The New Challengers marks a new chapter for some of the most popular Decks in the game: for the bright and colorful Yang Zings, it marks a turn to the shadows. Overpowered by Burning Abyss, Satellarknights, and Shaddolls in the Duelist Alliance era, Baxia’s forces turn to dark allies in a bid to restore balance… Read more…

One of the first things you learn when you start playing Sealed and Draft with Battle Pack 3: Monster League is the importance of battle outcome changers. There are a lot of monsters clustered together in the 1700-1900 ATK range, so even a small boost like Master Craftsman Gamil can mean the difference between victory and defeat in a given battle. And if you can force a trade off of one of your weaker battle outcome changers like Gamil or the 400 ATK boost from Skill Successor for one of their stronger outcome changers, say something in the 700+ range, then all the better. Even if you don’t win that particular battle, the next one is more likely to go your way because you’ve saved your better cards for it – essentially, losing one battle but giving yourself a better chance to win the war.

In the Advanced Format, you don’t see as much of this because most battle outcome changers are replaced with straight-up removal cards. Some Decks, like Bujin, make good use of battle outcome changers, but for the most part, Duelists try to prevent battles from happening instead of trying to win them. Duelists interested in the Yang Zing monsters introduced last week should endeavor to do the opposite. Read more…

Last time we talked about the new “Yang Zing” monsters and the Synchro craziness they can unleash: with self-searching, self-replacing effects that clog the field and help you assemble your Synchro Summons, the base Yang Zings pack a series of effects that reward you with fabulous prizes just for making Synchros. Suanni, Fire of the Yang Zing grants your Synchro Monster +500 ATK and DEF; Bi’an, Earth of the Yang Zing protects your Synchro from destruction in battle; Bixi, Water of the Yang Zing shields your Synchro from Trap effects, and Pulao, Wind of the Yang Zing shields your Synchro from Spells. All those tricks adds up to some killer conditions for their signature boss monster Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing, but they also puts killer new spins on all sorts of classic Synchros you already know and love.

And it’s just the beginning. Because along with all the consistency, defense, and killer Synchro tricks, the Yang Zing also have an incredible supporting cast of Spell and Trap Cards!
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Six years ago the Dueling world was forever changed by The Duelist Genesis. Tuner Monsters and Synchro Monsters swerved the game in a totally different direction, but they weren’t the only ground-breaking new addition: The Duelist Genesis also marked the arrival of the Psychic-Type monsters, defined by their affinity for Synchro Summons and their Life Point-costed abilities. We haven’t seen a new monster-Type introduced since.

…Until now! In a set full of new firsts, The Yang Zing monsters are one of the biggest standouts of Duelist Alliance. They’re the first-ever Wyrm-Type monsters, and they’re all about Synchro Summons: not only are they tremendous self-replacing walls to protect your Life Points, their unending search effects make them hugely consistent and they power up your Synchro Monsters with killer effects that make them entirely new beasts. Meet the four core Yang Zings! Read more…