Blackwings and Rank 6

First off, congrats to Tyler Tabman for getting first at the North American Nationals (or WCQ) with Wind-Ups. He’s been winning a lot lately so also congratulations on essentially proving yourself to the world. But, away from that on to something totally different: Blackwings. Blackwings are kind of under-appreciated, especially in America, since they’ve taken a lot of hits on the banlist and they never perform at any events. (while they obviously aren’t the best it’s also due to sheer lack of play) I’ve taken a look back at them as another archetype that can essentially just spawn level 6 monsters from nowhere, which to me was a perfect indicator of a deck that can make rank 6 XYZ.

Similar to the previous Destiny HEROs I was talking about, Blackwings have a lot of graveyard support, specifically in the card Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor. For those who don’t know, Vayu can banish itself and another Blackwing monster in the graveyard to essentially Synchro summon from the grave into a Blackwing Synchro. The most standard of plays is to Banish Vayu and Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn (a level 5 Cyber Dragon-esque Blackwing monster) to special summon Blackwing Armed Wing (a level 6 Blackwing Synchro) from the Extra Deck. The Blackwing deck build that usually runs this is referred to as Vayu Turbo as opposed to Standard Blackwings a more control oriented deck. In order to facilitate the use a Vayu they run cards like Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight to pitch Vayu and Sirocco to the graveyard and make high attack Synchro Monsters for essentially no cost. I like the call Armageddon Knight’s effect a phantom plus due to this.

The addition of the cards like Armageddon Knight and Grepher also give nice access to the previously mentioned Destiny HERO support cards like Destiny HERO – Malicious and the Plaguespreader Zombie. This allows Armageddon Knight to to be a fulcrum between the two decks, from which you can switch between the two decks depending on the situation. Also, when Lavalval Chain comes out, the fact that Armageddon Knight is a level 4 will come in even more handy since this will allow even more graveyard control than ever as well as the addition of toolboxing Dark Armed Dragon.

Blackwings also have a lot more opportunities to make level 6 monsters through means of Standard Blackwings. The most immediate is Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North. Blizzard is a level 2 Tuner that revives a level 4 or lower Blackwing in the grave when Normal Summoned, which really obviously makes a level 6 Synchro at the cost of one card as long as you have some setup. One of the easiest monsters to set this up with is Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite. Since Zephyros pretty much begs for the graveyard as well as having a TON of plays depending on the game-state it’s not hard to convince yourself to send it to the graveyard almost immediately with Armageddon Knight or Grepher and it may even warrant running two copies if you running any sort of mill with cards like Card Trooper or maybe a mini Lightsworn engine like Chaos Dragons. You could also be running Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame as a level 4 target. Shura is just an all around solid monster that can toolbox Vayu and Gale, and if you really want to make some level 6 Synchros some bad level 2 Blackwing Tuners. With Shura + Gale it’s really easy to make Blackwing Armor Master, an amazing card that it seems people have forgot about, that totally wrecks in the Dino Rabbit match-up because it’s essentially a Spirit Reaper that can attack over Laggia.

There’s also two totally random Blackwing level 6 monsters that I’ve though about running, that I’ll probably be testing out some more in the future that I have ideas with. Blackwing – Elphin the Raven is the first; he can be normal summoned without Tribute if you control a Blackwing monster and then he changes the battle position of an opponent’s monster. This card has a lot of Synergy with Vayu. Firstly, he’s a great target for Vayu’s effect to make Armor Master, who’s never really a bad idea. Secondly, Vayu can easily plant a level 6 Blackwing on the field in Blackwing Armed Wing allowing you to normal summon Elphin, then you have two level 6 monsters for an XYZ summon or for a strong beat-down.

The second of the two level 6 Blackwings I find very interesting: Blackwing – Kogarashi the Wanderer. When a Blackwing monster is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the graveyard you can special summon him from your hand. He’s level 6 and has 2300 attack and is also randomly a Tuner monster. He plays really easily off cards like Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force and Dark Hole and other destructive monster effects. Also like Elphin the Raven he’s got a pretty beat-stick nature to him, which is always an additional plus when plans go awry.

These cards all have a similar synergy to some cards I mentioned with Destiny HEROs with cards like Return From a Different Dimension, which can essentially be a game winning card with these decks combined. Blackwings also really love Call of the Haunted using Armageddon Knight, Sangan, Card Trooper and other plays by bouncing Call of the Haunted with Zephyros. Call can also bring back all the Level 6 monsters you summon (bar something summon by Vayu’s effect since it was never successfully Synchro Summoned) to match another level 6 you may have on the field.

As always, I’d hope you’d test out some Blacking decks because they’re really really fun! I’ll end with some other cards to think about running.