#((But I think for Slater. He should have a mixed deck first then Herald THEN Cloudian))

[antihibikase-archive]

Thinking about that Zexal-inspired AU so. Talking about Slater's decks. <3

Slater initially runs a mixed WATER deck, centered around Umi and using mostly Aqua and Fish types.

A pretty basic WATER deck, using simple water effect monsters like Electric Jellyfish, Maiden of the Aqua, Aqua Spirit, Doom Kracken, and Star Boy. He also has Spiritual Water Art - Aoi, A Legendary Ocean, and Black Pendant. He has no set monster card as an ace, as his "ace" is the field spell of Umi itself.

This deck wasn't made by him, it was made by his brother, and just passed down to him, so he's not.. particularly good at utilizing it yet. Since Zexal is where the field spells and duels actually start hurting people directly, he has had a bad "habit" of nearly being eaten or attacked by his own monsters, as well as drowning in his own field. He has no spirit partners during this time.

After his old deck is taken away from him, he's given a new deck by Zinzolin, which is the Herald deck; LIGHT-attribute Fairy type monsters that look like angels with armor.

They focus on Ritual Summons, and while he doesn't stray too far from his archetype (he has multiple copies of each Herald light), he has a couple of supports like Manju, Clear Kuriboh, and multiple copies of Shining Angel and Honest. His ace is The Herald of Perfection.

Like certain cards in the YGO verse, they can become sentient and even take over the duelist- which was the case with Slater. As the cult within Team Plasma worshipped The Herald of Ultimateness, they used him as a personification of The Diviner of The Herald card, and he was unable to handle its power. As the Heralds are the angels he serves and are higher beings than him, he utilizes Astral Barrier to shield them from damage- by redirecting the damage to himself. His spirit partner is also The Herald of Perfection, though it's.. mostly quiet and hovering, just watching him. Its more or less the main reason he's been possessed and acting differently than Piper remembers him to be.

Post-Team Plasma, once he and Piper get out, they focus on deckbuilding instead of dueling for a bit. While Slater loved his original WATER deck, it wasn't really him- and though he is utterly terrified of the Herald deck now, he does like the playstyle of Fairies; so he leans towards making his own WATER attribute fairy deck, which leads him to the Cloudian archetype.

Cloudian archetypes focus on the fact they cannot be destroyed by battle; coupled with Sanctuary in The Sky and eventually, Spirit Barrier (a card Piper trades for his Astral Barrier), it keeps Slater safe during battle by minimizing the battle damage he receives, as well as keeps his monsters in the field. He uses mostly the same water supports as he did in his first deck, though like with the Heralds, he prefers not to stray too far from the Cloudians. His ace is Cloudian - Eye of the Typhoon, but his spirit partner and favorite card is Cloudian - Sheep Cloud.