Since around the Zexal era, Yugioh’s always had a deck or two that refused to play the game we all know and love, instead following its own rules of engagement. Whether that’s Flower Cardian, Generaider, or Runick, the open-ended nature of Yugioh’s design philosophy has led to some truly ‘out there’ concepts. Most recent in that storied lineage is Enneacraft, FLIP Pendulums that never intend to Summon a monster face-up…period. While it was laughed out of the meta during its debut season, with the release of Blazing Dominion there’s a select few support pieces which have pushed it over the edge—so much so that it got second at the Richmond Regional Championship. While most of the acclaim can go to its pilot, Sean Washington, the other defining factor in its success was an OCG import few expected to see play outside of the playground: Subspace Battle. I’ve made a scant few tweaks to Sean’s list given some meta shifts, but I’m extremely excited to showcase this deck now that it’s truly a rogue contender. Presenting Enneacraft, post-Blazing Dominion.
Talking about individual Enneacraft cards resembles an alien language, so it’s best we divide the discussion between the strategy’s two broad categories: Level 1 searchers, and Level 10 payoffs. Across all Enneacrafts, by locking yourself out of face-up Special Summons for the entire turn, you can Special Summon any monster from your hand face-down. Each also has a FLIP effect (usually interaction), and a condition to flip in response to something happening. Beyond that though, their scale effects vary wildly, being Pendulum Monsters. For the searchers, each of them has a scale effect to get 1 of 3 random Enneacrafts in deck as a search effect, although this can be mitigated by including multiple copies of the same card in their pool. The payoffs meanwhile pop cards with less than 3000 ATK in the Battle Phase, which rarely comes up. To add more complexity to the mix, while in scale, both searchers & payoffs get an ‘E.C. Counter’ whenever an Enneacraft is flipped face-up, which are used exclusively to fuel their Field Spell, Enneapolis, exchanging each counter for 900 damage to the opponent during the End Phase.
If your eyes have glazed over, don’t worry, that’s also likely true of any opponent staring down the barrel of a skilled Enneacraft player; the deck’s inherent unapproachability leaves it difficult to interrupt, outside of one key card: Droll & Lock Bird. This is where my Main Deck differs from that of Sean’s, as I’ve exchanged two extra copies of the worst payoff Level 10s for a pair of Sales Ban, with the sole intent to name Droll going first. This could also be Dimensional Fissure, which is a vital card for the Side, but given that card is worse going second than the Ban, I’ve chosen to keep it as an option for games 2 & 3. That said, there is at least some counterplay to Droll, in that Proto Enneacraft - "orgIA" can search in response, if set before you search otherwise. Don’t forget to set it first if you lack a Sales Ban or Called By! Playing Enneacraft is all about managing your options, while retaining maximum secrecy—given you can reveal the same Enneacraft as many times as you like for their Summon effect, your opponent won’t know what you’re setting, or where. Given the reactive nature of the strategy, keeping the opponent in the dark works hugely to your advantage.
Of course, you are still searching cards plenty throughout the turn, so what happens if it doesn’t matter that the opponent knows your hand is stacked? Enter the defining feature of the list, the absolutely hilarious Subspace Battle. This card begins a minigame, where each player reveals three cards in sequence from their Deck, and compares their ATK. The winner is added to the hand, and the loser goes to the GY with a ping of 500 damage. Every single payoff Enneacraft has a whopping 3000 ATK, meaning against the likes of anything but Nibiru or Vidolium the Unstable Power Patron of Unity this adds three Enneacraft payoffs to hand. While they can’t activate their effects for the rest of the turn, you can just use another Enneacraft in hand to Special them face-down, for use during the opponent’s turn. As it turns out, a card that usually adds 3 massive pieces of your archetype to the hand is damn good, and the fact you could in theory turn them into other cards via Enneacraft Reverth is gravy.
On the topic of Reverth, what do our Enneacraft Spells actually do? Reverth is a Magical Mallet of sorts, but the key facet is its GY effect, allowing you to bounce a card to hand after it flips with Enneapolis, and set it again for use on the same turn via Reverth. If your opponent tries to react, just hit ‘em with the mass negate of Enneacraft - Atil.SPIA. Enneacraft Release is your way of playing around Droll just a bit, placing a relevant body in the Pendulum Scale, and coupled with the bounce on Enneapolis you can use it to macgyver together a modest endboard if they resolve the dreaded effect. Finally, their newest Spell, Enneacraft Reset, places a copy of your Field Spell face-up, once again being a bit of insulation against Droll; if you couldn’t tell, every single facet of the deck is designed around not immediately combusting when your opponent uses one specific handtrap, and it’s a small wonder these tools aren’t enough. Still, Reset’s GY effect is perhaps the best part about it, resetting your entire monster lineup in response to an opponent’s effect. On the whole, these are high-quality Spells, just with a bit of jank surrounding their need to activate a ‘chain late’.
You’ll notice that so far, I’ve not mentioned the Extra Deck at all, and that’s because Enneacraft is essentially never touching it. For once in a blue moon, you should still pack a TY-PHON, ZEUS, and your choice of attacking Rank 1, but you’ve got 10-12 slots that will go wholly unused here. For that reason, I highly recommend the inclusion of an extensive library of targets for a card I’m keen to play in our Side Deck: Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries. The meta is such right now that we have a good 3-5 decks you’ll be seeing constantly at events, and that means you’re afforded the chance to plan specifically for them. You can run things like Kewl Tune Track Maker & DoomZ Break - Diactorus not with the intent to ever make them, but as key pieces to yoink from opposing Extras given you have such a leniency in what you yourself include. For me, the Side begins with 2 additional copies of Enneacraft - Archa.TAIL (to fight going-second board wipes & DoomZ), 3 Dimensional Fissure, & 3 Ghost Reaper, with the rest being limited solely by our low non-engine count.
That is worth noting as well, that of our 40 card Main Deck, 33 are Enneacraft cards, and excluding Subspace Battle—given it’s functionally just more Enneacraft payoffs—we’re left with a cool 4 slots for non-engine. That’s…low, far lower than any deck I’ve featured in years, but the way that Enneacraft works demands that you open the necessary names for any degree of functionality. You’re usually quite happy to see 4, even 5 of your starting hand be just names, given in theory that’s enough to play through disruption. How that works out in practice is another story, though, as Enneacraft does legitimately have some issues going second, especially if you don’t open exactly Enneacraft - Atori.MAR. While the strategy is adept going first, you’re essentially just crossing your fingers that the cards in your hand get you far enough to find the big whale, though once MAR is established it’s a different story; it’s a phenomenal way to fight against negation, and can lead to you toppling some highly layered endboards. In short, set Proto if you expect Droll, and MAR if you’re going second, and the rest falls into place.
Like a lot of decks that don’t play traditional Yugioh, this is dirt-cheap, with almost all your pieces included in Phantom Revenge & Blazing Dominion; you could buy a box of both and likely end up with this core on top of a few pulls worth selling, given Kewl Tunes’ dominance. You could pick up the above list for ~$50, give or take shipping, but it comes with the caveat such non-traditional strategies do, in that it’s hard. Like, extremely hard, especially in mastering the deck going second. There’s a ton of fiddly effects to track, between counters and cycling through names, shuffling and bouncing your monsters to extract the maximum possible value each turn. While your opponent won’t have much of an idea as to what’s going on, you need to have a precise understanding of every effect available, at all times, lest you get yourself judge called for a warning. Enneacraft presents itself as an Excalibur of sorts—they that can draw the Atori.MAR from the deck, and wield each effect of a dozen similar-looking monsters, shall inherit the Regional top.
If that sort of challenge sounds like something you’re excited for, give Enneacraft a look! There’s been a transformation since its release, and the new cards for both the archetype itself & Subspace Battle are huge gets. Just don’t forget to side Battle out, if you expect Nibiru to appear.
Are there any techs I’m missing from this coverage of Enneacraft? Have you had fun mastering the deck’s lines, or is it not worthwhile to learn? What else from Blazing Dominion should I cover? Let me know in the comments below!
