Lightsworn

Lightsworns, known as Lightlords in the Korean and Japanese version, are a set of monsters introduced in Light of Destruction. Their primary effect involves self-milling, sending cards from the top of your Deck to your Graveyard, either as a cost to activate their effect(s), or as part of the effect(s) itself.

Decking out is risk sometimes associated with the milling done in Lightsworn Decks. However milling improves the speed of the Deck and many Lightsworn cards benefit from having many Lightsworn monsters in the Graveyard. Decks tend to focus of quickly Summoning Judgment Dragon, which may be Special Summoned while there are 4 different Lightsworn monsters in the Graveyard. Judgment Dragon can quickly clear the field and attack directly.

Pot of Avarice, Pot of Generosity and The Transmigration Prophecy may help replace some of the discarded cards, reducing some of the side-effects of self-milling. Solar Recharge and Card of Safe Return can add even more speed to the Deck (though it should be noted that using Pot of Avarice may hinder the effects of Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner and Judgment Dragon). Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord can return all monsters in the Graveyard to the Deck automatically, though in a Lightsworn deck it will be unable to have any ATK points, as there are no Normal monsters in this archetype.

In the OCG and TCG, many players are using Lightsworns to counter Dark Armed Dragon-themed Decks, because of their field swarming capabilities. This Deck is quite capable of a very fast OTK using their mill effects, and then Summoning Judgment Dragon, or by using Glorious Illusion if you have strong Lightsworns in your Graveyard. Judgment Dragon alone would easily be able to create an OTK situation fairly quickly. Lightsworns have currently seen much success in the TCG, and have been considered a metagame archetype. Lightsworn Decks are also some of the most successful and popular Decks in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and have joined the ranks of top-level Decks like Gladiator Beast and Teleport Dark Armed Decks.

Lightsworns have been combined with DARK Monsters in a Deck type known as Twilight. Such a Deck uses a mixture of LIGHT and DARK monsters and tends to include Chaos cards, particularly since Chaos Sorcerer was removed from the Forbidden List. There is going to be 2 new, currently unknown, Lightsworns coming in the TCG Version of the Stardust Overdrive Booster Pack.

Weaknesses
Despite its powerful assets, the deck has major weaknesses, the first of them being luck itself. Since the Lightsworns rely heavily on milling their own deck, usually the quality and quantity of cards milled will define a Duel in its mid-to-advanced stages, thus putting into advantage who truly has luck on his/her side; also, proper use of the many cards the Archetype offers is required, since besides Judgment Dragon, a Lightsworn deck in and of itself lacks such equalizing power.

While the abovementioned may be seen more as a unique characteristic of the deck, rather than a weakness, the primary problems for a Lightsworn player come from cards capable of negating effects (Skill Drain and Light-Imprisoning Mirror above all), cards that can negate Special Summoning (Royal Oppression, Koa'ki Meiru Drago, and so on), and cards adept to remove from play, especially Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure, capable of turning the milling effect of the Lightsworn, from a required asset, to a severe disadvantage.

Perhaps the biggest threat are cards that add to the milling, such as the Iron Chain cards. However, they can also provide huge help to the Lightsworn when milling useful cards such as Necro Gardna or Wulf, Lightsworn Beast.

Also, stalling could force a deck out, though the high number of destruction effects the Lightsworns offer often make up for this.

Optional Support Cards
Solar Ray: Since Lightsworn monsters can swarm the field using Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner and damages the opponent's Life Points since there are LIGHT monsters.
 * Honest : Given that the common Attribute shared by all Lightsworn Monsters is LIGHT, Honest is pretty much a staple in every Lightsworn Deck thanks to its ability to boost weak Lightsworns' Attack and overcome the opponent's attacks. Also, being LIGHT itself, Honest can be easily retrieved with Beckoning Light.
 * Monster Reincarnation : You are just as likely (if not much more likely) to mill Judgement Dragon to the Graveyard as to draw it, so this card will allow you to retrieve it from your Graveyard and add it to your hand for ease of use. Paying its cost can be easily done by dumping an unwanted Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, or a Necro Gardna.
 * Beckoning Light : Works pretty much the same way as Monster Reincarnation, but allows you to retrieve a potentially higher number of LIGHT Monsters, Honest and Judgment Dragon above all.
 * Imperial Iron Wall : You want your Lightsworns to be sent to the Graveyard, not to be removed from play; this will keep any opponent who uses Remove-from-play strategies from exploiting that one major weakness of Lightsworns. Also, while defending yourself you'll be able to cripple those cards that require removing cards from play as a condition or that make such a condition an advantage to themselves. Do notice however that it will make Necro Gardna useless.
 * Foolish Burial : You can use this to instantly summon a Wulf, Lightsworn Beast from your Deck, but you can also use it to power up Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon or to meet the requirements of Judgement Dragon if you don't have enough differently-named Lightsworns in your Graveyard to summon it.
 * Necro Gardna : You can negate 1 attack from a monster your opponent controls.
 * Shiny Black "C" : Pretty much the same as Necro Gardna, but removing it will destroy an opponent's Synchro Monster.
 * Plaguespreader Zombie : Grants access to Synchro Monsters, and its effect to revive itself is useful when coupled with Wulf, Lightsworn Beast or Necro Gardna and another Lightsworn Monster (Wulf or Gardna will be put on top of the Deck, and the Lightsworn's effect will mill them, granting a free Summon or a defense). With Imperial Iron Wall, this can be done as much times as the player wants.

Sample Deck
With easily fulfilled special summoning conditions (having 4 or more "Lightsworn" monsters with different names in your Graveyard), high ATK, and a devastating effect (pay 1000 Life Points to destroy all other cards on the field), "Judgment Dragon" is capable of dealing large amounts of damage, and could even create a OTK situation fairly quickly (also see Judgment Dragon OTK). Since it has no Cost to summon itself, only a condition, you can still summon your other dragon that turn.

Other ace cards for this deck are Celestia, Lightsworn Angel and Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon. When Celestia is Tribute Summoned by Tributing a "Lightsworn" monster you can send 4 cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard in order to destroy up to 2 cards that your opponent controls.

Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon has 2000 ATK points and requires 1 tribute to be summoned, but it gains 300 ATK points for each Lightsworn with a different name in your Graveyard, so he often gets onto the field with 4000 or more ATK points. He also has a Piercing effect, and during each of your End Phases he will send 3 cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard, gaining more ATK each turn. Not many people decide to play Gragonith because of the fact that he takes up deck space, and is dead draw in some situations. If you do though, it is easier to bring out Judgment Dragon.

In terms of Spell support there are "Solar Recharge" and "Charge of the Light Brigade". Both are powerful Normal Spell Cards that also add speed to the Deck by sending cards from your Deck to the Graveyard. An ideal Field Spell Card would be "Realm of Light"; when activated, your Lightsworn monsters will steadily increase in attack as you discard cards.

In terms of Traps, some agree that Solemn Judgment isn't the smartest thing to run in a Lightsworn deck. Solemns kind of work in a series. Say if you use one Solemn, you are paying a lot of life points for just one solemn. But if you use two or three, you aren't paying as many life points. If you run Solemns in a Lightsworn deck, you often only use one. They aren't working in a row, because they are often milled. That's why some agree that Royal Decrees are smarter in a Lightsworn deck. They negate Solemns, which is a good thing.

Despite the fact that the player is quickly milling their Deck, 40 cards is plenty for it. If you add more cards it will only get slower, and you won't draw your Judgment Dragons and other key cards when you need them. Because of the constant milling, however, they will be sent to the Graveyard frequently. In such cases, bring them back using Beckoning Light, Monster Reincarnation and/or Herald of Creation

Another good way to use the Lightsworn monsters is in a removel deck. When used with Dimensional Fissure and Golden Homunculus it can be a powerful deck. Plus if you include Necroface you will never run out of cards!!

In the event that the opponent manages to hold you off long enough and is making you run out of cards rapidly, one fallback option can be "Blasting the Ruins", which takes advantage of the cards flooding your Graveyard to deal massive damage to the opponent.

Monsters

 * Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
 * Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
 * Honest
 * Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
 * [3x[Judgment Dragon]]
 * Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
 * Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
 * Necro Gardna
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
 * Shiny Black "C"
 * shield warrior

Spells

 * Foolish Burial
 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Brain Control
 * Solar Recharge
 * Charge of the Light Brigade
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * moster reincarnation

Traps
threatoning roar
 * Beckoning Light