On Monday, we introduced Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss and the basic ideas and inspirations behind the new Burning Abyss cards. Today we’ll look at the remaining 3 Burning Abyss cards in Duelist Alliance, 2 Malebranche and a Trap Card, along with some ideas on how to make good use of them!

While Scarm may be friendly with other Fiend-Type monsters, Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss and Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss are not. Instead, their effects are instantaneous, activating at the next possible opportunity after being sent to the Graveyard. Cir Summons a “Burning Abyss” monster back from your Graveyard, and Graff Summons one from your Deck. Both will only get better as time goes on. Cir, in particular, is of great use in this strategy because it can Summon back “Burning Abyss” monsters that came from your Extra Deck as well. Retrieving Dante is particularly effective because he gives you a perpetual 2500 DEF wall. Basically, you retrieve Cir with Dante’s effect, then send Cir to the Graveyard to revive Dante, who can retrieve Cir again when he’s sent to the Graveyard.

But doing that won’t actually win you any Duels, unless you can keep it up long enough to run your opponent’s Deck out of cards. In order to actually win, you’ll need some monsters with muscle, monsters with abilities so nasty that even the Malebranche wince a little when they resolve. Fortunately, Dante has met many such monsters in his travels, and they reside with him in your Extra Deck!

Quite the entourage, wouldn’t you say? And you can Summon all of these monsters using your Level 3 Malebranche monsters, with a little help from a pair of powerful Spell Cards!

Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force pops up from time to time to let Decks that would generally have no business Summoning monsters like Crimson Knight Vampire Bram bring them out without having to subscribe to the strategy associated with them. The catch is that the monster you Summon with Astral Force has to be the same Type and Attribute as the highest Rank Xyz Monster you currently control, and it has to be exactly 2 Ranks higher. Duelists have long since worked out all of the possibilities with the card, but Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss creates new possibility – one that fills a notable gap in the pantheon of Astral Force Candidates.

He’s a Rank 3 LIGHT Warrior, and that means you can rank him up to Summon Constellar Pleiades. Constellar Pleiades has a long track record of winning Duels with its brutal Quick Effect and high ATK, and the mere fact of Dante’s existence is sure to extend that record even further. Using Pleiades’ effect twice will probably let you win… but using it 3 times? And being able to pull back a “Burning Abyss” card in the process? Well that’s downright wicked, making this the perfect Deck for such a strategy!

As for the Rank 6 monsters, you’re playing a Deck that specializes in putting low-ATK monsters on the field with matching Types. Tour Guide from the Underworld can do the job herself, even if you draw no other monsters! Tannhauser Gate is an oft-forgotten Spell Card from Abyss Rising that takes the Levels of 2 monsters of the same Type with 1000 or less ATK, adds them up, and then changes the Levels of the 2 monsters to match the result. So Tour Guide can fetch out Graff or Scarm, then Tannhauser Gate will boost them both up to Level 6, for a Rank 6 Xyz Summon. And if you have Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force as well, you can Xyz Summon Photon Strike Bounzer and then rank it up to Summon a Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand with 3 Xyz Materials!

As always, Decks with a heavy Extra Deck component do carry a certain amount of inherent risk. Some successful strategies deal with it by getting bonus cards out of each monster they play, and to an extent Burning Abyss Decks do that with the Malebranche effects. But because you can only use one of each Malebranche’s effects per turn, an excess of greed when making your plays leaves you open to being wiped out by powerful Trap Cards. Fortunately, you have a powerful Trap Card of your own to fall back on just in case!

Did your board get totally wiped out? Then throw open the gates of the Burning Abyss and release your monsters back into the world! The Traveler and the Burning Abyss actually doesn’t care how your “Burning Abyss” monsters got to the Graveyard, or from where. As long as they went there this turn, The Traveler and the Burning Abyss can Special Summon any number of them back from the Graveyard. Send them yourself if you want to, because you can bring them all back in a flash! This card is especially effective at the end of your opponent’s turn, after they’ve cleared your field of monsters and you’ve claimed the effects of your Malebranche. It’s also effective if you just need to put Dante’s 2500 DEF in the way of something unpleasant, and it’s only going to get better as more “Burning Abyss” monsters are released, especially as more Extra Deck “Burning Abyss” monsters are released.

Duelist Alliance Sneak Peeks are on August 9^th and/or 10^th, and the official release date of Duelist Alliance is August 15^th!