Black Luster Solider 11/16/23 (Pre-Ban List)

[unborn lintel]

Black Luster Solider, commonly known as BLS, is a powerful OTK deck that utilizes a skill to return monsters from te banished zone to graveyard. The deck is widely regarded as one of the best decks of the format.

I will be covering BLS (and no it wont just be a yellow button guide I promise)

Pros
Strong OTK power with the ability to play through disruption
Access to powerful staples
Easy recovery
Good matchups against a lot of meta decks
Cons
Lack off grind game if you haven't won on turn 5 you usually have lost
The main weakness is "Forbidden Lancea" which stops you from banishing meaning you can not summon on ritual monsters unless chaos form is in your hand/ Turn 1 if you don't draw good backrow your turn 1 is usually bad.

Skill:The soul of light and darkness (without the skill the deck is unplayable)

Main deck (core)
For simplistic purposes I will refer to "Black Luster Solider Envoy Of Choas" as envoy, "Black Luster Solider legendary solider" as Legend BLS, "Black Luster Solider" as BLS, "Black Luster Solider Super Solider" as Super BLS.

Monsters

3x envoy of choas (This card will be your turn 1 alot of the times and an OTK enabler, on turn 1 it can be summoned for free (due to the skill) and with a second use of the skill it can search any "Black Luster Solider" card, it also can attack TWICE when it ha destroyed an opponents monster allow you to rip through boards with its humongus 3k attack stat, and top it all off it has a targetting banish effect which can be used to deal with trouble some monsters)

1x BLS (vanilla verison has no effect) This card is useless on its own but if you control it when you activate the skill you can set a ritual spell directly from the deck (in this deck choas form) This cards only use is for the skill and its 3k attack stat, it is A MUST CORE without the deck won't work.

1x Legend BLS (This card is the best card in your archetype and is your main boss monster. This card when summoned using a normal monster,use only chaos form to summon this, allows you to return all cards on your opponents field to deck when it destroys a monster aswell as locking your opponent out of effects during the battle phase)

1x Super BLS (This card is just a 3k beater with a floating effect allow you to crash into other 3k monsters and gain a monster back (the gaias so make sure you dont banish both of them), it also has burn damage that could be situationally good, this is a 2nd option inf Legend BLS fails, sometimes its burn damage/floating effect is better than summoning Legend BLS since it is lethal. This is a very common misplay that can only be corrected with experience, also note when you crash into another 3k you do not gain the burn damage effect only the floating effect)

3x Endymion, the Magistus of Mastery (This card is very core, it directly influences the extra deck for this guide I will only Rillona,Ninaruru,Artemis. Vashram (If you run him aswell as Rillona aren't core for the deck to work but they are great. For all of these magistus extra deck monsters you must use Endymion's effect to attach them. When you attach Rillona you can target one monster your opponent controls and negate its effects until this turns end. When you attack Ninaruru you can target 1 magistus monster in your spell/trap zone (mainly Ninaruru), destory it and one spell trap your opponent controls. This card is very important if you do not run removal like Mystical Space Typhoon or Cosmic Cyclone. When you attack artemis you can add 1 magistus card from your deck, then you can use Endymion's second effect to draw 1 card by destroying Artemis (this can be done with any magistus extra deck monster but Artemis is best since you won't go minus 1 to her searching a Magistus), and finally shuffle a card back into the deck (mainly the copy of Endymion you just searched using Artemis' effect.) Vashram is very simple if you attack you can destroy the attack target. # PLEASE NOTE THE DECK IS ALOT BETTER WITH OPTIMAL EXTRA DECK SO GET THEM!

Spells (Yes this deck has only 1 core spell)

Chaos Form (This is the second ritual spell since the skill add ones to your graveyard. If you have a Vanilla BLS on your field when you activate the skill you can set this form your deck. The main use of this is to banish sphere kuriboh + Dark Magician from your graveyard to summon Legend BLS. This card can also be searched with Legend BLS effect.)

Techs/Staples
Sit down, this is a LONG one. I will cover the best/most common techs as well as the weaknesses they have)

1. Crackdown (What do I have to say this card is broken. It allows you to steal an opponents monster but it can not attack or activate its effects. Its main weakness is backrow removal/destruction as when this card is destroyed you lose the monster. Another issue is it can not be changed into any removal. If your opponent uses cosmic cyclone on book of moon you can still activate it and get the effect. In this case you will lose the monster you took instantly. Cool Trick: If you book of moon the monster you took it can active its effects and attack. Current Status: Limited 3

2. Enemy Controller (This card is FREE to obtain aswell as its powerful effects. This card can change a monster to defense position, it may be useful but this is the weaker effect. The 2nd effect allows you to tribute a monster to take control of an opponents. This is extremely powerful and allows you to play through disruption. This card has an issue due to the aftermath. At the end phase they get the monster back and you don't. Meaning if you are unable to kill you are vulnerable. Current Status: Limited 1

3. Book of moon (I don't need to say anything here, this card has been meta for so long due to its ability to stop combos by flipping a monster face down on a QUICK EFFECT, meaning this can be done on an opponents turn to stop a combo. This cards biggest issue is link monsters, this card is worthless on a link monster as it can not be used, The biggest work around is to book the materials that would be used for the link summon. Current status: Unlimited.)

4. Removal, Cosmic Cyclone + Mystical Space Typhoon (Admittedly so BLS decks have been running less and less of these removals recently, they are still valuable as during the end phase they can get rid of trouble some backrow before they activate, these cards have a giant downside as if you open them turn 1 they are usually useless and may cause you to lose. Cosmic cyclone is better due to the fact alot of decks have floating backrow or backrow that can be recovered. Both are currently unlimited. Run them at your own risk

5. D.D Crow (This card can send its self to hand to banish a card for your opponents grave yard. What makes this card good is it doesn't have to be set and can fuck up some decks badly such as evil twin. This is anti-meta and messes with graveyard strategies such as Twins and Tenyi. Downside is if your opponent isn't playing a graveyard strategie the card is a brick (although most players are playing them nowadays), also if this card is drawn after the opening hands its power decreases alot as your opponent may have already used the graveyard effects of powerful cards to set up a strong board. Status:Unlimited)

6. Compulsory Evacuation Device (This card can target an opponents monster and return it to the hand. What makes this card good is it can be used on any monster card, including links. This card is very strong against some decks like Twins since they need both monsters on the field to activated the effect. This cards greatest weakness is that it is a temporal solution, if I return your boss monster back to the deck you may be able to resummon it next turn. It needs to be timed properly so your opponent can't easily recover. Also avoid using it on monsters that aren't from the extra deck as the effects can be used on the next turn. Status:Limited 3)

7. Warning Point (This card can negate the effects of a monster when summoned, aswell as that monster can no longer be used to summon an extra deck monster for the rest of the turn, or attack. Going first this card is better than book of moon, but drawing it later in the duel may be a "brick" since it will be harder to use since it may have been too late as your opponent has likely summoned a boss monster. This card is especially great against decks like Tenyi since it stops them from link summoning and forces them to keep an effect monster on board.)

8. Forbidden Lancea (This card can be sent from the field or hand to the graveyard with the ability to stop both players from banishing. This card is really only good against Orcust,Tenyi,BLS. Against other decks it may have no effect as they may not banish. I don't recommend this card as its chance of being bricky is too high. I would recommend run D.D crow instead.

9.Effect veiler (This card can be sent from the hand to the graveyard during your opponents turn to target 1 monster they control and negate its effects until the end phase. This card is exceptional turn 1 as it can single handedly destory decks that rely on the normal summon (pure orcust), a down side this card has is it is a brick if drawn past turn 1 alot of the times, aswell as the fact its grave yard effects isn't negated. If you negate my "Orcust Automaton Galatea" I can still summon Dingirsu. A tip when using this card is to activate it as a chain link 2 when an opponents monster activates its effects as they are usual a once per turn so they can not reuse the effector resummon a different copy of the monster to use the effect. Status:Unlimited.)

Out of all of these staples I would recommend running a trap/spell that can disrupt your opponent at 3 (such as crackdown,device,book of moon,warning point), Another one of these traps listed in parenthesis, then enemy controller, With the last 3 slots I would run either 3 backrow removal or a hand trap (preferably effect veiler). As I stated prior, this deck has so much tech space you can pick and choose and test different builds depending on the meta.

I have already explained the 2 extra deck core cards so I will have an attached decklist on what I would run for tech spots. The spoilered decklist will be what I believe to be the most optimal extra deck, and non spoilered will the core cards.

Optimal Extra Deck

Core/Most important cards (without these cards the deck is very bad compared to with)

For the optimal build knightmare pheonix is very simple, it can remove backrow at the cost of a discard, for knightmare cerberus it can remove a special summoned monster in the main monster zone with a discard. For Flame swordsman it provides an attack boost aswell as a free special summon of a warrior monster form grave.

Finally the good part
Plays

Bricked hand/Mediocre Hand (Turn 1)
A bricked hand (in my definition has no BLS or only has legend/Vanilla BLS as the BLS.)
Assuming you have Endymion in hand normal summon it. After using its effect attach Artemis to it. Use Artemis' effect to add another Endymion, then use Endymion's second effect to destroy Artemis and draw a card. Did you draw a BLS/Good staple? If so return the Endymion back to deck. If you drew a BLS (besides one of the listed "mediocre/bricks"), summon it and use the skill to search Vanilla BLS. If you drew Legend BLS keep it in your hand for next turn, if you drew backrow set it.

Good Hand (Turn 1) A good hand means you have a BLS (besides one of the listed bricks). If so summon it. Then activate the skill and search Vanilla BLS. If you already have Vanilla BLS in hand search legendary BLS as you will be able to use it next turn. Then set any backrow you have, you may have to ue Endymion + Artemis to draw a card if you need more backrow, if you think your opponent is playing alot of staples/traps, save the Endymion as you will be able to use its backrow removal effect next turn with a normal summon.

Turn 2 (Incase you run hand traps)
This is your opponents 1st turn. If you run handtraps now is the time to use them. Make sure to hit weak points to break combos rather than waiting to hit a boss monster. Also make sure to use backrow as well to weaken the opponent.

Turn 3 (Bad/Mid hand) If you didn't draw a BLS, STILL you are fucked. In this case you have bricked so badly you lose. If you have another Endymion you can play out the combo with Artemis again, and if you still bricked you lose if you drew Envoy make sure to summon it and depending on the situation (if you may lose next turn summon + summon BLS Super, If you can survive next turn search Vanilla BLS to use chaos form next turn) search your card. If you somehow bricked so badly you already have these in hand you might aswell forfeit.

Turn 3 (Good hand)
Since you have Vanilla BLS in hand you can summon it using the ritual spell in the graveyard (make sure to keep sphere kuriboh and dark magician in the grave if you sent htem you can return them with skill). After you summoned Vanilla BLS search chaos BLS or if it is already in hand search Super BLS. In some cases you may need to decide. Use the effect of vanilla BLS to search the BLS chosen (in some cases BLS Super burn effect can win the game instead of Super BLS so choose wisely in most cases you will search Legend BLS.) Your board may be full if you summoned Endymion + Envoy on your 1st turn. This is no big deal You can link the off into a Knightmare pheonix for backrow destruction, or Knightmare cerberus for monster destruction. If you do not own these cards instead of using the graveyard to summon Legend BLS you can use Envoy or Vanilla BLS, if you are going to use Envoy make sure you use the banish effect first. Finally attack with all of your monsters for game or to get close to game. In some cases Envoy Double attack effect is better.

Turn 5 (Bad Hand)
If you have a bad hand you 100% lost now

Turn 5 (Good hand)
Assuming your opponent was playing a skill that increased LP they should be low on them. If you have any remaining backrow make sure to use it lock your opponent out from a comeback. They will be weak on cards and may even be a top deck situation. This is very likely your last turn to win. Any longer they are likely to win by grind game. I will end the guide off here. Have a good day! If you read this far try and always keep the ritual spell in the graveyard by using the skill to return it

The estimated cost of all the core cards

I don't recommend building this deck right now, due to the pickup box leaving it is very expensive. It also may be hit by the ban list soon.