Time Thief
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"Time Thief", known in the OCG as "Chronodiver" (クロノダイバー Kuronodaibā), is an archetype of Level/Rank 4 DARK Psychic/Machine monsters introduced in Savage Strike as a TCG Exclusive. They also have connections to the "S-Force" archetype, as seen in "S-Force Showdown".
Design[edit]
The Psychic members are scientists with clothing to match, wearing uniforms and glasses befitting of their time travel theme. The Machine members primarily take on the appearance of robotic animals doubling as time travel gadgets, bar "Time Thief Bezel Ship" which as one can surmise is a ship.
They appear to take inspiration from the science fiction series Doctor Who, the manhua/anime series Chronos Ruler, and the book series Gideon Trilogy.
Playing style[edit]
The archetype's main strategy is to swarm the board with Level/Rank 4 monsters and attach different card types, including the opponent's cards. This is typically to the end of removing said opponent's cards before they can be exploited and providing specific materials to their ace monster, "Time Thief Redoer". Said "Redoer" can provide its own materials during the Standby Phase by attaching the top card of the opponent's Deck to itself. Afterwards, it can then detach up to three material types as a Quick Effect to banish itself until the End Phase to avoid attacks and disruptions (Monster), draw one card (Spell), or act as non-targeting removal by placing a face-up card of the opponent's on top of the Deck (Trap). For that reason, "The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine" is an excellent tech card for the archetype as it can be Summoned right away and used to make "Redoer" with its removal effect immediately online.
Another Xyz Monster for the archetype vital to their setup is "Time Thief Perpetua". During the Standby Phase, it can detach one material to revive a "Time Thief" monster in GY. As a Quick Effect of her own, she provides any targeted Xyz Monster with a "Time Thief" card from Deck as material, making her vital to either keeping external end piece Xyz Monsters stocked up on material or specific material for the particular effects of "Time Thief's" own Xyz Monsters.
Although not as immediately powerful, "Time Thief Double Barrel" can prove a useful secondary end piece for the Deck. When the opponent activates a card or effect, it can respond as a Quick Effect to detach up to three different material types much like "Redoer", albeit with different effects per type. These include granting itself 400 additional ATK (Monster), taking control of an opponent's monster until the End Phase (Spell), or negating the effects of an Effect Monster on the field without targeting (Trap).
In terms of Main Deck monsters, easily the most important card for the archetype is "Time Thief Regulator". While it is the only monster on its owner's field, it can be Tributed to Special Summon two "Time Thief" monsters with different names from the Deck, simultaneously allowing their on-Summon effects to set up and allowing a Rank 4 monster to be Summoned immediately after. Should an Xyz Monster be destroyed by battle, it can revive itself from the GY to protect its owner or allow them to recover the following turn by providing material to Xyz Summon again.
Among "Regulator's" typical targets to Summon is "Time Thief Winder", the Deck's de facto searcher. Upon Summon, it can search any "Time Thief" card barring itself. Even outside of "Regulator", it can be Summoned from the hand by detaching a material from an Xyz Monster, making it an extender as well. In such a case, one can reserve "Regulator's" Summons to other Main Deck "Time Thief" monsters and Summon "Winder" with its own effect once an Xyz Summon has been performed.
A fellow Psychic monster imperative to setup is "Time Thief Adjuster", who on-Summon sends a "Time Thief" card from the Deck to the GY. This will usually include the Deck's Machine monsters which revive themselves from GY in order to extend the user's Rank 4 Summons. It can also act as an extender by Summoning itself from hand after another "Time Thief" monster is Summoned. The catch to this, however, is both its effects being "only one per turn, and only once that turn", so major discretion is required to secure routes to the Deck's setup monsters while working within this restriction.
"Time Thief Bezel Ship" Tributes itself as a Quick Effect to attach cards from the opponent's GY to your "Time Thief" Xyz Monsters (effectively acting as a tribal "D.D. Crow"), making it an effective end piece that can be Summoned on the opponent's turn using "Perpetua's" Standby Phase Effect. It can also detach one material from an Xyz Monster during the user's turn to revive itself and, much like its fellow Machine monsters, extend Rank 4 Summons.
In a similar vein, "Time Thief Chronocorder" can revive itself after an Xyz Monster leaves the field by card effect (i.e., "Redoer's" effect to detach a monster). As an emergency option, it can Tribute itself as a Quick Effect to have the opponent take the next Battle Damage they would inflict unto the user in place of them.
"Time Thief Startup" is a Quick-Play Spell that lets you immediately Summon a "Time Thief" monster from your hand, instantly triggering the effect of "Winder" or "Adjuster" without consuming a Normal Summon. It is also able to banish itself from the GY to supply your "Time Thief" Xyz Monsters with all 3 materials needed for their effects, making it highly valuable when playing the long game.
"Time Thief Hack" is a Continuous Spell that protects the user's Xyz Monsters from being destroyed or targeted by opposing effects the turn they are Summoned, allowing the Deck's setup to flow with less fear of disruption. Its second effect targets an Xyz Monster to grant it 300 ATK for each of its materials, as well as allow it to attack directly should one of said materials be a card owned by the opponent.
"Time Thief Flyback" is a Normal Trap that can be used to supply "Time Thief" Xyz Monsters with specific material from the hand or Deck much like "Perpetua". In the GY, it can banish itself to attach any card in your opponent's GY to your monsters as material. filling a similar role to "Bezel Ship" and effectively making it possible for the Deck to steal two of the opponent's cards from the GY as a Quick Effect in a single turn.
"Time Thief Retrograde" is a Counter Trap that can negate the activation of opposing Spells/Traps and, instead of destroying them, attaches them to "Time Thief" Xyz Monsters as material, thus making it a powerful option against cards that would benefit from being in the GY or, again, backrow cards as material for said Xyz Monsters' particular effects.
The Continuous Trap "Time Thief Power Reserve" has great synergy with the card "Full-Armored Xyz" (searched by "Xyz Armor Fortress", which can be easily made given the archetype's ease of making Rank 4's with which to overlay for said "Armor Fortress") by allowing the player to Xyz Summon a Rank 4 during the opponent's turn, especially a "Redoer" or "Double Barrel" with their respective spin and negation effects immediately online. Furthermore, it adds another method of non-targeting removal as its GY effect by banishing a card on the field as a "Spell Speed 2" effect, provided the user's Xyz Monster(s) is supplied with a Spell and Trap as material.
The archetype has great synergy with the "Heraldic" archetype, which supports both Psychic and Machine Decks. As all members are of the DARK Attribute, they also benefit from generic DARK support as well as some Machine support like "Gear Gigant X". "Raidraptor" and "Phantom Knights" can also prove a boon for the deck, by searching/tutoring other Level 4 DARK monsters to extend Special Summons and/or setting up cards in the GY and backrow to do the same. "Raidraptor - Force Strix" in particular can search extender monsters like "Singing Lanius", "Strangle Lanius", and "Raider's Wing" to allow for additional Level 4 monsters with which to Xyz Summon with, while "Rusty Bardiche" can send monsters like "Raider's Wing" to the GY in order to set "Shade Brigandine" for the same purpose.
Generic Xyz Monster support can also work amazingly well with the Deck, such as "Overlay Regen" and "Xyz Reborn". This extends to other generic Rank 4 monsters in general, including "Abyss Dweller" and "Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir" to limit the opponent's actions, "Tornado Dragon" for backrow removal, and "Number 60: Dugares the Timeless" to extend the user's plays.
Sample combos[edit]
"Time Thief" can work well as an engine for fellow Xyz archetypes, and vice versa. Its synergy with "Raidraptor" in particular can allow for easy Summoning of "Cyber Dragon Infinity" using "Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force", in addition to their existing plays.
Below is a sample combo with the following objectives:
- Summon an untargetable "Time Thief Redoer" with a Trap attached to act as a scout for the opponent's Deck as well as "spin" removal.
- Place "Time Thief Power Reserve" and "Time Thief Flyback" in the GY as forms of interruption to both banish an opponent's card and attach 1 card from the opponent's GY as material to a "Time Thief" Xyz Monster.
- Summon "Time Thief Bezel Ship" to act as an additional GY interruption.
- Use "Xyz Armor Fortress" and "Full Armored Dark Knight Lancer" to search "Full-Armored Xyz" and subsequently attach an opponent's monster to it upon equipping one Xyz Monster to another.
- Summon "Cyber Dragon Infinity" as an end piece and enabler for "Raidraptor - Strangle Lanius" to make an additional Xyz Monster.
- Normal Summon "Time Thief Regulator" as your only monster, Tributing it afterward to Summon "Time Thief Winder" and "Time Thief Adjuster" (or "Time Thief Bezel Ship" if "Adjuster" is in your hand).
- Use "Winder's" effect to search "Time Thief Power Reserve", and "Adjuster's" effect to send "Time Thief Bezel Ship" from Deck to GY.
- Overlay both monsters for "Raidraptor - Force Strix" and use its effect to detach one material to search "Raidraptor - Singing Lanius".
- Revive "Bezel Ship" in GY by detaching "Force Strix's" remaining material, then Summon "Singing Lanius" from your hand.
- Link Summon "Raidraptor - Wise Strix" using "Force Strix" and "Singing Lanius", then use its effect to Summon "Raider's Wing" from Deck.
- Overlay "Bezel Ship" and "Raider's Wing" for a second "Force Strix", then use its effect to detach "Wing" and not only search "Raidraptor - Strangle Lanius" but activate "Wise Strix's" second effect to Set "Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force" from Deck.
- Activate "Soul Shave Force" to revive the first "Force Strix" from GY and overlay it into "Cyber Dragon Infinity", who will target "Wise Strix" to attach as material and free up the Extra Monster Zone.
- Revive "Raider's Wing" in GY with its effect by detaching "Force Strix's" remaining material.
- Overlay "Force Strix" into "Xyz Armor Fortress" in the Extra Monster Zone and use its effect to detach a material and search "Full-Armored Xyz" for you to Set. Afterwards, overlay "Fortress" into "Full Armored Dark Knight Lancer".
- Activate "Strangle Lanius" in hand to Summon itself, then use its second effect to revive "Singing Lanius" in GY, and overlay both into "Time Thief Perpetua", whose effect you will use to attach a second "Power Reserve" from Deck to "Infinity" as material.
- Pass turn, then during your opponent's Standby Phase activate "Power Reserve" to Summon itself and a second "Bezel Ship" from the Deck and activate "Full-Armored Xyz" immediately after to overlay "Power Reserve" and "Raider's Wing" into "Time Thief Redoer" (doing so will make "Redoer" untargetable by card effects via "Raider's Wing's" effect).
- Use "Redoer's" effect to attach the opponent's top card of Deck, then use "Perpetua's" to detach a material and revive "Adjuster" from GY, which will send "Time Thief Flyback" from the Deck to the GY.
- After detaching "Power Reserve" from either "Redoer" or "Infinity", use "Perpetua" to attach "Time Thief Startup" to the other, enabling the GY effect of "Power Reserve".
Recommended cards[edit]
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Weaknesses[edit]
As effective as the "Time Thief" monsters can be in providing out-of-the-box interactions with the opponent, they suffer a great weakness to cards such as the "Ghost Girls" (namely "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" and "Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit"). A well-timed activation of such cards on the opponent's end can easily stop the effects of "Regulator" and "Redoer" in particular dead in their tracks, and the Deck's setup/strategy by proxy. The card "Dimensional Barrier" can also prove a major problem for them by preventing them from Xyz Summoning outright, therefore locking them out of both their ace and toolbox monsters.
Furthermore, the Deck often requires use of supplementary archetypes and/or "free agent" cards to get the ball rolling when it comes to providing necessary monsters for setup. Hence why more often than not, "Time Thief" is found in joint builds alongside archetypes such as "Heraldic Beast", "Phantom Knights", "Onomat", and "Gunkan".
