Because I didn’t have a better idea, I did this.
RATE: SPYRAL Review
From the upcoming pack Raging Tempest, the new SPYRAL support has been revealed!
Harpie Tech 2016
Somehow I’ve spent the last month with Harpies. I’ve had an academic sort of fun with them. I’ve tested their Xyz options, many main deck options, and tried to add my own spin along the way. These are some of the Harpie tech cards I’ve tested along the way.
Harpies vs Kozmos
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?
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.
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.
Buster Blader’s new support is underwhelming
The greatest dragon-slayer is brought up into the new yugioh era with support released in the Breakers of Shadow set. A new Buster Blader-themed Fusion, 1 new Synchro, 1 new version of Buster Blader, 4 new support monsters, 2 Spells, and 1 Trap make up a new Buster Blader support archetype called Destruction Sword.