The Princess and the Djinns

Dragon/ Ritual/ Effect
You can Ritual Summon this card with "Hymn of Blessing". You can only use the effect of "Saphira the Dragon Princess" once per turn. During the End Phase of the turn this card is Ritual Summoned, OR during the End Phase of the turn a LIGHT monster was sent from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard while you controlled this face-up card: You can activate 1 of these effects.
● Draw 2 cards, then discard 1 card.
● Discard 1 random card from your opponent's hand.
● Add 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard to your hand.

In a glance, Saphira the Dragon Princess is nothing special. She doesn't have any destructive effects such as Judgment Dragon or Scrap Dragon's, nor the potential to flood the field with an endless wave of specially summoned monster like Burei/do's. Her attack power is also just the standard 2500--which means that attacks from monsters such as Crimson Blader ,Felgrand or even Utopia will be sufficient knock her out of the field. In addition, as a ritual monster, she requires a lot of cards to be summoned, and as we all know, ritual engine consumes a massive space in the deck.

So what makes this monster so special?

Nothing.

Yep. The card itself is nothing special. But Saphira was never meant to be the one-man army card such as Artorigus or Bujintei Susanowo. She's a sensitive dragon who needs support from her friends. Alone, she may be nothing. But together, the opponents rage quits.

It's the concept of combo that is centered around this card that first made me interested in building the deck. And because I'm a very lazy person, that combo HAS to be good. The combo's purpose is simple;  that is to maintain field dominance by not allowing the opponent to special summon monster. Simple, yet hurts as hell for the opposing player. I'm started to get really tired to have my field overwhelmed by monsters from those top tier decks such as Geargia, Lightsworns and Shadolls, so the idea couldn't be any more tempting. I would do ANYTHING to stop those pesky monsters from raiding my field ONCE AND FOR ALL.

There are three main gears that would ensure the combo would works: the first two is obviously Saphira and her Ritual Spell. The third, is an old card from the set "Stardust Overdrive" that is released 5 years ago and ever since has always been overlooked; the Djinn Releaser of Rituals from the archetype Djinn of Rituals.

Fiend/ Effect
When you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. While the monster Ritual Summoned using this card is face-up on the field, your opponent cannot Special Summon.

If it was released 5 years ago, why doesn't it emerges until now? 

The answer is because there no ritual monster that would survive long enough on the field to maintain the dominance. There are too many cards that is able to destroy the ritual summoned monster even without special summoning. A simple Dark Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute could easily got rid of the monster from the field. Effects that manipulate attack power also poses as a threat to those ritual monsters.

However, Saphira was well covered from this thanks to the the effect of her Ritual Spell; the Hymn of Blessing, which would prevent the destruction of the monster by banishing itself from the grave. Despite the fact that one Hymn of Blessing could only provide protection for Saphira once per usage, it is often proved to be enough. 

Allright, now that Saphira had protected itself from destructive effects, how does the player handle traps or effect monsters that bounce cards back to the hand or deck like Compulsory, Tiaramisu, or Shadoll Dragon's?

To handle the effects that would target cards but not destroying them is the job of another member of the Djinns; The Djinn Demolisher of Rituals.

Fiend/Effect

If you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can banish this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. The monster Ritual Summoned using this card cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects.

As the youngest member of the Djinns of Rituals family (most of them were released 5 to 4 years ago), Demolisher is a fresh new card which was released in the Duelist Advent set last April, together with Saphira. As an additional part, Demolisher actually doesn't really have to be one of the tribute for Saphira's ritual summon, but if somehow you manage to summon Saphira by using these two Djinns, you just summoned HELL itself right on top of your opponent's field.


Okay, so all we need to do is gather both Releaser or Demolisher, then proceed to ritual summon Saphira BEFORE the opponent could swarm the field with their monster (which sometimes can be done as early as the first turn). Simple isn't it?

Maybe some of you guys will think:

"While the odds of having 2-cards combo successfully completed are not that great, how are we going to pull off a combo that requires 4 cards?" 

Well, first of all, most of those cards don't have to be in the hand to be used. As we all know, both Djinns' effects allow them to be used as the fodders of the ritual summon from the graveyard. Even Hymn of Blessing doesn't have to be in the hand to be activated since Preparation of the Rites could therefore gather both Saphira and the spell instantly. As a part of the ritual engine, Saphira and her Ritual Spell also have a lot of searchers such as Manju of The Ten Thousand Hands or Sonic Bird. Gathering both of them in your hand actually shouldn't be too difficult. But how do we get the Djinns ready as the tribute fodders for the rituals?


       
As both of the Djinns are level 3 Fiend monster, a card that is able to specifically target one of the Djinns and send it to the grave beside Foolish Burial is the Tour Guide From The Underworld. By using Tour Guide's effect, you could summon rank-3 xyz monsters such as Alucard or Angineer, and provide additional protection for Saphira while dumps one of the required Djinns along the way. Giga Brilliant could also be another option for the player as its effect would increase Saphira's attack points by 300--turning it into a powerhouse with 2800 ATK.

At some point during the game, the Djinns might eventually become dead draws, but since they can still be used as the ritual's tributes from the grave, cards like Hand Destruction can sometimes be a real lifesaver.

To speed up the game, I also decide to incorporate Lightsworn engine into my build, as they are one of the best milling engine in the game. As the space of the deck is limited, I left Judgment Dragon behind and carried only three different names from the Lightsworn family.While Lyla is the additional Mystical Space Typhoon to the deck, Raiden's ability as the archetype's fastest miller could be used to try to mill the cards that we needs to be in the grave. Being the only tuner of the deck, Raiden is also the main component of the deck's synchro summon. Together with Lumina, they are the only access to the deck's second boss monster; Michael The Lightsworn Ark, whose task is to get rid of "obstacles" that might get in Saphira's way. Lumina the Lightsworn Summoner, is the deck's plan B. In case things go wrong, you could always use her effect to summon Black Rose Dragon, and wipe off the entire field.


Basically, this is my current build for the deck. The deck is optimized for consistency and speed, as I always try to summon Saphira as early as possible to maximize the field domination.

There're a lot of variations that can be made for this deck. As it has almost even number of Light and Dark-attributed monsters, maybe adding some chaos monsters such as BLS or Chaos Sorcerer would be a good addition to the offensive strategy. Or being defensive by adding Effect Veiler and Honest to optimize Saphira's recycle ability? Well in the end it's up to you as YGO is always about creativity. Just watch out for opponents Veilers and D.D. Crows though. They can mess up your game pretty bad.. especially when the timing is right. Cheers!