Tech Update: Hidden Arsenal 2’s Synchro Monsters
With Hidden Arsenal 2 legal for a Championship-level event for the first time this weekend, Duelists in both the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Main Event and the Public Events were taking advantage of the new Synchro Monsters the set offers. Four of the new Synchros had a notable presence over the course of the weekend, and each helped to make certain Decks more competitive. Let’s give them all a brief look.
Naturia Beast
Hands down, the most popular new Synchro Monster is Naturia Beast. It has 2200 ATK and the ability to negate all of your opponent’s Spell Cards by sending 2 cards from the top of your Deck to your Graveyard. Naturia Beast can stop big threats like Infernity Launcher, stop cards like Gold Sarcophagus, and protect itself from Brain Control, Book of Moon, and Smashing Ground. It also keeps your Spell and Trap Card Zone safe from cards like Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade, and Cold Wave.
Being able to protect your back row is a big deal, because it’s your own Spell and Trap Cards that protect Naturia Beast from bigger attackers. While the Beast protects itself from Spells, it can still fall in battle, and one of the biggest nightmares is seeing it stolen with Goyo Guardian. But with Bottomless Trap Hole or Mirror Force Set, attackers won’t be able to touch you, and Naturia Beast helps make sure that nothing destroys your defensive cards. It’s similar to how most Duelists often try to use Stardust Dragon, but it can be even more effective, because Naturia Beast negates so many more cards than Stardust can. It’s especially nasty when it’s protecting Royal Oppression. If your opponent doesn’t have something like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter or Caius the Shadow Monarch, almost nothing can stop you if you play carefully.
And Naturia Beast fits into alot of different Decks! It was most commonly Summoned by X-Saber Duelists this weekend, who can bring it out easily by Tuning XX-Saber Emmersblade or (better yet) XX-Saber Darksoul, to X-Saber Pashuul. But Synchro Cat Duelists can Tune Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and Snyffus. You can Special Summon Test Ape and X-Saber Airbellum with Rescue Cat in Gladiator Beasts. Or you can Special Summon Airbellum and Sea Koala with Cat instead. There are lots of powerful EARTH Attribute Tuner Monsters out there, so Naturia Beast is going to be popping up everywhere over the coming months.
Ally of Justice Field Marshall:
The latest powerhouse in the Ally of Justice Family is a Level 9 Synchro Monster, and like its fellow Level 9 Mist Wurm, it doesn’t require specific Synchro Materials, so it can go in any Extra Deck. As long as you’ve got 3 or more monsters to Tune, you can get this 2900 ATK monster that draws you extra cards whenever it destroys a face-down Defense Position monster in battle. Drawing cards is always useful, and it’s a real asset to have an easy-to-Summon Level 9 Synchro Monster with 400 more ATK than Mist Wurm (and 1100 more DEF in case Book of Moon is used). On one hand, the 2900 Attack Points of the Field Marshall forces an opponent to play defensively. But if they do, they lose cards and feed you free ones thanks to Field Marshall’s effect. It’s pretty brutal.
While X-Sabers can make effective use of Ally of Justice Field Marshall, it can be tricky to find room in the Extra Deck for it in that particular strategy. It’s actually a pretty good fit in Infernities, too. It’s a useful first turn play, and the added draw rarely interferes with the important empty-hand effects Infernities use. It’s also really good in Flamvells, where Rekindling can Special Summon 2 Flamvell Firedogs and the Level 1 Tuner Flamvell Baby, or a Firedog, a Flamvell Magician, and a Flamvell Poun.
Fabled Valkyrus:
This Synchro Monster has helped to renew interest in Dark World Decks this weekend. Fabled Kushano and Fabled Lurrie work well in modified Dark World strategies, because the same cards that combo with Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World (think Card Destruction and Dark World Lightning) can Special Summon Lurrie or place Kushano in the Graveyard where her effect can be used to retrieve her later.
If you control Goldd or Sillva, you can Tune one of them to Fabled Kushano, getting her back from the Graveyard with her effect if you need to do so. That mix of Synchro Materials will let the Dark World Duelist Synchro Summon Fabled Valkyrus. While its 2900 ATK is a force to be reckoned with, the main attraction is its effect. Only Fabled monsters can be discarded for Fabled Kushano’s effect, but Valkyrus lets its controller discard any Fiend (including Dark World monsters) to draw a card once each turn. That’s useful for Dark World, because it means that they can discard Dark World monsters they don’t need or can’t use at the moment, to get to the cards that unlock their combos. Valkyrus makes the theme more reliable while also presenting a new, high-ATK threat.
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier:
Dewloren is one of the most versatile Synchro Monsters in Hidden Arsenal 2, fitting into a surprising number of Decks and hugely improving their performance. You can Synchro Summon Dewloren with any Tuner. The only requirement is that you must use WATER monsters for your non-Tuner Synchro Materials. And WATER monsters are found in a wide variety of Decks.
Dewloren has 2000 ATK, and once each turn its effect lets you return face-up cards to your hand to boost Dewloren’s Attack Points by 500 for each card you returned.
There are plenty of Decks that can play Dewloren, and each one can use it in unique ways, because what you can return to your hand determines Dewloren’s specific capabilities. For instance, in a Fish Deck built around the use of Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth with Phantom of Chaos and Symbols of Duty, Dewloren can be Synchro Summoned with Royal Swamp Eel (a Level 4 Tuner) and Nimble Sunfish (a Level 2 non-Tuner). If you bring out 4 monsters with Coelacanth, 2 can be Tuned to summon Dewloren, and Dewloren’s effect can then send the other 2 monsters, plus Symbols of Duty or Phantom of Chaos, back to your hand so you can reuse them. Dewloren ups the maximum total ATK of the Coelacanth combo by thousands of Attack Points, and also lets you reuse the key combo.
Or how about Crystal Beasts? The most common Tuner to play in a Crystal Beast Deck is X-Saber Airbellum (a Level 3 Tuner), and you can bring Dewloren out by Tuning it to Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise (a Level 3 non-Tuner). From there, Dewloren’s effect can bounce Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins back to your hand for a free 500 ATK bonus: you can activate it again immediately, and if you control at least 4 Crystal Beasts in your back row, you can use 1 Ancient City to draw 2 cards in a single turn. Better yet, you can bounce Crystal Beasts that were destroyed and sent to your back row, back to your hand, letting you fill your hand with cards and allowing you to Summon copies of Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus again.
Tune a Level 2 Tuner to Elemental Hero Ocean in an Elemental Hero Deck to bounce Skyscraper 2 – Hero City back to your hand for a quick 500 ATK bonus, or bounce away your Continuous cards like Gravity Bind and Level Limit – Area B to free up the field for a turn so you can attack. Then, play those cards again to lock everything down once more and stop your opponent from attacking. You can even just bounce Elemental Hero Stratos to use its effect again.
Monarch Duelists can return Monarchs from the field to the hand to Summon them again later. Bounce Synchro Monsters you take with Brain Control or Mind Control to get them back into your opponent’s Extra Deck. Return Swords of Revealing Light to your hand to play it again. Get a restrictive Field Spell out of the way like Black Garden so you can rush the opponent… there are dozens of uses for Dewloren. If your Deck runs any Level 3 or Level 4 WATER monsters, definitely consider what Dewloren could be doing for your strategy.
Hidden Arsenal 2 has a lot of hidden gems, and this quick look at some of the top Synchro Monsters only scratches the surface. The new F&L Cards list on September 1st will probably open up some new opportunities in Deck building, so make sure you know what these new cards can do.
