X-Saber

Overview
The X-Sabers are a series of EARTH Attribute, mostly Warrior-Type and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters whose effects associate mainly during either player's Phase. Some allow the user to gain massive card advantage after battle by causing hand destruction and returning monsters to the top of the Deck, while others focus on increasing their own Attack power. 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, and with the Ancient Prophecy Pre-Release exclusive "XX-Saber Gardestrike", 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.

Though their effects to maintain hand advantage over the opponent are useful, X-Sabers run into a few strategic problems. The biggest problem is that many of them simply do not have very high ATK; even some of the high-level Synchro Monsters of the set have very low ATK for their level. Unless their user swarms the field ("Rescue Cat" and "Reasoning" might help), 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.

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 Lv. 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. 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

 * Giant Rat
 * Rescue Cat
 * Card Trooper
 * Card Blocker
 * Summoner Monk

Spells

 * My Body as a Shield
 * Book of Moon
 * Giant Trunade
 * Lightning Vortex
 * One for One
 * Creature Swap
 * Saber Slash

Traps

 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Gottoms' Emergency Call
 * Trap Dustshoot
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Saber Hole

SaberSworn
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".

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", 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

 * Jenis, Lightsworn Mender
 * Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
 * Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
 * Card Trooper
 * Morphing Jar
 * Rescue Cat
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * D.D. Crazy Beast
 * Cyber Jar (Traditional only)
 * Morphing Jar #2

Spells

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

Traps

 * Gottoms' Emergency Call
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Threatening Roar
 * Bottomless Trap Hole