Locking a Nekroz player out of using Spell Cards is a pretty good game plan to win, but figuring out the best way to pull that off is dependent on your strategy. If you’re lucky enough to be able to Summon Spellcasters, Secret Village of the Spellcasters along with Terraforming to search it may be your best option. What strategies are these? Well Burning Abyss, Nekroz, and Shaddoll are the ones we’ve seen use it the most.

While Burning Abyss doesn’t seem like the type of Deck that can easily Summon Spellcasters, Duelists have realized that both Downerd Magician and Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss fulfill the role quite well. Summoning Downerd Magician is as easy as Summoning Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss which is the main game plan for Burning Abyss. Downerd Magician also guarantees that Dante will hit the Graveyard rather than get banished from the Field because it’s an Xyz Material. Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss is a bit better because its effect is so strong; it is also quite easy to Summon anytime you have access to Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss or Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to find Rubic. By making a big Field and backing it up with Secret Village of the Spellcasters , Burning Abyss can put out a very fast clock to give the opponent a minimal amount of time to find an out.

While Secret Village of the Spellcasters is very good against Nekroz, this Ritual Deck can also utilize it as well. Setting up Nekroz of Gungnir along with Secret Village of the Spellcasters creates a powerful soft lock that is quite difficult to break. Normally, Summoning a Spellcaster of your own can answer an opposing Secret Village of the Spellcasters, but in this case because of Nekroz of Gungnir’s effect the Nekroz player can simply discard a Nekroz card to blow away the Spellcaster. Some Nekroz Duelists are also using Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz, Dance Princess of the Nekroz, Zefrasaber, Swordmaster of the Nekroz, and even Mathematician as ways to help them create their own lock and beat opposing ones.

Shaddoll is the most straightforward strategy that can use Secret Village of the Spellcasters because all Shaddoll Monsters are also Spellcasters. However, as far as their Fusion Monsters go, only El Shaddoll Winda is a Spellcaster so while they cannot just Fusion Summon recklessly while Secret Village of the Spellcasters is in play, they can stay pretty safe with Winda because of its effect to protect it from opposing destruction.

However, with using Secret Village of the Spellcasters also comes drawbacks. Burning Abyss for example cannot Special Summon Malebranches from their hand while they control Spell or Trap cards. Both Nekroz and Shaddoll are hindered severely when they are cut off from Spells, so if they ever have Secret Village of the Spellcasters but don’t have a Spellcaster, they are suddenly locked out themselves from their main game plan.

Secret Village of the Spellcasters is just another of many ways Duelists have chosen to fight against Nekroz, and along with Terraforming Duelists can typically find it quite easily. Will a Field Spell disruption strategy be the most effective? We’ll have to see!