Last updated: 16.09.2023
I already mentioned it before, but since I am working on the analysis of the “Onomato” group, I figured it would be a smart idea to do all the archetypes it consists of as a dedicated deck aswell. The last archetype I reviewed because of this reason was “Gogogo”, leaving me three more to go: “Dododo”, “Gagaga” and “Zubaba”. Well, I guess you already know which one I want to take care off in this article if you read the title, so here is the “Zubaba” archetype.
Disclaimer: None of the information given by me is set in stone. Having an open mind in deck building and including some creative ideas is always helpful, if only to further understand the playstyle and strategy of your deck. There are probably choices that I list which can be labled as debatable, but no platform I know of gives a broad overview over both the archetypes and card choices, so I aimed to do just that. I will try to keep this page (as well as the other ones, once they are made) up-to-date, so if any reader feels like I skipped some amazing tech choice or a crucial card, just drop me a note and I will add the missing information. Furthermore, I use a number of sources for ideas and information, so a list with links that I deem useful is attached at the end of the page and credit is given whenever I can point to a source to do so.
At this point in the article, I would try to sum up what the “Zubabas” actually try to do, but I am pretty sure that even Konami does not really know what they wanted to do with these guys. It is an Earth Warrior archetype, but you will soon see why I can’t really say anything about them strategy-wise:
Archetype:
If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent, at the end of that Damage Step: Destroy the 1 face-up monster on the field that has the lowest ATK (your choice, if tied), and if you do, this card loses 800 ATK.
Name: “Zubaba Buster“
Level/Rank: 3
ATK/DEF: 1800/600
Attribute/Type: Earth Warrior
The first card in the “Zubaba” archetype is “Zubaba Buster”. Right away, you might notice the Level being 3; and in this actual case that is a problematic information. See, the “Zubaba” archetype only features Level 3 monsters that have no way of manipulating their own levels, prohibiting them from the usage of Rank 4 Xyz Summons. This would not be that bad if the entire idea of the “Onomatos” was to summon pretty much anything with “Utopia” in the name. “Zubaba Buster” himself is okay-ish, with 1800 ATK and a Warrior-Type to work with a number of generic support cards, but the effect needs it to do battle damage in order to mimic the effect of a “Fissure“. Beware that this effect is mandatory and therefore puts you at risk of destroying one of your own monsters when “Zubaba Buster” deals damage. And to add insult to injury, “Zubaba Buster” loses 800 ATK afterwards, shrinking him to 1000 ATK and therefore putting him at the risk of self-destruction through his own effect, if your opponent has pity with it and decided not to blast over the card in the first place. Overall, “Zubaba Buster” is a seriously weird card and not worth playing whatsoever; unless you really want to play a dedicated “Zubaba” deck, where he is necessary at three copies for no other reason than the lack of other options.
Recommended copies: 0, probably 3 in pure “Zubaba” builds
Name: “Zubaba Knight“
Level/Rank: 3
ATK/DEF: 1600/900
Attribute/Type: Earth Warrior
At the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks a face-up Defense Position monster: Destroy that monster.
The second-to-last card that is a pure “Zubaba” monster is “Zubaba Knight”. This guy is relatively straightforward: The opponent has a face-up Defense Position monster? Ram “Zubaba Knight” into it, so he does not have it anymore. So, where is the catch? Well, this card is kind of a carbon copy of “Drillroid“, with the difference of having 700 less DEF, it being a Warrior-Type instead of a Machine-Type monster, and not being able to destroy face-down monsters on the opponent’s side of the field, which makes “Zubaba Knight” quite frankly terrible. Furthermore, “Drillroid” actually is a Level 4 monster, so it does more to the entire strategy as a complete outsider from the GX-era than a card that is supposed to interact with those archetypes and puts a focus on Xyz Summoning. Therefore, “Zubaba Knight” is a straight zero in any other archetype, no discussion necessary. However, if you actually want to play “Zubabas”, you probably have no choice but to play three for the lack of better options.
Recommended copies: 0, probably 3 in pure “Zubaba” builds
Name: “Zubababancho Gagagacoat“
Level/Rank: 4
ATK/DEF: 1800/100
Attribute/Type: Earth Warrior
If you control a "Zubaba" or "Gagaga" monster except "Zubababancho Gagagacoat", while this card is in your hand: You can Special Summon this card. You can target 1 "Gogogo" or "Dododo" monster in your GY; Special Summon it, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Xyz Monsters. You can only use each effect of "Zubababancho Gagagacoat" once per turn.
The next Main Deck monster the “Zubabas” have to offer is one of the hybrid monsters, the “Jotaro Kujo”-esque “Zubababancho Gagagacoat”. This is one of the newer support cards and ticks a lot of boxes for useful effects. You can Special Summon “Zubababancho Gagagacoat” from your hand if you control a “Zubaba” or “Gagaga” monster, and you can revive either a “Dododo” or a “Gogogo” from your graveyard once per turn; the secondary effect locks you out of Extra Deck summons aside from Xyz Monsters and is pretty hard to trigger in “Zubaba”, but they next monster we will look at works as a viable target allowing the player to use the full power of “Zubababancho Gagagacoat”. “Zubababancho Gagagacoat” is also somewhat of the reverse of the other hybrid monster “Dodododwarf Gogogoglove“, but is exactly as useful with added bonuses like a Warrior-Typing for easier access and a higher ATK stat in case you actually need to kick something with him. So, due to it being a very useful swarming tool and opens up all sorts of plays, “Zubababancho Gagagcoat” is very much necessary for the deck. If you really actually want to play a “Zubaba” deck, I feel like you cannot use less than three copies of this card.
Recommended copies: 3
Name: “Utopic Onomatopoeia“
Level/Rank: 4
ATK/DEF: 1500/1500
Attribute/Type: Light Warrior
(This card is always treated as a "Zubaba", "Gagaga", "Gogogo", and "Dododo" card.) During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon up to 1 each "Zubaba", "Gagaga", "Gogogo", and/or "Dododo" monster(s) from your hand in Defense Position, also you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Xyz Monsters. You can only use this effect of "Utopic Onomatopoeia" once per turn.
As the last Main Deck “Zubaba” monster, we have “Utopic Onomatopoeia”. “Utopic Onomatopoeia” is also a Warrior monster, but due to its connection to its “Utopia” kin it has the Light Attribute instead of being an Earth monster. Due to its effect, it is counted as all four of the “Onomato” archetype, which means that it is also a “Zubaba” card. Additionally, it has the following effect: During the Main Phase, you can Special Summon “Dododo”, “Gagaga”, “Gogogo” and “Zubaba” monsters, up to one of each, from your hand in Defense Position. That means that you can Normal Summon “Utopic Onomatopoeia” and then proceed to summon a “Zubaba” monster and, if available, “Zubababancho Gagagacoat” and further “Utopic Onomatopoeias” as filler monsters, which potentially leaves you with more monsters than the “Zubabas” could have ever summoned before. The catch with that ability is that it locks your Extra Deck summons into Xyz Summoning for the rest of the turn, which is unfortunate but does not diminish the power of this effect in a deck completely devoid of any swarming. It also can be summoned via “Zubababancho Gagagacoat” as a “Dododo” or “Gogogo” monster, giving further options to work with. At the end of the day, “Utopic Onomatopoeia” is a definite three off; even more so since there are so little options otherwise.
Recommended copies: 3
Name: “Zubaba General“
Level/Rank: 4
ATK/DEF: 2000/1000
Attribute/Type: Earth Warrior
2 Level 4 monsters Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; equip 1 Warrior-Type monster from your hand to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the combined ATK of the monsters equipped to it by this effect.
And here it is, the “boss monster” of the “Zubaba” archetype: “Zubaba General”. “Zubaba General” is another completely generic Rank 4 monster… which is kind of weird, since that means that the own archetype cannot summon this card while the rest of the world has no problems doing so, but simply decided against it. “Zubaba General” starts out with 2000 ATK, but for the cost of detaching one material, you can equip it with a Warrior monster from your hand and boost its ATK by the ATK value of said Warrior monster. And thats it: “Zubaba General” is just a beatstick that eats up more resources than he should. In “Onomato”-based decks, you would normally go into “Utopia” monsters, which opens up options like “Number S39: Utopia the Lightning“, “Number 39: Utopia Double“, or whatever else you want really. But whatever you summon will probably hit significantly harder than “Zubaba General” while asking for less resouces to do so. I could end the card review right here, but there is another story with “Zubaba General”: In conjunction with “Gate Guardian“, “Zubaba General” jumps up to a formidable 5750 ATK. This caused players to invent the “Zubaba Gate Guardian OTK”: Sift through your deck via effects like “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights“, “Armageddon Knight” or “Destiny Hero – Malicious“, fetch the aforementioned “Gate Guardian“, recover “Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade” from your graveyard via its own effect, Special Summon monsters like “Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite” and overlay into “Zubaba General”. Then, use its effect to equip it with “Gate Guardian“, use “Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade” and use either “Psychic Blade” for its maximum effect, or “Oni-Gami Combo” for more attacks, and go hogwild, which will be shredding the opposing life points with ease. Like many other OTK decks, this strategy is obviously prone to negate effects, but pulling it off can net you an easy win. Overall, “Zubaba General” would normally continue the trend of a complete zero-copy-policy due to better options like “Utopias”, but in the described “Zubaba OTK” build, this card finds Extra Deck space for one to two copies, which is all you really need of this card.
Recommended copies: 0-2
Name: “Onomatopaira“
Type: Normal Spell
You can only activate 1 "Onomatopaira" per turn. Send 1 card from your hand to the GY; add up to 2 of these monsters from your Deck to your hand (you cannot add 2 from the same category). - 1 "Zubaba" monster - 1 "Gagaga" monster - 1 "Gogogo" monster - 1 "Dododo" monster
The “Zubaba” archetype, aside from being overall horrible, has no own Spell/Trap support in its archetype. It can use the “Onomato” support though, which is where “Onomatopaira” comes into play. By sending one card from your hand to the graveyard, you can search your deck for any combination of two monsters of the “Dododo”, “Gagaga”, “Gogogo” and “Zubaba” archetypes, with the only caviat being that you cannot choose any of those archetypes twice. Also, you can also only activate one copy of “Onomatopaira” per turn. The restriction of not being able to choose one archetype twice rarely matters since this card gives you easy access to your best monster cards, namely “Zubababancho Gagagacoat” and “Utopic Onomatopoeia“. Of course you could search for one of the other “Zubabas”, but there is little to no reason to do so most of the time. In fact, “Onomatopaira” is not only a searcher, but in “Zubaba” it is probably one of the best options since you lack the choice to play a massive amount of other cards. Definitely play three copies for consistency.
Recommended copies: 3
Name: “Onomatopia“
Type: Field Spell
Each time a "Utopia" monster(s) is Special Summoned to your side of the field, place 1 Hi-Five the Sky Counter on this card. All monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each Hi-Five the Sky Counter on this card. Once per turn: You can remove 2 Hi-Five the Sky Counters from this card; Special Summon 1 "Zubaba", "Gagaga", "Gogogo", or "Dododo" monster from your Deck.
The next card to give some playability to the archetype is “Onomatopia”. “Onomatopia” is a Field Spell, which gains rather unique “Hi-Five the Sky”-counters whenever you summon a “Utopia” monster to your side of the field. These counters than fuel two effects on this card: First, they buff any monster you control by 200 ATK and DEF per counter, and by removing two counters from “Onomatopia”, you can Special Summon a “Dododo”, a “Gagaga”, a “Gogogo”, or a “Zubaba” monster directly from the deck. The card is actually quite good for “Zubaba”, allowing you to summon “Utopia” monsters, then stack other “Utopias” onto the normal “Number 39: Utopia” like “Number S39: Utopia the Lightning“, “Number S39: Utopia Prime“, or “Number C39: Utopia Ray“. The problem lies in the level of some of your “Zubaba” Main Deck monsters: They are, as we discussed before, all Level 3. This makes the idea of summoning a number of “Utopia” monsters rather far-fetched, but the next support card will actually attempt to solve this problem. Still, due to “Onomatopia” being the only card to fetch monsters from the deck, it gives the build further much needed swarming, which for me means that there is no reason to go for less than three copies.
Recommended copies: 3
Name: “Onomatopickup“
Type: Continuous Spell
When this card is activated: You can add 1 "Onomat" card from your Deck to your hand, except "Onomatopickup". You can target 1 "Zubaba", "Gagaga", "Gogogo", or "Dododo" monster you control; all monsters you currently control become that monster's Level until the end of this turn (even if this card leaves the field). You can only use this effect of "Onomatopickup" once per turn. You can only activate 1 "Onomatopickup" per turn.
The last “Onomato” card is “Onomatopickup”. This is your searcher for the one thing “Onomatopaira” could not fetch: the “Onomato” support. And to be entirely honest, seeing how important the “Onomato” cards are for the “Zubaba” archetype due to a complete lack of… well, anything basically, “Onomatopickup” is as welcome a card as any of the others. But it does not end there: Searching for an “Onomat-” card is not the only thing “Onomatopickup” is good for, you can also target a “Dododo”, “Gagaga”, “Gogogo” or “Zubaba” monster you control and make the level of all monsters you control that level. Normally, this effect would not be that amazing, but in “Zubaba” it is absolutely vital. The ability of making the standard “Zubabas” Level 4 allows you to go into “Utopia” monsters with relative ease again and this in turn gives you the chance of building up some counters for “Onomatopia“, which then gives further stats and monsters. Due to the “Onomato” cards being what keeps this deck alive and running, “Onomatopickup” as the searcher for those cards plus the level manipulation effect makes it another three-off.
Recommended copies: 3
Recommended Engines:
If you have not picked this information up until now, “Zubaba” is not the greatest deck to run on its own. Which what little cards they actually have, one is struggling to get a working deck in motion. This, however, makes the choice of engines rather easy: They do like the support of their “Dododo”, “Gagaga” and “Gogogo” brethren. “Dododo” are also mostly Warrior monsters, making the inclusion of Warrior support a solid choice for both of them and “Gagaga” brings further options to manipulate Levels to get the necessary Level for the Xyz Summons “Zubaba” hardly can achieve on its own. “Gogogo” has not really something to offer to “Zubabas” themselves, but they achieve quite a nice board and have far better swarming than “Zubabas”, which those can obviously profit from. But aside from the obvious choices, there are some other archetypes to pick from:
“Gouki”:
“Gouki” are quite a solid fit for the “Zubabas”, since they are as generic of a summoning engine as it gets. “Gouki Suprex” brings a friend from the hand with him, making him the better, if archetypal, “Marauding Captain”. Combining this with cards like “Gouki Headbatt“, which can search a “Gouki” card if it hits the graveyard but is Special Summonable via discarding a “Gouki” monster, or playing “Gouki Guts“, which has the same search effect, does not come with a Special Summon effect, but can be easily summoned by “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights” by sending a copy of “Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade” from your deck to the graveyard, gives the strategy some options for swarming. The perfect target to search for is actually “Gouki Re-Match“, which is basically a “Monster Reborn” twice for “Goukis”, and gives therefore more swarming to a deck devoid of it.
“X-Sabers”:
Outside the “Onomato” group, “Zubabas” can find support in “X-Sabers”. With both groups consisting of Earth Warrior monsters, generic support is rather easy to find and implement, while “X-Sabers” can bring the necessary swarming the “Zubabas” lack. Cards like “XX-Saber Boggart Knight” are a potential “Utopia” monster with one Normal Summon and even the numerous recurrence effects the lower level “X-Sabers” sport can be helpful in combination with “Onomatopickup” and its level manipulation ability.
Further useful cards:
Main Deck monsters:
“Armageddon Knight“:
A Warrior monster that is able to ditch “Destiny Hero – Malicious” for another summon. There is a reason why this guy is limited, but he works as well in “Zubaba” as he does in any other Warrior deck.
“Destiny HERO – Malicious“:
“Malicious” becomes an easy summon as soon as a copy of him enters the graveyard. Useful both for “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights” as well as Xyz Monsters after level change, “Destiny HERO – Malicious” is a solid choice for the deck.
“Gate Guardian“:
Very important tool for the OTK build. Can be searched via “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights“.
“Immortal Phoenix Gearfried“:
If you do not want to rely on “Zubaba General” as your boss monster, you can summon this guy instead. Sizeable stats and an easy Special summoning condition meet non-destruction monster removal and with a negation effect. The only thing that is bad about “Immortal Phoenix Gearfried” is his price at the time of writing, but otherwise he is insanely good in anything Warrior-focussed with Equip Spells.
“Junk Forward“:
Easy first turn summon. It has the wrong level for this deck, but it is still useful to get Link Monsters on the field and the level can be changed via “Onomatopickup“.
“Marauding Captain“:
A Warrior monster that brings friends with him when summoned, which is useful swarming the “Zubaba” archetype needs.
“Neo Space Connector“:
Another warrior monster with the potential of bringing something onto the field with it. Just add a “Neo-Spacian” monster like “Neo-Spacian Grand Mole” or “Neo Spacian Aqua Dolphin” to make full use of its effect.
“Vision Hero Vyon“:
“Vision Hero Vyon” is simply another option to play when “Destiny HERO – Malicious” is used and basically turns “Vision Hero Vyon” into two summons for one card.
Spell cards:
“Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade“:
Recurring Equip card, which is not only helpful with a small ATK boost but can fuel the Special Summon effect of “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights“.
“Instant Fusion“:
Yet another way to get further monsters on board. If the level is not as important, you can go into “Invoked Raidjin” which is a Warrior monster with a useful effect. If Level 4 is necessary, “Karbonala Warrior” does the job just fine. And Level 1 “Thousand-Eyes Restrict” to absorb opposing monster is also a nice option to have.
“Oni-Gami Combo“:
If you decide to play the OTK variant, “Oni-Gami Combo” basically doubles your damage output for the low cost of any left Xyz material.
“Psychic Blade“:
One of the higher damage buffs Equip cards can give. With a potential 2000 bonus ATK, “Psychic Blade” is both helpful in the OTK build as well as running over some pesky monsters on the other side of the field.
“Reinforcement of the Army“:
Standard pick for any Warrior deck. Searching for almost any monster in your entire deck is nothing to scoff at.
“Terraforming“:
Searches for “Onomatopia“, which makes this card effectively a fourth copy of it while also thinning your deck. You obviously skip this one if you decided against playing “Onomatopia“.
Trap cards:
“Metaverse“:
Same reason as “Terraforming” before, another way to get to “Onomatopia“. If you don’t play a Field Spell, simply skip this card.
Extra Deck monsters:
“Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights“:
“Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights” is useful in any Warrior deck, period. So, she is also useful in “Zubaba” by default. Play her, search cards, there is no reason not to use this option.
Playstyle/Combos:
Unfortunately, the “Zubaba” archetype lacks a playstyle as much as it lacks its own card pool. Why Konami decided to give all the other “Onomato”-archetypes card to work with but decided against turning “Zubaba” at least casually acceptable is completely beyond me. However, “Zubaba” has no overarching strategy to speak off; therefore, the easiest way to get something done with “Zubaba” is probably going with a Beatdown-build. Play a few Equip cards, build a semi-useful board with the aforementioned generic Warrior cards and go for the face whenever the opportunity arises. Due to the deck being Warrior-focussed, you can at least access some really solid generic support cards and can make use of various other archetypes that share the monster type.
The trend, however, works against pure “Zubaba”-builds. There are simply not enough cards, which is why I recommended them all at the high ratios you can see further up in the article. Mixing them with other archetype will eventually lead to the point of dropping the “Zubaba” card altogether, since they do not make that much sense in any deck I could think of. In the OTK deck using “Zubaba General“, there is no grand strategy to speak off: Simply smack the opposing board and your opponent until either they or you are out of life points. In any other scenario, you are probably better off simply playing “Onomato” instead of giving the three cards from this archetype a try.
Weaknesses/Counters:
“Zubaba” shares a lot of common weaknesses with a number of other archetypes: They Special Summon monsters in order to spam the field as good as they can, so “Vanity’s Fiend“, “Archlord Kristya“, “Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo“, or any other Special Summon blockers are problematic. “Barrier Statues” (except Earth) can also halt the progress in building a decent board. Floodgates can spell big trouble for “Zubaba”, since they have no way to destroy those cards unless they put additional backrow destruction into the deck; which comes at the cost of consistency. Boss monsters with immunities against battle destruction and/or destruction effects are very hard to handle, since “Zubaba” has to get very creative to get around those, and using Extra Deck options to deal with those threats means not building towards more damage to finish the game. The deck is also entirely reliant on its monsters, which makes destruction effects used against the deck very effective. Even prohibiting the use of Spell cards via various ways can be devastating to the “Zubaba” playstyle. But one of the biggest weaknesses is the archetype itself: With no interaction with itself, almost no cards in the archetype and the complete lack of any specific and dedicated “Zubaba” Spell and Trap support, the deck is headed for disaster before the game even begins.
Sample Decklist (February 2022):
If you would to download the deck, you can access the file on YGOPROdeck. Here is the link to the deck: https://ygoprodeck.com/zubaba-deck-zubaba-general-otk/.
And here is one “Zubaba General OTK” deck for you. In all honesty, I think that there is room for improvement, but I am not willing to put immense amounts of time into a gimmicky deck that I do not want to play personally. Overall, you should be able to spam at least enough monster to get an Xyz Summon done; although I have to admit that I went more for “Number 39: Utopia Double” during playtesting since the card is better since it needs less setup and hits a lot harder most of the time. However, it is still possible to do the “Zubaba General” schenanigans, if you want to go for them.
Monster (18):
1x “Gate Guardian“
1x “Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson“
3x “Zubababancho Gagagacoat“
1x “Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite“
3x “Utopic Onomatopoeia“
1x “Armageddon Knight“
3x “Neo Space Connector“
1x “Dodododwarf Gogogoglove“
3x “Marauding Captain“
1x “Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin“
Spell/Trap (22):
1x “Instant Fusion“
3x “Onomatopaira“
1x “Reinforcement of the Army“
1x “Upstart Goblin“
1x “Foolish Burial“
3x “Left Arm Offering“
3x “Oni-Gami Combo“
1x “The Warrior Returning Alive“
1x “Double or Nothing!“
3x “Onomatopickup
1x “Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade“
1x “Living Fossil“
1x “Psychic Blade“
1x “Magnum Shield“
Extra Deck (15):
1x “Invoked Raidjin“
1x “Karbonala Warrior“
1x “Number 39: Utopia“
2x “Zubaba General“
1x “Abyss Dweller“
1x “Number 39: Utopia Double“
1x “Borrelsword Dragon“
1x “Knightmare Unicorn“
1x “Knightmare Phoenix“
2x “Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights“
1x “Knightmare Cerberus“
1x “Missus Radiant“
1x “Linkuriboh“
Cubic Creativity 