you have excellent taste

The dilemma with still being forced to have at least one ash in the main purely for crossout is something that i have talked about before as well. Post-side especially fighting the urge to side out the ashes for a better handtrap in the matchup sucks because you know you'll still need one for crossout and it can feel super awkward, so i feel you on that. That is one of the things that also led me to play thrust (but again i know thrust is still very expensive and that part sucks). Ash will still be good in fire format along with droll (despite hiita link taking it from GY) so whether you play one just for crossout or three i think is cool depending on your space. And dont feel weird about bringing back ad libitum, i personally have always loved the card. 2-3 Mirrorjade banishes and a Guardian chimera goes super hard in any matchup. Part of the reason i like branded builds over 40 cards is because it gives you a little bit of wiggle room with running these kinds of one-of "bricks" in order to increase your options/versatility without completely killing consistency. I think if you want to make space for him you absolutely can, just be honest with yourself when going over your decklist with cards that you truly think deserve to be there. If you do that then everything else comes together naturally My current despia list is 45 in main including ad lib, just for reference

@@YamiElut Yeah, a lot of people are building Branded with 44-47 cards, some even play 50 or above builds, but I wouldn't go that far to be honest. The one thing I really like about crossout tho, is that it allows you to side in the Blowout cards in game 3 that hurt the deck like D Barrier (apart from just Ash and a bunch of other handtraps). But still, Thrust could solve a lot of issues, because firstly it's the best option out of the three as you've mentioned it too, second of all, I could easily remove Ash & The Crossouts (maybe even 1 Nadir by being searchable) from the main for 2-3 Thrusts, 1 Talent & Fusion Dup thus giving me more options. Moreover, I would only have to side out like the Nadirs after game 1 compared to now, where I have to take Out the Nadirs AND 1-2 Crossouts with Puppet & Maximus (not to mention Ad Lib who is also worth siding out in fairness). Speaking of Ad Lib, I was really just trying to follow the masses who were cutting it instead of just trying to go with my gut feeling and do what I feel is right. Because I felt the way you've mentioned, that as long as you're playing a huge list, it doesn't really matter, because the only real bricks are Ad Lib, Puppet, and Dark Magician (the latter even being usable in some scenarios nevertheless with Deployment to get Dragoon). It just gives more options and 2 Mirrorjade banish + 2 Chimera pops still hit really hard. The other card I was really unsure about at first was Maximus, but he can be a good extender too if I don't open with a way to get both Aluber & Quem on the field, so he will definitely stay too. But anyway, thanks for the detailed & in-depth reply Elut. Also, really appreciate that you reaffirmed my beliefs regarding the deck. Looking forward to the next video!

I feel like it won't, Konami's philosophy seems to be generic staples are ban proof, look at the strength that Ash and Talents have enjoyed without ever being checked. But it is an expensive card and I haven't been able to pull the trigger on buying three Thrusts either.

Thankfully it didn't.

@@asuraphreak Yeah now that the banlist is out I'm going to pick up a playset

@@revengetwofoldIt's insane that we completely dodged that banlist

i mean i guess but that either means you "break the board" at the end of your turn or you start your turn being locked out of the extra deck, either way that isnt very helpful

The reason I prefer Thrust so much is that it is an "anti-ash card" but also is extremely versatile in getting you to important engine pieces when going second. The "avoid bricking" argument is also interesting because I agree that crossout can sometimes be bricky, but so can drawing too many handtraps in Branded depending on how many you play if you dont open key engine pieces. I personally also just find the Branded engine to usually be more impactful than handtraps if you full commit to that philosophy, so cards that get me to more engine generally feel better to play. The real answer I think to this is to full commit one way or the other. Whether that means a very streamlined Branded engine with a bunch of handtraps and no fluff, or full on Branded engine with select "board breakers" like Forbidden Droplet/Super Poly/Thrust. I think the worst thing is to go high in handtraps and have board breakers with a full Branded engine, in that instance I think consistency starts to really hurt the most

@@YamiElut Yea hand traps can be even brickier, but seriously thanks for replying with such an intricate answer!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g8mleJBnrcDKdp8.htmlsi=JI7MPU2Io9L4gGdP I got my copies of Triple Tactics Thrust so I have been playing and will be playing the second version in this vid Only thing that I might change post PHNI is the handtraps instead of ash/imperm. Deciding between nibiru/droll, droll/ash, or nibiru/imperm.

@@YamiElut thank you so much! I’m a new ish “branded” player, do you have anywhere I could potentially dm u and chat deck profiles? Your KZfaq videos have been helping me a lot, but I always played more of a Dogmatika engine… so I’m transitioning to branded but wanted to keep the Dogmatika engine if possible

If not it’s okay tho ^^^^ I know some KZfaqrs don’t like personally dm’ing their viewers more so for privacy reasons.

@@OblivionDragma been asked a similar question before about having a discord server for the channel, no immediate plans for that rn but it could happen in the future, dont know yet I dont have like a twitter or anything either but I'm always happy to answer questions here if you have them

Talents is an excellent card but I would recommend playing it in conjuction with these tech cards, rather than instead of them. Branded needs to get to guaranteed engine, and Talents being a mystery draw 2 after getting ashed isnt bad but it is subject to randomness especially going first and it may or may not actually help Going second having it when brafu is ashed is better because of stealing a monster and possibly using it as raw material and stuff like that

@@YamiElut I am using talent for since I can’t afford thrust rn but I plan on going them soon so I feel talent just give me some options in this current format

And I am also playing 40

i cant say i have ever tested with that sort of thing, what exactly does that look like as far as ratios and such?

@@YamiElut i think people play 4 or 6 tearlaments cards and i tried it at home and it is pretty cool to fuse from GY and dont have to worry about branded fusion. Its also cool when u normal or special summon Merli she can dump 3 cards from the top of ur deck to GY and possibly trigger some effects. Bottom line u need to try it and see it for urself. Keep up the good work I love ur videos