Understanding the Enigma of Endymion

The Master Manipulator

The pure version of the deck focuses on taking advantage of spell counters and pendulum monster effects to bring out more monsters. By setting up an , you give yourself protection, with the ability to break boards going second. Other cards in the archetype, such as , can bolster the deck's level of disruption by bouncing an opponent's card when special summoned. is also a key component in summoning archetype monsters from the deck or extra deck and can be stubborn to remove from the field.

's effect to continuously generate spell counters for your monsters to utilize gives the deck the opportunity to extend its combos. Pairing this with other spells like the searcher means you have consistent ways to generate the resources you need. This assists the pendulum summoning mechanic in allowing you to swarm the field with Endymion cards, which have effects reliant on spell counters. This field spell also resists destruction as long as it has at least one counter on it.

The Apprentice Archetypes

Other pendulum archetypes have good synergy with the Endymion deck and can help it reach its fullest potential. Pendulum Magicians are spellcasters as well and have a variety of useful pendulum effects, including , which was recently released from its time on the Forbidden and Limited List. Zefra is an archetype of monsters that focus on pendulum summons in a faster and more aggressive way, due to powerful cards like .

Mythical Beasts can be summoned by Endymion monsters and generate more spell counters for negates and destruction effects. protects itself as a result of its increased spell counter production, then removes counters to banish an opponent's monster and gain its attack. Mythical Endymion decks are more capable of breaking boards while setting up their own negates, making for a difficult engine to stop.

The Eternal Endymion

During 2019, Endymion was one of the few meta decks that competed in what is known by fans as the "Eternal Format." Pendulum decks as a whole were able to do well against the top decks because of their distinct advantage under the former "New Master Rules." With the introduction of link monsters, the playable zones shifted, and the new rules favored the new summoning mechanic. At the time, monsters summoned from the extra deck had to be summoned either to the new extra monster zone or a zone a link monster points to.

While this also applied to pendulum monsters in the extra deck, you could still use the monsters in your hand as a result of your pendulum summon for the turn. This meant pendulum decks like Endymion could more quickly access powerful link monsters than other decks due to the sheer number of resources at their disposal. As the "Master Rule 2020" went into effect the following year, extra deck summoning lost this restriction and pendulum decks were beaten out of the meta.

Speaking of the extra deck, Endymion had a handful of iconic link monsters it put to good use during the Eternal Format. The first of these is , which is now banned because of how versatile it was as a generic searcher and draw card for pendulum decks. By getting any pendulum monster you wanted from the main deck to the extra deck, and then to your hand, you could cheat out powerful cards with just a link two.

As well as this, there was a trio of link monsters known as the Guardragons, which have also received bans, with as its only surviving member … for now. These incredibly powerful monsters helped you summon dragons from your deck, graveyard, or extra deck through the use of link arrows. With the Endymion archetype containing level seven monsters, the deck already supported generic dragon monsters like and .

With this in mind, I think its clear to see how the deck functions so effectively, and how it became one of the greats during a format in its favor. There have been a variety of different Endymion decks that have seen success, and its no surprise with an archetype as good at what it does as this one. Let us know what you think about Endymion and whether you'd like to see coverage of other historic decks of the Eternal Format in the comments below.

---

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.