Something Fishy's Going On Here!

Future releases hold a lot in store for the development of Yu-Gi-Oh's metagame. Most obvious (and most significant) are the Legendary Six Samurai series available in Storm of Ragnarok, which allow for two destruction loops and a second, more consistent FTK with Mass Driver (the first of which relied on the Grandmaster loop, which had no searchable cards; the second uses level 3 and lower Six Samurai monsters, which are searchable by Reinforcement of the Army as well as Shien's Smoke Signal, the new Six Samurai searcher, and Gateway of the Six). Less notable, however, are Fish, which are looking to finally make their way into the meta with the new Synchros available to them in Starstrike Blast and Hidden Arsenal 3.

For those unfamiliar with Fish, most Fish decks rely on the swarming capabilities of Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth:

Once per turn, you can discard 1 card to Special Summon as many Level 4 or lower Fish-Type monsters as possible from your Deck. A monster Special Summoned by this effect cannot declare an attack and its effect(s) is negated while on the field. If this card is targeted by a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster's effect, you can Tribute 1 other Fish-Type monster to negate the effect and destroy that card.

While Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth's effect predates the advent of the Tuner/Synchro mechanic, nowadays Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth's best use is to pull a combination of Tuners and non-Tuners from the deck to produce Synchros to control your opponent's space and swing for massive damage. What this means for Fish is that, as the Extra Deck options become more diverse, Fish can only get better and better.

One example of this diversification can be seen with the new Accel Synchros in Starstrike Blast, and the Duel Terminal Synchros of Hidden Arsenal 3, which have opened up a powerful OTK option for Fish which has built-in protection, destruction, and the necessary 8000 ATK to reduce your opponent to 0. All you need to use it are Fishborg Blaster in Grave and a means of getting Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth to the field. There are many ways for this to happen; for instance, Genex Fish uses Symbols of Duty to Special Summon Coelacanth from the Graveyard, while Froggy Fish uses Treeborn Frog and Fishborg Blaster (both Special Summoned from the Graveyard) to Tribute Summon Coelacanth.

Once Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth is on the field, you can discard a card in your hand to Special Summon 2x Royal Swamp Eel, 1x Oyster Meister, and 1x any level 4 Fish-Type monster (such as Golden Flying Fish):

From there, you can follow the following steps:
1) Using one Royal Swamp Eel and Golden Flying Fish, Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon. This will protect you from any disruption during your later steps.
2) Using your other Royal Swamp Eel and Oyster Meister, Synchro Summon Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (available in Hidden Arsenal 3). We'll use his effect later, but right now, the most important part of his Special Summon is that Oyster Meister is sent to the Graveyard, allowing you to Special Summon a level 1 Oyster Token to the field.
3) Discard 1 card to Special Summon Fishborg Blaster from your Graveyard. The Oyster Token counts as the level 3 or lower WATER monster needed for its Special Summon.
4) Using Fishborg Blaster and the Oyster Token, Synchro Summon Formula Synchron (available in Starstrike Blast). Draw 1 card. If that card happens to be a Pot of Avarice, or you have one in hand, activate it to generate hand advantage.
5) Using Formula Synchron and Stardust Dragon, Synchro Summon Shooting Star Dragon (also available in Starstrike Blast). This will allow you to avoid any further disruption causing you to lose field advantage, as Shooting Star Dragon does not require you to Tribute itself as Stardust Dragon does to negate an effect which destroys.
6) Discard up to 2 cards in your hand for Gungnir's effect to destroy up to 2 cards on the field with Gungnir's effect. You can use this effect to destroy any monsters that are obstructing your OTK, or to clear the back row to prevent any random obstructions such as Dimensional Prison. (NOTE: If you don't have Fishborg Blaster in the Graveyard, but you do have it in hand, you can use the destruction effect earlier in the sequence to get it in the Graveyard; just make sure you have a card in your hand to discard for Fishborg Blaster's effect!)
7) Attack! If you're attacking into a clear field, Gungnir (2500), Shooting Star (3300) and Coelacanth (2800) together make up 8600 damage, which is more than enough to complete the OTK! Even if you don't swing for enough damage to win that turn, your opponent has to deal with a once-per-turn destruction effect, as well as free destruction negation and the possibility of a fourth Synchro next turn, and has almost no chance of winning!





Fish also interact positively with another Ice Barrier Synchro: Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!


1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner WATER monsters
Once per turn, you can return any number of face-up cards you control to the owner's hand. For each card returned to the owner's hand by this effect, this card gains 500 ATK until the End Phase.

Dewloren works particularly well with Genex Fish builds, which use Symbols of Duty to Special Summon Coelacanth from the Graveyard. For this play, you'll be Special Summoning Royal Swamp Eel, 7 Colored Fish, Nimble Sunfish and any level 4 or lower Fish (which we'll use Fishborg Blaster for; you'll see why in a second):






The play is thus:
1) Using Royal Swamp Eel and Nimble Sunfish, Special Summon Dewloren, Tiger of the Ice Barrier.
2) Activate Dewloren's effect, returning Symbols of Duty and Fishborg Blaster to your hand to give Dewloren an extra 1000 ATK, destroying Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth.
3) Tribute 7 Colored Fish to activate Symbols of Duty, Special Summoning Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth from the Graveyard.
4) From here, activate Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth's effect again, Special Summoning Royal Swamp Eel, Oyster Meister and any level 4 Fish-type monster (we'll use Golden Flying Fish again in the interest of laziness):





5) Using Royal Swamp Eel and Golden Flying Fish, Synchro Summon a level 8 Synchro monster (we'll use Stardust Dragon again for his field protection effect).
6) Discard 1 card to Special Summon Fishborg Blaster from your Graveyard. Oyster Meister acts as your level 3 WATER monster.
7) Using Fishborg Blaster and Oyster Meister, Synchro Summon Armory Arm.
8) Attack! Your Dewloren (3300), Coelacanth (2800), Stardust Dragon (2500) and Armory Arm (1800) have a combined ATK of 10,400, which is more than enough to OTK, even if your opponent has a monster on the field! With field presence like that, how can you lose?






Add these OTKs to the Fish deck's ever-growing arsenal of OTKs (which I will likely discuss in another article), and Fish have a range of powerful plays that is bound to make them a force to be reckoned with in the meta!