Decklists: Toaru-verse/Science Side/Antagonists

= Dark Side of Academy City =

Yoshio uses a fully custom Robo Type Deck, centering around his signature monster, "Robo Type: Great Dane." His entire Deck is focused around bringing out as many "Great Danes" or Tokens of said monster as possible, swarming the field and overwhelming his opponents with sheer numbers, and powering them up with "Robo Command" cards. Although he has no Esper abilities of his own, he is able to take down opponents much higher-ranked than him due to his analytical skills. Yoshio picks his fights very carefully, preferring to Duel opponents whose powers and strategies he's already studied so that he can form an appropriate counter to their strategies. He lures these unsuspecting opponents into areas where their powers are much less effective, then uses his swarm of "Great Danes" to grind them down.

Against completely unfamiliar opponents, he can approximately ascertain the nature of their abilities, which he will attempt to use to push them just enough to wipe them of their resources, before moving in for the finishing blow. His confidence against Espers of all levels can, however, be his undoing; he tends to underestimate even higher-leveled Espers who are more unpredictable in their power application. In situations where he's overwhelmed by surprise, he attempts his emergency backup plan: "Robo Type: Mosquito." This card can deliver the ultimate cheap shot to any distracted opponents who weren't expecting it; if there are no cards in this deadly Trap's column, the "Mosquito" will inject them with a paralyzing nanodevice that completely immobilizes them, while dealing 7,000 points of damage. Even if the effect damage isn't enough to finish them off, opponents will never be in a capable state to continue the Duel once afflicted.

However, once opponents are privy to all his layers of defense and trickery, Yoshio easily crumbles. Since he lacks the raw power in his Deck available to the vast majority of his opponents, he will almost never win in a fair fight. Yoshio's Deck has no true backup plan, nor does it have any negation to slow opponents' plays, and once his "Great Danes" are out of the picture, the Duel is essentially completely over regardless of any LP lead. While his boss monster "Robo Type: Mantis" does indeed have high ATK, its levels of protection are simply too feeble to make an impact against any competent opponent; not to mention, he has no way of recovering his "Great Danes" from the Graveyard without retreating and completely restarting the Duel and the playing field.

Mitori uses a Gimmick Puppet Deck, which plays a "grappling" style that waits for the opponent to overextend before launching the appropriate counterattack with deadly Xyz Monsters. Getting "Gimmick Puppets" out onto the field can be somewhat troubling due to most of them having high Levels or certain Special Summoning requirements, so she employs monsters such as "" and "" and cards such as "" to put her monsters exactly where she needs them for her plays. Once those monsters hit the field, Mitori possesses a wide variety of ways to demolish the opponent's board, including several "Number" monsters that can be used to devastating effects.

Fitting for a high-ranked Level 4 Esper, she has three such "Numbers": "" can pick off Special Summoned monsters, "" boasts high ATK and can pressure the entire field by threatening mass monster destruction, and "Number 88: Gimmick Puppet Destined Leo" is an even stronger body that has protection against Spells and Traps, and has a Duel winner effect should the opponent be unable to deal with it in time. When ranked up, each of these "Numbers" is easily able to end the Duel in a single turn if the conditions are right. "Gimmick Puppets" are conventionally a very weak Deck going first, but Mitori includes several key cards that serve to alleviate this weakness. "Gimmick Puppet Acid Mask" and "Gimmick Puppet Sculpture" provide extremely powerful disruption on the opponent's turn, and the Trap Cards "" and "Remote Puppet" can stage completely unexpected aggressive plays on the opponent's turn.

The most frightening part of Mitori's strategy, however, lies in her Esper ability, Liquid Shadow. With it, she can create a clone of herself using up to half her current LP that can conduct Duels remotely. This clone cannot be attacked directly and is immune to effect damage, making it a major annoyance for her enemies to overcome. The variable LP count of this clone allows Mitori to easily put said clone (and herself) in activation range for otherwise very inconsistent cards, such as "", to further harass opponents and wear them down. By the time her enemies make it to the actual Duelist behind the shadow clones (assuming they can even do so in the first place), they will be faced with an unfavorable environment to Duel in, likely already battered by the devastating effects of the "Gimmick Puppets." Unless said opponent is exceptional, they will be unable to defend themselves from Mitori's last-resort strikes.

During her youth, Mitori still played a "Gimmick Puppet" Deck. However, because she had not developed her Esper ability fully yet, she only had access to the Level 4s in the archetype and used a simple beatdown strategy with "Gimmick Puppet Cherry Ripe" and "Odd-Eyes Metal Dolphin" as her ace cards. The "Gimmick Puppet" cards that she used at this time were considerably less horrific than the archetype mainstays, indicating that her later monsters (including her "Numbers") were born out of her hatred for the corruption of Academy City directors, as well as her own descent into the darkness of the city.

Not much of Saraku's Deck is shown, but fitting with his powers as a teleporter esper, he uses a Kozmo Deck. His "Kozmo" card pool and plays are not as robust as his fellow teleporters Kuroko Shirai and Awaki Musujime, who are much more dangerous with the archetype. Rather, he focuses on catching the enemy by surprise through a burn strategy, often accumulating copies of "Kozmo Blaster" on the field to hit the opponent for sizable chunks of damage. He also relies on avoiding targeting effects through his non-once per turn Esper effect to move his monsters one zone closer to other monsters on the field. However, this does nothing to protect him from non-targeting effects, and is very easy to play around for the highest-ranked Espers in Academy City.

Harumi uses a Malefic Deck that draws upon the power of the victims of the Level Upper, in a practice known as Multi-Skill. With it, she has full access to all of their Decks and strategies, and corrupts that power to fit her own needs. Her usual strategy relies on simple beatdown tactics, with her guaranteeing a draw into her large beatsticks through "" and other "Malefic" support cards to overwhelm the enemy with raw power. Additionally, "" allows her to steal the Synchro Monsters that are common within Academy City's ranks, turning even her opponent's power against themselves if given the chance to.

Due to the unstable nature of Multi-Skill, Harumi can very easily lose control of her power should the Duel last for too long. "Malefic Entity - AIM Burst" is a manifestation of this, taking the form of a behemoth boss monster that is borderline unfair to fight, as it is immune to almost all forms of conventional removal. Should the opponent get past Harumi's initial wave of "Malefics," they will have to find a way to contend with this nearly unstoppable force before it runs over their entire Deck.

Initially, Therestina plays a Qliphort Deck. This Deck focuses on mass Pendulum Summoning to swarm the board and acquisition of resources in the Extra Deck extremely quickly with the searching power of "".

While it is extremely powerful, it does lock Therestina out of her true ace monster, the Over-Hundred Number "", as well as her various "A.C. Invention" Xyz Monsters. If such cards are needed, Therestina has plenty of options to remove her Pendulum Scales in order to summon them. She still opts to play this Deck because many Espers do not have the ability to deal with this Deck effectively. As many Academy City residents are reliant on Special Summons and using toolbox monsters to remove the opponent's win conditions, they completely lose to "Apoqliphort Towers", which weakens their monsters and is extremely hard to remove except by battle. This means that when Therestina plays this Deck against 90% of Duelists in the city, she obtains a very easy win.

During her final Duel with Mikoto's group, Therestina switches over to her true Deck- a Silent Honor Deck that abuses Pendulum Xyz to its fullest potential. Its monsters have devastating effects that activate off of attaching Xyz Materials to Xyz Monsters on the field, which can easily be accomplished with the aforementioned "Number 101" as well as their various methods of Pendulum Summoning monsters. Therestina also includes support for Rank-Ups in this Deck, further making the huge monsters she brings out nearly untouchable.

Amata runs a Battlin' Boxer Deck designed to generate advantage during the Battle Phase. While the "Battlin' Boxers" are usually a slower archetype, using cards like and  to throttle the opponent's field and destroy their monsters by battle while slowly establishing a large field presence (a strategy still usable with his Deck), Amata's personal additions speed up the Deck greatly in a way that allows for the counterattack to begin much sooner. He incorporates both Pendulum and Link Summoning into the strategy seamlessly, allowing him instant access to a huge number of powerful monsters that can, if not defended well against, completely overwhelm the opponent.

Many of Amata's Deck strategies are designed specifically to counter the Accelerator's abilities. "Battlin' Boxing Weights" completely shuts down Accelerator's attempts to redirect battle damage, allowing Amata to beat over Accelerator's "True King" monsters with his ludicrously-high ATK monsters. Additionally, "Lead Yoke"'s effect discourages Accelerator from attempting to destroy Amata's monsters, as he can negate the destruction and power "Lead Yoke" up in the process. If "Lead Yoke" is not on the field, Amata can use the second effect of "Weights" to his advantage; by dropping his monsters' ATK to 0 and using his assigned Over-Hundred Number, "", to redirect battle damage to Accelerator, Amata can OTK Accelerator by running 3 of his "Battlin' Boxers" into most of his higher-Leveled or Ranked "True King" monsters. This makes him one of the only people in Academy City who can not only hold his own against, but defeat, the most dangerous Esper in existence.

Before her powers were realized, Kimi ran a Poker Knight Deck, relying on basic swarm tactics to Summon her ace monster, "Arcana Stacked Joker". There were early hints in her Deck of her true power, such as the presence of "" and her Field Spell "Nebula of Despair", but at this stage, her calculation abilities were simply too weak to generate anything that could properly use these few strong cards.

After her powers grew such that they could be used practically, Kimi's AIM field generated a Space Deck, a versatile strategy that allows for Rank 4, 5, and 9 Xyz Summons. Her "Dark Hole" arsenal has grown significantly, now including the entire "Black Hole" archetype alongside itself with every card being searchable to fit the current game state's destruction needs, and she also gains advantage through that destruction with monster effects.

Kimi's powers also allow her to "attract" others' powers and use them for herself, as shown by the presence of "Eight Divine Dragons - Angel Dragon" in her Deck during her confrontation with Mikoto, despite that card being linked to Touma's right hand.

Suzuran runs a Cyberse Deck that focuses on the Mathmech archetype. Being raised in Academy City as an orphan with no powers, Suzuran overcomes her natural limitations with her connections to superiors in the city. As a director's assistant at a detention center, she has been given access to state-of-the-art technology in the form of Link Summoning, which she abuses to the fullest to fight back against those who oppose her group's agenda.

The "Mathmech" cards are easily able to set up an OTK with little effort; "" in hand, plus any Level 4 Cyberse, can lead into a series of Link climbs ending on the archetype's boss monster, "". Said monster is usually made with "" and "" and placed in the Extra Monster Zone, resulting in a behemoth of a boss monster that is unaffected by card effects, has 6,000 ATK, and can make up to two attacks on monsters, often resulting in a win on the spot if the opponent has no disruption to combat her plays. Suzuran's Deck possesses several ways to get there even without the use of "Balancer Lord", with "", "", and "" allowing for further swarming and the creation of other Extra Deck monsters that can search out even more combo pieces or disruption.

Despite her lack of Esper powers, Suzuran is a very formidable strategist and planner, who has the awareness to tech in cards to specifically counter opponents she anticipates facing. She added "Angel Dragon's Feather" to her Deck in case her plan to break Kimi out of prison was discovered, to take control of the facility guards that would attempt to intrude on the Duel and gang up on her. When tasked with defeating and incapacitating her, she sided in "" to disrupt her slow and defensive strategy that relied on backrow to protect herself in the early-game.

Explanation: Suzuran's Cyberse Deck, and the "Mathmech" cards' brutal efficiency in OTKing, implies her canon position in Academy City as mentioned above. She was a higher-up working at a prison who frequently came into contact with dangerous Espers, and would necessitate ways to keep them in check if they went out of control. She actually does not do any fighting in canon, but was the mastermind behind Kimi's escape and showed a level of planning greater than the other facility staff's own abilities to detect treason. The ace Synchro Monsters in her Deck are heavily implied to be designed around, a younger kid who Suzuran looked after in her teenage years. Honoka was an Esper with a pyrokinetic ability, and was taken from an orphanage with the rest of Kimi's group to a research lab, where she was sabotaged in her development and had her Level decreased to improve others' developments. Upon learning of the researchers' desire to kill Kimi due to the potential of her power, the Espers in the program staged an escape, with Honoka sacrificing her own life to allow the others to go free. The "Geomathmechs" being FIRE, and frequently being the ones to inflict the final blow on opponents, implies that Suzuran made these cards as a small tribute to her fallen friend.

= Other =

The Elder Sister uses a Rock Deck, focused on bringing out "Outcrop Dragon" and powering it up by loading the Graveyard up with Rock monsters.