"Red Dragon Archfiend", known as "Red Daemon" (レッド・デーモン Reddo Dēmon) in Japan, is an archetype used by Jack Atlas and Fake Jack Atlas in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime and manga as well as an alternate dimension Jack in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime series.
The archetype is a sub-archetype of the "Archfiend" archetype, and primarily consists of Jack Atlas' Signer Dragon, "Red Dragon Archfiend", and Duel Dragon, "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend", and their upgraded forms in the anime and manga, respectively.
This archetype is the rival to the "Stardust" archetype, used by Jack's rival, Yusei Fudo.
Design
"Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend" alongside its evolution, "Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend"
In general, members of this archetype appear as armored, demonic dragons with curling horns and spikes all throughout the body. The root of their design comes from the painting The Great Red Dragon by William Blake.
Playing style
Compared to the more passive "Stardust Dragon", which specializes in negating card effects and overall defense, "Red Dragon Archfiends" have a more smash mouth strategy, revolving around destruction, Special Summoning Tuner monsters and a dominating field presence. The archetype has tremendous synergy with the "Resonator" archetype, making for a very effective Synchro engine.
Skilled players can very quickly Summon "Red Dragon Archfiend" and use it as a bridge to the more powerful monsters. Because of its aggressive style, it meshes very well with cards like "Dark Highlander" (for Special Summon locking) "Black Rose Dragon" and its counterpart, "Black Rose Moonlight Dragon" all the while reaping the benefits of Synchro Summoning. This provides a lot of raw muscle for overpowering the opponent and ample opportunity to force them into a corner early on. From there, cards like "Red Nova Dragon" come into play - not only does it gain 500 ATK for each Tuner monster in the player's Graveyard (it will gain at least 1000 ATK just from Synchro Summoning it), but it has the ability to banish itself to negate an opposing monster's attack and return at the end of the next turn, slowing down the opponent's offensive.
As of April 1st 2020, the deck has seen increased viability due to not being limited to the Extra Monster Zone and discarding its 'protect-the-castle' strategy. With the addition of "Red Supernova Dragon", the game plan is to make it turn one, not difficult with the inclusion of "Crimson Resonator", and protect it with further Synchro monsters such as "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss" and defensive cards such as "Scrap-Iron Signal" or "Return of the Dragon Lords". "Supernova Dragon's" built-in protection combined with its mass banishment effect make it a formidable boss monster that's difficult for your opponent to deal with.
Weaknesses
The archetype has rather lacklustre personal defense, requiring the staple toolbox of Traps and Spells to stay alive in a crisis. One who plays the archetype has to be wary of Decks that outpace it.
The Deck can be rather easily defeated by anti-Synchro or anti-Dragon archetypes. This makes it especially vulnerable to the "Meklord" and "Buster Blader" archetypes. Cards like "Raigeki", "Mind Control", and "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" quickly prove invaluable.
Recommended cards
- Assault Beast
- Battle Fader
- Big Piece Golem
- Cyber Dragon
- D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon
- Kinka-byo / Guiding Light
- Level Eater
- Magical King Moonstar
- Primitive Butterfly
- Reborn Tengu
- Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault Mode
- Red Sprinter
- Red Warg
- Salvage Warrior
- Solar Wind Jammer
- The Tricky
- Tour Bus To Forbidden Realms
- Vice Dragon
- Wandering King Wildwind
- Red Familiar
- Sea Monster of Theseus (if running "Instant Fusion")
- Exploder Dragonwing
- Formula Synchron
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend
- Majestic Red Dragon
- Red Dragon Archfiend
- Red Nova Dragon
- Red Rising Dragon
- Red Wyvern
- Samsara, Dragon of Rebirth
- Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend
- T.G. Hyper Librarian
- Vermillion Dragon Mech
- Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend
- Red Supernova Dragon
Official Deck
- Chaos King Archfiend
- Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss x2
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane x2
- Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity
- Red Dragon Archfiend
- Red Nova Dragon
- Red Wyvern x2
- Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend
- Stardust Dragon
- Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend
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