While relying on your opponent in Yugioh has often been a losing bet, the one thing you know they’ll do every turn, every game, is add cards from their Deck to their hand. That’s the running theory of Hecahands, anyway, and whether the adage holds true is set to define the entire archetype going forward. Hecahands are the brand-new Illusion archetype from Phantom Revenge, focusing on theft, Fusion, and critically, supplying the TCG with a new semi-generic handtrap in Hecahands Godos. Whether the archetype itself sees play is up for debate, certainly, but you’ll see Godos creep its way in compared to a card like Bystial Magnamhut, especially in metas without DARK & LIGHT monsters. While you can play the deck alongside Illusion’s flagship archetype, Chimera, I’ve chosen instead to defer to a mostly pure version, with a mild nod to Millennium.
Card names are not final
The thing about Hecahands is that from their reveal they fell into the community’s collective memory hole, for lack of a good opening line. In modern Yugioh, you’re basically required to have some form of linear play that can open every game, ideally with at least 1-2 branches given extenders or having faced interruption. Hecahands…didn’t have that. A bit of context—Deck Build Pack archetypes are revealed with all but one of their cards made public, so if that final card fixes the entire archetype, folks have often ‘tuned out’ to the deck’s potential by the time that savior descends. Here, that saving grace was Hecahands, a deeply confusing name for a profoundly important card. This Normal Spell, which can be readily searched by Hecahands Yadel, not only provides access to a minimum of 1 interruption, but also the means to trigger further Hecahands effects in your hand.
The actual line is as follows: Hecahands for Hecahands Ibtel & Hecahands Tartaros, Intel for Hecahands Gaigas, Special Summon a Monster from the opponent’s top 3 cards. Special Summon Hecahands Jauzah, and from there you can do one of three things: Yadel for a Counter Trap if you didn’t use it to search Hecahands, Godos for the opponent’s turn, or Hecahands Breus to use the effect of Hands in GY and get another potential 2 bodies. These are all quite reasonable, especially given you have a Set Hecahand Spell/Trap as well, but to start the line you’ve got to toss away a card from your field, which can be a downside.
This is where the Millennium monsters come in, giving you both an extra Level 6 & 8 to play with, as well as minimum 2 cards to freely pitch with your Hands. Not only that, each enables the use of the Vampire Xyz Monsters, which have significant overlap with what Hecahands are trying to do, providing access to your Illusion Fusions with far greater ease.
Vampires have a subtheme of stealing the opponent’s Monsters, so while their Main Deck cards don’t have a ton of synergy, their Extra Deck certainly does. Dhampir Vampire Sheridan is frankly everything the Hecahands could want, with a similar effect to their Fusions of being able to use opposing monsters regardless of their characteristics. Not only that, but it’s also removal that can ‘borrow’ said Monsters, to use for the Summon of either Jauzah or Xeno. On the other hand, The Zombie Vampire is more of an enabler than a payoff, forcing both players to mill 4, then stealing the best option. If that’s an opposing Monster, all the better, as your Hecahands can use it as Fusion fuel! Don’t forget, Tartaros can banish your Hecahands from the GY for its Fusion Summon, so any spares that are milled here can offset the cost, and make for an even easier Xeno play on the opponent’s turn.
In order to have a spare Level 6 body to make this happen however, we need a bit more help. That’s where Spirit Sculptor, a card I never thought would see the light of day, steps into the picture. Sculptor is able to Tribute a Monster, often itself, to find one with the same total ATK+DEF…but what other Monsters have a total distribution of 3700? Why, the Level 6 Hecahands and Nightmare Apprentice of course! Yes indeed, Sculptor finds both our core starter and extender, giving us options as the deck’s sole Normal Summon. This is something of a happy coincidence, but also noteworthy is its ability to Tribute opposing Handtraps like Droll & Lock Bird or Ash Blossom to find our own copies, which can come up if we already have access to one or both of the main targets. This may very well be the first deck Sculptor is a real card in, and the more I’ve gotten to play with the card, the better it’s felt. If our opponents decide to interrupt us there, we can usually just shrug and continue, given the deck’s density of options for starting the Hecahands line beyond it.
As far as other options in the Extra Deck, let’s talk about another card that finds its first home with Hecahands: Kerzebs, the Gaoled Glutton. Kerzebs is a deeply weird card, made to dodge board wipes and targeted interaction, but here is used primarily to reset Hecahands & Hecahands Tartaros, over and over. If, on your first turn, you can find yourself with two of the Level 7 Hecahands he is well worth making over Jauzah. My general tier list of interaction for the deck goes Ib’al Hecahands, Kerzebs, Yad’al Hecahands, Azurune. That last one is worth mentioning, as we often go into Silhouhatte Rabbit with spare bodies, something this strategy produces a great number of. It helps as well that Rabbit is a means of dealing with problematic Spell/Trap cards that are already on the board, which offsets the deck’s innate…0 total cards that can remove those targets.
In terms of non-engine, the biggest ones to look out for are single copies of both Contact “C” and Santa Claws. For each of these, Sculptor can Tribute himself to find, although it’s noteworthy that Claws wouldn’t be online if Sculptor himself was the Normal Summon. Also along those lines is Cyber Dragon, which could in theory out a Machine-type opponent’s entire board by way of Chimeratech Fortress Dragon (or a monster in the Extra Monster Zone via Megafleet). Given Sculptor Tributes himself, your board would be clear to Summon Cydra, should this come up. Realistically speaking though, the side is where cards like Triple Tactics Thrust and Anti-Spell Fragrance live, powerful answers to powerful plays, which make great use of the surprising density of non-engine slots the deck has access to. Lest we forget, Godos himself is a handtrap of sorts, so we don’t need to overcommit to gravehate in the Side Deck.
One last standout that hasn’t yet been mentioned is Snake-Eyes Doomed Dragon, a card which frankly gets better every time someone so much as sneezes. Here, it’s being used alongside the Millennium monsters to generate another Level 8 body, but it’s also a Fusion, meaning we can use it (or Jauzah) to trigger Cross-Sheep and reborn either a handtrap or Spirit Sculptor. That being said, Hecahands ultimately falls to the same obvious trap that decks based on their opponents do: If your opponent doesn't play ball with you, good luck. God forbid you play against something like Drytron or who otherwise can't be Summoned by your effects, and in the current meta even though your disruption is well-positioned it's weirdly slow. I genuinely think Hecahands has potential, especially with Godos in mind, but the deck's best feature is that it gets to start playing on turn 0…some of the time. That's not compelling beyond the Rogue level, if we're trying to play the best midrange deck at a Regionals.
Like all Deck Build Pack archetypes though, Hecahands is due for another 1-2 cards of support in the next few core sets, and that gives me far more hope. The deck isn't missing a ton—maybe another Spell you could activate off of Hecahands’ Set effect. The fact the deck is tantalizingly close is perhaps more infuriating than if it had lacked potential whole-cloth.
Do you think Hecahands could have a home in Genesys more than the TCG? What does the deck need to be successful going forward? Are you excited for Phantom Revenge? Let me know in the comments below!
