Cards to look forward to in Primal Origin Pt. 1: Monsters

End of last week, all the cards of Primal Origins have been revealed to the internet.

So in all good tradition, it's time to give you the "cards to look forward to".

This is the last set of the Zexal series; so take in mind that this will be the last support for all the Zexal Archetypes (at the moment), safe the OCG promo/exclusive imports obviously.

And the number of supported archetypes is amazing. More than 30 archetypes receive 1 or more cards of support. And honestly, even all other cards kind of support one deck or the other. Everybody can find some good card in here.

A: Effect Monsters

• Mermaid Shark: Well, people. We finally have our Stratos for Fish monsters. Normal Summon this lil' fish and you can search out any fish between lv. 3 and Lv. 5 (awh, no Coelacanth or Fishborgs?). You think it's broken? Think again. Its 100 attack makes it an easy target for destruction, so without protection or without the ability to xyz/synchro with this card, you leave yourself vulnerable.
• Blizzard Thunderbird: By discarding one card, you can special summon any WATER Winged Beast from your hand AND 1 from your grave. Plus: Amazing effect! Downside: You can still count the number of WATER Winged Beasts on ONE hand.
• Battlin' Boxer Bailout: An archetype card that is VERY interesting outside of its deck. You take Battle Damage? Good, then special summon this card AND gain lifepoints equal to what you just lost. It's Lv 4 (easy Xyz), it's a Warrior (play 3 of this and ROTA) and it's FIRE (perfect for Fire Fists and Fire Kings and a nice addition for HERO decks). I doubt Konami didn't realize they made a great hand trap.
• Dawn Knight: And the circle is full. The Last Armageddon Knight knock-off is here; the LIGHT variant (took 'em long enough). If this card is sent from the field to the grave, you can send 1 LIGHT monster from the deck to the grave (Eclipse Wyvern, Wulf, Felice). And if this card is "milled" to the grave, you can return a LIGHT monster that was accidentally milled before and place it on top of your deck! So a potential recycle+topdeck for cards like Judgment Dragon, BLS or Lightray Daedalus/Gearfied? Good card, but only in limited decks.

• Majesty's Fiend: Did you dislike Vanity's Fiend? Then add this one to the table as well. Neither player can activate monster effects. Not on the field, not in the hand, not in the grave, not in the banished zone, nowhere.
• Finncess: Is this Rescue Rabbit/Cat? No. Is it Lonefire Blossom? Neither, but it's their lovechild (in terms of effect)! When it's Summoned (in any way), you can banish it to special summon a lv. 4 or lower Fish from your deck (safe itself). Possible Targets include: All Lv. 4 or lower Mermails, all Fishborgs, The Nimble Fishes, Gladiator Beast Murmillo and Torax... and Wind-up Shark. What makes it worse, is that it's a lv. 1, with 0 attack/defense; which makes it very easy to search/spam. This card is so good, I hate it already (yeah, this card will be limited faster than you think).
• Nopenguin: A penguin that says no. That's enough reason to add it to this list, right? No? Okay, then how about the often-requested effect for penguins to A: Special summon itself from the grave and B: Banish cards that are bounced to the hand. Penguin Soldier and Sacred spirit of the Ice Barrier approve this card.

B: Non-Xyz Extra Deck cards

Wave-Motion Phonon Dragon: Way to support the Photon archetype, assholes. Each time an interesting Xyz or Synchro appears that could boost the archetype, they slightly change the name. PhoNon? Seriously? Anyway, this card lends itself for chain synchro summoning (you know, the classic plant synchro decks). It's a Lv. 4 synchro tuner that can change its own level to any between 1-3, which is VERY handy for getting annoying synchro's out with high levels, like Mist Wurm, Shooting Star Dragon, Red Nova Dragon and Shooting Quasar Dragon!

C: Xyz Monsters

• Nr 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon: Not only is this card a massive beater and wall (4000 atk/3000 def), it can boost its own attack when it's attacked or attacks. So even if you reduce his attack to 0 by effect, it still becomes 1600 or more. And if you destroy it by card effect while Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is attached, it special summons itself later in the duel, with double its original attack. WOW.
• Nr 102: Ragna Zero: Does your opponent have a monster with an attack different from its original attack? Well, this card targets it, destroys it and then allows you to draw 1 card when successfull! Ideal versus Fire Fists and Bujins, don't you think?
• Artifact Durandal: This guy is a great Rank 5 Xyz. Changing effects to destroy your own backrow (with Artifacts, Quick Booster, Toy Magician and Snipe Hunter, that can be quite funny), or redrawing your entire hand? I see this card becoming great in control and combo decks (I know power players will find Tiras/Adreus better, but don't underestimate this card (or you'll regret it).

• Ghostrick Succubus: As usual, the Ghostrick Xyz are the most playable outside of their archetype. This one destroys a card with attack lower than the attack of all Ghostricks combined. If you have 2 of these on the field (easy with raccoon decks, Ojama decks and such), you can take down 2 cards with an attack of 2800 or lower. Not only that, while you control a ghostrick monster, those monster zones cannot be used again. Combine this with annoying cards like Ojama Trio, or Ground Collapse to stop your opponent from summoning monsters at all! If you succeed, ensure your escape route before your opponent will punch you in the face out of pure anger.
• Bujinki Amaterasu: Do you like Leviair, but think its attack is too low? Well, here's the answer. It requires 3 Lv 4 monsters, but you can recycle banished cards like never before! Heck, I don't play Bujins, but I sure want this card! And with 2600 atk / 2500 def, this guy is hard to get over in 1 turn.
• Mirage Fortress Enterprisenir: Enter the Mecha Phantom Beast that is not a Mecha Phantom Beast (probably to prevent abuse?). It's a Rank 9 (the first decent one) that allows you to banish any one card once per turn, whether it's the field, hand, grave or deck.

How about mixing?

I noticed that a lot of cards were "not that great, but not bad either" and supported one or more rogue/fun deks. Here's a list of cards that require you to think out of the box. So, how about mixing...

• Umbral Horror Ghost in a Resonator deck. Resonators are tuners that still required a card that speeds the deck up a bit. This one is a perfect match!
• Mix Artifact Moralltach and/or Beagaltach in a Rank 5 deck and lure your opponent into destroying them (or d.i.y. with Malevolent Catastrophe) to special summon them and pop cards.
• Geyser Shark in a Rank 5 deck. The limited amount of decent cards that you can summon, make his card limited in its use atm. But who knows, maybe in the future this effect will become OP.
• You got some crazy mix-ideas? Let me know and I'll add them.

Afterword

Tomorrow or (more probably) Wednesday I'll cover the spells, traps and (rand about) the OCG exclusives.

Until then, V out.