Deep Sea Denizens of the Darkest Depths
A Guide to Shark Xyz by
On the surface, the Xyz archetype Shark may seem like a tricky Deck to master with its multiple combo lines (which are quite often fragile) and varying end boards. However, by the time you're done with this comprehensive tutorial, there will no longer be any need to fish for answers because you'll be a true Shark Xyz Master Duellist. Let's dive in!
Duel Disk, Go! Duel Gazer, let's roll!
Reginald "Shark" Kastle
What Pack(s) to Open
Wether you're a Shark enthusiast like myself, a fan of the Zexal anime, or you're looking to try out a new Deck, the first thing that every player (rookie or professional) must know is:
What pack should I open to get most of the cards I need to build this Deck?
At the time of writing, Konami had just released the Onslaught of Emperors Selection Pack and also an update to the Overlay of Obsidian Armor Secret Pack. I have done the maths: you should open ONLY Overlay of Obsidian Armor. Here's why:
- The Selection Pack randomly pulls from its own array of cards, 85 to be precise, of which only 17 are Shark cards that are actually useful/relevant, and most of that 17 are R and N rarity cards that can be easily crafted. So overall, with every card you pack, there is a 20% chance that it will be relevant to this Deck.
- The Secret Pack randomly pulls the first four cards of the pack from the general Master Pack pool - that's 8,623 cards! Since every card in Master Duel is in the Master Pack, that means you have approximately a 40/8,623 (0.46%) chance of one of the first four cards being relevant ... yeah that's HORRIBLE. There is a huge BUT though, the underrated feature of Secret Packs that not many people may know, is that the last 4 cards in a pack are 100% guaranteed to be a Featured Card. Of said Featured Cards (there being 41 of them), ALL of them are Shark related, with most being expensive-to-craft URs and SRs which are core for the Deck.
I'm not bothered to go too in-depth on the maths, this is a guide to Sharks not a lecture on percentages and probabilities; just trust me when I advise to invest your hard-earned gems on only Overlay of Obsidian Armor.
Now that's out the way, let's get into the good stuff.
General Deck Notes and Gameplay Tips
So which is better, going first or second?
On the coin flip, you wanna put your hands together and muster every bit of faith that you get to decide the Going First player: Sharks are best played going first. This doesn't mean you should immediately surrender if you have to go Second - I have come up against multiple opponents who don't know where to interrupt the Shark combo line, which results in you wiping their entire field and winning on Turn 2.
- If the opponent has no hand-traps, you'll have a smooth swim to an insanely strong end board, which will almost always include Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... .
- The only times you'll struggle going first is when you brick or you don't have an extender, like Loading... or Loading... , in addition to your Normal Summon.
- If the opponent bricked or has little disruption to your combos, congratulations you won!
- Just because your opponent ends with a strong board, doesn't mean you're out of the fight - Sharks have an innate ability to take multiple disruptions/bait out your opponents' interruptions and still thrive. An example is with Loading... , which is frequently a target for negations but it means nothing if you have an extender on hand.
Hand-traps like Loading... and Loading... can often mean nothing to Shark Decks as long as you play your cards right (or your opponent doesn't), with even a certain combo line, which I'll explain later, allowing for an Loading... evasion.