Hello everyone and welcome back to another Gate Ruler deck profile. On the agenda today is a massively underrated archetype which although may have received minimal support in set 4, Become the Hero!, has absolutely experienced a competitive revitalisation that seems to have flown under the radar. Its obscurity in the metagame is still somewhat due to its over-reliance on its CNT lineup. However, the inconsistent nature of the particular line-up, which will be addressed below, has certainly been improved upon considerably thanks to the new support.
The Decklist
With only a handful of cards being of a ‘higher rarity’, the archetype at large is very accessible and easy to play, perfect for beginners and veterans alike. It is a very much pick-up-and-play sort of deck, with the learning curve being predominantly confined to appropriate resource/energy management e.g. timing the use of A7 “Cheshire” the Cat and, Making a Killing expertly.
Core Units and Events
Viola Furiosa – Raging Fell Dragon and Vortanus – Grand Dragon of Rage Unbound remain staples to this date. The former functioning as the archetype’s main source of Unit removal while the latter serves the purpose of the ‘all-important searcher’ boosting consistency.
Bringing up the rear, we have another old archetype staple; Vastorus Rex – Fell Dragon Quadrarch of Ruin alongside his set 3 retrain Full Armor Vastorus Rex. Both are CNTs with turn-ending effects on top of being extremely well statted. As such, it is easy to see why we would want to maximise the number of copies run in the deck, despite Overlord’s rather stringent level cap.
Of course, not wanting to deal in absolutes, there is some leeway regarding how many Armor Rex you may choose to run. However, with regard to the other cards listed in this section, I would strongly recommend including them at the suggested ratios, considering their critical importance to the function of the archetype and general Abyssal Summoning mechanic. Furthermore, when you consider Levan – Scion of Cronos and the absolutely and insanely powerful CNT ability to stack the relevant cards on top of your deck while placing the irrelevant ones at the bottom, suddenly being able to achieve a turn-ending CNT turn after turn, becomes far more realistic.
Lastly, Fell Dragon Temple is very self-explanatory. It is quite unlikely that the Darkness attribute would not survive without it. Not only a combo enabler, it also functions as protection against one of the strongest cards printed to date; Skystrike Arrow, and other similar effects like that of Midori-giku of the Green Chrysanthemum.
Final Thoughts
Though the archetype remains a tad slow and can be rushed down by some of the more aggressive or tempo-oriented decks, nonetheless it has real staying power. The new CNT alone has elevated Abyssal Summoning‘s competitive prowess, serving as a crucial link between the other CNTs absurdly relevant effects and the ‘consistency factor’ required for archetypes to remain relevant as the game evolves.
On a final note, keen players of Darkness might be wary of the fact that the new promo Viola, Viola Furiosa – Raging Fell Dragon of Endless Strife, was not included in the list at hand. While certainly an offeror of a powerful effect, she can easily be committed from Darkness decks at the present time for a variety of reasons. Volnar is not as prevalent in the metagame currently, and thusly by extension Skystrike Arrow. Truthfully, there are a variety of decks that do utilise the card, considering its power level, but so far only Dragon Knight Genesis has been pegged to be of a high competitive tier from among those revealed to this date. Finally, from a monetary perspective, her current price tag is definitely not an indication of competitive value. Although, if you do have a copy you can opt to include a single copy of each Viola.
The deck does have weaknesses and despite its increased power level can still succumb to CNT disruption effects, of which there are several, counter burn and graveyard banishing to name but a few. Yet, possibly rogue tier, the archetype is something all players should keep an eye on.
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