Midrange Hacking Dragon

I have plans for covering the more popular decks, but for now I wanted to write something, so here's a casual list from my collection of decks that I forgot about.

Hacking Dragon is by all metrics an underwhelming card. Needing less than 3 monsters on your opponent's board to activate in a format where the best deck swarms the board easily is but one of its many glaring flaws. However, Hacking Dragon in terms of card design is very interesting, being the only card in the game to give one of your monsters to your opponent. We're going to be trying to make use of this lackluster card in a dragon shell with some interesting interactions.

The main card I want to pair Hacking with is Delirium Lampyris, another very intersting card that swaps control of monsters, but this time it takes a monster from your opponent. Lampyris can only take monsters of the same type as the card discarded for its requirement, which either means you're siding it in for the mirror or you're trying to make your opponent have a specific type with certain effects, such as the intended usage alongside Delirium Papillon which turns opposing monsters into Insects, or in this case *giving* them a specifically typed monster, such as with Hacking Dragon. Pairing this with ample Dragons, we have a gimmicky way to take back the monster we gave them with Hacking. Unfortunately, Hacking sends the monster over in defense position. This limits the number of good targets we can play as most will not be able to get immediate value after the combo, except for Shock Dragon, which we are playing at 2 here. This card intensive line sets up Shock Dragon in defense and makes it less vulnerable, allowing you to debuff your opponent safely. We're playing 3 Hacking in this build, but realistically you should just play 2 as its synergies are more niche in nature.

That's basically the main gist of the strategy, but we do still have some issues to solve, firstly, Dragons. We need a fair amount to consistently do the combo, and luckily there's a good amount of options. For this deck we've chosen to run the Blue-Tooth Burst Dragon and Lightwave Dragon package, this duo stars in multiple lists as a generic boardwipe, here it is just as useful. Blue-Tooth also has a fun interaction with Hacking where Hacking can give your opponent a weak monster to destroy with Blue-Tooth. Since the bounce on Hacking is optional, you can choose to have your opponent at 3 monsters to get more attack off of Blue-Tooth's effect. This isn't the most practical use, but it is an option if you have the cards for it. Mostly you'll just be using Lightwave to debuff the board temporarily and get them off the board with Blue-Tooth. We've also got Phoenix Dragon, the best Dragon low level which allows for toolboxing and recursion, and Double Twin Dragon, which cheats out your tribute monsters. For the last Dragon we're running 2 Fortitude Dragon to help our pseudo vanillas beat over bigger threats such as Lillius (or most other 2 tribute monsters).

Our next issue is card advantage. If you haven't noticed our combos use up a lot of cards to reach the payoff, the Lampyris Hacking combo needs 6, which is going to take up your entire hand and more. Double Twin helps out a bit but just one isn't going to be enough. That's why we're also playing 3 Progress Potter and 1 Necromaid Nana (the maximum you can play under the new banlist), which both nets us extra cards and also cycles important pieces back into the deck for later use. We're also running Monster Reborn as our spell legend card, and The Creator as our monster legend card. Both of these are able to cheat out our big monsters cost-effectively and helps set up both our Hacking lines and our Blue-Tooth lines. There are other options to get even more cards, such as Galactica Jamais Vu or running Pot of Avarice instead of Reborn, but I wanted space for other cards.

That space was reserved for consistency, which is represented in Amazing Dealer and Ship of Seven Treasures to churn through the deck faster, as well as technically Ghost Cyclone if you draw it early enough, but that's here as backrow removal. Additional consistency will allow us to find combo pieces faster and not get out tempo'd by drawing a bad hand as easily.

Having backrow removal is important to make sure the combo resolves, which is why Ghost Cyclone is in the deck. You could play Dragon's Inferno as a simpler spell to use, but Ghost Cyclone is potentially higher value and can potentially even trigger in the mid game with both Double Twin and Progress Potter shuffling cards back into the deck. You can also consider running Sea Dragon Knight as well for additional backrow hate, but I wanted more space. 

As another tech in the deck, we're running 2 Type Change Beam, this is to make use of Lampyris more consistently if the Hacking line is unavailable, which admittedly it probably will be. Having more consistent access to other plays with Lampyris allows for the deck to be able to do things without relying on it's admittedly inconsistent gameplan. Lastly, we're also running Mirror Force as our Trap Legend, nothing much to say here, it's just the best one to slot in generally, other playable options include Torrential Tribute and Magic Cylinder.

Overall, Hacking Dragon isn't particularly great. It's a fun alternative and take on the Midrange Dragon strategy, but you're better off playing without in and playing more consistently viable options instead. But if you just want a fun deck to play on a casual night, this is a fun one to try out.