One of the coolest monsters from Battles of Legend –Light’s Revenge– has a secret identity in more ways than one: Vision HERO Witch Raider can help clear the way for your biggest plays in HERO decks, but it’s also useful in True Draco strategies too.

Check it out!

Vision HERO Witch Raider’s a Level 8 DARK Warrior with 2700 ATK and 1900 DEF.  You’ll usually have to Tribute to Summon it, but it’s got a really cool effect that lets you use Trap Cards you control as Tribute for it.  That’s a slick homage to its roots in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga, where the “Vision HERO” monsters can move to the Spell and Trap Card Zone.

When Vision HERO Witch Raider’s Normal Summoned you can destroy all of your opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards, but you can’t Special Summon anything but HERO monsters the turn you use that effect.  It’s a great way to clear common Spell Cards like Dragonic Diagram, or force out stuff like Dimensional Barrier out of the way that would stop your Fusion Summons otherwise.

So what can you Tribute for it?

There are lots of ways to turn the Tribute cost of Vision HERO Witch Raider to your advantage, since you can Tribute Trap Cards instead of monsters.  If you control a Continuous Trap that’s pinning down your opponent and stopping both players from making certain kinds of moves, you can Tribute that card away when you don’t need it anymore and go back to your regular game plan – sometimes that’s enough to win the Duel all on its own.

Imperial Order and Anti-Spell Fragrance are really popular for their ability to lock out Pendulum Spells and slow down cards like Fire Formation – Tenki, Zoodiac Barrage, and Dragonic Diagram.  When you want to play your own Spells you can Tribute for Witch Raider and clear your opponent’s backrow.  That’s especially good with Fragrance, since it forces your opponent to set their Spells for a turn before they can activate them; it sets your opponent up, so Witch Raider can knock them down.  You can even find Anti-Spell Fragrance in Battles of Legend –Light’s Revenge–!

Royal Decree is similar, keeping both Duelists from activating Trap Cards.  Keep your opponent’s traps under control as you work towards a win, then blow them all up with Witch Raider’s ability.

Some Trap Cards have effects that work only from the Graveyard, so they can still be useful after you Tribute them: you can banish Breakthrough Skill from your Graveyard to negate a monster effect, while you can Tribute Lost Wind and then Set it from your Graveyard to your field.  True King’s Return and True Draco Apocalypse both destroy a monster of your choice when they’re sent from your Spell and Trap Card Zone to the Graveyard.

Other cards remain on the field after they’ve served their purpose: Call of the Haunted and Oasis of Dragon Souls revive monsters from your Graveyard, so you can often Tribute them away without really losing anything. That’s especially true if you managed to remove the revived monster from the field without destroying Call, like if you used the revived monster as Xyz Material.  Fiendish Chain is similar: you can flip it to negate a monster effect or stop an attack, then Tribute it off next turn for Vision HERO Witch Raider’s Summon.

True Draco decks do a lot of Normal Summoning, so Vision HERO Witch Raider’s restriction of only Special Summoning “HERO” monsters for the turn isn’t a problem.  Factor in the combo potential with True King’s Return and True Draco Apocalypse, and Witch Raider might be worth a look in True Draco Decks as well as HERO strategies.

You can get your copies in Battles of Legend –Light’s Revenge– on July 7^th!