Over the years, many Fairy-based strategies have seen great success at YCS events. Counter Fairy, Herald of Perfection, and Master Hyperion based Decks both with tons of Traps and no Traps and with or without T.G. monsters have all been successful at one time or another. And now they’re all back!

Between the newfound lack of Heavy Storm and the release of Transmodify in Judgment of the Light, the lines between Fairy strategies have begun to blur. Master Hyperion based Decks with The Agent of Mystery – Earth and The Agent of Creation – Venus can still start off with their classic combo of Venus with Mystical Shine Balls to Xyz Summon Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. But with Transmodify in the mix, they can follow up by sending away Venus to Summon Bountiful Artemis straight from the Deck and back it up with Counter Traps. Thanks to Transmodify, you don’t even need to dedicate to an Artemis/Counter Trap strategy. You can keep one Artemis in your Deck, play some number of Counter Traps, and simply pull Artemis from the Deck whenever it would be useful. And if you get it when it isn’t useful or you run out of Counter Traps to use with it, feel free to Xyz Summon Fairy Cheer Girl with it and The Agent of Miracles – Jupiter for even more free draws.

On the Ritual Summoning side of things, the only things that really limit Herald of Perfection’s ability to lock out the opponent once it’s on the field are the rules of simultaneous effects and the number of Fairy monsters you can draw to pay for its negation effect. With Transmodify, the LIGHT Fairy Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands can be swapped out for Tethys, Goddess of Light. With Herald, Tethys, and a bit of luck, you can refill your entire hand with Fairy-Type monsters every time your turn rolls around and end the Duel quickly with its 2400 ATK!

And of course, with the Semi-Limitation of T.G. Striker and the total un-Limitation of The Agent of Mystery – Earth, Synchro-powered Fairy Decks are more viable than they’ve been in a long time. And that’s great news for anyone itching to throw down with Judgment of the Light’s Angel of Zera! Angel of Zera is a Fairy Deck’s best friend. As a Level 8 LIGHT-Fairy, it can be Summoned with The Agent of Mystery – Earth or T.G. Striker and 3 Mystic Shine Balls, or with a combo like T.G. Striker, T.G. Warwolf, and The Agent of Creation – Venus, leaving the Mystic Shine Balls to be used for an Xyz Summon.

The fact that Angel of Zera is a LIGHT-Fairy makes it absolutely devastating in conjunction with Master Hyperion. After Angel of Zera is destroyed, you can banish it to pay for Master Hyperion’s effect to destroy a card, then Summon Angel of Zera during the next turn’s Standby Phase. That makes it a great card to soften up impressive rows of Spell & Trap Cards. Banshing cards like Dimensional Prison are useless because the Angel will just return, and wasting a Mirror Force on it leaves you down a Mirror Force and in a position where Master Hyperion can destroy another of your cards and set the Angel up to revive.

And did we mention it gains 100 ATK for every one of your opponent’s banished cards? Those cards tend to pile up in any Deck that makes use of 1 or more Dragon Rulers, Prophecy, and of course, other Fairy Decks.

There are so many different ways you can build a Fairy Deck right now, that their biggest weakness might be lack of focus. With so many powerful strategies, Duelists will be likely to try and fit as many as possible into their 40 card Deck. Whether or not they will succeed, remains to be seen.