branded_despia.md

At a glance, too inconsistent, BD shines being a monotype ED (i.e. pure fusion), I'd even throw out DPE, FD is not worth the trouble when Mirrorjade is all round the better option in most cases, and Despia can easily float it several times over the course of the match (Ad Lib. or Theater for example, since people can't read for some reason)

While it's cute to have supply stash to draw 1, Despia is already pretty good at generating card advantage through other options, almost everything either searches or floats in some way.

Anyway, I personally gave up on handtraps (a combination of bricking, and getting called-by constantly does that to a guy), the only ones I keep are called by and imperm.

Decklist (core): Monsters:

• 3x Aluber the Jester of Despia
• 3x Fallen of Albaz
• 2~3x Despian Tragedy *1
• 1x Despian Comedy *2
• 3x Incredible Ecclessia, the Virtuous *3
• 3x Edge Imp Chain
• 1x Dramaturge of Despia
• 1x Ad Libitum of Despia
• 1~3x Springans Kitt *4

Spells:

• 2~3x Frightfur Patchwork *5
• 2x Branded in Red
• 2x Branded Opening
• 2~3x Branded Fusion *6
• 0~2x Super Polymerization *7
• 3x Polymerization
• 2x Branded, Theater of Despia *8
• 2x Branded Lost *9

Traps:

• 2~3x Infinite Impermanence
• 1x Branded Banishment *10

ED:

• 1~2x Despian Quaeritis *11
• 1~2x Masquerade the Blazing Dragon *12
• 1x Despian Proskenion
• 1x Titaniklad the Ash Dragon
• 2x Lubellion the Searing Dragon *13
• 2x Albion the Branded Dragon *14
• 2x Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon
• 1x Guardian Chimera
• 1x Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
• 1x Predaplant Dragonstapelia

Other Packages:

Mercourier Package: Monsters:

• 1x Tri-Brigade Mercourier *15

ED:

• 1x Brigrand the Glory Dragon *16

Retribution Package: Monsters:

• 1x Albion the Shrouded Dragon *17

Traps:

• 1x Branded Retribution *18

Card Notes:

• 1 For the love of Despia run at least 2 Tragedy, not only does it search for your Despia monsters when sent to the graveyard or banished by card effect but it can recycle your Branded Spell/Traps when banished; its the primary target for Branded Fusion Turn 1, unless you're going for some degenerate combo with Expulsion in which case, screw you, giving a bad name to Branded Despia!
• 2 You don't have to run Comedy, but it can be useful if you've already burned your Tradegy for the turn, it can protect your Despia monsters from targetted effects while in hand, and can yank your fusion monsters off the field to dodge on-field negates (i.e. Imperm, Skill Drain) to still get your effects off, that does make them vulnerable to CB, so use with caution.
• 3 I only ever see Ecclessia played in Swordsoul, but she's also a very useful utility card throughout, she can act as discard fodder for Lubellion and will recycle herself at the EP if a fusion monster grazed the GY that turn (e.g. Lubellion after a Comedy play), she can also special summon herself if your opponent has more monsters than you, allowing you to put a body on field to setup branching plays (e.g. Use her to summon Albaz mid-combo to put pressure on an opponents boss monster, or use her to summon Guardian Chimera alongside an Aluber on field)
• 4 Kitt is a card you don't generally want to see too often especially turn 1 without an Aluber, she can recycle your branded spells and traps at the cost of placing a card in your hand back on the bottom of your deck, but she can also special summon herself if you control an Albaz dragon (or have one in GY). She can act as an extender after your main BF play (BF > Lubellion > Mirrorjade > Kitt)
• 5 You can run 2 to 3 patchworks, I originally ran 2 (it was all I had at the time) and it worked well, if you open with a edge imp or poly then the one of the patchworks become a brick in the end anyway.
• 6 I ran 2 originally (once again, only had 2), but I also did it in case Komoney decided to semi-limit BF in order to prepare for that, you can safely run 3 if you can afford it
• 7 You don't have to run super poly, but it can serve as your board breaker if you decide to forego hand traps and other board breakers, it can also be used for an OTK if you have enough bodies on field to close the game.
• 8 Theater is a card that most newer Branded/Despia players have been sleeping on, those who played Despia before Chimera and Mirrorjade know just how valuable this card really is, not only does it allow you to fuse your Level 8+ fusions every turn, but it allows you to float them if a Fairy monster leaves the field (battle or OPP effect), those who know what it does will be quick to remove it allowing you to bait out destruction effects.
• 9 For the longest time I was sleeping on this card, it doesn't protect your BF from Ash, but if you get your Fusion off you have free reign during the fusion window as your opponent can longer respond to your card activations during that time, it also nets you a free Albaz or Albaz mentioning card (i.e. Eclessia, Kitt or Mercourier)
• 10 Surprise Super-Poly, it can also just be used as a Monster Reborn for your Despia or Fusion monsters, but it can be useful to ripping your opponents board apart on their turn and getting a search off Tragedy or Dramaturge back unto the field when used as fusion material, keep in mind, it banishes the materials.
• 11 Personally, I run 2, but you can also run 1, it's a great option to setup an OTK over beatsticks that are non-fusion and can be affected by card effects, you can also bully Flowandereeze with it (if they burnt their Raiza already), in the mirror it can be setup to to plus off your opponents board breakers (Mirrorjade EP Raigeki effect) to restart your combo.
• 12 I only had 1, but I've seen 2 or even 3 ran in the wild, personally 1 suffices, its not your main wincon to bleed your opponent via taxes, but it's enough to annoy them and completely cripples heavy combo decks as they will need to deal with Masq as fast as possible or risk being locked out of playing, bonus points if you have Branded Opening in GY and they try to destroy it via card effect.
• 13 Run 2, generally you only need 1, but the second is a backup in case your combo doesn't go according to plan.
• 14 Run 2, you'll be dumping them often off Mirrorjade, keep in mind you can still dump cards even if Mirrorjade is negated, as it dumps for cost, you are also not subject to the once every other turn effect doing that (since that clause is in the effect that never went off), the usecase is getting negated but still wanting to setup a response during the EP, you'll lose your mirrorjade, but you can at least fish for a BF or another combo piece during the EP.
• 15 Acts as a hand-trap against your opponent's monster effects (it is not an omni-negate), its useful for crippling your opponents attempts at recovering or that one off effect that would ruin your day
• 16 You could just run Brigrand as your last ED option, unless you have other plans, Brigrand can either search your Mercourier or search/summon an Albaz at the EP (to super-poly your opponents monsters if need be), easily dumped off Mirrorjade in case its needed, or summoned using a Level 8 or higher monster and Albaz as material, it's on-field effect rarely comes up.
• 17 Albion is a niche card I feel, it either sits your hand as cycle one card, or gets used as a name in case you really can't find your Albaz, but it really shines when combined with Retribution.
• 18 Branded Retribution is a SS negate and also another recycling option, normally dumped off Albion (Shrouded not Branded), when it the GY it can be banished to add a Branded Spell/Trap from GY back to hand (e.g. Fusion, Banishment, Red, or Opening), I rarely use it as a negate as most games are decided after turn five at best.

Other Notes:

• It cannot be overstated, the entire deck lacks negates in general, because of its laser focused Fusion approach and heavy reliance on spells, the deck straight up dies when hit by Dimensional Barrier (straight up dead) or even Anti-Spell Fragrance (still playable, but you lose a lot of momentum until you can deal with it).
• Because of the lossy nature of fusion in general, you also don't have a lot of space to splash other cards like general board breakers, if you do run hand-traps it's usually by culling engine cards which reduces your consistency but does increase your survivability.
• The deck is best played turn one with a Mirrorjade and Masquerade setup, or turn two with Albaz and Super poly in hand.
• The deck is easy to OTK with and if they get the ball rolling can easily setup a 6 Fusion Monster board in a single turn (normally overkill in most cases).
• It goes beyond saying against a light/dark deck it will absolutely dismantle them as almost all your ED uses those as materials, against non-light/dark your options are limited, but its still possible to get a Mirrorjade off your opponents ED monster.
• I find that the deck struggles against heavy backrow focused decks as well, as you have very limited options for backrow removal (Chimera is your main destruction, but that's a max of 2 cards, use it wisely and close the game quickly if you can), turn 2 against Labyrnth is an absolute nightmare as they can dismantle any strategies you put up, bouncing your Lubellion mid strat is a death sentence for your Mirrorjade play.
• Branded Fusion is not a silver bullet, yes it's your main strat, but sometimes its better to play suboptimally to dodge your opponents Ash, as the moment you drop that Aluber they know what's coming, they will usually reserve it for BF, so use that to your advantage to milk as many other searches as possible before they realize what's happening.

Tips:

• Discard Edge Imp Chain or Ecclesia if you need to discard off Lubellion or Super Poly, always discard Tragedy off Branded Opening if you have it, otherwise the former cards in that order.

• I swear to Fleurdelis, if you banish Aluber for Mirrorjade turn 1 I will hunt you down, yes you can setup your Branded in Red, but what happens when your Mirrorjade gets nuked or your Ad Lib gets negated? Congrats -4 (Red, Mirrorjade, Ad Lib and the third card you used for Chimera) with no pay off or recovery.

• Do not under any circumstance prematurely cycle your Mirrorjade, what do I mean by that? Your field consists of Aluber and Mirrorjade, in your hand is some flavour or Poly and Ad Lib, you use Mirrorjade to banish Aluber (see my above point) and then Poly to setup another fusion and then re-summon Mirrorjade using Ad-Lib's effect to re-arm the banish, not only does this waste the Mirrorjade fusion effect (EP Raigeki), you just wasted your Ad-Lib and now made yourself every vulnerable to called-by.

• Yes many decks will die to the 2x banish and 2x pop from Mirrorjade and Chimera, but if your counter is countered, you have very little recovery without Aluber to negate an OPP monster or the recovery from your Ad-lib.

• Branded in Red can be used to dodge targetted effects, but not ash blossom, it can also pick up a Despia monster or Fallen Albaz for use (skip the fusion effect), keep in mind if you do fusion off Branded in Red, you can only attacks monsters with that monster for the rest of the turn.