This week, we’re talking about Pendulum Summoning and different ideas for how to make use of it! Yesterday we talked about monsters with effects that activate when they’re Special Summoned. Pendulum Summoning is a big Special Summon, so these monsters are the perfect building blocks of a Pendulum Powered strategy! Today we’ll be going over powerful monsters that can out-muscle your opponent when you Pendulum Summon them.

Monsters That Are Too Big to Handle!

The poster children for this group of monsters are the Dragon Rulers. With Shaddolls seeing a lot of early attention from Duelists due to Shaddoll Fusion’s harsh penalty for blind use of the Extra Deck, Duelists that use traditionally Extra Deck oriented Decks are looking for ways to get more mileage out of their Main Deck monsters. Dragon Rulers can tear through their Deck at an alarming rate with cards like Dragon Shrine, Trade In, Sacred Sword of Seven Stars, and Cards of Consonance, and each Dragon Ruler returns to your hand at the end of your opponent’s turn.

Combine those two statements, and you get that it’s easy to assemble two cards in your Pendulum Zones because you draw so much of your Deck each Duel, and you’ll always have monsters to Pendulum Summon because the Dragon Rulers will keep bouncing back to your hand each turn. All the while you’ll be saving the monsters that are still in your Graveyard for revival via Soul Charge and banishment in case a Dragon Ruler is destroyed. No Extra Deck Summoning required, though you can always pull back an Odd-Eyes as an extra attacker/Level 7 monster. This only works if you can Pendulum Summon Level 7 monsters though, so Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and the ‘Gazers are the only choice here.

Dark Simorgh and Mist Valley Apex Avian are two Level 7 Winged Beasts with 2700 ATK and abilities that can singlehandedly put a Duel on ice. Dark Simorgh has additional built in effects to Summon itself from the hand or Graveyard, so you’ll have ways to play it even if your Pendulum plan doesn’t come together, and it prevents your opponent from defending themselves by Setting monsters, Spells, or Traps. Mist Valley Apex Avian is a little harder to use normally because it has no effect to let you Special Summon it, but as a trade-off it plays much better with Pendulum Summoning. Apex Avian lets you return “Mist Valley” cards to your hand to negate your opponent’s cards and effects, and Avian itself is a valid target for that effect. Every turn you can Pendulum Summon Avian from your hand, and it’ll bounce right back after you negate one of your opponent’s cards! Both are also solid cards to fetch out of your Deck with Ninjitsu Art of Transformation. You’ll have to use Odd-Eyes and the ‘Gazers with these monsters as well.

Some monsters have effects that only work when they’re Pendulum Summoned, or are upgraded if they’re Pendulum Summoned. Aether, the Empowering Dragon bounces a card on the field back to the hand when it’s Pendulum Summoned, letting you painlessly eliminate monsters that originated in the Extra Deck. Breaker the Dark Magical Warrior gets 3 Spell Counters instead of 2 when you Pendulum Summon it, making it a 2800 ATK Level 6 monster that can destroy Spells and Traps. Aether and Breaker are both Level 6, so you can use the Pendulum Normal Monsters to bring them out!

Finally, you can’t forget about classic monsters like Dark Ruler Ha Des and Jinzo! The original titans of Dueling can be Summoned en masse to lock down Trap Cards, negate the effects of destroyed monsters, and more! And they’ll do it all with 2400+ ATK! Both of these monsters are Level 6, so you can use the Pendulum Normal Monsters with them as well.

We’ve gone over a lot of ways to put Pendulum Summoning to use, but there are plenty more out there for you to discover on your own, and even more yet to come as the year goes on! Pendulum Summoning is powerful tool that any Duelist can add to their arsenal, so grab some Pendulum monsters from Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown and Duelist Alliance and give them a try!