Yo...What?

Yosenjus... This is other deck that immediately intrigued me as soon as the Secret Forces was released in the TCG. This is a solid anti-meta strategy with OTK potential; really similar to Satellarknights and Fire Fists (a deck which I always enjoyed playing). Recently, a Yosenju deck made it all the way to Top 8 of ARG Metro Kentucky, which prompted me to write this article.

A few days, I explained my Satellarknight anti-meta deck, and how it was a reasonable (and budget) option to combat the current tier 1 decks. I also made it perfectly clear that your deck needs to be able to consistently defeat the top decks of the format, if you want to see competitive success. Well, Yosenjus are another option, and they are cheaper to build than Satellarknights, and quite possibly the better deck between the two.

After some tinkering and a dedicated thought process, I've come up with a build that I would like to experiment.

1 Thunder King

2 Fossil Dyna

3 Yosenju Tsujik - Mini-Honest of the archtype

3 Yosenju Kama 1 - Bounce 1 face-up card once per turn, provided extra normal summon

2 Yosenju Kama 2 - Direct attack at half damage, provides extra normal summon

3 Yosenju Kama 3 - Searches a Yosenju card when a Yosenju monster does battle damage once per turn, provides extra normal summon

3 Tenki

2 MST

3 Duality

1 Snatch Steal

1 Book of Moon

1 Raigeki

1 Dimensional Fissure

3 Anti-Spell Fragrance

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Mirror Force

2 Fiendish Chain

3 Emptiness

1 Bottomless

1 Macro

The main point of the deck is to beat down the opponent with Yosenju tactics, with traps to follow-up. Thunder King destroys Nekroz and Qliphorts, and Fossil Dyna is strong against Nekroz and Burning Abyss.

I kept the monster line at 14 monsters. This is a deck that can’t start off with too many monsters, or it will probably auto-lose. I would rather draw 5 traps than 5 monsters, and hopefully I’ll be able to open with multiple spells/traps every game, preferably with a floodgate in the mix.

I think the spell choices speak for themselves. In regards to traps, there are more traps (maybe more than there should be) to protect your monsters in battle. Sometimes, you will have to play "protect the Dyna, or Thunder King", while building Yosenju cards, and all those battle traps will assist with that. Anti-Spell Fragrance is a very great choice, since it wrecks Nekroz and Qliphorts.

I didn't include an extra deck or side deck. A generic rank 4 toolbox should work fine. Side deck will be determined it necessary; AKA more hate for the top decks.

This deck, in particular, does not auto-lose to Emptiness, Vanity’s Fiend and the Djinn Releaser lock, which is beautiful. In fact, this deck doesn’t even care if those cards are present. You’ll barely go into a rank 4 unless you have too, and that’s the only special summon the deck is capable of.

There's a little part of me that prefers this deck over Satellarknights, currently. This deck can afford to main deck Dimensional Fissure and Macro, which is quite amazing. As well, it can afford to play Pot of Duality, which is a lot better than Upstart Goblin in the decks that can utilize it properly.

I don't immediately want to jump on the "Yosenju Band-wagon". If I didn't already sleeve this deck before the hype became real, I probably wouldn't even bother. I might as well experiment against Nekroz, Burning Abyss and Qliphorts, and see how powerful this deck really is.

Going back to Satellarknights for a moment, I did do the appropriate testing against the top decks. Against Nekroz and Qliphorts, the deck won when Fragrance resolved, if not, the deck lost. Against Burning Abyss, Diamond/Triverr control with Abyss Dweller was enough to get the job done, and it's about 50/50. I'm bringing up these results because I want to see if Yosenju can surpass these results.

I don’t think Yosenjus are tier 1, and I certainly don’t think it’s the best deck of the format. However, I can’t deny this deck has a lot of potential, and I might be proved wrong in regards to Yosenju being a tier 1 option. Let me know what you think about the build, and any suggestions you have. Thanks for reading!