A while ago, I did an article about Inzektor, and I was pretty proud of it. So I will try to do the same about another archetype : Mermail & Atlantean.
I'm not gonna talk about every single cards that countains those archetypes, but just about the deck which gathers the two.
They both came around the same moment in Yu-Gi-Oh! history and they were destined to work together.
The two families are WATER-Attribut and Sea Serpent-Type monsters (Sea Serpent for the most part). Other cards that already existed before can support those type of monsters.
One of the card that works best with Sea Serpent is Deep Sea Diva.
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 2/Tuner/ATK 200/DEF 400
Effect : When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monster from your Deck.
Diva can special summon a copy of herself and help summoning a Xyz monsters like Daigusto Phoenix or Gachi Gachi Gantetsu.
Or summon another non-tuner Sea Serpent to summon a Synchro monster like Armory Arm, T.G. Hyper Librarian or Ally of justice Catastor.
In Return of the Duelist, there were a new "achetype" which came out. The Elemetal Lord. The first one is Grandsoil, and he was made to fit any Earth-attribut based deck. And in Abyss Rising, a set based on Water monsters, there is Moulinglacia.
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 8/ATK 2800/DEF 2200
Effect : Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having exactly 5 WATER monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card is Special Summoned: Discard 2 random cards from your opponent's hand (or their entire hand, if less than 2). You can only use the effect of "Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord" once per turn. If this card leaves the field, skip the Battle Phase of your next turn.
Moulinglacia is, as some like to call them, a "boss monster".When Moulinglacia is summoned, he can do what Delinquent Duo can do, discard up to two cards your opponent have in hand, meaning that if the summon is sucessful (I imply if the summon is not negated by cards like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Solemn Judgment or Solemn Warning) he can generates an instant +2 card advantage.
When Moulinglacia leaves the field, your next Battle Phase is skipped, but this effect isn't a Trigger effect, so cards like Soul Drain won't negate it.
And it's not a Continuous effect neither, so Skill Drain won't do anything either.
The Water monsters usually seen by players before, were Frogs. This archetype rely on the graveyard presence of their own monsters. Treeborn Frog can relieve itself from grave, and Subsitoad too, by bannishing from grave a Frog monster. And in order to fill the graveyard with those frogs, a card from another family came in the mix : Genex Undine.
WATER/Aqua/Level 3/ATK 1200/ DEF 600
Effect : When this card is Normal Summoned, you can send 1 WATER monster from your Deck to your Graveyard to add 1 "Genex Controller" from your Deck to your hand.
Genex Undine is a very usefull card, because sending a Water monster in the graveyard is cost of its effect, therefore, if your opponent have Skill Drain on the field or use Effect Veiler on Undine, the Water monster still goes from the deck to the grave.
By sending a Water monster in the grave, Undine can search for this dude.
At first sight he can look pretty useless, but in reality, he really is.
No, I'm kidding. He is not as good-for-nothing as he looks.
He is a Level 3 Tuner, so he provides access to Synchro summoning. And he is Dark, so you can ditch him with Allure of Darkness.
Since Undine gives you Genex Controller for free, you can discard him for any cost. And he lets you have a "big hand" to power-up Tragoedia.
And now, let's get down to it, let's talk about the real monsters of the deck "Mermail" or "Mer-tlean" or "Mermantean" or whatever you people like to call it.
First, the deck is usually called Mermail because, in most of the current builds of the deck, there is more Mermail cards than Atlantean cards. And also, the Mermail cards cost more money. ^^
In the left, we have Atlantean Heavy Infantry, at the top we have Atlantean Dragoons and in the right we have Atlantean Marksman.
You can grab the three of them in a Structure Deck: Realm of the Sea Emperor.
All three are Sea Serpents, but only Heavy Infantry and Marksman (left and right) can be special summoned from the deck by Deep Sea Diva.
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 2/ATK 0/DEF 1600
Effect : During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon a Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) When this card is sent to the Graveyard to activate a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; destroy that target.
The first (continuous) effect allows you to extra normal summon, which can lead to mutliple possibilities. You can summon another level 2 monster and perform a Xyz summon, you can summon Genex Controller and Synchro summon a monster. You can extra normal summon Diva, which will trigger her effect and summon a third monster from the deck and then Synchro summon a stronger monster.
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 3/ATK 1400/DEF 0
Effect : When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type "Atlantean" monster, except "Atlantean Marksman", from your Deck. When this card is sent to the Graveyard to activate a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; destroy that target.
Well, there is nothing to add here... at least on his first effect. ^^
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 0
Effect : All face-up Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monsters you control can attack your opponent directly. When this card is sent to the Graveyard to activate a WATER monster's effect: Add 1 Sea Serpent-Type monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Atlantean Dragoons".
Dragoons lets your level 3 or lower Sea Serpent attack directly, making easier for Marksman to deal dammages and trigger his effect.
And it's still useful when your opponent have a strong monster on his field and not much of life points left, because all you need is Dragoons and a strong enought Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent monster on the field to win.
All three of the Atlantean have an effect when there are sent to the graveyard as costs for Water-Attribut monsters effects. Dragoons can search the deck for reinforcements, and the other two can destroy either face-up (Heavy Infantry) or face-down (Marksman) cards your opponent controls. But in order to destroy the card, Heavy Infantry needs the cards to remains face-up to destroy it, and Marksman also need the cards to remain face-down to destroy it when his effect resolves.
Their effect triggers after being use as costs for Water monster effects, which means, after the current chains (in which the initial Water monster effect is in) resolves, they will start a new chain on their own with their effects.
If two Marksman are send in the same time in the graveyard as cost, the two will activate, one as Block Chain 1 and the other as Block Chain 2, letting the Block Chain 3 free to your opponent's response, if any.
Of course the same goes if your have a Dragoons and a Heavy Infantry, or 2 Dragoons, and so forth, they will form a chain on their own after the current chain resolves, and the choice of which one goes as Block Chain 1 or 2 goes to the owner of the cards, the Mermail player.
And also, being sent to grave as a cost for a Water-attribut monster includes being discarded from the hand, being tributed, being sent from the deck to the graveyard, or being detach from a (Water) Xyz monster.
Therefore, Atlantean Marksman, Heavy Infantry an Dragoons will trigger their effect if being buried by the effect of Genex Undine, Abyss Soldier, Mermail Abyssmegalo or Number 17: Leviathan Dragon.
Knowing this, Genex Undine can be kind of broken isn't she?
Genex Undine can either destroy a card, or search, in addition to Genex Controller, any Sea Serpent in the deck, including any other Atlantean, Diva, some Mermail, or even the almighty Moulinglacia.
And now, the Mermail cards. Because the deck won't be called this way if they weren't any. ^^
WATER/Fish/Level 4/ATK1600/DEF 800
Effect : When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can discard 1 WATER monster to the Graveyard; add 1 Level 3 WATER monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use effect of "Mermail Abysspike" once per turn.
Mermail Abysslinde
WATER/Aqua/Level 3/ATK 1500/DEF 1200
Effect : If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 "Mermail" monster from your Deck, except "Mermail Abysslinde". You can only use the effect of "Mermail Abysslinde" once per turn.
Be careful on the fact that Abysslinde and Abysspike are not Sea Serpent-type monsters, so you can't search for them woth the effect of Atlantean Dragoons or summon them with Diva.
And also, the effect of Abysslinde can be activated only once per turn. If you destroy Abysslinde, and your opponent acivates Abyss-Sphere to summon another one, and the second Abysslinde is destroyed, she will not trigger her effect.
WATER/Sea Serpent/Level 7/ATK 2400/DEF 1900
Effect : You can discard 2 other WATER monsters to the Graveyard; Special Summon this card from your hand. When you do: You can add 1 "Abyss-" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. You can Tribute 1 other face-up Attack Position WATER monster; this card can make a second attack during each Battle Phase this turn.
The first effect of Abyssmegalo is a ignition effect and sending two Water monster in the graveyard is a cost to activate the effect. To make things clear, the special of Abyssmegalo cannot been gated by Steelswarm Roach, Thunder King Rai-Oh or Solemn Judgment, you can chain Maxx "C" to the effect of Abyssmegalo to draw a card and if you discard Atlentean monsters to summon Abyssmegalo, after the first chain resolves (the chain where Abyssmegalo is in block chain 1) a new chain afterwards will start with :
Block Chain 1 - Atlantean monster'seffect
Block Chain 2 - Atlantean monster's effect
Block Chain 3 - Mermail Abyssmegalo's effect "When you do: You can..."
Continuous Trap
Special Summon 1 "Mermail" monster from your Deck. Its effects are negated. You cannot activate any Spell Cards. When this card leaves the field, destroy that monster. Destroy this card during your opponent's next End Phase after activation.
If you activate Abyss-sphere during your oponents's turn, the Mermail monster you summon with it will be destroyed at the end of your opponent's turn, but in order to still get something out of it you can special summon Abysslinde, this way at the end phase you will trigger her effect.
If you are in your opponent's turn, and before it ends you want to activate Abyss-Sphere to let Abysslinde die and summon some other Mermail from the deck, you will need to do it before the actual End Phase, because if you do activate Sphere during your opponent's End Phase, Abysslinde won't get destroyed during that End Phase, but during your opponent next one.
As you figured, what the Extra deck contains can be crucial for this deck, so having the right monster in it is important.
The extra deck can run the generic Xyx and Synchro monsters like T.G. Hyper Librarian, Wind-Up Zenmaines, Stardust Dragon, Leviair the Sea Dragon, Black Rose Dragon, Mist Wurm, Scrap Dragon, just to name a few other than the ones showed above.
But can also run cards like Abyss Dweller, Number 11: Big Eye, Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier, or Gungnir, Last Dragon of the Ice Barrier.
For those who don't understand why Big Eye can be played, it's because most players play Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness and Tragoedia for protection in there Mermail deck, which also add Dark monsters for Allure of Darkness. (And Abyssmegalo is level 7)
Since Abyssmegalo and Abysspike discard you from Water monsters and Undine send them to graveyard directly from the deck, the grave is quickly full of Water monsters. And you can take some back to hand with Salvage.
The most common way to use it is, in your first turn, when you summon Undine, search for Controller by sending Dragoons, then search for Dragoon's effect. and just set Aoi. That way, you can get full advantage of Undine.
When your opponent activate cards like Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force, you can chain Aoi and tribute the monster that would be destroyed by those cards.
Because Aoi needs to tribute a Water monster, you automaticaly loose 2 cards (Aoi itself and the tributed water monster) and your opponent loose only 1 (from his hand) so you will need to find a way to use Aoi in a non-costly way.
This deck is obviously strong, but it still have weaknesses.
The deck Dino Rabbit can use Jurrac Guaiba and Macro Cosmos, both devastating cards for Mermails.
Macro Cosmos on the other hand prevent you from sending cards to the grave, by banishing them instead. Meaning Undine, Abysspike or Abyssmegalo cannot activate their effect because you cannot send cards to the grave, Abysslinde won't go to grave, so you won't gets her effect either.
Soul Drain and Abyss Dweller have similar abilities, monsters that are in the graveyard cannot activate their effect.
But if an effect is activated in the graveyard, it's too late for activating the effect of Dweller or Soul Drain, because the effect is already activated, and both cards don't negate effect activations, they just prevent them from happening.
You can destroy him with effect of Heavy Infantry.
Dragoons and Genex Undine cannot activates their searching effect, and with Undine out of the equation, there is one less way to trigger Heavy Infantry's effect to destroy the King of Thunder.
Don't hesitate to watch previous premier events results and decklist, like YCS's, to see how many copies of each card you should put in your Mermail deck.
That's it for this deck, I hope that was interesting. ^^
Nice article :)
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