The Yu-Gi-Oh! set Justice Hunters presents several new archetypes and I'd like to take some time and break down how you may want to build them to wipe out your opponent's Life Points and send them to the Shadow Realm. We'll first start by looking at Dracotail, the new fusion archetype of Justice Hunters.

Dracotail is a powerful fusion strategy. While not as combo heavy as the other two archetypes in the set, Dracotail has no shortage of powerful Monster, Spell, and Trap effects. At its core, Dracotail is a mid-range/control strategy that can set up fusion plays on either player's turn to summon out powerful boss monsters. Dracotail Fusion Monsters always need a monster in the hand to fuse into. If the Fusion Monsters are not enough, Dracotail also has access to powerful spell and trap cards to give you even more of an edge and disrupt your opponent. Here are some strategies that can work with Dracotail.

Dragonmaid Dracotail

Let's start off by pairing Dracotail with one of the more obvious choices, another dragon fusion strategy in Dragonmaid. The Dragonmaids give players access to powerful boss monsters such as Dragonmaid Sheou, which has an omni-negate effect perfect for bolstering the field alongside the Dracotail boss monsters. Sheou requires 1 Dragonmaid monster plus 1 Level 5 or higher Dragon monster. You can use the high level Dracotail Dragons, like Dracotail Pan and Dracotail Urgula for the fusion alongside the Dragonmaid monster. Doing this will net you the effects of setting a Dracotail Spell/Trap from Pan or Urgala, which you can use to press the advantage or disrupt your opponent.

Lady's Dragonmaid is another great monster to go alongside the Dracotails. Lady's Dragonmaid opens up a new path to fusion summoning by shuffling monsters from the GY or banishment into the deck as fusion materials during the standby phase. Not only that, but you can also easily bring her out via "contact" fusing by banishing 1 Dragonmaid monster on the field and one in the GY. This can be easily achieved simply by normal summoning Parlor Dragonmaid and using her effect to dump a high level Dragonmaid from your deck to the GY. Dragonmaid Cehrmba is another nice tech into the deck since it provides protection for all your dragon fusion monsters, which helps with their staying power. Overall, Dragonmaids provide more flexible ways of fusing with Dracotail monsters and can allow you to more easily step into the powerful dragon support cards.

Shaddoll Dracotail

Another fan-favorite archetype that plays well with the new Dracotail cards are Shaddolls. Pairing Dracotails and Shaddolls offers the unique benefit of using a powerful going-second engine. Dracotails already have a strong turn-2 and beyond Spell in Ketu Dracotail, which allows you to add a Dracotail monster to your hand, then if your opponent controls a monster you can fuse. Shaddoll Fusion has a similar effect in that you can fuse using monster from your deck if your opponent has a monster special summoned from the extra deck. These two cards make the core of a board-breaking style of play.

Use Shaddoll Fusion while your opponent controls an extra deck monster to send Shaddoll Beast, Shaddoll Dragon, or Nehshaddoll Genius to gain their effects when they are sent to the GY by card effect. This allows you to end on a powerful monster such as El Shaddoll Apkallone that can negate a face-up card on the field along with the added bonus of drawing a card, destroying a spell/trap, or negating a monster on the field from the aforementioned monsters. Your opponent will have a hard time keeping up, especially after Fusing into Dracotail Arthalion and bouncing a card they control back to the hand.

The Shaddoll package serves as a great turn one card as well if you're able to summon El Shaddoll Winda. Many decks struggle against its summoning restriction without the proper outs so it can work well many times going first. If you're a fan of breaking boards and crippling your opponent's options, consider running Shaddolls.

Branded Dracotail

Branded has always been one of the kings of fusion archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh!, so when considering what to play the newcomer Dracotail with, Branded easily comes to mind. Naturally, Branded brings with it a suite of strong boss monsters, ability to play on your opponent's turn, good Super Polymerization targets, and of course, Branded Fusion. You have options to run tech cards like Branded Lost to protect your fusion plays. It's very easy to step into your Dracotail plays since all the Dracotail monsters share the same effect of being able to set a Dracotail Spell/Trap from the deck if they're sent to the GY as fusion material. Branded Fusion is still one of the most powerful fusion Spells in the game.

Now with Dracotail Spells essentially being slightly weaker versions of Branded Fusion, it's very easy to fuse multiple times per turn. While you'll still have to deal with the same weaknesses to a traditional Branded deck such as Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Dominus Purge, the ability to play in the grind game somewhat helps to make up for it. Running Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous opens up additional ways to fusion summon, especially if your main fusion spells get stopped.

What cards will you be using with Dracotail? There are many options, but it's worth mentioning that some players have found the K9 engine to slot in well with Dracotail. There's also no problem with just playing the deck pure without any other archetypes. Regardless of the deck list, Dracotail is shaping up to be a powerful new contender of this format.