by Lunalight is a deck which first featured in ARC-V played by Celina (or Serena in the Japanese version), that would later come to the OCG and TCG in the set, “Shining Victories”. It would then get support in a few other sets, the most recent of which being “Duelist’s Advance” (DUAD). This new support would then propel the deck to being rogue, which is where the deck is at now.
Overview
Lunalight is a fusion deck, focused on flooding the board with bodies, and using them as material for XYZ, link, or fusion summons. With the newest wave of support the deck has been focused on summoning Lunalight Liger Dancer which is the boss monster of the deck. Liger is also the card that the deck has been defined by in the past few months. However, Lunalight wasn’t always like this, when it was released, it was a fusion climbing OTK strategy. This was enabled by cards such as Lunalight Tiger and Lunalight Kaleido Chick. Kaleido Chick would allow you to bypass certain steps of the fusion ladder needed to summon Lunalight Leo Dancer, who was the boss monster at the time, and Tiger would allow you to have plenty of bodies to facilitate your fusion summons.
The deck didn’t go in this direction. People realized that Lunalight was a potent combo deck. What did this combo deck aim to do? It aimed to lock the opponent out of the game with D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kali Yuga and similar cards.
IMportant Cards
Lunalight Liger Dancer
Lunalight Liger Dancer is one of the four cards which Lunalight received in DUAD. This card redefined the deck, changing it from a go second otk deck when played pure, or a Rank 4 engine when played in other decks, to a go first combo deck. Why did this happen? It happened because Liger is unaffected by card affects except other “Lunalight” cards, and it is a Raigeki on the opponent’s turn. This means that if the Lunalight player manages to summon Liger, they most likely win the game. This card is also able to attack twice meaning that it can clear boards multiple times and make it really hard to block.
Lunalight Kaleido Chick
Lunalight Kaleido Chick is a card that is crucial to Lunalight’s gameplan because it allows you to skip parts of the fusion climb, which allows you to cheat out your big fusions. Kaleido Chick is able to send a “Lunalight” monster from your deck or extra deck to the graveyard and then change its name to that monster, but only for a fusion summon. There are two very important things to note about this effect: it’s a soft once per turn, and it sends the monster for cost. This means that you are able to activate this effect multiple times per turn, letting you send multiple Lunalight cards to the graveyard to use as fuel for your combo.
Kaleido Chick has two other effects which are less relevant than this, but they both still come up. The second effect is that it can recycle a “Polymerization” card if it was sent to the graveyard by card effect. This can help you fusion summon multiple times, as well as add back discard fodder for your effects. The third effect is that when it gets banished, you can make it so that the opponent can’t activate cards during the battle phase. This effect doesn’t come up often, but when it does come up, it doesn’t matter too much.
Luna Light Perfume
Luna Light Perfume is the deck’s Monster Reborn, making it a very good extender. Tragically, it is called “Luna Light Perfume” and not “Lunalight Perfume” which made this card unsearchable for a long time. The space in “Luna Light” made it so Lunalight Yellow Marten, who is the deck’s spell searchers, couldn’t search the card. However, with the new support in DUAD, the card became searchable
Perfume has 2 effects, both of which are very good and are important to the deck. The first effect is just Monster Reborn. This lets the card function as a very good extender because it lets you push through hand traps. The second effect lets you banish itself and discard a card, to add a Lunalight monster to your hand. This allows you to search out other extenders in your deck. This allows the card to function as an extender twice. Furthermore, neither effect is once per turn. This makes the card very good and important to the deck.
Lunalight Tiger
Lunalight Tiger is another extender for the deck. However, it is a pendulum monster. This means that unlike Perfume, it doesn’t go to the graveyard after using its effect. Tiger has two effects, one monster effect, and one pendulum effect. The monster effect lets it revive a “Lunalight” monster when it’s destroyed. This is the less relevant effect of the two. The more relevant effect is the pendulum effect. This effect is just a monster reborn, that is a soft once per turn. Tiger looks like an underwhelming card on the surface; however, it is very good.
Tiger’s pendulum effect is very good because it is a soft once per turn. This allows the card to be activated multiple times by bouncing it using Lunalight Yellow Marten. By doing this you can help put bodies on the board, which can be used for extra deck summons. This lack of a hard once per turn actually got the card banned at point. This card would remain on the ban list until 2024.
Gold Leo
Lunalight Gold Leo is the deck’s main combo starter. Most of the combos in the deck figure out a way to get to this card. After the combos find a way to get to Gold Leo, they perform the same thing. Gold Leo has two effects, both of which are really good. The first effect lets you add a “Lunalight” monster and then discard a card. This will usually add Lunalight Silver Hound or Lunalight Yellow Marten, before discarding it. Adding Hound is the better option as it lets you play around Droll & Lock Bird. This effect to add and then discard lets you effectively send a card from the deck to the graveyard.
The second effect of this card lets you add back a “Lunalight” monster if the monster is sent to the graveyard. This effect comes up during most combos. This is because it lets you make Kaleido Chick’s effect into a search. It can also provide recursion for the deck, which is something the deck can struggle with.
Pros
- Once the deck gets going, it can be really hard to stop
- One of the best endboards in the meta
- Very good plan going second
- You can ignore the Mulcharmy cards
- A lot of extenders
- A lot of soft once per turn effects
Cons
- Can lose to an early handtrap
- Low non-engine count
- Pretty linear
- Droll & Lock Bird can hurt a lot when paired with another handtrap
- Artifact Lancea hurts a lot unless you draw the out
- Hard to play without access to liger
How to Play
Lunalight is very linear when you go first, but requires a lot of skill when it comes to play through non-engine and end boards.
Sample Combo
- Normal Summon Gold Leo
- Use Gold Leo’s effect to add and discard Lunalight Silver Hound
- Use Hound’s GY effect to special summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick from the deck
- Use Kaleido Chick’s effect to send Lunalight Black Sheep from the deck to the GY
- Use Gold Leo’s effect to add back Black Sheep because you just sent it to the GY
- Use Black Sheep’s effect to add Polymerization
- Use Polymerization to fuse Kaleido Chick and Gold Leo into Lunalight Perfume Dancer
- Chain Link 1, Perfume Dancer to add Luna Light Perfume, Chain Link 2, Kaleido Chick add back Polymerization
- Use Perfume’s effect to bring back Kaleido Chick
- Use Kaleido Chick’s effect to send Lunalight Yellow Marten from the deck to the GY
- Use Perfume’s GY effect to banish itself and discard Polymerization to add Lunalight Tiger
- Use Perfume Dancer’s effect targeting Kaleido Chick to return it to the hand, and then special summon Kaleido Chick again.
- Use Kaleido Chick’s effect to send Lunalight Wolf from the deck to the GY
- Place Tiger in the Pendulum Zone
- Use Tiger’s effect to revive Yellow Marten
- Use Yellow Marten and Kaleido Chick as material to XYZ summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King
- Use Tiger King’s effect to set Fire Formation – Tenki from the deck
- Make sure to NOT set Tenki in a Pendulum Zone
- Activate Tenki and add Black Sheep from your deck to your hand
- Use Black Sheep’s other effect to add Wolf from the GY to your hand
- Use Tiger King and Perfume Dancer as material to link summon Cross-Sheep
- Use Yellow Marten’s GY effect to bounce Tiger and summon itself
- Place Tiger in the Pendulum Zone
- Activate Tiger to revive Perfume Dancer to a zone Cross-Sheep points to
- Activate Cross-Sheep to summon Kaleido Chick from your GY
- Activate Kaleido Chick to send Lunalight Leo Dancer from your extra deck to the GY
- Use Perfume Dancer and Cross-Sheep as link material to summon S:P Little Knight
- Use Yellow Marten and Kaleido Chick to summon Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir in defense position
- Place Wolf in the other Pendulum Zone
- Use Wolf’s effect to summon Liger by banishing 4 cards from your GY
- Make sure to leave Perfume Dancer and Hound in the GY when doing this
The endboard.
So, what did this endboard actually accomplish? This endboard has Liger, S:P, Bagooska, and Hound in the GY. This leaves you with a Raigeki, a banish, a weaker version of Skill Drain, and a Spell/Trap negate in your GY. This is a very formidable board that is very hard to out for most decks. Normally, this endboard would be too weak to stop most decks. However, Liger is a tower, which makes the board extremely difficult to out for most decks. Even if a deck can play through the end board, it will lose to the Liger you still have.
Sample List
Main [41]
[1]
[23]
[17]
Extra [15]
[3]
[4]
[8]
Side [15]
[6]
[9]
Alternate Options
Lunalight Serenade Dance isn’t mandatory to play and could be removed from the deck list entirely to play exactly 40 cards. This would increase your of seeing a 1 card starter from 89.2% to 90% which a 0.8% increase which can come up over the course of thousands of games. I’m playing Serenade Dance because it is a much better card to send of Foolish Burial Goods than Luna Light Perfume.
Dominus Impulse is arguably the best hand trap in the game right now, as it is able to stop special summons, which is extremely powerful, especially in the current format of Dracotail and Yummy. I’m not playing impulse is this deck list because I feel like the deck doesn’t have enough non-engine room to justify playing hand traps over board breakers.
Exchange is a very cool side deck option for going first. The idea behind this card is to look at your opponent’s hand to get full hand knowledge and then get rid of a card that could be detrimental to your combo. However, I’m not playing this tech because it is really only good for going first which is something this deck already exceeds at.
The coolest option, however, is to play Branded Lunalight. Branded Lunalight is a very cool combination of the two decks which has been popping up a lot more recently, and it has seen success. The idea behind it is that Branded gives Lunalight more starters, that help force hand traps. The starters also all beat Droll, which a card that the deck can struggle with sometimes. Furthermore, it can increase the amount of engine you open, letting you push through established endboards better.
How to beat
Lunalight is really only scary once it can get going. So, to beat the deck you’re going to want to stop the Lunalight player early. This means using Infinite Impermanence on Gold Leo and using Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring on Silver Hound. Another card that is good against the deck is Droll & Lock Bird, but by itself, it won’t stop a good Lunalight player, so you’re going to want to pair it with another hand trap. You can also use Lava Golem or The Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode to get rid of Lunalight’s endboard.
Even though Lunalight is a combo deck, that doesn’t mean it will always lose going second. Matter of fact, it is pretty good at going second having access to Heavy Polymerization and Triple Tactics Thrust, as well as a plethora of extenders. So, you can’t think you’re going to win just because you won the die roll. So, if you go first against Lunalight, try not to interact with them outside of negating anything that can get them to Liger, because once Liger hits the board, the game is most likely lost.
Feb 2nd Ban list
The ban list got announced on January 21st hitting many decks and floodgates. This ban list also placed Droll & Lock Bird on the semi-limited list. It also now gives no good reason to play Artifact Lancea in the side deck anymore. So, in the sample list, you will have to change some things around yourself when the ban list goes into effect. However, Lunalight only gets better from this ban list because the two best hand traps against the deck will be opened less. This may lead to Lunalight being a Tier 2 deck in the Burst Protocol format.
This is still only speculation as the format won’t be happening for a week or so (as of writing this), so be sure to take this with a grain salt. The format could be unpredictable, with random rogue decks taking wins, and we wouldn’t know about them until they top an event.