Ever want to consistently summon Dragun of Red-Eyes with 1 card? Then check THIS out!

Looking forward to Dragun of Red-Eyes:

The Basic Combo:

Let’s just get the long combo out of the way first. So to pull off a Dragun without locking your Special Summons for the rest of the turn, it turns out you just need to make a Crystron Halqifibrax. So I will start the basic combo from that point:

1. Link Summon Halqifibrax and use its effect to Special Summon Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion from the deck.
2. Link Summon Linkross (YGOrg Translation) using Halqifibrax and use its effect to summon 2 “Link Tokens.”
3. Synchro Summon Martial Metal Marcher using a Link Token and O-Lion to the zone Linkross points to.
4. Martial’s effect triggers targeting O-Lion and O-Lion’s effect triggers, summoning a “Mecha Phantom Beast Token” and O-Lion to your field.
5. Synchro Summon Muddy Mudragon using Martial and your MPB Token to the zone Linkross points to.
6. Link Summon Protector Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman using Linkross and O-Lion.
7. Activate the effect of Mudragon, Fusion Summoning Dragun of Red-Eyes by using Mudragon and Protector as your material.

Bugging Out:

Sample Decklist:

Open the spoiler below to view the sample decklist.

Let’s Talk About the Other Additions:

Expanding Our Basic Combo:

Now that you’ve seen the decklist, let’s talk about a couple advanced scenarios that ends on a board with a bit more disruptive potential. Since your Insect engine is very effective at fielding a 1-card Halqifibrax, the rest of your hand can be centered around trying to extend your play further. For example, consider having a hand including Battlewasp – Sting the Poison and any 2 extenders, in this example, let’s use Jester Confit and Tenyi Spirit – Vishuda.

1. Special Summon Tenyi Spirit – Vishuda from your hand.
2. Normal Summon Battlewasp – Sting the Poison, triggering its effect to add Battlewasp – Pin the Bullseye from deck to hand.
3. Special Summon Pin using its effect.
4. Link Summon Halqifibrax using Sting and Pin, and use its effect to Special Summon Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion from the deck.
5. Link Summon Linkross (YGOrg Translation) using Halqifibrax and use its effect to summon 2 “Link Tokens.”
6. Synchro Summon Martial Metal Marcher using a Link Token and O-Lion to the zone Linkross points to.
7. Martial’s effect triggers targeting O-Lion and O-Lion’s effect triggers, summoning a “Mecha Phantom Beast Token”, and O-Lion.
8. Synchro Summon Muddy Mudragon using Martial and your MPB Token to the zone Linkross points to.
9. Link Summon Cross-Sheep using Linkross and O-Lion.
10. Special Summon Jester Confit from hand.
11. Link Summon Protector Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman using Confit and Vishuda.
12. Activate the effect of Mudragon, Fusion Summoning Dragun of Red-Eyes by using Mudragon and Protector as your material.
13. Trigger the effect of Cross-Sheep, summoning Martial back from the GY.
14. Synchro Summon Herald of the Arc Light using Martial and your second Link Token.

That last play can be achieved by any two extenders, be it Instant Fusion, Destrudo, Glow-Up, Confit, either Tenyi monster, Souls, or a searcher for any of those options like One For One, Foolish Burial, or Where Arf Thou? But this next combo actually becomes much more efficient when you have 1 extender that is Souls or Where Arf to search out your copy of Souls. Check it out:

1. Normal Summon Battlewasp – Sting the Poison, triggering its effect to add Battlewasp – Pin the Bullseye from deck to hand.
2. Special Summon Pin using its effect. {If needed, use Where Arf Thou? to search Magicians’ Souls from the deck.
3. Link Summon Linkuriboh using Pin.
4. Link Summon Halqifibrax using Sting and Linkuriboh, and use its effect to Special Summon Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion from the deck.
5. Link Summon Linkross (YGOrg Translation) using Halqifibrax and use its effect to summon 2 “Link Tokens.”
6. Synchro Summon Martial Metal Marcher using a Link Token and O-Lion to the zone Linkross points to.
7. Martial’s effect triggers targeting O-Lion and O-Lion’s effect triggers, summoning a “Mecha Phantom Beast Token”, and O-Lion.
8. Synchro Summon Muddy Mudragon using Martial and your MPB Token to the zone Linkross points to.
9. Link Summon Cross-Sheep using Linkross and O-Lion.
10. Use the effect of Magicians’ Souls, sending Dark Magician from your Deck to the GY, then sending Souls to the GY to bring back that Dark Magician.
11. Activate the effect of Mudragon, Fusion Summoning Dragun of Red-Eyes by using Mudragon and Dark Magician as your material.
12. This triggers the effect of Cross-Sheep, summoning Martial back from the GY.
13. Synchro Summon Herald of the Arc Light using Martial and your second Link Token.

This play results in the same monsters in your end board as the first scenario, but this time Dragun’s effect is fully unlocked since you use Dark Magician as material and it took less resources. That means you have 3 more cards in hand to help you prevent your opponent from playing the duel. If you’d rather value your LP over another negate, you can use your remaining Link Token to bring back Linkuriboh instead. Then, use Linkuriboh as material to summon Secure Gardna to prevent the effect damage in the End Phase! Either way, this is one powerful combo, and one that is fairly consistent. With just shy of a 60% of opening Souls or a Where Arf while running Upstart, this combo is also extremely consistent! Remember, you can technically still Let’s consider one final combo which unlocks another cool option for the deck: Kaiju-proofing your Dragun. The following example hand came up in a test duel: Armageddon Knight, Instant Fusion, Called by the Grave, Where Arf Thou?, and Insect Imitation.

1. Normal Summon Armageddon, triggering its effect to send Destrudo the GY.
2. Activate Instant Fusion, summoning Sea Monster of Theseus.
3. Link Summon Halqifibrax using Armageddon and Theseus, and use its effect to Special Summon Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion from the deck.
4. Link Summon Linkross (YGOrg Translation) using Halqifibrax and use its effect to summon 2 “Link Tokens.”
5. Activate Where Arf Thou?, adding Souls to hand.
6. Synchro Summon Martial Metal Marcher using a Link Token and O-Lion to the zone Linkross points to.
7. Martial’s effect triggers targeting Theseus and O-Lion’s effect triggers, summoning a “Mecha Phantom Beast Token”, and Theseus.
8. Activate Imitiation, tributing the second Link Token and summoning Sting from the deck.
9. Sting’s effect triggers, adding Pin from deck to hand, then activate Pin’s effect to summon Pin from hand.
10. Link Summon Cross-Sheep using Linkross and Sting.
11. Synchro Summon Muddy Mudragon using Theseus and Pin.
12. Activate the effect of Souls, sending then summoning Dark Magician to your field.
13. Activate the effect of Destrudo, targeting Muddy and summoning itself back as a Level 1 Tuner.
14. Synchro Summon Herald, using Destrudo and your MPB Token.
15. Activate the effect of Muddy,
16. Fusion Summoning Dragun of Red-Eyes by using Mudragon and Dark Magician as your material.
17. This triggers the effect of Cross-Sheep, summoning Souls back from the GY and increasing the ATK of your monsters by 700.
18. Link Summon Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians using Souls and Cross-Sheep, and since there are 3 Spells in the GY, it gains 3 Spell Counters.

Hand Simulations:

To test out the consistency of this variant, I built a model to simulate test hands and determine the outcome of that hand. This model was tested assuming a 5-card hand ONLY, so this would be the consistency if going 1st. As these were run under the current rules, I distinguished between Dragun ending in the Extra Monster Zone (EMZ) and Main Monster Zone (MMZ) for your reference. Obviously this will no longer be relevant in the near future when the new rules go into effect in April. The possible results of this simulation were:

1. Dragun in EMZ
2. Dragun in MMZ, summoned with Dark Magician, Secure Gardna in EMZ
3. Dragun and Herald in MMZ, Cross-Sheep in EMZ
4. Dragun, Millenium-Eyes, and 1 Link Token in MMZ, Cross-Sheep in EMZ
5. Dragun in MMZ, summoned with Dark Magician, Herald in MMZ, and at least Cross-Sheep in EMZ
6. Dragun not possible
7. Dragun possible only with a successful extra draw due to Upstart Goblin

The following chart shows the distribution of 100 test hands using this model:

In short, this build is extremely consistent at getting Dragun. Even though there is always a chance of not opening a successful Dragun combo, you have a chance of ending on that board and more. This may not convince you that this is the best way to get to Dragun when the new Predaplant link exists, but hopefully it shows you the potential reliability and consistently that this build could offer.

Other Level 1 and Tech Options:

Conclusion:

We made it – a ton of convoluted combos, many paragraphs about consistency in executing those combos, and a ton about cards we have yet to see confirmed for release in the TCG. But that doesn’t mean that they will never arrive here – with a lot of the necessary components for the combo being released in Duel Overload, it is only a matter of time until Dragun arrives to shake up our game. It’s only best to prepare ahead of time and try to creatively include options that can make the use of this powerful Fusion monster. Lastly, I hope this opens your eyes to the possibility that the Predaplant link is not the only path to Dragun, because it definitely isn’t. It may be consistent, but it requires extra cards that can muddy your initial hands, hence what led me to explore this option. If you don’t like the 100% focused option, consider using this combo in other decks. Just throwing in Instant Fusion and O-Lion in Altergiest for example enables the combo! At any rate, I wish you the best moving forward, and I’ll catch you next time when I return with a fully TCG-legal strategy (and one that doesn’t use Souls!!!)!

Reminder, I also take suggestions for future CDS articles! I really want to see some input from you! If you wish to see a CDS article about the archetype, theme, or strategy you love, feel free to private message me on the YGOrg Discord server, the YGOrganization Forums, or just post a comment in response to this article on our Facebook page with your ideas to keep under consideration! On most YGO-related communities my username is Quincymccoy, so feel free to reach out. As of now, I have a couple of outstanding requests that I am looking at: Cyberse, Shaddoll, and Speedroid.