The Gem-Knight monsters are an aggressive Fusion strategy that revolves around Gem-Knight Fusion. It’s a Spell Card that lets you fuse Gem-Knights over and over, because when it’s in your Graveyard you can banish any Gem-Knight monster to return it to your hand. For nearly four years we’ve seen more and more Gem-Knights join the fray, but the Deck often fell short of the big crazy wins Gem-Knight fans wanted. Victory was often just one more card away.

Clash of Rebellions changes that, introducing new support that makes it easy to find the right Gem-Knights at the right time, plus two new Fusion Spells that make it even easier to unleash the best Gem-Knight Fusions! It all starts with a new boss monster: Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond.

You Summon Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond by Fusing three Gem-Knights of your choice. Her 3400 ATK makes her a tremendous attacker, but her real strength lies in her effect: once per turn you can send one of your face-up Gem-Knights to the Graveyard to Special Summon a “Gem-Knight” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions. Fusion Summon Lady Brilliant Diamond, Normal Summon a monster to send for her effect, and you can unleash anything in the Gem-Knight arsenal.

That’s awesome, because the best Gem-Knight Fusions all need specific Fusion Materials or lots of Gem-Knights. You can Summon Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli to send a Gem-Knight from your Main Deck or Extra Deck to the Graveyard, then burn your opponent for 500 damage for every Special Summoned monster on the field. With 2400 ATK and an effect that can deal up to 5000 damage, Lady Brilliant Diamond and Lady Lapis Lazuli can win games all on their own.

Gem-Knight Master Diamond has 2900 ATK and an effect that gives it 100 more Attack Points for every “Gem-” monster in your Graveyard. It can easily get so big it can take down Apoqliphort Towers. It banishes a Level 7 or lower Gem-Knight Fusion Monster from your Graveyard to mimic its name and effect, too; Gem-Knight Topaz is a favorite, turning Master Diamond into a double-attacker.

Gem-Knight Seraphinite’s another highlight. Since it needs a LIGHT Fusion Material it would usually be a costly Summon – you’d really rather keep Denko Sekka – but Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond ignores that. Seraphinite grants you a second Normal Summon. It lets you field more attackers; Gemini Summon Gem-Knight Amber, Gem-Knight Iolite, or Gem-Knight Sardonyx; or score a double-search with two Gem-Armadillos. You can even put together Rank 4’s by Summoning two Level 4 Xyz Materials in one turn.

Gem-Knight Amethyst bounces all Set Spell and Trap Cards to the hand. Gem-Knight Aquamarine bounces away a monster. Gem-Knight Citrine stops your opponent from activating cards or effects when it attacks – handy for pushing through Nekroz of Valkyrus.

Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond is the ultimate toolbox. And the best part? A new Fusion Spell lets you Summon her using monsters from your Deck!

Brilliant Fusion is a new Continuous Spell. When you activate it you Fusion Summon a Gem-Knight using monsters from your Deck as Fusion Materials. In the case of Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond that saves you three cards. You can only Brilliant Fusion once per turn, and any monster you Summon with Brilliant Fusion loses all its ATK to and DEF. But you can discard a Spell Card to boost the Fusion Monster back to its original ATK and DEF – the boost lasts until the end of your opponent’s next turn. Pitch the original Gem-Knight Fusion and you can retrieve it immediately with its effect, costing you virtually nothing.

Since you can choose which Gem-Knights you’ll send to the Graveyard you can send whatever you want to set up plays. Take the three monsters above: Brilliant Fusion to send Gem-Knight Lapis, Gem-Knight Lazuli, and Gem-Knight Tourmaline to the Graveyard. Lazuli has an effect that triggers when it’s sent to the Graveyard: it adds a Normal Monster from your Graveyard back to your hand. So once Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond hits the field, use Lazuli to get Tourmaline.

Summon that monster and send it to the Graveyard for Lady Brilliant Diamond’s effect. Special Summon Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli to send another Gem-Knight Lazuli to the Graveyard, dealing 500 damage for every Special Summoned monster on the field. When the second Lazuli’s effect activates, grab the Gem-Knight Lapis from your Graveyard.

At this point you’ve turned one card – Brilliant Fusion – into two Fusion Monsters on the field and a free Normal Monster in hand. You can pitch a Spell Card to boost Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond up to 3400 ATK, for a total of 5800 ATK with Lady Lapis Lazuli. But if you have Gem-Knight Fusion you can Fuse all three monsters for Gem-Knight Master Diamond, mimic Lady Lapis Lazuli again for more burn damage, and use your third Lazuli to get another card to your hand.

From there you can go wild. You could Fuse Tourmaline for Gem-Knight Prismaura to destroy a monster, or use it to Summon Gem-Knight Topaz as a double attacker for 3600 Battle Damage – a win with Master Diamond and all that Lazuli damage. You have a ton of ways to win.

Those two cards alone would’ve taken Gem-Knights to a new level, but they actually get three more supporting cards. Once per turn, Crystal Rose can send a “Gem-Knight” or “Melodious” monster from your hand or Deck to the graveyard to mimic its name. It fills your Graveyard with fodder to help you reuse Gem-Knight Fusion, and it can combo with Gem-Knight Obsidian or Gem-Knight Lazuli to get you free Normal Monsters. If that wasn’t enough, you can banish a Fusion Monster from your Graveyard once per turn to revive Crystal Rose as needed.

Absorb Fusion searches your Deck to add a “Gem-Knight” card to your hand, and then gives you the option of Fusion Summoning a Gem-Knight by banishing Fusion Materials from your hand or field. It’s like a Gem-Knight Reinforcement of the Army that also Fusion Summons if you need it.

Finally, you can activate the Trap Card Brilliant Spark when your opponent destroys one or more of your face-up Gem-Knights. It targets one of the destroyed Gem-Knights, then burns your opponent for damage equal to the target’s original ATK. That might seem situational, but the beauty of Brilliant Spark is that it’s reusable; you can send a Gem-Knight card from your hand to the Graveyard to get Brilliant Spark back from your Graveyard. That makes it a constant threat that can help you finish games that would normally be just out of reach.

Gem-Knights get a huge boost from Clash of Rebellions, and with four years worth of specialized Fusion Monsters at the ready, they’re great at adapting to whatever your opponent tries to do. Cards like Nekroz of Valkyrus, Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and Apoqliphort Towers won’t stop them. Gem-Knights could finally make an impact in tournaments once Clash of Rebellions hits the streets!