Plant fans rejoice, there’s a new group of Plant monsters on the block! Clash of Rebellions introduces the Aromages, the first Deck theme to provide tangible benefits for increasing your own LP and maintaining a lead over the opponent!

Each Aromage has 2 effects: 1 Continuous Effect that applies while you have more LP than your opponent, and 1 Trigger Effect that activates when you gain LP. So your basic gameplan is to Summon an Aromage, gain some LP to trigger its effect, then, if you have a lead, exploit its Continuous Effect for as long as you can keep it on the field.

Aromage Jasmine, for example, gives you an extra Normal Summon to use on a Plant-type monster while your LP is higher than your opponent’s, and once during each turn, if you gain LP while you control Jasmine, you can draw a card! Jasmine is a huge part of the strategy because controlling lots of Aromages lets you put a chokehold on the field, and the best way to make sure you can establish that big field is to draw lots of cards. To really put the freeze on your opponent’s strategy, you’ll also want to control Aromage Cananga and Aromage Rosemary.

Aromage Cananga will lower every enemy monster’s ATK and DEF by 500 while you lead in LP, and can return a Spell/Trap Card to your opponent’s hand when you gain LP. This lets you clear the way for attacks on your own turn. While you lead in LP, Aromage Rosemary prevents enemy monster effects from activating when your Plants attack, stopping the effects of monsters like Ice Hand, Yang Zings, Nekroz of Valkyrus, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Burning Abyss monsters. Gaining LP while you control Rosemary lets you switch the battle position of a monster on the field. This is great for shifting Jasmine to her stronger Defense Position, or stopping opposing monsters from attacking.

Finally, you’ll need a bit of muscle to help you actually win the Duel. Aromage Bergamot grants your Plants piercing battle damage while you lead in LP, and gains 1000 ATK and DEF until the end of your opponent’s turn when you gain LP, reaching a massive 3400 ATK! If you can gain LP during your turn AND your opponent’s turn, Bergamot will temporarily go up to 4400 making him virtually unassailable.

Of course, to use any of these effects, you’ll need to gain some LP! If you’re looking for constant, on-demand LP gain, Aroma Garden is the card you’re looking for. You can activate its effect to gain 500 LP if you control an “Aroma” monster, and it’ll boost the ATK and DEF of ALL of your monsters by 500 until your opponent’s End Phase. In addition, the Garden bestows 1000 LP to you each time an “Aroma” monster is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, which means that you can trigger all your other Aromage effects if one of them is destroyed! There’s also Aroma Jar, a Flip monster that that can’t be destroyed in battle after it’s flipped face-up and will give you 500 LP during each player’s End Phase. You can even use Juragedo from Duelist Pack: Battle City to gain a quick 1000 LP during the Battle Phase, set off all your Aromage effects, and power up your Plants!

Once you start gaining LP, you can use the effects of the 2 Aroma-themed Trap Cards! Humid Winds allows you to grab an “Aroma” monster from your Deck to your hand at the cost of 1000 LP, and it allows you to gain 500 LP if you have less LP than your opponent. This allows you to shift gears quickly, dropping your LP below your opponent’s, searching for a card, then gaining half of the spent LP back and triggering your Aromage effects! Dried Winds will destroy an enemy monster when you gain LP, and if your LP is 3000 or higher than your opponent’s, you can equalise your LP and destroy monsters your opponent controls whose total ATK is equal or less than the LP you paid. The first effect is particularly nasty when you spring it in the Battle Phase with Juragedo!

Since the Aromages are all Plant-Type monsters, you have access to all of the great Plant cards that already exist as well! Lonefire Blossom is fantastic to search out Aromage Jasmine to start your strategy, Chirubimé, Princess of Autumn Leaves to protect your Plants, or even Glow-Up Bulb or Spore to Synchro Summon! You can add in cards like Super Solar Nutrient for more searching power, Miracle Fertilizer to constantly revive Aromages, or even Mark of the Rose to steal opponent’s monsters, and you can easily assemble a winning combination of cards on the field, all while gaining too much LP for your opponent to handle!

You can even use your opponent’s cards that increase your LP to further strategy. Imagine drawing a card of your own thanks to Aromage Jasmine when your opponent uses Upstart Goblin then crippling your opponent’s monsters with Aromage Cananga and Aromage Rosemary.

The Aromages may be a new strategy, but their focus on LP gain sets them apart from almost every other strategy out there. If you like playing with massive LP and using it to your advantage, keep a close eye out for the Aroma monsters this weekend at the Clash of Rebellions sneak peek!