I remembered Oracle Think Tank Tsukuyomi Decks, which would excavate cards and shuffle them into the Deck. This, effectively, allowed the Player to 'Stack' their Deck so that they could predict what card's they would draw, which worked to trigger either their Magus card effects or activate a Trigger (cards that activate an effect when drawn during battle). This deck, as it turned out, is still semi meta-relevant in Vanguard Zero, because knowing what you'll draw and planning around it eliminates so much RNG that it almost becomes cheating.
Then I figured that Yugioh didn't have anything remotely close to it. We have Adamancipators, but they've been neutered without something like Block Dragon to keep them going. We have Sylvans, but they haven't seen any play due to how slow they are (and how their effects are, generally, not worth using). There are many more Decks that use excavation, but they all stop mattering once you Search/Send/Banish a card from your Deck, because it automatically Shuffles your Deck, and therefore, kills your 'Stack'.
This archetype doesn't do any of that, and doesn't let you do any of that, because all it allows you do is Excavate, Mill (from the top only, same with Banish), and Draw cards. In doing so, you will be able to create a 'Stack' of your own. This, in turn, let's you use the effects of some of the monsters– strong effects, because you can barely play anything else. This includes non-targeting shuffling, targeting protection, non-targeting banish until end of turn, and even an omni-negate. Though, remember, you need to actually 'Stack' your Deck before you can actually use them reliably. I emphasize reliably because you can always Luck Sack and guess what's on top of your Deck, but that's just wack.
But like with any Deck, this one has weaknesses, a major one. If your opponent uses Droll & Lockbird, then this Deck literally can't do anything anymore. They can also Nibiru you because they'll need at least 4 Main Deck Monster Special Summons (and using Pot of Desires) to reach their Stack of 20 cards to accurately use their Omni-Negate. Those are the biggest weaknesses, but they're also generally weak because they limit themselves by not being able to view their Deck. The 'Stack' is the most important thing for this Deck, and without it, they can't function.
TLDR; Hard to play, just like the intended playstyle with the Vanguard Deck (OTT Tsukuyomi), but rewarding when played well (I think).
Cards: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=9219289
Art Source:
- Metrospecter
- Introspecter
- Retrospecter
- Spectrospecter
- Maestrospecter
- Protrospecter
- Nitrospecter
- Cilantrospecter
- Extrospecter
Sample Deck: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=9219079
Replay(s): (Will update as I do more testing, but lack time with some IRL responsibilities, hence why I shat this out)
- Going First (Outdated: Draws 1 after each Excavation) - https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=621063-32738717
- Going First (Current Form, after many resets) - https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=621063-32747394
Some Notes:
- Unironically, Card Shuffle is the biggest counter to this Deck.
- If you open the Logs (Mathematician Guy) and search "returned", then you can easily keep track of the 'Stack' you create.
- Fortune Fairies and Palladium cardscould work well with the Deck (included in Sample Deck Side-Deck), but I haven't tested it.
- I know that, in comparison to Vanguard, drawing cards is very overpowered in Yugioh, hence why I placed restrictions on most of the cards.
- The Deck originally had a ", then draw 1 card" clause at the end of each Excavation effect, but I found that the Deck can run without it, so I removed it. However, it is now heavily Luck Reliant (in that you want to draw the Archetype cards via card effects).
- Despite being Psychics and having a Tuner, both Halqifibrax and Emergecy Teleport will not work with this Deck. This also removes them from using Search cards, as mentioned before, but I felt the need to reiterate.
- Try not to open your Deck, because that's gonna cause an irreparable game state, literally (unless you can somehow fix the Deck without the auto-Shuffling cutting in it, and prove to your opponent the correct order of cards). It'll be a hassle for both you and your opponent.
- There is no pre-set one-card, or even two-card, combo here. You're basing it all on Luck before you actually reach your Stack of cards. However, Pot of Desires does help you reach your 'Stack' faster by banishing 10 cards, making it so that you only need a 'Stack' of 15 or 20 before the Deck is online.