Xyzombies: More brains needed
I didn't think I'd be doing another zombie article so soon, but, on realising the potential of the Blue-Blooded Oni Xyz style of zombies in the current format, I felt it was completely necessary. This articles title has 2 meanings; for one, this is some "extra brains" for you who want to play a zombie deck, and secondly, Xyzombies take more general skill than the Synchro kind. While with the Synchro deck, your main decisions will be based around which Level 8 Synchro to summon, you need a huge amount of vision to see how to pull the right combos in an Oni deck. Without further ado, I will explain the main cards.
Blue-Blooded Oni:
Oni is one of the two biggest playmakers in this deck, although you're definitely going to need to use both. Oni's effect is pretty self-explanatory, and it's clearly going to help out with making plays. Its main use is to summon a monster, then immediately Xyz with it and the monster that was just summoned, before detaching it for the Xyz's effect. This will allow you to Special Summon it from the Graveyard with a card like Mezuki, before using its effect again.
Mezuki:
Mezuki is a far more important playmaker in the Xyz variant than in the Synchro variant. Its main use will be to Special Summon Blue-Blooded Oni from the Graveyard, but may also have other uses in desperate situations. It's also easy to reuse Mezukis with a TGU engine.
Zombie Master
Zombie Master is a less important playmaker in Xyzombies than it has ever been in the past, with Mezuki and Oni taking the centre stage due to the addition of a recent card that will be talked about later. If you really want to know what it is, then read faster. Back on topic, Master is still a very good play to set up early game, so it's still important to run 3.
Lavalval chain
This is your basic Rank 4 Xyz for swarming in an Oni deck. Essentially, when summoned, you try to get an Oni and a Mezuki into your grave, usually by detaching one and sending the other from deck depending on what was used to summon it (normally a Zombie Master play). Once both are in the Graveyard along with another Zombie, you can instantly make another one for free by Special Summoning Oni from the Graveyard with Mezuki and detaching the remaining material from Lavalval Chain to Special Summon another Zombie. This will allow you to make another Lavalval Chain and repeat the combo.
Tour Guide from the Underworld
Tour guide is brilliant. You will usually use it to summon Leviair, which is key to recycling Mezukis and making more Xyzs with them. If there are no cards banished, you can actually combo Leviair with Book of Life, and Special Summon a Zombie from your grave while banishing an opponent's Level 4 monster, before Special Summoning that monster with Leviair's effect. This lets you get out a Rank 4, which could be a Lavalval to set up your grave and get a combo going.
Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
And here it is; the card that may have made Xyzombies more consistent than the Synchro variant. What's the big deal? Well, it lets you reuse TGU. No more than that. But reusing TGU every turn means making Levair every turn. And making Leviair every turn means getting a Mezuki back every turn. And that, along with another level 4 (not too difficult to get) will mean getting not just one, but TWO Rank 4 Xyzs (because of Mezuki going to the Graveyard when it is detached, allowing for you to Special Summon a Blue Blooded Oni) per turn, maybe more if Leviair survives more than one turn.
Strategy and combos:
This section can't really exist; there are a huge number of potential combos, and I mean really huge. However, I will try to cover some of the basic ones for common situations. Depending on the exact circumstances, however, you will need a great deal of skill and vision in order to pick the course of action that will be the most effective, and that also comes with experience of the deck.
The standard combo has already been detailed; summon a Lavalval Chain using either a Mezuki or a Blue-Blooded Oni (and another card) with another zombie in the Graveyard, then send the other monster to the Graveyard. In the event that both are in the Graveyard after detaching, then you would normally want to send another Mezuki. You can never have too many Mezukis. Next, Special Summon Oni from the Graveyard with Mezuki, and use its effect so Special summon another Rank 4. If this is Zombie Master, consider summoning another Level 4 monster; it may allow you to make an Xyz that is not Lavalval Chain and still continue the combo. Throwing in cards like Silent Honor: ARK is an extremely good method of breaking your opponent's field, as you can easily summon 2 in the same turn. If you cannot make an Xyz other than Lavalval Chain while continuing the combo, you should either consider ending it there or simply making 3 Lavalval Chains and another Xyz. If your opponent has no field, then you can total 8000 damage by choosing a Gem-Knight Pearl as your final Xyz.
Combos with Tour Guide will primarily involve Leviair. Leviair allows you to make extremely powerful plays, which are detailed under the sections for TGU and Scarm. There is little point in going over this further, however note that I did debate giving this card its own section in the article.
Finally, you need to be able to adapt to situations. Provided you have a good variety of Rank 4s in your Extra Deck, you should be able to manage with pretty much any field in the game with the right level of skill (besides El Shaddoll Winda, without sides). This deck is very skill reliant, so keep that in mind.
Not being flattened by counters:
Provided you're skilled enough and have a good build, you should have no trouble winning with this deck in a good percentage of the time. However, it has an inherent weakness against Shaddolls. The first big problem is El Shaddoll Winda. This will really screw you up. This makes a few cards very important. The first is one you should main; Forbidden Lance. Lance will let you get over Winda using only your Normal Summon. Compulsory Evacuation Device does a better job, yes, but it's Limited and everyone runs it. You should also consider 3 Prohibition and Breakthrough Skills in your Side Deck. The deck is also relatively badly hurt by Bujins which run Kaiser Colosseum, so 3 MSTs is important. Spell-Shattering Arrow is actually a very good side choice against this as well, which increases its value as a Side Deck card sufficiently despite pendulums not being very widely used in the TCG. It's generally weak against Trap heavy decks, which means you want Trap Stuns, MSTs, Lances and Wiretaps all over the damn place. It does have quite a few common weaknesses, and that is one thing that lets the deck down. If you can address them all with the Side Deck then you've trully mastered the deck.
Example build:
