Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Debut: Call of the Haunted (Pumpking) Eldlich

I said back at the end of January that February 2026 was one of the most exciting months in Yugioh’s modern history, and I meant it. Between decks like Sky Striker & Hecahands topping YCS-level events, the release of both Burst Protocol & Maze of Muertos, and a number of TCG-exclusives, nobody can say the game’s currently stale. There is, however, an unexpected variable here that couldn’t have been foreseen until everything was revealed: Bonz’ new cards in MZMU…are good. I don’t just mean they’re playable, or well-designed, but that from the outset I believe this kooky band of Zombies has what it takes to run the meta once they start seeing paper play. Not only was their reveal delayed, courtesy of a lack of product openings, but we’d not looked at them in the context of another TCG-exclusive, Mercurium the Living Quicksilver. I mentioned in my K9 Mitsurugi profile that the card was a bit problematic, and I intend to go 2-for-2 in that assessment. Let’s dig up Call of the Haunted, ft. Eldlich.

Call of the Haunted, the card, is the most-reprinted Trap in Yugioh, and was at one point the most reprinted card period. It’s iconic, and has seen play in decks pretty much until the middle of the Arc-V era, with strategies such as Satellarknight relying on its capabilities for grindy games. The new batch of support hinges around the card, but more than that, it’s about straddling the locks that come with the existing Zombie cards. Zombie pile hasn’t been good in literal years, though, so what’s changed? For starters, Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts has about what you’d expect from a card in 2026, with a hand effect to generate advantage, and a Summon from Deck that kicks off the entire archetype alongside Changshi the Spiridao. If it looks a little…Habakiri-esque to you, you’re not alone: The joke’s already been made countless times that the TCG designers only have the one way of making these cards strong. Still, it representing a ton of bodies for a 1.5 card combo is great, and it’s eminently accessible, with 6 additional copies in-archetype, between Stare of the Snake Hair & Ectoplasmic Fortification, and if you can find a way to bring it back from the yard, Zombies have countless other 1.5 card combos to get things going. 

See, all this swarming is in service of Pumpking the Great Ghost King, who is stellar removal (or a means to reset CotH) that also searches, and his most common target is appropriately Call of the Forgotten. That Field Spell on its own can be an alarming degree of recursion, even arriving with removal, but it locks you further by way of limiting you to purely Zombies…or monsters from the GY. So we’ve got Pumpking, and Forgotten, which box you out sequentially from everything but some pre-Field Extra Deck plays, and any monsters from the GY, but beyond that just Zombies. If only there were a way to generically place any monster we wanted in the GY, then this would get out of hand!

Funny story, Mercurium the Living Quicksilver is a generic Rank 10 that debuted in Burst Protocol, and Eldlich the Golden Lord can send the CotH that remains on field after Xyz Summoning Great Ghost King with Pumpking & Changshi. From there, it can become Fallen Angel, and be Linked off for Flying Mary, the Wandering Ghost Ship, which in turn Summons Eldlich from the GY, and a Mad Golden Lord from the Extra. This is all, of course, while you’re Zombie-locked, but merely from the hand or GY.

If you have one extra body afterwards, you can instead keep Great Ghost King and go into the brand-new The Undying Legion, which is an interruption, and afterward its search can be used on Call of the Forgotten for at minimum a Summon+send, and if you choose Pumpking, the Forbidden Crown-style lock via Stare. Before that Summon though, take your pick of attached->detached Monster with Mercurium. Spell Canceller to lock away Spells? Archlord Kristya to be a literal Vanity’s Emptiness? The list goes on and good lord it’s ugly. A 1.5 card off of Pumpking is a send, Stare lock, floodgate of choice, and even Mercurium locking away at least LIGHT monsters from the GY. Any bodies you add to that line results in at least one extra interrupt, be it by way of Undying Legion, or a different Extra Deck boss like Wollow and/or Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon Lord. If Pumpking resolves, things immediately look back for your opponent.

The number of extenders offered to the strategy is similarly massive, with the in-archetype option of Army of the Haunted being one of my favorites. It’s a great send before you get to Eldlich, and adds Call back in case you need another discard for something like Forbidden Droplet or want to flex Vortex of Time as interruption. The Normal Summon I’ve chosen is a classic, Shiranui Solitaire, which is actually either the well-known Uni-Zombie, or less-so Vulcarrion the Rotting Phoenix. Uni’s pretty obvious, as being great to send Army, Eldlich, or similar, even becoming a Level 4 Tuner in the process. Vulcarrion meanwhile is crucial to unbricking your hand if they negate Pumpking there, as it can port into that (or Eldlich) to generate a body, and even resummon itself for free, being perfect as a Flying Mary material or requisite tuner. Both of these pair nicely with a spare Level 6 to make Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon Lord, as redundancy for Mercurium, its effect less relevant than being a Level 10 Zombie Synchro.

In terms of what we’re not playing, Great Mammoth of the Netherworld is cope beyond belief, with no way to cycle or Special Summon itself if you’re bricked with it in hand. There’s similarly no Mezuki, no Vendreads, and no Zombie World cards—we’ve cut the fat entirely, and instead get to play a frankly absurd number of non-engine pieces. I don’t need to end on 15 interactions, when my 1.5 card combo ends on 5 reasonable ones with at least a hand trap or two in hand. Without squinting, you’re on 15 here, and that’s equal to or more than the literal top 2 decks at time of writing, Dracotail & VS K9.

There hasn’t been a format since Halq-Don where a deck’s ceiling has been its most important quality, and we’re at the point in Yugioh where basically every strategy can perform cold fusion if provided with no interruption in its linear play. The difference here is that, while we can end on higher-quality interruption than Odion, we also can seal away games wholecloth by way of Mercurium into a floodgate. That’s our X-Factor, that’s what no other deck has right now with anywhere close to the same power floor.

In terms of Side Deck, you’re going to want a few relevant floodgate monsters you can CotH, and your choice of which one to play in Main is preference. Spell Canceller, Kristya, & Chaos Hunter come to mind, the latter of which is even reasonable at 3 copies, and I’d be very interested in Triple Tactics Thrust as a way to beat opponents who tunnel onto negating Pumpking himself. Crossout is also on my shortlist, given we basically need to treat the King as a gourd-shaped Habakiri, and Crown to ensure you get another turn seems solid.

At present though, I think your best going-first option is Solemn Judgment, given your plan can indeed fall apart if your CotH is popped at the wrong time, or you meet with a devastating Forbidden Droplet. While it may be tempting to shotgun the floodgate reborn early, it’s far better to leave your opponent guessing, and potentially use the second to try again if, say, Radiant Typhoon MSTs the first.

For cards we’ve not yet talked about, I want to call out Cross-Sheep as being a very relevant card when looking at our Eldlich line. If you’ve got additional bodies to spare, it can be a way of getting back a Level 4 tuner if you need to make Red-Eyes for Mercurium purposes. Gravity Controller is similar, as a way to crack Fallen Angel of the Golden Land with no extra bodies, because sometimes the game state is simplified to the point it’s relevant. I also considered a modest Vendread package, but ended up forgoing it due to the harsh lock on Scar.

Vortex of Time is in there for uninterrupted openings that include both Pumpking & Stare, with her being a way of searching it while you have everything, and we can’t forget Haggard Lizardose as an emergency button for banishing Changshi, though S:P does the job just as well. I don’t actually think this build is ‘perfect’, but as a template it represents the strongest thing these new Bonz cards are doing that I’ve seen. Do not be fooled by Zombie combo slop, it misleads you.

A TCG-exclusive archetype enabled by a TCG-exclusive Xyz, what are the odds? No, really, that’s quite unusual if we weren’t talking about 2025/26! This has been the year-ish of the TCG’s own card designs surging back into relevance, as not since the heights of Burning Abyss have we seen such dominance in defiance of expected OCG imports. It’s thrilling, to be the first to play with & break these cards, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

This is the second deck with Mercurium that has felt a bit…unbalanced. Do you think this is a card which may eventually catch a ban?  What else in Burst Protocol do you want to see me cover?  How do you feel about the recent topping decks in BPRO format?  Let me know in the comments below!