Notes & Combos
~85% W/R to DLV Max. Probably the highest winrate and fastest climb I've had with this deck so far and I've played it in almost every DC. Very powerful deck if you can establish Kairyu-shin + Umi + Sea Stealth Attack. This deck dumpsters most meta decks if you can establish your board.
Some useful tips and general info of playing this deck:
- If you already have Umi in your hand, then try to bait Ash blossoms using Warrior of Atlantis.
- Reasoning and the Pot cards are good baits if you already have ways of getting Kairyu-shin on the field. If Reasoning mills an Ice Barrier, then that is your access to Kairyu-shin or the Whale
- Get really good at managing your Sea Stealth Attack timings. Generally, you should always activate SSA on the Draw/Standby phase on your opponent's turn. You need this active ASAP. Chain your SSA to your opponents backrow removal effects to prevent them from breaking your board. Use SSA to save your Kairyu-shin if you get Evenly Matched to banish 1 less card.
- Use SSA to dodge targeting effects. Chain SSA to Imperm/Veiler when your monsters are targeted to safely resolve their effects in the banished zone.
- Sea Stealth II protects your monsters from being targeted by non-water monster effects. This means cards like Effect Veiler and Promethean Princess (in the GY) do nothing to you.
- Try to surprise your opponent w/ Dark Reef if you can. Make the opponent commit to a summon before summoning your Kairyu-shin. That way they can't Infinite Impermanence the Kairyu-shin and continue their plays. Insulate Dark Reef plays with Called By the Grave
- Maiden counts as Umi so long as there is no field spell on either player's board. This is important because you can use Dark Reef to summon her onto your field + 1 other monster (usually Kairyu-shin) in case you don't have another Umi. She can act as an emergency Umi.
- Desires is a decent card in this variant of Umi since I am playing 3 copies of the most important cards. Having a free draw 2 is worth the tradeoff of potentially banishing my 1-ofs since this deck is kinda bricky.
Replays
- 534-715-858
The very first replay at the top illustrates how this deck is actually quite resilient - even from a disadvantageous position. In this replay, I didn't take my own advice and shotgunned the Dark Reef, thereby playing into the Imperms. Had I waited, this match would've been much easier.
Contrary to what that other guy is saying, I think you've actually managed to solve the deck's consistency with Reasoning, tripling up on cards, and the addition of Desires (the deck often bricks so hard that you'd lose anyways, so banishing 10 for a mulligan isn't bad). I do feel like 3 Ice Barrier might be better, since it can potentially buy you a turn when set, and it increases the likelihood of milling it with Reasoning over other, more valuable cards, but that's just my control player instincts talking. Dark Reef into Maiden of the Aqua + Kairyu-Shin is such a devious play, by the way. I love it.
Thanks for the write-up and yeah that's how I felt too. Dark reef is such a good card and each copy is essentially another Kairyu-shin. If you don't draw into Kairyu-shin, then you can just summon him on opponents turn instead. 1 Umi + 1 Dark Reef is enough to win the game thanks to Maiden. And Called By the Grave protects this play from Ash Blossom.
Also, I used to run 3x Ice Barrier and 3x Reasoning, but I would often draw multiples of Ice Barrier and felt it was a little too bricky. However, it's a decent card on its own and I'd probably get rid of 1 Warrior of Atlantis and 1 Kraken to make space for 1 Reasoning and 1 Ice Barrier. Getting rid of 2 lvl 4 monsters also improves the chances that Reasoning hits a Kairyu-shin off the top.
Extra deck is unnecessary. Grampulse is useful against some annoying backrow and Bagooska in case you brick and need to draw for engine. Zeus is good if you no longer need a Bagooska, but I never summoned him. Kragen can be useful too at controlling board states, but making Bagooska is generally better.
I'd probably get rid of 1 Warrior of Atlantis for an extra Reasoning. Should also probably get rid of a doom kraken and make space for an extra Ice Barrier as well.
been playing this deck for 5 hours at DLV 19. WR is nowhere near 85%. It's more like 40%
"Skill issues". Deck loses to ash, veiler, evenly, imperm, kash. and has no negates nor any meaningful follow up after being negated. just be thankful someone actually gave you and your 4th rate deck a chance and attention.
LOL the real joke here is being stuck at lvl 19 for 5 hours and then coming here to whine like a baby about an obvious skill issue. News flash: this is a rogue deck. It has good matchups against meta decks, but its obviously gonna struggle against common interruptions. Most of your "deck loses to..." complaints were addressed in my tips section above. So stop being a whiny baby, read the useful materials, and actually get good at this game.