Resonators Guide
The Resonator archetype was played by Jack Atlas, the main rival of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds. The archetype consists primarily of Main Deck fiend monsters and DARK Dragon-Type synchros for the Extra Deck. While many of the cards within this archetype have been in Duel links for a while, the additions of new cards like Crimson Resonator and Resonator Call from the King of Vermilion Mini-Box, and the introduction of the new skill Demon’s Resonance, has sprung the deck into competitive viability.
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Demon’s Resonance
This skill is essential to the Resonator strategy. Once per turn and twice per Duel, this skill allows you to reveal a resonator in your hand and then return any card from your hand to the deck to add a level 4 or lower fiend type monster from your deck. You can’t activate the effects of the added card or cards with that name for the rest of that turn. Note that the in-game description is inaccurate, as it states the restriction is for the entire turn, but it only applies after activating the skill. This means you can activate the effect of a monster, and then later add that same monter with the skill, after which point its effects will be negated. The drawback of the skill is often irrelevant, since you normally search Wandering King Wildwind, which doesn’t activate to summon itself. However, because of this restriction, you should avoid using the skill the search for Crimson Resonator when opening with Red Resonator, since it won’t be able to special summon itself, or special summon resonators from the deck. With 5 resonator monsters and 3 Resonator Call in the deck, you have a 89.8% chance of your skill being live on turn one in a 20 card build, an 88.1% chance in 21 card builds, and an 86.3% chance in 22 card builds. Keep in mind that this skill will only activate if your Main Deck contains at least 10 “Resonator” cards or fiend monsters, and your Extra Deck only contains Dragon-Type synchro monsters. Thankfully, your core engine easily meets these conditions.
Note: When farming to unlock Demon’s Resonance from lifetime missions, only synchro summoning Red Dragon Archfiend will count towards the total. Special summoning it from the graveyard will not count toward the summons needed for the skill. If you are having trouble farming for the skill, you can use the same farm deck used for the Red Dragon Archfiend Mat, found here
Main Deck
Crimson Resonator x3
Crimson Resonator is the most important card in the deck, and your main combo enabler. When you control no monsters, it can special summon itself from the hand allowing you to make many synchro plays without using the normal summon when used in conjunction with Wandering King Wildwind. Additionally, if the only other monster you control is a DARK Dragon-Type synchro, it summons a resonator monster from your deck to extend synchro plays or serve as tribute fodder. Crimson is the ideal card to see in your opening hand, as it enables the activation of Demon’s Resonance to adjust your hand to set up your plays without needing a normal summon. This solidifies the card’s position as a 3-of in the deck. Keep in mind that activating either effect of Crimson Resonator locks you into summoning DARK Dragon-Type synchro monsters from the Extra Deck for that turn. Because of this, while you can run non-DARK Dragon-Type synchros, they do not synergize well with the deck.
Red resonator x2
Red Resonator is the go-to target for the second effect of Crimson Resonator. When Red Resonator is special summoned, you can target a monster on the field and gain life points equal to its attack. This life point gain makes cards with life point costs less punishing, and makes it difficult to otk you. It can also special summon a level 4 or lower monster from your hand when it is normal summoned. A small downside is if it is the only resonator in hand on the player’s first turn, it will take up the normal summon, preventing tribute summon plays and the summon of Doomcaliber Knight, who cannot be special summoned.
Resonator Call x3
Resonator Call adds any resonator monster from your deck to your hand (usually Crimson Resonator). This card can be activated multiple times per turn, allowing you to thin your deck by multiple cards without cost. This card bolsters the deck’s consistency in both ability to activate the skill Demon’s Resonance and ensuring Crimson Resonator is seen in the player’s hand for the main combos of the deck. It is worth noting that this can become a dead card in the late game as the deck becomes depleted of resonators from other searches/summons.
Wandering King Wildwind x3
Wandering King Wildwind is the primary target for the skill Demon’s Resonance, which will be activatable the vast majority of the time turn 1. It special summons itself if you control a fiend tuner with 1500 or less attack, allowing you to easily extend your combos alongside Crimson Resonator without committing a normal summon. Its special summon is not an activated effect, but rather a summoning condition, so the skill doesn’t restrict it. It also has another effect which allows you to banish it from your grave (except the turn it was sent there) and add a fiend tuner with 1500 or less attack to your hand, usually Crimson Resonator -nicely ensuring options for follow-up plays on the next turn and generating card advantage. Neither its special summon or graveyard effect are once per turn meaning this card is still very strong when used in multiple copies. Players should be careful about over-relying on the recovery provided by this card’s second effect, as it is easily shut down by Necrovalley and D.D. Crow, which are popular counters to Resonators deck, as well as other anti-grave cards like Abyss Dweller and Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon.
Extra Deck
Red Rising Dragon x3
Red Rising Dragon plays a crucial role in the deck, allowing you to get access to all your other synchro monsters. It revives a resonator monster on summon (not once per turn), at the cost of locking you into summon DARK Dragon-Type Synchros from the Extra Deck for that turn. This synergises particularly well with Crimson Resonator who will be able to summon a resonator from the deck after being summoned by this effect. Red Rising Dragon’s effect enables all of your synchro climbs. Without it, the core engine would have no way to summon the other cards in your Extra Deck.
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane x1
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane is mostly used for the high attack stat it possesses, which can be utilised after using the effect of Dark End Dragon or Infernity Doom Dragon to remove a monster from your opponent’s field to swing for high damage. This provides explosiveness to the Resonator playstyle, making it a core 1-of in the Extra Deck. Its effect to revive a Red Dragon Archfiend monster can come up in budget builds playing the original Red Dragon Archfiend. Additionally, when it deals battle damage, you can summon exactly 2 resonators- one from the Graveyard and one from the Deck- though this effect will often clog your board more than it will help.
Dark End Dragon
Dark End Dragon is the best synchro in the Extra Deck, possessing the ability to target and send 1 monster from your opponent’s field to the grave, in exchange for losing 500 attack points. “Sending” to the grave, rather than “destroying” allows Dark End Dragon to prevent certain monsters from floating, like Fire King Avatar Arvata and Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda. It can also bypass the effect of monsters that cannot be “destroyed” by card effects. It is used in many of your main otk combos, and can also be used as a synchro material for Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane. This card’s effect is not a hard once per turn, meaning you can summon it twice and activate its effect again. Additionally, if you start the turn with Dark End Dragon on board, you can activate its effect, flip it facedown with a card like Book of Moon, then flip it up. This will reset its attack, and allow the effect to be used again. In builds with Red Nova Dragon this card is usually dropped to 1 copy to provide Extra Deck space.
Infernity Doom Dragon 1x
While Infernity Doom Dragon is a bit less generic than Dark End Dragon- specifically requiring a DARK tuner- it opens up alternative otk paths, making your plays more flexible. When you have no cards in hand, Infernity Doom Dragon can target and destroy a monster your opponent controls, and then deal effect damage equal to half the attack that monster had on the field. Although you cannot attack with Infernity Doom Dragon the turn you use this effect, this restriction is bypassed by using it as material for Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane after using its effect. It has the potential to create lethal damage in combination with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane’s massive 3.5k attack, as you only have to destroy a monster with 1000 or more attack, assuming your opponent controls a single monster. Keep in mind that if you destroy a face-down monster, no effect damage will be dealt.
Red Dragon Archfiend x0-1
Red Dragon Archfiend is the iconic card used by Jack Atlas from Yu-gi-oh 5Ds. After it attacks, it will destroy all defense position monsters your opponent controls. Unfortunately, this effect will rarely be relevant. Additionally, this is a terrible turn 1 option, as during your end phase, it destroys every monster that didn’t attack that turn. In budget builds, this card is primarily used as synchro material for Red Nova Dragon or Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane.
Red Nova Dragon x0-1
Red Nova Dragon was intended to be the boss monster for this deck. Unfortunately, Duel Links had largely outgrown its usefulness by the time it was released. While it can’t be destroyed by card effects, there are several common non-destruction removal tools within the metagame. You shouldn’t play more than one of this card as it takes up considerable Extra Deck space in its own right by forcing the use of Red Dragon Archfiend as a synchro material, and it doesn’t do much when on the field. The main benefit of this card is the large attack stat that allows you to constantly threaten lethal, and force hand traps against Destiny Draw decks if they cannot remove Nova from the field.
Force resonator x0-2
Chain Resonator x0-1
A level 1 Resonator monster that can be used as a budget option to help with the synchro summon of Red Nova Dragon, in conjunction with a level 3 resonator such as Flare Resonator. When it is normal summoned, it will special summon a resonator from deck, allowing you to make Red Nova Dragon by summoning a level 3 resonator alongside Red Dragon Archfiend
Flare Resonator x0-1
This level 3 resonator acts as a target for the effect of the previously mentioned Chain Resonator, and is used as a synchro material for Red Nova Dragon. While it has no useful on field effect, when used as a synchro material, it will boost the attack of the monster summoned by 300.
Additional Suggestions
When building the Extra Deck, an additional Infernity Doom Dragon can substitute a Dark End Dragon to reduce cost.
Due to the small core of this deck, a searcher, and a consistency skill, there is ample room for techs. Additionally, the skill itself opens up a myriad of searchable techs that can sometimes win the game on their own, depending on the matchup. Resonators can also take advantage of a number of normal summon or tribute summon reliant tech cards, due to the main combo not requiring a normal summon.
Spells/Traps
Backrow Hate
Mystical Space Typhoon
Mystical Space Typhoon is arguably the best spell/trap removal currently in the game. It serves as a quick-play destruction of any one spell/trap card for no cost. This allows you to hit staple backrow cards, as well as floodgates such as Stygian Dirge, Necrovalley, and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Additionally, it has the added benefit of potentially turning off Treacherous Trap Hole against decks that can run semi-limits.
Cosmic Cyclone
Cosmic Cyclone serves a similar purpose as Mystical Space Typhoon, as an out to backrow and floodgates. Additionally, thanks to the life point gain given by Red Resonator, the 1000lp cost for Cosmic is easily shrugged off.
Book of Moon
Arguably the best spell card currently in Duel Links, Book of Moon is a quick-play spell that can be used offensively and defensively. It can flip down cards like Steelswarm Roach, Photon Strike Bounzer, and Fire King Avatar Arvata, which would otherwise impede your ability to make plays. It can also be used to prevent xyz and synchro summons, while clogging your opponent’s board. Book of Moon works well in virtually every deck, and this is no exception.
Forbidden Chalice
This card is a good alternative for people who don’t have access to Book of Moon. As a quick-play spell that negates monster effects, Forbidden Chalice is able to neutralize most monsters that would otherwise hinder your plays. Sometimes, Chalice can actually be better than Book of Moon- like when an opponent is activating Abyss Dweller during your draw phase to prevent you from searching with Wandering King Wildwind. Another benefit of Chalice over Book is that by leaving a Digitial Bug Rhinosebus face-up, you can more easily otk through it by utilizing Infernity Doom Dragon.
Treacherous Trap Hole
Enemy Controller
Another staple of the semi-limit list, enemy controller can be used to steal troublesome opposing monsters like Steelswarm Roach, Digital Bug Rhinosebus, Photon Strike Bounzer, or Fire King Avatar Arvata, allowing you to freely make plays and open up the opponent’s board for a lethal push. Defensively, Enemy Controller can be used to tribute one of your resonators to prevent an opposing xyz or synchro summon, or even simply change a monster to defense position to survive a turn.
Solemn Scolding
Solemn Scolding is another option for a good turn one. While this card is the only set card in your spell/trap zone, you can pay 3000lp to negate any summon, or the activation of any monster, spell, or trap card (keep in mind this cannot negate the activation of spells/traps in grave, like Paleozoic Canadia). As a counter trap, your opponent will only be able to respond with other counter traps. This makes the card difficult to counter without hard-drawing backrow removal. Additionally, the life point cost is much easier to pay, since you will typically be entering turn 2 with 6100lp, instead of 4000. The main weaknesses of this card are that its delays are very easy to read, and its restriction prevents you from pairing it with other backrow effectively. However, successfully resolving it typically puts you in a great position to win.
Other Options
Revival Gift
Limited to 1, Revival Gift can be a blowout card against many decks. Upon activation, you revive a tuner from your graveyard, and then give your opponent two level 3 tokens. When paired with a common turn one board of Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon, and Crimson Resonator, you’ll be able to negate the first monster effect your opponent uses. You can then activate Revival Gift to revive your Red Resonator and gain 2600lp by targeting your Dark End Dragon, and proceed to clog your opponent’s field with two tokens they likely can’t utilize. A similar result can be achieved without Doomcaliber Knight, by ending turn one with Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator, rather than the normal three body board. This version of the play helps to work around the popular Book of Moon, that would be used to flip Doomcaliber Knight face down, preventing you from removing him from your field and activating Revival Gift.
Herald of the Abyss
Herald of the Abyss is yet another card that can be used to take advantage of the life gain given by Red Resonator. For the low cost of 1500 life points, you can declare one type and attribute, and your opponent is forced to send one face-up monster matching the declared type and attribute to the grave (their choice). This allows you to out untargetable monsters like Lunalight Sabre Dancer and Obelisk the Tormentor, which you wouldn’t typically be able to remove otherwise. It can also simply serve as generic 1 for 1 removal to open up the field for lethal pushes against monsters like Steelswarm Roach.
Monsters
Skill Targets
Doomcaliber Knight
Goblin of Greed
While Goblin of Greed is face up on the field, neither player can activate card effects by discarding. This is a continuous effect, meaning that it will not be negated the turn you search this card with Demon’s Resonance. This discarding floodgate stops multiple relevant cards, such as: Karma Cut, Sage with Eyes of Blue, Thunder Dragonhawk, Thunder Dragondark, Thunder Dragon, Thunder Dragonroar, Raigeki Break, Lightning Vortex, Harpie Channeler, Kiteroid, Hysteric Party, Ultimate Providence and many more. The most notable use of this card is to greatly boost your chances of winning in the Thunder Dragon matchup. Typically an unfavorable matchup, Goblin of Greed turning off the hand effects of every Thunder Dragon card, forces them to open really well to out your board, especially if Goblin was summoned in defense mode from the effect of Red Resonator, which prevents all of their normal summons from running over it.
Skull Meister
By sending Skull Meister from your hand to the grave, it will negate an effect activated in the graveyard. This can stop several relevant cards, such as the floating effect of Fire King Avatar Arvata, the floating and revival effect of Fire King High Avatar Garunix, Wandering King Wildwind in the mirror match, Hysteric Sign, Harpie Harpist, Dodododwarf Gogogoglove, Shiranui Spectralsword, and the floating effects of all Thunder Dragon monsters. Due to the wide number of effects this card can stop, it can be a good replacement for anyone who does not own Doomcaliber Knight. Its main drawback is that it leaves the negated monster in the gy, meaning the effects of cards such as Shiranui Spectralsword are activatable on the following turn.
Sphere Kuriboh
Sphere Kuriboh has been a staple since the release of Duel Links, and now it’s searchable with a simple skill activation. Sphere is useful for stopping otk pushes from your opponent. However, due to the fact that you will typically enter turn 2 with 6100 life points, you typically won’t need Sphere to live. Because of this, it’s probably best to side it for decks like Onomat and Cyber Dragon, which can clear your field and otk through 6100 life points.
Fusion Devourer
Fusion Devourer is a card to consider using in a Side Deck to counter fusion based strategies like Cyber Dragon and Lunalight. When it battles a fusion monster, the fusion monster’s attack will become 0 during the damage step, allowing you to out any attack position fusion monster by battle. It’s also a level 4 normal summon, allowing it to be used for synchro plays.
Trap Eater
Trap Eater serves one purpose in the resonator strategy: a searchable Side Deck out to Stygian Dirge. Dirge is one of the most popular counter cards against this deck, as it stops your ability to make any plays unless you remove it. However, Trap Eater can send an opponent’s Stygian Dirge to the graveyard to summon itself, removing a problem floodgate card, while getting you a level 4 tuner on board that can be used to make Dark End Dragon or Infernity Doom Dragon. However, due to Trap Eater being dead in your hand in almost every other situation, you will want to relegate this card to the Side Deck, siding it in when you know your opponent is running Stygian Dirge.
Tuning Gum
Tuning Gum is an option for those wanting to role-play and use Red Nova Dragon. By summoning a level 3 resonator with the effect of Crimson Resonator, you can use the level 3 resonator, a normal summoned Tuning Gum, and Red Dragon Archfiend to make Red Nova Dragon, which will then have one-time protection from a targeted effect.
Tribute Summons
Caius the Shadow Monarch
Possibly the most versatile tribute summon available to Resonators, Caius the Shadow Monarch has a mandatory effect to target a card on the field and banish it when it is tribute summoned. Additionally, if the card banished by this effect is a DARK monster, 500 effect damage will be dealt to your opponent. Caius’ ability to target any card on the field allows it to out almost every floodgate card used against this deck, such as Necrovalley, Stygian Dirge, and Steelswarm Roach. The only prominent floodgate that it cannot banish is Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Additionally, banishing cards that want to be in the grave, like Fire King High Avatar Garunix can be extremely impactful. The 500 burn also puts your opponent in range of lethal from a direct attack with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane. Conversely, a direct attack with Bane puts your opponent in range of lethal from Caius’ burn (tip- Caius can target itself to inflict lethal burn damage). Lastly, as a DARK level 6 monster, it can be used as synchro material for Dark End Dragon.
Obelisk the Tormentor
Obelisk the Tormentor can be easily summoned with your standard turn one combo. Obelisk’s primary benefit is it’s targeting protection. When paired with its huge 4000 attack stat, it’s a chore to get rid of for many decks. While Obelisk is technically “good” against any deck who only run targeted removal, it’s primary use is against the mirror match, as your opponent in the mirror will not be able to destroy Obelisk by battle unless they run Red Nova Dragon, or with an Obelisk of their own. The main issue with Obelisk is that, aside from the mirror, most of the decks that it’s good against are already favorable matchups for Resonators, while it’s bad against decks like Onomat and Thunder Dragon, which are already unfavorable matchups. Because
Jinzo
Jinzo is a great option to run against heavy backrow decks, since it will shut down all trap cards on the field. Choosing Jinzo will depend on the meta, as a backrow heavy meta doesn’t always mean a trap card heavy meta, especially with powerful quick-play spells like Book of Moon existing. However, when facing a trap-based strategy like Shiranui, Jinzo is extremely powerful. Also, due to Jinzo being a DARK level 6 monster, it can be used to summon Dark End Dragon.
Angel O7
When Angel O7 is tribute summoned, all monsters are prevented from activating their effects while it remains on the field. This is a great Side Deck card against decks that heavily rely on monster effects, like Thunder Dragons, or hand trap heavy Destiny Draw decks. You would typically summon this alongside Red Rising Dragon by tributing Crimson Resonator and Red Resonator, giving you 4600 damage on board to guarantee lethal through an open board, regardless of hand traps. Keep in mind that this card will prevent you from activating your own effects as well.
HERO Package
Elemental HERO Stratos
Elemental HERO Stratos is another level 4 that began to gain popularity following the KCGT. Stratos allows you to run a small HERO engine, composed of itself and Destiny HERO - Plasma. In addition to being a level 4 to extend your synchro plays, Stratos has multiple benefits that stem from its ability to search any HERO monster on summon. By searching another copy of itself, Stratos can help conserve skill uses early on, or aid your ability to continue synchro plays after exhausting your two skill activations, by guaranteeing a level 4 without using a skill search. Additionally, due to the ease in which resonators can put three bodies on board, being able to search Destiny HERO - Plasma can be very useful as well, in order to out problematic monsters like Lunalight Sabre Dancer and Obelisk the Tormentor, while also being able to equip a monster that you may want to prevent from floating, like Thunder Dragonroar. Lastly, in rare cases where Plasma or another Stratos is already on board, Stratos can serve as non-targeting backrow removal.
Destiny HERO - Plasma
While not technically a tribute summon, Destiny HERO - Plasma effectively serves the purpose of a tribute summon in this deck, and is typically part of a small HERO package alongside Elemental HERO Stratos. By tributing 3 monsters, you can special summon Plasma, and once it hits the field, the effects of all monsters your opponent controls are negated (note that this summon can be negated by Stellswarm Roach. Additionally, it can target one monster your opponent controls and equip it to itself, while gaining half the attack of the equipped monster. This allows you to take care of monsters such as Lunalight Sabre Dancer and Obelisk the Tormentor, which the Resonator core has no way of outing. Plasma’s effect to equip a monster can also help remove an opponent’s monster, while preventing it from floating. A relevant example of this would be Thunder Dragonroar, which would summon another Thunder Dragon monster from the deck when it leaves the field. Equipping it will not only prevent it from floating, but the 1200 attack gained from it will put Plasma at 3100 attack, leaving a typical Thunder Dragon deck incapable of removing it without drawing a tech card like Book of Moon.
Other Options
Amano-Iwato
Amano-Iwato is a card that counters one of this deck’s weaknesses: hand traps. By simply having it face-up on the field, no monster effect can be activated. We can take advantage of this since this deck doesn’t use up its normal summon to make its main plays. This would be played right before you go into the battle phase, as if you play it before, then you won’t be able to activate your own monsters’ effects. Can also be used to synchro if you get hit with disruption as it is also a level 4. Resonator Engine target. The main weakness of this card is that it will return to you hand in the end phase, preventing you from negating your opponent’s effects during their turn.
D.D. Crow
A staple in the many Side Decks, D.D. Crow is a great option to consider running. Crow is able to banish a card from your opponent’s graveyard during either player’s turn, letting it get rid of cards like Fire King High Avatar Garunix, Wandering King Wildwind, Shiranui Spectralsword, Atlantean Heavy Infantry, Harpie Harpist, Hysteric Sign, or a revival target from Gagaga Head, just to name a few.
Lava Golem
Lava Golem allows you to get rid of two of your opponent’s monsters in exchange for sacrificing your ability to normal summon for the turn. This allows you to out monsters such as Lunalight Sabre Dancer, Steelswarm Roach, Digital Bug Rhinosebus, Photon Strike Bounzer, and Fire King Avatar Arvata, as long as they have another monster on board alongside them. You can then go into Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy Lava Golem, dealing 1500 effect damage and allowing you to climb into Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane to attack directly for game. The primary drawback of this card is that it must tribute two of your opponent’s monsters, meaning it’s completely dead if they only have one monster on board. This also makes it easy to play around in a best of 3 setting, once your opponent knows you play it.
- Note that some players have found success utilizing engines such as Elementsabers, rather than HERO, but this success has been more limited comparatively.
Example Budget List
Example New Player List (using new player Dream tickets on 2 Cosmic Cyclone, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane, and Dark End Dragon
Dkayed’s Free-to-play Version
In this section, we will cover the various lines of play to make in common situations within the current metagame. Each combo is presented using only in-engine core cards, or monster tech cards that are searchable with the skill. Before diving in, a few notes regarding this section:
- When reading through the required hands for each combo, keep in mind that since the skill allows you to swap any card for a level 4 or lower fiend by revealing a resonator, the required hand is more flexible than it may seem. For example, if a combo requires your hand to have Crimson Resonator and two copies of Wandering King Wildwind, you would only need to hard draw Crimson and one copy of Wildwind, since you can use your skill to grab the second one.
- Keep in mind that any combo utilizing the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon requires that you are able to empty your hand in some form. So while an otk combo with Doom Dragon may only “require” 2 cards, you also need to be able to get your remaining cards out of the hand.
- When presenting combos to otk through Photon Strike Bounzer or Fire King Avatar Arvata, the negation of Red Rising Dragon will be the only scenario discussed. While there are different effects that could be negated, Red Rising is the optimal negation point, as any other point allows you to either otk with less cards or a less specific hand. Similarly, combos for otking through Digital Bug Rhinosebus will only discuss the destruction of your first level 8 synchro, as this is the optimal point to disrupt the combo.
- Lastly, remember that the grave effect of Wandering King Wildwind allows you to perform several of these combos easily as a follow-up play on turn 3 when going first.
Turn 1 combos
Combo 1- Three monsters on board and 6,100 life points
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Red Rising Dragon to gain 2100 life points
Combo 2- Two monsters on board and 6,100 life points
Hand- Red Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind
- Normal Summon Red Resonator
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Red Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Red Rising Dragon to gain 2100 life points
Combo 3- Three monsters on board, a monster effect negation, and 6,100 life points
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind, Doomcaliber Knight
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro Summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Red Rising Dragon to gain 2100 life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Normal Summon Doomcaliber Knight
Turn 2 combos
Combo 4- Lethal through any one monster with 1k or more attack
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting the monster on field with the highest attack to gain life points
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Infernity Doom Dragon
- Activate the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy your opponent’s monster, and deal damage equal to half the attack it had on the field
- Use Red Resonator and Infernity Doom Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Attack Directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Combo 5- Lethal through one monster
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind, any level 4 or lower monster with 500 or more attack
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting the monster on field with the highest attack to gain life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Use Crimson Resonator and Dark End Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Normal summon your remaining monster
- Attack directly with both monsters
Combo 6- Threaten lethal through one monster, plus a monster negate for the next turn
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind, Doomcaliber Knight
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting the monster on field with the highest attack to gain life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Use Crimson Resonator and Dark End Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Normal summon Doomcaliber Knight
- Attack Directly with both monsters
Combo 7- Lethal through two monsters
Hand- Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind, any level 4 monster
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting the monster on field with the highest attack to gain life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Normal summon your remaining level 4 monster
- Use Crimson Resonator and your level 4 monster to synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Attack directly with both monsters
Combo 8- Lethal through Photon Strike Bounzer/Fire King Avatar Arvata (negating Red Rising Dragon)
Hand- Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind, any level 2 resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode, which then gets negated.
- Normal summon your second level 2 resonator
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive a resonator from the graveyard
- Use your resonator and either Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Attack directly with both Dark End Dragon and Red Rising Dragon
Combo 9- Lethal through Photon Strike Bounzer (negating Red Rising Dragon)
Hand- 2x Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode, which then gets negated.
- Normal summon your second Crimson Resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Photon Strike Bounzer to gain 2700 life points
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Infernity Doom Dragon
- Activate the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy Photon Strike Bounzer and deal 1350 points of effect damage.
- Use Red Resonator and Infernity Doom Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Attack directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Combo 10- Lethal through Photon Strike Bounzer/Fire King Avatar Arvata (negating Red Rising Dragon) plus one other monster on board
Hand- 2x Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode, which then gets negated.
- Normal summon your second Crimson Resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting the monster on field with the highest attack to gain life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Special summon your second Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Attack directly with both copies of Dark End Dragon
Combo 11- Lethal through Photon Strike Bounzer (negating Red Rising Dragon) plus one other monster with less than 2100 attack/defense
Hand- 2x Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode, which then gets negated.
- Normal summon your second Crimson Resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Infernity Doom Dragon
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Activate the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy Photon Strike Bounzer and deal 1350 points of effect damage.
- Use Red Resonator and Wandering King Wildwind to synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Red Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Infernity Doom Dragon to gain 3000 life points
- Use Red Resonator and Infernity Doom Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Attack over the remaining monster with Red Rising Dragon
- Attack directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Combo 12- Lethal through Combo 2
Hand- Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind, any level 2 resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Infernity Doom Dragon
- Repeat steps 2-3
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Red Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Infernity Doom Dragon gain life 3000 points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Normal summon your second resonator
- Activate the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy Red Rising Dragon and deal 1050 points of effect damage.
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send a monster to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Use your second resonator and Infernity Doom Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Attack directly with Dark End Dragon and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Combo 13- Lethal through Aloof Lupine and Thunder Dragonroar
Hand- Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind, any level 4 monster with 1500 or more attack
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Thunder Dragonroar to gain 2400 life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send Thunder Dragonroar to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack, as Thunder Dragonroar summons a monster from deck (likely Thunder Dragonhawk)
- Repeat steps 2-4
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon
- Activate the effect of Dark End Dragon to send the monster summoned by Thunder Dragonroar to the graveyard, reducing it to 2100 attack
- Normal summon your remaining level 4 monster
- Attack Aloof Lupine with Dark End Dragon
- Attack directly with your level 4 and the second Dark End Dragon
Combo 14- Lethal through Digital Bug Rhinosebus (destroying Dark End Dragon)
Hand- Crimson Resonator, 2x Wandering King Wildwind, any level 2 resonator
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to special summon itself from hand
- Special summon Wandering King Wildwind
- Synchro summon Red Rising Dragon
- Activate the effect of Red Rising Dragon to revive Crimson Resonator in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Crimson Resonator to summon Red Resonator from the deck in defense mode
- Activate the effect of Red Resonator, targeting Digital Bug Rhinosebus to gain 2600 life points
- Use Red Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Dark End Dragon, which is then destroyed by Digital Bug Rhinosebus
- Repeat steps 2-4
- Use Crimson Resonator and Red Rising Dragon to synchro summon Infernity Doom Dragon
- Normal summon your second resonator
- Activate the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon to destroy Digital Bug Rhinosebus and deal 1300 points of effect damage.
- Use your second resonator and Infernity Doom Dragon to synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
- Attack directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Resonator (Mirror)
The Resonator mirror match, much like several mirrors in the current metagame, unfortunately tends to come down to who opens better. Games will often come down to who was simply able to open more techs alongside the standard combo. With that said, there are some things that you can control to try and increase your chances of winning in the mirror match.
First, try and save your skill, whenever possible. While games often come down to who opened better tech cards, many games will also be decided by who runs out of steam first. Simply saving your skill usage on your first turn can make a huge difference in being able to keep making plays after your opponent runs out of options once they have burned both uses of their skill. So, if you have Wandering King Wildwind in your opening hand, you generally won’t want to use your skill, unless you are going second and see a guaranteed way to otk.
Pay attention to delays with the hourglass by toggling on during your draw phase. The most common tech cards ran in resonator decks are Mystical Space Typhoon, Book of Moon, Treacherous Trap Hole, Solemn Scolding, and Forbidden Chalice. With your toggle on during the draw phase, if your opponent has Book of Moon or Forbidden Chalice set, the hourglass will flicker as long as there is a monster face-up on the field. Treacherous Trap Hole will only cause the hourglass to flicker if there are at least two monsters on board. Mystical Space Typhoon will only cause an hourglass delay if there is another spell/trap card on the field. Lastly, Solemn Scolding will never cause a delay during the draw phase, but will cause the hourglass to flicker after each action you take. You can use this knowledge to try and narrow down what their set cards could be. For example, if your opponent has 2 monsters on the field, and one set spell/trap, and there is no delay during your draw phase (again, make sure to toggle on), then you have eliminated Book of Moon, Treacherous Trap Hole, and Forbidden Chalice from the list of cards that could be set, since they would cause the hourglass to flicker. Should you then proceed to activate the effect of Crimson Resonator and still see no delay in the hourglass, then you can conclude that the set card is likely a bluffed Mystical Space Typhoon. Due to the fairly standard tech cards used in Resonator decks, you can often use delays in this fashion to figure out what cards, if any, you need to play around in the mirror.
Lastly, there are a few small, but important interactions in the Resonator mirror that you want to keep in mind. You generally do not want to set up Doomcaliber Knight on turn 1-2, since it can easily be played around or baited by opposing Resonator decks. However, setting up Doomcaliber on turn 3-4 and clearing your opponent’s board to cut off their follow-up can be potent, especially if they have already utilized their skill. If you believe your opponent has a set Book of Moon, always target their Red Rising Dragon with the effect of Red Resonator. If you target your own Red Rising Dragon, they can flip it down in response, preventing you from making more plays or gaining life points, which makes you an easier otk target, and will leave you playing catch up, even if you do survive. Additionally, when performing the standard turn 1 combo that ends on Red Rising Dragon, Red Resonator, and Crimson Resonator, you will usually want to summon both resonators in attack mode, if you have no defensive spells/traps. While the whole board can be cleared with Dark End Dragon plus Crimson Resonator, regardless of what position you put your monsters in, if you put both resonators in defense mode, all your opponent has to do is flip your Red Rising Dragon face-down with Book of Moon, and they can clear your board without having to commit to Dark End Dragon, while also leaving 3 monsters on their own field. However, this can’t happen if you have both resonators in attack position. As mentioned earlier, Resonator mirrors are often decided by who runs out of steam first. So if you can force them to commit to using Dark End Dragon to clear your board, you will boost your odds of being able to outlast, and subsequently beat, your opponent.
Recommended cards:
Onomat
With the most recent banlist semi-limiting Gagaga Head and Digital Bug Rhinosebus, Onomat decks are forced to choose between playing Head for recovery, or Rhinosebus for a stronger turn one. Additionally, these hits completely eliminate the recently popularized “Gagaga Control” which centered around playing 3 Gagaga Head and lots of backrow. While losing access to Rhinosebus and being limited to 1 copy of Gagaga Sister does make help the Onomat matchup by greatly reducing their chances of opening with a disruptive rank 6 xyz alongside a Steelswarm Roach, they still have the ability to consistently set up a lone Roach or Photon Strike Bounzer on turn one, with Roach being particularly problematic. They also have the ability to otk the standard 3 monster, 6100 life point board with Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger due to its piercing damage (3 card combo after resolving Dodododraw, and 4 card combo otherwise). Because of this, the matchup is still clearly favored for Onomat, but is more manageable.
When going first against Onomat, your first priority should be to try and make the standard 3 monster, 6100 life point board of Red Resonator, Red Rising Dragon, and Crimson Resonator, paired with backrow protection like Book of Moon or Treacherous Trap Hole. If you cannot do this, your next best play is to make a board of Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon, and Crimson Resonator with 6100 life points. While Onomat can otk through both of these boards, they leave you with the highest chance of surviving until the following turn while hopefully preventing them from establishing disruptive monsters.
When going second against Onomat you will almost always be facing one of the following boards: 1) Steelswarm Roach; 2) Photon Strike Bounzer; 3) Steelswarm Roach and Photon Strike Bounzer (keep in mind this particular board is very resource intensive to make, and as such, many players will avoid going for it). These monsters might also be paired with a set Book of Moon or Void Trap Hole, especially after Side Decking. As a synchro deck, Steelswarm Roach is an incredibly troublesome card. And the fact that one of the best decks in the format can make it with extreme ease means you must have multiple ways of dealing with Roach, like Book of Moon, Forbidden Chalice, Herald of the Abyss, or Caius the Shadow Monarch. With that said, let’s talk about how to approach the 3 boards listed above.
When going second against just Steelswarm Roach, any one of the previously mentioned techs will typically make it easy to otk that turn. When you do not open an “anti-Roach” tech card, your best play is to try and establish a board of Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind, Doomcaliber Knight, with a set Treacherous Trap Hole. If you are able to make this board, you can proceed to crash Doomcaliber Knight into Steelswarm Roach, getting it off the field and leaving yourself protected with two monsters and Treacherous Trap Hole. If you do not open Treacherous Trap Hole but are able to put the other three monsters on board, your best play is to pass on those three monsters, and hope you can do something on the following turn. Something to note- opening with Crimson Resonator plus Caius the Shadow Monarch guarantees lethal against just Roach. You can use the skill to grab Wandering King Wildwind, summon Crimson and Wildwind, then tribute Crimson to summon Caius. On summon, Caius will banish Roach and deal 500 effect damage, clearing the way for lethal with your remaining two monsters.
Similarly to Steelswarm Roach, going second against Photon Strike Bounzer can be easy if you open your powerful tech cards like Book of Moon, and other similar cards. Unlike Roach, however, you can play through just Bounzer with nothing but engine cards. As shown in the combo section, you can otk just Bounzer with a 3 or 4 card combo, and even otk Bounzer plus another monster with a 4 card combo. Keep in mind that Bounzer’s effect will almost always be used on Red Rising Dragon.
Next, when facing Steelswarm Roach and Photon Strike Bounzer, if you do not at least one tech card like Book of Moon or Forbidden Chalice, then there is not way for you to actually otk that turn. If you do open a tech card like Book or Chalice to neutralize Roach, then you can otk with a 4 card combo of 2 Crimson Resonator plus 2 Wandering King Wildwind (refer to combos 10 and 11 in the combo section). Ironically, while it may sound lackluster, another strong play against this board will often be to set Wandering King Wildwind and Treacherous Trap Hole and pass your turn. As long as they don’t have backrow removal, you can save your Treacherous until their Battle Phase, and proceed to get rid of both Bounzer and Roach, allowing you to likely otk the following turn. In general, however, you will always be at a disadvantage against this board.
Some general tips to keep in mind when facing Onomat: be wary of clearing their board if it leaves you easily vulnerable to an otk from Gagaga Head on the following turn. You should also note that many Onomat players are Side Decking Void Trap Hole and Book of Moon, so you can’t afford to side out all of your backrow hate against them. Additionally, some builds are opting to run Forbidden Lance over Mystical Space Typhoon, which makes dealing with a lone Steelswarm Roach or Photon Strike Bounzer more troublesome.
Recommended cards:
Thunder Dragon
This match up inherently leans towards Thunder Dragon’s favor, as their engine is capable of grinding the game out until ours runs out of steam. Additionally, Thunder Dragon decks have the ability to make cards like Digital Bug Rhinosebus or Photon Strike Bounzer on their first turn. This, combined with their high amount of floating effects, make them very difficult to otk, while the Thunder Dragon engine and powerful boss monsters like Chaos Dragon Levianeer give them powerful recovery and comeback options. The first weakness of Thunder Dragon to discuss is their consistency. Unfortunately, this isn’t something you as a player can exploit in terms of strategy, but this consistency issue is important to understand, as it is one of the factors that has led to the different variations of builds currently being used. Currently, decks use multiple skills, including Fiend Farewell, Destiny Draw, Allured by Darkness, and Draw Sense: Spell/Trap. Additionally, decks will often include hand traps to complement these skills, with the most popular ones being Trifortressops, Sphere Kuriboh, and less commonly, Battlin’ Boxer Veil. Of these variations, the Fiend Farewell builds (Yami Bakura & Yubel) are where your playstyle will have to adapt the most. When facing a Fiend Farewell variant, it’s best to avoid battle when able, so you don’t trigger their skill. Upon activation, Fiend Farewell will allow them to send Chaos Betrayer to the graveyard play, which will banish the Wildwinds in Graveyard, hindering your follow-up plays, while generating advantage from the Thunder Dragon engine. Versus other builds, dealing damage is usually fine, as long as you avoid triggering the skills at their respective life point thresholds, as that puts pressure on the opposing player. Additionally, in certain scenarios, it can be beneficial to intentionally deal enough damage to trigger their skill (like by attacking with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane, if you have protection, and the damage will leave them in easy range of burn from Infernity Doom Dragon.
The second prominent weakness of Thunder Dragon is their heavy reliance on monster effects. This is exploited by many cards that synergize well with Resonators. Goblin of Greed stops ALL of the Thunder Dragon hand effects, so Thunder Dragondark can’t search itself, Thunder Dragonhawk can’t revive, and Thunder Dragonroar can’t return a Thunder Dragon to the hand. To top it all off, it is searchable with Demon’s Resonance. Ideally, when using Goblin, you want to open up with Red Resonator and one of Wandering King Wildwind or Goblin of Greed, using the skill to grab the one that you are missing. This will allow you to end on a board of Goblin of Greed in defense mode, alongside Red Rising Dragon and Red Resonator. This board is extremely difficult for Thunder Dragons to play through without prior setup, or hard drawing something like Book of Moon. Due to the limited number of tech slots occupied by spells/traps in most Thunder Dragon decks, floodgate-style monster negation is extremely valuable in this matchup. Thankfully, there are multiple monsters that fit this role and work well in the main or Side Deck for Resonators. Destiny HERO - Plasma negates all of your opponent’s monster effects on the field. Angel O7 and Amano-Iwato stop monster effects from activating entirely, which stops floating and hand traps. Things to note: Amano isn’t good to use unless you are pushing for lethal that turn, as it returns to the hand. With Angel O7, it would stay on the board and stop your opponent from making further plays.
Triggering the floating effect of Thunder Dragondark is not recommended unless you’re pushing for lethal that turn as well, as they’ll likely be able to search the card that starts their comeback play. It is often okay to force the float from Thunder Dragonroar, even if it’s only to exhaust their in-deck resources. You should also avoid summoning Doomcaliber Knight when Thunder Dragondark is in hand, as Dragondark can be used to easily bait Doomcaliber’s negation, leaving you vulnerable. Instead, you will usually want to summon Doomcaliber Knight before making lethal pushes, so you have a way to stop one hand trap activation. Note: you will be able to tell if your opponent has Thunder Dragondark in hand if the hourglass is constantly flickering after each of your actions. Make sure to pay attention to the hourglass early in your turn, so you don’t confuse a possible Trifortressops delay after your third summon, with a Dragondark delay. Keep in mind that a direct attack from Wandering King Wildwind is small enough to avoid triggering both Allured by Darkness and Destiny Draw, while potentially setting up easy thresholds for lethal on following turns with Infernity Doom Dragon. Since Thunder Dragon’s engine is already advantageous against us, they don’t typically side anything for us specifically. However the popular picks for them to side in would be Book of Moon & Forbidden Chalice.
Recommended Cards:
Harpie
The Harpie matchup is fairly even, but can be favored depending on tech choices. Originally, upon the release of Resonators, the combination of Hey, Trunade! and Solemn Scolding was too much for Harpies to handle, and they began to fall off drastically in representation. However, due to a combination of Trunade being banned, many Resonator decks dropping Scolding, and the recent resurgence of Shiranui, Harpie’s representation has been increasing. And while losing Trunade can hurt this matchup when facing multiple backrow, it should still be slightly favored for resonators. The ability of most average Resonator hands to combo through without a normal summon allow you to generally play through most average Harpie hands when going second, while also being able to set up disruption with cards like Doomcaliber Knight when going first. Additionally, guaranteeing your follow-up for the next turn, is something that Harpies often struggle with if they don’t resolve Harpie’s Feather Rest.
Going first, you want to try and set up one of the standard 3 monster, 6100 lp boards. Ideally, you are able to establish Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon, and Crimson Resonator. The presence of Doomcaliber Knight will force the Harpie player to use one of their tech cards like Book of Moon, Forbidden Chalice, or Swallow’s Nest to make their plays. And while they do run multiples of each of these cards, meaning that they are likely to see them, simply forcing out a tech usage is beneficial against Harpies, since they rely on their backrow techs to generate disruption with Cyber Slash Harpie Lady. If they do not draw one of the mentioned tech cards, their only other option would be to make suboptimal plays, such as normal summoning a harpie monster without using an effect, and then activating a hard drawn Elegant Egotist in order to make Cyber Slash Harpie Lady, and attack over Doomcaliber Knight. However, even this play is not ideal, as unless they have a way to remove your Dark End Dragon before your Main Phase, you’ll be able to immediately remove their Cyber Slash from the field without issue. If you are unable to establish the 3 monster board with Doomcaliber, then you should default to the standard board of Red Resonator, Red Rising Dragon, and Crimson Resonator. You should also avoid setting your backrow when going first against harpies, as they’ll just get prematurely forced out by Harpies’ Hunting Ground.
When going second against Harpie, you’ll usually be facing down Cyber Slash Harpie Lady, paired with a backrow, and maybe a second monster in Harpie Lady 1 or Harpie Oracle. While they can and sometimes will make Steelswarm Roach instead of Cyber Slash, most of the time, players will opt to go into Slash, especially when using Harpie Channeler, so they can resolve Harpie’s Feather Rest to dig for more techs or follow-up cards. In rare circumstances, they may be able to establish Cyber Slash Harpie Lady and Steelswarm Roach alongside each other, but this requires very specific hands, and will also mean they typically won’t have much, if any, backrow to reinforce this board. Backrow aside, many of the Harpie end boards are susceptible to being otk’d by Infernity Doom Dragon into Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane, or by double Dark End Dragon. So, if you can remove their backrow cards, or are able to determine that the set card(s) isn’t activatable, you can easily otk them. If their disruption prevents you from pushing for lethal, simply clearing their board can be really strong, since they don’t have great ways at guaranteeing follow up plays outside of using Swallow’s Nest to search Elegant Egotist on your turn, or the occasional Harpie Harpist and Hysteric Sign in the less popular large builds. Enemy Controller can help facilitate otk’s by baiting the effect of Cyber Slash Harpie Lady, then tributing your monster that Cyber Slash targeted to take control of it. Playing more conservatively, and setting Treacherous Trap Hole can also be strong, if Harpies’ Hunting Ground is not on field.
The most commonly played tech cards in Harpie decks are Book of Moon, Forbidden Chalice, Swallow’s Nest, and Treacherous Trap Hole. Some builds will occasionally run Mystical Space Typhoon or Cosmic Cyclone, but with the decreased popularity of Solemn Scolding, most opt to just rely on Swallow’s Nest and Harpies’ Hunting Ground to combat backrow cards. More budget builds will sometimes run Forbidden Lance in place of Book of Moon, but this is something that you will see much more on ladder, as opposed to tournaments. Some Harpie players also run Damage Diet to protect them from otk’s, while also getting two triggers of Cyber Slash Harpie Lady from just one card. However, this is usually relegated to the Side Deck in tournaments. When it comes to reading delays from these tech cards, keep in mind that Book of Moon, Forbidden Chalice, and Forbidden Lance will always cause the hourglass to flicker if there is a monster on board. Swallow’s Nest will only cause a delay if they have a level 4 Harpie monster on board. Treacherous Trap Hole will only cause delay when 2 or more monsters are on the field. Damage Diet will always cause delay, even when in the grave, since it doesn’t have a prerequisite activation condition.
Common cards that Harpies might side against Resonator include Damage Diet, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Stygian Dirge, Necrovalley, Foolish Return, The Transmigration Prophecy, and D.D. Crow. Keep in mind that Damage Diet, Stygian Dirge, and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror will always cause the hourglass to flicker. Foolish Return and D.D. Crow will cause delay when there is a card in your graveyard. And The Transmigration Prophecy will cause delay when there are at least 2 cards in the graveyards, regardless of player.
For cards that can be sided against Harpie, Obelisk the Tormentor is particularly effective, as Harpie decks have no innate out to non-targetable monsters, aside from Number 91: Thunder Spark Dragon, which is usually easily stopped. D.D. Crow can sometimes prevent them from being able to resolve Harpie’s Feather Rest, which will make their end board weaker (keep in mind you have to use Crow before they activate Feather Rest, otherwise, they will still be able to resolve it and draw 2). Solemn Scolding is devastating against them, since they are extremely normal summon reliant, and can’t dodge it with Swallow’s Nest or protect with Forbidden Lance. Revival Gift in response to their normal summon will leave their board clogged with no way of unclogging it, aside from waiting for you to clear the tokens yourself, or by using their own Treacherous Trap Hole on the tokens. Caius the Shadow Monarch can be good for banishing floodgates like Stygian Dirge and Necrovalley.
Recommended cards:
Gaia
A relatively recent addition to the Metagame, Gaia has made a place for itself in the competitive scene due to its extreme consistency and deck space to play many powerful tech cards, which when used in combination with the quick-effect destruction of Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons, can be very challenging to play through. Thankfully, the Resonator engine has a positive head-to-head matchup with the Gaia engine, and also has high tech space, making this a favorable matchup, when navigated properly.
When going first, the ideal play is to go for the standard 2 card combo of Crimson Resonator and Wandering King Wildwind to boost lp to 6100, and try to set up Doomcaliber Knight alongside Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator. This board requires multiple tech cards for Gaia to play through, as the negation and destruction of their Gaia the Magical Knight will effectively end their turn. Additionally, Dark End Dragon cannot be destroyed by battle with an unboosted Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons. This means that even if they are able to establish their fusion through Doomcaliber, and then destroy a monster by battle, they will be forced to use their quick effect destruction on Dark End Dragon on your turn, since you will otherwise send their fusion to the graveyard before making your plays. If you cannot establish Doomcaliber Knight alongside Dark End Dragon, you should use the normal turn one play, ending on Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator, instead of three monsters.
Going Second into Gaia can be challenging, but Resonator decks are well equipped to deal with it. Ideally, you will draw a Book of Moon or a similar card such as Forbidden Chalice, to stop the effect of Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons from interrupting your plays. However you won’t always see these cards, so the other way past a Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons is to simply play through it with enough monsters. For example, if you draw Wandering King Wildwind or any other level 4 and Crimson Resonator you can use Demon’s Resonance to search an additional Wildwind, and then use Crimson and Wildwind to make a board of Crimson Resonator and Dark End Dragon, forcing Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons to destroy the Dark End Dragon. You can then continue your plays with Wandering King Wildwind or any other level 4 monster to make an additional level 8 synchro. If the opponent has no backrow, but still has an activatable effect indicated by the hourglass after using Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons’s effect, they have Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight in hand. This card can tribute a Gaia fusion to special summon itself and change the battle position of a monster to defense (they can also tribute a face-down fusion monster as well). In order to get over this you need two resonators and a Wandering King Wildwind in the starting hand, with one of the resonators being Crimson Resonator. You start by using Crimson Resonator and Wandering King Wildwind to summon Dark End Dragon alongside Crimson Resonator, forcing Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons to activate its effect. Then make a second Dark End Dragon by using Demon’s Resonance to get a second Wandering King Wildwind from the deck, using that and the Crimson Resonator to make Dark End Dragon. Use Dark End Dragon’s effect, forcing the effect of Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight, then summon the resonator left in your hand to make Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane and attack over Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight. Keep in mind that while this will clear all monsters from their board, if they have a Curse of Dragonfire or Gaia the Magical Knight in hand, a successful field spell resolution will allow them to reestablish their fusion monster the following turn. Regardless, clearing their board in this scenario is usually the correct play, because it reduces their chances of having a follow-up.
If the opponent has Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons and set backrow, in order to begin to make combo plays, it’s imperative that you have a tech card to deal with either the backrow or Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons. Book of Moon, or a replacement such as Forbidden Chalice are excellent ways to out a Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons. From there, if the backrow can interrupt your plays, you can ideally play past them with standard combos. Be aware that a set Mystical Space Typhoon or alike will be activatable due to the presence of the Galloping Gaia field spell. Backrow removal such as Cosmic Cyclone or Mystical Space Typhoon are the best choices to deal with the set backrow you may face. If you have these cards to deal with backrow you then only have to play through Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons. The most commonly played backrow cards in Gaia are Treacherous Trap Hole, Forbidden Chalice and Book of Moon. You can try to force an early Treacherous Trap Hole if you have a hand of Crimson resonator, another resonator and Wandering King Wildwind. Activate Demon’s Resonance immediately to bluff that you don’t have Wandering King Wildwind in hand, use Crimson Resonator and Wandering King Wildwind to make a board of Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator. The opponent will then likely use Treacherous Trap Hole here on those two monsters allowing you to then continue plays with the wandering King Wildwind and resonator remaining in hand. When dealing with a potential Book of Moon, if your hand has another level 4 and another resonator, it can be beneficial to avoid using Crimson Resonator’s effect after it is summoned by Red Rising Dragon, and instead immediately go into Dark End Dragon to force backrow while preventing your board from being clogged by two resonators and a set Red Rising Dragon. Chalice will often be chained to the effect of Red Rising Dragon. Because of this, if you believe they have a set Chalice and their fusion is in defense mode, make sure to summon Red Rising Dragon in attack mode, since Chalice will boost it to 2500 attack, allowing it to beat over a defense position Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons.
If your opening hand is unable to play past their interruptions, the best play might be to set a Wandering King Wildwind and any backrow you have such as Treacherous Trap Hole alongside bluffed face downs like Resonator Call to reduce the chance that your traps are hit by backrow removal. You can use your backrow cards during the opponent’s next turn to help dismantle your opponent’s board, so that you can play effectively next turn. Remember that you cannot use backrow during the battle phase against Gaia decks if they control one of their Gaia fusions, due to the field spell Galloping Gaia.
Some final tips: Mystical Space Typhoon can be chained to the effect of the field spell Galloping Gaia that will usually be placed by the skill The Dragon Knight’s Path in order to prevent the field spell from resolving. Cards such as Mystical Space Typhoon and Book of Moon are common in large quantities in Gaia builds, and as a result it can often be easy for a Gaia player to deal with just a Doomcaliber Knight or lone backrow such as Treacherous Trap Hole or Solemn Scolding before making their plays, that’s why it is often necessary to attempt to overload the opponent with interruptions. Keep in mind that while activating Treacherous Trap Hole on the resolution of the effect of Gaia the Magical Knight can single handedly end their turn, it can also be massively punished if they have Dragon’s Mirror in hand. Solemn Scolding is particularly powerful in this matchup as it prevents effective gy setup, so that Dragon’s Mirror cannot be used. In some cases, setting a Resonator Call alongside activatable backrow can be useful to cause your opponent to hit the wrong backrow card in the case that they only have one removal card. If they draw two backrow removals, it can lead to interesting scenarios in which they choose to return a different card, that would’ve been a greater threat, to the deck to activate the skill in favour of holding two backrow removal cards. It can also be tough to play through backrow if you begin your turn with Doomcaliber Knight still face-up on the field, as you can’t special summon Crimson Resonator while you control a monster. This will force you to use your normal summon on a resonator, making it easier to disrupt you. You will however be able to special summon Crimson later in the turn if your field is wiped by cards like Treacherous Trap Hole, and you have another Crimson in hand.
Recommended Cards:
Cyber Dragon
The Cyber Dragon matchup is weird for a lot of decks. Their patented Fusion Gate combo ends on two copies of Chimeratech Rampage Dragon or one Rampage dragon alongside Cyber Twin Dragon, and is able to otk the vast majority of decks, including Resonator. Double Rampage is able to otk the standard 3 monster, 6100 life point board, by first attacking into both resonators, and then crashing into Red Rising Dragon, clearing the way for 6300 damage from the remaining Rampage Dragon. The main problem that stands in the way of this high-power ceiling is that Cyber Dragon is terribly inconsistent, and will often lose games just from bricking. In addition to this, if Cyber Dragons don’t draw backrow removal, their otk is stopped by a lone Book of Moon on the first Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. Because of how vulnerable their combo is against Resonators, they have to draw exceptionally strong hands to otk our average boards, and likewise have to draw strong hands when going first to win against our average turn 2 hands. These are a few of the reasons why this matchup is generally skewed in our favor.
When going first, you ideally want to set up a board of Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon, and Crimson Resonator. Even though they already have difficulty otk’ing the standard board without Doomcaliber, this board presents even more problems. First, Doomcaliber forces them to open Book of Moon to prevent it from negating the search from Cyber Dragon Core. Even if they use Herald of the Abyss, you can simply send Crimson Resonator to the Graveyard instead. Negating the search from core and subsequently removing it from the field can be devastating, especially since Cybernetic Fusion Support is limited to 2 alongside Cybernetic Overflow, making the search from Core more important than ever. In addition to the issue presented by Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon is also problematic, since they can’t attack over it with Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. This forces them to go into Cyber Twin Dragon, Cyber End Dragon, or a Chimeratech Overdragon made with at least 4 materials. All of these options will be significantly more difficult if their search from Cyber Dragon Core is stopped. And even if they open their strongest backrow card in Cybernetic Overflow, they would need to have a way to pop 2, if not 3 of you monsters with Overflow on the following turn to try and take control of the game on turn 4. If you are unable to set up Doomcaliber Knight, but have backrow like Book of Moon, Enemy Controller, or Treacherous Trap Hole, using them on the first Chimeratech Rampage Dragon should stop their combo in most cases. Even if they have Cyberload Fusion in hand to extend past that point, the attacking restriction of Cyberload will keep them from otk’ing you that turn. If you are able to survive their lethal attempts, it should be fairly simple to win on turn 3, especially since triggering Cyber Style also makes them vulnerable to Infernity Doom Dragon. When using Solemn Scolding variants, do not activate it on the summon of Cyber Dragon Core. Negating its summon will then allow it to use its GY effect (Core can only activate one of its effects per turn). Instead, you will want to use scolding to negate either the search effect of Core, or the effect of Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. Keep in mind that you can use Cosmic Cyclone or Mystical Space Typhoon to prevent Fusion Gate from resolving.
When going second against Cyber Dragon, you’ll either be facing a board with a live Cybernetic Overflow (possibly accompanied by other backrow), or a simple set 2-3 pass. Because of their turn 1 reliance on backrow, it’s important to know what cards to be on the look-out for. The most common defensive spells/traps in Cyber Dragon are Cybernetic Overflow, Book of Moon, Offerings to the Doomed, Paleozoic Canadia, and Drowning Mirror Force. Cosmic Cyclone will often be set alongside these cards as well. Cybernetic Overflow only works with monsters named exactly “Cyber Dragon,” so you can usually flip down Cyber Dragon Core to prevent it from being activatable, assuming they don’t have the original Cyber Dragon in hand. However, this isn’t a great action to take unless you have Caius the Shadow Monarch to banish the face-down Core. Otherwise, once it hits the grave, they’ll be able to use it for Overflow. Book of Moon and Offerings to the Doomed will cause delay whenever a face-up monster is on the field. Paleozoic Canadia will only cause delay when you control a face-up monster. And Drowning Mirror Force will only cause delay on direct attacks, which they might let through occasionally if they have no other way to trigger Cyber Style. In general, the most important things when going second are to use the delays to figure out what backrow they have set, and to avoid triggering Cyber Style if you cannot ensure lethal damage that turn.
In addition to the advantages we inherently have in this matchup, we have a searchable card that can often stop them dead in their tracks: Fusion Devourer. This monster will reduce the attack of any fusion monster it battles with to 0 during the damage step. Keep in mind that since monsters will not be destroyed when battling a defense position monster, you’ll want to summon this in attack mode whenever you have a way to protect it from a generic Cyber Dragon or the rare Cyber Dragon Vier. This will allow you to use Devourer aggressively, and actively remove any fusion monsters blocking your way. The effect of Fusion Devourer doesn’t activate, so you can search it with skill and get the benefits of its effect that same turn. Similarly to Doomcaliber Knight, they can try to use Herald of the Abyss to get rid of Devourer, but it won’t work as long as another DARK Fiend is on your board. This means their options for removing this monster are limited and force them to make nonoptimal plays. Because of this, even if they do remove Fusion Devourer from the board, you’ll likely still be in a commanding position.
Some final notes about this matchup: against us, Cyber Dragons like to side cards like Necrovalley, Offerings to the Doomed, and occasionally Drowning Mirror Force or Paleozoic Canadia. Because of this, you’ll want to have as much backrow removal as possible, in addition to siding in Fusion Devourer.
Recommended cards:
Shiranui
The Shiranui matchup was very unfavorable at the time of its initial “revival,” and has only gotten worse for Resonators with the banning of Hey, Trunade!. While Trunade wasn’t core to the deck, it was a great Side Deck option against backrow heavy decks, and often an auto-win card against Endless Trap Hell variants of Shiranui. While Resonator decks can usually play through one disruption fairly well, playing through multiple backrow cards, especially flip-downs like Paleozoic Canadia and Floodgate Trap Hole is a daunting task. This, paired with the floating effect of Samurai Skull, make it very hard to play aggressively against Shiranui. You are often forced to try and grind through their backrow while slowly removing their monsters without triggering their floating effect, and unfortunately, Shiranui has a much stronger grind game than this. Because of this, every turn that you are unable to push aggressively and try to swing the game in your favor will only serve to further the Shiranui player’s control of the gamestate.
Due to the banning of Hey, Trunade!, and the recent rise of Shiranui, a resonator deck must be built in a way that respects this matchup in order to make it a little more favorable. Most players have opted to run Jinzo in the Side Deck, and three copies of Mystical Space Typhoon or Cosmic Cyclone is virtually mandatory if you want to have a chance against Shiranui. However, this often isn’t enough against them. Thankfully, there are multiple other options to consider running in the Main Deck that can help bolster the matchup a bit more. Caius the Shadow Monarch is a great option to consider for the Main Deck, as it can banish a backrow, preventing it from fueling Endless Trap Hell. It can also tribute over a monster flipped face-down by Paleozoic Canadia or Floodgate Trap Hole, allowing you to continue pushing through their disruptions. Enemy Controller can tribute flipped monsters, and proceed to take control of a Samurai Skull or Gozuki, which can then be used to synchro summon- removing them from the board without triggering their floating effects. Even with all these options, though, understand that the Shiranui matchup will be rough regardless. Nonetheless, running some of the aforementioned techs will certainly make it more manageable.
The key when playing against Shiranui is to properly read backrow delays, and to aggressively force them out while conserving your resources (don’t continue your synchro climb when it’s not necessary). We can’t out grind them, but baiting their backrow until you have an opening is usually the best path for success. Avoid making overly aggressive plays if you cannot guarantee lethal, and it will leave you vulnerable to being otk’d by Shiranui Shogunsaga the following turn. Keep in mind that establishing the semi-standard board of Doomcaliber Knight, Dark End Dragon, and Crimson Resonator is not good against Shiranui. It causes you to utilize too many resources, and the negate of Doomcaliber is shrugged off by Samurai Skull, who can simply float into Gozuki after being destroyed. You should also be aware that some builds play Destiny Draw with Sphere Kuriboh, though this has become much less common since the banning of Hey, Trunade!. Occasionally, however, some players will opt to only play one of the semi-limited Shiranui cards, and play one copy of Kiteroid as their second semi-limit. Kiteroid is also commonly sided, so your lethal pushes may not always be safe, even if they have no backrow. All of this should emphasize that over-extending will end in you getting punished 100% of the time against Shiranui, so try to find balance in baiting their backrow while conserving your resources.
In regards to backrow, their most commonly played traps are Floodgate Trap Hole, Ballista Squad, Paleozoic Canadia, Fiendish Chain, and Drowning Mirror Force. Fiendish Chain is the easiest delay of the bunch to identify, as it’s the only one that will cause the hourglass to flicker when you control no cards, as long as they have a face-up effect monster. Floodgate Trap Hole will only cause delay when you summon a monster (unless the summon happens on chain link 2 or above). Paleozoic Canadia will only cause delay when you control a face-up monster. Ballista Squad will cause delay whenever you control a card, while Drowning Mirror Force will not cause any delay until you attack directly.
Due to already having a considerable advantage against us, Shiranui typically won’t Side Deck anything specifically for Resonator. Conversely, Resonator decks need to have multiple options in the Side Deck for Shiranui. Some examples would be: Jinzo, D.D. Crow, and Skull Meister (a skill target).
Recommended Cards:
Fire King
The Fire King matchup is inherently unfavorable for Resonators. It can be difficult for Resonator decks to navigate through a multitude of hand traps without triggering skills like Destiny Draw or Sorcery Conduit. This, mixed with their ability to continuously wipe the field with Fire King High Avatar Garunix, or clear your board while dealing massive damage with Invoked Purgatrio, lead them to naturally have an edge over the core Resonator engine. However, there are some positives that the Resonator engine naturally has against Fire King, in addition to some extremely powerful Side Deck options, that help keep this matchup in a very manageable position.
There are two primary variants of Fire Kings to keep in mind: 30 card builds focused around Destiny Draw, and smaller builds that cut some of their hand traps to focus more on utilizing Aleister the Invoker with Sorcery Conduit (though Destiny Draw is still commonly used in smaller builds as well). It is also worth noting that with the introduction of Gaia, and the popularity of cards like Angel O7 and Amano-Iwato in the Side Deck, some Fire King decks have begun utilizing more backrow. Because of this, there are some Fire King builds still focused mainly on using hand traps for protection, some that focus on backrow, and most commonly, builds that have a relatively even balance of the two. Keep in mind that since both Sorcery Conduit and Destiny Draw are Yami Yugi skills, you will never be able to know for sure which skill you are up against, since they could even side between the two in a best-of-3 match. Regardless, your best play will generally be to play around both when able. If they are playing a 30-card build and you do not know their skill, and find yourself unable to play around the 1500 threshold of Sorcery Conduit, but can play around the 2000 loss for Destiny Draw, you can usually proceed forward as if they are playing Destiny Draw. However, if you don’t know their skill and they are playing a smaller build, you should avoid triggering Sorcery Conduit unless you have defensive cards to protect you from a follow-up Invoked Purgatrio.
The most common turn one play from Fire King is to pass on Fire King Avatar Arvata. This is often paired with set cards or hand traps like Book of Moon, Paleozoic Canadia, Treacherous Trap Hole, Drowning Mirror Force, Sphere Kuriboh, and Kiteroid. Battlin’ Boxer Veil is sometimes used, especially in 30 card builds, but has become less common as decks have gained tools like Heroic Champion-Excalibur to allow them to circumnavigate Veil. Thankfully, Resonators can play through the single negate of Fire King Avatar Arvata fairly well. If you open Crimson Resonator and any additional level 2 resonator, then you will be able to make Dark End Dragon even if they negate the effect of Red Rising Dragon, which will be the most common point for them to negate. Dark End Dragon will then be able to “send” Arvata to the graveyard, which will bypass its floating effect. If for some reason, they do not negate Red Rising Dragon or the subsequent activation of a revived Crimson Resonator, your best play is to simply attack over the Arvata with Red Rising Dragon, assuming they don’t already have another card in grave for Arvata to resurrect. If they have Fire King Avatar Barong in the graveyard, you should avoid attacking Arvata, so they can’t utilize Barong’s search effect on the following turn.
When going first against Fire King, Doomcaliber Knight alongside Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator is typically the setup you want if you have no defensive spells/traps. None of the normal summons from Fire King can attack over Doomcaliber, and having it established to negate a search from Fire King Avatar Barong or the graveyard effect of Fire King High Avatar Garunix is useful. However, if you do have a defensive card like Book of Moon, you’re usually better off going with the standard 3 monster setup and using your backrow to protect you and disrupt your opponent, so you can save Doomcaliber to negate hand traps during lethal pushes. Even setting Mystical Space Typhoon or Cosmic Cyclone to prevent Fire King Island or Fire Formation-Tenki from resolving, or using them to wipe your opponent’s board by removing Fire King Island, can be a strong defensive option for your backrow.
Sometimes, attacking with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane without regard for Destiny Draw and Sorcery Conduit can be a good play, as long as you can ensure you won’t be otk’d and will have follow-up for the next turn. If Bane is able to successfully attack directly, you will have put them within easy lethal range from the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon. Beyond that, leaving them with only 500 life points will usually mean just one successful attack will win the game. Because of the pressure put on them by this, Fire King players will often be forced to use a hand trap on Bane’s direct attack, which makes it much easier to play around triggering their skill from that point on. This aggression can sometimes work when attacking with monsters other than Bane as well, since putting your opponent down to 1350 life points or below will leave them within lethal range of Infernity Doom Dragon when Fire King High Avatar Garunix is on the field.
There are several common tech cards that work well in both the Main Deck and Side Deck that can bolster Resonator’s Fire King matchup. Amano-Iwato helps guarantee lethal through hand traps, while also returning to the hand at the end of the turn, so it can’t be destroyed by Fire King High Avatar Garunix or Invoked Puratrio. Angel O7 similarly guarantees lethal attempts through hand traps, but remains on the field, leaving it vulnerable to cards like Book of Moon and Onslaught of the Fire Kings. Caius the Shadow Monarch can banish Fire King Avatar Arvata to prevent it from floating. More importantly, Caius can banish an on-field Garunix, which really hurts the Fire King strategy. Additionally, in niche scenarios, Caius can target itself with its effect to burn your opponent for 500 lethal damage, if you successfully attacked directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane earlier in the duel. D.D. Crow can banish Fire King High Avatar Garunix from the graveyard, crippling one of Fire King’s main win conditions. Solemn Scolding can negate a crucial Onslaught of the Fire Kings or hand trap. It’s worth noting that if you negate a Sphere Kuriboh with Scolding, they will need Kiteroid, or something similar, in order to successfully stop your attack, since Sphere can only activate when an attack is declared.
One final tip: avoid using the effect of Infernity Doom Dragon unless the effect damage is lethal. Since Doom Dragon’s effect destroys, Fire King is able to generate a lot of advantage from it. For example, if you use Doom Dragon to destroy Fire King Avatar Arvata while Fire King Avatar Barong is in the grave, Arvata will just float into Barong. Then if you don’t destroy it by battle, Barong will destroy itself in the end phase, allowing them to search for Fire King Island or Onslaught of the Fire Kings on the following turn. Monsters commonly used in Fire King decks that can safely be destroyed by Doom Dragon include Coach Soldier Wolfbark, Invoked Purgatrio, Invoked Caliga, and all of their xyz monsters.
Recommended cards:
Lunalight
Lunalight is a deck that while not highly prevalent in tournaments, is fairly common and effective on the ranked ladder, where they can easily utilise their surprise factor and anti-target playstyle to succeed against many decks. It can be very tough to identify that your opponent is a lunalight player before any cards have been played, but they are typically characterised by Yami Yugi, with whom they will use the skill Destiny Draw. However, some people have recently begun to use Zane’s skill Fatal Five in order to easily otk against decks like Resonator with Lunalight Cat Dancer. Lunalight serves as a great threat to Resonators without a Side Deck, due to their untargetable boss monster Lunalight Sabre Dancer, which also boasts a high attack stat that will always eclipse 3500 on summon, making it impossible for the Resonator engine to inherently deal with.
If you are unsure that your opponent is playing Lunalight, the safest play on the first turn is to use Wandering King Wildwind and Crimson Resonator to form a board of Red Rising Dragon, Red Resonator and Crimson Resonator, all in defense position, alongside boosted life points at 6100. While you should set your backrow as well, keep in mind that most backrow will be useless against Lunalight Sabre Dancer. This board shields you from potentially massive damage via attacks from Lunalight Cat Dancer or Lunalight Sabre Dancer, who can attack into a 0 attack monster on your side of the field if you leave a monster in attack position, due to the effect of Lunalight Crimson Fox. On your following turn, you can attempt to otk, though this can be challenging due to the presence of hand traps such as Sphere Kuriboh that are used to enable Destiny Draw. When activated, they will almost always use the skill to grab Lunalight Fusion, allowing them to fusion summon a lunalight monster using one material from their deck if you control a monster summoned from the Extra Deck. From there, Lunalight players can easily dismantle your field and inflict heavy damage to your life points. In order to avoid activating Destiny Draw, you should set up lethal damage that can play through sphere kuriboh. If that’s not possible, attack in a way that you can deal 4000 damage without dealing over 2000 with the first attack. An example of this would be using Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane and Crimson Resonator, attacking first with Crimson Resonator and then with Bane, forcing them to use sphere kuriboh, without you reducing their life points by over 2000. Doomcaliber Knight can also be useful here, as its 1900 attack will avoid triggered Destiny Draw, while also giving you the ability to negate a hand trap as well.
If you do know for a fact that your opponent is playing Lunalight, you should avoid summoning a monster from the Extra Deck, to make Lunalight Fusion less potent. In this scenario, your best options are to simply set a Wandering King Wildwind or to special summon Crimson Resonator and Wildwind in defense mode. The advantage this provides is that in the event that the lunalight player opens lunalight fusion, they cannot utilise materials from the deck to fusion summon, as you control no monsters summoned from the Extra Deck. This can prevent them from establishing a strong defense in the form of Lunalight Sabre Dancer, who will always be a minimum attack of 3600, above Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane. This setup also prevents you from getting easily otk’d by Lunalight Cat Dancer in Fatal Five variants. The following turn, you can attempt to otk, while of course being wary of hand traps.
Going second, the ideal play varies depending on what the Lunalight player does on their turn. If they pass turn, you should assume they have hand traps such as Sphere Kuriboh and Arcana Force XIV-Temperance, and attempt to create lethal damage keeping that and the skill Destiny Draw in mind. Additionally, if you are playing on ladder, it should be noted that a Yami Yugi passing on turn 1 is a common sign that your opponent is playing Lunalight. So in those scenarios on ladder, you will want to make sure you play around Lunalight Fusion in addition to Destiny Draw. If you draw one Crimson Resonator and a normal summonable monster with 500 or more attack points but less than 2000 attack, you can create lethal damage with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane and Crimson Resonator by activating Demon’s Resonance to add Wandering King Wildwind to hand, using that and Crimson Resonator to make Hot red dragon Archfiend Bane and increased life points at 6100. Then normal summon the other monster in hand. This threatens lethal with a first attack that will not trigger destiny draw, then a 3500 damage attack. This play is not without weakness, as if the opponent uses a hand trap to survive and has Lunalight fusion in hand, they can easily otk next turn if you have no protection from backrow, via Lunalight Cat Dancer.
If the Lunalight player has set a monster, the most threatening card this could be is Lunalight Yellow Marten, which when sent to the gy by a card effect will add a Lunalight spell or trap from deck to hand. Bear in mind that removal by the effect of Dark End Dragon will still trigger this effect. Against Lunalight, it’s best to assume that any set monster is Yellow Marten, so you’ll want to remove their set monsters by battle. It is however very difficult to otk past this; but if you open Crimson Resonator, Wandering King Wildwind and another monster with 500 or more attack but less than 2000, you can threaten lethal damage without risking triggering Destiny Draw. You first use Demon’s Resonance to search an additional Wandering King Wildwind, Then use Crimson resonator and Wandering King Wildwind to make a board of Dark End Dragon and Crimson Resonator (do not use the effect of Red Resonator to gain life points yet). Next, special summon an additional Wandering King Wildwind, and synchro summon Red Rising Dragon, using its effect to special summon Red Resonator from the gy, and use Red Resonator’s effect to gain life points now, targeting Dark End Dragon. Then synchro summon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane using the materials on the field, and proceed to normal summon the monster with 500 or more attack points but less than 2000. Use Red Rising Dragon to attack over the set monster, attack directly with the normal summoned monster, and then attack directly with Hot Red Dragon Archfiend bane, if the first direct attack wasn’t stopped.
If the Lunalight player has summoned Lunalight Sabre Dancer, it is only removable through techs. Lunalight Sabre Dancer has 3000 base attack and gains 200 for every beast warrior that is banished or in either graveyard. As a result, Sabre Dancer’s effect will always put it at a minimum of 3600 attack on summon, since it takes 3 materials to summon. In addition to this, it is untargetable. This makes it impossible to out with the Resonator engine cards alone, as all of the core removal is targeting, and the highest attack monster the deck can summon is Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane, which has 3500 attack. Builds that incorporate Red Nova Dragon will be able to attack over Sabre Dancer due to the high attack power it can reach, although it is still easily stopped by Sphere Kuriboh, or can have its attack dropped to 0 by Lunalight Crimson Fox. Additionally, it is generally considered worse to use Red Nova Dragon, due to the hindrance it puts on your Extra Deck space. Another way to deal with Lunalight Sabre Dancer is via tech cards that utilise non-targeting removal, such as Herald of the Abyss. The last, and probably most common way to deal with Sabre Dancer in Resonators, is found in running a small HERO package consisting of Elemental HERO Stratos and Destiny HERO - Plasma. Once it is on the field, Plasma will negate all effects on the field, meaning that you can target Sabre Dancer. You can then proceed to use Plasma to equip the Sabre Dancer, increasing its attack to 3400. Once boosted this way, they will either have to remove Plasma with Number 70: Malevolent Sin, reduce it to 0 attack with Lunalight Crimson Fox, or boost a fusion monster with Lunalight Purple Butterfly. You should avoid attacking with Plasma unless you know they don’t have a hand trap, since being changed to defense position by Sphere Kuriboh will make it extremely easy to remove by battle. Instead, summon small monsters to poke away at your opponent’s life points instead, while continuing to be wary of Destiny Draw, and checking to see if they have any usable hand traps.
Some general tips: Fire Formation Tenki, a search card used to add any level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior from deck to hand, can be essentially negated if spell/trap removal such as Mystical Space Typhoon is used to destroy it after activation, as continuous spells must remain face-up on the field to successfully resolve. Red Dragon Archfiend should not be used to attack set monsters, as those monsters will be destroyed by its effect, allowing them to generate card advantage. Always maintain awareness of the gy, as a targeting effect on a Lunalight monster can be negated by Lunalight Crimson Fox. While Book of Moon is useless against Lunalight Sabre Dancer, it can be used to flip one of your monsters face-down, who had their attack reduced to 0 by Lunalight Crimson Fox. This is useful when you attempted to make a lethal push, but was stopped and left with attack position monsters on board as a result. Additionally, if you only control one extra deck monster, Book of Moon can be used to flip it down in response to Lunalight Fusion and deny them the ability to use a material from the deck. Amano-Iwato can shut down the effects of hand traps like Sphere Kuriboh, allowing you to comfortably swing for lethal damage, while also returning to the hand at the end phase to prevent it from fueling a potential otk from Lunalight Crimson Fox. Herald of the Abyss is non-targeting removal that can deal with Lunalight Sabre Dancer, but if the opponent controls multiple Lunalight monsters, they won’t have to send Lunalight Sabre Dancer. Solemn Scolding Can negate the activation of Lunalight Fusion and hand traps.
Recommended Cards:
Resonators are an extremely consistent deck with the ability to play through single disruptions with relative ease, due to its main combos not requiring a normal summon. Resonator decks have a large and flexible amount of space for a variety of tech cards. While the meta has recently shifted in a more unfavorable position, the versatility provided by the large tech space available should allow this deck to remain relevant in the meta. However, due to the current low power ceiling of the resonator engine, and it’s reliance on techs, new decks with inherently powerful engines will likely power creep Resonators, unless new support is released.
We would like to thank the following people for providing their valuable insight for the matchups covered here:
- Onomat- Buns
- Harpie- Dylligraphy
- Thunder Dragon- GadgetBug
- Shiranui- Rezileen
- Cyber Dragon- akhil02
- A special thanks to Jadehex and RandomPl0x for the great work they do on the website, and to Dkayed for running such a great community for Duel Links.
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