Penguin Deck 2024

Welcome to SeaWorld (Noot Noot)

Today we're talking about a deck you may not even believe in the existence of. They live within the southernmost parts of the planet, they feed on whitefish and squid, and more importantly, they feed on your opponent's board. That's right, I'm talking about KaibaCorp's Chief Financial Officer's favourite cards, from the littlest soldier with his sword, to the greatest emperor in the deck. Penguins! *creepy Hannibal Lecter sipping noise* Now, so few people are talking about these bouncy little flippers, so we're going to take a deep dive into each integral card in the deck and showcase everything this deck is capable of. I won't waste your time explaining each of these cards' effects in detail, I'll leave that reading to you. Instead I'll merely be delving into the various card interactions that make this deck what I think to be(humbly) the best rogue deck of the coming season.

I'd like to start off by talking about the deck's search capability, card advantage maintenance, and general utility to access just about any card the deck needs to perform its combos. In my build, I incorporate a couple different engines that keep hand clog and brick hands mitigated to the lowest possible level. The new in Japan and soon to be released whitefish engine gives the deck access to not only a serious amount of synchro plays, but it opens the deck up even further for the plays which it is capable of.

White Reincarnation is the first of the deck's continuous searching spells. Even without opening up your hand with any other whitefish, searching out White Sardine with this card can assist your Great Emperor Penguin with getting on the board to start your penguin combos, otherwise if you open your hand up with it and either White Sardine or White Sunfish, you'll end up searching the other. Secondarily and offensively, it gives your White Aura Synchros another attack in the battle phase. Also, tertiarily and defensively, if you summon White Aura Whale, You can demolish your opponent's board AGAIN. Easily a 2-3 card commitment.

Next up, the second continuous spell is Royal Penguins Garden which searches out any penguin. More often than not, you'll be using this to search out Great Emperor Penguin To start your summoning combos, using it's secondary level modification effect to bring it onto the field on your first turn. Or if you already have your Emperor in hand, you can search for a Penguin Squire to access its effect later on in the combos, or Nopenguin if you need something to discard for Garden's secondary effect. Being entirely vital to the deck's success, it's a mandatory playset in main deck

The third card I wanted to talk to is my favourite absentee draw card, Moray of Greed always there in multiples without any targets, or completely missing from hands that need a serious retooling. All the monsters in the deck are WATER, and there's a decent handful of cards I'd prefer to keep in the deck until their proper opportunity. I wish I could play 6 Moray for how much it can fix dead hands.

The fourth and final search card I'd like to talk about is the most integral card in the deck, and that is The Great Emperor Penguin this card allows you to cycle through your whole deck by summoning TWO Penguins at a time straight from the deck, perform synchro combos, and make the deck what it's meant to be. It's only drawback is getting its effect off in the first place by getting it face-up on the field during your turn. Being level 5 means you have to either level mod with Garden, summon it with Brave, then flip it with Squire, or special summon something for tribute fodder. Monarch players of yore know this trouble well. In the case of penguins, this option is more likely to be performed, either by way of Sardine, or via One for One with either Deep Sea Artisan or my most recent favorite, Crystal Girl, both of which can improve your card advantage, offsetting the natural minus one you incur from 1-4-1. Regardless, summoning synchro materials in one move make this a 3-of in the deck.

There are several extra engines that can help fill out the empty space in the deck, Frogs make it easier to summon Emperor, and Toadally Awesome over and over, even making it possible to utilize it's Frog-based effects. the Deep Sea engine, featuring Repetiteur, A powerful reviving effect that can be used for extra synchro plays, and to bring back huge boss monsters tat have been taken out.

Next let's talk about combos

I'll give you a hand and show you some of the best ways to get a board set up. Let's say you open up with an Emperor, a Squire, or a Garden. For penguins, that's all your opening hand needs to perform your combo. Anything else you open is just going to help facilitate that. That said, opening either one of each White fish, or one and a Reincarnation, you can execute a synchro play that can summon a Porpoise, a Brave, and whatever you need to set at the time. If you have access to a Squire, you can set Emperor this way and have Squire flip it to summon more Penguins from the deck and make your end board monsters, or if you've already played an Emperor and have a Squire, you can summon a Puny Penguin and make Kanzashi, Rikka Queen using your two synchros, and after tributing your Emperor again, you can summon one of the materials to flood the board with bigger monsters and floaters, creating quite the intimidating board for your opponent to contend against.

Now we can talk win conditions

Final boards can have any combination of level 8(Whale or Dragite) and/or 10(Chengying or Icejade Gymir) synchros for excellent first turn defense, along with a potential Moulinglacia drop or two to drastically limit your opponent's opening moves.

Weaker opening hands can usually at least result in making Bahamut Shark and Totally Awesome, which can still force your opponent into making defensive plays. In the case that you go second, especially if you brick game 1, cards to steal your opponent's monsters come very much in handy. Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, and Triple Tactics Talents all serve well to disrupt your opponent's opening board, using their monster to tribute for your Emperor, and summoning Glacial Beast Polar Penguin with Nopenguin for an instant banish, and Trishula and Trish Zero+White Aura Whale for further field and hand elimination can leave your opponent reminiscing about Mermail format and using Brio to drop your opponent's whole opening hand. Don't forget to tell your opponent "Noot Noot" when you win for added humiliation.

The most important thing to note is that in this deck, there is no overextension. You can play as hard as you can in order to make your opponent's turn more difficult. The biggest monsters you can summon have inherent negation and disruption style effects, which make this deck as much 9f a "Go hard or go home" style of play as you can make it. The overall playstyle makes the player feel like an animal handler at SeaWorld, Throwing fish for penguins to snatch up as they slide back and forth into the pool that is the GY. My only word of advice is that you not be like SeaWorld- don't abuse your monsters. If you make your biggest monsters as soon as possible, you'll be making a huge mistake as far as your potential is concerned.

Main Deck

Extra Deck