Notes & Combos

S56: Forbidden Guu

Forbidden Crown's release marks the re-entrance of the Darklord lore — when paired with the Solfachord engine, this shockingly affordable deck morphs from a midrange-style fusion into a more explosive combo variant capable of ending on a incredibly layered board. In comparison to other variants like Gem-Knight and Melodious, I believe Solfa has the greatest synergy with Darklord, with the smoothest bridge into your core plays.

I'm still working on the optimal balance of bricks and handtraps, but generally this build plays 16 one-card starters, hitting the threshold of low-90% consistency. We also play max copies of Kambi as it represents a slightly-weaker version of Primoa, while acting as a premium extender if we only see Darklord cards. Crown is played at 1 copy to search off Gulgolet if we hard open Dance, but you could easily bump up more copies. As for the Extra Deck, I:P and Proxy F came up the least, so feel free to experiment with tech choices.

After the initial day of testing, the deck has a number of key qualities that make it an attractive rogue pick:

• Layered Endboards: The board I usually make off a basic 1-card starter is Coolia (omni-negate OR in-scale monster negate), Eveningstar to copy usually Dance into boardwipe, Mirage Lights for a S/T negate, 1-2 Darklord traps, and drawing into non-engine.
• In-Engine Draw Power: This is an underrated trait that not many people mention, but this deck can consistently setup the ability to draw 3 if you start with the Solfachord cards. The key piece here is Electrumite, which triggers from Primoa's scale effect. Ixchel offers 2 more draws in more gas-heavy hands, while some lines even leave Rahamu on the board to allow an End Phase mulligan!
• Power Spell Accessibility: In a mixed meta with grindy decks (Striker, Branded) and pseudo-FTKs (RT Zoo, Elfnote), having the ability to search Droplet or Crown to play through boards cannot be understated.

That being said, this deck does struggle a lot vs the floodgate handtraps, especially Droll. Additionally, your ability to play into boards often lives and dies by resolving cards like Happiness and Dance, while seeing just enough non-engine to limit your opponent. Without the much-needed boost from the Power Patron cards, we have to rely on weaker substitutes. But if you're looking for a refreshing, unique playstyle, give this a shot!