X-Saber

Overview & Playstyle
The X-Sabers are a series of EARTH Attribute, mainly Warrior-Type and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters whose effects associate with swarming the field. Some allow the user to gain massive card advantage after battle by causing hand destruction with cards such as X-Saber Airbellum, and monsters to the top of the Deck like X-Saber Uruz, while others focus on increasing their own Attack power such as XX-Saber Garsem.

Many were introduced in Duel Terminal followed by further support in Duel Terminal - Invasion of Worms!. With the release of "Gottoms' Emergency Call", the X-Saber monsters are the first Duel Terminal Archetype to receive Spell and Trap support. With the Ancient Prophecy Pre-Release exclusive "XX-Saber Gardestrike", X-Sabers were the first Duel Terminal archetype to have its own TCG-exclusive card. They also received more support in Ancient Prophecy in the form of the XX-Sabers sub-Archetype and were released to the TCG with the 2009 Starter Deck. The XX-Sabers are still considered X-Sabers though.

They received further support in The Shining Darkness. As a TCG-exclusive, "XX-Saber Darksoul" adds the ability to search out any X-Saber monster from the deck, even high level ones such as "XX-Saber Faultroll". "X-Saber Palomuro" and "X-Saber Pashuul" add extra lower-level tuning ability for further versatility in the deck's Synchro options.

Unless their user swarms the field, some of the X-Saber monsters will be of limited use, because several of them require the presence or tribute of other X-Saber monsters to activate. The TCG exclusive release of "XX-Saber Emmersblade" has given the archetype its own version of "Giant Rat". Any X-Saber deck which runs 3 copies of each will be able to search out most monsters in the deck. The previous problem that X-Sabers had of low attack monsters has been solved with the release of the TCG-exclusive "XX-Saber Boggart Knight" which adds more swarm power to the deck along with a high attack score. XX-Saber Darksoul and XX-Saber Faultroll represent the key cards of the deck, Darksoul giving fast and easy searches off of battle and synchros and Faultroll providing the muscle and swarming power that makes the deck so dynamic

The Faultroll Loop
This combo involves using 2 "XX-Saber Faultrolls" and a "XX-Saber Ragigura" with "XX-Saber Gottoms" or "Dark Strike Fighter"(Traditional format only)/"Mass Driver"/"Cannon Soldier" to force your opponent to lose all their points or all the cards in their hand. It works as follows: by having two "Faultrolls", one "Ragigura" and one Level 3 Tuner X-Saber monster on the field, you can Synchro Summon "XX-Saber Gottoms". Then, Tribute "Ragigura" for "Gottom's" effect and discard one random card from your opponent's hand. After that, use "Faultroll's" effect to Special Summon "Ragigura", activating its effect to add the other "Faultroll" to your Hand and Summon it again. Tribute both "Ragigura" and the spent "Faultroll", and re-use the unused "Faultroll" to repeat the combo. Repeat until your opponent's Hand is completely empty. This combo can be especially deadly with Brionac to clear their entire hand and field. The exact same combo works with "Mass Driver" and "Cannon Soldier" to deplete your opponent's Life Points, the only difference being that you do not need "XX-Saber Gottoms" on the field.

Monsters

 * X-Saber Airbellum
 * X-Saber Pashuul
 * XX-Saber Boggart Knight
 * XX-Saber Darksoul
 * XX-Saber Emmersblade
 * XX-Saber Faultroll
 * XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
 * XX-Saber Ragigura

Synchro Monsters

 * X-Saber Wayne
 * XX-Saber Gottoms
 * X-Saber Urbellum
 * XX-Saber Hyunlei
 * Naturia Beast
 * Naturia Barkion
 * Black Rose Dragon

Spells

 * Book of Moon
 * Pot of Duality
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Cold Wave
 * Giant Trunade

Traps

 * Gottoms' Emergency Call

SaberSworn (Also known as "Lightsabers")
This version of the deck can be anywhere from only a slight modification of normal X-Sabers to a full-on hybrid. The general idea is to use Lightsworn monsters and support cards (primarily "Charge of the Light Brigade") to mill the deck, dumping X-Sabers in the Graveyard quickly. This allows greater use of "XX-Saber Ragigura", "XX-Saber Gardestrike", "XX-Saber Fulhelmknight", "XX-Saber Faultroll", and "Gottoms' Emergency Call". Due to the limiting of Charge of the Light Brigade this is less playable.

The most commonly used Lightsworns, in a deck packing only a few of them, are "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter" and "Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress" for their easy destruction capabilities and the fact that they do not need to support Lightsworns. "Wulf, Lightsworn Beast" may also be used for its non-specificity. (Other cards, like "Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior", "Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner" and "Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid" do specifically support Lightsworns.) Builds using more Lightsworns will generally only incorporate a few of each, to maximize the playability of "Judgment Dragon". In such a deck, an ideal game-ending play would be to Special Summon "Judgment Dragon" and wipe the field, then Normal Summon "Rescue Cat"(Traditional Format only), Special Summon 2 "X-Saber Airbellums", Special Summon "X-Saber Faultroll" from the hand, Special Summon another "X-Saber" from the graveyard, and attack to deal as high as - or higher than - 10,000 damage to the opponent.

Monsters

 * Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
 * Card Trooper
 * Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells

 * Charge of the Light Brigade
 * Cold Wave
 * Pot of Avarice
 * Monster Reincarnation
 * Saber Slash
 * Book of Moon
 * Solar Recharge

Traps

 * Gottoms' Emergency Call

Weaknesses
Due to the use of the graveyard on many of these cards' effects ("Gottoms' Emergency Call", "XX-Saber Ragigura", ect.), cards such as "Dimensional Prison", "Macro Cosmos" and "Banisher of the Radiance" can be used. X-Sabers will not be able to operate as effectively, as the monsters will be removed from play.

Due to the high amount of Special Summoning, cards such as "Vanity's Emptiness", "Vanity's Fiend", etc. would cripple the X-Saber Deck.

If using the Discard strategy, cards from both the "Dark World" and "Fabled" archetypes would be triggered by the X-Saber cards, leaving the opponent at an advantage.

"Gottoms' Emergency Call", although an X-Saber support card, could also be used to combat the X-Saber deck as it can target X-Saber monsters in either player's graveyard, not just your own.