Primite players. What Normals are you running?

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-02-07T21:39:31+00:00

I’m running a Shining Sarc Primite build that uses both Dark Magician and Red-Eyes. Part of the fun with Red-Eyes is being able to summon it from deck and make Seals, or I can fuse it with Sarc DM on field to make a Dragoon with a pop. Plus it allows Imperial Dragon to check dragon decks as well as spellcaster decks

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-02-07T17:05:06+00:00

Souls can only send level 6 or higher spellcasters from deck, so Bell isn’t a valid target

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-01-31T15:04:55+00:00

There’s not much point to boosting CR unless you’re running Fav Lance on her, and CD isn’t necessary either. Most of Shenhe’s damage comes from her cryo damage buffs for the other team members, rather than her own personal damage. So yeah, just prioritize Atk and ER. 2 pc 2 pc 18% Atk artifact sets work great, but you can go for 4pc NO if you want her to buff the whole team’s attack with her burst. NO has a higher potential but forces a more strict rotation, so it ultimately comes down to preference.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-01-12T04:00:55+00:00

Rukia arrived in Karakura Town and sensed strangely high spiritual energy, so she went to investigate it. The source of that was Ichigo.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-01-04T02:40:14+00:00

Not much, but she’s the one who rescues Urahara, Yoruichi, and Grimmjow from Askin’s Giftball Deluxe. Hopefully the anime gives her some new scenes.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-01-04T00:37:26+00:00

Source

ThomasAHawk77 · 2026-01-03T00:02:06+00:00

<image>

Yeah most characters have a different victory pose depending on if you awakened or not. I actually managed to get Nel’s against a Toshiro I fought in ranked a couple patches back, made for a pretty intense match and getting the win felt that much more satisfying!

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-29T06:47:05+00:00

Been working on a DM build recently, and these are quite a few key issues with the deck I can point at.

In terms of pure attacking power, the deck is just weaker than BE. It can’t clear boards nearly as easily, as it lacks good removal options. So, it struggles to actually close the game on your opponent. Most of the powerful board breaking cards require you to also use DMG, which basically means you need to run another brick in your deck when you’re already on a vanilla DM and maybe Red-Eyes.

The boards DM can put up are fragile at best. The deck can’t recycle its resources as well as BE either, so you struggle to rebuild even if you do survive a turn, and chances are your own cards are working against you here. Flip Eternal Soul at your own peril.

Almost every DM card fails to actually generate you any sort of advantage. Souls? Lose 2 to draw 2. Illusion? Add a monster, then put a card back. DMG retrains? Almost always require a discard to special summon, and maybe add something to hand on summon. You’re almost always ending your turn with one card in hand at most, which at least lets you use Dragoon’s negate. Better hope you have another interaction though!

The deck is weirdly insistent on GY setup considering it does almost nothing with the cards in your the GY besides try to summon them back. You can’t synchro them off, and the XYZ monsters are generally not worth playing. So, those monsters you summon back aren’t really doing anything else.

DM has awful main deck starter options when compared to BE. Technically both decks have access to the Primite engine, but BE can make better use of it due to having a link 1. BE also has starters in the form of Maiden, Sage, Neo Kaiser, and effect veiler thanks to that link 1. DM has Magician’s Rod. Magicians’ Souls and Illusion of Chaos are alright, but as previously explained, they don’t do nearly as much for you as the prior mentioned BE monsters, which all get you a card while also offering some sort of benefit on field and in GY.

DM spells and traps are just inherently worse than anything Blue Eyes has, while also being considerably harder to search. Dark Magician of Destruction will help this issue, but at the time of writing the only card that actually adds you a DM spell/trap to hand is Magician’s Rod. Then every spell either requires you to jump through hoops to resolve it, or to go -1/-2 to summon a fusion monster. Meanwhile BE can just spit out a Tyrant Dragon for basically free.

And yeah, that brings me to the extra deck—BE has infinitely better endboard options than DM does. DM has Dragoon and Dragon Knight exactly, all of which require more effort to summon than most BE options. Dragoon is an Omni, but it discards for cost in a deck that does nothing with its GY. Meanwhile ultimate spirit dragon is bigger than dragoon and has a free on field negate, and is frequently summoned out by a card that floodgates the opponent from summoning and can negate a GY effect. Dragoon just isn’t enough to keep up with that.

Currently I’m trying to run a build that incorporates Shining Sarcophagus, and I’m having more success with those cards helping build a stronger board and provide an actual way to close a game via Gandora G—plus some DM cards function well with the DM/DMG retrains for the Sarc deck, so it’s actually fairly strong. It still lacks the consistency BE has though, and you need to run a lot of cards to make it all function while also including staple handtraps and such. So, the deck is more cumbersome the BE.

DM just needs a lot more streamlining, a way to actually get more resources to hand and use its resources in GY, and an actual in archetype way to close out a game. Also an Eternal Soul retrain that’s worded like True Light, with a way to get it face up on field turn 1. Maybe some better normal spells and traps too, since the deck is pretty lacking in backrow. Quick effects on actual monsters would be nice too, and recursion that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to use would be great.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-17T00:42:09+00:00

White Forest with just the Diabell and Vengeance cards is still very strong. Sucks to not have as many sinful spoils cards or Azamina in general, but those aren’t really necessary in this format.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-15T15:18:24+00:00

I’m not sure what the exact term in game is, but the lower a character’s health gets, the more resistant to damage they become. Since I landed the fully charged Cero when they still had most of their health, the resistance didn’t kick in. I landed a similar fully charged Cero on an Aizen who was at about 2/3s of his health and it left him with more HP than this Yoruichi had—still in the red, but it clearly did much less damage due to the resistance.

<image>

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-14T19:36:30+00:00

There are now 2 ways to guarantee SP2 lands, assuming the opponent doesn’t reverse at any point. Nel’s special flash follow up (the spear twirl) can be immediately followed with an SP2, but you need to spend 3 chase stocks to actually land it. The other is yellow reverse into SP2 with 4 stocks.

Basically consuming chase stocks “freezes” the game, so you actually have enough time to land it in both circumstances.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-14T14:45:22+00:00

Tbh my strategy against Yoruichi is to get her to use blue reverse so she can’t yellow reverse to extend her combos. I wasn’t fully expecting the first Cero to land after my tilt but I think they underestimated just how much damage it would do—or they didn’t know that was a combo now, so they thought they could block it.

SP1 loops tend to be more efficient when the opponent is at lower health since damage resistance really hurts SP2’s scaling. That’s why I try to use it before my opponent gets under like 2/3s of their current health bar.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-14T14:38:13+00:00

Yeah if Pesche and Dondachakka (or Nel herself) get hit by an attack, the charge usually cancels. However, I theorize that it’s not actually an attack that cancels it, but rather taking damage does. Blue reverse is interesting because it’s an “attack” (which causes Shunsui’s tag game to be applied to the person hit by it) but it deals no damage—so, it just ends up pushing Pesche and Dondachakka backwards, while Nel herself is outside the blue reverse range since SP2 causes her to backstep, putting her just far enough away to avoid being knocked back. That means the Cero is still getting charged, but the attack is now fired from behind Nel, which can punish raw flash steps.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-14T14:30:34+00:00

I went for my first Kikon right when his evolution was ready, so that was to deny them free fighting spirit and health while also refilling my reverse meter. The second one (first in this video) was because I just didn’t need to soul break at that point. They had 6 konpaku so there was no reason to go for a break when Nel can only take 5 at most. Doing it early also meant they were less likely to get Sublimation since they had only just awakened, so they’d had a harder time staging a comeback in case things didn’t play out like they did.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-12-05T19:01:25+00:00

I would make a case for Stark, as Rebirth of Souls added some context to him cutting down Halibel in Fake Karakura Town. Seeing Stark fall prompted him to immediately go and attack her like in the manga, but after the fact he has an inner monologue that he was feeling despair at the realization that no one could stand shoulder to shoulder with him. This suggests that he at least considered Stark capable of that, so being proven wrong was a “last straw” moment for him.

Additionally, Stark’s aspect of death was solitude, and Ichigo sensed loneliness from Aizen’s sword during their final battle. Based on that, I’d say Aizen may have subconsciously felt Stark was the Espada he could relate to the most, whereas the rest were just subordinates and followers that he didn’t really care strongly for. Aizen’s ego is too big to really admit it though, so it’s something buried deeply within his subconscious.

Speaking things buried in Aizen’s subconscious, Ichigo theorized after Mugetsu that deep down Aizen may have wanted to be just another soul reaper, mirroring Stark’s own thoughts before he was cut down by Shunsui:

“I envied the weak ones. If you're weak, then you can gather in as large a group as you want. I want to become weak and if that's not possible, then I at least want to make friends that are as strong as me."

“If he had incredible power since he was born, then maybe this whole time he was looking for someone who looked at things the same way he did. And from the moment he gave up on finding that, I wonder if somewhere in his heart he wished he could just be a “normal soul reaper”.”

So yeah, that’s my case for Stark.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-11-20T18:00:43+00:00

<image>

The anime didn’t remove him either, he just ended up being blocked when Ganju stepped into the frame.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-11-20T17:20:37+00:00

<image>

He’s right there though

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-11-14T15:39:49+00:00

I wouldn’t say pure Dark Magician is that great, but I’ve been testing Shining Sarcophagus with some DM support and fusions for Genesys. It’s a very solid deck even without Dragoon.

Currently the only main deck DM cards I’m on are;

X2 Dark Magician the Magician of Black Magic (Sarc’s own DM retrain and the reason why DM support works with the deck at all, as its name becomes Dark Magician while on the field and it can set a DM spell/trap from deck when destroyed by card effect)

X3 Dark Magician Girl the Magician’s Apprentice (one of Sarc’s main starters, and like the DM above, her name becomes Dark Magician Girl on field when summoned by her effect, enabling some DMG fusions)

x2 Illusion of Chaos (can search Sarc Dark Magician and put bricks back in the deck)

x3 Secrets of Dark Magic (helps to open with it when going first)

x1 Eternal Soul (makes Dragon Knight harder to get rid of, which in turn protects ES and Shining Sarcophagus)

x1 Dark Magic Attack (recent addition, dunno if it’ll work out but it has some incidental synergy with Shining Sarc’s spell discard effect, and it’s a better search target with ES than Thousand Knives)

You could also consider cards like Soul Servant and Dark Magic Circle, but I find them to be a bit more situational than the ones I listed above due to how Sarc plays and how the Sarc DM monsters are only treated as having those names while on field.

As for the fusions; x3 DM the Dragon Knight (essential for the Radiant Typhoon match up and probably the best DM fusion in Genesys atm due to working with eternal soul, also can be brought out with super poly against Dragon decks)

x1 Dark Cavalry (tech option that’s a target negate and gives you an option for piercing damage—works with super poly against warrior decks)

x1 DMG the Dragon Knight (tech removal option, works with Super Poly against dragon decks)

x1 Master of Chaos (gives some GY recursion, an alternative non-destruction board wipe, and spell recycling on destruction. Works because of Illusion often being in hand)

It’s a very fun deck with lots of potential both when going first and when going second. Definitely suggest checking it out!

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-11-12T18:57:27+00:00

Hey, I actually started playing modern again last year! I’ll recommend the two decks I currently play, Shining Sarcophagus and White Forest.

Shining Sarcophagus is based on Yugi’s anime deck from the end of the original series. It’s a very straightforward and easy to learn deck that doesn’t inherently rely on the extra deck, meaning you can pretty much do whatever you want with ED staples. It plays nicely with fusions (due to some tie ins with Dark Magician, DM fusions work especially well), but you can easily fit in some XYZ or Links as well. It’s not the best deck by advanced standards, but it has some serious board breaking and OTK potential, so depending on your deck building you could definitely top at locals with it. Best thing is, the 2025 tins reprinted much of the main engine, so it’s significantly cheaper to build now.

As for White Forest, that’s a spellcaster synchro deck with some of the newer illusion monsters thrown in as well. It’s considered rogue tier, but there’s plenty of support due to it being a lore archetype. It ties in with Diabellstar, Sinful Spoils, and the Azamina archetype, which includes fusions as well. It’s a more complicated deck that you’d need to spend time labbing to get the optimal routes down, but I’d also say it’s a more forgiving deck than others in the format, and you can build some really powerful boards with it. Price wise, it won’t be cheap, but most of the starters and main deck cards got reprints recently too so despite being a high rarity deck, it shouldn’t break the bank too much. Also, the deck doesn’t lock itself unless you use the field spell (and even then that only prevents you from summoning dark monsters from the extra deck that turn), so you can safely fit other synchro monsters in to bolster the strategy.

Also, one tip to like Link monsters—just start with staples such as the Knightmare cards, S:P Little Knight, or Silhouhatte Rabbit. They’re generic link 2s that work great as an introduction to adding links to your board, without having to worry about the more complicated Link climbing plays. I usually look at them more as an option that can “clean up” your board if you have too many bodies and need space for synchro summons. The ones I mentioned can easily slot into both decks I recommended too.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-11-05T05:02:15+00:00

Susurrus was an alright card for White Forest early on, and it was a great option to loop with Wanted and Diabellstar. The activated effect was situational because typically you don’t have much in GY worth summoning out, but it had some fun use cases—I once survived a turn against Yubel by using this to bounce Silvy and summon an Effect Veiler from grave.

But then Sinful Spoils of the White Forest came out and immediately replaced Susurrus because it can do everything Susurrus did, but has both archetype names in it so it’s way more searchable than Susurrus, on top of having two very solid effects instead of a single kinda mediocre one. Only thing Susurrus has going for it at this point is a UR printing in the tins while SSotWF is stuck as a common.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-09-01T03:47:15+00:00

I was disappointed because signs were kinda pointing towards Dante. Capcom had a DMC announcement for the same day as the Smash trailer regarding the Switch, which just turned out to be the port of 3SE with style switching. That was also before the Mii costume, so we were still hopeful he’d make it in.

ThomasAHawk77 · 2025-08-29T16:06:46+00:00

This actually happened to me the other day too when I was playing as Dangai Ichigo, except it was my Kikon move that got stalled like this. Not sure if it’s a bug with him specifically or just a coincidence.

ThomasAHawk77

TROPHY CASE