The hype has been building for nearly 5 months since the reveal of Maze of the Master’s TCG-Exclusive theme, releasing March 14th, and I couldn’t be happier to tell you that the TCG is 2 for 2 in its most recent debuted designs. We’ve seen Mitsurugi at top tables, alongside the format’s best deck in Ryzeal, and while it may be early, spending hours pouring into the new Odion deck after their leak in the box openings has been a joy of joys. While it may sound like an insult, this strategy is very much akin to Tistina in its first wave, and I am perhaps one of the few duelists qualified to say that as a compliment. Being able to rapidly swarm the field with a variety of bodies at ideal Levels, Odion’s swath of Trap Monsters & surprisingly potent interaction looks to be promising, but what to pair it with? My verdict, once Alliance Insight comes out, is none other than the golden child, Eldlich. Let’s take this first look to examine whether Odion’s cards will sink or swim, presenting: Odion Eldlich.
For starters, as of writing this article the revealed cards have been previewed for less than 8 hours. Given that, let’s quickly examine the ones of note in this wave, and then talk about their application in the broader deck’s combos. As background, these cards are based on the strategy used by Odion in Duel Monsters, with cards like Embodiment of Apophis, a Normal Trap Monster, and Temple of the Kings, which allows a Trap to be activated the turn it is Set.
As far as the relevant inclusions, first we have Anubis the Last Judge—this Level 10 Earth Fiend can discard itself to find our next card, The Man with the Mark, and then act as a free body from GY by shuffling in 2 Traps or archetypal cards, while you have 3 or more in the grave. Man himself is a standard searcher on Summon, for an archetypal Spell/Trap, with some protection on the side. Where things start to get out of hand is in the deck’s Field Spell, though, Treasures of the Kings. Treasures starts by setting an Apophis Trap, which needs its own section, but also critically searches an archetypal monster if you either have 2 Sets, which it provides 1 of, or have a Trap in the GY, something we can readily do.
From there, your usual search target is Merciless Scorpion of Serket, which Summons itself from hand by banishing a Level 10+ from Deck, ie a spare Anubis, and itself finds either Temple or a Spell of the archetype; unfortunately, this monster is not a starter, as it can only be Summoned while you control Temple of the Kings, a card it usually searches, or Treasures, which becomes Temple while in a Field Zone. So far, that means accessing either Anubis, Man, or Treasures gets you into nearly the entire core of the strategy, but what about that innocuous Apophis card we mentioned earlier?
Well, the Trap you’re usually setting with your Field Spell is Apophis the Serpent, which Summons itself as a Normal Trap Monster, but critically also sets another Apophis Trap from Deck on activation, and allows it to be activated in the same turn. Moreover, it floats into the original Embodiment of Apophis, a worthy soft garnet for being so free. The piece de resistance of this whole archetype, however, is what Serpent searches: Apophis the Swamp Deity. Swamp Deity does the standard Summon itself shtick, but also negates face-up cards, up to the number of other Continuous Traps you control. This goes without saying, but given that’s functionally the same as a Fiendsmith Desirae, the true boss of that archetype, getting it for basically free is outstanding.
In the explanation of those cards, I forgot to mention the only Extra Deck piece of note, because it’s really only for playing under Nibiru (an important aspect, but not your usual play sequence). Divine Serpent Apophis can be Summoned by Tributing 2 Apophis monsters, fulfilled by a live little Serpent, and not only resets 3 Apophis Traps from GY, but also pops a card on Trap activation. In low-to-the-ground duels, this card is going to put in work.
There are of course other cards released, such as the semi-searchable Counter Trap Verdict of Anubis (which is difficult to activate and isn’t all too searchable), and 3 pieces of a truly odd Ra…Super Polymerization package, being Dangers of the Divine, Defense of the Temple, and Divine Scorpion Beast of Serket. These cards aren’t good, so outside of a single copy of Verdict in the side for when we’re going first, I doubt any of these make the cut.
But speaking of making the cut, it’s time to cover the other components of this list, being Eldlich (post-ALIN) and Fiendsmith. Eldlich receives its new Angelcaido of the Golden Land, basically just resulting in one extra free body, and Eldlixir of the Exalted Golden Land, which is both an Eldlixir & Golden Land card, on top of recurring banished Traps & Summoning itself. Via these, and Delta of Invitation, Eldlich covers a lot of the blind spots seen by this strategy, and might even pull it into competition.
With that in mind, let’s talk about one of the deck’s core combos. The requirements are having access to the Odion line (via Anubis, Man, or Treasures, in that order of quality), having access to Eldlich (Ideally through Delta), and having either a Trap in the GY, or any settable backrow. That may sound like a lot, but given you have around 9 copies of either half, and plentiful settables, it’s very consistent to reach the heights of your ceiling, and as explained, the floor is a Trap version of Desirae.
Discard Anubis for Man, Normal Summon Man for Treasures, and Treasures set Serpent. Set your settable, then add Scorpion, banishing an Anubis to Special Summon it, searching OG Temple. Temple lets you activate Serpent, setting Swamp, and now, you can activate Delta for Eldlich, sending OG Temple to Summon it (don’t worry, you can reset both Scorpion & OG Temple with Anubis!). Make a Token with Delta, then Link Spider, and Angelcaido+Spider for Moon of the Closed Heaven. At this point, your board is Scorpion, Moon, either Eldlich or Mad Golden Lord from the Angelcaido float, Serpent, and Man, with a Set Swamp. You can of course do the full Fiendsmith combo from this point, getting Caesar and/or Desirae, or you can make a Ptolemy with your spare 6s, adding either Man or Engraver, which can be discarded for a live Fiendsmith in Paradise. You can make Varudras, especially if you start with Anubis, or Redoer with a Trap as material via Serpent, and cap everything off with a Silhouhatte Rabbit to grab either another Apophis or Eldlich Trap.
At its floor, though, this deck is still basically a Desirae+pop, on top of everything else, and with Anubis it makes lethal very readily. Critically, it also can be a Dominus Purge deck, being mainly EARTH, LIGHT, and WIND. Key cards locked away after Purge are things like Angelcaido, Redoer, Caesar, and Varudras, but your entire main line is accessible with the lock turned on. This also means we have 6 Traps that are handtraps, meaning we can be less reliant on settables for our combo described above.
As for the Side, Lancea is mandatory, and given we can even add it back with M7 it can lock out Maliss without breaking a sweat. Droll is also WIND for Purge, and Thrusts can set either Terraforming to find us a missing piece, Sanctum to find Lancea, or Dimensional Barrier to elbow-drop Ryzeal. Finally, Solemn Judgment brings up the rear as a solid going-first tool, as well as our searchable version, Verdict.
At 42 cards, there’s not a lot of changes I’d make to this list. Going away from Purge is unwise, even if it lets us splash different Extra Deck pieces, we can’t afford Pot of Prosperity with our tight Extra Deck, and really the only ED consideration I’d make is Daigusto Emeral, to reset our Eldlich line. For the Main Deck, we have 16 non-engine in 42 cards, which is about average, and our ratios are exceptionally clean. Maxing on starters, even Set Rotation given we’re so Field-centric, we get to see our main tools in nearly every hand, and Forbidden Droplet does double duty in pitching stuff like Eldlich to GY if we’ve drawn him, or saving The Man with the Mark from targeted negation. One other potential piece, given you of course don’t use Purge, is the Infernal Flame Banshee Nemeses package, where you use your spare 4s for Banshee instead of Redoer, grab Nemeses Flag, shuffle your Anubis, and grab Nemeses Corridor, which can turn into a Thunder Dragon Colossus. While this is potent, it doesn’t remotely work under Purge (only Corridor, which could itself be one card that gets played alone), and it requires 2 Extra Deck slots, unless again, you just play Corridor. Worth thinking about!
The key thing to remember is that access to Delta alone, plus something to send, results in Fiendsmith+Eldlich’s combo, and access to the Odion line results in at minimum 2 Level 4 bodies, and 2 Level 6 bodies, with a searched OG Apophis, and potentially Anubis. Regardless of your thoughts on the power therein, that certainly has legs, and given how nice Swamp is, it’s difficult to truly write the deck off; much like Wave 1 Tistina, you simply just…made enough raw advantage to get by, as I illustrated in earlier articles, but here you have so much more, and with very reasonable power floor thanks to Swamp Deity.
While it will take til Alliance Insight to play this list, I am confident that some version of Odion will crop up…somewhere. The deck is quite good from a raw math perspective, and the list I’ve been playing already has games taken off of top threats like Maliss, Ryzeal, and the recent Fire King decklist in testing. The bad cards in the deck seem to have blinded people from its actual competency, and I think this could be the next big sleeper Rogue hit. Who knows, with Anubis being non-opt, maybe a Grass version treating him like a Level Eater could work out!
I’ve said my piece, now, about the new Odion cards! Do you think this archetype has potential? Why do you believe it’s being discounted in the initial review? Let me know in the comments below!
