Another year has passed, and Yugioh continues printing new, exciting cards to help boost up strategies that may have fallen by the wayside! Debuting at the start of the VRAINS era, in Code of the Duelist, Vendread have historically only been good when they’ve been played…unfairly. Seeing tops as part of a First Turn Kill strategy, and then again as part of Linkspam, these Spawn knockoffs rarely get to showcase their coolest aspect: Being a highly unique, flexible Ritual strategy. For a while, some form of a Zombie pile deck has been lurking in the depths of Rogue, but with the release of a new TCG Exclusive in Supreme Darkness, there might actually be a chance that Vendread sees the light of day in 2025. If you’re a fan of Zombies, Memento, or convoluted combos, this list is a perfect way to start your 2025 on the right foot! Presenting: Vendread 2025.
Dark Necromancer, in spite of its bland name, is an absolutely tailor-made starter for the deck in a way few other cards could be. Not only does it send your Ritual Monster to the GY, it adds a Ritual Spell to hand, all of which can make use of a Vendread Ritual Monster in the yard. Furthermore, given Vendread so often banish Zombies to pay their costs, this turns that into an upside, pivoting into another body onboard. In practical terms, this is a Vendread-specific Diviner of the Heralds. Not only that, in Supreme Darkness there’s another Zombie card releasing which aims to help a strategy like Vendread, in Delta of Temptation, which similarly bins a Level 5 or higher Zombie, but also Summons an extra Token, which can be used for Link plays. Of course, bereft of context, these both sound good, but what do they actually accomplish in practice? Strap in, because here’s your line:
Ideally, the combo begins by finding a way to send Scar of the Vendread to the GY with access to Revendread Slayer available, the best way by far being via Dark Necromancer. With Necromancer, you can send Slayer to search Revendread Evolution, which can send a Scar to Ritual Summon Slayer from GY, kickstarting this line with an extra body on board. Scar then searches Revendread Origin (if you lack access) and you Link off your monsters for Moon of the Closed Heaven, as your access point for the Fiendsmith component of the deck. Slayer can then grab another Ritual Spell of your choice, usually another Origin, sending Battlelord to GY.
From here, you can Summon Battlelord using an Origin, preventing the most relevant card type (usually monster) from being used by your opponent, before going through the Fiendsmith line with Moon, into Requiem, Lacrima sending Engraver, then Linking away Lacrima & Battlelord for Sequence. This is where things get wild. Battlelord gets to both search Scavenger and send Striges, which Summons itself, and Striges and Engraver make Spright Sprind, which sends Mad Mauler. From here, you can pivot through Immortal Dragon, accessing Necromancer if going through an alternate route. After a few more soft loops, you’re looking to end on something like Bystial Dis Pater, I:P Masquerena, Desirae, and A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow, often with 1-2 spare material onboard, and 3-4 cards in hand.
The critical juncture for this combo is when you finally pivot into Sprind, as using your Striges to access Mauler really turns on the rest of the combo, and while lines might differ until you get to Striges, past that point it’s fairly easy to navigate, which might sound familiar. Yes, as mentioned in the introduction, this deck has some stark similarities to Memento, being a flexible combo-midrange deck with a ton of profiteering off of looping out of the Graveyard. Of course, this deck succeeds in having a far more powerful 1-card, but at the same time, it loses harder to some of the current format staples, such as the dreaded Artifact Lancea. On the whole though, this deck went from broadly unplayable to potentially Rogue at face value, with just the release of Dark Necromancer and Delta of Temptation, something we don’t usually see when TCG support is mentioned. Delta in particular is another stellar starter for the strategy, not only providing access to Scar, but also a body which can be converted into Link fodder by way of Link Spider. Moreover, as this is a deck which loves the use of Forbidden Droplet, the fact it returns to hand very easily means you can send it early and often, going second, knowing it will come back later in your combo.
Some of what the deck is running is aimed at increasing the strategy’s floor, however, and I would be remiss not to mention that, yes, when you’ve been hit with a resolved Fuwalos, you often get to play a more classic ‘Vendread Control’, by way of Vendread Revenants and Vendread Houndhorde. Ultimately, giving your opponent only a single draw off of Fuwalos in exchange for a Quick Effect banish for both backrow & Special Summoned monsters is fantastic, and given everything floats well, if you aren’t dead you’re almost always killing your opponent on the crackback. The deck does have a few soft garnets, however, even in spite of lacking any hard ones (because there will always be alternate Zombie sends). Mad Mauler and Mezuki are each key components of your best of all worlds endboard, and while the latter can be exchanged for Dark Necromancer as your send for Immortal Dragon, Mauler is essential to access. It’s okay to shortcut past the Sprind to get there, but really it needs to be high on your list of priorities, especially going first.
One of the new cards I’m not playing is Curse of the Ancient Turtle, which might seem odd at first glance. It can be a send for Scar or Necromancer, and even provides some modest floating during Battle Phase, what gives? Critically, compared to something like Delta, I do not value this card as being just a Foolish Burial — I’m also not on Foolish itself for that reason. While getting resources into the GY is good, yes, I feel we need our cards to be doing more on their own than merely enabling each other, especially with Maliss running about with their ability to greatly punish GY strategies. Delta being an extra body, on top of potentially floating off of a Droplet, make its more limited Foolish aspect perfectly palatable to me.
As far as your Side goes, this deck regrettably doesn’t have as much space for non-engine as I’d like. You could certainly cut down some of the Vendread Maindeck 1-ofs, or even shave copies of Vendread Charge (Used primarily to dodge targeted negation), but crucially you just need to beat two cards: Lancea and Shifter. Both of those cards lose to the 1-of Called By, hence its inclusion, but beyond that quite a bit of the gameplan is crossing our fingers that the opponent doesn’t have it. Much like Memento, the goal is to play through it, not around it, so cards like Nibiru, Bystials, or even Triple Tacs might be warranted.
As one might expect from the description of our core combo, the Extra Deck here is extremely tight, with only ~2 flex slots. Here, I’ve used those slots on Dyna Mondo, a superb single Extra Deck Summon under Fuwalos, and TY-PHON, the best way to turn around a losing game. 10 slots for Maindeck non-engine is also light for the time, but admittedly the options here are better than most suites you’ll see elsewhere; while our 1-card is incredible, akin to a Diviner, Lo, etc, it’s functionally unsearchable outside of mid-combo, meaning knowing the lines stemming from Dark Necromancer are arguably less important than knowing the ones without him. Critically, however, the freedom to ‘do anything’ with most hands is very much here, and styling your own lines is something highly encouraged by just…how the deck plays. Every Spell is pretty much a “power” Spell, every Ritual resolving means building some incredible advantage, and much of it is fine to see at any point in the game.
Really, I just love that so few new cards in Supreme Darkness seemed to have fully revitalize this undead amalgamation. While it’s a bit different from some of the more traditional “Zombie Pile” lists you’ll see, I find that leaning more heavily into Vendread, and away from Zombie World, is to your benefit as a Duelist in 2025.
So, has the TCG finally fixed one of its most beloved exclusives? It’s so exciting to see support like this packed with such a degree of power! What else do you want to see me cover from Supreme Darkness? Let me know in the comments below!
