Introduction:Well, most people on the server should already be familiar with what I'm about to submit here, but it's Idol time! This is one of my more recent creations and even though I've pushed back submitting it a lot of times, I'm very happy with how it came out.
What is Idolescent?Idolescent is a Psychic Archetype based around a singular card
Arietta, Idolescent Songstress, who is basically responsible for most of your plays. I have made the Archetype with the intention of having Extra Deck Scales and Scale Floating, and I am pretty sure I have achieved my goals handsomely. It is still a patented Zerry Combo Deck, with a few non-obvious lines and a bit of resilience to boot, albeit that is mostly from being Psychic-Type.
The Cards
Let's start with the star of the show, shall we?
Arietta, Idolescent Songstress is the centerpiece of this Archetype. All following cards build upon her or result from her. She herself is a Level 3 EARTH Psychic Tuner that on Summon can place an Idolescent Scale from your face-down Extra Deck face-up in your Pendulum Zone and on being used as Synchro Material or for any kind of Fusion shenanigans can add an Idolescent Spell or Trap from your Deck to your hand. Note that the Scale Setting is not once per turn, so by summoning 2 of her, you can set up full scales!
The first of the remaining 2 Main Deck monsters are
Admirer of the Idolescent Songstress, who can Special Summon himself by dropping an Idolescent card or a Psychic monster from your hand. On being Special Summoned he then searches exactly Arietta, as a loyal fan should! A very simple starter piece to get to the heart of your Deck.
While Admirer takes care of getting Arietta,
Devotee of the Idolescent Songstress is responsible for getting Spells and Traps as she can use her Quick Effect to drop herself and set one of them right from the Deck. If she's on the field, she could also be used to copy a Scale's name, which can be quite interesting indeed!
I've been talking a lot about Scales, now it is time to show them. There is only two in this Archetype and they are
Purewhite Idolescent Refrain and
Deepblack Idolescent Refrain. They have basically opposite or completing effects. Purewhite grants effect destruction protection and gains LP during each Standby Phase in scale, while Pureblack protects from battle destruction and deals damage to your opponent on each Standby Phase. As monsters, Purewhite destroys a face-down card on Summon and floats into an Idolescent monster from your GY (to your field) and a Deepblack from your face-up ED (to your Pendulum Zone, while Deepblack destroys a face-up card on Summon and floats into a set ST and a Purewhite from your ED right to your Pendulum Zone.
The core aspect really is to cycle Purewhite and Deepblack as much as possible to keep getting that juicy advantage while also making sure you're benefiting from their protections.
Upgrading from the prior scales, we get the Contact Fusions:
Purewhite Idolescent Crescendo and
Deepblack Idolescent Crescendo, which both need to tribute Arietta and their smaller versions. Again, these two complete themselves, but in a different way. Big Purewhite gets to search an Idolescent monster when you gain LP, while Deepblack banishes the top 3 cards from your opponents Deck face-down when they take effect damage. At the same time, Purewhite negates monster effects and Deepblack negates Spell/Trap Effects by destroying an Idolescent Card in your Pendulum Zone. They are simple but effective boss monsters to be sure.
Most cards in this Archetype work in sets of two. Two arts for Arietta, two main followers, two Fusion Scales, two big Fusions and even the 4 cards after this work in 2s, as there's 2 more Spells and Traps to go over. However, these two kinda break from that cycle, and are also the most recent additions to the Archetype.
The Idolescent Songstress in White is the answer to "why is Arietta a Tuner", by giving Idolescent a reasonably easily accessible Synchro Monster that by itself can make sure you get to get to a Crescendo, as she Summons a Refrain from your Extra Deck by banishing an Idolescent card from your GY on Summon and counts as Arietta herself. She also floats into any face-up Idolescent Pendulum Scale on hitting the GY. Truly an Extra Deck Arietta.
On the other hand is the Field Spell,
Idolescent Magnum Opus and this card is very strong indeed. Firstly it protects Idolescent monters from targeting. It also pushes Idolescent monsters and weakens opponent's monsters by 100 times the cards on the board if the matching scale is in the Pendulum Zone. But the biggest thing is to be able to Deck Summon Arietta if your board is empty. You only get this effect once per duel, but it is very strong regardless.
Before Synchro Arietta was a thing, we needed another way to summon our Refrains. That was
Composing the Idolescent Melody, which is still a pretty good card with Synchro Arietta around. It is a Quick Spell that turns a Refrain in the Scales into it's Counterpart on the field, counting as a Fusion Summon. That's all it does, and also all it needs to do. It can serve as hidden disruption on the opponent's turn by just ripping out a Deepblack Refrain to pop a card.
Idolescent Encore is your token revival spell, although it also summons from hand. This is also able to resummon your Crescendos or Synchro Arietta, so it's an all-around great card. Another good thing that comes from it is it's GY effect, which has you banish it and a Psychic to draw 2. Now you might not necessarily want to do this, because there is no banish recursion in Idolescent and Encore is a valuable card, but drawing 2 cards is still strong. However, you can not do it during the turn Encore hits the GY, so you gotta do it smart.
Now we get to the traps!
Idolescent Chorus is simple. It's just Zefra War, and even has a handtrap condition, which is controlling a Crescendo. Simple, but also effective.
Neverending Idolescent Concert, truth be told, is the card most affected by the later additions of Synchro Arietta and especially Magnum Opus, having lost lots of it's qualities. However it is still a somewhat usable card. On activation if you have no Scale, you can set a face-down Refrain, you also get to replace a Scale with another from your ED and you get to banish it from your GY if you have an empty board to Deck Summon Arietta. Well, okay, you only get one of these effects per turn, but they're still useful for Idolescent. Pre-Magnum Opus, the last effect was actually a reason to run Foolish Burial Goods, in order to get easier Arietta access, but that is now on a Field Spell so it's kinda redundant. The rest is good, but not abnormally great. Concert is probably the one miss in this Archetype.
Adressing Psychic WorriesI know that Psychic is a very much supported Type on this server, and I have already proven that Idolescent works very well with Aeonbreakers, to keep up the Psychic formula, however, as someone who has played a lot of Psychic in the past, with and without Idolescent, I have been able to ascertain that what Idolescent Aeonbreaker does and what Cosmo'n Aeonbreaker does is neither too far apart, nor too far ahead of the rest of the game. They're strong, no doubt about it. They have devilish highrolls and their expected boards are good, but their non-ultraroll-boards are not unbreakable, the Aeonbreaker Engine is quite combatable and I feel that if there was more knowledge about how this Deck functions and if the server was a little more competitive, the Idolescent Aeonbreaker deck would probably not be Tier 1.
AfterwordThere we have it, another Zerry Archetype submitted. I am also planning to put Brakadian Sky and my Drive Mechanic up soon, so do look forward for that.
