The new Noble Knights of the Round Table Box Set will unite Artorigus’ forces and bring new allies to the fray! Now’s a great time to revisit the most powerful members of the Noble Knighthood, and get familiar with their legendary arsenal

Noble Arms – Excaliburn is the great sword of Arthurian legend – the weapon that made Artorigus a king. In your Duels Artorigus wears a crown by default, but Excaliburn helps him ascend between his forms to tackle different situations. It also helps keep him on the field, protecting your Noble Knight of choice from a wealth of threats.

While most of the Noble Arms need to be carried into battle by a Warrior-Type monster, any Noble Knight can wield Excaliburn (even if a vile curse has briefly transformed them into a Beast-Warrior or say, a Dinosaur). As long as your chosen champion is carrying the legendary blade, your opponent can’t target him with card effects. While Noble Arms of Destiny protects from destruction, and the sheer force of Noble Arms – Caliburn can ward off threats in battle, Excaliburn deals with all the tricky problem-cards in between.

Compulsory Evacuation Device, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and Dimensional Prison could eliminate your monster by bouncing it off the field; spinning it back to your deck; or banishing it from the Duel entirely. They can all work around the protection of Noble Arms of Destiny, but they all have to target your monster to work – that means as long as your Noble Knight’s protected by Excaliburn those cards are moot.

Book of Moon was once the bane of the Noble Knight armory, turning a Noble Knight face-down just long enough for it to drop all of its Noble Arms! You can protect your Noble Knight and ensure that it stays face-up, since Book of Moon can’t target the hero bearing Noble Arms – Excaliburn’s protection.

Finally, an army of foes threaten to cast your champion back to your hand, your deck, or remove it from the field: Noble Arms – Excaliburn stops the effects of popular monsters like Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer; Number 101: Silent Honor ARK; and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning from ever threatening your position.

And remember! By relinquishing the power of Excaliburn and banishing it from your Graveyard, you can trade Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights and his power to demolish backrows to change him into Sacred Noble Knight of King Artorigus, slaying the greatest monsters on the field! Or, switch out Sacred Artorigus for the King of the Noble Knights version to do the reverse, smiting a monster and then casting ruin upon your opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards.

But Artorigus’ arsenal includes one secret weapon perhaps more powerful than anything forged of metal! Gwenhwyfar, Queen of Noble Arms is the ultimate supporter for the Noble Knights; she makes it easy to play some of the theme’s greatest abilities. Gwenhwyfar’s a monster card, but once per turn you can equip her from your hand or Graveyard to any of your Noble Knights to lend that Knight the powers of the White Enchantress. No matter who she’s paired with, the Knight gets a +300 ATK bonus. But depending on the LIGHT or DARK nature of her companion, Gwenhwyfar has a different secondary ability.

Pair Gwenhwyfar with a LIGHT Noble Knight like Artorigus or Gawayn, and you can protect them when they would be destroyed by destroying Gwenhwyfar instead. No worries! You can bring her back from the Graveyard next turn for free and do it again.

If Gwenhwyfar takes up with a Noble Knight like Drystan, Borz, or Medraut, you can activate their effects to destroy a card, search a Noble Arms, or Special Summon another Knight respectively. But equipping these Knights brings out their DARK side, and that influences Gwenhwyfar’s ability: attached to a DARK Knight she’ll destroy any monster that Knight battles right at the start of the Damage Step. Then she’ll destroy herself. That’s awesome because Gwenhwyfar’s assassin routine plays around lots of deadly abilities.

Since ATK boosts like Bujingi Crane and Honest have effects that activate during Damage Calculation, Gwenhwyfar, Queen of Noble Arms will destroy your opponent’s monster before they can never use those battle-bending tricks. She’ll destroy face-down monsters before they flip, too, so monsters like Geargiarmor and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter won’t get their effects. That can be useful against Shaddolls too, robbing them of their Flip Effects and leaving their Graveyard abilities instead.

Normally when you destroy Fire Hand, its ability triggers when it hits the Graveyard, destroying one of your monsters and then Special Summoning Ice Hand. But the Hand effects are worded as optional “When… You can…” abilities, which means the destruction of Fire Hand needs to be the last thing to happen if your opponent’s going to destroy a card. Since Gwenhwyfar, Queen of Noble Arms destroys Fire Hand, but then destroys herself, your opponent never gets the chance to use Fire Hand’s ability. It won’t destroy anything, nor will it Special Summon a replacement.