Introduction
Vendread is a new archetype of Dark Zombies introduced in Curse of Dread focused on ritual summoning. The thing that separates them from the other ritual archetypes in duel links is their zombie typing and all the gimmicks that come with that, like almost all the non-ritual monsters being able to special summon themselves from the grave and the ability to ritual summon from the grave or use monsters in there as material. Along with the usual the deck also brings its own gimmick in the form of the ritual monsters gaining powerful effects when using the non-ritual monsters as tribute while they are on the field.
Disclaimer: Most of this is based on speculations, we won't know what cards and combos work best until the the deck has been out for a while. If you are interested in playing this archetype take this as an introduction and test different things for yourself.
Archtypal Cards
Ritual Monsters
Revendread Slayer
First and foremost is the most important ritual monster of the deck, Slayer might not be the strongest guy around but he is easy to summon, benefits from origin’s protection effect, and he is by far the best searcher the deck has, being the only card of the archetype that can search ritual spells along with a foolish burial-like effect that lets you get ritual material by sending any vendread monster to the grave when he himself hits it. Best thing about this effect is that it can be triggered by using slayer as a ritual material if he is on the field. Play it at 2 or 3.
Revendread Executor
The second ritual monster of the deck is the big beater and boss monster of the archetype, Executor. The biggest advantage Executor has over the other ritual monsters of this deck is his massive 3000 ATK points and the ability to make your field untargetable, this effect makes multi-targeting cards like Loading... and Loading... completely unusable and if you can get 2 Executors on the field at the same time they both become untargetable along with everything else on your board. The only downside to this card is that his float effect only triggers if he is destroyed by your opponent unlike Slayer and Battlelord. Play it at 2 to make summoning with evolution easier.
Vendread Battlelord
Our third ritual monster is Battlelord, a surprisingly lackluster card. As great as the ability to stop your opponent from using spells, traps or monster effects is, the fact that they can chain their spells, traps and monster effects to it severely limits it’s usability. Although because he can still stop things like Loading... or Loading... it might still be worth it to run 1 but in most situations Slayer or Executor is a better option for their superior search on death and superior ability to beat things up respectively. Play it at 0-1.
Vendread Chimera
The last ritual monster is Chimera, true to his name he possesses an effect like that of the ritual monsters of the archetype and an effect and one just like the effects of the regular Vendread monsters. His first effect let’s you negate effects that would destroy any card on the field by banishing zombies from your grave, while his second effect weakens your opponent’s monsters when he is used as material for a ritual summon and unlike the non-ritual monsters he doesn’t need to be on the field for this ability to trigger. As great as both these effects sound his low ATK power and lack of floating effect makes it hard to justify putting him in instead of other monsters or put in more than 1.
Non-Ritual Monsters
When it comes to Vendread monsters, they all have 2 effects: a GY effect to special summon a Vendread monster (usually itself), and an effect that it gives to a Vendread ritual monster upon tributing it on the field. To further elaborate, if you have a Loading... on the field, and use it as a material to ritual summon a Revendread monster, then it will gain its tribute effect. The Revendread will NOT gain the effect if the material is tributed from anywhere else.
Vendread Core
Vendread Core is one of two level 1 Vendread monsters. It's first effect allows it to special summon itself by banishing another Zombie from the GY. It's revival effect is better mid game when you have zombies in the GY. Its tribute effect makes the Vendread ritual monster unable to be targeted by card effects. This is very good in conjunction with Executor, as this will make your entire field untargetable. It is, however, difficult to have all of the materials if you don't have Battlelord since Core is only level one, but Level Duplication will alleviate this. If you play this, play it at 1.
Vendread Anima
Anima is the second level 1 Vendread monster. It's first effect allows you to revive a banished Vendread monster by banishing itself. This does include the ritual monsters as long as they were properly ritual summoned first , which makes this card very good to swarm the field for game. It can also revive a Vendread monster to be tributed to summon a Vendread ritual monster, and it will gain the effect. The beauty is the summoned monster will return to the GY, where it will have further use. This is a rare case where it's revival effect is much better than its tribute effect, so you want this in the GY unlike core. Its tribute effect makes the ritual monster able to banish any monster that it battles, which is good against Fumas, White Stones and Dawn Knights. Play this at 1-2.
Vendread Striges
Striges comes in at level 2. It's revival effect allows you to reveal a Vendread card in your hand in order to summon it from the GY. This cost is very easy to meet since your deck consists of mainly Vendread cards. However, unlike the other monsters, this effect will ONLY activate as soon as it's sent to the GY, so make sure you can meet the cost. Since it's level 2, it fits quite nicely in the spectrum of levels needed to ritual summon. Its tribute effect gives your ritual monsters the ability to draw a card, then discard a card when it battles. Could be useful, but it's mainly there for it's level. Play this at 1.
Vendread Houndhorde
Now we're getting to the good stuff. This good boi comes in at level 3. It's revival effect requires you to discard a Vendread card in order to summon it from the GY. This cost is almost as easy to meet as Striges, since you can just discard extra copies of Nights, a ritual monster, or a Vendread you'd like in the GY, such as Core and Anima. It's tribute effect gives the Vendread ritual monster a Quick Effect to banish a backrow card once per turn. This is very important against a myriad matchups, including Metaphys, Ancient Gears, Six Sams, Spellbooks and Triamids. Play this card at 2-3.
Vendread Revenants
The final Vendread monster is level 4. It revives itself from the GY upon its destruction, but it banishes itself when it leaves the field. This is good whenever you need to stall for a turn, should you brick with this card in your hand. It's tribute effect gives the Revendread the Quick Effect to banish a special summoned monster once per turn. This, along with Houndhorde is your bread and butter in terms of tribute effects, and it's easy to see why. This is great for banishing boss monsters and interrupting your opponent's plays. Because this effect is so impactful, we'll go in depth with this in the matchups section. Play this card at 2-3.
Spells
Revendread Origin
Origin is most likely the best ritual spell card in the game at the moment, not only does it not require you to tribute the exact level of the ritual monster it also lets you summon from and use monsters in the grave as material with a Neos Fusion-like protection effect for Slayer and Executor to top it all off. This is a ritual deck so you obviously play 3.
Revendread Evolution
The second ritual spell of the deck and probably the second best ritual spell in the game by virtue of the fact that it just like origin lets you ritual summon from the grave but what sets it apart is that it lets you use one monster from the deck as material along with monsters on the board and/or in your hand making your ritual summons less costly while helping you set up the graveyard. It’s one downside is that your ritual monster will be destroy at the end of your opponent’s turn, while that might sound like a big deal you can use origins effect in the graveyard to prevent it from happening or if it goes through it triggers Slayer’s and Battlelord’s effect and lets you search out a ritual monster or spell. Same as the first ritual spell, an easy 3.
Vendread Nights
The field spell of the Vendreads, at first it might not look like a big deal or maybe even too costly to be effective but on the contrary it’s a great consistency boost for the deck by letting you search any of your non-ritual monsters so you can gain their effects but it also makes turn 1 ritual summons easier without adding too many ritual monsters. And with how easily the deck can use cards in the grave as long as you can discard a monster to activate the it’s effect you will rarely lose card advantage. It’s second effect though is very situational, it’ll most likely only see use when you can win the turn you use it. For it’s surprisingly great effect you should play 2-3.
Vendread Nightmare
Vendread Nightmare is the most mediocre card of this archetype. It never saw any play in the TCG and with level duplication being in the game it’s first effect is all the worse. It’s second effect could help you get over larger monsters like Cosmo Brain but it’s not worth running with how little space the deck has in it to play around with.