Lightsworn

The Lightsworn, known as Lightlords in the Korean and Japanese version, are a set of monsters introduced in Light of Destruction. They are all LIGHT Attribute monsters and their primary effect involves self-milling, sending cards from the top of your Deck to your Graveyard, either as a cost to activate their effect(s), or as part of the effect(s) itself.

Playing style
Decking out is a risk sometimes associated with the milling done in Lightsworn Decks. However, milling improves the speed of the Deck and many Lightsworn cards benefit from having many Lightsworn monsters in the Graveyard. A primary focus of this deck is to quickly summon "Judgment Dragon", which may be Special Summoned while there are 4 or more different Lightsworn monsters in the Graveyard. Judgment Dragon can quickly clear the field and attack directly. This strategy is most useful when running a small deck, and has the potential to turn the tables in your favor before your opponent can get too much of a foothold.

This Deck is quite capable of a very fast OTK using their mill effects, and then Summoning "Judgment Dragon". "Judgment Dragon" alone would easily be able to create an OTK situation fairly quickly.

Lightsworns have been incorporated into many deck types, such as X-Sabers, Zombies, and various other kinds. Most notably is when Lightsworns are combined with DARK Monsters in a Deck type known as Twilight. Such a Deck uses a mixture of LIGHT and DARK monsters and tends to include Chaos cards, particularly since "Chaos Sorcerer" was removed from the Forbidden List.

Weaknesses
Despite its powerful assets, the deck has major weaknesses, the first of them being luck. Since the Lightsworns rely heavily on milling, usually the quality and quantity of cards milled will define a Duel in its mid-to-advanced stages. While luck is involved in any deck, it is doubly so in Lightsworns. One must build one's deck carefully to consistently do well.

While the aforementioned may be seen more as a unique characteristic of the deck, rather than a weakness, the primary problems for a Lightsworn player come from cards capable of negating effects ("Skill Drain", "Light-Imprisoning Mirror" and "Brain Golem" above all), and cards adept to remove from play, especially "Macro Cosmos" and "Dimensional Fissure", capable of turning the milling effect of the Lightsworn from a simple requirement to a severe disadvantage. As such, one will commonly find cards like Royal Decree and Mystical Space Typhoon in both the main and side of Lightsworn decks

Sometimes a threat to Lightsworn Decks are cards that add to the milling, such as "Iron Chain", "Needle Worm" "Voltic Bicorn", and "Ally of Justice"; however, these can be helpful since they can push the deck into its win condition more quickly.

Stalling may force a Deck Out, though the high number of destruction effects the Lightsworns offer, such as "Celestia, Lightsworn Angel", "Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress", and "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter", often make up for this.

Remove from Play decks also cause some trouble, because the milled cards will be removed from play instead; this would cripple the effect of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast and Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner, and make the summon of Judgment Dragon impossible. It also disables the effect of Celestia, Lightsworn Angel since sending cards from the Deck to the Graveyard is a cost; and since cards like Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos prevent this, Celestia, Lightsworn Angel's Effect therefore cannot be activated. The same goes for Charge of the Light Brigade. This may be counteracted by maining or siding spell/trap destruction such as Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado

Monsters

 * Honest
 * Necro Gardna
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Judgment Dragon
 * Glow-Up Bulb
 * Cyber Dragon
 * Thunder King Rai-Oh
 * Effect Veiler
 * Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
 * Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
 * Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
 * Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
 * Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
 * Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
 * Wulf, Lightsworn Beast

Spells

 * Foolish Burial
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Solar Recharge
 * Charge of the Light Brigade
 * Pot of Avarice

Traps

 * Beckoning Light
 * Trap Stun
 * Royal Decree

Cards with Synergy

 * Gold Sarcophagus : It can be very helpful to get cards in your hand that you don't want to mill. You can get Judgement Dragon before you mill it, or you can get Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner to get some help with a bad hand. By the time the two turns have have past Judgement Dragon was removed then is in your hand you may already have four or more Lightsworn Monsters in your graveyard.
 * Honest : Given that the common Attribute shared by all Lightsworn Monsters is LIGHT, "Honest" is pretty much a staple in every Lightsworn Deck thanks to its ability to boost weak Lightsworns' Attack and overcome the opponent's attacks. Also, being LIGHT itself, Honest can be easily retrieved with "Beckoning Light".
 * Foolish Burial : You can use this to instantly summon a "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast" from your Deck, but you can also use it to send cards such as Plaguespreader Zombie, Glow-Up Bulb, or Necro Gardna to be utilized from the graveyard, or to meet the requirements of "Judgment Dragon" if you don't have enough differently-named Lightsworns in your Graveyard to summon it.
 * Necro Gardna : Negate 1 attack from a monster your opponent controls and use the monster you've just protected to tribute summon "Celestia, Lightsworn Angel" or simply to protect any valuable asset, such as Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. Since its place is in the graveyard, it can become a positive thing if milled by a Lightsworn monster or discarded by "Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner".
 * Plaguespreader Zombie : Grants access to Synchro Monsters, and its effect to revive itself is useful when coupled with "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast" or "Necro Gardna" and another Lightsworn Monster (Wulf or Gardna will be put on top of the Deck, and the Lightsworn's effect will mill them, granting a free Summon or a defense). With "Imperial Iron Wall, this can be done as much times as the player wants.
 * The Fabled Cerburrel : Another Tuner like "Plaguespreader Zombie". This has great synergy with Lumina, as you can use her effect by discarding this card to get almost any Synchro Monster you want. Although caution must be taken when using this card over "Plaguespreader Zombie" as, if this card is milled, it becomes useless as a Tuner, while "Plaguespreader Zombie" still flourishes.
 * Beckoning Light : Works pretty much the same way as "Monster Reincarnation", but allows you to retrieve a potentially higher number of LIGHT Monsters, "Honest" and "Judgment Dragon" above all.
 * Card Trooper : With the ability to Mill without ending your turn, unlike most of the Lightsworn monsters, you can use this card's effect to send up to 3 cards on top of your deck to the graveyard once per turn. Using this card's effect, it can send a "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to the graveyard which will Special Summon it. Unlike some of the Lightsworn monsters, you are able to do whatever you wish with the "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast" milled out by "Card Trooper". A great addition with this card is that due to it's low ATK it will likely be destroyed by battle next turn and trigger it's second effect, and allow you to draw one card. Then, during your turn, you get the added advantage of drawing your normal card, helping you maintain hand advantage.
 *  Glow-Up Bulb : Another nice tuner monster. It's effect is similiar to that of the Lightsworns (send the top card of your deck to the graveyard) and works in a manner similar to that of Plaguespreader Zombie, albeit at a different level.
 * Cyber Dragon : In the current format, Lightsworns suffer greatly from the abundant use of Solemn Warning, a card that keeps them off the field. As such, Cyber Dragon helps to bait cards meant for more valuable monsters. In addition, it itself is a very useful monster, boasting 2100 attack, an easy summoning condition, comparability with Chimeratech Fortress Dragon should one encounter a machine deck, and LIGHT typing that makes it compatable with Honest
 * Thunder King Rai-Oh: While not as formidable as in formats past, TKRO is still the king of tech, He represents a tremendous threat to most decks in the metagame, and is necessary for your opponent to eliminate, forcing them to devote their cards in a different manner than they would care for. It is fantastic for this deck, boasting high attack, LIGHT typing, and a great effect that conflicts only with Charge of the Light Brigade, a limited card.
 * Pot of Avarice: In a deck that mills as indiscriminately as Lightsworns, one is bound to have an abundance of monsters in one's graveyard. Now, while 4 Lightsworn names allow for the summon of Judgment Dragon, and certain cards such as Plaguespreader Zombie, Glow-Up Bulb, and Necro Gardna are desirable to have in one's graveyard, one will find more than enough monsters that don't contribute towards these ends to use one or two of the lovely +1, Pot of Avarice. This card represents almost free advantage to any Lightsworn deck on the third or fourth turn, and while not advisable at three, certainly works at one or two

Further Strategy
With easily fulfilled special summoning conditions (having 4 or more "Lightsworn" monsters with different names in your Graveyard), high ATK, and a devastating effect (pay 1000 Life Points to Destroy all other cards on the field), "Judgment Dragon" is capable of dealing large amounts of damage, and could even create a OTK situation fairly quickly. Since it has no Cost to summon itself, only a condition, you can still summon your other dragon that turn.

"Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner" is a staple in a Lightsworn deck, due to the ability to dump dead cards while summoning a Lightsworn monster from the graveyard, giving you easy Field advantage. A common trick is to discard a "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast" and Special Summon the same discarded "Wulf" for an easy 2100 ATK beatstick.

Another good card in this archetype is "Celestia, Lightsworn Angel". When "Celestia" is Tribute Summoned by Tributing a "Lightsworn" monster you can send 4 cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard in order to destroy up to 2 cards that your opponent controls.

In terms of Spell support "Solar Recharge", "Cold Wave", "Giant Trunade", and "Charge of the Light Brigade" all represent good options

Despite the fact that the player is quickly milling their Deck, 40 cards is plenty for it. If you add more cards it will only get slower and less consistent, and you won't draw your "Judgment Dragons" and other key cards when you need them. Because of the constant milling, however, they will be sent to the Graveyard frequently. In such cases, bring them back using "Beckoning Light".

In case your opponent uses cards like "Skill Drain", "Royal Oppression" or "Light-Imprisoning Mirror", you might want to add "Royal Decree" to your Side Deck. Since a Lightsworn Deck most likely won't run any essential Trap Cards, you can side them out to get rid of the dangers coming along with negating effects.

While it may seem counter intuitive, Royal Oppression is a useful card in a Lightsworn side deck, hurting many other decks more than Lightsworns