You’d be crazy to think that Blackwings won’t be out in force this weekend. Duelists love their Blackwings, and ever since the news that Black Whirlwind would no longer be Limited got out, Blackwing fans have been singing from the mountaintops of the return of their favorite Deck.

Blackwings have always been a favorite, and for good reasons! Black Whirlwind was the original Wind-Up Factory, giving Blackwing Duelists constant access to their best monsters provided they could get their Normal Summons to stick. Icarus Attack, a Trap that Tributes a Winged-Beast to destroy 2 cards, often effectively takes out 3 instead when Chained to a Spell or Trap that would destroy any of your Blackwings. Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow acts a lot like Honest, adding 1400 ATK to any of your Blackwings in the middle of a battle, and Delta Crow – Anti Reverse can wipe an entire opposing field of Set Spell or Trap Cards for free.

All of those are pretty good reasons to play Blackwings. But you know what? Their regular monsters are pretty darn good too.

Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn: Level 5, but can be Normal Summoned without Tribute if your opponent has a monster and you don’t. 2000 ATK, and can pile all the ATK from Blackwings on your side of the field into one monster, which is especially useful with…

Blackwing – Bora the Spear: Tokens beware, Blackwing – Bora the Spear inflicts Piercing Battle Damage! Bora can be Special Summoned from your hand for free if you have a different Blackwing on the field, and when combined with Sirocco, can cause game ending damage to Duelists hiding behind Sheep Tokens, Fluff Tokens, and Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens.

Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame: Every time it beats a monster in battle and sends it to the Graveyard, you get to Summon a 1500 ATK or less Blackwing from your Deck with its effects negated. It’s a great way to Summon Tuners from your Deck including the normally unusable Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor.

Speaking of Tuners, one of the biggest reasons to play with Blackwings is their Synchro Summoning capabilities. Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind can be Special Summoned from hand if you have a different Blackwing, and can permanently halve the ATK and DEF of any monster once per turn. And it’s a Level 3 Tuner, so combined with Bora or Shura, you can Summon Blackwing Armor Master! It’s totally immune to battle and across 2 turns will beat any monster that can be destroyed in battle. You also have access to Black Rose Dragon and its free field wipe just in case things get too out of control.

Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North can revive a Level 4 or lower Blackwing when you Normal Summon it. Since it’s a Tuner, that means an instead Level 5 or 6 Synchro Summon is on its way! Blackwing Armed Wing is great for pummeling Tokens, as it both inflicts Piercing Battle Damage and gains 500 ATK when attacking a Defense Position monster. But more impressive is that this gives easy access to HTS Psyhemuth, Armades, Keeper of Boundaries, and Ally of Justice Catastor! The Psyhemuth is an easy answer to any monster, and Armades excels at cutting through giant piles of defensive cards. And Catastor is still just an overall great monster.

On the Xyz side of things, Blackwings can make great use of Ice Beast Zerofyne from Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy. It’s a bona fide Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack slayer, becoming a 2900 ATK monster in the face of Dracossack and its Tokens while negating Dracossack’s effects. They can also play with Number 66: Master Key Beetle and its often frustrating protective abilities.

Overall, there’s a lot to be happy about if you’re a Blackwing fan and consequently there are a lot of happy Blackwing fans waiting to take to the field this weekend!