Spell Counter Deck

A Deck based on Spell Counters generally focuses on using the numerous destruction and burn effects of monsters that require them. This Deck uses a variety of different cards to rapidly gain Spell Counters. The main method of gaining Spell Counters is through the field spell Magical Citadel of Endymion which gains a counter each time a Spell Card is activated and it also allows you to once per turn use its stored counters to activate another card's effect. Other methods to gain counters usually involve monsters that gain Spell Counters whenever a Spell Card is played, such as Magical Exemplar, or that gain them when Summoned, like Breaker the Magical Warrior. Some card effects, like Pitch-Black Power Stone, Alchemist of Black Spells, and Crusader of Endymion allow Spell Counters to be placed on other cards. Spell Counters have a variety of uses depending on the card. Some of these effects are increasing the attack of a monster, destroying cards on the field, or drawing more cards.

The main cards for a Spell Counter Deck tend to be the Synchro Monsters: Explosive Magician, Arcanite Magician, and Tempest Magician, but they can also be Legendary Flame Lord, Mega Ton Magical Cannon, and Arcanite Magician/Assault Mode.

Uses & Tips
This type of Deck can be used for a variety of purposes. If you have enough Spell Counters on the field, Defender, the Magical Knight can be used for stalling, as it allows you to save some of your Spellcasters. A Spell Counter Deck can also be used as a Burn Deck, with the effects of Rapid-Fire Magician, Tempest Magician, and Dark Eradicator Warlock. Normally, these type of Decks are used for control of the field until higher level monsters can be played. Since most of the cards used for this Deck are Spell Cards, Spell Absorption is also a good card to have, allowing you to gain 500 Life Points every time a Spell Card is played. Magical Marionette is a great card for gathering Spell Counters (It gets one Spell Counter every time a Spell Card is played) and this card gains 200 ATK for each Spell Counter on it. Magical Plant Mandragola is also perfect for gathering Spell Counters on every card on the field. A good combo is two Magical Marionette, two Magical Plant Mandragola, and Mega Ton Magical Cannon;after you eliminate every card on your opponents side of the field you can attack them directly with whatever you have in face-up Attack Position.

In Traditional Format, you can use Gearfried the Iron Knight and Butterfly Dagger - Elma to create an infinite number of Spell Counters. Since you can't use Butterfly Dagger - Elma in the Advanced Format, the next best thing to do is to include a card such as Horn of the Unicorn or Sword of Deep-Seated, which will go back to the top of your deck when destroyed after being equipped, allowing you to instead generate Spell Counters on a turn basis, meaning that you can repeat the cycle as much as you wish, turn after turn, and all you have to do to stop the cycle is simple not play the spell you are using to generate Spell Counters in this way.

Another way to generate Spell Counters is to use the Continuous Spell Recycle. This card, for 300LP, can take any non-Monster Card from your Graveyard and place it on the bottom of your Deck. You may only use this effect During your Standby Phase. It is recommended to only use it on one of each of the following cards per turn.
 * Spell Power Grasp, Its effect places one Spell Counter on the field (along with one on every card that generates their own) and pulls another Spell Power Grasp from your Deck to your hand. Can only use one per turn.
 * Gather Your Mind, This Spell Card works exactly as Spell Power Grasp above except it doesn't add a Spell Counter on a card. This is only useful if you do not have a Spell Power Grasp in your hand or you have no face-up cards that can handle Spell Counters. Not likely in a Spell Counter Deck... Can only use one per turn.
 * Toon Table of Contents, This card is normally used to help a Toon Deck, however due to its wording, it can search for another Toon Table of Contents. Along with Recycle, you can use this every turn and can use it multiple times in a turn. This is the only card of these three that it would be useful to use Recycle to replace both in your Deck. The other cards have that "once per turn" limit.

A good way to overturn the loss of life points is to combo Recycle with Spell Absorption and Magical Citadel of Endymion, this combo can easily result in 200 or more free LP as well as at least have Magical Citadel of Endymion gain at least two Spell Counters.

This Deck can also be used for an OTK. First have a Magical Citadel of Endymion with 4 or 5 Spell Counters, then try to keep Summoner Monk in the field while Frequency Magician,or another level 2 Tuner is in your Graveyard, then summon Junk Synchron and use its effect to bring that level 2 tuner monster to your field. After that use the effect of Summoner Monk to bring a Level 4 Spellcaster from your Deck. Then you can Synchro Summon Arcanite Magician using Junk Synchron and Summoner Monk, and with its effect remove the Spell Counters from Magical Citadel of Endyimion to clear the field. After that Synchro Summon Tempest Magician, using the other monsters,then with its effect put more Spell Counters in Arcanite Magician to boost its ATK points and attack your opponent directly with both. If that is not enough to win, then finish with the second effect of Tempest Magician!

Another powerful combo can be created by Summoning Summoner Monk and using its effect to Special Summon Magical Exemplar and activate Terraforming to search for Magical Citadel of Endymion and activate it. Activate Instant Fusion to get Musician King out and then activate Foolish Burial dumping a LV2 Spellcaster Tuner to the Graveyard. Use Exemplar's effect to revive the Tuner. Do this until you have Arcanite Magician,Explosive Magician and more importantly Tempest Magician last. Add a Spell Counter onto Arcanite and use Endymion effect to clear the field and attack for game. (3400+2500+2200=8100). If you cannot win with Battle Damage alone then use Tempest's effect since it is highly unlikely that you have to destroy more than four cards using Arcanite's effect.

With the release of Starstrike Blast, Spell Counter Decks can now run a Synchro Fusion named Supreme Arcanite Magician. Synchro Summoning Tempest Magician or Arcanite Magician is very easy and the Deck can now run Super Polymerization. This is a powerful card because of Summoner Monk and the Gravekeepers being run as Synchro engines and also Arcanite Magician being run as a control card. If using Magical Citadel of Endymion or other cards, this card ends the game with loads of monster destruction and free draws on top of a 3400 beatstick.

Most of the cards you have access to use a destruction effect to get rid of things, so you have to keep cards like Prime Material Dragon and Stardust Dragon from being allowed to use their abilities. The most effective way to protect this Deck from Monster Effects is to run cards like Effect Veiler, Forbidden Chalice, and Fiendish Chain. For Prime Material Dragon and Stardust Dragon in particular, you can use Book of Moon to flip them face-down and safely destroy them with effects (or just run them over in battle), while generating more Spell Counters.

An another good idea, instead of wasting a lot of spell counters to destroy a couple cards, try using Arcanite Magician/Assault Mode to quickly clear the opponent's field with only using two spell counters.

With the Release of "Number 11: Big Eye", From "Galactic Overlord", there are new ways to use the Arcanites in addition to the known ways. When you run out of Spell Counters on field and you need to destroy at least 1 Card from your opponent field with Arcanite's Spell Counters (Leaving him with Low Attack), if you manage to Summon a Gagaga Magician before that, you can change Gagaga magician level to lvl 7 and summon Number 11 - Big Eye (which can also be summoned by using Another Arcanite magician), so you will have another chance to strike Back.


 * Also, using the Number 11: Big Eye, lets you take control of one monster your opponent control, and By detaching Arcanite Magician, Can give you an perfect opportunity to Use Miracle Synchro Fusion and bring Supreme Arcanite Magician to the Field.

With the release of the Spellbook spell cards, this deck gains new potential. An easy way to quickly gain spell counters, gain attack, AND thin your deck is to combo Spellbook of Secrets with Spellbook of Power. Start by activating Spellbook of Secrets, which gains you 1+ counters, and search for Spellbook of Power. Then, activate Spellbook of Power (1+ counters) to boost one of your monsters by 1000 attack. If your monster destroys another monster by battle (which is very likely), you get to search for another Spellbook of Secrets and repeat the process next turn. When this combo is used with Dark Red Enchanter, you can easily get a monster with 3900 attack and gain at least 2 spell counters at the cost of only one Spellbook card from your hand. This can also be used with Magical Exemplar to get out a quick rank 4 xyz monster.

Strengths
A Spell Counter Deck's main advantage lies in the mid to late game, by which point they will have usually generated enough counters to destroy a large number of their opponent's cards and keep up the rate of destruction by "reloading" their monster or using the Citadel's counters.

Spell Counter Decks can also be very versatile. Monsters that use Spell Counters can cause Spell and Trap destruction, monster destruction, burn damage, and hand disruption.

The Spell Counter specific Synchros all have effects that can use counters from anywhere on the field which, with enough counters, can make Arcanite Magician and Explosive Magician greater than Judgment Dragon and Heavy Storm respectively.

Tempest Magician can reload cards like Breaker the Magical Warrior or Dark Valkyria for more destruction, or with enough counters he or she can win the duel by inflicting a massive amount of Effect Damage.

This deck can also be an offensive deck with Magician's Unite or Diffusion Wave-Motion.

Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses this Deck has is its need to rely on Spell Counters and--by extension--the Magical Citadel of Endymion which even with its invincibility effect could be targeted by cards that would return it to the hand or deck, thereby discarding all of the stored up Spell Counters ("Spiritualism" is the most dangerous, since it cannot be negated). This Deck becomes a very tough contestant in the middle-late game, but in the very early game it could have some problems getting started up.

Because this Deck heavily relies on gaining Spell Counters, cards that negate the activation of Spell Cards can counter this Deck. A Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 on the opponent's field will lock this Deck down, as well as Spell Canceller. Counter Cleaner and Exhausting Spell can clear all the Spell Counters on the field instantly.

Even with it's self-protection effect, Magical Citadel of Endymion can still be destroyed by your opponent playing a new Field Spell Card, and they can also chain a set Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado to destroy it when it's activated. Even if you use Field Barrier to prevent your opponent from activating a new Field Spell Card or otherwise destroying Magical Citadel of Endymion, it can still be returned to the hand/Deck or removed from play by the effects of cards such as Caius the Shadow Monarch, Raiza the Storm Monarch, and Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier; and then you'll have to waste resources removing your own Field Barrier to play another field spell.

Also, there's always a chance you won't be able to get a Magical Citadel of Endymion on the field immediately; it might be a good idea to include a decent amount of cards in your Deck that don't rely entirely on Spell Counters, as well as "standard" toolbox Synchros (e.g. Ally of Justice Catastor, Gaia Knight, Stardust Dragon).

Another weakness could be Tempest Magician. If your opponent makes their own Tempest Magician or gets their hands on yours with a card like Mind Control, Enemy Controller, or Creature Swap; they can use its effect to get rid of all Spell Counters on the field, and inflict 500 damage to you for each Spell Counter removed.

Recommended Cards
Monsters: Spell cards: Trap cards: Extra Deck:
 * Alchemist of Black Spells
 * Apprentice Magician
 * Arcane Apprentice
 * Arcanite Magician/Assault Mode
 * Blast Magician
 * Blizzard Princess
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior
 * Buster Blader
 * Chaos Sorcerer
 * Crusader of Endymion
 * Crystal Seer
 * Dark Magician
 * Dark Red Enchanter
 * Dark Valkyria
 * Defender, the Magical Knight
 * Disenchanter
 * Effect Veiler
 * Endymion, the Master Magician
 * Frequency Magician
 * Geomancer of the Ice Barrier
 * Ice Queen
 * Jinzo
 * Legendary Flame Lord
 * Magical Exemplar
 * Magical Marionette
 * Magical Plant Mandragola
 * Magicat
 * Magidog
 * Magician's Valkyria
 * Maiden of Macabre
 * Mythical Beast Cerberus
 * Night's End Sorcerer
 * Old Vindictive Magician
 * Royal Magical Library
 * Skilled Dark Magician
 * Skilled White Magician
 * Silent Magician LV4
 * Silent Magician LV8
 * Summoner Monk
 * Arcane Barrier
 * Bait Doll
 * Butterfly Dagger - Elma (Traditional Format Only)
 * De-Synchro
 * Field Barrier
 * Incandescent Ordeal
 * Instant Fusion
 * Magical Blast
 * Magical Citadel of Endymion
 * Terraforming
 * Magical Dimension
 * Magical Stone Excavation
 * Mega Ton Magical Cannon
 * Miracle Synchro Fusion
 * Mist Body
 * Pot of Avarice
 * Pot of Benevolence
 * Recycle
 * Solidarity
 * Spell Power Grasp
 * Spellbook of Power
 * Spellbook of Secrets
 * Upstart Goblin
 * Wonder Wand
 * Assault Mode Activate
 * Magician's Circle
 * Pitch-Black Power Stone
 * Alchemic Magician
 * Arcanite Magician
 * Chaos Goddess
 * Explosive Magician
 * Kamionwizard
 * Musician King
 * Scrap Dragon
 * Supreme Arcanite Magician
 * Tempest Magician
 * T.G. Hyper Librarian