I know I promised multiple deck lists for Trickstars after the original article almost two months ago. But frankly I’ve found in my testing that other builds don’t really come close to being as consistent or powerful as Windwitch Trickstars, a hybrid I actually did not discuss in the previous article, as I was not aware of it at the time. Before I go into details about card interactions, let’s just go ahead and show the decklist, shall we?

If you’re unfamiliar with Trickstars, a quick crash course is that they revolve around dealing 200 points of effect damage to your opponent whenever your opponent takes a certain action, including blinking and breathing. Candina (the deck’s searcher) deals 200 whenever a Spell or Trap resolves. Lycoris (A sort of Genex-Ally Birdman, but better) deals 200 for each card any time your opponent adds a card to his or her Hand. Lightstage (the Field Spell) inflicts an additional 200 damage whenever a Trickstar deals damage either through battle or burn. Narkiss deals 200 damage for an effect activated in the Hand or Graveyard. Then there’s Lilybell, which can special summon herself, attack directly and recycle Trickstars in the Grave, and there’s Reincarnation, which banishes the opponent’s entire Hand and replenishes it. There’s also the Link monsters, but, while they’re decent, they aren’t really integral. Holly Angel powers up herself when burn damage is dealt and protects Trickstars, and Sweet Devil decreases the ATK of opponent’s monsters. Simple, right?

Because people don’t already ragequit from just seeing Lightstage or Candina, let’s throw in some Windwitches to add a bit of frustration for the opponent. When you control no monsters, Ice Bell can summon herself, then Special Summon another Windwitch from the deck. If you choose Glass Bell, she’ll add a Windwitch to your Hand. Choose Snow Bell, which can special summon itself when you control 2 or more Wind monsters, and you’re all set to synchro climb into Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon. Fun.

Now you might be thinking, “Wow, that’s an annoying 1-card combo! But it’s not quite annoying enough to warrant a spot in Trickstars.” Well, that’s because I haven’t talked about the Windwitch burn effects yet. Ice Bell deals 500 damage when it is summoned, and Windwitch – Winter Bell, the synchro monster you’ll most often use to climb into Crystal Wing, can deal 800 damage by targeting Glass Bell in the Graveyard (200 damage x Glass Bell’s level). Couple that with Dark Room of Nightmare, a card Trickstars already love, and you’re looking at an indestructible Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and 1900 damage off of just one card. And you haven’t even started making Trickstar plays yet.

The icing on the cake comes from a quick-play Spell known as Chain Summoning. This card, at Chain Link 3 or higher, allows you to Normal Summon up to 3 times in one turn. It might seem gimmicky at first glance, but Trickstars can create chain links surprisingly easy. Summon Candina, activate her effect, then chain Lycoris in the Hand. Boom. Chain Summoning. Lightstage helps make it easy to get to this combination of cards. In addition, if you’re going second, you can play off your opponent’s chained cards, which can be really cheeky if you bait out a Spell or Trap by targeting it with Trickstar Lightstage, which will prevent your opponent from activating that card until the End Phase if they don’t instantly react with it. Chain Summoning also works well when your opponent tries to drop a Hand Trap on Candina or Lightstage. Chain the card to an Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring that is responding to Candina (and then chain Lycoris if you’re feeling particularly sacky), and you effectively get to reset your play provided you have a monster to Normal Summon. Ice Bell and Glass Bell can create chain links as well, but since they lock you out of Special Summoning non-Wind monsters, it’s fairly rare that you’ll have a Hand that allows you to use the Windwitches and Chain Summoning effectively in the same turn.

So, why is it important that Trickstars keep their ability to Special Summon after resolving Chain Summoning? Well, as I mentioned in the last article, Candina’s search is not a once-per-turn effect. You can Normal Summon her, search a Trickstar card, then return her to the Hand with Lycoris to repeat the process. Search out enough Lycoris to grant you three Candina summons, and then search out Trickstar Reincarnation(s) to feed Lyrocis’ burn effect. If you started out with Dark Room of Nightmare as well and get this combo off, it’s practically a guaranteed OTK after taking into account the damage multiple Reincarnations fuel with multiple Lycoris, Lightstage, and Dark Room of Nightmare. Each time your opponent draws or adds a card to his or her Hand, that’s at least 1000 damage. Not too shabby.

Speaking of, let’s look at some math for the damage caused off 1 Trickstar Reincarnation, assuming it is activated in the Standy-by Phase to banish 6 cards, and also taking into account the damage from the Draw Phase draw:

Lightstage + Lycoris = 1,800 damage

Lightstage + Lycoris + Lycoris = 3,600 damage

Lightstage + Lycoris + Lycoris + Lycoris = 5,400 damage

Lightstage + Lycoris + Dark Room of Nightmare = 3,000 damage

Lightstage + Lycoris x2 + Dark Room of Nightmare = 6,000 damage

Lightstage + Lycoris x3 + Dark Room of Nightmare = 9,000 damage

And that’s only from 1 Reincarnation. If you’re able to set 2, well, you get the idea. Game over.

If you can’t OTK your opponent like that, but you have Droll & Lock Bird handy, you can chain it to a Trickstar Reincarnation to banish your opponent’s entire Hand without replenishing it as a backup plan. You either need 2 traps that force your opponent to get rid of his or her Hand or wait until your opponent searches or draws a card on his or her own. Still, it’s a potent combo if your opponent isn’t wary of it.

The Windwitches and Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon add some much needed offensive power to the deck. If the burn strategy is disrupted or you wind up with a Hand that can do no better than a single search, Trickstars can screech to a grinding and often fatal halt. Crystal Wing helps the deck overcome threats and makes it so that you’re not completely vulnerable to cards like Raigeki and Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer. Or, you know, Exciton Knight, who looks to be coming back pretty soon.

That about wraps this up. Do you have any Trickstar hybrids I haven’t touched upon in these two articles? Discuss them in the comments! I’d love to hear about them.

DaCrowz

Founder of Cards on the Table, DaCrowz continues to profess that his opinions on manga, movies, and shows are somehow in good taste despite the fact that he would likely give an "A" rating to the Prison School anime. When he is not being mistaken for Nicholas Hoult in public, he puts most of his energy into convincing the Yu-Gi-Oh! community that Volcanic Scattershot is staple for any deck.