One of the defining aspects of the Genesys format is the capacity to play cards banned in Advanced Format. Many of these are iconic pieces that defined the metagames they were in, while others were unfortunate collateral damage of unforeseen combos. Today, we’re talking about a card that’s somehow both, and has been banned since September 2011: Mind Master. Mind Master offers non-once-per-turn Special Summons from Deck, and alongside a suite of brand-new Psychics that callback to the type’s inception in 5Ds, he’d be right at home. While the Master was put on a leave of absence for his interaction with Brain Research Lab, that card’s 100 points in Genesys…and the Master himself is 1. For less than the price of a Droll & Lock Bird, you can play in triplicate one of the best Psychic monsters of all time, so let’s dive into it, and see what’s on this Monster’s Mind. Presenting: Teleport Psychic P.U.N.K.
First, let’s talk about the unsung heroes of Duelist’s Advance, the so-called ‘Teleport Psychics’. This loose assortment of Monsters are based on some of the earliest Psychics of the Synchro era, when Psychics debuted, themed around paying out Life Points, banishing themselves, and the “Teleport” Spell lineup. These flopped immediately in the TCG, aside from a few Rogue decks that used Prototype Psychic Blaster as an extender, largely because they didn’t have access to Mind Master. Now, they do. These have tremendous capability to find the key card, with Serene Psychic Girl able to Special Summon him from the Deck, and Mind Procedure can search either Parallel Teleport or the 35pt Emergency Teleport, each of which finds Mind Master. Then, with Master and literally Psychic body, the work begins.
Master benefits immensely from Level 4 or lower Psychic monsters that do something, and then are functional vanillas; that perfectly describes the Level 3 P.U.N.K. Monsters, who slot right into this strategy as a secondary engine. First, Mind Master can Summon Gagaku-P.U.N.K. Wa Gon, who adds P.U.N.K. JAM Extreme Session, letting your Master now draw up to 2 cards via future activations, and then Joruri-P.U.N.K. Madame Spider, who adds the interruption Joruri-P.U.N.K. Dangerous Gabu. From there, you can go into Ze Amin, who actually kickstarts the rest of the P.U.N.K. strategy on her own, letting you end on a host of Synchros and even the Xyz P.U.N.K. JAM FEVER!, an interruption. To be quite frank, an unmolested Mind Master produces a turn 1 combo board akin to that of Mermail Atlantean, backbreaking and hard to fully out. Part of the issue, though, is that your resource is less cards in hand, and LP available.
Across your activations of Mind Master & the P.U.N.K.s, you’re paying a king’s ransom of LP. Master might be nearly free, but his enablers, Telekenetic Charging Cell and the aforementioned Research Lab are each 100pts. This offers you as a Duelist some absolutely thrilling options, judging how far you can go down, and how worried you need to be about opposing resistance and threat of OTK. What burn damage might your opponent have? How far can you extend? These are questions that need to be asked at all points in the Duel, and aimless greed is the marker of someone who needs to practice this strategy more.
One of our best means of insulating the combo, and finding Mind Master, is Parallel Teleport. Parallel however not only comes with a hefty potential LP payment, but also a hard lock to Psychics, where the other locks merely prevent us from Summoning non-Psychics from the Extra Deck in a given turn.
Parallel is a card I’ve played at 3 here for a few reasons, even with its negative synergies alongside the Level 5+ P.U.N.K.s. Yes, it does make some combos awkward, but here it’s like another 3 copies of the functionally semi-limited Emergency Teleport that also helps you dodge cards like Effect Veiler or the less-played Infinite Impermanence. The fact it’s usually costing you ~2000LP to turn something like a stray P.U.N.K. into Mind Master is a pretty good rate, too, and that’s to say nothing of the fact that it’s eminently searchable.
There’s one last Teleport though, Teleport Fusion. This weird offshoot of an even weirder time in 5Ds where they tried to push Synchro Fusions helps with your endboard, and even layering interactions…sometimes. See, there’s not many good Psychic Fusions, and the ones we play all require at least 1 Synchro Monster. This means they’re of little help when setting up, and need to be treated as the capstone to a complete board, rather than something you’ll be able to end on through a card like Mulcharmy Fuwalos.
As far as what the deck is actually ending on, let’s touch on the Extra Deck for a moment. The two most important Synchros to keep in mind are Silent Psychic Magician & Psychic Blaster Mk-II; Magician is how you ladder up into further Synchros, being your pivot akin to Martial Metal Marcher, and Blaster is a quintessential endboard piece, recouping some extra LP and removing Monsters at Quick Effect speed. Crucially, this can target your own monsters, so on occasion going first it behooves you to actually get rid of some stray bodies to get the necessary LP to continue your Mind Master lines. Serene Psychic Sorceress exists basically as a card to go into with Master & Magician, setting Fusion 99% of the time. With her, you’ll Fuse into Absolute Axon Kicker to banish the opponent’s entire board, floating into Axon Kicker Oracle. Your entire plan hinges, then, on Monsters, one Spell (that turns into a Monster-based interruption), and ideally Gabu, a Trap.
That right there is an incredibly layered board, and we’re only further supplementing it with non-engine in Games 2 & 3. Psi-Impulse is one of the hidden groan-worthy cards available to us when we know we’re going first, setting back an opponent 1-2 cards in hand, and I actually even like it in the midgame boarded in to stop lingering or searched handtraps. Meanwhile, Brain Control & Brain Controller each make a case to be played going second, getting a 1-of control piece for free as we line through a resolved Mind Master. Really, the only reason they’re not already in here comes down to space. I’ve also left the necessary Extra Deck slots open for an Ultimate Slayer package, although there is one glaring flaw: This deck really doesn’t have a ton of non-engine space. There’s actually reasonable case to cut down on P.U.N.K.s further and intend to banish cards like Mulcharmies with the spare effects of Serene Psychic Girl, but I’ve gone all-in on comboing—your results may vary.
Various versions of P.U.N.K. have topped early tournaments for Genesys with the newest change in points, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re classically representative of a deck that has no real costs in-engine, outside of Foxy Tune, and even then she’s accessible by plenty of cards which don’t cost points. The thing that’s really rough here is the lack of room for extra non-engine, with no points for Nibiru, and no space for cards like D.D. Crow. There are two paths to playing Psychic, here, where you acknowledge you’ll live or die based on the ability to resolve a card banned since 2011, or otherwise be more conservative and use the fact most cards ask that you banish any card in hand to activate their effects, spare or useless handtraps included. It’s tough, because this deck probably has no greater than ~25 points of wiggle room, as the double Emergency Teleport eats a massive hole into your budget. Still, it’s hard to deny that actually getting to use Mind Master in 2025 is a thrill!
With that being said, are there any other long-time banned cards that you’ve been using in Genesys? How do you feel about the meta-ish decks that just play 3 Pot of Greed and call it a day? Should strategies be forced to interface with the point system, or is it okay to just let those who slip through get free consistency? Let me know in the comments below!
