Let's Learn Vaalmonica!

[@mihaimorar2043]

In the lore, the joke is that the demon is actually the nice one and the angel is the mean one

[@markburns2621]

So standard media for the last 14 years.

[@twinkiesmaster69]

​@@markburns2621also Yu-Gi-Oh in general, our protagonist are always the demony witch black magic people

[@Petsinwinter2]

The actual lore is the demon deals damage by telling Selettrice brutal truths, and the angel gasses her up and heals her by telling her pretty little lies.

[@mihaimorar2043]

@@markburns2621 In general Fantasy? Kinda, yeah. In the whole angel-and-devil-on-the-shoulder dynamic? Actually pretty unique.

[@markburns2621]

@@mihaimorar2043 fair, I'm still wondering when the surprise isn't going to be that the bad guys are good because free will and the good guys are bad because walking rigid sphincters. The Acolyte has forgotten to even pretend at it first which is hilarious.

[@mihaimorar2043]

Say what you will about the deck, the theming is impeccable

[@legeul]

The fact that the Vaalmonica link that copies spells/traps effect is a soft OPT is important, since if you get multiples of it on the field they all can activate their effects.

[@RNGHater]

Not just that. S:P exists, so you can copy an effect, S:P, then on EP copy another effect again.

[@loboganja]

So the fieldspell is a Glass Armonica, a crazy musical instrument that uses glass bowls and water

[@Lkymn]

Rob Scallon has a really interesting video on it.

[@THELORDVODKA]

Instrument with ethereal sound that drives you mad. No wonder she started seeing angels and demons on her shoulder haha

[@loboganja]

@@THELORDVODKA thats honestly so poetic

[@sleepingtbh_]

i recognized it from that one liberty kids episode immediately

[@kingronnie76]

Lmao 😂 I love your observations! Straight up stoner vibes friend!!

[@nightknight498]

I've been having a lot of success with Gokipole as a discard to add Retaliating C. Searches the Roach when it leaves the field, presents a big disruption against a lot of decks now that Snake Eyes is basically forced to use OSS as a starter and with all the Chimera decks still running around, and the additional body gives you the ability to set up I:P and S:P before committing to your Vaalmonica Links to play around Nibiru. Alternatively, Performage Damage Juggler and Trick Clown also provide another self burn in addition to the free bodies to manage your counters.

[@aflyingcactus2676]

Another self burn I've been liking a lot is blackwing - zephyros.

[@vitortakara7090]

there is also rainbow bridge, and follish burial goods as good extenders

[@marthsinclair3796]

This was a perfect example of why I was terrified to learn this deck blind, but also I feel much more motivated to continue learning it now, and that's cool.

[@talenstout8324]

The pendulums are the raye’s of the deck. A lot of the things are an interconnected theme, the counters on the pendulums, pendulums go with links now, gaining/taking gives counters. The link 2 is the win condition. Sky striker has a boss monster now.

[@VanessaVersus]

Angello: Link summon a vaalmonica link Joe: S:P Little Knight! Knightmare Unicorn!

[@Slingyman3]

Front facing no glasses hardleg looks cursed 😂

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

There's 3 main directions I can see this going if people want to make use of Supplemental Engines: -This plays a lot of Spells and can end on a single EMZ pretty consistently, so you can utilize a kind of Sky Striker Highlander build, there's even a built in way to recover banished Spells if you want to run S.P.E.C.T.R.A. funny enough. -All the level 4s let you make some kind of 4-axis build with Exosister/Performage/Magistus, Exosister can also help with the LP gains and Performage with the self burns. -Your best option for a "Pendulum Soup" is probably a Dracoslayer/Majespecter package, since those are both focused on Level 4s, but keep in mind you usually prefer to have both scales to be Vaalmonica related so you want to be popping the other things to fill out your Extra Deck if possible.

[@fight5422]

fun fact, joe, the instrument depicted on the field spell is, infact, called a harmonica. specifically it's a glass harmonica, which were invented by benjamin franklin. they're almost like an automatic version of musical glasses.

[@wackywildwill3114]

JOOOE YOU DIDN'T ADD THE MAGISTUS MOON MAIDEN AS A RANK 1 EXTENDER WITH THE NON PEND VAAL JOOOOOOOOOOE

[@munchrai6396]

Was really hoping there would be a segment in this video talking about other cards that burn you for card effect like Trick Clown, but I guess that's outside the scope of these videos. A shame because it would be really nice to find other options you could use for this deck, especially because Intonare is real bad to run at more than 1

[@chat-shire8836]

just recently started playing this deck and its so much fun when u get the hang of it

[@Unknownz000]

You aren't playing bagooska tho right? Right!?

[@davidtowers1863]

​@@Unknownz000 I don't. Its a really bad card for the deck.

[@Unknownz000]

@@davidtowers1863 definitely not bad going 1st. Bagooska alone shuts down most decks rn in master duel. Including snake eyes and fire king. Vaalmonika literally can't put a better board turn one that doesn't include bagooska. It wins more games than the actual core does unfortunately.

[@davidtowers1863]

@@Unknownz000 If you say so man. I aint ever seen it do them good, just negating their own non links. 2 Spot negates are more than enough considering you also cant be popped and cant be targeted. If Bagoo beat the meta that well you would see it in other decks. Like, its a deck that does everything and its only weakness is recovery. It has easily the best extra deck in the game's history. Nailing control and beatdown in fun and unique ways in just 2 cards Like, ash sucks for it but if your hand isnt ass you can play around. And there's PLENTY of good rank 4s. Im partial to Ragnazero because its very fun. But abyss dweller does so much more work rn

[@Unknownz000]

@davidtowers1863 every list online runs bagooska rn tho. Plus, you can link off bagooska on your turn. I've not come across anyone not playing bagooska as of yet. But hopefully people don't play him cause it isn't fun at all. But saying he's bad is just not true since every list I've seen runs bagooska.

[@thehgmcast]

Been having a lot of fun with Vaalmonica + Sky Strikers in Master Duel, pretty effective too with engage being at 3 plus all the Val spells you use in a single turn turns on the striker engine with engage, widow anchor then once you've baited whatever the opponent has you can link those sky striker links into your Vaalmonica link monsters since they're generic, or vice versa, if your striker part of the deck gets interrupted, follow up with Vaalmonica. Excited and looking forward to seeing you play this in MD!

[@Squidtoken]

Something interesting to note is that you can get counters from ANY effect that gains LP or inflicts damage while your scales are up, so you can get some good results by crossing over with other decks, especially since you dont necessarily need your normal summon. I'm having some fun using it with Evil Eye, which produces counters like crazy for Dimonno. Nothing that's gonna push it to any sort of meta relevance but it is fun.

[@RedMage4evah]

Evil Eye says lose Life Points, not take damage. Is it working with Dimonno in MD for real? That might be a bug

[@GeargianoXG]

I remember not really getting them when they were first released, but now I really enjoy the theme and mechanics behind the deck. Seems like a fun thing to do and a cool use of the pendulum mechanic

[@riotkitty]

Vaalmonica is a very amusing deck. Strangely enough there’s two variants that I especially enjoy, Live Twin/Evil Twin and Fiendsmith. One is basically another engine in the deck if you don’t have the Vaalmonica cards you need, and the latter has a bit more synergy as the demon is a Light Fiend plus the Spellcaster Graveyard and Fiendsmith likes Light Fiends and discarding things

[@Abyssionknight]

A tech option I find hilarious for this deck is Tiger King Wanghu. He's a level 4 that pops any monster with 1400 or less attack. Since your devil debuffs opponents by 100 per counter, and you typically end with 4-5, Wanghu basically pops everything your opponent puts on the board before they can get a combo started. Wanghu will pop your own guys too if you aren't careful, but usually you get him out, then turn him into a link on your next turn to avoid that happening. Bagooska is just straight up better in every way, but no one expects Wanghu and I just find it hilarious.

[@Abyssionknight]

Spell Absorption is also a funny tech card. It's a continuous spell that gives you 500lp every time a spell is played. So gain 2 counters with all your normal spells instead of 1, and you get so many counters you just stop worrying about managing them. It's mainly useful going second in all honesty, since it lets you do your full combo and have enough light counters to just make the angellic link 1 and try to otk. Getting so many counters also hilariously pairs nicely with Wanghu since it just means even bigger debuffs. I definitely wouldn't recommend spell absorption and wanghu, you give up way too many hand traps to fit those in while having no way to actually search both of them, but it would be really funny if you get out both at once.

[@Abyssionknight]

On a more serious note though, you want something like Artemis the magistus link 1 and Dugares are two solid Ed monsters to have. Artemis comes up a lot more, but there are times where Dugares really comes in clutch. Also it's really useful to discard Selettrice for the pendulum card effect to set both scales, since she'll just return to hand.

[@ohioedwardsable]

I’ve been running an Exosister/Vaalmonica deck. Between the magic of archetype helping get card in hand and effect of exo sis card helps control field set ups with banishment, it’s a fun time.

[@Danielss250]

Vaalmonica is actually seeing some results. It's even tier 3 right now in master duel meta and that tier list is based exclusivily on community tournaments results.

[@tommysuter4053]

I read about these when they were first announced and got a bit excited. They give me Live Twin vibes a deck I love, so seeing this video right after they come out in Master Duel makes me excited. I may drop some gems on them.

[@NothingKingKN]

I really like this video. It just shows how the deck goes from "Oh! It's basically recursion. We get counters, we steal a monster, and then we link it off!" and then shit just goes downhill from there.

[@BoggarthVT]

Man, I wish they had the link two towers.

[@martinspotorno5867]

One of the main things with Vaalmonica is that it kind of needs to play cards outside its archetype to fully work. For example Dimonno gains a counter when you take dmg from any effect not only vaalmonica cards. This means you can combine Vaalmonica with cards like Trick Clown, Zephyros or even Assualt Synchron to turbo out Zeb while making stuff like Dugares, Boreastorm the wicked wind and Mannadium Trisukta to end on the the common generic bosses of the synchro pool. Also you don't need to set the trap only get it to GY so Zeb can then use it during the opponents turn. Is also important to note that Zeb gives protection to every card on the field not only Vaalmonica cards

[@arrowofkira5658]

Iirc this deck is actually super cheap on MD, the only UR is the non-pendulum vaalmonica, you only need SR dust for all the spells and pendulums and then you just fill up the rest of the deck with handtraps that you have, triple tactic talents etc. I recommend giving it a shot it's very fun to play and it's not a boring deck because sequencing your spells is actually very non-linear and fun to figure out, similar to sky striker.

[@elin111]

The fact that they didn't make the deck 99% URs shows how much faith they have in it.

[@Rudoku1]

​@@elin111Had to make all the FKs Ultra Rare. Those Fires need to pay.

[@aflyingcactus2676]

Quick tip for everyone, if you go first make zeb and bagooska/ abyss dweller or something similar and pass. Field presence isn't very hard and I have found decent success with a small kash engine and have some generic staples in the extra deck. Things like the nightmares, S:P, number 103, evilswarm exciton. I found I:P is generally pretty underwhelming but definitely worth experimenting with. Personally I really enjoy this decks play style and am loving it a lot. Much more satisfying for me than snake eye piles

[@comb711]

In real life, when you have a game 2 and 3, ip is better. Sometimes, bagooska doesn't do much, and getting 2 zebs can really do a number. In master duel, you're pretty much always gonna be safe blinding bagooska, though.

[@RNGHater]

@@comb711 Nah, I don't blind bagooska. I blind s:p. Bagooska is your 5th summon so your endboard is just like Salad.

[@comb711]

@RNGHater Yeah it's a risk but you have to choose what to play into, at worst, you can go into link spider so you have material for angello

[@Hexaina667]

This is one of my favorite arcitypes especially when it's pure. I hope you have fun with it

[@SovereignSmurf]

Something I thought could be funny is Spell Chronicle to make all of your spells/traps live at once. And if you discard the lvl 4 as cost she returns to your hand. It also triggers Creator.

[@RedMage4evah]

I play it with Magikey. In general, Ignister Prominence + Electrumite gets you to the best endboard, because it gets you the Field Spell and one of the fairies. Field spell gets Selettrice Pendulum discards Selettrice to place the scales, this allows for Selettrice to come back Pend summon Selettrice (yes I still have my pend summon) along with the pends you used to make Electrumite Scelta search Invitare, add the demone to hand (IMPORTANT) Exceed the Pendulum summons Demone from hand Demone copies Scelta, add Versare, take 500 again Versare sends a trap, that's the third counter I do some extra silly stuff that lets me end on the Link 1, IP AND Bagooska but you get the idea.

[@khananiel-joshuashimunov4561]

I feel so bad. I came up against this deck in MD twice in a row while playing Nouvelles. Each time I went first put a nugget and a way to target the nugget. They got their field spell and normal summoned the main girl, I tribute the main girl for the level two and kill the field spell. They quit. Twice in a row. From this video, it seemed like they should have had more gas...

[@dragonknight1560]

I know it's weird but Trick Clown and Thousand Blades would take massive advantage on this deck. Heck, it would go crazy... but yea, hand traps are needed.

[@shitaishiro]

i can’t wait for the melodious support to come to master duel bc it’s my favorite engine to run w vaalmonica

[@AlleyWayAppleJack]

Assault synchron might be good since you take damage to special summon it which puts a counter on the fiend scale and lets you go into syncros.

[@pedrohitemup]

I got to max level in the Master Duel Championship Qualifiers. This and Nouvelle are the most fun I’ve had playing yugioh !!

[@pedrojonguitudcarrasco8859]

Thank you HardLed, i can always count on you when i want to try a new rogue deck ❤

[@Nagitong]

Wait the field spell is a piano? I thought it was a bench lmao

[@AutomaticVoiceMessageSystem]

nah, it’s a Glass Harmonica en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica

[@zerozero6902]

Great thumbnail as always

[@sladevalen]

I've never seen these cards in action until now and I'm a big fan now. I'm trying to finish my sky striker deck but I think this is my next project for master duel

[@BaileyGaeming]

Yk… this deck kinda seems like darklords, but instead of spending LP to apply affect and shuffle back trap cards, its gaining Lo to apply affect and banishing spell cards. Not to mention they have a dark fairy too… this is gonna be fun!

[@davidsoyele7829]

Intro was peak, can’t lie

[@davidtowers1863]

This deck is great. Especially in MD, you can play under Maxx C and double negate easily. You need more than one card but the advantage you get and the benefits are incredible. Plus Ragnazero I don't care for this weird bs about how bad they are. This week I've gone 23 to 2 Win loss with them and ive gone second into Snakes and won.

[@alexandergeorgiev74]

Bagoo pass the deck

[@Ragnarok540]

Is never a good sign when your plan A is the plan B of better decks.

[@khananiel-joshuashimunov4561]

Might be interesting to see what other fairy/fiend pendulum cards there are

[@Pun1819]

i see a YCS in dutch were its vaalmonica vs snake eyes the vaalmonica won and he have a super poly and its so good because he can send the lvl 4 monster that goes back to hand if send to the grave and the trap card to add 3 counter then because of that he can steal the snake eyes monster

[@sandart8508]

What about eccentric? She’s not a hand trap but is modular removal, as well as being a light fiend. She can also turn on Angello in a pinch or remove herself from the pend zone to make room. Also while popping our own scales isn’t the goal wavering eyes could be used if pendulum starts to become more prominent. Popping opponents scales to search eccentric or either pendulum vaalmonica could justify its inclusion.

[@lookb4Uleep]

I have so so many of these cards from breaking a box for Mementos. Somehow I pulled like most of a Vaalmonica core but one Stand Up and one Combined Creation. I am truly Konami's specialist boy. 😢

[@damionallen938]

The devil and angel on each shoulder is real

[@BirbRawor]

Vaalmonica has ok boarf on turn 1(bagooska+bounce or monster negate) Turn 2 hadi very easy otk with dugares+ light link 1.

[@Concobhar]

I hope we get the link 2 Vaalmonica in the next pack.

[@NyaaPaw44]

Versare is Way better than others give it credit. Your opponent ashed the Field spell so you cant add Selestrice. No problem You have Versare in hand, and you already set your scales. Versare, pick Damage Send Selestrice to the grave. Selestrice Effect add Back to hand. Normal summon it and get Veilered or Impermed... But at least you can Invitare for the Pendulum effect so you can keep extending.

[@yurei3714]

It confused joe so much that he had to remove his glasses

[@dhanyl2725]

0:38 Tbf fire king is a meta strat anyway, ppl either already know or bored with it at this point

[@durgons749]

Pure FK is surprisingly complex, people mess it up all the time, they suck at it

[@richardthepastamancer6619]

In italian the Sc in "scelta" is pronounced like "sh", it also means "choice"

[@johnnywilson3071]

Vaal one of those decks that just seems like a complete joke on paper but when you try it you somehow find that it has an actual gameplan that isn't too bad. Fiendsmith does a lot for the deck unfortunately so its not gonna be cheap to play the best version of the deck come INFO and on master duel right now the best way to play is to probably add a supplementary mathmech engine as MD has triple circular and Vaal pivots into mathmech combos and likewise opening circular gives you access to linguriboh which blocks at least imperm on your Selettrice.

[@johnnywilson3071]

I might also add that if they don't release teen underworld goddess in INFO then Vaal becomes one of the few decks that can pivot into a Fiendsmith combo from its own combo since they can go into Exciton Knight and then have enough materials in GY to make a rank 6 via the link-2 and the fusion.

[@julianleverton7045]

"My shoulder comment."

[@astral1854]

I would think about using Archfiend Eccentrick it is a light fiend pendulum

[@Red-mg4ro]

Performages work well with them too, cuz rank 4, and self-inflicted damage.

[@Petsinwinter2]

Don't we want to run Ghost Sister in here? Every special summon puts a res counter on Angello

[@Ragnarok540]

Vaalmonica: A worthy contender for Tistina.

[@davidtowers1863]

Woah now. Thats way too far. Vaalmonica has a good matchup into snake eyes, never gets nibirud and can make a board with 2 negates on even a subpar hand while only giving 1 draw to maxx c all the while

[@markburns2621]

Tistina was better when it could only play as hit for 9k through an upstart because Gustav exists...then they gave it random gibberish in wave 2.

[@BassAndTrebleBR]

First wave? Sure. Second wave? There's OCG tops already. Third wave??? I would watch out, the new boss monster is insane.

[@Ragnarok540]

​@@davidtowers1863sorry, is that in the two times I saw it in MD, all they did was to summon Bagooska and apparently they could quick link summon in the battle phase? That was not going to happen.

[@Eis_Cold]

​@@Ragnarok540an average Vaalmonica board is bagooska + trap that pop a spell and returns a monster + Zebufera to copy the trap, so a floodgate, 2 spell/trap removal and 2 monster bounces. Just Bagooska is usually the "Oh shit I messed up" end board.

[@chaosjoey123]

2:43 maybe thats a glass armonica?

[@hohohihi9400]

how do you get rush duel design for cards in YGOmega?

[@elin111]

Always listen to the Goblin

[@lordamirhossein8152]

And thats why they stopped drawing front facing simpsons

[@hochilow2095]

Set up your scales, pendulum summon your barrier statue(s), forget about it. ... Their scales are too vulnerable to do anything real at this moment. You always need a plan B when your scales are gone.

[@markchang2964]

Nice

[@vitortakara7090]

tbh the most important thing in the deck is getting to those 3 counters and the deck can get there consistently the worst part of the deck is it's non linearity which makes it kinda hard to use, it is a cycling deck similar to memento if you played it, you want to cycle tru as many of your cards as possible on your turn while setting up a board so you can sit at a high amount of counters, at the end of the combo field spell at 3 all 3 monsters at 3 invitare 3 disarmonia 3 scelta 3 versare 1-3 intonare 0-1(can be cut) trap melody 0-1(run at least 1 of the 2 traps) trap rhythm 0-1 the order of priority important actions for the deck is 1 get scales, 2 ns celetrice, 3 aways cycle trough scelta if possible, try to have celetrice for the 2nd effect of invitare, pend summon both angel and demon for their copy effects that should get you tough most of the deck, the deck also does not have a 1 card comboes which does make things very awkward if you have 2 of seletrice/fieldspell/1 scale/some of the searchers you can go full combo (normally you will want to activate the 2nd effect of the spells listed) set scales>ns celetrice>scelta>invitare, demon on ED angel to hand>pend summon both>demon copy scelta>versare dump a trap>angel copy versare for a free draw and if you draw gas you can continue, if not summon zebufera add seletrice to hand and I:P or bagooska, if you already used seletrice effect you can make bogooska with her instead important interactions scelta can aways cycle at least so it's never a dead card, invitare 1st effect does not proc seletrice, but if you have scales you can make artemis and add her to hand (do not forget about the vallmonica lock), if you have scales you can use versare to foolish selletrice then use selletrice effect to add to hand, follish burial goods + rainbow bridge are good extenders for the deck

[@ryuhayabusa6651]

Where is zephyros?

[@Lexadin]

I remember dueling against this recently, I was so confused about what they were trying to do. Turns out they were a Cheetah in a treadmill, they were going very fast but went nowhere in particular. This probably was just the pilot not knowing what to do, but if Floodgateless Monarchs manage to out them, they don't seem to good in MD atm. But damn, that boss monster really helps them

[@Eis_Cold]

Funny thing most vaalmonica players agree that the link-2 boss is just kinda ehhhh for the deck, can be usefull but it's not needed, it's the continous trap that most Vaal players wants in MD.

[@AshleyKilroy-gu3ri]

I was actually first, I have proof

[@nyxeonusagi3754]

Oh no a deck that can’t be used by people with less than 2 brain cells! Like bro people only understand negates and big numbers, and now when there is something different people are completely lost, it’s really sad and says a lot about the state of yugioh

[@andreobarros]

What a powerful archetype, those monsters are such massive walls of text, that just looking at them makes me wanna scoop. So I never have to read it.

[@xer0058]

That deck is so 🏳️‍🌈

[@r3zaful]

the list is so bad its give me cancer what vaalmonica are great at? they can run floodgates like fissure summon limit etc with ease what they arent great at? they dont have the luxury of 1 card combo they need 2 cards to combo and extend they are built for this and then protect your floodgate with the demon link

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

Inside of you there are two Lolis. Neither of them are meta.

[@Gatitasecsii]

Ugh how i despise the stupid anime cards Just know that is the reason I immediately clicked off the video.

[@HardlegGaming]

Vaalmonica were in the anime?

[@Gatitasecsii]

@@HardlegGaming sure dude, I meant vaalmonica, not the stupid anime card designs

[@HardlegGaming]

@@Gatitasecsii I honestly didn't know what you were talking about. I thought you were angry at the cards themselves. If you're talking about the design of the card frames, those are based off Rush Duel, not the anime.