We’re about a week away from the Japanese release of the new Justice Hunters expansion for Yu-Gi-Oh! While the recently revealed K9 archetype drew positive attention from Western audiences, this set started on a very optimistic note last month after the Yummy archetype was revealed.
Small Package, Big Engine
Probably one of the smaller main deck rosters revealed in recent times, the Yummy archetype features Cupsie, Cooky, and Lollipo. These three cute little monsters are all level 1 Light attribute beast monsters with a shared effect.
If the controlling player already has a Level 1 Link or Level 2 Synchro monster on the field, all three of these little guys can be special summoned from the hand. Like their theme, each of these 3 comes with their own styles of effects.
For Cupsie, they can function as a 1 card combo starter as they add any Yummy archetype card -except itself- from the deck to the hand.
For Cooky, they can only offer a minus 1000 to attack power to an opponent’s face-up monster. Lastly, Lollipo, completes the current package by spinning an opponent’s card from the graveyard back to the hand.
The above abilities are only activated if they were normal summoned or they special summoned themselves onto the field. Much like any good recipe, the whole is usually greater than the sum of its parts.
All 3 main deck monsters cards also feature a set of alternative abilities should they be special summoned by a synchro monster effect. Cupsie’s “add” function changes it to a generic draw, allowing it to bypass policing hand traps like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or Droll & Lock Bird.
Cooky’s attack power manipulation turns into targeted monster destruction, this is a very strong alternative effect in the eyes of most players. Lollipo, meanwhile, goes from a spin back to the deck to a straight-up banish.
Lollipo’s effect may not be the best when facing decks that like the banish zone like Maliss, but it's still a flexible option depending on the matchup.
A Bridge to the Extra Deck
We’ll take a quick detour a bit as we talk about the Yummy’s Link 1 monster, Yummy★Snatchy. This singular card is probably one of the most important points in this engine’s line of play.
By Link summoning from any one of your main deck Yummy monsters, you can bring this little guy out to search for one of the Yummy field spell cards.
Then you can special summon another of the main deck Yummy monsters using their own effect before climbing into one of the 3 Yummy Synchro monsters we’ll be covering in a little bit.
To add a little garnish to the package, the controlling player can pay a pittance of 100 lifepoints to do a synchro summoning on a main phase or the opponent’s battle phase as part of a chain response.
Between the K9’s #ØØ Lupus and Snatchy, it looks like this expansion is pushing an agenda of a more varied interaction between duelists.
Same Yummy, Different Flavor
Sliding into the Synchro monsters we have the Yummy Way flavors of Cupsi, Cooky, and Lollipo. All these Level 2 Synchro monsters, like their main deck counterparts, all run shared general abilities.
When being synchro summoned, all 3 of them can treat a Level 1 Link monster (e.g. Yummy★Snatchy) into a level 1 tuner. This explains why none of the main deck Yummy monsters are not tuner monsters in their own right, and further emphasizes Snatchy’s importance to the engine.
All 3 synchro monsters can also respond to the opponent’s card or effect activation by being returned to the extra deck and summoning up to 2 Yummy archetype monsters from the graveyard.
Once again, mirroring the basic Yummy monster cards, all 3 synchro monsters come with their own distinct flavor upon being synchro summoned.
For Cupsie, their ability to add any Yummy archetype cards to the hand is thinned to Yummy monsters specifically, but they can add 2 of them as part of the upgrade. This is in exchange for discarding a card afterward. The drawback can be considered negligible because of the recursion the Yummy synchro monsters are able to provide.
For Cookie, they can allow the controlling player to shut off a lot of monster effects by turning 2 targeted monsters face-down should this effect be allowed to go through.
Finally, Lollipo has the more generic special summoning of 2 Yummy archetype monsters from the graveyard with negated effects.
Lollipo’s upon-synchro summon effect may not be the flashiest but no one can deny that resource recursion to extend your play is very powerful in its own right, especially when the archetype offers so much of it already.
The Icing on this cake
This archetype is already quite powerful by just looking at the monster cards alone. Their back row support further emphasizes just how flexible and robust their engine is.
The two field spells, Yummysment★Minion and Yummysment★Acrockie, keep to the trend and have similar graveyard capabilities. They can return up to 2 of the -easily searchable- main deck Yummy monsters back from the graveyard and/or banishment zone as well as themselves to the deck.
The former can ramp up the attack power of the Yummy monsters provided a lot of them are on the field. More importantly, Minion can act as another extender by summoning a Yummy monster from the graveyard so long as the controlling player has any Link 1 monster on the field.
As for Acrockie, it functions as both spear and shield as the controlling player can destroy a card on the opponent’s side by just synchro summoning a Light Beast monster.
If ever the opponent is able to make one of the controlling player’s monster cards leave the field by effect, then Acrockie can just summon a Yummy monster from the main deck in response.
The trap card, Yummy★Redemption, is probably one of the more diabolical cards in the archetype. Coming in with enemy monster stat manipulation, this package also features the ability to allow its controlling player to cycle through their deck at a faster rate. There is not much in terms of cost as cards are returned to the deck instead of sent to the graveyard or banishment for using this effect.
Once sent to the graveyard, this trap card can be banished to swap control of one of the controlling player’s Yummy monsters for one monster on the opponent’s field. This is a targeting effect so it’s not infallible, but it does bypass a lot of generic protection effects.
Finally, the most recently announced Yummy card, we have Yummy☆Surprise. This quick-play spell card functions as a Swiss-army knife.
Firstly, as long as you already have 2 Light Best monsters on the field and the opponent has at least the same number of monster cards, you can choose to return all targets to the hand.
This is a very good going-second card should you already have two Yummy monsters on the field. Spinning deadly extra deck monsters back from where they came is already powerful but this being a spell card already makes it harder than normal to disrupt.
Its second and third abilities allow for further plays by either special summoning a Yummy monster from either graveyard or hand -though it can’t attack directly this turn-, or you can choose to return one of the two Yummy field spells from the graveyard to the hand before promptly placing it on the field.
Fun but at what cost?
To the eyes of many, this archetype is insanely strong. It's got a small engine, high levels of extensions and recursions, and a robust disruption package, so a skilled deck builder can easily pair these cards up with another archetype or a varied non-engine package for a lot of shenanigans.
But what will it mean for the overall health of the card game?
We’ve had cases in the past like the Snake-Eyes and Yubel archetypes that had almost the same levels of capabilities. Even current competitive favorites, Ryzeal and Maliss, are starting to feel oppressive with how much disruption an opposing player will have to wade through in order to have a chance of victory.
It’s a little daunting to think how these cute little creatures will affect the metagame of Yu-Gi-Oh! If there’s anything the community has shown over the years, however, it’s that creativity and a little luck can trump even the most powerful decks.
For those interested in reading the full translations of the Yummy cards, you can find them here for the main list and here for more recently revealed cards.