Forum:Simply Smashing Sacred

When I took my first look at the Sacred archetype, in DT13, I was... unimpressed, to say the least. Very little compatibility between monsters (Sacred Dabaran could special summon Sheratan, but the latter wouldn't get its effect). No rank 4 Xyzs, and only a fairly sub-standard rank 3. Their rank 5 was pretty good - Pleiades - but very difficult to summon. So at the time, I wrote them off as another of Konami's failed archetypes.

Well, now I've taken another look and I'm impressed! Sacred Beehive, Sacred Kaust, and especially Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7 have turned this into a surprisingly competitive deck!

The monster line-up starts with 12 Sacred monsters - three of each of my personal favorites. Kaust's ability makes Sacred Xyzs of any rank not just possible, but easy! Gredi and Pollux can bring out another level 4 Sacred for an easy Xyz summon in one turn. Sheratan, meanwhile, searches whatever I need.

There's a few other monsters in here too. Thunder King Rai-Oh can combine with my other monsters for rank 4 Xyzs, but before then it's an excellent LIGHT beatstick, with two great effects. (As long as I don't summon Sheratan with it on-field...) Ghost Ship is a card I've found somewhat useful - combined with Kaust, it's an easy Pleiades. Finally, Honest's function in such a deck should be obvious.

Spell cards include three Star Sign of the Sacred, and with good reason - quickly drawing this card is often the difference between an easy victory and an uphill struggle. It provides me with a draw each time I Xyz summon a Sacred monster, providing me with easy access to all the cards in my deck! 3 Pots of Duality are pretty obvious choices here. Two Mystical Space Typhoons deal with pesky spells and traps. Reinforcement of the Army searches Pollux, giving me essentially four copies - thus, more consistency. Pot of Avarice refills my main deck, extra deck, and hand. The rest of the spells are staples.

2 Calls of the Haunted allow me to resummon Xyzs to get draws with Star Sign, or bring back potential Xyz materials. The rest of the trap cards should be pretty much self-explanatory (Starlight Road protects my Star Signs).

The extra deck is where things get fun. 3 Pleiades is first. It's easy to summon, and quite helpful - bouncing any card on the field, on EITHER PLAYER'S TURN. I can interrupt my opponent's attack like that, or bounce their spell/trap in their end phase. And with 2500 ATK, Pleiades is a good beater. But it's nothing compared to the trump card of the Sacred archetype - Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7! With 2700 ATK and the ability to "upgrade" any Sacred Xyz to it (IE - Xyz summon Ptolemy by overlaying it over one of your Sacred Xyzs, and any of its materials), it's already formidable. When you take into account its second effect, though, it becomes truly fantastic; Ptolemy can return any card in either player's field or graveyard to their hand, once per turn. So I can get back a used-up Sacred from the graveyard to allow more Xyz summons, for instance. Or I can send my opponent's monster to their hand. In any case, I can turn any of my Sacred Xyzs with no materials into Ptolemy - getting a draw from Star Sign in the process.

The other Xyzs are also quite useful. Omega can protect any of my Sacreds from spells and traps for a turn, making Dimensional Prison and Dark Hole irrelevant. Beehive has the truly impressive effect of detaching a material to boost the ATK of any Sacred by 1000 - permanently. It gets itself to 3400 ATK with ease. Finally, Hyades can put my opponent's monsters in DEF mode, making them easy targets. I've also got a single Stardust Dragon (for Starlight Road) and some staple Xyzs.

So that's the deck! Tell me what you think. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 03:49, December 22, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

All LIGHT, archetypal...Seems a little simple. Maxx "C" over 1 PoD? You're not running Dimensional Prison or Smashing Ground or any other card to use immediately with Duality, and Overlaying into Messier 7 is a free +1 with Star Sign out. 24.199.53.194 (talk) 21:46, December 23, 2011 (UTC)

There's a lot to be said for simplicity!

As for the choice of Duality over Maxx C? I tried C, but I've been finding Pot of Duality to be much more consistently useful. True, an Xyz summon nets me an easy draw if I have Star Sign. But I don't always have it, and getting to it quickly is very important. Thus, Pot of Duality. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 23:27, December 23, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

How often do you have a monster on the field when you Summon Ghost Ship? If the answer is "not very often", why not use Cyber Dragon? Battlemaniac (talk • contribs) 23:55, December 23, 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, good point. I'll do some more testing, but that might work better. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 00:45, December 24, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

Why not add in a Xyz Reborn or Lumenize? ---Dark Ace SP (Talk) 15:01, December 27, 2011 (UTC)

Xyz Reborn is much less versatile than Call of the Haunted. I like that the Xyz gets a material, but overall it isn't that useful. As for Lumenize - I'd rather destroy or banish the attacking monster(s) with something like Mirror Force or Dimensional Prison than simply negate their attack. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 23:01, December 27, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

Actually Xyz Reborn is pretty good. Imagine returning a card like Pleiades and use its effect to bounce a card and then overlay it for a Ptolemys M7? Remove Starlight as it is a 2 or 0. Maybe add a 3rd MST or a Mind Control then remove the Stardust. Also add a Leviair/Zenmaines as you have 14 Extra Deck cards and Leviair/Zenmaines is always useful 112.210.225.83 (talk) 04:15, December 29, 2011 (UTC)

in my version i put in instant fusions for an easy 3-5 xyz real fun and easy when you only have one sacred especially with kaust

Yes, if you mainly use CotH on Xyz, try Xyz Reborn instead. I get what you mean by versatility, so it's really your choice. If you add the CyDra, don't forget Chimeratech. Also, this may sound odd since you may not have considered it, but how about Horn of the Phantom Beast? Many of the Xyz are Beast-Warrior and a few of the Effect Monsters can use Horn. Synchro Maniac10 (talk • contribs) 20:23, December 29, 2011 (UTC)

From what I've seen there are way too many spells/traps.
If you read the effects, the majority are really only useful when you have another in hand, so I would think an almost all monster deck would be needed. Here's an example of one that I've been testing:

There are probably some obvious fixes I could use but this one seems to work well for me. Cyber Dragon's an instant summon, good combo when used with Sacred Kaust and it's a good out for Wind-Up Zenmaines. Photon Veil helps get the right cards to your hand, great for a starting hand, not so great later on. I was also thinking of adding Lumenize but I couldn't find the room. 101.162.51.126 (talk) 09:19, December 30, 2011 (UTC)

I couldn't use a deck like that, for a few reasons.

1. Photon Veil is always a -1, and if you have three LIGHT monsters in your hand you probably don't need three of the same one.
2. You haven't included Star Sign of the Sacred, which is the card that nets me most of my victories.
3. The low-ish monster count has not been a problem for me.

However, I would like to take some of these changes into account.

I've replaced Ghost Ship with Cyber Dragon, and added Chimeratech Fortress Dragon to the extra deck instead of Color Ruler. However, there is another big change - the replacement of Gredi with Sacred Leonis. Leonis allows me to make an easy rank 3 or 4 Xyz (3 with Sheratan or Kaust, 4 with Kaust). Additionally, I don't have to summon Sheratan on its own if I have Leonis in hand. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 21:50, December 30, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

The reason I had no Star Sign of the Sacred was because it's really a -1 until you XYZ, and you maybe XYZ once to twice a turn? At best it's a +1. If they have a set MST then that's a straight up -1, so I ran Maxx "C" over it because it's almost always a 1 for 1 and it can stop some really big pushes. Not to forget we're in a 3 MST and 1 Heavy format, so set or continuous cards don't stay long.
And the reason I find Photon Veil good is because you can trade in any 3 light monster cards for the 3 light cards of your choice, it may be a -1 but it's an instant 3 Sacred Kaust, Sacred Pollux or whatever.
101.162.51.126 (talk) 01:09, December 31, 2011 (UTC)

Um, Star only works once a turn anyway - regardless of how many times you Xyz. And it can only be card-neutral, since it's continuous - your opponent has to use some kind of card to destroy it. Assuming that card isn't Breaker, they've used a card to deal with yours.

But in any case, I'm keeping it because, as I said, it is responsible for many of my victories. Over a few turns those draws really add up. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 05:14, December 31, 2011 (UTC)Runer5h

Seriously, you should try 2 Horn in the deck. It should work really well for you, and I'm sure you'll like it. Synchro Maniac10 (talk • contribs) 19:25, January 1, 2012 (UTC)

I'm trying it out now, and I've got to say... I'm not sure either way of how useful it is. I'll give more of an update later, but for now it's still in the testing phase. Thanks for the idea, though! I doubt it would have worked without the inclusion of Leonis over Gredi, but now I think it makes a lot of sense! Runer5h (talk • contribs) 05:03, January 2, 2012 (UTC)Runer5h

youre deck is pretty cool but a deck that special summons alot shouldn't be using pot of duality because it blocks special summons for the turn you should probably take them out and add either maxx"c" or cyber valley and you'll need a double summon with double summon and kaust you can easily bring rank 3-4-5 xyz also you should takd down 1 COTH and add 1 xyz reborn. Hope this helps LaserGhost (talk • contribs) 18:24, January 2, 2012 (UTC)

I have six monsters with the effect of Double Summon - why would I need to waste a spell card to do the same thing? Also, I don't special summon every turn, though I generally have the option. Sometimes it makes more sense to gather one's resources than to go all out. Finally, as I said before, Xyz Reborn is cool, but not as versatile as I would like. Runer5h (talk • contribs) 00:11, January 3, 2012 (UTC)Runer5h

By the way, how's Heavy Storm working for you, with 9 Traps and 3 Continuous Spells? :3 Personally, I'd drop it for a 3rd MST, just so you don't draw Heavy Storm dead, which stinks. Synchro Maniac10 (talk • contribs) 00:37, January 4, 2012 (UTC)

V3

I've made a few changes, based on the new cards of DT14.

• Three Sacred Schet have been added. Their versatility is amazing, and they can be comboed with literally any other monster in the deck for an easy Xyz summon.
• I've also added 2 Sacred's Super Rebirth. It may cost me a battle phase, but getting two Sacred monsters back to my hand is definitely worth it. For instance, I can use this card to retrieve Kaust and Pollux, and with them make Pleiades to bounce my opponent's monster. Quite helpful. (Also, if one of my Xyz summons is negated, I can use it right away to bring back the materials, and try next turn.)
• I've also added a third copy of Mystical Space Typhoon, because it really stinks to have my Sacred Xyz monster's summon negated.
• In the extra deck, I've got a second copy of Sacred Hyades. It can be easily 'upgraded' to Ptolemy, and its position-switching effect lets me take down big monsters. (For instance - summon Hyades, switch my opponent's Black Luster Soldier to DEF position, then upgrade Hyades to Ptolemy and attack over BLS.) I've also got another Daigusto Emeral, which I've found hugely useful.

Of course, I've had to make a few cuts.

• I dropped Cyber Dragon. Schet fills its role perfectly, so what's the need?
• I dropped one Thunder King Rai-Oh. It's not as necessary with Schet out (originally, I just didn't have enough level 4 LIGHT monsters, so it was quite welcome), but I still like it enough to have two.
• Book of Moon and Reinforcement of the Army have both been removed. Book took up space I didn't have, and Reinforcement isn't as necessary anymore, with Schet. (The idea was that I'd have more access to Pollux, and thus to 1-turn Xyz summons.)
• I've dropped both copies of Call of the Haunted. I can bring out monsters from the hand much more easily than before, so I just don't need to use the fairly slow Call.
• In the extra deck, I've removed Leviathan Dragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. The former isn't necessary, seeing as I can easily Xyz summon Hyades and proceed to the 2700 ATK Ptolemy. As for the latter - well, I don't have Cyber Dragon, so it's not very useful.

Any more ideas for this deck? Runer5h (talk • contribs) 01:38, February 19, 2012 (UTC)Runer5h