Marincess Playguide

The new Marincess Skill is the launchpad that allows this deck to achieve near-perfect consistency. To activate it, you must play at least 10 Marincess cards and accept being locked into WATER (Water-lock). Additionally, the Skill also negates non-Marincess effect damage to prevent players from abusing Trickstar cards to chip away. However, these restrictions are not a concern at all, since the core Marincess playstyle already naturally locks itself into WATER continuously throughout the Link climb 

• All you need to do is reveal a Level 4 Marincess monster or a Marincess Spell in your hand, and you can immediately search (search) the deck's two most important starter pieces – usually Marincess Pascalus and Marincess Sea Horse. More cleverly, the subsequent action of sending 1 card from your hand to the GY not only helps you clean up excess cards, but also serves as an excellent resource setup for your Link Monsters to retrieve and use. Thanks to this smooth card-filtering mechanism, you are virtually guaranteed a 100% chance of executing a full combo in every duel.
  
  
• By the end of the combo chain, once you have built a Link-4 (such as Aqua Argonaut), the Skill then unleashes its final boost: it lets you add 1 Marincess Trap or Spell directly from your Deck to your hand and throw the boss monster Wonder Heart onto the Extra Monster Zone. This interaction is incredibly valuable because it lets you hold the extremely powerful protective Trap Marincess Wave without having to go to the trouble of Summoning the Link-3 Coral Triangle, thereby also avoiding the cost of discarding 1 card from your hand, which is very resource-intensive. Although Wonder Heart has no practical use, being able to "hack" a free Trap turns your board into a massive, impenetrable defensive fortress.

Mariness Pascalus is the most important Normal Summon in your main combo. Her effect is extremely direct but also very effective: when Normal Summoned, Pascalus allows you to immediately Special Summon a different Mariness monster from your hand (usually Sea Horse). This gives you enough two materials on the field instantly to begin the Link climb process. Thanks to the power of the new Skill, Pascalus almost always appears on your hand on Turn 1. As per the standard combo, regardless of whatever opening deck you open with, the ultimate goal of the Skill is always to search Pascalus together with Sea Horse onto your hand. It is precisely this support from the Skill that has turned Pascalus into a perfect starter machine, which is why she must always be present with a maximum of three copies in the deck.

If Pascalus is the pioneer, then Mariness Sea Horse is an excellent extender that helps you maintain resources and climb higher-level Link monsters. The special ability of Sea Horse is to self-summon from your hand to an area where the Marincess Link monster is pointing with its arrow. In practical combat, this interaction creates a very annoying resource recycling loop, helping you save the maximum number of cards in hand.

Specifically, in the standard combo chain, after being called out by Pascalus, Sea Horse will be used as material to summon Link-1 Blue Slug. Immediately, the effect of Blue Slug will retrieve Sea Horse back from under the Graveyard to your hand. Then, Sea Horse again activates the self-jump-to-field effect (into the target square of Blue Slug) to continue serving as material to summon the second Link-1 Sea Angel. The process of "use up and retrieve, retrieve and jump" ensures you always have enough materials to reach the Link-4 boss Aqua Argonaut without running out of resources.

Both Mariness Blue Tang and Mariness Springirl are recommended with maximum quantity (3 copies per card), serving as absolute insurance for deck stability. Having them in your hand just means you have a full combo when you open the game. Whether you hold Blue Tang or Springirl, the playstyle is always to bring them out to activate the skill condition.

Filling the deck with Level 4 monsters is extremely necessary. The deck's skill requires you to show a Mariness monster to exchange for the pair Pascalus and Sea Horse. Therefore, an abundance of Blue Tang and Springirl in your hand serves as a "ticket" through the gate, ensuring you never get bricked unless you draw a hand consisting entirely of spell/trap cards - a nearly non-existent risk with this deck structure.

Mariness Mandrin was originally designed as a very good extender. If you are controlling two or more Mariness monsters, this girl can Special Summon herself from hand or from the Graveyard to a square that your Water Link monster points to. Thanks to her resurrection ability from the Graveyard, Mandrin was once quite popular as a Link-climbing support tool to compensate for resources. However, Mandrin's fatal weakness in Duel Links is its "Level 1" stat. The card's effect requires you to send a Mariness monster of Level 4 to exchange for Pascalus and Sea Horse. Drawing Mandrin on Turn 1 will turn it into a stuck "weight" on your hand because it cannot be used to activate the Effect. Moreover, the self-draft mission has been done so excellently by Sea Horse and Springirl, making Mandrin redundant and not worth risking stability.

Marincess Sleepy Maiden is a defensive and support monster. She can jump onto the field from hand by targeting one of your Marincess monsters you control, while also granting that monster indestructible protection. Additionally, when under the Graveyard, Sleepy Maiden allows you to equip a Marincess Link monster on the field boss to increase its attack/defense.

Despite sounding versatile, Sleepy Maiden is completely out of place with current gameplay. First, it is Level 5, meaning it continues to clog similar skill effects like Mandarin. Second, its protection ability is far too overpowered. In this deck, the boss Aqua Argonaut has become an impenetrable wall when the trap Marincess Wave is activated, completely unaffected by any card effects. Equipping Link monsters from the Graveyard is also criticized as redundant because the Environment Spell Battle Ocean already does this perfectly.

Unlike the two names above, Mariness Basilalima is actually a Level 4 monster, which means it can be used to activate Skills. The effect of Basilalima is to protect the Marincess monster from being destroyed by self-exiling itself from the Grave. More notably, it can exile one Marincess Trap from the Grave to search for another Marincess Trap from the deck into hand.

The reason Basilalima isn't heavily utilized lies in its slow pace. On Turn 1, this card doesn't provide any special summoning ability or team draw that would help you support Link like Pascalus or Springirl. Furthermore, its Trap search ability requires having a setup under the Grave, whereas the new Skill from Duel Links has already "hacked" you with a direct Trap from the deck right after building Boss Link-4. Therefore, Basilalima I rate as a "just good enough, could be worse" card and was discarded to make way for more effective hand traps or extenders.

is an exclusive defensive monster focused on reducing damage. You can Special Summon her by discarding one other monster from your hand to the Graveyard. During battle, Crown Tail can Special Summon itself from the Graveyard to reduce the damage you will receive, up to thousands of points based on the total Link Rating of the Mariness monsters below the Graveyard. Unfortunately, Crown Tail is the clearest example of a card design that does not fit modern fast-duel formats. Her Level 5 makes skills brick. Moreover, the current playstyle of Mariness is building an unbreakable board at Turn 1 with Aqua Argonaut 4100 Attack Power or sweeping OTK immediately on Turn 2. Carrying a card just to "reduce damage" and stall is completely meaningless and goes against the aggressive attack philosophy of the deck.

Serves as a power enhancement hub for the entire dueling table, Mariness Battle Ocean is an essential piece that transforms your Link monsters into true "fortress walls." The Environmental Spell Card allows you to equip up to 3 Marincess Link monsters from the Graveyard onto the previously Summoned Link monster in the Extended Monster Zone (EMZ). This not only provides a massive amount of Attack Power (such as helping the boss Aqua Argonaut reach 4100 ATK) but also prepares "ammunition" for the negate (negate) effect of Argonaut herself (since she needs Special Summoning a equipped monster to activate the negate spell).

In the standard combo chain, Battle Ocean will always be automatically searched and easily activated through the effect of Link-1 Sea Angel. Especially, if you use Crystal Hear as material to promote the Link monster in EMZ while Battle Ocean is activated, that monster will be completely unaffected by the opponent's card effects. However, the fatal flaw is that if the opponent destroys Battle Ocean, the power and control ability of Aqua Argonaut will drop significantly. That is why you must always prioritize using Argonaut's negate spell carefully to protect this Environmental Spell Card at all costs.

Marincess Wave is the ultimate defensive artifact of the deck, with explosive power and comprehensive support capabilities. Its basic effect is similar to Infinite Impermanence which targets and nullifies the effects of your face-up monster opponent. However, the core value that makes this card's name famous lies in its second part: if you are controlling a Link-2 Marincess or higher, all of your face-up Monsters will become completely immune (unaffected) to all of your opponent's card effects until the end of the turn.

The most crazy point of this Trap card is the ability to activate directly from hand if you have a Link-3 Marincess or higher on the field. In Duel Links format, the new skill allows you to immediately draw Mariness Wave from the deck onto your hand right after setting up the Link-4 boss. This lets you completely skip using Link-3Coral Triangle for searching traps, thereby avoiding the costly price of throwing one card on your hand. The combination of sudden rhythm-breaking opponent interruption from hand and full-field immunity buff makes Wave a real nightmare for anyone trying to break through Marincess's defense line.

Mechanically, Mariness Cascade is a Normal Trap Card that allows you to banish any number of your own Mariness Link monsters up to your next Standby Phase. In return, you select a face-up monster on the field, which will have its Attack Power increased by 300 multiplied by the total Link Rating of the monsters just banished. Similar to the ability of Super Trap Mariness Wave, if you are controlling a Mariness Link monster Level 3 or higher, you can directly activate Cascade from hand for surprise effect against the opponent.

This card rarely appears and was noticed when playing with a test deck during intense matches to protect the field, after drawing Cascade, one couldn't help but stare at their Mariness monsters... they flew away from the field

In terms of practical strategy in the Duel Links meta, Mariness Cascade feels more like a tech card than a mainstay card. Công dụng tốt nhất của nó là giúp quái thú boss của bạn "stun" để né các hiệu ứng nhắm mục tiêu nguy hiểm hoặc các đòn dọn dẹp bàn đấu, sau đó quay trở lại an toàn vào lượt sau. Ngoài ra, nó có thể dùng để buff một lượng Sức tấn công đủ lớn nhằm dứt điểm OTK đối thủ.

Considering practical strategy in the Duel Links meta, Mariness Cascade feels more like a tech card than a mainstay card. Its best function is to "stun" your boss monsters to evade dangerous targeted effects or board wipes, then return safely to play on the next turn. Additionally, it can be used to buff enough Attack Power to finish off an opponent's OTK.

Serves as the starting touchpoint for every Link-climbing combo chain of the deck. When Link Summoned, the Blue Slug effect allows you to target and retrieve 1 Marine from under the Graveyard to your hand, ensuring resources are not wasted from the very first step.

In battle, you typically use Sea Horse as material for Blue Slug, then activate the main grab Sea Horse again so it can jump down onto the target square that Blue Slug points to. Especially note that you must place Blue Slug in the Extended Monster Zone (EMZ) to leave space underneath

This is the second Link-1 piece with an important mission: setting up the Spell system. As soon as it is called, Sea Angel will automatically search for Environmental Spell Battle Ocean (or Dive if already available) from the deck to hand, creating a foundation for buffing power for later bosses.

An especially important point is the direction of Sea Angel's arrow (pointing left). Therefore, you must first call Blue Slug onto EMZ before using Sea Horse to send Sea Angel down to the appropriate middle-target area. Placing the cards incorrectly will cause the combo to get stuck immediately.

Coral Anemone maintains the pace for the entire combo chain. The effect of her allows Special Summoning another Marincess creature from the Graveyard directly into the target area of the arrow that this card points to.

In typical gameplay scenarios when playing a deck, Coral Anemone will revive Pascalus to increase resources on the field. Thanks to this ability to clone resources without getting tired, you can easily use her together with Pascalus as a stepping stone straight up to Link-3 or Link-4 without fearing running out of cards in hand.

On the surface, this card has no attack stat or impressive activation effect on the battlefield, but it is the "hidden key" that creates the invincibility of Marincess. It is used as a Link material together with Coral Anemone to directly target the ultimate boss Aqua Argonaut.

The horror lies in its resonance with the Environmental Spell Battle Ocean. Any Link monster summoned by using Crystal Heart will become completely immune (unaffected) to all opponent's card effects. The sacrifice of Crystal Heart is the launchpad that transforms Aqua Argonau into an unshakeable fortress.

This is the ultimate boss and the only destination of all Marincess combo paths in current Duel Links. Thanks to the equipment from the Graveyard through Battle Ocean, she can reach 4100 Attack Power and possesses the trait that forces all opponent monsters to attack her, creating a perfect defensive wall. The most dangerous weapon of Aqua Argonaut is the ability to negate opponent Spell/Trap by Special Summoning a monster currently on the field (usually Crystal Heart) to the field. When combined with Wave trap and immunity trait, Aqua Argonaut has almost no enemy threats except for being sacrificed by Kaiju (and she is completely safe from Lava Golem because the deck play maintains only one monster on the field at a time).

The remaining high-level Link monsters are not highly regarded by us and will have no place in the current playstyle. Coral Triangle (Link-3) was originally designed to search for Traps but now requires throwing away one card on the field; this operation has been completely replaced by new skills that give free traps instead. Bubble Reef (Link-4) despite having draw power and high attack strength but lacks the counter of Life/Death Trap, so it always gets pushed aside to make way for Aqua Argonaut. Finally is Wonder Heart (Link-4), the boss being the "worst monster". Its only appearance on the battlefield is due to the skill forcing players to "throw" it from the Extra Deck to the EMZ zone to satisfy the condition of taking a Wave trap card, serving entirely as a filler without any real strategic value. Though worthless, this still must be x1 in Extra, especially Wonder Heart