Dark Magician Ritual Azamina: how the ROLAD pile combos, and how to beat it

How the deck wins

This is a 60-card pile with four engines: Mitsurugi, Light and Darkness Ritual (the "ROLAD" in its nickname), Dark Magician and Azamina. Almost every starter ends in the same place: Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi, and through it Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi with a Set Mitsurugi Prayers. The other three engines add negates and protection around that pair.

Murakumo is the reason. It taxes everything you do once per turn: when you activate a card or effect, you discard a card or it is negated. And whenever it is Special Summoned, it can destroy every monster you control. On your turn, Prayers Tributes it; Murakumo's own Tribute effect searches and brings it straight back, and its summon wipes your board.

Around it, the other engines add Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, a negate that can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects, Azamina Ilia Silvia, which Tributes itself to negate an effect, and Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos, which shields its controller's Spells and Traps.

The core combo: one Habakiri

From a single Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi, the deck reaches Murakumo and a Set Prayers in four steps. Every longer Habakiri combo starts this way.

1. Reveal Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi in the hand: Special Summon Mitsurugi no Mikoto, Saji from the Deck, then Tribute it. Saji adds Mitsurugi Ritual.Habakiri's reveal can be used once per Duel. Saji's add is a search from the Deck, the first window for Droll & Lock Bird.
2. Activate Mitsurugi Ritual to Ritual Summon Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi from the Deck, Tributing Habakiri from the hand. Habakiri's Tribute effect adds Mitsurugi Prayers.From here, Murakumo taxes every hand trap you activate.
3. Activate Mitsurugi Prayers, Tributing Murakumo, and apply both effects: add Mitsurugi no Mikoto, Aramasa, then take 800 damage to Special Summon Saji from the GY. Murakumo's Tribute effect adds the second Prayers and Special Summons Murakumo again.Going first, its "destroy all" has nothing to hit, but this Murakumo is the one that taxes you.
4. Set the second Mitsurugi Prayers. Only one Prayers can be activated a turn, so it waits for yours.

Ame no Murakumo no MitsurugiMitsurugi no Mikoto, Saji

Mitsurugi Prayers (Set)

HandMitsurugi no Mikoto, Aramasa

GYAme no Habakiri no Mitsurugi · Mitsurugi Ritual · Mitsurugi Prayers

That is four summons, one short of Nibiru, at 7,200 LP.

The full board going first

With Habakiri and any spare card, the turn goes on through the other engines. Aramasa's Normal Summon and Saji become Cyberse Contract Witch, which finds Illusion of Chaos; Magicians' Souls, Selene and the Diabellstar cards reach Light and Darkness Ritual and the Magician; the Magician becomes Dark Magician of Destruction, which finds The Gaze of Timaeus for Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Charmer Quartet in Bloom revives Murakumo and Dragoon, and Deception of the Sinful Spoils turns the last pieces into Azamina Ilia Silvia.

Ame no Murakumo no MitsurugiRed-Eyes Dark DragoonAzamina Ilia Silvia

Mitsurugi Prayers (Set)Deception of the Sinful Spoils (Set)

That line takes 18 summons, so it crosses Nibiru on the fifth and pays Mulcharmy Fuwalos many times over. The cards the AI's scripted opening lines end on most often:

• Mitsurugi Prayers
• Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi
• Azamina Ilia Silvia
• Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon
• The Gaze of Timaeus
• Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos

What its board does on your turn

• Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi. Once per turn, when you activate a card or effect: you discard 1 card, or that effect is negated. You choose.
• The wipe. Mitsurugi Prayers Tributes Murakumo; Murakumo's Tribute effect adds a Mitsurugi card from the Deck and Special Summons it, and its summon destroys every monster you control. Each is once per turn.
• Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated, its controller discards a card to negate it, destroy it and gain 1,000 ATK. Dragoon can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects.
• Azamina Ilia Silvia. Once per turn, when you activate a card or effect, it Tributes itself to negate that effect. It doesn't destroy the card.
• Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos, on boards that keep it. It is unaffected by your activated effects unless they target it, and its controller's Spells and Traps can't be destroyed or banished by your card effects.
• Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi, if it stays on the field: your monsters lose 800 ATK.
• Saji and Aramasa. Each can be Tributed instead of another Reptile being destroyed.

Where to stop it

Murakumo lands in step 2. From then on, every hand trap you activate meets its tax, so the early steps are the cheap ones.

Three things follow from it.

1. Hit before Murakumo. Ash on Habakiri's reveal, Saji's search or the Ritual leaves a one-Habakiri hand with nothing, and none of them pays Murakumo's tax.
2. A second Mitsurugi card is how they play through. Mitsurugi Ritual, Pre-Preparation of Rites or Prayers with Murakumo get a hand past one hand trap.
3. A Mulcharmy makes it stop short. Against Fuwalos or Purulia, the AI settles for a Murakumo board rather than give you the draws.

Going second into the pile

• Its answers are Murakumo's tax (a discard from you), Dragoon (a discard from them), Silvia (Tributing itself) and the wipe. Each is once per turn. Dragoon needs a card in its controller's hand to discard.
• The wipe needs Murakumo's Tribute effect to add a Mitsurugi card from the Deck before Murakumo returns. Ash Blossom on that effect stops the return. Ash on Prayers itself doesn't: Murakumo has already been Tributed.
• If Droll & Lock Bird has resolved before Prayers, Murakumo can't add, so it can't return.
• Dragoon can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects, so removing it takes something that does neither.
• While Habakiri is on the field, your monsters are 800 ATK smaller.

Practice against the pile

The YGO Lab Rival plays this list. Going first, it opens with the deck's scripted lines and switches to a follow-up line when you interrupt one. On your turn it decides when to use its interaction: 3 Ash Blossom, 2 Droll & Lock Bird, 3 Mulcharmy Fuwalos and 3 Mulcharmy Purulia, with Multiplying Kuriboh!, Griffoh and Dominus Traps besides.

• Going second is practice at answering Murakumo's tax, Dragoon and Silvia, and at stopping the wipe.
• Going first is practice at your combo through Ash, Droll and both Mulcharmies.
• To drill one interruption, record your turn in Combos, interrupt it with the card you expect, and practice that branch until you play through it.

Decklist

The list the AI plays: 60 Main Deck, 15 Extra Deck and 15 Side Deck cards.

Learn to play it

YGO Lab guideThe ROLAD Pile Guide10 lessons and 19 combos, played on the real rules engine. Free sample with an account; the full guide comes with a YGO Lab plan.

Questions