What is the most iconic Yugioh card of all time? There’s maybe four contenders for the slot, be it the mysterious Pot of Greed, unstoppable Exodia, or the iconic Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Each of these cards, or some iteration thereof, has had time in the meta throughout the game’s modern history—Pot sees play in Genesys, Exodia has had its Ankh archetype take Master Duel by storm, and heck, Blue-Eyes won worlds. The fourth contender, however, has been forever resigned to competitive obscurity, despite its actual popularity being perhaps the highest. I’m talking about Yami Yugi’s ace, the Dark Magician. Despite its lack of tournament pedigree, as we’ve seen in the past few months of the OCG, this monster’s newest form has finally put up results…alongside an already-forgotten strategy, Yummy. The combination of the two is an odd pairing thematically, but from a mechanical angle there can be no doubt of its might. Until Toons arrive in November, it’s finally time to play Dark Magician, the Pharoah’s Servant, and top tournaments. Let’s make history.
First and foremost, what do the new DM cards do? Once they become legal after September 4th & Magnificent Monsters, the cards to look out for are the aforementioned Pharoah’s Servant, and Dark Magical Curtain…alongside another new card from the set, Cyberse Contract Witch. The Curtain is what makes the deck tick, allowing each player to grab a free DARK Spellcaster from Deck, then finding a relevant DM Spell/Trap if you control an appropriate monster. What are we Summoning? Well, 5% of the time, it’ll be the Pharoah’s Servant himself, but the vast majority is spent tutoring out another iconic monster of ages past, Witch of the Black Forest. She can in turn be Linked off into Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden, and despite the effect of Curtain, can still search for a monster with 1500 or less DEF. Of course, you can’t activate the effects of that added monster, but who said anything about activating? We can simply find one of our unimportant Yummys (Cooky or Lollipo), and with Artemis already being a Link-1, have access to the entire Yummy line. If we’re worried about interruption, we can even go for the Limited Cupsy, and reborn it rather than search the card via Cupsy★Yummy Way.
Okay, so Curtain is the entire Yummy line, is that it? It certainly could be, but it actually makes more sense to loop back around into the DM engine via the Yummy combo; we aren’t just using Dark Magician stuff as a means to an end, as it’s an integral part of the deck’s gameplan. During the course of your Yummy combo, you can Summon Cyberse Contract Witch, pitching a Spell, and getting a Ritual Monster. That can of course be Illusion of Chaos, which in turn searches for either Magicians’ Souls or the Pharoah’s Servant. That Servant can of course Summon itself and set The Gaze of Timaeus, and/or we can turn it into Dark Magician of Destruction to loop back around. In either case, we can make Dragoon on the opponent’s turn. The crazy part is that either line can find the other, meaning access to even a single piece of engine from whatever portion of the strategies you see can turn into a full board.
To summarize: If you can find the Servant, you can find Curtain, and in turn, the entire Yummy line. If you can make the Yummy engine, part of it involves lining through a Link-2…which can of course be Contact Witch, which accesses Dark Magician. How are we supporting this? One of the cards that’s seen a rise in usage in the OCG version is Piri Reis Map, which is either a copy of Cupsy, who is otherwise Limited, or Effect Veiler. Veiler seems an odd choice, given we can’t activate its effect, but it’s crucially a Level 1 Tuner, something none of our Yummys are innately. This is a great segue into a card we’re not playing, counter to the OCG version: The Fallen & The Virtuous. Instead, we’re running Dominus Spark, why? This stems from a difference between the two formats, specifically in the form of one Synchro: Baronne de Fleur. Baronne is banned stateside, and it being a WIND is the big reason they can’t run Spark safely, but we don’t have that issue. Yes, our analogue to it in Fabled Levilazebul is worse, but quite literally every important card in the list beyond turn 0 handtraps is LIGHT or DARK.
This deck gets to run a solid 18 non-engine, which isn’t as much as a deck like Kewl Tune, but is more than any strategy not on maxed interaction. We do need some discards, so note that additional copies of things like the Mulcharmies can be pitched to Yummy Way and the like, even if we’re going first. No piece of the list is lost throughout the course of the combo, because while it is technically correct to say our lines are 1-cards, there is still need of spare discards, unless we’ve already started the game. That goes into one of the weaknesses of this strategy, namely that it doesn’t love to play from behind; handrips are your worst nightmare, as you do fundamentally require chaff to pitch or Spells to reveal as part of your core line. If you get into a scenario where you’ve only got ~2 cards in hand, that’s often a deathknell into any interaction. As such, there’s a finesse to when your handtraps should be deployed, especially without a Mulcharmy in tow.
Back on the overframes: I stated in my initial review of Magnificent Monsters that this was the deck most-improved from the set, and I stand by that. There was a point when this was the third-best deck in the OCG, and given we have a cool three months until Toons arrive and ruin the format, I fully expect this strategy to see results. Better still, if we’re being entirely honest, the fact that Dark Magician, the Pharaoh's Servant arrives at but a single copy here means you can splurge on a gorgeous overframe version without needing the card in triplicate; some madman might even register with a serialized version, you never know. There is a version of this list which runs three copies, but part of the issue stems from Servant…setting the card, not searching it. This does allow you to readily pivot into a Dragoon at minimum, but not Curtain->Witch, meaning just Servant isn’t the Yummy line. You can cut Spark and run a line to get into Brionac, the Magical Ice Dragon to discard and bounce the Curtain you set, but at that point you’ve overcomplicated things.
As for the Side, this is another interesting facet of the deck, because the OCG is traditionally a best-of-one format, meaning no Sides in established lists. Here’s the good news: Your Curtain combos don’t necessarily need the Normal Summon, meaning you can run things like Lava Golem, Sphere Mode, or the upcoming The World's Greatest Gallant Thief. Having the Normal available does smooth some combos out, but it’s by no means necessary, especially going second when a Tribute-based board breaker solves a lot of your problems. Another solid answer is something like Forbidden Crown, given you’re perfectly content to play the long game, but under no circumstances should you be running Forbidden Droplet. As discussed, you need discards for your core combo, and Droplet puts you way down on resources—too much so, if you’ve handtrapped the opponent already.
In doing research for this article, not only did I discover the various combos and lines for the OCG’s version, but that a Diabellstar/Azamina DM-Yummy build has already seen a few tops in the TCG, even before the release of MAMO. This flexes the power of Azamina Ilia Silvia and Elzette, making use of another package which is wholly LIGHT/DARK for Spark purposes. It is a bit more engine-intensive, meaning you have fewer opportunities to run non-engine, but I could absolutely see some variation of this still being competent after the new cards release. Certainly, given the soft garnet status of Witch, Servant, and the Yummy Spells, a 60-card version has crossed my mind which jams all three packages together in an effort to avoid drawing the less-than-ideal starters. The only thing stopping me is reducing the chance to draw Curtain, because good lord, that card is insane. Like, seriously, it’s just fantastic.
The fact we’re getting a new form of DM, and the fact that new form is frankly fantastic, both spell good news for the game. While MAMO on the whole doesn’t look to be that meta-impactful, it should lead to quite a cool format where various anime decks could theoretically see play at tournaments. Beyond Yummy-DM, the rest aren’t great, but as pet decks they’ll be stronger now than they have been in years. Hero, Synchron, Utopia, etc could have some scattered tops, but Dark Magician should receive the lion’s share.
How do you plan on using Dark Magician and the new associated cards after Magnificent Monsters releases? What decks other than Yummy-DM do you expect to do well, once the set arrives? Are there hidden gems in Magnificent Monsters? Let me know in the comments below!
