Rescue Rabbit Part II: The Deck Options

Continued from Part I

Rescue Rabbit grabs ANY Normal Monster (under Level 4), and this leads to a lot of options when building a Rabbit Deck.

Possible Rabbit Variant Choices
There are several archetypes that can jam in 2-3 Rabbit with their (previously useless) Normal Monsters. While there are many archetypes that can use these Normies, I will go into detail with the ones that I personally see potential in.

Rabbit Glads
The concept of Rabbit Glads is using Rabbit to get Gladiator Beast Andal and then contact fusing into either Essedarii, Gyzarus or Heraklinos (Depending on what options you have). This deck is highly explosive, and plays much like Prisma Glads, only with more contact fusion and overall more destructive output.
Rabbit Glads have several advantages over other Rabbit Builds. Firstly, the Normal Monsters you run recycle themselves through contact fusion, so you only need to run 3 of them. Secondly, Test Tiger can turn your dead normal cards into live Gladiators like Bestiari, Equeste or Laquari.
 An example of a destructive Rabbit play could be, Summoning Rabbit for 2 Andal, SSing Test Tiger to return one Andal for Bestiari then Contacting into Gyzarus.

Gem-Rabbit
Gem-Knights need to use Normal Monsters for several of their fusions, like Ruby, Aquamarine, and Topaz. This deck uses Rabbit as a bridge between the deck and the field for these Normal Monsters. If there is one thing I have learned from playing Rabbit Decks, it's that having Normies in your hand is bad. While Gem-Knights can ditch these Normies better than most variants with Gem-Knight Fusion, having them on the field allows you to go for larger plays that can incorporate Xyz Monsters like Daigusto Emeral to go plus.
Rabbit in Gem-Knights can lead to great plays with Super Polymerization. You can fuse their Thunder King Rai-Oh with one of your Normies to make Prism Aura, or fuse one of your Gem-Knights with their Leviair to make Amethys.
Gem-Rabbit has great synergy with the Xyz monsters Daigusto Emeral and Lavalval Chain. With Lavalval Chain you can mill Gem Fusion and then add it to your hand if you need to, and with Emeral you can summon a normal monster for fusion or do half a Pot of Avarice.
Gem-Knight Obsidian is also great for going plus and doing a big OTK, as you can swarm the field with fusions and Normies. Obsidian can basically turn 2 Normies and a Gem Knight Fusion into a Rank 4 Xyz and a fusion, rather than just a fusion.

SalvoRabbit
The problem Salvo Decks have had for a while is that they lacked a good Level 4 Dark Machine Type for Black Salvo, and had to rely on Dekoichi. Rabbit fixes this problem pretty effectively by bringing Mechanicalchaser and Blocker into play. Salvo Rabbit also has access to the extremely aggressive card, Limiter Removal. An OTK with Limiter Removal and 2 Chasers is very powerful and easy to pump out. Salvo-Rabbit also has access to Allure of Darkness, which I referenced in a previous article and will reference again in the next article. I cannot stress how great Allure is for rabbit, especially with most Rabbit decks spamming Leviair.

Verz Rabbit
Verz is still in the works as not all of the cards for the archetype are shown yet, but I already see how powerful this deck can be. Verz Bahamut is, in my opinion, the best aggressive Level 4 Xyz. It can steal their boss monster and then make a large push. Verz Heliolope is also great because it pushes right over 1900 attack beaters, like Rai-Oh which can negate Bahamut while it is out. Corrosive Contagion Infestation is an excellent way of recycling your Helio back into deck, letting you safely run only 3 Normal Monsters. Again, we gain access to Allure of Darkness, helping this deck's consistency a lot. Also Olanta and Kaitos work like Smashing Ground and Mystical Space Typhoon, while being searchable with Infestation. Mandrago is another way of getting out Bahamut without having to use Rabbit.
 
Hero Rabbit
"Heroes are basically Gem-Knight's cooler older brother" - VeryUnoriginal
Hero Rabbit plays very similar to Gem-Knight Rabbit, but has access to a few other goodies. The deck still pulls off those Super Poly plays thanks to the Omni Heroes, but it also gets Miracle Fusion. The main tossup between Gem-Knights and Heroes is the choice between Gem-Knight Fusion and Miracle fusion. While Gem-Knight fusion can ditch Normals from hand, and recycle itself perpetually, Miracle Fusion is still the better card in my opinion. Not only are the Hero Fusions better than Gem-Knight Fusions, topdecking Miracle Fusion can seal your win, or turn a duel in your favor.


These are the most relevant Rabbit decks in my opinion, but I left out Pure Rabbit Dinosaur. With the next article I will go into Pure Rabbit Dinosaur and the Extra Deck Toolbox.
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Rescue Rabbit Part I: The Analysis

Rescue Rabbit
4 Star Beast/Effect
300/100
This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can banish this face-up card you control; Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from your Deck. Destroy them during the End Phase. The effect of "Rescue Rabbit" can only be activated once per turn.
At first glance, Rescue Rabbit seems like an overpowered card that will break the format upon it's official release, but once you closely examine Rescue Rabbit you realize that it has arguably as many cons as it does pros.

The Pros

Firstly, the card seems format breaking because it can basically make any Rank 4 Xyz Monster, Mainly Evolzar Laggia or Verz Bahamut for their back-breaking effects. Secondly, this card can be used with cards that resummon advanced monsters to pump out one Rank 4 Xyz Monster a turn, Leviair the Sea Dragon is the most abusable of these because of Tour Guide from the Underworld's ability to pop out a quick Rank 3 Overlay. Thanks to cards like Leviair, it is extremely easy to access your Extra Deck Toolbox.
When I say Extra Deck Toolbox I refer to the many different options Rescue Rabbit and Tour Guide open in your Extra Deck. For example, if your opponent has a Banished Glow-Up Bulb, you can summon Tour Guide, go into Leviair and grab their Bulb for an easy Synchro Summon. Alternatively, if your opponent has a monster that needs to be handled like Chaos Sorcerer or Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, you can go into Number 17: Leviathan Dragon or even Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction to get over their monster. What you Xyz Summon with Rescue Rabbit is situational. For example, if you have many defensive traps to protect your plays, you can go into Lavalval Chain and set up for a Trishula play next turn (I will explain this play at the end of the article.)
Overall, Rescue Rabbit with Tour Guide gives you a massive toolbox in your Extra Deck that can pump out a unique blend of devastating plays. However, it is still not a perfect engine.


The Cons
While Rescue Rabbit has a massive toolbox, it has it's share of drawbacks. The largest of these drawbacks is that Rescue Rabbit requires roughly six Normal Monsters to be functional. A deck purely based on Rescue Rabbit will usually run 3 Kabazauls and 3 Sabersaurus, to pump out Evolzar Laggia. Normal Monsters are essentially dead draws, and if you get multiples of them your chances of winning are lower than being turn 1 Trap Dustshooted. Some remedies that people have been trying out are Moray of Greed for Kabazauls or Allure of Darkness for Verz monsters. While Allure of Darkness is an excellent card to remedy this problem, Moray of Greed itself is very often a dead card itself.
Now, you may be thinking that Agents run an even worse Normal Monster (Mystical Shine Ball), yet that deck is one of the best in the format. This may be true, but you must consider two things that are important to this drawback. Firstly, Venus can Special Summon Shine Balls from your hand, where Rescue Rabbit cannot Summon Normals from your hand, keeping them dead. Secondly, Agents are a much more destructive deck than Rabbit, making this downside less of a problem. Rabbit Decks play more like a Desruptive Beatdown deck, and this type of deck feels the weight of those dead cards that much more than an outright Agressive Beatdown deck.

Overall, I personally believe the Pros do outway the Cons, making the deck very much worth playing. In Part II, I will go into more detail regarding the many types of decks that can use Rescue Rabbit effectively, as well as many of my suggested cards for Rabbit Decks.


Here is a simple combo that uses the Rabbit and Tour Guide Toolbox, I referenced it earlier in the post.

Two Turn Lavalval Chain Trishula
T1: Play Rescue Rabbit, go into Lavalval Chain. Detach one material from Chain and topdeck Tour Guide for next turn.
T2: Summon Tour Guide, go into Leviair. Detach one material from Leviair to Special Summon Rabbit back. Special Summon 2 Level 4 Normal Monsters with Rabbit. Detach Second Material from Chain, Mill Glow-Up Bulb. Special Summon Bulb, Synchro with both Normal Monsters and Bulb into Trishula.
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