YCS Ft. Worth: 2nd Place Deck Profile – Raphael Neven’s Orcust Deck
Raphael Neven traveled to YCS Ft. Worth from the Netherlands to compete this weekend, confident in the power of his Orcust Deck. Take a look at the Deck he piloted to a 2nd place finish!
Main Deck: 41 Cards
Monsters: 26
1 Armageddon Knight
3 Scrap Recycler
3 Knightmare Corruptor Iblee
3 Orcust Harp Horror
2 Orcust Knightmare
1 Orcust Cymbal Skeleton
1 World Legacy – “World Wand”
3 Nibiru, the Primal Being
3 Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay
3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
1 Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher
2 Linkslayer
Spells: 11
1 Orcustrated Babel
2 Orcustrated Return
1 Foolish Burial
3 Instant Fusion
1 Monster Reborn
3 Cosmic Cyclone
Traps: 4
1 Orcust Crescendo
3 Infinite Impermanence
Extra Deck: 15
3 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton
1 Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator
2 Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star
2 Knightmare Mermaid
1 Knightmare Phoenix
1 Knightmare Cerberus
1 Topologic Bomber Dragon
1 Topologic Trisbaena
1 Borrelsword Dragon
1 El Shaddoll Winda
1 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
Side Deck: 15
3 Twin Twisters
3 Artifact Lancea
3 Called by the Grave
2 D.D. Crow
1 Chimeratech Megafleet Dragon
3 Mind Control
There are lots of different Orcust variants that Duelists used in this weekend’s event. I asked Neven why he stuck with his dedicated pure build.
“I think pure Orcust is very consistent. The Deck basically plays by using 1 card, which means the other 4 or 5 cards [in an opening hand] can be anything that combats the rest of the metagame. And this meta is very broad – there are many Decks you can play. So I like playing utility cards, like ‘hand traps’ and Cosmic Cyclone.” Neven believes that, because there are so many different Decks that are viable right now, it’s important to have room in the Deck for tech cards that can combat the meta. The pure Orcust build has the most room for those cards.
Neven explained that the “1 card” he’s referring to can be Armageddon Knight, Scrap Recycler, or Knightmare Corruptor Iblee, which can each single-handedly create a snowball of plays that allow him to build an impressive field. “Iblee is absolutely the best Normal Summon in the Deck,” he said.
“The Deck performs really well,” Neven said proudly. “I went 9-2 at YCS Ghent 2 weeks ago with it. I knew it was good. I’m really happy I was able to show this weekend that it is good.”
Setting his Orcust Deck apart from other pure Orcust builds, Neven uses 2 copies of Orcustrated Return in his Deck, which he can use to draw the cards he needs to disrupt his opponents’ plays. He also uses 2 copies of Linkslayer, which help him add a monster to the field after an opponent disrupts one of his plays to try to stop him in his tracks.
Neven described Linkslayer as an “extender”, which helps him enhance his fields when he’s trying to build a big one. “Everyone plays Dangers as extenders, but I didn’t like Dangers in this Deck, because there are no good cards to discard except for the Orcust cards.” Neven’s Deck is packed with utility cards that he wants to draw and keep in his hand until he uses them, so he opted to use Linkslayer over a suite of Danger cards.
Raphael Neven masterfully piloted his Orcust Deck to a 2nd place finish this weekend. We’re likely to see a lot more success in his Dueling future too!
