Phantom Thieves of the Opera [Post-SAST/Jan. 2019)

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Since recent banlists have been brutal to Dark Warrior decks, I've noticed how Orcusts have generally become one of the main Dark decks since then. Also tried Time Thieves at the Savage Strike sneak peek event and instantly fell in love with them, so I figured I'd see how mixing them would turn out.

Monsters

• 1 Armageddon Knight
• 1 Clock Wyvern
• 1 Dark Armed Dragon
• 2 Destiny HERO - Malicious
• 1 Effect Veiler
• 1 Elemental HERO Shadow Mist
• 1 Elemental HERO Solid Soldier
• 1 Elemental HERO Stratos
• 1 Neo Space Connector
• 1 Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin
• 1 Orcust Brass Bombard
• 1 Orcust Cymbal Skeleton
• 1 Orcust Harp Horror
• 2 The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak
• 2 The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots
• 1 Time Thief Bezel Ship
• 1 Time Thief Regulator
• 2 Time Thief Winder
• 1 Vision Hero Vyon

Spells

• 1 Cynet Fusion
• 1 Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade
• 1 Mask Change II
• 1 Monster Reborn
• 1 Noble Arms - Clarent
• 1 Orcustrated Einsatz
• 1 Overdone Burial
• 1 Reinforcement of the Army
• 1 Solitary Sword of Poison
• 1 Time Thief Hack
• 1 Transmodify

Traps

• 1 Solemn Warning
• 1 Phantom Knights' Fog Blade
• 1 Phantom Knights' Sword
• 1 The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine
• 1 Time Thief Flyback
• 1 Ultimate Providence

Extra Deck

• 1 Clock Spartoi
• 1 Cyberse Clock Dragon
• 1 Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
• 1 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton
• 1 Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights
• 1 Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator
• 1 Masked HERO Dark Law
• 1 Orcustrion
• 1 Summon Sorceress
• 1 The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche
• 2 Time Thief Redoer
• 1 Tri-Gate Wizard
• 1 Underclock Taker

Edited April 13, 2019 by Phantom Roxas
Swapped 1 Shadow Mist for Stratos and removed Forbidden Dress.

[Chaos Sonic 442]

Ahhh, another lover of the Time Thieves.

Honestly, this build seems...interesting to say the least. Where I have one that is generally just a Time Thieves + Rank 4.dek, this definitely is showing that your trying to utilize other methods of summoning rather than just relying on Xyz (which, I guess in Link format, you kinda have to). Still, it's got a combination of cards/archetypes in this that I wouldn't have thought would possibly work together.

Might I ask, how does this hold out?

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Time Thieves and Orcust work rather well together, mostly because thanks to the Orcust support targets Dark Machines, which makes for great synergy through Time Thief Regulator.

My biggest concerns are that I want to replace Solid Soldier, but I'm not sure if there's an alternative I'm comfortable with. Also I feel that I've been neglecting Leviair, who I've seen as a staple in these decks. I might also need to use Break Sword. Most of the Equip Spells I'm using for Isolde are generic choices, aside from Phoenix Blade, though drawing them can risk bricking the deck, so ideally I'd like to be able to put them back in the deck if necessary. Honestly considering using Sword of Deep-Seated to replace one of them.

[Summer Darj 292]

I find amusing how you are a couple of card copies away to go for a Highlander variant xD
I can tell this is IRL because you are missing AFAIK important cards in Time Thieves/PK/Orcusts variants, namely the PK RUM Launch + Azathot, Orcust Knightmare, really important as it is Summonable by Knightmare Mermaid, and then you can go off with the Orcust engine.
The play is: any 2 monsters --> Knightmare Cerberus/Phoenix --> Knightmare Mermaid.
If you ever get these cards on your hands, I guess you can make space by cutting 1 each of PK Cloak and Boots, AFAIK only 1 copy of each in the main deck should suffice for the Bardiche plays.

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Didn't notice how close I was to a Highlander variant until I wrote this, but it is kind of hilarious to me.

I don't have Azathot, and I'm wary of getting that because I have a suspicion that it could get hit in the next banlist. I do have a few copies of Orcust Knightmare (And also at least 3 World Wands), but I'm not familiar with how those plays work.

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm just not as interested in the Knightmares? It's a weird hang-up that I can't properly explain, but I'm trying to see how I can build this deck without relying on the Knightmares.

I'd be okay with cutting down to PK Cloak and Boots to 1, though I'm pretty comfortable with them at 2 for now. If anything, I'm more iffy about Solid Soldier. While he's good for Shadow Mist and Vyon, I'm wondering if there are better alternatives.

[Summer Darj 292]

Well, they run the Knightmare Links just to get Orcust Knightmare on board, really. Once you get it, the Orcust can mill Diver, which Summons Scherzone, and so on. Not to mention that Knightmare Phoenix and Unicorn are decent generic Links to splash in.
Indeed, Solid Soldier seems like a situational card to run, especially if you are lacking the E- Emergency Call to grab HEROes. More generic alternatives are Goblindbergh and Marauding Captain I guess?

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Milling Harp Horror to get Cymbal Skeleton is certainly what I'm going for with this. I take it the typical approach would be to get out Phoenix, Link that into Mermaid, then bring out Orcust Knightmare to mill Harp Horror?

While I have E - Emergency Call, it would be about as situational as Solid Soldier. I suppose I could run both, but I have my doubts on if it'd be worth it. I did think of using Marauding Captain as a replacement, so I'll probably go with that.

[Summer Darj 292]

20 hours ago, Phantom Roxas said:

Milling Harp Horror to get Cymbal Skeleton is certainly what I'm going for with this. I take it the typical approach would be to get out Phoenix, Link that into Mermaid, then bring out Orcust Knightmare to mill Harp Horror?

While I have E - Emergency Call, it would be about as situational as Solid Soldier. I suppose I could run both, but I have my doubts on if it'd be worth it. I did think of using Marauding Captain as a replacement, so I'll probably go with that.

Yes. I kind of described the play earlier already. 2 monsters --> Cerberus/Phoenix --> Mermaid --> Orcust Knightmare on board.

Unsure about E-Call. You don't have as many HEROes, and decks get awkward when you run Card B to support Card A, so to speak. Although a rule of thumb I know for deckbuilding when it comes to searchers is run 1 less searcher than the number of search targets you run. In this deck's case you run 3 E-HEROes so you can afford  up to 2 E-Calls, disregarding ROTA as it has other targets already, but IDK if they are worth the deck space. What you can do is -1 Soldier and + E-Call since E-Call behaves as an extra copy of Soldier anyway, and helps with deck thinning. Better than drawing the 2 Soldiers, I guess.

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Right, just wanted to be sure I understood the play correctly. You can see how long I've been out of the game. XD

I agree on that general rule, and I think another point against E-Call is Shadow Mist. I'm running two of them to get the most mileage out of you how can only use one of its effects per turn, so frankly I could see Shadow Mist substituting for at least one of the E-Calls you have in mind?

Actually, hang on, small correction for your post. You mention it would be better than drawing the 2 Soldiers, but I'm running 1 Solid Soldier and 2 Shadow Mists, so I think that might change what you were going for? I apologize if we're talking past each other on this.

Basically, since I'm running 3 E-HEROes, but two of them are Shadow Mist, and only one of them would be used as a searcher anyway, maybe replace that one with E-Call, so the remaining Shadow Mist can stay for fetching Mask Change II?

[Summer Darj 292]

My bad, misread the decklist as 2 Soldier and 1 Mist, but it's the other way around. Still, I would say it's more desirable to draw into 1 E-HERO + 1 E-Call than 2 copies of the same E-HERO.

Yeah, something like that. I would test x1 Mist, x1 Soldier and x1 E-Call over x1 Soldier and x2 Mist. Another HERO you could consider is Stratos, who is able to grab Vyon, as well as Malicious for discard purposes (e.g. by the Knightmares) but then the issue of getting Vyon on board would remain, and IDK how effective would be to dedicate more deck space to HEROes.

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Going to have to find my copy of E-Call, but I've replaced Mist with Stratos for the moment. While there is still the issue of getting Vyon on-board, this is still faster enough for me to manage. Going to head to locals in a little bit, so I'll let you know how that turns out.

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Dueled against Blue-Eyes, Galaxy Photon, and Ancient Gear decks. Beat the Galaxy Photon deck easily, but last to the other two. Going to have to take some more time to think about it, but it did confirm for me that Forbidden Dress is an easy brick, so going to be taking that out. Didn't realize I had 41 cards instead of 40, so it's not like it'll hurt me if I just get rid of it outright.

[Phantom Roxas 38]

Well, Summon Sorceress is banned, so I'm going to have to adjust this deck to account for that now.