How to: Burning Abyss

First of all this topic is to help those who don't understand Burning Abyss more easily grasp their concept not some place to spew your toxic comments about how you hate the deck or how "shit" they are.

Now then Burning Abyss is one of the "Big 3" and subject to a lot of focus this format due to the release of "the new challengers", prior to the release Burning Abyss was still a very popular and strong deck combining them with both monarchs and the fiends i.e. Vanity's and majesty's fiend. Now with the release of NECH they are able to stand on their own with the addition of 4 new monsters and a very powerful trap card.


Let's take a look at each card from this archetype right quick:

First we have Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.

Scarm:

Scarm is heavily reminiscent of XX-Saber Darksoul, however its searching effect works even if you've detached him as an XYZ material. Tour Guide into Scarm into Dante basically means that you’ve made Dante at the cost of your normal summon, since you can just search another Tour Guide during your End Phase after detaching Scarm. Scarm is also fairly beefy with 2000 defense, so you can rest on him if you don't currently have any real plays to make.


Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

Cir:

Cir is essentially the monster reborn of your deck if you want a card back from the grave you're gonna want to grab Cir. Cir is not a card that’s particularly useful during the early-game, but it forms one of the key strategies of this deck: looping Dante. If Cir hits the grave, it can special summon Dante back, which in turn can add Cir to your hand when it dies making an excellent tactic to stall with if you are unable to combo off without more cards.


Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

Graff:

Graff is a tremendously useful card to get your engine going, especially when you have a card like Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to pitch it for. You will either be grabbing Scarm to wall up or Cir to continue looping without using more resources, you can also make one of the more key plays grabbing Graff with Tour guide, making Dante, pitching Graff to get either Cir, or Scarm and setting a Fire lake of the Burning Abyss to pop 3 cards and grab a lot of resources in return.


Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

Rubic:

Rubic doesn’t have a Graveyard effect like the other Malebranche monsters. Instead, its 3rd ability is “being a Tuner”, which makes it vital for bringing out Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss. It’s the best monster to Special Summon using its own effect, as you won’t miss out on using the effect of any of your other monsters when you do.


Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

Alich:

When Alich is sent to the Graveyard you can negate the effects of 1 target monster on the field until the end of the turn. This is useful for shutting off annoying monsters like the El Shaddolls for the turn, allowing you to play freely. It works really well with Foolish Burial, letting it double as a Normal Spell version of Breakthrough Skill. Plus, with Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss to return it to your hand you can reuse it to disrupt your opponent’s monster effects throughout the Duel. However the main reason you will be using Alich is to special summon it for an extra material be it Synchro or XYZ, it's effect to negate a monsters effect should be treated solely as an added bonus to the card.


Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

Calcab:

When Calcab is sent to the Graveyard, you can target 1 Set Spell/Trap Card and return that target to the hand. You can use this on your opponent’s End Phase to target a freshly Set Spell/Trap and bounce it away before it can ruin your plans. Keep in mind that if the target is illegal when the effect resolves (perhaps by the card being activated), it will not return to the hand. But just like Alich the main reason you will be using Calcab is to special summon it for an extra material be it Synchro or XYZ, it's effect to bounce a set spell or trap card should be treated solely as an added bonus to the card.



Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss

Dante:

Dante can be made quite easily with just a Tour Guide searching any Burning Abyss monster from your deck. Its effect not only generates advantage by detaching and milling Burning Abyss monsters, it can also boost its attack to 2500, a respectable milestone for a rank 3. But Dante is far superior to Leviathan Dragon, the other rank 3 that hits this milestone – it switches itself to defense position after attacking, and its defense is also 2500. This leaves it protected from destruction by battle with most easily dropped monsters, as well as monster effects such as Number 101: Silent Honor ARK. On top of all that, Dante is a floater. As soon as it hits the graveyard for any reason, you can add back a Burning Abyss monster to your hand.


Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss

Virgil:

You can use Virgil’s effect and THE POWER OF ROCK! to blast any monster you want clear off the field even cards that prevent threir own destruction like Number 101: Silent Honor ARK or El Shaddoll Winda. You can also blow away bothersome backrow cards that would put a damper on your plans or cut the power to your opponent’s show by ripping away cards they need in their Graveyard. Satellarknight Altair? Not such a bigshot without Deneb touring with him. Letting your opponent add Shaddoll Fusion back to their hand would be a major bummer, but Virgil can remove it from the picture before it will bring out something that can hurt your field.


Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss

Lake:

Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss is a simple card with massive destructive power. You send 2 of your Burning Abyss monsters to the Graveyard, then target 3 cards on the field and destroy those targets. It’s an even trade in cards, giving up your 2 monsters plus the Trap itself for 3 of your opponent’s cards. Of course, it’s not actually a fair trade, as you’ll be activating the effects of your monsters as well. Even sending Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss will activate its effect to add a Burning Abyss card back to your hand, and more importantly, can get Dante off the field in response to Shaddoll Fusion so that your opponent is forced to fuse only from their hand and field. As a Trap, you can even play it on your opponent’s End Phase to clear the way for a huge assault on your own turn, much like Icarus Attack.


The Traveler and the Burning Abyss

Traveler & BA:

Though this card is unseen in burning abyss you can still tech the card in if you wish to keep plays going into the late game, however this would mainly be useful in a grind game and is not even run at 1 in any burning abyss deck that is built in this format.


Now we've gone over every monster and every trap for the Burning Abyss archetype itself now we'll go over the cards which provide a fair amount of support for the deck.


Tour Guide From the Underworld

TGU:

Now many of you whom are still reading to this point will more than likely know what tour guide will do for the deck, however for those of you who don't what Tour guide will do for you is grab any Burning Abyss monster from your deck and you will immediately have the ability to make Dante, assuming your opponent doesn't stop you.


Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

PWWB:

Having the ability to force your opponent's plays to stop and forcing them to essentially miss out on a draw is key to stopping people in this format. Not only that but you have the ability to ditch any card in your hand to the graveyard, if you use this card in combination with a burning abyss monster you will not only disrupt your opponent but get off your monster's effect at the same time.


Karma Cut

Cut:

Similarly to PWWB you have the ability to push back your opponent by removing a key card to their field from play (banishing), and just like PWWB you get the ability to discard any card you wish to activate the effect. This card is very good against Shaddolls and the mirror matches playing another Burning Abyss player removing their key monsters from play.


Raigeki Break

RB:

Now once again this card has the same premise for discarding, and removing key peices of an opponents strategy from the field, however this is not as effective against Burning Abyss and Shaddolls. However this is great when you're playing against Qliphorts being able to chain this to their Scout or removing Skill Drain from the equation is just amazing.


Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the begining

BLS:

BLS is your boss monster within the main deck and can easily be summoned by having either Virgil or Dante in the grave along with any dark monster which is the entirety of your deck, BLS can make a second attack in a battle phase making it easy to OTK someone or you can remove a monster from the field that you no longer with to deal with.



Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force

RUM:

The standard play with Tour Guide + RUM (or any two Burning Abyss monsters + RUM) is to go into Dante, detach Scarm, mill 1 (you don’t actually want to mill your Burning Abyss monsters since Graff pulls them from the deck, and hitting Cir is useless since whatever your revive will nuke itself after you Rank Up. You should mill 3 if you made Dante without Scarm, however, because milling it will allow you to search Tour Guide during your End Phase), and use RUM to go into Pleiades. Now you have effectively made Pleiades with a 1-card investment, since Tour Guide will replace itself at the end of the turn. As an added bonus, detaching Dante for Pleiades’ effect will also trigger its effect to add a Burning Abyss monster to your hand from your graveyard.

Here are some other options to special summon with Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force:

Angineer = Tiras, Durendal

Dante = Pleiades

Grenosaurus = Volcasaurus

Ghostrick Alucard = Crimson Knight Vampire Bram


I've gone over the Burning Abyss cards themselves, I've gone over the support for the deck itself. The last thing I am going to go over with you is Building.

Building Burning Abyss is pretty standard from what you would expect. You'll want some tech cards you'll want the fairly standard monster/spell/trap line-up and you're going to want to have a fairly strong extra and side deck. Here is a build that you may use or take advantage of seeing something that is already been completed:

Monsters:

3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

3 Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss m

2 Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

1 Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

Spells:

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Beginning of the End

1 Raigeki

1 Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force

1 Soul Charge

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Foolish Burial

Traps:

3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

3 Vanity's Emptiness

3 Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss

2 Karma Cut

1 Solemn Warning

Side Deck

3 Vanity's Fiend

3 Puppet Plant

2 Enemy Controller

1 The Monarchs Stormforth

3 Fairy Wind

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Breakthrough Skill

Extra Deck

3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss

2 Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss

2 Downerd Magician

2 Constellar Pleiades

1 Ghostrick Alucard

1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark

1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction

1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn

Nice article, will definitly use it when I'm going to use BA!!

well , you gave me one post to read all day :3

There's a pattern with my articles i'm seeing, they're progressively getting longer and longer .-.

I noticed it too rees

nice aritcle
but i doubt there is anybody who dont know how to use BA lol

Well social requested some help with BA and Nuk needed help with it still so i decided to accommodate since the other BA articles have been nothing but a joke.

Nice article there!

no doubt about it , this can help b.a starters