Light and Darkness Ritual deck: the Black Chaos pile (October 2026)

This is a 60-card pile built around Light and Darkness Ritual and its Black Chaos monsters, padded out with Azamina, Dark Magician and Mitsurugi engines. Before Beyond the Brave it put more players into Top 8 than any other deck, and it took 2nd at YCS Guayaquil. It is still making Top 8s now that the new set is legal.

How the deck works

Light and Darkness Ritual Ritual Summons either Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos or Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Light and Darkness. It can Tribute from the hand or field, or banish monsters from the GY instead. Once it is in the GY, it can return to your hand together with another card that mentions it.

Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos is the main Ritual Monster. It is unaffected by the opponent’s activated effects unless they target it, and it stops the opponent from destroying or banishing your Spells and Traps. When it is Special Summoned it adds a Spell from your GY to your hand, and it can banish an opponent’s card face-down.

The support cards make the Ritual easy to find and easy to pay for:

Griffoh can be the entire Tribute for one Level 8 Ritual Monster. It can also be discarded to Set a Quick-Play Spell or Trap that mentions Light and Darkness Ritual from the Deck.
Ragged Records of Rites reveals a Ritual Spell and adds a monster that mentions it, and Pre-Preparation of Rites adds a Ritual Spell plus the Ritual Monster named on it.
Skull Archfiend of Chaos summons itself by recycling cards from the GY, and when it is sent to the GY it sends a Ritual Spell from the Deck and adds the matching Ritual Monster.
Black Chaos is a separate main deck monster. You summon it by shuffling a Spellcaster or Warrior Ritual Monster from your hand or GY into the Deck. It banishes 2 of the opponent’s cards once per turn and is unaffected by their activated effects while you have a Ritual Spell in the GY. It can also be discarded to place Mind Shuffle from the Deck or GY.
Mind Shuffle searches a monster that mentions Light and Darkness Ritual, and when the opponent activates a card or effect it can swap one of your Level 7 or higher monsters for one of those monsters from your hand.

The other engines add starters and disruption:

Azamina: Diabellstar the Black Witch summons itself by sending a card to the GY and Sets a Sinful Spoils card from the Deck. WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils finds Diabellstar, and The Hallowed Azamina brings out an Azamina Fusion like Azamina Mu Rcielago, which searches on summon.
Dark Magician: Dark Magical Curtain Special Summons a DARK Spellcaster from the hand or Deck, and if that is Dark Magician, it adds a Spell or Trap that mentions Dark Magician. The Gaze of Timaeus and Dark Magician of Destruction give the package a Fusion follow-up.
Mitsurugi: Mitsurugi Prayers searches or revives a Mitsurugi monster, and Mitsurugi Ritual Ritual Summons a Reptile from the Deck. Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi destroys all of the opponent’s monsters when Special Summoned and can make them discard or lose an effect.

Super Polymerization rounds things out. It can use monsters from either field as material, and nothing can be chained to it. The result is a long, grindy deck with a lot of starters and a lot of ways to interrupt the opponent.

Key cards

Light and Darkness Ritual: the Ritual Spell, and it comes back from the GY with another card.
Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos: protected boss that guards your backrow and banishes face-down.
Black Chaos: banishes 2 cards a turn and places Mind Shuffle when discarded.
Griffoh: a one-card Tribute for a Level 8 Ritual Monster.
Ragged Records of Rites: three copies of a search for the Ritual pieces.
Diabellstar the Black Witch: extra starter from the Azamina side.
Dark Magical Curtain: turns into Dark Magician plus a search.
Mitsurugi Prayers: adds the Mitsurugi engine and its board wipe.
Super Polymerization: unchainable removal that uses the opponent’s monsters as material.

Sample decklist

YCS Guayaquil (Advanced), 2nd place, October 3-4, 2026. Played before Beyond the Brave was legal. A leaner 42-card Azamina build also won the Santiago regional on September 26.

Main Deck (60)

Extra Deck (15)

Side Deck (15)

Recent results

Event	Date	Placement	Players
YCS Guayaquil (Advanced)	Oct 3-4, 2026	2nd, plus 2 more in Top 8 and 10 in Top 32	263
Santiago WCQ Regional	Sep 26, 2026	1st	190
Chelmsford WCQ Regional	Sep 27, 2026	1st	86
Folkestone WCQ Regional	Sep 26, 2026	1st	about 80
Foggia WCQ Regional	Sep 27, 2026	1st	about 80
Orange WCQ Regional	Sep 26, 2026	1st	about 64
Mexico City WCQ Regional	Sep 27, 2026	2nd	about 400
Duluth WCQ Regional	Sep 26, 2026	2nd	about 250

It also won Groningen and Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, took 2nd at Rio de Janeiro, Herzliya and Castleford, and made Top 8 at Louisville, Dubuque and Burnaby after Beyond the Brave came out.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Many starters across four engines, so it rarely opens with nothing to do.
Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos and Black Chaos both shrug off a lot of the opponent’s activated effects.
Light and Darkness Ritual, Ragged Records of Rites and Skull Archfiend of Chaos all recover resources, which suits long games.

Weaknesses

The GY matters a lot. Light and Darkness Ritual recurs from it, can banish from it as Tribute, and Black Chaos needs a Ritual Spell there to stay protected.
Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos is only safe from effects that do not target it.
A 60-card deck with several mini-engines can draw the wrong mix of pieces.

What to watch

YCS Houston (October 16-18) will show how the pile holds up against Elfnote Ars Magna with Beyond the Brave legal.
The deck overlaps heavily with Yummy and pure Mitsurugi builds, so expect lists to keep swapping engines.
Magnificent Maestros brings new Toon support in mid-November and could change what the deck needs to beat.