Notes & Combos

A normal Azamina deck, with some tech cards.

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Change Log:

2026-02-26: (VSK9 meta)

• removed Z-ARC tech from the deck and moved that secion further down as it costs too much life with VS burn running around
• updated some wordings
• added a note for Subdual which can technically go into Saint with Determination/Debtors
• updated Queen as she isn't as necessary as she was before DMoD
• added section outlining how to play Azamina as a sub-engine
• added DMoD notes
• added two large sections about various tech cards (disruption, board breakers, extenders and sub-engines)
• considerations: Queen might a possible cut as she is often a bad hit with Reasoning and we have another dark lv 8 with DMoD; getting a searcher for Elzette might good, though K9 is bad for Elzette, so probably later.

2026-01-31: (Yummy meta)

• First version

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Elzette is full combo with Lava Golem or any Fiend (so searchers for Vengeance also offer access to the Azamina side of the deck) and makes Chaos Angel lines easier, but definitely not a requirement.

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Combos:

While Azamina doesn't have classic combos and a lot depends on your hand, here some common lines:

Synchro-Diabell:

• White Witch send Curse
• Curse search Filia
• Filia search Vengeance

You have a spell and trap in grave for Vengeance and you can continue into Azamina lines if you have Deception, Elzette, Debtors or Hallowed in hand. But even if not, you still end on 3 disruption (one from Vengeance, two from Dragon)

If Filia is already in hand, search for Like the Diabell.

If you started with Filia, search Vengeance if you need a Spoils, otherwise White Witch and send Curse (if you can trigger Like) or a Spoils (usually Betrayal to insulate other Spoils/Diabellstar effects or Morrian as disruption)

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Azamina:

• special Black Witch (preferably send a trap), search Deception
• activate Deception to special DMoD and search for Gaze
• if you are missing a fusion spell: Deception sac Black Witch/DMoD (or a useless monster in Hand), get Hallowed / Debtors (depending on your needs)
• Hallow into Mu (preferably using Queen or Vengeance)
• Mu search Wanted / Betrayal / Morrian (depending on your needs)
• use Mu if possible (e.g. sac to Deception and search for Hallowed / Debtors / Determination / Elzette / Queen, if you didn't need to use it until now)
• Hallowed return Mu
• Hallowed chain Wanted for Vengeance into Saint
• Saint Special Ilia
• if you got a trap somewhere during the combo, special Vengeance
• depending on your hand and board: use Wanted to draw 1 card

Base line: Opponent can't target half the board, one omni, one destruction. If Black Witch is still on the board we have also access to two additional disruption from Dragon or Punisher as a towers with about 7500 atk.

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Elzette:

• special White Witch if possible
• normal (or special) Elzette
• fuse into Moa with any Fiend
• Moa revive Elzette
• synchro into Chaos Angel
• Elzette search for Deception, Wanted or another Spoils (depending on your needs)
• continue the combo as normal

Wanted gives access to Black Witch, but we can't Wanted for Vengeance later. Deception has one less monster in rotation. As Elzette is an Azamina card we can return her with Hallow so Mu can stay on the field to lower the atk of the opponents monsters.

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vs Maxx C/Fuwa:

• start as usual
• opponent is likely to maxx C in response to Hallow into Mu
• Mu search Debtors / Determination / Wanted (depending on your needs)
• set Debtors / Determination and your spoils
• end the turn
• reset Deception

You can now continue your plays during the opponents turn. Usually you would still go into Saint and Ilia, though if you have a lot of Spoils and depending on the matchup you might want to go into Azamina instead.

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Spoils:

We can run a lot of different spoils and the exact package depends on the deck and meta, so here some notes:

S Tier

• Deception: Required for the combo, a starter, follow up and gives us some life gain. A must-have at 3.
• Wanted: Required for the combo, a starter and recycles some of our used Spoils while drawing us a card. A must-have at 3 1. (play as many as you are allowed)

A Tier

• Vengeance: Required for the combo, required to access the synchros, disruption and follow up. Unfortunately blocks reasoning and we can only summon her once per turn. 1-2 copies are enough. (If this ends up banished use Determination to recycle her.)
• Betrayal: Protects parts of the combo, can be part of the end board (though you need a Diabellstar on the field or in hand) and a good target for rollback. 3 copies would be good, but 2 are also fine as the utility turn 1 is still somewhat limited as opponent can Ash/Veiler/Imperm/Impulse Hallowed or Mu.

A.5 Tier

• Morrian: Disruption, a free discard as it resets itself. (Please note that you can't send a Morrian which had set itself for Hallowed, if you only send it, as it will be banished and Hallowed therefore didn't send anything -> no fusion.) Very good if you are running Z-ARC (probably 2-3 copies), though in other lists it depends on the meta. 1-2 copies are probably good enough.

B Tier

• Subdual: Very good in grave as it gives us access to spells TTThrust or Like the Diabell set, very mid in all other instances as we don't run any illusion which can create disruption during the opponents turn. 1-2 copies imo, but i can see arguments to run more as we have ways to discard it. If we draw it with Debtors or Determination it would give us access to Saint + Ilia during the opponents turn, but it is a very slow 2 card combo which can be hit by most handtraps. Unfortunately the list is tight and it doesn't do much of anything on its own...
• Subversion: Good board breaker which forces interaction or deletes a monster, but unfortunately only has this one effect. It is also useless turn 1 and you can't activate more than one. 1 (maybe 2) copies should be enough. We have ways to search it.
• Susurrus: Allows us to recycle banished or in grave Azamina/Diabell monsters, one of the better sends to special White Witch as it sets itself and gives us ways to dodge targeted negates on Diabell/Azamina monsters. (Note: this doesn't work with Vengeance as she is a fiend) Unfortunately often dead turn 1 and searchable, so anything more than 1 is probably too much.

B.5 Tier

• Queen: Effectively two Spoils searchable with Deception, returnable for Hallowed. This also gave us easier access to Chaos Angel though now we have another dark lv 8 with DMoD so this isn't needed quite as often. Unfortunately probably one of our worst cards to hit with reasoning, two spoils is still fine but we need to have a fusion spell in hand. (Also enables Saint during opponents turn if we draw Subdual + Debtors) I would play 0-1. Though sometimes you need a second Spoils monster so if this is cut, a second Vengeance might be needed.

C Tier

• Struggle: Very good against White Forest, Ryzeal and other decks which like to destroy random back row, otherwise at most a way to block targeted negates on Mu / trigger Mu's second search to get Wanted (or another Spoils Spell) if the first is negated. However, this is limited to Spells so we can't fetch disruption, returning 2 cards to the deck can only be triggered in very specific matchups and most decks don't care too much about losing two cards or have a negate set up by then. So 0-1 copies at most.
• Awakening: If we were in a meta were decks set up large monster focused boards this card could be good, especially as it is another free discard. Unfortunately we need a high level illusion on the field or this can't be activated. Also this targets, so it isn't even good vs Yummy. 0-1 copies.

D Tier

• Doom: The effect is good, but we end very rarely with Black Witch still on board and this does nothing in grave so dead most of the time. 0-1 copies, maybe one day with the right support and in the right meta...
• OSS: Fun tech card if you are running Kurikara, useless in all other instances. 0-1 copies.

E Tier

• White Forest: Technically resets itself (but so do other more useful cards) and we could use it to fusion during the opponents turn... If we didn't end on all the fusion we want anyway and we would need Queen on the field to summon Azamina. 0 copies.
• Guilt: If the effect were switched this might be useful. But as it is, if we draw it, it would be material for Hallowed and then be dead in the grave. And we have much better search targets.

F Tier

• Sanctification: Literally useless. Just run Susurrus if you want this effect.

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Tech Cards (Disruption / Board Breaker):

Must includes in my opinion:

• Transaction Rollback: While it is probably the least impactful card in non-Reasoning builds, in Reasoning lists this is one of two cards (the other being Determination (with Subdual)) which allows us to win purely with cards in the grave.
• Evenly Matched: Most decks end on 0-1 spell/trap negates. Once those have been baited this can clean up the board before we proceed to combo as usually. Also very good with Rollback as we can get a complete field wipe.
• Lava Golem: Good at softening up the opponents board and getting rid of problematic negates, something to sac to Deception, full combo with Elzette.
• Dominus Impulse: Ash at home. I don't think i need to give explanations for this, but it can often win games on its own, when opponent doesn't have extenders. Also good going first
• Infinite Impermanence: Again, i don't think explanations are needed. We want some disruption when going second and this does provide it. Also gets a trap in grave for Impulse. Not quite as good as Impulse, but not once per turn and doesn't block out our light monsters.
• Triple Tactics Thrust: It isn't always online, but when going second it is additional copies of Grass while going first it can set up followup (Determination), disruption (Imperm/Impulse) or Soul, depending on where we were disrupted. Unless Subdual is in grave and we can get and activate Reasoning/Grass. 2-3 copies, as it unfortunately can't do anything alone and needs something to bait interaction.
• Triple Tactics Talent: A bit hit or miss, but very versatile when we can use this and usually gives us whatever we need. More than 1 isn't worth it however.

Tech cards for the right meta:

• Red Reboot: An auto-win vs The Man, Good vs Dracotail, Maliss and annoying for Mitsu. It depends a lot on what your opponents are playing. This list is a bit tight, but i can see this being a fine inclusion.
• Black Goat: Improves the end board and good when milled/discarded for Black Witch or White Witch, but requires a lot of knowledge on decks so it can be activated at the right time and with the right name. However it alone is rarely enough to completely stop a deck and bad going second, as it is a trap and we would need Black Witch, White Witch (when drawn) or Foolish Burial Goods (when in deck) to get it into the grave. Potential one of, but mainly improves going first and mill effects, so imo not quite necessary.
• Dragon's Mind: Improves the end board and good when milled/discarded for Black Witch or White Witch. It gives us another negate and being a counter trap can be good in some matchups. However the life point cost does add up. Dragoon as well as any of the Diabells can get this online, so we should have it in most matchups. However it is still slow, non of our azamina cards (besides queen) can get it online and it is still dead if we are bricked. So imo still more of a fun tech card. Play it if you like it and/or you tend to be lucky, but be prepared to have a worse experience going second. I would say 1 is probably fine, though maybe mill heavy strategies prefer more?
• Super Polymerization: Might work in the right meta, but most of the current decks ignore it and the cost of a card in hand is often too much. (Good vs pure Maliss and Yummy, but Mitsu Yummy is more common; Mildly annoying for Mitsu and Dracotail, but both archetypes don't care too much; dead vs Ryzeal and XYZ-Pile has too many pieces) Also often dead/discard fodder when going first as we don't have enough cards to keep it online for the opponent turn.
• Ultimate Slayer: We are missing the extra deck space. It tends to replace itself or hit two disruption, so it is in theory fine, but running 4 targets in the extra deck to get maximum value out of this, when neither the most popular deck (Dracotail) nor the most popular engine (Mitsu) cares about slayer means it is a hard pass and otherwise i would run other forms of disruption before this.
• Kurikara: Searchable board breaker, but we can't play her from grave and she prefers a meta were only a few monsters with lots of negates are present (rip Apo).
• Eto: Could be nice in a different meta, but as it is, it offers too little value (beating over 1 monster just isn't good enough). As with Kurikara, this one wants a meta where a lot of negates are tied to a single monster.
• Ty-Phoon / S:P: Generic cards which might help in some situations. In a pure list you probably want to run a second Azamina and second Ilia over them, but one Ilia and Azamina are good enough in 99.99% of cases, so viable "budget" options.

I want to chose hard mode:

• Forbidden Droplet: As apparently some people seem to play this: We need a lot of resources for our plays so we can't really afford the cost. Yes, we can dodge targeted spell/trap negates, if we don't have to start with Deception, but those are rare (mainly used by DDD and Dracotail) while the negation effect is only a mild annoyance for Maliss, the XYZ-Pile should have enough interaction that the discard is worse for us, Dracotail doesn't really care and Yummy can negate it with Herald as we can't send monsters (though again, we would need a lot of sends to turn off the full board and we don't have the resources). Unless you run constantly into DDD, play ANYTHING else over this. (Impermanence, Reboot, Duster, Lightning Storm, Heavy Storm, Dark Ruler, Ultimate Slayer, ...)
• Tierra, Source of Destruction: Technically playable, but usually just sac fodder for Deception or a Fiend to fuse into Moa. And even if we summon Tierra (which is unlikely as we would need to basically full combo with a good draw), our full board is better than a 3400 beater for which the opponent has 3 draws to find a starter to turn the game around.
• Regenesis Overlord: Worse Kurikara/Eto as we need to get it into the grave AND make some plays to meet the summoning conditions. (And it doesn't even have the decency of being a Fiend)
• Borreload Riot Dragon: Nice when in grave (destroy Mu for an additional search), bad when drawn. If this was a spell/trap/fiend, maybe we could play it (or if you are trying to get all the card types into a deck), but as we already struggle with bricking, imo not worth it.

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Tech Cards (Extenders / Sub-Engines):

• Monster Gate: This might look like a fine backup for Reasoning, but, unless you can already play, it is dead. Mu would be a mostly free sac (it leaves us open to Bystials), but in all other instances, getting this negated will hurt a lot. I can see this being okay-ish in a high rolling list which tries to embrace the gambling with Reasoning, but you are still adding 3 more bricks which don't do anything unless you can play. Some more disruption or Spoils which do something (Morrian/Subdual) are probably better. Maybe in a more mill focused strategy which uses Sky Striker cards (gives us draws and maybe some monster negates) and/or Ready Fusion (full DMoD access via Sanwitch) it could work...
• Mound of the Bound Creator: Another layer of protection for our Synchro monsters and Saint/Aza. Unfortunately however it is unsearchable and with Dragoon we need even more cards as discard fodder. Might be good with the right support
• Play the Diabell: Technically a searcher for Black Witch. Unfortunately very hard to use as we would need to send a spell/trap for cost which in most lists only Dragoon and White Witch can manage. And we would likely use White Witch to access this card in the first place (send Curse, Curse search Play), so can't use her then. Might be a fine inclusion in a Super Poly meta (and/or if you are running Droplet for some reason).
• Pot of Desires: Another good way to get card advantage. However the banishing aspect interferes with a lot of one-ofs (the White Witch-Vengeance-synchro package, Dragoon package, Grass, a bunch of Spoils, Wanted) Likely slight better than Tune in a 40c White Witch-less list (you probably want 2 Vengeance to reduce the likelihood of banishing her). And slightly worse than Tune in 60c, as we run more one ofs and Grass. An optimized list with focus on Desires (next month once it is at 3) might be possible.

Z-ARC: In my opinion one of the better sub-engines to run. However, with Dragoon, the extra deck has become even tighter and VS can burn, so having another card taxing our life total is sub optimal in the current meta. Definitely worthy of being revisited once hopefully both FS and VS are banned.

As a quick overview of the Z-ARC package, it is an a bit more involved addition to the deck:

• Layer 1: A 4k blocker can sometimes be enough to let you see another turn.
• Layer 2: Go into the Synchro Dragon with the second effect of Soul.
• Layer 3: Use Morrian to un-negate Z-ARC.
• Layer 4: Use Moa to destroy Z-ARC to get the Fusion, Synchro, XYZ floodgate and destroy searched cards

Unfortunately, when to use what effect depends a lot on the matchup and your other interactions. Unless you have Z-ARC alone, then you best activate him during the draw phase so your opponent doesn't get a free TTT.

A few additional notes regarding the Z-ARC engine can be found in the FAQ section.

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FAQ:

Can i run this engine as a small package?

Yes. Its obviously better in decks which have lv 7 spellcaster / Spoils synergies such as White Forest / Snake Eyes, but you can easily add a small package for an omni: The core is one each of:

• Ilia (end board)
• Black Witch (best starter)
• Deception (good starter as long as you have a monster)
• Hallowed (don't play more than one, it's a brick without a Spoils)

Optionally, add:

• 1 Mu (another body for link, synchro or fusion plays)
• additional Deception (consistency)
• additional Black Witch (consistency)
• Wanted (consistency, additional starter)

Optionally, a Dragoon package can be played for an additional omni at the cost of a card from hand:

• The Gaze of Timaeus
• Dark Magician of Destruction
• Dragoon

Unnecessary, but gives more disruption with optimal hands / in the right matchups:

• Betrayal (gives you another omni if you have your best draws)
• Morrian (can book a monster)

The lines are roughly:

• Wanted for Black Witch
• Black Witch for Deception
• if you play it, get Dark Magician of Destruction out and search for Gaze (activate it whenever)
• Deception sac Black Witch / Dark Magician of Destruction (or another monster you don't need) for Hallowed
• Hallowed into Ilia and done (or Mu, if you run the larger package)
• Mu search another Spoils (Wanted, if you haven't used it so you can get a free draw; Betrayal, if you already have another spoils and kept Black Witch on board for a second omni; Morrian is a free send for Hallow as it can reset itself and is sometimes good; otherwise a second Deception is fine)
• if you want, use Mu for fusion, synchro or link plays (or get her otherwise in grave)
• return Hallowed
• Hallowed into Ilia
• reset Morrian if it is in grave

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What about the other Z-ARC Dragons?

They are unfortunately mostly useless:

• Clear Wing Synchro Dragon would be a nice addition, but conflicts with Crystal Clear Wing.
• Odd-Eyes Rebellion Xyz Dragon would be another wall with some utility during the next turn. Likely the second best Dragon after the Synchro Dragons, but offers 0 disruption
• Brave-Eyes Pendulum Dragon can be nice in some matchups, but as we are missing the on-fusion effect it would rely purely on Mu to get the attack of monsters low enough to be useful. It does stop handtraps, but opponent would have likely used them before this point anyway.
• Starving Venom Fusion Dragon offers some minor utility during the next turn while Starving Venom Predapower has a bit higher attack points but doesn't offer any activatable effect, unless Dragostapelia is somehow summoned. Both are therefore deemed the least useful.

I don't think either of those cards is good enough to be played over any of the current extra deck cards.

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What about the new Z-ARC Dragons?

• Synchro: The destruction effect can be nice, but in most instances it is still worse than Crystal Clear Wing and Clear Wing. For the synchro effect we would need a Lv 1 Wind Tuner or a properly summoned Lv 3 Synchro Tuner from the Extra Deck, which invests a lot of deck slots just to destroy 1 effect monster.
• Pendulum: A main-deck card so it conflicts with Reasoning. But even if it didn't, we want a scale of 9 or higher and effects which do something and not just random scale shenanigans. (Ok, it is two blockers as it will resummon itself once, but negating some random 0-attack card offers in my opinion more utility)
• XYZ: < Still not yet spoiled >
• Fusion: Negates a monster on summon which makes timing Soul a bit harder. Afterwards it can fuse into Saint if the opponent has a dark synchro on board or if we are running Dragostapelia / Greedy Venom into that.

The Fusion is probably worth running, but needs two slots as we should have some alternative fusion targets (besides Saint and hoping the opponent runs high level Dark Synchro monsters), maybe even three or four if we are running a XYZ/Pendulum Dragon to ensure we can fuse regardless of what the opponent is playing. Cards to remove are likely Silvera, Chaos Angel, 2nd Mu, maybe 2nd Saint or Sol.

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Don't the light monsters and the Synchro Dragon conflict with Impulse?

Z-ARC is mainly intended as an extender should the opponent manage to shut down the other plays or we are bricked while also being another angle of attack when we were uninterrupted; it improves both the floor and ceiling when going first. When going first we can avoid activating Impulse from hand and therefore don't risk losing plays.

When going second, if we had to use Impulse we can adjust our plays accordingly for the most part. Elzette is still a normal summon which can go into Chaos Angel, Diabellze can still be fodder for Deception (and we have ways to revive her for her protection effect). And while we lose out on the Synchro Dragon, Z-ARC can still be a one sided board wipe on turn 4 before Moa can destroy it to floodgate the opponent.

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Doesn't this all seem very bricky?

Yes. Unfortunately with Wanted limited and no ROTA for Spellcasters / Illusions we have to rely a lot on two card combos (Fusion spell + Spoils). Technically there are two searchers but each has major downsides:

• Piri Reis Map: searches for Elzette, but the life loss is adding up and Fiendsmith loves to burn for 1200. Also we would still need access to a fiend.
• Magical Contract Door: searches for any of the Diabellstars, but we lose a spell from hand. This already hurts as we need a lot of cards for any of our plays, but even more so as the spell goes into the opponents hand and the spells we don't mind losing going first are very good going second (TTT, Called by, Subversion).

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I've seen lists with < card >, why aren't you running it?

It was probably one of the following cards:

• Traptantalizing Tune: You need to run a lot of traps and opponents love to Ash this. But going minus 2 just for the Ash hurts a lot in this deck, as we need discard-fodder for basically everything. I can see running 1 copy if you accept the risks for higher consistency, but as it has an once per turn effect i wouldn't bother with more.
• Card Destruction: Pro: We fill our grave. Con: So does our opponent and we go minus one. It does improve consistency, but it is also likely to draw opponent into more handtraps. It is probably fine, but the 62nd card in my opinion.
• Dramatic Snake-Eye Chase: It searches Vengeance / Black Witch. But we can already search Vengeance with our combo and Black Witch is basically useless if we only summon her end phase. (One disruption with Betrayal might as well not exist with how strong decks currently are). So playing additional spoils with grave effects is more reliable.
• Lilith, Lady of Lament: A normal summon which allows us to dodge targeted negates on Black Witch/Mu and turns those cards or herself into a Spoils as additional disruption / fusion fodder. One copy might be fine in 60c Reasoning builds (instead of Elzette), but as we can't search her it is too inconsistent and she can't do anything on her own (besides set Morrian and hope we aren't facing a fusion deck). Probably ok / good in 40c handtrap builds, but that is the weakest version of the deck anyway, at the moment.

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What about adding < archetype >?

Because of Reasoning we can't play any archetype which needs more than one or two main deck monsters which we aren't already playing (excluding Elzette). However a few archetypes have been tested, usually in a handtrap version of the deck. As it deviates a lot from this list i won't go into detail, but here some archetypes which have been considered:

• White Forest: Adding some WF cards can offer us more starters and we can go into synchros is easier. Unfortunately it is much worse into handtraps. Please note that we would still play mostly Azamina cards. If WF is the focus, please look for White Forest deck lists. Some TCG lists focus on this version (as they have limited Reasoning).
• Hecahands (when released) : Some players have been experimented with this and it looks like a viable option.
• Morganite: As we only run two cards with in hand effects (Elzette, which can still be normaled, and White Witch, which can be normaled once you can tributeless summon, as Black Witch doesn't activate in hand), running Morganites is basically free in Reasoning builds. Unfortunately getting value needs a few turn, turns we don't have in the current meta. The cards can be played, especially if you want to run a list for flavor reasons, but otherwise they offer too little value during the limited turns we have. Ratios are likely 2 Time-Tearing (we want 1 in hand, so we play two to make it less likely to mill both), 2-3 Succumbing-Song (both best and worse Morganite, we want it in grave to search for Time-Tearing), 1 Guilt-Gripping (this is throughout fine, good send though the effect has its uses, even if not that strong and it prevents us from Morganite flooding, but we don't need more than one).

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I've seen lists with 40 cards, are those also options?

There are three main ways to play it, depending on your preferences.

• 40c with handtraps: More disruption, better tribute fodder for deception, unfortunately handtraps are rarely good enough to prevent an opponent from building a board and each of our plays needs a lot of resources which can be quickly depleted through opponents half-board and any other interaction, if we start with turn 2 with like 3 cards in hand.
• 40c with Reasoning: Focuses on consistency above all else. Reasoning mills are obviously worse as with 4-5 potential hits in 35 remaining cards we are likely to mill on average 6-7 cards. So the common win condition of 60c deck "I win if i get a half decent mill" isn't possible, but it is likely the most competitive viable version as this list tries to reduce the probability of bricking.
• 60c with Reasoning: Lower floor and higher ceiling than the 40c versions. We run a lot of cards which can be dead, but should we resolve Reasoning or even Grass we can quickly gain a lot of advantage. We mill on average 7 with Reasoning even with the inclusion of Elzette, and this goes up to 8 / 9 / 11 / 12 for each monster we manage to remove from the deck. Grass alone is often a win con by itself and we don't mind trading our hand for it. Unfortunately we can't run Left Arm as it prevents us from setting cards which we need for a lot of our effects.