Igknight Comprehensive Guide (28th December 2023)

[slate nest]

C- Engines and combos:

There are many, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll just showcase a few to highlight just how better the deck is by adding a small engine.
Let's also assume we open an engine starter + any 3 Igknights sharing the same scale, going turn 1.

Opening igknights with different scales is linear and needs no explanation.
Not opening an engine card means we just follow their basic combo.

1- E-hero Stratos + 2 Gallant + 1 Paladin:

• Pop Gallant + Paladin into Templar/Veteran
• Set Gallant + Templar/Veteran -> Pend Stratos + Paladin (Face-up in the ED)-> Search Liquid Soldier
• Xyz Dweller (Or any rank 4 that can detach a material turn 1) -> Detach Stratos
• Normal Liquid Soldier -> Summon Stratos in the GY -> Search another HERO(Ideally Liquid Soldier)
• Xyz Stratos + Liquid into a second rank 4
• Pop scales into Gearfried.
  Endboard: Dweller + Rank 4 + Gearfried (Liquid Soldier in your hand)

2- Deep Sea Diva + 2 Gallant + 1 Paladin:

• Normal summon Diva -> Summon Guitar Gunards in Deck -> Make it level 6
• Pop Gallant + Paladin into Templar/Veteran
• Set Gallant + Templar/Veteran -> Pend Gallant (Face-up in the ED)
• Xyz Beatrice -> Mill D-Hero Malicious -> Summon Malicious
• Set a L-8 Synchro with Diva + Malicious
• Pop scales into Gearfried.
  Endboard: Beatrice + L-8 Synchro + Gearfried

3-Magistus Endymion + 2 Gallant + 1 Paladin:

• Normal summon Endymion, the Magistus Moon Maiden -> Equip Artemis -> Search Rilliona, Magistus of Verre
• (Optional): Activate Endymion for consistency (Or to shuffle Magistus Vritra without losing hand advantage)
• Pop Gallant + Paladin into Templar/Veteran
• Set Gallant + Templar/Veteran -> Pend Templar(Face-up in the ED) + Rilliona -> Search Magistus Vritra
• Xyz Dweller -> Detach a Magistus
• Activate Vritra -> Summon the detached Magistus -> Xyz rank 4
• Pop scales into Gearfried.
  Endboard: Dweller + Rank 4 + Gearfried

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4- Magical Musketeer Starfire + 2 Gallant + 1 Paladin:

• Normal summon Starfire in a corner
• Set Gallant/Paladin(1) under Starfire -> Summon Magical Musketeer Caspar in the other corner
• Set (2) under Caspar -> Search a Musketeer card:
• If you run Musketeer backrow:
• Pop Gallant + Paladin into Templar/Veteran
• Set Gallant + Templar/Veteran -> Pend Paladin (Face-up in the ED)
• Xyz a rank 4 with Starfire + Paladin
• Pop scales into Gearfried
  Endboard: Rank 4 + Caspar + Gearfried (Musketeer backrow in hand)

Tip. You can play conservatively here by not accessing the rank 4, while keeping Starfire + Caspar on your field. If you do, you keep an Igknight in your hand and you can search Calamity with Caspar in their turn, ensuring you can follow-up your entire combo next turn, while also recycling Gearfried from the GY.

• If you don’t run Musketeer backrow:
• Search Musketeer Calamity
• Link-2 with Starfire + Caspar
• Pop Gallant + Paladin into Templar/Veteran
• Set Gallant + Templar/Veteran -> Pend Paladin (Face-up in the ED) + Calamity
• Pop scales into Gearfried.
• Activate Salamandra under Calamity -> Revive Starfire
• Access either a rank 4 on top of a link-2 or a Link-4 or a Link-3 + a Musketeer.
  Endboard: Rank 4 + Link-2 + Gearfried or Link-4 + Gearfried or Link-3 + Gearfried + a Musketeer

Tip: Again, you can play conservatively here by keeping Calamity in your hand with an Igknight.

As you can see, just by replacing 1 single card from your 4 igknight opening hand, you can explode into multiple plays. There is a clear consistency-power tradeoff here. Pure Igknights are 100% consistent. The more engine cards you add, the less consistent the build becomes. This is why I suggest very small engines.

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D - Rescue Rabbit

Yes, this card needs a separate section for itself. Opening it is almost never bad, and there are multiple reasons why:

• It can force disruption by itself before setting pendulum scales and Gearfried.
• It is able to extend plays after forcing disruption with your pendulum summons.
• Most importantly, it accesses Magikey Vepartu by itself, which can then fix our scales by adding any them to our hand.

Opening Rabbit + an engine card + any Igknight is the best turn 1 possible. Let’s play around this in a different build:

Rescue Rabbit + Magikey Mafteal + 2 Paladin:

• Normal summon Rabbit -> Xyz into Magikey Vepartu -> Add Templar/Veteran
• Activate Magikey Mafteal -> Normal summon Mafteal -> Revive the detached Igknight -> Synchro Magikey Fiend -Transfurlmine -> Search Magikey Unlocking
• Set Paladin + Templar -> Pendulum the detached Igknight (Face-up in the ED after the Synchro) + Paladin -> Xyz a rank 4
• Pop scales into Gearfried
  Endboard: Rank 4 + Vepartu + Transfurlmine + Gearfried + Unlocking.

E- Going second

You can set Xyz plays before accessing Gearfried. This means it is possible to force at least 1-2 disruptions in your combo.
You can dodge IDP, and ignore blank negates such as veiler. You don't mind bounces in the mainphase. However, multiple books/Warning points can be an issue.
Fortunately you can force monster disruption very early.

Tip: When going second, try setting/adding multiple different scales to ensure you can Pendulum summon after having a scale disrupted. (This is why Summoner's Art is so useful). You can even use this to your own advantage against cards like MST, giving you essentially a free body face-up in the ED.

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F- Flaws

Igknight hands are completely exhausted in their plays. Consequently, although the deck is very good at setting otks and setting multiple disruptions, we have a few issues:

1- The deck is unable to tech in backrow, unless you sacrifice your ability to vomit bodies into the field. In which case, you are better off using another deck.

2- Most builds lack recovery. While it is possible to mitigate this in some builds, like Hero or Musketeer, going first means you need to use all your resources to stop the opponent very smartly.

3- Dark Hole - Some variants are able to stop it, but most aren't and the lack of backrow makes Dark Hole a issue aginst us.

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G- Matchups

This is currently a good format to play Igknights, since common matchups are usually favorable or neutral.

Tenyi:
Probably the easiest matchup. Setting turn 1 Dweller + Gearfried as the most basic play is enough to stop them. Going turn 2, Gearfried ignores every protection they can set up and can open otks with the xyz plays.

EvilTwin:
Coinflip. Going first ensures they can’t set their combo, unless they opened Dark Hole. Going second usually depends on whatever disruption they drew into. We can dodge IDP and we can ignore Veiler. We can force through a pop, but Warning Point can be an issue. Try searching different scales to bait the pop first.

Yubel/Neos:
Going first, play conservatively and try to survive. Going second, Gearfried by itself gets rid of both Nightmare + Kluger.

S-Force:
Going first you can stop all their plays. Going second, you can force Chase very early, setting Gearfried safely.

Ancient Warriors:
Going first you can stop their plays. Going second is usually not hard, since they don't set much backrow. We don't mind blank negates and we can force the bounce early. Gearfried can stop any eventual handtrap.

Rokket:
Similar to Evil Twin, although you need to be careful of Needle Ceiling more.

Salamangreat/Trickstar:
We don’t care about their protection. We don’t care about their handtraps. We don’t care about their stats. We also usually don’t care about their LP boost. But we do care about Dark Hole. Favorable matchup overall, unless you are going first and they drew into it.

Lunalight.

Going turn 1, set minimal interaction just to survive. Play conservatively here. Going second is easier. We don’t care about their protection, and Gearfried can be normal summoned to both dodge and prevent Evilswarm Nightmare later in the match.
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H - Decklist samples:

• Magikey Igknights:

• Hero Igknights:

• Magistus Igknights: