I never thought I'd see the day when in the grand year of 2023, konami would decide that enough was enough, and they went shattered my previous guide to pieces.

By the end of this short novel here, you'll have basically all you need to get a competent Ice Barrier deck ready for your locals as they aren't likely to be slamming into Purrely anytime soon.

For those just joining the game, Ice Barrier is an archetype of water monsters whose better cards offer various control elements that, when stacked properly, can force your opponent to do nothing for their turn, or next to nothing. They've come a long way to be here, so please save your questions for the very end.

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Let's kick things off the way we've always with objectively bad monsters.

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I would humbly suggest you don't run any of these:

^{Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the barrier, right? Walked right into that Dragonic ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.}

Inbetween the "bad" monsters and the "good" monsters, I wanted to include those that have control elements that you might want to splash into your build. Some of these are better than others, but they are all, collectively, tools in the box that you can reach for.

These are cards that I don't consider to playmakers on their own. Instead, they disable your opponents plays or, can assist you with yours. I am choosing to do this here as really, you can do a lot of different things with Ice Barrier, and I wanted to ensure you knew how creative you could be.

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Its utility might be questionable, but

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And now, from questionable utility, to the playmakers themselves. Some new, most old, all very good choices for any ice barrier build.

Run these, or freeze to death. Simple as.

The spells and traps will be lumped into one thing so, pay attention.

These are;

Books and Hazards of the Iced Barrier

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And now for the almighty opressors themselves, the dudes that keep escaping their own prison. These can be run in any amount, and I would recommend that you do.

These are;

The Icebreakers

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Honorable mentions for cards that are Ice Barrier cards in all but name:

• Trishula, the Dragon of Icy Imprisonment
  • Its bad. Contact fusion that banishes materials which IB can get back, but slowly.
• Lancea, Dragonic Ancestor of the Ice Spirit Mountain
  • He puts the Ice Barrier on the map. His special summon is considered a synchro summon so summoning any flavor of Trish is a hilarious idea, but that's not even the best part. Freely tag in whatever Ice Barrier member that would best upset your opponent in the moment. You are spoiled for choice beyond belief.
• Terror of Trishula
  • Lancea can help set it up but it requires too much effort to constitute inclusion in any "serious" IB deck.

I do not have the constitution for Mathematics or, "Maths" as the Brits put it. For some reason.

I've already done this in the past so I'm just going to copy my own homework and freshen it up a bit.

For the synchro effort; you'll want Revealer to make nearly any Synchro as she is the most useful in this regard. From there the math looks like this:

• Revealer + Hexa (2) = Brio. Never ever use Zuijin for Hexa. it is never profitable when it would count.
• Revealer + Hexa (3) = Gung Defender is a great choice
• Revealer + Hexa (will vary) + some other level 2 or 3 = Small Trish.
• Revealer + Hexa (3) + Whatever other lvl 4 (probably Speaker) = Big Trish
• Revealer + Georgius = Lancea

Hexa, is basically a one stop shop save for Lancea, at which point it just becomes easier to use your bird. Its like I've never said: if you have a bird, you might as well use it.

As for the generals; I don't include them as you cannot count on an Zuijin in gy. But, if he is, and if you plan ahead:

• Grunard becomes lvl 6,
• Raiho lvl 4,
• Gantala lvl 5
• Wayne lvl 3

Wayne is fast becoming the most relevant here.

Saying the quiet part out loud

• Summon something twice
  • Summon Mirror Magic Master
    • Tribute one of those two somethings.
    • Produce 3 tokens
• Activate Winds
  • Clear your field then summon:
    • Whatever you want
    • I liked to go with Cryo, Defender, Spellbreaker, Prior, and Secret Guards
    • Odds are your foe can't attack, can't target with monster effects, can't use spells, and you also have Prior, which could summon Medium, Wayne, or whatever you'd wish.

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The Crimson Dragon Greet and Beat

As quickly as possible:

• Grunard + any level 4 = Crimson Dragon
• Revealer + Geogrius = Lancea
• Crimson effect target Lancea
  • Crimson returns to the ED, and then you can summon a ton of crap. What's your pleasure?
    • Dis Pater for some situational protection
    • Timelord Progenitor Vorpgate because nobody has ever seen that before. Ever.
    • Shooting Star Dragon if you want the game to end yesterday
    • Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane because IB doesn't have a level 12 but you wanna have an immense amount of fun anyway
  • What I'm getting at here is there are enough level 10s out there that you can experiment with to make your opponent raise an eyebrow or two. Maybe don't use the timelord though.

I challenge you to do it yourself. See what color the sky turns.

Smugly arise from the wall you've built knowing full and well, that its hard to be more annoying than this. They really deserved this, and I'm so glad I had a basis before all this happened. Shoutout to those lucky few that snagged their SD.

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Tonight, we freeze like kings.

Thanks for reading, I hope this is of benefit.

^{If you should go climbing}

^{On the ice of modern Barrier}

^{Dragging behind you a card carrier}

^{Of a million bad support cards}

^{Don't be surprised when a dragons roaring cries}

^{Pierces the wall nearby}

^{You fall out of depth and out of your duel}

^{With your fear careening toward you}

^{As you freeze in mid-step}