Deck Tech: Rescue-Ace Diabellstar After Age of Overlord

Rescue-Ace is an archetype based on firefighters and their equipment, made of Fire attribute Warrior and Machine type monsters.

This deck's strategy is quite straightforward: you need to play your trap cards while you keep Rescue-ACE Hydrant on board, as that will improve their effects. To help your deck do that, we have the "Diabellstar" engine, whose job is adding any level 1 monster to your hand. It is important both to increase your consistency and help you make stronger plays.

Though simple, this deck has a good volume of games and can really flush out your opponent's interactions when you go second, besides being able to create a strong board when you go first. Like so, due to how competent it is, the deck is one of the main candidates for the title of Tier 1 in the metagame after Age of Overlord.

Check out below how Rescue-Ace Diabellstar works!

Decklist

Main Deck

In this deck, the "Diabellstar" engine works as a starter: its job is to activate Rescue-ACE Hydrant straight from the deck to start your combos. Besides that, it is also possible to summon or add to your hand other level 1 monsters that are part of this deck.

Jet Synchron is one of your "Diabellstar" engine targets, but only when you already have a way of playing "Hydrant" on board. Despite that, it is a very important card as it is your only way of accessing Synchro monsters in your extra deck.

Besides being your monster searcher, Rescue-ACE Hydrant has an essential role to play in your deck's strategy, once it guarantees additional effects to your spells and traps while it is on board.

Rescue-ACE Air Lifter is your spell searcher, and it is the best "normal summon" card in your deck, besides being the only "1 card combo" in this archetype. Besides that, it has a Quick Effect that is similar to a "handtrap", which allows you to interact with your opponent on their own turn even when you are second to play.

Just like "Air Lifter", Rescue-ACE Impulse can interact with your opponent by activating its "handtrap" effect. Apart from this ability to create value on your opponent's own turn, it can also work as another interaction while it is on board.

Rescue-ACE Preventer is a card with multiple effects. As a result, it is very important, even though it isn't one of the most memorable cards when we discuss Rescue-ACE. "Preventer" also has a Quick Effect that brings interaction and another effect that recycles resources when it is sent to the graveyard.

Rescue-ACE Turbulence is the archetype's boss monster, and just like "Hydrant" it is essential to our strategy. Besides having an interaction effect, "Turbulence" also has the insane capacity of bringing up to 4 cards straight from your deck, which can be the archetype's quick-play spells and normal traps.

EMERGENCY!! is the consistency spell in the archetype, and it is extremely relevant for your strategy to be successful, once only after its release this deck became relevant in the competitive scene.

The deck's field spell, Rescue-ACE HQ, is another interesting card, both as it provides an additional "normal summon" and because it recycles resources while it draws 1 card.

We've reached your boss monster's (Rescue-ACE Turbulence) effect "targets", which are a mix of interaction effects and resource recyclers, besides getting additional effects while Rescue-ACE Hydrant is on board.

Both cards play the part of enhancing the deck's consistency; One for One can easily reach your Rescue-ACE Hydrant or even Jet Synchron. As for Reinforcement of the Army, it usually works as another copy of Rescue-ACE Air Lifter.

Called by the Grave is a tech card with two roles, and, besides helping as protection against most handtraps, it is quite strong to interact with the enemy decks' engines, particularly now that the meta is more inclined to decks that abuse the graveyard.

Besides being a good "boardbreaker", Kurikara Divincarnate can be accessed through your "Diabellstar" engine. As a result, it is interesting to keep 1 copy of it in your main deck because, at the same time you draft your play, it is possible to add 1 tech card for when the turn goes back to you, if your board is broken by your opponent.

The other techs we selected are handtraps, and were chosen as they are good against most main decks in the format.

Additional Deck

The link-1s in your extra deck are useful when you need to have Rescue-ACE Hydrant in the graveyard, and, besides that, Relinquished Anima has a greater utility when you play second as it can deal with one of your opponent's monsters.

S:P Little Knight is your extra deck's main attraction, because, besides being an excellent interaction during your opponent's turn, it can be very useful to help you protect your plays. However, when you choose not to play it in your own turn, ideally you'll pass with I:P Masquerena to activate "Little Knight" next turn and, this way, get the most out of it.

Hiita the Fire Charmer, Ablaze and Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf are good generic links for the Fire attribute, and therefore are very useful in the deck when you can't combo or when you're grinding after your board was broken.

The "Knightmare" "package" is also made of generic links, but this time with no association with the attribute. Knightmare Phoenix is a good spell/trap removal, and Knightmare Unicorn can deal with any type of card on board, and is ideal against cards you don't want to see in the graveyard.

Besides that, Knightmare Unicorn is great for OTK plays, in which you use it to scale to link-4 Accesscode Talker, which is the deck's best finisher.

With the return of decks that thoroughly explore the graveyard in the metagame, Abyss Dweller is extremely strong in the format, but, to summon it, you need to go through Proxy F Magician and summon Mudragon of the Swamp, which will be used as xyz material.

Baronne de Fleur and Borreload Savage Dragon are the omni-negates you can access through Jet Synchron plays. Even though they aren't used that frequently, they reasonably increase your final board's power level ceiling when they're summoned.

Rescue-Ace Diabellstar's goal is mainly to get to your boss monster Rescue-ACE Turbulence and play your 4 cards straight from the deck, all while you keep Rescue-ACE Hydrant on board to guarantee its interactions' additional effects.

Besides that, I:P Masquerena will be present on your final board, alongside another random monster to be used as link material through the "I:P"'s effect.

Even though this deck has other combo lines, this is your main board most times and will very likely only change if you want to play around a tech card post-side, or when you wish to have a board with interactions that are more efficient against a particular matchup.

Standard Combo

I'll leave below the standard combo if you open with WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils + 1 random card:

> First, activate WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils's effect to place Diabellstar the Black Witch in your hand (remember to do that still in the Draw Phase to play around a possible Droll & Lock Bird in your opponent's hand);

> Now, summon Diabellstar the Black Witch through its own effect, sending the other card in your hand to the graveyard;

> Next, activate Diabellstar the Black Witch's effect to play Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye in your spell/trap zone;

> Activate Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye sending Diabellstar the Black Witch to your graveyard to summon Rescue-ACE Hydrant straight from your deck;

> Activate Rescue-ACE Hydrant's effect to add Rescue-ACE Air Lifter from your deck to your hand;

> Normal summon Rescue-ACE Air Lifter and activate its effect to add EMERGENCY! from your deck to your hand;

> Activate EMERGENCY! to summon Rescue-ACE Turbulence straight from your deck (tributing Rescue-ACE Air Lifter) and, next, activate its effect to play 4 Rescue-ACE cards from your deck into your spell/trap zone;

> Like so, activate ALERT! to add Rescue-ACE Preventer from your deck to your hand, and, next, summon it through its own effect by banning Rescue-ACE Air Lifter from your graveyard;

> Now, use Rescue-ACE Preventer and Rescue-ACE Turbulence as link material to summon I:P Masquerena;

> When sent to the graveyard, Rescue-ACE Preventer can activate its effect to summon Rescue-ACE Air Lifter back after it had been banned.

This way, your board will end up like this:

This way, you'll have as interaction for the next turn I:P Masquerena activating S:P Little Knight. Besides that, you'll have the cards in your back row with their effects enhanced as Rescue-ACE Hydrant is on board, and your RESCUE! will also be able to access Rescue-ACE Preventer for another interaction if you need it.

Rescue-Ace Diabellstar's final board doesn't have a very high power level ceiling, but its trap cards become very strong when you can play them and keep Rescue-ACE Hydrant on board. Besides that, counting with the other two interactions from S:P Little Knight your board gets stronger, even though it is still a bit below other contenders in this meta.

Despite that, the deck is still a strong candidate for the title of best deck in the format, not because it is extremely strong, but because it is strong enough and very versatile. Another strong pro to this deck is that it isn't as dependent on the graveyard as other decks and doesn't struggle against interactions such as "Bystial's" and D.D Crow. Besides that, the deck can also play around high-impact interactions, such as Nibiru, the Primal Being and Droll & Lock Bird.

Ever since Kashtira Arise-Heart was banned and "Kashtira" left the metagame, the format is quite open, and it is hard to predict which will be the next best decks. However, so far, decks such as Tearlaments, Unchained and Purrely appear to be the most solid ones, so, they are the main players' initial focus.

Even though it has an interesting "go-second" setup, Rescue-Ace Diabellstar can struggle to get through a board built by the decks above, and, as a result, interacting with your opponent on "turn 0" is extremely important, be it through your techs or your engine pseudo-handtraps.

When you play first, you have an advantage, as your deck has ways of dealing with each of those rivals, particularly post-side. Besides that, Tearlaments and Unchained don't have that much space for techs, which will give you more chances to combo freely.

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

You're welcome to give us your opinion in the comment section. Cards Realm thanks you for your support!