Malefic

Malefic, known as Sin in the OCG, is an archetype of cards which were introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time and used by Paradox, and are usually corrupted versions of existing monsters. Paradox, who plays the "Malefic" Deck, claims that these cards are to be 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 cheap 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.



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). The remaining three monsters look very similar, but have no known non-Malefic counterparts.

Nearly 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, all of which have their names written all in English, but in their original names (as in "Sin", not "Malefic").

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, therefore compatible with Trade-In, and Fusilier is Dark, and therefore compatible with "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 the powerful beatsticks in a Malefic deck, an anti-meta variant of Malefics can prove highly successful. 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," Plant Synchro 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 "Lighten the Load" can be used to return necessary 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 can 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 positive 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 beatstick assets to 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 (you'll 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" and 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", and "Magical Citadel of Endymion" could prove to be the most useful. "Citadel" is the easiest-to-protect Field Spell and since you'll be using a higher amount of Spell Cards than Trap Cards and Monsters, it will be quite easy to protect. "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.

It requires a big support to use Malefic Monsters as a beatsticks, but it still can easily be stopped. An alternative strategy (or entire play stile) for them is to use high Attack of Malefic monsters for stalling instead of attacking. Use "Final Countdown", "Wave Motion Cannon" and cards that can prevent your cards from being destroyed. You can also include a combo of "Ojama Trio"\"Nightmare Archfiends" and "Battle Mania"\"All Out Attacks" for an OTK.

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 using common 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". "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.

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" 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" and "Malefic Truth 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've Summoned one of their own. You can counteract this Summoning lock by setting your own Field Spell- this will destroy your opponent's Malefic monster (as there's no face-up Field Spell then), at which point you can activate the set Field Spell and retaliate with your own "Malefic" monster.

Monsters

 * Malefic Truth Dragon
 * Malefic Cyber End Dragon
 * Malefic Stardust Dragon
 * Malefic Parallel Gear
 * Cyber Dragon
 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Darkflare Dragon
 * Eclipse Wyvern
 * Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
 * Herald of Creation
 * Lightpulsar Dragon
 * Meklord Emperor Granel
 * Meklord Emperor Wisel
 * Montage Dragon
 * Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
 * Berserk Dragon
 * Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
 * Beast King Barbaros
 * Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon                                                  * All Malefic cards you can spare
 * Malefic Red-Eyes B. Dragon

Spells

 * Malefic World
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Axe of Fools
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Chaos Zone
 * Dragon's Mirror
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Field Barrier
 * Kaiser Colosseum
 * Card Trader
 * Megamorph (Works very well with "Malefic Truth Dragon" as it is likely that your Life Points will be far lower than those of your opponent)
 * Pot of Avarice (Return your malefic monsters from your Graveyard back into your Deck. Don't do this with Malefic Truth Dragon.)
 * Soul Absorption
 * Terraforming
 * Trade In
 * The Dark Door
 * Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce (with this your monsters can attack twice which can help to counteract the downside of only Malefic monsters being allowed to Attack.)
 * A Deal with Dark Ruler

Traps

 * Malefic Claw Stream
 * Eradicator Epidemic Virus (Requires 2500 ATK and Dark type. Perfect for most Malefics. Then you can Summon another!)
 * Dark Bribe
 * Deck Devastation Virus (Requires 2000 ATK and Dark type. Perfect for most Malefics. Goodbye low-level Synchro decks.)
 * Destruct Potion (You gain life points and destroy your Malefic Monster to bring out "Malefic Truth Dragon".)
 * Destruction Jammer
 * Dragon's Rage
 * Dragon Reincarnation
 * Proof of Powerlessness
 * Dark Illusion
 * Trap Jammer
 * Trap Stun
 * Skill Drain
 * Return from the Different Dimension
 * Royal Decree (Works for some builds that utilize almost entirely-beatdown strategies)

Extra Deck

 * Stardust Dragon
 * Cyber End Dragon
 * Five-Headed Dragon
 * Malefic Paradox Dragon
 * Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

Optional Support

 * Arcana Force 0 - The Fool - Useful to stall when a monster cannot be summoned due to the lack of a Field Spell.
 * Marshmallon - A second useful stall card.
 * Battle Fader - Stall card if utilizing Skill Drain.
 * Morphing Jar - This card can both help to send a Malefic Truth Dragon to the graveyard, and help to increase the chance of drawing a Malefic monster or Malefic World.
 * Chaos Sorcerer - If Herald of Creation, Cyber Dragon, or another Light monster are included in the deck, this card can help to clear out troublesome cards, like Stardust Dragon.
 * Pot of Benevolence - Although this card does not give a hand advantage like "Pot of Avarice", it does make it possible to recycle cards like "Malefic World", "Malefic Claw Stream", or "Paradox Dragon" in the event that they are destroyed. This card is good to keep handy in the Side Deck, especially against decks like "Gravekeeper's", which can clear the field of needed cards quickly.

Trivia

 * The masks worn by the "Malefic" monsters are based off those of their user Paradox, which in turn is based off features of his face; the black half has lines based off his red eyebrow, and the left based off 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 word's destruction).
 * The English name "Malefic" means "having or asserting a negative influence", referring to how these cards are corrupted versions of existing cards.