Zefra Yang Zing

This is the deck I've been using in rated matches, and I currently have 817 rating. I am planning on dueling a lot more with it in matches. I will start off by showing you the list:

https://i.imgur.com/TBPL5zG.png

I am also going to go over some of the card choices

Why such a small lineup of the "floating" Yang Zing monsters?: arguably the worst cards in the deck are the non-pendulum Yang Zing monsters not named Jiaotu or Chiwen. These cards serve no purpose in the deck outside of floating to and serving as discard fodder for Jiaotu.

Archfiend Eccentrick: In my opinion, Archfiend Eccentrick is a top 2 pendulum card in the game, it is the definition of versatility. Cards like Dark Hole, Raigeki, and MST are too situational. Archfiend Eccentrick is very good for dealing with problem monsters not named Majesty's fiend and floodgate cards not named Anti-spell Fragrance.

Zefra Divine Strike: This card has slowly, but surely, made its way to the top of the list of cards I love the most in this deck. It is a searchable Solemn Judgment without the LP cost, what else could you ask for in a card? The only reason I don't play more then 1 is the potential brick hands it could cause, but nonetheless there is no better card to backup your field.

Kaiser Colosseum: This deck really struggles with PePe. This is one of the few cards that gives you an edge vs them.

Main Idea of the Deck: The point of this deck is to pump out a ridiculous amount of synchros using the pendulum summon mechanic. Zefraniu, the level 6 Yang Zing pendulum monster, makes for perfect synchro fodder. chiwen+zefraniu= yazi, Jiaotu+zeraniu= baxia. you pendulum summon out zefraniu turn after turn, everytime searching out one of your 3 zefra/yang zing spell/traps. this deck gets pluses out the wazoo while pumping out extremely powerful synchros.

The Kozmo Matchup: The kozmo matchup is made easy by 1 card, Ignister. You know, that extremely annoying synchro that PePe uses? you just shuffle back any of their big ships with ignister, shuffle back their town, backrow, and any smaller ships with Baxia, and voila, you win. and don't forget about iron wall

Majespecter Matchup: After dueling with and against them for a while now I have realized, Majespecters suck REALLY BAD. Their only redeeming qualities are their trap cards, and you can fight through them with ease. also side in decrees and typhoons vs them

PePe matchup: PePe is easily the hardest (out of the big 3) for this deck to handle. If they open well enough they can blow you out of the water with ease. Them being able to shuffle back your floater Yang Zings with Ignister puts you in the akward position of having to straight draw Jiaotu or crash. Its needless to say I lose a lot of game 1s vs PePe, but game 2 and 3 usually go to me. I side a TON of cards for this matchup ( 2 Flying "c", 2 Kaiser Colosseum, 2 MST, 3 Wavering Eyes). These cards are usually too much for them to handle.

Rogue Matchups: By rogue matchups I mean anything that is not in the big 3. This deck blows most of the rogue matchups out of the water. Baxia is too good of a card for most decks to handle, and being able to make multiple of him in a single turn usually gains the win. This deck is also exceptionally good at fighting through game 1 backrow, sided backrow like time-space traphole and great horn of heaven can sometimes become an issue, but 3 decree work amazingly in this deck as most the time they use their backrow hate on your scales.

If you made it to the end of this article I really appreciate it. A lot of the feedback I got from the last deck helped me to make it better. If you have any suggestions on how to make this deck better I would be delighted to hear them. I apologize for my inactivity, and will try to stay active. Thanks for reading.

I've dealt a dick-ton with Zefras (albeit it was very Zefra-heavy, and it was a Shaddoll Variant), and they became my main in many situations when Lavalval Chain got hit and I lost my ability to crush people with my Zombies.... So I have learned quite a few tricks--most of which will help you out.

1) Field spell use:
Since you're not heavy on Zefras (you're only running 9), the Zefra field spell is fine at 2. Especially since the card that searches it is searched by your Zings (all 11 of them) and Abductor (2 more) Plus the fact that the spell itself is searched by Terraforming (add 3 more). Add in your current draw power, and I doubt you won't start with the spell, or some kind of combo to force the search to get the spell.
This same logic can be applied to the use of Chicken Race, but that's overruled by preference. In the decks that I have that run this card, I never run more than 2. Especially if I have various other forms of draw/search power. But, again, this is preference. Run 3 if you feel like you need to run 3.

2) Pendulum Monsters:
Abductor is probably the most important pendulum in this build, because it searches a little over half your monster line-up. You should find some way to run 3, so that you can open with it more often.
This may crush you to learn, so I'll say it in all caps (with bold): TREASURE SUCKS. Kay. Now that's out of the way, let me elaborate: Treasure is a necessary evil. In theory, he's actually pretty damn worthless because of how sadistically balanced he is--because goddamn Konami and not allowing Tuner/Pendulum monsters that aren't named Luster go to the goddamn extra so we can spam them harder.
----------TL;DR: Treasure, in theory, can be mained at 1. However, that just begs the opponent to just banish it or grave it, rendering his effect useless. But, running 3, will clog you... hard. So run 2.
Eccentrik is my vindictive, annoying baby that I love running in pendulum decks... However, running her at 3 runs into the same theory that involves Treasure. You can run her at 1 and get the same results, and running 3 does turn into clog. Running 2 here in this build may help you reduce bad hands.
Zefraxa is...actually something you should consider. Not saying you should run it, but I can't count the times this card has saved my hide by just simply existing. Firstly, this guy has helped me block OTKs by being a replacer for when Zefras are popped. Secondly, him being lvl5 has been a saving grace for synchro plays because it's just such an odd lvl for a monster in today's game (Him + Treasure = easy Iggy).

3) Non-Pendulum Monsters:
Dude, you gotta run at least 1 Bixi. Trap immunity can be a saving grace, and summoning Chao with him to the mix shuts down so many rouge decks it should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.
Genex Ally Birdman <-- What? A lvl 3 tuner that SS's himself in a deck that should never normal summon?! Golly-Gee Batman, it's like he's limited for a reason! Sarcasm aside.. He's pretty damn fantastic in Zefras. Need a scale, and a monster with that scale just happens to be on the field? You now have a complete scale.

4) S/T in General:
You do need to run something to force your own Zings to activate. Running Dark Hole isn't really a matter of getting rid of monsters (though that's nice).. Imagine having two maindeck Zings on the field, you don't have a tuner and your opponent has a stupid boss monster...but then you draw into Dark Hole. Monster gone, synchro opportunity achieved.
You need to run more monster negation in some form. Breakthrough Skill/Fiendish Chain/Extra Zefracounter can be a lifesaver. Even Solemn and Grand Horn do things. You don't have to add a lot, but you do need to think about maining something so that decks like Majespecter and PePe don't just shit on you turn 1.
I think you should find some way to fuel your Zings to the field faster. I already mentioned this with Dark Hole, but Creation is a great thing sometimes. Yeah it stops you from pendulum summoning...for maybe a turn or two. Once you make Baxia, it no longer matters. Pop Creation and summon your lvl4 of choosing from the grave.. Tah dah.

5) General Extradeck Issues:
Here are some swanky staples in synchro decks that you're missing (that don't include Quasar Turbos): Clear Wing, Meteorburst (this guy is TCG on Dec. 3rd), Moonlight
And some that are just simply better in Zings: Scrap Dragon, Beelze, Goyo.
Why these choices? Simple. Clear Wing shits on anything lvl 5 or higher, and stops your opponent from targeting your synchros with any monster they try to use. Meteorburst SS's pendulums from their zones AND stops your opponent from using any monster effect during either BP. Moonlight is an all-purpose spinner of special summoned monsters. Scrap Dragon is Yazi with slightly higher attack--you use his effect to fuel your zings for free pops, but Scrap can target any card you own. Goyo with zing immunities is scary as shit. And, lastly, have you ever seen an immune-to-everything Beelze gain 2500+ atk because they decided to summon it...and then crash Chiwen into your face-up boss monster? Cuz if you haven't, you haven't seen fear.
But onto the actual critiques of the extra.
You need 2 Chaofeng, because he's stupidly easy to make. Your walking floodgate may be able to get recycled with your avarice card, but having 2 saves you the trouble of trying to recycle it.
You only need 2 Baxia (but 3 is totally fine anyway). I know, sounds crazy, but it's true. I can guarantee that you've won every game the moment you've successfully summoned your 2nd Baxia on the account that your opponent literally has no cards to play.
BRD, Scarright and Void aren't needed. Baxia replaced BRD in spades AND keeps your own field intact. Scarright is hilariously outclassed by Hot Red (because Hot Red hits all atk position monsters, not just SS'd monsters with 3000>atk. The theory of the game means Hot Red hits more) but both are rather terrible in today's current gamestate. Again, Baxia replaces it, because it's effect happens the moment it summons and it doesn't destroy. Lastly, Void is pretty bleh in this format...especially in a deck that never wants to have an empty hand. Besides, you get infinite negation by simply looping the absolute hell out of Baxia + Herald.
You should probably have 2 lvl5 Synchro options. It can be virtually anything, but 2 options can save lives.
AFD is a bit iffy.. I understand the theory behind it, and it's not a bad theory. Running it is perfectly acceptable. But be warned that it'll probably won't actually be a legitimate threat to many decks.
And, finally, the only XYZs you should run in this deck should be rank 4. Castel covers more ground than Felgrand.




Last Words of Advice:
If your deck has the worst match-up...against the current tier 1 deck in the game... Then you need to take those side cards out of your side deck and put them in your main deck, and then put different side cards into your side deck. It's better to be prepared against the best of the best, the ones you struggle with, than to be prepared against decks that you already can handle without the need of a side deck.
You don't need to run Upstart + Chicken Race, because the latter is Upstart that you can use repeatedly. Theory-oh.
Always main at least 1 MST. Jam it in there. Jam it in there real nice.
Denko Sekka hits 4x harder than Decree, and looks better doing it.

Thanks for the advice man, you have supplied me with a ton of helpful information, information I will definitely use. There are a couple of things you have said that I would like to address though.

1. All of the listed extra deck cards, excluding meteor dragon, have been in my extra deck at different points in time. The thing is, the extra deck space is extremely tight, and the cards listed have been excluded from the deck for the simple fact that I did not use them. Thank you for the suggestions anyway, and meteorburst will definitely be in my deck in the future.

2. 3 Baxia is definitely necessary. I can't count how many times the 3 Baxias in the extra deck have turned my insanely good hands into OTK hands. In similar fascion, there are a lot of times when I am forced to go 1st and make a Baxia-Herald play and then later on that game make a double Baxia play. Baxia was at 2 in this deck for a very long time, but I found myself losing due to the 3rd one not being in there. I also never need more then 1 chaofeng.

3. Abductor at 3 makes for some bad hands. There was a long time where I ran 3 abductor in this deck, but if I drew more than 1 I had absolutely no use for the extra copy(s). Atleast with cards like Archfiend Eccentrick and Oracle you could use all of the copies in the span of a couple of turns. Once you have the 1st abductor, aside from it getting blown up (which rarely ever happens), there is never really a use for another.

Thank you for the advice, I think a lot of this stuff is player preference. I will definitely be adding birdman into my deck.

You're welcome.

You are correct that a lot of what I stated is personal preference, based upon personal experience. But a lot of it also based upon the age-old Theory-oh of Yugi-Minimalism/Necessary Maximum
I.E: The cards that you don't care for, but are still important, you run less of. The cards that start the strongest combos, you run 3 of. Techs run at 1, but fuelers run at 3.
Which is just how I play the game.


But, again, you're welcome. Remember to just simply experiment. There's not point in trying all the suggestions with many different subtle variants, just to see which combos fit your hand the best.