Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Debut: Genex Voiceless Voice - Post Terminal Revenge

Carter Kachmarik
June 05, 2024
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Last week, we covered the possibility that Ice Barrier, perhaps one of the most laughed-at decks in Yugioh’s history, could be receiving a new wave of support in Battles of Legend: Terminal Revenge which may put it on the map.  In a similar vein, another Duel Terminal-era archetype getting brought up to the modern metagame’s speed is Genex.  Genex is a much-maligned strategy centering around…quite a few things, actually.  It had three distinct iterations, each less focused than the last, culminating in a strategy that was never even remotely playable, being considered “the worst archetype of all time” in the seminal classic, Legacy of the Worthless.  That said, sometimes all it can take for a strategy to go from bottom-of-the-barrel to metabreaker can be a Link-1 of merit, as was the case with Prank-Kid (although that deck was already good).  So, let’s see if one of the best-ever Link-1s printed to date will be enough to bring Genex out from the scrapheap.  Presenting: Genex Voiceless Voice.

Note: Some names are subject to change once English translations are revealed.

To understand Genex, it’s worth talking about the scare few cards in the strategy that were worthy of seeing play: Genex Ally Birdman, and the R-Genex series.  Birdman should be a name you recall if you played the game anytime in the early 2010s, as it allowed for a number of soft Synchro-Spam loops in concert with Divine Wind of Mist Valley, only coming off the list well into the 2020s.  The R-Genexes, meanwhile, were a self-sufficient core of monsters which could, in a roundabout manner, search themselves, leading to a ‘Gadget-style’ advantage loop with modest Tuner access.  Ultimate Offering was the way this build broke the meta ceiling, allowing for near-infinite Normal Summons, spitting your entire deck onto the board through continuous cycling of your R-Genex monsters.

Would it surprise you, then, that the newly released Link-1, Repaired Genex Controller, is quite simply an in-archetype spin on Ultimate Offering?  Not only does it recover the initial body used in its Link Summon, any time a Genex is searched or returned to hand, it pops right onto the board as a Normal Summon.  This means bouncing cards with Birdman, searching bodies with your R-Genex chain, and even using the brand-new R-Genex Undine ensures you have as many Levels as needed to deploy Synchro Monsters onto the field.

There is, however, a catch — Repaired is obviously insane, but it’s a single card in a sea of mediocrity, and while it’s always accessible, being left bereft of its resolved effects means you’re dead in the water.  That’s where my personal take on the strategy comes into play: An expanded range of Voiceless Voice cards, in the form of 2 Saffira, Dragon Queen of the Voiceless Voice and a mandatory garnet in Prayers of the Voiceless Voice.  These allow you to play ~2.5 extra copies of Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended, a premier protective piece against targeted negation, but that’s not all.  Given your limiting factor in Genex is a lack of Tuners to use your infinite R-Genex with, Saffira also provides an outlet for these excess Levels in the form of Ritual Summoning Sauravis, once all is said and done.  Sauravis then converts into a negate on the field, and if he should be removed by the opponent, your Prayers in GY simply floats into another copy.  Saffira is also accessible by way of Small World, which also plays a key role in the deck, better allowing you to pivot into protection before attempting to resolve Repaired.

In your ideal line, you’re pivoting first into PSY-Framelord Omega to rip a card from your opponent, before resetting your Normal Summons by way of either Ancient Fairy Dragon or Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier, whose self-bounce adds a Genex Monster(s) back to hand, triggering Repaired.  From there, you continue to shift through Synchro tools, notably Bystial Dis Pater to resolve another copy of Omega and set up a negate, and a new card, Arms of Genex Return Zero.  Arms not only acts as a set of hyper specific interaction, but also gracefully resets your Genex monster lineup after the initial Synchro spam; by shuffling ~4-5 pieces back into Deck, it means you’re able to go off once more if necessary, and not run out of resources during your initial power play.

The loss of Baronne was a massive blow to strategies like this, but Genex is uniquely-positioned enough to make use of other Level 10s, such as Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying and Chaos Angel.  Compared to similar decks, cards like Herald of the Arc Light have double-purpose here, being both an incredible threat on the board, and actually adding Sauravis when sent, complimenting the secondary engine wonderfully.

As has been seen repeatedly with Rogue or similarly off-meta lists recently, playing a Crossout Designator suite and as many 1-of handtraps as possible to act as targets.  Comparatively, this list goes even deeper into this philosophy, playing an extended Sauravis suite, and even Small World, which often uses spare copies of these cards as bridges between various key playmakers.  One last non-engine played here which is a bit irregular is Magical Mid-Breaker Field, as a means of insulation against targeting which we’ll occasionally get for “free” off of fully resolving Ancient Fairy Dragon.  That’s an interaction which rarely comes up, but is not unlikely with the amount of Tenpai, Labyrinth, and Snake-Eye around.  The real issues this deck tends to have are against strategies which, going first, put up at least two pieces of non-targeting interaction, as that’s almost a surefire way to ensure our Repaired never fully resolves.

In terms of considerations for the sideboard, additional copies of the best handtraps in the format, such as Ash or Impermanence, are clear additions, although more niche options such as Skill Drain as a Crossout target may sneak its way in.  One card that might make its way into the Maindeck, depending on how the format shifts, is Bystial Magnamhut, a Level 6 Dragon that’s essentially a free body, but critically allows you to tutor either Sauravis or Saffira in the End Phase, potentially better protecting you when you go second.

I feel as though, while this deck has about ~20 slots for non-engine, and a stacked mechanism to go into the Extra Deck, it ultimately represents the worst of what legacy support can bring — it’s excessively fragile, as the few new cards are required to prop up the old ones, and if they’re messed with even slightly, you’re suddenly back to playing Genex, circa 2010.

This list has what I would consider to be the ‘correct’ Genex ratios, being 3 Turbo & 3 Planner, with 2 Magma & 2 Crusher, as well as the 2:1 split of Undines and triple Birdman.  The only potential flex slot is a single copy of Genex Solar, which allows you to win in time, and acts as a perfect bridge into Saffira, but otherwise is a miserable card.  Genex Recycled is in here as a Level 1 Tuner for plays involving AFD, and we’re not using Turing because locking you to just Genex Synchros means you’re justifying bad cards with a mediocre enabler.

Many lists will eschew the expanded Voiceless Voice package in favor of more searching, but because you only really need to open a single R-Genex name alongside any other piece, I’ve opted instead for greater protection over consistent insulation.  After all, if your Repaired doesn’t resolve, those extra R-Genex in hand aren’t doing anything for you.  Critically, it’s important to recognize how the chain of names works — it goes Planner (Lvl 1) into Magma (Lvl 3) into Crusher (Lvl 2) into Turbo (Lvl 4), and back again, fulfilling every Attribute aside from DARK & WATER, which we get from Undine and Controller.

As you might be able to tell, I’m overall mixed on Genex post-Terminal Revenge.  When the deck pops off, it’s able to combo with the best of them, but given how truly reliant it is on Repaired, I have my doubts that we’ll see this at top tables.

With that, I conclude my coverage of the two most interesting decks from Battles of Legend: Terminal Revenge, at least in my eyes!  Is there something I’m missing from Genex?  How could the Voiceless Voice package find its way into other strategies?  Let me know in the comments below!