Banlist Chaos MAX OTK Guide

Banlist Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon OTK
------------------------------------------------------GOAL------------------------------------------------------
The goal of this deck is to go 2nd, summon a Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, as well as a 0 DEF monster in defense position on your side of the field, donate the 0 DEF monster to your opponent, and attack into it using Blue-Eyes dealing double piercing damage in the amount of 8000 for an OTK.

----------------------------------------------------CARDS--------------------------------------------------------
Necessary:
3 Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon (CMD): Why use this card? It’s very easy to summon using either Chaos Form, or Advanced Ritual Art. It has the aforementioned “double piercing” on top of 4000 ATK. Most importantly it cannot be targeted by your opponent and cannot be destroyed by opponent’s card effects, so for example Mirror Force/Torrential Tribute does not affect this card

(2 - 3) Blue-Eyes White Dragon (BEWD): Fodder for Advanced Ritual Art and can be summoned for extra damage but is advised against unless absolutely necessary as the summoning animation takes time to complete as well as risks crashing the game.

3 Advanced Ritual Art (ARA): The aforementioned ritual spell, it allows you to summon any ritual monster using normal monster from your deck whose levels equal the ritual monster. In this case both Blue-Eyes’ are lvl 8 therefore it works perfectly. Keep in mind there is a shuffling animation. There will be a section on cutting down animations further in.

(2-3) Chaos Form (CF): The signature ritual spell card for CMD, works the same as any spell card tributing cards from your hand and field that equal the lvl of the monster you want to summon. This card is mainly used as a backup, however if tributing 1 monster it is slightly faster than using ARA, however if tributing 2 monsters it takes slightly longer. (candoll, majnu are 4 stars, talismandra is 6 gale is 2)

3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands (Manju): When normal summoned can search any ritual spell or monster card from the deck. The most important card in the deck for consistency.

(7-9) Creature Swap Effects: You need to donate cards to your opponents’ side of the field. 
•	Creature Swap: is the best card for this which straight up swaps any monster you want to give and whatever monster your opponent wants to donate can be either face up or face down. However, your opponent needs to have a monster that they can donate. Its animation is also the fastest by a small margin.

•	Shien’s Spy: The second-best card for this task, instead of swapping it just gives your opponent one FACE-UP card you control for one turn. This card is bad if the opponent has a card like Jam Defender which changes the attack target to another card.

•	Mystic Box: the worst of the swap card usually just 1 of in the deck. It destroys the opponent’s monster and give control of one of your monsters. 2 problems with this card, firstly its slow the animation for destroying a card is quite lengthy. Secondly and most important destroying opponents monster in later campaigns is a bad idea as a lot of monsters have effect that are triggered once they are destroyed. We want to keep the game state as simple as possible, this card does a poor job of that.

9 Impcantation Engine: 0 DEF monsters based on rituals
•	3 Impcantation Talismandra (TALIS): Reveal a Ritual monster special summon this from your hand in defense position special summon another impcantaion monster from your deck (Candoll) and activate the others effect which searches your deck for the type of card opposite from the card you revealed. (eg, reveal a monster search out a spell and vice versa)

•	3 Impcantation Candoll (CAN): Literally the same as Talismandra except it’s the opposite, so reveal a spell card and add a monster to your hand.

•	3 Impcantation Chalislime (CHAL): Reveal this card and discard 1 card from your hand (including this card) special summon candoll or talismandra and get their effects (candoll: spell, talismandra: monster)

•	All of the impcantation effects are hard once per turns, so you can only use 1 of either of those 3 once per turn, so you cannot use both candoll and talismandra the same turn it will do the actions but you will not get the searches.

Helpful/Consistency Cards

3 Gale Dogra: Use this card as another slower version of Manju when paired with the extra deck, this also has the benefit of being usable more than once per turn. It is much slower though

3 Herald of the Arc Light: when this card is sent to the graveyard from anywhere add one ritual spell or monster card from your deck to your hand (not once per turn)

3 Left Arm Offering (LAO): This is used to search creature swap cards, if you have 2 other cards in your hand discard you entire hand and add one spell card of your choice from your deck to your hand. This acts as the 10th-12th creature swap card

Flex Cards/Utility

Gold Coin Moon: A once per turn draw 2, give your opponent 2 card from your hand and draw 2 cards. A bit slow but is a quasi-Pot of Greed because your opponent will lose before they can play whatever cards you give them.

Allure of Darkness: Draw 2 then banish a dark monster, dark monsters include: Chalismlime, Talismandra, CMD so a max of 9 dark monsters.

Lightning Storm: Helpful in the later campaigns to destroy all of the opponent’s backrow before playing out the combo. MUST be the first card played on your turn.

Hey Trunade: Similar to Lightning Storm

Do Not Use Cards

Upstart Goblin: While a strong card it completely kills this deck as if the opponent has more than 8000 LP it is impossible to OTK on one attack, while it is possible to still win if you have a Manju summoned that’s not garunteed.

Any Card That Gives the Opponent LP: Pretty self-explanatory. 

----------------------------------------DECKLIST----------------------------------------------------------------------
theMagni

Main Deck:
Monsters
3x Blue-Eyes White Dragon
3x Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon
3x Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
3x Gale Dogra
3x Impcantation Candoll
3x Impcantation Talismandra
3x Impcantation Chalislime

Spells
3x Advanced Ritual Art
3x Chaos Form
3x Creature Swap
3x Shien’s Spy
1x Mystic Box
3x Left Arm Offering
3x Gold Moon Coin

Extra Deck
3x Herald of the Arc Light


--------------------------------------------------PLAYING THE DECK---------------------------------------------

-There are a ton of different combos to achieve the same thing, I suggest watching the WR run on the DM Campaign, the 45:06, to see a lot of the different combos. I also encourage you to play with the deck to see how things work. The decklist above has an OTK% of 80%-82%. 

-The ideal hand is to have a ritual monster or ritual spell and the corresponding Impcantation monster to find the other part of the combo, as well as a creature swap.

Always choose to go second!!!!!!

If you go first decide if the hand is good, if it is pass the turn, if not reset the duel

Important note, non targeting effects still work, like No Entry, Drowning Mirror Force, Swords of Revealing Light, Nightmare Steelcage, Messenger of Peace things like that. If the opponent has stall cards like Swords of Revealing Light, they won't play it unless you control a monster however if they play it its a duel restart, it wastes too much time. Similar, there is also nothing you can do about hand traps (Kuriboh, Performage Damage Juggler, Gouki Octostretch etc.)

---------------------------------------------EXAMPLE HANDS-----------------------------------------------------

CMD
Shien’s Spy
Manju
TALIS
Creature Swap
LAO

The sequence to play is:
1.	Activate TALIS revealing CMD
2.	Special summon in Def position
3.	Choose CAN and summon in Def position
4.	Add ARA from deck to hand
5.	Use Creature Swap to swap one of the imp monsters
6.	Summon CMD using ARA sending a BEWD from deck to GY
7.	Attack into imp monster dealing 8K Damage
This is a ~75 sec duel

CMD
Shien’s Spy
Manju
BEWD
Creature Swap
LAO

The sequence to play is:
1.	Summon Manju search out CHAL
2.	Active CHAL discarding itself
3.	Search CAN and summon in def Pos
4.	CAN activates search out CF
5.	Creature Swap CAN
6.	Activate CF tributing BEWD for CMD
7.	Attack CAN dealing 8k damage
This is a ~75 sec duel

Gale Dogra
BEWD
LAO
BEWD
CF
Manju

The sequence to play is:
1.	Summon Gale Dogra
2.	Activate its effect sending Herald to GY
3.	Herald Activates search CHAL
4.	Activate CHAL discarding itself
5.	Search TALIS and summon in def Pos
6.	TALIS activates search out CMD
7.	Activate CF tributing BEWD for CMD
8.	Activate LAO sending BEWD and Manju to GY
9.	Search out a swap spell
10.	Use swap spell sending TALIS to opponent
11.	Attack TALIS for 8k damage
This is a ~100 sec duel

The best hand possible

CAN
CF
BEWD
Creature Swap
CMD
Any card

The sequence to play is:
1.	Set CAN
2.	Active CF tributing BEWD for CMD
3.	Create swap CAN with opponent’s monster
4.	Attack face down CAN for 8k damage
This is a ~50 Sec duel

The upperend of this deck assuming very good RNG is 80 seconds per duel, the current WR for DM is 87.3 seconds per duel


---------------------------------------------------------FAQ------------------------------------------------------
Q: Is this the best Banlist Deck?
A:  Maybe it currently has the record sweep for story mode banlist, however Cyber Dragon OTK is still a good option and a much simpler deck to get a foot into the category

Q: Is the above decklist the agreed upon best deck?
A: No there is no consensus on what the best deck is, the only things agreed upon are lots of swap, imp engine, CMD, and ways of bringing it out. There are usually 5-7 spots in the deck that can be fiddled with to increase consistency

Q: Do I even need to use this deck?
A: Heck no do whatever you want please experiment other people have different opinions and different outlooks on how to go fast please share, or don’t, whatever you want.

Q: Did I make this deck?
A: No, the Chaos MAX OTK has been around in the TCG for a while and BR_Mastar was the first to submit a run of a Banlist Campaign using a similar deck. Their 51:20 on VRAINs Banlist.

Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 1: Card Positioning)

Hello there, people. I have written a larger guide about Ai patterns and manipulations for it, that I have split up into multiple parts, which can be read individually. This should be especially helpful for Beginners and Intermediate players of Story Deck runs. I put this header on top of all them, so feel free to ignore this in case you have already read this.

As a disclaimer: These strats work most of the time, but not all of the time. Sometimes you get weird moments, where the AI doesn‘t follow these rules. 5D‘s especially really likes to do that. But those moments are more on the rare side, so in like 95% of cases these manips should work. Also keep in mind that the AI in the original Legacy of the Duelist works different. Some things still work, but these guides is meant for Link Evolution.

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1. Positioning of cards

This one can be applied to both monsters and backrow. I will start with the backrow first:

1.1

The way the AI targets set backrow cards with removal is usually from left to right. So if you have a duel with a „Mystical Space Typhoon“ (in following „MST“) in the opponents deck you can do the following: Set a card to the left of whatever backrow you want to keep. The column and type of backrow doesn‘t matter as long as it is more to the left than whatever backrow you are trying to keep. In some situations the AI will flip „MST“ on a face-up card instead. Also instead of just using „MST“, sometimes the AI can wait and use it on the last set card instead, so it‘s important to be aware of these situations existing as well.

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There are actually multiple uses for monster positioning in the game:

1.2.

The first one is to protect face-up monsters. There are 2 ways the AI usually attacks face-up monsters. It either attacks from highest to lowest Attack* or it tries to deal the most damage with the attack. The attack pattern depends on the opponent. This one specifically will help you out for the attack pattern from highest to lowest attack. If multiple monsters you control have the same Attack value, the AI will usually attack them from left to right as well. You can use this to your advantage by placing the monster with the more important effect to the right of the monster with a less important effect/normal monster.

Example: You have a „Red-Eyes Black Dragon“ and a „Lord of the Red“ on your field. If you place the „Red-Eyes“ to the left of „Lord of the Red“, the AI will attack „Red-Eyes“ first, which protects your „Lord of the Red“ to give you more destruction effects from it.

*In 5D‘s this also works with Defense points in some cases for whatever reason. I swear, 5D‘s is so weird when it comes to AI patterns.

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1.3.

The second one is to protect face-down monsters. Once again the AI usually attacks unknown face-downs from left to right. Unknown face-down monsters are monsters the AI is not aware of what they are, yet. You can use this to your advantage by positioning monsters with higher Defense to the left of lower Defense ones to make the AI potentially lose an attack. Knowing that the AI normally attacks unknown face-downs this way will also help you see, if a monster will survive with Magical Hats or not and plan ahead.

Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 2: AI Attack Patterns)

Hello there, people. I have written a larger guide about Ai patterns and manipulations for it, that I have split up into multiple parts, which can be read individually. This should be especially helpful for Beginners and Intermediate players of Story Deck runs. I put this header on top of all them, so feel free to ignore this in case you have already read this.

As a disclaimer: These strats work most of the time, but not all of the time. Sometimes you get weird moments, where the AI doesn‘t follow these rules. 5D‘s especially really likes to do that. But those moments are more on the rare side, so in like 95% of cases these manips should work. Also keep in mind that the AI in the original Legacy of the Duelist works different. Some things still work, but these guides is meant for Link Evolution.

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2. AI Attack Patterns

There are a lot of attack patterns, that can be used to your advantage in Story Deck runs.

2.1 General attack pattern

When it comes to how the AI overall attacks, it prioritizes attack targets the following: Face-up monsters and known face-down monsters are prioritized over unknown face-down monsters. The AI also does not prioritize Effect Monsters. Known face-down monsters are monster cards, the AI is aware of what the monster is, because they already got to see. A couple of examples are the AI saw it with „Eye of Truth“ getting set or the monster got flipped face-down by an effect. Unknown face-down monsters are monsters the AI is not aware of what they are, yet. This can be used to your advantage to have a monster survive as e.g. a Tribute for a Tribute Summon, that would have otherwise not survived. This then can be further reinforced by also setting a monster with higher Defense to the left of it.

Example: You set a „Kuriboh“ while also controlling some face-up monsters for a tribute play next turn.

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2.2 Protection for face-up monsters

One way to accomplish this has already been described in the card positioning section under 1.2. However, there is also a way to protect lower Attack monsters with useful effects against opponents, who attacks face-up monsters from highest to lowest Attack. If you play a new monster with more Attack, the opponent will attack the new monster first instead of the lower Attack one with the effect, that you want to protect.

Example: This is really useful in Alexis VS Titan in the GX campaign. You can protect „Cyber Tutu“ or „Cyber Gymnast“ by playing a higher Attack monster in Attack Position, even if he controls stronger monsters. That way you can e.g. squeeze out a little more damage with „Cyber Tutu“, because that card can attack directly under certain conditions.

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2.3 Protection for face-down monsters

A couple of ways to accomplish this have already been described in the card positioning section under 1.3 and under 2.1 of this guide. There are, however, even more ways to do this regardless of card positioning. In Mako VS Yugi from the DM campaign, there is a monster called „Sentry Golem“. It is an Effect Monster, that can flip itself face-down each turn, and when it is Flip Summoned it bounces a monster back to the opponents hand. This monster needs to specifically Flip Summoned by the player for the bounce effect. If the opponent attacks into it, it will not activate that effect. To prevent the opponent from attacking into it, instead of setting the card from the hand, you can summon it and use the effect to flip it face-down. Now the AI knows what card it is and its Defense value and will not attack into it, unless it can kill the monster. But even then the AI can still prioritize face-up Attack Position monsters over it. This rule also applies to monsters, that the AI saw getting played from hand while e.g. „Eye of Truth“ was active.

Another way to protect especially weaker monster is by setting them into opponents weaker monsters. The AI will normally not attack unknown face-down monsters with monsters that have 1100 or less Attack**. This is another way to set e.g. „Kuriboh“ to set up a Tribute play in an appropriate duel.

**For whatever reason Jack sometimes attacks with „Sinister Sprocket“ in the first duel of 5D‘s on the second turn it is in play. Why does 5D‘s keep doing that?

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2.4 Another thing related to face-down monsters

Two more things to mention about face-down monsters is how the AI behaves with Tribute sets and when it has little Life Points left.

On Tribute sets the AI usually doesn‘t attack those monsters unless it has a high Attack monster/Tribute Monster of its own, so this can potentially be used to get some more draws, if you are already pretty far into the duel.

If the AI gets low on Life Points (~1XXX Life Points left) usually the same applies, but in this case with every monster, that you set. This can be used to potentially make the AI summon something in Attack Position, so you then can swing into it for game.

Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 3: Manipulations for set Backrow)

Hello there, people. I have written a larger guide about Ai patterns and manipulations for it, that I have split up into multiple parts, which can be read individually. This should be especially helpful for Beginners and Intermediate players of Story Deck runs. I put this header on top of all them, so feel free to ignore this in case you have already read this.

As a disclaimer: These strats work most of the time, but not all of the time. Sometimes you get weird moments, where the AI doesn‘t follow these rules. 5D‘s especially really likes to do that. But those moments are more on the rare side, so in like 95% of cases these manips should work. Also keep in mind that the AI in the original Legacy of the Duelist works different. Some things still work, but these guides is meant for Link Evolution.

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3. Manipulations for set Backrow cards

The AI has a specific pattern to it when it comes to setting and activating certain trap cards, which I am going to cover here. This will mostly be the more common ones.

3.1 Mirror Force

One of the most feared cards in the speedrun. There are a couple of things to notice about this.

First of, „Mirror Force“ is a card the AI can only set 1 copy of at a time. So, if you see it getting flipped, you know that all the other cards, that are currently set on the field, can‘t be another copy of it. Another important thing is, that the AI also usually doesn‘t flip the card unless a certain damage threshhold is met. I don‘t know the exact damage threshhold, but I know they will activate it, if you have a monster with 1600 Attack on the field, which attacks them directly. In some cases the AI will flip it even under the damage threshhold, e.g. if your attack would kill one of their monsters. The AI will also flip it, when the attack would kill them.

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3.2 Sakuretsu Armor/Dimensional Prison

These are in practice the exact same card, one just destroys the monster, the other one banishes it.

These also are cards, that the AI can only set 1 copy of each at a time. The AI flips these cards when your monster with the highest Attack value attacks. Keep in mind, that the AI also doesn‘t consider effects in this case, so if you have 2 monsters with the same Attack, it will flip it on the first attack.

Example: You have a „Red-Eyes Black Dragon“ and a „Lord of the Red“ on your field. Attack with „Red-Eyes“ first, which is going to make the AI „Sakuretsu Armor“, which not only protects your „Lord of the Red“, you also get an activation from its effect of that.

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3.3 Call of the Haunted

It is fascinating to me how many times this card was able to kill runs just by existing. This is a card the AI can set multiple copies of at a time. Anyway there is a very important manip for this one, because it is a very common card in a lot of the campaigns.

If you attack with a monster, that has the same or fewer Attack points than their monster with the highest Attack, which they are able to Special Summon from the Graveyard, they are going to activate it. So, what you want to do in duels, that have „Call of the Haunted“ in them, is to attack with a weaker monster to bait it out, and then run over the monster, that got summoned by it, with a higher Attack monster of yours. If the monster has an effect, that boosts its Attack during the battle, the AI is still going to flip „Call of the Haunted“, because it doesn‘t consider the effect for it. It also flips the card, if the attack would kill them.

Example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/989954404

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3.4 Trap Monsters

The same rules as in „Call of the Haunted“ apply here. The AI can set multiple copies of each Trap Monster at a time. If the specific Trap Monster has the same or a higher Attack/Defense value, the AI is going to flip the card in order to block the attack. Not considering effects also applies here.

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3.5 Pinpoint Guard

This is a card the AI can only set 1 copy of at a time. The AI is going to flip this one when you declare a direct attack on them. In a lot of cases there is very little you can do about that, however, there is something useful to know for GX. In Bastion VS Chazz, Chazz does have „Pinpoint Guard“ while Bastion has an Effect Monster called „Hyper Hammerhead“. It bounces the monster it battled back to the hand, if the attack target didn‘t get destroyed by that battle. Chazz will not consider the effect and still flip „Pinpoint Guard“, even if „Hyper Hammerhead“ attacks. You can use this to your advantage and not lose an attack by thinking he won‘t flip it on the „Hyper Hammerhead“ attack.

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3.6 Other backrow for Battles

If you see the AI summon a monster with less Attack than yours in Attack Position and then just passes with a set card in their backrow, it most likely has something to combat the attack in form of either an Attack Boost or a way to stop the attack. This includes both Quickplay Spells and Traps. The Ai doesn‘t consider monster effects, for whether to activate the card or not. I will give 3 examples (1 from DM, 1 from 5D‘s and 1 from Arc-V) to make this a bit more clear what I am getting at.

Example 1: Rex Summons „Uraby“ (1500 Attack) in Attack Position into your „Axe Raider“ (1700 Attack), sets a backrow and passes. In this case he has either „Reinforcements“ or a „Threatening Roar“ Trap set. You can check for the „Threatening Roar“ by just entering Battle Phase. If you don‘t see him flip Roar, you know it‘s „Reinforcements“. The AI seems to not use it proactively, so you can try to find a workaround for it.

Example 2: Akiza summons Phoenixian Seed (800 Attack) in Attack Position into your Junk Warrior (2300+ Attack), sets a backrow and passes. In this case she either has a „No Entry“ or a „Wall of Thornes“ to stop your attack. „No Entry“ switches all monsters into Defense Position. You can change all monster, that you did not try to declare an attack with back to Attack Position in Main Phase 2. „Wall of Thornes“ is the same card as „Mirror Force“, but it can only be activated, if a Plant type monster is attacked, which is why she had to summon the Seed.

Example 3: The opponent controls a „Marauding Captain“ (1200 Attack) on the field and has a set „Ego Boost“ (+1000 Attack) on the field. You Synchro Summon a „Speedroid Chanbara“ (2000 Attack), which gains a permanent 200 Attack Boost during each Damage Step. You can attack a set or non Warrior monster (if they control one), that is either in Defense Position or doesn‘t get to 2200 Attack with „Ego Boost“ first, to get „Chanbara“ to 2200 Attack. Then you can attack the „Marauding Captain“, which makes the AI activate „Ego Boost“, because it wants your monster to crash. Your „Chanbara“ now goes up to 2400 Attack, making the AI waste their „Ego Boost“ and also lose their monster.

Video for Example 3: https://www.twitch.tv/ashinyblackphoenix/clip/AntediluvianFitShrimpRlyTho-ucdj7J1KN7kw1uUO

Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 4: Other useful to know Patterns and Manipulation for specific duels)

Hello there, people. I have written a larger guide about Ai patterns and manipulations for it, that I have split up into multiple parts, which can be read individually. This should be especially helpful for Beginners and Intermediate players of Story Deck runs. I put this header on top of all them, so feel free to ignore this in case you have already read this.

As a disclaimer: These strats work most of the time, but not all of the time. Sometimes you get weird moments, where the AI doesn‘t follow these rules. 5D‘s especially really likes to do that. But those moments are more on the rare side, so in like 95% of cases these manips should work. Also keep in mind that the AI in the original Legacy of the Duelist works different. Some things still work, but these guides is meant for Link Evolution.

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4. Other useful to know Patterns and Manipulations for specific duels

This will cover some other useful things and manipulations that are specific to some cards and duels they appear in.

4.1 Predicting face-down backrow

I made a whole seperate guide on that, but I still want to mention it to raise awareness of the guides existance. I am not going into details here, because it‘s too much cover.

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4.2 Cards getting added to the hand

This depends a bit on the duel, but one way the AI adds cards to their hand is, that it prioritizes monsters on effects like „Pot of Duality“***. With search cards the AI usually searches the monster with the highest Attack value, that it can add with that specific effect.

Example: Bruno in 5D‘s: „T.G. Rush Rhino“ will search „T.G. Jet Falcon“ from deck, because it cannot search „Rhino“. All the other „T.G“s will search „Rush Rhino“ until there is non left in the deck, then they will go down to „Falcon“, then to „Warwolf“ (You usually don‘t get down to „Warwolf“ searches).

*** This can also be used for No Banlist runs. The AI will add monsters over spells. They will pick the monster with the highest Attack value, that you selected with "Painful Choice".

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4.3 The AI doesn‘t flip up a monster, even after multiple turns

There are a couple of reasons why the AI could be doing this. The monster can have a really low Attack value or even 0 Attack. This can be used in the Adrian VS Chazz duel in GX to get a read on set „Ojamas“. Another reason could be, that the monster has an effect, that activates when it is flipped face-up, but there is no good target for it currently on the field. This can be used to get a read on cards like „Man-Eater Bug“ or „Snowman Eater“.

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4.4 The AI doesn‘t deactivate „Messenger of Peace“, if you control the monster with the highest Attack on the field

It is as above says. This can be used in the GX for both of the Sacred Beasts duels. If you control the monster with the highest Attack on the field the AI is not going to deactivate „Messenger of Peace“. In both these duels you have a Fusion Monster called „Elemental Hero Mariner“, which has 1400 Attack and can attack directly, if you control a set backrow. With this you can just keep attacking directly with „Mariner“, while to AI protects it for you by not deactivating „Messenger“. The AI once again doesn‘t consider effects in this situation.

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4.5 Reptillian Naga

This is a really funny one, which is relevant for the Viper duel in GX and the Misty duel in 5D‘s. The way „Naga“ is programmed is: if (LP > monster attack) naga attack. So, as long as they have more LP than your monster has Attack, the AI will keep running into your stuff. But it gets even funnier. They didn‘t set a flag, that the monster has already been attacked by a „Naga“. So, if the AI manages to summon multiple „Naga“s, they all run into the same Monster Card. You can use this to your advantage by just passing instead of attacking the „Naga“ yourself to get potentially really fast duels.

Example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/815681612

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4.6 „Skull Flame“ + „Burning Skull Head“

This is another incredibly funny one, which is relevant for the Hunter Pace duel in the 5D‘s campaign. If you manage, that Hunter Pace has a „Skull Flame“ on the field and a „Burning Skull Head“ in the Graveyard, he will just keep adding the „Burning Skull Head“ from the Grave back to his hand, instead of conducting his normal draw. If you have a monster with more Attack than his „Skull Flame“ on the field, you can use this to your advantage by preventing him from getting new cards until you are confident, that you can quickly win from this position.

Example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2072979838

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4.7 Soulburner does not Link Summon on his first turn when going first

The Vrains campaign is a very difficult campaign to even just get through with Story Decks. The most difficult opponent from it is Soulburner. You face him in both ways, but you duel him way more in Reverse with Soulburner VS Windy Reverse being an absolute nightmare of a duel (in my opinion the most difficult duel in the game). The decks facing each other are completely mismatched in terms of how strong they are (Salamangreat VS Meta Threat Dragunity **sarcasm**). There is, however, something to make that duel a bit more consistant. If you let him go first, Soulburner is not going to Link Summon during his first turn. You want him to summon a lot during his first turn, so you can clear as many monsters as possible before he starts to Link Summon. It doesn‘t make the duel easy, but it makes it at least more winable. This behaviour also applies to other opponents, Soulburner is just the most important one to mention.

Handtracking and Set Prediction for Story Deck runs

Alright people, now that I am finally done with 5D‘s, I have the time to talk about some of the stuff I noticed in regards to AI behaviour while playing through 5D‘s a lot, which can be pretty important for Story Deck runs.

I am talking about a neat little technique known as handtracking.

Now you might be wondering: Bird, what are you talking about? Handtracking is just keeping track of cards the AI added to their hand and hasn‘t played, yet. Right?

That is a form of handtracking indeed. However, there is a second form of handtracking, which will come in pretty handy. It is a technique, that allows you to use the position a card is played from hand to predict face down cards, that the AI set during their last turn, at least in certain situations.

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As a disclaimer: This technique doesn‘t work 100% of the time, but it is consistant enough to be relevant for any duel, that has the AI have mutiple copies of a card they can set face down in their backrow. Sometimes the AI just doesn‘t set all their cards at once for example. Generally speaking there are some duels, where predicting set cards is way more consistant than in others.

This is also something I would consider an advanced strat, so if you are just starting out learning the game, I recommend focusing on a couple of other things first like AI manipulations, getting familiar with the deck lists and how to win the duels fast in general.

Anyway, for this form of handtracking you need to have 3 types of information, which are the following:

1.  The deck lists: 

The deck lists are important information, since this technique only works on cards the AI has multiple copies of, so knowing in which duels that is the case is really important.

2.  The hand doesn‘t get shuffled:

As just stated, the hands don‘t get shuffled unless a card got added to the hand by an effect or a card was stacked to the top of the deck. This means, that the card the AI's topdecked will almost always be the left-most card in their hand.

There are some cases, where that still doesn‘t matter. For example if the AI topdecks a Terraforming, they will add a field spell, which shuffles the hand, but anything that isn‘t that exact field spell was in their hand before.

Another case would be, if you stack a face-up monster to the opponents deck. In this case you know, every card, that isn‘t that exact monster was in their hand already.

3.  There are 2 types of set cards: 

So you might be wondering what I mean by this? It‘s very simple: there are cards the AI can set multiple copies of and there are cards the AI can only set 1 copy at a time and keeps their duplicate copies in hand.

As a general rule you can say any Continuous Card is a card the AI can set multiple copies with the same name at the same time, any other type of card the AI can only set 1 copy at a time.

There are some exceptions to that rule: in 5D‘s I found "Mektimed Blast", "Golden Apple" and also sadly "Scrap Iron Scarecrow". These are cards the AI can set multiples of, regardless of them being Normal Traps (sorry guys, I wish I had good news for 5D‘s reverse, but that run will forever be ass).

There are probably a couple of more exceptions, these are just ones I can name.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what does knowing all of this help me with?

Knowing these 3 things means, we can use the AI‘s behaviour of setting only 1 copy of anything that isn‘t a Continuous Card to our advantage by predicting their face down cards.

Let‘s take a really good example for this: The Pegasus VS Kaiba duel from the DM campaign.

In this duel you are playing as Pegasus against Kaiba, who has some pretty annoying trap cards to deal with. Kaibas deck contains 3x "Shadow Spell" (Continuous Trap), 3x "Negate Attack" (Counter Trap) and 1x "Crush Card Virus" (Normal Trap). Lets pretend Kaiba started the duel with 2 set card. We also assume that he didn't set a spell, which he sometimes does, if he draws multiple copies of one without a target for it.

This means, that there can be 3 combination of cards set: 2x "Shadowspell", 1x "Crush Card Virus"+1x "Shadow Spell" or 1x "Crush Card Virus"+1x "Negate Attack". With the rules we have established the AI cannot set 2x Negate Attack, because it is a Counter Trap. That also means, that if you see him flip a "Negate Attack", the other set card cannot be another copy of it.

Let‘s say you declare an attack and Kaiba flipped a "Negate Attack". Now on his turn he sets a new card, that is not his left-most card, which means it is a card he was already holding in hand. This new set has a very high chance to be another copy of "Negate Attack", because he was holding the card until a set copy of "Negate Attack" was activated, a card he can only set 1 copy of at a time.

If the card he played was the left-most card instead, there is no way to predict what he just set.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing, that can be done with what has been described, is to detect bluff sets.

Let's assume the AI didn't set anything for a couple of turns, and gets into a losing position. Suddenly it starts setting a card, that it has been holding for a couple of turns at this point, which you can tell by the position it has been played from.

This is pretty much a guaranteed call on a bluff in this situation, because the AI isn't holding potential backrow, that it can respond with for that long. If it is past the second turn, the AI will usually have set all their backrow at this point, unless it is a card, which it will only set one of at time as I described above or it is a card they try to bluff with, which the AI usually does, if it gets into a losing position.

Same rule also applies here: If the card it played was the left-most card instead, there is no way to predict what it just set.

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But, predicting face-down cards can also be applied to cards the AI can set multiple copies of, just not through the means of Handtracking. This one is a fairly simple right to left rule (left to right from the AI's perspective). This can be summarized very simple: If you see the AI flip a card, that it can set multiple copies of, all the cards to the right of the activated card cannot be another copy of that card. The AI will activate the cards from right to left, if it has multiple copies of the same card set and is trying to activate a copy of it.

Let's go back to our example from earlier with the Pegasus VS Kaiba Duel. If he set 2 cards the positions of those card will be the middle column and the second from the left column. Let's pretend Kaiba did have a set "Shadowspell". Based on the position you see the card get activated, you can get a potential read on the other set card.

If it is activated in the middle column, the other set card can still be another "Shadowspell". It can, however, still be any of the other backrow cards as well. But, if you see them activate it in the second from the left column, the card in the middle column cannot be another copy of "Shadowspell" due to the card being to the right of it.

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This pretty much sums up how that method of handtracking I discovered during my 5D‘s journey works. It is a really helpful thing to consider for anybody, who is familiar with the deck lists of the campaign they are running.

I hope you find this information useful. I will leave a couple of clips here of me performing handtracking for anyone, who is curious seeing it in action. I was also able to pull it off in other peoples streams, but don‘t have clips from it, so the clips are only from my attempts in this case. Otherwise, all I can say is try it out for yourself.

Regardless, have a nice day.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2038856673

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2104818757

List of Bugged Cards in Story Decks

There are a couple of cards, that are not working as they should in the game. I will list them here. If new ones are found/I remember some more of them, I am going to add them to this.

- The Legendary Dragons (DM; Orichalchos duels): This can be one of the most fatal ones, if you are not aware, that these cards are bugged. This affects especially „Hermos“. If you control a monster in the Extra Monster Zone (the 2 Zones in between the players fields), you CANNOT use monsters from your hand for the Fusion Summon with „Hermos“ anymore, as long as the monster remains in the Extra Monster Zone.
- Lightforce Sword (DM; multiple Yugi duels): If you use it during the opponents turn, it will always count that turn as turn 1, even if the card was activated after the Standby Phase.

- Cloudian Poison Cloud (GX; Adrian VS Chazz): „Poison Cloud“ also destroys the monster when it was set.

- Iron Chain Coil (5D‘s; Yusei VS Armstrong): „Iron Chain Coil“ provides a permanent Attack Boost instead of one, that is only active while it is face-up on the field.

- Supersonic Skull Flame (5D‘s; Yusei VS Hunter Pace): „Supersonic Skull Flame“ can be revived from the Graveyard regardless of the card saying, that it can only be Special Summoned by banishing a „Skull Flame“ from Grave. The card works like as if it is saying "Must first be Special Summoned by...", which means, that it can be revived from the Graveyard once it was summoned by its actual Summoning Condition.

No Banlist Exodia Deck Guide

As of right now, Exodia Draw seems to be the best choice for No Banlist Runs. While the Deck seems to be set in stone, there are a few choices that each runner can make due to style or preference.

------------------------------ CARD CHOICES ----------------------------------------------------------
All numbers are starting points, feel free to change the numbers at your preference.

**Must Haves**:

(2 - 3) Exodia Pieces (Exodia, the Forbidden, Left Arm of the Forbidden One, Right Arm of the Forbidden One, Left Leg of the Forbidden One, Right Leg of the Forbidden One): The win condition. While having more than 1 piece does increase the chance of bricking, the percentage gained from having a higher chance to draw each piece outweighs the percent lost from bricking.

3 Pot of Greed: The most complicated card in the game. But seriously, its a +1 for free, turns your deck into a 34 card deck, always run 3.

3 Graceful Charity: While technically a +0, it lets you see 3 cards deep, and discard any dead cards in your hand, in practice acting as a +1 or even a +2. A better draw card than Pot of Greed, always have 3.

**You probably should run these**:

(0 - 3) Painful Choice: While on paper this card seems anti-synergistic with our deck, due to the AI of the game it acts as a mega tutor. (See PLAYING THE DECK). You can use this to grab any Exodia piece, witch, or certain spells from the deck. Only reason not to play 3 is because its fairly slow, taking 7 seconds to resolve if you pick the first cards you see.

(2 - 3) Painful Decision: Searches for all limb of Exodia, as long as you have at least 2 in the deck remaining. Faster than Painful Choice to search, but is a 1 per turn so duplicate copies become dead in hand.

3 Witch of the Black Forest: Searches for any Exodia piece when destroyed, can be sacrificed to Spellbook of Knowledge. Can also be attacked into opponent's creates to trigger it's effect. One per turn due to both the card and normal summon restriction, so duplicate copies become dead.

(2 - 3) Spellbook of Knowledge: Sacrifice any Spellcaster (or any other Spellbook card in hand) to draw 2 cards. Combos with Witch to search for an exodia piece and draw 2, turning into a +1. Can only be used once per turn, so other copies become dead in hand.

(0 - 3) Allure of Darkness: Draws you 2 at a +0. You do need to banish a Dark monster, which is slower than discarding. Card be used to get rid of duplicate Exodia pieces or witches, but can be used with no duplicates to continue the combo.

3 One Day of Peace: Draws a card for both players, turns the deck into a 37 card deck (31 cards with Pot of Greed). Slightly faster to resolve compared to Upstart Goblin, but not by much.

(1 - 3) Upstart Goblin. Draws a card, effectively reduces deck size by 1 for each copy you have. A bit slow to resolve. 

(0 - 1) Clara & Rushka, the Ventriloduo: A Extra Deck Monster to sacrifice Witch/Legion to. This is specifically for the corner case where a). You are going 2nd, b ). You have a witch , c). You have 4 pieces of Exodia, d). You have no other cards other than the witch and Exodia pieces in hand, e). Your opponent has no monsters to attack into.  This card is almost never used, but it doesn't take up space in the main deck, so it is technically a free addition. 


**Flex Spots**:

(0 - 1) Pot of Duality: Let's you see the top 3 cards and draw 1, acting as a much better One Day/Upstart. Unfortunately, it takes 10 seconds to resolve, so is quite slow. It's also only one per turn on the card, so no use in running more than 1.

(0 - 1) Legion the Fiend Jester: Another Witch effect, can be used to search for any Exodia piece except the head. If you use this card, make sure you have 3+ ways of getting Spellbook of Knowledge.

(0 - 3) Wonder Wand: Alternate to Spellbook of Knowledge. A bit slower to resolve, and takes one more click, but isn't once per turn, so if you are doing any special summon shenanigans, it might be worth it.

**Untested and/or Spicy Cards**:

(0 - 3) Into the Void: Another "costless" draw 1 spell that reduces your deck size. However, if cast this, you have to win on that turn or else you effective have to restart the duel. Super risky, use with caution.

(0 - 2) Blue Dragon Summoner: Another "Limb Search" effect, with the downside of not being dark, so it cannot be used by Allure of Darkness. The upside is that it's effect isn't once per turn, so if you are using some Special Summon effects with Wonder Wand, it may be worth it.

(0 - 2) Dark Factory of Mass Production: Turn a Painful Choice into a searcher for 3 exodia pieces, meaning 2 pieces in hand + Dark Factory + Choice is a win. However it is slow to resolve, and without choice it is a dead card in hand.

(0 - 2) Spellbook of Secrets: Searches for Spellbook of Knowledge, effectively adding copies of that card to your deck for a time cost. Can also be sacrificed to Spellbook of Knowledge to draw 2 if you have no Witch/Legion. 

(0 - 1) Spellbook Magician of Prophecy: Another way to tutor and use Spellbook of Knowledge. It is slow, as you need to summon and then search, but if you are all in on the Spellbook plan with no witches, it helps with consistency. 

(0 - 3) Thunder Dragon: Thins your deck, and adds fodder to your hand. Less time to resolve since you don't have to search, it just adds to hand. They are dead cards that can only be gotten rid of with Graceful Charity, so be warned. Always run either 0 or 3.

(0 - 3) Mystic Piper: Can be either a +0 or +1, although due to animation is slow to resolve. Can also be combined with One for One to tutor it out. Can be used as Allure Fodder.

(0 - 3) One for One: Used to tutor out Mystic Piper. Allows for more summons to use with Wonder Wand/Spellbook. 

(0 - 3) Summoner Monk: Can be used to special summon any Witch/Legion effect, allowing more wonder wand activations, and gives a use for a dead spell in hand. Very slow as it needs to turn itself into defense, then activate to discard, then search + shuffle.

(0 - 2) Makyura the Destructor: We still have the pre-errata effect of Makyura, which is why it is banned in the game. Slow to trigger, and the AI always gives you this card with Painful Choice, so if you run any run 2. Very clunky as it makes you run a lot of potential dead cards.

(0 - 3) Reckless Greed/ (0- 3) Jar of Greed. The Trap package with Makyura. Each is a +0 or +1, and helps you dig more.

(0 - 3) Sixth Sense: You are a madperson. May RNG be in your favor. The dice animation is very long, so this is extra risky.

** "Trap Cards" aka Generally not worth it cards **

Any Spell Card that is -1 (Eg Card Destruction, Dark World Dealings, Reload): These cards leave you with less cards in hand after they resolve, which can ruin your run. You always want to be running cards are +0 in the worst case.

Legacy of Yata-Garasu: Not only is it a trap, which has the risks of any trap, there is a prompt which adds even more time to the resolution. Skip this card.

Cup of Ace: Even for a +1 50% of the time, it is still super long due to the coin flip animation. If we could guarantee this card to be in our favor 100% of the time, it would still probably be a bit too slow.

------------------------------ SAMPLE DECKLISTS ----------------------------------------------------------
cherNYak:

Main Deck:
3x Exodia Pieces
3x Witch of the Black Forest
3x Allure of Darkness
3x Graceful Charity
3x One Day of Peace
3x Painful Choice
2x Painful Desicion
1x Pot of Duality
3x Pot of Greed
2x Spellbook of Knowledge
2x Upstart Goblin

1x Clara & Rushka, the Ventriloduo

HylianAsh: (WR Holder of No Banlist Reverse at time of writing)

Main Deck:
3x Exodia Pieces 
3x Witch of the Black Forest 
3x Allure of Darkness 
3x Graceful Charity
3x One Day of Peace
3x Painful Choice
3x Painful Decision
3x Pot of Greed
3x Spellbook of Knowledge 
1x Pot of Duality

Isko: (WR Holder of Banlist GX to Vrains at time of Writing)
Main Deck:
3x Exodia Pieces 
1x Legion the Fiend Jester
3x Witch of the Black Forest 
3x Allure of Darkness 
3x Graceful Charity
3x One Day of Peace
3x Painful Choice
2x Painful Decision
3x Pot of Greed
3x Spellbook of Knowledge 
1x Upstart Goblin

Extra Deck:
1x Clara & Rushka, the Ventriloduo

------------------------------ PLAYING THE DECK ----------------------------------------------------------

- Painful Choice is a much better card due to how the AI of this game works. When selecting cards, the AI will always give you an Effect Monster if possible. If not, then it will give you a Normal Monster. When selecting all spells, it is not 100% determined yet, but it will give you Painful Choice if Selected, otherwise Graceful Charity of Pot of Greed if selected. While not 100%, it will be give you Graceful most of the time.

For a visual example (> means confirmed, >? mean still more research to do)
Effect Monster > Normal Monster > Painful Choice > Graceful Charity >? Pot of Greed >? Allure of Darkness >? Other Spells >? Traps

Where Effects monsters are at the top of the priority list.

- In general, you want to only use Painful Choice when you need to. It is a very powerful card, but super slow, so use it more as a last resort or a fix rather than relying on it too heavily.

- Always use Pot of Greed first, unless you have a win via searching. Its the fastest card to get more cards.

- Use your search effects last. Try to draw your exodia pieces first before searching for whatever is left. The exception is with Witch + Spellbook/Wand, as you draw before your search, and in general it is worth it to pull this line ASAP.

- When you have Graceful and a hand of draw 1s, you can either ignore the draw 1s and use Graceful for faster times but a higher chance to brick, versus using the draw 1s for slower speeds but higher consistency. How you want to play these situations out is use to you.

- When using Graceful Charity, Target extra spellbooks or extra Painful Decisions, as they are both once per turn anyway. You can also throw away extra witches/exodia pieces, but they can be used as Allure fodder. Allure is also a good target to throw away with graceful, if you dont have any fodder in hand.

 ------------------------------ F. A. Q's ----------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is Exodia the best No Banlist deck?
A: General consensus says yes it is. While decks like Last Turn are also useful, Exodia can win on the first turn without passing, and requires nothing but drawing cards and adding cards to hand, making it easy to trigger by "accident". It is by far the least number of interactions needed to win.

Q: Do I have to sit through the Exodia animation every time? Can I turn it off?
A: You do, unfortunately. Turning it off requires modifying the game files, so the Moderators have decided to disallow it. 

Q: Exodia keeps crashing my game! 
A: This is a known issue, unfortunately this version of the game is poorly coded. If you are running on switch, quitting the game in the home menu and starting it up again between runs seems to help a bit. Currently the PS4/PS5 version of the game seem the most stable. 

Q: What about Destiny Draw/ Dark World/ Super Rejuvenation/ other form of Exodia?
A: This Guide only covers the current version of Exodia. You are free to experiment with anything you wish, this guide is more meant as a starting point and as a hub of info anyone new to the game would need to know to start running the category.

Probability Table for Banlist decks.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RCN4ZCdDhm309wBFs8m6RaZ3Jm7dp6bhlMF_btYlsFU/edit?usp=sharing

Problem Card List for Duels (Credit to Magni)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OkcmhIwUhAVWaDIldXf-SqRRl88Zhf-tK50CeojMAE0/edit#gid=0

الاسم	المؤلف
Banlist Chaos MAX OTK Guide	theMagni 4 years ago
Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 1: Card Positioning)	AShinyBlackPhoenix 4 months ago
Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 2: AI Attack Patterns)	AShinyBlackPhoenix 4 months ago
Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 3: Manipulations for set Backrow)	AShinyBlackPhoenix 4 months ago
Guide for AI Patterns and Manipulations (Part 4: Other useful to know Patterns and Manipulation for specific duels)	AShinyBlackPhoenix 4 months ago
Handtracking and Set Prediction for Story Deck runs	AShinyBlackPhoenix 10 months ago
List of Bugged Cards in Story Decks	AShinyBlackPhoenix 3 months ago
No Banlist Exodia Deck Guide	cherNYak 4 years ago
Probability Table for Banlist decks.	theMagni 4 years ago
Problem Card List for Duels (Credit to Magni)	Isko 4 years ago