Fortune Lady

The Fortune Ladies are a series of Spellcaster-type monsters, which are also upgraded versions of the "Fortune Fairies".

"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".

Playability
Fortune Ladies need to swarm the field quickly using Fortune Lady Light and Fortune Lady Dark. You can, for example, 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.
 * or Fortune Lady Fire to destroy an opponent's troublesome monster (and inflict burn damage).

Since all Fortune Ladies are Spellcaster-Type monsters, you can Tribute Fortune Lady Light, or any other Fortune Lady for the effect of Magical Dimension. It is not a cost and is one action so Fortune Lady Light will not miss the timing, 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. 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. Also since all 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.

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, Twist of Fate, 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 all these "Remove from Play" cards being run, 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.

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.

The deck can end up having a huge mass of draw power, other draw cards players could add include Allure of Darkness, Arcane Barrier, Pot of Avarice and Fortune Lady Water. The deck mainly relies on cards in the deck to be summoned with Fortune Lady Light and so a couple of Exodia pieces on your first turn may not matter so much, as long as you can easily access Fortune Lady Light's effect.

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. The Fortune Ladies have the best chance at a nationals ranking, and may even be a World Championship contender. 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.

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.

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier is also another great card to go with Fortune Ladies due to its compatibilty 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 maintaning hand advantage.

Put a copy of Allure of Darkness in your deck for even more draw power. 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).

One more big thing to take note of is the number of Ladies you should run. If you draw into any other Lady than Light is bad if you can't ditch it. 9-10 should be the best number of Ladies to use. Light should be used at 3, there is no doubt about that. It is recommended that you also use 3 Darks in your deck, but only if you are using the graveyard, not in a deck that uses RFG which also effects your own graveyard because it is otherwise useless.

The remaining slots you are recommended to fill with combinations of Fortune Ladies Fire and Water. Fire is your main monster removal and Water is used to draw. Remember that when deciding on the number of Water in the deck, you have to consider the number of times you will be able to pull off her effect. In a deck that uses Dark, you should probably use 2-3 of her because the combination of Visions, Light and Dark. In a deck that does not focus on special summoning as much, you should run 1-2 of her. Fire is a very good monster removal card and you can use 1-3 of her depending on what you want to focus on, draw power or monster removal. She is very good in control variants so 2-3 of her should be a very good amount.

Earth is an average beatstick with a burn effect that activates at least once a turn. She is ok but there are far better beatsticks than her. If you go for a deck with a relative number of DARK monsters (at least 8 other than Dark Armed Dragon) you should play DAD. In control variants you can use Beast King Barbaros because his ATK is reset when he is removed and then special summoned by Visions. He is one of the best choice for those types of decks and is a very good card to consider if you are not running a DARK Fortune Lady build.

Last is Fortune Lady Wind. She has a mediocre effect if not played at the right time. She clears your opponent's spells and traps equal to the number of Fortune Ladies on the field. That sounds good but you have to look at the conditions of the effect. First, you cannot use her effect if you have more Fortune Ladies on the field than your opponent has spells and traps on his side of the field. Second, she will be useless in your hand if you draw her too early and dont have enough Fortune Ladies on the field or your opponent has too little when you need the effect the most. Third and lastly, she has to be normal summoned for her effect to activate. That is the biggest turn-off to her effect. It slows you down if you have little field presence but her effect can work well if you already have 3 or 4 monster slots filled. Because of all these conditions to playing her effectively, you should most likely not use her because you have better choices but if you fell she would be helpful at times, run only 1.

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

Class A

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

Class A 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 C

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

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

Recommended Monsters

 * Fortune Lady Light
 * Fortune Lady Fire
 * Fortune Lady Wind
 * Fortune Lady Water
 * Fortune Lady Dark
 * Fortune Lady Earth

Optional Monsters

 * Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate
 * Solitaire Magician
 * Magical Exemplar
 * Chaos Sorcerer
 * Kinka-byo
 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu
 * Tragoedia
 * Mist Valley Shaman (for synchro summoning)
 * Dark Simorgh
 * Apprentice Magician
 * Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Spells

 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Time Passage (This card should be passed over in exchange for attack negation and monster destruction)
 * Fortune's Future
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Magical Dimension (highly recommended)
 * Future Visions
 * Arcane Barrier (draw power)

Traps

 * Bending Destiny
 * Inherited Fortune
 * Mirror Force
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Slip of Fortune Optional
 * Divine Wrath Optional
 * Dark Bribe Optional
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device (highly recommended)
 * Bottomless Trap Hole

Synchros

 * Goyo Guardian
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (this cards is extremely useful with Fortune Lady Light)
 * Ally of Justice Catastor
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Arcanite Magician (for destruction)