Introduction to Memento

Dark Blade

Despite being a really good starter, you really only want Loading... as a 1-2x due to how his ability works with the other Memento cards. On his own he only trades for a body, but if you wait to use his effect later in the combo in conjunction with Loading... or Loading... , this allows Dark Blade to produce two bodies. It's also important to note that Blade is a better starter into Loading... and Bystials, as he doesn't add to the hand. If you summon Loading... off of Blade's effect, you can send Loading... and Loading... , and since the board is empty, they cant Bystial a Ghattic. However, Loading... plays worse into Loading...

His other ability can be used to bait interaction into a board state, or as disruption on your opponent's turn by discarding any Memento card, but importantly Ghattic does not trigger to revive itself as Blade discards for cost.

Angwitch

Loading... is the best starter in the Deck in terms of being able to cycle every Memento name.

Her on-summon effect is usually used to search Loading... or Loading... , if you already have Tatsunootoshigo in hand, on your turn. On the opponent's turn you add Loading... for its Loading... -esque effect, or Shleepy based on the line.

Her revive effect is usually used to revive Mace, who is sent off of Tatsunootoshigo. Mace then adds Loading... , or any other Memento S/T you're missing. If you're under Loading... you revive Loading... to send Ghattic and whatever card you need for combo.

Note: If Angwitch's revive target is moved from GY, the revive will of course fail, but Angwitch will also be forced to destroy a name on field regardless -- usually herself.

Tatsunootoshigo

Loading... is the main extender of the Deck, but also can double as a starter. It can act as a bait to allow one of the other Normal Summonable starters to resolve, though for Loading... , I would use her as the bait, as if Tatsunootoshigo gets negated and you don't have Loading... or Loading... in hand, that combo is going to become "My body is a machine that turns full combo into S:P pass".

It is important to note that Tatsunootoshigo is the singular Memento card that has anything close to a restriction on it, similar to something like Loading... . You have quite a few ways to see Tatsunootoshigo without using it's Special Summoning effect, but it can become problematic in some board states.

Combo-wise, it usually sends one of two combinations of cards. Those combinations are

• Ghattic and Shleepy (If you think you may be Bystial'd)
• Mace, Goblin and Ghattic/Shleepy (If Angwitch was your starter)

Goblin

Loading... is the last of the good 1-card combo starters. If you have to start Goblin, you use it's effect to send Loading... and Loading... . You send these 2 instead of Ghattic + Shleepy as you want Fusion to be in the GY to use its GY effect. Very important note; if Ghattic is in hand, then Goblin cannot be a starter if you don't have any other extender in hand. You have no way to retrieve what Goblin would send, since Ghattic is stuck in your hand. However, this should rarely (if ever) be an issue in Duel Links.

Goblin's other effect is discarding it, on either players turn if you control Combined Creation, to make all Memento monsters un-targetable on-field until the end of the turn. This effect is the only in-archetypal protection the deck has. but it's usually not worth it.

Final note on Goblin, Memento in every other format made a knack of running Loading... and two Goblin to make sure you almost have a name in Deck for it to Special Summon. I do not think this is neccesary in Duel Links due to the smaller deck sizes and the draw power of the skill making it so you almost always have an extender or three. This does not mean you cannot run it if you don't wish, but I would just cut some breakers to fit it so you do not make the deck too big.

Mace

Loading... is the worst of the 1-card combo starters, as it can not produce a full endboard at all on it's own. It works better as a part of a 2-card combo, however.

Loading... has two main purposes. Searching Loading... , or whatever Spell/Trap you are missing, and being able to be discarded if you control Loading... to steal an opponents monster. That monster will usually become Fusion Material for Loading... or Loading... . Mace can only be used from hand on the opponent's turn.

Shleepy

Loading... is one of the best cards in the Deck when it comes to extension and setting up your disruptions. It's usually used in combination with Loading... either with its own foolish effect or whenever Ghattic hits the GY to retrieve Shleepy to set up for a fusion play. In most normal lines, Shleepy fuses itself and Ghattic into Loading... who then adds Loading... and Loading... , but if you have the spare names you can also fuse into Loading... . Just keep in mind Shleepy can only make Memento Fusion Monsters.

On your opponent's turn, you normally get Shleepy into play either by Loading... or through Loading... destroying Horned Dragon, who on a new chain destroys Shleepy and 2 other cards. Shleepy then sends Ghattic, who revives and adds Shleepy back to hand.

There are also worlds where you can get Turn 0 plays with Shleepy if your opponent tries to destroy cards in your hand, but depending on how they are doing that, they'd have to hit Loading... first. A good example of this is Jaiden players using Loading... to destroy it.

Akihiron

Loading... is one of the best pieces of support the deck could have ever gotten. It has banishment and GY recursion, summons itself from the GY, allows for easier OTKs, and chainblocks cards to protect them.

Loading... tends to add back a banished Loading... after it is destroyed, but it can also add back the Loading... that you sent to get Loading... or whatever card was banished.

Word of warning, Loading... is fairly popular within Duel Links and Akihiron is unironically one of the best banishes due to taking away the recursion and quicker OTK routes. Losing Akihiron is not the end of the world, but it can sting if you are forced into a grind game. Also, since Akihiron's effect to allow level 9 and higher Mementos is not one sided, putting you at grave danger of being OTK'd in the mirror-match.

Horned Dragon

Loading... is usually just to be Link Material for Loading... on your turn and disruption as described in Loading... 's section. You usually revive it off of Loading... or Loading... .

Note: You have to destroy three cards with Horned Dragon's destruction effect, always including one of your own Memento cards. This means if your opponent doesn't have enough valid targets, then you must destroy your own monsters on field.

Combined Creation

The main Boss of the Deck and what a lot of the other cards revolve around. Loading... 's main role is to be the ignition for your combo on the opponents turn by reviving Loading... or Loading... . Both are used as disruption while setting up your extenders and further disruption.

When it comes time to swing for lethal, you have 2 OTK routes. The first is Creation attacking directly by Loading... 's effect or by attacking by itself into every monster (while having piercing given by the grave effect of Loading... ).

Notes: Creation's Summon condition is not a hard once per turn, but that does not mean you want to summon it multiple times a turn. You want a good amount of names in your GY for combos on your opponent's turn, and the less in there, the more awkward it becomes. The names you want in the GY normally are Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... . If you can, you can also leave Loading... in the GY, but it is not neccessary to have since your backrow, King, and Loading... usually clean up their remaining backrow.

Combined Creation is also the reason I heavily recommend Loading... as an endboard piece, as she can have Creation dodge Loading... and come back in the End Phase.

Twin Dragon

Loading... is an extender within the main line combo on both turns, usually made through Loading... 's effect with Loading... . On your turn you destroy it, or Loading... if it is stuck in the hand, and add Loading... and Loading... . While on the opponent's turn, you add Loading... and either follow up for next turn, or Loading... . The name you revive with its GY effect usually does not matter, because that body will either be popped or become Fusion Material. If you have not used Loading... 's effect to send a card to the GY, that's a pretty good revive target.

Just to note it, Twin Dragon also has an effect that any monster your opponent controls that is destroyed by battle with a Memento is banished. It does not come up frequently at all, but it can be set up if you know you can't win that turn, but have access to stall a turn.

Creation King

Loading... can be seen as the secondary boss of the Memento archetype and it's not hard to see why. He sends 3 cards to the GY, usually including himself, Loading... , and Loading... (who would add Loading... back to hand to fuse into Loading... ). King can also pop cards up to the amount of Memento monsters you chose to destroy, but there is a major caveat to this. You can not chain this effect in the same chain King tries to send three, and the effect will try to resolve as much as possible if not every target is still on field.

Say you choose 3 Memento names and 3 cards your opponent controls, but they attempt to use Loading... on King. You can chain Loading... or Loading... to remove King from the field and whatever remaining targets on field will still be destroyed.

Bone Party

A core extender within the deck, Loading... is our key way to avoid targeted disruption and get more names on board to get our desired endboard. As stated before, it can be used as disruption when paired with Loading... , or be an alternative OTK route by giving piercing to Loading... .

A really solid all round extender you'll really love to see in your hand.

Fusion

The archetype-specific Fusion spell, and man, is it a good one. In any turn with no Memento's having been popped, it functions identical to Loading... , while also requiring at least 1 Memento monster as Fusion Material. But once at least 1 name has been popped this turn, the effect of this card changes, allowing you to also shuffle back Memento monsters from your GY as Fusion Material. A good example of how to take advantage of this, is using a Loading... that is in the GY, and a stolen DARK non-Memento monster for Loading... .

Loading... also has a really good GY effect to banish itself and destroy any monster on your field to add a Memento Spell/Trap. Usually by this point of the combo this would also trigger Loading... and Loading... to revive a lower level monster, or itself, respectively.

Mementomictlan

The Field Spell of the Deck~! It is a core extender that you will always reach thanks to Loading... 's GY effect, so only one copy is necessary due to how accessible it is. Every effect on this card has reliable use-cases.

Its' main effect is being able to Special Summon a Memento monster with a lower level than a monster that was destroyed on your field from hand or GY. That does brings up a really fun fact -- if you steal an opponents monster and destroy it somehow, Loading... will still be able to target it to revive a Memento from your GY, or Special Summon from hand (as you controlled it at time of destruction).

The Battle Phase effect does come up pretty frequently enough. Primarily it is used to guarantee that your Loading... will OTK without having to worry about something like a Loading... or a (very) late Loading... .

The last effect is our way to recycle spent Spell/Traps. There's not much to say about this effect. It's good recursion.

Bone Back

It's bad. Really bad. It reads like a crazy card, but with every new word on the card text comes like 3 or 4 asterisks. Wanna know why?

Its first effect is really only going to be alive on the opponent's turn when you already have Loading... on field, but that would require running 2 Combined Creation, which is a no-no.

As for the second effect, while Loading... is, in fact, a VERY good card, and giving to a GY-focused archetype would naturally be very OP, the only way this effect will usually trigger is if you get Bystial'd. HOWEVER! Your opponent can play around this by Bystial'ing when your board is full, turning off the card effect!

Fracture Dance

Now, back to actually good cards, we have Loading... , one of the main disruptions in-archetype.

Notably, it is leagues better then the other Memento Trap en Loading... for the fact it is always Live (if just weaker without Loading... on board), but more on that in a bit. If you do not have Creation on field, then it is pops 1 card, which is still pretty nice, but with Creation on board you get both a targeted pop, and a non-targeting pop on resolution. The latter pop is great for breaking boards that have target-protection, such as if your opponent activates Loading... in the mirror-match.

Its GY effect can pop up occasionally, but you usually do not get to see it used; it is a nice way make OTK's smoother through Loading... .

Cranium Burst

Alas, Loading... is the other divisive name in the Deck. While it does need a Loading... on-board to reasonably do something worth-while, 5 negates, in a bubble, is very good. Now, all of these ~5 negates are specifically for on-field monster effects, but that is still very powerful and will come up a lot. The issue is, if you have Creation already on the board, and access to your Memento S/T's, it's very safe to assume you also probably have a loaded GY, and/or Loading... Set, and most likely also a Loading... and/or Loading... in-hand. As such, Cranium Burst can very easily be seen as a winmore card, as by itself, its hypothetical monster negates don't do much but guarantee the opponent can't push through what is already a very layered boardstate.

Whether or not you run it is all dependent on how confident you are in guaranteeing a win. It is worth noting that Cranium Burst is also a pseudo-floodgate, in that your opponent is forced to attack your highest ATK Memento (usually Combined Creation), and yes, this is mandatory.

Oh! And don't forget! Since Kaiju's and Loading... are popular in Duel Links, be prepared for them to swiftly turn off your Cranium Burst negates with those! Yay!

While I am not personally a fan of running it, I can partially see reasons for running it (43% are on 1/57% are on 0 as of the writing of this guide). I'll leave this one up to you on whether or not you prefer running 1 Cranium Burst.