Malefic

"Malefic", known as "Sin" ( Shin) in the OCG, is an archetype of cards which were introduced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time movie. They are used by Paradox, and are almost exclusively corrupted versions of existing monsters. Paradox, who plays the "Malefic" Deck, claims that these cards are the most powerful cards in history, due to the fact that they aren't bound to Normal Summoning rules. These monsters allow for a large amount of power to be Summoned rapidly from the hand, as their only Summoning requirements are banishing their original version from the Deck (or Extra Deck). The only monsters known in this archetype are "Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon", "Malefic Red-Eyes Black Dragon", "Malefic Stardust Dragon", "Malefic Cyber End Dragon", and "Malefic Rainbow Dragon", corrupted versions of their non-"Malefic" counterparts; as well as 3 unique monsters, "Malefic Parallel Gear", "Malefic Paradox Dragon" and "Malefic Truth Dragon". The "Sin" part of the name is always written in English as Malefic.



Most of the monsters in this archetype are corrupted monsters, so all of them are DARK Attribute. They all have mechanical-looking pieces of their body which are made of a mix of white, grey and black metal, including wings and face-plates (and, in the case of "Malefic Stardust Dragon", knee and torso plates). Their faces have masks similar to that of Paradox, with the right side black, the left side white and line patterns that cover the eyes ("Malefic Cyber End Dragon" also has its far right head black and far left white. "Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Malefic Red-Eyes Black Dragon" are the only "Malefic" monsters whose right eye is not covered by their masks.). Also, each one is the counterpart of a Dragon-Type monster (with the exception of "Cyber End Dragon", which is a Machine-Type monster, though it is a "Dragon"). The remaining three monsters look very similar, but have no known non-Malefic counterparts.

Almost All "Malefic" monsters are Special Summoned by banishing their original form from the Deck or Extra Deck (in the movie, they are instead sent to the Graveyard). They share three aspects with the "Earthbound Immortal" archetype: Both archetypes consist of DARK Attribute monsters, only one of them can be on the field at a time (in the movie, more than one can be present) and destroy themselves if a Field Spell is not present. They also have an effect in common with the "Meklord Emperors" which prevents other monsters you control from attacking (in the movie, they don't have this effect either).

The first two "Malefic" monsters, "Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Malefic Red-Eyes B. Dragon", had no effects besides the aforementioned ones. The third, "Malefic Stardust Dragon", offers support to the theme by protecting Field Spell Card from destruction by card effects. The fourth, "Malefic Truth Dragon" is able to Special Summon itself from the hand or Graveyard and allows other monsters you control to attack, as well as destroying all opponents monsters when it destroys something by battle. In the movie, "Malefic Cyber End Dragon" retained its original form's Piercing effect, while in the TCG/OCG it has no effects besides the standard ones, as with the first two. "Malefic Parallel Gear" allows you to use 1 "Malefic" monster in your hand for a Synchro Summon, and "Malefic Paradox Dragon" when Summoned can Special Summon a Synchro Monster from either player's Graveyard. "Malefic Rainbow Dragon", is unique for allowing a player to banish "Rainbow Dragon" from the hand in addition to the Deck. The movie versions of "Malefic Paradox Dragon" and "Malefic Truth Dragon" both have their own effects as well.

In the trailers shown before every episode are nine face-down cards. The first 5 were "Malefic" monsters that were corrupted versions of original Dragons. The sixth one is "Elemental HERO Neos Knight", while the seventh is "Junk Gardna".

However, the eighth monster is "Malefic Parallel Gear" and the ninth and final monster is "Malefic Paradox Dragon" used by Paradox in the movie. The "Malefic" monsters have also appeared in alternate versions of the FREEDOM and -OZONE- animations that used footage from the film.

There are also 3 "Malefic" Spell Cards and 4 "Malefic" Trap Cards, which in Japanese have their names printed in English (but not using their English names).

Playing style
Malefics function well as an anti-meta Deck, revolving primarily around the cards "Necrovalley," "Geartown" and "Skill Drain." Geartown allows you to maintain field presense even if your Field Spell is destroyed by summoning "Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon," who can be discarded using "Trade-In" to add consistency to the Deck. Cards such as "Beast King Barbaros" and "Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast" can be summoned under Skill Drain with their full attack. Beast King Barbaros is level 8, and therefore compatible with Trade-In, while Fusilier is Dark, and therefore compatible with "Allure of Darkness", "Deck Devastation Virus" and "Eradicator Epidemic Virus." Necrovalley will prevent your opponent from summoning or banishing monsters from their graveyard, shutting out a majority of popular Decks while not affecting the Malefics. With Skill Drain preventing access to monster effects, Necrovalley locking the grave and access to a large amount of beatsticks, an anti-meta variant of Malefics can be potent. As the Deck does not make use of the graveyard, cards such as "Macro Cosmos" are excellent side-Deck choices, shutting down popular Decks such as "Dark World," "Inzektors," and "Lavals."

This Deck is based on banishing monsters from the Extra Deck and Deck to Special Summon powerful monsters and overwhelm the opponent. Because of the large amount of monster removal, "Different Dimension" Spell and Trap Cards are useful. Because most of the "Malefic" monsters are Dragons, you can use "Burial from a Different Dimension" and "Dragon's Mirror" or at least Side Deck them. Since most monsters needed to Summon "Malefic" monsters need to be in the Deck, "Card Trader", or "Draconnection" can be used to return unnecessary cards to the Deck. The most common Field Spell Card that is played in this Deck is "Malefic World", but before this card was released, Field Spell Cards which could prevent their own destruction (such as "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins" or "Magical Citadel of Endymion"), as well as cards like "Field Barrier", were pivotal to a successful Deck ("Malefic Stardust Dragon" will help with this)."Terraforming" can also help by searching for a Field Spell. Although "Malefic Stardust Dragon" will lose its protection effect, "Skill Drain" will negate the negative effects of the "Malefic" monsters and allow them to stay on the field even without a Field card, as well as allow your other monsters to attack, which makes all "Malefic" monsters great beatsticks for a "Skill Drain Deck". "Axe of Fools" will also have the same effect on any one "Malefic" monster, as well as give it a 1000 ATK increase. "The Dark Door" can be used to limit your opponent to one attack, and will not affect you since you can usually only attack with one monster anyway. "Kaiser Colosseum" can be used to also limit your opponent to 1 Monster.

Alternatively, a faster and more powerful playing style can be used. It involves solely using "Malefic Stardust Dragon", "Malefic Cyber End Dragon", and "Malefic Truth Dragon". This eliminates the need to use monsters that are dead draws. In addition to this, the Deck is a lot more reliable-"Malefic Stardust Dragon" protects your Field Spell and "Malefic Cyber End Dragon" can attack over virtually every common monster. "Cyber Dragon" also works in this Deck to maintain field presence since it can be easy to clear your field (as you'll usually be using one monster at a time due to the Malefic monster's limitations). "Jinzo" is a great monster to use as well. You can Special Summon "Cyber Dragon", tribute it for "Jinzo", and then summon a "Malefic" Monster and have it avoid your opponent's Trap Cards. "Royal Decree" works in this respect as well. As for Field Spells, "Malefic World", "Dragon Ravine", "Magical Citadel of Endymion" and "The Seal of Orichalcos" could prove to be useful. "Citadel" is the easiest-to-protect Field Spell since this deck runs a lot of Spell cards, giving "Citadel" multiple Spell counters to protect itself with. "The Seal" is also useful in this regard as it can increase the ATK of your already powerful monsters even further as well as protect itself (albeit to a lesser extent than "Citadel"). "Dragon Ravine" can send a "Malefic Truth Dragon" to the Graveyard for use later in the game and "Malefic World" gives you ample searching ability. "Terraforming" can be used to search out your Field Spells.

Another interesting type of playing style revolves around Malefic Paradox Dragon, Malefic Truth Dragon, Dark Simorgh, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. If any Field Spell besides "Malefic World" is up, Malefic Paradox Dragon is instantly destroyed, allowing you to summon Malefic Truth Dragon, who remains safe since any Field Spell will keep it alive. Then, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon gives the Deck longevity by constantly reviving Malefic Paradox Dragon (as it's not a Nomi monster) and by extension Malefic Truth Dragon. With Dark Simorgh in play, your opponent won't be able to set their monsters or traps cards, allowing you to take full advantage of the Malefic's high ATK power.

Also, Dragon's Rage has proved useful in certain situations, as every Malefic is a dragon besides Malefic Cyber End Dragon and Malefic Parallel Gear.

You can include R-Genex Turbo and R-Genex Oracle into your Deck to Synchro Summon Locomotion R-Genex, since both Malefic Stardust Dragon and Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon are Level 8 DARK monsters, that can be easily Searched and Summoned.

You can include a combo of "Ojama Trio"/"Nightmare Archfiends" and "Battle Mania"/"All-Out Attacks" for an OTK.

An alternative strategy for Malefics is to use their high Attacks for stalling instead of attacking. Use Final Countdown, Wave Motion Cannon and cards that can prevent your cards from being destroyed (Like Magic Reflector, Imperial Custom and Safe Zone). Cost Down can reduce "Malefic Stardust Dragon"'s level in your hand, which can let you use Malefic Parallel Gear to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon. Macro Cosmos, All-Out Attacks, Deck Devastation Virus, Eradicator Epidemic Virus, Skill Drain and Clear World make from it one of the most powerful Archetipes for stalling antimeta (you can still unleash your Malefic's ATK power to finish off your opponent).

Weaknesses
The easiest and fastest way to defeat this Deck is to activate "Imperial Iron Wall", which would make almost all "Malefic" monsters impossible to Summon. Since a Malefic Deck probably won't have many low Level monsters in their Deck your opponent will probably have a clear field for quite a few turns. A good way to counter this would be with all-purpose Spell and Trap removal cards such as "Mystical Space Typhoon".

The most common and certainly the most reliable way to defeat this Deck is with anti-Special Summon cards such as "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo" and "Thunder King Rai-Oh", since almost none of the "Malefic" monsters can be Normal Summoned. This also gives "Grave of the Super Ancient Organism", a card that is very rarely useful, a chance to stall. "Thunder King Rai-Oh" is especially dangerous as it negates the effect of "Malefic World" and "Terraforming". "Skill Drain" can counter these monster effects, as well as having a lot of synergy with the Malefic Deck. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" CAN be Normal Summoned but it is almost next to impossible with this Deck, and hence they are almost always dead if drawn. "Koa'ki Meiru Drago" and "Consecrated Light" also kill this Deck as they prevent DARK monsters from being Special Summoned. Another method people use would be Synchro Summoning Ancient Fairy Dragon to destroy a field spell, thus destroying any "Malefic" monsters, while also gaining 1000 life points in return.

Since the "Malefic" monsters need their original forms to be in the Deck, Deck Destruction cards such as "Needle Worm", "Gravekeeper's Servant", and "Doom Dozer" can be useful. "Dark Designator" and "Respect Play" can be a good combo as well. If your opponent controls a "Malefic" monster and they have one in their hand you can use "Dark Designator" to add the non-Malefic version to your opponents hand, so they can't banish it from their Deck (but it's likely that they'll have another copy in their Deck). This combo, however, will not work against "Malefic Stardust Dragon," "Malefic Cyber End Dragon," "Malefic Rainbow Dragon," or "Malefic Truth Dragon," so "Dragunity Knight - Trident" and "Extra Gate" is your best bet. Also, since they need Field Spell Cards you can activate "Field Barrier" when no Field Spells are active to keep them off the field and give your opponent more useless draws.

Mirror Matching against a "Malefic" Deck can be risky, as all "Malefic" monsters (with the exception of "Malefic Paradox Dragon"), "there can only be one face-up Malefic monster on the field", so your opponent can lock you out of Summoning your "Malefic" monsters if they have Summoned one of their own. Creature Swap can also work the same way.

Trivia

 * The masks worn by the "Malefic" monsters are based on those of their user Paradox, which in turn are based on features of his face; the black half has lines based off his red eyebrow, and the left based on the monocle he wore in life.
 * The Japanese name for this archetype, "Sin", is meant as a pun on the words for "truth" ("shin") and "sin" ("tsumi"), alluding to the truth of human nature as seen by Paradox (humanity's errors have led to the world's destruction).
 * The English name "Malefic" means "having or asserting a negative influence", referring to how these cards are corrupted versions of existing cards.