Jump Festa 2013 Promo Review pt. 1

One of the things I love the most about blogging is the freedom. Back when I was on Youtube consistently, I always felt constrained by viewcounts. But here, I feel like I can write about almost anything I want to, and today that means a review of the ten latest promos out in Japan. So let's get started!

Radiant Dragon Wybuster & Darkness Dragon Collapserpent
(For future reference, you can look at all of the effects of the cards here. It'd take too much time to roll through them all in this article. Also, please bear with the names, as there is no official English version yet.)

With all of the bashing I do on Chaos Dragons and the Light/Dark Chaos monsters in general, you would think I wouldn't be too enthused about two new Yin-and-Yang Dragon cards that are basically summoned through the Chaos method. But actually, I think these two are very powerful, interesting cards. They help Chaos decks maintain card advantage (a classic issue) while not missing timing, so you can Synchro Summon with them and still get the effects. I could definitely see these guys getting too crazy in the future since they basically are six copies of Gadgets with stats that don't suck, but we'll have to wait and see how Japanese players integrate them into their meta, if at all. (Good news for the rest of us: That'll just make Thunder King even better against Chaos decks.) I will say that it will be annoying to face a continuous stream of monsters as well as Chaos decks emboldened by this new addition, but I also can't deny how much I really like these cards. You might even see me playing a dedicated Chaos deck in the future, all due to these guys.

Kodomo Dragon

This card is cute and the art obviously reminds me of Poki-Draco. It can probably pull off some cool random combos here and there since there are so many Dragon-type monsters out there, but the loss of a Battle Phase is a sore issue in Yugioh. I feel like the 'Dragons-only' restriction is fair, but no killing your enemies for a turn? That can occasionally cause some serious problems. I just noticed as I write this that not only does this not miss timing, the effect activates when it's sent to the Graveyard from anywhere. Yes, anywhere. It can be detached, milled, or even get ran over by an enemy and trigger its effect, which is very much amazing. Because of the milling thing, it could see some play in Chaos Dragons as a method of relieving hands full of high-level monsters. (End Phase Lyla into Lightpulsar? Yes please!) It could also save you from your opponent's offensive pushes by getting killed at the right moment so you can drop a big Dragon to defend yourself in the middle of the Battle Phase, so I definitely think this is an excellent card and you should give it a good look. It is a little disappointing that another strong Dragon effect is out there now, but it's whatever. One last thing though: Why the hell is it called Kodomo Dragon instead of Komodo Dragon? That seriously bugs the hell out of me.

Fishborg Archer

I'm honestly not sure why they keep making Fishborg cards, but I am really liking this mini-archetype, partly because of Archer himself - it's a very good card with awesome artwork. Thankfully they restricted it to use in Water-heavy strategies somewhat stringently, so there's a smaller chance of it ruining the game like its cousin once did. I do however think being able to constantly discard Water monsters to reuse this as many turns as you can is a bit crazy though, and it reminds me a little of Blaster. Maybe it'd be more fair if it said something like "you can only use Fishborg Archer's effect twice per duel" or something, but oh well. The Water craziness just doesn't stop, but look out for this card particularly in Water Monster Mash decks.

Fire Dance Longsword

This card is better than it might seem at first, and I didn't realize it myself until I started writing about it. The effect is pretty basic, but it reminds me a bit of Absolute Zero: You can throw this card at your opponent as much as you want, and if they want to retaliate through battle they'll have to risk losing the monster that killed it. If they want to kill it with card effects, it better be with something like Torrential or Dimensional Prison, or they should hope to have a field clear of face-up monsters. Also, I just realized it combos really well with Onslaught of the Fire Kings, as do so many other cards. I definitely like this guy.


Nine-Snaked Peacock

(Use the translation on Manjyome Thunder for this card instead of the one on the Yugioh Wikia. I'm assuming that one is correct for now since it just makes so much more sense.) This card is a tiny bit scary. Since it doesn't miss timing, it combos well with two cards I can think of that are already really good on their own: Icarus Attack and Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi. The good news for the rest of us is that it has very little use on its own. You could use it in a dedicated Wind / Winged-Beast deck (likely using Raiza too), but outside of that, not much can be done with this card that I can think of. Plus, it can occasionally be disrupted by...guess who...Thunder King!


Thanks for reading! I hope I was able to help illuminate how good these new cards are. In Part 2 I'll go over the last four cards, which are two Extra Deck cards, a Spell, and a Trap. Later!