Forum:Deck Guide/Arcana Force

Arcana Force Deck Guide

by Jared Grace (talk • contribs) 09:56, January 5, 2014 (UTC)

Introduction

Arcana Monsters are one of the strangest themes out there, and also one of the underrated ones. One of its biggest strengths is the power that some of the effects that they have available to them (namely The World, The Chariot, The Fool, and The Dark Ruler), however most of those powerful effects are balanced by a player having to take a 50/50 shot to get them with a coin toss, even with Light Barrier a coin has to land on heads for its effect to stay active from turn to turn. However there are possibilities out there and ways to get around those drawbacks, and chance cannot always fail. Arcana Monsters take a lot of skill patience, and of course… chance. There are a couple of advantages to running them though. One is the fact that building a deck is cheap, especially considering the cost of some of the current Tier 1 decks out there. Another is that most of their effects are powerful in of themselves, but because of the chance factor and necessity of Light Barrier, using them out of theme is a risky choice.

The Cards

So to start off, I am going to go through every Arcana card that is currently printed:

Arcana Force Cards

The Monsters: Arcana Force 0 - THE FOOL - The Fool is one of the best cards in the series if played correctly. Its battle immunity also comes with the chance for targeting immunity, which is good considering Gladiator Beasts and Dark decks use a lot of monsters that target in addition to the other cards out there. Also if your opponent is not well versed in the card text, if The Fool is targeted, doesn’t just negate, it destroys. And its inability to switch into defense mode is not as bad as it seems. First, it can start in defense mode, so setting it (no coin toss though if it is attacked while face down) or summoning it in defense mode will not force it into attack mode, but it gets into attack mode one of the best ideas is to give it to the opposing player with Creature Swap or Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon’s Tails effect. Also The Fool has begun to see tech play, Counter Fairies have made use of it, and being battle immune makes it a choice pick to add to other stall strategies as well. Also in control variants, giving control of The Fool to an opponent and playing Rivalry of the Warlords creates a field lock down because Fairies are not a common monster type. Card that can summon it defense mode include Nova Summoner, Acana Force III – The Empress, Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, One for One, Court of Justice, and if one wants to give it to their opponent include Creature Swap.

Arcana Force I - THE MAGICIAN - Getting its heads effect can make this a 2200 ATK beater depending on how many spells a player includes in their deck. Spells that help not only on a player’s own turn but during the opposing turn are Enemy Controller, Shrink, Book of Moon, and Rush Recklessly. It depends on how many spells a player uses in their deck as to how useful this card is, but another noteworthy use of this card is to transfer its effect to a more powerful Arcana Force monster via Arcana Call (at the LOTD Sneak Peek, I attached its heads effect to The Moon). The Magician could also find some uses in some burn decks, especially ones that utilize Bad Reaction to Simochi or Nurse Reficule the Fallen One . Its heads effect still provides a 2200 ATK wall, and its tails effect becomes a burn effect.

Arcana Force III - THE EMPRESS - This card’s usefulness depends on the level of play that one is taking an Arcana deck to. While she aids the rapid summoning of (high-level) Arcana Monsters, the problem is most builds do not need that speed. Another bigger flaw is she is dependent on your opponent normal summoning or setting, which means they can play around her effect especially with Emergency Teleport and Destiny Hero Malicious making it possible to summon a level 8 Synchro without using a normal summon. Fortunately since Normal summoning and setting is a part every deck; she will most likely be a nuisance, especially in lower level play. The ideal choices to special summon are The Moon, The World, and The Fool (in defense mode), but the rest of the Arcana cards are not bad choices either. It is situational, so for higher-level competition I would advise not using her. And its tails effect has no use that I can think of because Arcana decks do not have many graveyard-oriented cards like Destiny Heroes, Dark Armed Dragon Variants, Lightsworns or other Tier 1 decks.

Arcana Force IV - THE EMPEROR - This is one of the key supporting cards to the aggressive Arcana strategies because it makes every low level Arcana monster into a decent attacker, a must for Arcana decks that don’t intend to try for an immediate OTK. Stat changes for the low level monsters:

The Magician: 1100 -> 1600 The Empress: 1300 -> 1800 The Emperor: 1400 -> 1900 The Lovers: 1600 -> 2100 The Chariot: 1700-> 2200

Multiples on the field is good for even higher stat boosting of max of 1500… but be careful of its tails effect.

Arcana Force VI - THE LOVERS - This card is in my opinion the least useful of all the Arcana monster cards. It has a decent attack, but both of its effects are generally useless because most of the higher level Arcana monster cards a player would more likely want to special summon them with either Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen or The Empress, or are the EX monsters which cannot be tribune summoned. The only use I can think of is with Arcana Call to attach its heads effect to an Arcana monster when Special summoning The World is not possible.

Arcana Force VII - THE CHARIOT - This card is the cornerstone of the aggressive Arcana strategy; it can take any monster that it can destroy in battle. Combine it with cards like Shrink, Book or Moon or Enemy Controller, and one can take a lot of opposing monsters. And since it gets the monster instantly, one can attack with it in the same battle phase. Its tails effect though can be detrimental because giving an opponent a free 1700 monster is not something that is good in many situations.

Arcana Force XIV - TEMPERANCE - If one uses it, use it for its discard effect. Its heads effect is almost pointless with 2400 Attack points and other cards like The Emperor because an opponent will likely destroy Temperance before they attack and is not worth risking being stuck with the tails effect. Also, I think that this card would find a use in a Chaos deck in traditional as a LIGHT alternative to Kuriboh… but last I heard Makyura the Destructor was the best strategy to go with in traditional.

Arcana Force XVIII - THE MOON - This is card has its uses, but for the most part it is beat out by The World in almost every aspect. It’s token effect is not useless but tribune summons are something Arcana cards try get around especially with The Empress and The Chariot, and tokens cannot be used for the EX monsters or The World’s effect. For the most part, one would use it alongside The Empress to Special summon for free, or with the Emperor to give it a 3300 body that can run over Heraklinos or Red Archfiend Dragon. Also its tails effect is not entirely useless, giving a player a failed coin flip Arcana monster or an Attack Mode The Fool… its risky and I do not advise making a regular habit of it.

Arcana Force XXI - THE WORLD - This card has one of the most potentially powerful effects in the entire game. However, even without its effects, it boasts 3100 Attack points on a Level 8 monster without summon restrictions, meaning that Valhanna and The Empress are good get around cards to bring this out early as a beatstick that can beat every competitive monster in battle. But people who run this card are likely even more interested in getting its Heads effect to skip an opponent’s turn, but getting around the cost is tricky. Sadly, tokens are off limits since the card says explicitly that the two monsters have to hit the graveyard. The heads' effect is actually much more useful in the Traditional Format because before Dimension Fusion’s mid format ban, it was discovered that this card fits in perfectly with the Silicon Valley loop (Dimension Fusion + Cyber Valley x3) as its own F/OTK to skip all an opponent’s turns. However, in the Advanced format there is yet to be a consistent enough combo to get this card off the ground; the current two involve two Samsara Lotus or Strike Ninja and two D.D. Scout Planes. As neither combo is currently stable enough to warrant play, its effect would more likely find use as a trade off of a swarm to attempt to keep an opponent off-balance or to win since 3100 ATK by itself is not something to scoff, especially when it can skip a turn. If one finds themselves with its tails effect, at least it is on a 3100 ATK monster, use that and pray you can defeat your opponent or get it off the field before they can make good use of the cards they recover. Word of advice, don’t let them shuffle their graveyard around so they get their best cards back first.

Arcana Force EX - THE LIGHT RULER - The actual first boss monster for the Arcana theme and ironically the last card to make its way to the United States, which should be arriving soon as a Jump Promo, this 4000 ATK monster also boasts two different decent effects, both having their uses as well. Heads: Get any card back from the grave when it destroys something in battle. Like the Dark Ruler, the heads effect is probably going to be the more preferable of the two effects. Getting back any card from the grave is a powerful effect, especially cards like Monster Reborn, Mystical Space Typhoon, Threatening Roar, any fallen Arcana monster, anything that one may find necessary for the following turn (if someone is attacking monsters with the Light Ruler, one probably is not pushing for game yet). Tails: Negate any card that targets this card, destroy it, and then decrease this card’s ATK by 1000. This is a decent effect especially in the late game when this card getting destroyed could spell the end of the game, but this effect is also more situational than it initially looks. Most of the time The Light Ruler will survive two decreases. It also helps that it destroys the targeting effect as well, meaning that someone who targets it with a monster will regret it dearly. But it does not protect from non-targeting effects so it is limited to what it can do. Also, it does not specify a player that targets so your own effects will decrease its attack as well.

Arcana Force EX - THE DARK RULER - One of the boss monsters of the Arcana theme boasting two decent effects: Heads: It can attack twice with a Goblin Attack Force Clause. Time it right, and that a player can win in one turn. If one cannot get it just right it still can make a major push by running a monster or two over with its 4000 ATK and then maybe punch for 4000, but it goes to defense mode because of its Goblin Attack Force clause where it is a sitting duck for two turns, but at least it has 4000 DEF. A good card to combo with this though is Final Attack Orders so every attack will count, and it will stay on the offensive. Tails: When it is destroyed, all other cards on the field go with it. This is actually more situational than it initially looks, because if it is destroyed during your opponent’s turn, then you are left wide open for anything (could make use Temperance). Most of the time switching its effects with Reversal of Fate when it is about to be destroyed is something to consider for surprise factor, but one has to be careful with it. Also like The World, it is more than an Arcana theme card; it can also have an OTK built around it using its heads effect because of its generic summoning cost.

Spells and Traps: Light Barrier - To any Arcana strategy, this card is the key card and should be run in threes. Getting Light Barrier onto the field should be a primary goal of any Arcana deck because it overrides the chance of getting a sour effect and then as a bonus it has a Life Gain effect as well. However, a player has to land heads during their Standby Phase or lose its effect until their next one. So if one chooses to run Second Coin Toss, this is the card to run it for. (Thanks Trap Master for pointing out that the initial turn is coin toss free.) Also note that during the first turn that Light Barrier is played it has its effect since the coin toss does not start until the following Standby Phase, so playing copies over each other or Giant Trunade is good way to reset the field card.

Arcana Call - This card has its uses; it overrides any heads or tails effect of an Arcana monster on the field for a corresponding one in either player’s graveyard that is RFG’ed. The best use that I have run across is to give a high Level Arcana card The Magician’s heads effect. However for the most part it is better to keep the respective Arcana monsters with their respective effects.

Reversal of Fate - This is good if a player is stuck without Light Barrier or they want to manually switch the Light or Dark Ruler’s effects or the Fool’s effect before sending it to the opponent’s field in attack mode.

Other Support Cards: Nova Summoner - This is an excellent searcher for an Arcana deck because it can special summons the monster in defense mode, namely The Fool.

Honest - Every Arcana card is a Light monster, so this card will find plenty of use. Also, note that the boost lasts until the end of the turn, so if one uses the boost on The Dark Ruler during the first attack, it will still have the boost during the second one.

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter - This card is an excellent tech for most decks that run mostly Light Monsters. Also because of the limited destruction capability within the Arcana Monsters themselves, this card helps along the way. How many one runs though should depend on how many cards a player is willing to lose from their deck.

Lucky Chance - This is actually not that good for Arcana decks because most players would prefer choosing the effect through Light Barrier rather than take a chance of a bad Arcana effect for a 50/50 shot for an extra draw. It is a situational card, best to not be used in a dedicated deck.

Second Coin Toss - This is useful to either get a second chance with Light Barrier or to try to get the Arcana monsters to not backfire without Light Barrier, but altogether is a bit redundant. It is useful if one has the room to spare for it, but otherwise the focus should remain on playing Light Barrier.

Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen - A Call of the Mummy for Fairy Type monsters, this can help either early game or after taking a hit by special summoning a high Level Arcana monster or The Fool in Defense mode. Also a low level swarm is useful for the aggressive strategy. Valhalla also has its own search monster called Hecatrice that can search Valhalla from the deck to a player’s hand if Hecatrice is discarded from a player’s hand.

Creature Swap - It’s good for trading failed Arcana cards for opposing monsters which can serve the purpose better, namely either an attack mode Fool or a tails effect Empress. It does not target since it forces a trade of monsters by the players, so it is good way to get rid of a heads effect Arcana Force 0... in attack mode.

Mystic Box - Not quite as good as good as Creature Swap because it targets (meaning one cannot give them a heads effect Arcana Force 0) so I would advise to stick to Creature Swap for the most part.

Book of Moon - This card in addition to both being an offensive and defensive card, in Arcana decks it can serve to flipsome of the failed Arcana cards Face down so that a player can try to win the toss again or to wait out for Light Barrier.

Mind Control - This is one of the best cards for an Arcana deck that that use either EX monster or The World. Mind Control can grab any monster in any position with a cost. The catch though is that the monster cannot attack or be tribuned. However, since The World’s heads effect cost and The Light and Dark Ruler’s summoning cost all say “send to the graveyard” so opposing monsters that are taken with Mind Control can be used to fulfill those costs. Also since the chances of running into Gladiator Beasts or Tuners are good, one can also build an Extra Deck for cases in which the opportunity arises to take advantage of them as well.

The Strategies:

One thing to notice about the Arcana cards is that they generally serve to work as a swarm deck. And then the high level Arcana Cards then work to use that swarm to either summon themselves (EX monsters) or skip a player’s turn (The World). However, unlike most decks, there is a high chance for backfiring since every monster relies on a coin toss to either get good or bad effects. There a currently four stratigies that I have heard of.

The World Ends Now

While The World can serve as a big monster that can occasionally skip a player’s turn in the Arcana themes, in its own deck the idea is to lock a player out of all their turns. As I mentioned early there are currently two routes to achieving this in the Advanced Format.

1. Samsara Lotus. Samsara Lotus DARK/Plant/1/0/0 During your End Phase, if you control no Spell or Trap Cards, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard in face-up Attack Position. This card's controller takes 1000 damage during each of their Standby Phases.

Since Samsara Lotus can resurrect itself during a players end phase and has no restriction to how many can come about, the idea is to bring back two and then immediately send them back to the graveyard to skip the next turn with The World’s effect. Props to this include that it has most of the Dark support such as Armageddon Knight and Dark Grepher, also since the World is Level 8 it can be dumped with Trade- In and revived with Monster Reborn, but there is one big weakness… Light Barrier wrenches the set up. Samsara Lotus cannot come back if there are any Spells and Traps, including Field Spells, and the deck’s consistency falls apart without Light Barrier to ensure that the Heads effect happens, other cards like Emergency Provisions have to be decked, and the end result is the deck takes too many cards to get the combo off right. That is why I would rather recommend that one should go with Strike Ninja and D.D. Scout Plane. All the Dark Support is still useable, but Light Barrier is no longer a problem since D.D. Scout Plane is more flexible. Here is how the combo works: get The World and Strike Ninja onto the field at the same time and have two D.D. Scout Planes in the graveyard. Use Strike Ninja to remove both D.D. Scout Planes from play for its effect. Both D.D. Scout Planes come back during the End Phase in time to serve as fodder for The World, Strike Ninja comes back, the next turn is skipped, and then repeat this process. This build is more stable than the Samsara Lotus one because key cards are not working against each other, but it still requires a lot of cards to set up, and strategy suffers from the World’s inability to be searched. This is a build I came up with off the top of my head since I’ve not actually tried for an OTK with The World, don’t trust it and feel free to try and fix it; but it is a start.

The Dark Ruler OTK

Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler works much more aggressively than the The World OTK. It is also not consistent either because summoning The Dark Ruler takes just as much effort to pull off. One of the big benefits though is that it can make full use of Mind Control, and even when not OTKing it poses a 4000 Attack body. Also a card that helps the OTK tremendously is Final Attack Orders, which keeps not only Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler in attack mode but the monsters it attacks as well. I have yet to see a build that focuses on the The Dark Ruler, nor have I been able to come up with one, but cards that I would suggest to include are Light Barrier, Final Attack Orders, Ojama Trio, Mind Control, and possibly Agent of Creation Venus with Mystic Shine Balls. Also if someone has a build that works feel free to post it.

Swarm Tactics

Trying to use Arcana cards for the most part by themselves is a risky task, but one of the keys is that Arcana cards are meant to swarm. One of the key cards for that is The Chariot, which with its 1700 ATK can steal a reasonable amount of monsters in battle, with Shrink and/or The Emperor, The Chariot can take them all. In the swarm deck there are three things that a player can do as I mentioned once the swarm gets going. For a reference there is a metagame.com article by Jerome McHale about the Arcana swarm strategy back in July 2008. For competitive decks there are only three monsters that are the focus; The Emperor, The Magician, and The Chariot. The key to the aggressive Arcana deck is to swarm an opponent with The Emperor, The Chariot, and then the monsters The Chariot brings to your field. Also with all of the Quick-Play spells making room for the Magician is not that difficult to pull off as he can serve as a means to get over other obstacles with its attack double effect. This is a build run by one another Pojo user calling himself Wildeheart, special thanks for him letting me post his deck:

Casual Decks with the Empress

Decks that choose to include The Empress have the extra boost of being able to swarm faster, and even be able to get around the Tribune requirements of The World. This is a rough draft build of a similar deck that I am trying out as a variant to Wildeheart, but when I am done it will probably vary more. Also note that this build is more for casual players who go against people who also cannot afford tier 1 decks... like me.

Full Fool Control

Yannick Debeau made Top 8 in the Canadian Nationals and has had the most success with any Arcana card, using a counter-fairy deck teching Arcana Force 0 – The Fool. The current build that he runs is labeled as Full Fool Control; Also thanks to him for letting me post his current build:

Conclusion

Arcana decks are a unique in that they are swarm decks with higher-level monsters that can take full advantage of those possibilities, some in ways that no other theme can. However, unlike other decks, almost all the monsters have a chance factor added to them, even when a player is running Light Barrier. However, there are possibilities of the future that these cards can and will be played, Arcana Force 0 – The Fool has already made its way onto the competitive map, and Arcana Force XXI – The World and Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler both conceptual could be powerful deck types, someone just needs to crack the formula with them. However, on of the biggest factors going into choosing to run an Arcana deck: all the cards are dirt cheap except The Dark Ruler (which is $30… not too bad considering other secret rares out there). But whatever one decides to do with these cards and what can do is all up in air… no one knows what they can do because the future is a rather difficult to predict.