Steelswarm Discussion

[tummychow]

Reading over some of the future duel terminals (I received a custom YVD set file from a very kind person that has all the cards up to OCG DT12) led me to the Steelswarm archetype in DT10. OCG name is Inverz, hence that terminal's name, Raid of the Inverz. Just as Ritual Summons (Gishki) and Fusion Summons of the classical spell-based sort (Gem-Knights) are making a comeback, Steelswarm is bringing back Tribute Summoning. All the monsters so far are Dark fiends with 0 defense (except Gatekeeper which has 1500/1900). There's a bit of special-summon hate in the deck (you can't synchro with most of the Steelswarm tribute-material cards, and some of them specifically weaken special summoned monsters). These are the tribute materials (the monsters that look that they're made mostly to serve as tributes for the big guys).

Steelswarm Caller (When a "Steelswarm" monster is successfully Tribute Summoned by Tributing this card, you can Special Summon 1 Lvl4 or lower "Steelswarm" monster from your deck)
Floater for tributing. Kinda reminds me of reborn tengu, the upcoming EXVC sneak peek card. Looks to be one of the most useful tribute materials (it can SS itself). 1700 attack, so we're not making any great strides in battle here.

Steelswarm Cell (If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This card cannot be Tributed, except for the Tribute Summon of a "Steelswarm" monster, and cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.)
Quick way to get tribute material onto the field. 0/0, not much to say. This is convenient for a starting play when you have no monsters, I guess.

Steelswarm Genesoid (If this card is used to Tribute Summon a "Steelswarm" monster, this card can be treated as 2 Tributes.)
Essentially, a double tributer. The main benefit is specifically for Steelswarm Longhorn (see below), as Hercules requires 3 Tributes, and Girastag operates fine on just one. The rest of the tribute monsters are lvl 5-6. 1000/0.

Steelswarm Needle (When this card is sent to the Graveyard, select 1 face-up Ritual, Fusion or Synchro Monster on the field and destroy it.)
Here's some of that SS hate I was referring to. In addition, it's a 4-star 1850 attack monster, so it could kinda be a beatstick. This card could be splashed into other decks because its trigger hits when sent, and in the current meta, synchros are everywhere. We have yet to see the return en masse of rituals or fusions; I'm hoping that might change (gishkis, gem-knights will help with that) but we'll have to see.

Steelswarm Scout (If this card is in your Graveyard during your Main Phase 1 and you control no Spell or Trap Cards, you can Special Summon it. During the turn you activated this effect you cannot Special Summon any monsters. This card cannot be Tributed, except for a Tribute Summon of a "Steelswarm" monster, and cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.)
A steelswarm-specific 200/0 Treeborn Frog, basically. Note that you cannot summon 2 in one turn, or revive the same scout twice in one turn (it doesn't have the "if you control a" restriction of treeborn, but the "no special summon" clause leads to about the same result). I think this is the most interesting card in the archetype; my predictions are pretty bad, but I'd bet that most builds will revolve around either spamming this for a tribute every turn (a la frognarch), or the use of callers/cells as the main tribute material, taking advantage of caller's floating and cell's ss from hand. Builds that use scout won't be able to benefit from duality (it's the same as using duality in frognarchs, not the best idea) as those that use caller or cell (but both caller and cell's effects also provide some form of special summon so I guess it's a tossup).
I feel obliged to note some key differences between scout and treeborn here. Firstly, scout summons in the main phase. So if you Foolish Burial to that first scout, you can summon it that very turn. Second, scout prevents any further special summoning, which has a very dangerous implication (imo) with Oppression: you cannot repeatedly summon scout to break oppression down, where as you can with Treeborn (at least, based on my understanding of the effects involved). Thirdly, scout prevents further special summoning, which can annoy some support effects like that of Steelswarm Caller. This is not a problem with Treeborn. And of course fourthly, scout has that all-important Steelswarm name, that gives the tributers their effects. So splashing treeborn into this in place of scout will not work.

Steelswarm Sentinel (While this card is in face-up Attack Position, Level 5 or higher Special Summoned monsters on the field cannot activate their effects.)
1100/0 tribute fodder, and it reminds me of Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. I don't think this card is all that great because, although it does block effects, it's pretty easy to run over (at 1100) and it doesn't prevent declaration of attacks. One of the less interesting cards, imo.

Steelswarm Gatekeeper (While this card is face-up on the field, during a turn when a "Steelswarm" monster is Tribute Summoned, you can Normal Summon 1 additional time this turn.)
This is 1500/1900 and it provides what might be a lot of speed for the Steelswarms. If you can reliably get down that first tribute summon (scout builds?), you have yourself a free normal summon to use at your leisure. The main problem is that you can't really use that spare normal summon to perform the tribute summon itself.



And now for the tributer monsters that benefit from these fodders. Most of them are not nomis, and so they could be monster reborned, etc if in the grave. However, their effects are dependent on their being Tribute Summoned by Tributing a Steelswarm monster(s). So there'll be no gaming of the system here. Some of the support cards have a similar stipulation, see below.

Steelswarm Roach (2 Level 4 monsters
You can remove 1 Exceed Material Monster from this card to negate the Special Summon of a Level 5 or higher monster, and destroy it.)
A 1900 4* exceed. It's kinda easy to run over, but its effect could be useful for holding off synchroing, since synchroing is a non-chain event. However, summons based on effects (such as rituals/fusions) will be largely unaffected, because this effect has the same timing as Black Horn of Heaven and its ilk. I doubt this will be big.

Steelswarm Girastag (You can Tribute Summon this monster in face-up Attack Position by Tributing 1 "Steelswarm" monster. When you Tribute Summon this card with a "Steelswarm" monster as a Tribute, you can select 1 card your opponent controls and send it to the Graveyard, and gain 1000 Life Points.)
A 2600/0 7 star steelswarm, but it can be tributed on one. This is, probably, the best steelswarm tributer, and the most important. Since it sends to grave, it dodges anti-destruction effects (cough stardust). Plus it's unusually strong for a 1-tribute and can run over stardust and other comparable 1-tribute monsters (like monarchs). Those life points are useful for some of the other steelswarm effects.

Steelswarm Mantis (When this card is Tribute Summoned with a "Steelswarm" monster as Tribute, you can pay 1000 Life Points to select 1 "Steelswarm" monster in your Graveyard and Special Summon it.)
5* 2200/0 steelswarm. Not particularly impressive, but that special summon effect could be useful if, for example, you have Gatekeeper out, giving yourself another tribute summon this turn. In addition, you can revive ANY steelswarm - bring back a dead tributer to use it as a beatstick! (When I realized this halfway through writing, the effect suddenly looked a lot better.) The main problem is the cost based on what I see; girastag helps in this regard.

Steelswarm Caucastag (When this card is Tribute Summoned by Tributing 2 "Steelswarm" monsters, select and activate 1 of the following effects. ● Destroy all other monsters on the field. ● Destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.)
Two powerful mass destruction effects on this 8* 2800/0. This card could be a major balancing factor. What strikes me as most troublesome is that it has to be two steelswarms. There's no easy way to work two steelswarms onto the field in one turn (but what you could do is revive scout by its effect, tribute for mantis with Gatekeeper out, revive something, use mantis and the revived thing to get caucastag on your second normal summon? combos arise). You cannot use genesoid's double-counting effect, I believe, so this is a bit more difficult. Very nice mass-destruction if you bring it out.

Steelswarm Moth (When this card is Tribute Summoned by tributing 1 "Steelswarm" monster, you can pay 1000 Life Points to select up to 2 cards your opponent controls and return them to their owner's hand.)
A monarch-style tributer, 6* with 2400 attack. The LP cost is not pretty (again girastag helps) but the double bounce is superior to any monarch's one-card removal. It makes a reasonable beatstick, however it will crash against other one-tributers, and it cannot run over stardust. Like mantis, this is a tributer you'll use mainly for its trigger effect.

Steelswarm Longhorn (If you Tribute Summon this card by Tributing a "Steelswarm" monster(s), it gains this effect: Once per turn, you can pay 1000 Life Points to select 1 monster on the field, and destroy it.)
9* 3000 attack beater. I honestly can never remember if 9 stars require 3 tributes. In any case, this is one of the few 7+ steelswarms that really benefits from genesoid, since it doesn't require two tributes like caucastag to get its effect. This is another one of the 1k LP effects (again girastag helps), nice and straightforward. You can attack on the same turn as the activation of that effect (unlike a lot of remove-1 effects, like Chaos Sorcerer or genex ally duradark... but those effects are free), and with 3000 attack, you've got yourself a fine beatstick. One of the two boss monsters.

Steelswarm Hercules (This card cannot be Special Summoned. You must Tribute 3 "Steelswarm" monsters to Normal Summon this card (you cannot Set this card). Once per turn, you can pay half your Life Points to destroy all other cards on the field.)
Now THIS is the boss. 3200 attack 10 star monster, with a similar effect to JD. I can see two main advantages - firstly, it has more attack (always good) and secondly, you can always activate the effect, because, like Solemn Judgment, you'll always have at least half your life points to pay. The obvious disadvantage is that it requires a whopping 3 tributes. (This means that, unlike JD, you cannot nuke with one and then suddenly drop another for a 6k+ life point assault. That was why JD was put to 2 =p) Genesoid really helps here but it's still not enough to close out the whole bill. If you get it out though, you're really in business.



Finally, the support cards, of which four currently exist. They revolve around returning those tributed monsters to your hand for various beneficial effects. Scout builds will probably shine here since you can easily afford to re-summon that monster next turn, but let's take a look at the cards:

First Step Towards Infestation (Return 1 face-up Tribute Summoned "Steelswarm" monster to the hand to draw 1 card.)
Looks lackluster at first glance, but what I think is most remarkable about this card is that it's a quickplay spell, akin to the infamous Gemini Spark. You can use this to save your most valuable steelswarms (on which you invested what might have been a lot of field presence) from destruction and draw a card for your trouble.

Infestation Wave (Return 1 face-up Tribute Summoned "Steelswarm" monster to the hand to destroy 1 card your opponent controls.)
This trap has a similar nature to the above quickplay - dodge destruction effects, and get a benefit for the effort. Bear in mind that the returning effect, in both cases, is a cost. So if these are negated, those tributers are still clogged in the hand. (Of course, the point of this archetype is to avoid the clogging problem that arises from running tributer-heavy decks.)

Infestation Ripples (Pay 500 Life Points and select 1 Level 4 or lower "Steelswarm" monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon it.)
Straight-up revival so you can save your normal summon that turn, in trap form. This will be useless in scout builds (no special summoning that turn for you!), but for caller/cell builds it might be quite useful for getting that first steelswarm onto the field. I see the Gatekeeper effect as creating a sort of linkage. Make one tribute summon, normal summon another monster. Next turn, use up the normal summoned monster to make another tribute summon. Gatekeeper lets you normal summon another tribute fodder. Etc. This is probably a simplistic way of seeing it. But this card could be the card that gets the system started on that first tribute summon.

Means of Infestation (Activate by sending 1 "Steelswarm" monster from your Deck to your Graveyard and select 1 face-up "Steelswarm" monster you control. The selected monster gains 800 ATK until the End Phase.)
I don't see a lot of benefit to this card. There are a few advantages to dumping steelswarms. In a scout build, you'll really love this, since it helps you dump those scouts. It's kind of like how, in frognarch, you're dead in the water until you get that treeborn-fishborg engine going by getting them in the graveyard. Until then, you're just drawing caiuses and raizas and they're clogging the hell out of your hand. If you like Mantis, this also might be useful, since it gives mantis something to revive (reviving big monsters with mantis is not a terrible idea). However, your big tributers will not benefit from being in the grave at all, unless to be revived by mantis as beatsticks. (No cards as of yet take advantage of a dead steelswarm, either by removing it from play as a cost for some effect, or by reviving it. Also remember that a steelswarm tributer doesn't get its effect unless it was tribute summoned off a steelswarm monster, so using reborn on it or something will not help.) I think it's so-so personally. The +800 attack might be useful if your tribute fodder needs to survive the turn and be tributed next turn; I would rather run Forbidden Lance in most of those situations since it's way more versatile. The tributers tend to have enough holding power on their own and won't need the help, except for Mantis (2200). Girastag already has an unusually high 2600.


Useful support cards could include Recurring Nightmare (return 2 0DEF darks from the grave to your hand; all the steelswarms except Gatekeeper can benefit, and you can return Gatekeeper with Dark Eruption... if you must), DAD (what with all the Darks in the grave; DAD tends to have this splashable quality into any dark deck I find), Mystic Tomato (generic dark searching support, what else is there to say), Stygian Street Patrol (like Infernities, steelswarms are also dark fiends), Overwhelm (this card could be a very powerful negation effect, and Girastag just so happens to be level 7 with only one tribute) and even Gaap the Divine Soldier (prevents steelswarms from going into defense, it's a 1-tribute dark fiend, and you'll have plenty of fiends to reveal what with the support cards bouncing them).


There are some obvious weaknesses to the archetype. The 0 def is one. I don't know of anyone who runs Windstorm of Etaqua or Zero Gravity, but that would pretty much devastate those precious beatsticks you worked so hard to attain. Tribute-hate cards like Blast Held by a Tribute or Intercept are also unpleasant. Watch out for cards like Book of Moon that wipe away the "this was tribute summoned" status (similar to Naturia Bamboo Shoot).

Anyway, I'm still working on my starting build for this. I'm leaning towards a scout build right now (using an extended YVD set file provided to me by a very generous person). Thoughts?

[bluejays]

I noticed no one posted. So obviously dark related cards are good for the deck and with the recent release of the dark world field card this deck benefits as well. Not only will the grave be more controlled but it can act as a form of draw power as well as increasing the attacks of steelswarm monsters.

Tbh though the deck would be way better if the scout can be used for the tribute summon of monsters other then steelswarm monsters. Cuz sometimes a regular monarch can be 20x better then a steelswarm tribute summon monster. Which is why I think monarch decks have way more versatility then steel swarm.

Other then that the steelswarm exceed is looking good although very splashable...Which in some ways is good since steelswarm couldn't summon it anyway so using other cards to get it out is very helpful. It would actually be really good to use steelswarm needle in a mill deck or for the exceed summon of a monster since it only needs to be sent to the grave to pop a card.

Steelswarm needle has many stuff to abuse like discarding it with the dakrworld field card and then adding it back to your hand.

[tummychow]

Tbh though the deck would be way better if the scout can be used for the tribute summon of monsters other then steelswarm monsters. Cuz sometimes a regular monarch can be 20x better then a steelswarm tribute summon monster. Which is why I think monarch decks have way more versatility then steel swarm.

I'd argue otherwise on this one. Caius is not as good as girastag, in most cases. They both dodge the destroy mechanic (caius has a slight advantage since removal from play is generally more hurtful than destroying to the grave), they both create a difference of 1k LP (caius by burning, which is better but it's not guaranteed where as girastag is), and girastag is 200 attack more than caius (meaning it can run over stardust or monarchs). I agree that mantis is inferior though, and moth is a reasonable alternative at best. Neither of them have removal anywhere on the scale of caius or raiza.

Regarding roach... I read several threads on tcgplayer (murk loar) and I've seen some people consider splashing it in (X-sabers looking for other uses for those dead double boggart hands). I can see the usefulness, but with a 1900 body, it's not gonna stay on the field very long. Maybe I underestimated this one? (probably, I'm terrible at predictions)

I do agree that the archetype is probably not the one to look for in dt10 (out of all the upcoming archetypes in terminals, I'm focused on gishki, and a lot of my testing today was for my sd20 agents), i'm curious for what people would do with it though. Haven't managed to test my own build yet so I can almost guarantee it's no good. I like the idea of this + gate to dark world, that could be interesting.

[bluejays]

Of the new duel terminal archetypes I think Ritua will be on top followed by vylon? Iunno Laval is definitely the worst and gusto ftk doesn't really use gustos but I guess can be considered a Gusto deck so technically that would be on top. The good part about ritua is they are rituals my favorite type of card so it all works out that they are near thet op xD + their combos are soooooo mixable with many types of decks (like gks can have infinite Necrovalley).

Anyway back to the steelswarm topic looking at the many steelswarm monsters are pretty much depressing for example Steelswarm Hercules is essentially an impossible to summon inferior JD only redemption being able to always use its effect. I agree though Girastag is a nice card but I hate that you can't run backfield just to run scout with them.

I think the deck should look into making decks based around steelswarm cell as it is a lot more versatile then scout is. The fact that it can be a target for Recurring Nightmare makes it pretty consistent as well. Ofc you can still run more scouts but at least you don't have to rely on it when you want to make a special summon play.

[tryingtohard]

So after testing around with this deck I found a build that I like but I have to edit. I decided to go without scout because I felt the backrow was too important for me to lose.

[tummychow]

Saaaame. Imagine if hero beat wasn't allowed to use Gemini Spark. For me, first step and inf wave play a similar role. Not being able to set them is unpleasant.

Here's a build I created, but I honestly haven't tested it at all yet (like literally not even once). Been too busy with agents which have dominated my last month or so of yugimons. Based on theory, it looks like the hardest part will be consistently dropping a tributer on the field. The negation from Overwhelm and the chainability of first step/inf wave is solid as is.

3 Girastag
3 Gatekeeper
3 Cell (this is the best way to get started)
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Caller (difficult to keep on the field but its effect is great)
2 Stygian Street Patrol (easy way to drop fiends)
1 Moth
1 Sangan

3 Duality (this is yvd after all =p)
2 First Step (the return to draw)
2 mst
1 Recurring Nightmare (unlike gishki, the +1 isn't always an instant benefit, still thinking on this one)
1 Dark Hole
1 reborn
1 book
1 foolish (for the street patrols)

2 Ultimate Offering (moar normal summon)
2 Infestation Wave (return to destroy a card)
2 Overwhelm
2 Warning
1 Judgment
1 Torrential

Also made builds for all the other big dt10+ archetypes (gusto not the ftk, gishki, vylon, this, gem-knight) but I've really only tested the gishki and gem-knights in duels.

[tryingtohard]

ah I chose to go a path more anti-whatever my opponent does instead of a Ultimate Offering build. I also don't have duality so they aren't in here

Monsters 21
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Effect Veiler
2 Sytgian Street Patrol
3 Steelswarm Caller
1 Steelswarm Caucastag
3 Steelswarm Cell
3 Steelswarm Gatekeeper
3 Steelswarm Girastag
1 Steelswarm Mantis (Might make it moth. Still testing but I love his effect)
2 Steelswarm Needle

Spells 11
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Reccurring Nightmare

I feel like Nightmare needs to be ran at two. It lets you recycle your Tributes and Non-Tributes so that you can recover alot better from Dark Hole and such. Also it allows for easy manipulation of the grave for Dark Armed Dragon

Traps 8
2 Dimensional Prison
1 Mirror Force
1 Royal Oppression
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute

[tummychow]

I considered a whole variety of tech; however I kept coming back to the same problem of actually starting the tribute engine. Hence I stripped most of the tech out to make the deck run as lean as possible, and the offerings give me more of those all important normal summons. I haven't even tested this yet though (my friend's been focusing on absolute zero spam decks and counter fairies lately; looking for the ideal counter from my 35+ deck roster in yvd).
Also, how do you get the stygian streets into the grave in your build? Do you just summon them and wait for them to die?

[tryingtohard]

Well there are still alot of changes to be made. I might just cut them out entirely to make room for better cards. This is definitly not an easy deck to work with

[Hollowblade]

I love Steelswarm (you can tell by my pic)

They dont have a lot of synergy with other types but they dont need it!

Ive been using Hercules as my boss, and abusing his field wiping powers. Hes a stronger, easier-to-summon Demise, and he his effect can ALWAYS be used.