Amazoness

"Amazoness" (アマゾネス Amazonesu) is an archetype of female EARTH-Attribute Warrior-Type monsters (with the exception of "Amazoness Tiger", who is a Beast-Type monster) that were introduced in Labyrinth of Nightmare, with further support in Magician's Force and Duelist Revolution. Their names include "Amazoness", with the exception of "Amazon Archer", which in Gold Series 3 was changed to "Amazoness Archer". Although "The Unfriendly Amazon" is similar in name, it is not considered an "Amazoness".

Mai Valentine and Tania have both used "Amazoness" cards in the anime. The monsters are based on the Amazons from Greek mythology.

Play style
The "Amazoness" monsters have average ATK and effects, and are designed either to weaken the opponent's monsters or strengthen themselves. Key cards include "Amazoness Village", "Amazoness Paladin", "Amazoness Tiger", and "Amazoness Queen".

With the additions to the "Amazoness" archetype in Duelist Revolution, they have more support for field-flooding and field control. Using "Amazoness Village", "Amazoness Willpower", and "Queen's Pawn" allows them to swarm the field much faster and more easily. "Amazoness Queen", "Amazoness Heirloom", and "Amazoness Scouts" can help keep your "Amazoness" on the field while you increase their ATK with "Amazoness Village" and "Amazoness Fighting Spirit".

While their ATK is often weak for their Level, cards such as "Amazoness Tiger" and "Amazoness Paladin" increase in strength relative to the number of other "Amazoness" on the field. "Amazoness Trainee" increases in strength for every monster she destroys. "Amazoness Queen" protects all "Amazoness" monsters from destruction in battle, while "Amazoness Sage" can destroy one Spell or Trap Card at the end of each attack; with these two cards alone, a player can defend his or her monsters, while slowly dismantling an opponent's back row.

Censoring

 * When the "Amazoness" cards are played in the English dubbed anime, they are re-drawn to be less revealing in appearance. While in TCG until recently, most of them weren't censored, unlike similar female monsters such as "Harpies".

Strengths
Common build strategies for this archetype include:


 * Solidarity Build: Run multiple copies of "Solidarity" to give each of your Amazoness an 800 ATK boost. This build requires eliminating all non-Warrior-type cards from your deck, including "Amazoness Tiger".


 * Burden Build: Use "Burden of the Mighty" to weaken an opponent's monsters, making them more susceptible to attacks by your medium-strength Amazoness monsters. However, this strategy is somewhat obsolete due to the current dominance of Xyz Monsters. But you can supplement this strategy with cards like "Gozen Match" and "Rivalry of Warlords" to hinder them from Xyz Summoning.


 * Synchro Build: Warrior-type Tuners such as "T.G. Striker" and "X-Saber Pashuul" can be employed to summon numerous Synchro Monsters. "Rose, Warrior of Revenge" is also one of the most recommended Tuners, since she's a Level 4 Tuner that can be used in conjunction with most Level 4 Amazoness to Synchro Summon "Colossal Fighter" (for beating down most monsters) and "Crimson Blader" (for locking down opponent's high-Level Summons). All Amazoness monsters are also EARTH Attribute, means that they can also be used for Synchro Summoning Naturia Synchro Monsters, such as "Naturia Beast", "Naturia Barkion", and "Naturia Landoise" for Spell, Trap, and Effect Monster negation respectively (provided that they also use an EARTH-Attribute Tuners). Since most Synchro-based decks requires flexibility, cards like "Solidarity" and "Rivalry of Warlords" is not recommended in this build.


 * Xyz Build: Most Amazoness monsters are Level 4, and is perfect for setting up Xyz Summons. Using "Goblindbergh", "Photon Thrasher", "Kagetokage" and "Heroic Challenger - Double Lance" can speeding up the process of Xyz Summoning Rank 4 monsters. Notable choices are "Number 39: Utopia", "Heroic Champion - Excalibur", "Maestroke the Symphony Djinn", or even "Number 16: Shock Master" and "Evilswarm Ouroboros".


 * Anti-Meta: Most Amazoness monsters does not rely on external sources like Graveyard manipulation, Deck searching, Special Summoning and so on, means that they can also be used as Anti-Meta strategy utilizing Anti-Meta cards like "Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer", "Imperial Iron Wall", "Macro Cosmos", "Vanity's Emptiness", "Thunder King Rai-Oh" or even more obscure choices like "Grave of the Super Ancient Organism" or "Summon Limit". "Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders" can also give this deck more resiliency, while also opening access into Rank 7 Xyz Summon.

Weaknesses
Massive field control comes at a cost. Most of Amazoness decks will always have trouble when fighting Decks with a strong focus of nullifying Spell and Trap Cards (Since many of their Spell/Traps are key points for their survivability, especially "Amazoness Village"). Amazoness decks also having a hard time to breakthrough Spells and Traps that can stop their attacks, like "Messenger of Peace", "Level Limit - Area B", and "Gravity Bind". Cards such as "Dust Tornado", "Mystical Space Typhoon", "Seven Tools of the Bandit", and Xyz Monsters can counter such plays.

Amazoness decks also weak against decks that can either: outspeed them completely, like Mermails and Six Samurais, or decks that have more control and advantage-grinding quality, such as Prophecy, Gadgets, or even Dark World decks.

"Skill Drain" can be problematic to any Amazoness decks, due to most of their monsters are either have Continuous Effects or effects that can only be useful while battling.

Over-reliance towards "Amazoness Village" makes this deck hard to maintain. Without it, this deck usually suffers from not having enough resources to maintain field presence, which (only) Amazoness Village can provide. To remedy this problem, a player can either add more external support such as "Marauding Captain" and "Warrior Lady of the Wasteland", add more draw power via "Pot of Duality", "Reckless Greed", and/or "Shard of Greed", or add protection via "Safe Zone", "Forbidden Lance", and/or "Fiendish Chain".