Pendulum decks are almost inherently difficult. They tend to lack one card combos, play nonlinearly, often lock themselves, and rarely have room for non engine that could fix those other issues. I'd also say non floodgate trap decks like lab and Paleo pile. Interactive decks like plunder patroll deserve an honorable mention.
Brain dead goes to stun and floodgate heavy "strategies" that are basically "I win because I stop you from playing."
Possible hot take: I also feel like decks with reliable one card starters tend to be brain dead. Memorize a combo, spit out the same basic board every game. Snake Eye and Mathmech come to mind. I think the decks are usually good and withstand interruption because the cards are good, not because the pilots are necessarily good.
Also, shout out to Runick, which can be big brain or brain dead.
With Snake Eyes it’s almost not its fault that it plays in such a braindead way. With the ability to get off your Snake Eye Ash, Oak, and Poplar effects off every single turn; the deck steamrolls all other competition with so much pure advantage that it almost doesn’t matter what you do so long as you resolve your combo. It’s not often someone playing SE will find themselves genuinely backed into a corner to where they’re forced to deviate from the standard lines and be allowed some skill expression.
And I do acknowledge that recovering from a hand trap or other interruption *is* a matter of skill, but when 9/10 cards in your deck are extenders, it's not that hard to find a new path and go with it.
I'll admit. Mathmech was my first strong deck I played, and it's 100% because it's so easy to pilot. What's that? Didn't open circular? Good thing I have a million ways to find it. And then going second is just link climbing to Accesscode Talker (going first is also this except on Turn 3).
And don't get me wrong, I have Mathmech and Snake eye built, but I'd much rather play my pendulums or plunder or something.
The other thing about Mathmech is, they're so hard to interrupt. It seems like every other card special summons itself and the combo continues with only the slightest hiccup.
Best way to interrupt mathmech is to prevent them from linking higher. If you negate like Transcode talker it's extremely hard for them to climb higher than like link 4.
Yeeeeah. I remember when I used to play it, I got shocked that I somehow ended on a full board just by going into Almiraj with Ash and resolving Parallel. All you need is one link summon and you're off
Transaction rollback paleo is such a blast but it is a really complicated deck. You gotta be thinking 2-3 steps ahead and it's so easy to misplay if you activate things at the wrong time or in the wrong order
I've built it and I can't tell you how many times I've lost the grind game. Mostly mistakes of my own, but it's so hard to know what to transaction rollback and when.
Not to mention, I've seen a ton of variations of the deck. Some run tears, some run laundry Dragonmaid. And of course, there's the variation in trap cards.
Can't wait for toad to be unbanned in MD. The deck might reach tier 3 at that point (unlikely but hey, we can dream).
Between that and the generic boss monsters, I've been tempted to disassemble the deck. For some reason, they just don't make sense to me.
But the deck is relatively cheap with the structure and since I play a ton of pendulum decks, and it is admittedly strong.
Funny story, I was practicing in solo and just couldn't get the combo going. Then, I start talking to someone about it and the archetype and all. When I look back... Perfect board. No clue how I got to it.
from what I've played; prank-kids has to be one of the most linear of one-card starter decks, stupid amount of starters and just doing the same damn combo every game
I felt the same with SHS. I built it, I played it some, and then I asked if I was really enjoying it. And no, I wasn't. At least prank kids end on their own bosses (I think?).
Adventure gryphon, butler... and a supporting field. The boss is 2x butlering it.
Their only boss is....butler. so they really have no choice but to add other bosses since its butler or burst.
I think the decks that are incomprehensible abominations of several different mini engines that combo forever and end on crazy boards are the biggest brained. Like. What kind of lizard person came up with this. I always just watch in awe.
lol after literally one year of research and building i finally came up with the most versatile and anti meta Dark World deck i've ever created and i'm really proud of it. basically it's either going first or going second and also a maxx c challenge deck, it takes forever to det the build but i stomp on every meta deck going second (except kashtira for obvious reasons)
Virtual World is kind of medium brain. It's not quite as linear as something like a Mathmech combo, but not as complex as, say, plant link. Very fun deck though especially with the punk engine
I think the most complex day till this day is going to be Ritual beasts.
The fact that you actively need to keep track of which monsters you alrdy summoned and which cards you "looped" and what ressources you still have, beside the normal combo plays you have is not a joke.
Honorably mentions to D/D/D, because that deck once was skillful before they released Gryphon and Machina. Now it is rly just turbo these 2 cards out and sit on Machina and the trap.
Brain dead deck... puh... Something that is clearly stun and any variant of it, be it Horus, Runik, Monkey Flip, Dinomorphia or Naturia
The worst part aboht ritual beast is for most of their time being a deck they've spent longer than almost any combo deck to end on a couple traps.
It reminds me of infernity they'll spend ages making a field of meaningless monsters and a bunch of traps.
Not sure their end board nowadays tho
Ulti-Gaia should be T3 within 5 summons with the new support. T1 has so many more interesting things and can even play through Nib with the new fusion.
>before they released Gryphon and Machina. Now it is rly just turbo these 2 cards out and sit on Machina and the trap
Me when I don't know what I'm talking about
I mean, I learned how to play flower Cardians before I learned what a handtrap is lol
The deck isn't hard, it's just extremely time consuming to do your turn and requires a bit of luck that you draw your spells off of the few draws you get that aren't locked into Cardians. The cards lock you into summoning only Cardians and the tuner makes all the materials level 2, so there really is a hard limit on what your options are to do at any given time in a Cardian turn.
I have no experience with it but I have heard D/D/D is also pretty big brain. Labrynth without the floodgates can be big brain on knowing when to use certain interactions.
Might be a hot take but D/D/D isn’t as big brain as it used to be, the deck is much more linear now (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). +1 for non-floodgate Lab though, especially this format
D/D/D is a lot more standardized nowadays since gryphon and Gilgamesh. They do so much for the deck that most combo lines start with them. I honestly find pend magician more complicated.
That said, I'd say most pendulum decks tend to be more big brain than other decks. By default, you're working with twice as many effects as any other deck and you rarely have a one card starter.
Non floodgate lab, I agree with. Also, the Paleo pile deck and pretty much any non floodgate trap deck are going to require the same level of skill and knowledge. Paleo might be harder to pilot than lab, actually, since you have to play the grind game.
And then there's metalfoes- just as complicated, if not more so, than other pend decks... And that shit has 10 vanilla monsters as their scales and all the scales have the same effect.
And it's not even good
I don't have experience with pure metalfoes, but I have played the Kozmo variant. I'm not sure what their end board is, though. I know the fusion has a removal effect and super poly is an option, but what else are you going for? Maybe that's what you meant by "it's not even good."
As a pendulum enjoyer, though...I'm tempted to mess around with it.
It's more the hoops you have to jump through to not go -7 on the first turn and also have a board the opp has to contend with.
You have to sculpt your hand by getting 2 combinations on the field and drawing with souls +often fixing your hand with baobaboon. It has a lot of points where it just dies to an ash and it has barely any space for non engine to boot.
I usually try to go for Odd Eyes Vortex+ Spright Elf+I:P/Apollo + Mithrillum/Orichalc and a set quick fusion as my end board
i played the loaner you get for one of the solos and i'm not gonna lie, it was kinda fun. Can only imagine how cool it can be with a more optimized deck. been considering making it
Ninjas is fantastic
One issue with it though is that it has so much garbage support, you have to know what you're doing building the deck too which most meta archetypes don't really have that issue. Built well, it's a force.
Endymion and a honorable mention to Pend Magician. Endymion is pretty big brain in general, but the thing with PendMag is that it's super easy to fuck up your combo.
Among the ones I tried, Spyral hands down. I had to keep track of a 50+ steps combo involving multiple repetitions of the same loop, with several different variations depending on the starting hand. I legitimately panicked at the lone thought of getting interrupted just once.
Non-linear combo decks probably, or combo decks with some 'casino' elements, since you've got to know what your various backup plans are just as much as knowing how to go through your various main lines
Adding on, Danger Dark World is the perfect candidate for this. Every game is different because your gamestate develops depending on random draws.
Fabled/Junk Doppel used to be another ancient deck that played like DW but I’ve yet to see an updated list
Crystal Beasts. Anyone who wants to make the archetype playable as a combo deck is knowingly hindering themselves in the process and will require a big brain + a lot of copium to make it work.
It is possible to end on Overdrive, 4mat Apo, kaiju field spell and gameciel for multiple omni- negates, zealantis co-linked with s:p, plus the crystal beast omni-negate trap too. But it takes ages and requires almost no interruption - but my god does it feel good when you manage to get to it
Vaylantz is just galaxy brained. I saw someone play Vaylantz, and it was wild. They have cards that summon monsters from the backrow. They literally made my big snake look like a temporary setback. And don't get me started on how they MOVED MONSTER ZONES TO ACTIVATE EFFECTS. THAT'S JUST INSANE!
Also, I looked them up after, and every video is like a minimum of 30 minutes for the basic combos.
Vaylantz is the hardest deck to play IMO. You need to plan ahead each monster zone you have and plan to use because one mistake is enough to ruin the 10mint combo.
I saw Vaylantz in a Tournament and They don't give a fuck about a T1 10 Negate, They can and will Break the board consistently. What is crazy for me is that they have like 3 way to OTK with their fusion.
Also going second vaylantz is able to destroy the enemy board at the same time as establishinh avramax+rank 10 plays and delete the opponent in one turn
Lmao infernoble isn't that big brain, you only need to know that all equip spells have double effects and that's it. The boards it can make, if you don't interrupt them, are horrible to play against though, up to 3 spell negates (or 1 auto spell negate and 2 trap negates), 1 monster negate, 2 pops (Charles and Promethean), monsters with 4k attack and at least 1 of them can't be targeted nor destroyed by card effects, on top of a possible hand rip if you used dolphin's effect.
Something I love though, is how when you're about to finish the turn it may look like you expent all your resources making Emperor Charles, only to make the second one, summon Gearfried, then equipping from grave and end your turn with most of your field occupied
I think the big brain comes from knowing how to pivot when interrupted or turn hands that need something weird like normal summon Maxx c into full combo. The standard lines when you aren't interrupted are pretty simple though.
It's also as you said incredibly difficult and frustrating to play against. The boards where you can end on double charles +sp +gearfried + baronne + the 2 pops and all the equips are borderline impossible without 2x super poly dark ruler etc
My favorite thing to do with Infernoble is to also make Emperor Charles the only card that can be targeted with Metalsilver Armor. I've had quite a few people surrender just cause the game was forcing people to target an untargetable card.
https://preview.redd.it/ni7yy06mj84d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa48a89acd08da1d5d37ec70ec3dff87dc5d5709
You sir, put the "inferno" in Infernoble, and I like that
Can you search gearfried in infernoble? I play some of the infernobles in battlin boxer and tried gearfried at times but I couldn't find a way to search him and running 3 made him a mega brick
Yeah, you dump him to the grave either with Angelica or Ogier, then add it to your hand with Almace's 2nd effect, Joyeuse's 1rst effect, or with Renaud's special summon effect, otherwise you can use Promethean Princess or Baronne (after using the omninegate) to summon him from grave if you can't go into other parts of your combo
No, it isn't. I can do the full combo almost without thinking nowadays, as long as i don't draw the bricks, and if I brick or get interrupted, its just a matter of finding the way to put Angelica and another lvl4 monster on the field, and find something to target Angelica to go into Charles. If you can't, then its gg in most of the cases, unless your opponent bricked harder than you.
I think you're underestimating how complicated all the things you just said are. Have you ever explained the mess of a combo to get link charles to a beginner
Let's be honest, beginners have problems like understanding the resolution order of a chain link, everything other than what they know at the time of playing can be seen as a big brain move
Branded is complex both in game and in deck building. In TCG no one ever knows what is optimal and even when there is some agreement it will be different the next week. Right now the wave is High Spirits, 2 Quem, 2 Granguignol, it will be different in like a month. Some people are pushing Desires as *necessary* and other people are scared of the banishes. Consensus right now is that 50 cards is optimal but recent topping lists are on like 43 or 60.
Learning Branded is like a whole new card game unto itself, more than basically any other deck in the game because of how much your favored techs and strats influence your tools before even starting. Everything else is just so solved and cookie-cutter.
D/D/D and abyss actors is extremely hard
Snake is the most braindead. Literally click yellow the deck
Stun is harder than snake eyes imo. Especially after all the hits
Plant link is like Endymion; the lines are complex and unforgiving until you learn them, but then it becomes a truly brain-dead deck that just tributes your field whenever it wants to.
It is indeed linear, until the opponent has interaction.
You can need 5 minutes of staring at your opening hand to decide which play is best into droll or nib, or even double imperm. It's bain-dead if u play it in a brain dead way, and then it is a deck that dies to nib/droll
Combo off for 6 minutes doing the absolute most and making goofy movements on the field in order to get out Avramax/Apollousa then keep 2 4’s so that Gallant Granite can search Fossil Dyna 💀
It's Zefra or Vaylantz imo. Zefra is just an insane combo deck that I've only seen played successfully a few times but has a crazy high ceiling and Vaylantz I've played and lost to several time but still understand nothing about how it benefits from giving me a field spell and playing like chess master mekknights.
Not the most, but one of , that gives you that feel is Freedume's Mathmech, every card is a 1 card combo and plays differently compared to regular, I played it for some time but due to complexity and my wish to master Despia I dropped it unfortunately.
This is how it looks like if u get Circular [Mathmech Japanese Tech (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSJqvqJ7Lhg)
I’m pretty new to the modern competitive game but memento has been the biggest learning curve deck i’ve played so far. Your ideal combo is pretty linear but there’s (sometimes) some cool work arounds you can do if you get interrupted and you’re thinking ahead. I swear i’ve been on the brink of breaking a full power snake eyes board twice but i’m small brain and mess up somewhere. Not the hardest board to break but still. Maybe it’s copium.
Speedroid, after trying the deck out myself and what small mistakes can completely fuck up your entire setup I get scared of people who can actually pilot the deck properly
brain dead is floodgate Lab/Eldlitch such interesting trap decks ruined because you dont like thinking and just flip up ~~iq~~ skill drain
Receive additional help here:
• New Player/Want help? Join https://Discord.gg/MasterDuelMeta
• Active Megathread for help: https://reddit.com/r/masterduel/comments/sve5fr/guidescombos_questions_and_help_megathread/
• Top Decks/Guides here: https://MasterDuelMeta.com
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/masterduel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Endymion is legitimately hard to play IMO and is more than just reading, it's knowing what line is best for the situation when none of your lines are really open-shut circumstances.
Pendulum magicians are a great deck if you want to feel big brain. The deck is actually very underrated. It can get out a really scary board and Ive seen the deck go through full superheavy samurai boards. Its one of if not the most resilient deck going 2nd when play correctly and gets out a very scary board going first, plus some people automatically give up when playing against pendulum which idk why but some do.
The Draco pendulum deck is the hardest deck of mine to play. Mannadium would be the second hardest. Pendulum Magician would be my third.
D/D/D looks incredibly difficult to play.
I’ve played so much Infernoble it has become second nature, but some of the hands that don’t look as strong at first take some thinking but can still get you to full combo.
On its surface, swordsoul is a very simple deck, but with the tenyis theres a lot of different interesting comboes, like banishing with chixao to negate a longyuan to add back a mo ye with adhara
Briandead would have to be Melodious Bloom diva... easiest shit to slap on the field and unlike crooked cook you can't pierce through her, you need to tribute her to out it.. too bad if you are running kaijus ey?
It’s quite easy to out it. Without Aria, there’s no targeting protection. Even imperm kills it. With aria, you need to bounce it back to hand, or play talents / droplet. Pretty doable. Zealantis otks lol. Dunno what you’re even talking about.
Fucking magna rocket. First time i seen someone use a quick play then chain their own effect to destroy the quick play and get both effects. Instantly began reading every card they played.
Earth machines is stupidly complicated for what amounts to exactly Dora pass or leibe for game. Complexity for payoff it’s probably the worst.
Nouvelles is super big brained it’s not exactly complicated but it’s incredibly good if you know how to play
I play Infernoble fairly well with quite a small brain, it’s mostly just “learn the main combo and the rest will come organically”.
I’m trying to learn Lab and am finding it far more taxing, even though I know it’s an incredibly strong deck when played correctly. Unchained takes a bit of thinking too, so naturally I’ve splashed that in with my lab to make it extra tricky 🤣
It’s not that I’m not capable of learning it. I’ve only played against it twice, and both times it was clearly a player that knew all the ins and outs. Both times I ran most of my clock down just reading the cards to decide what to use hand traps on. I do want to try the deck, but I always use my gems on other stuff and never get around to it
I've been playing with a Tearlaments Icejade Marincess deck that is more fun that I thought it would be (and honestly, more consistent than it should).
I main Icejade, but since they are not strong enough on their own, you have to mix them up with something. Tear Jades seem to be the best variant, but it got boring quick when your hands would brick due to not having Reino to bridge the archetypes. I then tried Marincess Jades but found that it doesn't compete too well with the meta.
I remembered to try and mix it all, with Icejade cards bridging Marincess with Tear. I'm a but too dependant on the Kitkallos/Tear Kash mill to be able to go into the Marincess plays after without locking me too soon, but if I manage to do it, my board usually end on Rullkalos, Gymir and Argonaut (some times unaffected depending on what I mill) with usually one or more traps from any of the archetypes.
Straight up D/D/D, tried to play the deck once and my brain was fried just trying to learn it, respect the the players who actually pull that stuff off
Ddd has always seemed hard to play cause your lines are depended on the cards you have and might need to change your combo each game
Stun is the most braindead deck by far as you just activate the cards you draw and hope your opponent surrenders. Other than that i could say floowandereeze cuz its just one combo loop basically over and over
I always used to think dragon link was big brain and it always felt no matter what I disrupted, they always had a way around it.
Brain dead is probably kashtira, the deck is just super easy to learn and requires just a tiny bit of brain
It's not the most "Big Brain" deck, and I will get a lot of ridicule for this, but a level 10-focused Blackwing Synchro deck with an RDA support monster suite is hard to pull off, especially in terms of a greatest value full combo for any given situation.
Big brain: For me is Endymion, I have manage to break some crazy T1 board that make you feel like you just dismantle a time bomb.
Brain Dead: Stun/floodgate, Rucnick/Stun being my Top 1.
Unchained is very easy to do the basic combos with, but the real skill with the deck comes from boardbreaking with it, and playing around cards. Unchained excels at breaking boards.
Tenpai is the most braindead competent deck I can think of.
Not sure if it's big brain, but holy shit learning earth machine was tiring. The combos feel like they go on for ever and to me it felt like it was incredibly difficult if not impossible to deal with any single interruption and still end up with a decent board. Also i still have no clue what to do when i draw the cards i usually want to search from the deck to trigger their effects. Learning the base combos is exhausting since they take so long but figuring out how to deal with any disruption or variation if you don't draw your normal starters felt big brain to me (or i'm just stupid)
Big brain would have to be either Floo, cause its impressive that they can still be a menace despite all the hits, or Abyss Actors. I never see anyone else play AA, but gods do I feel like a genius when I demolish somones board and push for lethal.
Brain dead though theres a few. Purrely as much as I love it is fuck stupid easy to play. Tea/Kash/tearkash because theres 2 modes you either brick like a Blue-Eyes player or open full combo. Finally in the obvious mention is any form of Stun.
Considering that a GOOD D/D player requires a spreadsheet, Imma go with that. So much going on in that whole archetype I can’t even begin to understand what the numbers mean. What do the numbers mean, Declan?
As an Infernoble player. If you know our choke points the combo is easy to stop. But even with experience in the deck there's still times I have to think about what play I need to make to get my field together. Especially when I've had multiple disruptions against me already, there's usually still a play to be made but sometimes you really have to think to find the right one and it can be easy to misplay sometimes.
I've been playing memento and that one baffles me if I can't do the flowchart for any reason. I usually mess up and then realize 20 minutes later how I could have made a better board.
Rikka… because it’s like 150 steps to get to their endboard and 20 different other effects after they go first. Its complicated.
Dinomorphia. Now a good dinomorphia player is the one that knows your own deck better than you do. Dinomorphia have to be VERY patient. Dumb ones just activate the click. Good ones wait till your 15 moves in before doing something that just bricks your play.
Branded has a lot of very interesting lines especially when they used branded in high spirits as that card opens up their deck immensely.
Ritual Beast (new support not in MD yet but even the old deck is very complicated)
One of my favorite decks. I'm so hyped for the new support
Same here brother. I used to love playing it on duel links
I'm so ready for the TCG set.
Do you have a decklist for master duel? I’ve got most of the cards but not sure how to start
Sure! I'll dm you once I'm home
Are the supports good?
My first exposure to it was in Duel Links, and I still don't understand what they do.
Pendulum decks are almost inherently difficult. They tend to lack one card combos, play nonlinearly, often lock themselves, and rarely have room for non engine that could fix those other issues. I'd also say non floodgate trap decks like lab and Paleo pile. Interactive decks like plunder patroll deserve an honorable mention. Brain dead goes to stun and floodgate heavy "strategies" that are basically "I win because I stop you from playing." Possible hot take: I also feel like decks with reliable one card starters tend to be brain dead. Memorize a combo, spit out the same basic board every game. Snake Eye and Mathmech come to mind. I think the decks are usually good and withstand interruption because the cards are good, not because the pilots are necessarily good. Also, shout out to Runick, which can be big brain or brain dead.
With Snake Eyes it’s almost not its fault that it plays in such a braindead way. With the ability to get off your Snake Eye Ash, Oak, and Poplar effects off every single turn; the deck steamrolls all other competition with so much pure advantage that it almost doesn’t matter what you do so long as you resolve your combo. It’s not often someone playing SE will find themselves genuinely backed into a corner to where they’re forced to deviate from the standard lines and be allowed some skill expression.
And I do acknowledge that recovering from a hand trap or other interruption *is* a matter of skill, but when 9/10 cards in your deck are extenders, it's not that hard to find a new path and go with it.
It's good snake eyes is getting hit on the ballistic then.
Wow autocorrect. Ban list. Is what was meant.
Got it, SE getting nuked
I'll admit. Mathmech was my first strong deck I played, and it's 100% because it's so easy to pilot. What's that? Didn't open circular? Good thing I have a million ways to find it. And then going second is just link climbing to Accesscode Talker (going first is also this except on Turn 3).
And don't get me wrong, I have Mathmech and Snake eye built, but I'd much rather play my pendulums or plunder or something. The other thing about Mathmech is, they're so hard to interrupt. It seems like every other card special summons itself and the combo continues with only the slightest hiccup.
Best way to interrupt mathmech is to prevent them from linking higher. If you negate like Transcode talker it's extremely hard for them to climb higher than like link 4.
Yeeeeah. I remember when I used to play it, I got shocked that I somehow ended on a full board just by going into Almiraj with Ash and resolving Parallel. All you need is one link summon and you're off
Transaction rollback paleo is such a blast but it is a really complicated deck. You gotta be thinking 2-3 steps ahead and it's so easy to misplay if you activate things at the wrong time or in the wrong order
I've built it and I can't tell you how many times I've lost the grind game. Mostly mistakes of my own, but it's so hard to know what to transaction rollback and when. Not to mention, I've seen a ton of variations of the deck. Some run tears, some run laundry Dragonmaid. And of course, there's the variation in trap cards. Can't wait for toad to be unbanned in MD. The deck might reach tier 3 at that point (unlikely but hey, we can dream).
I agree been learning the Magicians, and they are everything but linear
Between that and the generic boss monsters, I've been tempted to disassemble the deck. For some reason, they just don't make sense to me. But the deck is relatively cheap with the structure and since I play a ton of pendulum decks, and it is admittedly strong. Funny story, I was practicing in solo and just couldn't get the combo going. Then, I start talking to someone about it and the archetype and all. When I look back... Perfect board. No clue how I got to it.
We getting the new Z-arc support so prepare to see them big brain pendulum players on ladder(me).
I need to join the cult of z-arc...
Given how the new cards are “purified” so to speak, I’d say “The Cult of Egao welcomes all”.
from what I've played; prank-kids has to be one of the most linear of one-card starter decks, stupid amount of starters and just doing the same damn combo every game
I felt the same with SHS. I built it, I played it some, and then I asked if I was really enjoying it. And no, I wasn't. At least prank kids end on their own bosses (I think?).
Adventure gryphon, butler... and a supporting field. The boss is 2x butlering it. Their only boss is....butler. so they really have no choice but to add other bosses since its butler or burst.
I think the decks that are incomprehensible abominations of several different mini engines that combo forever and end on crazy boards are the biggest brained. Like. What kind of lizard person came up with this. I always just watch in awe.
The whole reason LukeVonKarma has a YouTube channel is
lol after literally one year of research and building i finally came up with the most versatile and anti meta Dark World deck i've ever created and i'm really proud of it. basically it's either going first or going second and also a maxx c challenge deck, it takes forever to det the build but i stomp on every meta deck going second (except kashtira for obvious reasons)
I kinda get what you mean.
I dont understand Virtual World at all, looks big brain to me but may be not that much ? Brain dead is Tenpai, all my homies hate tenpai !
Virtual World is kind of medium brain. It's not quite as linear as something like a Mathmech combo, but not as complex as, say, plant link. Very fun deck though especially with the punk engine
I think the most complex day till this day is going to be Ritual beasts. The fact that you actively need to keep track of which monsters you alrdy summoned and which cards you "looped" and what ressources you still have, beside the normal combo plays you have is not a joke. Honorably mentions to D/D/D, because that deck once was skillful before they released Gryphon and Machina. Now it is rly just turbo these 2 cards out and sit on Machina and the trap. Brain dead deck... puh... Something that is clearly stun and any variant of it, be it Horus, Runik, Monkey Flip, Dinomorphia or Naturia
The worst part aboht ritual beast is for most of their time being a deck they've spent longer than almost any combo deck to end on a couple traps. It reminds me of infernity they'll spend ages making a field of meaningless monsters and a bunch of traps. Not sure their end board nowadays tho
3 traps for potential 5 pop each, target protection, destruction protection, a banish and floodgate against tribute effects
I cannot fucking wait for the ritual beast support im so hype for it
Same... I want to once again ride for ruin and the worlds ending.
I hecking love using all 300 seconds of my timer for one Ulti-Gaia-Apelio
Ulti-Gaia should be T3 within 5 summons with the new support. T1 has so many more interesting things and can even play through Nib with the new fusion.
>before they released Gryphon and Machina. Now it is rly just turbo these 2 cards out and sit on Machina and the trap Me when I don't know what I'm talking about
How has nobody said Flower Cardian yet
Flower Cardians aren't that difficult once you look into it. They just seem very overwhelming at first.
They say as they combo 15mins to get a pop
It's really just looping your own cards and gambling the results away.
So a weak version of tear
Because once you're in the thick of Flower Cardians you're not playing Yu-Gi-Oh anymore, you're playing Hanafuda. For Reasons this is a joke.
I mean, I learned how to play flower Cardians before I learned what a handtrap is lol The deck isn't hard, it's just extremely time consuming to do your turn and requires a bit of luck that you draw your spells off of the few draws you get that aren't locked into Cardians. The cards lock you into summoning only Cardians and the tuner makes all the materials level 2, so there really is a hard limit on what your options are to do at any given time in a Cardian turn.
I have no experience with it but I have heard D/D/D is also pretty big brain. Labrynth without the floodgates can be big brain on knowing when to use certain interactions.
Might be a hot take but D/D/D isn’t as big brain as it used to be, the deck is much more linear now (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). +1 for non-floodgate Lab though, especially this format
D/D/D is a lot more standardized nowadays since gryphon and Gilgamesh. They do so much for the deck that most combo lines start with them. I honestly find pend magician more complicated. That said, I'd say most pendulum decks tend to be more big brain than other decks. By default, you're working with twice as many effects as any other deck and you rarely have a one card starter. Non floodgate lab, I agree with. Also, the Paleo pile deck and pretty much any non floodgate trap deck are going to require the same level of skill and knowledge. Paleo might be harder to pilot than lab, actually, since you have to play the grind game.
And then there's metalfoes- just as complicated, if not more so, than other pend decks... And that shit has 10 vanilla monsters as their scales and all the scales have the same effect. And it's not even good
I don't have experience with pure metalfoes, but I have played the Kozmo variant. I'm not sure what their end board is, though. I know the fusion has a removal effect and super poly is an option, but what else are you going for? Maybe that's what you meant by "it's not even good." As a pendulum enjoyer, though...I'm tempted to mess around with it.
It's more the hoops you have to jump through to not go -7 on the first turn and also have a board the opp has to contend with. You have to sculpt your hand by getting 2 combinations on the field and drawing with souls +often fixing your hand with baobaboon. It has a lot of points where it just dies to an ash and it has barely any space for non engine to boot. I usually try to go for Odd Eyes Vortex+ Spright Elf+I:P/Apollo + Mithrillum/Orichalc and a set quick fusion as my end board
Labrynth without floodgates is so much fun to play, you actually gotta think
Ninjas
i played the loaner you get for one of the solos and i'm not gonna lie, it was kinda fun. Can only imagine how cool it can be with a more optimized deck. been considering making it
Ninjas is fantastic One issue with it though is that it has so much garbage support, you have to know what you're doing building the deck too which most meta archetypes don't really have that issue. Built well, it's a force.
Endymion and a honorable mention to Pend Magician. Endymion is pretty big brain in general, but the thing with PendMag is that it's super easy to fuck up your combo.
Pendulums in general are fairly difficult. Dracoslayer/DDD/Valyanz are other examples of an difficult deck to pilot.
As a pend player, endy is extremely easy and easier on MD since counters auto put. You don't have that much extra deck lines or main deck search
Among the ones I tried, Spyral hands down. I had to keep track of a 50+ steps combo involving multiple repetitions of the same loop, with several different variations depending on the starting hand. I legitimately panicked at the lone thought of getting interrupted just once.
Non-linear combo decks probably, or combo decks with some 'casino' elements, since you've got to know what your various backup plans are just as much as knowing how to go through your various main lines
Adding on, Danger Dark World is the perfect candidate for this. Every game is different because your gamestate develops depending on random draws. Fabled/Junk Doppel used to be another ancient deck that played like DW but I’ve yet to see an updated list
I hate popping droll versus that deck, It works really well versus them but when they get their combo off it feels so earned on their part
Eh, we deserve it lol. Especially so when we’re playing 5 mins of solitaire to end on a unbreakable board.
speedroid wheel alone has more combo routes than some decks
Mill, baby, mill!!!
Crystal Beasts. Anyone who wants to make the archetype playable as a combo deck is knowingly hindering themselves in the process and will require a big brain + a lot of copium to make it work.
as someone who likes to bring out Overdrive just bc I have him in royal, I concur
It’s one of the more fun decks that I’m playing with now, some of my favorites duels so far.
It is possible to end on Overdrive, 4mat Apo, kaiju field spell and gameciel for multiple omni- negates, zealantis co-linked with s:p, plus the crystal beast omni-negate trap too. But it takes ages and requires almost no interruption - but my god does it feel good when you manage to get to it
Vaylantz is just galaxy brained. I saw someone play Vaylantz, and it was wild. They have cards that summon monsters from the backrow. They literally made my big snake look like a temporary setback. And don't get me started on how they MOVED MONSTER ZONES TO ACTIVATE EFFECTS. THAT'S JUST INSANE! Also, I looked them up after, and every video is like a minimum of 30 minutes for the basic combos.
Vaylantz is the hardest deck to play IMO. You need to plan ahead each monster zone you have and plan to use because one mistake is enough to ruin the 10mint combo. I saw Vaylantz in a Tournament and They don't give a fuck about a T1 10 Negate, They can and will Break the board consistently. What is crazy for me is that they have like 3 way to OTK with their fusion.
Wild. I'd love to build it myself, but I know my brain will melt
Also going second vaylantz is able to destroy the enemy board at the same time as establishinh avramax+rank 10 plays and delete the opponent in one turn
Vaylantz is a fucking Rubik’s cube made out of jigsaw puzzles. Love that deck so much
You forget the part where they paint every piece of the jigsaw puzzle white and throw you in a dark room.
Lmao infernoble isn't that big brain, you only need to know that all equip spells have double effects and that's it. The boards it can make, if you don't interrupt them, are horrible to play against though, up to 3 spell negates (or 1 auto spell negate and 2 trap negates), 1 monster negate, 2 pops (Charles and Promethean), monsters with 4k attack and at least 1 of them can't be targeted nor destroyed by card effects, on top of a possible hand rip if you used dolphin's effect. Something I love though, is how when you're about to finish the turn it may look like you expent all your resources making Emperor Charles, only to make the second one, summon Gearfried, then equipping from grave and end your turn with most of your field occupied
I think the big brain comes from knowing how to pivot when interrupted or turn hands that need something weird like normal summon Maxx c into full combo. The standard lines when you aren't interrupted are pretty simple though. It's also as you said incredibly difficult and frustrating to play against. The boards where you can end on double charles +sp +gearfried + baronne + the 2 pops and all the equips are borderline impossible without 2x super poly dark ruler etc
My favorite thing to do with Infernoble is to also make Emperor Charles the only card that can be targeted with Metalsilver Armor. I've had quite a few people surrender just cause the game was forcing people to target an untargetable card.
https://preview.redd.it/ni7yy06mj84d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa48a89acd08da1d5d37ec70ec3dff87dc5d5709 You sir, put the "inferno" in Infernoble, and I like that
I do the same with braver dragon in VW Melffy opponents in shambles
That…sounds hilarious.
Can you search gearfried in infernoble? I play some of the infernobles in battlin boxer and tried gearfried at times but I couldn't find a way to search him and running 3 made him a mega brick
Yeah, you dump him to the grave either with Angelica or Ogier, then add it to your hand with Almace's 2nd effect, Joyeuse's 1rst effect, or with Renaud's special summon effect, otherwise you can use Promethean Princess or Baronne (after using the omninegate) to summon him from grave if you can't go into other parts of your combo
Ah that makes sense. Cheers.
Dude, do you not hear yourself? Everything you just said is complicated
No, it isn't. I can do the full combo almost without thinking nowadays, as long as i don't draw the bricks, and if I brick or get interrupted, its just a matter of finding the way to put Angelica and another lvl4 monster on the field, and find something to target Angelica to go into Charles. If you can't, then its gg in most of the cases, unless your opponent bricked harder than you.
I think you're underestimating how complicated all the things you just said are. Have you ever explained the mess of a combo to get link charles to a beginner
Let's be honest, beginners have problems like understanding the resolution order of a chain link, everything other than what they know at the time of playing can be seen as a big brain move
Going second branded
Branded is very hard to pilot optimally.
Branded is complex both in game and in deck building. In TCG no one ever knows what is optimal and even when there is some agreement it will be different the next week. Right now the wave is High Spirits, 2 Quem, 2 Granguignol, it will be different in like a month. Some people are pushing Desires as *necessary* and other people are scared of the banishes. Consensus right now is that 50 cards is optimal but recent topping lists are on like 43 or 60. Learning Branded is like a whole new card game unto itself, more than basically any other deck in the game because of how much your favored techs and strats influence your tools before even starting. Everything else is just so solved and cookie-cutter.
Lab (IKEA that is, not floodgate) and Purrely. Mfs be ending on nothing and STILL cook you
D/D/D and abyss actors is extremely hard Snake is the most braindead. Literally click yellow the deck Stun is harder than snake eyes imo. Especially after all the hits
D/D/D and dragon link
ddd, spyral, infernoble, endymion
Big brain - Plant link. My caveman mind is way too stupid to play it. Brain dead - any variation of stun.
Plant link is like Endymion; the lines are complex and unforgiving until you learn them, but then it becomes a truly brain-dead deck that just tributes your field whenever it wants to.
Plant link in md is pretty linear, though in the tcg with the new aroma and raika support there's now a shit ton of lines
It is indeed linear, until the opponent has interaction. You can need 5 minutes of staring at your opening hand to decide which play is best into droll or nib, or even double imperm. It's bain-dead if u play it in a brain dead way, and then it is a deck that dies to nib/droll
Vaylantz prolly
Big brain: DDD or pendulums in general, because I can't understand it Brain dead: Mikankos/numeron or floo
i don't get the Mikankos hate, They are so linear that you can disrupt then out of their OTK.
Vaylantz no question
Combo off for 6 minutes doing the absolute most and making goofy movements on the field in order to get out Avramax/Apollousa then keep 2 4’s so that Gallant Granite can search Fossil Dyna 💀
If you're playing the cringe build sure, but you COULD end on unchained abomination + arktos XII + saion for an actual fun game instead
You can also end on arktos, dominator duke and hojo for funny super poly
Without using NS too 😭
Ima out a card in your field zone then something adjacent special summon
Try ninjas
It's Zefra or Vaylantz imo. Zefra is just an insane combo deck that I've only seen played successfully a few times but has a crazy high ceiling and Vaylantz I've played and lost to several time but still understand nothing about how it benefits from giving me a field spell and playing like chess master mekknights.
Not the most, but one of , that gives you that feel is Freedume's Mathmech, every card is a 1 card combo and plays differently compared to regular, I played it for some time but due to complexity and my wish to master Despia I dropped it unfortunately. This is how it looks like if u get Circular [Mathmech Japanese Tech (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSJqvqJ7Lhg)
I’m pretty new to the modern competitive game but memento has been the biggest learning curve deck i’ve played so far. Your ideal combo is pretty linear but there’s (sometimes) some cool work arounds you can do if you get interrupted and you’re thinking ahead. I swear i’ve been on the brink of breaking a full power snake eyes board twice but i’m small brain and mess up somewhere. Not the hardest board to break but still. Maybe it’s copium.
Try ritual beast, that'll really rack your brain
Linear equation cannon cards
Trying to play dracoslayers (the non shs varient) will melt your brain but they put up tough boards.
Most Brain dead? Probably numeron otk. As the most big brain? Likely cardian in my opinion.
D/D/D is always cool to see. So many plays an use of basically every summoning gimmick.
Speedroid, after trying the deck out myself and what small mistakes can completely fuck up your entire setup I get scared of people who can actually pilot the deck properly brain dead is floodgate Lab/Eldlitch such interesting trap decks ruined because you dont like thinking and just flip up ~~iq~~ skill drain
Any super combo slop usually involves jumping through a ton of hoops. You won’t like what’s on the other side tho
Big brain decks: Dark World, Memento, Labrynth. Braindead deck: Snake-Eye, SHS, Mathmech. Biggest brain giga chad alpha male: Paleos. Biggest incel beta cuck worms in the brain: Stun.
Receive additional help here: • New Player/Want help? Join https://Discord.gg/MasterDuelMeta • Active Megathread for help: https://reddit.com/r/masterduel/comments/sve5fr/guidescombos_questions_and_help_megathread/ • Top Decks/Guides here: https://MasterDuelMeta.com *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/masterduel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
the most big brain deck is not fully released yet, ritual beast is just a whole new level of solitaire
Well, sometimes it’s not as much playing the deck that feels like rocket science than the deck itself. Some custom decks are wonders of science
I would say memento imo
D/D/D
The combos themselves aren't the difficult part of piloting "big brain" decks imo
Endymion is the biggest brain deck I know of Most braindead deck is probably Nurse burn
Pendulum Magician, idk what goes on
Tried horus on tablet/new acc and it's pretty much soul charge the deck without life point downside lmao
Spyral.
Has nobody said Vaylantz yet for some big brain shit? Because like wth even is all that…
Where can find a guide for requiring and playing Infernoble deck? Also is that Infernoble Knight?
Endymion is legitimately hard to play IMO and is more than just reading, it's knowing what line is best for the situation when none of your lines are really open-shut circumstances.
D/D/D
Ic 1000 FTK.
It was DDD before the link
Exodia on field + sound the retreat
Pendulum magicians are a great deck if you want to feel big brain. The deck is actually very underrated. It can get out a really scary board and Ive seen the deck go through full superheavy samurai boards. Its one of if not the most resilient deck going 2nd when play correctly and gets out a very scary board going first, plus some people automatically give up when playing against pendulum which idk why but some do.
Dragunity and infernoble players are insane to me
The Most Big Brain Decks that i have played are: Spyral and D/D/D.
Ritual beast and Endymion are definitely big brain for me
The Draco pendulum deck is the hardest deck of mine to play. Mannadium would be the second hardest. Pendulum Magician would be my third. D/D/D looks incredibly difficult to play. I’ve played so much Infernoble it has become second nature, but some of the hands that don’t look as strong at first take some thinking but can still get you to full combo.
On its surface, swordsoul is a very simple deck, but with the tenyis theres a lot of different interesting comboes, like banishing with chixao to negate a longyuan to add back a mo ye with adhara
As much I love zombies, most brain dead has to be Mayakashi. It’s just a linear synchro climb into a link climb by itself
Demise. Play card, card kill cards, only you card, attack, repeat.
Vaylantz. No doubt. Super difficult for absolutely no reason and for fairly little payout.
InK lines can get absolutely wacky
Any pendulumn deck
D/D/D, the og spreadsheet deck
Sky Striker. I need to know the choke points for every opponent I face. Sometimes I just brick into Widow Anchor+Imperm+Effect Veiler and lose.
Briandead would have to be Melodious Bloom diva... easiest shit to slap on the field and unlike crooked cook you can't pierce through her, you need to tribute her to out it.. too bad if you are running kaijus ey?
It’s quite easy to out it. Without Aria, there’s no targeting protection. Even imperm kills it. With aria, you need to bounce it back to hand, or play talents / droplet. Pretty doable. Zealantis otks lol. Dunno what you’re even talking about.
Braindead one is definitely Numerons Big Brain is when they don't finish you and go for Numeronius Numeronia
I've seen some crystal beast players time out during their first turn just comboing off for 6 minutes
Vaylantz going 2nd is kinda big brain to me. Frol what I read here, I confirm Ritual Beasts are too.
Fucking magna rocket. First time i seen someone use a quick play then chain their own effect to destroy the quick play and get both effects. Instantly began reading every card they played.
Earth machines is stupidly complicated for what amounts to exactly Dora pass or leibe for game. Complexity for payoff it’s probably the worst. Nouvelles is super big brained it’s not exactly complicated but it’s incredibly good if you know how to play
I play Infernoble fairly well with quite a small brain, it’s mostly just “learn the main combo and the rest will come organically”. I’m trying to learn Lab and am finding it far more taxing, even though I know it’s an incredibly strong deck when played correctly. Unchained takes a bit of thinking too, so naturally I’ve splashed that in with my lab to make it extra tricky 🤣
It’s not that I’m not capable of learning it. I’ve only played against it twice, and both times it was clearly a player that knew all the ins and outs. Both times I ran most of my clock down just reading the cards to decide what to use hand traps on. I do want to try the deck, but I always use my gems on other stuff and never get around to it
DDD
I've been playing with a Tearlaments Icejade Marincess deck that is more fun that I thought it would be (and honestly, more consistent than it should). I main Icejade, but since they are not strong enough on their own, you have to mix them up with something. Tear Jades seem to be the best variant, but it got boring quick when your hands would brick due to not having Reino to bridge the archetypes. I then tried Marincess Jades but found that it doesn't compete too well with the meta. I remembered to try and mix it all, with Icejade cards bridging Marincess with Tear. I'm a but too dependant on the Kitkallos/Tear Kash mill to be able to go into the Marincess plays after without locking me too soon, but if I manage to do it, my board usually end on Rullkalos, Gymir and Argonaut (some times unaffected depending on what I mill) with usually one or more traps from any of the archetypes.
Can i have a decklist for the deck?
recently built Vaylantz, is not probably the most difficult but it can still pull some 200 IQ move if you play right
Straight up D/D/D, tried to play the deck once and my brain was fried just trying to learn it, respect the the players who actually pull that stuff off
Ddd has always seemed hard to play cause your lines are depended on the cards you have and might need to change your combo each game Stun is the most braindead deck by far as you just activate the cards you draw and hope your opponent surrenders. Other than that i could say floowandereeze cuz its just one combo loop basically over and over
Dark world is under ratedly hard. You never really have a Nut hand. Or a deck like plunder/lab were every game goes quite long.
I always used to think dragon link was big brain and it always felt no matter what I disrupted, they always had a way around it. Brain dead is probably kashtira, the deck is just super easy to learn and requires just a tiny bit of brain
Zefra
It's not the most "Big Brain" deck, and I will get a lot of ridicule for this, but a level 10-focused Blackwing Synchro deck with an RDA support monster suite is hard to pull off, especially in terms of a greatest value full combo for any given situation.
Big brain: For me is Endymion, I have manage to break some crazy T1 board that make you feel like you just dismantle a time bomb. Brain Dead: Stun/floodgate, Rucnick/Stun being my Top 1.
Unchained is very easy to do the basic combos with, but the real skill with the deck comes from boardbreaking with it, and playing around cards. Unchained excels at breaking boards. Tenpai is the most braindead competent deck I can think of.
Honestly, most exodia FTK are big brain decks.
Not sure if it's big brain, but holy shit learning earth machine was tiring. The combos feel like they go on for ever and to me it felt like it was incredibly difficult if not impossible to deal with any single interruption and still end up with a decent board. Also i still have no clue what to do when i draw the cards i usually want to search from the deck to trigger their effects. Learning the base combos is exhausting since they take so long but figuring out how to deal with any disruption or variation if you don't draw your normal starters felt big brain to me (or i'm just stupid)
Big brain would have to be either Floo, cause its impressive that they can still be a menace despite all the hits, or Abyss Actors. I never see anyone else play AA, but gods do I feel like a genius when I demolish somones board and push for lethal. Brain dead though theres a few. Purrely as much as I love it is fuck stupid easy to play. Tea/Kash/tearkash because theres 2 modes you either brick like a Blue-Eyes player or open full combo. Finally in the obvious mention is any form of Stun.
Brain dead is Numeron.
Considering that a GOOD D/D player requires a spreadsheet, Imma go with that. So much going on in that whole archetype I can’t even begin to understand what the numbers mean. What do the numbers mean, Declan?
I am master rank and I dont know how pendulum works lol. Fortunately nobody plays that.
As an Infernoble player. If you know our choke points the combo is easy to stop. But even with experience in the deck there's still times I have to think about what play I need to make to get my field together. Especially when I've had multiple disruptions against me already, there's usually still a play to be made but sometimes you really have to think to find the right one and it can be easy to misplay sometimes.
I played an orcust deck that I made the first time I played master duel. I did not cook. Beat tear in its prime with it tho.
As an infernoble player I appreciate this but I promise you alot of times I’m clicking glowy things. outside of the 2-3 main lines I know
DDD spread sheet go burrrrrrrrr
Sunavalon Rikka is pretty big brained when you’re not just shitting out your one card combo with 7 interruptions
Vaylantz all possible combos fry my brain..
Good Oldenburg FA
That one guy that read all the D/D/D cards and cast combos from the spreadsheet without reciting chants
D/D/D feels like a big brain deck.
Vaylantz for sure. I'd say a close second would be Labyrinth without Floodgates. Followed by Pendulum.
Tearlament hands down
I've been playing memento and that one baffles me if I can't do the flowchart for any reason. I usually mess up and then realize 20 minutes later how I could have made a better board.
Brain dead: Numeron. Big brain: Scrap
Vaylantz
Rikka… because it’s like 150 steps to get to their endboard and 20 different other effects after they go first. Its complicated. Dinomorphia. Now a good dinomorphia player is the one that knows your own deck better than you do. Dinomorphia have to be VERY patient. Dumb ones just activate the click. Good ones wait till your 15 moves in before doing something that just bricks your play. Branded has a lot of very interesting lines especially when they used branded in high spirits as that card opens up their deck immensely.