Evolution in Design: Subterror and SPYRAL

Evolution in Design:

Welcome to the first of my new 4-part series of articles that will be spread out over the course of an entire year! The goal of this Evolution in Design series to give everyone a chance to learn about the new TCG World Premiere archetypes as they are released in stages, while also documenting their evolution for future reference. If our two newest premiere themes follow the same pattern as Burning Abyss, Kozmo, U.A. and Kaiju, there will be 4 total sets of support. And therefore as each set arrives in the TCG, I will be posting a brand new article in the series which will introduce the new support and provide updated strategies and variants. I hope you’re interested in this series concept, because it is going to be a year-long investment for me! Without further ado, let’s tunnel right in with the archetype clashing over the hidden city of mysteries, Shambhala!

The Subterror:

Now there is an elephant in the room when it comes to these two archetypes – they only have four cards each. Four cards cannot effectively constitute a proper deck, so you really have to be innovative in order to figure out what would combine well. While each of these variants are designed around enabling and abusing the Subterror monsters, they can often take a bit of a backseat to the bigger and more complete archetypes they are supporting. Hopefully I can actually begin to work with more pure-ish variants with the next batch of support, but for now, I will be turning to a couple of hybrids. Let’s check out the first strategy that melds our Subterrors with the Prediction Princess archetype!

Strategy One: Prediction Subterror

SpoilerMain Deck:
||| Subterror Behemoth Stalagmo
| Pot of Taboos
||| Subterror Behemoth Umastryx
|| Subterror Nemesis Warrior
|| Spirit of the Fall Wind
||| Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
|| Kagetokage
| Prediction Princess Coinorma
||| Prediction Princess Tarotrei
||| Pre-Preparation of Rites
||| Terraforming
||| Prediction Ritual
||| The Hidden City
| Ritual Sanctuary **Soon to be released for the TCG in Dragons of Legend: Unleashed on August 18th/19th**
||| Book of Eclipse
||| Solemn Strike
| Solemn Warning

Strategy Two: Terrors of the Night

SpoilerMain Deck:
||| Subterror Behemoth Stalagmo
||| Subterror Behemoth Umastryx
|| Subterror Nemesis Warrior
||| Speedroid Terrortop
| Speedroid Taketomborg
||| Ghostrick Jiangshi
| Ghostrick Doll
||| Ghostrick Jackfrost
| Ghostrick Specter
|| Ghostrick Mary
| Reinforcement of the Army
||| Terraforming
| Ghostrick Museum
||| The Hidden City
| Ghostrick Vanish
|| Floodgate Trap Hole
|| Ghostrick Scare
| Ghostrick-Go-Round
| Ghostrick Night
| Solemn Warning
|| Solemn Strike

Extra Deck:
| Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula
| Number 11: Big Eye
||| Ghostrick Spoiled Angel
|| Ghostrick Alucard
|| Ghostrick Dullahan
| Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
| Daigusto Emeral
| The Phantom Knights of Break Sword
| Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse
| M-X-Saber Invoker
| Number F0: Utopia Future

Tech Options for Subterror Variants:

Swarm of Scarabs
- Why in particular this P.A.C.M.A.N. monster and not Medusa Worm? Because it is a Level 3 to combo with Nemesis Warrior in order to bring out Umastryx. Also, you don’t have to be running any other Ghostrick cards to get mileage out of it.
Book of Eclipse
- Not only does it set all monsters on the field to interrupt your opponent’s plays, but it also sets any Subterrors you may have face-up on your field.
Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord
- Allows you to return all of your Graveyard Subterrors back to the deck to be re-searched by The Hidden City. Additionally, it gets you a second Level 10 easily to the field to make a Rank 10 Xyz Summon.
Geargiarmor, Geargianchor, Geargiattacker
- These three EARTH monsters are your bread and butter for a separate variant that functions similarly to the Ghostrick one, except with a greater focus on R4NK Xyz Summons. Again, this is just a tech engine option.
Burst Rebirth
- The themed Call of the Haunted for FLIP monsters since it summons from the Graveyard in face-down defense, just it carries a hefty cost. Also, Call of the Haunted or Oasis of the Dragon Lords performs the same role for our Subterrors since they can flip themselves face-down.
Glow-Up Bulb
- A bit of a unique tech card, can be used with any Level 4 EARTH, such as Subterror Nemesis Warrior, in order to make Naturia Beast.
Emergency Teleport, Re-Cover
- The Teleport engine can be used in here as an alternate way to get to Naturia Beast. While it is not quite as powerful at the moment due to the meta featuring powerful monster effects, it can still put in a decent amount of work. Also, this is a much bigger deckspace investment than Bulb.
The Shallow Grave
- Want to bring back a monster from your Graveyard? If you have The Hidden City, you can bring back Subterror Behemoth Umastryx and immediately banish whatever your opponent just summoned.
Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit, Hieratic Dragon of Su, Hieratic Dragon of Eset
- You can actually build a Hieratic Subterror deck to benefit from tributing off your Hieratic monsters with Subterror Nemesis Warrior. The best part is that these Hieratics summon out another monster for you to use to bring out a second Subterror with your Nemesis (that returns from the Graveyard) during your opponent’s following turn. But in all honestly, this build just uses the Hieratics more effectively alone than with Subterror.

The SPYRAL:

Strategy One: SPYRAL Number One

SpoilerMain Deck:
||| SPYRAL Super Agent
||| Speedroid Terrortop
|| Speedroid Taketomborg
||| SPYRAL Quik-Fix
||| SPYRAL GEAR – Drone
|| Sage with Eyes of Blue
|| Effect Veiler
| Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice
|| Ghostrick Jackfrost
| Kinka Byo
||| Instant Fusion
| One for One
| Reinforcement of the Army
|| Where Arf Thou?
||| Machine Duplication
|| Cosmic Cyclone
||| SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red
|| Solemn Strike
| Solemn Warning

Extra Deck:
| Elder Entity Norden
| Thousand-Eyes Restrict
| Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
| Hi-Speedroid Chanbara
|| Ghostrick Spoiled Angel
| Leviair the Sea Dragon
| The Phantom Knights of Break Sword
| Totem Bird
| M-X-Saber Invoker
||| Ghostrick Alucard
| Number 83: Galaxy Queen
| Number F0: Utopic Future

Strategy Two: DARK Spy-chro

Level Eater + Gofu : Special Summon Gofu using its method, then Normal Summon Eater. Synchro Level 6 into Coral Dragon, then use Eater’s effect and then Synchro into Stardust Charge Warrior, then draw 2 cards.
Dark Grepher + Plaguespreader Zombie/Level Eater : Summon Grepher, use its effect to send the monster you have plus the one you don’t to the Graveyard. Special Summon Plague, go into the Charge Warrior Combo under #1.
Gofu + Armageddon Knight : Summon Gofu, then Normal Summon Armageddon, sending Level Eater. Eater Gofu, then Synchro into Accel Synchron. Use its effect to send Jet Synchron to the Graveyard, increasing itself to Level 6. Eater Accel, then use Jet Synchron‘s effect. Synchro 6 with Arma, Jet, and Eater. Go into Charge Warrior Combo under #1. Then, Eater Charge Warrior and send Accel and Charge to Special Summon either Stardust Warrior or Ultimaya Tzolk’in (only if you have a S/T to then set for Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon).

SpoilerMain Deck:
||| Destiny HERO Malicious
||| Blackwing – Gofu, the Hazy Shadow
||| SPYRAL Super Agent
||| Dark Grepher
| Armageddon Knight
| Mathematician
|| Plaguespreader Zombie
||| Level Eater
||| SPYRAL Quik-Fix
|| Jet Synchron
| Glow-Up Bulb
|| Synkron Resonator
|| Allure of Darkness
| One for One
| Reinforcement of the Army
| Back to Square One
| Soul Charge
| Foolish Burial
|| Twin Twister
| D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation
||| SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red

Strategy Three: SPYRAL Embargo

SpoilerMain Deck:
||| SPYRAL Super Agent
||| SPYRAL Quik-Fix
||| SPYRAL GEAR – Drone
| One for One
| Reinforcement of the Army
| Raigeki
||| D.D. Designatior
||| Hidden Armory
| Foolish Burial
||| Pot of Duality
||| Prohibition
||| SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red
||| Mind Crush
||| The Forceful Checkpoint
||| Cloak and Dagger
|| Solemn Strike
| Solemn Warning

Extra Deck:
| Number 78: Number Archive
| Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora

Tech Options for SPYRAL Variants:

The Forceful Checkpoint
- Featured in the 3rd and final variant, this Trap Card works perfectly for SPYRAL because it deals in Information while at the same time providing a very useful effect. A forced discard while negating an attack is never bad, which is probably why this card was given Secret Rare status.
Psi-Blocker
- Similar usage to Prohibition, except you can change your card-name each turn to work well with Drone. The only problem is that it can easily be destroyed in battle, but that’s what you have Checkpoint for.
Rank-Up-Magic – Argent Chaos Force
- No, I did not list the wrong RUM, even though every SPYRAL build uses Rank 1 Xyz Monsters. This is actually used to gain access to Number 99: Utopic Dragon and Number S0: Utopic Zexal through the use of the Rank 1 Number 39: Utopia Roots. Not only can this particular Rank-Up-Magic work for both, but it also can add itself back from the Graveyard. Perfect for a deck that can always discard dead draws to gain extra searches with SPYRAL Quik-Fix.
Turbo Booster, Jester Confit
- These Level 1 monsters Special Summon themselves to the field, giving you even more Xyz Material to work with. These function besti n the Utopic variant, but can also be used to great effect with the following engine.
Sage with Eyes of Blue, Effect Veiler, Dragon Spirit of White
- A version of this engine appeared in the first variant, but it is important to note once more. This works wonders in any Level 1 centric variant, and SPYRAL is no exception. Also, it never hurts to have searchable handtraps or non-destruction backrow removal at your disposal.
Glow-Up Bulb
- Literally the same reason as for why it is used in Subterror, since SPYRAL Super Agent also happens to be a Level 4 EARTH Warrior. So Naturia Beast for all!
Emergency Teleport, Re-Cover
- This engine is a bit more usable here in SPYRAL because you do have effective ways to get rid of dead draws and turn them into useful SPYRAL GEAR support cards.

Threat Analysis and Looking Forward:

Well the first thing to consider is that there has been an established pattern with TCG World Premiere archetypes ever since the competitive failure of the Noble Knight experiment. In the past, it seemed as though one archetype was ‘destined’ to be the meta variant, while the other was meant to push the boundaries of card design and originality. The Burning Abyss archetype featured powerful effects since their debut, and the Ultra Athletes kept to the shadows with their tagging out mechanic. The Kozmo archetype warped the entirety of card design by forcing non-targeting, non-destruction monster removal back into the fold, and the Kaiju stuck to filling a supporting role for already strong archetypes that needed a couple more giant monsters. This time, the playing field has been leveled, as each theme recieved equal support in their first set. Also, both themes are really filling the unique mechanic niche. Does this mean that the themes will continue to receive equal support? I truly hope so, because I cannot wait to see each of these archetypes in their final forms. The possibilities for SPYRAL are truly endless, they are in unexplored territory. As for the Subterrors, I am exited to see the battle for Shambhala rise to new heights. Either way, these will be themes to watch.

Beyond anything else, I think the biggest hint as to what’s to come is already right under our noses, especially for Subterror. Take another look at Subterror Nemesis Warrior – specifically its first effect.

During either player’s turn: You can send 1 “Subterror” monster from your Deck to the Graveyard; Tribute this card and at least 1 other monster so that the original Levels Tributed equal or exceed the Level of that “Subterror” monster in the Graveyard, and if you do, Special Summon that monster in face-up or face-down Defense Position.

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading this first entry in my Evolution in Design series. I hope you were enlightened about the potential for these two archetypes, and I hope that you will become inspired to try them out, if not today then one day in the future. As with all of my articles, I cannot say that the decklists I presented above are the best builds above all others; they are intended to make you have a moment where you think to yourself that you have a better idea. At the end of the day, it is true deckbuilding innovation that drives the metagame in the TCG. I can only hope that these articles will help to foster the theory and strategy behind SPYRAL and Subterror decks in the future.

YGOrganization

Evolution in Design: Subterror and SPYRAL

Interested in learning about the capabilities for both of our new TCG World Premiere archetypes? Check out this article detailing the latest operation of the SPYRAL organization: Finding the Mole.

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