LotW Charmers

While I'm aware you're not doing Legacy of the Worthless, I did find an archetype that pretty much could fit the bill if you still did it, at least in my opinion, and because I cannot afford giving to Patreon for you to review this deck, I figured perhaps I'll just do it myself and let you see it yourself Rata. And cause Twitter has a character limit, I had to use Pastebin. Now I'm no expert on Yugioh given I do other things far more these days (most notably competitive Pokemon), but I'll just go over this stuff too.

Forward:

This archetype is the Elemental Charmers, who were released during GX and it was kinda questionable if they were to be an archetype in the first place. However, over time they seem to get a little support here and there, and they also seem to be rather popular in Fanfiction and Roleplay communities as well as two of them, Eria and Wynn, have unique stories behind them pertaining to other cards. Unlike Madolches though they never were Meta or even Rogue to begin with and likely they'll stay that way even with all the spellcaster support we got over the years, and they're even poor choices of side deck material during metas that focus on a specific attribute such as Nekroz. They're just that bad.

Monster Lineup:

To start it off, we have to go over the ones to start it off, the Elemental Charmers themselves, each corresponding to a specific attribute.

Eria the Water Charmer - Water Attribute

Wynn the Wind Charmer - Wind Attribute

Hiita the Fire Charmer - Fire Attribute

Aussa the Earth Charmer - Earth Attribute

Dharc the Dark Charmer - Dark Attribute

Lyna the Light Charmer - Light Attribute

Each of them are flip effect monsters with 500 Attack and 1500 defense and the following effect:

"FLIP: Target 1 face-up [corresponding attribute] monster your opponent controls; take control of that target while this card is face-up on the field."

Sounds like it'd be okay for the time, but mind you this means they have to live, and by GX we had plenty of things to run over 1500 defense monsters too. In order for the effect to be you'd have to Flip summon them or use Book of Taiyou to get their effects off, and if the effect happens to be negated, they get to keep the monster. Not too mention the control effects are way too specific so it'd depend on the deck you're facing against as for many, only one will be theoretically useful.

Not to mention Dharc and Lyna came much later than the other four, so by then the gimmick was outdated too. I'll call Eria, Wynn, Hiita, and Aussa "The Original Four" from now on since they came first. Also, Lore-wise, Eria becomes Gishki Ariel, and Wynn becomes Winda, and eventually El Shadoll Winda.

However, they have "upgraded" versions in the form of their "Familiar-Possessed" variants too. Let's start with the ones that came first since the original four got them about the same time.

Eria - Familiar-Possessed Eria

Wynn - Familiar-Possessed Wynn

Hiita - Familiar-Possessed Hiita

Aussa - Familiar-Possessed Aussa

They each have 1850 attack and 1500 defense and they all have the following effect:

"You can send 1 [Corresponding Charmer] and 1 [Corresponding Attribute] monster you control to the Graveyard to Special Summon this card from your hand or Deck. If you do, this card gets the following effect: ● During battle between this attacking card and a Defense Position monster whose DEF is lower than the ATK of this card, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent."

Even during their inception this just screamed pointless. There were far better piercing damage battler options back then and you can still normal summon these four anyways but they might as well be normal monsters then. The only beneficial way I could see their effects going off is say tribute their charmer and the monster they snatched, but if you're that desperate to remove a monster there's better ways to go about it especially today.

Dharc and Lyna also have Familiar-Possessed counterparts, but unlike the other Charmers, they tried to give you a reason to special summon them with their effects as opposed to just piercing damage.

Familiar-Possessed Dharc - "You can Special Summon this card (from your hand or Deck) by sending 1 face-up "Dharc the Dark Charmer" you control and 1 face-up DARK monster you control to the Graveyard. When you do: You can add 1 Level 3 or 4 LIGHT Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card was Special Summoned by this effect and attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing Battle Damage to your opponent."

...Well if you really wanted to search out Lyna or Lumina, Lightsworn Magus, you could use this method, but it's just not worth it.

Familiar-Possessed Lyna - "You can Special Summon this card (from your hand or Deck) by sending 1 face-up "Lyna the Light Charmer" you control and 1 face-up LIGHT monster you control to the Graveyard. When Summoned this way: You can add 1 Spellcaster-Type monster with 1500 DEF from your Deck to your hand, except "Familiar-Possessed - Lyna". If this card Special Summoned by its own effect attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent."

Easily the best of the Familiar-Possessed Charmers, and yet still not that worth it. Sure it searches the entire Archetype but at a very specific cost that you might as well run some other kinda of tech choices.

Really, the only thing the Familiar-Possessed monsters are good for are the 1850 attack, which was impressive back in the day but means nothing now.

The original four Elemental Charmers also have what they call "Cataclysmic" which were actually kinda okay back in the day for casual play and had some damn good artwork (as does most of the archetype) but now are totally useless.

Eria - Raging Eria

Wynn - Storming Wynn

Hiita - Blazing Hiita

Aussa - Avalanching Aussa

They each have 800 attack and 1500 defense and the following effect:

"Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 [Corresponding Attribute] monster (except this card) to Special Summon 1 [Corresponding Attribute] monster from your hand. The monster Special Summoned by this effect is destroyed if [Corresponding Cataclysmic Charmer] is removed from your side of the field."

Back in the day of their inception they were okay in casual decks focused on a single attribute as you could tribute another monster to bring out a very strong one that's sitting in your hand given that there's no level limit as well, but the problem if that if the Cataclysmic Charmer is removed from the field by any means necessary, the monster (or monsters if you can pull that off) get destroyed. Nowadays not worth it, but back in the day, they were fun to use, at least in my opinion.

Spell/Trap Lineup:

Now this wouldn't be an Archetype without any spells or traps now do they (aside from a few)? They actually do have Trap cards related to them if only by their artwork and corresponding attributes. Since they all have different effects that go off, I'll cover them one at a time for now. However, the original four Elemental Charmers have actually okay Traps related to them.

Spiritual Water Art - Aoi

"Tribute 1 WATER monster; look at your opponent's hand, then send 1 card from their hand to the Graveyard."

Basically Confiscation at the cost of a WATER monster. Back during this card's inception it was actually pretty good, but situational due to it's cost as well. It's too slow nowadays though and most decks could possibly plus from their shit being in the graveyard. If you think this could disrupt your opponent, run at least one if you feel like it.

Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi

"Tribute 1 WIND monster, then target 1 card your opponent controls; place that card on the bottom of the Deck."

If it wasn't for the cost being that you had to tribute the WIND monster instead of something like controlling one or discarding one, this would've probably seen meta usage in old formats as the effect can be pretty devastating since returning ANY card to the bottom of the deck is better than just sending it to the graveyard, even though it targets. I've even seen Harpie and Gusto decks back in late GX and mid-5Ds running this as an emergency out to problematic monsters in some locals. Now it's of course too slow, but it's not something to completely scoff at at least.

Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai

"Tribute 1 FIRE monster; inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's original ATK."

I suppose you could use this in some decks to finish off limping opponents but that's really the only usage I can see coming out of this as well. It was okay for the time in some burn decks that made use of FIRE monsters, but it was gimmicky at best.

Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane

"Tribute 1 EARTH monster. Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower EARTH monster from your Graveyard, except the Tributed monster."

This is probably the worst of the Original Four's Trap cards, and for good reason. It's way too situational and the monster being revived has to be an EARTH monster that's Level 4 or lower. It also requires a tribute so it's not like your plusing or anything. Feel free to ignore this one for better cards like Call of the Haunted.

While the Original Four had some okay traps, Dharc and Lyna's traps are just beyond terrible in comparison because of one single part of the effect listed on the cards.

Dark Spirit Art - Greed

"Tribute 1 DARK monster. Draw 2 cards. Your opponent can negate this effect by revealing 1 Spell Card in their hand."

If I'm not mistaken, this came out before the original four did, but even back then this was terrible draw power, especially since you're far more likely to go minus than plus since your opponent can just reveal a spell card rather than has to discard one, which would've actually been okayish back then, but instead no, you just get rid of your own shit for no good reason. Not to mention Allure of Darkness exists so don't even bother with this at all. In my opinion, this is the trap card equivalent to Royal Knight of the Ice Barrier if I ever saw one.

Spiritual Light Art - Hijiri

"Tribute 1 LIGHT monster to target 1 banished monster; your opponent can reveal 1 Trap Card from their hand to negate this card's effect, otherwise you Special Summon that monster."

Again, your opponent can negate the card without going into a minus to do so. This actually could've been a somewhat tolerable effect if your opponent couldn't just reveal a trap card. Not to mention this was the most recent of them all so they didn't have a god damn excuse for the negation at this point.

However, very recently (as of 2015 recently to be exact), they actually got a Trap Card that helps them out quite a bit.

Unpossessed - ""Charmer" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle. If a "Familiar-Possessed" monster you control attacks an opponent's monster, it gains 800 ATK during damage calculation only. If a monster(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster with 1500 DEF from your Deck, whose Attribute is different from at least 1 of those destroyed monsters' original Attributes on the field, in Attack Position or face-down Defense Position. You can only use this effect of "Unpossessed" once per turn."

You can see just how badly they wanted to fix the archetype's problems in this single card, but trust me it's no B.E.F. Zelos. The Archetype is far from being Rogue-tier status even with this card and it might as well just be the glue holding them together. Not to mention it's a Continuous Trap Card and not a Field Spell which would've been even better. Furthermore this also assumes you're running other monsters with them since the Charmers themselves cannot be destroyed by battle but there is a condition for battle destruction.

Closing Thoughts:

I think the Elemental Charmers are the perfect example of how great artwork and a clear theme can make an archetype popular in certain aspects no matter how bad the shortcomings are. They have amazing artwork and two of them have great stories to tell if you're willing to dig into some lore like I tend to love doing. As an Archetype they're barely playable aside from some of their traps being okay tech choices during slower formats, which don't exactly hold up today unfortunately. At the very least, they have stories to tell and I'd personally love to see the others get stories of their own since they seem connected to the Duel Terminal storyline.

Feel free to yell at me about this being a stupid idea or share your thoughts on the matter or whatnot.