Fortune Lady

The Fortune Ladies are a series of Spellcaster-type monsters, which are also upgraded versions of the "Fortune Fairies". They are used by Carly Carmine in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

"Fortune Lady Light" and "Fortune Lady Fire" were first released in Ancient Prophecy, while the rest were released in Stardust Overdrive.

After Carly Carmine's transformation into a Dark Signer, the cards in her Deck changed. The "Fortune Fairies" evolved into the "Fortune Ladies". Each "Fortune Lady" is an evolved version of the "Fortune Fairies" of the same Attribute.

Each "Fortune Lady" has a different Attribute and Level from 1 to 6. Their Attribute and Level, correspond to that of their "Fortune Fairy" counterpart. All Ladies are Spellcaster-Type Effect Monsters, with ? ATK and DEF. In the OCG, the names of all known Fortune Ladies have been their attribute with an added "y" at the end. They all have effects that increase their Levels by 1 each turn. All of their effects either activate when they are Summoned or are used to Special Summon other Fortune Ladies, meaning that they can be strategically used once "Future Visions" is also on the field. They can also be protected with the help of "Fortune Slip".

Interestingly enough, the OCG cards have similar names to 4 of the element Clow Cards in Cardcaptor Sakura (Windy, Earthy, Firey, Watery).

Playing Style
Fortune Ladies need to swarm the field quickly using Fortune Lady Light and Fortune Lady Dark. For example, you can play Fortune Lady Light while "Future Visions" is face-up on the field to Special Summon Fortune Lady Dark. Interdimensional Matter Transporter works just as well if you don't have Future Visions yet active. Using Fortune Lady Dark and Fortune Lady Light's effects, you can Special Summon:
 * Another Fortune Lady Dark, thus continuing the swarm combo.
 * Fortune Lady Water to draw 2 cards, and keep constant hand advantage.
 * Fortune Lady Earth for another beatstick and decent burn damage each turn it's on the field.
 * Fortune Lady Fire to destroy an opponent's troublesome monster (and inflict burn damage).

Play a Pot of Avarice in the Deck to make sure you don't run out on Fortune Ladies. Since all Fortune Ladies have different levels, you can play Reasoning for a quick summon. Many Fortune Ladies have a different attribute, using DNA Checkup can increase your hand advantage.

Since most of the Fortune Ladies aren't very strong, Field control cards besides "Future Visions" are needed (Preferably Spell Speed 2+). Use the likes of Terraforming to search out Future Visions as soon as possible. Fortune Ladies also gain advantage from the equip spell Synchro Boost, because of their ability to gain ATK points equal to their level, so this card fits in naturally with them.

Future Visions can be also used to keep the opponent's monster trapped removed from play. The way to do it is to


 * 1)Opponent Normal Summons a Monster, Monster gets removed due to Future Visions
 * 2)Make Future Visions leave the field (Giant Trunade, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier etc.)
 * 3)Opponent's monster get stuck

While "Future Visions" is active, your opponent will probably be wanting to set their monsters face down to avoid them getting removed, so running Nobleman of Crossout, and D.D. Trap Hole will allow further field control. Remove Fortune Lady Light for the effect of D.D. Trap Hole to further abuse her effect. This in particular also creates an opportunity to activate "Fortune's Future", thus allowing more hand advantage over the opponent. To allow even more uses for "Fortune's Future", use "Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate" to remove your ladies from your grave and thus prevent your opponent from special summoning. Compulsory Evacuation Device, Dimensional Prison, Forced Back, "Bending Destiny", Horn of Heaven, and Black Horn of Heaven also provide excellent field control. The earlier mentioned Compulsory Evacuation Device can also be used defensively to activate Fortune Lady Light's effect or to recycle Fortune Lady Wind for a second use.

With many "Remove from Play" cards being run in a "Fortune Lady" deck, Soul Absorption would recover quite a lot of life. Take this another step further with Fire Princess and you will also be burning the opponent for damage, on top of Fortune Lady Fire and Fortune Lady Earth's burn effects. Zeta Reticulant would really help with this Stall/Burn style of play, as you can tribute the "Eva" tokens and Fortune Lady Light for the likes of Mass Driver. Since the strategy focuses on level increase, The Calculator fits nicely. Another great card Different Dimension Gate.

With so many tech cards to choose from, a Fortune Ladies Deck can easily end up having over 40 cards. This isn't much of an issue, considering the amount of draw power the Fortune Ladies are capable of (especially in Traditional Format) so don't feel restricted to limiting the deck size to 40. With all the draw power and easily thinning out your deck,you can run at least 45 cards in a Fortune Ladies deck. The deck can end up having a huge mass of draw power, other draw cards players could add include Allure of Darkness,Pot of Avarice, Fortune's Future, and Fortune Lady Water.

Solidarity is also a good card to consider in a Fortune Ladies deck because it is a major boost to their already high strength for an extra pick up of 800 points for each Solidarity in play, as long as you have only one original printed type of monster in your graveyard. Also try running some D.D. Warrior and D.D. Warrior Lady cards to remove more powerful or annoying monsters like Stardust Dragon or Red Dragon Archfiend from play. Decks built around Fortune Ladies are not like other Spellcaster Decks, since they vary greatly, and have so many options to make them a threat.

Another card that might be a great help to a Fortune Ladies deck is Interdimensional Matter Transporter. Interdimensional Matter Transporter allows you to use Fortune Lady Light's effect on either players' turn, thereby allowing the Special Summon of another Fortune Lady such as Fortune Lady Fire or Fortune Lady Water for their effects.

Magical Dimension is a very good powerhouse card for Fortune Ladies because it has the ability to make many moves depending on the situation you are in, making it a vital spell card. It can be used to special summon such monsters as Night's End Sorcerer, Fortune Lady Water, Fortune Lady Dark and destroy an opponent's monster if desired. As long as the situation calls for it, you can swarm the field with 2 monsters (1 Fortune Lady, due to Light's effect and 1 Spellcaster due to Dimension's effect.) by destroying Fortune Lady Light.

Note that in the TCG, you can Tribute Fortune Lady Light for the effect of Magical Dimension and she will not miss the timing. This is because the Tribute and Special Summon occur simultaneously, however, remember that Fortune Lady Light's effect will miss the timing if you choose to destroy a monster with Magical Dimension's additional effect.

Kinka-Byo also works in a Fortune Ladies deck by reviving Fortune Lady Light and then removing it from play to summon out any other Fortune Lady. This also means that you can activate Fortune's Future to draw 2 more cards, and return your Fortune Lady to the Graveyard.

Tragoedia is another great tech pick as Fortune Ladies have a lot of draw power, increasing this cards ATK by a few thousand. It's other effect also tends to work well: since Fortune Ladies have different levels, taking control of you opponent's monster becomes rather easy. And, with so much LIGHT and DARK techs in your deck, Chaos Sorcerer would be quite easy to summon too, by removing from play a Fortune Lady Dark and a Fortune Lady Light (or other DARK or LIGHT monsters in the deck) and then activating Fortune's Future to abuse its effect.

Beast King Barbaros works well with Future Visions. This is because when it returns to the field Barbaros will regain his original 3000 ATK points, even if he wasn't summoned with tributes. If Future Visions is not in play, an alternate use is possible. Due to Fortune Lady Dark, you can swarm the field and gain enough tributes easily to use the effect of Beast King Barbaros to destroy the opponent's field and attack directly.

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier is also another great card to go with Fortune Ladies due to its compatibility with Fortune Lady Light. Use Brionac's effect to sent Fortune Lady Light back to the hand to special summon either Fortune Lady Water or Fortune Lady Dark from your deck so that your field will keep growing while maintaining hand advantage.

The same goes for Cyber Valley as its three effects are very effective with Fortune Ladies, and also for stalling and drawing cards from your deck. Additionally, if you add in "Fortune's Future", you can get even further mileage out of Cyber Valley: remove Cyber and a Lady to draw two cards, then play "Fortune's Future" to draw two more cards AND recover your Fortune Lady (back to the graveyard). Be aware, however, of the Cyber Valley ruling which negates Fortune Lady Light's effect (see Cyber Valley Rulings). Currently -
 * If Fortune Lady Light is removed from play by the effect of Cyber Valley, then afterwards you draw two cards, the timing of Fortune Lady Light's effect is missed and cannot be activated.

Return from the Different Dimension is also a great way to get your monsters back. One for One can increase your chances of getting a Fortune Lady Light or Cyber Valley. Also Phantom of Chaos is a great way to exploit Fortune Lady Light's effect and adds an extra copy of the monster (more or less)

Running several copies of Future Vision can be a great help for a Fortune Lady deck. When an opponent's monster gets removed from play by a Future Vision's effect, playing a new one (and therefore destroying the first) will not only allow you to keep the field the same, but it traps your opponent's monster in the Removed From Play Zone.

Cards that can destroy your monsters or remove them from play can be used to rid the field of your opponent's monsters AND activate the effect of Fortune Lady Light. Cards like Needle Ceiling, Torrential Tribute, or even single target cards like Raigeki Break can be used to set her off. Just remember not to try it when another effect has started or she will miss the timing for her effect due to the chain.

Skull Lair is a great card to use in a Fortune Lady deck. It allows you to remove from play your own Fortune monsters to destroy monsters on the field, setting you up for Fortune's Future. It is also a good way to destroy Fortune Lady Light who will probably only be level 1 or 2 when you use the effect on her. Even during the battle phase, if you have Fortune Lady Dark on the field and are using her to revive monsters from the graveyard, such as Fortune Lady Fire or Fortune Lady Water, you can use Skull Lair to send them back to the grave so that another of your Fortune Ladies can bring them back again. A hard to set up scenario, but a game winner none the less. Especially if you have Soul Absorption out.

It is also known that Fortune Lady Earth isn't a recommended card to use in a Fortune Lady deck,and should only be ran at 1 at most. The reason why is because the only good reasons it should be in a Fortune Lady deck is for a beatstick and small burn damage. When using Fortune Lady Light's effect,it's a better choice to use it on Fortune Lady Dark,Fortune Lady Fire or Fortune Lady Water,instead of this card,seeing the other Fortune Ladies have effects with more benefits. This card can be used in an interesting Fortune Lady Burn deck based on Fortune Lady Fire and Fortune Lady Earth as the main burn cards.

Classes
There are 3 classes of Fortune Ladies. The classes vary because of their different effects.

Class C

 * Monsters gain x200 ATK/DEF for each of their own levels.

Class C monsters: Fortune Lady Light, Fortune Lady Fire.

Class B

 * Monsters gain x300 ATK/DEF for each of their own levels.

Class B monsters: Fortune Lady Wind, Fortune Lady Water.

Class A

 * Monsters gain x400 ATK/DEF for each of their own levels.

Class A monsters: Fortune Lady Dark, Fortune Lady Earth.

Recommended Monsters

 * Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate
 * Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Optional Monsters

 * Solitaire Magician
 * Magical Exemplar
 * Chaos Sorcerer
 * Kinka-byo
 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu
 * Tragoedia
 * Night's End Sorcerer
 * Rai-Mei
 * Cyber Valley
 * Eccentric Boy
 * The Calculator
 * Dark Simorgh
 * Magician's Valkyria
 * Junk Synchron
 * Debris Dragon

Spells

 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Time Passage
 * Fortune's Future
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Magical Dimension
 * Future Visions
 * One for One
 * Dimensionhole
 * Different Dimension Gate
 * Synchro Boost
 * Secret Village of the Spellcasters
 * Double Summon (For two Magician's Valkyria)
 * Fires of Doomsday (for Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu)

Traps

 * Torrential Tribute
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device
 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Interdimensional Matter Transporter
 * Bending Destiny
 * Inherited Fortune
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Slip of Fortune
 * Dark Bribe
 * Call of the Haunted
 * Horn of Heaven
 * Scrap-Iron Scarecrow

Extra Deck

 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Armory Arm (for higher attack power)

Weaknesses
Even though the Fortune Ladies have an immense amount of draw power and can grow in strength with each passing turn, their effects can easily be ruined through simple cards such as Skill Drain, Gladiator Beast War Chariot, or even Waboku or Threatening Roar to protect against Fortune Lady Dark. Simply siding in cards such as Dark Bribe, Dust Tornado and Fairy Wind will counteract upon these strategies.

The main threat though of Fortune Ladies is Skill Drain. Fortune Ladies gain their ATK and DEF by their effects, so if Skill Drain is on the field, they would return to their printed levels and also lose the effect that gives them ATK power, thus having 0 ATK. This is why it is best to run cards like Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, Dark Bribe, Dust Tornado and/or Solemn Judgement. A side-deck card to negate Skill Drain would be Prohibition, which can help against tons of decks just by declaring a single card name that may be a staple in the deck. For example,you can claim the card names of Judgement Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon to ruin the plans of some of the current meta. And of course, claim the card name Skill Drain to protect your Fortune Ladies.

Also, Fortune Ladies must rely on constant summoning control, as they must be summoned either from the Graveyard, by "Fortune Lady Dark", from your hand (through cards like "Inherited Fortune"), or solely on the effects of "Fortune Lady Light". If the swarm starts too late, it would be very difficult to get it back on track.