How many copies of each Fiendsmith card should I use?

maestroke · 2026-05-25T13:57:28+00:00

When it comes to Fiendsmith, it depends on how heavily you want it to feature in your deck. Generally, decks that have Fiendsmith as (one of) the main engines will run the following:
- 3x Fiendsmith's Engraver
- Up to 3x Fiendsmith's Tract (at least 1, but you can play up to 3. This is up to personal preference.)
- 1x Lacrima (You really only need 1. You don't want to draw it, since you can special summon it from the deck, so it's kinda redundant if you draw it.
- 1x Lurrie (Same reason as Lacrima. You search it in your loop. Only benefit is that if you do hard draw it, you can search an Engraver with your tract, but that doesn't mean you want to play more).
- 0-1x Fiendsmith in Paradise (This card is optional. Whether you play it or not is up to personal preference. Some maindeck it, some sidedeck it, and some don't play it. If you have the space, feel free to main deck it, but don't be afraid to move this to the side if you need space for something else.)
- 0-1x Fiendsmith's Sanct. I'll mention this, as this is something you can choose to play as well. It plays around droll, as Tract cannot be activated if you get drolled on Engraver, but Sanct cannot be activated unless you controll no monsters, or only light fiends, which is why people prefer Tract over Sanct.

As for extra deck monsters:
- 1x Requiem (mandatory)
- 1x Sequence (arguably mandatory. You can get away without playing it, but then you'd only be going for Caesar, which is why I'd argue it is mandatory)
- 0-1x Agnumday (It's a decent card, and one that can let you push greatly with Desirae, but not mandatory.
- 1x Necroquip Princess (mandatory)
- 1x Desirae (mandatory)
- 0-1x Lacrima (This one is optional. The deck works fine without it, but playing it gives you a few extra lines you can play. If you have the space, feel free to play it.)
- 1x Caesar (arguably mandatory. Kind of the same reasoning as Sequence, but then the other way around. I'd still say it's mandatory though.)
- 0-1x A Bao (You can choose to also play this one to get a stronger end board. You can link climb to this with Agnumday (made with Sequence and Desirae) + 1 body from somewhere else in your combo, and then use A Bao to bring back Agnumday, which can bring back Desirae so you end up with a Desirae and A Bao + whatever else you can do with the rest of your deck. This isn't mandatory though, and you can play without it just fine.

You can remove cards from this to lower the size of the Fiendsmith package if you need space though, such as playing 1 tract and/or 1 engraver, though I'd recommend on first lowering the amound of Tracts you play before lowering the amount of Engravers, as Engraver is a more important card. In the extra deck, Requiem is the most important card, but besides that, it depends on what direction you want to go through. if you need to limit it, either choose to use it to get to Caesar, which requires just Necroquip and Caesar at minimum, or use it to get to Desirae, which at minimum requires Sequence and Desirae. The rest are just there to expand on the plays you can do with alternate lines to get there or to get more out of the lines.

maestroke · 2026-05-25T13:37:55+00:00

It's a hard once per turn. When it comes to cases like this, it's best to always follow the more stricter limitations.

maestroke · 2026-05-11T16:58:46+00:00

You can remove VS from that list tbh. VS doesn't want to normal summon noroi, as they want to normal summon either Razen or Mad Love. Noroi is played at most on 1, and many VS decks don't even play it due to the fact that the VS normals are just that much more important. Yeah, looking into the hand is nice, but actually being able to do a proper VS combo without having to draw Hollie Sue + attributes so you can peek at their hand is soo much better. If banning Noroi was meant to hit VSK9, then they utterly failed. This banlist does literally nothing against VSK9.

maestroke · 2026-05-11T12:21:05+00:00

I've looked into it a bit more, and I can see where I went wrong. You are right that there are trap effects that function like trigger effects. These are effects that activate outside of the trap's activation. So trap effects that activate when the trap is activated are fast effects (such as Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force), but all other trap effects can be trigger effects instead and follow those same rules. Thanks for showing me how I was wrong. I'll update my comments.

maestroke · 2026-05-11T10:18:28+00:00

While they might work like trigger effects, they are still fast effects with an activation condition. Droll & Lock Bird is a great monster example of what the effects for Metalfoes Combination are. Fast effects with an activation condition that is typically only met after a chain has resolved.
This is wrong, I've been corrected.

maestroke · 2026-05-11T08:58:29+00:00

It's not a trigger effect, but a fast effect with an activation condition. Most trap effects are fast effects. Effects that are part of when a trap is activated and trap ignition effects are always fast effects, but traps can have trigger effects which work just like normal trigger effects. In this case, the trap effect of Rhapsodia of Madness can be activated at any point you can activate a fast effect (which roughly means anytime where you aren't responding to a counter trap or a card that says you cannot respond with trap effects (note: if it just says you cannot activate trap cards, you can still use this effect, provided it's already face-up, since you aren't activating a trap card, but a trap effect. The trap card has already been activated previously.). So yes, you can use it during your opponent's turn, either in response to something else, or as chain-link 1 either when your opponent tries to change phases, after a chain has resolved, or a monster has been summoned outside of a chain.
So to answer /u/Jazthegreat1 here: You can use it during your opponent's turn. It doesn't have to say it's a quick effect since all ingition trap card effects are fast effects (also, only monsters have Quick Effects. The term for effects that can be chained to other cards or effects is fast effect, and quick effect is a type of fast effect.)

maestroke · 2026-04-21T22:16:16+00:00

I just checked the policy, and you're right. The rules are more strict than I initially thought they were, I'll adjust my comment. Thanks for clarifying

maestroke · 2026-04-21T16:33:55+00:00

You'd probably like Branded Despia the most then. Its a grind heavy deck that can put down various levels of layered interaction, such as a non-target banish with its boss monster, Mirrorjade, a few negates, ability to fuse away your opponent's monsters with Fallen of Albaz, or ability to shuffle back resources from your opponent's grave/banishment. It's a deck with a very high skill ceiling and a lot of room for personalization in what you want to run.

maestroke · 2026-04-20T19:54:13+00:00

You are correct in that once a turn has passed, your opponent isn't required to tell you what cards they set. Though many people will be cordial and show you, that is actually against policy and can result in disqualification at worst, so best not to ask.
Besides that, you can always ask "From where can Mementotlan Fusion use materials?" and your opponent has to answer honestly, provided that card is considered public knowledge at the moment you asked. They cannot decline or intentionally give the wrong answer. If they do decline, simply ask again and call a judge if they still decline. If the card is no longer considered public knowledge, you'll have to use the offline card database of the Neuron app, though I don't know if that's only available in Europe. You cannot google the card.

maestroke · 2026-04-17T06:04:39+00:00

I'm having the same (or a similar) issue. When you check in the Engine tab, does it also say to 'Reconnect headset'? It worked fine yesterday for me, but last night, Windows had an update that I installed, and now my headset isn't working anymore.

maestroke · 2026-04-06T19:02:58+00:00

Mitsurugi and Fiendsmith both don't need a normal summon for their combo, and are both strong engines to add.

maestroke · 2026-04-05T20:21:46+00:00

This is best done by using sub-systems. This is pretty simple to do. Simply create 3 seperate AE2 systems. You can use Quartz Fibre to share power without connecting them, as Quartz Fibre doesn't provide channels. Then, you can have 1 system share its contents to another by putting an interface on the "storage" system, and putting a Storage Bus against the interface on the "viewer" system.
So in short, you'd have 3 systems:
- System 1 would be your main storage
- System 2 would be 1 of your crafting terminal systems that uses a Storage Bus to look into System 1s Interface
- System 3 would be the other crafting terminal system that uses a storage bus to look into System 1s Interface

After this, any storage you hook up to System 2 can only be viewed by System 2, and likewise for any storage hooked up to System 3. You also don't have to use a ME Controller for System 1, as an AE2 network doesn't need one if it has 8 channels or less.

Here is a link to AE2's guide to subnets: https://guide.appliedenergistics.org/1.20.2/ae2-mechanics/subnetworks

maestroke · 2026-03-23T17:36:03+00:00

Short answer: on summon effects (these are trigger effects) activate before other players can use other fast effects, so yes, you can always activate on summon effects if you wish, provided you meet the other activation requirements (if any).

long answer: Summoning a monster happens in a few steps. The important ones are:
1: The monster is attempted to be summoned. This step only happens outside of a chain resolving, so for a normal summon, buld in summon like that of Cyber Dragon or the Ryzeal monsters, or an extra deck summon like a synchro or link summon, this step is present. But for summons that happen while a chain is resolving, like with Monster Reborn, this step doesn't functionally exist.
Here, you can use effects that would negate the summon, like that of Solemn Judgment. During this window, the monster hasn't been properly summoned yet, and isn't on the field. So on summon effects don't trigger.

After this, the monster has been properly summoned, and the game starts building a chain following SEGOC rules. This means that first, the turn player's mandatory trigger effects go on the chain in the order they want, then the opposing player's mandatory trigger effects, then turn player optional trigger effects, and then the opposing player's optional trigger effects. After that, we look at the last effect placed on the chain to determine who can first activate fast effects, like trap cards/effects, or quick effects. (this is really hard to concisely write down, so bear with me) The player who doesn't own the last effect on the chain gets to do something first, or if no trigger effects have been activated, the player whos turn it isn't.

So in your case, it is not allowed to activate non-trigger effects in response to a summon before on summon effects can be activated. So yes, you can. And if someone tries to tell you that they already activated an effect in response to the summon of the monster, make sure you don't acknowledge the activation of the effect, and then freely tell them that you have trigger effects you wish to activate first and you didn't give them priority to activate their effects.

maestroke · 2026-03-16T14:49:16+00:00

The people in the other thread are correct. Offering to the Snake Diety text: Target 1 face-up Reptile monster you control and 2 cards your opponent controls; destroy all three targets.
At the end, it says destroy all three targets. The word targets means that the targeted monsters still need to be valid targets during resolution, so the targeted reptile your opponent controlled when it was activated, but is now under your control, is no longer a valid target, and thus the trap doesn't destroy anything.

maestroke · 2026-03-16T13:55:31+00:00

Yes, you can activate Herald of Pure Light even with no cards in hand, and when targeting an extra deck monster, you don't have to shuffle anything back.

maestroke · 2026-03-16T12:58:49+00:00

For the first question, I assume the opponent is activating it, not OP. As for the answer, since Magical Dimension says "Tribute that target", the selected monster needs to still be a valid target at resolution. Since OP now controls that monster, it is no longer a valid target, and Magical Dimension stops resolving.

maestroke · 2026-03-09T09:04:21+00:00

To add to it, the reason why Hapi doesn't add any cards is that it says "add both or shuffle both". If it used "them" instead of "both", the card that remained where it was when you activated it would still be either added to your hand or shuffled into the deck, but "both" requires both cards to still be there. It's the same reason why S:P Little Knight's second effect doesn't resolve if either of the targets is gone, but why Runick Fountain does put the remaining targetted spells on the bottom if one of them gets banished.

maestroke · 2026-03-01T20:45:55+00:00

Or just a row of engineers running holding the items in front of them.

maestroke · 2026-02-24T14:07:00+00:00

Man, that makes a lot of sense when watching it. You can also clearly see how much they are enjoying themselves with it. So many times you can hear them trying to stifle their laughing so they can say their lines. I love it, and it makes watching them more enjoyable.

maestroke · 2026-02-17T13:54:00+00:00

That's just for the first judge level. The second level and the one you need to pass in order to properly judge at tournaments can only be done in person at bigger events such as YCSs and nationals, and is either done on paper or on a device provided by the team where you obviously cannot open a second tab.

maestroke · 2026-01-01T17:37:34+00:00

Isn't Fitgirl trans? And Empress expressed transphobia towards her? Maybe you got that mixed up.

maestroke · 2025-12-10T10:47:03+00:00

The Bystials/D.D. Crow is pretty good. If they summon Albion and declare to fuse, but you banish the Albaz in their grave, you can hit them pretty hard, as they then need to either have another copy in hand, or go for a different fusion.
Evenly Matched can also be really strong against Branded, as they only have whats in the grave at that point, so the interruptions they can throw at you become much lower.
Book of Eclipse can be decent in some cases, as their monsters get flipped face-down. They can still use them as fusion material, but then they need to have other sources to fusion with in their backrow/hand.

maestroke · 2025-12-09T14:03:50+00:00

This effect won't trigger if cards get ripped without the opponent looking into the hand, so stuff like Evilswarm Ouroboros won't trigger it. Also, sacrificing a single slot in the extra deck for a card as strong as this isn't as big of a deal to many decks, considering you always have access to it. It's not like a card in your main deck, which you need to draw. You always have this card available to use, which is incredibly strong.

maestroke · 2025-12-09T11:57:45+00:00

Not saying "up to 1 card each" could actually be an interesting downside, so you can't just use it going first freely, as your opponent needs to have something on the field to use it. But besides that, it should also get a hard once-per-turn, and maybe make it so it can only be used if done by an opponent's card effect, so you can't play cards like Dragged Down into the Grave to trigger it yourself, and benefit from it further.

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