In about a month in a half, one of the most powerful sets in a long while, Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy, will be released, and with it so will the the ultimate Elemental Beast; the Elemental Dragons. These Dragons are born of each Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind, and all have very similar abilities, yet each have unique powers of their own. We have the following
Blaster, the Fire Elemental Dragon
Fire/Dragon/7/2800/1800
Tempest, the Wind Elemental Dragon
Wind/Dragon/7/2400/2200
Tidal, he Water Elemental Dragon
Water/Dragon/7/2600/2000
Redox, the Earth Elemental Dragon
Earth/Dragon/7/1600/3000
First of all, each Dragon is Level 7, this is very important as they can easily be summoned to make Big Eye, which is one of the decks win conditions (stealing all your opponents monsters everytime they play one).
Next, each Dragon says the following: "You can banish 2 Dragon-Type and/or (Respective Attribute) monsters from your hand or Graveyard, except this card; Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. During your opponent's End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Return it to the hand."
This means you can Special Summon any of the Dragons from hand or graveyard, by banishing 2 Dragon's, 2 of whatever Element your Dragon is, or 1 of each from your hand and/or graveyard. Some people confuse how you summon them but it's actually very simple.
Next up, each Dragon also says "You can discard this card and 1 other (Respective Attribute) monster to the Graveyard to" do the following effect, depending on which Dragon you are using
FIRE: Target 1 card on the field, destroy that target.
WATER: Send 1 Monster from your deck to the graveyard.
WIND: Add any Dragon-type Monster from your deck to your hand.
EARTH: Special Summon 1 Monster from your Graveyard.
Finally, every Elemental Dragon says "If this card is banished: You can add 1 (Respective Attribute) Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use 1 "Elemental Dragon of this Attribute" effect per turn, and only once that turn."
So, whenever an Elemental Dragon is Banished (And you obviously banish them to summon eachother) you can replace the one you Banished by adding another one to your hand. So if you Banish a Redox and a Tidal to summon a Blaster, you can add a Redox and Tidal from your deck to your hand (or any other Earth or Water Dragon-type monsters). This makes the Elemental Dragon deck very consistent as every card replaces itself, and allows you to tutor things as needed.
Now, something to take special note of is the fact that every Dragon states "You can only use 1 "Elemental Dragon of this kind" per turn, and only once that turn. Now, Special Summoning them is an activated effect, like Abyssmegalo, not a summoning condition like [ccProd]Machina Fortress[/ccProd], so if you activate the effect so Special Summon a Blaster lets say, you CANNOT activate any other Blaster effects during that turn. That means no destroying a card, and no searching for a Dragon if Blaster is Banished. The same goes for any other effect. If you Banish a Blaster, and search a Blaster, you CANNOT Special Summon another Blaster via its own effect.
Almost specifically designed for them is also a card called "Seven Star Sword" which is a Normal Spell card which reads as follows
Banish 1 Level 7 monster from your hand or your side of the field; draw 2 cards. You can only activate 1 "Seven Star Sword" per turn.
This allows you to trade away any Elemental Dragon for 2 new cards, PLUS since the Dragon was Banished, you get it's effect searching for another; and instant plus 1. It's basically a better version of [ccProd]Destiny Draw[/ccProd] and Malicious. It's kind of a ridiculous card to say the least.
A second card which heavily helps the Dragon's is [ccProd]Gold Sarcophagus[/ccProd]. [ccProd]Gold Sarcophagus[/ccProd] Banish's any Dragon, which then allows you to search for whatever one you need. Normally Gold Sarc is a -1 for 2 turns but this effectively erases that aspect, and in the long run is also a +1.
Now, even though they probably won't be in Tachyon, each Dragon also has a "Baby Dragon" of itself, and they all say the same thing
"You can discard this card and 1 other Dragon-Type or (Respective Element) monster; Special Summon 1 "Corresponding Dragon" from your Deck. It cannot attack this turn. You can only use the effect of "This Attribute Baby Dragon" once per turn."
So in short, you can discard the Water Baby Dragon PLUS one other Water or Dragon-type monster, to Special Summon a Tidal from your deck. This again allows the deck for a MASSIVE toolbox engine, and lets you put 2 Monsters on the board to easily make Big Eye, or this next big bad I'm going to talk about.
Mecha Phantom Beast Dragossack
Wind/Machine/Rank 7/2600/2200
2 Level 7 Monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 2 "Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens" (Machine-Type/WIND/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0). While you control a Token, this card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. Once per turn: You can Tribute 1 "Mecha Phantom Beast" monster to target 1 card on the field; destroy that target. During the turn this effect is activated, this card cannot attack.
Wowzers, he certainly does A LOT. He makes tokens, destroys cards, and protects himself. This card will probably, and unfortunately be a Secret Rare, and will be VERY EXPENSIVE as the Elemental Dragon deck plays basically, 3 each of both Big Eye and Dragossack. Dragossack is basically an out to any card while also protecting itself, to just make more tokens and kill more cards on another turn. The best part about using Elemental Dragons as Xyz Materials is that, you can just Special Summon them again from the Graveyard and make another Big Eye or Dragossack.
Finally, here is a brief video of me playing around with a test version of the Elemental Dragon Deck. It can help you get a feel of how the deck can play.
As you can see, there's A LOT going on, and the Dragon deck is actually VERY complicated because you have to keep track of what you have and have not done during the turn to make sure all of your plays are optimal. The deck will certainly take some getting used to for most players. Even for myself getting used to the fact that each ability could only be triggered once each turn was fairly annoying.
Either way, besides Spellbooks and Fire Fist, it seems like the Elemental Dragon deck is dominating heavily over in Japan, although they also have the Baby Dragons. So we will see with TCG cards and such, how the Elemental Dragon deck will fair over here. Especially since this is the set that is legal right before Nationals, and will change everything.
Thanks for tuning in this week folks, I'll see you next time duelist. Play hard, or go home.
LMJeffJones
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