The Sylvan Decks that emerged from Legacy of the Valiant largely focused on two high-Level cards: Sylvan Hermitree and Tytannial, Princess of Camellias.  Special Summoning those monsters with cards like Lonefire Blossom and Miracle Fertilizer let you unlock their powerful control effects, and each was a strong attacker.  You could even overlay them for Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand or Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector – plenty of Duelists ran Copy Plant just to mimic one of their Level 8’s for an Xyz Summon.

When Primal Origin hits we’ll get a new suite of Sylvans with a new high-powered Xyz Monster.  Instead of a Rank 8 like Alsei, Orea, the Sylvan High Arbiter is a Rank 7 with a vicious field-sweeping ability!

Once a turn, Orea lets you send a Plant-Type monster to the Graveyard from your hand, or from the field if the Plant was face-up.  When the effect resolves you look at cards from the top of your Deck equal to the Level of whatever monster you sent, then put those cards back on top of your Deck in any order.

There are a lot of different ways to play that effect.  Some Plants have special abilities in the Graveyard.  Others have effects on the field, so sending them to the Graveyard once you’ve used them is no loss.  Those monsters tend to be low Level, but they can easily set up one or even two Sylvan abilities for excavation later on.  At the same time, you can stack as many as eight cards by giving up a really big monster.  You might not want to give up a high-level heavy-hitter from the field when it could be dealing damage instead, but if you have a big Plant stuck in your hand that you can’t Summon, Orea helps you make the most of it.

Three cards you probably already play in your Sylvan Deck that fit these categories are Dandylion, Sylvan Flowerknight, and Sylvan Hermitree.

When Dandylion’s sent to the Graveyard you Special Summon two Fluff Tokens for free: pitch it for Orea’s ability and you can stack three cards, while getting two free Token Monsters!  You’ll often Normal Summon Sylvan Flowerknight for its excavation ability, but once its job is done you can send it to the Graveyard for Orea’s effect to stack four cards.

Meanwhile, Sylvan Hermitree’s a Level 8, and while Sylvan Sagequoia’s Special Summon effect makes it easy to Special Summon from your hand, Hermitree can be a dead draw.  Send it straight from your hand to the Graveyard and you can rearrange your next eight cards with Orea, while setting up Hermitree plays with Sylvan Peaskeeper, Soul Charge, and Miracle Fertilizer.

That’s not all! Orea, the Sylvan High Arbiter offers a second effect that you can also use once per turn.  It’s a souped-up version of the familiar Sylvan excavation trick: just detach an Xyz Material from Orea to excavate up to three cards from the top of your Deck, sending any Plant-Types there to your Graveyard (and returning the rest of the cards to the bottom of your Deck).  That helps you trigger up to three Sylvan abilities when those cards land in the Graveyard.

There’s more!  If you send any Plant-Type monsters to the Graveyard with Orea’s effect, you can return up to that many cards from the field to their owners’ hands.  That means you can bounce away backrow cards to make safe plays; get rid of monsters to make attacks; or even bump Xyz and Synchros back to the Extra Deck to get rid of them entirely!  That’s huge.

So how do you Summon it?

Sylvan Princessprout is an all-new World Premiere card never printed anywhere before.  It’s a Level 1 Plant with two once-per-turn effects:

-You can Tribute Princessprout to excavate the top card of your Deck, send it to your Graveyard, and then put one “sprout” monster from your yard on top of your Deck.  Even Princessprout, right after you Tribute it!

-That’s important, because the second effect kicks in when Princessprout’s excavated from the Deck and sent to the Graveyard.  When that happens you can revive it at any Level from 1 to 8!

With Sylvan Princessprout around, there’s not much reason to play Copy Plant unless you need a Tuner.  As long as you can load and excavate Princessprout it can match the Level of Sylvan Sagequoia or Sylvan Hermitree to make your Rank 7’s and Rank 8’s.  Its excavating ability, its Special Summon effect, and its synergy with cards like Sylvan Charity make it the handsdown replacement.  And since it’s a Level 1, you can even Special Summon it from your Deck with the new Sylvan Cherubsprout to get everything going. Here’s one potential play sequence:

-Excavate Cherubsprout.

-Activate Cherubsprout’s effect in the Graveyard and Sagequoia’s effect in your hand.

-When the Chain resolves, Summon Sagequoia and then Princessprout.

-Tribute Princessprout to excavate, then place Princessprout on top of your Deck.

-Activate Sagequoia’s effect to excavate Princessprout, which activates her effect to Special Summon. Choose Level 7.

Orea, the Sylvan High Arbiter is a serious step up from the previous Sylvan boss monsters, and with Sylvan Sagequoia and Sylvan Princessprout to help you Summon it the strategy’s much more consistent!  Get ready, because you’ll get your first shot at the new Sylvan cards next weekend, at the Primal Origin Sneak Peek.