Phantasms’ Awakening – How to tame the Sacred Beasts!

Phantasms’ Awakening – How to tame the Sacred Beasts!

Introduction:

The mighty lords Raviel, Hamon & Uria …

These three creatures of darkness thrilled many apprentice duelists in the 2000s. Unofficial antagonists of the Egyptian Gods, the spectral members of this sacred trio have just been given powerful supports by Konami, allowing the deck to rise to a level of power never reached before. Quite unplayable in the past, mainly due to unreasonable summoning conditions, the new cards allow you to invoke your favorite demons in a much simpler way, through special summons, in order to unleash a blast of fury and wrath upon your opponent!



Foreword:

I would not say this deck is Tier 1, but it can definitely compete against actual meta decks, should you start the duel with a decent hand. Hence, Tier 2 to 3++ seems to be the right category in my opinion.

I know a lot of people do not appreciate the Dragun package which seems “unbalanced” according to many players. Nevertheless, I decided to incorporate it as it makes wonders in the deck. One might argue Dragun is always splashable in any deck, but I tend to disagree with this statement. Sometimes, it is obvious Dragun is only there to fill a gap, or to pretend the deck is competitive. In this case, I can assure you Dragun deserves its place, and synergizes well with the board as I will explain later.

Last but not least, in order not to distort the deck too much and to keep its essence, I decided not to integrate the Crystron Halqifibrax and Linkross related combos. You can already watch TeamSamuraiX1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpDgM_QHH5A&t) & Yacine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzp40uOF0IY) latest videos on the topic if you want to play a more hybrid variation & combo-focused version of the deck. I propose here a “purer” variant …  if one may use such a term to define a deck.

Having said that, let’s start the analysis!

Strengths:

• Powerful Search Engine: Amazingly consistent thanks to The Seven Spirit Gates Unleashed and Dark Beckoning Beast. Various combos that I will showcase later contain searchable pieces.


• Solid Draw Engine: The Pot of Greed of the deck, Fallen Paradise, combined with Allure of Darkness and Pot of Desires allows you to dig in your deck fairly easily.


• Powerful Big & Scary Beaters: With 4000 ATK & DEF, your demons are nearly invincible in battle. Two direct attacks are all you need to lower your opponent’s life points to 0.


• Consistent “Mini-Lockdown” Capabilities: Thanks to Sacred Beast Awakening & Fallen Paradise, you can set up very sticky board in turn one, quite hard to break.


• Multiple Negates & Interruptions: Dragun Engine, Cerulean Sky Fire for infinite spell/trap negate once per turn, Crackdown to steal your opponent’s key monsters, Solemn Judgment for omni negate & usual hand traps to disrupt their combos.

Weaknesses:

• Huge inter-dependency: all the cards of your core engine synergize well with each other, but none of them is actually very powerful on its own. Your three “servants” need to be tributed. Your Sacred Beasts need to be protected. Your traps and spells need your Sacred Beasts to be activated.


• Extra Deck under-exploited: Armityle the Chaos Phantom looks badass, but it is actually terrible. There is no Boss Monster related to the Sacred Beast that could have a meaningful impact on the game. Extra deck is mainly used for Dragun, Super Poly targets & Knightmare package, that is, generic extra-deck cards.


• Uria, Lord of Searing Flames: Unfortunately for us, special summoning Uria often means 0 ATK/DEF if you do not have any continuous trap in grave. Even though it has the best effect among all demons, its stats are too bad for us to incorporate this card in the deck.


• Raviel, Lord of Phantasms & Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder effects: these phantasms might be tough, there effects are mediocre, and you will not rely on them to develop your strategy. Raviel’s token can help you link summon, but it won’t come up very often.


• Weaker when going 2nd: All your “Beast” related cards are basically oriented towards turn 1 play. They cannot disrupt your opponent. They search, they protect themselves & build a defense, but they do not counter actively your opponent.


• Your Graveyard: Particularly sensitive to hand traps & other effects that prevent you from using effects in grave (Dark Summoning Beast & Chaos Summoning Beast, Seven Gates 2nd effect).

Strategy:

Going Second:

If you lose the dice roll, try to bait your opponent before activating Seven Gate or Beckoning. If you manage to activate properly one of these and to further develop your board with one Beast and Fallen Paradise, you might have a chance to win. Against multiple negates though, it will be practically impossible to break the opponent’s board on game one if you do not draw Super Polymerization. With this fusion spell, you can usually make some sweet and disgusting come backs (Predaplant Triphyoverutum anyone?).

Going First:

Powerful Combo: there is multiple combinations to achieve same end-result depending on your opening hand, but you basically need at least Beckoning OR Seven Gates in hand plus two cards among the following to make it happen: Seven Gates (if you have Beckoning already) / Beckoning (if you have Seven Gates already) / Dark Beast / Chaos Beast / Awakening

Concrete Example: The Seven Spirit Gates Unleashed / Dark Summoning Beast / Chaos Summoning Beast

• Play Seven Gates, search for Beckoning


• Play Beckoning, search for Awakening


• Use Beckoning 2nd effect to tribute itself for Dark Beast


• Use Dark Beast effect to special summon Hamon (or Raviel)


• Banish Dark Beast from grave to search for the other Sacred Beast


• Use Seven Gates 2nd effect to send Chaos Beast to grave and ss it


• Use Chaos Beast effect to ss the Sacred Beast from hand (by tributing itself)


• Banish Chaos Beast from grave to search for Fallen Paradise


• Activate Paradise to draw two cards


• Set Awakening

Minimum End Board aka “Mini Lockdown”: Two Sacred Beasts + Fallen Paradise (= Sacred Beasts not targetable & cannot be destroyed by card effects) + Activate Awakening on opponent’s turn (= Better than Skill Drain: negate all monster effects activated on YOUR opponent’s side of the field).

Very Important: if looking at your hand, you realize you won’t be able to gather two Sacred Beasts + Awakening, you should definitely go for plan B, involving the Dragun package (if you did not draw the red-eyes fusion of course). Indeed, having a 2nd Beast on the field does not bring you any specific advantage & edge against your opponent (without the trap), compared to the strength of the Dragun alone. I won’t lie to you, you will see this combo way more often than the previous one, as it is quite hard to gather all the pieces in hand for the lockdown. That’s one of the reasons this deck is not Tier 1 by the way. However, the Plan B is also a power play, and will give your opponent a hard time to deal with it.

Plan B: Once again, there is multiple ways to establish a board involving Dragun. I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the sequencing (combo order) by practicing with test hands. Here is one powerful combo:

Beckoning + Seven Gates + Hamon in hand:

• Play Seven Gates, search for Chaos Beast


• Play Beckoning, search for Cerulean Sky Fire


• Use Beckoning 2nd effect to normal summon Chaos Beast


• Use Chaos Beast effect to special summon Hamon from hand in ATK position


• Use Seven Gates 2nd effect to send Cerulean Sky Fire to grave and revive back Chaos Beast


• Link Beckoning and Chaos Beast into Predaplant Verte Anaconda


• Use Anaconda effect to fusion summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon


• Use Seven Gates 2nd effect to retrieve Cerulean Sky Fire from grave and activate it


• Use Chaos Beast Effect to search for Fallen Paradise

Minimum End Board: Hamon + Cerulean Sky Fire (= First negate) + Dragun (= 2nd Negate + 2 monsters to destroy on your turn) + Fallen Paradise (= 2 cards + extra protection)

As you can see, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon enables you to effectively use all resources available on board when you do not open with every piece of your optimal combo. It is not just a desperate addition to the deck in a vain attempt to foul you with some dubious competitive garbage!



Tips:

• Be very cautious when using Pot of Desires. Make sure you do not need to play Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon first, before banishing a part of the package by accident and make a fool of yourself ;)


• Always think about the right sequencing before starting the combo & know the right timing to draw (try to skim your deck, so that you do not draw combo pieces you could have searched first!).


• Always play Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder in ATK mode in case you draw Cerulean Sky Fire. This a requirement to activate its negation effect.


• Do not forget Raviel’s effect which summons a dark token each time your opponent NORMAL summons a monster. Can be useful sometimes … but can also backfire as it is a dark attribute token (Super Polymerization: “Here I come!”).


• Keep in mind if you have two Hamon in defense position on your side of the field, your opponent cannot attack you.


• If you happen to have Dragun + Super poly on board, remember you need TWO cards in hand in order to activate both effects.


• Do not forget the second effect of Seven Gates, which can retrieve a continuous spell from the graveyard (either another Seven Gates, or more importantly, Cerulean Sky Fire).


• Bear in mind that summoning a Sacred Beast through Dark Summoning Beast effect will cancel your next battle phase, so remember to attack first if you can.


• Seven Gates can only search for a MONSTER that specifically list any of the Sacred Beasts while Beckoning can search for any CARD etc...


• If you do not need Red-Eyes Black Dragon & Dark Magician (they are obviously bricks when drawn), try to recycle them with Allure of Darkness.

Rational behind Ratios:

• 42 cards instead of 40. I usually prefer to reduce the number of cards in my deck to 39 + 1 Upstart Goblin for consistency’s sake, but this time, due to the Dragun package, I’d rather make a 42 cards deck (41+1) and reduce the odds of drawing one of the two major bricks in the deck (Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Dark Magician). Hence the (39+1) deck core + 2 bricks. It would be interesting to run a probably test in order to check what would be the optimal ratio that would minimize the chances to draw these bricks, while not decreasing that much the odds of drawing other key cards. Of course, such study would be based on a certain number of subjective hypotheses …


• 2x Allure of Darkness and 2x Pot of Desires: You do not want to play Pot into another Pot, so 2 is fine. Allure at 3 would be a little too much in my opinion, as most of the time, you want to send your Dark monsters to the grave, not banish them.


• 2x Dark Summoning Beast: the worst of the three "servants". It is a level 5 and therefore requires a tribute. If I had no Pot of Desires, I would only play one.


• 2x Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder and 2x Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, because one is not enough and can be banished by Desires / Maybe 3x Hamon would be worth considering for late game. I happen to need it sometimes.


• 2x Super Polymerization: not 3 because the deck also runs one Red-Eyes Fusion … and you need space. Plus, you can activate it through Verte Ananconda if you really need it.


• 1x Cerulean Sky Fire & 1x Sacred Beast Awakening because they both are searchable, and you do not want to open multiple copies of these cards as they don’t do much on their own (remember the dependency weakness I mentioned before).


• 2x Fallen Paradise: big target for your opponent who will try to get rid of it. One extra copy to avoid running out of draw power. 3x is too much because it is easily searchable.


• 3x Dark Beckoning Beast / Chaos Summoning Beast / The Seven Spirit Gates Unleashed: best cards of the deck. You always want to open them first (Chaos Beast to a lesser extent though).


• 3x Called By the Grave to go through your entire combos.


• 1x Foolish Burial Goods is a tech choice: enables me to retrieve Cerulean Sky Fire or another Seven Gates if I already got one Seven Gates on the field. You could potentially replace it with a Foolish Burial if you prefer to send a monster directly to the grave.


• 3x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring: standard hand trap / You can replace it by any hand trap depending on the meta. I chose the most generic one.


• 2x Crackdown: this is very debatable / tech choice again. it is a strong going 1st trap to set, your opponent will most likely not see it coming and it is pretty good to shut down combos. It requires extensive metagame knowledge when it comes to deciding which monster needs to be stolen. You could swap it for Solemn Warning / Solemn Strike / Red Reboot / Dimensional Barrier etc … Crackdown never fails me except in one particular scenario: it is sensitive to anti-target effects!


• 2x Solemn Judgment: omni negate … what else do you want? Take my mon.. life points!


• 1x One for One: works as an “extender” & can save you sometimes by special summoning a Chaos Beast to start off a combo (still giving you access to your normal summon). Also to consider as a potential bait, because it is a threatening card for your opponent (currently limited in the banlist).


• 1x Performapal Popperup: not quite sure about this one. I have mixed feelings. Enable to fix very bad hands, but useless in late game. You could replace it with another Allure.

Extra-Deck Choices:

• Super Polymerization Engine: very dependent on the meta. Classics include Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, Mudragon of the Swamp & Predaplant Dragostapelia. The rest is up to you.


• Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max: in case you need to inflict some last-minute direct damages. Only Rank 10 in the extra-deck. I hardly ever use them so I decided to cut the other one I played (Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula, which can steal some games if you managed to gain LP thanks to Awakening).


• Knightmare Package: very flexible, can save you in specific situations, great classic tool box.


• Links 1: Salamangreat Almiraj for the combo & Relinquished Anima because your opponent sometimes will forget to play around.


• Predaplant Verte Anaconda for Dragun or Super Poly plays also. Can get you out of a tight spot! Do not neglect any option available.


• 1x Borrelsword Dragon and 1x Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Chaos: for the late game, if all your Sacred Beasts were destroyed, or banished, and you can only summon your “servants” from hand or through the effect of Seven Gates. Having big threats to end the game happens a lot more often than you'd think!

Side Decking:

Really depends on the meta:

• Useful Staples for Going 2nd: Evenly Matched & Nibiru, The Primal Being to break boards, Lightning Storm to destroy backrows, Twin Twisters or Cosmic Cyclone for annoying spells and traps, Dark Ruler No More against monster-based lockdowns.


• Any hand trap will do fine: Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Effect Veiler, Droll & Lock Bird, D.D. Crow … It is up to you and your playing style!


• Main goal is really to improve your going 2nd plays.

That’s it for me! If you liked this little guide, feel free to smash the thumb up button or leave a comment below! I also made another one for those Toon players (maybe you?) who love to mess around with their opponent. Please go & check it (link below), Pegasus approves 😉

My Toon Guide: https://ygoprodeck.com/nostalgy-time-an-extensive-guide-on-how-to-play-toons/



"Get your game on!"

Lightning