Charmer Analysis and Overview

Introduction

Hello! I'm back with another guide because Konami released a skill that's supposed to make Charmers work as a deck. Well, they released the Spirit Charmers Structure Deck into Duel Links back in August, and the deck has made very little impact (practically no impact) on the Meta Game, similar to when they released in the TCG/OCG! Some players have seen success with the deck by mixing it with a few engines, most notably Magistus and Orcust, and some has even made the deck work pure by playing it as a Rank 4 Turbo Deck. But alas, the deck's power is too low for the Modern Metagame of Duel Links, and can be considered a huge fail on Konami's behest. But now, they have a new skill that adds one of the most crucial cards to the archetype that wasn't in the Structure Deck, Loading... , How will they fare in the metagame now?

Charmers are a weird mess. They've been around the card game for so long, dating back to their first release in 2005. The archetype is built around "charming" the opponent's monsters and taking control of them, provided that they share the same attribute as the charmer you've summoned or set. The first iteration of this strategy was with the use of the Flip Mechanic, with the Charmers taking control of an opponent's monster. But the monster you wanted to take control had to have the same attribute as the Charmer you've flipped, with Loading... taking control of a Wind Monster. And unfortunately, these effects were too hard to make use of as it's hard to end up knowing the attribute of monsters your opponent would play. With even more misfortune, Konami wouldn't make proper support for this archetype until a lot more years later.

Loading... was made in order to support the Flip Charmers, as she has the ability to summon any of them from Deck in Face-Down Defense Position while also having the effect to flip them face-up on a quick effect during the opponent's turn... and it doesn't really make the archetype any good to no one's surprise. With the release of the Charmer Links, you're able to steal a Monster from the opponent's GY that shares the same attribute as the Charmer you've summoned. And this has pretty much been the only other pieces of support they've received when it comes to taking control of monsters, as the rest of their newer support shifted the focus of the deck on controlling different Attributes of Spellcasters with 1850 ATK and 1500 DEF.

Their new support seems pretty good on the surface. They now have access to a draw engine, non-targeting destruction, recursion, extension, a way to boost their ATK to huge amounts, and even a negate. But alas, those are all of their Spell/Traps. The deck is sadly relegated to play what are essentially Normal Monsters with Effect Monster text, which makes the deck feel very underpowered compared to every other deck. However, they have one saving grace in the fact that their Spell and Traps don't necessarily have to work with any of the archetype's monsters (outside of Loading... ) and can make work with ANY Spellcaster with 1850 ATK OR 1500 DEF. This makes the deck a very weird engine for a few Spellcaster decks that can provide these weird statline requirements. With the popular examples of Loading... and Loading... synergizing with the Trap Cards due to them having 1500 DEF, and the Fairy Tails (most notably Loading... ) as they have 1850 ATK.

However, as you may have noticed, most of the cards I've mentioned aren't even in Duel Links. So how will the archetype fare in this new-found format they've found themselves in?

Modern Charmers is a deck that can be used as either a Control Beatdown Deck or as an engine to empower other Spellcaster Decks. The main gameplan of the pure deck is to get to their Spell/Traps as soon as possible and have them backed up or powered up by the Familiar-Possessed Charmers. The deck enjoys the company of strong staple cards such as Loading... and Loading... and are able to draw into them more easily with the help of Loading... . The main win condition of the deck is to deprive the opponent of their resources and beat them down with your buffed Spellcasters. And as an engine, the deck aims to power up their fellow spellcasters by using Loading... to get access to another Spellcaster and provide a few more value with their Spell/Traps such as Loading... . Or they could also use the Charmer Familiars such as Loading... for easy extension to their plays. As stated before, the deck can be very clunky as both a Pure Deck and as an Engine. While the Spell/Traps that the deck plays can be strong, the Monsters of the archetype have no effective effect which makes them severely weaker compared to the rest of their competition.

Monsters

a) Familiar-Possessed

Don't read their text, you are never going to be able to resolve these. They would have been fine, but the fact you have to play the Old Flip Charmers to Summon them from Deck makes it very not worth it. The Familiar-Possessed Charmers are effectively vanilla monsters. So instead, I'll be explaining the ratios of each monster.

1 each of Hiita, Eria, Wynn, and Aussa is sadly required to activate the skill. While they may have no effects, they have 1 very important factor to them, they have 1850 ATK and 1500 DEF. This ATK Stat makes it so you get to draw a card with Loading... on their Normal Summon, while the DEF Stat is what's needed for Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... . Normally, Hiita would be a 0 of due to the existance of Loading... being a better FIRE Charmer than her, which is why she's only at 1x compared to her colleagues that are at 1-2x. Albeit, the best ratios would be to have them all at 1x. Eria and Wynn can be considered as 2 ofs if you want to more easily make certain Xyz Monsters for the deck, notably Loading... with Eria for the ATK Boost and Loading... with Wynn and another WIND. Aussa however has no other application which is why she's a 1 of, and is mainly needed as she's an EARTH.

Loading... is a special case. She's a 0 of due to the case of the Extra Deck Monsters of the deck. In this case, Loading... is actually the better LIGHT Attribute Spellcaster for the deck as Artemis can enable your Loading... with the Normal Summon of any other Charmer. This cannot work with Lyna due to her being a LIGHT similar to Artemis. Loading... is another funny case of this, as most of the best Extra Deck Toolbox cards are DARK Attribute (i.e. Loading... , Loading... ), there's barely a need for Dharc to be in the Main Deck. However, unlike Lyna with Artemis, most of these ED Monsters are gonna be harder to summon, so if you want to you can play Dharc in your deck. Just know that 4 Charmers is the optimal Ratio.