Red-Eyes Guide
Red-eyes is a control-oriented deck that focuses on controlling the board with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon by sending equip cards to the graveyard to negate any targeting effects from your opponent. Its latest support was from the Return Of The Red Eyes structure deck released in May 2019, including very strong cards like Red-Eyes Fusion and Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning , as well as the Blazing Rose box that contains Black Metal Dragon which is used both as an equip card to your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon and a searcher for any Red-Eyes card.
- Sealed Tombs: This is the preferred skill for Red-Eyes in the current meta as it stops the tempo of a lot of decks such as Darklords helping u gain board advantage on the following turn and potentially OTKing them turn 3, it’s also powerful vs Invoked decks as it stops Aleister the Invoker from being able to banish materials from the graveyard.
Red-Eyes Slash Dragon (3x):
The boss monster of the deck. It’s the best target we have for Red-Eyes Fusion at the moment and its effect is really strong at negating the targeting from most meta decks right now.
Red-Eyes Fusion (3x):
This is your key card to summoning your boss monster Red-Eyes Slash Dragon and It’s the main reason this deck became viable again. It has a drawback that you can’t normal summon the turn you use it (but you can still set) so you should remember this effect while playing this deck.
Red-Eyes Insight (2-3x):
One of the older Red-Eyes support cards we got during the Super Joey event over Two years ago, but can still be obtained through tickets. It allows you to search any Red-Eyes spell/trap by sending a Red-Eyes monster to the grave. It’s mainly used to send a Red-Eyes Wyvern to the grave then search out a Red-Eyes Fusion
Black Metal Dragon (2-3x):
This is a new support card that we received from the “Blazing Rose” box. It gives the deck a very powerful turn 1 by making your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon 3,400 attack bigger than any other boss monster while also giving your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon the ability to negate targeting cards. It also has another strong effect to search any Red-Eyes card when it’s sent from the field to the graveyard so if Red-Eyes Slash Dragon dies it can search out another fusion.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2x):
The main reason for using this card is just to be fodder for Red-Eyes Fusion so you can summon your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, you can also summon it with Return of the Red-Eyes.
Power of the Guardians(3x):
Power Of The Guardians is very strong with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon as it provides an attack/defense boost to get over boss monsters as well as giving you protection from destruction either by battle or card effect from cards such as Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower and Treacherous Trap Hole
A/D Changer (1x):
A/D Changer can be really versatile as you can use it to switch your opponent’s monster to defense like Koa’ki Meiru Maximus to kill it with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and can also be used to flip your opponent’s defense monster face-up to do a lot of damage and put pressure on your opponent.
D.D. Warrior (0-1x):
This card is very similar to D.D. Assailant except it banishes through battle in general, it can be very good against Subterrors as they are kept in defense where D.D. Assailant can’t banish them.
D.D. Assailant (0-2x):
D.D. Assailant is similar to D.D. Warrior except it needs to be destroyed by battle to activate, it’s not as relevant as most of the meta decks usually end their turn 1 with their main boss monster in defense stopping you from banishing it.
Red-Eyes Retro Dragon (0-1x):
This card can be really strong at recovering your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon if it gets destroyed. It can also be fodder for Red-Eyes Insight in case you already sent a Red-Eyes Wyvern to the grave and need to search out a fusion.
Red-Eyes Wyvern (1x):
A good Red-Eyes monster that helps your recovery in case your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon is destroyed. It’s your main target to send with Red-Eyes Insight to help you re summon your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon
Cosmic Cyclone:
Forbidden Chalice:
Forbidden Chalice is really helpful for Red-Eyes in the current meta as it stops Aleister the Invoker from searching Invocation as well as negating Elementsaber Molehu from flipping your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon facedown before you get to equip cards to it.
Necrovalley:
Necrovalley shuts down a lot of graveyard heavy decks such as Darklords, Crystrons, and it can be very useful against Invoked decks. If you can get an equipped Red-Eyes Slash Dragon before activating Necrovalley you can protect it from removal cards like Cosmic Cyclone.
Offerings to the Doomed:
Offerings to the Doomed is a great disruption card against multiple meta decks like blackwings and Darklords.it also allows you to OTK crystrons under Sealed Tombs if you have a fusion with a D.D. Warrior or Red-Eyes Wyvern in hand.
Mage Power:
Another strong equip as an alternative to Power of the Guardians. It helps the deck OTK as a Red-Eyes Slash Dragon equipped with a warrior and Mage Power has exactly 4000 attack.
Red-Eyes Spirit:
A strong revival card that special summons any Red-Eyes monster from the grave that can be searched through Red-Eyes Insight. It can bring your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon back similar to Red-Eyes Retro Dragon in case it gets destroyed.
Treacherous Trap Hole:
Another semi-limited card that can win duels on its own. You have to remember you can’t use this when you have other traps in the grave so don’t fill your deck with traps if you want to use this card.
Cameraclops:
If you’re fighting an Ishizu, you should always activate Sealed Tombs if you’re going first as most of them would be blackwing decks that can force your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon negate with Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower then revive it with Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe to OTK.
If you feel a Cosmic Cyclone delay from your opponent (hour glass would light up when activating Red-Eyes Fusion turn 2) you should equip Black Metal Dragon first before Power of the Guardians. And if you’re vs Elementsabers with turn 1 Elementsaber Molehu it’s better to activate Power of the Guardians first as you can negate him right away if he tries to flip your slash down, while Black Metal Dragon would just get sent to the graveyard without resolving its effect. Another thing is using your A/D Changer optimally; if you have a Power of the Guardians (and your opponent doesn’t have any backrow) it’s better to keep A/D Changer in the graveyard over equipping it to use it at a later point to flip a small monster up and go for game by attacking it, or simply to change big monster threats to defense such as Assault Blackwing - Chidori the Rain Sprinkling.
A small final tip is that you can still set monsters the turn you use Red-Eyes Fusion, so you can set a Black Metal Dragon then activate Treacherous Trap Hole on your monster and theirs to search out a Red-Eyes Fusion to OTK turn 3. this comes up often vs decks like crystrons and plays around Share the Pain which some crystron decks are using.
Blackwings
This matchup is very coin-flip reliant where the player going second is likely to win. However you have some tools to survive by activating Sealed Tombs turn 1 and disruptive backrow like Treacherous Trap Hole and Offerings to the Doomed. If you have a turn 1 Red-Eyes Slash Dragon with Power of the Guardians you should summon it in defense turn 1 otherwise Assault Blackwing - Chidori the Rain Sparkling with multiple Blackwing Gale the Whirlwind would do over 4000 damage and kill you.
Side Deck/Tech Choices:
Crystrons
Crystrons are very annoying for this deck because they can easily Black Rose Dragon your equips then follow up with another synchro play to kill your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. Samurai Destroyer is also very annoying when paired with Crystron Ametrix to switch your slash into defense, as he stops Power of the Guardians from gaining counters when attacking into it. The key to winning this matchup is activating Sealed Tombs and destroying their field with either Offerings to the Doomed or Treacherous Trap Hole then OTKing on the following turn. Remember that Crystron Impact protects their crystron monsters from targeting cards if it’s in the graveyard so don’t try to pop them unless they’re under Sealed Tombs.
Side Deck/Tech Choices:
Darklords
Darklords is one of the best matchups for Red-Eyes due to Sealed Tombs slowing them down a lot and equipped Red-Eyes Slash Dragon being bigger than any Darklord monster as well as being able to negate Darklord Desire. D.D. Warrior is also very good in this matchup to force out The Sanctified Darklord or getting rid of Darklord Superbia to stop their loop of resummoning their whole board. If darklords have a Banishment of The Darklords in their graveyard it’s better to wait for them to try to copy it then chain Treacherous Trap Hole or Offerings to the Doomed on their monster otherwise they’d search Darklord Tezcatlipoca and protect themselves, but that play is mainly used if you’ve used Sealed Tombs and able to OTK on the following turn or get them under 1000 lifepoints. Otherwise it’s better to hold on to the backrow until the right moment when they can’t come back after it or if they negate your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon then tribute it for Darklord Desire.
Side Deck/Tech Choices:
Invoked
There are multiple invoked variants running around so I’ll just separate each one in this section. overall most invoked decks are favored for red eyes due to Power of the Guardians making Red-Eyes Slash Dragon annoying to handle as well as Forbidden Chalice being a very strong card against Aleister the Invoker. Invoked ElementSabers: It’s better to save Treacherous Trap Hole in this matchup for Invoked Purgatrio or Invoked Magellanica if possible and not on Elementsaber Molehu unless you didn’t open any equips. It’s also important to time your Sealed Tombs correctly. If you don’t have any protective backrow or your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon isn’t equipped by Power of the Guardians when going second you should activate sealed tombs to stop any fusion through Invocation play as they can’t banish materials from their graveyard.
Invoked Magician Girls: This matchup can be rather annoying because of Silent Magician negating your Red-Eyes Fusion but Forbidden Chalice slightly helps with that. A few things to note: Berry Magician Girl second effect to special summon other magician girls would miss timing if you chain other cards to it like Treacherous Trap Hole or Offerings to the Doomed on her searching effect. Another thing is if you’re going to attack into Chocolate Magician Girl when there are other spellcasters in the graveyard activate Sealed Tombs first so it’s unable to special summon other spellcasters and halve Slash’s attack or just use Treacherous Trap Hole on her without getting halved.
Invoked Roids: This new invoked variant starting being popular due to the release of Kiteroid from the tour guide bingo event, roids struggle a lot vs an equipped Power of the Guardians onto your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon as their only out to it is double Cosmic Cyclone or multiple Concentrating Current + Aleister the Invoker boost. A general tip is to just keep that 1 slash on board vs them with any form of backrow set until you’ve taken care of at least 1 of their Kiteroid then activate Sealed Tombs and summon the second Red-Eyes Slash Dragon to go for game. Similarly to the invoked e-saber matchup if you don’t have any equips going second you should activate Sealed Tombs defensively.
A final note vs invoked decks in general is if they’re under Sealed Tombs and you chain Treacherous Trap Hole to Invocation on their monsters the fusion would be canceled and invocation would just be sent to the graveyard.
Side Deck/Tech Choices:
Ritual Beasts:
This matchup is overall favored for ritual beasts if played correctly but depends on the techs they’re playing, the most popular build right now uses Sealed Tombs with tech cards like Lava Golem, Herald of the Abyss, and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. It’s not worth it playing around lava as they’d just draw into Shadow-Imprisoning mirror or Herald of the Abyss first and then bounce your Slash with Spiritual Beast Pettlephin, so just summon 2 Red Eyes Slash Dragon ASAP and grind them out before they can draw their outs. Another thing to note when going first is to use Treacherous Trap Hole or Offerings to the Doomed on their Ritual Beast Tamer Elder and Spiritual Beast Cannahawk then activate Sealed Tombs on the following turn to OTK with another monster or a second Red-Eyes Slash Dragon.
Side Deck/Tech Choices:
Red-eyes is a very strong deck with one of the best boss monsters we have right now, and can be very oppressive once it gets going with all the negation, revival and destruction cards. It has a big weakness to battle traps so backrow hate is crucial for this deck to have in certain matchups. Overall, this deck can still get a lot of good support cards to boost its strength even more.
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