Endymion Guide (OCG)

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Mythical Endymion (OCG)

Tried and tested Endymion standard.

Playstyle

Endymion is a Combo Deck, so preferably it goes first. Going first, it attempts to build a highly disruptive Endboard on the first turn using Pendulum Summons and the unique mechanic of Spell Counters. The Main Deck Negators are Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic (S/T card or effect, SOPT), Mythical Beast Jackal King (monster effect, SOPT), and Reflection of Endymion (bounce when SS by Selene).
The Extra Deck features Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon (Omni), Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians (SS2 Special Summon from GY/hand), Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess (monster effects), and I:P Masquerena (SS2 Link Summon) as disruptions on the opponent's turn.
A typical Endboard consists of Selene in the EMZ, Endymion, Jackal King, Vortex on the field, and enough Spell Counters to use the effects of those cards.

Spell Counters are placed by certain Cards in the Deck and allow effects to be activated once a certain number of them is amassed. For instance, a scaled Servant gains a Counter for each Spell activated, and three Counters can be paid to activate its effect to Summon itself alongside a Spell Counter Monster from the Deck.

The Combos performed by the Deck are unfixed, instead, a lot of play lines including Draws are executed in parallelism to have access to the necessary cards at some point to build the Endboard. Depending on the outcomes of the draws performed, the steps change, so Combos are relatively unique, but they consist of a few recurring core plays:

• There is no standard Normal Summon. Oftentimes, a low-level monster is Normal Summoned to make Electrumite
• Electrumite uses its effect to "search" a monster into the FUED, then destroys a card on the field to add a monster from the FUED (usually the one searched) to the hand, and then draws a card. The card searched should always be Astrograph Sorcerer (unless you unfortunately banished it with Desires) because Astrograph will trigger afterwards, Summoning itself from the hand and giving back the card you just destroyed. The Astrograph on the field can then serve as Link Material for either Beyond the Pendulum (if a Scale is missing), or Selene (for Pendulum Summoning 3 monsters from the FUED), and it's a level 7 to make Absolute, too
• A scale that collects Counters is placed early to gain Counters from activated Spells. Servant is the preferred low-scale and Magister the preferred high-scale, but playing Servant first is usually best as it is a great starter. So if the starting hand contains Servant or Mastery, then (searching then) scaling Servant is almost always the best first action.
• The Pendulum Summon should take place as late as possible after all draws and searches have been conducted. After the Pendulum Summon, the board is improved by Summoning certain Extra Deck Monsters and resolving the Scale effects.
• Cerberus serves as a searcher for the other Beasts, an extender when Summoned by Jackal King, and a potent Boardbreaker by "eating" opponent monsters going second. The up to one copy of "Baby" Jackal is often seen as an alternative searchable Normal Summon, and it can indeed be used as such to Summon Jackal King early going first or Summon Cerberus straight from the Deck going second. Garuda can be a searchable bounce when left in hand going first, or a searchable backrow pop going second.
• If Cerberus is in the starting hand, then it can be scaled, popped to search Jackal King, and Jackal King scaled and popped to Summon that Cerb from the FU-ED. So with one card, a Spellcaster that collects Counters fast was Summoned and the Endboard boss Jackal King searched into the FUED. In case Institution was activated beforehand, it would now have four counters, three of which can be used to search Servant, and continue from there. In general, Mythical Endymion boasts much more searches than Draw Endymion due to Institution and Cerberus, thus allowing more plannability while increasing the reliance on wise searching decisions.
• Summoning Jackal King early and leaving it on the field serves as a protection against many popular Handtraps for the rest of the Combo.
• The Searches and Draws made throughout the Turn serve the purposes of obtaining the cards necessary to build the Endboard and gain Counters on the way.
• Selene is usually made with Electrumite after the Pendulum Summon, sometimes even before it if that enables to Pend 3 from the FUED. Absolute is linked off into I:P or Apollousa under Selene, Summoning Vortex, before Selene revives the Endymion used for Absolute. On the opponent's turn, Selene either revives Reflection or resummons a used up negate that was bounced by Endymion.
• Chicken Game is used to draw and later replaced by Necrovalley/Citadel, or popped with Endymion to prevent the opponent from using the card.
• Endymion plays well enough into Maxx "C": If it's dropped, searches and draws are conducted and one big Pendulum Summon is made, so the opponent will go no more than +1 with Maxx "C"
• Gravity Controller is in the Extra Deck to link off a single Cerberus that clogs the EMZ, or to enable the low-investment Overlord OTK described below.
• Starving Venom Fusion Dragon allows to copy an effect, e.g. Electrumite's effect to loop Astrograph a second time in a turn, which can be of use.

Going second, the Deck attempts to gain six Spell Counters to resolve Endymion's Pendulum effect that Summons it from a Pendulum Zone and simultaneously destroys as many cards on the field as there are cards that can hold Spell Counters on the field, before building its board to prevent the opponent from recovering on Turn 3.

The Charmer Links (commonly Dharc or Lyna, depending on the format) come in very handy going second, allowing to make Selene with only two materials invested. Beyond the Pendulum can both search a monster and pop two cards, under ideal circumstances.

The Overlord OTK is a low-investment OTK attempt when other, more usual options like Accesscode Talker have run out, and can be achieved as follows:

1. Summon any two Level 7s and overlay them into a Absolute in the EMZ.
2. Link off Absolute into Gravity Controller, trigger Absolute to summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon.
3. Summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon Overlord using the XYZ as material. Attack three times to deal 9000 damage!

Deckbuilding

This guide features sample Decklists for orientation. Many of the ratios can be changed to preference and not all cards are strictly required for functionality. Here are a few guidelines to regard when creating new builds:

• You'll want to run not much more than 44 Main Deck cards for consistency.
• Keep a good ratio of Spells and monsters; aim for a minimum of 15 Spells to ensure enough Counters, optimally 20.
• Handtraps and sole protection cards are highly detrimental to the Deck's power, as there are almost no low-card combos.
• For the same reason, outside Engines are not recommended, even if they contain Spells (e.g. Invoked), again, because the Deck lives off having the entire hand dedicated to its plays.
• Cards that provide net resource disadvantage - say, Small World, for instance - don't have any legitimacy in Endymion, as they are too costly.
• Situational techs are a bad idea. A card drawn should be useful almost always, be it in the starting hand or mid-combo, independent of specific complementary Draws - if it isn't, that's bricking potential.
• Winmore cards are unnecessary. The Deck already has a great ceiling, an average Endboard often enough to secure a win - reliably getting there through Handtraps and/or unlucky draws is usually the difficulty, so the worst-case should be taken into account when building, not the best-case.

These guidelines can be summarized by the

The Side Deck is a vital part of Endymion Deckbuilding, as the Deck will be forced to go second at least once in a Match. As always, its exact contents should depend on the local Metagame, however, there are notable Sides to be considered at all times:

• Denko Sekka and Lava Golem (or Sphere Mode) are powerful and potentially game-winning choices because Endymion is one of the rare Decks that does not at all require a Normal Summon to function. This is a unique advantage to be used.
• Dark Ruler No More is a no-brainer, as it breaks the threat of any monster board, allowing the own board to be built while destroying the opponent's board.
• Cosmic Cyclone is comparatively low-impact, but it deserves a mention because it can out floodgates like Anti-Spell Fragrance that straight-out prevent any plays, thus being a game-changer more often than one might expect.
• Red Reboot is a mighty one-of Trap Deck killer.
• Summon Limit, despite being a Trap, is actually great in the Side because the Deck can rebuild with a single Pendulum Summon, not locking itself with Summon Limit if the board is partially broken.
• Secret Village of the Spellcasters can be switched out for one of the other accessible Field Spells, often winning Duels by itself against Spell-centered Decks.
• Lightning Storm and Evenly Matched are legendary board-breakers, but their synergy with Endymion is not perfect, as you cannot activate Scales while trying to draw into them, which makes the follow-up harder to achieve.

A warning must be made not to overside in Endymion - should you draw into two or three Side Cards, that might be very useful to break the opponent's board, but the three or four remaining cards must also be enough of a resource to build a complete board, which is not always given. So often it is best to only side a few cards, and leave most of the Deck intact, relying on a mixture of the Sides with Endymion's Scale effect - that is never to be undervalued - to break boards.

Some popular techs include Kai-den Kendo Spirit (allows Pendulum Summoning Cerberus and provides two Spell Counters) and Amorphage Sloth (Pendulum Summonable floodgate). Some players have also experimented with a few non-Pendulum techs like Magicians' Souls, Magistus Endymion, or Fairy Tail Luna to various degrees of success, but the tried and true standard list still has been the most reliable all in all.

In the OCG, neither Souls nor Spellbooks are needed because with Chicken Game, Upstart Goblin, and Electrumite, consistency and draw power are already great, thus allowing stronger focus on the actual in-archetype cards.