Mikanko Deck Guide

At the YCS Santa Cruz de la Sierra 2023, which happened on October 28th and 29th, Brazilian player Michel Veríssimo conquered first place by playing Mikanko. This deck wasn't on the metagame radar, but it became a viable option since then.

Mikanko is a ritual archetype that interacts with equipment spells. They can both equip your monsters to provide better effects for them, or the opponent's monsters, so you can take control of them on the board.

Besides that, this deck uses some engines to access generic monsters in the extra deck which enable a powerful FTK combo.

Check out how Mikanko works!

Decklist

Main Deck

Ohime the Manifested Mikanko is this archetype's main searcher, besides also being the strategy's boss monster. Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko is the archetype's equipment spell searcher, and, as it is a Warrior type card, it is important in your Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights combos.

Hu-Li the Jewel Mikanko is the archetype's trap searcher and, besides that, it has an effect that prevents your opponent from targeting your "Mikanko" cards.

Apart from its unique effects, the "Mikanko" monsters have the shared effect of forcing your opponent to take damage from the battles that involve them, as long as they are equipped with an equipment spell. That tends to be relevant for this deck to end duels.

Most "Mikanko" equipment spells have the shared effect of protecting the equipped monster from destruction by card effects, besides having unique, but similar effects, which involve returning cards on the board to their controller's hands and special-summoning "Mikanko" monsters from the deck, hand or graveyard.

The Great Mikanko Ceremony and Mikanko Kagura have the same role in the deck, which is summoning your boss monster, Ohime the Manifested Mikanko.

As for Mikanko Spiritwalk, it is the only proactive interaction in this archetype during your opponent's turn, apart from being a follow-up card when it is in the graveyard.

Gen the Diamond Tiger and Ken the Warrior Dragon are the main "normal summon" monsters in this deck, and work as starters to access its main combo.

They have an excellent interaction with TTT's and Change of Heart, which work more as extenders than as techs in this deck.

Infernoble Knight - Renaud and Fire Flint Lady are your extenders for Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights plays.

Besides that, they're the only targets for your engine, "Sinful Spoils", which, in this deck, is just here to place another Warrior on board.

We've reached your consistency spells, which help you find important cards for this deck's strategy, such as Ohime the Manifested Mikanko and your Warrior monsters.

To finish, Nibiru, the Primal Being is this deck's only handtrap, considering that, as it only has a few slots for techs, we opted for a high-impact interaction, theoretically capable of dealing with your opponent without needing to pair techs.

Extra Deck

Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights can be considered an extra deck starter, and is extremely important for your combo.

These are the cards responsible for the FTK this deck can play. It happens when you use Geonator Transverser's effect to place Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction on your opponent's board, preventing them from playing special summons, which is usually enough to guarantee a victory.

S:P Little Knight is, currently, the game's main link monster, and is quite important in this deck. Any time it can, it will be on your final board, serving as interaction on the following turn.

Number 3: Cicada King is a class 3 xyz monster that will usually only be used if your standard combo isn't completed, or when you can't end the duel on turn 3.

Besides bringing a negate effect, it can be used in "rank-up" plays to access Digital Bug Corebage, which will be used next to access Full Armored Dark Knight Lancer.

To finish the xyz monster section, this deck uses a "Zeus Combo", which can be summoned with several materials if accessed after your rank-up engine.

Hiita the Fire Charmer, Ablaze and Lyna the Light Charmer, Lustrous are used in situations in which you want to access your bigger links to end a match, at the grind game or in difficult moments after you failed to combo.

Besides that, it is only through your "Charmers", by using their effect to summon a tuner from the opponent's graveyard, that it is possible to summon Herald of the Arc Light.

Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians is the only link-3 monster in this deck, and it helps you access your link-4 monsters; Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess to control, and Accesscode Talker to end matches.

The goal with this Mikanko deck is to play your FTK combo by using Geonator Transverser's effect to place Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction on your opponent's board, preventing them from playing special summons. This is something that usually ends in a victory, once currently most decks depend on that type of summon to play.

Besides playing Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction on your opponent's board, your combo ends on an S:P Little Knight on board, and, depending on your starting hand, you can also count on an Ohime the Manifested Mikanko.

Main Combo

I'll leave below the main combo if you open with Ken the Warrior Dragon + Mikanko Water Arabesque:

> First, normal summon Ken the Warrior Dragon and, next, activate its effect to summon a Gen the Diamond Tiger from your deck onto your opponent's board;

> When summoned, Gen the Diamond Tiger will activate its mandatory effect, forcing your opponent to discard a card from their own hand;

> Now, activate Mikanko Water Arabesque by equipping it to Gen the Diamond Tiger (which is on the oppponent's board), and activate its effect to summon Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko;

When this effect resolves, Gen the Diamond Tiger will be "returned" to your hand, and Mikanko Water Arabesque will equip itself to Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko.

> Next, activate Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko's effect to add Mikanko Fire Dance from your deck to your hand;

> Now, use both monsters on your board to summon Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights and add Infernoble Knight - Renaud from your deck to your hand, through "Isolde"s first effect.

> After resolving this effect, activate Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights' second effect, sending 3 equipment spells from your deck to the graveyard as a cost (any time possible, send Mikanko Dance - Mayowashidori among them), to special summon another copy of Gen the Diamond Tiger from your deck, but this time onto your own board;

> Now, activate Gen the Diamond Tiger's effect to summon a Ken the Warrior Dragon from your deck to the opponent's board (summon it to the monster zone in the middle or the one that is closest to your opponent's extra deck);

> When summoned, Ken the Warrior Dragon will activate its mandatory effect, drawing you two cards and discarding one of them;

> Next, activate Mikanko Fire Dance to summon Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko from your graveyard and equip it with this card. Besides that, if there is a monster in your opponent's graveyard, summon it too;

> Use Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko and Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights as material to summon Geonator Transverser (make sure to summon it in a way that it is pointing to the Ken the Warrior Dragon you played on your opponent's board);

> Now, activate Mikanko Dance - Mayowashidori's effect to summon Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko from your graveyard one more time, equipping it with this card straight away;

> Next, use Gen the Diamond Tiger and Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko as xyz material to summon Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction (summon it to the zone to where "Geonator" points to);

> Now, activate Geonator Transverser's effect to swap control of both monsters that are in the zones it points to, in a way Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction is still on your opponent's board to prevent them from playing special summons;

> With the combo finally done, use both monsters that are left on your board to summon S:P Little Knight and use its effect to ban a card from your graveyard or your opponent's board.

Like so, your board will end up like this:

When getting this combo down, you'll guarantee at least two cards as follow-up, besides, of course, the other cards in your initial hand. Like so, you'll guarantee a good game volume to play an OTK during your next turn.

Even though this board looks simple, most decks depend on special summons to play. Like so, Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction becomes another FTK present in our beloved card game. That happens mainly because of the format's main trends, which, at that moment, caused most players to leave handtraps behind to use more board breakers, and more; board breakers that couldn't deal with "Acid Golem" in their own board.

Like most combo decks, handtraps are Mikanko's main enemies, which gets left behind in matchups against decks that have a lot of space to play techs. Nonetheless, this deck has many extenders, and your opponent will need to interact at crucial moments when you're playing out your combo to really stop you.

But, when you're playing against decks with less space for techs or decks that have decided to use board breakers, Mikanko stands out when it plays first, usually being able to lock down your opponent and end the game on turn 3. Besides that, when it goes second, this deck can deal with established boards as it uses some board breakers in its strategy and also has a good volume of special summons. We also have the shared effect in "Mikanko" monsters, which can help you win the match when you attack with monsters with more ATK points, applying damage to your opponent's health points.

So, what did you think of the deck? I hope you liked getting to know more about it, and that you have a lot of fun with it.

You're welcome to share your opinion down below in the comment section. Cards Realm thanks you for your support!