Lunalight was released in Judgement Force in February 2020. Lunalight finds its place in Duel Links as an aggressive OTK-centric deck. Lunalight decks revolve around its monsters gaining effects when sent to the graveyard by card effect to gain card advantage, build board presence, recur resources and much more. Additionally, Lunalight monsters have secondary effects in order to facilitate fusion summons. These effects together make Lunalight a powerful fusion deck that can abuse its engine to consistently OTK in Duel Links. The purpose of this article is to introduce the Lunalight archetype to the DLM community, offer insight on how the cards synergize with one another, and provide help and tips to build competent decks for the meta.

Hello! My name is Gregulator and I’m the author of the Lunalight guide on DLM and previously wrote the Ancient Gear Guide. I irregularly participate in tournaments but my achievements include topping events such as the MCS, multiple Meta Weeklies, other community events, and anytime tournament wins. I actively play in Clan Wars for TCG Clan. I find the aggressive playstyle of Lunalight to be refreshing and exciting and it’s with great joy to share my perspective and to encourage other players to play Lunalight.

Hi, I’m Gnurrgard. I live in Germany and have been playing card games basically since my brother bought the Starter Deck Yugi when the game was released here. I’ve had some success as a deckbuilder in both Gwent and Duel Links, most notably finding the Fortune Lady combo with my friend DoBa. There’s a running gag in my clan that I only show up when there’s a new box. I really enjoy figuring out new decks and combos and Lunalight immediately caught my eye as an aggressive deck with cool interactions.

Hello, my name is Terry, also known as Dulling, also known as that guy who will say “Pepega” out loud very often. My main accomplishments include owning a Pepega shirt, somehow maintaining Moderator status for well over a year now, and my inability to read cards while playing the game. My real accomplishments include writing multiple well-received guides, innovating several decks, and being named Terry. I’m good at theoretical gameplay, which helps me effectively analyze matchups and come up with counter-strategies. Being one of the many people who worked on the original Fur Hire guide, this deck immediately caught my eye, and I decided to once again embrace my inner furry and help out with this guide as well.

This section will cover the relevant Lunalight core, tech cards, and supplemental engines the deck uses. It will not discuss in any length cards

Core Lunalight Cards

The Lunalight core consists of two extra deck boss monsters and multiple level four and lower Lunalight main deck monsters. The boss monsters serve as the win conditions for the deck while the main deck monsters operate as a means for summoning the boss monsters, generating card advantage, building board presence, and offering recursion. Below is a summary of the core Lunalight lineup and how these monsters contribute to the deck.

• Lunalight Sabre Dancer is one of the two primary boss monsters. A veritable tank, this card is very difficult for most decks to out due to its overwhelming statline and immunity to opposing targeting effects. While its GY effect doesn’t come up too often, its existence is enough, forcing opponents to forever play around it should it ever be live.
• Lunalight Cat Dancer is the second primary boss monster. Oppressive in its own right, this card pairs extremely well with Lunalight Crimson Fox, threatening lethal plus a negate against most monsters left carelessly in attack mode. This, in addition to being immune to battle destruction, makes it a terrifying card that can catch many players off-guard with ease.
• Lunalight Yellow Marten is one of the two key consistency pieces. Its search effect allows for easy access to the deck’s boss monsters, and its GY effect, which returns it to the field, creates more advantage to be directed towards summoning the boss monsters.
• Lunalight Emerald Bird is the second key consistency piece, and is the main engine’s primary summon. Bird’s on-summon effect helps thin the deck, and pairs really well with Yellow Marten, allowing for easy access to Fusion monsters and generates significant card advantage. (More on this under Tips & Combos)
• Lunalight Crimson Fox is the card that enables most of this deck’s aggressive plays. Both of its effects are strong, and excel at punishing the opponent for playing aggressively with no real protection or follow-up. This is a card that opponents must always keep in mind when making plays, and failing to do so will often result in a swift defeat.
• Lunalight White Rabbit is the deck’s secondary normal summon. On summon, it special summons a Lunalight monster from the graveyard in defense position. Its ignition effect is a Hey, Trunade!-like effect as it returns the opponent’s spells and traps to the hand up to the number of other Lunalight monsters the player controls. Its effect holds values in two key aspects. First it offers the deck recovery for follow-up. Secondly, Rabbit’s trunade like effect bounces certain outs and side deck cards, such as Mirror Wall or Wall of Disruption or baits annoying backrow, such as Floodgate Trap Hole, in order to safely summon Lunalight Sabre Dancer.
• Lunalight Fusion is the core fusion spell of the deck. Its bonus effect allows the player to use a Lunalight monster from the extra deck or main deck as a fusion material if the opponent controls a monster special summoned from the extra deck. This effect allows the player to access a toolbox of graveyard effects that are appropriate depending on the board while preserving card advantage. It’s a key method of accessing Lunalight Sabre Dancer, both in terms of assisting in its summon and getting it into the graveyard to use its effect the following turn. Do note that Lunalight Fusion can only be activated once per turn.

Fusion Recycling Plant Variant

In response to increased backrow and Lunalight hate seen in multiple meta decks, Fusion Recycling Plant emerged as one of the most successful tournament versions of the deck. Fusion Recycling Plant discards a card as cost to search Polymerization from the deck or add from the graveyard. This effect matters for two reasons. Firstly and most obvious, the deck benefits from the addition of Polymerization. With the opportunity to fusion multiple monsters per turn, the deck can play through disruption caused by Floodgate Trap Hole or Magician Navigation. Secondly and most importantly, Plant enables the player to maximize value of Lunalight White Rabbit. Rabbit’s effect while strong was seen as weak due to lack of adequate graveyard setup. Plant’s inclusion in the deck not only enables access to more fusion spells, but creates a powerful turn one play of normal summoning Rabbit, bouncing backrow or baiting a Floodgate Trap Hole before fusion summoning. In the end phase, Plant returns one fusion material to the hand from the graveyard, which is helpful in maintaining card advantage and

Common Tech Choices

With room for three to five techs; Lunalight decks have room for a select few tech choices. Cards such as World Legacy Clash, Forbidden Lance, and Fiendish Chain offer a “protect the castle”-esque strategy to ensure win conditions are preserved and not disrupted by backrow. Hey, Trunade! and Cosmic Cyclone help deal with backrow. Cosmic Cyclone is often used in order to remove problematic cards such as Non-Fusion Area, Dark Magical Circle, Necrovalley, and Palace of the Elemental Lords. Trunade is a blowout card against decks such as Cyber Dragons. Sphere Kuriboh and Kiteroid are useful protection cards when going first as it’s extremely difficult for most decks to OTK through Grit and one of these. Similarly, Fiendish Chain and Treacherous Trap Hole offer protection for slower versions of the deck. TTH receives special mention as it can clear monsters in defense position to enable an OTK while Fiendish Chain is disruption that leaves monsters in attack position to enable Cat Dancer OTKs on the following turn. Dark World Dealings is a consistency card that digs for combo pieces and discards cards by effect, which triggers Lunalight graveyard effects.

As of March 2020, these are the most common tech choices used in Lunalight cards. As the meta progresses and future cards and skills are released, the most appropriate techs will change. For the most popular and up to date tech choices, please reference the Lunalight Breakdown.

Supplemental Neos Engine

The Neos Engine is often incorporated as a supplemental package, used to stabilize the board of Lunalight decks early in the game. Neos Fusion sends Elemental HERO Neos and any level four or lower effect monster from the deck to the graveyard to special summon Elemental HERO Brave Neos. Neos Fusion serves two main purposes, as an extender or an alternate starter. In the early game, Neos Fusion can send Lunalight Yellow Marten to the graveyard in order to search Lunalight Fusion, a follow-up for the next turn. Neos Fusion can also be used aggressively by sending Lunalight Crimson Fox to activate its effect to change an opponent’s monster’s ATK to 0, enabling a double attacking Lunalight Cat Dancer to swing over it twice for lethal. The synergy Neos Fusion provides early makes it difficult to lose to an immediate OTK and opens additional pathways to victory later in the game.

Additionally, Keeper of Dragon Magic is also used in some Lunalight Neos hybrids. While Keeper of Dragon Magic discards for cost (which does NOT trigger Lunalight effects), its effect can search Lunalight Fusion or Neos Fusion which adds utility and versatility to the deck.

Supplemental Invoked Engine

Other Lunalight Cards

The following cards see no usage in Lunalight decks and will be mentioned briefly. Lunalight Purple Butterfly can be discarded to boost a monster by 1000 attack until the end of the turn. It would see more play if it was a quick effect but it is not. Butterfly can also be banished from the graveyard to special summon a monster from the hand, which may be considered handy on occasion. Lunalight Reincarnation Dance allows the player to search up to two Lunalight monsters from the deck to graveyard when a monster is destroyed by battle or card effect. While the searching ability is appreciated, the majority of Lunalight decks do not use backrow and oftentimes the card will be removed before it can resolve. If searched, the play is essentially telegraphed to the opponent, giving the opportunity to play around Reincarnation Dance. This card may see use in slower versions of the deck with some back row but it is not advised.

It is worth mentioning some unreleased Lunalight cards that may increase the consistency or powerlevel of the deck. These cards include:Lunalight Kaleido Chick, Lunalight Blue Cat, Lunalight Panther Dancer, Lunalight Leo Dancer, Luna Light Perfume, and Lunalight Serenade Dance. Unless the Pendulum mechanic is added to Duel Links, it is not expected to receive Lunalight Black Sheep), Lunalight Wolf and Lunalight Tiger in any future support.

Grit

Grit has proven itself to be the dominant skill used in Lunalight decks. Similar in nature to Koa’ki Meiru, Lunalights are an aggressive OTK-centric strategy. When going first, Lunalight decks may lose out on resolving key effects if performing a turn one fusion summon. Grit allows the player to safely pass as very few decks are able to OTK through Grit with Blackwings, Blue Eyes, and Cyber Dragon as exceptions. When coupled with cards like Sphere Kuriboh or Kiteroid, Grit becomes a tool that can pressure the opponent for playing aggressively. Grit is least useful versus control decks but still warrants use for its overall synergy with the deck and lack of other useful skills.

Generic Skill Discussion

Lunalights do not need any specific skill to function as a deck. This positive attribute allows Lunalight decks to abuse a multitude of skills that are good in the meta when not using Grit or enables certain skills to be sided in tournament play. The best example is No Mortal Can Resist. NMCR has the benefit of aiding Lunalights in one of its most difficult matchups, Crystrons. Additionally, the reliance of graveyard-centric decks in the meta like Shiranui, Invoked, and other decks make the use of NMCR great when paired with Cosmic Cyclone. See You Later! has great synergy in Neos and Invoked builds as it allows the player to return cards like Keeper of Dragon Magic back to the hand to free up space on the board for Lunalight Cat Dancer plays. Additionally, SYL can be used to return a Lunalight Yellow Marten to the hand after it uses its effect, essentially preventing it from being banished in a pinch. Lastly, Master of Fusion can be used to fusion summon additional Lunalight monsters and is easily activatable when using Cosmic Cyclone

The authors recognize other skills may be used. As stated earlier, Lunalights function independently from character skill so if one chooses to use other skills that is okay! Lunalights have future potential to adapt their skill to suit their needs in the meta.

The following combos are performed with the necessary materials required in hand or drawn by card effect. As a reminder, if the opponent controls a monster special summoned from the extra deck, Lunalight Fusion enables the player to use a material from the main or extra deck. Keep this in mind when performing combos.

Standard Cat Dancer Combo

Replay

1. Normal Summon Lunalight Emerald Bird and use its effect to discard Lunalight Yellow Marten.
2. Use Lunalight Yellow Marten’s effect to add Lunalight Fusion from deck to hand.
3. Use Lunalight Yellow Marten’s effect in the graveyard to bounce Emerald Bird to the hand and special summon Marten from the grave.
4. Use Lunalight Fusion to summon an appropriate Lunalight fusion monster. If the opponent controls a monster special summoned from the Extra Deck, one fusion material can be used from the extra or main deck for the summon.
5. Lunalight Emerald Bird’s graveyard effect will trigger, activate it depending on what Lunalight fusion was summoned.
   • If summoning Lunalight Cat Dancer, use Emerald Bird’s effect to Special Summon back Yellow Marten, then activate Cat Dancer’s effect to tribute off Marten to attack all opposing monsters twice.
   • If summoning Lunalight Sabre Dancer, determine if Marten is needed on the field, since removing it from the banish pile will decrease Sabre Dancer’s attack by 200. A good example of where this threshold is important is facing Dark Magicians, who sometimes run Silent Magician LV 8 and also versus Invoked Purgatrio boosted by Aleister the Invoker if Sabre Dancer is on the field by itself (3600 vs 3500).

Tips:

• Lunalight Cat Dancer and Lunalight Crimson Fox threatens 5000 damage against any applicable attack position monster. This is exactly the LP an opponent will have, should Lunalight Crimson Fox be used to negate. Always keep this in mind when evaluating the game state.
• When fusion summoning a monster, the following chain link is dictated by which materials were sent to the graveyard first. This means that the first card selected to be sent will activate as Chain Link 1, the second one selected will be Chain Link 2, and so forth. Use this to chain block cards like Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon, Crystron Impact, Dark Cavalry, and others. It’s useful to send the material with the most expendable effect last to avoid negations by Divine Wrath or Ultimate Providence.
• Lunalight White Rabbit can revive Lunalight Cat Dancer from the graveyard but cannot revive Lunalight Sabre Dancer. Sabre Dancer can only be fusion summoned.

Thunder Dragon

Thunder Dragon is the top combo deck of the format and boasts multiple threats against Lunalights. Before outlining the threats and countermeasures, it is stressed the best skill is Grit. In conjunction with hand protection such as Sphere Kuriboh or Kiteroid, Grit allows the player to protect themselves from the multiple destruction and disruption Thunder Dragon possesses without committing many resources into a fusion. Thunder Dragon have the option to play defensively by using Thunder Dragonroar as a set floater for a defensive turn 1 and to bait the Lunalight player into triggering Baggy Sleeves.

• Many Thunder Dragon decks are equipped with non-targeting destruction including Chaos Dragon Levianeer, Black Rose Dragon, and Shiranui Squiresage. Samurai Destroyer can out a Lunalight Cat Dancer and can allow the TD player to target a Lunalight Sabre Dancer with a targeting effect on attack declaration.
• When paired with protection, the best course of action is to attempt a Cat Dancer OTK. Many Thunder Dragon boards are reliant on synchro monsters, allowing the player to use Lunalight Crimson Fox from the deck.
• The Invoked variant of the deck matches up strongly against Thunder Dragons, as Invoked Caliga effectively shuts down Thunder Dragons from advancing the gamestate in any meaningful way.
• Fusion Recycling Plant variants struggle most against Thunder Dragons. Lunalight White Rabbit has very little usage outside of fetching materials from the graveyard (which Fusion Recycling Plant already does).

Blue Eyes

Blue Eyes emerged as a top tier meta strategy and is considered the strongest matchup for Lunalights. Blue Eyes decks have no archetype out to Lunalight Sabre Dancer and rely on outside tech cards such as Special Hurricane or Super Rush Headlong to out. Blue Eyes also have multiple synchro monsters on the field and give opportunity to assist Lunalights in fusion summoning by Lunalight Fusion’s effect. Again, Grit with Sphere Kuriboh often places Blue Eyes in a bind by forcing overextending enabling either a Cat Dancer OTK or a Sabre Dancer and potentially both with Fusion Recycling Plant.

• Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon’s tag out effect and graveyard negation can be a nuisance to Lunalight decks. Spirit Dragon negates needed effects such as Lunalight Yellow Marten’s special summon effect and both Lunalight Crimson Fox effects. Spirit Dragon can be chain blocked by ordering the fusion materials in order of most needed to resolve to least needed. This is accomplished by selecting the materials in order of most to least important when resolving Lunalight Fusion.
• Blue Eyes backrow cards may be a nuisance prior to summoning Sabre Dancer. Karma Cut, Raigeki Break, and Divine Wrath can disrupt while Floodgate Trap Hole can flip down Sabre Dancer. Lastly Sphere Kuriboh may bait a Sabre Dancer to attack, allowing most Blue-Eyes monsters to successfully swing over it.

Darklords

• Darklords often win by exhausting the opposing player’s resources with highly effective recursion, or by playing aggressively and immediately securing the win.
• This recursion, coupled with Darklord Sanctified, which does not target and can remove the targeting protection from Lunalight Sabre Dancer, makes it a difficult matchup for this deck. The Invoked engine and/or backrow cards such as Fiendish Chain are this deck’s best chance at beating Darklords.

Dark Magician

Dark Magician relies on generating massive card advantage by pairing Dark Magical Circle and Magician Navigation. This oppressive combo cannot easily out Lunalight Sabre Dancer, therefore DM must rely on tech cards such as Wall of Disruption, Mirror Wall, or Sphere Kuriboh to out it. Due to this, Lunalight White Rabbit shines in this matchup, as it is a source of soft backrow removal that cannot be negated by Magician Navigation since it is a monster.

Magician’s Rod, one of DM’s key consistency pieces, can be taken advantage of with the Lunalight Cat Dancer combo if Lunalight Crimson Fox is in graveyard to protect against Dark Magical Circle.

There are two important interactions in this matchup that should be noted. The first features Lunalight Fusion and Magician Navigation. If Navigation is used to negate Lunalight Fusion an additional copy of Lunalight Fusion cannot be used that turn. This is because Magician Navigation negates the effect and not the activation. Lunalight Fusion can only be activated once per turn. This means at resolution, Lunalight Fusion activates (using up the once per turn) but its effect is negated. The second interaction is Dark Magician’s ability to chain block Lunalight Crimson Fox’s effect with a Magician’s Rod in GY. Should an opponent use Dark Magical Circle’s banishing effect, they would be able to immediately chain Magician’s Rod’s effect, effectively closing the window of activation for Crimson Fox to activate and negate Circle.

Cyber Dragon

• An extremely difficult matchup, as this deck is unable to effectively protect against their main means of removal, Cybernetic Overflow, as well as their secondary board control card, Floodgate Trap Hole.
• Forbidden Lance, Cosmic Cyclone, and Hey, Trunade! are relevant tech options to protect against this devastating card.
• The Neos engine is the most useful against Cyber Dragons, as Cydra somewhat struggles to deal with Elemental HERO Brave Neos protected by Neos Fusion.

Crystron

• A difficult matchup, Crystron Ametrix, which can be summoned using Crystron Citree, can prevent a Lunalight Cat Dancer board wipe.
• Crystron Impact in conjunction with Crystron Ametrix can out Lunalight Sabre Dancer.
• Cat Dancer struggles most against Samurai Destroyer while Lunalight Sabre Dancer strugglers versus Crystron Ametrix into Crystron Quariongandrax or Black Rose Dragon. Many Crystron use backrow such as Crystron Impact and World Legacy Clash to make OTKs difficult.
• Backrow is essential, Fiendish Chain, Floodgate Trap Hole, and Treacherous Trap Hole can assist in picking apart or preventing Crystron from playing the game. Invoked Caliga is also very useful in this matchup, as it restricts their plays in such a way that they can rarely make aggressive pushes.
• Grit variants rely on hand protection like Sphere Kuriboh and Kiteroid. These cards together with Grit can force impatient Crystron players to overextend and/or clog the board, which leaves a window open for a Lunalight Cat Dancer OTK.
• In order to successfully resolve a Lunalight Crimson Fox effect against Crystron Impact, it’s paramount to chain block Impact by using Crimson Fox as the first material for the fusion summon followed by either Marten or Bird. SEGOC will set up Chain Link 1 Fox, Chain Link 2 Marten/Bird and Crystron Impact will miss its activation window, resulting in a successful resolution of Fox.
• Before committing to an OTK, examine whether Crystron Rion’s effect is live. Rion with banished Level 3 monsters result in Powered Inzektron and shuts off all battle damage for the turn.
• No Mortal Can Resist is also effective against Crystrons, as it invalidates all previous GY setup they had established beforehand.

Shiranui

• It is advised to play aggressively versus Shiranui, such that they lose before they are able to summon Shiranui Sunsaga. Also, be wary of Shiranui Samurai, as it can also out Lunalight Sabre Dancer.
• Their primary disruption cards (primarily Shiranui Spiritmaster) target, so always try to have a Crimson Fox in GY should Cat Dancer be on the field.
• Do note that should an opponent banish Shiranui Spiritmaster followed by any Shiranui monster that will be able to activate its effect using Burgeoning Whirlflame, they will effectively chain block Crimson Fox, preventing the negation and freely destroying their target.

Elementsabers

• Their main control card, Elementsaber Molehu, cannot target Lunalight Sabre Dancer, making the latter very effective in this matchup. Do be wary of Floodgate Trap Hole, however, which is commonly used as well.
• Additionally, while not as common, be somewhat wary of battle traps such as Wall of Disruption and Mirror Wall. Lunalight White Rabbit excels at removing these traps from the field in addition to absorbing Floodgate Trap Hole. When coupled with Fusion Recycling Plant, Rabbit + Marten bouncing presents a continuous Hey, Trunade!-like loop that applies considerable pressure.
• Invoked Purgatrio presents a veritable threat to this deck, and always try to play around automatically losing to this card should it be possible. This can be done by avoiding committing too many monsters to the field at once.

For the most up to date decklists, please review the Lunalight Breakdown.

Sample Fusion Recycling Plant Variant

Grit

Sample Lunalight-Neos Variant

Grit

Sample Invoked Hybrid

See You Later!

Lunalights are an explosive and aggressive deck. Lunalights have potential to be meta mainstays for the foreseeable future. Lunalights are expected to warp the meta by forcing other decks to adapt non targeting destruction or banishing. Lunalights have a strong start with their first wave of support. At the time of this guide’s writing (March 4th 2020), the clear cut optimal Lunalight build has yet to be revealed, leaving plenty of room for creativity, innovation, and deck building. The hope is this guide has offered a strong overview to introduce the concept of Lunalights and plant seeds for future meta defining builds to come to fruition.

• Gregulator would like to thank RandomPl0x for being a supportive internet e-girlfriend. Without her, 76% of DLM content would suck so the community should be thanking her.
• Konami’s Furry Agenda, for pushing this archetype onto us.
• To the TPC, for providing moral support.
• To the Fatal Five gang, for making this deck look like a meme and keeping us under the radar.
• To Gia Joestar, for being the one who actually runs the Discord.
• To Greg, for also being Gia. Thanks Gia.
• To the readers, for joining us on our furry crusade!

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