Yubel Engine
Engine Overview
The Yubel engine for Labrynth (or any deck that can afford the space really) encompasses 6 Main Deck slots and 1-3 Extra Deck Slots, containing no garnets and 2 bricks. The aim of this engine is to summon Phantom of Yubel in order to get a Monster negate, while having some additional synergy with Labrynth due to Labrynth Cooclock being a Fiend-type Monster with 0 ATK and 0 DEF.
Ratio: 0-1
Ratio: 3
Ratio: 0-1
Ratio: 1
Ratio: 1-3
Card Effects
Add 1 Field Spell from your Deck to your hand.
When this card is activated: You can take 1 Fiend monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck, and either add it to your hand or destroy it. Once per turn, if a face-up "Yubel" monster(s) you control leaves the field by card effect: You can add to your hand 1 "Yubel" monster from your Deck, GY, or banishment, whose original Level is 1 higher or lower than 1 of those monsters, then you can Special Summon it, ignoring its Summoning conditions. You can only activate 1 "Nightmare Throne" per turn.
This card cannot be destroyed by battle. You take no Battle Damage from battles involving this card. Before damage calculation, when this face-up Attack Position card is attacked by an opponent's monster: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's ATK. During your End Phase: Tribute 1 other monster or destroy this card. When this card is destroyed, except by its own effect: Its owner can Special Summon 1 "Yubel - Terror Incarnate" from their hand, Deck, or Graveyard.
Cannot be destroyed by battle, also you take no damage from battles involving this card. If this card is destroyed: You can Special Summon 1 of your "Yubel" that is banished or in your hand, Deck, or GY. You can only use each of the following effects of "Spirit of Yubel" once per turn. When an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Special Summoned: You can add to your hand or Set 1 Spell/Trap from your Deck that mentions "Yubel".
1 "Yubel" monster + 1 Fiend monster with 0 ATK/DEF
Must be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards from your hand, field, and/or GY into the Deck/Extra Deck. Cannot be used as Fusion Material. Cannot be destroyed by battle, also you take no damage from battles involving this card. When your opponent activates a monster effect (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card; the activated effect becomes "Your opponent destroys 1 "Yubel" monster in their hand, Deck, or field". You can only use this effect of "Phantom of Yubel" once per turn.
The above shows the ratios that you can play, however it is recommended to play Yubel, as without it certain combos do not work and the engine in general is just worse and Terraforming for consistency.
Combos
Below you can find the basic combo, as well as what to do if you draw one of the bricks (Yubel and Spirit of Yubel).
The combo can be started with Nightmare Throne:
- Activate Nightmare Throne to destroy Spirit of Yubel from the Deck.
- Use the effect of Spirit of Yubel to special summon Yubel from the Deck.
- You can now either use Yubel on board as a free body (e.g. to go into Unchained plays), and then contact fuse into Phantom of Yubel, or directly contact fuse.
Phantom of Yubel now allows you to re-write any opponent’s monster effect into “Your opponent destroys 1 “Yubel” monster in their hand, Deck, or field”. This gives you safety against Handtraps like Ash Blossom, Ghost Belle and Nibiru during your Turn or can be used during your opponent’s turn to negate an important combo piece.
When you use the effect of Phantom of Yubel destroy Spirit of Yubel from your Deck, which will then float into Yubel. This once again gives you the materials to summon another Phantom once it is your turn again. You can repeat this as long as you have Phantom of Yubel’s in your Extra Deck.
Please be aware that you can not summon Phantom by using another copy of itself as material, effectively making you never run out of copies. Fusion Monsters that special summon themself from the Extra Deck rather than needing to be fusion summoned can not use monsters are Material that state “Cannot be used as Fusion Material”.
If you draw Throne, but also Spirit the combo changes as followed:
- Instead of searching Spirit and destroying it, you now search Cooclock, as it and Yubel are your only targets left.
- You now simply fuse the Clock from the GY and Spirit from your Hand into the phantom.
While this does give you access to Cooclocks effect, you also lose it for followup as you are forced to shuffle it back into the deck. There is no point in searching Yubel in this situation, as it does nothing for you and you would just use two cards from your hand to summon Phantom. This way you at least get a Cooclock trap activation out of it.
Version A: Searching Cooclock
- This version gives you more advantage, as it gives you a Cooclock Trap activation, however it does not bait any Handtraps besides Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring via the Throne activation
- This line plays the same as if you draw spirit
Version B: Destroying Spirit from the deck
- This version in contrast is focused on baiting out handtraps, since by destroying Spirit you can bait for Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion. Even if they do have it, you already hard drew the Yubel, so you are still able to contact fuse
Labrynth Synergies
There are a couple of ways that this engine synergizes with Labrynth:
- Labrynth Cooclock is a valid search target for Nightmare Throne, you can use Nightmare Throne as an extender for your Labrynth plays and not just to summon Phantom of Yubel.
- You do not have to summon Phantom of Yubel by shuffling back Yubel and Spirit of Yubel, the Materials merely state
1 "Yubel" monster + 1 Fiend monster with 0 ATK and DEF, the latter material requirement also being fulfilled by Labrynth Cooclock. - Phantom of Yubel (summoned from the Extra Deck) and Yubel (summoned from the Main Deck by Spirit of Yubel) are both fiend monsters, meaning neither of them gets blocked by Welcome Labrynth’s Fiend-lock.
- If you do play Terraforming you always have the option to search Labrynth Labyrinth if you also play it. Labrynth does not care too much about keeping Nightmare Throne on the field, so if you draw one you can always search the other and end on Labrynth Labyrinth
Not playing Yubel
If you do not play Yubel you can not play the basic combo, as Spirit of Yubel wouldn’t have a target to summon from the target, leaving you with only one of the two required fusion materials. You need to have access to Labrynth Cooclock as well as Spirit of Yubel to summon Phantom of Yubel. If your hand does not have access to both, then this version of the engine uses Nightmare Throne just as a Labrynth Cooclock searcher.
Not playing Yubel makes it less likely for you to be able to use this engine effectively, while increasing the likelihood of bricking. To top it off, even when you do have access to both, you are forced to take Labrynth Cooclock out of your follow up in order to summon Phantom of Yubel, which is highly disadvantageous. You also are unable to summon another Phantom of Yubel on your next turn, as when you use the effect of Phantom of Yubel you will destroy Spirit of Yubel, however you do not get Yubel as the second fusion material, requiring you to gain access to Labrynth Cooclock once again in order to contact fuse.
Not drawing Nightmare Throne
If you do not draw Nightmare Throne you are still able to summon Phantom of Yubel if you draw Labrynth Cooclock together with either Yubel or Spirit of Yubel, tho it does suffer from some of the same issues as not playing Yubel at all. You do have to take Labrynth Cooclock out of rotation to do so, however unlike when not playing Yubel at all you will be able to float with Spirit of Yubel’s effect, allowing you to summon a Phantom of Yubel every turn until you run out.
Expanded Engine
Option A: Unchained
This is the recommended pairing for this engine, as they play greatly together. The Yubel summoned by Spirit of Yubel is a free body to use for Unchained Soul Lord of Yama. The best way to use this is when you draw Arianna the Labrynth Servant in addition to Nightmare Throne.
This line plays the same as just Nightmare Throne, until the point where Yubel hits the board:
- Rather than instantly fusing into Phantom, you are going to use the Yubel as a body for Yama.
- Normal Summon Arianna and use her effect to search Big Welcome (this can be any Labrynth card if you already have a target to sacrifice for Sharvara). While this does play into handtraps, the most likely ones to get hit by at this point would be Infinite Impermanence and Dominus Purge, both cards Phantom wouldn’t protect against.
- Link Arianna and Yubel into Yama, search Sharvara
- Use Yubel and Spirit from your GY to Special Summon Phantom
- Set the Big Welcome, then destroy it with Sharvara.
- Link Yama and Sharvara into Rage, set Escape
You now have multiple points of interaction just from Throne + Arianna:
- A monster effect re-write via Phantom, which will give you a Yubel on board
- The full Unchained setup (Rage + Escape, with Yama in GY, including Arianna as an excellent target for Rages destruction effect)
- Big Welcomes GY effect, as you do control a LV8+ Fiend, Phantom of Yubel (or Yubel after you used Phantoms effect)
Option B: Super Polymerization
The engine can be expanded by using the Yubel on-board not as a free body for links plays / going straight into Phantom of Yubel, but using it as a powerful board breaker instead if you draw Super Polymerization in addition to Nightmare Throne. The Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever you summon is not just a target for , but actually has useful effects.
This can be used both going first, as well as going second:
- Going 1st: You simply do the usual Nightmare Throne combo and set the Super Polymerization. During the opponent’s turn you can now simply fuse away all their monsters into Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever. Be aware tho that you can not use Phantom of Yubel as fusion material, meaning this option is only live after you use the effect of Phantom of Yubel, destroy Spirit of Yubel from your deck and with its effect special summon Yubel.
- Going 2nd: You do the Nightmare Throne combo up to the point where Yubel hits the field, then you use your Super Polymerization to use it and all opponent’s monsters as fusion material. Afterwards you simply use both materials from your GY to summon Phantom of Yubel.
- Any other way to get Yubel on board, e.g. Labrynth Labyrinth’s 2nd effect, Unchained Soul Lord of Yama’s GY effect or the servants 2nd effects of course also enable the use of Super Polymerization
In this expanded version Super Polymerization is also one of the strongest top decks, as besides its already strong use, you often end with a Yubel on your board at the end of the opponent’s turn allowing you to quickly change the tide of the game.
There is no need to play more than one copy of Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever, as it is a legitimate fusion material for Phantom of Yubel, meaning you can recycle it as often as you need to. You do need to still play Mudragon of the Swamp and Garura, Wings of Resonant Life tho, as otherwise Super Polymerization will be dead if you are unable to get either Yubel or Spirit of Yubel on-board.
And as a last, and hopefully obvious bonus: playing this extended engine makes the Yubel matchup (which is a serious deck with the release of Phantom of Yubel) easier, as you are able to fuse their board using their own Yubel monster.
Ratio: 3
Ratio: 1
Ratio: 1
Ratio: 1
Card Effects
Discard 1 card; Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from either field as Fusion Material. Neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this card's activation.
1 "Yubel" monster + 1+ Effect Monsters on the field
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each material used. You can only use this effect of "Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever" once per turn. Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, also you take no battle damage from battles involving this card. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled an opponent's monster: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to that opponent's monster's ATK, and if you do, banish that monster.
The prime Super Polymerization target for this engine, as it easily is able to eat an entire board.
- The material are very easy, as you have plenty of access to Yubel monsters (besides Phantom, who can’t be used as a fusion material)
- The (1) effect can easily grow into a very big burn, helping you finish up the game. This is also a win-con for timeout.
- The protection makes it very sticky and hard to remove for the opponent.
- The (2) effect allows you to easily take out opponent’s monster by banishing them, while dealing even more burn damage.
2 monsters with the same Type and Attribute, but different names
Any battle damage your opponent takes from battles involving this card is doubled. If this card is sent to the GY: You can draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Garura, Wings of Resonant Life" once per turn.
Draw a card
The go-to option for when you do not need to interact with your opponent’s board
2 monsters with the same Attribute but different Types
Your opponent cannot target this card, or monsters on the field with the same Attribute as this card, with card effects. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can declare 1 Attribute; this card becomes that Attribute until the end of this turn.
Garura, Wings of Resonant Life and Mudragon of the Swamp are your Super Polymerization targets in case you do not have access to a Yubel monster, but drew Super Polymerization.
Example Decklists
The Trap and Extra Deck choices in these lists are
Extended A: Unchained
This is a list that has been played by RockRoller, one of the main authors for this article. In addition to the Unchained engine, this also features Labrynth Set-Up with Trap Trick, as well as Ariane the Labrynth Servant. These can be replaced by generics and are merely preference.
