Charmer
The Charmers and their familiars is a popular theme with cards spanning across various different booster sets. Despite getting new support such as the Charmer Link Monsters in recent years, the theme was still largely disconnected and had no clear strategy. The newly released Structure Deck: Masters of the Spiritual Arts managed to bring the theme together into a cohesive deck.
Charmer Deck List
2020-07-05 | You-ING Sanctioned Tournament
1st, カテキン [Charmer]
Round 1: Sky Striker OXO
Round 2: Sky Striker OXO
Round 3: Gizmek Orochi Da Eiza OO
Round 4: Salamangreat OO
Strategy
Charmer has two key Continuous Spell/Trap cards that makes Charmer monsters indestructible. Awakening of the Possessed makes both “Charmer” and “Familiar-Possessed” monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects, and Unpossessed makes “Charmer” monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle.
Familiar-Possessed monsters are Spellcaster monsters with 1850 original ATK, so they could trigger the effect of Awakening of the Possessed to draw a card. However, Familiar-Possessed monsters are not Charmer monsters, so Unpossessed would not make them indestructible by battle.
The strategy is to use Familiar-Possessed monsters as a stepping stone to bring out the Charmer Link Monsters, which are indestructible while Awakening of the Possessed and Unpossessed are on the field.
Discussion
Masters of the Spiritual Arts is a key starter of the deck that could search for both Awakening of the Possessed and Unpossessed. At the very basic level, Masters of the Spiritual Arts could add 1 Familiar-Possessed monster to hand, and set Awakening of the Possessed. Then flipping over and activating Awakening of the Possessed followed by Normal Summoning the Familiar-Possessed monster would draw 1 card.
The Charmer Link Monsters are Link Summoned with the aid of Scapegoat, Super Polymerization and Crackdown. These cards puts monsters on your field that could be used as Link Materials. The Charmer Link Monsters are Spellcaster monsters with 1850 original ATK, so they would also trigger the effect of Awakening of the Possessed to draw a card.
Macro Cosmos and Skill Drain are two great tech choice against the current metagame. This Meta Beat approach is quite suitable for Charmer as they do not rely on graveyard effects or monster effects. Without graveyard effects or monster effects, many decks would have difficulty overcoming the indestructible Charmer monsters.
The Charmer Link Monster and Familiar-Possessed monsters are all Spellcasters, making Secret Village of the Spellcasters a strong Side Deck option against Sky Striker.
Conclusion
Charmer is very unlikely to become a top contender in the OCG 2020.07 format.
This Charmer build is very reliant on backrow Spell/Trap cards to control the opponent. Due to the popularity of Sky Striker and Eldlich, players are very well prepared with backrow removals such as Cosmic Cyclone, Lightning Storm and Evenly Matched.
Nonetheless, Katekin (カテキン) has shown that Charmer has a potential viable strategy that could be further explored.
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