Darklord Athletes: deck recipe

Let’s start with the “Darklord” engine, shall we?

Banishment of the Darklords allows you to add any other “Darklord” card from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate the Banishment of the Darklords once per turn, but you can also apply its effect from the Graveyard via Darklord Ixchel’s effect. You are mostly going to use Banishment to search Darklord Ixchel, Darklord Superbia and Darklord Contact.

You can discard Darklord Ixchel and another “Darklord” card, which can be another copy of Darklord Ixchel, to draw two cards. Darklord Ixchel allows you to set up your Graveyard and draw through your Deck at the same time without losing card advantage. You essentially have to thank Ixchel and Banishment for any improbable amalgamation of archetypes that you may encounter in PvP.

By paying 1000 Life Points, Darklord Ixchel allows you to target a “Darklord” Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard, apply its effect and then shuffle it back into your Deck. If you use Darklord Ixchel’s effect to apply the effect of The Sanctified Darklord or Darklord Descent, which I’m not advising you to run, you do not have to pay the activation cost. Moreover, since you are simply applying the effect of a Spell/Trap Card and not actually activating it, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and Silent Magiciann will not be able to negate it.

Each effect of Darklord Ixchel can only be activated once per turn and you can only Special Summon Darklord Ixchel once per turn.

When Darklord Superbia is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, you can Special Summon a Fairy-Type monster (except Darklord Superbia) from your Graveyard.

Discard Superbia together with Ixchel, send it to the GY to activate The Sanctified Darklord or the effect of U.A. Perfect Ace, activate Darklord Contact and Special Summon it. If you apply the effect of Darklord Contact via Darklord Ixchel’s effect and Special Summon Darklord Superbia, you will not be able to Special Summon another monster. After the effect of Darklord Contact is applied, the card is shuffled back into the Deck, which makes Darklord Superbia’s effect miss the timing.

By sending a “Darklord” monster from your hand or face-up from your field to the Graveyard, you can negate the effects of an Effect Monster on the field and then gain Life Points equal to its ATK. The Sanctified Darklord does not target, which means you can even use it to negate the effects of a Darklord Morningstar, a Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and even a Vendread Battlelord that was Ritual Summon using Vendread Core.

As I mentioned, if you apply the effect of this Trap Card via Darklord Ixchel’s effect, you do not pay its activation cost, which definitely makes it a lot easier to use. Gaining Life Points is just an added bonus, but it’s also extremely relevant, as it allows you to use the effects of your “Darklord” monsters with more ease. You can target a monster on your own side of the field with The Sanctified Darklord, so you can use it to negate the effects of a Lava Golem, preventing it from inflicting 1000 damage to you and gaining 3000 Life Points instead.

The midfielder is the only “U.A.” monster that you can Normal Summon without Tributing, so it’s usually the one you want to open with, but it’s also true that thanks to the “Darklord” engine, you can get multiple monsters on the field without expending your Normal Summon. Essentially, even if you don’t have Midfielder available, you can Tribute Superbia for Mighty Slugger or Perfect Ace.

Midfielder’s secondary effect allows you to return another face-up “U.A.” monster to your hand to Special Summon a “U.A.” monster with a different name from your hand. This effect can be used to prevent your “U.A.” monsters from being destroyed by a card like Treacherous Trap Hole or shuffled back into the Deck by a Drowning Mirror Force.

The stadium is the Field Spell of the “U.A.” archetype and it has two effects: one that activates if a “U.A.” monster is Normal Summoned and one that activates if a “U.A.” monster is Special Summoned.

• If a "U.A." monster is Normal Summoned to your side of the field, you can add a "U.A." monster from your Deck to your hand.

You can Normal Summon Midfielder or Tribute Summon any of your higher Level monsters, and get a monster to tag them out for right away.

• Once per turn, if a "U.A." monster(s) is Special Summoned to your side of the field, all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK (even if this card leaves the field).

This ATK boost is permanent as long as your monsters stay face-up on the field and it should be noted that it doesn’t just affect “U.A.” monsters. Swarm the field with Superbia + Contact, activate Stadium, Normal Summon Midfielder, search Mighty Slugger (or Perfect Ace), Special Summon your Level 5 monster, and activate Beatdown. Those are some pretty high numbers and this scenario is way more common than you might think.

Beatdown may sound redundant, but increasing the ATK of Mighty Slugger is almost essential. A big monster that can disable the opponent’s back row and Hand Traps is the main thing that separates this iteration of Darklords from the standard version.

• Consistency is surprisingly not an issue, but, while unplayable hands will not present themselves that often, weak openers are still entirely possible.
• There just isn’t enough space to fit a lot of the high Level “U.A.” monsters like U.A. Rival Rebounder and U.A. Blockbacker, which is a shame since one of the main strengths of the archetype is being able to pick the right option from the Deck via Stadium. You could run more “U.A.” monsters, but you would likely end up sacrificing some consistency.

Thank you for visiting Duel Links wiki by GameA! We update this Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links community day by day to provide quality guides and the latest news.

Duel Links World Championship 2023

Raid Duel - The Last Survivor of Mankind: Zone! Unlock Event

Secret of Magicians

Raiders Requiem

Yugioh! Card Game 25th Anniversary Campaign

"Power Pros" App x "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Collaboration Campaign

6th Anniversary Campaign

FAQ

Facilities in Duel World

Cards you should trade

How to beat the Vegabond

How to solve Duel Quizes

How to get/collect items

Gem	Gate Key	Gold
Duel Orb	Jewel/Stone	Icon