Since we just finished talking about the Warrior-Type Satellarknights and their ace monster Stellarknight Delteros, I thought I’d talk a little about two new Duelist Alliance cards for all Warrior Decks. Battleguard Rage and Battleguard Howling pay tribute to two of the earliest Warrior-Type monsters that were featured in the classic Yu-Gi-Oh! animated series: Swamp Battleguard and Lava Battleguard!

Battleguard Rage depicts Lava Battleguard, the monster Tristan lent Joey to go along with his Swamp Battleguard. He used it during his Duel against Rex Raptor, managing to get it on the field together with Swamp Battleguard, depicted in Battleguard Howling. Between the Field Power Bonus the Battleguards received from the Duelist Kingdom rules and their own effects that pumped them up for being together on the field, Swamp Battleguard was able to take down Rex’s Serpent Night Dragon. The Battleguards eventually fell at the hands of Red-Eyes B. Dragon, but Joey was still able to win and claim Red-Eyes for his own.

Both Battleguard Rage and Battleguard Howling would have been really handy Trap Cards for Joey to have when Rex’s souped-up Red-Eyes came to munch on the Battleguards! Battleguard Rage is a Continuous Trap that pumps up a Warrior-Type monster’s ATK by 1000 and knocks any monster that Warrior defeats in battle back to its owner’s hand instead of the Graveyard. The extra ATK is obviously useful, but that second ability is handier than it may initially seem – especially if you’re up against a Deck that needs it’s monsters to go to the Graveyard! Add in a source of piercing damage, and your Warrior can just keep dealing damage no matter how many times your opponent plays the same monster.

While Battleguard Rage is pretty neat, Battleguard Howling is the card I think players looking to build a new Warrior Deck will be more interested in, especially if they’re looking to play with ‘tellarknights. Satellarknights aren’t the biggest monsters on the block, and they spend a lot of time going back and forth from the Graveyard. But they’re great at combining into amazing Rank 4 monsters and chipping away at their opponent’s Life Points without even needing to go into the Battle Phase.

The problem is: there are times when Rank 4 monsters just aren’t an option. It’s a reality of Dueling that things can just go horribly wrong sometimes, and it’s important to have cards in your Deck to help you out when that happens. But it’s also important for those cards to also be useful when things are going well, and Battleguard Howling fits that bill. You activate it when one of your Warriors is targeted by an attack or an enemy monster effect and target 1 of your opponent’s face-up monsters. Your opponent takes damage equal to their monster’s original ATK and their monster gets bounced back to the hand.

Basically it’s a combination Magic Cylinder/Compulsory Evacuation Device, taking the massive damage from the former and combining it with the field clearing capability of the latter. And it absolutely crushes Extra Deck monsters, especially ones with built in immunity to destruction like Wind-Up Zenmaines, or the ability to negate destruction cards like Stardust Dragon, or things that combine both like Stardust Spark Dragon. It also denies the opponent any effects they would get when a monster like Scrap Dragon or Fire King High Avatar Garunix would be destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. On top of that, it has an interesting interaction with the very popular Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, because if Number 101 isn’t on the field at all when its effect would go to resolve, the monster it was planning to snatch remains on the field. Food for thought for Noble Knight fans the next time their Noble Arms – Excaliburn gets blasted by Mystical Space Typhoon or Six Samurai players when their Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En is in danger of absorption.

Battleguard Rage and Battleguard Howling are reminders of a neat little storyline about Joey and Tristan’s friendship, and I would not be shocked to see Howling make an appearance in ‘tellarknight, Noble Knight, or even Six Samurai Decks down the line. Duelist Alliance Sneak Peeks are on August 9^th and or 10^th, and Duelist Alliance launches August 15^th!