INTRODUCTION

With the Rise of Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare event we got our hands on Yubel and its evolutions, Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. While screaming YouTube deck, these cards actually synergize very well with very old friends: Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and the Fire Kings archetype. What makes it great is the ability to be triggered from the hand using Fire King Island cheating a Terror Incarnate in the field! You are going to pop monsters and backrow Every. Single. Turn. Bro.

SKILL

There is only one good skill with the deck and that skill is My Name is Yubel. It’s basically a better Switcheroo that shuffles back in the deck one of the Yubel evolutions and draws you the first stage. This makes your deck pretty much able to play 4 or 5 Yubels! This skill alone makes the deck very consistent :D (we are talking 70%-80& consistent hands while going first/second here)

STARTER CARDS

Your main combo starter card will be Fire King Island, popping either Phoenix or Yubel in your hand and searching for Fire King Avatar Yaksha, your other starter, or Fire King Avatar Barong, that lets you set up a follow up by searching another field spell. Obviously play 3 of each.

TARGETS

The main combo is to lockdown your opponent by continuosly destroying every monster and spell/trap card on the field by having a Yubel - Terror Incarnate and a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys together. For this reason you have to max them and play 3 Yubels, 3 Phoenix, and one each of the Yubel’s evolutions. You might consider dropping Yubel to 2 because the skill makes you virtually play 5 copies of it so you might find yourself do fine with 4 instead, but generally speaking you want to max combo pieces.

OTHER CORE CARDS

What would a Phoenix deck play if not 3 Sphere Kuriboh? A solid card that saves us from OTKs and in some situations it can save Yubels from Forbidden Chalices or Super Rush Headlongs or Amazoness Onslaught too! Play 3 and if you can’t then you can try other techs. Fire King Avatar Barong is a solid 1 of to search as soon as turn 1 to have follow ups with a second Fire King Island. Space is tight and you dont really need a second copy.

TECHS

• Enemy Controller - One of the best card in the game. Most meta decks cannot play it so having access to it is an immediate buff. Remember if you try to ECon take using Terror it’s going to miss the timing.

• Treacherous Trap Hole - Best trap in the game and we don’t have any core trap, so feel free to slap 1 or 2 copies of TTH in the deck.

• Forbidden Dress - Super good card! It makes opponent monsters runnable over by Yashkas and protects Yubels! Super versatile.

• Kuriboh - Not as good as Sphere Kuriboh, but still a decent option to play.

• Super Rush Headlong - Similar to Kuriboh, it’s a fire and forget defensive spell that can save your monsters aswell.

• Limit Reverse - This trap works wonderful with Yubel and gives you options and follow ups! Even if continuous tho its going to be in the graveyard right after you played it because of Phoenix or switching Yubel to def position to trigger its effect so it does not work that well with Treacherous Trap Hole in the same deck.

• Interdimensional Matter Transporter - A nice addition, blinking a Terror or a Nightmare can be a nice way to save them from Fire King Islands destruction or your opponent doing things and since IMT doesnt special summon but simply brings back from the banish zone it synergizes well with the deck. also triggers Terror effect!

• Planet Pathfinder - Searcher for the field spell. Island is the best starter card for the deck so getting it is super important. Pathfinder is the only searcher we have so you might play some copies.

• Lava Golem - Maybe a bit rendundant in the deck, but it can be good in the mirror and for some sheganigans, more testing is needed.

• Skull Meister - Good hand trap, maybe makes the mirror winnable and hits Heroes, Amazoness Onslaught, Vampires so definetly playable.

• Heat Wave - A good substitute for Kuribohs and works very well if you open with Phoenix being destructed.

• Hane-Hane / Gale Lizard to pay respects to the deck.

HOW TO PLAY THE DECK AND COUNTERS

Goal: Terror Incarnate + Phoenix on field destroying everything every turn

Most common opener will involve triggering Phoenix or Yubel with either Island or Yaksha. If you dont have the field spell, setting Yaksha should do the job!

Island -> pop Phoenix -> search Yaksha/Barong Island -> pop Yubel -> search Yaksha/Barong (usually Barong is better to search Island and have a follow up) Island -> pop Phoenix -> search Yaksha -> next turn Phoenix comes back and destroys Yaksha -> pop Yubel and summon Terror Incarnate // This is the perfect lockdown setup

If you want to set or not the card you searched really depends on the matchup/your opening hand. For example, if your opponent has 3 backrow or a key spell/trap in the board Phoenix might be a better play than Yubel. Or, if you feel you want a wall, Yubel is great!
Keep in mind, Terror will trigger in the end phase so if you set Yaksha/Barong you will get its effect! This can help you out or backfire. Always focus on the board state.
Phoenix popping the backrow is a great opener for Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare attacks! You can get lethal with Phoenix + Nightmare attacking a 1600+ atk monster thanks to the burn damage, 1300 if you summon Sphere Kuriboh for lethal.

About Consistency:

!!! IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW !!!

• Yubel and the evolutions miss their timing if the effects trigger at chain link 2 or more
• Yubel Terror Incarnate effect triggers even if it gets banished, but it needs to be face up on the field to summon Ultimate Nightmare
• Terror’s effect doesnt activate if it is shuffled back in the deck (es Drowning Mirror Force)
• Paleozoic Canadia can flip down Terror Incarnate to prevent a Nightmare summon if Terror is going to be destroyed
• Canadia is immune from monster effects so it doesnt get destroyed by Terror/Nightmare. That’s actually great because you can attack Canadia over and over with Nightmare for 1200 damage every turn
• Forbidden Chalice hits the deck hard so try to play around it with Terror in defense position or using Kuribohs.
• Yubel’s effects at the end of turn fire off from left to right, so put form 1 on the right and Terror to the far left if you want to cycle forms
• Ultimate Nightmare burns if it attacks monsters in any position
• Sealed Tombs stops Phoenix revive, but it doesnt stop Yubel’s effect to summon an evolution if it’s from the deck

(possible) FINAL DECKLIST:

MATCHUPS

AMAZONESS: favourable

Phoenix and Yubels are just too much to deal with. Even if they manage to stop our loops and disrupt our strategy it’s easy for us to recover and except some occasional Cosmic Cyclones and Paleozoic Canadias there isn’t much to fear from Amazoness. Amazoness Onslaught can banish Terror and once it gets banished it’s lost but Nightmare can be an excellent win condition on its own if you can get it out. Forbidden Dress is less valuable in this matchup except for our own set ups but overall the deck doesn’t relly need to tech for Amazoness since our game plan is hard enough for them. You will not be able to summon Nightmare if Terror gets banished by Onslaught since that happens during the damage step.

VAMPIRES: favourable

Forbidden Dress is definetly MVP here, not only stopping Vampire Grace + Vampire Kingdom destruction effect saving your monsters, but if used correctly Dress can force your opponent to destroy one of their own card! Generally speaking Vampires are great at otk so Sphere Kuriboh will come in handy but just Yubel can be enough for you to stall and lock your opponent if they dont find a decent out to both Terror and Nightmare. Dont understimate Phoenix in this matchup either since clearing both opponent field spells is quite a big deal. Something to fear from Vampires are Enemy Controllers for econ takes but it is a favourable matchup for sure.

MASKED HEROES: bad

Heroes can just sack you with some auto win hands. Cosmic Cyclones hurts, and Yaksha makes Yubel miss timing if chained to Masked HERO Ankis effect that searches a Mask Change. At least other than Treacherous Trap Hole Heroes dont have outs to Terror/Nightmare so if you can bring one out it becomes a winnable match! Watch out for Ankis direct attacks over Yubel and in this match normal Kuriboh can be better than sphere since Heroes can Forbidden Chalice during dmg step and normal kuriboh makes them waste it.

SPELLBOOKS: bad

Spellbook of Fate is one of the strongest cards in the game and Silent Magician negating Islands or cyclones removing it doesnt help either. Not a easy matchup at all and winnable only if you go first with a good opening hand. If you can start putting pressure those 3-4 fates max will not stop the recurring phoenix and yubel effects can steal games.

FUR HIRES: favourable

Both Fur Hires boss monsters can be annoying, with Wiz, Sage Fur Hire negating our Fire King Islands and Dyna, HERO Fur Hire banishing Phoenix or Terror in the graveyard, but in general there isn’t any problematic backrow to fear and Dress is great at dodging Donpa, Marksman Fur Hires and Treacherous Trap Holes. Yaksha is great here to help summoning our Yubels and the 2800 def body Wiz has is nothing for Ultimate Nightmare.

ULTRA ATHLETES: even

This match seems quite relying on the coinflip and the starting hands more than anything. Once Terror hits the board it’s pretty much auto win since U.A. doesn’t have any good out to it or Nightmare. The problem might be getting it out tho since cyclones and negated Sphere Kuribohs/Yaksha hurt us quite a lot. Canadias are annoying aswell.

MIRROR MATCH: pure madness

The mirror can be very hard. There will be a lot of back and forths and Nightmares crashing each other. Every tech has its own pros and contros in the mirror and there really isn’t a better tech card than another. A lot of matches can end in deck outs and every resource is important so try to be ahead of your opponent as many turns as you can and play accordingly. Dont try to commit the board too much for lethal and play around Sphere Kuribohs first. Probably one of the most skillful matches in the game at the moment.

NOTE: NIGHTMARE EFFECT IS CURRENTLY BUGGED AND IT DOES NOT DESTROY MONSTERS WITH 0 ATK

CREDITS

Written by xb8
Thanks to:
Effy
soup8
Bacon
And the other believers from #yubel-phoenix-lock channel!