General Strategy:

Swordsoul are a Wyrm theme that rely on main deck monsters summoning tuner tokens. Since the tokens are non-effect monsters, they do not count toward Trinity's summon limit and provide you with wiggle room to do your plays. The deck takes full advantage of the powerful high-level Synchro toolbox currently present in the format, with cards such as Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing and Draco Berserker of the Tenyi. To help with their grind game and to play through disruption, this list plays Tenyi monsters, which also fill out the deck with Wyrms for the cost of your Swordsouls.

Opening Plays:

This deck is a variant of Swordsoul built around a 2-card combo which generates absurd advantage going first. With cards such as Souleating Oviraptor and Draconnet, you can summon Guardragon Justiciar to make Crystron Halqifibrax on your second summon, which summons Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing from the deck. On the opponent’s turn, you can use Swordsoul Blackout to destroy your Chiwen and 2 of your opponent’s cards, and on a new chain, summon a Bi’an, Earth of the Yang Zing from the deck with Chiwen’s effect. Halqifibrax will summon Denglong, First of the Yang Zing, which will search Yang Zing Path on summon. With the Bi’an and Denglong on the field, you can use the effect of Bi’an to Synchro summon Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing and get rid of 2 more of your opponent’s cards. Then, on your turn, you can activate Yang Zing Path, shuffling back all 3 Yang Zing monsters in your GY to draw 2. With 2 cards, you got rid of 4 of your opponent’s cards, drew 2 cards, and have a boss monster on the field!

If you don’t open this powerful combo, you will want to make use of the Swordsouls. Going first, you often want to make Draco Berserker of the Tenyi for disruption. Other players might use Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon, but this deck is not playing it because the chances of milling a Tenyi or hitting a Light/Dark monster are slim. Going second, you might want to consider Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing or Geomathmech Magma for cleaning up the opponent's board.

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The Win Condition:

You usually aim to win off the sheer advantage generated by the opening line, but if that fails, your Swordsouls and Tenyis can pick up the slack. Swordsoul can have insane starts by opening with a powerful level-8 Synchro monster, and you can constantly wear down your opponent with the advantage from Mo Ye draws and Tenyis. Be sure to capitalize on your opening plays to crush your opponent, as the deck's grind game is weaker than many other snowball strategies in the format. You might start to struggle if you run out of Synchro or Tenyi monsters, but by then your opponent should already be dead.

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Closing Thoughts:

Swordsoul is about coming out of the gates and making your opponent sweat, but things get interesting the longer the game goes. The best part about Swordsoul is that it can give you a ton of options, some of which admittedly aren't possible with this list. With the ability to make level 8 synchro monsters at the drop of a dime, maybe you want to play PSY-Framelord Omega and have a resistant monster that recurs your banished Tenyi monsters. If you want a Trinity deck that kicks butt and rewards skill and experimentation, Swordsoul is a fine place to start.

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Written by Wuh Train and Stephen Harper

Edited by WideWalrus

Decklist by Stephen Harper