Bonus Characters in The Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box!
We are less than 1 week away from the April 1st release of the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box, each packed with 200 Speed Duel cards, 20 all-new Skill Cards, and 8 collectible Secret Rares.
Over the last two weeks we’ve looked at all eight of the starring-role characters: Jaden Yuki, Aster Phoenix, Chazz Princeton, Jesse Anderson, Zane Truesdale, Alexis Rhodes, Dr.Vellian Crowler, and Axel Brodie. The Duel Academy Box has two Skill Cards and a complete Speed Duel Deck that’s ready to go for each of them!
But what would the adventures at Duel Academy be without a supporting cast? In addition to those eight central characters, you’ll find four more Skill Cards for completely different characters. And while they don’t have ready-to-play Decks, the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box includes some of their signature cards to help you build your own strategies, and they’re just getting started! Some of these characters will return in September* – in time for back-to-school season – in the Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox Mini Box. Check ’em out.
Tyranno Hassleberry
If you were excited for the Duel Academy Box but you felt like it needed some Dinosaurs, you’re in luck! Up until now, Dinosaurs didn’t have many strategies outside of those offered in Speed Duel Starter Deck: Ultimate Predators. Now you’ve got another option: Tyranno Hassleberry’s new Skill Card, I’ve Got Dino DNA!
You’ll flip Hassleberry’s Skill Card at the start of the Duel, and from there it provides up to three effects every turn. First, you’ll gain 200 Life Points in each of your Draw Phases. Why not, right? Dinosaurs are all about slugging it out, and a little extra LP goes a long way in Speed Duels, since you only start with 4000.
Better yet, if you draw a Dinosaur monster for your normal draw, I’ve Got Dino DNA! lets you reveal it and put it on the bottom of your Deck, then draw another card instead. That means if you draw the wrong dino for the job, you can bury it like a fossil and take another shot at what you need. Again, that’s a bigger advantage in a format with a 20-card Deck minimum – it’s not as hard to draw your best cards!
Finally, once per turn and during your Main Phase, you can use I’ve Got Dino DNA! to buff one of your Dinosaurs by 200 ATK until the end of the turn. That’ll help you stomp over your opponent’s monsters, and close out Duels a little faster. It’s especially good with a certain Dinosaur another one of these bonus characters is bringing to class, but we’ll get to that later…
In the meantime, Hassleberry’s coming armed and ready with Black Brachios, which is new to Speed Duel. Black Brachios clocks in at Level 4 with 1800 ATK. Normal Summon it, and you can target any monster on the field to turn it to face-up defense; awesome when you need to take out a bigger threat with high ATK, but low DEF. Combined with the 200 ATK boost from the Skill Card, it’s a big threat to your opponent’s board, and it can win you the Duel in just two direct attacks!
Bastion Misawa
Hassleberry’s not the only Duelist ready to put their favorite Dinosaur to work. Bastion Misawa’s a very different type of Duelist in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and he’s bringing one of the greatest Dinosaur monsters of all time back into the spotlight, and straight into Speed Duel. But first, let’s talk about his Skill Card.
Energizing Elements is a really cool Skill that taps into everything Bastion’s about: you’ll keep it face-down until you’re ready to activate it, and when you flip it, you’ll select an Attribute: FIRE, WATER, EARTH, or WIND. Once you do, monsters with that Attribute gain 500 ATK and lose 400 DEF for the rest of the turn, and any battle damage they deal to your opponent is halved for the turn as well. If at any point you don’t control a monster with that Attribute, Energizing Elements flips and the fun is over. But if you can hold your ground, you can use that effect again and again, turn after turn.
So why would you want to boost the ATK of your monsters, but reduce the damage they deal? The most common answer is so you can stampede all over your opponent’s monsters and free up the field for a follow-up attack next turn. But Bastion’s also got a trick up his sleeve…Hydrogeddon! (If you’re a huge GX fan, you probably just heard that shouted in Bastion’s voice.)
Yes, you may call WATER for Energizing Elements quite a bit, because Hydrogeddon‘s coming to Speed Duel! Use it to destroy an opposing monster in battle and you’ll Special Summon another copy…which can then attack to destroy another monster in battle, so you can Special Summon your third Hydrogeddon! Since Energizing Elements is a continuous effect, each Hydrogeddon will hit play with a fearsome 2100 Attack Points, ready to sweep the field. There’s one Hydrogeddon per box, but you might also find one as a Secret Rare!
Oh, and if you need even more of Duel Academy’s most calculated combatant? You’ll find cards for Bastion in Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox in September.
Syrus Truesdale
Zane isn’t the only Truesdale appearing in the Duel Academy Box. His little bro’s here too, months before his full debut in Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox, with a Skill Cards that packs a punch! Lots of Skills deliver ATK boosts, but they often have restrictions, like how Jaden’s Here Goes Something! requires you to control just one monster. Others are easier and act sort of like Field Spells, but offer smaller ATK bonuses, like Dr. Crowler’s or Hassleberry’s Skills; in cases like those the extra attack power isn’t really the main attraction, it’s just part of a package with other effects.
Syrus goes all-in bringing the hurt. His Room for Growth Skill boosts the ATK of any one Level 3 or lower monster by 300x the monster’s Level. That might not sound like a big deal, but it’s as much as 900 ATK for an entire turn, and there are no restrictions on the rest of your field, no demand for a specific monster Type, and no reduction to your battle damage. You only get to use it once per turn, but an extra 900 Attack Points is enough to steal a win or swing over big boss monsters, if you’ve got the right Level 3 to use it.
The Duel Academy Box comes with one of Syrus’ signature cards, Gyroid. It’s a Level 3 with 1000 ATK, and once per turn it can’t be destroyed by battle. That’s cool if you want to build a Machine-Type Syrus Deck. But if you want to run into the GX lore a little bit? Well, the Level 3 monster with the highest ATK in Speed Dueling is Sonic Duck, which wasreleased inSpeed Duel: Attack from the Deep, and Jaden and his pals rode that thing all around the Fourth Dimension in the show. Summon it, give it Room for Growth, and suddenly you’ve got one mad mallard at 2600 ATK!
Banisher of the Radiance was introduced to Speed Duel in the Speed Duel: Battle City Box, and Syrus can buff it to 2500 ATK, letting you swing on a monster and immediately banish it. Dweller in the Depths from Speed Duel: Attack from the Deep starts at 1500 ATK, goes to 2400 ATK with the Skill, and gets 300 more ATK for every Continuous Spell you control. You can even have a 2400 ATK Twin-Headed Behemoth from Speed Duel Starter Deck: Duelists of Tomorrow, or Special Summon a 2300 ATK Gilasaurus fromSpeed Duel Starter Deck: Ultimate Predators! Room for Growth is a big equalizer that can help you turn the tables, and mount Syrus-level comebacks.
Yubel
Finally, one of the additional characters in the Duel Academy Box is none other than Yubel! More specifically, Yubel possessing Jesse Anderson! Since this set comes with a complete Crystal Beast Deck for Jesse, you can tweak it and instantly have a build for Yubel, too. You’ll start with their unique Skill Card, Consumed By Darkness.
Yubel’s Skill is effectively a Skill Card version of the Field Spell Advanced Dark: when you’re ready to activate it, you flip it and place it into your Field Spell Zone. From there all Crystal Beast monsters on the field and in the Graveyard become DARK. And if a Crystal Beast you control battles and you’d take damage; you can send a Crystal Beast from your Deck to the Graveyard to preserve your Life Points. You’ll load up your Graveyard, turn your monsters DARK, and stall for time… so you might understand where this is all going.
Yeah, that’s right, the other effect of Consumed By Darkness kicks in when an “Ultimate Crystal” monster attacks: you’ll negate the effects of the attack target for the rest of the Battle Phase. And that’s useful, because there are two cards specifically for Yubel in the Duel Academy Box: a backup copy of Advanced Dark, and the “Ultimate Crystal” monster Rainbow Dark Dragon!
With 4000 ATK, Rainbow Dark Dragon can knock out your Speed Dueling opponent in one shot, and you Special Summon it by cashing in those DARK Crystal Beasts you banked with the Skill Card. Just banish any seven DARK monsters from your Graveyard to Special Summon it from your hand, then let it rip. Oh, and if 4000 Attack Points isn’t enough? You can banish whatever DARK monsters you’ve got left to boost it by 500 ATK for each.
The Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box is an incredible collection of cards. You can play the Decks right out of the box, you can use the cards to make your own Speed Duel strategies, and as a bonus, it’s got all those sweet, sweet Secret Rares. It takes everything Duelists loved about the Speed Duel: Battle City Box, amps it up, and then makes it all easier to play and enjoy. The Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box drops next week on March 31st at your local OTS and Friday April 1st everywhere else.
Many Official Tournament Stores (OTS) will be participating in the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box Release Celebration between April 2nd and May 15th. Duelist can compete in Sealed or Constructed Speed Duel Release Celebration Events for a chance to win the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box Game Mat.
A list of participating OTS can be found on
our website:
https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/events/sgx1_celebration_locations/
You won’t want to miss it!
*Subject to change.
