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watch revue starlight

revue starlight megafan, queen of yuri, and cohost's foremost Alice Margatroid enjoyer. no doubles


If you aren't aware, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has been running an event that they call the "Theme Chronicle". The idea behind this event is a focus on cards that are playable in the game's solo mode campaigns, with any archetype not featured at all being banned (with a few other bans for good measure). It's... actually really fun! You're not playing against Kashtira or Purrely or *shudders* Branded every single game. It's deliberately lower-power format with a lot of potential for creativity.

That's not to say there aren't decks that are significantly better than others. Swordsoul is playable and the entire deck is mostly legal. Orcust is a common threat. Gate Guardian shows up a lot? Is that even in one of the campaigns? I have no idea.

Anyway, that's what most people are playing. But I am not like most people. I saw the gimmick of this format and, after a bit of waffling, it suddenly hit me that there was only thing I wanted to do - nay, the only thing I could do.

And that thing is summoning Level 7 LIGHT Dragon monsters from my hand, and then bouncing them back to my hand for value.

I give you: Starry Knight.


A "Starry Knight" decklist for Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel.

If you aren't aware of how Tier 25 superthreat Starry Knight plays, it's all focused around summoning the boss monster - "Starry Night, Starry Dragon" - and then returning it back to your hand. "Starry Dragon" is a Level 7 LIGHT Dragon monster that reads "If this card is Normal or Special Summoned from the hand: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it. Cannot be destroyed by battle with a DARK monster, or by a DARK monster's effects1. Once per turn, at the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks an opponent's monster: You can banish that opponent's monster until the End Phase, also this card can make a second attack in a row."

It's not terrible (for example, its first effect isn't once per turn, meaning that if you can summon it out multiple times, you can blow up multiple things), but it's also not like... game-winningly strong. It's pretty mediocre! But there's some fun nonsense you can do with this deck, so without further ado, here's the decklist. and then we'll do a bit of card-by-card, I guess?:

Main Deck - 45 Cards
3 Starry Knight Rayel
1 Starry Knight Astel
2 Starry Knight Flamel
2 Starry Knight Ciel
3 Starry Knight Orbitael
2 Arkbrave Dragon
1 Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay
2 Starry Night, Starry Dragon
1 Chaos Dragon Levianeer
3 Maxx "C"
3 Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring
2 Planet Pathfinder

3 Starry Knight Balefire
2 Starry Knight Sky
2 Starry Knight Ceremony
1 Monster Reborn
1 Foolish Burial
1 Lightning Storm
1 Triple Tactics Talent
1 Ultimate Slayer
1 Kashtira Birth
2 Duality

2 Starry Knight Arrival
1 Starry Knight Blast
2 Infinite Impermanence

Extra Deck - 15 cards
2 King Dragun
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Ancient Pixie Dragon
1 Black Rose Moonlight Dragon
1 Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon
1 Hieratic Seal of Heavenly Spheres
1 Hip Hoshiningen
1 Lyna the Light Charmer, Lustrous
1 Donner, Dagger Fur Hire
1 Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax

In terms of the "Starry Knight" monsters, by far the best is "Rayel"; when it's Normal summoned, you can search for any "Starry Knight" Spell or Trap - we'll get to them later, but this deck's Spells and Traps are extremely important, which is why we're playing three copies. We're also playing three copies of "Orbitael", which has a similar effect, but you have to tribute a LIGHT monster (usually itself if I'm being honest) to activate it, and it sets instead of adding to hand. Which is neat, I guess? It's a Quick Effect too. "Flamel" can cheat out a level 7 LIGHT Dragon (henceforth referred to as a "7LD") when your opponent declares an attack while she's in your hand. "Ciel" can bounce a "Starry Knight" or 7LD to special summon itself, and lastly, "Astel" can tribute a LIGHT in order to summon a 7LD. These two are more situational than the others, mostly because they're not that great and also require you to have like... other stuff already. Yeah, "Flamel" also requires you to have something, but her effect is just better than the others.

They also all have GY effects; "Rayel" can reborn a "Starry Knight", "Orbitael" can special summon itself if you bounce a 7LD, "Flamel" can return a 7LD from your field or GY to your hand, "Ciel" can summon a 7LD from the hand, and "Astel"... can pump your 7LDs. Cool.

These monsters basically all exist for one reason - to get you "Starry Night, Starry Dragon" and help you both summon it and return it to your hand for value. But they can't really do it alone, so let's talk about the archetype's Spells and Traps.

"Starry Knight Sky" is the deck's Field Spell. It gives you an extra normal summon of a "Starry Knight" or a 7LD, but note that if you want to use it to summon the latter, you'll still have to tribute for it, meaning that you're mostly only using this on the "Starry Knight"s themselves. Its second effect is more interesting: whenever a 7LD returns to your hand, you can draw a card. But it also has a couple restrictions: you can only use it once per turn (and it's a hard OPT), and for whatever reason, you can only use it during your turn. What, were they worried this deck was too good?! Utterly baffling.

"Starry Knight Balefire" is a tutor for the archetype, with a secret effect2 that allows you to, after you tutor for a card, summon a 7LD from your hand if you 1) control no monsters and 2) your opponent controls at least one DARK monster, which is neat, but not exactly reliable. C'est la vie. It's still by far the best card in the deck, so we're playing three. "Ceremony" is a Continuous Spell that lets you return a "Starry Knight" from your hand to your deck to tutor a 7LD, which can be useful if you brick on monsters. Its second effect is the important one, though: when your opponent activates basically any effect, as soon as it resolves, you can Special a 7LD. This is one of the main ways to get "Starry Night, Starry Dragon" onto the field. It's only once per turn (and not only that, but you can only use either effect once per turn. Again: why??) but it's still handy.

The archetype has two Traps: "Starry Knight Arrival" allows you to, once per turn, either special a 7LD or return one to the hand. Very useful, but in yet another inexplicable restriction to the deck, you can only do it during a Main Phase? It doesn't have to be your Main Phase, but still, they really hated this deck. Irritating. "Blast" is the last of the in-archetype Traps; it can negate any activated effect, so long as you have a 7LD to bounce to activate it. It's not a Counter Trap, though. If your opponent activates anything at Spell Speed 3 you're just fucked. It's also frustrating that it's just a dead card if you don't have something to bounce for it, so I'm only playing one copy.

Right then! As you can probably tell, while this deck does have an "engine" and "combos", the "Starry Knight" cards are not nearly good enough on their own. So let's talk about the out-of-archetype cards and non-engine.

"Maxx "C"" and "Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring": Literally required in every single deck in Master Duel until they finally ban that stupid fucking insect. I could also run some "Called by the Grave" - and probably should, to be honest - but goddammit, this deck isn't good enough to play that much non-engine! At least the "Ash Blossom" has additional utility - it's not very hard to make level 7 and 10 Synchro plays with this deck.

"Planet Pathfinder": It searches "Sky" and, in a pinch, you can use it as material. It's even a level 4! Convenient. You can also use it to bait out an "Ash Blossom" if you don't actually need "Sky" and want a "Rayel" or "Balefire" to resolve.

"Arkbrave Dragon": One of the best non-"Starry Dragon" 7LDs. It can bring back a "Starry Dragon" from your GY, use it to overlay for a Rank 7, or you can sync it off for a 10. It also has an effect to get rid of your opponent's face-up Spells and Traps? This has not come up once.

"Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay": Hey, it's a level 7 that you can Special Summon sometimes. It's even a Dragon! Not a LIGHT one, but you know. It's the thought that counts.

"Chaos Dragon Levianeer": I just kinda threw this in to try it out, but I have not once drawn it. Not sure what's going on there.

"Monster Reborn": Sometimes, you just need one of your things back. Also, you can use it to activate "Arkbrave"'s other effect, if you need it.

"Foolish Burial": We've got a lot of cards with GY effects!

"Lightning Storm": This deck is not incredible going second, but this can help. To be honest, I'm considering replacing it with "Raigeki" and replacing something else with "Harpie's Feather Duster", because it's very hard to use if the opponent doesn't set up much.

"Triple Tactics Talent": Basically thrown in here because all three of its effects are very useful for this deck. "Sky" is the only draw power the archetype has and it's mediocre; I have a lot of ways to use a stolen monster; and shuffling a card in the opponent's hand back into the deck can be game-winning.

"Ultimate Slayer": We're playing 4/5 of the types of monsters that can be in the Extra Deck, so this card is actually SUPER useful for outing weird stuff.

"Kashtira Birth": This is the only "Kashtira" card that's legal in the format (probably for the best, but it would be nice to have access to "Fenrir" or "Wraitsoth") and while most of its effects are irrelevant it still lets you normal summon a 7LD without tributing, so...

"Duality": This is one of the funniest tech cards that this deck can play. Your opponent has lots of targeted removal? Go into "King Dragun"! Need some quick removal? "Ancient Pixie Dragon" has you covered. Theoretically, you can also use this to summon "Phantazmay" from your hand, if you want.

"Infinite Impermanence": Just a good card!

And now, for the Extra Deck:

"King Dragun": Our primary "Duality" target, which protects Dragons from your opponent's effects and also lets you summon a Dragon from your hand every turn for free, which is wild. If you've got "Flamel" in your GY, you can tribute "Starry Dragon" for "Duality" to go into "Dragun", then activate the "Flamel" in your GY to return the "Starry Dragon" to your hand so you can summon it with "Dragun"'s effect, pop a card from your opponent, and then go into a Rank 7 if you need to.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon": It's a 7LD that can give you a free summon. It would be a lot more useful if there were some more "Kashtira" cards legal (because you could run "Wraitsoth" and get a lot of level 7s), but you know how it is. I might remove it.

"Ancient Pixie Dragon": Easy to get out with either "Duality" or by just having a 4 + "Ash Blossom", and its Field Spell-related abilities are relatively easy to trigger. Also, it has 3000 DEF, which is pretty fucking big.

"Black Rose Moonlight Dragon": Another 7LD. It's a shame its effect is mandatory, but I've still used it to decent effect.

"Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree": As mentioned earlier, we can easily make a level 10 Synchro, and "Leo" is the best of those that's legal in this format ("Baronne de Fleur" is, obviously, not). He's big (3100 ATK is usually good enough for anything) and he's also pretty hard to out!

"Abyss Dweller": As an "Exosister" main, I am personally offended whenever anyone moves a card from the GY to somewhere else, so this is my Rank 4 of choice. I used to also run "Evilswarm Exciton Knight", but I found it mostly wasn't very useful with this deck, just because we have so many Spells and Traps that stick around.

"Number 11: Big Eye", "Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack", "Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon": This is my Rank 7 suite. Yes, it's just three of the best Rank 7s in the game. There's honestly not much to say about them; they just give the deck a lot of flexibility in terms of responding to threats. "Big Eye" is probably the one I use most often, but I use the other two frequently as well.

"Hieratic Seal of Heavenly Spheres": This card seems really good for the deck, but I've actually never made it. When I have two Dragons on the field, I'd usually rather just make one of the Rank 7s. I might cut this.

"Hip Hoshiningen": I really didn't want to play this, because I hate the art on this card so much, but it's unfortunately extremely useful.

"Lyna the Light Charmer, Lustrous": Also very useful, and has the potential for comedy if the opponent plays any LIGHT monsters. I've thought about running "Dharc" as well but... eh. It's harder to make and the benefit is probably marginal.

"Donner, Dagger Fur Hire": You would not believe how many awkward situations this card has gotten me out of. I love you, dog mommy.

"Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax": Surprisingly not too hard to make! Like, it's not easy, but it's a solid finisher if you happen to stick two Link monsters.

So, uh... that's the deck! I guess! It's 45 cards! It's a weak archetype! And yet, I still win most of my games, and that's the true meaning of Christmas, I guess. Yeah, they're Christmas themed. I don't know. "Natalie" means "Christmas", so it's a good fit for me.

Let me know if you enjoyed reading this, and also let me know if you have any questions about the deck! I know the Theme Chronicle is almost over, but I hope this was a fun insight into an archetype that you've probably never given a second thought to.

See you on Master Duel!

1 You would not believe how many people do not read this line of text. I've gotten multiple wins just by opponents trying to destroy "Starry Dragon" with a DARK and then scooping when it doesn't work. An advantage of playing an obscure deck is that nobody has ever read any of your cards before.

2 For those unfamiliar with Yu-Gi-Oh, a "secret effect" is not actually a secret. Because many cards in the game have several effects, there are always going to be some that people forget about or simply skim past... like the effect of "Starry Dragon" from the previous footnote. We like to call these "secret" effects.


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