From the upcoming pack Raging Tempest, the new SPYRAL support has been revealed!
Card Review: Instant Fusion
With the release of the new ban list, Instant Fusion becomes a powerful new tool.
Random Deck Testing
There are too many cards and combinations, and not enough time to test them all. However, I explored some deck concepts that may inspire you.
Super Quantum Engine
A new archetype already making waves from Winged Raiders.
Deck Profile: Buster Blader
None other than a Buster Blader deck. Don’t get your hopes up.
Dinomists and Deskbot 001?
I’m considering what to do about regionals. I’ve been playing Dinomists for a few weeks now and really like the straightforward nature of the deck. It’s power comes from two abilities: one that negates an effect that would target Dinomist monsters and one that negates an effect that would destroy Dinomist monsters.
Dinomists only use two core game mechanics: attacking and pendulum summoning. So in order to cover their vulnerabilities, you have to look outside the archetype for support. And since I don’t have Cyber Dragon Infinity, here are some of the other things I’m considering:
Deskbot 001
Deskbot 001 gives Dinomists access to synchro summoning. This card comes out of the graveyard with almost every pendulum summon. The extra 500 attack and defense it gets for each machine-type monster can make it a pretty big beatstick.
There are 3 synchro monsters of note that Deskbot gives you access to:
Metaphys Horus
Metaphys Horus has a tidal wave of effects. Syncroing with a Level 5 Dinomist monster allows you to negate the effect of a face-up card (monster, spell, or trap) and you gain control of an opponent’s monster. It’s disruptive, something Dinomists could use.
The only issue is that it has relatively low attack, and won’t be covered by Mist Armor or the field spell, Dynomic Powerload.
Ally of Justice Catastor
Deskbot 001 and any Level 4 monster gives you destruction for monsters that can’t be destroyed by battle. Since Dinomists are attacking focused, this helps to expand their battle phase options.
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
A little excessive, but it’s powerful, so whatever. Deskbot 001 and 2 – Level 4 Dinomist monsters make Trishula. It’s disruptive and has OK attack.
Dinomists have a crowded Pendulum Summon
All of these options occur after a pendulum summon. That way, you get Deskbot 001 for free. But I don’t like the idea of having all of these decisions to make. They all crowd the pendulum summon, making its success that much more vital.
Fortunately, Dinomists have a really solid defense if they choose to sit around and wait. Mist Armor and the field spell protect them, and as they gain more field presence, they become pretty scary.
Are you running a Dinomist deck? What have you done differently to deal with problem cards? I want to know what you’ve done to make the deck your own, so leave a comment. Or, you can also reach out to me on twitter @mattcarterwa .
Blue Eyes Support – Deck Testing
This new stuff is fun. I was very inclined to put together a Blue Eyes deck after having so much fun with the Dark Magician support that released a while ago. The main difference is that this new Blue Eyes support drops 3000 attack monsters everywhere, like an unrelenting tide of dragons trying to drown the opponent. Mix in my own brand of entertainment, and shenanigans ensued.
Ancient White Stone
During the end phase it gets sent to the graveyard (in any way), it special summons a Blue Eyes monster from the deck. I usually like to grab White Spirit Dragon first. I like to have it accessible early on for graveyard recovery cards. Ancient Stone can pull out the Normal Blue Eyes, Blue Eyes Alternative White Dragon , and White Spirit Dragon.
Ancient White Stone’s second effect banishes itself from the graveyard to add a Blue Eyes monster from your graveyard to your hand. This is most important for Blue Eyes Alternative Dragon because of it’s inherent special summon condition of revealing a Blue Eyes. So either you grab Alternative B or Vanilla B, depending on what you need.
White Spirit Dragon
Probably the second most fun card of the new support, and the most interesting. White Spirit Dragon is an effect monster that is treated as a normal monster in the graveyard and is always treated as a “Blue Eyes” monster. It can be brought out with normal monster support. This is important because it’s effect banishes a spell or trap card when it’s normal or special summoned. This effect is great for hitting active pendulum monsters.Sad thing is, this effect is a”When/You Can” effect. So if it is summoned as chain link 2 or higher, it won’t get it’s effect.
It’s secondary effect tributes itself to special summon the vanilla Blue Eyes White Dragon from your hand. While not spectacular, it does help deter the opponent from using effects that target it. This effect also helps to maintain field presence. There’s no real reason why you’d want a real Blue Eyes on the field, since so many of these other cards are treated as Blue Eyes, but this effect adds to the feeling of an unrelenting Blue-Eyes assault.
Blue Eyes Alternative Dragon
If this card had been made at any other time, it would have been so good. It’s inherently special summoned by revealing a Blue Eyes White Dragon, and once per turn, you can destroy a monster, but it can’t attack. It’s like a psuedo-Dark Armed Dragon. Because it’s kind of a fast card, it flows into Rank 8s and Synchroing really well. Its speed helps to ignore it not being able to attack.
Blue Eyes Spirit Dragon
This level 9 Synchro Monster requires 1 Tuner and 1+ non-tuner Blue Eyes monster. It’s fairly easy to summon and has some pretty decent effects. The first is that neither player can Special Summon 2+ monsters at the same time. So basically, no heavy pendulum summoning. With only 2500 attack, this Spirit Dragon isn’t very threatening, so it’s not going to be attacking over and “locking away” pendulum monsters behind its own effect. It’s going to sit on its 3000 booty and try not to let anything get to you.
It’s second effect can go off during either player’s turn and lets you negate the activation of an effect that activates in the graveyard – pretty ok.
There is some fun business to be done with it’s third effect. During either turn, you can tribute it to special summon 1 Light Dragon-type synchro monster from the Extra Deck in Defense (except itself), but destroy it during the End Phase of that turn.
There are 3 monsters directly summonable by this effect: Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon, Stardust Spark Dragon, who both protect themselves from Spirit Dragon’s destruction effect, and Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn.
One monster, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, can be summoned with Michael and Maiden with Eyes of Blue.
It’s pretty good for what it does, except it’s attack is rather low. It seems too geared towards being a floater monster. On
Ignoring the Blue Eyed Keepers
With this new blue-eyes support comes 4 new with Eyes of Blue monster cards: a Priest, a Priestess, a Guard, and a Sage. They all “target an effect monster you control//send it to the graveyard to:” do something involving a Blue Eyes monster.
So they all target Maiden to set of her effect, thereby special summoning 2 Blue Eyes from various locations. But what happens if you can’t target maiden? You have to target another effect monster you control and send it to the graveyard. Rather than deal with that complexity, I just went straight for the blue-eyes monsters themselves. There’s just a wealth of support for them already.
Dragon Draw
Blue Eyes has some of the best draw support in the game, but I didn’t feel like it meshed well with the new support, or my play-style. Now with 2 Dragon-Tuners, Cards of Consonance becomes ever more viable. With so many new Level 8 Blue Eyes monsters, Trade-In seems like a great inclusion.
But what do these draw cards add, more Blue Eyes cards?
Trade-in provides a way to discard all of the heavy blue-eyes monsters and sets them up for graveyard recovery cards like call of the haunted and Silver’s Cry. But Cards of Consonance moves around tuners that you never want in you hand. I’m not convinced that the right direction to go for blue-eyes involves banking on drawing Ancient White Stone and White Stone of Legend to discard them.
Matchups
I didn’t get a lot of duels in to to really understand match ups. I played against Burning Abyss, Kozmos, and Machinas.
The Burning Abyss Match up is ok if Azure-Eyes got onto the field so that it can protect dragon monsters from targeting and destruction effects.
It was not super good against Kozmos. One thing I found interesting was with the fusion, Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon. It’s a fusion of 2 Blue Eyes White Dragons, which can be done the traditional way (Polymerization) or inherently by tributing 2 BEWDs. It can attack twice if it attacks monsters, and it cannot be destroyed by battle. It also banishes monsters that aren’t destroyed by its attack. This 3000 attack double attacker helped wade through the Kozmo fleet of monsters.
My duels against Machinas didn’t provide much useful information, other than solidifying my strategy of focusing on Azure Eyes for protection and ramping-up offensively.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more to Blue-Eyes, I barely scratched the surface. I mean, I haven’t even touched Queen Dragun Djinn, Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon, Heretic support, and the Blue Eyed Keepers. Overall, I think the strength of these 3000 attack monsters, the floatiness of Whtie Spirit Dragon, and the synergy dragons have in general, makes the Blue Eyes archetype a fun one. It’s hard to want more with so much support to play with.
Blue Eyes Deck of Testing
Monsters (18)
3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
3 Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon
3 White Spirit Dragon
1 Elemental Hero Prisma
3 Ancient White Stone
2 White Stone of Legend
3 Maiden with Eyes of Blue
Spells (15)
1 One for One
1 Raigeki
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Trade-In
2 Dragon Shrine
2 Claw of Hermos
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Silver’s Cry
Traps (7)
1 Mirror Force
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Birthright
3 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Warning
Extra Deck (15)
1 Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword
1 Time Magic Hammer
2 Azure Eyes Silver Dragon
2 Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon
1 Cloudcastle
1 Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon
1 Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn
1 Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy
1 Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand
1 Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector
1 Number 23: Ghost Knight of the Underworld
Duels Video:
Here’s a test drive of the deck against Dinomists, ironically.
Have you tried out any of the Blue Eyes support? What did you do differently, what have you liked about them so far? I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been playing with the new support, especially if you’ve liked the keepers. You can also reach out to me on twitter @mattcarterwa.
Thoughts on New Kaiju Support
Just some of my thoughts on the 3 new Kaiju cards coming out in Breakers of Shadows.
Deck Profile: Nekroz (post 11/9/15 Ban List)
Now that the deck is super cheap I’ve been playing around with it a lot for fun.
Deck Profile: Shaddoll Artifacts
As requested, a deck update: