Konami has announced a new expansion. The tentatively named ‘Doom of Dimensions’ is coming to the Official Card Game (OCG) this July 26th. The expansion will feature new support to one of Yu-Gi-Oh’s most convoluted archetypes, D/D.
D/D Lance Soldier & D/D Defense Soldier
We’re starting off small with the two (mostly) normal monster cards on this list.
D/D Lance Soldier comes in as a level manipulating tuner monster that can self-revive from the graveyard. While the upper limit for this ability is limited to the number of Dark Contract cards on the field or graveyard, that’s not really a hard requirement to fulfill in this archetype.
D/D Defense Soldier, on the other hand, plays off other D/D cards by allowing them to turn from pendulum scales to actual monsters. Alternatively, it can act as recursion for any face-up pendulum monsters already in the extra deck.
In a pinch, D/D Defense Soldier can also act as a battle trick for any D/D/D monster swinging for potential lethal.
As for both cards, they both share the same aspect of being pretty solid extenders for any D/D combo.
In an archetype that runs the whole gamut of special summon types (fusion, synchro, xyz, pendulum, and link), some extra utility cards like Lance Soldier and Defense Soldier are helpful options to help round it out further.
D/D/D Zero Demise King Zero Machinex
This card is probably something even experienced D/D players didn’t see coming.
First of all, D/D/D Zero Demise King Zero Machinex has a zero on its pendulum scales. This makes one of the archetype's best search cards, D/D Savant Kepler, eligible for pendulum summoning.
Second, as a pendulum effect, it’s another search for any Dark Contract card that is a continuous spell or trap card from the deck. It doesn’t even add the target to hand, so it bypasses the usual antics of staple hand traps like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or Droll & Lock Bird.
Third, once face-up in the extra deck, this card can just summon itself upon the destruction of a D/D/D or Dark Contract card. The opponent doesn’t even need to be the one to trigger this. It even allows its controlling player to do a non-targeted pop (destruction).
This one card has so much value as it can basically transition into a full combo depending on your play line. Within D/D, that’s a lot.
D/D/D/D Great Dimension King Arc Crisis
The biggest card in this list, D/D/D/D Great Dimension King Arc Crisis, asks a lot from its controlling player.
Even with a combo-heavy deck like D/D the requirement of needing four different monster types (fusion, synchro, xyz, and pendulum) is a tall order. Thankfully, the graveyard can also be used as a resource for the fusion summoning.
Assuming the opponent lets this beefy monster hit the board, any monster currently face-up on their side of the field is negated.
D/D/D/D Great Dimension King Arc Crisis is guaranteed to roll over almost anything and everything that does not have battle protection or a matching stat line.
Now, this behemoth does lack any form of protection, but like most in the archetype, it can transition into a pendulum zone if destroyed. Once in said zone, it still has some utility by letting the controlling player trade Dark Contracts on the field for an equal amount of Doom King monsters.
This card makes for a good board breaker going second, and it definitely closes the gap that Zero Demise King Zero Machinex can open.
When going first, however, this isn’t exactly a card you’d want to leave as an end board piece.
D/D/D Founder King Clovis
There’s beauty in simplicity, and in an archetype that could make a Gordian knot envious with all of its play lines, D/D/D Founder King Clovis is a breath of fresh air.
It’s just a generic synchro monster that’s a Monster Reborn on legs. Depending on the sequencing of the combo, D/D/D Founder King Clovis is either bringing back a card from banishment or the graveyard.
If anything else, D/D/D Founder King Clovis can also act as fodder for the eventual summoning of D/D/D/D Great Dimension King Arc Crisis or other archetype staples like D/D/D Abyss King Gilgamesh or D/D/D Wave High King Caesar.
D/D/D Wisdom King Solomon
Mirroring D/D/D Founder King Clovis above, this card is a generic Reinforcement of the Army instead. As a rank 4 monster, D/D/D Wisdom King Solomon is easy to summon by virtue of rank 4’s being a very common rank that almost all decks have access to.
As an XYZ monster, D/D/D Wisdom King Solomon makes it a pretty tempting target for D/D/D Deviser King Deus Machinex’s alternative summoning condition as well.
If you happen to use this card as a material for the summoning D/D/D/D Great Dimension King Arc Crisis, then the titan will definitely be dealing lethal damage. This is thanks to it dealing burn damage for each enemy monster it destroys.
D/D/D Sky King Zeus Ragnarok
As if this archetype needed any more support, D/D/D Sky King Zeus Ragnarok acts as both extender and bulwark.
For an archetype that’s loaded with Pendulum monsters, having the capability of just filling the board a second time is ludicrous.
The cherry on top of this package is that D/D/D Sky King Zeus Ragnarok is a blatant counter for one of D/D’s biggest issues, Nibiru, the Primal Being.
D/D/D Sky King Zeus Ragnarok is a Link-3 monster, so getting it out does take some investment. It also needs sufficient targets in the graveyard for its negate effect to activate.
Powerful the negate may be, at least it’s not an omni-negate. Other hand trap staples like Infinite Impermanence or one of the Dominus twins (Impulse/Purge) can still get by if needed.
Dark Contract with the Zero King
It’s pretty absurd how much these new cards are mimicking something that has been on/off the limited list.
This card is basically D/D’s version of Emergency Teleport. All you need is a suitable target, and almost the whole main deck roster of the archetype is ripe for special summoning.
If you ever need a D/D card to be used as cost, then Dark Contract with the Zero King can easily be used as a substitute. It may not be the optimal play depending on circumstances, but it does add even more versatility.
Dark Contract with the Different Dimension
We end this reveal with a little more average card from the lineup. This continuous trap card offers three things.
First, it’s a point of interaction that the opponent has to go through. Like it or not, it banishes a target on the opponent’s side of the field or graveyard. To a rival like Maliss, this isn’t really that threatening.
To most decks that would rather use the graveyard than banish zone, however, this needs to be addressed.
Next up, Dark Contract with the Different Dimension can act as a recursion for the deck. This may or may not be useful as the D/D archetype can work with the graveyard quite handily and may not want to lose the resources it has to the deck.
Lastly, it’s still another Dark Contract. It’s a pop target for D/D/D Zero Demise King Zero Machinex to come back with. It’s a cost for D/D/D Sky King Zeus Ragnarok to banish from the graveyard for its negate.
Like almost any card in this archetype, there’s a lot of flexibility here. The only issue as a deck builder is fitting all of the tools you’d think you need into your deck.
With how many cards there are in the D/D archetype, good luck fitting all your archetypal engine and non-engine pieces while still keeping to as close to a forty-card deck minimum as you can.