Archetypes 101: Photons Part 1

Hey there, fellow duelists! Your one set of gloves that you might wanna get rid of: RustyGloves here! As you can see, I'll be attempting archetype discussions in this academy, talking about different ways to play these decks, what to play in them, weaknesses, and the like.

The first archetype discussion I'd like to address is on the Photon/Galaxy archetype. Now, many feel that this deck, despite its ability to summon rank 8's in turn 1, is quite slow and not up to date with the current meta. Well, fortunately, do I have news for you that this deck can be quite fast, but only dependent on the version you play.

One of the versions to play this archetype is to use skill drain. This helps with cards like Photon Thrasher and Photon Crusher, what with their effects being detrimental to aggressive plays. Thrasher here can be special summoned if no monsters are on your field, but won't be able to attack if another monster is on the field, while Crusher will go to defense after attacking. Luckily, Skill Drain, if you don't know what it does, stops these offensive blocks from happening. So, with that being said, it is really easy to play aggressively with these cards, once skill drain is out, that is. You can also combo these cards with Rank 4 XYZ's like Starliege Lord Galaxion, which brings out a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon either from your hand or deck, giving you 5000 on the board right away, or Starliege Paladynamo, which is a great card to get over problem cards that are at or over 2000 atk. In general, this deck has had its fair share of play and is a nice style for those aggressive players.

Another interesting deck to play with out of the Photon/Galaxy archetype is the Rank 8 build, which usually focuses on cards like Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, Galaxy Knight, Galaxy Wizard, and any other cards that help get out level 8's as fast as possible. Some of these cards that help out are Guardian of Order, which can be special summoned if 2 other LIGHT monsters are on your field, and Parsec, the Interstellar Dragon, which can be normal summoned if you control a lvl 8 monster. You can even opt to put in Light and Darkness Dragon, which adds for that extra stun. These lvl 8's can bring up powerful XYZ's like Felgrand, the Divine Dragon Knight and the fearsome Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!

Of course, these sound nice, but they fall prey to some very troublesome cards. If you choose to play the rank 8 build, be sure to prepare for Skill Drain, as this can disrupt some plays with Galaxy Wizard, making you open for lots of damage. Another very difficult card to get over is Light-Imprisoning Mirror, which may shut down your entire deck if it is effect-dependent on LIGHT monsters. Anti-xyz cards like XYZ Encore and Compulsory Evacuation Device are always pesky, so be on the look out for those as well.

For now, this will be the discussion about Photons. Don't worry, I'll talk more about key cards later as well as any combos, but for now, I'm just giving you basics of the kinds of Photons you can play and what generally troubles them.

P.S. Here's an insight to what my Photon Deck is It's basically a Rank 8 build, but can frequently go into rank 5's as well
https://i.imgur.com/eqakMF7.png

you've mentioned a ton of variants i personally love those photon sanctuary which speed up the deck immensely timed well with guardian of order and galaxy wizard this deck can even have very good draw power with trade in paired with photon thrasher and and galaxy knight you have an instant rank 8 while still having a hand along with the new galaxy cards like dragun and the new tuner which makes a good amount of synchro plays you could try out the new level 10 also you can try photon wyvern which will be your heavy storm for the deck which comes free of charge with photon sanctuary while also have a guardian of order on board you can even make rank seven plays with galaxy queens light which is searchable with galaxy wizard but you might blow your hand away with this

i dont find lizard's or slasher's too useful, but twin photon lizard can be great for fast plays

jonnynowhere wrote:you've mentioned a ton of variants i personally love those photon sanctuary which speed up the deck immensely timed well with guardian of order and galaxy wizard this deck can even have very good draw power with trade in paired with photon thrasher and and galaxy knight you have an instant rank 8 while still having a hand along with the new galaxy cards like dragun and the new tuner which makes a good amount of synchro plays you could try out the new level 10 also you can try photon wyvern which will be your heavy storm for the deck which comes free of charge with photon sanctuary while also have a guardian of order on board you can even make rank seven plays with galaxy queens light which is searchable with galaxy wizard but you might blow your hand away with this

Only problem with using wyvern is that it is quite slow. It has to get through things like effect veiler, solemn, skill drain, and other things, so I usually don't play it. And I do agree, photon sanctuary is AMAZING. You may also want to play trade-in to keep consistency if you run quite a bit of 8's. I just play rank 5/8 because I've been able to do pleiades and felgrand in about three turns max. That combo is INSANE.

agammemnon6 wrote:i dont find lizard's or slasher's too useful, but twin photon lizard can be great for fast plays

I don't like playing the fusion version because you go minus from hand if effect veiler'd. Sure, he allows for such plays like two dragons, but I find the best way is to spam rank 8's, firstly with felgrand I run lizard to put up slasher, and I run slasher for quick rank 5's with satellite/rank 4's with any light/for sheer brute and force. Lizard can also search for satellite, and I just love meh Pleiades (note my signature XD)

true i guess, just found wizard does all the searching i needed, and always the racism to hyades

i know hes slow thats why i only run one of him and hes only there for the rank 7 plays thats it cause i dont summon wyvern unless i have order on board also you can try debris for rank 4s but i dont like it just an option just my opinion