Absolute Powerforce Preview: XX-Saber Emmersblade
“XX-Saber Emmersblade” may help give X-Saber Decks the push they’ll need to take over the competitive scene. It works perfectly with existing X-Saber cards as well as the new ones coming out in Absolute Powerforce. While one lucky Duelist will win an oversized copy of this world premiere card this weekend in the ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!! Tournament, all Duelists can add it to their Decks in just a few more weeks, starting at the Absolute Powerforce Sneak Peek.
“XX-Saber Emmersblade” is a Level 3 EARTH monster with 1300 ATK and 800 DEF. When it’s destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon any Level 4 or lower X-Saber monster from your Deck. Since XX-Sabers are also considered X-Sabers, that gives you a lot of options to choose from! You can Special Summon “X-Saber Airbellum,” “X-Saber Axel,” “XX-Saber Fulhelmknight,” “XX-Saber Ragigura,” and more with Emmersblade’s effect. Emmersblade will turn your X-Saber Deck into the ultimate toolbox, capable of bringing out X-Saber monsters as you need them.
In addition to pulling your X-Saber team together by exploiting your monsters’ strengths as they’re needed, Emmersblade also has the crucial role of flooding your field and Graveyard with X-Sabers. All of the most powerful X-Saber monsters and support cards require you to have X-Sabers on the field or in the Graveyard. Emmersblade makes it easier than ever to meet these requirements.
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Fill the Field with X-Saber Monsters
When “XX-Saber Emmersblade” is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, a new X-Saber monster will appear face-up on your field to take its place. Since “XX-Saber Faultroll” requires you to have 2 X-Saber monsters on the field to Special Summon it, if you Special Summon an X-Saber with Emmersblade on your opponent’s turn and then Normal Summon one from your hand on your turn, you’ll instantly have the 2 X-Sabers you need. You can even Special Summon “XX-Saber Ragigura” with Emmersblade to return Faultroll from your Graveyard to your hand. Now you can create the infinite discard loop with “XX-Saber Gottoms” more easily than ever!
For anyone unfamiliar with the combo, here’s how it works:
First, you’ll need to Summon “XX-Saber Gottoms” and “XX-Saber Faultroll” to the field, with “XX-Saber Ragigura” and “XX-Saber Faultroll” in the Graveyard.
The easiest way to Synchro Summon “XX-Saber Gottoms” is by Tuning “X-Saber Airbellum” or “XX-Saber Fulhelmknight” with “XX-Saber Faultroll.” Use cards that let you Special Summon X-Saber monsters to help create the set-up you need for this combo.
Next, you can activate Faultroll’s effect to Special Summon Ragigura to the field. Then activate the effect of Ragigura to return a Faultroll from your Graveyard to your hand. Special Summon the Faultroll.
Use “XX-Saber Gottoms” to Tribute Ragigura and the Faultroll whose effect you already activated and discard 2 cards from your opponent’s hand. Repeat the previous step and this step until your opponent has no cards left in his hand!
Even if you don’t have “XX-Saber Faultroll” in your hand, you can use “Saber Slash” to take advantage of your field of X-Sabers. Since “Saber Slash” destroys 1 face-up card for each X-Saber you have on your field, Special Summoning them with “XX-Saber Emmersblade” will let you destroy more cards than ever before.
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Fill the Graveyard with X-Saber Monsters
X-Saber Decks don’t just need X-Saber monsters on the field – they also need them in the Graveyard. Emmersblade will help to achieve this goal too!
“XX-Saber Emmersblade” can create a long line of defenders. Since it can even Special Summon another copy of itself from the Deck in Defense Position, you can effectively use Emmersblade to prevent the damage from 5 attacks! Each time an Emmersblade is destroyed in battle, you can Special Summon another copy in Defense Position to absorb the damage from another attack. Once your third copy is destroyed, you can Special Summon “XX-Saber Fulhelmknight” to negate your opponent’s 4th attack. Your opponent will need to make a 5th attack just to destroy the one Fulhelmknight that your chain of Emmersblades brought onto the field.
In the meantime, your Graveyard will be filled with copies of Emmersblade or any other X-Saber you chose to Special Summon. This is great since “Gottoms’ Emergency Call” can Special Summon two of them at once. You’ll also need to have a face-up X-Saber monster to activate “Gottoms’ Emergency Call,” but that’s not a problem since Emmersblade Special Summons your X-Sabers face-up.
Even “XX-Saber Gardestrike” can benefit from the plays made with “XX-Saber Emmersblade.” Gardestrike requires you to have 2 X-Saber monsters in your Graveyard to Special Summon it, but with Emmersblade getting X-Sabers into the Graveyard so quickly, putting 2 of them in there is a breeze.
X-Saber Duelists may also have success running “Creature Swap” in their Decks thanks to the addition of Emmersblade. If you trade your Emmersblade with one of your opponent’s stronger monsters, you can attack Emmersblade and search your Deck for another X-Saber. If you choose “X-Saber Airbellum,” you can follow up with a direct attack and discard a card from your opponent’s hand! Then in Main Phase 2, you can Tune your Airbellum with your opponent’s monster you took control of, and do a Synchro Summon!
“Creature Swap” also works well with “XX-Saber Ragigura.” Since Ragigura has low stats and an awesome effect that only activates when it’s Summoned, you can swap it for your opponent’s stronger monster after it retrieves an X-Saber. Your opponent won’t be able to do much with a Level 1 monster that only has 200 ATK. X-Saber Duelists running “Giant Rat” can give their Rat to an opponent by using “Creature Swap” and search for a monster like Emmersblade when it’s is destroyed in battle.
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Draw a Bunch of Cards!
“XX-Saber Emmersblade” even gives us a new way to exploit the effect of “X-Saber Axel.” Axel lets you draw a card each time one of your “Saber” monsters is destroyed in battle. While “X-Saber Axel” is on the field, you can use your Emmersblade to attack one of your opponent’s stronger monsters. Emmersblade will be destroyed by that monster and you’ll get to draw a card for Axel’s effect. Since Emmersblade will also replace itself with another X-Saber monster in the Deck (including another copy of Emmersblade,) you can repeat this play to draw a card for each Emmersblade in your Deck. You can use your last copy of Emmersblade to Special Summon another X-Saber to keep on the field too! With Emmersblade, Faultroll and “Gottoms’ Emergency Call” Special Summoning X-Sabers, it should be a cinch to get Emmersblade and Axel on the field at the same time to create this combo.
Use this combo to draw extra cards!
An experienced X-Saber Duelist will quickly realize that Emmersblade helps pull the entire theme together and opens up powerful new options for Deck building.
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More X-Sabers in Absolute Powerforce!
In addition to Emmersblade, Absolute Powerforce has 3 more cards for you to add to your X-Saber Deck.
First up is “XX-Saber Garsem.” Garsem is a Level 4 X-Saber monster. This means you can Special Summon it from your Deck when “XX-Saber Emmersblade” is destroyed in battle. Garsem starts off with 1400 ATK, but gains 200 ATK for each face-up X-Saber monster you control. Since Garsem is an X-Saber monster, it instantly boosts itself to at least 1600 ATK. With the massive amount of Special Summons made possible by Emmersblade, Faultroll and “Gottoms’ Emergency Call,” you’ll have no problem boosting Garsem’s power to much higher levels.
In addition to its ability to gain ATK, Garsem also lets you search your Deck for any X-Saber monster and add it to your hand when it’s destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by a card effect. Your opponent will need to think twice about using “Torrential Tribute” or “Mirror Force” while Garsem is on the field.
Since the effect of “XX-Saber Garsem” will trigger even if Garsem is destroyed by one of your own card effects, you can use “Saber Slash” to destroy it and search for something like “XX-Saber Faultroll.” If you have a face-down “Call of the Haunted,” you can Chain it to return Garsem to the field when your opponent uses “Mystical Space Typhoon” or “Heavy Storm,” so that Garsem will be destroyed by the effect of your “Call of the Haunted.” Then you’ll be able to search your Deck for any X-Saber! With Emmersblade’s ability to Special Summon X-Sabers from the Deck and Garsem’s ability to add X-Sabers from your Deck to your hand, X-Saber Decks are about to become more consistent than ever.
The other new X-Saber monster in Absolute Powerforce is the Level 6 Synchro Monster, “XX-Saber Hyunlei.”
Hyunlei only has 2300 ATK, but her effect more than makes up for it. When “XX-Saber Hyunlei” is Synchro Summoned, you can destroy up to 3 Spell or Trap Cards on the field! When facing X-Saber Decks, many players Set all of their cards to prevent them from being removed from their hand by “X-Saber Airbellum” and “X-Saber Urbellum” (or “XX-Saber Gottoms”!). Until now, X-Saber Duelists usually relied on their 1 copy of “Heavy Storm” to clear their opponent’s Spell and Trap Zone when that happened. Now X-Saber Decks have a new way to destroy all of the cards the opponent may Set.
To Synchro Summon Hyunlei, you’ll need to Tune together 1 Tuner and 1 or more non-Tuner X-Saber monsters. Since both Tuner Monsters commonly played in X-Saber Decks are Level 3 monsters (“X-Saber Airbellum” and “X-Saber Fulhelmknight,”) Hyunlei will be easiest to Summon by Tuning one of them to a Level 3 X-Saber. Luckily, Emmersblade is the first ever Level 3 non-Tuner X-Saber monster, which makes it possible to Summon Hyunlei by Tuning together just 2 monsters.
Tune these monsters together to Synchro Summon “XX-Saber Hyunlei.”
The last of the X-Saber support cards in Absolute Powerforce is a powerful Counter Trap Card called “Saber Hole.”
“Saber Hole” can negate the Summon of any monster, and destroy that monster! There’s nothing subtle about “Saber Hole.” It can negate the Summon of the most powerful monsters in the game, whether they’re Normal or Special Summoned. “Stardust Dragon,” “Dark Armed Dragon,” “Judgment Dragon,” and “Caius the Shadow Monarch” all fall to “Saber Hole.” You’ll need to have an X-Saber monster face-up on the field to activate “Saber Hole,” but that’s an easy requirement for an X-Saber Deck to meet.
Negate the Summon of these monsters by using “Saber Hole”!
Up until now, X-Sabers have been building their strength, and haven’t had the raw power to keep up with the top Decks in competitive tournaments. Absolute Powerforce finally gives X-Sabers the boost they need for a shot at the big leagues. You can be one of the first to find out at the Absolute Powerforce Sneak Peek on February 6th and 7th.
