My opinions on the usefulness of of the new Kaiju cards.
As I have done with each preceding pack, I will do again. We received another pack containing 2 new Kaiju monsters and 1 new Kaiju spell/trap with the upcoming release of Shining Victories (SHVI). As per usual, I’ll go over the new cards effects that give my opinion of each card as well as potential options I thought of for each.
Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju
Level 9 / LIGHT / Thunder-type
3300 ATK / 2100 DEF
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) to your opponent’s side of the field in Attack Position, by Tributing 1 monster they control. If your opponent controls a “Kaiju” monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in Attack Position. You can only control 1 “Kaiju” monster. Once per turn: You can remove 3 Kaiju Counters from anywhere on the field; your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated for the rest of this turn, also this card can make up to 3 attacks on monsters during each Battle Phase this turn.
Super Anti-Kaiju War Machine Mecha-Dogoran
Level 8 / LIGHT / Machine-type
? ATK / 2000 DEF
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. If your opponent controls a “Kaiju” monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can only control 1 “Kaiju” monster. Once per turn: You can remove 2 Kaiju Counters from anywhere on the field; equip 1 “Kaiju” monster from your hand or Graveyard to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the combined ATK of the “Kaiju” monsters equipped to it by this effect.
The Kaiju Files
Continuous Spell
Each time a “Kaiju” monster(s) is Special Summoned from the hand and/or Graveyard, place 1 Kaiju Counter on this card (max. 5). Once per turn: You can target 1 “Kaiju” monster on the field; destroy that monster, then Special Summon 1 “Kaiju” monster with a different original name from your Deck to its controller’s field. You can send this card with 3 or more Kaiju Counters to the Graveyard; add 1 “Kaiju” Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, except “The Kaiju Files”.
Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju:
The first Kaiju is Thunder King, and sadly he’s nothing like Thunder King Rai-Oh. Thunder King ties with Jizikuru for the highest ATK Kaiju, at 3300, which along at least has some merit, but it makes that facet of the card slightly redundant since we already have a Kaiju with that amount of ATK. I’m not going to say 3300 ATk isn’t a lot, but it really doesn’t bring anything to the table that Kaijus didn’t already have. The defense of most Kaiju monsters is negligible, especially if they have high ATK, but I’ll make note of the fact that have 2100 DEF makes Thunder King less than viable in combination with Kaiju Capture Mission, although Capture Mission is mostly a dud card.
Thunder King if LIGHT, Thunder-type and a Level 9. Being Thunder and Level 9 are pretty much un usable facets of the card. In previous incidents you could utilize the type or level of the past Kaijus for different uses, but Thunder King has no valuable use to its type and level, if anything they’re to Thunder Kings detriment because those stats cannot be used all that effectively for XYZ or Synchro summons. Being LIGHT makes the third LIGHT Kaiju monster (counting the next, Mecha Dogoran, as well) meaning there’s some minor possibilities with the use of LIGHT support cards. With the combination of Trade-In and The Kaiju Files it’s not completely unreasonable to setup a Lightray monster, the most viable probably being Lightray Daedalus because of its natural synergy with Kyoutou Waterfront. Other than that, I haven’t thought of any reasonable uses for its typing.
The meat and potatoes for Thunder King is really the effect, because aside from that it’s outclassed in most ways. I always take note of the fact that Thunder Kings Kaiju Counter using effect is an ignition effect, which means if you give it to the opponent they cannot attempt to burn a bunch of your Kaiju counters with it. This makes it more ideal for giving to the opponent if you have a good way to beat around it. Thunder Kings effect basically allows you to wombo combo people on your turn without any response. This is fantastic except that there are basically no combos involving Thunder King. Almost all the good control combos involve level 8 Synchros and Rank 8 XYZ monsters, but being level 9 only really leaves the opportunity to Synchro for 10 or 11, being Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree and Star Eater, both of which are worse than Thunder King himself. The turn off effect is nice for attacking through problem decks like Kozmo or Burning Abyss, but that was never really a problem for Kaijus since summoning a Kaiju to the opponent’s side of the field in those respective match-ups was already devastating enough, making that aspect of Thunder King’s effect pretty redundant as well. Basically all that’s left to be done with Thunder King is wombo combos utilizing The Kaiju File in order to swap Thunder King for another Kaiju and chance OTK opportunities by attacking 3 times into a weak board full of monsters, which at best could warrant running 1 copy in my opinion.
Super Anti-Kaiju War Machine Mecha-Dogoran:
At first glance I thought this card was pretty bad, and in a vacuum it is. As a stand alone card it brings nothing to the table, but it actually ends up being a huge wombo combo card in combination with some strategy.
The stats are bad on Mecha-Dogoran, but that’s actually a good thing which I’ll explain in a bit. Mecha-Dogoran comes out with 0 ATK and 2000 DEF, but you cannot summon it to the opponent’s side of the field, making it one of the most different of the Kaijus. You can also summon it in defense mode when you summon it to your side of the field. The idea, at least I assume, for Mecha-Dogoran is that you can have him sit on the field for a couple turns and then he becomes a massive behemoth in short time. In combination with things like Trade-In and The Kaiju Files it’s really easy to get a huge landfill of Kaijus in your graveyard to pull from to equip to Mecha-Dogoran and you can even equip from hand if necessary. This is really slow, but in my short amount of testing it really presents a scenario that your opponent must answer immediately or lose on their next turn because more often than not Mecha-Dogoran breaks 6000 ATK on your second turn, which is absurdly high for so little an investment. This creates an interesting scenario that causes the opponent to invest into the board, which is to you advantage in most cases.
Mecha-Dogoran is a Machine, making it so there is two Machine-type Kaiju monsters. This makes running Machina Fortress more appealing and makes some interesting combos involving Cyber Dragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon a more viable strategy. Both Jizukiru and Mecha-Dogoran are Level 8, meaning they can be pitched to revive a Machina Fortress. Whether or not Machina Fortress is a viable strategy in the current metagame is another discussion. The Cyber Dragon combos are a neat way to get Rank 8 XYZ on the field. In most instances I would be more inclined to be running Cyber Dragon Core because it can be normal summoned more easily, but here’s an example play:
- Play Interrupted Kaiju Slumber and summon a Machine Kaiju to the opponent’s field and a level 8 Kaiju to your opponent’s.
- Summon Core and contact fusion with the opponent Machine-type Kaiju for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.
- XYZ with Fortress Dragon and your Kaiju for a Felgrand or Hope Harbinger Dragon (or whatever tickles your fancy).
Pretty easy, and in most cases, before you XYZ summon you get a free direct attack with a 2000 ATK Chimeratech and a 3000 ATK Dogoran for 5000 damage, which is pretty devastating. This kind of combo is more likely with Mecha-Dogoran because he’s both a Machine-type and a Level 8 giving you more access to both halves of the Kaijus needed.
Being ? ATK is actually a huge benefit for two reasons: Interrupted Kaiju Slumber and The Kaiju Files. With ? ATK that means Mecha-Dogoran technically will have 0 ATK when summoned. This means he’s the only Kaiju that will have less ATK than Gamecial. You could for example play Interrupted Kaiju Slumber and summon a Mecha-Dogoran to the opponent’s side of the field and a Gamecial to your side and use Gamecial to attack over Mecha-Dogoran. With The Kaiju Files you can always swap any Kaiju the opponent has for a Mecha-Dogoran in attack position in order to do massive battle damage, with Thunder King for example. Mecha-Dogoran also has a completely unusable effect for the opponent and abysmal stats, meaning if you give them a Mecha-Dogoran with Slumber or The Kaiju Files, even if you cannot get rid of it it’s still a useless monster to them and it won’t siphon off you Kaiju Counters.
I also shouldn’t forget to mention Mecha-Dogoran makes the 4th potential Trade-In target.
The Kaiju Files:
I’m not completely sure what to make of this card yet, but my initial reaction is that it doesn’t do enough. More than anything The Kaiju Files acts as an additional well for Kaiju Counters, making Gamecial stronger, but it really doesn’t do anything else that’s particularly strong. It has a search effect, which really only searches Slumber, but at the cost of a bunch of counters. This is a nice touch, but rarely usable save random Slumber OTKs. The Kaiju swapping ability only provides additional damage at best and the ability to summon a Gamecial in defense, which is fantastic, but wasting a card slot just to do that is a little iffy. I’m not sure if this card is worth running and it certainly isn’t what Kaijus needed.
Written by: Kyle Oliver