Anyway, Cosmo Blazer, the set that hopes to follow on the watery fin-thingy that was the last set Abyss Rising. Cosmo Blazer heats things up this time though, turning that water into lava and should give duelists what they need to incinerate the competition and flare up intense duels. I'm running out of fire puns here. So let's start this show of what is going to be an intense set, I won't be going over everything, but let's go. Starting with the imports:
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| Pull ME!!! I'm a f&%#ing Bird. |
FIRE/Winged Beast/Fusion
LV6 2300 ATK/1800 DEF
"Faith Bird" + "Skull Red Bird"
Konami...I said intense set, not pile of crap. Ok, so Crimson Sunbird is...a card. Yeah, there is not much you can do with this thing. It's an old card, one of the earliest in the game that hasn't been released yet, and it is probably a card you will cry at. I guess this thing has a nostalgia factor if you've played Forbidden Memories. It was one of those things you'd fuse for in that game, but that's it. I wanted to incinerate the competition but instead you gave me...this?
EARTH/Machine/Fusion
LV6 2300 /1600
1 Machine-Type monster + 1 Pyro-Type monster
When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that target, also destroy this card, then if both monsters were destroyed, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the monster in the Graveyard that was targeted by this effect.
Now this is more like it. A decent start, Ignition Beast Volcannon first made it's premier in the 5D's manga as one of Grieger's monsters. Vulcannon has a couple of niche uses but nothing really spectacular. If you remember my namesake OTK article, Vulcannon is a part of that, you can go for it if you're opponent has a monster and you need an extra bit of burn. Vulcannon can also see some play in a Gadget variant running Vulcanic monsters, but that hasn't been popular for quite some time now.
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| I represent a bygone era, and I'm sexy. |
Crimson Blader
FIRE/Warrior/Synchro
LV 8 2800 / 2600
1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuner monsters
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Your opponent cannot Normal or Special Summon Level 5 or higher monsters during their next turn.
2800 ATK/ 2600 DEF
This card is something I've wanted for a while. A bit dated and a bit meta dependent, Crimson Blader offers decks that can still synchro, a couple of control options. It's a nice card, that seems like it could be used somewhere. One of the decks that I'd like to test it against is Mermails, since one of their big plays involves level 5 monsters. It doesn't have a protection effect, but using it at the right moment can be beyond devastating to someone. It's gotten worse though, at the time of it's release it was just at the end of 5Ds, and it would have seen a lot more play if Xyz didn't happen. I could see this card being an Ultra Rare or Secret Rare in the set. It doesn't have any use in Sealed play, if you're store does that sort of thing.
Blackwing - Gladius the Midnight Sun
Blackwing - Damascus the Polar Night
There's two new Blackwing cards in this set. Sadly, they are only ok at best. I don't really feel like writing out the effects of these, so just google it or something. These are a couple of the leftover cards that will be coming out of the 5Ds manga and imported into sets this year. People have hope that the Blackwing archetype will get it's revival and time in the sun again. Sadly, these cards aren't really blazing any trails.
Fire Fists!
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| Lion Emperor |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1096733
Ok, so these are clearly the hyped cards out of this set. Sadly, the archetype will still be missing a couple of it's pieces even after this set is released. So what do the Fire Fists do? Well, there are a bunch of articles all ready written about them, you can even find a couple on Konami's Strategy Site. So yay. Not much I really can say or want to say about them that hasn't all ready been mentioned.
I do think that people are hyping them a bit much, a lot of people seem to want them to be the next Merlantean deck. This won't happen until they get all of their cards, and even then it's not guaranteed. This seems like one of those archetypes that will keep it's price though, much like Madolches and Dragunity. It's not a bad archetype, just might be bad for this format or until it gets everything. Regardless, Beast-Warriors finally get a bit of love, and I could be wrong, I usually hope I'm wrong, this game needs more playable decks.
Now for Sealed Play, like most archetypes you probably want to open some copies of the support cards before you run them, unless the cards have high attack. Generally, if you have 4 or so cards of a specific archetype, you can assume that you would be safe to play it in 20-card sealed, of course judging if those cards are worth playing is part of what you need to do, but it's 20-card sealed.
Anyway, let's move on to the base set (I say this because a few of the Fire Fists are Ocg imports)
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| Remremremora |
Xyz Remora
Water Fish / Effect
LV4 800/800
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by detaching 2 Xyz Materials from monsters you control. When this card is Special Summoned this way: You can target 2 Level 4 Fish-Type monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon those targets, but they cannot attack, their effects on the field are negated, and their Battle Positions cannot be changed. Those monsters cannot be used as Xyz Materials, except for WATER Xyz Monsters.
This is an interesting card in that it almost makes the whole fish archetype worth it again (and by fish I don't mean Merlanteans). Basically, this card just requires you to have an Xyz monster, which isn't even that difficult anymore. The decks you would run this in are Banisharks (one with level 4s) or a Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth deck, Either one of those should get some decent use out of Xyz-Remora. There's also a couple of ways to use it with Rescue Rabbit. This is going to be one of those cards people don't use but still has plenty of uses, it's just now might not be the time or place.
There are a couple other fish monsters in this pack, and they're ok. They let Banisharks run some level 4 Water monsters and they also let fish decks have some new tricks.
Heraldic Beast Archetype
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| Regulus's cool cousin. |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1100724&highlight=Heraldic+Beast
Basically, the Heraldic Beasts are the monsters that pump out Xyz. Essentially, they're another archetype about pumping out Xyz. Advanced Heraldy Art is one of the best support cards in the game, and these guys feel a lot like the D-Heroes of the Zexal era. They have had a little bit of support sprinkled in some of the sets, and in this one their support is concluded, save for their boss monster No. 69.
Mainly, these guys pump out Rank 4s, and it shouldn't be that hard to get out a Shock Master or Genome Heriter out.
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| King Nothing |
Garbage Lord
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV 5 0/2400
You can pay 2000 Life Points to Special Summon this card (from your Hand). This card cannot be used as an Xyz Material, except for a DARK Xyz Monster.
Garbage Ogre
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV3 800/1300
You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard; add 1 "Garbage Lord" from your Deck to your hand. The effect of "Garbage Ogre" can only be activated once per turn.
These Garbage monsters are a new mini archetype. Basically, they're the Inca archetype of Zexal. They're used by the main boss of the season, get released while giving the archetype little support, and are essentially used to pump out the boss monster of the deck, who we will get to later. Not much to say about this guys, but they are slightly interesting. You might be able to build a casual deck around these guys.
Hazy Flame
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| ALL FEAR THE BASILCOCK |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1086633
This is probably the more underrated archetypes being supported this set. It will probably get more hype as we get closer to the intended release.
So yeah...
Doing a whole set review is harder than what I thought it would be. I'm going to talk about some more generic stuff in the next one of these. I didn't want to talk too much about the archetypes, partly because this isn't a guide to help you build anything, and the other thing is that I don't want to rob people of discovering cool new things in this game.
There are some other cool things archetype wise. Mermails get more support, which will get a mention next time. I'll conclude this series with the TCG exclusives on Friday night, since they will all be spoiled by that point. I hope you enjoyed this, next time...more of the same.
~Et3rnal13
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