Abyss Actor Guardragon

Opening

I wish I could remember who it was I saw on YouTube that mentioned, if you're playing a Rogue Deck, you shouldn't have people complaining about unfair engines. You're playing jank, if you want to win, you have to do some underhanded shit.

Enter; Abyss Actor Guardragon. I've tossed around with every other form of Summoning after my 10 year hiatus, but never with Pendulum until this deck. I was thinking that I liked the challenge of trying to make this one something all my own, as just about every other Pendulum list out there was Magician/Endymion based, with the rare Odd-Eyes variant sprinkled in. But not a word of Abyss Actor, outside of how it's a crime that literally all of their cards have been imported but Abyss Actor - Twinkle Littlestar, which it is... for Pure Abyss Actor, at least. Through the couple of weeks of testing I've pushed this deck through, I've found several things.

1: Most Abyss Actors suck. Despite how much I enjoy their aesthetics, gameplay, and general themes, my lord did they not transition well into Master Rule 4. The lack of a true Link Monster dedicated to their playstyle, most of their effects restricting you to only Abyss Actor Pendulum monsters (which makes even a Link Monster a difficult thing to save them), only two of their good monsters have really usable scales, and just Abyss Actor - Extras fills your Extra Deck and sets up your scales at the same time, puts you in a pretty rough position as a brewer. However...

2: Abyss Actor - Comic Relief is absolutely nuts. Generally speaking, your Abyss Scripts also tend to suck on their front side, but my god their effects that trigger if your opponent hurls a blind MST at them are insane. Comic Relief solves literally every problem with Abyss Scripts on his own. If he's Scale'd while targeting another copy of himself, the combos are disgusting. The scale kills himself in the process, meeting your Scripts' requirement of being destroyed while you have an Actor "On Stage" (Face-Up in Extra), you take their best monster (Spell effect targeting, too. So you can even steal stuff like Borreload Dragon), and you get to pop a script of your choosing while the original monster is now under your opponent's control, so you'll get the effect as-if your opponent was doing it. All the while being a Scale 8, which the deck sorely desires. This guy makes Creature Swap feel playable in 2019. What a time to be alive.

3: If it doesn't perform well after enough workaround, just jam Guardragons in. We get it. This engine's insane and honestly requires very little investment if you aren't that focused on the Extra Deck. Guardragon Elpy and Guardragon Agarpain with their partner in crime, Triple Burst Dragon, allow you to do some of the dumbest combos to bait out Hand Traps so this Turn 3 deck gets to really shine. If you eat through your opponent's responses with Plan A, Plan B is a sure-fire way to get going and OTK without even needing Borrelsword Dragon as backup. Full combo will be listed below, but now it's time for the card-by-card.

Monsters

Mythical Beast Master Cerberus, Mythical Beast Jackal King, Chronograph Sorcerer, and Timegazer Magician: The most generic ways of filling your Extra Deck and giving bodies for your Heavymetalfoes Electrumite while keeping your Normal Summon open. Jackal King has the added benefit of being a walking Divine Wrath and can Summon back Master Cerberus for additional utility. Not quite enough to warrant putting him to 3, but he more than pulls his own weight. Feels especially good that a Master Cerberus brought back by Jackal King's ability counts as Material for Zefra Metaltron, giving you another zone to work with if you can fit it in early enough of your combos.

Abyss Actor - Superstar: Despite what I said about Comic Relief earlier, this one certainly pulls his weight and then some. You'll rarely, if ever, use his Pendulum effect, but his Monster half is pretty bonkers. When going against the odd Altergeist or Subterror player, him protecting your Pendulum Summons from the likes of Solemn Judgment is not to be ignored. Pulling your Abyss Scripts from the deck as well and setting them to work in tandem with Comic Relief or the true leading lady, Mellow Madonna, saves your ass over and over. Trust me, while Comic Relief does all the work behind the scenes, he commands Center Stage.

Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna: I honestly don't know how this deck was meant to function before Legendary Duelists: White Dragon Abyss was printed. She's your searcher, your 0 scale, a swarmer, and doesn't even have a bad stat line. I don't know what else to say.

Destrudo the Lost Dragon's Frisson, Supreme King Gate Zero, Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm: Your Guardragon enablers. Destrudo's your primary search off of Elpy to go nuts, while Darkwurm tends to get summoned from the bin to search for Zero, then get linked into Electrumite and Pendulum'd back as your Elpy material.

Abyss Actor - Curtain Raiser, Abyss Actor - Extras: Not gonna lie, seeing Curtain Raiser being the only used Abyss Actor is what got me so intrigued by the archetype. These tend to just be free bodies to start your plays, but Curtain Raiser's effect isn't too bad if you get wiped and live. Extras, while locking you into Actors for the turn, is honestly just really good at turning a bricked hand into something playable by Scaling a Mellow Madonna from deck and then using her search.

Abyss Actor - Comic Relief: I gave enough reason why he's here up top. Card's bonkers.

Spells

Allure of Darkness: The deck does occasionally want a bit more selection, and while this does go neutral in card economy, it does dig pretty deep at 2 cards. I have been tempted to take the risky +1 play of Pot of Desires, or going back to old testing where I was rolling Pendulum Halt. In the former's case, well, it's Desires in a deck with one-ofs. And as for Halt, I'm primarily trying to use this slot to un-brick bad openers, and Halt being active means I'm already doing what I should be. For what it's worth, I DO think Halt is good in Pure Abyss Actor, but here... not so much.

Abyss Script - Rise of the Abyss King: The best Script, not even close. The only one I feel is worth it to run more than 1, this is an unstoppable board wipe that if hit with a blind MST, allows you to search for TWO Abyss Actors and/or Scripts. Free wipe, or a +2 when popped early. Beautiful.

Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony: The fact that the front half of this card is a legitimate win condition with current Time Procedures is filthy. Oh, and the fact that face-down it turns into a +5 is too. This is a legal card with a Draw 5. If that's not a selling point on this Archetype, I don't know what is.

Dragon Shrine, Foolish Burial, Dragon Ravine: Almost exclusively here for Guardragon setup and extension.

Extra Deck

Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon: Generally the monster you end on with your full combo, though getting it off of Absolute Dragon is also quite good. Might move this back up to 2 and cut the Crystal Wing.

Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon: Currently running this instead of the 2nd copy of Vortex Dragon, this is being used as my primary thing to hit off of Agarpain. If it underperforms, I'll just switch back.

Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon: Guardragon Combo.

Black Rose Dragon: Honestly, after upping Rise of the Abyss King to 3, I don't think I've had to Summon this once. I'll give her another week or so before she gets cut.

Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon: I don't know what it is about this card in particular, because I'm not huge on its art, its first effect, or its summoning requirements, but there's just something about that second effect that feels way more fun than it should. Summoning this and then using it as Link Material feels like cheating.

Borreload Dragon: The deck has no issue with performing an OTK, and would rather just care about more resilience. Hence why Borrelsword Dragon's more possessive, less pointy brother is here. Not a bad card to rip off of Agarpain either if you know the matchup can't really deal with him.

Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Chaos: Alright, I was a naysayer on this card for the longest time and I don't for the life of me know why. Every time I've tested a deck and wanted a different Link 3, he's there. A disgustingly resilient threat? Got that too. Non-targeting, non destruction removal? Yep. This card kind of does it all and its current pricetag as-of writing this at $74 is pretty justified.

Zefra Metaltron: Link 3 with all down arrows and spot removal in one? Don't mind if I do.

Triple Burst Dragon, Guardragon Agarpain, Dragunity Knight - Romulus, Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres: Your usual suspects when it comes to Guardragon combos. Pretty self-explanatory stuff, with the notable fact that Triple Burst can deny Sky Striker Ace - Raye's revival trigger when it runs over one of their Link Monsters.

Heavymetalfoes Electrumite: Holy crap why does this thing have so much positive text? Why are its only restrictions its materials and a HOPT on its draw trigger? No wonder you're at 1.

LANphorhynchus: Two Link Arrows on a stick. Would kill to have this be a second Electrumite, or for our end board to be more DARK Monsters so I could use Wee Witch's Apprentice. While typing this, I remembered Beat Cop from the Underworld is a thing, and should probably be running that instead of these.

Guardragon Elpy: Ban this sick filth.

Side Deck

Build this for however you need it to. Only card I'd hard recommend is Dark Ruler No More, as it allows you to board break other Guardragon-esque combos with ease. While the deck isn't reliant on its Normal Summon, bricking is certainly a thing that will force you into it and sometimes just playing The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode and passing won't cut it. The other thing is that this is still, at the end of the day, a Pendulum Deck, which requires you using significantly more resources from your hand than most other decks in the meta. Toss in the fact that you're playing a worse deck than what the current field is used to, and you'll have a bad time if you use resource-heavy answers like Twin Twisters. Stick to Mystical Space Typhoon or Cosmic Cyclone for single-target back row removal, or if you really just need to clear out back row as hard as possible, Heavy Storm Duster's your card. A large boon this deck has in games 2 and 3 for Traps out of the board is that once your opponent realizes you're on a deck like Abyss Actor that WANTS its back row to be popped, they'll be very wary of any back row you have out of the board for fear that it could be a game-ending Abyss Script trigger.

The Combo

The current combo I've got going to the best effect looks like this:

1. Summon two bodies on board, one of them being Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm, search for Supreme King Gate Zero.


2. Link the two together for Heavymetalfoes Electrumite. Electrumite trigger will send either a Scale 8, a Lv6 or lower Monster or Darkwurm if you couldn't get him out in the first step.


3. Set a Scale and pop it with Electrumite if you're still missing your 8 Scale.


4. Scale your 0 and 8, and Pendulum Summon out your Darkwurm to the bottom-right of Electrumite, your Lv6 or lower Monster, and whatever else you can, at least one more body.


5. Link Darkwurm into Guardragon Elpy in the same Main Monster Zone.


6. Link Electrumite and your freebie body into Triple Burst Dragon in the same Extra Monster Zone.


7. Activate Elpy's Ignition Effect to Special Summon Destrudo the Lost Dragon's Frisson.


8. Link Triple Burst and Destrudo into Guardragon Agarpain in the same Extra Monster Zone.


9. Activate Agarpain's Ignition Effect to Special Summon Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.


10. Link Agarpain and Elpy into Dragunity Knight - Romulus in either Extra Monster Zone, his Triggered Effect searching for Dragon Ravine.


11. Activate Destrudo's Ignition Effect in the bin, targeting your Lv6 or lower Monster, and Special Summon itself, reducing level accordingly.


12. Synchro the Destrudo and the Lv6 or lower Monster into Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, using his Triggered Effect to Special Summon your 0 Scale (all are Lv7).


13. Overlay Meteorburst and your Lv7 into Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon.


14. Link Romulus and Absolute into Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres, Absolute's Triggered Effect will Special Summon Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon from your Extra Deck.

Ending board of 2~3 negates, a bounce, and whatever other good stuff you setup. This is just a tutorial for the basic combo the deck can pull off game-to-game.

Conclusion

While the Abyss Actor cast does have very little to offer overall, what the stars do is quite exciting. Comic Relief allows you to break boards you have no right doing so, Superstar gives you plenty of utility as well as protection against control decks, Mellow Madonna un-bricks you like no other, your Scripts make every anti-back row not-named Evenly Matched or Cosmic Cyclone quake in fear, and Curtain Raiser with Extras is one of the more fun combo starters I've had the pleasure of playing with. You are fairly resilient to hand-traps, being a Pendulum deck, but sometimes you are your own worst enemy, as bricking with this deck hurts, and is a little more often than I'd like. All-in-all, it's a fun deck to play, and definitely feels unique when you have the cast and crew put on a solid performance. But if the show can't go on, just burn the stage down with Dragons. At least until Elpy gets banned. Maybe by then we'll have Abyss Actor - Twinkle Littlestar out after 3 years being locked away in OCG-land so Pure Abyss Actor can actually do something and Abyss Actor - Evil Heel can do something other than stare at all of the 8 Scales around him when Abyss Actor - Wild Hope is MIA. One day.