A Comprehensive Companion to Cardians [Part 4] - ygoprodeck.com (2024)

Welcome back to the Comprehensive Companion to Cardians - A long form guide and introduction to the flower cardians as an archetype, from what the cards themselves do down to decklists and tech options available for the strategy.
I'm Brexx, an individual crazy enough totake this deck to regionalsin zoodiac format, and I'll continue as your guide on this journey into the Hanafuda archetype. Today I'll be introducing some tech choices for this strangely xenophobic archetype.
A key concern when building a Flower Cardian deck is deciding how many slots of your decklist to dedicate to staples, as every staple or generic that isn't a flower cardian by name reduces how consistenly you will resolve your monsters' effects. Naturally some choices you may opt for aim to increase consistency as well, so it's a complex issue that many decks don't have to this extreme. That said, power spell and traps find a unique niche in flower cardians through the use of Recardination's graveyard effect occasionally allowing you to pseudo-search them.

The Good

Consistency boosters such as Allure of Darkness and Upstart Goblin have long been considerations in flower cardian decklists, particularly with the deck's humble beginnings having Flower Cardian Pine as the deck's only normal summon. Play these with caution, as banishing key resources with Allure of Darkness can prove to be rough in certain scenarios, but these draw spells lead to drawing your starters more consistently. Besides, we lose to regardless; what's one extra draw?

In case you missed it, every Flower Cardian monster is a Warrior. Yes, they're basically planks or tiles. No, I don't know why they're warriors. Typically you'll be searching one of three targets with this card: Flower Cardian Pine, Flower Cardian Cherry Blossom or Flower Cardian Cherry Blossom with Curtain. All three are valuable search targets, starting your plays. If only this card wasn't still limited.

Revival spells are valuable in the Flower Cardian archetype. Some are more powerful than others, but Monster Reborn remains one of the more powerful unrestrictive generically available ones. Frequently you'll ladder through synchros, running out of monster zones. If a Super All In! is sent to the graveyard by your cardian's effect, this card can be retrieved during the end phase, serving as a useful follow up tool on turn three and beyond.

For similar reasons to monster reborn, Pot of Avarice can serve a similar power spell purpose, recycling your valuable Flower Cardian Willow , tuners, and synchro monsters. Importantly this card requires more setup, and can make the deck marginally more bricky than it already can be at times. I'd still play a copy or two though - The deck very quickly cycles through monsters during its combo lines, so it's easy to run dry of resources.

De-Synchro is Super All In!'s older brother in a sense, filling a near identical niche, with marginally less payoff but some minor offensive utility insofar as being able to remove opponents' monsters in a pinch. The card is good, and you'll likely run several copies, but much like Pot of Avarice and Super All In! this card requires setup, and can lead to bricking.

While there aren't a great deal of extra deck monsters worth considering due to summoning restrictions, level four synchro monsters such as Herald of the Arc Light fill a peculiar niche in the deck. This is because they're two material synchro monsters to fulfil the activation requirements of Super All In! to revive four monsters, as unlike De-Synchro the number summoned is not dependant on the number used to summon the monster.
The effects of the monster you choose to opt for rarely come up, but Herald of the Arc Light has a negate attached. Another option with niche applications for this spot is Cupid Pitch, potentially allowing you to push for burn damage in tournament time expiration moments.

While also niche, Xyz monsters such as Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis find a home in the remaining space in Flower Cardian extra decks. Typhon himself isn't a hard sell, as a way to push through established boards, but other options will depend on your deck build - For those focusing on the flower cardians with removal effects such as Flower Cardian Clover with Boar and Flower Cardian Maple with Deer, you have greater access to the rank 7 and 10 Xyz pools potentially without applying the flower cardian lock. This gives access to some niche but powerful Xyz monsters, such as Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora and his large bretheren. Other options include small rank 3 packages, for using up spare copies of Flower Cardian Cherry Blossom and Flower Cardian Cherry Blossom with Curtain.
Being a synchro heavy deck, I've decided to highlight Gravity Collapse lastly here, being a synchro focused floodgate. You likely won't main this card, but power traps like these are strong side deck options to side 1-2 copies of, as you're likely to draw a great deal of cards or hit them off the second effect of Recardination. Other options for this spot include Dimensional Barrier, The Black Goat Laughs, or similar going first options to protect your board like Solemn Judgment.

The Banned

Several tech choices heavily favoured by Flower Cardian duelists have been lost to us through abuse in other decks, but they're worth mentioning regardless. Soul Charge was initially one of the most potent cards in the deck, given the deck's immense draw power you would see this card almost every game, resulting in paying 4-5000 life points, and proceeding to resolve up to five Flower Cardian draw effects upon resolution. It's not a card we're likely to see back any time soon.

While not a lynchpin of the strategy by any means, Fairy Tail - Snow saw play as a 1-of in the archetype, as during a flower cardian combo you're likely to draw then discard it, while ending your turn with often over thirty cards in grave to use as fodder for Fairy Tail - Snow's effect. It's an incredibly powerful repeatable effect, and can be used as synchro fodder in a pinch.

While not strictly banned, this dastardly duo of Keldo the Sacred Protector and Mudora the Sword Oracle have been pushed onto the limited list more recently, reducing their usefulness somewhat in the Flower Cardian lineup. That said, these two function largely in a similar manner to how Fairy Tail - Snow did, functioning as non-engine you don't mind discarding, and working as a mixture of disruption and recycle for your power spells late game. You'd still consider running these.

The Ugly

As much as I hate to include it - It's obligatory. Synchronized Realm forms a key element of one (of sadly several) Flower Cardian first turn kill lines. The concept is simple - Activate one, or multiple, Synchronized Realm and proceed to synchro ladder your opponent into oblivion. It's not particularly fun or interactive, but some players have found some minor success with this strategy. Just don't expect to make a great deal of friends doing this, if it's to your taste.

In similar fashion to Synchronized Realm, it's also entirely possible to first turn kill an opponent with the deck. Simply loop your synchros to draw a great deal of cards, and utilise effects such as Dark Eruption or Pot of Avarice to recycle any lost pieces. While it's funny conceptually, it's not a great deal of fun to play as adding five dead cards to an already bricky deck will lead to a lot of disappointment at times.

A consistency piece? Under this section? You might be wondering. In theory, Pot of Desires would be the best pot for the archetype - Being able to draw two cards is a huge boon for a bricky deck. But this one's a trap (I know, it's a spell) - In any circ*mstance where this resolves and you can play your combo out, you're liable to deck yourself out. As a bonus, you risk turning off power cards such as Flower Gathering, or banishing your powerful generics you need to draw. If you're this desperate for consistency, just play Upstart Goblin - It's at three now anyways.

Thank you for reading. This was the last in my main series surrounding this Archetype, and is longer than most of mine due to how much time I've spent on the deck. I may make an article exploring deck lists for the deck, but until then - I hope you've enjoyed, and keep drawing those monster cards.