Artmage Field Guide

Counting rules

1. Only face-up monsters in your Monster Zones count. Your hand, your Field Spell and your Continuous Spells don’t.
2. Two monsters with the same Type count once. Diactorus and Medius are both Fairy; Power Patron, Non-Finito and Nerva are all Illusion.
3. Diactorus, Finmel and Graflare check the count when you activate them. Impasto checks it after it has banished your Fusion Monster.

The two traps

• Diactorus + Non-Finito + Nerva is only 2 Types (Fairy, Illusion). Fusions alone rarely get you there. You need Graflare, Finmel or Litera beside them.
• Impasto’s banish can drop you below 3. At exactly 3 Types, banishing a Fusion that’s the only one of its Type turns off Diactorus, Finmel and Graflare until your Fusion returns in the End Phase.

Once per turn, by name

A second copy doesn’t reset any of these. On the opponent’s turn they’re all available again.

• Each Medius effect, each Power Patron effect, and each of Graflare’s, Finmel’s, Litera’s and Diactorus’s effects
• Each Artmage Varnish -Alteration- effect
• One Vandalism activation, and its marking effect once
• One Impasto activation
• One Artmage Pact -Awakening- effect in total
• One Non-Finito Special Summon, whichever way you summon it
• One Nerva Special Summon

Locks

• Power Patron face-up: only Fusion Monsters from your Extra Deck. That rules out S:P, Cross-Sheep, Verte, TY-PHON and Ecclesia while it’s on the field.
• After an Acropolis search resolves: for the rest of the turn, you can only Special Summon Artmage monsters, Medius, or monsters from your Extra Deck. A Nerva in the GY can’t come back, and The Fallen & The Virtuous can only revive Artmage monsters or Medius.
• Non-Finito can never be revived.
• Dominus Purge from your hand stops you activating DARK, WATER and FIRE monster effects for the rest of the Duel. That includes Medius and Ash.

The discard loop

Every Acropolis discard becomes an Artmage monster. Fuel comes from:

• spare Spells/Traps in your hand
• Power Patron’s search
• Varnish, which searches any Artmage card once Acropolis is face-up
• Litera, which returns a discarded Artmage card from your GY, so you can discard it again

Name them in this order

1. Graflare first. It Sets an Artmage Spell from your Deck: Vandalism for Medius, or Varnish for a search.
2. Litera second. It returns your best discard.
3. Finmel last. It draws a card.

Which Fusion

• Diactorus when Medius is Power Patron’s partner and you already have your next discard lined up.
• Non-Finito when Vandalism has marked Medius or another Artmage monster is available. Non-Finito Sets a card from your Deck: Acropolis if you still need it, Impasto if you don’t.

Starting with Vandalism

Activate Vandalism first and add Medius. The rest of the line is the same, and Vandalism stays face-up: it’s a second Artmage card, and it can go to the GY in place of Acropolis when Acropolis would be destroyed.

Starting with Acropolis or Varnish

Place Acropolis (Varnish does that from your Deck). Discard the spare for Graflare, and have Graflare Set Vandalism, which adds Medius. Normal Summon Medius, then fuse Power Patron and Medius into Diactorus. Power Patron searches Varnish, or Impasto if Varnish is already in your GY. Finish with the Impasto and Litera loop. You end with the same board plus Vandalism.

The cost

Discard Power Patron. It goes from your hand to the GY, so its search triggers. With Nerva on the field, that search can become the wipe.

Verte Anaconda

Predaplant Verte Anaconda (Limited 1) copies Super Poly from your Deck. You pay 2000 LP instead of discarding, but they can respond, and you can’t Special Summon again this turn. You can’t Link Summon it while Power Patron is face-up. Make it your last play.

Nibiru count

Your own hand traps

• Ash: best on their first search or on their Maxx “C”.
• Dominus Purge: Set it when you can. Activating it from your hand turns off Medius and Ash for the rest of the Duel, so do that only against a search that would beat you.
• Infinite Impermanence: from your hand only while you control no cards.
• Ghost Belle: their GY revives and recursion.
• Crossout Designator is in 26% of top lists. They name a card both decks run, usually Ash or Maxx “C”, and your copies are negated that turn. Spreading your hand traps across different names limits the damage.

Why these ratios

• 3 Graflare, 1 Litera. Graflare is the first Acropolis name in almost every line, and a drawn Graflare works with Acropolis, Varnish or Power Patron. Litera is almost always searched, and one copy is enough for the Acropolis loop.
• 2 Medius, 2 Power Patron. Their effects are once per turn by name, and Vandalism adds Medius. The second Power Patron stays in the Deck for Medius on the opponent’s turn.
• 1 of each Artmage Trap. Power Patron, Varnish, Non-Finito and Litera all fetch them.
• Traps over monster hand traps. They’re Acropolis discards and Non-Finito’s cost, and a Trap in the GY turns on Dominus Purge’s destroy.
• F&V with 2 fuel cards. Three copies before October 6, two after. Albion gets an F&V back in the End Phase, and Ecclesia shuffles itself back into the Extra Deck.

Flex options

Master Duel Meta recorded 9 Artmage lists between September 3 and 23. Six came from the Dice Rally event, which uses its own Forbidden list. Other cards those lists play:

• Artmage Masterwork -Succession- (7 of 9): a Quick-Play Fusion from the hand or field that doesn’t use Power Patron’s once per turn. +500 ATK with a Field Spell out.
• Azamina Ilia Silvia (5) and Magistus Chorozo (4): Extra Deck monsters that use Litera (a LIGHT Spellcaster) as material. 3 lists run 2 Litera.
• Harpie’s Feather Duster (4, Limited 1) and Lightning Storm (2): Spell/Trap removal for going second. Lightning Storm needs you to control no face-up cards, so play it before Vandalism or Acropolis.
• Mulcharmy Fuwalos (2): draws a card each time the opponent Special Summons from the Deck or Extra Deck.
• Artmage Movement -Pedigree- (1): a Normal Spell that Special Summons an Artmage monster from the Deck while they control more monsters than you. Discarded to Acropolis, it returns an Artmage Trap from the GY or banishment. Only Fusions from the Extra Deck that turn.
• Artmage Peripeteia -Turmoil- (0): a Normal Trap that returns your Artmage monster to take a monster from their GY, with its effects negated. Discarded to Acropolis, it returns an Artmage Spell.

• Types only count face-up monsters. Acropolis and Vandalism are Artmage cards for self-summons, but they add no Type.
• Medius and Nerva aren’t Artmage. Medius counts as Artmage only as Fusion Material, and only after Vandalism marks it.
• Power Patron’s search can’t take a card whose name is already in your GY.
• Acropolis can’t name a monster you control face-up, or the same name twice in a turn.
• Graflare, Finmel and Litera only summon themselves during your own Main Phase. Litera’s Quick Effect only works in their Main Phase and needs a free zone.
• Litera can be Normal Summoned. It’s Level 3, so with no face-up Artmage card, Normal Summon it, and Graflare or Finmel can summon themselves. Acropolis still gives Medius its own extra Normal Summon.
• Set this turn, used this turn: Varnish, Vandalism and Acropolis (Normal, Continuous and Field Spells), and Impasto while you control an Artmage monster. Not Pact.
• Varnish with Acropolis face-up searches any Artmage card, Monster or Spell/Trap, except Varnish.

• Impasto’s banish lasts until the End Phase. On your own turn, the Fusion comes back that same turn.
• Non-Finito can never be revived. Diactorus and Nerva can once properly summoned, but not Nerva from the GY after an Acropolis search.
• Nerva is safe from effect destruction while there’s a card in either Field Zone. Theirs counts too.
• Diactorus floats only when it’s destroyed. Tributing or banishing it doesn’t count.
• Super Poly can’t use monsters in your hand.
• One F&V per turn. Its revive needs an Ecclesia monster on your field or in your GY.
• A negated activation still uses the once per turn. A Ghost Belled Litera can’t try again that turn.