A Diamond in the Rough: Evolzar Solda

April 19, 2012

by Andrew Cappy

Hello there Yugi-verse. My name is Andrew Cappy. I’m a competitive player from Cleveland Ohio, and while I’m sure no one outside of my locals has heard of me, I promise you I’m the real deal. I hate net-decking, playing cookie cutter builds and only playing the cards that the pros tell you to play which is what brings me here today. I’d like to discuss what I feel is great card, but has been snubbed by the Yu-gi-oh community all because one guy decided not to play it in his build. That card is Evolzar Solda.

Let’s 1^st look at what the card says:

2 Level 6 Dinosaur-Type monsters
This card cannot be destroyed by card effects while it has Xyz Material. When your opponent Special summons a monster(s): You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy that monster(s).

Now I’m pretty sure what turned people away from playing this card are its summoning requirements. You’d think that having two level six dinosaurs on the field at the same time in the current Meta would be impossible. But you’d be mistaken. This card is actually very easy to summon, and if you have the right cards in your hand, can even lead to summoning a 2^nd xyz monster.

The best way to summon Solda goes like this, and can be done on turn one. In order to execute the play, you need one copy of both Evo-force and Evoltile Najasho in your hand and both copies of Evolsaur Elias in your deck. This is very easy to accomplish, since both Evo-force and Najasho are at 3 already, and with the release of Evo-Diversity (which allows you to add one evoltile or evolsaur from your deck top your hand), and Evoltile Elginero (which when tributed, allows you to draw a card, add a dinosaur from your hand into your deck then add evoltile from your deck to your hand), right around the corner, makes it even easier for these requirements to be met. You then proceed to set Evoltile Najasho and activate your Evo-force, tributing Najasho. Both Evo-force and najasho will activate, which allows you to summon both copies of Elias from your deck, and just like that, you have two level 6 dinosaurs on board. Plus, you can still use both Elias’ effects to summon up to 2 more evolsaurs from your hand, meaning you can xyz summon twice in one turn and put both Solda and Laggia/Dolkkaon board. And remember, Elias can summon himself from the hand, so even if you draw one, you still summon one Elias from deck and use its effect to summon the copy in your hand.

So now that you know how easy it really is to summon Evolzar Solda, let’s look at how your efforts will be rewarded. 1^st off as long as Solda has a xyz material attached to him, he can’t be destroyed by card effects. I feel that this alone warrants some form of play as it means you have a 2600 beater that cannot fall victim to your opponents bottomless trap holes and smashing grounds, or any other destruction card they might play. Not only that, but Solda is also immune to those mass removal cards that you might play such as torrential and dark hole, meaning you can still play those cards to clear problems off your opponents board without losing Solda. If that weren’t enough, Solda also has a 2^nd effect that lets you destroy any monster or monsters your opponent special summons (except those that summon during damage step) by detaching a xyz material. I’d like to note that Solda doesn’t say destroy a monster with a certain level, meaning he can also destroy xyz monsters. In other words, your opponent now has to deal with a 2600 monster that they can’t just blow up and will probably have to special summon to get around, except that if they do special summon a problem, it will just explode in their face. I don’t know about you, but that seems pretty good to me.

So now that you are keen on Solda’s true power, let’s take a look at how he interacts with other top tier decks that you are likely to face. Keep in mind that Solda can be easily summoned on turn one, so the scenarios I’s about to present are very likely to occur.

Against the Rabbit deck, Solda is one major hurdle for Rabbit to hop over. With Solda on board, rabbit cannot use Rescue Rabbit as the monsters that it special summons can be blown up by Solda’s 2^nd effect before the rabbit player has a chance to xyz. Tour Guide also falls victim to Solda, as you destroy the monster Tour Guide summons, the Leviair or Zenmaines that gets summoned (though I don’t recommend that, even though Solda can’t die to Zenmaines), or even the banished monster that Leviair summons before that target has a chance to use its effect. In fact, the only thing Rabbit decks can do against Solda is make it burn both its materials and then kill it, or use a combination of lance and Sabersaurus to run it over. I’m going to go ahead and give the point to Solda on this one, as the Rabbit is either forced to use a lot of resources to kill one card, or get lucky and get a card it only plays two of before the rest of the Evol deck comes to say hello. And if you manage to get the double xyz play off I mentioned earlier and have a Solda and a Laggia of board right of the bat, rabbit can’t do much of anything save go to game 2.

Solda also single-handedly shuts down Wind-ups and Inzektors. Solda’s 2600 attack points make it far too big for Wind-ups to run over without special summoning a monster, and as long as Solda has material to use, Wind-ups won’t be able to get anything started. Inzektor’s main play involves destroying a problem card then special summoning another monster, both of which Solda stops. Sure, they can still target Solda with a Hornet and send it to the graveyard to activate their effects, but the monster Dragonfly and Giga-Mantis will summon can be blown up, and Centipede can’t search anything that will give it enough attack points to kill Solda in one search. Chalk up two more points for Solda.

Against hero decks, Solda is still a significant problem. He cannot be simply be gemini sparked away, he can destroy any miracle fusioned monster with his effect, and is bigger than any xyz monster the deck usually summons, not to mention it can just destroy it anyway. It only falls victim to two cards, Skill Drain and Super Polymerization, but those 2 cards are tend to stop just about any deck in its tracks, and are not always mained in the deck as there are many different builds. I’m going to go ahead and call Solda the winner on this one too, though I’ll admit it’s not as much of a landslide as it is with the other decks of mentioned.

The two decks where Solda is not as devastating, is against Dark Worlds and Dragons/Hieratics. Both decks still have trouble as they can’t blow him up to clear the board and swing for game, but both have the ability to make Solda use his materials up without wasting too many resources. Both decks also have a great deal more strength than other top tier decks of the format, as they can drop repeatedly summon their beaters to the point where Solda can’t stop it. As if that weren’t enough, Darkworlds also play Skill Drain, making it the worst match-up for evols in general, especially Solda. Dragons/Hieratics are unable to main this card, but both decks can special summon so much (sometimes even in dumb loops) that Solda may not be enough. I’m going to call this an even match, as a well timed Solda with the right protection can still lead to victory, but these decks have a lot more plays to get around Solda.

Well that’s about all I have to say on the subject of Evolzar Solda for now. If you’ve liked what you read and would like to hear more, feel free to comment below, hit me up on DN (ABZero414), or go to DarkworldMOFO’s channel on youtube. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you at the tables.