The Legendary Collection 5D’s Mega-Packs are your chance to catch up on a ton of classic 5D’s cards you might’ve missed. But while most of the cards were available in booster packs during the original run of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, some are actually making their in-pack debut. Vulcan the Divine has been a tough-to-find promo card since it released last year, but if you missed out on it, the latest Legendary Collection is your chance to add this powerful Synchro to your collection!

When you Synchro Summon Vulcan the Divine you target a face-up card you control and a face-up card your opponent controls, then bounce them to their owners’ hands. You can’t activate cards with the same name – or the effects of those cards – for the rest of the turn.

Vulcan’s awesome because there are so many ways to play its effect. As a Level 6 Synchro it’s really easy to Summon, and while its ability might look even, the right game plan can make it really one-sided. If you can bounce cards your opponent wants to keep on the field, while playing Vulcan’s effect to reuse your own, you’ll knock your opponent for a loop while advancing your position in the Duel.

On a basic level you can use Vulcan’s ability to get a monster off the field by sending it back to your opponent’s hand; make attacking easier by briefly bouncing a defensive card; and to make that happen you can bump your own backrow card, then re-Set it with no trouble. But by choosing the right cards you can create way bigger plays.

When a Fusion, Xyz, or Synchro Monster tries to go anywhere that it’s not allowed to exist, namely the Deck and hand, they’re bounced to the Extra Deck instead. Unlike regular monsters your opponent can’t just Normal Summon them back next turn; they lose the Fusion Spells and all the Materials they spent on those Summons. The biggest decks in tournaments today rely on those kinds of monsters, and Vulcan can even bump away monsters that would normally compensate for their own destruction… or avoid it entirely.

El Shaddoll Construct has an effect that makes it nearly impossible to battle, and when it’s sent to the Graveyard it gets back a free “Shaddoll” Spell or Trap Card for your opponent.   Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss is similar, retrieving a “Burning Abyss” monster from your opponent’s Graveyard. And monsters like Stardust Spark Dragon, Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, and Wind-Up Zenmaines all have abilities that keep you from destroying them with effects. But if you’re not destroying them? Then no problem! You can dodge all their protection abilities and keep your opponent from activating effects that trigger when monsters like these hit the Graveyard. That’s huge.

Bouncing your opponent’s backrow cards can be really helpful too! Traps like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Royal Decree, and Soul Drain can keep you from playing large groups of cards, because they keep you from using certain types of effects. But with Vulcan the Divine you can bump them off the table just long enough to make the moves you need.

On the flipside Vulcan the Divine can make some awesome combos to let you reuse some of your best cards…

When Call of the Haunted resolves to Special Summon a monster and use that monster as Xyz Material, or Tribute it for a Tribute Summon, your Call stays on the field. Fiendish Chain is similar: once you tie down your opponent’s monster and stop its effect, the Chain remains face-up until the monster’s destroyed. Both Call and Chain grant you a powerful effect at resolution, but often sit on the field doing nothing afterwards.

That means they’re great combo fodder for Vulcan the Divine! While you’re busy messing up your opponent’s plans, bump a card like Call or Fiendish Chain back to your hand so you can use it again! You can’t activate the card you bounced immediately, but since they’re Trap Cards that’s not a problem – you’d have to Set them for a turn anyways.

Vulcan the Divine’s especially good with Fire Formation cards, especially Fire Formation – Tenki! When you resolve Tenki’s activation you get to search a Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior from your Deck to your hand . Then Tenki sites on the field giving a +100 ATK boost. But if you use Vulcan to bounce Tenki, you can activate it against next turn for another free search! Fire Fists love that play because thanks to the Level 3 Tuner Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit and the non-Tuner Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster, it’s really easy for a Fire Fist Duelist to Synchro Summon Vulcan.

There are hundreds of different ways to play Vulcan the Divine’s effect, and that makes it an awesome problem-solver for all sorts of different situations! With powerful Tuners like Shaddoll Falco, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind and Felis, Lightsworn Archer in the mix Synchro Summons are making a comeback, so make sure to grab your Vulcans when Legendary Collection 5D’s arrives October 24^th.