>>200401042
Burning Abyss as an archtype is amazing. It relies around level 3 dark fiends where everyone has unique abilities next to what all of them have basic while trying to benifit from multiple summoning mechanics namely and mostly XYZ, Synchro since recently a Link monster and then Fusion. Theres also Ritual but we don't really talk about that. Note that i'm not someone that won YCS with it, but I do like to play it a lot.

Anyway, all the BA have the following in common:
If theres a NOT "Burning Abyss" Monster on your side of the field, they destroy themselves. That happens instantly and doesn't activate. Set monsters are also not Burning abyss monsters, so then they get destroyed too.
If you controll no spells or traps: You can special summon them from your hand.
Each individuall Burning Abyss monster has an unique effect when being sent to the graveyard, which means it doesn't matter as cost, detatching as XYZ material, deck to grave etc. Of course banished to the GY doesn't count.
You can ONLY specialsummon them from the hand OR use the GY effect. Not both. Also theyre all hard OTP, so you can never resolve the same BA GY effect twice.
As for the BA monsters themselves, i'll just list you all of them to give you an overview what it does and what kind of stuff is done with it. They all end with "Malebranche of the Burning Abyss" so i'll leave that out

1. Barbar. When he goes to the GY, you can target up to 3 burning abyss cards (so spell traps work too) and if it resolves, banish them to burn your opponent for 300 each. He is very good in the grind game since he basicly gives you additional reach to burn your opponent to death. If you managed to be a literal BA god and you got 3 Dante buffed to 2500 and attack for 7500, you can go into beatrice by either discarding barbar or sending him during the opponents drawphase with beatrice to burn them for game. Personally I feel 2 is a good ratio.

2. Cir. Hes amazing as in he gives you the power to grind out your opponent. If he goes to the GY you can special summon any burning abyss from your GY. The common "loop" with cir is that your opponent somehow sends dante to the GY, Dante adds Cir to the hand, Cir special summons dante. When Dante goes to the Graveyard again you can even add another BA monster in the hand again. Sadly hes currently limited, which makes him just vulnerable to banishes. Always play him.

3Cagna. He isn't really played in the normal version but when he goes into the GY you can send any Burning Abyss S/T to the GY. Some people run him at 1 to send the Ritual spell or the traps to use the ritual GY effect or to setup a play to add fire lake or traveler and the burning abyss to the hand. Run 1 if you wanna try the firelake version, because else he has no use.

4. Calab. When he goes to the GY you can target 1 set S/T and return it to the hand. Hes good against some decks, but being specific to set cards makes him at best a target to send with beatrice during your opponents endphase to maybe remove a set threat. Since currently battletraps aren't really an issue, run 1 for versatility.

5.Libic. Currently libic is amazing since if he goes into the GY, you can special summon a level 3 dark fiend from your hand and thier effects are negated. Basicly you can summon a BA from hand and it wont be destroyed by having a not-burning abyss monster on the field. It just helps you to extend your plays without having to worry if you have a not burning abyss monster on the field, run 1-3 whatever you feel works best.

6.Alich. When he goes into the GY, you can target 1 faceup monster on the field and negate it's effects until the end of t he turn. Opponent got an annoying monster? Just negate it's effects. Fun story: During BA format a friend got a flying C, which is probably the worst enemy of BA. Not ba, can't xyz summon. But theres 1 issue, and that's hes level 3. A friend of me normal summoned Alich, he got destroyed and negated flying c's effects, banished fog blade to SS a PK and went into a dante for game. Alich MVP. But currently, i'd say run 1-2.

7.Darghig. When he gets send to the GY, you can put a BA card ontop of your deck. If your mills are terrible and want to mill at least 1 BA card with dante then run this. But realitistcly beyond memes hes one of the worst BA's. Run 0

8. Farfa. Literally one of the healthiest card designs in the game. Termporarily banishes a monster until the endphase, no matter if faceup or down, yours or your opponent. Beatrice loves sending Farfa for those jucy quickplay disruptions. If hes attached to dante, the battlephase can become really awkward. Can force negations or you temporarily banish a monster and go for game. Run 3 at all times.

9. Graff. He is not only cute, but also extremly powerful and helps the deck a fuckton. Sadly hes currently limited with his buttboy Cir. Special summons a BA from your deck, except himself. BA has with the link monster a foolish burial which means this guy is an play extender, and he helped with those tripple dantes. The BA SS can then be sent to the GY to trigger which gives you a BA for any case needed. Always play him.

10. Scarm. Hes best friend with Tour guide. During the Endphase when he was sent to the GY this turn: Search any level 3 dark fiend monster. Add tourgide for a powerful follow up play or any BA afterwards that fits your needs. Run 3 at all times.

11. Rubic, the last maindeck BA. He is unique as in he has effect when sent to the graveyard but is a tuner. Gives you access to Virgil, the only BA synchro monster. You can only synchro BA monsters with him. The good thing is you can special summon him and he has no drawback of having no effect in the grave, I guess. Run 0-1, depends how you feel about him. Since I enjoy virgil, I run 1.

For the Extradeck it goes like this:

Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss. The man, the legend. Hes the reason you play this deck. Detatching 1 XYZ material and milling 1-3 cards is COST. You can't ash that. For each card milled he gains 500 ATK, which means he has 2500 ATK. If he attacks he changes to DEF and has 2500 DEF. If hes sent to the GY: You can target 1 BA card expect "this card" and add it to your hand. If you have another dante in your grave, you can add the other one. So if you run short on him you can just send him back to the ED. Milling as cost is the pinnacle of card design IMO, without it the deck would be way weaker. My rule of thumb is: Do you have Scarm in your grave? If no, mill 3. If yes, mill maybe 1 to detatch a BA monster to use it's effect (cir or graf) to extend your plays. Learn to properly build chainlinks to dodge any kind of hurtful effect. If you mill the cards, the 3 and detatched arrive at the same time and then you can build it as needed. Run 2-3 depending on your extradeck space.

Dante, Pilgrim of the Burning abyss. Hes the fusion monster of the archtype but you never really fusion summon him, only with Beatrice (more to that later). He can't be targeted by opponents card effects, quickeffect sending BA from hand to GY to draw 1, sending is cost. Opponent XYZ summons za lightning? Oops, discarded my farfa and he targets the lightning, and you draw one. And if he gets sent to the GY by an opponents card effect while on the field you can make them discard 1 random card. Run only 1.

Virgil, Rockstar of the Burning Abyss. Hes not as good to turbo into him or something, but OPT you can discard a BA to target and spin a card from opponents field or GY. Can be really disruptive but can't be used on your opponents turn. Run 1 and get it out with rubic or beatrice.

Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal. Shes not a burning abyss. If you have her, your BA fiends get destroyed. But she is still part of the archtype and limited sadly. You can summon her by discarding a BY and overlaying over dante (pretty lewd tbh) and you can't activate it during the turn shes summoned that way, but she is basicly a quickplay foolish for any card in your deck. Send that farfa, send that Calab, send that scarm to search. Now to add ontop of that, getting rid of her is tricky. If she gets destroyed by battle or cardeffect you can Specialsummon any BA from your extradeck, mostly Pilgrim. It's extremly hard to deal with her without giving your opponent some sort of advantage.

Cherubini, Black angel of the Burning Abyss. The long awaited Linkmonster is finally saving BA. Needs just 2 level 3 monsters, monster he points to can't be destroyed by cardeffects. If he would be destroyed by battle or cardeffect (opponent) you can send a card YOU CONTROL to the GY instead. This is an alternative which means it doesn't activate. Foolish burial for any level 3 monster as COST to buff ATK/DEF for the target by the same ATK/DEF as sent monster. A godsend for the archtype, run 2-3.

For spells and traps it's pretty straight forward. Ritual spell can be banished and you send a BA from hand to the GY to add any BA card. It's good to search out a monster or the traps: The Traveler and the burning abyss and Fire lake of the burning abyss.
Traveler lets you target any number of BA that were sent there this turn: SS them in def. Fire lake is icarus attack but you send 2 BA cards to the GY and then target 3 cards on the field and destroy them. I personally like this version of BA since it can just come insane if you use both during the same turn.

For techs: they mix well with phantom knights (the level 3 ones, ragged gloves, silent boots and ancient cloak) which also gives you access to fogblade.
Fiendish Rhino Warrior is very needed right now as in it prevents your BA's from destroying themselves. If he gets into the grave you can send any fiend to the GY from the deck, which gives easy access to Graff.
Crane Crane SS a BA from your GY and negates it's effect, hes level 3. Pretty good to recover a bit.
With the Linkmonster you could, for example, NS tourguide, SS sangan, go into Cherubini. Now you can search a handtrap like ash to use on your opponents turn and then send graf to extend your plays, etc etc.

A bit extradeck suggestions: Pretty much any good rank can help.

Nightmareshark for directattack for 2k.
Break sword is like diamond dire wolf just more versitile. If cherubini points to him, he doesn't get destroyed.
Grampulse is an MST, and can be overlaid with Downerd (MP2) or full armoed black ray lancer (if no xyz materials)
Downerd also can be overlaid over an dante with no XYZ materials to attack into a monster to send him into the grave to cycle a card.
Leviar to get a banished BA / PK back to trigger it or use for another XYZ summon if you summon it where cherubini points.
Acid golem as 3k beater, pretty bants with skill drain
Old school tech: Number 20 Giga brilliant and Digital Bug Corebage. Why? Giga brilliant with 2 level 3, detatch to SS corebage. Now you can shuffle your opponents dante into the deck since he will be in defense after he attacked. and if your dante goes in def you can attatch a light insect from GY to him again. Spicy spicy in a mirror.
Muzurhythm the string djinn -> boosts himself to 3k during the damage step to run over masterpeace if hes unaffected by spells or has no fieldspell.


For how you play them: Normal summon a BA you want the effect to trigger. Special summon a Ba from hand that you dont need the effect right now. Now you can go into cherubini, send Graff to SS cir from the deck, summon another BA if possible and go into Dante. You are basicly grinding your opponent because you keep cycling your sources while he has to spend his to get rid of your stuff.

You just always have to be aware of your resources, abuse the effects of the BA monsters as good as you can. The more you build an understanding of how the cards interact with each other the more skillful plays you can make. Today I beat a D/D/D/ player at locals by having a wonkey as fuck field, but he was low on LP and I figured to make nightmare shark, detatch cir, SS Barbar and burn for 900 and attacked with 2k directly for game. He definetly did not see that one coming.

If you have any more questions, suggestions and feedback id greatly appriciate it. Enjoy summinging 2 level 3 monsters and overlay dante.