Forum:I need help with a revamped Dark Paladin deck...

Please, no tl;dr. At least I'm using paragraphs! There is no great wall of text here. There are several considerably smaller walls of text. Sorry about that in advance, but please-keep it mature enough. I welcome goofing off, but don't troll me.

I'm... er... I'm technically new at this game, though that's only because I quit about 6 and a half years ago. A lot has changed around me and I'm pretty much clueless with all the new-fangled synchro summons and all that riff-raff. Back in my day...

Seriously, though-I need some help. I've been trying to find help on the Pojo forums for a long time, but nobody wants to even pay attention to my deck.

I'm basically running a revamped version of my old Dark Paladin beatdown deck, but I've run into a few snags.

Without further ado...

Spellcaster Lockdown

Fusion: 2

Dark Paladin x2

'''Main deck: 43

Level 5+: 7'''

Dark Magician x3

Buster Blader

Chaos Sorcerer

Dark Red Enchanter

Sorcerer of Dark Magic

Level 1-4: 19

Skilled Dark Magician x3

Dark Valkyria x3

Breaker the Magical Warrior x3

Elemental Hero Prisma x2

Gagaga Magician

Summoner Monk

Crusader of Endymion x3

Apprentice Magician x3

Magic (spell cards for you youngsters): 12

Polymerization

Monster Reborn

Lightning Vortex x2

Swords of Revealing Light x2

Secret Village of the Spellcasters

Spell Absorption

Ground Collapse

Poison of the Old Man x3

Trap: 5

Call of the Haunted

Light of Intervention

Magic Cylinder

Mirror Force

Ultimate Offering

Side deck: 15

Magician's Valkyria x2

Rivalry of Warlords

Waboku x2

Dark Magic Attack x2

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Secret Village of the Spellcasters

Summoner Monk

Ground Collapse

The Tricky x3

Okay! Time for you to read more words and stuff.

I'm getting back into casual dueling with a few friends. Two of them play with synchro monsters. One runs an all-fiend lockdown-ish deck with Rivalry of Warlords. One runs a burn-ish deck with cards like Dark Snake Syndrome. Another currently runs a warrior-ish beatdown deck. I'm trying to be able to counter them, but not to the point where I always win. I want to make sure we all can still have fun.

I'd like to cut this down to 40 cards and I have a possible idea, though I would be cutting out a lot of cards to do that. BUT... I have a question first.

'''(IMPORTANT QUESTION ALERT) So, I have Rivalry of Warlords in the deck along with a few non-spellcasters and some /Gemini monsters. Does Rivalry of Warlords prevent /Gemini monsters from being summoned even if the main type works with what I have on the field? For example-if I have out a couple of Skilled Dark Magicians on the field and I want to summon Crusader of Endymion, can I? Crusader of Endymion is a Spellcaster/Gemini monster. I've been searching all over for the answer to this question. Two people have said that Rivalry of Warlords DOES block /Gemini summons, but I haven't been able to find any official rulings on that.'''

'''tl;dr: Does Rivalry of Warlords prevent me from summoning a Spellcaster/Gemini monster when I have just regular Spellcasters on the field? (IMPORTANT QUESTION ALERT OVER)'''

IF Rivalry of Warlords doesn't work well with /Gemini types, then I can take out Dark Valkyria, Crusader of Endymion, Ultimate Offering, Spell Absorption, and the three Poison of the Old Man cards (11 cards total removed, bringing the deck size to 32). IF I do that, I will add in Rivalry of Warlords, three copies of The Triky, another Ground Collapse, another Summoner Monk, another Secret Village of the Spellcasters, and the two Magician's Valkyria cards (41 cards... gotta cut it down by one more card!).

So... version two, now without /Gemini monsters or carbohydrates!

Fusion: Dark Paladin x2

High level: Dark Magician x3

Buster Blader

Chaos Sorcerer

Dark Red Enchanter

Sorcerer of Dark Magic

The Tricky x3

Low level: Skilled Dark Magician x3

Breaker the Magical Warrior x3

Elemental Hero Prisma x2

Gagaga Magician

Summoner Monk x2

Apprentice Magician x3

Magician's Valkyria x2

Magic: Polymerization

Monster Reborn

Lightning Vortex x2

Secret Village of the Spellcasters x2

Ground Collapse x2

Swords of Revealing Light x2

Trap: Rivalry of Warlords

Call of the Haunted

Magic Cylinder

Mirror Force

Light of Intervention

No side deck necessary

Maybe I could cut The Tricky down to two copies and leave it right at 40... but...

'''(IMPORTANT THINGY ALERT) ... unfortunately, there are still several other cards I want to try to work in, including Pitch-Black Power Stone, Magical Dimension, Magician's Circle, Mystical Space Typhoon/Dark Magic Attack (only because Elemental Hero Prisma can also use Dark Magic Attack, to my knowledge...), Waboku (a personal favorite card for several years, though probably unnecessary), possibly the Dark Magician Girl (doubt I need her, though), Emblem of Dragon Destroyer and maybe even Royal Decree. (IMPORTANT THINGY ALERT OVER)'''

'''(I WAS WRONG. ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING) Pre-lastly: Dark Paladin, Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Light of Intervention, and Chaos Sorcerer are the most important cards in this deck. Dark Paladin and Secret Village help cancel out the opponent's magic cards. Sorcerer of Dark Magic cancels out the opponent's trap cards. Light of Intervention makes sure that the opponent isn't gonna come slaughter my key cards with Man-Eater Bug or Penguin Soldier. Chaos Sorcerer is there to remove any monster from play that has a non-flip effect that could get my Spellcasters in trouble. Does anybody know a good way to make sure I can get these cards early on? (NO MOAR IMPORTANCENESS)'''

Lastly (I'll keep this brief)-I've had a lot of people ask why I run Dark Paladin. Here's the simple answer: I like the Dark Paladin. It's one of my favorite cards. The longer explanation? Though this deck could run fine without Dark Paladin, Buster Blader, and Polymerization (all thanks to Secret Village of the Spellcasters and maybe another decent magic blocker, just in case), ever since it was released, Dark Paladin has been one of my favorites. It was in my best deck before I quit, so I'm just revamping the old strategy.

I will not be using synchro monsters because I don't understand them, plain and simple. I'm just playing casually.

Thank you very much for reading/skimming this.