Duelist Alliance debuted this past Friday, and with it came the first full wave of Pendulum Monsters! A while back we took a look at Flash Knight, and Focault’s Cannon, Pendulum Normal Monsters that combine to form a reasonably low-investment Pendulum Summoning package that you can assemble every other Duel on average. Today we’ll talk about the other Pendulum Summoning suite made possible by Duelist Alliance and Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon + Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician!

Flash Knight and Focault’s Cannon can be easily searched from your Deck with various Spell Cards, but their Pendulum Scales are 7 and 2. That means you’re only going to be able to Pendulum Summon monsters that are Levels 3 through 6 with them – just outside the range of some of the really nasty stuff that your opponent doesn’t want to see.

Level 7 has been a hotspot for many of the most powerful monsters released in the past couple of years. I think most Duelists would agree that the era of amazing Level 7 monsters was spearheaded by High Priestess of Prophecy in Return of the Duelist and really began to come into its own with Mermail Abyssmegalo in Abyss Rising and Mermail Abyssteus and Mermail Abyssleed in Cosmo Blazer. And after that came the Dragon Rulers, which need no introduction.

Joining the ranks of these great Level 7 monsters is Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, a Pendulum Monster that does everything you could reasonably ask for. It acts as a low-scale for high-end Pendulum Summons, it searches out other Pendulum Monsters, it puts itself in the Extra Deck to be Summoned back later, it’s got considerable ATK, and it does double the damage when attacking an enemy monster. Just about the only thing it doesn’t do, is work with the Pendulum Normal Monsters we talked about a few weeks ago.

Timegazer Magician has a Pendulum Scale of 8, the highest currently available, but it can only make use of that number when accompanied by an “Odd-Eyes” or “Magician” card in the other Pendulum Zone.

With Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in your other Pendulum Zone, you can Pendulum Summon Level 5, 6 and 7 monsters, so in a situation where you’ve drawn double Odd-Eyes but no other Pendulum Monsters, the first Odd-Eyes can fetch Timegazer Magician, and you can start Pendulum Summoning right away on the next turn. As a Spell Card, Timegazer Magician also protects Pendulum Monsters from interference by Trap Cards while they’re attacking, so that first Odd-Eyes you Pendulum Summon back from the Extra Deck isn’t going to be banished by Dimensional Prison any time soon. Timegazer Magician even has a useful monster effect, protecting a card in your Pendulum Zones from destruction once per turn.

Timegazer’s counterpart, Stargazer Magician, works very much the same way. With an “Odd-Eyes” or “Magician” card in the other Pendulum Zone, its Pendulum Scale is 1, the lowest currently available. You generally don’t want this guy alone with Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon because you’ll be limited to Pendulum Summoning only Level 2 or 3 monsters. The opposite set-up, with Pendulum Scales of 4 and 8, is far more useful because it includes the ability to bring out an Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. With that said, there will be Decks where the low-end Pendulum Summon can be useful. Think about monsters like Swap Frog, the Malebranche, 2/3rds of the Ghostricks, etc.

With Timegazer Magician and Stargazer Magician together, you get all Levels from 2 to 7, including the all-important Level 4, as well as the ability to lock down both Spell and Trap Cards when your Pendulum Monsters attack.

The amount of Deck space you need to dedicate to the Odd-Eyes/Magician Pendulum Monster suite varies by what your Deck’s needs are and what the other cards in it are. If you run a Deck with a lot of searching and drawing effects, you can get away with as few as 5 Pendulum Monsters – 3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and 1 each of Timegazer Magician and Stargazer Magician. At most, you’ll probably run 8: 3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, 3 Timgazer Magician and 2 Stargazer Magician. Other feasible lineups include:

3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, 2 Timegazer Magician, 2 Stargazer Magician
3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, 3 Timegazer Magician, 1 Stargazer Magician
3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, 3 Timegazer Magician
3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, 2 Timegazer Magician, 1 Stargazer Magician

Going any lower than 5 total Pendulum Monsters will render it basically impossible to assemble a workable combination, and any higher than 8 makes it difficult to create an actual strategy for your Pendulum Summons to enable and enhance. The actual odds of assembling your combination vary wildly depending on the number of Pendulum Monsters you play, and how many cards you’re taking out of the Deck with other searching/drawing effects. From our testing, the most stable line-up has been 7 Pendulum Monsters. Both the even split of Timegazer Magician and Stargazer Magician along with the 3/1 Timegazer to Stargazer ratio have been successful. You should experiment to see what works best for the Deck you have in mind!

And if you don’t have a Deck in mind just yet, stay tuned! We’ve talked plenty about how to assemble a combination of cards to allow for Pendulum Summoning, but next we’ll talk about what do with your new-found Pendulum Summoning abilities!