Link: Ancient Gear Deck 2023
Main Strategy
This is a casual Ancient Gear deck focused on OTK, designed for going second in matches usually so it can immediately get out a big monster and take out the opponent on the spot.
To start, you always want to open with Infinitrack Anchor Drill or Ancient Gear Wyvern. The former can summon another machine monster so you have two monsters to link summon Ancient Gear Ballista with. The latter is to use it’s summon ability for drawing out Ancient Gear Box, chaining that ability into drawing out Ancient Gear Frame. If you can’t do either, then surely you have a Super Express Bullet Train or Heavy Freight Train Derricrane in your hand, right? Both can be summoned on the spot if you summon another monster, use them as link summon fodder.
Your goal is to get at least two or three machine monsters on the field ASAP so you can get Ancient Gear Ballista up. As soon as it’s up you can use Ballista’s ability. Here’s where you give your hand a good scan, does it have at least four Ancient Gear monsters in it? If so, draw out Geartown and activate it immediately. Use Ballista’s activation effect to set the attack and defense of one of your opponent’s strongest monsters to 0/0, and then use Geartown’s graveyard effect as a way to bring out something else powerful onto the field like Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon. From here you can use a fusion card (or Ancient Gear Hunting Hound) to fuse into Chaos Ancient Gear Giant and strike your opponent for victory if they also happen to have that 0/0 monster in defense position.
In desperate situations of needing drawpower, Innfinitrack Trencher can yank cards outta your grave, and Infinitrack Harvester can help you search for Infinitrack Anchor Drill again to start a combo. Use Anchor Drill to call out anything else you might have onto the field and get going!
Spells + Traps
In this Ancient Gear deck, Ancient Gear Fusion should be your go-to, either that or Hunting Hound in case of bad draw luck. Geartown is meant to be used as a Ballista activation ability sacrifice for drawing out more monsters for fusion material, as well as Clockwork Night when possible, with Clockwork Night also making for a decent counter to anything that changes your monster types (ie: zombie decks). You have ways to set off Clockwork Night’s ability in the form of Foolish Burial Goods as well. Called By the Grave, Forbidden Droplet, and Solemn Judgment to stop handtraps, monster effects, or spell/trap effects from screwing up your combos. Heavy Forward and Urgent Schedule for draw power when your monster’s drawpower isn’t cutting it. Overload for when your opponent is dumping everything into your grave or you keep getting monsters killed, and Power Bond is your go to trump card at ALL times. If you have it, use it to call out Chaos Ancient Gear Giant and that is GG under most circumstances. Just make sure you kill that turn or else you’re in trouble.
Extra Deck
The xyz summons are for very niche situations where drawing out your Ancient Gear big boys just won’t cut it, or you have excess cards to throw out. Ancient Gear Ballista is your go-to combo starter, but if you somehow have extra cards on the field then call out Black Luster Soldier just for the extra power. AA-ZEUS is a free board wipe, Infinitrack Earth Slicer can kill cards in situations of being flooded with low tier annoyances, Jormungandr can boost up it’s power when you need to kill a monster quick, and Dingirsu is a card destruction barrier. All of these xyz monsters can be drawn out via using Infinitrack Anchor Drill’s activation effect to adjust the levels of monsters. You typically shouldn’t need Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem or Ancient Gear megaton Golem, they’re there to be extra insurance if you don’t think Chaos Ancient Gear Giant can kill in that one turn, or if you have extra golem cards sitting around. Almost NEVER summon Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem on it’s own. Summon Ancient Gear Megaton Golem by default, but if you need the extra 1100 attack power then go for it. Infinitrack Goliath is for when you have a dedicated xyz monster on the field you need to get more use out of. The card will hardly see play but it’s useful when the situation comes.