in designing a Tribute Summon-based archetype through the various attempts to tackle these challenges, leading towards the next Tribute Summon-centric archetype that’s coming soon in Maximum Crisis.

The following article is a mix of analysis, logic, and application of my game knowledge. Keep that in mind, as nothing is confirmed by Konami or any official card design sources. This is technically an opinion piece, you have been warned!

The Dilemmas of the Mechanic:

Before I begin diving into the design details with respect to specific archetypes, let’s begin by covering the basics for Tribute Summoning. Initially designed as a gating mechanism, a Tribute Summon requires 1, 2 or 3 other monsters you control in addition to your turn’s Normal Summon. It was introduced to provide a method of summoning a boss monster at a reasonable ‘cost’ in card advantage. For monsters with Level 5 or 6, most duelists already know that this cost is 1 tribute, and for monsters with Level 7 or higher, this cost is 2 tributes. Now, this was created for the game well before Pendulum, Synchro, or Xyz monsters were even a part of the game designers’ wildest dreams. With this in mind, I want you to take a second to ask yourself a question: How many archetypes can you recall that are centered around Tribute Summoning?

The First Tribute Theme – The Monarchs:

To clarify before I begin, I want to start by introducing the Monarchs as they originally began, back in the GX era. The idea behind this initial theme was extremely simple – they all had effects to balance the cost of a Tribute Summon. Zaborg destroyed a monster upon being Tribute Summoned, Mobius destroyed 2 Spell/Trap cards upon being Tribute Summoned, Thestalos discarded a card from the opponent’s hand, and Granmarg destroyed a set card. Eventually Raiza and Caius were added to the fray, but all of these cards were introduced to compensate for only one of the downsides to the Tribute Summon mechanic: the loss in card advantage. The first attempt at tackling the challenge of the Tribute Summon mechanic only hit one of the downsides, and yet the Monarchs quickly grew to be some of the most dominant cards of their day. These monsters in their prime helped a specific deck rise to the top of the tournament scene to dominate, a deck called Perfect Circle. Thus, it was clear for at least some part of the history of the game that Monarchs could be a game-defining force with the power of Tribute Summoning. Then came the 5Ds era, and Synchro Summoning rose as the premiere boss monsters; Synchro Monsters, that still required the multiple monster investment; however, they eliminated two problems held by Tribute Summon monsters – the requirement of having them in the hand and your turn’s Normal Summon. Thus, to keep pace with the new Synchro overlords, Tribute Summoning had to try to keep up. Thus, card designers did the best they could: design an archetype that could keep up, and can probably be considered the first archetype that was entirely based around Tribute Summoning. Seems fitting for the Hidden Arsenal (DT) series to introduce a theme completely devoted to Tribute Summoning considering that these archetypes intended to support every different type of summoning method.

The first Tribute Archetype – Steelswarm:

Egyptian Dragons Arise – Introducing the Hieratic:

Now why bring this archetype up in an article about Tribute Summoning? Because I wanted to highlight that card designers actually hit the mark when it comes to designing an archetype that relies upon adding the cards you need to the hand, then relying upon tributing and effective trades of card advantage to get them to the field. Sure, one can claim that the Hieratic is more of a combo-heavy strategy than prior Tribute-focused archetypes, but it does hit the nail on the head and prove that a theme with these heavy restrictions and challenges can still be at the top tables. Thus, the scene was set for future Tribute Summon archetypes… or should I say the return of some powerful Emperors.

Mega Monarchs – The Emperors Strike Back!

Attack of the Programs – The Qliphort Arrive:

Return of the Monarchs (AGAIN!!!)

Is the True Draco the Archetype we have been waiting for?

Where will designers go from here?

The Tribute Summon mechanic has been extensively explored since its early introduction to the game, so a natural question is simply wondering what comes next. This is where I have absolutely no answers, because I have no idea what they will do if the card designers ever decide to return to a theme involving Tribute Summoning. As we’ve seen TCG-side with the Kozmo, Kaiju, and now Subterror, Tribute Summoning simply isn’t the fad and higher leveled boss monsters are now accessed almost exclusively by Special Summoning. Additionally, I also worry that we will never see another innovative attempt to create a Tribute Summon-focused archetype again, because the formula that composed the Qliphort archetype was apparently enough to re-use for the True Draco 3 years later. One can only hope that the card designers come up with something brand new the next time they attempt to utilize this mechanic.

Hopefully you enjoyed learning about the evolution of the execution of the Tribute Summon mechanic, how it developed, the various approaches to the limited number of dedicated archetypes, and the incoming Tribute Summon theme known as the True Draco! I realize this isn’t one of my normal CDS articles, but I plan on bring some of those back in the near future! Thanks for reading and until next time!