Akiza’s one of the most popular Yu-Gi-Oh! characters of all time, and Return of the Bling brings two of her favorite cards off the pages of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s manga and into real life! Rose Lover and Rose Paladin are up for grabs as Gold Secret Rares in the latest installment of Premium Gold.

Rose Lover’s a Level 1 EARTH Plant, and you can banish it from your Graveyard to Special Summon any Plant-Type monster from your hand. If you do, whatever Plant you Summon is immune to your opponent’s Trap effects for the rest of the turn.

How do you get your best Plants to your hand in the first place? You can send Rose Paladin from your hand to the Graveyard to add a Level 7 or higher Plant-Type from your Deck to your hand. Pitch Paladin, get the Plant of your choice, and then banish Rose Lover to Special Summon your pick.

Rose Paladin’s a strong Level 4 attacker with 1800 ATK, too. If it destroys your opponent’s monster in battle you can Tribute Rose Paladin to Special Summon any Plant from your hand or Deck in Defense Position. It’s great for attacking over stuff like Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands or a negated Tour Guide from the Underworld and then swapping out for a heavy hitter.

Together, these two powerful monsters open up a world of hurt. But first, you have to sew the seeds and plant Rose Lover in the ground…

There are lots of ways to get Rose Lover to your Graveyard, and these three cards show you a few different methods. Foolish Burial can send Rose Lover straight to your Graveyard from your Deck, or you can Special Summon it with One for One. Excavating Sylvan Cherubsprout will do the trick too, triggering its effect to Summon a Level 1 Plant from your Deck. Once it’s on the field, Tributing it for a Tribute Summon or Lonefire effect or, even better, sending it to stack a Sylvan on top of your Deck with Mount Sylvania will get it to the Graveyard.

In fact, Rose Lover and Rose Paladin are awesome in Sylvans, period. The Sylvan strategy’s all about excavating Plant-Type monsters from your Deck and sending them to the Graveyard, often digging through two or more cards at a time to get to what you need. Sylvan Komushroomo’s flip effect can excavate as many as five cards in one shot, so it’s really easy to luck into Rose Lover.

Once Rose Lover’s rooted and ready to go, there are lots of great Plant cards to Special Summon…

In a conventional Plant Deck, Plant Princess cards like Tytannial, Princess of Camellias and Chirubime, Princess of Autumn Leaves offer big ATK and DEF, with powerful effects that help you control the field and guide the Duel. Sylvans can unleash Sylvan Hermitree with 2700 ATK and an effect that can net you free draws. There’s big combo potential with the new “Rose” cards and Sylvan Sagequoia, too – we’ll talk about that in a later article.

The search and Summon abilities of Rose Lover and Rose Paladin make Plant strategies faster and more consistent, and older Plant cards that weren’t viable before suddenly get a new leaf on life! Akiza fans rejoice, as the Black Rose Witch returns to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG when Premium Gold: Return of the Bling launches on March 20^th.