Introduction

About the Author

Heyo, i'm

. I'm a relatively new player only playing some Speed Duel with a small attempt at learning the regular TCG years and years ago. I'm not new to TCGs in general though. I've been playing Magic: The Gathering on and off for around 10 years and have gave a few others a shot like Force of Will and Cardfight Vanguard among others.

I have played in 2 N/R tournaments so far, No Riches? 1 and 2, placing 4th and 6th respectively with Megaliths.

Overview

N/R Megalith is a combo oriented ritual based archetype that uses a controlling playstyle to choke our opponent out of resources and OTK at a moments notice. The level 4s also allow you to ritual summon any ritual monster, even outside of archetype. This allows you to bring in other powerful ritual monsters to compliment the game plan.

I will preface this by saying this is obviously tailored to the event version of this deck. The event has Loading... limited and Loading... semi-limited. This hurts the resiliency of the deck more than anything, and leaves us very vulnerable to banish removal like Loading... . Everything is applicable to the deck even without a ban list, ratios are just slightly different.


  • Cards
  • Combos
  • Notes

Core Monsters

The Megalith monsters themselves are separated into 3 different categories based upon their level and common effects.

★★

Megalith Phul (1x)

Megalith Phul
The powerhouse of the deck and the only level 2, ridiculous effects. Limited for a reason and is the lifeblood of this archetype. If we at any point lose Phul we have a much harder time accomplishing anything, so protect at all costs.

★★★★

All level 4 Megaliths allow you to ritual summon any ritual monster from your hand by tributing from your hand or field (Refer to the Pebble Ruling in the notes tab, its important for this effect). in addition to their own effect when they're ritual summoned themselves. Their effects are also NOT once per turn, which can make combos pretty insane.

Megalith Ophiel (3x)

Megalith Ophiel
Your only way to get to Phul without an Loading... in hand. Just a straight up search any Megalith, super strong combo piece.

Megalith Hagith (3x)

Megalith Hagith
What you get with this is dependent on how far down you are in your combo and what you open with. Unformed is needed to summon Phul if either of them aren't already in hand, but if you've already gotten out Phul or have Unformed in hand you can get Loading... and/or Loading... instead. Ideally you want to activate Hagith as many times as possible on your first turn to get out Emergence + Portal, any additional Unformed are just a plus.

Megalith Och (1x)

Megalith Och
The weakest regular effect of the level 4 Megaliths. Its strength is in its ability to use the typical level 4 Megalith effect but as a QUICK EFFECT. This enables some cool stuff with out of archetype ritual monsters. Outside of that, its filler in combo to fix our hand and yard to what we need, another level 4 for tribute/xyz/link fodder, name for Loading... pops, and body for Phaleg boost.

★★★★★★★★

All level 8 Megaliths can discard themselves to act as a ritual spell to summon another Megalith from hand and in addition their own effect.

Megalith Bethor (2x)

Megalith Bethor
Its effect counts ritual monsters even outside of archetype. The most obvious and biggest reason Phul is so powerful. This usually gets you 2-3 pops, but can easily get you many more depending on how good your opener was or how deep in the game you are.

Megalith Phaleg (3x)

Megalith Phaleg
This is an OTK enabler and can pump your monsters up to CRAZY numbers. Generally i wouldnt recommend getting this out unless you can OTK or an edge case where you need the pump.

Core spells/traps

Megalith Unformed (3x)

Megalith Unformed
This is mainly an enabler for getting Phul out by tributing any level 4, but can get out Hagith or Ophiel to fit the situation. You're going to get this if its not in your hand already in every combo when you dont have Phul in hand as well. Since its a quickplay you can set this and also use it as protection against banish or other effects from your opponents turn on.

Megalith Portal (1x-2x)

Megalith Portal
This is very good for recurring targets/fodder for Phul, you can basically loop Bethor every turn with this. Just a great card overall to prevent us from runing out of resources and enables combo extensions.

Megalith Emergence (1x-2x)

Megalith Emergence
Very much in the same vein as Portal as it provides us a way to recur resources just in a different way. In edge cases can also save something from graveyard vanish if it ever comes up. Keep in mind that to revive something with this card it MUST have been properly ritual summoned first. You cannot for example bring back a Phaleg/Bathor that you discarded to ritual summon another monster. Learned this the hard way.

Out of archetype ritual monsters

I generally don't recommend running more than 2 or 3 of these.

Demise, Agent of Armageddon (0x-1x)

Demise, Agent of Armageddon
Not required for the deck to function but generally i would not run the deck without this. Can be used with Och to destroy a monster as a quick effect but its second effect is extremely good. It does not care about how it makes it to the graveyard so its very easy to trigger and is a permanent effect. Getting this effect on Phul in your turn 1 combo is where you wanna be.

Lord of the Red (0x-1x)

Lord of the Red
Very powerful effects that allow you to save Bethor pops, and you can even trigger this off of Impcantations.

Odd-Eyes Gravity Dragon (0x-1x)

Odd-Eyes Gravity Dragon
Powerful effect that can enable a safe OTK turn. The LP tax isn't amazing but also isnt terrible. Level 7 so can't make Phaleg/Bethor by itself.

Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon (0x-1x)

Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon
Hard to remove threat with a big body. Sadly we don't get its additional effects.

Nekroz of Clausolas (0x-1x)

Nekroz of Clausolas
Attack drain on a stick. Okay. Level 3 at least means you can use a single Penciplume as fodder.

Additional monsters

Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands (3x)

Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
Adds needed consistency and one of our few normal summons.

Senju of the Thousand Hands (2x-3x)

Senju of the Thousand Hands
Manju, but technically worse.

Engines

As of right now the only competitive engine and generally thought of as mandatory is the following

Impcantation

3 copies
Impcantation Penciplume
3 copies
Impcantation Talismandra
Impcantation Candoll
Impcantation Inception

Consistency and extension engine. You generally never want to open up with Candoll as our only way to activate it is the single ritual spell. Remember you can only use 1 of any of the Impcantation monsters effects once per turn. Talismandra will fetch whatever we need to start or extend our combo.


Generic spells/traps

Mystical Space Typhoon
Book of Moon
Forbidden Chalice
Lightning Vortex
Paleozoic Dinomischus
Compulsory Evacuation Device

There are a good amount of generic spells and traps you can use and we usually have somewhere around 4-8 slots for them. The only card generally thought of as mandatory is Loading... (3x) because of how vulnerable we are with Phul at 1 to backrow. After that its more so what you expect to see or are afraid of the most. I recommend Loading... the most, and you are not limited to what is shown here.


Extra Deck

I'll mostly only list what i consider must includes here for the extra considering the amount of options and actual lack of use of the extra in this deck due to the restriction of Impcantations and nature of the deck itself.

Number 70: Malevolent Sin (1x)

Number 70: Malevolent Sin
For outing troublesome threats to push for game.

Number 82: Heartlandraco (1x)

Number 82: Heartlandraco
To go for game in edge cases.

Pentestag (1x)

Pentestag
Helps push for game

Cross-Sheep (1x-2x)

Cross-Sheep
Similar to Och's summon effect it helps sculpt your hand or yard, only make it if you can ensure you can trigger it at least once.

Geonator Transverser (1x)

Geonator Transverser
To keep something alive against relavent effects. Also can probably use the swap in edge cases.

Draglubion Package

Number 97: Draglubion
Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon
Number C92: Heart-eartH Chaos Dragon
Very powerful package. This is a tricky package to use in this deck since its heavily dependent on matchup and board state for which dragon to make, when to make them, or even if its correct but generally you can feel safe going 97 into 92 on your opponents empty board. You also usually have more instances where you're able to make rank 8s over rank 4s.

Combo lines aren't varied as much as an archetype like fully powered Adamancipator, but it will heavily depend on what your opener is. I'll try to give the "basic" combo relying on as little cards as possible, and an example of one of the best openers we can have with 2nd turn follow ups to both. These are all assuming you're going 1st against no interruptions on either turn. These are not the only hands or combos this deck can do. Use this as a guide to figuring out the lines that are possible with any of your given hands.

"Basic" combo

Requires Loading... , a random level 8 Megalith, and a random level 4/8 Megalith. We will use these cards in our hand as an example:

Megalith Ophiel
Megalith Och
Megalith Phaleg
  1. Activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... using Loading... as tribute.
  2. Search Loading... using the on summon effect of Loading... .
  3. Activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... using itself as tribute.
  4. Search Loading... using the one summon effect of Loading... .
  5. Activate the 2nd effect of Loading... to ritual summon Loading... using Loading... as tribute.
  6. Return Loading... to hand via Loading... 's on summon effect making it level 8.
  7. Use Loading... 's effect to ritual summon another Loading... from the deck using the Loading... in your hand as tribute.
  8. Search Loading... using Loading... 's search effect.
  9. Set Loading... and pass turn.

This sets us up for the following play on our opponents turn

  1. Activate Loading... and return Loading... to the field
  2. When we decide we want to during our opponents main phase, activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... from the deck using both Loading... s on field, sending one back to the deck and one to the grave.
  3. Activate Loading... to pop 3 cards on our opponents field.

So after 3 pops assuming they have no other plays we are ending our opponents turn with a level 8 Loading... , Loading... and Loading... on field, 3 unique Megalith names in grave, and can bring back either Loading... or Loading... with Loading... s effect. We can OTK on our upcoming turn if our opponent fails to produce a board past our pops.

High powered combo

Using this hand. Senju/Manju and Phaleg/Bethor are interchangable

Senju of the Thousand Hands
Megalith Unformed
Megalith Ophiel
Impcantation Penciplume
Megalith Phaleg
  1. Activate Loading... to special summon itself and Loading... from deck, revealing any ritual monster
  2. Activate Loading... 's effect to search Loading...
  3. Activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... using Loading... and search Loading... with it's effect.
  4. Activate Loading... to send Loading... to the graveyard to return it to hand and special summon Loading...
  5. Search Loading... using Loading... 's effect
  6. Activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... from hand using itself to search and then activate Loading...
  7. Activate Loading... to summon Loading... from deck using Loading... as tribute.
  8. Target Loading... with Loading... 's second effect and bring back Loading... to hand with Loading... 's on summon effect making it level 4.
  9. Normal summon Loading... and search Loading...
  10. Activate Loading... to ritual summon Loading... using Loading... , searching Loading...
  11. Activate the Loading... on board to summon the one you just searched using itself as tribute
  12. Search Loading... from Loading... 's effect and return Loading... to hand using Loading...
  13. Link summong Loading... using Loading... and Loading... as material
  14. Use Loading... 's effect to ritual summon Loading... from deck using the Loading... in hand as tribute to a zone Loading... points to.
  15. Activate Loading... 's on summon effect, and Loading... 's effect drawing and discarding whatever we drew and our Loading... in hand targeting whatever for his second effect.
  16. Acitvate Loading... to ritual summon the Loading... in or hand using both itself and the Loading... on field.
  17. Set Loading... and pass.

This ends with a board of Loading... , level 4 Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and a set Loading... to setup for the following.

  1. Activate Loading... and return Loading... to the field, activating Loading... to return Loading... to hand
  2. During our opponents main phase activate Loading... 's effect to ritual summon Loading... and pop a face up monster. This activates either of Loading... 's effects that we can optionally use.
  3. Also during our opponents main at any point after, activate Loading... 's effect to ritual summon Loading... from deck using itself and Loading... as tribute and activate Loading... 's effect to pop any 4 cards. This also triggers Loading... 's effects again to optionally use.

After a potential 7 pops we end with a board of Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... . We have 4 unique names in grave, several Loading... targets, and the ability to just OTK as usual.

"Pebble" Ruling

Taken from this reddit thread.

There are currently level 4s and level 8s in the archetype, and the level 4's ritual summon effect requires to tribute monsters including itself. If you want to ritual summon a level 8 monster with the level 4's effect, you have to use itself and another level 7 or lower monster in hand or on the field because the level 8 monster will fullfill the required levels so you cannot use the level 4 on the field as a tribute.

For example, if you had a Megalith Ophiel(level4) on field, Megalith Bethor(level8) and Aratron(level8) and no other monsters in your hand, you can activate NONE of the ritual summon effects because you don't have the required tributes for the level8s in hand, and Ophiel cannot activate its effect because Ophiel cannot be one of the tributes. This ruling is so crucial to the archetype as you can easily run into this situation.


Example Decklists

R/N Event

40 cards
3 copies
Impcantation Penciplume
3 copies
Senju of the Thousand Hands
3 copies
Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
Impcantation Candoll
3 copies
Impcantation Talismandra
Megalith Phul
Demise, Agent of Armageddon
3 copies
Megalith Ophiel
3 copies
Megalith Hagith
Megalith Och
Lord of the Red
3 copies
Megalith Phaleg
2 copies
Megalith Bethor
2 copies
Megalith Portal
Impcantation Inception
3 copies
Mystical Space Typhoon
2 copies
Book of Moon
3 copies
Megalith Unformed
Megalith Emergence
Number 50: Blackship of Corn
Number 82: Heartlandraco
Number 80: Rhapsody in Berserk
Number 70: Malevolent Sin
2 copies
Number 97: Draglubion
2 copies
Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon
2 copies
Number C92: Heart-eartH Chaos Dragon
Number 77: The Seven Sins
Pentestag
Cross-Sheep
Herald of Mirage Lights
Geonator Transverser

No ban list

40 cards
3 copies
Impcantation Penciplume
2 copies
Senju of the Thousand Hands
3 copies
Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
Impcantation Candoll
3 copies
Impcantation Talismandra
3 copies
Megalith Phul
Demise, Agent of Armageddon
3 copies
Megalith Ophiel
3 copies
Megalith Hagith
Megalith Och
Lord of the Red
3 copies
Megalith Phaleg
3 copies
Megalith Bethor
Megalith Portal
Impcantation Inception
2 copies
Mystical Space Typhoon
2 copies
Book of Moon
3 copies
Megalith Unformed
Megalith Emergence
Number 50: Blackship of Corn
Number 82: Heartlandraco
Number 80: Rhapsody in Berserk
Number 70: Malevolent Sin
2 copies
Number 97: Draglubion
2 copies
Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon
2 copies
Number C92: Heart-eartH Chaos Dragon
Number 77: The Seven Sins
Pentestag
Cross-Sheep
Herald of Mirage Lights
Geonator Transverser

Closing statements

So first off i'd like to thank all of the TOs and their communities for providing a place to play and help this format thrive. Its imo extremely fun and diverse and we still have a while to go before the format itself gets close to being "solved". This has been a lot of fun as a newer player, and i hope the community continues to grow even after the in game event.

For the deck itself, it is extremely strong, and while it might not be top 2 with the N/R event ban list it is still a very good contender and top tier strategy.

I'd also like to specifically thank

for being the homie and showing me a lot of what this format has to offer while helping me out with decks, and Domnostein for helping me out with the combos and other card choices/ratios for Megaliths specifically.