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Gimmick Puppets: A Guide to Building Your Deck
- cardboredkitchen
- Aug 26, 2024
- 6 min read
Understanding the Archetype
The Gimmick Puppet archetype, introduced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime was originally a very odd archetype filled with odd and grotesque mannequin like machines that had no real win condition. With random abilities ranging from instantly winning the game through obscure means, to dealing small/moderate levels of burn damage, to stealing their monsters, It’s not hard to see why the archetype has seen scarce play in the current metagame. After the release of Infinite Forbidden however, it has skyrocketed the deck's playability as a powerful Rank 8 Toolbox with the ability to FTK opponents with pure burn damage!
Strengths:
Extremely strong kill potential. Multiple lines of play to get to the first turn kill
Strong in-archetype defensive cards to insulate your win condition combos
Smallish engine of 16-18 cards allowing for tons of non engine/ sub engine cards
Budget deck
Funny/weird looking puppets (if you’re into that kind of thing)
Weaknesses:
Easily interactable with not just the most popular hand traps but obscure ones as well
Very graveyard reliant
No backup plan or way to play if your line to the FTK is stopped. Poor endboard.
Long combo
Notable Core Gimmick puppet cards
Monsters:
Gimmick Puppet Little Soldiers: Arguably our best normal summon option next to Scissor Arms. Used to mill Rouge Doll to extend or Bisque for targeted protection for our Gimmick Puppet plays
Gimmick Puppet Scissor arms: The next best thing to our little soldier. Functionally just more copies of little soldier, with the added benefit of not being once per turn and able to send level 4 monsters too
Gimmick Puppet Rouge Doll: Our instant rank 8 enabler and primary target for Soldier and Scissor.. Combo’d with Cattlescream it allows us to functionally make two rank 8’s
Gimmick Puppet Terror Baby: The FTK would not work without this baby. Able to reincarnate any Gimmick Puppet from grave, this card is abused to resurrect Dark Strings for an extra pop, or to special summon out another level 8 to combo with little soldier into another xyz. It also has the WILD benefit when in grave to banish itself to basically stop all responses to your activated Gimmick Puppet effects!
Gimmick Puppet Cattlescream: Alongside Rouge and Soldiers this new addition is a key piece of your rank 8 toolbox
Extra Deck:
Gimmick Puppet Fantasix Machinex: The newest addition along with its chaos form introduced in INFO. Enabling you to not only search for your powerful rank up magic spell cards but also recycle them
CXYZ Gimmick Puppet Fanatix Machinex: The chaos version of Fanatix, boasting increased stats and new abilities.
Gimmick Puppet Chimera Doll: The only link monster this archetype has so far. Mainly used as an extender
Number 15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Grinder: A powerful Rank 4 Xyz Monster that can destroy multiple monsters and inflict burn damage.
Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings: A Rank 8 Xyz Monster that’s primary function is to spread deadly string counters on monsters that make them susceptible to being destroyed
Number C40: Gimmick Puppet of Dark Strings: Another form of burn damage and the primary way for you to pop monsters with string counters. It has the added benefit of drawing you a card after as well!
Number C15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Hunter: Guess what this card does? If you guessed it has something to do with burn damage you’d be right! Usually used as a finisher for the deck by popping on on your opponent's field and dealing effect damage equal to the monsters ATK
Spells and Traps:
Mansion of the Dreadful Dolls: Everything the deck ever wanted. It is a starter, gives protection to your gruesome machine cards, and also allows you to provide your opponent with a monster on their field to then pop with one of your many extra deck monsters.
Condolence Puppet: Basically an in-archetype foolish burial on drugs. If you’re going second you can mill Gimmick Puppet monsters up to the number of special summoned extra deck monsters your opponent controls +1. Not only that, you can then use it from graveyard banishing for cost to protect one of your monsters from card effect destruction.
Service Puppet Play: The best target for Fanatix’s search effect
Rank-Up-Magic Argent Chaos Force: a rank up magic tailored for gimmick puppets. The amount of recycling this card gives the deck is what glues everything together.
Synergistic Engines/Cards
The Horus Engine: An extremely powerful addition to your Gimmick Puppet strategy. This allows you to further strengthen your rank 8 toolbox as well as gain the ability to mill things from hand which you otherwise couldn’t get in the grave. A little on the pricier side for this budget but well worth the investment if you want to take this deck to the next level.
Forbidden Droplet: A powerful boardbreaker allowing you to get rid of threats that the engine has trouble dealing with to sneak you the FTK!
Crossout Designator and Called By the Grave: Almost a must include in my honest opinion. The deck falls apart to so many handtraps without its in-engine protection. You really want to go for the FTK or your endboard will not be strong enough to withstand the current metas barrage of powerful monsters.
Remember to adjust your deck based on your playstyle and the current meta. Experiment with different card combinations and strategies to find what works best for you. These are all just suggestions and guidelines from us to help you understand how the cards work!
Sample Decklists:
Gameplan
The general game plan is to continually extend level 8 bodies to provide you with your XYZ monsters. By reusing Rank-up magic to get into our rank 9’s we can continually deal burn damage till your opponent drops to zero! A basic combo will look a little something like this:
Activate Mansion of the Dreadful Dolls, search Little Soldier
Normal Summon Little Soldier,effect, cost to send Rouge Doll to graveyard. Modulate Level to 8.
Rouge Doll returns to hand. Activate Rouge Doll to reveal a rank 8 from your extra. Special Summon Rouge Doll as well as Cattlescream from your deck.
Overlay Cattlescream+ either Gimmick Puppets to make Fantasix.
Detach Cattlescream(IMPORTANT) to activate Fantasix’s effect to search Argent Chaos Force and gain an extra normal summon.
Activate Chaos force to rank up into Fanatix. Fanatix on summon to search Service Puppet Play.
Activate Cattlescream from graveyard to detach Fantasix from Fanatix and Special Summon itself back from graveyard.
Overlay Cattlescream and the other Gimmick Puppet monster to make Puppet of Strings.
Activate Chaos Forces once per duel effect from graveyard to add back to hand.
Activate Puppet of strings by detaching Cattlescream to give all monsters on the field string counters
Activate Fanatix’s effect detaching 1, to give your opponent Cattlescream (Do not pop the Cattlescream with Fanatix’s ability)
Rank up Puppet of Strings to Puppet of Dark strings. Mandatory effect will activate destroying all monsters with string counters and drawing 1. Ch2 Fantasix’s ability in graveyard to Special Summon himself back from graveyard to your field, and add back your rank up magic.
Dark Strings destroys Fanatix dealing 3100 and drawing you a card.
Send Dark Strings and Fantasix to the graveyard to link into your link-2 Chimera Doll.
Activate Chimera Dolls effect looking for Terror Baby. Do not Special Summon Terror Baby with Chimera Doll.
Extra Normal Summon Terror Baby, activate effect and target Rouge Doll in your graveyard.
Activate Little Soldier effect in graveyard, banishing itself and targeting Terror Baby to Modulate its level to 8.
Overlay once more into Giant Grinder.
Activate Mansion effect detaching 1 from Giant Grinder to Special Summon from grave Puppet of Strings to your opponent's side of the field.
Activate Giant Grinder effect, detaching 1 and targeting Puppet of Strings. Destroys Puppet of Strings and burns for 3000.
Rank up your Giant Grinder into Giant Hunter.
Activate effect of Hunter, detaching 1 and targeting Cattlescream. Destroys Cattlescream and burns for the remaining LP
Remember: This is only the most basic of combos. Playtest and explore to really understand the possibilities of this deck!
General Tips:
Make sure to sequence your cards properly
Understand with the hand you have, which handtraps you can play through and which handtraps instantly stop your gameplan.
Either use the Horus Engine to bait, or extend into your XYZ plays.
Have fun!
By following these tips and experimenting with different strategies, you'll be well on your way to mastering the art of puppet manipulation and achieving victory with your Gimmick Puppet deck!
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