Notes & Combos

Deck Description

I’ve played Ice Barrier for a long time, reaching Diamond III at my best, but its consistency issues made the climb to Master difficult. This season, I decided to rethink the strategy and integrate the Mermail Atlantean engine, while keeping the core Ice Barrier package: Lancea, Trishula (Level 9), Trishula (Level 11), Raiho, alongside Icejade Ran Aegirine. The combination works surprisingly well, giving the deck much more consistency, extenders, and interaction.

Small World is one of the key consistency cards, providing access to the deck’s main starters while also functioning as a bait for Ash Blossom before committing to the main combo. I also found that a single First Penguin is sufficient, paired with Graydle Dragon, to bridge into Abyssteus or Ran Aegirine. Likewise, Dominus Impulse is kept at 1 copy.

As a software developer, I also built my own deck-building and duel simulation platform to test consistency and experiment with different lines, which helped me refine this build and its strategies.

Despite having limited time to play due to my responsibilities, climbing with this version has been surprisingly easy, even with only a small number of duels. The Mermail Atlantean engine solved many of the consistency problems I experienced with pure Ice Barrier while allowing me to keep the Ice Barrier identity and boss monsters I wanted to play.