In my previous article, I talk more than a little about this match-up for Harpies. I spent some more time trying to figure it out and the results were more interesting this time around.
Harpies and Stuff
I didn’t have much time to test Harpies this week, so I won’t harp-on too long.
Harpie vs Kozmos
This week, I tested against Kozmos. It’s an interesting match-up because, while they behave similarly to Burning Abyss, they are much more flexible. In my previous article on this archetype, I talked about how Burning Abyss is a relatively straightforward match. Harpies have access to Abyss Dweller, Ice Beast Zerofyne, and can use Instant Fusion to increase Rank 4 consistency. With added destruction cards, Harpies can clear their field without too much trouble.
Kozmos, on the other hand, have trigger effects that can chain to Harpie cards. That makes any kind of investment you put into destruction cards, like Mirror Force, Icarus Attack, etc, less consistent. They also summon higher attack monsters more consistently. The backrow destruction that these birds are known for is also hit or miss, since Kozmos don’t need to rely on their backrow.
In order to combat them, I modified the deck that I ended with after testing against HEROS. So in addition to Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, I added 3 Imperial Iron Wall.
The deck is still not consistent against Kozmos, but it’s not a blow out anymore. It’s definitely still under 50% consistency against them though.
Removing Vanilla Harpies
I also took out 2 vanilla Harpie Ladies and added 2 Cyber Harpie Ladies to deal with the attack power difference during the battle phase.
Kozmos have quick access to high-attack monsters. Even though Ice Beast Zerofyne is easy to make, you can still attack and run into an Honest.
Book of Eclipse and Lightning Chidori
Book of Eclipse flips all monsters face-down. It’s pretty hilarious to combo this with Lightning Chidori. It gets rid of those monsters with targeting or destruction by card effect restrictions.
Deck (40):
Harpie Deck
Monsters (16):
1 Harpie Lady
3 Harpie Queen
2 Cyber Harpie Lady
3 Harpie Harpist
3 Harpie Channeler
2 Harpie Dancer
2 Summoner Monk
Spells (15):
2 Instant Fusion
1 Raigeki
2 Dark Hole
1 Terraforming
1 Elegant Egotist
1 Book of Moon
1 Book of Eclipse
3 Hysteric Sign
3 Harpies’ Hunting Ground
Traps (9):
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
3 Imperial Iron Wall
1 Fiendish Chain
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
Extra Deck (15)
2 Elder Entity Norden
1 Mavelus
2 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Number 101: Silent Honors ARK
1 Harpie’s Pet Phantasmal Dragon
2 Ice Beast Zerofyne
2 Lighting Chidori
2 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Traptrix Reflesia
– Reflisia is in here but not very prominent. There needs to be a good first turn option in this deck, and this is defensive and a little aggressive.
That’s it for this week. If you’re playing Harpies, I’d be curious to hear what you’ve done!
Harpie Lady Testing
It’s hard out there for us birds of prey. I spent a week testing the Harpie Lady archetype. The game has changed so much since I played with them back in January of 2014. Pendulum Monsters are here, Artifacts are different, every deck has crazy amounts of access to every card it needs. Where do Harpies fit in?
Are Pendulum Monsters even worth it?
Pendulum monsters are weird. They’re not like synchro or xyz monsters. Those use pre-existing cards, support pre-existing gameplay by accelerating it. Xyz monsters are my favorite game mechanic in any card game I’ve ever played. The ability to add them to any deck, their super simple summoning conditions, and the options you can gain by including multiple Xyz monsters of the same level is remarkable.
Fun Buster Blader deck profile
It wasn’t easy, but after a week of testing different Buster Blader builds, I’ve fallen on one that’s awesome.
Designing to solve issues
Going into this build, I asked myself questions for what I needed to get done. I wanted to solve some of the frustration both Kyle’s build and my archetype test build found with this support.
I set out to solve:
- How to summon Buster Blader and Buster Blader the Destruction Swordsman
- How to search for Buster Whelp
- How to summon Buster Dragon with generic material
- How to set up Buster Dragon and Buster Blader the Dragon Destroyer on turn 1 consistently
- What to do when none of that works
So yeah, lots of stuff. The outcome was fun, here’s the deck.
Buster Blader and Pendulum Monsters
Monsters (25)
3 Buster Blader
3 Buster Blader the Destruction Swordmaster
2 Dragonpit Magician
2 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
1 Oafdragon Magician
1 Performapal Monkeyboard
2 Stargazer Magician
1 Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
1 Timegazer Magician
1 Nobledragon Magician
3 Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsmaster
2 Destruction Sword – Dragon Buster Blade
1 Jet Synchron
1 Tuning Magician
1 Performapal Trump Witch
Spells (15)
1 Allure of Darkness
2 Sacred Sword of the Seven Stars
2 Where Arf Thou?
3 Pendulum Call
2 Terraforming
1 Foolish Burial
2 Destruction Swordmaster Fusion
1 Starlight Junktion
1 Sky Iris
Traps (0)
Extra Deck (15)
1 Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
2 Buster Blader the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman
1 Beelze King of Diabolic Dragons
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
2 Buster Dragon
1 Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon
1 Blackrose Dragon
1 Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon
1 Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon
1 Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Ebon Illusion Magician
Here’s a video
How to summon Buster Blader and Buster Blader, the Destruction Swordsmaster
Buster Blader, the Destruction Swordmaster
The Destruction Swordmaster needs to be on the field or in the graveyard for it to matter, so the deck has to have a way to discard it or summon it from the hand.
The Magician pendulum monsters, with Pendulum Call and Sacred Sword of the Seven Stars work to summon the Buster Blader’s if you have them, or get rid of them. 3 and 3 of each swordsman ensures that you can banish or discard them anytime they’re making a hand weak, and at the same time not worry that you’ll never see one again.
How to search for Buster Whelp
Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman
I didn’t really work this one out. Since I always want to normal summon it, I figured including one for one would conflict with that desire, so it’s not included.
I decided to go with Where Arf Thou? for search power, and Allure of Darkness and Sacred Sword for draw power. I also bet on there being enough deck thinning to increase the chance of drawing Whelp. In my other build and Kyle’s, we were using A Hero Lives to summon Prisma to make it a Buster Blader. I figure taking 2000 LP of damage isn’t that bad of bad deal.
Where Arf Thou? works with Tuning Magician, Jet Synchron, and Dragon Buster. These level one tuners can all special summon themselves to the field under various conditions.
Thinking about it now, I’m not entirely sure I need Buster Whelp. Well, I can at least entertain the idea of not running it. There might be some way I can work in a Junk Synchron and a Synchro Fusionist to search for the fusion spell. Or I could use King of the Swamp and Polymerization if I want to give up on snatching opponent’s monsters with the Buster fusion spell.
How to summon Buster Dragon with generic material
Buster Dragon
This deck has a bunch of level seven monsters. It has a bunch of level one tuners and an open normal summon. Having so many Buster Bladers you can open with one, draw into one, search for one, or get rid of one in the expectation that another one is around the corner.
Buster Dragon is really easy to summon, but also very pointless if you don’t have a Buster Blader. Even then, ending with 2 Pendulum Scales, a Buster Blader, and a Buster Dragon is very unsafe. Logically, the play should end with a Beelze or something. But if Buster Blader and Buster Dragon are on the field for more than a turn, the deck can start to feel like it has an over abundance of fun options.
How to set up Buster Dragon and Buster Blader the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman
Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman
Opening a Buster Whelp or the fusion spell usually means you can set up the combo just because of the insane number of Buster Bladers you can draw into or open with. A lot of plays end with a fusion spell set face-down, a Buster Blader and Buster Dragon.
I thought I could build this deck and then explain how it works, but it gets relatively complex when you open with a hand that requires decision making.
Inconsistencies
Field Spells
I’m running a Sky Iris because it can destroy the Perfomapal pendulum monsters that get stuck in the pendulum zones. It also searches Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in case it needs to be used as fusion or synchro material.
Synchronized junction is in here for when I have Terraforming and don’t need Sky Iris. There aren’t many times this happens, but this can tribute Nobledragon Magician and summon Jet Synchron. Since the Magician is searchable by Pendulum Call.
Performapal Monsters
I feel like they do more harm than good. Performapal Skullcrobat Joker can’t be used to summon Buster Blader. It also takes up the normal summon. It’s great at fixing hands and setting up some of the deck’s combos, but it’s not a part of any of those combos.
Perfomapal Monkey Board is less useful because everytime I have it, I forget it becomes a 4 scale when it’s paired with a non-Performapal scale. It’s only purpose is to get Joker, and I already think that’s not entirely worth it. But, this is what you get when you build a deck with low pendulum knowledge and with an archetype that’s difficult haha.
Performapal Trump Witch should be Performapal Trump Magician. It would make like so much easier. It’s here as a secondary target for Mokey Board and it helps the fusion combo along in case you can’t get to the fusion spell.
Now I’m done
I can safely say I’ve had my fun with the new Buster Blader support. Fun note, I’d never played with any of the magician pendulum monsters before. My introduction to the pendulum mechanic was through Dinomists. Dinomists are fairly restrictive, but these magicians are quite useful and provide a lot of flexibility. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Perhaps I’ll write an article on it!
If you’ve tested or are running the new BB support, what did you do differently? What have you found amazing/annoying? I’d love to hear about your experiences down in the comments, or you can reach out to me on twitter @mattcarterwa.
Synchro Summoning – Yugioh Rulebook
Intro
Synchro Summoning is a way to gain consistent access to powerful monsters that are always available.
Synchro Summoning solves a problem found in tribute summoning, fusion summoning, and ritual summoning. These other forms of summoning were clunky, you needed each piece in order to make them work. With the invention of Tuner monsters, the barrier to powerful monsters was almost eliminated.
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
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
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
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
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
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
White Spirit Dragon
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
Blue-Eyes Alternative White 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
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
Blue-Eyes 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.
Blue-Eyes, Pendulums, Bosh – E163
In this Episode:
A light, pre-bosh podcast where we talk about what yugioh efforts we’ve been making over the past month. Kyle’s been experimenting with his pendulum build, Matt with his Dinomists and Blue-Eyes, and Justen with his Kaijus.
We also discuss the games current state, and some highlights and anticipations from the upcoming release of Breakers of Shadows.
Dinomist Deck for 2016
Testing Dinomists
I can’t believe how easy the Dinomist archetype is to use. Without any real thought, I shoved the entire Dinomist line-up into a build, including their spell and trap support, added two or three fun cards, and called it good.