6-Axis Phantom Knight Burning Abyss

Surely you have seen, or at least heard of, Phantom Knights joining Burning Abyss in recent weeks after the banlist has been announced. However, despite Dante's limitation, Beatrice remains unrestricted, prompting players to abuse this fact and seek ways to summon Beatrice without the aid of Dante as a summoning condition.

I chanced upon this idea upon witnessing Bahamut84 playing a casual game at last week locals, when the last weekly tournament using the Jan 2016 banlist was held.
All credits belong to him as I just watched the match and witness the cards choices that he used. I merely went home and toy with the idea and ended up using the deck.

Without further ado.....

The Phantom Knights' swarming capabilities are similar to Burning Abyss monsters, with them being capable of performing a rank 3 summon with little difficulty. Additionally, they have special-summon and search effects which can be utilised in the graveyard, making them useful even when they are milled.
A single or pair of staple rank 4 monster can be prepared to make use of Phantom Knight Breaksword secondary effect, making this deck capable of answering threats by accessing the rank 4 tool box, something which the previous build of Burning Abyss is incapable of.
Cards such as Dark Rebellion Dragon shine to fill up the needed Rank 4 slots, not only because it gives you a Yuto feel, but also because the meta is predicted to be filled with large threat such as the iconic Blue Eyes White Dragon, with its high attack stat to boast. This hence calls for the need for threat removal cards, which is where Dark Rebellion Dragon comes in.

Burial from the different dimension rises to the occasion to recycle the used Phantom Knights' graveyard effect. It can even be used in conjecture with Breakswords' effect to spawn 2 Phantom Knights from the grave. (Chain it to Phantom Knight Breaksword's double destruction ability and you might even avoid a Solemn Notice from your opponent.)
It also serves as a counter-measure to soon-to-be common side deck options such as D.D. Crow.

Masked Hero Dark Law plays a vital role in this deck, undeterred by the recent limitation of Mask Change II, by not only providing anti-meta capabilities, but by also coincidentally being a Level 6 monster, thus fitting perfectly into the deck's new direction and theme.

Just wait til your opponent screams in fear & shock as  a seemingly harmless Level Eater morphs into Masked Hero Dark Law. #LAWL

"Everyone can be a hero~!"

Carboneddon acts as a semi-engine for the deck, together with Labrodrite dragon and Level Eater. Being able to summon the former by banishing itself from the grave, it allows the Level 6 dragon to be summoned more easily. 

"Labradorite (is) level eater new friend"

Bahamut84 of Duelingdays

Level Eater opens doors of possibilities to the solo dragon tuner, allowing it to synchro summon into Virgil. (Yup, another Level 6. You can see where this is going...). Also, players seem to neglect the fact that Virgil actually doesn't require any synchro summoning conditions; it is a staple Level 6 Synchro monster.

One can also exploit the recently reprints Vulcan the Divine, which can bounce back Phantom Knights' Fog Blade its equipped target, a common situation which I came across, in order to reuse this handy trap the Phantom Knight archtype provided us with.

Fabled Soulkius is another tech card ran by Baha. With this deck's milling capabilities, Soulkius provides the options of discarding cards from the hand, which is extremely useful considering most of this deck's monster enjoy hitting the graveyard. Its' level is yet another reason to include at least 1 copy of him in the deck.

One simply cannot talk about Level 6 engines without the mention of D-Hero Malicious. This recently unlimited warrior has been so functional in providing Level 6 swarming since its introduction. It would only be right for him to join the ranks of the Level 6 engine.

Though seemingly far-fetched and a long shot, D-Hero Malicious can be reused with the aid of both Burial from the Different Dimension AND Pot of Avarice.

Final Words:

• One should look out for Imperial Iron Wall, anti-special summoning and of course, this deck's bane of existence, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror.

• Card Destruction, Hand Destruction and Dark World Dealing are all worthy mentions. While you are at it, why not include a few more Level 6 Dark World monsters if you plan to go all out for the draw-and-drop technique. Lucient and Latnium raises their arms to signal for attention at this note. Whether to run it or not depends on the users' preference. I chose not to run them as I don't want to worry about milling them.

• If one is desperate for recycling cards in the graveyard and wants to look beyond Pot of Avarice, The Transmogrification Prophecy is current unlimited, but its lack of card advantage provided to the user and the cards' status as a trap (thus making it slower than Pot of Avarice) will prompt players to look towards Jar of Avarice instead. It should be noted that The Transmogrification Prophecy can target opponents' cards and disrupt their plays, but in this meta, I feel that D.D. Crow does the job better. Ultimately, it boils down to personal preference.

• Miracle Dig is also available if anyone else is equally desperate. 

• Last but not least, the deck is capable of thinning out fast. Hence one can consider extending beyond the mainstream 40-card limit, but beware of hurting this decks' consistency.

• Shaddoll monsters also deserve some limelight and consideration, with the Shaddoll Dragon coming in first, as it provides the versatile effect of backrow destruction, once milled, be it intentionally by the effect of Beatrice or during the usual graveyard setup. This form of destruction is something which the Burning Abyss and Phantom Knight archetype are lacking, and it not only makes Beatrice's appearance even more frightful, it also reduces the chances of her kicking the bucket via your opponent's laid traps. (Compulsory Evacuation Device, Karma Cut etc.) Shaddoll Dragon's flip effect is also very useful in escaping Djinn locks or dealing with cards such as Majesty Fiend.

• With innovation, Light attribute monsters can be included, and a Chaos Engine can be utilised. Lightpulsar Dragon comes to mind immediately to challenge for a slot in the theoretical Chaos deck. I haven't explored this option yet, but the chaos engine will probably be better suited if one were to opt to run Ritual Burning Abyss and use Hieratic monsters as tribute fodders.

• If one were crazy innovative and daring enough, why not give Number 85: Crazy Box a try? It can be sided in from the side deck against a match-up with Qliphorts who are known to capitalise on Skill Drain. It was one of my favourite techs to include when I was playing Yosenju, whose greatest enemy was Skill Drain.

• Levair the Sea Dragon competes for a spot in the tight extra deck by being capable of recycling banished cards. It is convenient to re-summon a banished Carboneddon for an xyz summon. Just be careful not to target Burning Abyss monsters as they self-destruct, unless you want to trigger Farfar's effect or 'reborn' a Virgil or Dante in the grave with Cir's effect.

• Being a deck filled with Dark attribute monsters mean that Allure of Darkness can be put to good use. Boss monsters such as Dark Armed Dragon, Dark Creator, Dark Necrofear and Darklord Zerato comes to mind. As mentioned before, Levair and Allure can work wonders.

After months of existing in OCG and failing to live up to its name and the fame it garnered in the TCG, it finally looks like it is time for Burning Abyss to shine. I have always felt Burning Abyss to be a boring theme, like a ripoff Tellarknights, except that they are Level 3s.
However, this new deck build sits perfectly fine with me.
Perhaps it is because of my liking to Level 6 decks. (Hieratic and Chaos Dragons were my favourite decks.)

In conclusion, Beatrice stands strong and remains unaffected by the banlist. Being at 3, it is left in the open for players to innovate and find methods to summon her. Being capable of milling any card from the deck to the grave, it definitely deserves the attention and effort put in to make her summoning possible, even with the existence of only 1 Dante in the deck.

Will try to get videos of a few games up on the blog soon!


Think you have better techs to introduce?
Found a new innovative deck for the upcoming meta?
Finally figured out the chaos build that left me puzzled?

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