Sacred Beast Guide (Updated 8/8/2024)

[radiant wolf]

Sacred Beasts are famously used by two characters throughout Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: the ripped superintendent and Yubel. Unfortunately, only one of those is in DL, so Yubel is the character that you'll be using for the deck. The deck's main win condition is Raviel beatdown, which is helped greatly by their Skill and support cards from Destroyer of the Phantasm. Overall, the deck has a very solid turn 2/3, but a relatively weak Turn 1 compared to some other decks, so if you like big numbers on an OTK machine, boy do I have the deck for you! Now, without further ado, let's dive right into the glue that holds this deck together: Sacred Beast Beckoning.

Skill:

Sacred Beast Beckoning is the Skill that enables the deck's great OTK potential, and it has 2 simple but powerful effects that you can use once per Duel each at the cost of restricting your summons from everywhere except the Extra Deck.

Effect 1: By revealing one of the Sacred Beasts (Uria, Hamon, or the original Raviel), you can shuffle any 1 card from your hand back into the Deck to add a Sacred Beast or any monster that mentions them from your Deck to your hand. This effect is very useful for unbricking hands or making certain combos much easier and more consistent to pull off.

Effect 2: If your opponent has at least 1 card on their field or in their GY, shuffle 1 monster from your hand or field into the Deck to play one of the Sacred Beasts from your Deck face-down to your field. This effect is the main playmaker of the deck and can be used offensively (such as using it to summon Raviel), as a recovery tool (if Dark Beckoning Beast gets negated), or to bait out/destroy an opponent's backrow before committing to a play (by playing Uria from your deck). Plus, a major upside to this effect is that it treats the monster that it sets from your Deck as being properly summoned, which means that you can Special Summon it from the GY later if you need to.

Monsters:

Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (1): Hamon's effect changes depending on its battle position.

While in Defense, your opponent can't attack any of your monsters except for Hamon.

While in Attack, it deals an extra 1k points of effect damage when it destroys your opponent's monster in battle.

This is the monster you want to end on Turn 1, if possible, because of its massive 4k/4k stat line and because its effects can be useful on later turns. Plus, if you have access to Cerulean Skyfire, Hamon becomes a mid-chain Spell/Trap negate.

Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (1): Raviel's effects are best suited for OTK's.

The 1st effect, and the one you likely won't be using, is that when your opponent Normal Summons a monster, Raviel summons a 1k/1k Token to your side of the field. The extra body can be helpful on occasion, but generally speaking, you shouldn't get the opportunity to use this effect since Hamon is a better wall turn 1.

Its 2nd effect, however, is that it can Tribute another monster on your field to gain ATK equal to that monster's original ATK. Largely unneccesary due to the existence of Scraper, but notable nonetheless if you don't have access to Scraper or you need just a bit more damage to push for game.

Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (1): Uria is the weakest of the Sacred Beasts as far as stats go with a grand total of 0 of each, but it makes up for this with its effect, which is an amazing way to burn through your opponent's backrow.

Once per turn, Uria can target and destroy one face-down card in your opponent's Spell/Trap zone, and neither player can respond to this effect. This is the best (and only) in-archetype backrow removal, and it's incredibly helpful for protecting your later plays.

Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper (1-3): Shimmering Scraper is a new addition to the deck and a large part of the deck's main OTK strategy. It has 2 activated effects and a summoning condition, all of which can be helpful in different ways:

First of all, you can Special Summon this card from your hand by Tributing any 3 monsters. You usually shouldn't have to resort to this because of the ease of summoning the other Sacred Beasts, but in case your field gets clogged, this is a viable way to un-clog it.

Now, its 1st and most important activated effect is that you can send it from your hand to the GY to double the current ATK of 1 Raviel that you control and allow it to attack all of your opponent's monsters once each, which makes OTK'ing in regular conditions a breeze.

Its 2nd effect is that, while it's in the GY, you can Tribute 1 monster to add it back to your hand, which can get rid of a possible liability like Dark Beckoning Beast.

Dark Beckoning Beast (3): Dark Beckoning Beast is your best Normal Summon, and you want to see it in your hand as often as possible, so playing three copies is a necessity.

On summon, it can add any of the Sacred Beasts, or any card that mentions them, from your Deck to your hand. This will be used to search Opening of the Spirit Gates unless you already have it in your hand or you have reason to fear backrow removal or a Spell negate.

In addition, while this monster is on your field, you can Normal Summon a Fiend with 0 ATK/DEF in addition to your regular Normal Summon. More often than not, this extra Normal Summon will go to Chaos Summoning Beast so that you can get a Sacred Beast on the field.

Chaos Summoning Beast (3): Using this to cheat out the Sacred Beasts is a big part of how you set up your turn 1 board, and its effect to search Paradise is invaluable.

On a hard once per turn, it can Tribute itself to Special Summon a Sacred Beast from your hand, ignoring its summoning conditions.

Then, it can banish itself from the GY to add a Fallen Paradise from your Deck to your hand. A Sacred Beast on field + Field Spell in hand = budget Pot of Greed. Just pray you don't get hit by Crow or Meister, as both would be devastating.

Spells:

Opening of the Spirit Gates (2-3): Gates is by far one of the best cards in the deck, and you absolutely want to resolve it as consistently as possible.

On activation, it adds 1 Sacred Beast or one monster that mentions them from your Deck to your hand. Turn 1, this will likely be used to grab Hamon or Scraper if you already had Hamon, and Turn 2, you're almost definitely using it to add Scraper to your hand so that you can push for an OTK.

Also, once per turn you can discard any 1 card to Special Summon a Fiend with 0 ATK/DEF from your GY, which you can use to get some extra Link material on your field or recover after having Chaos Summoning Beast get interrupted.

Its third effect is that, if you control a Level 10 monster, you can add 1 Continuous Spell from your GY to your hand. This is helpful because it makes the 2nd effect basically free if you discard a Continuous Spell for it, and you can use it to get back Cerulean Skyfire if your opponent destroys it.

Cerulean Skyfire (1): This card is amazing defensively, and it can be a real pain for your opponent to deal with. Having this on your endboard Turn 1 would definitely be ideal, but it's not the end of the world if you can't access it.

Firstly, if any of the Sacred Beasts leaves your field for any reason, you won't take damage for the rest of the turn. This can help you survive Turn 2 in case your opponent outs your wall, and it'll let you make a comeback on Turn 3.

The other, more impactful effect is that if you control a Hamon in Attack Position, you can negate any opponent's Spell/Trap effect as it's resolving by simply switching Hamon to Defense Position. This is a very special type of negate, as your opponent can't respond after you decide to negate something, and since this isn't an activated effect, it can even negate cards like Super Polymerization or Tachyon Transmigration ;).

Fallen Paradise (2-3): Last but most certainly not least, we have the Field Spell, which provides amazing protection and card advantage for the deck.

While Paradise is on the field, your opponent can't target or destroy any of the Sacred Beasts with their card effects, which protects them from most common removal in the game apart from things like Dingirsu and Ice Dragon's Prison.

Also, if you control Paradise and any of the Sacred Beasts, you can draw 2 cards on a hard once per turn. These extra cards in hand can be a huge deal for the deck, and the advantage adds up quick if you can use it more than once.

Trap

Hyper Blaze (0-1): This card is optional, but I highly recommend it because it can be incredibly helpful for longer grind games.

Technically, this card's main purpose is to boost Uria's stats, but since this should be the only trap you're playing, that effect won't come up.

The important effect, and the reason I recommend it, is that once per turn, you can discard 1 card to target a Sacred Beast in your GY and either add it to your hand or Special Summon it. Most likely, the only time you'll be able to Special Summon one of them with this effect is after you play them to your field with the Skill's second effect, but even adding them back to your hand can be incredibly helpful since you can use Gates to recycle a Chaos Summoning Beast in your GY to cheat it out again.

Extra Deck

The Extra Deck is actually very flexible for this deck due to the lack of restrictions and ease of recycling monsters from the GY. Any slots not accounted for in the next 2 sections can be filled with generic Link Monsters.

Number 65: Djinn Buster (1): Djinn is your go-to on turn 1 alongside Hamon.

Djinn has a Quick Effect that lets you detach 2 of its Xyz Materials to negate the activation of an opponent's monster effect, which can be devastating to an opponent's combo if timed right. It can also be used defensively to protect Hamon if needed.

Linkuriboh (1): Linkuriboh is a Link-1 monster and a good alternative turn 1 if you can't access Djinn Buster.

When an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can Tribute Linkuriboh to make the ATK of that opponent's monster 0 until the End Phase, but then they can choose to stop attacking. Still, this is a decent way to buy yourself some time so you can make a comeback next turn.

Pentestag (1): Pentestag is a mostly generic Link-2 Monster with rather unremarkable stats, but it's still a necessary inclusion in the deck.

Pentestag's effect is that all of your Linked monsters inflict piercing battle damage. This is a very simple, but very strong effect because it means that even if your opponent tries to completely wall you out with Defense Position monsters, Raviel and his 8000+ ATK can still punch right through them to OTK so long as Pentestag is pointing to him.

Techs

This is a list of cards that aren't necessary to the deck's main combos or win condition, but can still help facilitate it.

Handtraps (6): I figured it would be more space-efficient and would stand the test of time if I put all handtraps here categorically. Which handtraps you use will depend heavily on the meta, but I highly recommend running 2 playsets of handtraps that are effective against the current meta because, aside from obvious reasons, they can also be used for the second effect of the Skill since they're monsters, and since you can use their effects from your hand, you can interrupt your opponent on Turn 1 if you go second, and you don't need to worry about your Continuous Spells/Traps clogging your backrow.

Knightmare Phoenix (1): As I mentioned before, this deck's only in-archetype backrow removal is Uria, so I highly recommend Phoenix to help rectify that issue.

When Phoenix is Link Summoned, you can discard 1 card to target and destroy 1 Spell/Trap on the field. This has a couple advantages over Uria, such as being able to target face-up spells/traps and being able to be used to climb into other Link Monsters since it's a Link-2.

Knightmare Unicorn (1): As with Phoenix, this can be helpful for clearing backrow if Uria isn't enough, but it also has some utility outside of that.

When Unicorn is Link Summoned, you can discard 1 card to target 1 card on the field and shuffle it into the Deck. In conjunction with Uria and Phoenix, this can easily clear out all 3 of your opponent's Spell/Trap zones. Or, if your opponent only had 2 backrow to be wary of, Unicorn can also be used to remove one of their monsters to make it easier to OTK. Since this is a Link-3 that requires 2+ monsters, you're likely going to make this using Phoenix + 1 other monster.

Rasterliger (1): This is fairly low on the priority list, but having access to an extra beater can be helpful sometimes.

This Link-4 Monster can be summoned with any 2 or more monsters besides Tokens, so the most common way to go into it is by using Unicorn and one of the little Fiends.

Once per turn, Rasterliger can gain ATK equal to the ATK of one Link monster in either GY, so if it gains Unicorn's 2200 ATK, it'll stand at a whopping 4200.

Also, once per turn you can Tribute any number of your monsters linked to Rasterliger to destroy an equal number of your opponent's cards, though if you've already gone through the usual Link climb, there shouldn't be much need for this effect.

[radiant wolf]

Combos

Example Turn 1 Combo (vs Mayakashi):

Turn 1 Combo Explanation (Djinn Buster):

This combo came about as a way to play around Nibiru, the Primal Being. However, this turn 1 combo provides a good defensive wall outside of just playing around Nibiru since it's a monster effect negation (Djinn Buster) that's protected by Hamon's 4000 DEF. Since you have two opportunities to search monsters from the deck, this combo can be pulled off with any two unique cards from the following list: Chaos Summoning Beast, Dark Beckoning Beast, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, and Opening of the Spirit Gates. For this combo, I wholeheartedly believe that it's better to Special Summon Hamon in Defense position unless you open full combo and Cerulean Skyfire because without Hamon in Defense, Djinn Buster is a walking target for the opponent. One extremely important note about this combo is that you have to use Gates to summon your second Beckoning Beast before you banish Chaos Summoning Beast from the GY. The reason for this is that you can't activate that effect of Gates unless there's already a valid target for its effect in your GY.

Example Turn 2 Combo (vs Unchained):

Turn 2 Combo Explanation (Uria):

Normally, using Uria to pop your opponent's backrow is the last thing you want to do against Unchained since most of the Unchained backrow has a floating effect when they're destroyed by card effect. However, in this scenario, I knew that it would be safe to do so because I had Skull Meister in hand to negate that floating effect.

At the end of the replay, I have Beckoning Beast and Uria on the field, so you may be wondering why I didn't link them off for something like Pentestag for the extra ATK for Raviel. Well, if I had done that, my opponent would've had the opportunity to use my Link Monster as a material for their own Link Monster thanks to the effect of Unchained Soul of Rage, which can only target its opponent's Special Summoned monsters. Thankfully, Uria and Raviel both had protection from targeting effects even though they were special summoned because of Fallen Paradise, and Dark Beckoning Beast was Normal Summoned, so they couldn't target it, either. For that reason, it was safer for me to leave those two on the field since I knew that they wouldn't have been able to stop Raviel's attack.

Example Turn 2 Combo (vs Borrel Link):

Turn 2 Combo Explanation (Hamon and Raviel OTK):

The only thing I feel that I may need to explain in this replay is why I chose to use the Skill's second effect to play Raviel from my Deck instead of Hamon, and the answer is that since my opponent still had 2 cards in their hand, I couldn't be sure that I would've been able to resolve Chaos Summoning Beast, and if I hadn't been able to do so, Hamon wouldn't have given me enough damage to OTK.

Realistically, this replay could have been much shorter if I had simply flipped Raviel and entered my Battle Phase. However, this is meant to showcase everything the deck could realistically do in this scenario.

Deck Core:

How to Obtain:

Skill: Sacred Beast Beckoning:
Lifetime Mission: While playing as Yubel, reduce your opponent's LP to 0 by inflicting Battle Damage with Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper,
Opening of the Spirit Gates,
Cerulean Skyfire,
Fallen Paradise:
Destroyer of the Phantasm Main Box (2 runs)

Raviel, Lord of Phantasms;
Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder;
Uria, Lord of Searing Flames:
Lifetime Missions

Dark Beckoning Beast,
Chaos Summoning Beast,
Hyper Blaze:
Shining Sunrise Main Box (2 runs)

Number 65: Djinn Buster:
Regular (Non-Dream) SR Tickets

Linkuriboh:
Playmaker Level 35 Reward

Pentestag:
Link Revolution Main Box (1 run)
OR Cynet Raging EX Structure Deck

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This is, in my opinion, the basic necessities of the deck. You can add and remove cards as you see fit, but this should give you a good starting point. Good luck, thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoy the GX era's skeletal Gods! :spiritgatesicon:

Sacred Beast Guide (Updated 7/25/2024)

[radiant wolf]

KoG list for August 3rd:

For this month's KoG run, I cut out some of the extra cards I had in my list in favor of more consistently being able to do the preferred combos. Borreload Dragon didn't come up at all while I was climbing, but it's a good tech option for formats where destruction/targeting protection is common.