What happened when the Ghost met the Girl? A Raid battle like no other…

Welcome to the Synchro Dimension:

The Zombie-type has been emblematic of the Synchro Summoning mechanic from the beginning. By having one of the most prolific tuners within its ranks, the Zombie type has evolved in the modern game to have two main options for playing the deck. The first option is a Zombie World control variant, powering through the opponent’s options through powerful cards such as Doomking Balerdroch. The second option would be to focus around the plethora of Zombie-type Synchro monsters available for use. However, most of these Synchro monsters fall within one of two archetypes – the Shiranui and the Mayakashi. Most duelists stick with one of these archetypes, but why not dare to be creative and try to follow the lore of the Girl meeting the Ghost…

Before we can get too far down the archetypal rabbit holes, we need to talk Zombies as a type, as this type is pretty unique. Zombies have some of the best generic type support out of all types in the game. Between Uni-Zombie modifying its level by getting Zombie monsters to your GY, Mezuki banishing itself from your GY to Special Summon back any other Zombie from your GY, or even multiple monsters that make any Zombie-type searchable such as Goblin Zombie or Glow-Up Bloom. All of these cards require careful card design to avoid making any archetype too powerful with the combination of archetype support and the generic support available, so there are some limitations to play around, but the possibilities are endless when you are creating a deck with monsters of this type.

I’ll come back to this mix of generic and archetypal support later, so let’s dive into the starring archetypes for today’s strategy!

The Shiranui:

First up for our discussion is the group of FIRE/Zombie monsters themed around the forging and wielding of ancestral blades. Each Shiranui features two effects, but they are all tied together by having a second effect that triggers when the monster is banished. This was the first Zombie theme that wanted to banish themselves rather than just the type support cards, so it was a neat twist when the theme first emerged as a legacy Synchro archetype. Their Synchro monsters range in levels from 5 to 10, and they even received their own Link monster as part of their legacy support in the Vrains era. This theme was particularly designed to thrive in the presence of the generic Zombie support cards, as you should notice from their key cards!

But as I said at the beginning, the Shiranui is just the start, for we have other Zombie archetypes to discuss. Rise from the grave and let’s continue!

The Mayakashi:

The second archetype up for discussion is a group of laddering Yōkai from Japanese folklore and Chinese mythology. Each Mayakashi is designed to facilitate the initiation or continuation of a Synchro ladder, first summoning a level 3 Synchro monster, using that to Synchro a level 5, then up the chain of odd levels until you make their boss monster a Level 11 Synchro. Then, once you have Mayakashi synchros in your GY, they can bring themselves back and apply beneficial effects whenever a Synchro monster is destroyed and sent to the GY that was 2 levels higher. In short, the theme ladders up then revives back down the ladder. Additionally, the only cost for this revival is banishing a Zombie monster from your GY! Perfect!

Turning to the Mayakashi Extra Deck suite, here’s a quick summary:

With that, we’ve officially covered the two main Zombie synchro archetypes for this article – but I would be remiss if I didn’t cover a third archetype that recently came to the TCG and boosted this hybrid into an actual threat. That’s right, it’s time to bring on the Raid Battle.

The Generaider Engine:

The Mayakashi theme has one major drawback – they are very archetype locked, especially at first glance. By using Dakki’s effect just once, you lock yourself into summoning only Mayakashi monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn. Similarly, all of the non-tuners of the Mayakashi theme have a continuous restriction that “You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck, except “Mayakashi” monsters.” While you may be able to get some of those non-tuners off the field by making a Mayakashi Link Summon into Yuki-Onna, you will often be left in a situation where you have one that would potential stop your Shiranui plays. So this is where Hela enters the fray again – by tributing away a Mayakashi with the restriction, you can ensure that you have nothing stopping you from wielding the Shiranui side of your plays. It’s also helpful to note that Solitaire shares a similar role in the ‘tributing of Mayakashi’ department.

All that aside, I think we’ve covered the strengths of these three themes. So let’s see how they look when you throw them all together.

Sample Decklist:

Click Here to view an interactive decklist in the Official Card Database.

Turn-Based Strategy:

One last note on my seemingly weird tech of Orbital Hydralander – the opening Mayakashi combo basically guarantees that you get 5 monsters to the GY with different names. Between all of the other GY manipulation available to you, you should be able to help his effect and/or summoning condition be live whenever you wish. Thus – it’s a great additional card to throw with your opening board!

Additional Tech Options:

Looking Forward:

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, we’ve talked a lot about the walking dead and how various Zombie archetypes can band together in their quest to eat brains. But hopefully this inspired you to think a bit more creatively about other monster types as well – while archetypes are the primary vessel for winning strategies, you can truly develop a unique powerhouse by combining various strategies then knitting them together with common support cards! After all, that’s primarily how the Striker Orcust build came into existence, so why not augment the capabilities of other archetypes to get them into a more powerful state. Either way, I wish you the best on your journey and hope that you enjoyed reading!

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.