Analyzing the Fire Archetypes #2

Happy new year, best of wishes, happy dueling, etc.

Now that this is out of the way, let's return to business. I still have to post the second part of my FIRE archetype analysis up, so here it (finally) is.

This month, we’ll be struck with several new FIRE archetypes in Cosmo Blazer, so it’s time to wonder: what can you do with them? Can you mix them all together, like you could mix the Mermails with the Atlanteans?

The answer to that question is: No, not really. There are a few cards in each archetype that can be splashed in other decks (see previous analysis post), but other than that, they all do different things:

• Haze Beasts focus on spamming Lv 6 monsters on the field, trying to bring out Rank 6 XYZ (including Basilicock, Exa-Beetle, Constellar Ptolemys M7 and Photon Strike Bounzer).
• Fire Kings focus on field destruction, constantly respawning Garunix (and optionally Nephthys) and destroying the opponent’s field.
• Fire Fists focus on spawning monsters backed with massive back-row (hiding their spells and traps among other cards).

The new FIRE archetypes – Haze Beasts

My personal favorite of the new Archetype is (or better, WAS) Haze Beasts. The sole reason for that is their awesome XYZ: Basilicock.

A Haze Beast Deck needs to rely on other monsters like Goka, the Pyre of Malice (card is awesome in this deck) and Laval Lancelord (an easy to summon Lv. 6 monster). Other than that, the cards you put in are quite free to choose:

• You can try building pure Haze Beasts, like Lithium 2300 did.
• You can try mixing them with Jurracs (Herra is Lv. 6), also allowing you access to Laggia and Dolkka (making the deck less of a one-trick pony).
• You can try mixing them with Flamvells (Cerberus has 200 defense, making it an awesome Rekindling target).
• You can try mixing them with Hieratics, using Tyhone #2 as Vanilla monster.
• Other (less good) choices could be Lavals (Lavals work better solo, though) or Evol’s (only 2 Lv. 6 monsters there and they’re not that great).

Personal opinion: This archetype feels too much like a one-trick pony. If your opponent puts a Prohibition on your Basilicock, and you can’t get rid of it, you’re screwed. Also, the high amount of Lv. 6 monsters makes your hand dead too often (making you rely on top decking). I've played Hieratics and they’re more stable in play style.

The New FIRE archetypes: Fire Kings

The boss monster for the upcoming Structure deck “Onslaught of the Fire Kings” (Fire King High Avatar Garunix) is an improved version of Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. When destroyed, you special summon it during the next stand-by phase (also during your opponent’s stand-by phase!) and it then destroys all other monsters. BOOM! Stardust Dragon fans are really going to hate this card.

Not to mention, with the two included spell cards (see first of these posts), it’s actually quite easy to summon it and bring it back anytime you want. The other Fire King monsters make it easy to search/destroy Garunix, therefore triggering its effect.

Building a good deck with Fire Kings is (at this point) more limited than building a deck with Haze Beasts, but you can do some fun things with it:

• Mix them with Flamvells: Safe Garunix, all Fire King monsters have 200-defense, making them great Rekindling targets. Each Fire King deck therefore should have Rekindlings and Flamvell Firedogs, no matter what the rest of the deck looks like.
• Mix them with the Enthusiastic monsters. They’re Beast-Warriors, they’re fire. They work together (as long as you forget about that XYZ). But let’s not mention them again, since they’re probably not going to be released soon… (sad, but true).
• Mix them with Ninja's: Red Dragon Ninja (from Abyss Rising) kind of gave it away. Ninja's mix well with the Fire Kings. Ninjitsu Art of Transformation (NOT super transformation) brings forth a Winged Beast, Beast or Insect that’s maximum 3 levels higher than the tributed monster. Hanzo can be turned into Nephthys, Red Dragon Ninja, Flamvell Firedog or Fire King Yaksha; Red Dragon Ninja can be turned into Garunix. And destroying Transformation, destroys the summoned monster, triggering the effects of the Fire Kings.

Personal opinion: Just like Haze Beasts, Fire Kings are kind of a one-trick pony, focusing on Garunix way too much; though the effect has way more power than Basilicock and it’s one of the few cards in Yu-Gi-Oh that actually enjoys being hit by Solemn Judgment/Warning (yes, that DOES trigger the effect).

Because of the reliance on Garunix, it’s easy to break the deck (Prohibition on Garunix, or banish the bastard) and Macro Cosmos or Necrovalley simply rape the deck. Garunix, as a Lv. 8 monster (annoying level for this kind of monster), can also be dead in the hand way too often. (you can bypass this with Trade-in, but I’d rather keep this card in the deck than in my hand or grave).

The other downside is that both Fire King Beast Yaksha and Enthusiastic Beast Wolfberk are possibly not going to be released (due to them being possible jump promo’s), but these two are great cards for a Fire King deck.

The new FIRE Archetypes: Fire Fists

The Fire Fists are the main archetype of Cosmo Blazer, much like Mermails were the main archetype of Abyss Rising. They’re all Beast-Warriors that rely on continuous spells/traps to get their effects to work, but they also easily search those cards.

Mixing Fire Fists with other archetype cards would be quite silly, as the Fire Fist is the most stable new archetype of the three and mixing it with other archetypes would only decrease its effectiveness. Supporting the archetype with back-row is a smarter move.

For example:

• Not mentioning the classic traps (Torrential Tribute, the Solemn Brigade, etc.), spells and traps cards that support Beast-Warriors are amazing in this deck (Horn of the Phantom Beast), since all the "brothers" are Beast-Warriors.
• Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai can be quite a surprise in a Fire Fist deck. If you’re attacking, but can’t take 8000 life points away from your opponent, you can tribute your Fire Fist and burn for game instead.
• You also might consider back-row protection. Starlight Road and The Huge Revolution is Over are great assets, as your opponent will try to get rid of your back-row. Also, a card like Fake Trap can be really hilarious to mix in the back.
• But if you end up with too many continuous traps on your field (those cards have a tendency to remain on the field, even if you don’t have a use for them), you can consider Magic Planter. Planter gets rid of a used continuous trap and gives you two draws.

Personal opinion: Unlike the previous two archetypes, this deck is no one-trick pony. Tiger King may be thé boss monster, but you can easily neglect him and go for other great rank 4 XYZ if the situation calls for it.

Its presence in OCG tournaments ensures us that if you want a competitive (new) fire deck, this archetype is the one you should go for.

The feared/hated Jump Promo poll

In case you missed it, During October-November, Jump Alpha held another poll to decide its next promo card. The poll is closed and they've yet to announce a winner. But a LOT of the cards were OCG promo cards that are supporting these archetypes.

The obvious result of this poll, neglecting the resulting promo card, is that the cards that were in the poll will most probably NOT be in Cosmo Blazer or in the upcoming structure deck.

That’s a real pity, because good cards like Fire Fist – Chicken and Flame King Yaksha were in it, together with the Enthousiastic monsters. And all of those are good cards that make the new FIRE archetypes better.

So, these were my thoughts on the FIRE archetypes. Hope it wasn't a tl;dr moment.

Until next time, V out.

Cards to look forward to in Cosmo Blazer

Now that Cosmo Blazer has been released in the OCG, let’s take a look at the cards worth looking forward to. I’m mostly ignoring archetype specific cards, unless they could be splashed into other decks.

And G-dammit, this set is amazing in terms of useful cards for everything (unlike the last two sets).

Effect monsters:

• Amarylease: Plants finally have another Lv. 1 monster to use (One for One). Its effect makes it easier for plant players to get Gigaplant or Tytannial on the field. Though its preferred use would be plants, it’s of course not limited to plants, but to all tribute style decks (Egyptian Gods, Steelswarm).
• Garbage Lord: This card is quite interesting. You can special summon this card (at the cost of 2000LP) and then use Inferno Reckless Summon on it to multiply. Or first summon Cyber Dragon/Ghost Ship and then this one. Enough fodder to get that Adreus or Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja on the field. And with its 0 attack, it’s a Sangan target.
• Aster Drawn: Hey, this looks a bit like Maxwell from Scribblenauts! Lol, Konami has gotten the license to release Scribblenauts in Japan and therefore releases the guy as a Yugioh Card! Its effect isn’t half bad either. It’s a lv. 4 spellcaster that can be treated as either a Rank 4 or Rank 5 material and gets you a plus-1 when used as xyz material. Combine this card with Garbage Lord or Photon Thrasher and you can get both an XYZ first turn + a free draw!

• Prominence Knight: Guess us complaining about Dust Knight and Shore Knight worked off. Here’s the fire variant of Armageddon Knight and at least this one is decent enough. Both when another fire monster or this card is destroyed (card effect or battle), you can dump another FIRE attribute monster from your deck to the graveyard.
• Valkyrie Knight: A great card for Warrior style decks. When destroyed, you can banish this card and another card from your grave to revive a high-level warrior (For example: Shi En or Colossal Fighter).
• Pyrorex the Elemental Lord: After The Earth lord & the Water lord, we get the Fire lord. Same as before, this requires exactly 5 FIRE attribute monsters in your grave (Laval anyone?) and is basically Ring of Destruction in monster form (eek).

XYZ monsters:

• Haze Beast Basilicock: A pyro chaos monster? My eyes went past this card because it’s an archetype card, but then I stopped to read its effect. This card is amazing! Once per turn, you can banish a monster your opponent controls (or in his grave) and then you can still attack!. This is also the first XYZ monster that allows you to use more than 2 xyz monsters (or use Spirit Convertor), with a maximum of five. Its basic effect is the banish effect, but the more monsters you use as XYZ material the better the effect becomes (attack boost, no effect target, destruction protection). The fire attribute makes it harder to summon, but mixing Haze beasts or Tyhone #2 in Hieratics will give the deck a boost!
• Terror Fang Wolf, Dire Wolf: They might as well have named this card Scrap wolf and admit it is Scrap support. Summoned by 2 level 4 monsters (Scrap Chimera/Beast/Orthros), allowing to destroy Beasts/Beast-Warriors or Winged Beasts (most Scrap Monsters fall under this category) and an opponent’s monster (similar to Scrap Dragon).

• Lightning Plover: This is the first Thunder XYZ and it’s amazing. Bouncing both a set card and a face-up card to the deck? That’s powerful. The wind attribute makes it a little harder, but there are enough decks that can use it (Harpie Ladies, Dragunities and Mist Valley decks).
• Shyneet Magician: A shy NEET? Lol, Even Konami’s laughing at neet’s now :-D. And look at that: The first Rank 1 monster that ONLY requires 2 materials. You’d start wondering if Konami would ever get the clue that its rank 1 monsters are f**king hard to summon. And it’s actually a good defender, so she’s not half bad!

Spells

• Zerozelock: It’s a rare sight to see Yuma use a decent spell. This is one of them and protects monsters with 0 attack. This can be handy in certain decks. Reptilliane decks focus around monsters with 0 attack, Hieratics spawn monsters with 0 attack and Fortune ladies have 0 attack when their effects are negated.
• Charging Emperor: Tribute summoned monsters cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects? That turns your Steelswarm or monarch deck (as the name/artwork suggests), or your Obelisk / Slifer basically immortal. I bet we’re going to see this card a lot in the future.

• Quick Booster: Quick-play Spell support: It’s a way of getting back a limited quick-play spell card (Book of Moon), or adding one from your deck to your hand when destroyed by your opponent. Enough targets out there, like MST, Book of Moon, Forbidden Lance or Chalice, etc.
• Vestige of the war: Oh, an aftermath card of the Hidden Arsenal war:-O. And it’s a good one too. it’s like The Warrior returning alive or Dark Eruption, but less limited. Think about its use in HERO decks (Returning Stratos or Bubbleman), Plant Synchro (Debris Dragon), Junk Doppel (Quickdraw Synchron), Dragunities (any card) or Mermail/Atlantean decks (any card). This card is good!

Traps:

• Dimension Gate: Good card is good. You can banish your key card when your opponent tries to get rid of it and you can special summon It when he declares a direct attack. Though being careful is a trick, because this card does not return the monster, it special summons the monster!
• Breakthrough skill: What’s better than a card that negates an effect once? A card that can do it twice! This card is good and makes your opponent worry about when you will use it. It is near impossible to stop a trap that activates in the grave, right?

Yeah, these are the cards to look out for if you’re not interested in the included archetypes.

Of the included archetypes, I’m kind of interested in Gogogo Ghost (going to try mixing Rocks and zombies together), Orbital 7 (for my Photon Lightray deck), the Prophecy cards (Fool, Reaper & Sepher) and the Haze beasts (due to their XYZ).

With all the interesting cards in here, I’m going to testplay a few decks (not telling yet, first need some time to put together a deck and try it on DN ;-).

Until next time, V out.

Note: These are the OCG names from the Yugioh Wiki. These names and the names on Duelingnetwork are subject to change when the cards become released in the TCG.