Thunder Dragon (archetype)

"Thunder Dragon" is an archetype of LIGHT and DARK Thunder monsters. Though members have existed since the Vol.7 Booster Pack in 2000, it only received its first support with the new series of "Thunder Dragon" monsters featured in Soul Fusion in 2018.

Appearance
Each Thunder Dragon is based on and inspired by the original "Thunder Dragon", all of them being electrified dragons with a green, yellow, black or gray color scheme to them. "Thunder Dragon Lord" is especially influenced by the original Thunder Dragon, which looks like a three-headed version of that monster, similar to the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon". The card "Bolt Thunder Dragon" is a retrained version of the original Thunder Dragon as it has the same Type, Level, Stats, and similar effect of searching out another copy of itself.

"Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon" is the black sheep of the archetype and sticks out like a sore thumb, mostly because the artwork bears little resemblance to the rest of its fellow members or even its fusion materials (two Thunder Dragons), as the artwork is instead just a recolored version of "Two-Mouth Darkruler" viewed from a different perspective.

Playing style
The deck aims to amass card advantage from various discard effects and banishing, most notably through their Fusion monsters. Each Thunder Dragon can discard itself to search out another copy of itself or another member of the archetype, making these cards great for deck thinning. Even if they don't get banished, they still get off their effects if they're sent from the field to the graveyard, meaning you can tribute one Thunder Dragon for another one, to get off the effect, or even use a "Dark Hole" to destroy all monsters on the field, getting rid of your opponent's monsters while your Thunder Dragons will almost instantly replace themselves.

Weaknesses
Despite the deck's sheer versatility, it still has many great weaknesses. Since the deck is so reliant on banishing cards, a well timed "Imperial Iron Wall" or "Chaos Hunter", cards that prevent banishing, can completely shut the deck down, and because it is also reliant on special summoning constantly to achieve swarming and field control, cards like "Vanity's Ruler", "Vanity's Fiend", and "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo" can severely slow the deck down. "Jowgen the Spiritualist" can be especially devastating as with a simple cost of discarding 1 card from the hand, it can destroy all special summoned monsters from the field, and the Thunder Dragons won't be able to replace themselves as Jowgen also prevents special summons.

As the cards activate their effects when they're banished or sent to the Graveyard, a well-timed "Majesty's Fiend" can really cripple the deck, as can "Droll & Lock Bird" or "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" hand traps as the deck is also reliant on card advantage and deck thinning.