Quick guide to playing Ancient Warrior (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)

By Ljkad Published Apr 24, 2023 Updated Apr 27, 2023

Ancient Warriors is an Archetype created based on the most famous classic novel in Chinese literature, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Written in the 14th century, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a dramatization of the decline of the Han dynasty in 184 AD and the subsequent alliances and conflicts of those trying to assemble territorial, military power. affairs and politics.

The monsters in this deck are characters from the novel, with their names and courtesy names combined to create the names of the cards. For example, Liu Bei's name was combined with his courtesy name - Xuande - to form "Ancient Warriors - Virtuous Liu Xuan". Spells and Traps depict important events in the novel, such as the Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits depicting Liu Bei's three visits to Ingenious Zhuge Kong to recruit him as a general. his army.

Sections covered in this guide:

overview

While Ancient Warriors may go first, the deck's archetype's monsters are "board breakers" designed to go into turn 2 and clear the opponent's established field. More specifically:

WIND monsters activate their effects while your opponent controls more monsters.
WATER monsters remove or negate cards your opponent controls.
FIRE monsters activate their effects when your opponent's cards are destroyed.

Archetype has many Search and 'fix hand' effects that help you exchange any card from your hand or field to get the "Ancient Warriors" cards you want from your deck. Most notable is Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou and Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits , regain monsters that can Special Summon themselves to the field.

Normally we will play like this:

Weaken your opponent's field with Lightning Storm and "Kaiju"
Set up your starter field with the level 4 Ancient Warriors A ncient Warriors - Loyal Guan Yun , and Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betraya l monsters.
Continue setting up the field with Ancient Warriors and use their effects to clear the enemy field
Attack 8000 damage (if not, set up some disturbing effects so the enemy can't comeback).

Main Monsters

Like many other Archetypes, Ancient Warriors have a huge list of monsters and Spells/Traps, however, only the best monsters and Spells are included in the deck. As is the purpose of this quick guide, I'll be focusing on the frequently used "Ancient Warriors" cards.

Starter Monster

Sun Mou (x3): is the best Normal Summon card in most situations. His first effect allows any unnecessary card to be changed to any Ancient Warrior card - usually Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong . Sun Mou 's second effect provides the ability to discard opponent's cards other than Destroy and is usually triggered by Zhuge Kong 's own effect to Summon himself. Sun Mou 's effect can also be activated during your opponent's turn by Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng , Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying and Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords .
Liu Xuan (x1): has a much better first effect, but requires your opponent to control more monsters than you. This sometimes conflicts with Guan Yun and makes Liu Xuan not as good as Sun Mou. Liu Xuan's activated effect is also less useful than Sun Mou's, as card draw in Battle Phase is often too slow. You will usually only use his first effect to Summon Sun Mou or Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying .
Guan Yun (x3): has an effect quite similar to "Cyber Dragon" allowing you to Summon him if only your opponent controls one card. Not only does it destroy an opponent's monster for free (forcing them to use protective effects), but this card also prevents your opponent from Targeting other Ancient Warriors with cards like Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence.
Finally, Zhou Gong (x0-x1): isn't used much, but he's probably gotten a little better since Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal was added to give us a playable Continuous Spell. Some players add this card to their deck as an additional starter.

Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong and Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying (Extender Monsters)

Zhuge Kong (x1-x2): usually the best monster to search when using the effect of Sun Mou or Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits - accurately describes Liu Bei's three visits to Zhuge Liang's house to recruit him . Zhuge Kong Summons himself when added to hand, and is often used as material for Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords . Additionally, you can leave this card on the field to negate a Spell/Trap if you still control an "Ancient Warriors Saga" Spell/Trap.

You will never want to draw Zhuge Kong =)), so there are some people who play x2 Zhuge Kong in the deck to avoid blaming themselves for drawing the only x1 in the deck =))
Don Ying (x1-x2) : is the only Ancient Warrior with 2 effects, both +1 hand. His first effect is quite flexible, allowing you to search for Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng, Ancient Warriors - Valiant Zhang De, Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits. His second effect banishes 1 card from your opponent's GY and draws 1 card - activates not only when you destroy them, but also when your opponent uses them as summon material or when they activate hand trap.

The disadvantage of Don Ying is that you need the effects of Liu Xuan, Three Visits, or Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal to Special Summon. You can also Special Summon Guan Yun, destroy a monster with his effect, and then Tribute Don Ying... but that doesn't seem very fun.

Ancient Warriors - Fearsome Zhang Yuan, Ancient Warriors - Valiant Zhang De and Ancient Warriors - Ambitious Cao De (High level monsters)

Zhang De's Effect (x1) Special Summoning yourself is a common way to combine with Sun Mou's effect and Return a monster to the hand. The ability to attack twice does not happen often as you will usually control 3 monsters at the time Zhang De is summoned, but if you meet this card's conditions you can still summon additional monsters after This card's effect is activated.
Zhang Yuan's effect (x0-x1) is activated from your hand during the Damage Step, ensuring that the Ancient Warrior you are fighting survives, and reverses the situation so that your opponent's monster is destroyed. This immediately activates Zhang Yuan's second effect to Destroy one more card, but you can also activate it earlier (or during your opponent's turn) with Lu Feng's effect.
The main effect of Cao De (x1) is to attack and tilt the game in our favor. His effect is to Special Summon himself for 1 cost, however the spells Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits and Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal can also summon this card to the Field.

Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng (x3)

If this archetype has a boss it is definitely Lu Feng . You can special summon "Lu Feng" when you are controlling any Ancient Warrior, unless your opponent is controlling an Ancient Warrior of their own with the highest ATK (in case you are stolen or have a handicap). alike). This card's Quick Effect Destroys a monster without a target and this is also a great way to activate the effect of Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou to Return another monster to the hand.

If you activate Maxx "C" or Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring , you will not be able to use Lu Feng's effect that turn.
Lu Feng is based on Lu Bu (also known as Feng Xian) who betrayed almost all of his allies, including Dong Zhuo (Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying) as depicted in the Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal . If your opponent controls the monster with the highest ATK on the field, then in the End Phase Lu Feng will betray you. Cdmmmmmm

(Before you feel too sorry for Dong Zhuo's death, I should also mention that Dong Zhuo himself betrayed the young emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty and appointed himself ruler its.)

Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords (x3)

In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" prominent characters are compared to specific animals. Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are compared to dragons, so Double Dragon Lords is a combination of Ancient Warriors - Virtuous Liu Xuan and Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong.

Dragon Lords are the only monster that you will summon from the Extra Deck regularly, both to search for any "Ancient Warriors" cards, and to increase the ATK of all your monsters. Their Quick Effect also helps You disrupt your opponent's turn if you are forced to play first (or if you cannot OTK).

Similar to Forbidden Droplet, you can save resources by Chaining Dragon Lords' Quick Effect with your other Spell/Trap and then sending that Spell/Trap to the GY as a cost for Dragon Lords.

Dragon Lords is useful but is not an important combo piece, so the deck usually plays well under the effects of Artifact Scythe and Dragon Buster Destruction Sword . This deck can also be played in Master Duel events that do not allow Link Monsters to be played.

Optional Extra deck monsters

NOTE: All of these cards are optional and are not summoned often.

Bagooska is a backup plan in case you are forced to go first and cannot set up at least 2 times to prevent your opponent from dancing.
Utopia Double can be summoned by using Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou to search for Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong, then Zhuge Kong will summon himself.
Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is summoned in Main Phase 2 if you are just a little short of OTK, preventing your opponent from coming back as they can only activate 1 more card or effect or they will be defeated. burned to death.
Zeus and Underworld Goddess are additional optional Board breakers. You can choose to summon Zoodiac then Zeus by starting with Zoodiac Chakanine, using it to Xyz summon Zoodiac Boarbow and attack directly.

Tech

Ancient Warriors Saga - Deception and Betrayal, Fire Formation - Tenki and Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits (Core Spell)

Tenki not only searches for our best starter cards, but also makes our monsters' effects free by providing their cost.
Three Visits is the most popular card at the start of the match - depicting Liu Xuan, Guan Yun and Zhang De visiting Zhuge Kong's home to recruit him as their military strategist. Sending Three Visits to the GY gives Ancient Warriors' effects (even if they are negated) activates Three Visits' effect to special summon another Ancient Warrior from your hand. Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying is the most ideal choice, but any Ancient Warrior gets you additional value.
Deception may not seem very impressive at first, but it allows you to expand and can also be a starter card if you only start your hand with high-level monsters (or your Normal Summon monsters). banned). Deception's second effect changes one of your monsters to the WIND attribute so you can Summon Double Dragon Lords. It is also possible to regain control of your Lu Feng from your opponent's field, but this is actually quite rare with the Lu Bu leopard.

Ancient Warriors Saga - Sun-Liu Alliance and Ancient Warriors Saga - East-by-South Winds (Spell optional (not recommended :))) )

Sending East-South Winds to the Graveyard for Ancient Warriors' eff will trigger a hidden "blow-up" effect that disables most of your opponent's interactions for the turn. All Ancient Warriors you control also receive the Destroy effect on your opponent's cards when they are assigned an attack.
Sun-Liu Alliance's first effect is cumbersome, requiring you to control 2 Ancient Warriors with different Attributes. However, its eff below GY can easily deal an additional 2700 to 4800 damage to OTK.

Ancient Warriors Saga - Chivalrous Path, Ancient Warriors Saga - Defense of Changban and Ancient Warriors Saga - Borrowing of Arrows (Self-squeeze)

Don't put it in please

Small World, Pot of Desires and Pot of Extravagance (Anti deadhand)

Extravagance is an almost indispensable x3 card for obvious reasons. It doesn't have any limitations because Dragon Lords is the only card in your Extra Deck that you care about. But remember that you cannot activate the card draw effect of Ancient Warriors - Virtuous Liu Xuan and Ancient Warriors - Savage Don Ying after Extravagance's effect resolves.
Desires is played sometimes by people who don't care that it cannot be activated on the same turn as Extravagance.
Small World is a card that can be considered 'love it or hate it' depending on your play style. It is a –1 card that can always search for any monster in your deck (Ancient Warrior or Kaiju) regardless of whether that monster is in your hand or not. Ancient Warriors are only similar in Type, so there is no need to add a "bridge" monster to activate the effect into the deck.

Board Breaker

Ancient Warriors are already good at destroying monsters but are worse at removing Spell/Trap, so Lightning Storm and Harpie's Feather Duster are important staple cards in most Formats. Raigeki is also a pretty good choice.
Gameciel can be searched through Small World by banishing Sun Mou from your deck. Droplet activates the "Ancient Warriors Saga" Spell effects that will activate when sent to the GY. Ultimate Slayer gives you card advantage by activating the effects of Elder Enity N'tss, Fossil Warrior Skull Knight , Wind Pegasus @Ignister and Tri-Brigade Ferrijit the Barren Blossom.

Some other options

Pankratops is a solid choice for most decks when it comes to going second, and Alpha's effects will be enhanced since Ancient Warriors are Beast-warriors. However, both of them are not played much because the Ancient Warriors themselves are already very strong in destroying monsters.
Triple Tactics Talent and Called by the Grave are both easy to understand and depend on your own preferences.
Metalfoes Fusion can be sent to the Graveyard to activate the effects of your Ancient Warrios, then refund that cost with a draw.

Hand Traps

Hand Traps are popular in Master Duel. With the current game situation, if you play the game without hand traps, you are truly masochistic =))

However, we need a number of "Ancient Warrior" cards in our hand to be able to play, so put a few Hand traps in your deck.

Style play

Ancient Warriors - Rebellious Lu Feng, Ancient Warriors - Valiant Zhang De and Ancient Warriors Oath - Double Dragon Lords (Basic OTK)

The basic fighting style to be able to perform an OTK attack with 8100 Damage with the above 3 monsters starts with:

Ancient Warriors - Masterful Sun Mou (can be Tenki or Small World to search for it)
Lu Feng or Zhang De (or Ancient Warriors Saga - Three Visits to search the remaining cards)

The steps will be as follows:

Normal Summon Sun Mou .
Use Sun Mou 's effect to find Ancient Warriors - Ingenious Zhuge Kong , then activate Zhuge Kong 's effect to special summon itself. (If necessary, activate Sun Mou's effect to return your opponent's monster to the hand.)
Use Sun Mou and Zhuge Kong to Link Summon Double Dragon Lords , then activate its effect to search for the missing card ( Lu Feng or Zhang De ).
Special summons Lu Feng and Zhang De with their own effects.
Attack directly to deal 8100 damage! (If necessary, use the effects of Lu Feng and Dragon Lords to remove your opponent's monsters.)

If you control Three Visits and your opponent has a card on the field (face-up), you can avoid Nibiru, the Primal Being by keeping Zhang De in your hand during the Main Phase. Enter Battle Phase (when Nibiru's effect cannot activate), use Dragon Lords' Quick Effect to send Three Visits into the GY, activating its effect to Special Summon Zhang De .

Set up defense (make things difficult for the enemy)

These will be cards that help disrupt your opponents. If you can't OTK (or if you go first), then you'll want to set up as many disruption cards as possible. Ending the turn with all 5 of these cards is quite rare, but it is possible that we can summon at least 3 cards to get the Quick effect to remove monsters and Negate Spell/Trap.

Dragon Lords and Lu Feng have Quick Effects that can be activated at any time, while Zhuge Kong requires you to have an "Ancient Warriors Saga" Continuous Spell on the field. Each of these cards, when activated, will also activate Sun Mou's effect in a new Chain.

If you can reduce your opponent's LP below 1200 to 1600, then Don Ying (along with a level 7 monster) can win instantly by limiting your opponent to only being able to activate the effect. 2 to 3 leaves.

Epilogue

In the present time, the trend is that everyone plays decks that like to go turn 1 and set up an unstoppable board (del for those who play the game), then playing an Archetype that likes to go turn 2 will be like a breath of fresh air. less boring. Ancient Warriors also have effects that protect each other from being targeted or attacked, and of course "Yu-gi-oh player can't read" by the time they realize it, it's too late.

Ancient Warriors is quite vulnerable to having sub-optimal hands, so this deck has never reached Tier 1 or Tier 2. However, it has shown quite good potential in some tournaments and Archetypes. This can win many victories in the Diamond rank metagame. So, if you are looking for a deck that clears the field without having to rely on Extra Decks then Ancient Warriors could be a great fit for you.