Cards to look forward to in Legacy of the Valiant

It took me a while to finish this one, but here we finally are. Time to take a look at the more interesting cards in the upcoming January Booster, Legacy of the Valiant.

Effect Monsters

1. Giragilancer: A Lv. 6 Warrior Cyber Dragon. It comes with a maintenance cost, but you’ll probably only use this for Tributing / XYZ-ing / synchro-ing anyway so who cares?
2. Rainbow Kuriboh: When your opponent declares a direct attack, you can equip this card from your hand to that monster and stop it from attacking until either Kuriboh or the equipped monster is gone. Add to that that you can special summon it from the grave if your opponent declares a direct attack and you have another annoying Kuriboh to face.
3. Gorgonic Golem: An interesting rock monster that reduces an opponent’s monster’s attack to 0 if it’s destroyed by battle (permanently). Also, if you want to make a big move or swing for game, you can banish it from your grave to render an opponent’s trap/spell useless.
4. Tribute Devotee: Remember Samsara Kaiser? Neither do I (lol, j/k). Samsara Kaiser was part of the Caius Structure deck and was not worth remembering, because Treeborn Frog was just so much better. But this one… It’s a Water Warrior that special summons itself during your next stand-by phase if you tributed it. Handy for more Monarch Summoning obviously. Positive: you can have backrow, unlike with Treeborn Frog; downside: It has to survive (it has 2000 defense to help that, but still).

Ritual monsters

Knight of Photon Dragon: First Ritual Monster released in a regular booster since ages. And this one is the new Paladin of White Dragon. It’s level 4, it allows you to draw if you destroy a monster and you can tribute it to special summon Galaxy-Eyes from your hand or deck. Also, it’s a Warrior, so you can use both Preparation of Rites AND ROTA on it (lol).

Synchro Monsters

Guardian Beast of the Divine Tree – Gaou: A Lv. 10 synchro that’s easy to summon and cannot be targeted by your opponent’s card effects (safe during your main phase 2). I find that a weird exception, but that means it’s still vulnerable to a well-timed Compulsory Evacuation Device, Raigeki Break or Karma Cut.

Xyz Monsters

• Number 101: Silent Honors Ark Knight (read: SHArk Knight): Detach two to turn an opponent’s special summoned monster under this card as XYZ material. Better yet! You can detach 1 to prevent its own destruction. And with 2100 attack this card is slightly overpowered.
• Gorgonic Guardian: This card turns your opponent’s monsters attack to 0 and negates the effect. Better yet, you can use it during your opponent’s turn (WTF?). And if that’s not enough, you can destroy a monster with 0 attack once per turn! Thank god this requires 2 Lv. 3 ROCK monsters, because otherwise, this card would be dead broken. Still, a nice addition to Chronomaly decks. It also makes you consider mixing Gorgons and Reptillianes.
• Shinra Protecting god, Alsei: Probably will become Shinra Guardian Deity or something like that in the tcg (references to god is a no-no). Either way, this card requires 2 Lv. 8 monsters. Its effect: If a card is sent from your deck to your graveyard (f.e. effects of Card Trooper, any Lightsworn, etc), you can detach 1 to target and return 1 card on the field to the deck. Also, once per turn, you can declare a card name and draw the top card. If the card is the declared name, you can add it to your hand (*cough*convulsion of nature*cough*).
• Ghostrick Dullahan: Forget Utopia Roots, this is thé Rank 1 monster to look forward to in this set. It auto-gains 200 attack for each Ghostrick you control (including this one). During either player’s turn, you can detach 1 material to halve an opponent’s monster’s attack until the end phase. Handy to get over something and even more handy to protect your monsters.

• Fairy Knight Ingnal: This card reads as a massive Giant Trunade. You can detach 2 XYZ materials to blow the entire field back to their owner’s hands (or extra deck). Downside: It requires THREE Lv. 6 monsters. Primary use: Hieratics, if you want to turn the tables; otherwise a big no-no.
• Nobelswarm Beelzebuth: A light version of Evilswarm Roach (I think). During your main phase, or your opponent’s battle phase, you can detach one to blow the field if your opponent has more cards (field +hand) than you. It’s a good come-back card. But sadly enough it also promotes overextending. If you get punished with a Torrential Tribute, you can get this on the field and watch your opponent cry. Yeah, I have the feeling this card isn't going to be legal for a long time.
• Downerd Magician: AKA a vengeful Slacker Magician (eek, what did Alchemic Magician do to her in Xyz Tribalrivals?). You can summon this by using either 2 Lv. 4 casters… or by using any Rank 3 monster during your main phase 2 (e.g. Leviair after it uses its effect). Similar to Gaia Dragon, it’s a piercer and it gains 200 attack for each XYZ material. After each battle though, you detach 1 XYZ material.

Spells

• Xyz Override: A nice Field Spell. Instead of detaching an Xyz material from an Xyz you control, you can banish 1 card from your hand face-down instead. The face-down is to prevent abuse (Dragon Rulers). But that won’t stop control decks! If Dino Rabbit was still viable, this card would be their field spell (seriously, detach 2 from Laggia, or banish 1 card from your hand instead, make your choice). Downside: Similar to Mausoleum of the Emperor, BOTH players can use its effect. That means you need to be careful when using it.
• Riding Together: Remember Appropriate? It’s an awesome trap that allows you to draw 2 cards when your opponent draws cards outside of their draw phase. Downside: searching cards doesn’t count. Solution: This card! Each time your opponent searches a card this turn, you can draw 1 card. Seems a good side-deck card when facing search-heavy decks like Prophecies.

Traps

• Ghostrick Roleshift: Shame on me for covering an archetype-specific card? No, read between the lines of this card, seriously. Its second effect works outside of Ghostrick decks! "Once per turn, during the battle phase, you can select a set monster you control and flip it face-up." No need to remember the rest of the card if you don't play Ghostricks. What makes that effect interesting? Well, it's Book of Taiyou on crack. You can trigger cards like Geargiarmor, Gravekeeper Spy, Senior Silver ninja, etc faster this way. And unlike Book of Taiyou, this is a continuous trap. So you can use its effect multiple times (if you're able to keep it on the field, obviously).
• Frozen Will of the Monarchs: Can only be activated if you have no extra deck (awh), but in return, a Tribute Summoned Monster (obviously Monarchs) loses its effect (who cares if a monarch loses its effect after its been used) but in return, it is unaffected by ANY card effect. Catch: It doesn’t say until the end phase; it’s permanently unaffected by any card effect. Did you have trouble facing Monarchs? Well, it just got worse!

Card not to look forward to (lol)

Rank-up Magic – Astral Force: Actually, I wanted to exclude this card from my review due to it being nerfed like hell. But since a lot of people were freaking out about it when it appeared in the anime, I feel I should still talk about it.

The good part: You can rank up the monster with highest rank on the field with a full 2 ranks. Of course, it needs to be the same Type/attribute. Also, you can easily recycle the card.

The nerf: “You cannot special summon any other monster, except by the effect of Astral Force” (LOL, what a nerf!). So the “draw whore” decks you might have seen on youtube that abuse this card? Yeah, they don’t work in real life…

My thoughts about this set:

Hard to find cards I really like in here, because I'm not into any of the included archetypes (safe Gravekeepers maybe).

But just about any extra deck card in this set is good! I’m not covering the Chaos XYZ anymore, due to the lack of a decent Rank-up Magic card (again lol at the nerf of Astral Force).

Also, WTF at the 5 OCG-exclusives? Don't misunderstand me, they're good. The cards make both the Chronomaly and Heraldic archetypes tournament-worthy.

But seriously, why? All booster cards are already “World Premiere” for the OCG and the OCG has promo’s the TCG won’t receive for months or years (thus also “World premiere”). Why add 5 more in this booster? Are we seriously not going to see these for a year or so?

That's it for now. V out.

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