Notes & Combos

Saw B.E.S. Rush popping off for some reason, and naturally I gotta throw my hat back in the ring to talk about it, and update my B.E.S. Rush list from last year. I was going for this KoG at a leisurely pace... until I saw that the newest box contains Purulia (before Madolche Anjelly, of course 🤬); that card completely sh*ts on B.E.S., and I don't wanna deal with that.

As neat as it is to play B.E.S. Rush again, to be clear, there's near ZERO reason to be going back to it over The Unsealed Forbidden Door. Unsealed is more consistent, less ride-or-die on Zelos, the endboard has literally everything the Rush one has plus extra, WAY more kill power going second, and better followup. Citadel and Ruinforce alone are such huge boons to the B.E.S. strategy that Rush just can't compare.

There are two things Rush has over Unsealed though, and those are 1) Orichalcos can get popped before you flip it, and, most importantly, 2) You can use the Extra Deck... which is why I find it so funny that most people actually struggle to. To be fair, it isn't needed like 70% of the time, but you WILL lose that other 30% of games thinking there was nothing to be done if you aren't building it right. I particularly wanted to talk about this, so here's what's mandatory:

• Dora, Liebe, Anger Knuckle, maybe Gangaridai

The R10NK pool is the easiest to access thanks to Derringer. Dora can set up the "infinite Metal Slave pops" (don't target Slave tho), Liebe just kills lmao, and Anger Knuckle can swap 2 bodies for a Derringer in Grave (dumped via Slave). Gangaridai is an alternate option to help Liebe with killing.

• A R6NK

This is because Tetran is the best name on-board that isn't from the new support. I like using Ptolemy (it's a free card nowadays too), you can use it to either board break, or grab a body from GY. Also, if you aren't doing anything cute in the Extra that requires more of other names, play 2-3 Tetran; it's great to open one to force out otherwise problematic backrow early without having to search it.

• TY-PHON

He's so clutch, no reason not to run him, B.E.S. Rush is really good at ending up in simplified board states where a TY-PHON can just clear the last roadblock and win. That's partially due to the awful follow-up, but I digress.

From there you can try whatever you'd like; I was using Chaos Angel, and it was pretty good when I could actually make it. It also doubled as a Lv10 for Liebe and the like. Other options include Rank 8-9s (Dingirsu and Harbinger are good 8s, Laevatein and Hyperyton are good 9s), or for options that don't require bloating the Main, Underclock Taker is my first go-to, and Equimax can potentially combo with it. Genius is also a solid pick, it can disable problem cards and you usually have a fodder target for it.

The 2 Goddesses are one of the best things you can do with 3 stray bodies but usually aren't necessary. Pentestag is there but usually won't net you a kill from full without Liebe. World Gears is neat but often easy to out. Last and certainly least, Knightmares exist, I guess. Can't really afford the discard, nor the loss of bodies.

Most of my list is similar to my Top 1000 list from a year ago, but to quickly explain the odd stuff I'm running, Reborn is a strong 1-of extender, Perimeter is my attempt to patch up the awful follow-up (this was the main issue in most of my losses), and Pathfinder is the best B.E.S. Normal Summon; also, stop being afraid of playing one.

Blizzard used to be a staple but there's a lot less Eclipse running around than there used to be, and it sucks hard against pretty much every modern endboard. Overlay Network also isn't suddenly bad per se, but Perimeter is filling a more important role, and space is really tight. Also the Dora + Slave + Body endboard still loses to everything B.E.S. already loses to lmao

Last thing to cover, B.E.S. Rush ain't suddenly a rogue meta pick lol. Branded and Vaal played correctly (especially Vaal) can both push through the B.E.S. endboard, and set up a field that walls out anything B.E.S. can do, even with staples. Fortunately, there's a lot of inexperienced Branded players, but even a bad Vaal player is a practically unwinnable matchup. It isn't worse than Shinobird back in the day, but it's pretty d*mn close.

There's also the legion of Synchro decks that spam Crimson Dragon, and if they go into Red Supernova, you'll always lose if you don't find a staple. Even Snake-Eye, who would otherwise struggle dealing with Metal Slave, turns the tables hard with Kurikara, who can just wipe you out instantly; especially if you revive MK-3 or Blaster without thinking about it.

That about wraps up my B.E.S. Rush in [current year] commentary, play it if you feel unique but do consider just playing a B.E.S. focused Unsealed list like the one I uploaded last instead. Also got a 10-win streak in Legend. Some dumb errors floating around the replays but I played for near 12 hours by the end, so all things considered, can't rag on myself too much, I was pretty exhausted.

and i still am i need sleep this took way too long to write lmao