[Maximum Charles]

Lightsworn
Charlie Shand

Lightsworn’s impact on the competitive aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is undeniable. Since the release of Light of Destruction in May 2008, the definition of “beat down” decks has been drastically altered to include special summoning literally up to 5-6 monsters per turn. Anything that couldn’t keep up had to be tossed aside in favor of much faster builds, and that is how Lightsworn has successfully morphed the metagame into the fast-paced one-turn-kill-centric environment that it is today.

Before the release of Light of Destruction, one could almost choke on the hype surrounding the Lightsworn monsters. I for one, remember at the Sneak Preview when the Ultra Rare Ligtsworn monsters Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel were going for around $20-25 apiece. And for good reason. I don’t think that anyone could have guessed that it would take them almost a year and a half to come into their own as a competitive archetype, but when they managed to accomplish that, it would result in one of the most dominant, borderline unfair decks that anyone that plays has ever crossed paths with.

For those of you who don’t know what cards make up the core of a solid Lightsworn deck, here are the cards and a brief description and explanation of each one.

Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
Light/Warrior/4/1800/1200
If this card attacks an opponent's monster, it gains 300 ATK during the Damage Step only. During each of your End Phases, send the top 2 cards of your deck to Graveyard.

Jain here is a great first turn normal summon. Obviously it’s going to give away information about what is being played to any opponent right away, but that doesn’t really matter if the deck goes off because they’re going to lose regardless. Being a 1800 attack monster that can be used in conjunction with Honest means that she’s going to have a little bit of staying power, but the fact remains that even if destroyed, Jain will provide a name for the player to meet Judgment Dragon’s summoning requirements with.

Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
Light/Spellcaster/4/1700/200
You can change this card from face-up Attack Position to face-up Defense Position and destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card your opponent controls. If you activate this effect, this card's battle position cannot be change until the End of your next turn, except with a card effect. During each of your end phases, send the top 3 cards of you deck to the graveyard.

This is where the deck turns into a highly advanced “toolbox” deck. Lyla, although only run in 2’s on average, is probably one of the more important cards for the deck because Lyla is very, very good at drawing out Bottomless Trap Holes and Threatening Roars, which means it’s going to be very easy for the Lightsworn player to overextend or utilize Beckoning Light to bring back all of those Judgment Dragons and other Lightsworn Monsters and win later in the game.

Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
Light/Warrior/4/1600/1000
If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, return that monster to it’s owner’s Deck before damage calculation. During each of your End Phases, send the top 3 cards of your deck to your Graveyard.

Ehren, upon release, was looked down upon as being one of the more inferior Lightsworn monsters, but as of late has seen a massive spike in play because of another tier 1 deck, Zombies. Ehren is the absolute enemy of set monsters and “recruiter” monsters in general. Things like Mystic Tomato, Pyramid Turtle and Sangan are going to have a hard time getting their effects off with Ehren on the field bouncing them back to the deck all the time.

Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
Light/Fairy/4/1850/1300
Each time a card(s) is sent from your Deck to the Graveyard by the effect of a “Lightsworn” monster you control, except “Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior”, send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard. Then, draw 1 card for each “Lightsworn” monster sent to the Graveyard by this effect.

Garoth is essentially the linchpin of the deck. Aside from Judgment Dragon and Beckoning Light, he may be the most important card here. Garoth has a multitude of things that he can do. First off, Garoth works very well in conjunction with any other Lightsworn monster because, to be quite frank, he’s almost always going to net the Lightsworn player a draw or two. Garoth is also a nice discard target for Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner and Solar Recharge because Lumina can outright abuse Garoth after he hits the graveyard. If the Lightsworn player is wary of Bottomless Trap Hole and D. D. Crow, they can effectively draw and mill into an OTK with little to no effort by utilizing Garoth.

Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Light/Spellcaster/3/1000/1000
Once per turn, you can discard 1 card to Special Summon 1 level 4 or lower “Lightsworn” monster from your Graveyard. During each of your End Phases, send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.

Lumina’s main purpose in the deck at this point is to abuse Lyla, Garoth and to fill the graveyard with Necro Gardnas and Plaguespreader Zombie. Simple as that. Lumina can also provide an abundance of monsters to tribute for Celestia, Lightsworn Angel. It’s also going to present the Lightsworn player with several opportunities to drop a name into the Graveyard to meet Judgment Dragon‘s 4 name requirement, and that‘s when things will really go nuts.

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
Light/Beast/2/200/100
Flip: You can destroy 1 card on the field. Send the top 3 cards from of deck to the Graveyard.

Ryko has really been the most questionable Lightsworn monster over their extensive lifetime on the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! scene. After their initial release, Ryko was played in 2’s-3’s in every Lightsworn deck you could find, but with the advent of Stardust Dragon and DimensionDaD decks, Ryko was either being negated and rendered completely useless or costing the Lightsworn players playing Ryko several games because of Ryko’s tendency to just be downright slower than the rest of the deck. This article was written by Charlie Shand, don't steal it. Nowadays though, things have become a lot less Stardust-centric due to limitations on certain cards and new modifications to old decks that make them more consistent but less volatile to explode at a moment’s notice, and this has allowed Ryko to see a massive increase in play.

Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
Light/Fairy/5/2300/200
When you Tribute Summon this card by Tributing a “Lightsworn” monster, you can send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard to destroy up to 2 cards your opponent controls.

Celestia, affectionately referred to as Celestia the Broken Monarch, is essentially the ultimate tribute monster. By meeting a very simple requirement, the Lightsworn player can net a +1 in card advantage and contribute to the decks ultimate goal of summoning Judgment Dragon and attacking your opponent until they reach 0 life points by milling a whopping 4 cards. Note that her milling effect DOES NOT happen during the End Phase. This means that if you mill a Wulf or a Plaguespreader, you can special summon either one and have a 2100 beatstick for free or a level X Synchro monster before you even attack.

Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
Light/Beast-Warrior/3/1200/1800
"Lightsworn" monsters cannot be targeted by effects. During each of your End Phases, send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.

Aurkus can play quite a gigantic role against certain decks, and against other decks it can be completely useless. Aurkus can also shut down the Lightsworn player if the Lightsworn player trying to use Aurkus doesn’t play their cards right. By limiting the plays the Lightsworn player can make with Lumina, Celestia and Beckoning Light among other things, Aurkus also provides the Lightsworn player with a very reliable monster to protect their monsters from a multitude of effects that could otherwise be very detrimental to the deck.

Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
Light/Beast-Warrior/4/2100/300
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. When this card is sent from your Deck to the Graveyard, Special Summon it.

Wulf is the main card that nets the Lightsworn player it’s insane number of +1’s in card advantage. Being a part of a deck that entirely revolves itself around sending cards from the deck to the graveyard means that this card will more often than not have it’s effect go off, and that means a free 2100 body that becomes extraordinarily hard to kill with cards like Honest and Necro Gardna taken into consideration. Aside from being one more name for Judgment Dragon, when paired with Garoth, Wulf can create one of the single most beneficial moves in Yu-Gi-Oh! which involves you milling a Wulf with Garoth’s effect and then drawing a card without using any resources whatsoever.

Judgment Dragon
Light/Dragon/8/3000/2600
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by having 4 or more "Lightsworn" monsters with different names in your Graveyard. You can pay 1000 Life Points to destroy all other cards on the field. During each of your End Phases, send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.

Judgment Dragon, commonly referred to as JD, is really the main driving force behind Lightsworns’ success and their main boss monster as well. Not really much to say here because it’s quite obvious why this card is good. Having a card that can essentially negate all advantage whatsoever at the cost of a measly 1000 life points is certainly beneficial to any deck, but the fact that Judgment Dragon’s summoning condition is VERY easy to meet in the deck that it is meant for, and that it also contributes to Lightsworn’s milling theme, is just above and beyond what anyone could ask for in a support card.

Honest
Light/Fairy/4/1100/1900
During your Main Phase, you can return this card from the field to it’s owner’s hand. During either player’s Damage Step, when a face-up LIGHT monster you control battles, you can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard to have that monster gain ATK equal to the ATK of the opponent’s monster it is battling, until the End Phase.

Honest is Lightsworn’s most common source of damage, and oddly enough, monster removal. Honest gives any monster in the Lightsworn deck the ability to destroy any other monster in the game; aside from cards like Spirit Reaper and Marshmallon, as a result of battle, and do some potentially significant life point damage in the process. One of the more common OTK’s that Lightsworn decks employ is dropping several Honests on one monster for some ridiculous damage, usually in excess of 5000 life points. Any prior damage done to the Lightsworn player’s opponent could spell the end for them if they don’t have any form of counter play. Honest can also be used defensively if the Lightsworn player is hard-up for moves by being set in face-down Defense position, and it can be used or reset next turn by using it’s effect to return itself to your hand.

Charge of the Light Brigade
Normal Spell
Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard. Add 1 Level 4 or lower "Lightsworn" mosnter from your Deck to your hand.

Charge of the Light Brigade is one of, if not the best single support spell card in the game right now. Being able to mill 3 cards before being allowed to search a Lightsworn monster may seem detrimental to the effect but it really broadens the selection of viable cards to search for and can completely alter how this turn can play out. This article was written by Charlie Shand, don't steal it. A common example would be milling a Garoth/Lyla/Jain/Aurkus with the first effect and then searching a Lumina with the second effect. You’re essentially searching out two monsters here if you choose to use the effect in this manner, however the ability to add any Lightsworn monster besides Celestia to your hand from your deck is reason enough to play 3 of these.

Solar Recharge
Normal Spell
Discard 1 "Lightsworn" monster. Draw 2 cards, then send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.

Similar to Charge of the Light Brigade in the fill-your-graveyard-with-Lightsworn-monsters aspect, Solar Recharge is Lightsworn’s answer to cards like Destiny Draw and Trade-In, however Solar Recharge is much, much better. Not only does the Lightsworn player get to choose which Lightsworn monster they can put into their Graveyard, potentially adding a 4th name for Judgment Dragon, but they’re then allowed to draw 2 cards, and then mill 2 more cards. Now, unlike Charge of the Light Brigade, they’re not allowed to choose what theyput into their hand, but when they’ve already drawn and milled out half of their deck, the pickins are more than likely going to be pretty slim, and thus, it’s fairly safe to say that the Lightsworn player is going to draw something that’s either game-breaking or will lead to a game-breaking play.

Now don’t get me wrong, a Lightsworn deck isn’t solely comprised of the aforementioned cards. Beckoning Light is a very, very significant card in Lightsworn decks because it allows the Lightsworn player to use, reuse, and reuse again cards like Judgment Dragon and Honest for repeated assaults from massive monsters that make the deck much more difficult to contend with. It’s also got some synergy with two other very significant cards in a Lightsworn deck, Plaguespreader Zombie and Necro Gardna, which both operate from the graveyard. Plaguespreader Zombie is a card that every competitive player should be familiar with by now because of it’s effect that lets it special summon itself from the Graveyard and then allows it’s controller to special summon any Synchro monster. Lightsworn players utilize this card to special summon things like Black Rose Dragon, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary, and Goyo Guardian, to ensure that their Judgment Dragons and Luminas, among other things, will go off without a hitch and cause some major damage. Necro Gardna allows the Lightsworn player to pick and choose when to battle and essentially dictate the pace of the game as a whole. It also allows them to decide when they want to activate Honest or not, and it protects their Lightsworn monsters from battle so that they may tribute them for Celestia on the next turn.

Here is a basic skeleton of a pure, standard Lightsworn deck.

2 Judgment Dragon
3 Honest
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
1 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Beast
3 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel

3 Charge of the Light Brigade
3 Solar Recharge
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Brain Control

3 Beckoning Light
1 Trap Dustshoot


Some may inquire as to how Lightsworn decks, which focus on Special Summoning a ridiculous amount of monsters every turn, can stand next to decks that utilize cards like Royal Oppression to shut down the Special Summon engine that Lightsworns rely on. To be quite frank, they simply overpower them and outspeed them. This article was written by Charlie Shand, don't steal it. And while a deck that is built specifically to beat Lightsworn will obviously have the best chance to beat Lightsworn, it will still have a very hard time doing so because of Lightsworn’s ability to completely overwhelm anything that presents itself. The side deck is also a major contributor to Lightsworn’s success, including cards like Shiny Black “C” to halt any Synchro summoning, Dust Tornado and Breaker the Magical Warrior to stop any face-down spells or traps from hindering Lightsworn’s swarming ability.

Now, more recently, I’d say within the past 6 or so months, decks referred to as Twilight have been popping up everywhere. A Twilight deck is a deck that uses cards like Phantom of Chaos, Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon in a cohesion of strategies to improve upon the several inconsistencies that Lightsworn decks couldn’t seem to get past before.

Here is Vincent Ralambomiadana’s deck, the deck that won Shonen Jump Championship Columbus. This deck will set the standard for almost all Twilight decks in the future.

3 Tragoedia
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Dark Armed Dragon
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
2 Judgment Dragon
2 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
3 Honest
2 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast

3 Charge of the Light Brigade
3 Solar Recharge
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reincarnation

2 Beckoning Light

The advent of these Twilight decks provided Lightsworn with their first ever Shonen Jump Championship win at Shonen Jump Championship Austin, and then another consecutive win at Shonen Jump Championship Columbus. This just goes to show that the juggernaut that is Lightsworn isn’t going anywhere but up, and that it is evolving to suit anything that the metagame can throw at it.

[The Rock]

Nice, I'd personally format the text of the cards in italics and/or a smaller font so others will not get confused / blurred vision due to wall text. Other than that good job.

This post has been edited by House: 08 January 2010 - 10:58 AM

[Owner of DMGs]

Great Read go LS!!!!!!

[Fresh]

Good read.

[Tsunayoshi]

Nice read and had to chuckle at the plagiarism protection.

[DSS]

Very well done

[Maximum Charles]

Thanks.

Someone actually negged me for this?

[Shadow]

Should mention the Kristya variant. It's solid in the right hands (which aren't mine)

[drewsliphay]

dont steal it.

good read.

[Maximum Charles]

Shadow, on 09 January 2010 - 07:59 PM, said:

Should mention the Kristya variant. It's solid in the right hands (which aren't mine)

Oh I left a LOT out. I could have gone probably 6-7 more pages (This was 7 in word. lol) but I was writing this for a website and I didn't want it to be ridiculously long.

[Saruno]

Very Good Article especially out of all the Tier 1 archetypes that came, Lightlords are my favorite and probably my favorite theme besides Six Samurai.

I might come back to yugioh if I can get my funds together and this will most likely be the theme I will play (well completing with plants lol).

[Maximum Charles]

They're cheap nowadays David.

[Saruno]

Yeah I saw but overall I dont have money at all to spend on cards. College breaks me lol

[Motep-Dragon]

Great read. And now they have evolved even further with Kristya.

[DGF169]

Great read provided great insight on lightsworns.

[Copy]

Great Read. Nice job charlie.

[Rejean Aizen Sosuke]

Quote

The advent of these Twilight decks provided Lightsworn with their first ever Shonen Jump Championship win at Shonen Jump Championship Austin, and then another consecutive win at Shonen Jump Championship Columbus. This just goes to show that the juggernaut that is Lightsworn isn’t going anywhere but up, and that it is evolving to suit anything that the metagame can throw at it.

As of march first 2010 the metagame threw a low blow at lightsworns effectively bring said juggernaut to its knees
lol

This post has been edited by Rad: 15 March 2010 - 07:47 AM