Paleozoic

The graveyard is the engine Paleozoic decks constantly fill and draw from. Every Paleozoic Trap card carries a secondary effect that triggers once per Chain whenever any Trap activates while it sits in the graveyard, Special Summoning itself as a Level 2 Aqua monster. This means a single Trap activation can cascade into multiple bodies on the field simultaneously, each immune to monster effects. Paleozoic Marrella feeds the graveyard directly by sending any Trap from the Deck, while Paleozoic Pikaia cycles the hand by discarding one Paleozoic card to draw two, ensuring the graveyard stays stocked and live bodies keep appearing.

Those Level 2 Aqua bodies are the raw material for the Extra Deck. Paleozoic Opabinia requires only two Level 2 monsters to Xyz Summon and immediately allows Paleozoic Traps to be activated straight from the hand, dramatically extending the deck's reach; it can also detach a Trap Xyz Material to search any Paleozoic Trap from the Deck. Paleozoic Anomalocaris demands three or more materials but rewards the investment with on-demand spot destruction and the ability to excavate Traps off the top of the Deck whenever a Trap leaves the Spell and Trap Zone. Paleozoic Cambroraster, the Link-2, bridges these plays by converting a Set card into any Paleozoic Trap directly from the Deck, activatable immediately.

The deck heavily favours setting up in the opponent's turn, using Paleozoic Canadia, Olenoides, Hallucigenia, and Dinomischus as disruption that simultaneously populates the graveyard for the next chain. Because every Trap activation can trigger multiple graveyard revivals at once, even a going-second hand that survives interaction can generate a full board from what looked like a pile of backrow.