💎 Introduction

TCG Crystal Beast Guide

Credit for the picture goes to Henry Magenta

(Thank you so much Henry, we love you💖)

Mostly written by Oli/Nachtaron

Special Thanks go out to the members and mods of the Crystal PEAK! Discord Server, their experience and insight has been invaluable during the creation of this guide.

And an extra shout out to NESHY and Dread Guy. This would not have been possible without the resources and time both provided me with.

Introduction

The Crystal Beast Archetype is all about resource management. By playing a control game, the Deck can survive long enough to gather all 7 Crystal Beasts (CB), each of them representing a colour of the rainbow, on the field or in the GY to summon their main Boss Monster, Rainbow Dragon. Setting up for a Boss Monster doesn’t sound all that different from other Archetypes. However when a Crystal Beast on the field is destroyed, it can crystallise itself, placing itself into the Spell & Trap Zone as a gemstone. This can then be further used as fuel for the powerful Spells and Traps within the Archetype, to either bring out the other Crystal Beasts from the Deck and/or generate Card Advantage through destroying or spinning opposing cards. Once seven different Crystal Beasts are on the Field or Graveyard, the Player can summon the Rainbow Dragon, which has a whopping 4000 ATK, trying to go for game. At least this was the idea Konami had when designing the Archetype in 2007.

However, even back in 2007, when the Crystal Beasts were released, the overall Card Lineup just wasn’t strong enough to see any tournament or rogue play and was therefore reserved for casual players that were drawn to the cards due to their very pretty theming and relevance in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime.

Over the years though, this theming and relevance in the anime warranted occasional support from Konami every now and then, improving the capabilities and taking advantage of the lack of Once per Turn (OPT) many of the Cards have. Also the unique crystallising mechanics of the monsters were pushed, bringing out cards that would have their effects triggered when this happens. While the monsters themselves generally carry underwhelming effects, the Spells and Traps are some of the most powerful cards in the game and would push other Archetypes off the charts in regards to consistency.

All of this brings us to the current day of 2026. Even though the days of us being able to contest the meta have come and gone, discussion for new tricks still hasn’t stopped. Snake-Eyes Doomed Dragon was the best indirect support we could’ve asked for, DoomZ helped us finally converting our most reliable Starter into a full one Card Combo and Konamis promise of a Synchro Deck that revolves around placing their Monsters into the S/T Zone leave us hyped to still do our best and be crystal BASED!

🃏 The Cardpool

The Cardpool

To understand what makes this Archetype so unique, let’s take a look at the Cardpool. The good, the occasionally useful and the bad.

For the sake of simplicity, the Effect all Crystal Beast Monsters share will not be included in the Effect Section and will just be mentioned here and marked with a 💎to indicate the cut text.

Additionally, all Advanced Crystal Beasts share the following effect, which will be indicated with a 💥

The Good

The Useful

The Bad

Required Generics

Just looking at the In-Archetype Cards wouldn’t give you the full picture, so the following cards are in almost any Crystal Beast Deck.

🌈 Overdrive Combo

Overdrive Combo

What is Overdrive Combo?

Overdrive Combo is a Combo Deck that uses different ways to go through seven Crystal Beast names, pulling them out of the Deck, to use them for multiple Extra Deck Monsters, that either extend your plays or establish Board-Presence. This all culminates into summoning the Boss-Monster: Ultimate Crystal Rainbow Dragon Overdrive

With its massive 11,000 ATK Stat. This legend can punch through most known monsters for lethal damage, or shuffle all cards on the field back into the Decks on demand and bring back five of the banished Crystal Beasts that were used for its summon. If you thought ABC Dragon Buster was impressive, you haven't seen anything yet!

The Barebone of Overdrive Combo

How to Play

One of many, MANY possible Endboards

Regarding Combo Lines

Listing every possible Combo Line the Deck potentially has to offer, would probably take up just as much space as the whole guide itself. So in this section, we’re gonna focus on the priorities that you should dedicate your plays to.

A rough outlier of priorities would be:

1. Accessing your second Engine if possible, to sniff out interruptions early and/or setting up more bodies to alleviate that duty from Pegasus & Ruby as much as possible, so you don’t break your back in the process to summon Overdrive later on
2. Getting access to any missing Playmaker like Crystal Bond or Golden Rule.
3. Searching Ruby to activate Golden Rule at the right moment
4. Putting the names on the Field or GY by looping Pegasus with the help of Dugares, Zealantis and/or Cross-Sheep
5. Playing your remaining Search Cards like Awakening or Rainbow Bridge to get some more fuel for the next step and/or access to Crystal Miracle.
6. Using the Crystal Beasts to bring out Monsters like I:P, Baggoska, Zealantis and/or Five-Headed Link Dragon and depending on your assessment, the almighty Ultimate Crystal Rainbow Dragon Overdrive.

As said previously, this is just a rough outlier and does not account for getting handtrapped or refilling your hand via Saryuja. It is within the responsibility of the player to evaluate the next steps that should be taken.

While Overdrive is the End Goal of the whole Deck, there is an argument to be made to not get it out on your first turn, especially if you suspect your opponent to have something like a Kaiju Card or Dark Ruler No More.

Strengths

High Combo Potential: The lack of OPT’s on Pegasus and Ruby, in combination with the excellent swarming capabilities the Crystal Beasts have and Extra Deck Staples like Zealantis and Cross-Sheep make the sky the limit in terms of plays you can go into.

Strong and adjustable ending board: This goes hand in hand with the last point. Due to these mentioned swarming abilities and the different levels, types and attributes the Crystal Beasts have, a good selection of infamous Extra Deck Monsters are at our disposal to deal with an opposing Deck, without having to go out of our way all that much during regular Combo Lines.

Overdrive: Obvious by now, but this version does get to play our Boss Monster, whose impressive 11.000 ATK stat strikes fear in the eyes of even the most seasoned Players, not to speak of the field wipe, that puts even Fiber Jar to shame. Summoning Ultimate Crystal Rainbow Dragon Overdrive truly gives you back some of that excitement we felt as kids when one got out their ace!

Weaknesses

Big Engine: The Engine of this Deck in particular is enormous and leaves you with little to no non-engine spots, if you wanna stay close to 40 Cards. This puts some pressure on you by being very meticulous about the Engines you do end up including.

Bricks: Having to play all these Crystal Beasts is a double-edged sword. While acting as fuel for our plays, they don’t start them, so opening multiple, instead of the spells that get us into our actual Engine, can be a game ender in and of itself. There is a discussion to be held about increasing the Deck Size closer to 60 Cards, doubling down on impactful interruption and a bigger number of Starters to drown out the Bricks. If one is careless, increasing the Deck Size will achieve the opposite, because you also reduce the likelihood of opening a Starter. This is an issue one just has to live with when choosing to play this Deck.

Knowing how to operate a Combo Deck: Learning any Combo Deck is no easy feat. Combo tutorials on Youtube make it seem like, big board = good. This is not always the case. Just like it isn’t always the case, that you’ll always be able to end on such grandiose boards. More often than not, you’ll have to live with getting interrupted at critical times, or having to suspect your opponent having outs to your boards, especially in games 2 and 3. Taking all of this into account before committing to any plays and leaving the door open for alternative boards to end on, is what separates a combo novice from the veteran. All of this applies to Overdrive Combo as well. Holding back Overdrive for a turn, or ending on a Bagooska and some other form of interaction like an I:P Masquerena or a Crystal Miracle is sometimes just the better call, instead of trying to be greedy and going for Dugares and trying to get back into your plays via the draw effect.

Final Thoughts

You wanna puke out your whole Deck and get a fix of dopamine when bringing a big level 12 fusion, the way GX intended, then you found your home here. Learning the intricacies of any Combo Deck is what raises the ceiling for us as players and it’s an absolute honour to do it with an Archetype as beloved as the Crystal Beasts.

⚙️ Main Engines

Main Engines

Crystal Beasts, through their easy access to R4nks, Link 2 Monsters and Field Spells, have easy access to many different Archetypes to use as Engines. In the following section we’ll go over some of the most commonly used. The goal of a supplementary Engine is to take the workload off of your Crystal Beast Cards. We can combo to no end, but are susceptible to interruptions. Therefore, playing Engines that either help us get into position to swarm the field, or to eat Handtraps instead, is only beneficial.

DoomZ 50 (Amalthe & Drastea)

Why you should play this

Our new best Engine post BLZD. Diactorus, when destroyed, while attached with a DoomZ Monster, searches for any Equip Spell. With Amalthe and Drastea, this turns Pegasus into a 1 Card Combo for the entire Deck.

How to use this Engine

1. Normal Summon Sapphire Pegasus, place Zenith
2. Use Zenith to summon a second lv 4 CB, add RD to hand
3. Overlay for DoomZ Break - Diactorus
4. Overlay on top into DoomZ XIII Over - Graflario
5. Graflario Effect, detach Diactorus to search DoomZ Command "A.D.R.A.S.T.E.I.A."
6. Equip Adrasteia to Graflario and activate its Effect to destroy Graflario, to SS the earlier detached Diactorus from the GY
7. If destroyed Graflario lets you summon DoomZ V Five - Amalthe
8. Amalthe on summon, search DoomZ XII Zero - Drastea
9. Activate Adrasteia in the GY and equip it to Amalthe, paying 400 LP
10. Use Amalthe to now Xyz summon out the second Diactorus, with Amalthe and Adrastea becoming its materials
11. Use Drastea in Hand to destroy the Diactorus with material, to summon her from your hand
12. Optional: On-Summon Effect of Drastea, equip an Equip Spell from Deck to it
13. Diactorus after destruction now lets you search Golden Rule
14. Link Drastea and the remaining Diactorus for Cross-Sheep
15. Activate Rule, place Ruby plus any other CB, Special Pegasus from the GY
16. Pegasus, place Pegasus
17. Use Ruby and the other CB you placed for Doomed Dragon into your Cross-Sheep Zone.
18. Chain Link 1 Cross Sheep, Chain Link 2 Doomed Dragon to place Pegasus. Resolve, placing Pegasus and revive Ruby to bring both Pegasus back out from your S/T Zone
19. With both Pegasus, place any remaining CB that’s not Zenith
20. Link Sheep, Doomed Dragon and a Pegasus into Zealantis
21. Zealantis Effect to resummon itself, Ruby and Pegasus.
22. With Ruby you revive the two CB in your S/T Zone, with Pegasus you place Zenith
23. You’re done - You got Zealantis + 4 CB on field to make Endboard pieces and an RD in hand that can be used for that same purpose. Also you got seven CB in rotation you can banish for Overdrive and he still got his ATK boost, cause you banished Zenith earlier, so it’s alright if you banished two Pegasus for Overdrive.

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DoomZ 7 (Elara)

Why you should play this

Since Amalthe and Drastea are currently rising in price, this is the next best thing to do. It takes Bond to replicate a 1 Card Combo into Overdrive, but has the upside that it’s one Card less in the Main Deck and let’s you potentially play the DoomZ Trap, that acts as Droll for your opponent on his turn, if you’re willing to let a DoomZ on the board.

How to use this Engine:

1. Activate Bond, add Pegasus, place Zenith
2. Normal Summon Sapphire Pegasus, place Ruby
3. Use Zenith to summon a second lv 4 CB, add RD to hand
4. Overlay for DoomZ Break - Diactorus
5. Overlay on top into DoomZ XIII Over - Graflario
6. Graflario Effect, detach Diactorus to search DoomZ Command "A.D.R.A.S.T.E.I.A.", then destroy Ruby
7. Equip Adrasteia to Graflario and activate its Effect to destroy Graflario, to SS the earlier detached Diactorus from the GY
8. If destroyed Graflario lets you summon DoomZ VII Seven - Elara
9. Optional: On-Summon Effect Elara, add DoomZ Destruction
10. Activate Adrasteia in the GY and equip it to Elara, paying 400 LP
11. Use Elara to now Xyz summon out the second Diactorus, with Elara and Adrastea becoming its materials
12. Diactorus On-Summon Effect, destroy itself, don’t destroy another card
13. Diactorus after destruction now lets you search Golden Rule
14. Proceed with your Crystal Beast plays

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About DoomZ in General

So far we only went over the minimum interactions of the Engine. Like with any other Engines, the idea is to take the pressure off of our Playmakers. The options to make that happen in DoomZ are plentiful

• Playing into Boards, you can use Diactorus Effect to destroy itself and threaten to destroy an opponents Monster, forcing out Interruptions
• Drasteas On-Summon Effect to equip it with an Equip Spell from Deck means you can use Grief Tablet to get into the Millennium Engine, opening up even more extension possibilities!
• Once you finish the setup, both variants leave you with a lot of CB on Board to make various Endboard plays. With Zealantis on Board, 4 CB on field and an RD that’s ready in Hand, you got possibilities like:

• I:P + Bagooska
• Utopic Draco Future

• Allied Code Talker @Ignister co-linked to Zealantis

• Five-Headed Link Dragon
• Boards that are literally in development as of writing this section

Big Thank you to Dread Guy who literally pioneered the DoomZ build leading up to the TCG release of Blazing Dominion! ♥️

Millennium

Why you should play this

The smallest Main Engine we have, but are included because they play into our Gimmick of utilizing Monsters in the S/T Zone. They aren’t restrictive in any way and do exactly what we’d want from a Main Engine. Baiting Interaction and helping us extend. They also don’t trigger any of the Mulcharmies.

How to use this Engine

This is the easiest Engine to access and use. Start by either activating Sengenjin, Golem or Wedju Temple from hand, or search Golem with Gallant Granite or the Temple via Salvation.

Snake-Eyes

Why you should play this

A consistent body-generating Engine that baits multiple Interactions, redirecting them from your Crystal Beast Cards at worst.

How to use this Engine

This is a basic outlier, this Engine is way too flexible to capture all possible routes, but here’s a starting point for people new to it.

1. Activate Bond, Grab Pegasus, place Zenith
2. Normal Summon Pegasus, place Ruby in the S/T-Zone
3. Use Zenith, Summon any level 4 CB
4. Overlay two CB into Infernal Flame Banshee
5. Activate Banshee and add Poplar
6. Activate Poplar in Hand, Special Summon it and add Divine Temple of the Snake-Eyes
7. Activate Divine Temple, set Snake-Eyes Ash
8. Link Banshee and Poplar into Cross-Sheep
9. Activate Poplar in GY and set either itself or Banshee into your S/T Zone
10. Contact-Fuse Snake-Eyes Ash and your Poplar Target from your S/T Zone into Snake Eyes Doomed Dragon and place it in a Cross-Sheep Zone
11. Use Cross-Sheeps Trigger Effect and revive either Sapphire Pegasus or Snake-Eyes Ash
12. Optional: Link Cross-Sheep and Doomed Dragon into Promethean Princess.
13. Optional: Activate Princess and Revive Snake-Eyes Ash
14. Optional: Use Ashs On-Summon Effect and grab your target of choice from Deck
15. Activate Ash to send itself and a Card (Most likely a CB in the Backrow) to the GY and Special Summon Snake-Eyes Oak or Flamberge Dragon from either your Hand or Deck
16. Optional: If you summon Oak, activate it’s On-Summon Effect to bring back Poplar from the GY
17. Optional: Activate Oaks On-Field Effect and send itself and another Card from your Field to the GY to Special Summon Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon
18. Link Flamberge and another body away.
19. Activate the Effect of Flamberge in the GY to resurrect Poplar and Ash
20. Use either all bodies, or every body except Pegasus, to Link Summon out Saryuja, depending on if also need the Draw Effect, or just the Special Summon from Hand
21. Proceed with your Plays.

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Ryzeal

Why you should play this

This Engine does not help you to insulate your Overdrive plays. Rather it gives you a whole new game plan in case your Overdrive plans have fallen through, or you want to redirect disruption. The reason why this Engine is recommended is that the space investment is minimal, each card demands an answer, we can easily play under the Extra Deck Lock and pays back dividends by the tools we get access to like Ryzeal Detonator or Primathmech Alembertian.

How to use this Engine

This is not a streamlined Engine, therefore no one play line can be given. It depends too heavily on the state of the game if, when and how you want to use this Engine during your plays. You can watch some applications in this video by Dreadguy. Evilswarm Ouroboros may be banned by now, but Primathmech Alembertian is as good of a next choice as they come.

➕ Smaller Engines

Smaller Engines

Here you’ll find smaller Packages one can consider for their Crystal Beast Decks. They either set up protection from Cards like Nibiru the Primal Being, or add additional layers to the Endboard. Similar to the bigger Engines, you rather get interrupted on those, than on your actual Plays. It has to be noted that getting into these Packages demand more resources, than Engines that usually can start by themselves

Small Fiendsmith Engine

Thank you to Dreamist on Discord for providing me with all the resources.

Why you should play this

Yet another R4NK engine. This one has the luxury to not have to resolve their effect. It offers easy access to generic Rank 6 options. Much of the engine is easily recycle-able and can be scaled up/down for budget/space/needs.

How to use this Engine

1. Rank into Evilswarm Exciton Knight
2. Link Exciton into Fiendsmith's Requiem.
3. Send Fiendsmith's Requiem to summon Engraver from hand or deck.
4. Activate Requiem's effect from grave, equipping it to Engraver.
5. Send Engraver to the grave to special summon Necroquip Princess from the Extra Deck.
6. Shuffle back Exciton Knight as cost to summon Engraver back.
7. Go into your Rank 6 of choice

About the Engine

When played like this, Fiendsmith Engraver is actually a brick. You can summon it from the hand with Requiem, but it won't be doing anything useful in your hand.

You can also play a bigger Engine, however that leaves the realm of plays specifically available to Crystal Beast. I’ll link Dreamists full explanation here.

Sky Striker

Why you should play this

With us playing as many Spells as we do and Camellia being so generic, profiting from the different Sky Striker Cards is often beneficial.

How to use this Engine

1. Before you have more than three Spells in your GY, link two Monsters into Sky Striker Ace - Camellia
2. Use Camellia to dump Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage!
3. Link Camellia into Sky Striker Ace - Kagari
4. On-Summon Kagari Effect to recycle Engage
5. Use Engage to search your Card of choice and best case draw a Card.

Horus Engine

Why you should play this

The Engine gives you recurring bodies that let you make an out to Nibiru with Photon Lord. It also allows you to shuffle a hard Brick back into the Deck. All of it accessible via Rainbow Bridge of Salvation.

How to use this Engine

1. Grab Walls of the Imperial Tombs via the Effect of Salvation.
2. Activate Walls and use the Effect to search Imsety, Glory of Horus and put a Card from your Hand under the Deck.
3. Activate Imsety, discarding itself and another Card to grab King’s Sarcophagus.
4. Activate Sarc, discarding another Card and dump another Horus name to the GY. You can do this up to four times per Turn.

Revive two Horus and overlay for Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord.

Small Kashtira Engine

Why you should play this

Fenrir itself is very low investment and puts immediate pressure on your opponent. In combination with Riseheart and Wraitsoth you are able to OTK on a simplified gamestate. Wraitsoth gives a 100 ATK boost for every attribute on the field and with one Fenrir, one Riseheart and two Pegasus, you get 8700 points on board.

How to use this Engine

1. Activate Foolish Burial Goods to dump Rainbow Bridge of Salvation
2. Activate Bridge of Salvation and add Pegasus + Pressured Planet Wraitsoth
3. Activate Wraitsoth to add Kashtira Fenrir to your hand
4. Special Summon Fenrir and search Kashtira Riseheart
5. Since you control a Kashtira monster, you can now Special Summon Riseheart
6. Normal Summon Pegasus and crystallise Zenith
7. Activate Zenith and Special Summon another Pegasus
8. Now Wraitsoth boosts all your monsters by 300 ATK. Since you control Earth, Wind and Fire monster, which gives you 8700 ATK on board

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Yubel Package

Why you should play this

It’s a simple one-card-combo into an additional body on board for link plays and gives you an early out to Nibiru.

How to use this Engine

1. Activate Foolish Burial Goods to dump Rainbow Bridge of Salvation
2. Activate Bridge of Salvation and add a CB + Nightmare Throne
3. Activate Nightmare Throne.
4. Destroy Spirit of Yubel and activate its effect to summon Yubel.
5. Optional Step: Link away Yubel.

9. Shuffle both Spirit and Yubel back into the Deck for cost to summon Phantom of Yubel.

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Nemeses Package

Why you should play this

Converting a Normal Summoned Pegasus into either S:P and Colossus or either Archnemeses is pretty nifty and can shut down opposing Decks, if you know which of these hurts them the most.

How to use this Engine

1. Normal Summon Sapphire Pegasus, place Zenith
2. Use Zenith to summon a second lv 4 CB. (For Protos Mammoth or Tiger)
3. Overlay for Infernal Flame Banshee
4. Activate Banshee, detach Pegasus to search Nemeses Flag
5. Activate Flag and shuffle back the banished Zenith to Special Summon Flag
6. Activate Flags second effect to search.

If Colossus:

1. Add Nemeses Corridor from Deck to your Hand
2. Link Banshee and Flag for S:P Little Knight
3. Activate the Effect of S:P to banish the Pegasus in the GY
4. Activate Corridor in hand, shuffle the banished Pegasus back into the Deck and Special Summon Corridor
5. Tribute Corridor to bring out Colossus from your Extra Deck

If Eschatos:

1. Add Eschatos from Deck to your Hand
2. At the end of your Turn, banish the most suitable Cards to summon Eschatos

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Crystal Math

Why you should play this

While not immediately protecting against Nibiru, your opponent has to use up Nibiru very early to stop this otherwise deadly Engine. Let’s count through all the interruptions you’re being provided:

• Draco Future Monster Negate & possibly taking control of it.
• Laplacian sending multiple Cards to the GY
• Diameter Omni Negate

This can check up to four Cards! (If you detach three Cards from Laplacian, you can’t use the Diameter Omni Negate).

How to use this Engine

1. Make Primathmech Alembertian, grab Mathmech Circular
2. Special Circular, by dumping Nabla
3. Tribute Alembertian to revive Nabla
4. Circular Effect, grab Mathmech Superfactorial
5. Overlay Circular & Nabla for Gagagaga Magician
6. Magician Effect, detach to revive Alembertian
7. Overlay Magician and Alembertian for Number F0: Utopic Future
8. Rank up to Number F0: Utopic Draco Future
9. Before you end your turn, set Superfactorial

🗃️ Archives

Archives

Some things written for this Guide were either struck by the Banlist, or have simply aged too bad to be easily recommended. We’ll keep them around under this Section, with a quick explanation on what happened.

Conclave Control

Explanation

While still usable, the pure Deck has aged too badly to still be considered playable to the same extent as Overdrive Variants. If you want know in detail what exactly happened, I wrote a free article about it on my KoFi, which I’ll link here: The Rise and Fall of Conclave Control

What is Conclave Control

Conclave Control, despite its name, is more of a midrange Deck. This playstyle is designed to utilise the inherent advantage engine Crystal Beasts have in crystallisation, preparing the way for an OTK into an empty board. By controlling the game with Heart, Conclave, and Miracle, the crystallisation accumulates advantage, as crystals are lined up in the backrow. This is brought to its climax when you Special Summon Ruby, to bring back the other Crystal Beasts from your Spell & Trap Zone, to end the Game.

The Barebone of Conclave Control

Staples in Main and/or Side Deck

Optional Staples

Typical Turn 1 Board

(Picture example of a desired Board)

The optimal Turn 1 board, should consist of:

-A few CB on Board

-Optional Bagooska/Abyss Dweller

-Rainbow Bridge of the Heart in Rotation

-A few interruptions in form of Miracles and Conclaves

-The right Field Spell setup

-An option for Follow up play on your next turn

A (very based) flowchart demonstrating turn 1 roughly can be found here:Conclave Control Flowchart

Strengths

Consistency: The high number of Search Cards allow you easy access to your Deck, therefore allowing you to get easily to the Cards you need at the moment.

Adaptability: With Sapphire Pegasus being a 1 Card Rank 4 XYZ and Rainbow Bridge of Salvation searching any Field Spell, you can really adjust your Endboard to cover a wide variety of Matchups. You can also deal with a surprising amount of Floodgates through the Bounce Effects of Cards like Bridge of the Heart, while getting the Zeniths into rotation. This in return enables you to swarm the Field very fast with these 3000 ATK bodies, allowing you to finish a game quickly once the opportunity presents itself.

Flexibility: Since this Deck is on minimal CB, you can easily side out huge chunks of the Deck without hurting the overall strategy.

Price: In terms of price, this is a Structure Deck, making it extremely accessible by purchasing three of those and a few other Key Cards. You can even swap out defensive cards like Kashtira Fenrir for budget options like Ash Blossom or There Can Be Only One..

Weaknesses

Garnets: This Deck has a few hard Garnets. This has always been a problem with CBs and while this Deck aims to crack down on the bricky CBs, the Garnets remain. But it's not the end of the world if you draw them. Drawing Rainbow Dragon enables Awakening of the Crystal Ultimates without needing Zenith to resolve. Drawing Rainbow Bridge of Salvation is mitigated by discarding it off of Dugares going first, or setting it and sending it to the GY with Zeus going second. Drawing Ruby sucks because you can't special it off of Conclave, but that doesn't stop Awakening from summoning it, which is honestly more important. In the end however, you can get screwed by the Garnets since you would obviously much rather have a live Card than a dead one.

Constant assessment of Game State: Who knew having a critical mass of searchers would make it difficult to know what to search for! Oftentimes you're considering what to crystallise depending on the situation. Do you plan on controlling the game and crystallise Pegasus so you could Conclave bounce it for a follow up on the next turn, or do you make a lethal push now and crystallise Zenith for a big "Ruby Rampage". Getting this wrong is one of the most common mistakes Players commit. This Deck rewards those that excel at assessing the Game State, however this means it’s not as easy to operate as it may look at first glance.

No Overdrive: This deck doesn't summon Rainbow Dragon Overdrive. It's a shame that we're not taking advantage of one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most legendary Boss Monsters, but at least we get the boneless version in Zenith.

Final Thoughts

If tempering with the game state is your thing, this variant may be for you. This Deck has multiple opportunities to loop to progress game state, rewarding those that are resourceful and can plan ahead, while also offering enough possibilities to get aggro in an instant, so neither you or your opponent will get too bored of the Grind Game this Deck likes to play first.

Angry Conclave

Explanation

With the introduction of Tenpai to the Game, many going 2nd Builds of existing Decks have become redundant. Angry Conclave can still be played, but considering playing bad Tenpai isn’t something one wants to aim for in a competitive environment, Angry Conclave deserves to join its original blueprint in the Archive Section.

What is Angry Conclave?

Angry Conclave is a strategy designed to excel when going second, using the Conclave Control strategy as the blueprint. The Deck focuses on breaking opponent's boards using powerful non-engine cards, which are included in place of additional Crystal Beast names. It also aims to achieve one-turn kills (OTK) with multiple special summons for additional attacks. This aggressive playstyle makes it a formidable choice for players looking to dismantle their opponent's defences and secure victory in a single turn.

Angry Conclave Barebone

Tips & Tricks

• The general approach to breaking boards tends to start with your non-engine before your engine. Even so, see how far Sapphire Pegasus alone can take you with Lightning Chidori
• Combo Numeron Dragon with Dugares the Timeless  to reach 26,000 ATK, which allows you to OTK even through Pot of Prosperity
• Golden Rule can Special Summon from hand or GY, allowing you to be flexible under Dimension Shifter
• Zenith has a Trigger Effect during the Battle Phase, meaning it has Priority over Quick Effects once the Trigger is met. For example, if you have Zenith in hand, and your opponent attacks a Crystal Beast and wants to activate the first effect of Borreload Dragon, they will be unable to activate it as Chain Link 1 despite them being the turn player.
• Combo Rainbow Bridge of the Heart with Crystal Bond to bounce an important card your opponent controls before even committing a monster.
• With Awakening of the Crystal Ultimates being a quick effect, use it to summon Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle during the Battle Phase, to play around opposing Effect Veiler and Nibiru, as they can only be activated in the Main Phase. Awakening can also trigger Heart during the opponent’s turn, by summoning Sapphire Pegasus and using its effect to crystallise. Awakening must be Chain Link 1, however, otherwise Sapphire Pegasus will miss timing.

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Advanced Overdrive Combo

Explanation

The ACBs were meant to be the riskier, yet more rewarding approach to get to Overdrive. Capitalizing from ACB Rubys Effect to summon herself and the other ACBs out of the S/T Zone, which the OG Ruby couldn’t do. And that is still a strong Effect, but things have changed. With the release of Snake-Eyes Doomed Dragon, we can directly convert ANY Crystals into a Monster, which isn’t even OPT. With their only upside over the Vanillas eliminated, suddenly involving the ACBs, negatively impacts you in terms of Card-Economy. Since you have to go out of your way to fetch ACB Eagle to search Advanced Dark, instead of just grabbing the OG Pegasus or Ruby. Which means the ACBs have been left in the dust by their OG counterparts and are therefore not recommended for “serious” play, warranting them a spot in the Archive section.

What is Advanced Overdrive Combo?

Advanced Overdrive Combo is also a deck that attempts to bring out Overdrive, but utilises some of the Advanced Crystal Beasts during mid-combo, since ACB Ruby can summon itself and all other ACBs out of the Spell & Trap Zone, which in turn gives you new combo lines and more fluidity, but trades stability in return, through their semi-reliance on Advanced Dark. Other than that, the Deck is very similar to Vanilla Overdrive.

The Barebone of Advanced Overdrive Combo

Differences between Advanced Overdrive and Vanilla Overdrive

Combos: ACB Ruby being able to get itself and its fellow ACBs out of the the S/T zone by itself cuts out having to loop Vanilla Pegasus and/or Ruby multiple times and turns doing it into an option rather than a necessity like it absolutely is for Vanilla Overdrive. This is the reason this particular version has a big following, even though further differences might not always be an improvement or even trade off.

Priorities: Due to the ACBs playing a bit differently, the sequence in which you go through your deck and conduct your plays is different. Most notably, the added step wanting to grab Advanced Dark first thing in your combo. Dreadguy made a fantastic video, breaking down the sequencing of Advanced Overdrive Combo

How I Play Crystal Beast - Advanced Overdrive Quick Guide

Bigger Engine: Having to include the Salvation Package is far from the worst thing a Crystal Beast Deck could do. But in a Deck with as big a main engine as Overdrive Combo, having to use additional slots hurts for people that want to stay at 40 Cards and have room for a fair amount of non-engine. Going over 40 is far from a death sentence for any Deck, but whether the added fluidity is worth this trade off, is something only oneself can decide.

Things that stayed the same

The Endboard: No matter the version, the fact that Overdrive, accompanied by multiple ED Monsters is the end goal stays the same. One can get to it faster, while the other can get to it more safely.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Overall, one still needs to remember that despite the flavour, this will always stay a high-roley Combo Deck, with a few too many bricks that requires thinking outside the box to operate well. Advice given in the Vanilla section, still holds true. Choosing which version to play solely comes down to what you’re more comfortable with.

Archived Engines

Springans Revolution

UPDATE: The engine has been powercrept too much and better engines have emerged.

Recommended for: Overdrive Combo

Why you should play this

The Springans already were a 1-Card Combo into Overdrive, but the Main Deck Monsters were bricks. With the release of Clockwork Knight this changes and bridges them together with Revolution Synchron! This Engine is flexible enough to not have to follow a step-by-step. Do you really need to go through the Springans, when you already open with Revolution Synchron, or do you really want Regulus? Bricked on a Springans Monster? You can probably link that away for Clockwork Knight to get to Night.

This Engine directly competes with the Snake-Eyes as the best supplementary Engine. And despite its improvement over the old Springans Line, this Engine can still be telegraphed due to Sargas, but is rewarded with a higher ceiling in comparison to the Snake-Eyes.

How to use this Engine

1. Activate Bond, Grab Pegasus, place Zenith
2. Normal Summon Pegasus, place Ruby in the S/T-Zone
3. Use Zenith, Summon any level 4 CB
4. Overlay both CB into Springan Merrymaker
5. Activate Merrymaker to dump a Springan Monster, if neither isn’t in your hand already.
6. Rank up into Gigantic “Champion” Sargas
7. Activate Sargas, grabbing Tally-ho! Springans (or Therion “King” Regulus)
8. Activate Tally-ho!, detaching all material from Sargas, then grab the last Springan and proceed to summon all Springans from Hand and GY.

You can bounce Ruby with Sargas, link everything into Saryuja and end the Engine here. Alternatively you can also:

9. Hold out on using Sargas Effect
10. Link one Level 4 Springan into Clockwork Knight
11. Use the On-Summon Effect of Knight, sending the placed Ruby to the GY to grab Clockwork Night
12. Set Clockwork Night
13. Activate Knights second effect, tributing Merrymaker to bring back the Springan you had linked away
14. Go into R4nk that can immediately detach for their Effect
15. Use Sargas Effect now to destroy Clockwork Night
16. Use Nights GY Effect to either add Therion “King” Regulus or Revolution Synchron and continue with your plays.

Here is a visual TL:DR that gives you the breakdown.

Alternative Ending: Playing Springans AND Snake Eyes!

Now that we examined what Snake-Eyes and Springans have to offer, it’s become apparent it’s just another debate of consistency vs potential. The Snake-Eyes extend your plays more safely, while the Machines offer more for your endboard. Run whichever you like more.

But to conclude this section, there is a way these two Engines could even become friends. There just happens to be a phenomenal Fire Machine Tuner.

It’s Jet Synchron!

1. Add Jet Synchron with Snake-Eyes Ash
2. Summon Jet Synchron with Saryujas Effect
3. Link Jet Synchron away for Clockwork Knight
4. Use the On-Summon Effect of Knight, sending a placed CB to the GY to grab Clockwork Night
5. Activate Jet Synchrons GY Effect and Special Summon it, by discarding Clockwork Night
6. With Nights GY Effect you can now grab Revolution Synchron

This enables you to potentially end on two Synchro Monsters, like Crystal Wing and Herald of the Arc Light for example!

Just like everything else so far, it’s up to your evaluation of what you find the best approach. Thus ends our deep-dive into the two recommended supplementary Engines Crystal Beasts can dive into. It’s truly poetic how even two group of Cards that seemingly compete with each other, can be brought together by extending them a Rainbow Bridge.

Rose Package

UPDATE: With Baronne banned, this engine has no end goal and isn’t recommended.

Recommended for: Overdrive Combo

Why you should play this

Revolution Synchron is still expensive and not too many Decks use it, which makes justifying buying it hard. This Engine is a substitute but instead of ending on Crystal Wing, it lets you end on Baronne de Fleur, which is as good an argument as they can come. Unlike Revolution Synchron, this Engine requires you to give up your regular Normal Summon.

How to use this Engine

1. Get any Level 4 Crystal Beast on Field with the additional Normal Summon from Bridge of the Heart
2. Normal Summon Roxrose Dragon to add Basal Rose Shoot
3. Synchro Summon Power Tool Dragon and search Golden Rule
4. Activate Basal Rose Shoot to Special Summon back Roxrose from the GY
5. Use Roxrose and Power Tool to Synchro Summon Baronne de Fleur

Or

1. Get any Level 4 Crystal Beast on Field with the additional Normal Summon from Bridge of the Heart
2. Normal Summon Red Rose Dragon
3. Synchro Summon Power Tool Dragon
4. Chain Red Rose from the GY on Summon, to Special Summon Roxrose
5. Activate Roxrose to search Basal Rose Shoot
6. Search Golden Rule with Power Tool Dragon
7. Go into Baronne de Fleur
8. Now you got an additional body for later on by activating Basal Rose Shoot

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Fire Warrior Engine

UPDATE: With the banning of Isolde, this engine is dead

Recommended for: Overdrive Combo

Why you should play this

It’s a one-card-combo from just Pegasus, which boosts the consistency to get you into Overdrive, while also not having to search out Golden Rule separately. It also provides you with more bodies to make more plays.

How to use this Engine

1. Get any two Level 4 CB on field
2. Overlay for Battlin’ Boxer King Dempsey
3. Chain Link 1, search Fire Flint Lady, Chain Link 2, detach a material for the targeting protection
4. Activate Fire Flint Lady to Special Summon herself
5. Use Dempsey and Fire Flint Lady to summon Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights
6. Activate Isolde and dump a single Golden Rule from Deck to the GY to Special Summon Infernoble Knight - Renaud from your Deck
7. Activate Renaud to add back the Golden Rule

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Oppressive Conclave

UPDATE: Just outdated

Why you should play this

Another Pegasus one-card-combo that fits very well within Conclave Control. Lord of the Heavenly Prison serves as a protection for your set Backrow and searches literally any Spell or Trap that can be used as follow up for the next turn, or as means to set any nasty Floodgate, like Eradicator Epidemic Virus, which forces your opponent to act. Plays extremely well under There Can be Only one too (Which has become almost irrelevant with the limiting of Tcboo).

How to use this Engine

Skip Steps 1-3 if you already have LotHP in hand

1. Get any two Level 4 CB on field
2. Overlay for Gallant Granite
3. Activate Gallant Granite and detach to search Lord of the Heavenly Prison
4. Activate LotHP in Hand
5. Activate any set Spell or Trap you can and Special Summon LotHP afterwards
6. Activate LotHP and set any Spell or Trap Card

Full Power Snake-Eyes Engine

UPDATE: With the banning of Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye, this Engine has been neutered and had to be redefined.

Thank you to Davide Mor on Discord for providing me with his time and replays.

Crystal Beasts can kick start into the Snake-Eyes Engine. Since this is a Crystal Beast Guide, I will simply mention where these Archetypes intersect and how they possibly benefit from specifically each other. Replays on how the full fledged Engine is played in Crystal Beasts can be found here and here.

Where Snake-Eyes and Crystal Beast intersect:

• Crystal Beasts allow easy access to Infernal Flame Banshee, making Snake-Eyes Poplar searchable and starting the Snake-Eyes Engine.
• Crystal Beast Cards allow placing Cards in the S/T Zone, which is useful for Snake-Eyes Cards, since some of them require to send Face Up Cards to the GY to activate Effects.
• The Snake-Eyes Field Spell and Flamberge provide an extra form of interruption if combined with Crystal Beasts, since they allow you to summon Pegasus from the S/T Zone. If you control Rainbow Bridge of the Heart, this translates to a bounce. This does not happen a lot, usually there are better Monsters to summon from the S/T Zone like I:P Maquerena.
• When also paired with the Fiendsmith Engine, Requiem can fuse any Fiend and Pegasus into Berfomet the Mythical King of Phantom Beasts, dumping Diabellze the Original Sinkeeper from the Deck to GY, which can be brought onto the Board by Flamberge.