Notes & Combos

INTRO

So this time I decided to try Mitsurugi Ryzeal. I had never played the Mitsurugi cards before, and I have to say it was a surprising experience. The deck felt awesome to play. There were definitely moments where I had terrible luck, but overall the experience was really good. Even without the Cross protection, the deck still feels top tier.

If everything goes well, your ideal end board usually includes something like Masquerena or Photon Lord, one or two ritual monsters, a Detonator, and two to three set cards. The deck feels really good when you are able to start your plays because of how flexible it is depending on what you open, what gets negated, or even when you are playing under Mulcharmies. I also really liked how, when going second, I almost always felt like I still had a chance to win. That’s more than I can say for most decks.

I decided to play Node and a third Ice because Ice adds a lot of consistency. Node also feels good because it lets you search something with Ext if you already used Sword, or it lets you summon it with Ice if Sword and Ext are unavailable. Even if you draw Node, most of the time you can still use it in some way, so I don’t really mind running it. Plus, Ryzeal is the reason I wanted to try this deck in the first place :p

Advantages

Mitsurugi has several advantages compared to the Onomat package.

First of all, the deck performs very well against Fuwa and Purulia. Against Fuwa, you can often get away with ending on something like Futsu, Murakumo, Purification, and Prayers, and you can give them one draw for Detonator if it's available.

Against Purulia, the situation is very similar, you just need Ice instead of Ext or Sword to make it work.

Even against Maxx “C”, you can sometimes end on two interruptions while only giving your opponent one draw, plus whatever cards you drew during the process.

The deck is also very good at breaking boards. The Ryzeal engine gives you really strong options. Ext with Vallon or Aggregator is honestly the MVP play. there is also being able to make Exciton Knight after your opponent uses their negates can completely blow out a the game.

But it’s not just Ryzeal doing the work. The Mitsurugi engine also adds a lot:

Searching Wousu

Murakumo board wipes

Discard effects that can sometimes even act as a negate if the opponent has no cards in hand

Two Level 8 monsters can easily make Photon Lord for a negate, or even Gorgon in certain situations.

Magatama is optional, but sometimes it can be really good. It can help dodge effects, destroy something, or trigger your rituals.

Another big advantage is how Ryzeal and Mitsurugi can bridge into each other easily without losing card advantage. A single King of the Feral Imps gives you the full Mitsurugi combo while also giving you extra Ryzeal monsters for Detonator.

With Onomat, you usually have to go through Alembertian and Astraltopia, which costs a lot more resources just to bridge engines.

Disadvantages

Of course, the deck also has some disadvantages.

With the Onomat version, the consistency is so high that you can sometimes power through three or four hand traps and still have enough gas to keep playing.

With Mitsurugi, there were definitely games where I was just praying that my opponent didn’t have Ash or Imperm, especially when I only had one real play. That situation happened quite a few times.

However, when you open both engines together, the deck feels incredible. The Ryzeal engine adds a lot of the consistency that Mitsurugi needs.

One of the best parts is that you can run Impulse without fear. Even if your Ryzeal monsters cannot activate their effects after Impulse, they can still special summon themselves, which means Ext can still help break boards, and they can still function as a Rank 4 engine.

Of course, drawing Mirror and Pre-Prep together feels really bad. However, most of the time when that happened to me, I was able to use Mirror and shuffle it back into the deck, which allowed me to use Pre-Prep afterwards. And if it happens and you can’t fix it… well, that’s just how the deck is sometimes.

Just like with Onomat, Droll & Lock Bird can really hurt this deck. However, being able to activate Prayers in the Draw Phase and having Ice summon from the deck can still give you some plays if you open correctly.

Always remember to have the toggle ON setting activated at the start of the game, because your first search is the most important one if you suspect Droll, and let me tell you rank is full of that card.

Finally, Nibiru can also be a problem if your opponent is patient and waits until after you tribute your rituals. That can be really dangerous. If you think your opponent might have Nibiru, try to play around it. Maybe don’t tribute Murakumo immediately, or keep your Ryzeal plays for later.

You can also make Photon Lord, and if necessary you can use Duo Drive to remove a material from it, then revive it with Prayers on the following turn.