lumina-Aurkus at Nationals, this mainly contributed to why most Lightsworn players lost to Cat Syncro. I myself played 5 Cat Synchro at Nats (I think), I lost to Barry Russel who topdecked like a champ both games round 4, putting me to 4-1, and then as Jae has said, I started getting the Curse.
Going into round 10 I was 6-3, and I played up to a 7-2 who was playing Cat Synchro. I had resleeved my deck and the Curse was gone, and I opened up nicely game 1 to Lumina-Aurkus with JD, Celestia, Honest, Storm in hand and a set graveyard with 1 Necro Gardna. I was set. I obviously won that match, game 2 he got me with Cold Wave first turn shutting down my hand completely, and game 3 I made a bad read and summoned Lyla rather than set Crush/Necro. The latter would’ve left my opponent with a Gravekeeper’s Guard and Rescue Cat in hand, to my 2 Necro Graveyard with Aurkus and Wulf on the field, clearly I would’ve won that one.
atjdragon // Aug 1, 2009 at 2:30 AM
smashing ground
kycoo the ghost destroyer
double summon
summon monk
spell for monk
heavy storm
lolol
How is that otk? You only have 2 monsters for battle phase no matter what way you put it. Kycoo for necro won’t help cause they’ll just chain em to Kycoo.
Also with your 5 pieces of pie theory do we have any hope of seeing an article on anything besides the meta anytime soon?
King Qynar, you can’t chain Necro Gardna to Kycoo’s effect, Kycoo is a continuous effect that is in effect immediately upon the summon.
@king qynar: that hand is otk, though why one would run double summon iono. It goes like this:
heavy, clear your back row, assuming no chaining of t-roar/waboku. Smashing to get rid of the monster OR hold onto it for monk. Summon kycoo. activate double summon, summon monk. Either sack 1 spell for rescue cat or 2 spells for another monk and then rescue cat. Sync for dsf. Assuming syncing once: 1800+1600+2600+ blow for game (assuming clear field direct attack plus 1 DSF). if syncing twice: 1800+2600+400+blow all for game ( I am assuming used 2 spell counters to clear field and 1 dsf. This requires 2 spells vs the old 1)
Well Qynar, with Gencon Indy rapidly approaching the majority of my columns will deal with the current meta.
Very interesting article Jae. I’ve been building up lightsworn since the end of the Tele-DAD, to sort of replace my former dominant deck. I’ve gone through testing SJ, to MF, Torrential and BTH/Threatening roars. BTH doesn’t seem to be working to well against decks that swarm. There have been a lot of times I wished that my BTH was a roar instead. Saving my LS monster, and allowing me to counter with a Celestia, or some other means.
A card I was thinking of running was My body. The biggest threat I had was Lightning Vortex, where it cleared my field of 1 LS and Colossal fighter. And after that, I didn’t have the resources or LP to recover. I felt if I had a My body, even if I might not draw it, it would help whenever I did.
What are everyone’s thoughts on maining 1-2 My body as a shield?