Agent Guide
http://forum.duelingnetwork.com/index.php?/topic/83428-agent-guide/
Full Article complete with pictures is here. I am having serious issues with the text editor here, so please bear with me until I get it fixed; I will update this when I do
Since no one else would do a guide for agents or lightsworns, I decided i'll just go do it for them. Agents are a fairy deck, a fairy deck low on the metagame spectrum as being no more than a moderate to low tier 2 deck, and simply a rouge meta call in formats that call for grind games with some need for OTK potential. But as it stands, its the strongest meta deck fairies have. The Archetype has a total of 9 members, some of which are very powerful, others which are probably not worth the usage. The deck also has several variants, each with a different playstyle of their own (one of the main problems with those who run this deck is mixing together variants and not realizing they do not mesh well together, for example, using pure sanctuary based agent tactics in chaos agents) This guide will hopefully help those who actually want to use the deck..............or just prove how alone I am in terms of deck choices.......either way, lets begin
Terms of Usage and Risks
by using this deck and its variants, you acknowledge that you are using the strongest fairy deck in existence, but also acknowledging that in the competitive meta game, unless it calls for decks like this, getting wins will not be that easy. It is a moderate to low tier 2 deck, 3rd place in the light meta spectrum (2nd being constellars, albeit debatable, and 1st being bujin, and even at first place, bujin is not very high at the moment), and as such, you should remember this every time you use this to duel. As for the deck itself, its inherent risk is that while on good hands it can quickly lay waste to anything, on moderate hands, one will most likely be on the defense, making passive plays and trying to wear the opponent down, and on bad hands, one will be in a very tough issue; dead draws, where one has the main boss of the deck but no way to fuel it, or mediocre hands, where one has the fuel, but not the boss monster, and the cards that one wants in their deck are in their hand, can happen, and as such, one should do what they can to either make dead hands more playable, or search out the cards they need to do so
Archetype Members
Master Hyperion
Its both the boss monster of every agent deck to exist, and the ace monster of most agent variants. This card and earth alone, revived an archetype that was dead since its birth, and gave it the power to lay waste to a deck at any given instant, given the right conditions. All meta based variants use 3 of this card, semi competitive/non competitive builds would often run 2-3.
The Agent of Judgment - Saturn
One of the first agent monsters created, and at its time, while most of the other agents were shunned into obscurity, this was surprisingly useful for fairy decks based on sanctuary in the sky, particularly because it can be used as a heavy hitter monster (back then, 2400 attack for 1 tribute was considered ideal), as well as a game ender that was safe from battle destruction, making it such that if you had 2x as much lifepoints as your opponent did, and it wasn't destroyed as soon as it was summoned, you won. Nowadays, its only used in 1-2 variants, mainly a remade version of the same deck used long ago, only more centralized around agents where as in the past, it was random light monsters, and possibly in herald/hyperion variants as immediate discard fuel for herald of perfection. At most, both variants only use 1, as its searchable anyway, while others use 0, as its not needed.
The Agent of Miracles - Jupiter
This was released at the same time as master hyperion, and for a time, it was considered usable for its effect to be a solution to any monster below 2650 attack, as well as making instant tribute fodder for herald of perfection via earth (as the 1st popular TCG agent deck was herald/hyperion, later replaced by chaos agents). As other variants became preferred, its usefulness dropped such that at most it was considered a tech at 1, for its old role and slight grave control, or in the side deck, for the same role. Nonetheless, due to its second effect, any agent deck based on sanctuary in the sky can, and most likely will use this in 2-3, for its very powerful effect of returning a banished fairy onto the field, manking any fairy monster into something usable. Meta variants would only use 1 of this in the side deck at best, with herald hyperion and sanctuary punishment decks main decking 2.
The Agent of Creation - Venus
It wasn't always like this. Back when it was first created, one would watch this and consider it even less useful than the agent of wisdom - mercury. 1600 attack was small during that time, and the cards it summoned, during that time, it was all but useful. The card was considered forever useless. With the release of The Agent of Mystery - Earth, colorfully called Venus' younger sister, as well as the release of xyz monsters, and the existance of cards like t.g. striker and genex ally birdman, what was once the 2nd most useless agent, quickly became the most useful agent ever. The ability to special summon its targets from the hand or deck meant that no matter what, once the targets were somewhere other than the grave/banished zone, they were not dead forever. The ability to play them multiple times opened up the path for xyz plays that really gave the deck something to work with, from its main defensive play of venus to gachi gachi gantestu, to its more devestating plays like the hyperion phoenix OTK, or Hyperion phoenix reverse OTK (the HP OTK requires venus, hyperion, and anything from t.g. striker, t.g. warwolf, kagemucha knight, maurauding captain, monster reborn, even glow up bulb. The reverse OTK requires Venus, Hyperion and tour guide, and is called reverse OTK as the steps to OTK are done in reverse order as compared to the others). The fact it made the field (and eventually grave) perfectly balanced for archlord kristya, which in itself is close to a win condition, and its now searchable status due to the agent of mystery - earth, which makes it such that the deck has 5 venus, for most meta builds, 3 of this card is now mandatory, and the card itself is the center of every play the deck has; without it, everything the deck does becomes incredibly harder to do. 3 is the mandatory number for all meta designs, semi competitive designs use 2 at least. In addition to this, a funny fact is that, in sanctuary based builds, when one plays the sanctuary in the sky, and summons earth, they will search for venus far faster than they'd search for hyperion, if they have neither in their hand; Venus is THAT important.
NOTE: if you plan to make this deck in real, following the logic of holofoil cards, DO NOT get this card in its common reprint, get them as super rares; YOU WANT TO GET THIS CARD IN EVERY OPENING HAND!
The Agent of Mystery - Earth
This was the 3rd, and so far, last agent monster to be released, and the cutest (despite most agents are far from the word cute). Its effect gave the deck consistency, and was so important that it was ran in 3s in every agent deck possible. Its no wonder that its limiting in march 2012 killed every agent deck that existed (competitive wise), and when it was semi limited in september 2012, agent decks suddenly resurged. In addition to that, she has a status most searchers like her do not have; she is a tuner, making the deck viable for synchro plays, as well as sealing the fate of her and her older sister in being the most useful agents to exist. All agent decks will use as much copies of her as they are allowed, and if she should ever go to 1 or 0, it'll be a grim 6 months for every agent deck
NOTE: if you EVER use agents and only run one of these, I WILL HURT YOU!
The Agent of Wisdom - Mercury
Sadly, this is the least useful agent in its entire archetype, and is about as useful to agents as inzektor ant is as useful to inzektors. At 1700 attack and 0 defense, and an effect which requires it to survive a turn on its status, and run on an empty hand (something only infernities love, but this isn't infernities), the card doesn't do much at all. Depending on what the future holds, and depending on if Juptier's discard to special summon effect becomes more useful in the future, this may hold some usefulness as a rank 4 system, although people may simply use another jupiter. Currently used at 0 in all builds. At least, if one really wants to use this, debris dragon and chameleon exist, so its useless, but not THAT useless
The Agent of Force - Mars
When agents were first made, he was the second most useful agent, for fairy decks making use of the sanctuary in the sky. Immunity to spells and an effect which made it stronger as long as your lifepoints were higher than your opponent's own, meant it can be easily dealt with early, or become a real pain to deal with overall. Like Saturn, only agent decks dedicated to operating in the very same way they did in the past would use this, and only at 1-2 as earth now means you can use less copies of the main card. 1 is the recommended number for decks based on lifepoint gaps, although at 2, there would be no real issues either
Mystical Shine Ball
The card that made the term "gay disco party" as it really sucked to draw 1 of these in hand; now imagine drawing 3. This card is in actuality, the best and worst card of agents. It is what allows venus to become so important, it is what makes Kristya live, it fuels hyperion, it got t.g. striker limited and helped get Trishula banned (don't listen to anyone who says agents had no part to play with the hit of those 2 cards; 2nd turn trishula + kristya followed by 3rd turn hyperions is why t.g. striker is at 1, and trishula is just broken regardless, they just used it to butt blast the OCG) and even doubles up as a venus is one has a transturn, but in the same time, its the greatest inconsistency agents have as on its own its terribly useless, and drawing these instead of something else hurts every time. Nonetheless, due to its importance, its recommended that every variant using venus use 3 of these.
NOTE: if attempting to make this deck in real, DO NOT GET THIS CARD HOLOFOIL. You want this card to stay in your deck, you dont want to increase your chances of drawing it
The Sanctuary in the sky
A field spell which makes all battle damage with fairies 0. Nothing great, or helpful, unless you run gellenduo. The main reason why its here however isn't because of its effect, but its presence; just it being on the field means earth can now search hyperion, hyperion becomes 2/3 of a dark armed dragon, and jupiter is worth more than a beat stick. For the decks that use it, only 2 is often used, but on a competitive scale, its not used. The fact that it doesn't do anything itself is one reason, but in addition to that, the fact that competitive variants only have jupiter as teched support for its beating abilities, and the fact that venus + genex ally birdman or t.g. striker can be just as powerful as a hyperion, meaning you don't need to use earth to search hyperion, also contributes to why its not used
Support (Direct)
Archlord Kristya
Released mainly as fairy support, this card quickly found its use in agents, and gave rise to the very 1st competitive OCG agent deck. So painful was its effect and so easy was its summoning conditions, seen in the early days of its creation as a very hard task to perform, that thanks to agents, this card found itself on the semi limited list, with honest being limited at the same time (it was said that kristya + honest = good game, even if you skill drain it) Almost Ironically however, like saturn is only actively used in agent decks dedicated to older tactics, Kristya is only actively used in agent decks very similar to that of the 1st competitive OCG build. The difference is, if they can afford it, other variants can make use of 1 or 2 of this, as well as make do without it.
Honest
One of the most powerful hand traps/light monster/light support ever made. Any light deck without this needs to revise its design. Just as much, every time a light deck becomes tier 1 status, this card goes down a number; lightsworns dropped it to 2, and now agents dropped it to 1. Nonetheless, until this card is at 0, almost all light based deck would use it, and agents are no exception
NOTE: if you can get a holofoil version of this, get it. Nothing is funnier than summoning an agent earth and knowing your opponent should have used his dark hole on it
Herald of Orange Light
Another great hand trap for agents, by discarding it with a fairy, it negates any monster effect and destroys it, wherever it is. Its similar to effect veiler in that it negates, but its more costly as a -2 to you, and -1 to opponent. However, its mostly preferred in that the monster goes away for good, and it isn't restricted to the opponent's main phase 1 only. Not only that, but while Venus is the most important agent, she is only needed once, and people hate to draw shine balls in this deck. While it doesn't make it good, it does mean that with this, dead shine balls and venus in your hand are still usable
Cards from the sky
Its a simple effect, with some awful restrictions. Banish a fairy monster, draw 2 cards. If it were a restriction of no BP or a restriction of no special summon alone, the card would be considered and used, both in one makes one only use this when desperate. Nonetheless, in pure fairy agents, 1 is considered ideal; dead hands with shine balls means you probably can't do anything anyway. In Sanctuary based agents, 2 is used, as the banishing itself is helpful, the draw is a bonus, and the restrictions are worth the effort sometimes
Divine Punishment
Infernities have infernity barrier, agents and other fairy decks alike have this, and just like infernity barrier, if the deck can use it, this better be there. The outright negation of anything you choose is impossible to pass up on if your deck uses the field spell card, such that while it is obvious that if your deck doesn't use the field spell, you don't use this, if you use the field spell, you have no business not running this in anything less than 3
Tech Support
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of The Beginning
This card will always be debated. On one end, its a card of horrible design, which can win games on its own under the right conditions. On another, its limited status and the weak status of light decks is why it wont go anywhere anytime soon, despite the many protests. As for now, its a card that is a help to any and every chaos deck, to not use this and call your deck a chaos deck is blasphemy. In chaos agents, it doubles up as a 4th boss monster, weaker than hyperion, but easier to play, and as such, should always be used in said decks in the following manner; As long as its at 1, use it in chaos agents, if it goes to 0, drop it, if it goes to 2, use 2, and if it goes to 3, don't use agents, just quit Yu-Gi-Oh.
Chaos Sorcerer
There's not much to say than its a weaker Black Luster Soldier that REALLY should be higher on the banlist than 1. While all chaos agents used its stronger form, for its weaker form, its all up to preference; the card is more luxury than necessity, but if one can afford the space, then it really should be used.
Genex Ally Birdman
Just like shine ball, this card can be considered both a hindrance and a help. By itself, it does nothing at all except be a 1400 attacker, and the card it synergizes with is so specific its questionable if one should use it at all. But the plays it help make are not something one can easily pass up on, as with Venus, this can be anything from Stardust dragon, scrap dragon, leviathan dragon, leviair, anything that is rank 3, or any lv 5 to lv 11 synchro monster is what this card can become next to Venus. As such, if you want the extra plays, running 1-2 of these helps, but its not mandatory
Tour Guide from the underworld
This card is what made chaos agents even exist, being able to go into any rank 3 of your choice. This allowed both fuel for not just the chaos monsters, but also for hyperion combos; One of the most common OTKs of agents involved Venus, Hyperion and Tour guide in hand. At worst, she could be used as a defensive wall through wind-up zenmaines, or as an attacker via acid golem. In the past, her mail role was to search sangan, which in turn, would search earth, hence making it that on a virtual scale, one had 8 agents, not 5. It was probably this that made chaos agents quite a viable deck during september 2011 and september 2012, and its no wonder than when sangan got banned, the deck stopped showing, again. The sangan hit now makes the use of chaos agents overall questionable, but if you still wish to use that variant, 2 of these is best, whether you wish to run other targets or not is up to the user
Cardcar D
a tech used by t.g agents in the march 2012 format to help with the harsh consistency blow they took. Due to the fact that if one's hand was dead, it wouldn't matter if they made a play or not, one can use their turn to summon this, set defensive cards, and try drawing what they need, in some chance of getting the cards they need to go off. It was not the best of tactics, but for its time, it did work. Now that consistency issues are present again, one can always try giving a tactic from OCG a try again. It would be best not to run more than 2 of this though
Pot Of Duality
Regardless of whether one accepts it or not, agent decks do often take setup time, and don't always go off turn 1. For decks such as those, this card was golden, and still is. The search off the top 3 cards is often more helpful than one takes it for, and while the special summon loss may hurt, in reality, agents don't have to go off turn 1; its common for chaos agents to use this turn 1, add an agent earth/venus or hyperion, and summon thunder king rai-oh, allowing them to feel relatively safe regardless. Not everyone will agree to its use, for some, the BP loss will always be too much. This card doesn't have to be used, but if you see the need for consistency, use 2, it will not be regretted
Main Deck Variants
The deck, surprisingly, has several variants, and getting into detail of them all will take a long time, so instead, ill get into the ones that are best known
type A: Angel
This type is mostly associated with the monsters in its deck almost all being fairy monsters. As expected, 3 hyperion, 3 venus, 3 mystical shine balls and 2 earth are the standard core, but also, 2 archlord kristya and 1 honest. Hyperion is the boss of the deck, but Kristya is the ace, and for this deck, its win condition. Its main goal is to summon earth, get venus, and keep it on the field on your turn, a difficult task now that honest is at 1, but when it was at 2, it was easy. Goal 2 was to summon venus to the field, use her effect twice to summon 2 mystical shine balls, and synchro summon lv 9, for the now banned Trishula, dragon of the ice barrier, doing near crippling damage to your opponent, and making perfect balance to summon archlord kristya, which would invalidate your opponent's options after the blow. Alternatively, one can go into black rose dragon and leave the field clear, allowing archlord kristya to be summoned without disruption (often done if one had to use honest to keep earth safe, and if that's the exact case, its really game over). In the event earth didn't survive, summoning Venus and playing 2 shine balls made the grave balanced for it anyway, when they're all destroyed. Even if one overloaded the grave, Master Hyperion solved that by removing cards from the grave, re-balancing it most times. It was the most popular agent deck in OCG until September 2011, from which, chaos and t.g. agents took over
Type B: Herald/Hyperion
This was a redone version of the mystic herald deck, in which, mystical shine ball's only purpose was to be dumped for herald of perfection. This time, it had new purposes, thanks to Venus. Earth going into Jupiter made perfect fuel for Dawn of the Herald, which would not only summon Herald of Perfection on what would be a +0 due to the spell's effect, but also allowed one to reuse earth for another search, this time, venus, so one can make a huge defensive wall with herald of perfection. When Herald of perfection finally fell, There should be more than enough fuel to summon Master Hyperion, which, with your opponent's resources depleted, should allow its summon to be virtually unopposed. It also took some tactics from type A, but were not used as much due to grave issues that even Hyperion may be unable to solve. Nonetheless, it was the popular agent deck for TCG upon its release, until sept 2011 banlist, which then made people change over to chaos and t.g. agents
Type C: Chaos
With the release of tour guide, as well as the limitation of black luster soldier - envoy of the beginning, chaos agents soon took over as the new agent deck for TCG. The use of tour guide and leviair is what initially started the reverse Hyperion Phoenix OTK, although unusable in TCG as daigusto phoenix wasn't released yet. The deck used tour guide and sangan as a way to search into earth, recycled a banished venus in the event it was used before it could use its effect, and fuel for chaos monsters, as well as a way to recycle the fuel. While most were very similar to the initial Type A builds, the main competitive ones resorted to a style where field traps were rejected over the use of hand traps, which allowed the deck to be immune to mystical space typhoon, and allowed it to cause large amounts of disruption before it did its main plays. When earth was limited to 1, all agent decks died from the competitive scene, going as low as tier 3, but with earth back at 2, chaos agents returned to high tier 2 status, the same status it ended the september 2011 format on, and will most likely continue to remain in that place as long as chaos is viable, with Chaos Agents being its first line of offense in the TCG metagame
Type D: T.G.
With the OCG type A build losing preference, and the OCG not having any access to tour guide of the underworld, they sought out another booster system that could compare with that of type C. The answer they got was the t.g. system. Every t.g. monster searches out another upon destruction, making them all virtual +1 in terms of card advantage. That, and the special summoning abilities of t.g. striker and t.g. warwolf meant that even if earth did not survive, powerful plays with venus were possible, even more so due to t.g. wonder magician. With the t.g. system being both a booster system that caused no problems with the deck, as well as enabling very powerful plays with the agent enabler system, t.g. agents became not just the meta deck of OCG when it came to agents, but a borderline tier 0 deck which dominated the OCG metagame, caused the hits on what would be a borderline par archetype, as well as propel the t.g. system into the booster system spotlight, a light which is still on them, even now. With t.g. striker, one did not have to keep earth alive to go into trishula, or even need earth at all; just t.g striker and venus meant one can be open to the destructive damage trishula could cause, as well as other issues. And due to the cyclic searching nature of t.g. monsters, if another t.g. monster was obtained instead of striker, one could simply sit on it, and search for striker when its destroyed. Even warwold had its uses, allowing for a huge defensive wall with venus via wind-up zenmaines and gachi gachi gantetsu, or the famous hyperion phoenix OTK, originally started by this deck. The overwhelming success of this deck is what caused the ban hits on both the agent and t.g. system, but with the sept 2012 banlist, this deck has returned as ther competitive meta deck of the OCG, as well as a solid tier 2 deck in that format as well. The only ironic part is that earth, considered the backbone for agent decks, was semi limited before t.g. striker, which was simply a member of a cyclic booster system
Type E: Sanctuary Punishment
This design is less based on how the deck is currently played, and more based on how it was meant to be played. Its main focus is to get the sanctuary in the sky as early as possible, and use it to boost the effects of almost every agent monster the deck has, allowing them to use their full effects. This was one of the less popular designs as for most, the sanctuary in the sky was not the greatest of field spells. Regardless, the deck works for those willing to use it. In these, the main agents have shifted from earth and venus to earth and jupiter, who is now the main enabler of the deck, allowing one to place fairy monsters in the grave for hyperion, and also, at the same time, special summoning the banished fairy monsters used, acting as a psuedo leviair for the deck. Cards like cards from the sky and miraculous descent, while unseen in other builds, become common and quasi staples in this one, as it helps the deck achieve its objective even if jupiter is absent. This design also has use of the best counter traps to ever grace fairies, divine punishment, an infernity barrier that doesn't require your hand to be empty. At best, the deck is semi competitive, but can deal some damage.
Closing Comments
This article took a very long time to write, and my fingers hurt. The deck itself is not the best, but definitely not the worst. If one wants a nice, semi competitive deck, a deck with some cuteness and beauty to it, as well as divinity, or just a fan of light decks, this is for you; if you like fiends, please feel free not to read this, and just call this deck garbage, which it isn't tbh
Posts
Subject: Kaiza's Agent Guide 
Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:38 am
