Burning Abyss (Updated 11/09/2023)

[rocky pawn]

Burning Abyss is an interesting deck in that while its strategy is very straight forward, the payoff of their combos can be fined tuned and respond to many other tech and actions of other decks. While Burning Abyss is no longer a tier 1 meta contender, it is absolutely worth the cost of entry for a long-lasting powerful rogue deck option.

In this guide I will go over the basic combos of Burning Abyss, the basic deck structure, meta dependent tech, and how to play through disruption.

First, let's go over the deck itself:

Main Deck Monsters

A Burning abyss deck will comprise almost entirely of monsters, as monsters in this deck serve both as your bodies and tech tools.

Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss: 3x Copies

Scarm plays a pivotal role in BA as deck's only searcher. Depending on your opening hand, Scarm is one of the best cards to see going first or second due to the fact that it is often the best discard to summon Beatrice to mitigate the cost of summoning your boss monster. The card you will search for the most is more than likely going to be Tour Guide From the Underworld, who we will cover later.

Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss: 3x Copies

Serving as the deck's Monster Reborn, Cir is by far the best card to use to summon Dante with for one of BA's more well known combos: Cir-Dante-Cir. As Cir works when it is sent to the graveyard from anywhere, upon the removal of either Beatrice or Dante, Cir will activate, allowing you to bring back Dante for both defensive and offensive purposes.

Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss: 3x Copies

Farfa serves as the decks primary tool for disruption. Able to be utilized in various ways, Farfa operates best either in the deck or as a material for Dante for a quickplay banish. This card is also a good target for Cir if Dante is either unneeded or unavailable, as upon destruction, you will be able to defend yourself against two attacks instead of just one.

Fiendish Rhino Warrior: 1-2x Copies

One of the better non-archetype cards in a Burning Abyss deck, Rhino serves many purposes as both an extender and as protection against BA's own effects. In the strategy section we will cover how best to utilize this card both defensively and offensively.

Tour Guide From the Underworld: 1 Copy

Tour Guide serves as Burning Abyss' best follow up option post your initial set up. While a decent card to see in opening hand, it is best when searched by Scarm as a one card combo on your next turn

Extra Deck

The Extra deck for burning abyss relies primarily on the Dante and Beatrice combo to provide continuous advantage and disruption to your opponent, but there are several tech options outside of this duo that you can take advantage of:

Dante, Traveler of The Burning Abyss: 2-3x Copies

Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal: 2x Copies

Knightmare Shark: 1x Copy

Knightmare Shark is an excellent tool for closing out of games. Burning Abyss has a tendency to drag out games and Knightmare Shark could be the perfect solution in the late game to bypass tricky boss monsters that Dante or Beatrice would not be best to handle.

The Phantom Knights of Break Sword: 1x Copy

Break Sword is an excellent going 2nd card against decks that you want to bait out interaction with. While BA struggled against Backrow, potentially baiting responses out can be a game changer.

D/D/D Stone King Darius: 1x Copy

This is a personal tech of mine that I love to utilize in BA. With the meta progressing at a rapid rate, we are seeing more and more boss cards that are untargetable. Darius serves as the decks sole answer to untargetable boss monsters.

Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss: 1x Copy

While not an out of archetype tech choice, Virgil only comes up once Beatrice has been destroyed. In the progressing meta, non-destruction removal has become more and more prevalent, so using this card is slowly becoming optional, rather than the mandatory must it was in the past.

[rocky pawn]

Meta-Dependant Staples

Burning Abyss is a deck that has stood the test of time, having proved to be Koggable in both OTK, Control, and Mixed Metas. But with this consistency, it is up to the deck builder to select and choose potential staples to respond to the changing metas:

Kiteroid

Kiteroid is a good staple in Burning abyss due to the fact that Beatrice can send it to the graveyard to act as protection if a burning abyss card is not the optimal choice.

Forbidden Lance

There is no getting around the fact that Burning Abyss is weak into interruption, so a well timed Lance going 2nd, or to protect Beatrice could be the difference between winning or losing a duel.

Galaxy Cyclone

The worst of the backrow removal tech options for the majority of decks, I have found that in certain Metas, this could be one of the best send options with Beatrice to take care of problematic traps and continuous spells. The best example being Mekk-Knights' World Legacy Secret.

Crane Crane

While on the verge of being a main deck staple, Crane Crane is very situational in the fact that it can be a costly brick going first. Ratios in BA are tight as you want to ensure maximum odds of drawing 3 BA names turn 1, but this card can serve as an excellent extender and a pseudo tour guide.

Wind-Up ZenMaines

While largely just a worse Beatrice, Zenmaines can serve as an excellent Wall in situations where you do not draw 3 BA names. However, it is meta dependant as non-destruction removal becomes a more common feature in Duel-Links.

Black Luster Soldier: Envoy of the Beginning & Chaos Dragon Levianeer

Both serving as finishing plays or just big bodies on the field. It is no secret that BA sends many dark monsters to the graveyard, but both Dante and Beatrice are Light Monsters. While some sacrifices may be needed to include these cards, some metas may rely on power over consistency.

Strategy

Burning Abyss combos are largely straight forward, but your choices in how you create that combo can have incredible impact on how you wish to move forward in the duel.

Optimal Turn 1 Combo

The best hand a Burning Abyss player can have is largely irrelevant as long as you start out with at least 2 Burning Abyss monsters with different names, and 1 to serve as the discard.

The best possible combination of Burning Abyss cards to use to summon Dante are Cir and Alich, with Scarm being the best possible discard to summon Beatrice. You will always want to summon Beatrice to the right-hand EMZ slot in defense position.

While simple, this combo will largely effect how the next turn will play out depending on what Burning Abyss cards you used to summon your Beatrice.

Optimal Turn 2 Combo

Now, turn 2 is much trickier for BA as there are many, many disruptions that could affect your initial plays.

Depending on your hand, the best course of action is to try and bait as much backrow as possible, so save your normal summon and special summon a non-Cir or Scarm Burning Abyss. If it gets warning pointed or removed, you should then follow up by performing a normal summon or Cir, hopefully to bring back a Burning abyss if disrupted further.

If they utilize Book of Moon, then it comes down to luck. The best option if they have book of moon is to pray that you have Fiendish Rhino Warrior or Tour Guide to extend, as you should not have used your normal summon at this point. If not, your best options are to set Libic, Farfa, or Scarm for protection.

If you are able to get Beatrice without being interrupted, then the most optimal plays are to remove as many obstacles as possible for your next turn, as it is very rare that BA can OTK on turn 2. I'd advise that if possible, you should discard Farfa to summon Beatrice to banish one of their monsters, then utilize the Skill Mind of the Plana to remove it from the game entirely.

Strategy Pt 2

Now, you have established a board and you have either disrupted their plays turn 2 or set up a significant defense turn 1. Your next play is to both disrupt their turn and prepare your own for turn 3 or 4.

Optimal turn 3-4 Strategy

Here we will be talking on how best to utilize Beatrice. As the signature boss of the deck, much of your interaction with your opponent will be through this card.

One of the most important things about Beatrice to keep in mind, is that you have two potential effects at all times, but utilizing the cards under Beatrice will also serve to weaken the reaction of the card if destroyed. I often find it best to send Dante as my first material used for to both prepare for the next turn, while also preserving both interactions for later in the turn.

In most situations, you will send Farfa to disrupt enemy plays, but it really up to your own matchup knowledge to determine when best to send either Farfa or a different card.

One tech that is not often seen in my opinion, is the fact that in most cases, you will want your beatrice to be destroyed. With beatrice destroyed, you will gain both effects of the BA's under Beatrice, as well as follow up for the next turn in either Virgil or another Dante.

Make sure to choose your interuption wisely to ensure the most reward for your next turn.

Potential Deck lists:

Here are several deck builds I have experimented with in the past that you could utilize:

[rocky pawn]

Burning Abyss 11/09/2023

Burning Abyss ( Updated 11/09/2023)