Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy’s Mecha Phantom Beasts are an entire air wing of bestiomorphic warplanes outfitted with super-futuristic recon technology. They’re all WIND Machine monsters, and they all work with a Duelist-favorite mechanic that’s never had any real time in the spotlight: Tokens! Sure, there have been Decks built around using one specific Token generating card as many times as humanly possible, but there has never been an entire monster theme that’s all about Tokens. Until now!

Mecha Phantom Beasts create Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens, hard-light holograms that serve as decoys and scouts. The more decoys you have, the harder it is for your opponent to destroy the real Mecha Phantom Beasts, and the more scouts you have, the better prepared you’ll be to engage in combat. Nearly every Mecha Phantom Beast monster has three things in common that represent this stratagem:

1. If you have any kind of Token on your side of the field, they become invulnerable to destruction.

2. Their Levels increase by the total Levels of all Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens you control.

3. They have 2 effects you can use: one that uses Tokens and one that creates Tokens

By virtue of point number 2 above, Mecha Phantom Beast Decks can have the most wide and varied Extra Deck of any strategy out there. With just the Mecha Phantom Beasts and their Tokens, you can Summon monsters of Ranks 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10, including the WIND-only monsters, Totem Bird and Lightning Chidori, and Machine-only Gear Gigant X! But that’s something Scott will get into a little later on. Today, I’m focusing on points 1 and 3.

How Do I Token?

Without Tokens, your fleet won’t even make it into enemy airspace. A good basic strategy is to aim to have 2 Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens to work with on any given turn. That gives you one to absorb an attack, and one to fuel a card effect on your opponent’s turn, or two Tokens to fuel effects on your turn. Getting 1 Token is easy, Mecha Phantom Beast Tetherwolf Summons a Token when it’s Normal Summoned, and the Trap Card Aerial Recharge can Summon a Token once per turn during either player’s turn. It’s getting the second Token that’s tricky.

That’s where Mecha Phantom Beast Megaraptor comes in. If you Summon a Token to your side of the field while you control Megaraptor, it Summons another to go with it. An easy way to set things up is to Summon Megaraptor and Set Aerial Recharge. Then, during your opponent’s turn, you can flip Aerial Recharge and use it to make a Token, which Megaraptor will match. With 2 Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens and 1900 ATK indestructible Level 10 Megaraptor, your imposing defense will likely either put your opponent on the defensive as well, or force them to play a lot of cards to try to clear your field. Traps like Torrential Tribute or Needle Ceiling are useful in this situation, because they can take out all the monsters your opponent played, but leave your Mecha Phantom Beast intact for your own turn.

Another way you can manifest 2 Tokens while disguising what you’re playing is by Setting Mecha Phantom Beast Hamstrat. When your opponent attacks it, it’ll flip and Special Summon 2 Tokens after the battle result has been decided. While Hamstrat likely won’t survive to see its indestructibility effect kick in, the end result of the exchange is that your opponent’s monsters on the field outnumber your non-Token monsters on the field. And that means it’s time to…

With Scramble!! Scramble!!, when your enemy thinks you’re on the ropes and you’re hiding behind holograms, you can launch a surprise attack by trading in your Tokens for real Mecha Phantom Beast monsters straight from your Deck. And the exchange rate is one-for-one. Trade your 2 Tokens for Mecha Phantom Beast Megaraptor and Mecha Phantom Beast Blackfalcon, and the fun begins! Attack with Blackfalcon, and it produces a Token which makes Megaraptor produce a Token, and renders your monsters invincible. You can use Blackfalcon to Tribute a Token to maybe win the battle by switching the enemy’s battle position, but the real prize is that you have 2 monsters that can be Level 4, 7, or 10 depending on your needs, and can immediately impact the Duel.

In that scenario, instead of trying to win a fair fight, you may want to Tribute a Token to Mecha Phantom Beast Megaraptor so you can search for another Mecha Phantom Beast to play next turn. Doing so makes your monsters Level 7, so you can then Xyz Summon Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack to eat your opponent’s monster and keep the Tokens coming. It’s important to always keep the Tokens coming, because as long as you have one, you can…

Negate any Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect. Always a handy effect to have, but remember, you have to Tribute ALL of your Tokens to it, so be careful!

The end result of all your Token shenanigans is that you and your opponent will eventually run out of cards to play, and when that happens, you should be the only one with a monster left on the field because of all your protection effects. And as the only Duelist left with a monster, victory becomes academic!

But of course, that’s just one way to play with Mecha Phantom Beasts. There are many others, including Synchro focused strategies that will develop as the year continues. Take flight with Mecha Phantom Beasts, starting at the Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy Sneak Peeks, May 11^th and 12^th!