Forum:Deck Guide/Arcana Force

=Arcana Force Deck Guide== by Jared Grace (talk • contribs) 09:21, January 5, 2014 (UTC)

Introduction
Arcana Monsters are one of the strangest themes out there, and also one of the underrated ones. One of its biggest strengths is the power that some of the effects that they have available to them (namely The World, The Chariot, The Fool, and The Dark Ruler), however most of those powerful effects are balanced by a player having to take a 50/50 shot to get them with a coin toss, even with Light Barrier a coin has to land on heads for its effect to stay active from turn to turn. However there are possibilities out there and ways to get around those drawbacks, and chance cannot always fail. Arcana Monsters take a lot of skill patience, and of course… chance. There are a couple of advantages to running them though. One is the fact that building a deck is cheap, especially considering the cost of some of the current Tier 1 decks out there. Another is that most of their effects are powerful in of themselves, but because of the chance factor and necessity of Light Barrier, using them out of theme is a risky choice.

The Cards
So to start off, I am going to go through every Arcana card that is currently printed:

Arcana Force Cards The Monsters: Also The Fool has begun to see tech play, Counter Fairies have made use of it, and being battle immune makes it a choice pick to add to other stall strategies as well. Also in control variants, giving control of The Fool to an opponent and playing Rivalry of the Warlords creates a field lock down because Fairies are not a common monster type. Card that can summon it defense mode include Nova Summoner, Acana Force III – The Empress, Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, One for One, Court of Justice, and if one wants to give it to their opponent include Creature Swap.
 * Arcana Force 0 - THE FOOL - The Fool is one of the best cards in the series if played correctly. Its battle immunity also comes with the chance for targeting immunity, which is good considering Gladiator Beasts and Dark decks use a lot of monsters that target in addition to the other cards out there. Also if your opponent is not well versed in the card text, if The Fool is targeted, doesn’t just negate, it destroys. And its inability to switch into defense mode is not as bad as it seems. First, it can start in defense mode, so setting it (no coin toss though if it is attacked while face down) or summoning it in defense mode will not force it into attack mode, but it gets into attack mode one of the best ideas is to give it to the opposing player with Creature Swap or Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon’s Tails effect.

The Magician could also find some uses in some burn decks, especially ones that utilize Bad Reaction to Simochi or Nurse Reficule the Fallen One. Its heads effect still provides a 2200 ATK wall, and its tails effect becomes a burn effect.
 * Arcana Force I - THE MAGICIAN - Getting its heads effect can make this a 2200 ATK beater depending on how many spells a player includes in their deck. Spells that help not only on a player’s own turn but during the opposing turn are Enemy Controller, Shrink, Book of Moon, and Rush Recklessly. It depends on how many spells a player uses in their deck as to how useful this card is, but another noteworthy use of this card is to transfer its effect to a more powerful Arcana Force monster via Arcana Call (at the LOTD Sneak Peek, I attached its heads effect to The Moon).

And its tails effect has no use that I can think of because Arcana decks do not have many graveyard-oriented cards like Destiny Heroes, Dark Armed Dragon Variants, Lightsworns or other Tier 1 decks.
 * Arcana Force III - THE EMPRESS - This card’s usefulness depends on the level of play that one is taking an Arcana deck to. While she aids the rapid summoning of (high-level) Arcana Monsters, the problem is most builds do not need that speed. Another bigger flaw is she is dependent on your opponent normal summoning or setting, which means they can play around her effect especially with Emergency Teleport and Destiny Hero Malicious making it possible to summon a level 8 Synchro without using a normal summon. Fortunately since Normal summoning and setting is a part every deck; she will most likely be a nuisance, especially in lower level play. The ideal choices to special summon are The Moon, The World, and The Fool (in defense mode), but the rest of the Arcana cards are not bad choices either. It is situational, so for higher-level competition I would advise not using her.


 * Arcana Force IV - THE EMPEROR - This is one of the key supporting cards to the aggressive Arcana strategies because it makes every low level Arcana monster into a decent attacker, a must for Arcana decks that don’t intend to try for an immediate OTK. Stat changes for the low level monsters:

The Magician: 1100 -> 1600 The Empress: 1300 -> 1800 The Emperor: 1400 -> 1900 The Lovers: 1600 -> 2100 The Chariot: 1700-> 2200

Multiples on the field is good for even higher stat boosting of max of 1500… but be careful of its tails effect.


 * Arcana Force VI - THE LOVERS - This card is in my opinion the least useful of all the Arcana monster cards. It has a decent attack, but both of its effects are generally useless because most of the higher level Arcana monster cards a player would more likely want to special summon them with either Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen or The Empress, or are the EX monsters which cannot be tribune summoned. The only use I can think of is with Arcana Call to attach its heads effect to an Arcana monster when Special summoning The World is not possible.

Its tails effect though can be detrimental because giving an opponent a free 1700 monster is not something that is good in many situations.
 * Arcana Force VII - THE CHARIOT - This card is the cornerstone of the aggressive Arcana strategy; it can take any monster that it can destroy in battle. Combine it with cards like Shrink, Book or Moon or Enemy Controller, and one can take a lot of opposing monsters. And since it gets the monster instantly, one can attack with it in the same battle phase.


 * Arcana Force XIV - TEMPERANCE - If one uses it, use it for its discard effect. Its heads effect is almost pointless with 2400 Attack points and other cards like The Emperor because an opponent will likely destroy Temperance before they attack and is not worth risking being stuck with the tails effect. Also, I think that this card would find a use in a Chaos deck in traditional as a LIGHT alternative to Kuriboh… but last I heard Makyura the Destructor was the best strategy to go with in traditional.


 * Arcana Force XVIII - THE MOON - This is card has its uses, but for the most part it is beat out by The World in almost every aspect. It’s token effect is not useless but tribune summons are something Arcana cards try get around especially with The Empress and The Chariot, and tokens cannot be used for the EX monsters or The World’s effect. For the most part, one would use it alongside The Empress to Special summon for free, or with the Emperor to give it a 3300 body that can run over Heraklinos or Red Archfiend Dragon. Also its tails effect is not entirely useless, giving a player a failed coin flip Arcana monster or an Attack Mode The Fool… its risky and I do not advise making a regular habit of it.

But people who run this card are likely even more interested in getting its Heads effect to skip an opponent’s turn, but getting around the cost is tricky. Sadly, tokens are off limits since the card says explicitly that the two monsters have to hit the graveyard. The heads' effect is actually much more useful in the Traditional Format because before Dimension Fusion’s mid format ban, it was discovered that this card fits in perfectly with the Silicon Valley loop (Dimension Fusion + Cyber Valley x3) as its own F/OTK to skip all an opponent’s turns. However, in the Advanced format there is yet to be a consistent enough combo to get this card off the ground; the current two involve two Samsara Lotus or Strike Ninja and two D.D. Scout Planes. As neither combo is currently stable enough to warrant play, its effect would more likely find use as a trade off of a swarm to attempt to keep an opponent off-balance or to win since 3100 ATK by itself is not something to scoff, especially when it can skip a turn. If one finds themselves with its tails effect, at least it is on a 3100 ATK monster, use that and pray you can defeat your opponent or get it off the field before they can make good use of the cards they recover. Word of advice, don’t let them shuffle their graveyard around so they get their best cards back first.
 * Arcana Force XXI - THE WORLD - This card has one of the most potentially powerful effects in the entire game. However, even without its effects, it boasts 3100 Attack points on a Level 8 monster without summon restrictions, meaning that Valhanna and The Empress are good get around cards to bring this out early as a beatstick that can beat every competitive monster in battle.

Heads: Get any card back from the grave when it destroys something in battle. Like the Dark Ruler, the heads effect is probably going to be the more preferable of the two effects. Getting back any card from the grave is a powerful effect, especially cards like Monster Reborn, Mystical Space Typhoon, Threatening Roar, any fallen Arcana monster, anything that one may find necessary for the following turn (if someone is attacking monsters with the Light Ruler, one probably is not pushing for game yet). Tails: Negate any card that targets this card, destroy it, and then decrease this card’s ATK by 1000. This is a decent effect especially in the late game when this card getting destroyed could spell the end of the game, but this effect is also more situational than it initially looks. Most of the time The Light Ruler will survive two decreases. It also helps that it destroys the targeting effect as well, meaning that someone who targets it with a monster will regret it dearly. But it does not protect from non-targeting effects so it is limited to what it can do. Also, it does not specify a player that targets so your own effects will decrease its attack as well.
 * Arcana Force EX - THE LIGHT RULER - The actual first boss monster for the Arcana theme and ironically the last card to make its way to the United States, which should be arriving soon as a Jump Promo, this 4000 ATK monster also boasts two different decent effects, both having their uses as well.

Heads: It can attack twice with a Goblin Attack Force Clause. Time it right, and that a player can win in one turn. If one cannot get it just right it still can make a major push by running a monster or two over with its 4000 ATK and then maybe punch for 4000, but it goes to defense mode because of its Goblin Attack Force clause where it is a sitting duck for two turns, but at least it has 4000 DEF. A good card to combo with this though is Final Attack Orders so every attack will count, and it will stay on the offensive. Tails: When it is destroyed, all other cards on the field go with it. This is actually more situational than it initially looks, because if it is destroyed during your opponent’s turn, then you are left wide open for anything (could make use Temperance). Most of the time switching its effects with Reversal of Fate when it is about to be destroyed is something to consider for surprise factor, but one has to be careful with it. Also like The World, it is more than an Arcana theme card; it can also have an OTK built around it using its heads effect because of its generic summoning cost.
 * Arcana Force EX - THE DARK RULER - One of the boss monsters of the Arcana theme boasting two decent effects: