Zefra, the Not-So-Chosen, Explained [Yu-Gi-Oh! Archetypes Explained] 

Alternative Alternative Title: Golden Nova malds at Konami for not confirming his crackpot theory for 33 Minutes. XD

Fun thing to keep in mind: the Japanese name of the Zefra archetype is "Sefira" which is the singular form of "Sephirot".

This is my absolute favorite lore deck because it touches bases multiple archetypes. I just hate how many times ive tried to reinvent the wheel with this deck and have almost given up. I just hope i get some dedicated Zefra support. Im still optimistic since theres quite a bit DT3 support recently 😊

Nova must be really angry with the lastest card revealed from Legacy of Destruction since it shows Zefra Metaltron

I would recommend a Zefra link-2 with sideways arrows that can summon itself from gy if you control a Zefra card or if sent to the gy. This way it can also take advantage actually summoning Zefraath

GoldenNova: I HATE METALTRON!!! Me after watching what the new released card is: ooooh he’s NOT gonna be happy about this…

I have been waiting forever for this explained video. Zefra is one of my favorite archetypes. Thank you for the hard work you do Nova!

Actually, the Dragon Alchemy being mentioned in the description of the Branded Fusion art is just a translation error. In the original Japanese, it just says Power of the dragons, and even uses a different Kanji from how Dragon Alchemy is written in the text of Master Pendulum. Also, Dracoslayer and Duel Terminal lores having a Metatron isn't exactly strange. Both of them were named after the angel

FINALLY ! I waited Zefra for sooooo long ! What a great deck 😊 And btw, there's few words to say how broken Zefra Path really is. It stops Token (so no Nib), Summon from S/T (which means no Eldlich/Snake-Eye/Vaylantz), GY, Deck, Banished zone. The fact that this card blocks so many Summoning methods AND that it has protection makes it a win condition for the Deck. You just have to Summon Zefraniu again and again to search for War, pop, use your Tellarknights for Grindgame, pop, heck you can even play Wolfrayet just to have a sort of Nib every turn which your opponent can hardly interact with. Your traps stop Extra Decks effects, can be searched every turn and Zefra is easily one of the best Deck to make Synchro 9, which can ALSO search any monster in the game with cards like Archetys or Stardust Charge...so yes, Path is great. It can backfire, but it's rare, and it makes Zefra a great go 1st Deck.

Wait till he hears about metatronios

This is why I've been waiting for all this time and apparently many others too

Yay! Zefra! Love this archetype since 2015

My favourite pendulum archetype! I love it

14:10 Zefra Metaltron has left GoldenNova traumatized (using "In the hall of the mountain king" makes it better) 15:50 AND THis is the reason 16:13 the final part of "hall of the mountain king" 23:54 The editor hates ZEFRA

My favourite archetype and deck of all time. But you're really selling it short. No shot you call Zefra Path bad, that card is broken and can cripple so many decks. And Zefra is arguably the most versatile archetype in the game, letting you search any monster as part of your normal combo without using your Normal Summon, incentivizing you to play with all different summoning mechanics, supporting multiple archetypes and having access to the huge Pendulum goodstuff pool, being able to play control with Path and Counter traps, mid range by recurring Zefraniu every turn and using it for Synchro plays, combo with all the other Pendulum support or even FTK abusing its ability to reliably search any monster.

This deck is a favorite of mine and was really fun to play pure due to all the search power it has and potential fun builds with all the varying types, levels and attributes it has. Unfortunately mr5 kneecaped the deck and zefrath is literally unplayable as a monster because of it, I hope it gets more support soon.

I remember running gameciel on zefras to cheat search it summoning stardust charge warrior. God, i miss this deck so much, probably one of the funniest decks i ever played pre-mr4 revisions when electrum was legal

27:25 I was almost expecting you to say it gives us even more reason to run Hungry Burger smh.

for zefranaga you use his monster eff alongside the zefratellarknight. Like you pend summon naga+zefraxciton, Cl1 exciton target 1 of your scale and 1 opp card, Cl2 naga target your scale targetted by exciton, this way you can chain block exciton and maybe gaining +1 trade off exciton instead of neutral trade.

Look out Eldlich, it looks like Zefra Metaltron is trying to take your spot as Nova's greatest enemy

It’s finally my time.

Novendread almost slipped out for a second there

im a complete noob, but regarding 16:09 , in Japanese the text for Master Pendulum uses "竜化の秘法" for dragon alchemy, while in Master Duel in Japanese they use "竜化の力" for it, so maybe they are not connected 🤣

This has been my absolute favorite deck to play in my entire time I've played Yugioh, having played the deck ever since its release almost 10 years ago back when I was still in school (and also didn't know how to play the game) and the deck was nothing more than a weird janky pile of nonsense until Maximum Crisis and I have a few things to note about the video: The Yang Zing and Tellarknight Zefra monsters are basically the only viable maindeck monsters (Zefraath aside of course), given that the deck does not play well with rituals or fusions as it is currently. The former because there are no way to search the ritual monsters, and the latter because there is no inherent way to get to a fusion summon without outside engines/support. Xyz plays are possible, though usually you don't want to do them because you would be sending your Zefra monsters to the graveyard as material (but can be effective with cards like Metaphys Horus to further extend your turn 2-3+ plays). The cards may seem strong in a vacuum, but many of them often either don't have a way in archetype to trigger their effects and must rely on outside support (which can brick up your hand due to the nature of Pendulums requiring scales to even get started), or simply just don't do enough in today's fast paced age. Caduceus is best ran in a more pure Tellarknight deck, maybe with a small Zefra package as opposed to simply splashing it into a Zefra build, once again circling back to the problem of needing you to run outside cards to make use of it, which can make your opening plays a lot worse. The new Ritual Beast cards (at the time of writing) don't really do anything for the deck and are best played in their own archetype. I can't see any ritual cards working for the deck at all, not even Nouvelles as you mentioned, simply because first of all, the two archetypes compete for the field spell zone and force you to make a choice between your recursion and grind game with Nouvelles, or go for additional disruption with the ritual effect of Oracle of Zefra. While you could make use of Set Rotation, the card is currently Limited and may not be reliable in its disruption effect due to it being matchup dependent. Second of all, Poissoniere, although a strong card, does not do enough on her own and necessitates that you open a ritual spell/monster to make use of it (compounding with the aforementioned issues of making your openers less reliable). Her scale does not play well with Zefraath as well, who wants to add Zefraniu when possible, leaving you with a scale 7 and 8. While you could clear your scale after Pendulum Summoning, doing so can be difficult as you either need to find a way to send Zefracore to the graveyard, or summon Zefranaga, both of which require either convoluted and potentially unreliable plays, or require you to open a lot of searchers/gas to make use of it. Zefra Path, though ideally more of a side card, shines in Bo1 formats like in Master Duel where decks are usually unprepared to deal with the effect that can often win the game on the spot. Decks that rely on tokens such as Swordsoul almost instantly lose, as all token summoning effects are disabled, as they are not summoned from the hand or graveyard, as well as powerful decks that rely on summoning monsters from your deck such as Spright and Purrely (just make sure you win the die roll and go first, lol). The card demands that you play the deck pure due to the nature of its effects, which also restricts whatever outside help you can put into the deck, encouraging a control strategy with resolving Zefraniu to search your backrow and using Synchro plays to out advantage your opponent (notably, this playstyle can make great use of Metaphys Horus and Nirvana High Paladin!) Making use of Nine Pillars of Yang Zing is even simpler than you made it out to be. Simply search it with Zefraniu and then pop Zefraniu with it on your opponent's turn, search Zefra War, which can then be immediately activated for another disruption due to its literal hand trap effect. Beyond the Pendulum, although seemingly synergistic at first, does not play well with the deck due to the crippling issue of her search negating your scale effects until you Pendulum Summon. This means that Zefraath cannot tutor a monster from your deck, and due to its effects being negated, will reset its scale to 5, making your summon far more awkward, and usually locking you out of summoning Zefraniu that turn. Overall, the archetype is very much a relic of the past and desperately needs some powerful cards to breathe life into it if it ever wants to see playability again in the current day and age beyond just another package in a pendulum slurry pile. Cards like an in archetype Magikey Maftea (with maybe searchable ritual targets please?) could open up new possibilities, but primarily, the deck just desperately needs a Link retrain of Zefraath, much like how Infernoble Emperor Charles has one, to make effective use of its second Pendulum Summon effect in a post Master Rule 4 era. Just please, something, anything that isn't Zefra Metaltron.

I'm glad Gem-knight master diamond gets to really shine in this archetype and get his redemption arc.

I always thought Zefraath was a Zefra Light and Darkness dragon.

Legendary rants of the Internet let’s go

Ahh Zefra Providence. Best lore artwork in YGO imo AND RIGHT AFTER METALTRON ARTFGHHJHGH

This video was released needing a update

Note to Golden Nova: I think it's pronounced Mar-lux-ia. It's a character from Kingdom Hearts who has red hair and, I believe, is stated to be male. I could be wrong on either or both though.

the only way they could make the lore stuff worse, is if visas and diabelle star just suddenly show connections to the lore's as well, I can already imagine the migraine that will cause oh so many people

I still wonder if we should count master duel as a source cause hasn't been shown to do some mess ups for texts?

another negative is that zefras don't search their stellar gods.

Still the best use I can see for Zefraath? Evil HERO Dark Gaia Turbo. Zefraath: Easily searched/milled 3450-ATK Rock. Evil HERO Adusted Gold: Easily searched 2100-ATK Fiend that you can dump to search Dark Calling...which can banish the 2 of them from hand/GY for a 5550-ATK Dark Gaia.

Honestly, whenever I see people get so bent out of shape about how the lore fits together, I really have to ask: Have you people REALLY not considered the idea of MULTIPLE WORLDS? Like Duel Terminal takes place on one world, the Magical Nations exist on another world, Albaz exists on another world, and so on and so forth. And there are clearly ways of traveling between these worlds, through magic or technology: The Charmers don't take part in any of the events of DT despite Wynn coming from the Gusto tribe because Wynn (and possibly Eria) LEFT their world. Visas's whole gimmick is traveling between worlds. Hell, the FIRST story of Duel Terminal is about an ALIEN INVASION. I mean it feels like people are always trying to twist their brains into knots trying to fit these connections together when a pretty simple answer is just sitting right there.

Honestly, while I don’t deny Zefra being a very unorthodox theme with how trying to go pure seems antithetical to typical Yugioh strategy…I think that’s the point. Zefra are not designed to do things all on their own. They’re meant to make use of a mix of the various other themes that compose them in tandem with their explicitly named Zefra cards to get things done. And it definitely doesn’t hurt to make use of outside support to get things going, either. Now…does that mean they’d be a big leaguer anytime soon? No, not really. But for those who know how to make the most of Zefra, they have the patience to bear fruit from this tree of life. I do agree that some Zefra Extra Deck monsters in addition to Metaltron would be helpful, though.

Duel Terminal 2.0 lore when?!

Can you do yuya arcthetype explained

The name metatron comes from an Angel. 15:57

So zefra was an unhealthy obsession for a while and so when it comes to trying to make this deck function, it’s like running roids, but you also love the way that synchros work, so you also throw in speedroid. Then far down the line Konami released a new archetype of xyz monsters known as xyzroids so you run those as well. Then further down, they release ritual roids and you decide to throw those in too. So now you have this mishmash deck that theoretically could work because TECHNICALLY they are all on theme and have the exact same archetype, but never do because nothing makes sense, the cards rarely help EACHOTHER and you also have to use cards from other archetypes that are better in their own name. See where I’m coming from? I will say that Zefraath needs a retrain BAD. He is an amazing pendulum monster, but considering that that is all he is good for, it makes me wish they did better with him. Maybe make a monster called Zefrage? Sounds cool to me. Oh yeah. And zefra metaltron is literally the worst archetypal card I’ve ever seen in my life. It requires ALOT of setup in order to even TRY and summon him, and all that setup essentially gets wasted because he literally doesn’t do anything worthwhile.

chengying triggers from divine strike

He's triggered big time

I SUMMON SATELLARKNIGHT ZEFRAXITON!!!!!

It's almost comically frustrating how Konami just casually throws in connections between the various big lore archetypes; we had Duel Terminal connected to the more "generic" (read: massively convoluted and interconnected series of seemingly unrelated monsters that explicitly contains dimension hopping shenanigans) card pool via the Charmers, Dracoslayer connected to Duel Terminal via Zefra Metaltron (who still has yet to actually be explained in a Master Guide or Valuable Book!), we have World Legacy almost definitely connected to Duel Terminal because Avida and the World Gears take so many visual cues (and naming conventions if you dig deep enough) from the Qliphorts and Sophia/Tierra, and now they're just casually calling Albaz and Aluber's power "Dragon Alchemy", something that - assuming that translation is entirely intentional - ties The Abyss lore directly with Dracoslayer, and all the connections that entails. Yu-Gi-Oh card lore is fuckin wild.

did-did Nova just make a fate reference?! also love the angry nova avatar boi, we need more of it :3

Time to complain about the white whale of Dual Terminal.

It all connects to Duel terminal Nova, you can’t escape it

>"Marluxiaisagirl" Unbearable amounts of cringe in that name, lol

15:50 its just a stupid link that should never have existed (just like the rest of the stupid links and cyberse monsters) who cares