Extra Pendulum can be Genius in the right hands.

Replays:

Strategic Summary:

Welcome back to a new profile on a not-so-new theme; however, I’m going to be real with you up-front: This is not your traditional take on Qliphort. If you want to see another, be sure to check out my last take on them: CDS: Qliphort ARM-ada. Today in fact, I’m running no floodgates and expecting to continuously Special and Pendulum Summon. Let’s queue up the introduction and launch! The Qliphort theme was one of the earliest Pendulum archetypes, featuring scales 1 and 9, that featured the debut of the first 1-card, 2-scale option in Qliphort Scout. By paying 800, Qliphort Scout searches any Qli card, giving you your other scale and unlocking Pendulum Summons. The downside is that all Qliphorts contain a restriction in their Pendulum effects – you can’t Special Summon non-Qli monsters. Besides the Pendulum summoning, this archetype is also a Tribute Summoning theme. Qliphort Disk Special Summons 2 Qliphort monsters from the deck when Tribute Summoned, Qliphort Stealth spins a card back to the hand, and Qliphort Cephalopod can burn the opponent based on the difference in monsters between the two Graveyards. To support this Tribute Summon playstyle, the Qliphort received quite a few neat tools – from Qliphort Monolith drawing cards equal to your Qli tributes, Qliphort Helix popping a Spell/Trap when tributed, or Qliphort Carrier spinning a monster on the field. All of these options provided solid disruptive effects, all tied together with Qliphort Scout and access to it through Summoner’s Art.

So now that you’ve gotten the standard Qliphort rundown, let’s talk about what I’m doing different. First, I’m running a Monarchs S/T support engine. Pantheism of the Monarchs lets you discard another Monarch S/T to draw 2 cards, plus it tutors a Monarch S/T by banishing itself from the GY. Tenacity of the Monarches lets you reveal any Qliphort monster except Scout to tutor any other Monarch S/T. Finally, Escalation of the Monarchs gives you a way to disrupt the opponent and tribute summon during their turn. Each of these gives the deck even more consistency, so let’s talk about how the third archetype, the Valiants, add additional power to the Qliphort theme. Let’s start with the obvious – a Scout that has already used its effect is dead weight in the Pendulum Zone. Valiants Vorld – Shinrabansho (YGOrg Translation) offers a solution to that, simply Special Summon that Scout, freeing the Pendulum Zone to activate a new Scout and make more card advantage. This also works well with Saqlifice, the tutoring Equip Spell that turns any Qliphort monster into 2 Tributes for a Qliphort Tribute Summon. This also frees up your Normal Summon for the actual Tribute Summon of the turn, rather than needing to waste it first.

All things said, this combination of cards would not be possible or synergetic without one other key Qliphort member – Qliphort Genius, the theme’s Link monster. Because with the addition of Genius, the theme has yet another way to tutor even more Qliphort cards. Whenever you summon 2 monsters to the zones it points to, such as via Pendulum Summoning, you tutor a Level 5 or higher machine. You can even trigger this twice in one turn, especially if you have Extra Pendulum (YGOrg Translation) for an Extra Pendulum Summon. In short – this build is all about exploring two sides of the Qliphort archetype that have woefully been ignored – the synergy with Monarchs support cards and the ability to go full aggro. Execute your commands with the Qliphort!

Provided Decklist:

Monsters: 13
| Qliphort Monolith
||| Qliphort Scout
| Qliphort Stealth
||| Qliphort Disk
| Qliphort Cephalopod
|| Qliphort Helix
|| Qliphort Carrier

Spells: 26
| Valiants’ Var – The Land of Beginning
|| Pantheism of the Monarchs
||| Tenacity of the Monarchs
|| Foolish Burial Goods
|| Extra Pendulum
| Terraforming
||| Summoner’s Art
||| Wavering Eyes
| Return of the Monarchs
||| Saqlifice
| Laser Qlip
|| Valiants Vorld – Shinrabansho
|| Valiants Vorld – Koenig Wissen

Traps: 1
| Escalation of the Monarchs

Extra Deck:
||| Qliphort Genius