Dueling Nexus Blog – Dracotail by Dracotail ArthaNoivern

Welcome Everyone, This Article is brought to you by Noivern and Dedicated to my new favorite deck in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dracotail.

Dracotail is an Astrology/Zodiac Sings/Lunar Ecliptic Themed Fusion Deck centered around Dragon and Spellcaster monsters, with a playstyle revolving around generating massive card advantage off Fusion summons.

The deck has the ability to make fusion plays turn 0 with Dracotail Faimena, which lets you gain advantage before you start your own turn.

Another amazing trait with the deck is it’s ability to continuously generate extra resources with the traps recycle and draw disruptions and Arthalion recycling hand traps for followup use.

With this article, we will cover the main Cards in the Engine, the Supporting cast, the way it pairs against handtraps, and also the strengths and weaknesses and the silver bullet counters to the deck

The Main Engine of the Deck – Dracotail cards

Dracotail Faimena

Dracotail Faimena has two extremely important effects for the deck, her first effect lets you discard her to Quick Effect fusion summon a Dragon or a Spellcaster during the Main Phase by fusing off materials in your hand or field.

this effect lets you bust out threats like Dracotail Arthalion to either mass recycle your monsters or bounce your opponent monsters, or Mysterion The Dragon Crown(Which can mass banish monsters with a single type if a monster gets special summoned by an effect of a monster with the same type or it’s own effect, a good way to use Mysterion is to chain Faimena quick fuse effect on an Opponent special summoning monster effect to make Mysterion then nuke their monsters).

there’s other good targets, such as Secreterion Dragon (even better in dragon/spellcaster matchups), Khaos Starsource Dragon(can destroy up to 2 cards), or even better, Albion the Sanctifire Dragon(which we’ll mention later) or Filia Regis(if you get Pan and Arthalion to fuse off)

Her second effect is the standard main monster effect of the Archetype, Set a Dracotail Backrow when you fuse her off, which is a great effect since it’s the deck main way of producing card advantage.

Another use of Faimena is dodging Imperms/Veilers too, since you can chain her to your effects to ensure they go through Imperms and Veilers.

Also, because she’s a Level 5, there’s some room for K9 synergy, which some people expiremented with. But ultimately K9 isn’t the optimal way to play Dracotail.

General Ratio: 3 Of

Dracotail Mululu

Dracotail Mululu is one of the Normal summons the deck has to offer, and it has two effects.

It’s first effect lets you Quick Effect Fusion Summon during the Main Phase at the cost of fusion locking you for the rest of the turn, which is a very good effect since it can start your plays especially if you have another name in hand, or even better, fuse during opponent turn since it’s another pathway to proc more fusion materials set backrow triggers or making Arthalion for his great bounce effect.

The 2nd effect though is where it really shines, it gets to set a Dracotail Backrow from the deck, but also it Negates an opponent monster permanently, the second effect in particular is non targeting negation, making it extremely powerful at neutralizing opposing threats and gives it excellent synergy with the deck’s chain-blocking plays.

It also has powerful synergy with Branded Fusion and Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres, as Branded Fusion is able to dump it to make Lubellion the Searing Dragon, which then gets access to other fusions such as Khaos or Mirrorjade, while also getting access to your primary engine and also negating a monster on opponent board all at once.

It’s synergy with Hieratic Seal is also insane since you can get a Dracotail monster Fusion Summon off (Usually Arthalion) during your opponent turn with it, while also potentially making it an extra interruption by chaining it’s effect to an effect that would summon a monster on opponent turn to instantly negate the newly summoned monster.

Being a DARK Dragon, it also Enjoys being in-engine material for Khaos Starsource Dragon.

General Ratio: 3 of

Dracotail Lukias

Another Normal Summon Within the deck, he/she(Not sure if Lukias is a boy or a girl) has two effects.

The first effect is a Stratos effect for Dracotail Monsters, with the first effect, you usually add Faimena(If you don’t already have her in hand), Or useful Fusion Materials like Pan or Urgula or Mululu(If you have Faimena in hand).

sometimes you need to add Phryxul for the Lock Lines(We’ll get to them later), but generally, getting another name in hand for extra fusion summon fuel is excellent but also getting Faimena is excellent

It’s also worth noting that being a Spellcaster makes Lukias integral to The Lock Lines that involves Spirit with Eyes of Blue + Sanctifire.

The second effect is the very standard(and good) effect of setting a Dracotail backrow from your deck when fused off.

General Ratio: 3 of

Dracotail Urgula

One of the Fusion Fodder Dragons in the deck.

Urgula has two amazing effects for the deck.

The First effect is The Dracotail Backrow set effect when fused off which is the standard Dracotail effect, but it also comes with an amazing bonus effect: Destroying a spell/trap without targeting, which lets you push through backrow or backrow decks very well.

In fact, it’s an amazing floodgate out against cards like Skill Drain or Rivalry of the Warlords or TCBOO, or even decks that set multiple backrow pre-empitively shotgun their backrow against Urgula set effect due to them fearing their best backrow card gets nuked off.

It’s second effect is also very good, since while it’s in the GY, it can target a Dracotail Spellcaster in your GY, adding the target back to your hand while putting itself on bottom of your deck.

the 2nd effect is really good since you can either add back Faimena for fusion plays on opponent turn, or Lukias/Phryxul for Follow-up normal summons.

While this card is great, it does not start any plays on it’s own.

Generally it’s ran as a preference, some people run only 1, some run 2, some even run 3, but i personally run 2

Dracotail Pan

Now that is an interesting card, it’s another Fusion fodder Dragon.

It’s first effect is the standard Dracotail backrow set effect when fused off but it comes with a non targeting monster destruction too.

The Non-Target monster destruction effect is extremely good as it can force out effects while also eliminating threats without targeting, making it very good for going 2nd

The 2nd effect is if your fusion monster gets destroyed by an opponent card effect, this card can return itself to bottom of your deck to summon back a Non-Fusion Dracotail monster from your GY, which can be a good recovery tool against nukes or extra followup with summoning Mululu or Lukias or Phryxul.

Being a Level 7 Dragon, it qualifies as material for Filia Regis, which makes it even better if you run her.

The only issue with the card is that it’s bricky standalone and easily accessible in engine with Rahu/Ketu.

Despite being bricky alone, some people run more since it makes Faimena Turn 0 plays even stronger.

General Ratio: Preference,  i like running only 1 to not brick too much on it, but some people run 2 or maybe even 3

Dracotail Phryxul

Another Spellcaster in the deck, Phryxul has two effects that play nicely with the deck strengths.

Her first effect lets you Target a Dracotail Monster in your GY on summon, to special summon it, then bounce 1 of your monsters.

The Main Targets for Her effect are either Lukias for a search, Mululu for a Fusion Summon, or Faimena.

Tje bounce 1 monster you control after Normal Summoning her is actually beneficial for the deck, because you get free fusion fodder in hand after the revive, while also being able to function as follow-up for later turns if you do not fuse her off.

Her second effect is the standard backrow setting effect when fused off.

The most important thing about this card though is the fact she’s a LIGHT Spellcaster, which DOES matter for Branded Cards and makes her an integral piece of the lock lines

General Ratio: 1 Of, does not start plays and is integral to some lines and is another name, perfect as a 1 of, some people cut her entirely but those are few and far between

Spells and Traps in the deck:

Ketu Dracotail

One of the two Fusion Spells with the deck.

Ketu Dracotail is the best one going 2nd, it’s basically a ROTA that comes with the bonus of Fusion Summoning a Dragon or Spellcaster after searching if your opponent controls a monster.

Going 1st, It’s a good card since you can ROTA For a Lukias, Faimena, or Mululu to start your plays, Pan or Urgula for useful material to fuse off, or even Phryxul for the lock lines.

Going 2nd However, this card is a much more powerful card when it resolves, since you can search any name you need, then Fusion Summon a Dragon or Spellcaster on Demand.

And since the name goes to your hand, it counts as hand Material for Arthalion, Which lets you Bounce/Recycle even more monsters while getting any Fusion Set trigger effect you want.

this card can either be set mid combo to get the correct pieces, or be a starter.

Either way, this is an excellent card, possibly the best card in the deck.

General Ratio: The single most obvious 3 of known to man.

Rahu Dracotail

Basically the Branded Fusion of the Deck, Rahu Dracotail is the better one going 1st since you get a Fusion summon(Usually Gulamel, but Sometimes Arthalion) while getting a material dumped from the deck, it’s worth noting that:

1-This card is still excellent going 2nd as well since you can dump Materials with secondary useful effects on-demand and your fusions all have removal effects.

2-This card can only dump 1 Material from deck due to the Dracotail monsters having summon conditions that demand fusioning from hand outside of the Dracotail Materials themselves.

3-This is the biggest Ash Blossom bait in the deck, if your opponent Ashes you going 1st, they will 100% Ash this as the top priority(Though Ashing the Traps also does matter a lot)

4-Unlike Ketu, which can Make any Dragon or Spellcaster Fusion, this can only make Dracotail ones.

General Ratio: Still an Excellent 3 of in the deck.

Dracotail Flame

The Spell Negate Backrow of the deck

It gives the deck a much more powerful endboard since it’s not just a spell negate but ALSO a Recycle and draw on top.

The real problem with this is that your opponent can Ash or Belle it like every other trap in the deck.

This is your top priority Trap when you set backrow for your endboard rather than extending your plays.

1 of, But the best 1 of trap

Dracotail Horn

The Compulsory Evacuation Device Trap of the deck.

The issue though is that you can only target attack position monsters, and it’s quite telegraphed since you’re setting it from deck.

Still it’s a useful Normal Summon/Link Deterrent in the deck, Also it comes with the Recycle-and-draw effect that Flame and Sting come with.

It’s a very flexible card since you can bounce back your own monsters for extra Arthalion materials in hand (Such as: Activate Mululu, chain this to your Mululu, Bounce your Mululu to hand and draw 1, while still getting a fusion summon off but 1 extra Arthalion Bounce/Recycle, or Recycle Lukias to your hand as a Followup Play/Extra material)

1 of, some people don’t main but rather side it

Dracotail Sting

The D.D. Crow Backrow of the deck, it can banish 1 Monster and/or 1 Spell or Trap from your opponent Graveyard while also having the recycle draw effect the other Cards have.

It’s a great card or potentially devastating in some matchups since you hijack your opponent Graveyard.

Since it has the recycle draw effect, you can cycle 1-2 traps every turn depending on your opponent outs and get constant insane value every turn.

The best part is that you get a powerful counter to graveyard related grind engines, which makes the deck grind game even stronger (the deck is already excellent at grind)

1 of, a great trap but not as good as Flame.

The Fusions of The Deck:

Dracotail Arthalion

Requiring 1 Dracotail monster and any amount of Monsters in your hand, Dracotail Arthalion is the boss of the deck and comes with two effects.

His first effect lets you bounce monsters on the field or recycle from graveyard to hand equal to the amount of materials used from hand for his fusion summon.

This is an amazing effect that can be used in a variety of ways, including:

1-Clearing boards

2-Recycling Handtraps like Ash Blossom or Veiler

2-Getting more material fuel or follow-up

4-Or even using him as a big Interruption on opponent turn by fusion summoning it on opponent turn, which can be done using Mululu or Faimena.

his second effect is when 2 or more monsters go to the Graveyard at the same time, he can revive himself but gets banished when he leaves the field, which grants you a free 3000 ATK Beatstick or extra material for fusions.

This card is amazing not only because it’s flexible but the insane amount of ways you can use it in makes it the best card in the deck.

Being a Fusion Dragon, it makes for Valid Material for Filia Regis if you run her.

3 of in your extra deck, you Love to spam summon him

Dracotail Gulamel

Requiring a Dracotail monster and a monster from your hand, Gulamel has 2 Effects.

It’s first effect is: when you activate a Dracotail card, you can Target and Destroy 1 opponent card, it’s good, but it has the problem of being played around by chaining to it anything.

Unironically you could chain more Dracotail effects of your own to get it to trigger if your opponent tries to chain to your own effects.

it’s 2nd effect is while 2 or more Monsters go to the graveyard it can self revive, which makes you able to summon it from graveyard whenever you need the removal or just an extra 2800 Body.

Still a good fusion and nothing to scoff at.

1-2 of in The Extra deck, some run 1 but i like 2 since the 2nd copy can come up

Supporting cast:

Shaddoll Monsters

They’re useful for two things:

1-Generate Value when Fused off(Mainly Beast since you get extra draws from fusing beast off or Dragon/Genius for neutralizing threats).

2-They also can make Winda if you like, though i’m not a fan of Winda lines.

Another cool quirk with them is that you can run Shaddoll Fusion in side deck as a going 2nd Engine Enabler/Blowout.

Dark End Evaporation Dragon

This is a fun tech, it’s a Level 8 Dragon that can be special summoned by banishing a level 8 Dragon from your Extra Deck, but Dragon locking you for the rest of the turn.

The Dragon Lock only really hurts Gulamel since you aren’t really Special Summoning Lukias turn 1.

The 2nd effect is him allowing you to either fusion Summon a monster, or Target Destroy an Attack Position monster at the cost of him reducing himself by 500 ATK/DEF.

It got some cool uses since you can either:

1-Special summon him as a Dragon for Hieratic Seal

2-Fusion summon with it monsters such as Arthalion, Secreterion Dragon, Filia Regis, or Khaos Starsource Dragon

3- Use him as spot removal.

4-Or even make some unique choices, like Borreload Furious Dragon if you have other Dark Dragons to spare.

Being a Dark Dragon and a level 8, it can make some really cool monsters such as Filia Regis, Khaos Starsource, or Borreload Furious.

Or even act as Rank 8 Material for Hope Harbinger Titanic Galaxy if you cope hard enough.

Edge Imps/King of The Swamp

Those Monsters are often not played, but they do have their uses.

Edge Imp/Patchwork Engine can generate extra fusion fodder in hand and also search Polymerization for more fusion plays.

Best of all, it gives easy Guardian Chimera Access, and Guardian Chimera is a great monster with amazing synergy in the deck since you generate ungodly amounts of advantage going 2nd off just 1 Guardian Chimera+a Few Dracotail Triggers.

King of The Swamp, while not Providing Free fusion fodder unlike Edge imps on top of searching poly, it can do cool stuff such as:

1-Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon for an Omni-Negate.

2-Blue-Eyes Tyrant Dragon for Battle Phase Board Clearing and Resetting Traps.

3-or Millennium-Eyes Restrict, or even Invoked Caliga if you feel like being evil.

Blazing Cartesia, The Virtuous

She’s another Normal summonable option within the deck, and she’s got two useful effects that play nicely into the deck.

Being a LIGHT Spellcaster, she can be used as Material For Spirit with Eyes of Blue for Lock Lines and Sanctifire Material for the line.

Her first effect lets you fusion summon a level 8 or Higher monster fusing materials from your hand or field, which is a good effect for Making Arthalion then going into Hieratic seal, being a Quick effect, it can let you dodge Imperms on Arthalion if you make Arth first, or just make Fusion plays like Mysterion on opponent turn if she sticks on board.

her second effect plays well into the deck grind, recycling herself from Graveyard to hand every end phase a fusion of your goes to the Graveyard, Also she can special summon herself if you have Albaz on field or Graveyard, which may come up seeing the deck runs Branded Fusion

Branded Cards

Branded Fusion has Amazing Synergy in the deck, it can either work as a Board breaker going 2nd with Lubellion send Mululu while enabling your engine at the same time, or Make Sanctifire for Mirrorjade Setups while also Getting your engine going, being a Starter, a Board Breaker, and an engine piece all at once is straight up insanity.

The Engine also Makes The Fallen and Virtuous a Natural fit in the deck that does not demand any extra space for it, Some Fusion monsters the Engine can make are: Sanctifire Naturally, and Filia Regis, Mirrorjade, Mysterion, Secreterion, or Khaos Starsource using The Branded Dragons fusion effects

Run 2 Branded Fusion (Semi-Limited but if it was at 3 you must run 3), Fallen and Virtuous is a good Quick play spell that has natural Branded Fusion Synergy

For Branded Fusion Pieces:

Needed: 1 Albaz in Main Deck, In extra deck: Sanctifire, Albion, Lubellion, and Mirrorjade

Optional: Rindbrumm and The Dragon that Devours the Dogma, some even Run Alba-Lenatus or Titaniklad for Dumping Pan(Though i generally think Alba-Lenatus is better because you can also Dump Urgula or Mululu for it)

Fusion Options:

Mysterion The Dragon Crown

A Fusion that needs a Dragon+Spellcaster.

Mysterion has a very powerful but matchup reliant Effect:  If a monster uses its activated effect to Special Summon itself, or a monster(s) with its same original Type (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 of those Special Summoned monsters; banish that monster, also banish all monsters from the field with its same original Type.

This effect can be Extremely powerful depending on the matchup, mainly against decks with lots of monsters with the same type, Such as Maliss or Orcust, some people do cut it but i genuinely think it’s an amazing fusion

Secreterion Dragon

Another Fusion that Needs a Dragon+Spellcaster.

Secreterion Dragon has 2 Amazing Effects besides the Self nerf effect by 100 for each of your banished cards, his first effect Locks down your opponent Special summoned Dragons and Spellcasters effects on their board, making Dragon and Spellcaster Matchups a lot more easier.

His Second effect lets you Target a Dragon and a Spellcaster in your Graveyard, Special Summoning one of them and returning the other to bottom of your deck, his second effect is amazing for extending your plays by reviving Phryxul or Mululu or Lukias, or getting extra damage on board, or even reviving powerful boss monsters such as Sanctifire or Mysterion

Easily one of the best, Possibly the best, Non-Archetypal Fusion in the deck

Khaos Starsource Dragon

A Dragon Fusion that needs LIGHT/DARK Dragon+A 2nd Dragon.

Khaos Starsource has an On-Fusion Summon effect that lets you pop a number of cards on opponent board up to the number of your own LIGHT and DARK Monsters you fused off for it’s summon.

This Monster is easily accessible with the Branded Cards , and being able to Destroy 2 cards on summon makes it a powerful removal tool with Branded Cards and a great Floodgate out to cards like Dimensional Fissure.

It’s second effect (The Level Modulation effect that makes a Level 4 LIGHT/DARK Dragon you control a level 8) is completely irrelevant and not worth mentioning, but still, a great removal tool accessible with Branded Fusion, especially good against Backrow Heavy decks

Filia Regis

A Dragon Fusion that needs a Dragon fusion and a Level 7 or Higher Dragon.

she has 2 effects, her first effect lets you Quick effect Banish a card from your opponent Field or GY, but banishing from Field forces you to Bounce a Dragon you control, Her Ability to banish from Graveyard is a valuable tool against decks that rely on Graveyard.

Her 2nd effect lets you revive her from Graveyard on the start of the opponent battle phase by bouncing back a Dragon on your field, which can be useful for Returning Arthalion to the Extra deck

Borreload Furious Dragon

Furious Dragon is the least Realistic Fusion to make in this deck out all of the ones we talked about since it needs 2 DARK Dragons.

The Quick effect it has of Targeting 1 Monster you control and an opponent card to destroy them is good yes, but it’s really not that realistic to summon in the deck consistently and even then, you have better options to summon.

it’s second effect of revive a DARK Link…Well, hey at least it can revive S:P Little Knight if you summon her and this guy in 1 duel, overall, while a good card, it’s not really realistic to come up often and often not played