Nekroz

Unicore going to 3 got me looking at Nekroz. The Deskbot 003 combo seemed really good on paper, but it doesn't play under Nibiru, which is really common in this meta, and it also incorporates a huge number of bricks for a combo card you can only run 3 copies of, since there's no rota for 003. Unicore next to Kristya is also a little redundant, and I feel it's not a great use of its power. It's definitely a good combo, which I might be inclined towards, but I feel like to truly take advantage of the Nekroz deck you should play it sort of like Invoked Shaddoll last format, and turbo out Nekroz of Unicore.

In the main deck we get 9 ROTAs, all of which find us either a Ritual spell or monster. 3x Manju of the Ten Thousand hands uses up our normal summon for this, but the deck is not normal summon reliant, since you are a ritual deck. Extra-Foolish Burial is either a Rota by sending Herald of the Arc Light or targeted removal by sending Elder Entity N'tss. Both of these cards are useful Kaleidoscope targets, so the cost for this is a measly 400o LP. Preparation of Rites recycles a Ritual spell while adding a ritual monster that's level 7 or lower, but because of Clausolas and Brionac you can grab either a Nekroz spell or Monster. Having 12 ways to find Unicore and 11 ways to search a ritual spells, plus the actual copies of each in your deck makes turboing out Unicore very plausible.

We're only running 1 Shurit. He makes higher level Nekroz monsters more plausible and is still an important 1 of, but the deck has literally a dozen ways to search him thanks to all the ROTAs.

For Nekroz Ritual Monsters, 3 Unicore is obligatory. The secondary effect is very useful, and unlike some of his peers he can be full material for himself, so multiple copies are fine and you want to see this card. The whole point of the deck is turboing this onto the field and seeing if your opponent can play through him. It's notable that Eldlich outs him very easily, with 6 copies of Golden Lord, even with other Nekroz cards backing Unicore up. This played into my card choices.

I'm also running 3 Brionac. This is an essential combo piece with Preparation of Rites, also it finds Clausolas which finds rituals spells, and its 3 MORE copies of Unicore. The goal is as much consistency as possible, so 3 seemed ideal. It also really helps going second to break boards, which makes this deck good going second as well as first. Yay!

2 Nekroz of Clausolas helps make Preparation of Rites search either spells or monsters, contributing to that whole "12 Rota" feel. Effect negation on the board is occasionally good, like against Zombies, still kind of a deck, or uhh... Maybe Toons? Not a lot of maindeck archetypes right now besides Eldlich, which also activates effects out of the hand and GY anyways.

2 Nekroz of Trish are basically hand traps that are searchable by all of our 12 Rotas, which do the Sauravis thing. Having played Vanity stun, the power of that is immediately obvious. Also, while the deck can find it hard to summon sometimes thanks to Extravagence, it has a great effect going second to 3 for 2 your opponent. This card is the real reason you need Shurit.

2 Nekroz of Valkyrus round off the hand traps. This one is the easiest of all of the high-level Nekroz monsters to summon, and can gain you card advantage going first, especially in combination with Manju. Its real purpose is to protect Unicore from destruction by battle, very relevant against Eldlich, or against any deck with high attack monsters you can summon in the main deck.

2 Cycle, 2 Kaleidoscope, and 1 Mirror round off the Ritual spells. All of these are good, but with 11 searchers for them and 5 copies you should be good on seeing these in your hand.

I'm running 3 Pot of Extravagance, which can hurt with Kaliedoscope sometimes, but generally is worth if for sheer card advantage. Its also good Ash bait in a deck that needs searchers, and may be better than Called by the Grave for getting your plays going against Ash, which is still seeing some play as a 2 of.

That left room for 10 hand traps, and I wanted to take full advantage of it. To me, being able to run 10 interactive cards was the main perk of playing this version of the deck. I focused on cards that would help against Eldlich in the main deck, since the Eldlich matchup is seriously rough, but in the side deck I have options for, Adamancipator, as well as various ways to board against combo and control, including spicier versions of Eldlich and Altergeist, which are both actually pretty good right now (I know Geist is a rogue deck, but it was still topping with 1 Multifaker and now it has 3), plus going second cards.

The only things in the extra deck besides Kaleidoscope targets, including some which double for Extra-Foolish Burial, is Eria Gentle into Accesscode. This lets us imitage Shaddolls even further, by increasing the decks potential to OTK (when it doesn't see Extravagence).

***EDIT***

Added original flavour ROTA over an interaction slot. Through Clausolas it is the 12th spell rota, and the 13th Shurit Rota. Basically a better flex slot when I decided to add Shurit #2.

***EDIT***

Added I Shaddoll Dragon main and 3 Shaddoll Apkallone to the extra deck. This lets us make Brionac to break boards more easily, while also popping an additional spell/trap. It's worth losing 1 Cyclone for this mini engine, since Dragon is also useful for popping spells/traps with Nekroz Rituals, and 1 copy can be recycled to pop more cards with Apkallone.