Enter the Scrapyard:

But before we get too deep into the Scrap monsters, let’s talk about the sister archetype that pairs ever so nicely with it – the Unchained.

Relinquish your Chains:

The Unchained (and Unchained Soul) archetypes are a pair of nested themes that revolve around Link Summoning using your opponent’s monsters as material. Along the way, all of the support cards trigger while they are destroyed by a card effect. For example, even their tutoring spell, Abomination’s Prison, has an effect that if the set card was destroyed by a card effect, you can Special Summon an Unchained monster from the deck. This effect is featured on all of the Spell and Trap cards.

Why Scrap as the Hybrid:

All things considered, these two themes serve each other well – covering the other’s weaknesses with a strength – so that’s how a hybrid here can work well. Remember, if you are going to try to hybrid two archetypes into one cohesive strategy, each part needs to be contributing something to make it worth it in the end. Some duels you’ll have pieces of both, so they better work together when you do!

The Decklist:

Click Here to view the decklist in the Official Card Database

An Opening Combo:

The first thing to note about the abomination of a hybrid deck is that the end boards this thing can put up are not easily broken. Let’s take for example the board of opening Scrap Recycler + any Unchained backrow.

• Normal Recycler, sending Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion from deck to GY, which activates summoning a Token.
• Link Summon Scrap Wyvern using Recycler and the Token.
• Set your Unchained backrow.
• Use Wyvern’s 1st effect, summoning Recycler then destroying it.
• Wyvern’s 2nd effect triggers, summoning Scrap Golem from your deck then destroying your set Unchained backrow.
• Your Unchained backrow triggers, summoning Unchained Soul of Disaster from deck.
• *Use Golem’s effect, summoning Recycler back from the GY, triggering Recycler which sends Crystron Rosenix from deck to the GY.
• Use Rosenix’s effect, banishing itself to summon a Crystron token.
• Link Summon I:P Masquerena using Recycler and your token.
• Link Summon Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax using I:P and Wyvern.
• Link Summon Unchained Soul of Rage using Disaster and Golem.

Additional combos unlocked using the Scrap-heavy build featured above:

If you are wondering why the above build runs so many solo Scrap monsters, it is because they each open up unique opportunities for this hybrid deck. First, let’s talk Scrap Searcher and Scrap Shark. Scrap Shark is in the deck as the in-theme Foolish Burial for Scraps, since none of the useful Scraps outside of Recycler are machines, so it’s singular purpose is to get that Searcher to the GY. Once Searcher is in the GY, a secondary win condition for the deck is unlocked. First, Searcher can summon itself back when a Scrap monster is destroyed. But when it does, all non-Scrap monsters you control are destroyed. How is this useful? Well, just imagine if you could summon it to your opponent’s field… in ATK position.

Alternative Options:

This combination of archetypes is really cool not only for the synergies between the two but because there is a noteable amount of extra space to fill in between the main combo cards. Remember, our 2-card combo detailed above needs only a limited portion of each archetype.

As you probably noticed, the option I went with for the original decklist was to fill in the remaining space with more Scrap cards for additional combos, the Utopia double engine for OTKs, and a maximized Unchained core. This gives a bigger spotlight to the two main archetypes for this article, but it is worth considering how else you could use the remaining deckspace. So let’s do that!

God Says No:

Remove:
-1 Scrap Beast, -1 Scrap Orthos, -1 Scrap Shark, -1 Scrap Searcher, -1 Scrap Chimera, -2 Scrap Factory, -1 Terraforming, -2 Scrapyard, -1 Double or Nothing, -1 Number 39: Utopia, -1 Number 39: Utopia Double, -1 Scrap Dragon, -1 Scrap Twin Dragon

Add:
+3 There Can Only Be One, +3 Solemn Strike, +3 Solemn Judgment, +2 Crackdown, +1 Triple Burst Dragon, +1 Underclock Taker, +1 Salamangreat Almiraj, +1 Black Luster Soldier – Soldier of Chaos

This variant of the deck plays more of a control/combo style – after getting your initial combo, you want to just straight up say no to anything your opponent tries. While immensely frustrating for them, it can be quite hilarious to actually play!

Orcust:

Remove:
-1 Scrap Beast, -1 Scrap Orthos, -1 Scrap Shark, -1 Scrap Searcher, -1 Scrap Chimera, -2 Scrapyard, -1 Double or Nothing, -1 Crystron Rosenix, -1 Number 39: Utopia, -1 Number 39: Utopia Double, -1 Scrap Dragon, -1 Scrap Twin Dragon, -1 Unchained Soul of Anguish

Add:
+1 Orcust Cymbal Skeleton, +1 Orcust Harp Horror, +1 Orcust Knightmare, +1 World Legacy World Wand, +1 Orcustrated Babel, +1 Orcust Crescendo, +1 Orcustrated Return, +1 Gizmek Oroshi, the Serpention Sky Slasher, +1 Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star, +2 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton, +1 Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator, +1 Topologic Bomber Dragon

What this does is modify the original combo, starting with the step marked with an (*).

• *Use Golem’s effect, summoning Recycler back from the GY, triggering Recycler which sends Orcust Harp Horror from deck to the GY.
• Use Harp Horror’s effect, banishing itself to summon Orcust Knigthmare from the deck.
• Link Summon Galatea, the Orcust Automaton using Recycler and Knightmare.
• Use Knightmare’s effect, sending Orcust Cymbal Skeleton from deck to GY.
• Use Galatea’s effect, returning Harp Horror to the deck and setting Orcustrated Babel to your field. Then activate Babel.
• Xyz Summon Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star using Galatea as material, triggering its effect which then attaches the banished Knightmare as material.
• Link Summon I:P Masquerena using Dingirsu and Scrap Golem.
• Link Summon Topologic Bomber Dragon using I:P and Wyvern.

After this combo, you have a Topologic who cannot be destroyed by card effects, a live Cymbal Skeleton and Dingirsu in your GY to summon during the opponent’s turn to force a field nuke. Still, this is just an extension of our earlier 2-card play. Imagine what you could do with additional cards. Take for example that you began the turn with a Scrap Factory in hand – that gives you an additional Golem from the deck when Wyvern first destroys your Recycler, which then summons another material to the field for even more plays.

Looking Forward:

Go Make this Better:

Just to close the loop – this is a unique CDS article as the highlighted decklist probably isn’t the best way to run the proposed strategy. From my testing, I’ve found that the Orcust build has the most power with more frequent dead hands, while the Scrap build has the best chance of digging out of a bad draw situation. So if you are a player willing to sacrifice a bit of power for more consistency like me, maybe you might like the Scrap build more.

That said, I’m still convinced that there is probably a better way to execute this hybrid. Whether it is playing draw power, more hand traps, or something, I’m sure someone out there can take this further. If that sounds like you – I wish you the best and hope that this can inspire you to try to take an established archetype in a new direction. After all, that’s the point of new support cards!

Conclusion:

If you’ve made it this far you’ve read a lot about Scraps and the Unchained. Hopefully it didn’t shackle you down too much or cause too much wailing. But this hybrid of archetypes plays off each other exceptionally well – destroying your own cards is just in the DNA of both themes. So I implore you to try this out and make the concept shine – it’s a fun deck to get to know, use, and exploit against an unsuspecting opponent! Thanks for reading and catch you next time.

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.