Madolche

"Madolche" (マドルチェ Madoruche, pronounced as "mah-DOL-chay") is an archetype of EARTH-Attribute monsters.

The names of the "Madolche" are puns of French and Italian desserts and titles or animal sounds, depending on the monster's type. The Fairy-type monsters are the royalty, and thus have royalty-based puns (i.e. "Madolche Puddingcess" which is a pun of the dessert "Pudding" and the royal title of "Princess"). The Warrior and Spellcaster-type monsters make up the servants, and have puns that relate to their occupation (i.e. "Madolche Butlerusk" is a combination of the job title, "Butler," and the snack, "Rusk"). The Beast-type monsters have puns reflecting the sound of the animal that they make. For example, ("Madolche Baaple" is a mixture of "Maple" from "Maple Syrup" and "Baa" (the sound a sheep makes)).

The name of the archetype, "Madolche," is itself a pun. It is a combination of the words "magic" ("mahou" in Japanese) and "dolce" (pronounced "dol-chay"), the Italian word for "sweet". All Madolche monsters stand on various sweets in the shape of a jigsaw puzzle piece. Also, close inspection on the limbs of all the Madolche artworks (including the horse that Madolche Chouxvalier rides) shows what appear to be sewing seams, implying that all characters are dolls or plushies.

The following list displays each of the cards' names, and the puns that form them.

Playing Style
The Madolche focus on recycling their cards for repeated use, with all of the Madolche monsters being sent either back to the deck or to the hand after being destroyed by an opponent. Several of those monsters have effects that send Madolche-specific Spell and Trap cards from the Graveyard back to the deck, or from the deck to your hand. This makes the Madolche very difficult to Deck Out, a strategy almost entirely opposite to many other contemporary archetypes.

While the deck does not do any deck thinning on its own, it does however feature a wide variety of searchers, making the deck highly stable. "Madolche Butlerusk" is capable of scanning the deck for a field spell, which is mostly exclusively used for "Madolche Chateau". "Madolche Messengelato" can search for any Madolche spell or trap card, allowing easy access to many support cards. "Madolche Magileine" and "Madolche Ticket" are easily capable of searching for other monsters from the deck, and "Madolche Marmalmaide" can recycle spells and traps, which are likely the only cards that will stay in the graveyard.

This also gives the Madolche a unique ability to deplete your opponent's resources; the archetype is largely unaffected by widespread destruction cards like "Dark Hole" or "Torrential Tribute", and in fact benefit from their opponents' use of it, able to quickly swarm back to the field while their opponent has no monsters with help from cards like "Madolche Ticket" and "Ultimate Offering".

The ultimate goal of most Madolche decks is to swarm the field with low-level monsters and power them up quickly through use of "Madolche Chateau" and "Madolche Lesson". The main powerhouse cards used are "Madolche Puddingcess" and "Madolche Queen Tiaramisu"; they have relatively high ATK (so long as Puddingcess' effect requirement of the Graveyard being empty is met) and powerful effects to deplete your opponents' field presence, clearing the way for the weaker monsters to attack directly.

Because of their ability to swarm the field, they can also quickly and easily Xyz Summon Rank 4 or 3 monsters, and especially EARTH Attribute support such as "Soul of Silvermountain" or "Fairy King Albverdich". "Genex Ally Birdman" makes ideal support for performing a Synchro Summon, bouncing a Madolche back to your hand so you can use their effect again to summon itself. "Genex Ally Triforce" is ideal for this, since Level 4 monsters are common in this archetype, and using an EARTH Attribute activates the effect of "Triforce" to keep an opponent's Spell and Trap cards from activating during battle. But be careful with these styles of summon, since they place Madolche in the Graveyard unavoidably.

The Madolche also wields a very powerful OTK combo much alike the Gadget, with Ultimate Offering and a single copy of "Madolche Magileine" in the hand (suppose your opponent controls 2 cards - which is the ideal case):
 * Activate "Ultimate Offering" and use it to continuously Normal Summon Magileine, use its effect to add another copy to the hand, then finish with "Madolche Butlerusk" to add "Madolche Chateau".
 * Activate Chateau, then Xyz Summon "Madolche Queen Tiaramisu" and another rank 4 Xyz Monster which can detach freely (recommended "Lavalval Chain" or "Fairy King Albverdich"). Detach Majoleine from it for the Graveyard presence, then detach another "Magileine" from "Tiaramisu" to target both "Magileine", return them to the hand (with the effect of "Chateau") and shuffle 2 opponent's cards from the field back to the Deck.
 * Use "Offering" to summon 2 "Magileine" back to the field, adding "Madolche Cruffssant" and "Madolche Mewfeuille" (or "Madolche Messengelato") to the hand.
 * Use Offering to summon Cruffsant, use its effect bounce back a "Magileine" to hand to make it level 4. Then summon that "Magileine" again to get "Messengelato" (or "Mew-feuille", the order is up to you).
 * Xyz Summon "Number 16: Shock Master" using 2 "Magileine" and level 4 "Cruffsant".
 * Use Offering to summon "Mewfeuille", use it to Special Summon "Messengelato" to fetch "Madolche Ticket".
 * From this point, you can either activate the effect of "Shock Master" declaring "monster" to prevent things like "Gorz" and "Tragoedia", or "trap" to prevent those nasty ones, then attack for game. Or you can just leave it until Main Phase 2 if something happened. With both "Chateau" and "Ticket" backing you up, along with "Tiaramisu" and some "Madolche", declaring "spell" would lock the opponent down badly for the upcoming turns.

Total damage: 2700 + at least 1800 + 2300 + 1000 + 2100 = at least 9900 battle damage, with the cost of 4000 Life Points (8 Normal Summons with "Offering" in addition)

The Madolche are also in possession of an effect damage loop that abuses the effects of "Madolche Waltz", "Madolche Chateau", and "Desperate Tag". While those three cards are active and the player controls at least two of the Warrior-type Madolche, they can use "Desperate Tag" to continuously attack a more powerful opponent, cause 300 damage with "Waltz", Special Summon a new Warrior, and return the old one to the hand. Madolche Messengelato is preferable for this so long as you also have a Beast-type on the field, since each time it is Special Summoned you can add one of the Madolche Spell or Trap cards to your hand, further increasing your hand and field advantage. Madolche Chouxvalier works fine as well, since his effect prevents your other Madolche from being targeted for attacks.

There are 2 Modulche cars that make a powerful beatstick combo that can return to the field whenever destoryed by your opponent: Modulche Chatchu and Modulche Butlerusk. When Chatchu is active on the field, Butlerusk gains an extra 500 ATK, AND, his ability returns him to the hand instead of the Deck when destroyed. Thanks to the boost from Madolche Chatchu, Butlerusk is at 2000 ATK when hes summoned, and he can be re-summoned when ever destroyed on your next turn. This combo makes Butlerusk an excellent, re-summonable beatstick monster as long as the Chatchu stays on the field and Butlerusk isn't sent to the Graveyard by your own card effects.

Weaknesses
The biggest weakness of the archetype is its reliance on its Spell and Trap support; cards efficient at negating or destroying them, like "Great Shogun Shien" or "XX-Saber Hyunlei" are a serious threat to most Madolche decks. "Lightray Daedalus" in particular, as it's easy to summon and specifically targets Field Spells before targeting other cards, and fits neatly into a deck able to summon "Judgment Dragon", another powerful destruction engine. "Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En" can also be difficult to counter, though whether his effect is more potent than Shogun Shien is arguable, or even situational, since destroying a Madolche Spell or Trap card and leaving in the Graveyard makes a valid target for Tiaramisu.

Cards that can limit a player's ability to search, like "Thunder King Rai-Oh" or "Drastic Drop Off" can severely hinder a Madolche player's ability to gather resources. Rai-Oh can also block the summoning of Tiaramisu and send all the monsters involved to the Grave, and no other Madolche is strong enough to destroy Rai-Oh without help.

"The End of Anubis" and "Soul Drain" will negate the effects of Madolche in the Graveyard, greatly hindering their ability to recycle themselves. Similarly, "Macro Cosmos" will prevent any Madolche cards from being sent to the Graveyard at all, preventing not only their own effects, but keeping the ace card Tiaramisu from having any valid targets in the Grave. "Necrovalley" will keep other cards from targeting Madolche cards in the Grave, but Madolche monsters themselves will still be able to activate their own effects.