Yu-Gi-Oh! Rogue Report: ROTA Memento
Sometimes in Yugioh, it’s enough for a deck to simply be solid. Not breathtaking, or absurdly broken for this reason or that, but a high-quality midrange pile that does everything it needs within its archetype — to that end, it’s a good time to talk about Memento. Originally releasing as a gimmicky boss-rush strategy that failed to convert in top cut, Memento has seen one of the longest trickling-out of support of nearly any modern strategy. The deck has basically received a new card in every set since its debut. This has slowly brought together a potent, flexible, and negation-resistant deck with cohesion reminiscent of older strategies like HERO, where each card extends differently. Coupled with this support is some innovation from the OCG, alongside a meta that’s slowly begun to favor Memento compared to its other Rogue-tier peers; if there’s a massive shakeup due to a new banlist, many top players would consider it following a decline in the format’s power level. Taking this all into account, it’s a fantastic time to refresh on this prehistoric pile: Presenting ROTA Memento.
Memento doesn’t so much have a specific gimmick as it does a wholly unique gameplan. The strategy aims to pivot between a variety of its monsters, who destroy themselves or other cards within the archetype in order to send a hefty sum of monsters to the GY, in service of both massive Fusion Summons, or the Special Summon of Mementoal Tecuhtlica - Combined Creation. So long as cards are moving between zones, the deck is gaining momentum, and because its massive power swings occur only once things have been set up (but in spite of interaction), being able to protect your ignition effects is vital.
Critically, the deck already has two cards within its archetype which assist in dodging targeted removal like Infinite Impermanence, being Mementotlan Bone Party and Mementotlan Fusion. If activated in response to that flavor of negation, which was in turn activated in response to your monster’s effect, the card in question will have left the field by the time its effect resolves, preventing said effect from being negated. Depending on your comfort level with the game, that either sounds overcomplicated or pedestrian, but crucially, having more of that effect means you can reliably begin with that counterplay in your opening hand.
In order to increase the density of these effects, we’re borrowing some juicy tech from overseas, and playing both Forbidden Droplet alongside Goblin Biker Grand Breakout. Breakout is a Goblin version of Bone Party, which seems out of place here…until one realizes Mementotlan Goblin fits the bill, and is a superb starter. Similarly, Droplet is a great way to go second and pitch resources against negation in order to force your own cards’ resolutions, meaning this list plays a whopping 11 cards that bypass targeted negation. That’s an 82% chance to open one or more of those cards, which forces opponents to potentially waste negation early, and allows us to better cycle between options. A key takeaway is that being able to translate resources is always good, these days. These cards mostly help due to Memento’s 3 monster core, alongside a full suite of 1-ofs which each help a savvy player break boards, or make plays.
For the core, there’s Mementotlans Dark Blade, Angwitch, and Tatsunootoshigo: Any one of these cards finds both of the others, by way of searching, summoning, or dumping into the GY. Via Tatsunootoshigo, you’re then allowed to pitch a full 5 Levels worth of Mementos — often, this means sending Mementotlan Ghattic (Level 2) and Shleepy (Level 3), which Summons Ghattic by its own effect, adding back a live Shleepy, and then continuing onto further combos.
Once your GY has been fully set up, Fusion then goes through 2 copies of your boss monster, Mementomictlan Tecuhtlica - Creation King, which is a formidable mechanism to clear the field, and even send another copy of itself (and 2 other cards) to find your Field Spell, Mementomictlan. If you’re ever allowed to resolve Tecuhtlica, or even Mementotlan Thunder Dragon to be honest, the game is likely close to over.
We’re actually playing the maindeck Tecuhtlica more for its ability to reset our cards back into the Deck than the body itself, as this build forgoes either of the deck’s clunky Traps in order to functionally max out on means of dodging Imperm. While this does reduce the maximum power ceiling for the strategy…even a slightly lower height of strength is still usually plenty to beat all but the most developed boards, and grind out against anything not named Fiendsmith Snake-Eye.
Where the deck pales compares to other options comes down to its inability to comfortably play either of the new Dominus Traps, being Dominus Purge and Dominus Impulse. These have seen a wild rise in popularity for decks that can limit themselves to just the three appropriate Attributes, but because Memento is spread across everything but FIRE and WIND, that’s a nonstarter. Furthermore, the Triple Tactic cards aren’t a great fit either, as the deck cares much more about resolving specific effects, rather than accruing raw card advantage (and its best cards aren’t Normal Spell/Traps, to boot).
What holds Memento back at the moment is its inability to play any of the truly ‘unfair’ nonengine pieces that currently make up the metagame, from Dimension Shifter to the Domini, our prehistoric powerhouse lacks equalizers. Against something like Tenpai or Ritual Beast, this is going to be one of the major deciding factors when choosing to play Memento or a different deck. That said, there’s still hope in the Side, as Memento doesn’t really lock you anywhere, outside of its inherent elements. That means it’s quite easy to fit in a Nemeses package (including Thunder Dragon Colossus) if that appears to be the given need, as well as cards like Kashtira Fenrir, Kaijus, or more. While there’s certainly a limitation to what works in Memento, as far as nonengine goes, it’s far from the end of the world.
Outside of the standard Fuwalos tax, this list borrows a lot of its ratios from a recent 7-1 finish at an 80-person tournament in Japan. There might be a few things off, as I found in testing you often wanted 2 copies of Mementotlan Goblin, but frankly you can skirt by with one so long as it’s always a shuffle choice for either Fusion or your boss. This list plays a respectable 13 nonengine, which used to feel like a lot, but presently is the bare minimum to function. That said, if we’re factoring in our means of dodging interaction, that number’s quite a bit higher, and you can almost always rely on having at least one in hand at any point throughout the match.
Crucially, in games 2 & 3, this puts your opponent into a mind game, where they’re baited into negating cards with ignition effects (meaning they activate at Spell Speed 1) prior to their actual activation. This window means it’s suboptimal to pivot them out, in theory, but many of our cards can bring back others, leading to awkward scenarios where Tatsunootoshigo is negated, removed, re-summoned, and successfully resolved.
Overall, this archetype has a lot of promise, and aside from exactly Fuwalos, it’s relatively inexpensive for a deck that both takes time to learn, and truly rewards a skilled pilot. If you’ve already got the necessary nonengine, or are playing at a level where it’s not strictly required, this is an awesome pickup if you’re looking to have your duelist brain tickled!
So, do you intend to pick up Memento now, or perhaps in the future? Some of the ratios might need to change, but honestly I’ve adored this build as a tight line-up! How do you want to see the metagame evolve as we move into the new year? I’d love to hear what you’ve been thinking in the comments below!
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