Rose / Ancient Forest

A Rose / Forest themed deck embracing a Bait and Stall strategy using the field spell "Ancient Forest" to destroy any monster that declares an attack at the end of that turn. Other cards like Spiritual Forest and Wall of Thorns can further stall attacks, especially if you control all of them at once. The offensive strategy comes into play when the deck's powerful Synchro and XYZ boss monsters reach the field, with efficient help from low-level Tuners like Hope Ear Squadron and Rose Girl. Board-clearing traps (like Torrential and Wall of Thorns) are built in to reinforce the risk of backfire, so your board is protected and allowed to build each turn.

Lonefire is an amazing going-first Normal summon, with an effect allows you to special summon any Plant monster from your Deck by tributing itself (or another Plant you control). If you have set Wall of Thorns and control Lonefire in Attack position, you can Bait an attack on Lonefire and destroy their attack-position monsters, but if they don't attack, you benefit from Lonefire's effect each turn until it's off the field. Rose Paladin helps get main deck bosses to your hand and onto the field as quickly as possible via discarding herself to allow you a Deck search. For the Tuners, Hop Ear lets you Synchro summon during your opponent's turn, while Rose Girl recycles herself back to your hand and, being a Level 3 Earth type, can XYZ summon Meliae who can either give you a foolish burial effect (to send Hermitree), or the special summon (in defense) of any Plant from your Deck (almost always going to be Chirubime).

Foolish Burial is almost always used to send Sylvan Hermitree to the GY, which by effect, allows you to re-arrange the top three cards of your Deck in any order, giving you more control over your next turn. Chirubime sets up a wall, special summons other Plants from the Deck, is an Earth-type and serves as excellent Rank-8 material. Any card effect that lets me special summon a Plant directly from my Deck is almost always going to be used on Chirubime in DEF for her amazing effects. Talaya is like a more offensive Level 8 Water-type version of Chirubime, who protects your other Plants from card effects while giving herself an ATK boost off of them. I'm still looking into alternative boss monsters for the Main Deck (Level 8 or 9 for the XYZ summons) and am absolutely open to hearing suggestions!

The Synchro and XYZ monsters are what will give your opponent the most trouble. Ideally, Black Rose Dragon is summoned at the correct time to clear the field and go in for game. Queen of Thorns is super useful in this deck, especially if Ancient Forest is at play. She does 1,000 Burn damage to your opponent for every non-Plant monster they summon until she's dealt with. If she's destroyed by battle, your opponent's attacking monster is too (if you control Ancient Forest), and if Spiritual Forest is also on the field, she's protected from one attack per turn (you still take battle damage). Fairy King (XYZ) is extremely easy to bring out as well, using Rose Paladin and/or Eco. In addition to being great XYZ material in this deck, Eco can dual-serve as a hand-trap when/if burn damage is dealt to you, being special summoned rather than discarded.

The World Tree, if preserved, grows counters when Plants go to the GY, two of which can be removed to destroy one card on the field. Plenty of Plant monsters end up in and out of the GY with this Deck, so this effect can usually go off once per turn as long as the tree stands. You can use Frozen Rose to send one Plant to the GY to draw two and feed the World Tree one counter. Wall of Thorns is like running three copies of Mirror Force, enforcing the deck's overall defensive-yet-aggressive strategy when you bait an attack. I think Spiritual Forest is stupid good in this deck as well, putting up yet another reason why your opponent would not want to declare an attack, forcing them to use card effects to get rid of your board.