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Deck Description
Tistina, one of the weirdest TCG premieres in a long while, having pretty "out there" artwork and effects. But can it function? To an extent, my answer is yes! It just needs a little bit of support, and Gen and Ken are here to help.
If you're reading this, I'll assume you're familiar with most of the archetype, so I won't spend too much time on those cards. Instead, I'd like to draw attention to the unique tech choices of Armor and Gen/Ken. Ken and Gen may seem like an odd inclusion at first, but they slide into pure decklists exceptionally well. For those who are in the dark about these two, Gen and Ken are a duo of monsters, of which we're running 3 Gen and 1 Ken. When you can afford it, you'll be normal summoning Gen the Diamond Tiger, a Level 3 (VERY IMPORTANT LATER!) who then summons Ken the Warrior Dragon to the opponent's field. By giving our opponent a free monster, we can then fix our hands by drawing 2 cards and discarding 1. This also turns on our 3 copies of Triple Tactics Talent, an extremely strong card which can be used to rip cards that can seriously mess you up, such as Nibiru.
But why include Gen and Ken? Well, for one, this deck gets the boon of one extra normal summon thanks to Breath of the Tistina, which is already a great card. The decks main combos all go through Breath of the Tistina anyways! Second, putting a body on the opponents board might seem like a pure downside, but Tistina very much appreciates it. For instance, it can be flipped face down with Breath rather than one of your own cards for the search (so long as you control a Light Tistina), be smashed into with a Juggernaut Liebe backed up by a Pentestag massive damage and quick OTKs, and help give you that bonus effect of Baatistina to summon Crystal God for free, which this deck benefits immensely from proccing on turn 3+. Lastly, the discard isn't a huge price to pay for fixing your hand, as you can simply discard duplicates of cards you already have. In the worst case scenarios, many Tistinas don't mind being in the graveyard, such as Hound.
Remember how I said Gen and Ken being 3s would be important later? Well, this also gives them synergy with the Armor package. By making XYZ Armor Torpedo with 2 Level 3 Monsters, we can draw 1 card, before ranking up into XYZ Armor Fortress, searching for the trap card "Full-Armored XYZ" with Armor Fortress. On our opponent's turn, we'll use Full-Armored XYZ to summon Dark Knight Lancer, an exceptionally strong monster who will only get stronger once we use the GY effect of Full-Armored XYZ. Whenever we need be, we can banish Full-Armored XYZ from the GY to equip Armor Torpedo from the GY to Dark Knight Lancer, which will give him protection from targeting and a huge attack boost to over 6,000! Lastly, since a card was equipped to Dark Knight, we can now activate his effect to absorb one monster our opponent controls as XYZ material, an exceptionally strong form of removal.
While Full-Armored XYZ is bricky, this deck has no issues putting it in the GY. You can set and pop it with Sentinel for instance, or discard it after drawing with Gen. Even if you won't always be able to put up Dark Knight in addition to Demigod and Crystal God, Full-Armored XYZ is a valuable inclusion that many Tistina pilots opt into for its sheer versatility as an engine. Dark Ruler ruined your setup? No problem! Just wait to activate your set Full-Armored XYZ until after they use their board breakers, and you can still get Dark Knight's absorption effect.
Tistina may not be the strongest deck out there, but it can certainly but up a fight! From aggressive OTKs to insane grindgames, it really is a jack of all trades that will reward you immensely for learning it.