Every now and then, a card comes along and changes the metagame. When newer monsters are released—free of summoning requirements—with higher ATK values than anything commonly played, the metagame shifts. Mechanicalchaser was the first monster to raise the bar, Gemini Elf followed shortly after, and the fan favorite Berserk Gorilla put anything with less than 2000 ATK on the sidelines. Each of these monsters forced the play value of monsters with less ATK down, since they were now much more likely to be destroyed in battle.

Cyber Dragon pulled off the same feat with an iron fist. Not only was the 2100 ATK bar set, but Cyber Dragon is special summoned. Because you can normal summon or set an additional monster, there is almost no reason to not go for monster destruction through battle with it... or to play any monster with less than 2100 ATK that wouldn’t replace its loss in battle with an additional effect. Just like the Chaser and Elf before it, everyone’s favorite monkey had to take its place on the sidelines. Cyber Dragon has long been considered as an unstoppable force because of its impressive 2100 ATK. Players have demanded a monster that’s able to take it down fairly, and their calls have been answered.

Enter Majestic Mech – Ohka.

Majestic Mech – Ohka

Fairy/Light

Level 6

2400 ATK/1400 DEF

You can normal summon this monster without a tribute. If you do, it is sent to the graveyard during the end phase.

Boasting a whopping 2400 ATK for the cost of your normal summon, Majestic Mech – Ohka could potentially take down Cyber Dragon in ways that no non-tribute monster could before. Majestic Mech – Ohka is a “soft tribute” monster in the same sense as Cyber Dragon. The possibility to tribute for it is there, but there’s also the opportunity to by-pass the tribute mechanic. There are no restrictions on Ohka, but there is definitely a drawback: if you want to make Ohka a free monster, you’ll have to sacrifice it at the end of your turn. In addition, because Ohka is normal summoned instead of special summoned, you won’t get to set another monster to protect yourself the way you could with Cyber Dragon.

This makes Ohka less versatile than Cyber Dragon. However, its ATK value is increased by 300 to create a balance. 300 is usually nothing to brag about, but in today’s metagame, it can make all the difference. Blowback Dragon, Cyber Dragon, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World, and Chaos Sorcerer are at an all-time high. Players are looking for any way to gain free card presence over their opponents, and they’ve turned to these monsters to get it. Majestic Mech – Ohka takes each of them down a peg. It’s likely that anything you want Majestic Mech – Ohka to destroy can be taken down in battle. Of course, it will cost you your Ohka at the end of the turn. You’re going to have to decide if Ohka’s loss in card presence is worth the timely destruction it can cause. Ohka isn’t going to be an advantage-generating machine, and players must still work to turn its downfall around.

However, Skill Drain works with Ohka to let your giant Fairy stick around after using its effect—just the sort of sinister combo that I like to see. It’s also possible to use this Majestic Mech with cards like Cannon Soldier, Begone, Knave!, and Metamorphosis, which can put an otherwise-doomed monster to good use. The combos possible with Begone, Knave! itself are incredible. Imagine flipping Skelengel, summoning Ohka without tribute, hitting for 3500 damage, and bouncing both monsters back to your hand to reuse their effects at will. Sounds playable to me.

Ohka could also give Return from the Different Dimension-based decks a little boost in the right direction. These decks could often accept 2400 damage in exchange for the loss of one card. I foresee a lot of Cyber Dragon plus Ohka equals 4700 damage nonsense within the near future. After Ohka hits the graveyard, one Bazoo the Soul-Eater and Return from the Different Dimension later spells g-a-m-e for an unsuspecting opponent.

I also foresee Ohka being used as an outlet for monster removal. Instead of using Smashing Ground on your opponent’s monster, you can instead summon Ohka to attack it. This forces your opponent to either use a defensive card on Ohka, or let the attack slide and allow his or her monster and Ohka be destroyed by the end of the turn. If you’re the Return player, this is optimal for you—either way you’re good. Taking out a defensive card paves the way for the Return-turn.* You also now have a beefy 2400 ATK Light monster ready to be removed through either Chaos Sorcerer or Bazoo the Soul-Eater. If your opponent decides to let his or her monster be destroyed, you help deteriorate his or her field presence (though without adding any to your own) as well as hopefully dealing a hefty amount of life point damage. And again, you have a mammoth monster in your graveyard that’s ready to be removed and returned.

Fairies are one of my favorite types of monsters. Ever since I caught wind of a Fairy deck taking a Regional event by storm** way back in the Traditional format, I’ve been looking for a way to capitalize on their strengths for myself. In the Traditional format, they made for an interesting anti-metagame deck. In today’s metagame, it’s still possible for Fairies to work. They have lots of card draw power and a few key support cards. There are some attractive cards coming out for Fairies in this set as well. Hopefully we’ll have another contending deck to work with soon.

The Light-based deck is much more broad than the Fairy deck. A Light deck is just what it sounds like: a deck based off of Light attribute monsters and their support cards. Freed the Brave Wanderer, Luminous Spark, and several metagame-defining cards such as Cyber Dragon and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch are all thrown into a neatly packed deck bent on wrecking a cookie cutter’s day. Ohka is an excellent support card for this deck. They already have huge beaters, devastating effects, and enough Return from the Different Dimension support to make them tier 1. Factor in Ohka and any other support that might come out of this set, and the Light deck gets a booster shot. Hopefully this will push Light into an SJC-winning deck, if it’s not there already.

Majestic Mech – Ohka is a fantastic card! A free 2400 ATK Light monster is never a bad thing. If you can work around Ohka’s drawback, you can count on tearing up the format with it.

*The turn you plan on using Return from the Different Dimension to win.