Triple JD and Why it's Not a Good Idea

[newhat]

[size=4][font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]You can run 3 JD, 1 Chaos Sorcerer and 1 BLS in Lightsworns. Even if the only DARK monsters you use are Sangan, Plaguespreader, Necro Gardna and Gorz you'll frequently be able to Summon all the bosses and use their brilliant effects. But there will be times when you draw several of them at once and get beaten, because you can't bring out your bosses and you have no other plays to make. Lightsworns have had consistency issues for a while. This article is about the compromises you can make in building your Deck in order to keep your power cards live without losing the low-Level scrimmage.[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]BLS and Chaos Sorcerer are popular in Twilight, but for some reason people use both in Lightsworn Decks that are not Twilight. For starters, if you're not running at least 3 DARK monsters that are useful to put in the Graveyard, that are going to actually STAY in the Graveyard, BLS is a gamble on par with Dark Armed Dragon in Blackwings. Gorz may be easy to Summon, but it's not always the right call to Summon it for the sake of getting a DARK monster in the Graveyard; it can turn around games just as well as BLS can. Plaguespreader and Necro Gardna love the Graveyard for their own effects, and sacrificing those effects, even for BLS, is wasting potential resources.[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Instead of relying on Sangan and mill, you can main DARK monsters that will gladly play from your hand anytime, like D.D. Crow or Doomcaliber Knight. My personal favorite is Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite, because he can be usefully Summoned from the Graveyard or the hand and has the right Level for quick Xyz Summons with Wulf. If you're siding, your options increase, with Gemini Imps, Skull Meister and Ally of Justice Cycle Reader all fitting the cheap-discard-DARK bill. Some people like Tour Guide, and it works well in Chaos Dragons, but for Judgment-centric Lightsworns you'll want to be milling your Deck as fast as possible. Even if you run Tour Bus, sometimes the Bus, Sangan and your other Tour Guide will be in the Graveyard and you'll be sitting on a dead Guide, nullifying the whole point of this, which was to raise your consistency.

As for triple JD. Twilight or not, Lightsworns will be hitting the Graveyard fast, and sometimes when one JD hits a Bottomless or Starlight Road you can push through with a second one. But that's just triple JD, not "triple JD and 2 Chaos guys". If you want 5 boss monsters in standard Lightsworns, with two sets of identical Summoning conditions, your opponent will have a very simple structure to target and break down. Even if they don't your consistency will suffer unless the conditions are really easy. Not Chaos Sorcerer easy, Catastor easy.

Enter the Lightrays. Three of the Lightray monsters are Summoned when a certain number of LIGHT monsters are in your Graveyard. [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lightray_Gearfried"]Lightrays Gearfried[/url]and [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lightray_Diabolos"]Diabolos[/url] need 5 with different names and [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lightray_Daedalus"]Daedalus[/url]needs 4 with any names. Gearfried is a 2800 with Shi En's Quick Effect while you control only Warriors ([url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Jain,_Lightsworn_Paladin"]there[/url] [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Garoth,_Lightsworn_Warrior"]are[/url] [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ehren,_Lightsworn_Monk"]several[/url] [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Necro_Gardna"]good[/url] [url="http://yugico.com/user/30212-newhat/articles/1151-Triple_JD_and_Why_It_s_Not_a_Good_Idea/yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Luster_Soldier_-_Envoy_of_the_Beginning"]Warriors[/url] in Lightsworns to Summon alongside it or to banish for its effect). Diabolos is a 2800 that can get rid of your opponent's Set cards or force your opponent to topdeck them. Daedalus is a 2600 who can blow up a Field Spell and 2 other cards with it. The critical difference between these and JD for Summoning is that there are plenty of non-Lightsworn LIGHT monsters that get dumped: Effect Veiler, Honest, JD and BLS, maybe Rai-Oh if you run it. Unlike JD, who won't be out for until a few turns in because of Trap risk or insufficient setup, Gearfried and Diabolos can be dropped on Turn 1 to screw up your opponent's plans. Daedalus can't, but it's a quick beatstick, a nice side against Field-dependent Decks and an uncontrollable dunk machine against Madolche.

Using 1 or more of these instead of JD or Chaos Sorcerer will raise the frequency of boss-monster drops, and their different Summoning conditions mean that your opponent has to prevent several kinds of setup at once. What's more, since they're targets for Beckoning Light, using them provides a toolbox for you to address situations that JD and BLS cannot. Gearfried can shrug off Bottomless, Diabolos can disable Starlight Road or monsters like Sangan, and Daedalus is just so much faster that it serves as CyDra-style pressure that can be added to your low-Level swarm, or used with Veiler for a Level 8 Synchro.

There's no one setup that works. My last setup was 2 Judgment Dragon, 1 BLS and 1 Gearfried. My Deck is full of Normal Summon combo tools like Debris Dragon and low on -1 cards like Monster Reincarnation. I don't clear everything away for JD; JD is a troubleshooter or a finisher. For a Deck that's more reliant on explosive finishes than the grind, 2 Diabolos could work beside 2 BLS for wiping fields before a game-winning push. For Twilight, Daedalus can Level-match with Gorz or by Tragoedia copying Gorz/DAD to overlay for Big Eye, or punch through Synchros and Xyzes on its own. Triple JD probably works better than any of these if things go right, but this game is not built on "if things go right".[/font][/size]