If you saw the September 1 Advanced List and wondered why Card of Safe Return was Semi-Limited, rest assured that today’s preview is the answer to that question. Get ready, because you’re going to be seeing a ton of this card over the coming months. Plaguespreader Zombie is going to take not one, but two decks to the top tables after the Sneak Previews. Check it out!

Plaguespreader Zombie

You can return a card from your hand to the top of your deck to special summon Plaguespreader Zombie from your graveyard. If you do, remove it from play when it’s removed from the field.

Ever since Shonen Jump Championship Baltimore, we’ve seen the power of double Synchro summons play out in competitive metagames. Summoning two Synchro monsters on the same turn is the penultimate win condition for TeleDAD, and it’s the ability to special summon Krebons with Emergency Teleport that makes that possible. Think about that for a moment, then realize that Plaguespreader doesn’t even require a spell card to make a similarly deadly double-play. Plaguespreader Zombie gives you access to two Synchro summons a turn just with its own effect, and the result is a revolution for two major archetypes.

Let’s start with the obvious.

Of course, should you need to use Plaguespreader’s effect to special summon it and it gets removed from play, you’ve always got Burial From a Different Dimension to bring it back. Most Zombie decks are already playing two copies to reuse Mezuki and stymie D.D. Crow. Now, there’s another awesome target to return to your graveyard. Normal summoning Plaguespreader for a Synchro summon, removing Mezuki to shoot it back to the field for another Synchro, and finally activating its effect to special summon it for a third Synchro summon is common, and once you’ve done that you can return Mezuki and Plaguespreader to your graveyard. Three Synchros in one turn might sound impressive, but frankly, combos like that look like child’s play compared to what this card can do when it really goes off.

There are some awesome monsters to use as Synchro materials with Plaguespreader Zombie. Goblin Zombie is great, because you can use it to summon a level 6 Synchro like Goyo Guardian, and then you’ll get to search out a Zombie from your deck with the Goblin’s effect. For those of you keeping track, that’s a trade of two on-field monsters for a Synchro summon and a chance to search your deck for another monster. You don’t lose any card presence, you unleash a big Synchro monster, and since Goblin Zombie can seek out Mezuki, Zombie Master, or another Plaguespreader, the card you searched will fuel your next Plaguespreader combo.

But the real power play is to Synch up with Zombie Master. Normally you’d only be able to use Zombie Master’s effect once per turn, but if you summon it, discard a card to summon Plaguespreader, and then Synchro summon, Zombie Master goes to the graveyard. At that point any of your special summon cards will let you bring back Zombie Master, which in turn gets back Plaguespreader so you can do another Synchro summon. That cycle can be repeated over and over.

Logic says that eventually you run out of cards to discard for Zombie Master’s effect, but that doesn’t apply if you activated Card of Safe Return. In that case you draw an extra card each time you special summon, meaning that every time you spend two cards from your hand to do the Zombie Master/Plaguespreader/Synchro loop, you special summon a Synchro monster and draw twice. Throw in the free summons you’re getting off Mezuki, and you can draw through your entire deck with ease as long as you can get to Card of Safe Return.

It’s not uncommon to get to the point where you start using Goyo Guardian cards as Synchro material, just to clear them off the field so you can keep your draw loop going. By the time things are over, you usually have four level-8 Synchro monsters on the field and the majority of your deck in your hand.

What I’m describing is essentially the new win condition for Zombies: a field full of Synchros custom-selected to counter your opponent’s strategy, and a hand full of whatever you needed to beat your opponent in a single turn.

The synergy extends beyond the fact that Lightsworn can easily put Plaguespreader in the graveyard. Its recursive effect can stack an in-hand copy of Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to the top of your deck, so that it can be special summoned for free with an end-phase Lightsworn effect. It’s an awesome combo with that Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress you just switched to defense position, and if you have a free Wulf kicking around you can turn it into Goyo Guardian with ease.

It’s awesome with Celestia, Lightsworn Angel as well. Since Celestia is level 5 and Plaguespreader is level 2, the two together will let you summon Black Rose Dragon to clear the field. From there you’re free to follow up with a string of special summons thanks to Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner, and any copies of Judgment Dragon you have will score 3000 damage unopposed.

Don’t forget that Plaguespreader Zombie is a low-ATK Dark monster as well. You can remove it for Allure of Darkness (conveniently bringing it back later with Burial From a Different Dimension), or even tribute it for Crush Card Virus—a card both Zombies and Lightsworn really like to play. Previous Lightsworn decks often had issues with finding a monster to tribute for the Virus’s activation, but since Plaguespreader Zombie can lay low in the graveyard until it’s needed, Crush Card Virus has never been this easy to play.

As a matter of fact, yes. Crossroads of Chaos also has several Synchro buddies that you can only summon if you’ve got Plaguespreader. Here’s my favorite:

Revived King Ha Des

Negate the effects of monsters destroyed in battle with Zombies you control.

Revived King Ha Des isn’t as big as Goyo Guardian, but its 2450 ATK is still nothing to sneeze at. At its very worst it’s another level-6 monster to Synchro summon when you’ve already run through all your Goyos.

At its best though, it’s a totally unique addition to your Extra deck. Its negation effect shuts down flip effects, as well as cards like Mystic Tomato, Sangan, and Goblin Zombie. It’s especially good in the Zombie deck, because Ha Des himself is a Zombie in this incarnation. That means you can bring it back from the graveyard with Mezuki, Book of Life, or Il Blud, and that’s hugely important: it makes it really easy to restock your field if your opponent wipes you out.

When the Zombie deck goes off it’ll often be using a lot of the level 6 Synchros it brings out for Synchro materials in later summons. In that case, you might as well bring out Revived King Ha Des instead of Goyo Guardian. Having Goyo Guardian in your graveyard is just a liability: it feeds ATK to your opponent’s Colossal Fighter and it can let him or her wreak havoc with Monster Reborn. Having a super-sized Zombie in your graveyard is far more useful, and will often open up draw opportunities with Card of Safe Return when they wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Plaguespreader Zombie is nuts, and it’ll probably be the number-one card everybody’s looking for at your Sneak Preview. Crossroads of Chaos has a surprising number of game-changing cards, and this one might be the best! Get yours as quick as you can.