Did yesterday’s Mermail preview leave you hungry for more? Now that you’ve been formally introduced to the mermonster that is Mermail Abyssmegalo, it’s time to take a look at one of the top combos for Summoning him (or any other Mermail) straight from the Deck and a couple of the cards he can help you find.

When we looked at Abyssmegalo yesterday, we mentioned how it can get you any “Abyss-“ Spell or Trap Card when it’s Special Summoned with its own effect. The one that’s probably going to be first in the minds of many is this one, Abyss-sphere.

When you activate the Continuous Trap Abyss-sphere, you’ll Special Summon any Mermail monster from the depths of your Deck, with its on-field effects negated. As long as Abyss-sphere remains on the field, you can’t play any Spell Cards, and if it’s destroyed, it will take down your new Mermail with it. What’s more, Abyss-sphere will actively destroy itself in your opponent’s next End Phase once you’ve activated it.

While that doesn’t seem super-useful on its own, the card itself actually gives you a hint as to what you’re supposed to do with it. In fact, the hint is in its art. The mermaid in the picture is Mermail Abysslinde, and thanks to her Abyss-sphere can in fact get any Mermail from your Deck with its effect active.

Whenever Abysslinde is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, she Special Summons any Mermail from your Deck. Activate Abyss-sphere on your opponent’s turn to bring Abysslinde to the field. Because Abysslinde’s effect activates in the Graveyard, it doesn’t matter that its on-field effects are negated by Abyss-sphere. Either use it to block an attack, or just wait until the End Phase when Abyss-sphere destroys itself: Either way, Abysslinde will bring any Mermail out of your Deck – Abyssmegalo is a good choice! – and you didn’t have to worry about Abyss-sphere blocking your Spell Cards!

There are a ton of variations to this combo. Say you’ve got Atlantean Dragoons in your hand. At the end of your combo, have Abysslinde bring out one of your mermen like Mermail Abysspike and use its effect, discarding Dragoons. You’ll get the effect of your merman, and Dragoons will add Mermail Abyssmegalo to your hand. Now you’re free to Special Summon Abyssmegalo with its effect, and it will add an “Abyss-“ Spell/Trap to your hand – you could go for another Abyss-sphere to make a repeat of your combo, negate an opponent’s monster effect with the Equip Spell Abyss-scale of the Kraken, or make an explosive play with Abyss-squall!

Speaking of, Abyss-squall is a Normal Trap that Special Summons any three Mermails from your Graveyard, in defense position with their effects negated, and they’re destroyed at the End Phase. Much like Abyss-sphere, you just need a bit of clever play to get around Abyss-squall’s negative side effects. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

-Normal Summon Deep Sea Diva, and have it Special Summon another Diva. With two Tuners and three Mermails, you’ve got so many potential double-Synchro combinations, we couldn’t possibly list them all here.

-Use your monsters for Xyz Summons – you can go for any of your usual Xyz Monsters, but why settle for ordinary? Since Abyss-squall gives you three monsters, you can easily Xyz Summon tough-to-play monsters like Number 32: Shark Drake or Number 16: Shock Master!

-If you can’t or don’t want to use all three of your monsters, that’s actually OK. Make the third monster be Mermail Abysslinde or Mermail Abysshilde, and when it’s destroyed at the End Phase, you’ll Special Summon a Mermail from your Deck or hand, respectively.

There are a ton of possibilities here. You could even bring out 2 Mermail Abyssmegalo for a Rank 7 Xyz Summon. There are a couple of Rank 7 monsters available, but none command the seas like the Mermail king, Mermail Abyssgaios!

Mermail Abyssgaios is a very proud king indeed. If any Level 5 or higher monsters come around, he makes sure they know who’s in charge by preventing any of them from attacking while he has Xyz Material! To further prosper his undersea kingdom, Abyssgaios is also able to detach an Xyz Material to negate all your opponent’s monsters with less ATK than himself. Abyssgaios can use his effect on either turn, and with a whopping 2800 ATK, that usually means every one of their monsters will be affected!

There are so many new Mermail and Abyss cards coming in Abyss Rising, there’s simply no way to fit all of it here. You can see all the new WATER cards and more at the Abyss Rising Sneak Peeks on November 3^rd!