Horus Orcust Guide

Overview

The Orcust archetype is part of the World Legacy lore and plays a central part towards the climactic battle in the battle between Auram and Ningirsu. The cards are based around dark machines, and their primary gameplan revolves around playing from the graveyard and looping themselves with the help of their Extra Deck monsters. They can be found in the secret pack "Star-Studded Futures.". With the upcoming May selection pack, we will be getting the Horus archetype. The Horus cards are a series of level 8 monsters and are a discard engine with the main playmaker cards being Loading... and Loading... , both of which help discard any potentially drawn Orcusts and set up for rank 8 plays. Overall the deck is a midrange playstyle with a lot of room for tech options or even other engines which makes for it being very adaptable to meta calls.

The Orcustra

The Orcusts are the centerpiece of the gameplan and aim to loop themselves and grind down the opponent with their engine and making use of the dark link toolbox. All their main deck monsters other than Loading... lock themselves into DARK monsters for the rest of the turn after they activate their effects in the graveyard.

Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight

Girsu is our in-engine starter and our best normal summon. On summon he can send either an Orcust or World Legacy card from the deck to the graveyard. Usually his main target to send would be Loading... . Additionally on resolution if there is 2 other cards in his column he also temporarily becomes a tuner. Normally it isn't very important and disregarded as we don't put much focus on synchros, but can be something on later turns if you happen to run a potential synchro. More importantly is his second effect. If you control no other monsters you can spawn 2 level 1 tokens on either field. the token allows us to then make Loading... . Which gives Girsu the versatility of being a 1 card link 2 or being able to turbo out Zeus before the dark lock.

Orcust Harp Horror

Harp is one of our power cards, and our primary foolish target as he can grant us access to the entire Orcust engine. He has one simple effect, which is to banish himself from the graveyard as cost to then summon an Orcust monster from the deck but be mindful that you'll then be locked to only summoning DARK monsters for the rest of the turn. He will then either summon Loading... if you are on an empty field or Loading... if you have something else in which you can link it off with.

Orcust Knightmare

Similarly to Loading... Knightmare can get access to the entire Orcust engine, but she requires a monster on the field to target in order to have it gain attack to send a card. Knightmare's effect isn't restricted to Orcusts, but she's able to foolish any DARK Machine. Normally she's used to gain access to Loading... since it's not an Orcust card. Because part of her effect is to manipulate attack points, you can play around an Loading... by activating her effect in the before damage calculation phase of the damage step to foolish a card as a quick effect with the help of Loading... .

Orcust Cymbal Skeleton x1

Skeleton isn't an ideal card to draw or open since he doesn't start the orcust combo, but is an integral piece to our grind and endboard set up. His only effect is to banish himself from the graveyard to special summon an Orcust monster from the graveyard. His revive effect is incredibly useful to bring back our Extra Deck Orcust monsters to continue our resource loop and link climb. But where his effect shines the most is when he's used as a quick effect disruption tool on the opponent's turn to revive Loading... for a non-target send to the graveyard.

Orcust Brass Bombard

Brass is the worst of the Orcust main deck cards, his effect is to banish himself from the graveyard to summon an Orcust monster from the hand. Brass is seldom used as it's utility only comes up when you're already in a poor position of having opened too many orcust names. But with the help of the Horus engine, getting cards out of the hand becomes even less of an issue, making brass's niche less needed.

World Legacy - "World Wand" x1

Although it is not part of the Orcust archetype, but of the World Legacy archetype, it has direct synergy with Orcust due to its graveyard effect. World Wand is able to banish itself from the graveyard to be able to summon a banished Orcust monster. World Wand is what enables the Orcust engine to loop itself so effectively as whatever it revives can then be linked off to then be placed back into the graveyard to be live again next turn, which ideally the target of choice would be Loading... . Just like Cymbal Skeleton, it does not start Orcust combo, but is still an integral piece to the strategy that it warrants a spot. Because it isn't an Orcust card you can't get to it with harp's effect, but instead by being sent to the graveyard with Loading... or by being sent with Loading... .

The Orcust Melody

The archetypal Orcust spells and traps. Some of which are utility, and others integral to the success of the strategy.

Orcustrated Babel x1

The single most important spell to the strategy. The field spell is usually the priority search with Loading... , as its effect allows our Orcust monsters in the graveyard or out link monsters on the field as quick effects. So this allows us to be able to continue playing, interrupting and maintaining our Orcust loop during the opponent's turn. And if it ever gets destroyed or removed and sent to the graveyard it can then add itself back to the hand on the following turn by discarding a card from the hand. So once you got it in rotation it's very hard to keep it out of rotation. But it doesn't provide anything else so it's played at 1 cause it's a brick if drawn otherwise. But it does have some merit by being able to play around cards such as Loading... or a Bystial by activating the drawn field spell before sending Loading... to the graveyard.

Orcustrated Return

Our in archetype pot of greed! And because it is searchable, it can range from being a net neutral to an actual +2 in card advantage. Because it gets an orcust card from the hand to the graveyard by cost, the effect can be negated and still be beneficial as we want our cards out of the hand to begin with. The draw power gets better with more handtrap heavy of a build as there is a higher chance to draw into handtraps. The card isn't worth running at max copies due to it needing an Orcust card to be live, and the fact that it is a **hard once per turn.**

Orcust Crescendo x1

Our only negate card that we can produce in archetype, and it's a counter trap. Being a negate and banish makes it especially powerful at removing cards from rotation for a lot of decks. But for the counter trap to be live, you'd need to have an Orcust link monster present. So, to best ensure the card to be safe to maintain live you'd want to keep your Orcust links linked at all times to enable their protections. It also has a second effect from the graveyard which makes it into a rota for DARK Machine from the deck or banish pile. But it comes with a downside in that it Hard locks you into ONLY summoning DARK Machines for the entire turn. So it is best to use its effect during the opponent's turn in a grind state when you're only summoning dark machines to perform the search and not hard lock yourself on your own turn. Ideally you would want to search Loading... as it's the only monster we would want to see in our hand to normal summon to guarantee plays.

The Conductors

All the Orcust Extra Deck monster are able to interact with banished machines in some way. The links are able to use them as fuel for their effects by returning them back into the deck, and the XYZ is able to attach it. All these effects are needed to maintain the resource loop of our main deck monsters every turn.

Galatea, the Orcust Automaton

The cornerstone of the strategy and our primary searcher, without her the archetype wouldn't function properly. Galatea requires to be able to shuffle back 1 banished Machine to the deck to be able to set an Orcust spell/trap. The search depends largely on what is needed, but the primary search target for turn 1 will be Loading... , which will set us up for being able to play on either turn. She also gains a bonus effect when linked, which means she must be either pointing to, or being pointed at by a monster in order to become indestructible by battle. This effect becomes much more relevant when you want to maintain a live Loading... , so the opponent can't beat over her as she doesn't have a high attack stat at 1800 attack. To make effective use of this protection try to summon on monster zones 1 or 3 so when Galatea is made in the Extra Monster Zone she can be made while pointing towards something.

Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator x1

One of our 2 removal boss monsters. He can either be an Loading... target while Loading... is up to then become a potential interruption. Longirsu requires to return 2 banished Machines back into the deck to then be able to send 1 linked monster to the graveyard. Because it can be any linked, it can therefore not be one Longirsu is directly pointing at but you can also use the opponent's link arrows to increase his threat area. And because his removal doesn't target nor is it destructive it can bypass a lot of common forms of protection. Apart from his effect to remove, he's very necessary for long grind games because Galatea shuffling back only one machine becomes too slow to keep up over turns as the banish pile begins to augment and you start to run low on Orcust monsters in rotation. Just like Galatea, his bonus effect when linked makes him indestructible from card effects.