Wind-Up Decks have competed at the top tables at almost every event for the last year or so. From winning National Championships and the occasional Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series event to being an ever-present part of your Local and Regional level tournaments, Wind-Ups were, and are, a mainstay of Dueling. The recent release of Number 61: Volcasaurus in the Zexal Collection Tin gave Wind-Up Decks a great new Rank 5 monster to work with, and that means a certain toy shark from Cosmo Blazer: Special Edition is primed and ready to play a key role in new Wind-Up strategies!

To refresh everyone’s memory, Wind-Up Shark is a Level 4 monster with 1500 ATK. When you Normal or Special Summon a “Wind-Up” monster, you can Special Summon Shark from your hand, instantly giving you a second monster with which to Xyz Summon.

Shark’s second effect can be activated once per turn, and increases or decreases its Level by 1 until the End Phase. That means that Wind-Up Shark can be a Level 3, 4 or 5 monster, opening up your Extra Deck and giving you a wide range of options.

Wind-Up Shark combines with several of your other “Wind-Up” monsters to facilitate Xyz Summons. The most famous play involves Wind-Up Magician. By Summoning Magician, you can Special Summon Shark. Shark’s effect then triggers Magician’s letting you Summon another “Wind-Up” monster from your Deck.

Depending on what cards you have in your hand and what monster you Summon, you can go down many number of paths before Xyz Summoning a powerful monster. You can even use Magician’s effect to Summon another Wind-Up Shark from your Deck, and with both Sharks able to change their Levels you can Summon almost anything from your Extra Deck.

Wind-Up Shark can become Level 3, 4, or 5. That’s because there are Rank 3, 4, and 5 Wind-Up Xyz Monsters! But you shouldn’t just limit yourself to Wind-Up Xyz Monsters…

At Rank 3 you can Summon Wind-Up Zenmaines, which is capable of protecting itself from destruction while also destroying opposing cards at the same time. It’s a very strong defensive option while also giving you the opportunity to go on the attack later on. Number 20: Giga-Brilliant is another option, which lets you detach an Xyz Material in order to boost all your monsters by 300 ATK. Depending on what monsters you control and how many, those 300 ATK increases could be enough to swing a Duel your way.

Rank 4 monsters that you can Summon include Gagaga Cowboy, which has a different effect depending on what position it’s in. While in Attack Position it takes 500 ATK away from its attack target and gains 1000 ATK of its own during the Damage Step, enough to take down anything with 3000 ATK or less. While in Defense Position it can inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent. There’s also the classic Number 39: Utopia, and the illuminating Photon Papilloperative.

Wind-Up Shark can also facilitates Rank 5 Xyz Summons of monsters like Number 61: Volcasaurus. Once per turn you can detach an Xyz Material and target an opposing face-up monster. Volcasaurus then destroys it and your opponent loses Life Points equal to its original ATK. Taking down a monster like Mermail Abyssmegalo for example will dish out 2400 Life Points of damage! Tiras, Keeper of Genesis, Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon, and Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh are 3 other monsters to take note of as well.

If you like being able to Summon many different Xyz Monsters of many different Ranks, you might want to try a Wind-Up Deck. And if you do, you’ll want Wind-Up Shark, available now as one of two possible promos in Cosmo Blazer: Special Edition!