Bountiful Artemis

Fairy/Effect

Level 4

LIGHT

ATK 1600

DEF 1700

When this card is face-up on the field, draw 1 card each time a counter trap card is activated.

Anyone who reads my articles knows how often I tend to hype Solemn Judgment. It’s one of my favorite trap cards in this game. There’s nothing more gratifying than having your opponent attempt to play a game-breaker, only to have you flip up a card that practically bellows out, “Denied!” to your opponent. After all, denial cards such as Solemn Judgment and Spell Shield Type-8 can have some of the most powerful effects in the game.

Obviously, it makes me excited to see that those wonderful counter trap cards are getting a lineup of monsters to support them. Yes, that’s right. Fairies have returned to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen tournament-viable Fairies in the game. In fact, I think it’s been around two and a half years, if memory serves. The Fairy-type monsters from Dark Crisis weren’t all spectacular, but a few of them stood out from the rest. Kelbek was a more powerful Wall of Illusion that could be summoned through Giant Rat, and Zolga had a decent ATK value and a nice bonus for when you tributed it to Airknight Parshath in an attempt to bury your opponent in card advantage. However, the king of kings for type-support from Dark Crisis was Mudora, a level 4 wrecking ball. With search-effect monsters such as Shining Angel, and deck-thinning power from Painful Choice, it was incredibly easy to fill up your graveyard with Fairies that would power up Mudora. In fact, it wasn’t surprising to see the Earthen Fairy monster swinging at an opponent with 2900 ATK in the late game!*

They were definitely competitive at the time, but the Fairies took a major hit (along with just about everything else) when Invasion of Chaos brought forth two very forbidden monsters. Since then, their support has been relatively limited. Some Fairies were released in Ancient Sanctuary, but they were more of a sub-theme to be supported with the rather limited Sanctuary in the Sky. It wasn’t enough to keep Fairies strong.

With the release of Enemy of Justice, Fairies will receive a new line of support that can not only aid the old wrecking ball Mudora, but can also work as an archetype of its own. Bountiful Artemis has relatively good stats on it, and a defense-position Artemis can survive almost every attack from popular monsters of level 4 or less in today’s metagame. However, what makes Artemis special is its amazing effect.

One of the problems with control decks that rely on denial cards such as  is that they need a consistent stream of card advantage in order to ensure that the player can draw into more denial to throw at the opponent. This was the original concept of the Lava-Lacooda Control deck, which was powered by the card-advantage engine of Des Lacooda. However, with Bountiful Artemis in your line-up, you don’t need to rely on a card-advantage engine. It is too big for annoying monsters like Sangan or Mystic Swordsman LV2 to run over, making it a solid addition to a counter-based deck.

Of course, since Bountiful Artemis is a level 4 monster, you can’t rely on tricks like Gravity Bind unless you intend to win with an alternate monster or strategy (such as Lava-Lacooda Control with burn). You can either find that alternate win condition, or you can look at cards that feature different methods of stopping your opponent’s attacks. Wall of Revealing Light is a good example of stalling that will only cripple your opponent. While big life payments can be a burden on you (especially if you draw this after being forced to use multiple Solemn Judgments), the stall power of Wall of Revealing Light is hard to match. Its ability allows you to protect your Bountiful Artemis from battle while also allowing you to attack with your monsters.

Bountiful Artemis also limits the risk of relying on a card such as Wall of Revealing Light, since it encourages you to run more counter traps than most other decks. Your Solemn Judgment will provide card advantage over your opponent, and cards such as Spell Shield Type-8, Magic Jammer, and Divine Wrath become better 1-for-1 trades. This gives you the ability to use as many counter traps as you want without being worried about alternate discard costs, and it encourages an entirely new style of play.

Will Bountiful Artemis be a competitive card? I certainly think so. Denial cards have some of the most powerful effects in the game, and Bountiful Artemis rewards you for running such a tempo-disrupting strategy. The great part about the card is that it’s part of a monster line-up in this set that encourages the use of many counter trap cards. You will see what I’m talking about later this week, when Jason reveals one of the biggest win conditions available to decks that are running Bountiful Artemis. I’ll also be returning next week with a preview of not one, but two new Fairy cards from Enemy of Justice.

Until then, be sure to mark on your calendars to attend an Enemy of Justice Sneak Preview close to you. This set has easily made me more excited than any other set in the past year. It contains some great concepts, a few new cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX television series, and more surprises like Bountiful Artemis. How awesome is that? Of course, participants in the event can also receive a ton of free stuff, including a Toon Dark Magician Girl promo card. Be sure to look up the Sneak Preview near you and take part in the festivities!