Hello Yugioh Community! The release of Hidden Arsenal 7 is just around the corner and I have bombarded with the same question for the past month, “How are Mermails going to deal with Evilswarms when they are released?” and I am proud to announce I will finally answer this question today! As of right now Mermails have proven to be the most popular and dominating deck in the Yugi-Meta, but most duelist feel that the tides are going to turn once Evilswam Ophion comes around. While I may not cover all of the bases, I will do my best to share my own personal insight as a Water duelist to try and shed some light on this bleak situation. It is by no means a good match-up, but similarly to how the Macro Rabbit match-up works, it is not an unwinnable situation and with some minor main deck and extra deck adjustments, there may just be hope yet!
Question of the Article: Do you think Mermails will be able to deal with the new Evilswarm threat or will Evilswarm Ophion prove to be too much to handle?
Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!
-Evilswarms…..What’s the Problem?-
Before I dive into how I plan on facing this match-up let us first take a look at what the main issue Mermails have to deal with. The main way I have seen Evilswarms ran and are expected to be played is that they summon a turn one Evilswarm Ophion, which allows them to search for a copy of Infestation Pandemic, a quick-play spell card that protects all of their Evilswarms from spell and trap effects for the turn, and his bonus effect that as long as he has materials neither player can special summon level 5 or higher monsters. With his huge 2550 attack and ability to search out the Infestation Pandemic, you can see why he may be a problem for Mermails to deal with. He cuts off any use of [ccProd]Mermail Abyssmegalo[/ccProd], [ccProd]Mermail Abyssteus[/ccProd], and even [ccProd]Mermail Abyssleed[/ccProd]. You won’t be able to summon any of them with their effects or by the effect of [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] or [ccProd]Abyss-sphere[/ccProd], so the typical Rank 7 answer is out of the question. Most Evilswarm duelist will use cards like [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] as well in order to protect their Evilswarm Ophion and that is an important fact to keep in mind when trying to find answers for the deck.
-What is the Buzz? –
From the time I have spent surfing the online forums, it seems to be a general consensus that most Water duelist intend to return to the [ccProd]Genex Undine[/ccProd]/[ccProd]Genex Controller[/ccProd] version that seems to have fallen by the wayside due to the Mono-Mermail deck Jeff Jones and I designed being much faster, more control oriented, and overall more effective in my opinion. While this may help out since [ccProd]Genex Undine[/ccProd] is a searchable out to Evilswarm Ophion, ([ccProd]Abyss-Sphere[/ccProd]—[ccProd]Mermail Abyssline[/ccProd]—[ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd]—Search out [ccProd]Genex Undine[/ccProd]—Summon to send [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infatnry[/ccProd] –Destroy Evilswarm Ophion)I feel this may only happen in a perfect world and odds are they may have one of the cards I mentioned before ([ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] or [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd]) and you have now just wasted your normal summon to practically accomplish nothing. I am not saying this isn’t the way to go, but it seems as more of a last resort direction to me, but for those who want to stick the mono-mermail way this next part is for you.
-Mono-Mermails can’t deal with Evilswarm Ophion…..Can They!? –
In the testing I have done thus far, alongside just some Yugi-Theroy-Oh, I have found two of my favorite answers when facing this deck. Both of these answers are fairly obvious as good ideas usually are.
-Moar [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd]-
This card is obviously your best friend against any Evilswarm duelist and must be used properly in order to gain the upper hand in this match-up. For example, Summoning a [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd], discarding [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd] for the cost with the intention of using its effect on a face-up opposing Evilswarm Ophion is probably not an effective use of resources as they will more than likely have a [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd] or a [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] they can chain, (and when you go to destroy the [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] with [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd] they can chain the [ccProd]Infestation Pandemic[/ccProd] they searched out, making Evilswarm Ophion unaffected by the [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd]) but either way as good Water duelist we must be sneakier than that.
The Evilswarm deck is very control oriented and in most cases won’t be able to produce a lot of monsters or push for a lot of damage so something as simple as a set [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] is going to be the main way for Mermails to fight back in this match-up. Once they attack your [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] (or you crash it into their Evilswarm Ophion if they aren’t taking the bait) you must use the damage step and damage calculation as your ally in order to take this foe down. Both of my favorite answers to Evilswarm Ophion involve a [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] being destroyed as a result of battle preferably.
-Solution 1 – Summon a [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd] after a [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] has been destroyed by battle.
If you are fortunate enough to have drawn or searched out an [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd], it is key to bring a [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd] out from [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] being destroyed by battle as they will have the least amount of outs in this scenario. When you bring the [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd] out and discard [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd] as a cost you will be after Damage Calculation and the only cards that may be activated during this time are trigger effects and or counter traps, the biggest thing is that attack modifiers such as [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd] cannot be activated during this time. While it can be activated in the damage step once they see the [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] flip, they will not be able to activate it after you have brought out the [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd] and have triggered his effect revealing the Infantry you discarded. Knowing this particular ruling can be the difference between winning and losing. If you think they will preemptively activate the [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd] in anticipation, simply grab the [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd] anyway, sidcard something useless and search out another [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] to try the whole thing over again, or you can try make next suggestion.
-Solution 2 – Use [ccProd]Mermail Abyssdine[/ccProd] and squeeze in a [ccProd]Temtempo the Percussion Djinn[/ccProd]
It is vital to remember that for Evilswarm Ophion is have a useful effect he requires XYZ materials under him. If you use [ccProd]Mermail Abyssdine[/ccProd] in your deck any time [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd] is destroyed, by [ccProd]Abyss-Sphere[/ccProd] or by battle, and you don’t happen to have an [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd] in your hand, feel free to grab [ccProd]Mermail Abyssdine[/ccProd] with Abysslinde’s effect. Since [ccProd]Mermail Abyssdine[/ccProd] was special summoned by another Mermail it will trigger her effect to special summon back any level 3 or lower Mermail from the grave to the field, then on your turn you can XYZ summon into [ccProd]Temtempo the Percussion Djinn[/ccProd] and get rid of the last material. While [ccProd]Temtempo the Percussion Djinn[/ccProd] will have less attack than Evilswarm Ophion, you will basically be facing down a 2550 Vanilla, isn’t that just a bigger Summoned Skull? The best part is that [ccProd]Forbidden Dress[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] are almost useless with this tatic. If they allow you to XYZ summon into Temtempo without activating [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] you will always be able to chain his quick effect to make sure the material gets detached. If they do flip up the [ccProd]Safe Zone[/ccProd] because they see it coming you can always make a [ccProd]Wind-Up Zenmaines[/ccProd] and start going after the Safe Zone safely.
Conclusion: Many duelist believe that when Evilswarms are released they will put an end to this Mermail domination. While it does have a fairly favorable match-up against Water, I think if the Mermail deck is adjusted just enough, it will be able to go blow to blow with this deck. Whether it is Making the most out of [ccProd]Atlantean Heavy Infantry[/ccProd] or simply adding a copy of [ccProd]Mermail Abyssdine[/ccProd] to allow easier access to rank 3 monsters, if there is a will there is a way. I hope this article was able to answer this question I have been asked a million times over!
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or simply want to just answer the question of the article, you can do so in the comments down below!
-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and YCS Columbus Champion
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