If you read our Round 4 Feature Match you’ve already seen Cody Miller’s Deck in action, as he stormed the field with Fortune Ladies and a 6-card hand! Miller blasted his opponent’s monsters with “Fortune Lady Fire,” drew countless cards with “Fortune Lady Water,” and pulled off big combos with “Fortune Lady Dark.” Here’s how he did it:

Miller’s playing a full retinue of Fortune Lady monsters: 1 “Fortune Lady Wind,” 2 “Fortune Lady Fire,” 2 “Fortune Lady Water,” 3 “Fortune Lady Dark,” and 3 “Fortune Lady Light” to make everything work. How he plays the Deck depends on whether or not he can open with the Fortune Lady Field Spell “Future Visions.”

If Miller opens with “Future Visions,” he can Normal Summon a monster and then activate Visions to make life tough on his opponent. The best monster to open with in this situation is “Thunder King Rai-Oh” since this combo will effectively shut down Normal and Special Summons for the opponent. While “Future Visions” fends off Normal Summons, Thunder King’s effect will stop a Special Summon, giving a two-pronged approach to controlling the Duel. Thunder King’s effect will also stop cards like “Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Sangan” from seeing play in the early game.

From there, the most likely situations are that Miller’s opponent will either have to Set a monster (that gets destroyed next turn), or simply takes a direct attack. “Future Visions” buys time to build Fortune Lady combos, while at the same time serving as the basis for any of those combos that start with “Fortune Lady Light.”

If Miller doesn’t open with “Future Visions” (or Visions is destroyed), he has a number of useful monsters he can rely on. “Thunder King Rai-Oh” and “Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer” serve as general beatsticks with useful effects. Paired with “Fortune Lady Light” and “Fortune Lady Dark,” Thunder King and Kycoo also provide a base of LIGHT and DARK monsters. That lets Miller play 2 “Chaos Sorcerer,” which can remove problems, stall for time, or serve as game-winning attackers.

“Tragoedia” is another excellent back-up plan. If the Deck’s combos aren’t coming together, it often winds up with a bunch of cards in-hand that it can’t use yet. Those cards each contribute 600 ATK to “Tragoedia” once it hits the field, and Fortune Ladies like Water and Dark can be discarded to take opposing monsters with “Tragoedia’s” effect. If Miller really needs to bring “Tragoedia” to the field, he can even ram one of his smaller monsters into a bigger one to take a bit of damage and get “Tragoedia” into play with its effect.

Of course, if the Deck’s combos ARE working, that means “Tragoedia” gets even better. Fortune Ladies can draw a lot of cards thanks to “Fortune Lady Water” and “Fortune’s Future,” and all of those draw effects can help Miller capitalize with Tragoedia. Big ATK and stolen monsters aren’t something most competitors are expecting from Fortune Ladies, but it’s what “Tragoedia” brings to this Deck.

Whether the Deck starts off big or takes a little while to build towards its goals, things eventually tend to come together. “Fortune Lady Light” is the key: when “Fortune Lady Light” is removed from the field by a card effect, she can Special Summon any other Fortune Lady from your Deck. That means “Future Visions” and “Fortune Lady Light” can instantly Special Summon any Fortune Lady from Miller’s Deck. “Fortune Lady Fire” will destroy a monster and deal burn damage. “Fortune Lady Water” can draw two cards if you control another Fortune Lady at the time, and “Fortune Lady Dark” is a big attacker that can Special Summon other Fortune Ladies from the Graveyard when she destroys a monster in battle.

But there are more ways to claim Light’s effect. Slam her into “Mirror Force” and you’ll score a Special Summon. Lose her to “Torrential Tribute” and her effect will trigger once the Chain resolves. Even getting “Fortune Lady Light” in the first place can be a combo. Miller plays “Rai-Mei,” so he can slam “Rai-Mei” into a monster, Special Summon “Tragoedia” from the damage, and get “Fortune Lady Light” with “Rai-Mei’s” effect.

“Fortune Lady Dark” has some cool combos as well. Miller can remove her for “Allure of Darkness,” then activate “Fortune’s Future” to send Lady Dark to the Graveyard. That combo not only turns “Fortune’s Future” into “Pot of Greed” (drawing Miller 2 cards without losing anything in the process), but it gives him one of the two monsters he needs in his Graveyard to Special Summon “Chaos Sorcerer.”

The strength of the Fortune Lady theme is that when the Deck works, it draws tons of cards, blows away monsters, and swarms the field. But as with any Deck, when it draws the wrong cards in the wrong order, it can stall out. The brilliance of Miller’s Deck is that he’s compensated for that with a bunch of different back-up plans. That redundancy makes the Deck a strong entry into today’s field!