Welcome to my next CDS article, and we will be taking an indepth look into the brand new Red-Eyes Support! Red-Eyes B. Dragon has had multiple waves of support over its history, but its most recent wave of support in Clash of Rebellions and Dragons of Legend 2 has left a lot of duelists staggering, unsure of how to build the deck with the wide range and variety of support. It’s time for you to leave that crowd and learn about the newfound power of RED!

History:

Let’s go back to the beginnings of Yu-Gi-Oh… back to when Red-Eyes B. Dragon was first released. Yes, it was the ‘participant’ prize for those that simply couldn’t pull Blue-Eyes White Dragon from their pack of Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Even in the first movie, it was said that while “Blue-Eyes” brings power, “Red-Eyes” brings potential. Blue-Eyes even got a structure deck all to itself, chock-full of support while Red-Eyes was left with the sad consolation prize of being tournament-worthy for certain rogue duelists for a build known simply as ‘Disaster Dragon’. Yes, Red-Eyes technically got a Structure Deck… but it wasn’t much in the realm of dedicated support. Things simply got worse as Blue-Eyes got White Stone of Legend, giving them the ability to even be used in Exodia variants. Then in recent times, Blue-Eyes made a resurgence as the engine behind the Rank 8 Dragon Ruler variant… leaving the poor Red-Eyes archetype in the dust with only 1 Limited card as its representation. Moral of the story is simple, Blue-Eyes has had its time to shine, now it is time for the Silver Dragons to move over and let the Black Dragons take over. After support in two recent products, Red-Eyes can finally compete, so let’s begin the Red-Eyes Revolution! Besides, it’s about time that a brand new Dragon deck steps up to fill the void left by the banned Dragon Rulers. After all, Dragons were designed as the Ace Monster type!

Wide Array of Choices:

Before I begin, I would like you to look up all of the cards that include “Red-Eyes” in their card text, because there is a ton of options at your disposal and it is important that you are well informed. I could spend thousands of words just introducing the monsters alone, but I would rather spend this article talking about deck theory, how to build Red-Eyes, and how to win with them. So by this point, I am assuming that you are well informed.

The Red-Eyes archetype now has a wide array of boss monsters, each of them include a different purpose in relation to main strategic playstyles. An example of this is Archfiend Black Skull Dragon, a card completely dedicated to being Aggressive. On the other hand, Lord of the Red contributes to the Disruption capabilities of the archetype. All of the main power cards of the new Red-Eyes deck therefore contribute to a different overall strategy of the deck. This creates a big conundrum for duelists trying to figure out how to build a Red-Eyes deck, because they see the Ritual components and the Fusion components of the archetype and expect a deck using both of them to work excellently since it is the same archetype. But that is precisely the issue with the situation, since both the Fusion elements and the Ritual elements cater to different strategies. The same could be said of the Spell and Trap support and much of the monster support as well. As a result of these inconsistencies, you have to be smart at the deckbuilding phase in order for a Red-Eyes variant to work.

Again, I would like to stress one point – the deck is not completely dysfunctional however you build it. You can definitely build a hodgepodge Red-Eyes deck that includes all different forms of its support, and there is a shot that it could work out, but most builds of this nature do not have enough synergy to remain consistent through a long event. Therefore, in order to win with Red-Eyes, you have to begin by choosing a specific strategy and win condition upon which to focus. So keep that in mind as we continue through this article, as I am definitely going to be throwing builds at you left and right. Let’s begin with the first Red-Eyes variant of the article, one designed to emphasize consistency.

Consistent Red-Eyes:

Example Decklist: Click Here.

Returning back to our Herald conversation, the whole reason why BMD is important is because it prepares any number of plays and strategies and sets up the correct number and arrangement of Red-Eyes cards in order to adapt to a given situation. A search card is only as good as what it can search, but in the case of BMD, you can search out: REDMD itself to add power to the field, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon the game ender, Red-Eyes Spirit your themed recovery, Red-Eyes Return the continuous trap that keeps fueling endless streams of monsters, or even Red-Eyes Tracer Dragon to prepare for your field getting wiped out. A consistent deck is one that can get to its main engine whenever it is needed, and this ‘consistent’ Red-Eyes deck either gives you the tools to win the duel at the beginning or a means of getting to those tools, albeit sometimes in a roundabout way.

Perhaps this version of Red-Eyes doesn’t float your boat, that’s fine. There are plenty more boss monsters and various strategies within the Red-Eyes umbrella to discuss, and this next variant is going to cut down on the element of consistency in order to exaggerate the Aggressive qualities of the deck.

Red-Eyes Burn:

Example Decklist: Click Here.

First, there is 3 copies of Red-Eyes Fusion which gives the duelist the absolute best odds of drawing into the Spell in the early game. In addition, 3 copies of BMD are ran in order to search Fusion straight out of the deck. This is a total of 6 different cards that are either your win condition or only a card away from your win condition. This is an excellent baseline for beginning to construct the deck, but there is also the issue of Fusion components that you need to address. This is where the most important theory begins to push on your decision-making, because you should be asking the question: “If I am running 3 Red-Eyes Fusion, how many Normal monsters can I afford to run?” If you choose to run only 1 of Red-Eyes B. Dragon and Summoned Skull, you run into a big problem for the deck – what happens if you need to Fusion summon twice in a single duel. Quite frankly, you would need to rely on your Return of the Red-Eyes or Daigusto Emeral just in order to prepare another Fusion activation. There is another problematic scenario as well, what happens if you draw into your Normal monsters instead of fusing them from the deck? For each Normal Monster you draw, Fusion will cause a drop in card economy, something that you cannot afford when using a deck focused around burn damage as a win condition.

Gemini Red-Eyes:

Example Decklist: Click Here.

The other main advantage that this build brings is that you can completely drop the pure Normal Monsters from your build. That’s right, no plain old Red-Eyes B. Dragon is needed! Monster Effects dictate the game, and the lack of such effects is a serious check to the power of a deck if you are forced to run Normal Monsters. But since Gemini monsters are treated as Normal Monsters in the Graveyard, you can reap the benefits of the Red-Eyes Normal Monster support while including as many Monster Effects as possible! The neat thing is that you do not even have to drop access to Archfiend Black Skull Dragon. That’s right, we can still summon him without even having Summoned Skull and that access is through Dragon’s Mirror!

Red-Eyes Hieratic:

Example Decklist: Click Here.

Despite all of the advantages to this sort of Red-Eyes deck that I have already mentioned, I think the absolute best reason to use Hieratics in your Red-Eyes variant is the backrow control. With the help of A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon combined with the uncanny quality of the Hieratic archetype to get high leveled Dragons to the field with minimal effort, you should face little resistance from an opponent’s backrow. To add to Wingbeat is obviously Pendragon, Hieratic Dragon of Su, and even the typical backrow destruction options such as Mystical Space Typhoon or Galaxy Cylone, so you should be in a position of confidence often enough to actually push forward with your plays. Just avoid wiping out your own Return of the Red-Eyes if you can avoid it! Now that I’ve introduced a build that promotes Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summoning its boss monsters, let’s check out a build dedicated to the last boss monsters for Red-Eyes, the Rituals!

Red-Eyes Black Luster:

Example Decklist: Click Here.

While many readers were looking forward to a standalone BLS article, this is my compromise to include at least a little segment in this article, so I will do my best to do the theme justice. The new Black Luster Soldier support is all about supporting Level 8 Ritual Summons, so why not incorporate at least part of the BLS engine into a deck focused on Lord of the Red? While the baby BLS ‘Knight’ monsters can technically search out any Ritual Spell or Ritual monster, it is actually more important to run the ‘Gaia The Fierce Knight’ duo instead, since they activate when they are tributed. Also, both of these Gaias can be searched out of the deck by a single Field Spell, Chaos Field, that also happens to be able to search out either of the Red-Eyes Ritual Spells. To add a sweet cheery on top of the already amazing hybrid sundae of a deck we are creating, did you realize that the Gaia monsters immediately activate following the Ritual Summon of Lord of the Red, if you choose to tribute either for the Ritual Summon, so you get to destroy a card of your opponent’s choice right away! And if you can’t perform that play, simply tribute off Galloping Gaia the Fierce Knight to Ritual Summon your Paladin, because you get a REDMD, Paladin, BLS – Envoy, and a Red-Eyes Transmigration during the next turn! That play is a perfect example of swings in card advantage and momentum that allow you to take control of a duel and quickly enter into a winning position.

So now that we’ve gotten the main strategic points of discussion out of the way, let us talk about the elephant in the room – why the lack of Red-Eyes cards? Where is the Black Stone, where is Red-Eyes itself, where is Flare, where is Fusion…?  In fact, all of those cards are detrimental to the overarching Ritual theme of this variant. Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spells already cause enough issues for deckbuilders due to the issues of drawing incompatible matches, so eliminating in the possibility of additional dead draws is pretty much a priority. Also, almost all of the relevant Red-Eyes monsters are level 7 or lower, so you cannot rely upon them to Ritual Summon Lord of the Red with only 1 Tribute. Hint hint, that is the reasoning for Black Luster Soldier – Sacred Solder in the example build! There is one more Red-Eyes monster that can warrant a slot in this variant, and that is Red-Eyes Tracer Dragon. While I did not choose to include it in the example build, it is definitely a monster that can have serious benefits since it can be searched by BMD.  Also, it is Level 4, so it alone can be used for the Ritual Summon for Paladin or you can banish 2 of them from the Graveyard in order to Ritual Summon Lord!

Let’s take a second to recap everything. I’ve talked about a consistency-focused build, I introduced the Fusion-centric build, I opened the floor for combo decks to focus on Xyz and Synchro Summoning, and I just talked about a Ritual-centric Red-Eyes build. Along the way, we’ve dabbled in theory and learned many of the neat combos, tech options, strategies, and win conditions available to the deck. So I believe it is finally time, let’s unveil what happens when you combine the lessons learned in each of these variants into my personal Red-Eyes build.

For those who stuck it out, thanks for reading all the way through this article! There may be issues with these builds and/or paragraphs about the Red-Eyes archetype and applications, but as always, this article is meant as a starting point for your own deck-building endeavors in the future! Red-Eyes Revolution: Click Here.

Looking Forward:

To those who have kept up with my Strategy Articles, thanks for your continued support. The subject for this article was chosen by a combined request of both readers and Org Staff, and I figured that I could throw some really neat deck ideas into the field for people to run with. In addition, I have a bit of an update to make – the number of CDS articles is going to considerably drop off following the next 2 weeks, as I will be studying abroad for a semester and will be unable to continue writing articles until my return to the interwebs. Just so you’re aware, I am hoping to get at least 1 more CDS article published before then, so be on the lookout for that!