You’ve probably noticed lots of different types of Decks at the top tables of YCS Niagara Falls. Many of the themes in those Decks are combined with other themes to form a top competitive Deck. With all of the Deck types out there, it can get a bit confusing to see them combined in so many different ways. Let’s break the themes down one at a time to explain how each of them works as used in the top Decks this weekend!

• Spright

The Spright cards from Power of the Elements are at the heart of an engine that focuses on Summoning Level/Rank/Link 2 cards. The Level 2 Spright monsters in the Deck are a breeze to Special Summon, because you can Special Summon them from your hand just by controlling a Level or Rank 2 monster. In addition, a few them have effects that activate if they’re Special Summoned. Spright Blue lets you add a Spright monster to your hand, including Spright Jet, and Spright Jet lets you add a Spright Spell or Trap Card to your hand. Most Spright Duelists use Spright Smashers and Spright Starter in their Decks to add to their hands with Spright Jet. Spright Smashers is a Quick-Play Spell Card that banishes an opponent’s card. Spright Starter Special Summons a Spright monster from the Deck before locking you into only Summoning Level/Rank/Link 2 monsters for the rest of the turn. Spright Starter literally “starts” the Deck running, since it can Special Summon Spright Blue, which in turn lets you add Spright Jet to your hand. Spright Starter can also be used to Special Summon a Spright monster that negates the effects of an opponent’s cards, like Spright Red or Spright Carrot. Spright Decks often fill the field with cards that can disrupt an opponent’s strategy.

The Spright theme also consists of two of the most powerful Extra Deck monsters used this weekend: Gigantic Spright and Spright Elf. Gigantic Spright is a Rank 2 monster that lets you Special Summon any Level 2 monster from your Deck. After you use this effect, you and your opponent can only Summon Level/Rank/Link 2 monsters for the rest of the turn, which means your opponent can’t use the effect of Nibiru, the Primal Being after Gigantic Spright’s effect resolves. Spright Elf is a Link 2 monster that protects the monsters it points to and that lets you Special Summon monsters from your Graveyard once per turn. In Spright Decks, these cards are often combined with Frogs.

• Frogs

Most Spright Duelists use Swap Frog, Dupe Frog, and Ronintoadin in their Decks to build a small engine focused on Summoning Toadally Awesome. If you don’t naturally draw Swap Frog while using a Spright Deck, you can Special Summon it from your Deck with Gigantic Spright since Swap Frog is a Level 2 monster. Swap Frog can send Ronintoadin and your other Frogs to the Graveyard, and Ronintoadin is able to Special Summon itself from your Graveyard if you banish a Frog from the Graveyard. Spright Elf lets you revive your Swap Frog to use its effect again after sending it to the Graveyard in a Link Summon. With the combined effects of Swap Frog and Ronintoadin, it’s easy to Summon Level 2 Aqua monsters to your field so that you can Xyz Summon Toadally Awesome. Toadally Awesome can negate the activation of any card your opponent uses – and Set an opponent’s card to your field – making it one of the toughest cards for an opponent to handle. In addition, Spright Elf’s effect lets you Special Summon it from your Graveyard after using its effect on your opponent’s turn, as long as your opponent controls a monster. That means you can use it against your opponent twice in a single turn!

• Tearlaments

The Tearlaments cards from Power of the Elements have effects that activate if they’re sent to the Graveyard. Most of these effects allow you to Fusion Summon monsters by returning cards from your hand, field, and/or Graveyard to your Deck. This effect is handy for Summoning boss monsters like Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart, or monsters that help you build even bigger plays like Tearlaments Kitkallos. In addition, most of the Tearlaments monsters have effects that send cards from the top of your Deck to your Graveyard to help you trigger their effects. Tearlaments Scheiren, Tearlaments Merrli, and Tearlaments Havnis can each send the top 3 cards of your Deck to your Graveyard. Tearlaments Reinoheart has a different effect that achieves the same purpose. Reinoheart lets you send a Tearlaments monster of your choosing from your Deck to your Graveyard if it’s Summoned. Plus, if it’s sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, you can Special Summon it and send a Tearlaments card from your hand to your Graveyard.

The Tearlaments theme plays a lot like old Lightsworn Decks, because they thrive on sending cards from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard, and then hope to use the effects of the sent cards. But since the effects of the Tearlaments monsters work even when they’re sent from the hand to the Graveyard by a card effect, many Duelists are combining them with the Danger! Monsters.

• Danger!

Like the Tearlaments, the Danger! monsters have effects that activate if they’re discarded. For example, Danger! Bigfoot! destroys an opponent’s face-up card and Danger!? Tsuchinoko? Special Summons itself to the field. In addition, all of the Danger! monsters have effects that can be activated from the hand. These effects let you discard a random card. If that card isn’t the Danger! monster whose effect you activated, you then get to draw a card and Special Summon the Danger! monster to your field. This provides Tearlaments Duelists an outlet for discarding Tearlaments monsters from the hand to trigger their card effects. In addition, it helps get Danger! monsters onto the field to facilitate Link Summons or other Summoning techniques.

• Runick

The Runick Spells from Tactical Masters banish cards from your opponent’s Deck and come with a variety of other effects that include destroying a monster, destroying a Spell or Trap Card, and negating a monster’s effect. In addition, each of them has an effect that lets you Special Summon a Runick monster from your Extra Deck to your Extra Monster Zone. There are three monsters that can be Summoning with this effect, including Hugin the Runick Wings, which gives you immediate access to the strongest card in a Runick Deck – Runick Fountain.

Runick Fountain lets you play your Runick Quick-Play Spells from your hand during your opponent’s turn. Plus, once per turn, if you activate a Runick Quick-Play Spell, you can return up to three Runick Quick-Play Spells from your Graveyard to the bottom of your Deck to draw the same number of cards as you returned. In a Deck with heavy reliance on the Runick theme, it’s not unusual to draw 3 extra cards each turn with Runick Fountain. When you combine the Runick theme with other themes, that means you’ll more quickly draw the cards you need from your additional themes, building in a natural synergy with the Runicks.

• Adventure

Duelists using the Adventure cards typically use Rite of Aramesir, Water Enchantress of the Temple, Fateful Adventure, Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon, and Wandering Gryphon Rider. The objective is to use Rite of Aramesir to Special Summon an Adventurer Token to the field and place Fateful Adventure in the Spell and Trap Card Zone. Then, Fateful Adventure can get you Wandering Gryphon Rider with its effect, and Wandering Gryphon Rider can negate the activation of any card or effect. It’s a simple line of play with a powerful outcome. Along the way, Summoning a monster can grab you Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon with the effect of Fateful Adventure. Dracoback comes in handy when you want to return an opponent’s card to the hand.

Although activating Rite of Aramesir cuts you off from using the effects of Normal Summoned monsters that turn, the engine synergizes with a number of popular strategies. Water Enchantress of the Temple can be banished from your hand or Graveyard to get Rite of Aramesir from your Deck or Graveyard, which means you can discard it with the effect of a Danger! monster or a Tearlaments monster and then have immediate access to Rite of Aramesir.

• P.U.N.K.

The P.U.N.K. monsters used in the top Decks this weekend mostly feature Noh-P.U.N.K. Ze Amin, Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune, and Noh-P.U.N.K. Deer Note. Ze Amin is a Level 3 Psychic Tuner, which means that you can Special Summon it with Emergency Teleport, and also use it to help Summon Crystron Halqifibrax. Once it’s on the field, you can pay 600 Life Points to add another P.U.N.K. monster from your Deck to your hand. Foxy Tune and Deer Note help to Special Summon monsters, allowing you to build more impressive fields. In addition, since they’re Levels 5 and 8 respectively, they can sometimes be used in a high-Level Synchro Summon to help Summon a powerful monster like Baronne de Fleur.

The current Advanced Format features lots of different themes that are being used together in a wide variety of Decks. If you understand how these themes work and how they interact with other themes, you’ll become a stronger Duelist.