Nekroz Dogmatika Go Second

Why Go Second In Nekroz?

            Nekroz have a surprising number of cards the benefit from going second. Powerful Cards Like Nekroz of Trisula and Nekroz of Brionac only can use their on-board effects on an opponent’s already established board. This build takes advantage of two main cards Nekroz of Sophia and Dance Princess of the Nekroz.

Nekroz of Sophia lets you discard it and a Nekroz ritual spell to stop your opponent from special summoning from the extra deck during Main Phase 1. Since a player can’t enter battle phase and therefore main phase 2 turn 1, Nekroz of Sophia is electively a hand trap version of Domain of the True Monarchs turn 1. Also every Nekroz ritual spell lets you banish itself and one Nekroz monster to search another ritual spell, giving you back much needed value when discarded with Nekroz of Sophia.

Dance Princess of the Nekroz is an often underutilized tool that has the following effect on field: “Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation of a "Nekroz" Ritual Spell Card“ And “"Nekroz" Ritual Monsters you control cannot be targeted by an opponent's card effects“. This card lets you play around negates that would stop your ritual summons. Dance Princess of the Nekroz combined with a ritual summon of Nekroz of Unicore can easily disarm your opponent’s monster negates, without them being able to stop it. Its effect when tributed, while not the main reason for its usage in the deck is also relevant allowing for recycling of resources in longer games. It also should be noted that as this card is a level 4 water monster it aids in making Bahamut Shark and then Toadally Awesome.

The Dogmatika engine in the deck serves a dual purpose going second. It first searches out Nekroz cards by sending Herald of the Arc Light to grave. It also provides additional card destruction and presence through sending Elder Entity N’tss to grave multiple times. For example, Nadir Servant can result in a total of two card destructions and a search by searching for and setting up Dogmatika Maximus. This engine Combines the searching and board presence of the Impcantation archetype with board clearing.

The Deck also utilizes cards Lava Golem, The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode, and Dark Ruler No More. These function as a standard blowout package and can simply dismantle in one un-interactable sweep.

The Math and Consistency

While it’s not perfect odds, this deck is optimized to have some form of blowout over about 90% of the time. The Deck will simply draw one of Lava Golem, The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode, or Dark Ruler No More around 79.85% of the time. That’s a healthy base for going second but what else does it have? The deck opens Nekroz of Sophia and a ritual spell in 18.56% of games, that’s about 1 out of every 5 where your opponent can’t use their extra deck to set up negates to stop your ritual summons.

Outside of these blowouts let’s look at Nekroz’s inherent searchability. 10/42 cards in the deck search another nekroz card with no questions asked. Nekroz of Brionac gets you any Nekroz Monster which gets you Nekroz of Clausolas who in turn gets you any Nekroz Ritual spell. Another 16/42 cards search Nekroz cards with a bit of setup. Due to Nekroz’s heavily search reliant playstyle it’s very hard to calculate how many negates on average this deck can play through. From personal experience being able to play through 1 negate is almost guaranteed, 2 negates is common enough, and 3 negates can be done with a lucky enough hand.

Side Deck and Extra Deck.

This deck struggles quite a lot against non-extra deck focused decks. Thats not to say its unwinnable but that’s what the side deck is for. We run a backrow destruction package in the form of Harpie’s feather Duster and Three copies of Cosmic Cyclone. The rest of the cards enable the deck to be played going first. The additional copies Barrier Statue of the Torrent and Nekroz of Valkyrus are there for the classic nekroz play of setting up a floodgate with Battle Fader style battle protection. Secret Village of the Spellcasters and Terraforming combine with any spellcaster Nekroz monster just shuts down any spell-based deck. Last but not least There Can Be Only One is an easy disruption card for Nekroz to play with as more often than not only one of each type of monsters will be on the field at once.

Most of the Extra deck is focused around enabling Nekroz Kaleidoscope and Nadir Servant. Herald of the Ark Light and Elder Entity N’tss are commonly used for effects when ritual summoning. The full Nadir Servant combo will send two Elder Entity N’tss and one Herald of the Arc Light to Grave. Toadally Awesome also has a relevant graveyard effect for recursion.  Everything else was chosen because they either recycle themselves or can not be special summoned off of an opponent’s Monster Reborn type effects. I also tried to set these up to play around not giving Light and Fire attributes to Invocation, but several levels didn’t feature enough monsters to do this Perfectly. Nepthys, The Sacred Flame, Bahamut Shark, and Cross-Sheep are all situation tools the deck can use.

Relevant Matchups

Dragon Link & Infernoble Knights – This deck forgoes most hand traps in favor of blowouts. The Goal is simple drop a board clear or negate and then resolve a Nekroz of Trisula or Nekroz of Unicore to keep them out of the game and destroy their resources.  Nekroz of Sophia stops these decks from doing anything. If you have to play through negates bait with Nekroz Ritual spells and monsters first as they are recursive.

Virtual World – Admittedly True King of All Calamities is a problem for this deck to deal with. The solution lies in going first. Nekroz of Unicore or Nekroz of Clausolas are an easy play here. Cards like Barrier Statue of the Torrent, Secret Village of the Spell Casters and There Can Be Only One are easy side deck options here. If you have to play through True King of All Calamities just see if you can remove it and stop them from making another one.  Your options vary greatly depending on what attribute they call. If they chose light nekroz search effects are live if they chose water Elder Entity N’tss and Hearld of the Arc Light can still resolve. Also, Nekroz of Sophia stops this deck from doing anything turn one.

Zoodiac - Tons of options in this matchup. If they make you first Nekroz of Unicore stops their game plan entirely. Nekroz of Sophia also works going first here Now you can search it and the needed discard fodder to cancel out their plan of making Zoodiac Boarbow and making Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus – Sky Thunder. If they play Alpha, the Master of Beasts try to make two Nekroz of Unicore to stop them from playing through one. Going second gives you a pretty solid advantage. They’re likely to only end on one monster to play around Lava Golem and the Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode, and just depend on backrow instead. Cosmic Cyclone and Harpie’s Feather Duster are your friends here. You don’t have a lot of outs to Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops, so stop them from making it in the first place instead. Also, Nekroz of Sophia stops this deck from doing anything turn one.

Dinosaurs – This deck is very likely to run through you if you go first. Nekroz and Dogmatika are anti-extra deck engines and dino’s often don’t need theirs. There Can Be Only One and Nekroz of Valkyus a very effective side deck option here. Almost always side out Nekroz of Sophia. Going second you can run through them but make sure to target gas cards like Miscellaneosaurus with Nekroz of Trisula if you can’t OTK.

Eldlich – Theres a lot of varaity in this deck. General goal is to try and use Nekroz of Trisula to try and banish all copies of Eldlich the Golden Lord. Nekroz of Gungir is your friend in this match up as Nekroz don’t have a ton of backrow removal on their own. Side in Galaxy Cyclone and Harpies Feather Duster. Side out Lava Golem and The Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode, and Nekroz of Sophia if they’re not playing an extra deck focused build.

Side Note

This deck is an edit of a previous deck I made found here.

https://ygoprodeck.com/go-second-nekroz/

Most of the relevant mathematical value have been increased by only 1-2% but added all together in makes a dramatic difference. The real value comes from the added cards in the Dogmatika engine which gives more value and helps better play through negates and the swap for Dark Ruler No More which is more in line with the deck’s focus.