This week’s preview card, Desert Twister, puts together monsters of brute force and complex abilities. Here are the stats and effect text:

Desert Twister         Fiend/Effect - Level 6                    2300 ATK/2000 DEF

This card cannot be Normal summoned or Set. This card cannot be special summoned except by removing from play 1 Earth and 2 Wind monsters from your graveyard. Once per turn, you can discard 1 card to destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field.

This week’s card combines two unique attributes. The Earth attribute is already established as one of the most extensive and versatile attributes in the game. The other, Wind, is less known and is often misunderstood. It boasts some of the trickiest monster cards in the game. Some obvious examples include:

•        Sasuke Samurai #4

•        Spell Canceller

•        B.E.S. Tetran

•        Silpheed

•        Slate Warrior

•        Spear Dragon

•        Twin-Headed Behemoth

•        Flying Kamakiri #2

•        Raiza the Storm Monarch

These monsters have unique and powerful effects that will prove useful to any duelist who knows how to wield them. Desert Twister also boasts the same stats as Chaos Sorcerer, but isn’t nearly as restrictive when it comes to building your deck. Being confined to only Light and Dark can leave a creative duelist looking for more.

Practical Applications

Like his cousin Frost and Flame Dragon, Desert Twister is pretty beastly in terms of ATK and DEF. Being only 100 ATK shy of colliding with a Monarch makes this monster a force by itself, and being a special summon gives it a large boost in playability.

The graveyard is a source of power that should be utilized to the fullest extent. Who says Wind and Earth decks can’t utilize the graveyard as well as T-Hero or Perfect Circle? Desert Twister gives you that option. Its effect gives you a chance to destroy anything that would get in its way at the cost of a discard. Discarding any card is a good thing for the complexity of today’s metagame. Many decks have to include cards that may or may not work all the time, and like Snipe Hunter before it, Desert Twister makes it easy for you. One of the niftiest flip effects in the game, Slate Warrior, could be used very well with Night Assailant to get a free hit on your opponent’s spell and trap zone.

You can use Silpheed or Gigantes to help you make use of your graveyard to an even greater degree. A deck with Desert Twister is synonymous with speed and power. It’s probably going to be very special summon heavy. 

Desert Twister is pretty beefy for a special summon with such an easy cost. The special summon status gives your deck a nice offensive weapon capable of clearing out cards that would threaten it, meaning you can knock out two cards in one turn with this monster alone: first a spell or trap, then a monster with a well-placed attack. That gives you a huge advantage in battle with your opponent.

What kind of decks could use this card? Like the combination of Fire and Water, the union of Wind and Earth is very interesting. From straight beatdown to high-synergy combos, you can customize to your heart’s content. Here are some ideas:

• You can try a hybrid Warrior build with Desert Twister as your centerpiece. You have Reinforcement of the Army, which searches Sasuke Samurai #4, Exiled Force, D. D. Assailant, Goblin Attack Force, D.D. Warrior Lady, Elemental Hero Wildheart, and Mystic Swordsman LV2.

• You can try a straightforward beatdown with Gigantes, Silpheed, Flying Kamakiri #2, Giant Rat, Twin-Headed Behemoth, Injection Fairy Lily, Morphing Jar, Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane, Drillroid, Card Trooper, and more.

• Of course, you can try the standard Monarch hybrid as well. Granmarg the Rock Monarch and Raiza the Storm Monarch are excellent monsters for most metagames. Granmarg gives you face-down hate and Raiza does the same while setting your opponent back a turn. Twin-Headed Behemoth serves as good tribute material along with Silpheed and Gigantes.

• You can take a different route and try a more tribute-based deck featuring B.E.S. Tetran, Spell Canceller, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, Nimble Momonga, Treeborn Frog, etc. Desert Twister and B.E.S. Tetran eliminate spells and traps, and they can hold their own in battle. The Monarchs will do their job as they always do. Nimble Momonga and Treeborn will provide you the necessary tribute material. Spell Canceller serves as a brilliant counter to the metagame’s reliance on spells over traps. This type of deck will focus on disruption of your opponent’s field. You can even augment that disruption by including some copies of Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi. It goes very well with Raiza the Storm Monarch.

More Thoughts

I like the prospect of combining pure power with tricky effects: the Earth attribute is my favorite in the game. Desert Twister may only require one Earth monster in the graveyard, but a strong base of Earth monsters will likely give you the muscle you need to win over most opponents. You have many options available to you if you choose. Desert Twister is just an amazing starting point for the creative deckbuilder.