Battle Pack 3: Monster League is coming out in a couple weeks! Just like I did with previous Battle Packs, I’m going to walk you through our design thinking and point out some of the cool stuff you’ll be able to do in BP3 booster draft play.

As always, Battle Packs are designed for sealed pack or booster draft play. BP3 is designed more with booster draft in mind than the previous sets. It’s still a ton of fun if you just open packs and play (sealed pack style), but we think you’ll get a lot more out of it by drafting your decks. So be sure and give booster draft a shot!

We already talked about the special rule in place for Dueling with Monster League packs, which is: All monsters are all Types.

This simple rule lets you use a lot of cards in different ways. But before we get to that, let’s go over the basic design rules we used for this set:

1. A continued focus on battle. As with BP2, the spotlight is on monsters fighting each other.

2. No Tribute Monsters. Tribute Monsters were the focus of BP2, so we’re shifting to a new experience this time. The only exception is the new Level 6 Stegocyber card. Stegocyber can revive itself from the Graveyard, though, so you can use it for a discard cost and still get it on the field without Tributing. So it’s only a partial exception.

3. Less Special Summoning. A large chunk of cards in BP2 were designed to get Tribute fodder on the field so you could bring out your big monsters. Without the need for Tribute fodder, we could shift away from Special Summon spam for BP3. There’s still a lot of Special Summoning in the set, but it’s not a big emphasis like before. And a lot of it focuses on revival and comeback mechanics, rather than spamming stuff out just to Tribute it.

4. More monster removal. BP2 lacked this, because it’s pretty disheartening when you go to the trouble of Tribute Summoning, then your opponent kills your big monster with 1 card. Since Tribute Monsters aren’t a thing this time, we had more freedom to add more monster removal to the set. It’s mostly costed removal, though, so you’ll be paying a price for it. But the amount of removal is closer to War of the Giants: Round 2, rather than to the original Battle Pack 2.

5. Lots of battle outcome changers. This was a big focus in BP2 and remains a big focus now. In particular, we were able to add more Equip Cards, since the Type restrictions are removed when playing with BP3.

6. Xyz Monsters are back! But in very limited supply. Testing of Xyz Monsters gave some very interesting results. With Type requirements waived, a lot of regular monsters in this set are a lot more powerful than they normally are. Combined with the reduction in Special Summoning, Xyz Monsters seemed to pack a lot less punch than they did in BP1.
We’re interested to see where Xyz Monsters will end up in the draft order for players. In most of our testing, we tended to pass them around a lot before they were finally picked. But there were some testers who prioritized them more (with mixed results). The question of how important Xyz Monsters are in BP3 drafting is, for now it seems, an open question.
Because of this, and because we didn’t want Xyz Monsters to dominate play if they DO turn out to be a top-choice pick, Xyz are in short supply. They’re ONLY available in the Shatterfoil Card slot (the 5^th card in each pack), and are not seen very often even among the Shatterfoils. This also allows us to keep the 40 card Deck minimum, since the small number of Extra Deck cards floating around won’t prevent anyone from having a legal minimum Deck.

7. Still no searching. This is a necessary rule we will not break for sealed/draft play. The reason is that you (and your opponents) see a lot of cards that you’re not used to playing with. That’s part of the fun! But it makes searching a nightmare.
“I get to search, give me 10 minutes while I re-read every card in my deck,” is not something you want to hear during a Duel.
It’s perfectly normal to re-read your cards as you draw them. Limiting the re-reading to just what’s in the hand / field / Graveyard speeds up Duels a lot, so we’re gonna keep searching out of these sets.
This also gives an edge to the Duelist with the better tactical skills, since you need to win with the cards you have.

Over the coming weeks, we’re going to talk a lot about some of the weird and wonderful things you can do in BP3 with all Type restrictions waived. Here are some of our favorites.

Koa’ki Meiru

These stronger-than-average monsters have an End of Turn requirement to keep them on the field, which can be fulfilled in 1 of 2 ways in standard games. There is no Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru in this set, but all the Koa’ki Meiru can also be kept alive by revealing a monster of a specific Type in your hand at the end of your turn.

Well, since all monsters are every Type, this changes things a lot. Instead of needing a specific Type of monster in your hand, you only need *A* monster in your hand, since that monster will be every Type.

Koa’ki Meiru tend to be high-priority picks, because of their high ATK and supplemental effects. While we found it’s rare to Tribute a Koa’ki Meiru Sandman or Koa’ki Meiru Wall to negate something, the option to do so is just icing on the cake, considering their 1900 ATK. Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, on the other hand, is very effective at shutting down dangerous Effect Monsters like Aye-Iron.

More Equip Variety

Since all monsters are all Types, we could add a bunch of Equip Spells that haven’t seen a lot of play in recent years. We looked for Equips that were around the same level of power, but all had little differences between each other. This gives you more decisions to weigh during drafting, and more outcomes you can see during your Duels!

More Xyz Variety

Just like with Equips, waiving the Type restrictions let us add Xyz Monsters to the set that we normally could not, because the Type-matching required in draft would make them unfeasible. (Even if you did get 2-3 monsters of the required Type in your card pool, odds of drawing them would be low.)

The New Power Cards

Here are 10 Spell & Trap Cards in Battle Pack 3 that should not be underestimated! A lot of these are powered up because of the special Types rule. Some of them are good for other reasons…

Miracle Fertilizer
This lets you Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard each turn. If any of them leave the field, then Miracle Fertilizer is destroyed. Note that unlike Call of the Haunted and similar cards, destroying Miracle Fertilizer does NOT destroy the cards it Summoned! They stay on the field.

Pyramid of Wonders
Another Continuous Spell Card, this one pumps all of your monsters by +200 ATK for each monster your opponent controls. You can also destroy it to save 1 of your monsters from being destroyed (either by battle or card effect).

Noble Arms – Arfeudutyr
This is a tricky one! Arfeudutyr equips to any Warrior, so it can go on any monster in BP3. You can lower the equipped monster’s ATK by 500 each turn to destroy 1 Set card your opponent controls (monster, Spell, or Trap).

Why is this good? Because all of your opponent’s monsters will be Warriors, too. So you can equip Arfeudutyr to your opponent’s monster, then lower its ATK by 500 and blow up one of their Set cards.

There are no “Noble Knights” in the set, so Arfeudutyr’s second effect is not used in draft or sealed play.

Ayers Rock Sunrise
It’s Monster Reborn with benefits! Special Summon a monster from your Graveyard, and all your opponent’s monsters lose 200 ATK for the rest of this turn for each monster left in your Graveyard after that Summon.

Ready for Intercepting
This Trap Card flips a Warrior or Spellcaster into face-down Defense. Since everything is a Warrior and a Spellcaster, this functions like a Trap version of Book of Moon in draft/sealed play.

Burst Breath
Watch out! Possibly the most powerful card in the set, Burst Breath can wipe out the entire field. This is a great first-turn play, just Summon 1 high-ATK monster and Set this card. Not counting Xyz Monsters, 86% of the monsters in BP3 have a DEF of 1500 or less, while 70% of them have an ATK of 1500 or more. Odds are good that what you summoned will be able to wipe out most of your opponent’s monsters, with Burst Breath.

Tutan Mask
Tutan Mask stops any Spell or Trap that targets a Zombie. Since everything is a Zombie, you can use this to protect your own monsters against your opponent’s targeting effects, but you can also use it to negate things like Equip Cards that your opponent tries to play on his own monsters.

Alien Brain
This gives you control of any monster that attacked and destroyed one of your monsters by battle. Despite its name, this card has no functional relation to A-Counters or “Alien” monsters, although it’s normally restricted to Reptile-Type (which is every monster in BP3).

Forgotten Temple of the Deep
This Continuous Trap lets you hide a monster once per turn. Chain this to your opponent’s card effects that try to go after your monsters. Your monster will hide away for the turn, your opponent’s effect will likely be lost, and your monster will come back safe and sound during your End Phase. You can also use this to escape attacks, although doing so will cause a replay.

Typhoon
This is one of 10 new cards included in Battle Pack 3: Monster League. Typhoon has a number of uses, depending on whether you’re playing sealed, draft, or standard Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

Typhoon is a Normal Trap Card with this effect:
Target 1 face-up Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it. If your opponent controls 2 or more Spell/Trap Cards and you control no Spell/Trap Cards, you can activate this card from your hand.

As a zero-cost Spell/Trap removal card, Typhoon is excellent in sealed & draft play for eliminating your opponent’s Equip Cards and Continuous Spells/Traps (like Miracle Fertilizer and Pyramid of Wonders).

In constructed Duels, Typhoon can be an excellent card to add to your Deck, and is especially effective against the new Pendulum Monster Cards, at the start of a Duel. If you have Typhoon in your starting hand, and your opponent starts their turn by playing a Pendulum Spell Card, then another Pendulum Spell Card, they now have 2 Spells/Traps on the field, and you have zero. You can immediately use Typhoon from your hand (even though you haven’t gone yet) and destroy one of their Pendulum Spells before they get to Pendulum Summon.

That’s all for now, but there’s lots more to talk about in the days ahead, so stay tuned!