It’s been about 3 weeks since the release of Return of the Duelist, and I hope everyone has been having fun with all the new cards! The last few weeks of Dueling have been pretty interesting. At YCS Toronto, we saw two extremely successful Decks in the Top 4 that were built by combining new Return of the Duelist cards with older cards. There was a Geargia Deck that used Geargiarmor, Geargiaccelerator, Geargiarsenal, and Gear Gigant X along with Machina Gearframe, Machina Peacekeeper, and Machina Fortress. And the very cool second place Deck combined Grandsoil the Elemental Lord with EARTH Psychic monsters from Extreme Victory, Crossroads of Chaos, and The Duelist Genesis.

I mentioned way back in August that the Prophecy monsters and Spellbook cards can work with all Spellcaster-based strategies, and in light of the recent success of Duelists who are combining Return of the Duelist cards with their old favorites, I thought I’d share some cool combos you can do by combining Return of the Duelist cards with some of my old favorites!

Chaos Command Magician + Spellbook of Wisdom

Hands up if you loved Magician’s Force! I know I did, and one of my favorite cards was Chaos Command Magician. It’s a Level 6 LIGHT Spellcaster with 2400 ATK that negates any monster effect that targets it and only it. It was also under consideration for Battle Pack: Epic Dawn through the final stages of development, but was eventually cut when we realized we had too many high-Level monsters. It’s a shame, because the card was pretty darn good, negating Snowman Eaters, Exiled Forces, Rykos, and Grave Squirmers everywhere.

Speaking of Snowman Eater, guess what’s a really popular card in the Advanced Format these days! That’s right, Snowman Eater. And what else is popular? Trap Cards that blow up all of your monsters. By combining Chaos Command Magician (which you can Special Summon with Temperance of Prophecy) with Spellbook of Wisdom, you can have a monster that’s immune to both Traps and cards like Snowman Eater.

Your Prophecy Deck + Reasoning and Monster Gate

Reasoning was recently bumped up to Semi-Limited, meaning you can have 2 copies of it in your Deck now. Monster Gate is a sleeper pick in Sealed, allowing you to trade a weaker monster for (hopefully) the best monster in your Deck. Both cards are great in a Prophecy-powered Deck. If you’re playing a full on Prophecy Deck, you likely have monsters at Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, making it extremely difficult for your opponent to guess correctly with Reasoning. In fact, if I were playing against a Prophecy Deck running Reasoning, I’d probably just pick 7 every time and hope for the best.

The problem with “Just pick 7” as a counter strategy is that even if you’re right, and they do flop a High Priestess of Prophecy into the Graveyard, Spellbook of Life is just going to bring her right back. And what about the rest of the cards revealed by Reasoning? There will be some Spellbooks going to the Graveyard, which are just going to fuel the fires of rage that burn within Prophecy Destroyer, buff up Strength of Prophecy, or enhance the power of other Spellbooks like… whoops! Can’t talk about that yet!

Monster Gate guarantees that you’ll get a monster out of the deal, which seems fair because you have to Tribute a monster to activate it. It really isn’t though.  Tribute a spent Spellbook Magician of Prophecy and not only do you get the Spellbook it searched out, you also get a stronger monster. Probably. There’s always the chance you’ll get another Spellbook Magician, but it’s considerably less likely since you’ve already played one. Monster Gate combos especially well with Prophecy Destroyer. Tribute the Destroyer, Special Summon a new monster, and if you hit 3 or more Spellbooks on the way, bring Prophecy Destroyer right back to the field!

Amores of Prophecy + Spellcasters that need to be Special Summoned.

There are two particular Spellcasters I have in mind that can really make use of the Special Summon from Amores of Prophecy. The first one is Night’s End Sorcerer. It’s a Tuner that can banish 2 cards from your opponent’s Graveyard when it’s Special Summoned. The Levels of Amores and Night’s End Sorcerer add up to 5, which can let you Synchro Summon any number of useful monsters, including Ally of Justice Catastor and T.G. Hyper Librarian. You can also use Amores to Special Summon Fortune Lady Water, hopefully triggering its powerful effect to draw 2 cards.

And finally, the definition of a “killer combo”:

Your Level 7 or higher Spellcaster + Diffusion Wave-Motion + Spellbook of Power

Choose any Level 7+ Spellcaster you like. With effects like Spellbook of Life and Strength of Prophecy, it doesn’t even have to be a Spellcaster that’s usually Level 7+. Then, hook it up with Spellbook of Power and Diffusion Wave-Motion. Now it’s got 1000 extra ATK, attacks every monster you opponent controls, negates and prevents the activation of the effects of any monster it destroys, and for every monster it destroys, you get to add another Spellbook from your Deck to the hand.

Nothing says “I win!” quite like smashing up all of your opponent’s Geargia monsters and Machina Fortresses with your Dark Magician and grabbing 4 extra Spell Cards from your Deck. For bonus points, go full TV-mode and do it with Dark Paladin against a field full of Lightpulsar and Darkflare Dragons. All of those extra Spellbooks you plucked out of your Deck can then be used to negate all of your opponent’s Spells next turn!

Those are just 4 of my favorite combos that use Return of the Duelist Spellcasters and Spellbooks along with older cards. See what other awesome combos you can come up with on your own!