The Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox Mini Box is coming out on October 7, packed with 100 Speed Duel cards and 12 new Skills; some for returning characters from the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box, and some for Duelists making their Speed Duel debut! Each box even comes with 4 Secret Rares from a set of 12, all paying homage to these iconic heroes and rivals.

In Midterm Paradox 101 last week, we showed you the new Skill Cards for Jaden and Syrus. We talked about how their pre-built Decks work, and how you can build your own Decks for those two characters. But grab your notebook and get ready to study up, because today’s lesson will teach you all about the remaining featured Duelists in Midterm Paradox Bastion Misawa and the Paradox Brothers.

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Bastion Misawa
Armed with countless Decks and strategies, Bastion Misawa was one of the most memorable Duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. He’s the thinking man’s Duelist, for sure, but his best cards were often aggressive, triggering powerful effects and kicking off combos as a reward for attacking.

In the real-life Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Bastion’s biggest gift to competitive Dueling was Hydrogeddon. It was really popular in the GX era whenever there were lots of small monsters to punish. Hydrogeddon actually made its first Speed Duel appearance in the Duel Academy Box, but that was just a teaser for what’s next. Midterm Paradox has everything you need to build a full-blown Deck featuring Bastion’s biggest boss monsters!

Bastion’s Deck revolves around Water Dragon and Hyozanryu. Water Dragon can’t be Normal Summoned or Set. Instead, you Special Summon it from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard by activating the Spell Card Bonding – H2O and Tributing three monsters: Oxygeddon and two copies of Hydrogeddon. Do that, and you’ll unleash a 2800 ATK Sea Serpent that drops the ATK of all FIRE and Pyro monsters on the field to 0 (and when it’s destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, it Special Summons back your Oxygeddon and Hydrogeddons).

Bastion has several ways to take advantage of that effect to wipe the ATK of FIRE monsters, including a more modern monster: he’s got Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju! That means you can Tribute an opposing monster, replace it with Dogoran, then use Water Dragon to crash its ATK to 0 and run it over. Oh, and Dogoran? It’s one of the 12 Secret Rares you might find in your Midterm ParadoxMini Box.

You’ve got multiple copies of Hydrogeddon to make this all happen, and following the winning formula of “Dinosaurs + battle = victory”, Bastion also has Carboneddon, Jurrac Iguanon and Jurrac Protops. Two copies of Duoterion help search out your “Bonding” Spell Cards and the Dinosaurs you’ll need for them, and A Legendary Ocean helps beef up your Hydrogeddon, Duoterion, and Water Dragon with an ATK boost. There’s even Bonding – D20 and Water Dragon Cluster to take the strategy to a new level.

Bastion’s main Skill Card is called Chemistry in Motion, and it helps support the Water Dragon strategy. You’ll flip it face-up at the start of the Duel, and then once per turn, you’ll place a counter on it and apply an effect.

• With one counter, you’ll discard a Dinosaur monster to get another one with a different Attribute from your Deck to your hand. It’s great to set up Hydrogeddon, or troubleshoot your opponent’s field with Dogoran.
• With two counters, you’ll Normal Summon a WIND or WATER Dinosaur in addition to your regular Normal Summon.
• With three counters you’ll change the names of all your WATER Dinosaurs on the field to “Hydrogeddon” until the end of the turn, then search your Deck for Bonding – H2O and add it to your hand.
• And with four counters, you’ll remove all of them from the Skill Card and start the process again. You’ll also change all your opponent’s monsters into FIRE/Pyro types until the end of your turn, leaving them wide open to Water Dragon!

If you want to switch gears and play something different, Bastion’s Under Pressure Skill supports Hyozanryu. Just Special Summon the Level 7 2100 ATK Normal Dragon-type by banishing Carboneddon from your Graveyard. Once it’s on the field you can flip Under Pressure and from there, once per turn, you can reveal the top four cards of your Deck and apply these effects in sequence if you see the corresponding monsters:

• If you reveal Carboneddon, Hyozanryu gains 1000 ATK for the turn
• If you reveal Hydrogeddon and Hyozanryu will be unaffected by opposing monster effects for the turn
• And if you reveal Oxygeddon you’ll destroy a face-up monster your opponent controls, then deal 800 damage to their LP

A free destruction effect, and you get to burn off a fifth of your opponent’s starting Life Points? Yeah, that last one’s pretty great! When you’re done claiming your effects you’ll place the revealed monsters on the bottom of your Deck too, in an order of your choosing. That means if the Duel goes long enough and you avoid effects that shuffle your Deck, a few Misawa mathematics might actually let you memorize your upcoming draws. Bastion would approve.

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The Paradox Brothers

New villains arrive at Duel Academy! The Paradox Brothers are bringing Kazejin, Suijin, and Sanga of the Thunder to Speed Duels, as well as the massive monster Gate Guardian! All three of their Skill Cards revolve around these four monsters, making it easier to Summon them, and helping you close out the Duel.

The Paradox Brothers’ Deck comes with Kazejin, Suijin, and Sanga of the Thunder, and it’s packing lots of cards to support them. (Plus, they can all appear as Secret Rares!) Jirai Gumo‘s a heavy-hitter that sticks to the field, while Stone Statue of the Aztecs is a big defender with 2000 DEF. They make good Tribute fodder, but the Paradox Brothers also have Kaiser Sea Horse, Unshaven Angler, and Whirlwind Prodigy, three monsters that can count as two Tributes for a LIGHT, WATER, or WIND monster respectively. From there, Spell Cards like Soul Exchange and Double Summon help you make your big Tribute Summons.

The Paradox Brothers also have key cards for an iconic strategy straight out of old school Dueling: Clown Control! Crass Clown and Dream Clown have effects that trigger when their battle positions shift: Crass Clown bounces a monster from the field, and Dream Clown destroys a monster outright. Ryu-Kishin Clown joins in, changing the battle position of 1 face-up monster when it itself is Summoned. These little miscreants can put in some serious work in Speed Duels, thanks to the lower starting Life Points.

The Skill Cards for the Paradox Brothers are all great, and they all help you Summon big monsters. You can flip Behold, Gate Guardian! when you control one of Kazejin, Suijin, or Sanga of the Thunder, and you can activate it during your Main Phase. When you do, you’ll shuffle your entire hand into your Deck, then add a Level 11 monster from your Deck to your hand…that’s Gate Guardian, for anybody not on the honor roll…and then Special Summon up to 2 Level 7 monsters with different Attributes from your Deck or Graveyard with 0 ATK and DEF, with their effects negated.

This Skill basically says, “If you have one piece of Gate Guardian, go get everything else you need.” Then it gives Gate Guardian an effect as well: one time only, Behold, Gate Guardian!  lets you change the ATK of a monster attacking your Gate Guardian to 0, just like the abilities of the Level 7’s. Your opponent won’t dare to attack your gargantuan Guardian! Cool stuff.

Beware the Brothers Paradox! Takes a different approach: as long as you have no Extra Deck, you can reveal a Gate Guardian, or a Kazejin, Suijin, or Sanga of the Thunder from your hand and flip it. Once you do, you’ll get the following Skills:

• You can Normal Summon Level 7 monsters for 1 less Tribute. Awesome.
• You can Tribute Summon a Level 7 monster face-up, in addition to your Normal Summon.
• Your opponent takes no effect damage. You can only attack with one monster a turn, but it can make a second attack on a monster in each Battle Phase.

This Skill’s more about the Level 7’s than Gate Guardian itself; it gives you an instant path to a Level 7 Summon, and then it turns that card into a double attacker. Since all three monsters have defensive effects that drain the ATK of anything that attacks them, you can secure the field and then make short work of your opponent’s monsters.

Finally, you can activate Elements of Thunder, Water, and Wind when you have 1000 Life Points or less. It lets you Normal Summon Suijin, Kazeijin, or Sanga of the Thunder without Tributing. Or, if you already control all three, you can send all the cards on the field to the Graveyard and Special Summon Gate Guardian from your Deck. Summoning all of those monsters might be tricky, but it’s a pretty big old school flex if you can pull it off, and your victory will be truly spectacular!

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Bastion Misawa’s Speed Duel strategies are flexible and aggressive, assembling arithmetical combos with poise and precision to rule your Duels! Meanwhile the Paradox Brothers bludgeon your opponents with giant monsters you’ll rush to the field, and when your need to, they buy time with big bodies and Clown Control antics. These two Dueling personas are unique additions to the Speed Duel landscape, and you’ll find these characters and more in Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox.

Class isn’t out just yet! There’s one more lesson plan in your syllabus, so don’t be late for our next lesson. We’ll be looking at some of the extra Speed Duel cards in Midterm Paradox, as well as the new Skill Cards for Chumley Huffington and Jaden & Syrus, so you won’t wanna miss it!