Hieratic

"Hieroglyph" ( Seikoku) is an archetype consisting of LIGHT Dragon-Type monsters. One of the few sets of cards based on Egyptian motifs, they are based on Egyptian hieroglyphs and Ennead, a group of Egyptian gods in mythology.

The cards of this archetype relies on Special Summoning and destroying cards mainly by Tributing other "Hieroglyph" monsters. What makes this archetype powerful and interesting is that many of its monsters allow you to Tribute from your hand, in a manner similiar to Ritual Summoning.

There is another effect which all mid-Level monsters, such as Level 4, 5 and 6, have in common is that when they are Tributed, they are able to Special Summon a Dragon-Type Normal Monster either from the hand, Deck, or Graveyard. It is also mandatory to Special Summon, which means that even though you Tribute them for cost, this effect may still go through. So, despite the idea that you're getting rid of your own monster, you won't lose that much field advantage. Almost all "Hieroglyph" monsters have relatively simple Summoning conditions.

Playing Style
The greatest strength of this archetype lies in an ability that almost all its members possess: upon being tributed, be it by cost or effect, you are able to summon any normal Dragon type monster from your hand, deck or graveyard, at the cost of its attack and defense being 0. This gives the Hieroglyph archetype the ability to swarm the field and bring out powerful Xyz monsters in a manner similar to the famous (or infamous) Wind-Up or Inzector archetypes. Another interesting thing to note is the ease of summoning the archetype's regular members, and the ease of which you may activate their effects. For instance, both Hieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon and Hieroglyph Dragon - Shiyu Dragon are capable of getting rid of problematic monsters or spells/traps simply by tributing a "Hieroglyph" monster from your field OR hand. Not only that, but by tributing a "Hieroglyph" monster, you activate its effect to special summon a normal Dragon type from your hand, deck or graveyard, which means you literally get to destroy your opponent's cards and get a free monster for your troubles.

Taking all these points into consideration, one should now be able to see the true worth of having a level 8 normal monster with 0 attack and defense as the mascot. Not only can it be used for the effects of the other Hieroglyph monsters because of it's name, but it can be special summoned by nearly any of the other Hieroglyphs, can be used for Trade-In, and being an easily summonable lvl 8 normal monster grants players access to the powerful Thunder End Dragon, as well as the boss of the archetype, Hieroglyph God Dragon - Ennead. Should one be fortunate enough to have 3 of them on the field, or 2 of them and one Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, it would then be possible to summon the strongest Xyz monster (soon to be) released to date: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.

Since Hieroglyphs can search any Normal Dragon-type monster at the cost of rendering them powerless, they can be used to support fusion monsters that use normal dragons as materials such as "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", "Meteor B. Dragon", and to a lesser extent "King Dragun".

Monsters

 * Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
 * Dragorado
 * Eclipse Wyvern
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Aset Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Dragon Geib
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Dragon Nut
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Shiyu Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Setekh Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Tfeni Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Usir Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Seal of the God Dragon
 * Honest
 * Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

Spells

 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Dragon's Mirror
 * Enemy Controller
 * Future Fusion
 * Hieroglyph Seal of Gathering
 * Hieroglyph Seal of Superstrength
 * Super Rejuvenation
 * Silent Doom
 * Trade-In
 * White Elephant's Gift

Traps

 * Hieroglyph Seal of Erasure
 * Hieroglyph Seal of Reflection
 * Burst Breath
 * Champion's Vigilance
 * Dragon's Rage
 * Horn of Heaven
 * Photon Rising Stream
 * Xyz Reborn

Extra Deck

 * Daigusto Emeral
 * Five-Headed Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon King - Atumus
 * Hieroglyph God Dragon - Ennead
 * Inzektor Exa-Beetle
 * Lavalval Chain
 * Number 15: Gimmick Puppet - Giant Killer
 * Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
 * Photon Streak Bouncer
 * Sacred Pleiades
 * Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7
 * Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max
 * Thunder End Dragon
 * Trident Dragion
 * Dragon Devil - Queen Dragoon

Red-Eyes Hieroglyphs
One of the most basic builds for this archetype, it focuses on bringing out Hieroglyph Dragon King - Atumus and through him Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon for explosive plays. Has a fairly high One Turn Kill ratio.

Monster Cards

 * Divine Dragon Apocralyph
 * Dragorado
 * Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Aset Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Shiyu Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Tfeni Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Seal of the God Dragon
 * Honest
 * Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
 * Red-Eyes Wyvern

Spells

 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Dragon's Mirror
 * Enemy Controller
 * Hieroglyph Seal of Gathering
 * Future Fusion
 * Monster Gate
 * Share the Pain
 * Super Rejuvenation
 * Resonance Device
 * Trade-In

Traps

 * Burst Breath
 * Champion's Vigilance
 * Dragon's Rage
 * Dragon's Rebirth
 * Horn of Heaven
 * Photon Rising Stream
 * Xyz Reborn

Extra Deck

 * Daigusto Emeral
 * Five-Headed Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon King - Atumus
 * Hieroglyph God Dragon - Ennead
 * Lavalval Chain
 * Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
 * Sacred Pleiades
 * Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7
 * Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max
 * Thunder End Dragon
 * Thunderclap Knight - Gaia Tragoono

Hieroglyph FTK/OTK
All you need to do to set this up is to make sure your opponent has a monster out. Doesn't matter whether they set it or summoned it. But they should only have one monster for this to work.

Cards needed:
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Aset Dragon
 * Hieroglyph God Dragon - Ennead
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Shiyu Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Tfeni Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Usir Dragon
 * Hieroglyph Seal of the God Dragon x3
 * Thunder End Dragon

Any Dragon you can Tribute, but doesn't Summon anything.

How it works:


 * Your opponent has one monster on your field. All you need are 6 cards in your hand and then you can pull it off.  The Seal need to start in your deck, the other Hieroglyphs listed need to be in your hand.
 * Since your opponent controls a monster, and you don't, you can Special Summon Tfeni.
 * Tribute Tfeni to Special Summon Shiyu. Activate Tfeni and summon a Seal from your Deck.
 * Tribute Shiyu for Nephthe. Summon another Seal.
 * Tribute Nephthe for Aset, and Summon a 3rd Seal.
 * Activate Aset, making it Level 8.
 * Overlay Aset with a Seal to summon Ennead.
 * Overlay 2 Seal for Thunder End.
 * Activate Ennead,(IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you detach a Seal, otherwise it won't work!) tribute a dragon in your hand but not Usir, sending your opponent's monster to the Graveyard.
 * Remove Aset and the Seal in your Graveyard, to Special Summon Usir.
 * Attack with all 3 monsters for game.

3000 + 3000 + 2600 = 8600 - Another way to OTK is more simple,and it only needs 3 hands to work,and don't require your opponent has a monster out.But it use Wattdragon instead of the Seal

Cards needed:


 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Aset DragonorHieroglyph Dragon - Tfeni Dragon(if your opponent has a monster out)
 * Hieroglyph Dragon - Shiyu Dragonx2(one of them can be replaced byHieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon)
 * [Thunderclap Knight - Gaia Tragoono]]x2
 * Hieroglyph Dragon King - Atumusx2
 * Wattdragon x2
 * Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragonx2
 * Super Dreadnought Cannon Express Gustaph Max

Weaknesses
Cards like "Mask of Restrict", "Fog King", etc. that prevents Tributes would lockdown this archetype's main goal of Tributing monsters. Also, "Light-Imprisoning Mirror" can also shutdown their effects in the Graveyard as their effects activate when Tributed (they go to the Graveyard this way), since all of them are LIGHT Attribute. Ally of Justice monsters, "Koa'ki Meiru Drago" and "Penumbral Soldier Lady" can pull their plug on the field also. Because most Inzektor cards like Inzektor Hornet don't care about being in the graveyard, they can pose a decent threat against you. Since most of Hieroglyph cards are Level 5 or higher, "Verz Ophion" can put this deck into almost perfect deadlock situation.

Finally, a huge problem with the deck is that it is common to Dead Draw, which puts you in deep trouble, meaning once you lose all momentum to something like Dark Hole, you might find yourself stuck until you find a card that can save you. This can be remidied somewhat with cards like Trade-In that lets you use your cards to draw more cards.

Trivia

 * The monsters in this archetype are based on the first four generations of gods in Egyptian mythology. Ra gave rise to Shu and Tefnut, who gave rise to Geb and Nut, who gave rise to Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Set. They were collectively known as the Ennead.


 * Each monster in this archetype has an Egyptian symbol somewhere on its body.


 * The monsters in this archetype have designs similar to "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" and "Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" for their illuminating bodies, scaly armors, and wings.


 * This archetype released may for celebrating 2012 Year of Dragon - Chinese Fortune Calendar.