Light. Ray. Agents.

Do to..very foreseen circumstances, I took a hiatus from playing Yugioh at my locals. No I have not quit the game, and you will still very rarely hear me say bad things about it. Instead, I took this, for the second time, to find a new deck. When I last played at my locals, I was using my lightsworn-less Chaos Dragon deck, which did fairly well. If you have been on the internet at all between April and now,  you would know that Lightsworn Chaos Dragon decks have exploded onto the YCS scene, winning multiple championships and filling up decklists across the nation. This, of course, means that I can no longer play Dragons.

Who would want to play mirror matches all the time anyway?

There has only been one YCS championship post GAOV and no brand new deck has made it into the top 8. This is not to say that GAOV decks are bad, just that the majority of players are playing other things. I wholeheartedly believe that GAOV will begin to top in the next month or 2. We also have Hidden Arsenal 6 around the corner, in which many of your friends may jump on the Gishki bandwagon.

So what am I playing? I don't have the physical deck complete, but Alpha testing has begun on something I really enjoy:

 

 

I have never really talked about Agents in depth. I had never even played the deck when it was at its prime. In fact, I only briefly mentioned it in 2011 when this and Tengu Synchro was running rampant. The OCG is actually still playing the deck with plenty of Cardcar D and T.G. monsters to replace the missing Earth (actually, they've been using TG's for years). The deck I want to talk about is a little different. I have no idea how to rate the power between the 2, as both have amazing cards for you to use. This is part of the main reason why I haven't been playing, I can't decide on how to complete this deck.


Monsters:
1 Earth is a staple. All the card does is search out Venus or Jupiter, but it is also an Agent for Hyperion. I have heard of people dropping the card, but many Yugioh decks don't require 40 cards to play. Using Earth also fills in that 40 card requirement that other fairies may not be good enough to fill.
3 Venus and 3 Shine ball still make one of the most powerful plays in Yugioh. Even with all the Effect Veiler and Maxx C, there are times when the opponent will not draw them in their opening hand. The resource that a Venus creates is an important part of whether the deck can win or not. 2-3 Jupiter is something that I have never considered, but the loss of Earth makes this a necessity.
 3 Hyperion, as dead as they seem on paper, have to be run. Hyperion is a win condition and you can really feel that during the duels that you never see Hyperion.

The basic idea of the deck is this. A)Lightray Sorcerer is a pretty good card, just like the Chaos version. It isn't amazing, but it gets the job done. B)To fuel him, Hyperion and Jupiter can remove Agents and light monsters from the graveyard, which are easy to do after 1 Venus. The Agents and fairies get to use Cards from the Sky, which is generally believe to be a bad card. Skipping your turn isn't very fun, but the follow-up is sometimes more important. When those aren't available, Lightray Grepher can Banish lights to use later. Similar to how strong Dark Grepher was years ago, Lightray Grepher is a hard -1 that will cause a game loss without a proper follow-up. C)Following up with Banished cards is more light support. Light of Redemption lets you pay 800 life to put any Banished Light into your hand. Miraculous Descent will summon any Banished Fairy to the field. The "minuses" are very apparant, but following your minus with a Kristya or Hyperion out of nowhere is phenomenal. There are even instances where banishing Venus is the best play. The scariest part of the deck is the chance that the opponent will OTK you. Outside of Gachi Gachi and Gorz, the only other defensive line is Honest and Miraculous Descent.

So we know lights and fairies have amazing cards they can play:
Kristya
Honest
Miraculous Descent
Light of Redemption
Lightray Sorcerer
Lightray Grepher
Freed the Brave Wanderer

We know that Agents have amazing cards they can play:
Maxx "C"
Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
Forbidden Lance
Tour Guide of the Underworld
D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
Pot of Duality

The problem is, what cards to even put in; and not play a deck that has more than 40 cards. This is where testing comes into play and the reason why I still call this deck an Alpha deck. Here are a few of the major points for deciding what should be played:
1) Lightray Sorcerer, though good, clogs when ran in high amounts.
2) Light of Redemption can't make a card instantly alive the way that Miraculous Descent can. Even better(or worse) D.D.R. can make any Fairy live on turn 1, so long as you minus yourself.
3) Cards from the Sky works well with the decks conservative nature. Pot of Duality also fits the bill. Cards From digs 2 turns into the deck whereas Duality puts you 1 turn ahead. Cards From can set up a Banished play. Duality is better in the late game than Cards From.
4) Kristya can win the game against many decks. It works with Herald of Orange Light and Cards From. It can be summoned by DDR or Miraculous Descent. But, next to 3 Hyperion, is it too inconsistent to run 2?
5) Hyperion is an excellent boss monster. Clogging is not much of an issue because there are many ways to place him onto the field. I often wish I could play more than just 3 Hyperion.
6) Forbidden Lance can do some amazing things against many different matchups. Best of all, the effects of Miraculous Descent and DDR that destroys fairies attached to them, can be nullified by Forbidden Lance.
7) Herald of Orange Light is a huge minus, but almost every deck starts off with an effect that sets its wheels in motion. However, drawing multiple Orange Lights is almost as dangerous as not drawing any. Of course, you can toss an Orange Light to pay for a different one, so maybe playing 3 copies isn't so bad.