Yesterday we showed off the Zefra, a super team of ‘tellarknight, Yang Zing, Shaddoll, Nekroz, and Ritual Beast Tamer monsters that gained Pendulum Power and became Pendulum Monsters. The Strategy Site crew is going to talk about the individual effects of each the cards, so I’ll talk about the most difficult part of assembling any strategy that makes use of Pendulum Summoning: filling your Pendulum Zones!

Things have changed significantly from the last time we talked about setting up Pendulum Summons. There are far more Pendulum Monsters now than there were 8 months ago, and there are more ways to seek them out of your Deck. We’ve had a dedicated Pendulum strategy in the form of Qliphorts, and now an omni-Summoning strategy in the form of the Zefra from Crossed Souls. All of this means we can be more ambitious in our goals in terms of what we want out of our Pendulum Summons and how quickly we can assemble them. In a Zefra Deck, I want to be able to start Pendulum Summoning right away if I’m going second, or on my second turn if going first.

Let’s say that our target for Pendulum Summoning is being able to do it in at least 80% of our Duels after drawing our 6^th card. We can accomplish this by including 12 Pendulum Monsters with a low Scale and 12 Pendulum Monsters with a high Scale, 1 and 7 in the case of Zefra. We also have the option of replacing some of these Pendulum Monsters with other cards that can search out Pendulum Monsters, something that a Zefra-powered strategy has in abundance.

Reinforcement of the Army can be counted as either a Pendulum Scale 1 or Pendulum Scale 7, since it can search out Satellarknight Zefrathuban and Flash Knight. It can also search out Satellarknight Deneb, which can fetch Zefrathuban or its companion, Stellarknight Zefraxciton. Multiples can also be used in the same turn, so if you draw double Reinforcement of the Army, you’re golden. Nekroz of Brionac also counts as a wild card because it can be discarded to grab either Zefrasaber, Swordmaster of the Nekroz or Zefraxa, Flame Beast of the Nekroz, so it counts as a 1, a 7, and a monster we might want to Ritual Summon. Nekroz of Unicore doesn’t quite count as it would require us to get one of the Nekrozefra in the Graveyard first, but it’s absolutely worth Ritual Summoning. Sinister Shadow Games with a Shaddoll Hedgehog in the Deck could also potentially count, but I’d rather not have to rely on it.

Oracle of Zefra can also be considered either a 1 or a 7 as it gets any Zefra monster from your Deck, and if the rest of your hand already supports your Pendulum Summoning, it’s great for getting something to Pendulum Summon. As a Field Spell, Oracle of Zefra can be searched out of your Deck with Terraforming, so we can also count Terraforming as a 1 or a 7. Do be careful though, as you can only activate one Oracle of Zefra per turn. Double Oracle or Oracle/Terraforming doesn’t get you where you need to be if you’re going second, but it does get you going if you went first. You don’t need to Pendulum Summon on the very first turn of the Duel, so it doesn’t matter that you have to wait till your second turn to play the second Oracle. You’ve still reached your goal of being able to Pendulum Summon the same turn you’ve drawn your 6^th card.

So where does that leave us?

PENDULUM SCALE 1

Satellarknight Zefrathuban

Shaddoll Zefranaga

Zefraxi, Treasure of the Yang Zing

Zefrasaber, Swordmaster of the Nekroz

Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica

Oracle of Zefra

Nekroz of Brionac

Satellarknight Deneb

Reinforcement of the Army

PENDULUM SCALE 7

Stellarknight Zefraxciton

Shaddoll Zefracore

Zefrainu, Secret of the Yang Zing

Zefraxa, Flame Beast of the Nekroz

Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi

Flash Knight

Oracle of Zefra

Nekroz of Brionac

Satellarknight Deneb

Reinforcement of the Army

I’ve chosen to exclude Terraforming because I’d rather use the spot(s) it takes for something that expands the scope of the strategy past just Pendulum Summoning or a defensive card. Looking at the lists above, let’s make a few assumptions to limit the complexity of the problem we’re trying to solve and see where we end up.

Assumption #1: We run exactly 1 copy of each of the 10 “Zefra” monsters. That gives us 5 monsters with Scale 1, and 5 with Scale 7.

Assumption #2: We run 2 copies of each of the wild cards. We’ll treat each copy as a discrete card by assuming that one copy only searches out a Scale 1 card and the other copy only searches out a Scale 7 card. That brings us to 9 and 9.

Assumption #3: We will run Flash Knight because the power of the pendulum flashes forth from this shining knight.

Assumption #4: We will go first, which allows double Deneb, double-Nekroz of Brionac, and double-Oracle of Zefra to be considered a success. This isn’t that big of an assumption because most other Duelists will choose to go second given the chance.

That gives us 19 Pendulum Summoning cards, 9 with Scale 1 and 10 with Scale 7, along with 21 other cards that don’t figure in to Pendulum Summoning. With that setup, our chance of being able to Pendulum Summon by the time we’ve drawn our 6^th card is… 66.8%, which we’ll call 67%. That’s two thirds of our Duels, and matches are played best of 3. In theory, that means our strategy will work often enough to give us a chance to win every match assuming that the cards we don’t put into the Pendulum Zones will get the job done.

Incidentally, running Flash Knight as a 10^th card with a Pendulum Scale of 7 is worth a 3.2% increase in our overall Pendulum Summoning success rate and is a desirable card to put in the Pendulum Zone because it frees us up to Pendulum Summon another monster group in addition to Zefra.

To get to that coveted plateau of an 80% success rate and to increase the overall power of our Pendulum Summons, we’ll up the counts of both ‘tellarknight Zefra monsters to 3 and add a second copy of Zefraxi (because Synchro Monsters are cool and Metaphys Horus is very strong) which gives us 12 cards each for Pendulum Scale 1 and Pendulum Scale 7.

Keep in mind, however, that we got to this point by putting restrictions on what we can do with our wild cards, assuming we’ll either choose to or be forced to go first, and willingly playing fewer copies of Reinforcement of the Army than we’re allowed. Eliminating those restrictions and adding the third Reinforcement of the Army increases the odds of a Pendulum Summon happening while going second slightly reduces them, allowing for the possibility of drawing both copies of exactly 1 of the cards that you can only play 1 of each turn.

Strictly speaking, it’s unnecessary to play with every single Zefra monster, but if you do, and you can get them all into your Extra Deck, you will be well rewarded!

The Zefra are a true super team, they’re together and working towards victory on the field and off the field. Chosen of Zefra is a Trap Card that gains effects based on the number of different “Zefra” monsters you have in your Extra Deck. At 3 or more, all monsters you control, Zefra and otherwise, gain 100 ATK for every face-up card in either players Extra Deck. That’s a minimum of 300, which can be absolutely huge when applied to dangerous monsters like Nekroz of Unicore, most of the El Shaddoll Fusions, and most Synchro Monsters, all of which are totally viable to play in a Zefra Deck. In fact, grouping all of those monsters together in one Deck is the point of the whole exercise.

With 5 or more different Zefra, your monsters can’t be destroyed by enemy card effects and at 8 or more they can’t be targeted by enemy card effects either. Both are strong protection for your monsters, and because the effects stack up on Chosen of Zefra, they also come with 500+ or 800+ ATK boosts! That’s great, but the hammer really drops on your opponent if you can get a copy of every single Zefra monster into your Extra Deck. If you do, all of your opponent’s cards on the field, in their hand, and in their Graveyard, all get shuffled back into the Deck. And then you more than likely win by Pendulum Summoning 5 of those monsters back to the field. Most Duels won’t last long enough for this to happen, but pulling it off is something that you, and your opponent, will never forget.

Crossed Souls is coming sooner than you think! The Sneak Peeks are on May 9^th and/or 10^th, and the set launches on May 15^th!