Have you ever tried to build Fortune Ladies? It's really freaking hard! I've never had such a difficult time building a deck, and building decks is literally my only job here! And it's not even that I can't build a good Fortune Lady deck – no, that's a freaking luxury at this point – I couldn't for the life of me even get one to be baseline consistent. So like everybody else, I took to the internet to try and find a good starting point since I had nothing to show for my efforts nearly four builds into my testing. Luckily, I found something pretty cool.

Often, the Fortune Ladies are used as nothing more than a big fat draw engine to help you get to other cards. They're your ammo supply but by no means your guns. It's not because they aren't strong enough, by all means they can actually produce some serious muscle, but these Ladies can be rather unwieldy to get onto the field in the first place. However, there're some brilliant Yugitubers that have focused a a ton of energy towards figuring these women, out and I was rather impressed by the build of one Mr. 5pr1ngr011.

Often when I'm covering a strategy that's new to me, I'll find the most recent, successful variant that I can and then use it as a starting point for my own version. I'll then update it to make sure that it's in line with the current Forbidden and Limited List and make it as competitive as possible. And if it's for this column, adaptations are often made to keep things budget friendly. When I was testing this build, it was just so easy to play with that I felt like I was being passed down some sort of ancient knowledge. It may sound like obnoxiously high praise but if you understood the days of struggle I've suffered at the hands of these little Ladies then you'd understand – it's well justified. As hard as I tried, I couldn't make the deck any better. Sure, you could add fluff to it like Soul Charge and the Hands, but testing proved that those cards did nothing to improve consistency, nor the basic combos that made this deck great to begin with – in fact, they muddled it up quite a bit.

So what I've got for you guys today is just good news to pass along. It IS possible to build a consistent – and cheap(!) – Fortune Lady deck and I'm excited to show it to you guys. Kudos to you, 5pr1ngr011, wherever you are: you've done the near-impossible. Here's the deck…

DECKID=100564As you can see, it's a fascinating cross between Fortune Ladies and Falcon Control. This build might seem strange to wrap your head around at first, but it makes a lot of sense in application.

One of the biggest problems with Fortune Ladies is that you need them to be in so many different places all at once. To use Fortune's Future you have to have a Lady removed from the game, but if you want to abuse any of Fortune Lady Dark's effects there's got to be Fortune Ladies in the graveyard. On top of all of that, Fortune Lady Light will only pull a Fortune Lady from your deck and if you have any desire to use Fortune Lady Water then you have to have another Lady on the field. It's plain to see that you've got a lot to manage all at once.

You, Me, And The Pots Of Greed
Fortunately the struggle isn't without its reward. This strategy pluses so hard. It's actually kind of dumb. The Fortune Lady theme packs not one, but two cards that have the fabled "draw 2" effect and both are actually relevant to the overall strategy. It's kind of cool. First off you've got Fortune's Future: if you have a banished Fortune Lady this spell card will send it to the graveyard and then draw you two cards. It's just an outright +1 on its own, and that's totally great, but when you pair it with a certain field spell things can get pretty synergistic.

I mean seriously, Future Visions is a card entirely focused on making cool Fortune Lady things happen. Whenever a monster is Normal Summoned Future Visions will banish it until the controller's next Standby Phase. Fortune Lady Light is often the start of all of your combos and it's important that you get her off the field whenever the opportunity arises. Whenever Fortune Lady Light is removed from the field by card effect, you can Special Summon a Fortune Lady monster from your deck. Future Visions is great for that because Light is one of those "When… you can" monsters that have to have their effect be the last thing to happen, or else you'll miss the opportunity to use it.

The second cool "draw 2" card is actually a monster – Fortune Lady Water. If you Special Summon Fortune Lady Water while you control another face up Fortune Lady then you'll draw two cards. It's just that simple. Resolving a Call Of The Haunted is practically a +3! You get the Water from your graveyard and you get to dig two cards deeper into your deck. It really isn't hard to see why this strategy is touted for its potency as a draw engine.

Bringing The Beef!
What about actually winning the game? Does this strategy suffer from the Spellbook Condition in which a deck can outdraw Da Vinci but can't actually make use of the card advantage it gains? Luckily, no – at least not when big, bad Fortune Lady Dark comes out to play. This Level 5 Spellcaster starts out at 2000 ATK but gains 400 ATK every Standby Phase it remains on the field. All of the Fortune Ladies have an effect like that, actually: their ATK is a certain number multiplied by their Level and during each Standby Phase a Fortune Lady will gain another Level. So leave them around long enough and they'll get huge. That definitely benefits Fortune Lady Dark because whenever any Fortune Lady destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the graveyard you can Special Summon a Fortune Lady from yours and continue on attacking. If you have multiple Darks on the field, their effects will stack and what originally started as a fair fight becomes a gruesomely one-sided affair.

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Your last two Fortune Ladies are pretty much just quirky spot removal. Whenever you Special Summon Fortune Lady Fire with the effect of another Fortune Lady, Fire's effect will activate; destroying a monster on your opponent's side of the field and inflicting damage equal to the monsters attack. On the other hand, Fortune Lady Wind will destroy a number of spell and trap cards your opponent controls up to the number of Fortune Ladies you control. If you have a large field, it's quite possible to Mega Mobius the crap out of your opponent. Depending on the deck you're up against it's the sort of thing that could win you games.

So a few notes about some important cards. First off, Wonder Wand is absolutely brilliant here. It may seem counter-intuitive at first because it forces Fortune Lady Light to miss timing, but that isn't its purpose. This card is pretty much the missing key to Fortune Lady consistency. Sometimes, you're going to open up with a Fortune Lady that you just can't use with the cards you currently have. So instead of just sitting with it dead in your hand, Wonder Wand gives you the opportunity to trade both in for two fresh, new cards and to load your graveyard up in the meantime. It's simple but it makes a world of difference here. Lastly, Mist Valley Falcon and Future Visions are just too funny together. For you to get your monster back the next turn, Future Visions has to stay on the field the whole time. What's going to happen if say, some little bird dude keeps bouncing back that Future Visions every single turn? Well, let's just call it endless Bottomless Trap Hole, shall we?

Alright, Buck. Where's The Bang?
This one clocks in at $100. It's got a full Extra Deck and some cards, like Future Visions, are a little pricier than you'd initially expect. Seriously, 5pr1ngr011 has a well-oiled machine working here and it's fun to play around with. It's also relatively inexpensive – and that's great.

With the right Side Deck, it wouldn't be unthinkable to nab your invite with this deck. Do you have experience with it, personally? Think this build is great? Think it's crap? Let me know in the comments section below!

-Zach Buckley
Team Nofatchx