Red Dragon Archfiend (archetype)
"Red Dragon Archfiend", known as "Red Daemon" (レッド・デーモン Reddo Dēmon) in Japan and "Red Dragon" in the manga, is an archetype used by Jack Atlas in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime and manga, Fake Jack Atlas, and an alternate dimension Jack Atlas in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime.
The archetype is a sub-archetype of the "Archfiend" archetype, and primarily consists of Jack Atlas' Signer Dragon, "Red Dragon Archfiend", and Duel Dragon, "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend", and their upgraded forms in the anime and manga, respectively.
This archetype is the rival to the "Stardust" archetype, used by Jack Atlas' rival, Yusei Fudo.
Design
In general, every member of this archetype appear as armored demonic dragons with curling horns and spikes all along the body, although the root of their design comes from the painting The Great Red Dragon by William Blake.
Playing style
In contrast to the Defensive, negation-focused "Stardust Dragon", "Red Dragon Archfiend" and its related cards revolves around Offensive battle and destruction effects, usually manifesting as a board wipe effect. Higher-Level "RDA"-related monsters also notably feature the use of Double or Triple Tuning.
As a Deck, the "Red Dragon Archfiend" strategy generally involves using Jack Atlas-themed support cards, primarily the "Resonator" monsters, but also various Jack-themed low-Level Fiends (including the "Red" monsters), to summon "RDA" and its related Synchro bosses; these themed support encompass both direct support (supporting "Red Dragon Archfiend" or "Red Dragon Archfiend"/"Resonator" archetypal monsters) and indirect support (supporting high-Level DARK Dragon Synchro Monsters or low-Level Fiends).
The deck generally aims to swarm "Resonator" Tuner monsters and low-Level Fiends, in order to build a board consisting of RDA-related boss monsters, general DARK Dragon Synchro boss monsters, and searchable "RDA"-specific backrow. Importantly, the deck's Extra Deck choices are limited because several of its key cards lock the player's Extra Deck into DARK Dragon Synchro Monsters only.
The deck's main combo makers are the "Resonator" monster "Crimson Resonator", and the Level 6 Synchro Monster "Red Rising Dragon", both of whom applies the xenolock.
- "Crimson Resonator" can Summon two "Resonators" from the Deck if the player controls only controls it and a DARK Dragon Syncho; it can tutor out key "Resonator" monsters and provide the necessary levels for future combos.
- "Red Rising Dragon" can non-hard once per turn revive "Resonator" monsters in the GY if it is Synchro Summoned; provided the player has the extenders, it can be repeatedly summoned for Synchro climbing.
Other key combo makers include:
- Searchers:
- "Resonator Call": "Resonator" searcher
- "Resonator Command", "Soul Resonator": Low-level Fiend searcher
- "Bone Archfiend": Send-from-Deck Fiend searcher
- "Crimson Gaia", "Vision Resonator": "RDA"-support searcher
- Extenders:
- "Wandering King Wildwind", "Bone Archfiend": Non-Tuner low-Level Fiend extenders
- "Vision Resonator", "Synkron Resonator": "Resonator" Tuner extenders
- "Scarred Dragon Archfiend": Extra Deck extender, grants +8 extra Levels for Synchro climbing
The deck almost always aims to resolve the summon-from deck effect of "Crimson Resonator" to make its larger plays. One 1.5-card combo that can perform this involves having only "Soul Resonator" and another card in hand:
- Summon "Soul Resonator", search "Bone Archfiend"
- Special Summon "Bone Archfiend" (sending another card to the GY)
- "Bone Archfiend" mills "Crimson Resonator", decrease its own Level by 1
- "Bone Archfiend" and "Soul Resonator" summons "Red Rising Dragon", who revives "Crimson Resonator", setting up its effect
Once "Crimson Resonator" successfully resolves, the Deck can be pivoted into a variety of RDA-related or general DARK Dragon Synchro boss monsters (e.g. "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss", "Bystial Dis Pater", "Red Supernova Dragon"), as well as searchable RDA-related backrow (e.g. "Red Zone").
Externally, a variety of cards provide additional support to various aspects of the deck's core combos:
- "Earthbound Prisoner Stone Sweeper" is an additional "Resonator" searcher.
- "Obsessive Uvualoop" is a Level 4 Fiend Tuner extender who can banish Synchro Monsters from the GY; the banished monsters can be re-summoned with "Bystial Dis Pater" or "Red Zone".
- "Bystial" monsters provide Level 6 extenders, additional interruptions, and beatsticks. "The Bystial Lubellion" can also search "Etude of the Branded", which enables Synchro Summoning during the opponent's turn; this can create a potent floodgate by summoning "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity" on the opponent's turn.
- From the Inca series, "Supay, Duskwalker" and "Ascator, Dawnwalker" are both 1.5 card extenders who can set up Level 6 or Level 8 Synchros; the former can summon "Red Rising Dragon", the latter can summon a Level 8 "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster.
Recommended cards
Recommended cards
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Official Decklist
Post TDIL Deck[1]
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Weaknesses
- Because of the restrictions applied with "Crimson Resonator" and "Red Rising Dragon", the Deck has a very limited toolbox option, and its combos are very inflexible.
- "Crimson Resonator" and "Red Rising Dragon" are the Deck's main chokepoints; negating them typically means that the Deck will no longer be able to combo.
- The Deck can be directly countered by:
- Anti-Synchro cards (e.g. "Meklord")
- Anti-Dragon cards (e.g. "Buster Blader")
- The user's constant board of having at least 2 DARK monsters (including Dragons) throughout the deck's combos and at the end makes the Deck very susceptible to having their monsters cleared away as Fusion Materials by an opponent's "Super Polymerization" for their Fusion Monsters" such as "Starving Venom Fusion Dragon", "Predaplant Triphyoverutum", "Garura, Wings of Resonant Life", "Borreload Furious Dragon" etc.
- "Branded-Despia" can additionally use "Branded Banishment" to banish the user's monsters as Fusion Materials for Summoning some of the aforementioned Fusion Monsters, and "Fallen of Albaz" to remove all of the user's Dragon monsters they control for "Alba-Lenatus the Abyss Dragon".
