The Dracoverlord’s evil will not cease! With the powers of Dragon Alchemy, the Dracoverlords have created an army of terrible minions known as the Amorphages. Vector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord has outdone himself this time though, as the Amorphages from Shining Victories are some of the most diabolical Pendulum Monsters yet.

What makes the Amorphages so powerful? Well, all of the Amorphage monsters work to stop your opponent from completing their game plan. Each Amorphage has a Monster Effect that stops either player from Special Summoning anything other than Amorphages from the Extra Deck, and if you’ve ever played with or against a Domain Monarch Deck, you should understand how much of a burden that can be. Most Pendulum Decks focus on using the power of Pendulum Summoning, recurring their Pendulum Monsters from the Extra Deck every turn to make sure they never run out of ways to beat you. The Amorphages are especially strong against other Pendulum strategies, but most other Decks also use the Extra Deck whether it be Synchro Summoning or Xyz Summoning. As soon as an Amorphage comes down, the opponent suddenly has a big thorn in their side and potentially their whole strategy thrown out the window unless they can answer it.

If that’s not enough reason for you to consider Amorphages a real threat, then you’re in luck. In addition to each Amorphage having a Monster Effect that hinders Special Summoning, each Amorphage also has an additional Pendulum Effect that can stop various other things as long as your control an Amorphage monster. Anything your opponent can imagine doing, there is an Amorphage that will stop them right in their tracks! However, with great power comes great sacrifice, as each Amorphage also has a drawback in addition to their respective Pendulum Effect. In order to keep your Amorphage around in the Pendulum Zone you will have to Tribute a Monster during your Standby Phase, otherwise the Amorphage will destroy itself. Initially this may seem like a steep cost, however it gets much easier with Pendulum Monsters. You can simply tribute away a face-up Amorphage and Pendulum Summon it right back! While all of the Amorphages each offer their own unique and powerful Pendulum Effects, some definitely rise above the rest.

Amorphage Lechery is a lynchpin to you shutting off your opponent’s options. Its Pendulum Effect stops the activation of Spell cards or their effects, other than Amorphage cards! Whether it be Draco Face-Off, Emergency Teleport, or Pantheism of the Monarchs, most Decks rely on a couple powerful Spells to pull them ahead. In addition to this, any opponent piloting Pendulums will be left in the dust. Without the ability to assemble their Pendulum Scales, they cannot activate key effects such as Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer or Performapal Monkeyboard for powerful plays or even Pendulum Summon. All of this and you can still activate your Amorphage Spells without interference! Twin Twister is another key Spell that most strategies include as a way to deal with pesky backrow or Pendulums, and shutting that option out definitely makes the Traps that Amorphages have access to even better.

Consistency is key trait when it comes to the top performing strategies. If you can get to your integral cards, you can start your accomplishing your game plan as soon as possible. To do this, most Decks rely heavily on searching cards to find them easily. This is where Amorphage Sloth steps in, with its Mistake-like Pendulum Effect that stops either player from adding cards from their Deck to their hand! Drawing cards still flies fine with Amorphage Sloth, but all of those powerful search tools that many strategies incorporate are left useless. Without the ability to find their best cards, along with the fact that many of their search cards will sit unplayable in their hand, Amorphage Sloth can threaten to end a game before it even starts.

One aspect of Amorphages that make them especially strong is that whatever your opponent is trying to do, you can usually find a specific one that stops them. Burning Abyss variants have become especially popular in competitive play, a strategy that centers around sending Malebranches to the Graveyard to trigger their effects. Similarly, Atlanteans and even Monarchs rely on the Graveyard to operate correctly. If you happen to face a Graveyard based theme, Amorphage Goliath is your best friend. Amorphage Goliath causes any card sent to the Graveyard to be banished instead, so suddenly even the almighty Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss looks a lot less impressive.  Pair Amorphage Goliath with Amorphage Lechery, and your opponent will have a really rough time doing much of anything.

It gets much easier to win when your opponent can’t progress the way they want to, and with a whole army of different Amorphages you can bet one of them can help you accomplish that. You can recruit the Amorphage minions by finding them in Shining Victories which comes out on May 6^th!