It Begins with a Fairy Tail…

Other monsters on the field cannot be targeted by Spell effects. Once per turn: You can discard 1 Spell Card; equip 1 Equip Spell Card from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard to this card, but return that Equip Spell Card to the hand during the End Phase.

Assuming the Throne:

Now folks, we’re going to tie this Ritual component back into a card I introduced on a whim earlier on: Star Seraph Scales. You see, whenever you Ritual Summon, you are Special Summoning from the hand. Thus, if you do a Seraph combo with Scales, make a 3 material R4NK Xyz such as Delteros or Number 104: Masquerade, then perform a Ritual Summon, you immediately offset that initial minus in card advantage when performing the Summon! To put it simply: the first combo draws into the second and third combos, which then generate more advantage when the second and third combos are performed together, but the first combo also provides fodder to successfully complete the second combos as well. I guess I lied, that wasn’t quite simple to follow, was it?

Let’s take a few seconds to recap again. We now have: 1) Advantage Engine. 2) Win Condition. 3) Options to break through established fields. 4) Longevity. 5) Combo potential. 6) Boss monsters. The only thing that seems to be missing is a touch more consistency, and that is entirely up to the tech cards you choose to run. I’m going to change it up a bit this article and present my sample decklist now, then we can go on to discuss how the cards work in tandem, the additional tech options, then ending with a bit of math.

Sample Deck Recipe:

Main Deck:
||| Fairy Tail – Cinderella
||| Star Seraph Scepter
||| Star Seraph Sovereignty
| Star Seraph Scales
|| Summoner Monk
||| Cyber Angel Vrash
|| Maxx “C”
| Raigeki
||| Foolish Burial with Belongings
||| Cursed Bamboo Sword
||| Golden Bamboo Sword
| Broken Bamboo Sword
| Soul-Devouring Bamboo Sword
|| Ritual Sanctuary
||| Machine Angel Ritual
| Soul Charge
| Terraforming
| Upstart Golbin
|| Solemn Strike
| Solemn Warning

Extra Deck:
| Stellarknight Constellar Diamond
| Number S39: Utopia the Lightning
| Evilswarm Ouroboros
| Number 104: Masquerade
| Stellarknight Delteros
| Number C39: Utopia Ray
| Number 39: Utopia
| Number 10: Illumiknight
| Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
| Diamond Dire Wolf
| Bujintei Tsukuyomi
|| Diagusto Emeral
| Gagaga Cowboy
| Abyss Dweller

Combos and Tools:

Additional Tech Options:

As you could tell from the deckbuilding process that this article walked us through, this is by no means a set decklist or firm strategy. You truly have a ton of space to play with, and so I’ve listed a couple of neat options for you to consider.

• Honest – When running Ritual Sanctuary, this is always a great card to consider running alongside. This card generates OTKs like the old days with the help of Vrash, and who doesn’t love the fact that you can bring it back to your field, and then to your hand every single turn? Not bad.
• Monster Gate – A bit of a strange tech, but let me explain – this card is awesome to turn that lone Cinderella that you start with into a potential Seraph play. This can accelerate your gameplan by a turn, happen to hit your Cursed Bamboo in the deck, and perhaps even get enough Spells to the Graveyard for a revival by Sanctuary. Sure, it’s luck-based, but it does have a ton of potential.
• Book of Moon – This card may not be as strong as in its heyday, but it can definitely throw an unexpected wrench into the plans of certain Xyz/Synchro/Combo heavy decks. Also doesn’t hurt to be able to continuously bring it back to the field.
• Photon Thrasher – This is a good combo card to open with, because it lets you go into Bujintei Tsukuyomi with pretty much any other monster you open the duel with, in the case that your opening hand is less than ideal.
• Constellar Belt – Yeah, this card seems pretty lackluster, and in some ways it is. But you are running a deck with such high card advantage potential that you can afford to run a couple of cards that only offer utility effects and not favorable card advantage exchanges. With Belt, your Vrash’s effect gets over Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, your Star Seraph Scepter cannot be negated by Solemn Strike, and same with your Cinderella. 
• One Day of Peace – This card lets you stall while continuing to dig through your deck for draws. The big downside is that it is a +1 in favor of your opponent, so the LP protection does not come cheap.
• Pot of Duality – Another Spell card that helps to ensure consistency in the early game before you are required to make the big plays to stay neck and neck in the duel with your opponent. Later on, it just becomes glorified discard fodder for Monk, Sanctuary, or Cinderella, so it doesn’t hurt too much.
• Wonder Wand – If you want to run this card, feel free. Effectively, this makes Cinderella a 2-for-2 trade, since it can just equip Wonder straight from the Deck or Graveyard.
• Preparation of Rites – If you are using Nasateiya as your Ritual Monster, you definitely should run this to search it and add back a Machine Angel Ritual from your Graveyard. Yet another card to increase consistency and gain free card advantage.
• Brilliant Fusion & Gem-Knight Garnet – As a deck that heavily relies upon the Normal Summon early on, the Brilliant engine can be great for Turn 1. However, it does not last long because of how much draw power this build has. Once you draw into your Garnet(s), Brilliant becomes just another card you only want to discard. But this does allow for precise dumping of the LIGHT monster you want in the Graveyard, such as Scales, so keep that in mind.

Math & Probability:

Conclusion:

As always, the list above is just my personal build. Also, it is possible to build a deck from the ground up, starting with one crazy combo. In fact, this is precisely how the Zoodiac deck that has come to dominate the OCG meta came to be – duelists saw the potential of the Rat, then built strategies and combined archetypes in order to fully abuse that potential. So why not do the same with a glass slipper and a maid turned princess! Until the next time, keep innovating and building creative decks! Most of all, just enjoy dueling for the fun that it can be!

Final note: I am about to resume my final semester at University; therefore, I may not be as available to write articles as I have been in recent weeks. As a result, I have done my best to get ahead of the next article I am writing, which is Evolution in Design Part 2.5 on the SPYRAL and Subterror. (Sadly, Version2 was delayed due to personal reasons, so I figured I’d roll both into one article once the new cards are revealed in the coming week or two). So please don’t worry if you do not see other articles from me in the near future, no I didn’t die, but I truly enjoy creating content for you guys and for the site, so I will never be too far away.

Reminder, I also take suggestions for future CDS articles! I really want to see some input from you! While I will not run out of cool ideas, I do want to be writing articles about strategies you are interested in. So if you wish to see a CDS article about the archetype, theme, or strategy you love, feel free to private message me on the YGOrg Discord server, the YGOrganization Forums, or just post a comment in response to this article on our Facebook page with your ideas to keep under consideration: my username is Quincymccoy and I promise that I do my best to read all of your suggestions and requests.