Shining Sarcophagus Deck List & Card Guide

Shining Sarcophagus is a Control deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, featuring retrains of Yugi Muto's most iconic cards in Duel Monsters! Check out the core deck list and key combos, as well as tips on how to play, alternative card options & counters against this specific Deck!

Shining Sarcophagus Deck List

Main Deck: 40 cards
x3	x3	x3	x2	x2
x2	x2	x2	x2	x1
x1	x3	x2	x2	x2
x1	x1	x1	x1	x3
x1
Extra Deck: 15 cards
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1

Shining Sarcophagus Breakdown

Monsters

Spells

Traps

Extra

Rarity	Name	Qty
	Maxx "C"	3
	Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring	3
	Dimension Shifter	2
	Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction	2
	PSY-Framegear Gamma	2
	Silent Magician Zero	2
	Silent Swordsman Zero	2
	Dark Magician the Magician of Black Magic	2
	Gadget Trio	3
	Archfiend's Advent	1
	PSY-Frame Driver	1

Rarity	Name	Qty
	Shining Sarcophagus	3
	Called by the Grave	2
	Super Polymerization	2
	Crossout Designator	1
	Turn Silence	1
	Ties That Bind	2
	Secrets of Dark Magic	1
	Future Silence	1

Rarity	Name	Qty
	Infinite Impermanence	3
	Dark Magic Mirror Force	1

Rarity	Name	Qty
	Garura, Wings of Resonant Life	1
	Guardian Chimera	1
	Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever	1
	PSY-Framelord Omega	1
	Chaos Angel	1
	Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis	1
	I:P Masquerena	1
	S:P Little Knight	1
	Knightmare Unicorn	1
	Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians	1
	Accesscode Talker	1
	Underworld Goddess of the Closed World	1
	Mudragon of the Swamp	1
	Dark Magician the Dragon Knight	1
	Knightmare Phoenix	1

Shining Sarcophagus Deck Guide: How to Play

Playstyle and Win Condition

Core Combos and Interactions

Boss Monsters

	Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction
	Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction is the easiest nuke in the entire Deck. Special Summonable with relative ease, and all it takes is paying half your own LP to destroy everything on the Field, and have a Shining Sarcophagus monster immediately afterwards is quite a game-ending play, if the opponent cannot respond accordingly.
	Dark Magician the Dragon Knight
	Theoretically, this is where Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon should be, but because that Fusion Monster is still Forbidden, Dark Magician the Dragon Knight will be the stand-in. It's not that bad of a choice, considering it protects your backrow from card destruction, which means further protection to the titular card Shining Sarcophagus.
	Chaos Angel
	Chaos Angel is actually pretty to access, considering the Deck doesn't have a Tuner monster anwhere other than PSY-Framegear Gamma. It automatically treats any LIGHT or DARK monster as a Tuner, so to activate best results you would want to have Archfiend's Advent and either Silent Swordsman Zero or Silent Magician Zero as materials.
	Accesscode Talker
	If a Deck can Link Climb into a LINK-4 monster with relative ease, always expect them to run Accesscode Talker and the Shining Sarcophagus Deck is no option. While its main strength is more on the Main Deck with its bevy of control and swarming abilities, it is stil nice to be able to summon this boss monster that enjoys an ATK boost, and has a card destruction effect that the opponent cannot respond to.

Shining Sarcophagus Counters: How to Beat

Best Decks to Use Against Shining Sarcophagus

Tenpai Dragon

Arguably the best Deck in the Meta as of writing, and one that prefers to go second. If a Tenpai Dragon Duelist manages to go second, be prepared to handle their plethora of hand traps, and their ability to turn things around once they reach their Battle Phase. Your best shot against this Deck is to go second yourself.

If you get forced to go first, set up as much as you can--with negates from Silent Magician Zero and Silent Swordsman Zero. With Super Polymerization and Dark Magician the Magician of Black Magic on your field, this is a good way to take away their monsters to summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight!

Tenpai Dragon Deck List & Card Guide

Voiceless Voice

Voiceless Voice has such a simple playstyle, but its resource loop and imposing boss monsters make them quite a very difficult Deck to deal with, even as a Shining Sarcophagus Deck. If it manages to go first, expect a powerful negate from Skull Guardian, Protector of the Voiceless Voice.

It doesn't help that their Continous Spells and Traps are easy to get on the field, and once they are they provide immense protection. Barrier of the Voiceless Voice renders all LIGHT monsters immune to targeted effects and Radiance of the Voiceless Voice destroys cards based on the number of LIGHT Ritual monsters on their field.

Voiceless Voice Deck List & Card Guide

Yubel

Yubel feels like an even match up for Shining Sarcophagus, but the only downside is that it's going to take advantage of Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction's field-wiping effects. Even without Phantom of Yubel's ability to change effects, so long as Nightmare Pain and a "Yubel" monster is on the field, they can take advantage and reflect battle damage back easily.

It only gets worse with the help of the Unchained Engine, as Unchained Soul of Rage can make use of one of your monsters as Link Material for a Link Summon during your turn. Escape of the Unchained being a Trap Card makes it a great way to take out the titular Shining Sarcophagus.

Yubel Deck List & Card Guide

Ice Barrier

A match-up against Ice Barriers will rely on this archetype bricking enough that they cannot get to Lancea, Ancestral Dragon of the Ice Mountain as fast as possible. This is crucial as the monster's effect to Special Summon other "Ice Barrier" monsters is a once-per-Chain clause. Every time an effect triggers, it gets to summon more bodies on the floor, with each one having a different floodgate effect.

Worse is the access to Adamancipator Risen - Dragite which can negate Spell Card activations, and Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier which banishes Spell Cards, not destroy.

Ice Barrier Deck List & Card Guide

Best Cards to Tech Against Shining Sarcophagus

	Droll & Lock Bird
	Droll & Lock Bird is a good hand trap to run against Shining Sarcophagus, as much of the Deck's power relies on getting cards from the Deck as soon as possible. Even the titular Continuous Spell Card has a search effect to get monsters mentioning it by name to the hand during their turn.
	Forbidden Droplet
	Easily the best hand trap to run when going second against Shining Sarcophagus, Forbidden Droplet can negate cards up to the number of discards you make to use its effect. Most of the time, the opponent cannot respond to this Quick-Play Spell's activation, especially if they discard a Monster Card as cost.
	Evenly Matched
	If Shining Sarcophagus is immune to card destruction by monster effects, and there's more layers of protection like Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, a good way to wipe the player's field is with Evenly Matched. This works best if you go second and you manage to bait out the negate from Silent Magician Zero.

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