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" revolves around Offensive battle and destruction effects. Individual "Red Dragon Archfiend" monsters (and their related monsters) often have effects that destroy cards on both player's field en masse, as well as battle-related effects. Higher-Level "Red Dragon Archfiend" monsters have Summoning conditions that typically require DARK Dragon Synchro Monsters as their non-Tuner materials (which most of them are), and typically also require Double or Triple Tuning.
As a Deck, "Red Dragon Archfiend" is most often combined with the "Resonator" archetype due to their dedicated synergies: "Red Dragon Archfiend" monsters have effects that support the swarming of "Resonator" monsters and/or Tuner monsters, while "Resonator" monsters focus on supporting DARK Dragon Synchro Monsters.
Within the "RDA-Resonator" Deck, the two key monsters that enables the mass swarming of "Resonator" monsters are "Crimson Resonator", who can summon 2 "Resonator" monsters from the Deck if the player only controls it and a DARK Dragon Synchro Monster, and "Red Rising Dragon", who has a non-once per turn effect to revive a "Resonator" monster when Synchro Summoned. "Wandering King Wildwind" provides a source of self-Special-Summonable non-Tuner monsters to make "Red Rising Dragon", and can also search for follow up in the GY. Importantly however, "Crimson Resonator" and "Red Rising Dragon" both have the restrictive condition that, the turn their effects are activated, the player cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck, except DARK Dragon Synchro Monsters. This greatly restricts the player's Deck building options.
In a trade-off from having such a strict Summoning restriction, this archetype possesses great consistency to pull off its combos, often requiring only 2, or even 1-card combos. One such example requires only "Soul Resonator" and another card in hand. Its effect can be used to add "Bone Archfiend" to the hand, which can Special Summon itself by sending another card to the GY. Next, its effect can be used to decrease its Level by 1 and send "Crimson Resonator" from the Deck to the GY, allowing "Red Rising Dragon" to be Synchro Summoned and Summon that "Crimson Resonator" from the GY. With its effect, "Vision Resonator" and "Synkron Resonator" can be Special Summoned from the Deck. First, "Vision Resonator" and "Red Rising Dragon" can be used to Synchro Summon "Scar-Red Dragon Archfiend", which allows "Vision Resonator" to add "Red Zone" to the hand. Then, "Synkron" and "Scar-Red" can be used to Synchro Summon "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss", which triggers both of their effects to return "Vision Resonator" to the hand and Summon "Red Dragon Archfiend" from the Extra Deck. Finally, "Vision" can Special Summon itself, and be used with "Red Dragon Archfiend" to Synchro Summon "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane". This 1-card combo results in "Abyss", "Bane", and "Red Zone".
One other scenario, also involving "Red Rising Dragon" and "Crimson Resonator", can make use of the latter's effect to Special Summon "Red Resonator" and "Vision Resonator" instead, then using all 4 to Synchro Summon "Red Supernova Dragon" and search "Red Zone", effectively giving the player two opportunities to banish the opponent's entire field, all while controlling a monster with a minimum of 6000 ATK.
Combos like these are very consistent to start, as "Resonator" monsters have several searchers at their disposal. Mainly, "Resonator Call" can add any "Resonator" monster from the Deck to the hand. "Resonator Command" can add any Level 4 or lower Fiend, which helps in finding "Resonator" starters, or Fiend extenders such as "Wandering King Wildwind" and "Bone Archfiend". "Earthbound Prisoner Stone Sweeper" can discard itself to add any Level 3 or lower Fiend Tuner to the hand, which encapsulates every "Resonator" monster. "Wandering King Wildwind" can banish itself from the GY on the following turn it was sent there to add a Fiend Tuner with 1500 ATK or less, helping in perform these combos after the first turn. As such, "Soul Resonator" and "Crimson Resonator" can be consistently added to the player's hand.
Aside from the "Red Dragon Archfiend" and "Resonator" monsters, the Deck can make use of other DARK Dragons and Fiend Tuners. "Obsessive Uvualoop" can banish Synchro Monsters to return itself from the GY to the hand, and then Special Summon itself. "Bystial Dis Pater" can Special Summon the player's banished monsters, or use them to destroy the opponent's monsters. In the Traditional Format, "Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon" can Special Summon itself back from the GY, allowing it to be used for even more Synchro Summons. The "Bystial" monsters can also provide more extenders and interruptions for the Deck, as monsters such as "Bystial Baldrake" and "Bystial Druiswurm" can both Summon themselves from the hand, while providing their own sort of disruption, and "The Bystial Lubellion" can search them and "Etude of the Branded", which allows the player to Synchro Summon during the opponent's turn. This is particularly powerful with "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity", due to its effect that shuts down the opponent's card activations for the rest of the turn. Borrowing from the Inca series, "Supay, Duskwalker" and "Ascator, Dawnwalker" can both Special Summon themselves from the hand, while Summoning their respective Tuners from the Deck, which can either be used for "Red Rising Dragon" or 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")
