Radio Gagaga

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve done a major post for this world. A good part of it is because a lot of my energy has been going into my fan fiction writing. But since I’m once again in between stories at the moment, I’ve decided to go ahead and do a post that I’ve kind of been planning to write for quite some time. And since the ZEXAL anime has recently come to an end in Japan, now seems like the perfect time to do it

Every protagonist in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise has had his own distinct deck. Yugi Muto, or rather Yami Yugi, used a deck made up generally of Spellcaster, Warrior, and Fiend-type monsters. Jaden Yuki of GX used the awesome Elemental Hero monsters that specialized in Fusions. In addition to Stardust Dragon, Yusei Fudo of 5D’s used a mix of warrior and machine-like monsters that personified the racing theme of 5D’s and his gritty almost dystopian background. Then we come to ZEXAL’s hero Yuma Tsukumo, who used an oddball mix of monsters with archetype names based on sound effects.

But out of all the monsters that Yuma has used in the anime and manga there’s one faction that’s kind of grown on me, a mixture of Spellcaster and Warrior-type monsters known as the Gagaga monsters. Below is a list of all the monsters in this faction that have been made into real cards.

For some reason there’s something about the style of the Gagaga monsters that seems to appeal to me. Plus I like that Gagaga Girl uses a smart phone instead of a magic wand (there’s an app for everything now). Another thing is that from the name of one of the archetype’s support cards, Gagaga Academy Emergency Network seems to indicate that all the Gagaga monsters might be students at a school of some kind. Maybe it’s an academy founded by Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl. I’m actually kind of hoping that this academy will be shown as some kind of Field Spell at some future date.

But whatever the reasons, I decided that I wanted to try building a deck made up of these monsters. And fortunately many of the Gagaga cards were available in the most recent Yu-Gi-Oh starter deck. So I ended up getting a few copies and used them and some other cards I had to build a Gagaga deck. The deck’s kind of a work in progress. Just something I’ve been tinkering with a little in my spare time. And now I’d like to share a little but of what I’ve learned both from practicing with this deck and from stuff I’ve read.

One downside that the Gagaga monsters have is that they have pretty low stats. Plus they can’t be used for Synchro Summoning. In fact Gagaga Magician’s effect states that he can’t be used for Synchro Summoning at all. But the nice thing about the Gagaga monsters is they can be used to summon a wide variety of Xyz monsters with different Ranks. Regular Xyz monsters, Xyz monsters that require Dark attribute or Spellcaster-type monsters as material, and of course the Number monsters that were an essential plot device in ZEXAL are all very compatible with the Gagaga monsters. In other words, this is a good archetype for making a generic Xyz monster deck.

Now the Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki states that all of the monsters in this archetype should be used for making a Gagaga deck. But in my experience, a lot of the advice that comes from the Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki should be taken with a grain of salt. The way I see it, there are only three monsters in this archetype that are essential for making a Gagaga deck, Gagaga Magician, Gagaga Girl, and Gagaga Sister. Gagaga Girl is quite useful in taking down special summoned monsters, and special summoning is used quite a lot in most of today’s deck. Gagaga Sister meanwhile can be used with Gagaga Magician to summon Rank 9 and 10 Xyz monsters.

The rest of the monsters in the archetype sort of optional and depend on what Xyz monsters are being used in the Extra Deck. Gagaga Caesar is a good card to use for summoning Xyz monsters that require three materials, while Gagaga Clerk is a good card to help bring out Rank 2 monsters. Gagaga Child is actually a pretty good card to use in a lot of Gagaga decks, but because his effect forces one to skip the Battle Phase it’s advisable to only use one copy. I kind of like using Gagaga Gardna because it makes a good wall monster in a pinch. And Gagaga Gardna can be used to set up a quick Rank 4 Xyz summon (Rank 6 if used with Gagaga Sister).

A lot of the Spell cards that support the Gagaga archetype are pretty optional as well. The only really essential one is Gagaga Revenge, which lets one recycle a Gagaga monster from the Graveyard and give all Xyz monsters one has on the field a pretty big power boost. Another Spell card called Gagaga Wind is another good support card to have in the deck, as it can summon a Gagaga monster from the hand and set up a quick Rank 4 Xyz summon. The previously mentioned Gagaga Academy Emergency Network is also a good one to use since it can summon a Gagaga monster from the deck and set up a quick Xyz Summon early in the duel. The rest of the Gagaga specific Spell and Trap cards are highly optional in my opinion and could only serve to take up space that could be used for more useful cards.

The level changing abilities of the Spellcaster-type Gagaga monsters don’t have to be used for Xyz summoning. By changing the levels of Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Girl/Gagaga Sister to level seven, they can be used to summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic. But from my experience a lot of the cards that make up a Gagaga deck depend on what Xyz monsters one wishes to summon. For example, a lot of the Xyz monsters used with my Gagaga deck are Number monsters. So I’ve been tending to use Number-related support cards like Number wall. It all depends on preference, but I think these Xyz monsters would make good additions to any Gagaga deck’s Extra Deck

Norito the Moral Leader

Number 33: Chronomaly Machu Mech

Number 103: Ragna Zero

Norito the Moral Leader is a good card to use for dealing with any nasty Spell and Trap cards that might get in the way. His evolved form, CXyx Simon the Great Moral Leader can also be included to deal with some of the more annoying effect monsters. The effects of Ragna Zero and Machu Mech both combo beautifully with Gagaga Girl’s effect and help get rid of special summoned monsters and do major damage. Number C103: Ragna Infinity can also be included to inflict even more effect damage in combination with Machu Mech, but to get the most out of their effects one might need to include a few ATK reduction cards. Which might be a good idea considering the low stats of the Gagaga monsters. But including CXyz Simon and Ragna Infinity depends on whether or not one wants to try and squeeze in a couple of Rank-Up-Magic cards.

I think that about covers it for this post. Yuma Tsukumo will probably never be considered to be the best hero in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. Heck, depending on how Arc-V turns out, he may not even be considered fourth best. But his exploits have given the card game one pretty good archetype of cards. Until next time, stay tuned for the next post.

And now to close, here's the song Radio Ga Ga by Queen.

End