It’s no secret at this point that the new Warrior’s Triumph Structure deck contains a copy of Royal Decree. What really bugs me sometimes is the fact that most players are only looking at the Structure deck as a source for Royal Decrees and cheap Warrior mainstays, like Reinforcement of the Army and D. D. Warrior Lady. I get it. Those cards are good.

What I don’t get is why everyone always overlooks the three new cards that come with each deck. I mean, if nothing else, the Warrior’s Triumph Structure deck is the only place that you can find these cards! Today I’m going to discuss why you shouldn’t just write off Gilford the Legend, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade, and hopefully I’ll also inspire you to get out there and try out some underplayed Warrior variants.

Let’s start things off by looking at Warrior Lady of the Wasteland. It’s a level 4 Earth-Warrior with 1100 ATK and 1200 DEF. Of course, that ATK value probably isn’t going to get you anywhere, so this Lady had better have a nice effect to make up for it, right? Certainly, the card doesn’t disappoint in that department. Warrior Lady of the Wasteland is a self-replacing monster, and whenever it’s destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, you can special summon any Earth/Warrior monster from your deck with an ATK of 1500 or less in attack position. What can you pull from your deck with this effect?

Well, there’s Exiled Force and Mystic Swordsman LV2—which, from what I remember, are extremely good cards. If you’re looking to grab something a little more out of the ordinary, might I suggest searching for an Amazoness card? Amazon Archer, Amazoness Swords Woman, Amazoness Chain Master, Amazoness Blowpiper, and Amazoness Fighter are all eligible for searching out with Warrior Lady of the Wasteland. The question remains, though—why would you want to run this card over Giant Rat? The answer is that you can thin more of your deck by using Warrior Lady than you can by using Giant Rat. Why, exactly, is this the case?

Well, you can use Reinforcement of the Army to fetch  from your deck, which gets one card out of your deck. When the Lady is destroyed by battle, then you can get another card out of your deck. Using Warrior Lady of the Wasteland in decks where the only monsters you would search out with Giant Rat are Warriors lets you smooth out your draws by removing more cards that you don’t want to draw from your deck. Finally, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland can also be used to fetch copies of itself, which is just perfect once you consider the special effect of the next new card that I’ll be talking about.

Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade may not look like much on the surface, but in reality, it’s a combo deck just waiting to happen. The 300 point ATK boost that Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade provides is certainly not my main attraction towards this equip spell. Rather, it’s because of all the different ways in which you can use its recursion effect to your advantage. During your main phase, if Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade is in your graveyard, it can rise from the ashes back to your hand—as long as you remove two Warrior-type monsters in your graveyard from the game. This is where Warrior Lady of the Wasteland excels, because it’s easy to get three of them into the graveyard. This is a strategy that tends to work well in Armed Samurai – Ben Kei decks, as they often find themselves one equip card short of a victory. With Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade and a couple of copies of Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, you’ve always got one more equip card than your opponent thinks you do, and it can lead to your opponent making bad plays and leaving themselves open to Ben Kei’s wrath.

If you’re feeling especially janky (and I know I am), you could remove perfectly good Warriors like Blade Knight or Don Zaloog from your graveyard, and even bigger Warriors like Freed the Matchless General or Silent Swordsman LV5 from your graveyard, in order to bring back Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade. “Why would you do this?” you ask? You’d do it if you have Return from the Different Dimension or Dimension Fusion, and you’re about to fill your field with Warriors for a massive strike. Of course, you’ll have Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade as well, so you can give one of your freshly summoned Warriors a small, but handy, 300-point ATK boost. Of course, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade is just one of the many equip spells in the Warrior’s Triumph Structure deck, and if you want to use more of them in addition to the Phoenix Blade, then why not try a deck that’s based around the new ultra rare card in the deck, Gilford the Legend?

Warrior decks have always been about hitting your opponent hard and fast with tons of Warrior monsters of level 4 or lower. As such, they’ve never been the type to go to when you want to grab a really big number. Before Gilford the Legend, the best legal, non-fusion Warrior monster of level 7 or higher was probably Buster Blader, though I’d be willing to bet that Gilford the Lightning would disagree with that statement. Recently however, Warriors have been getting more high-level support with Gearfried the Swordmaster and the aforementioned Gilford the Lightning. Gilford the Legend is the latest in this line of high-level Warrior monsters, and its effect gets around a disability that equip-based decks have had for a long time. Equip spells (other than Premature Burial and Snatch Steal) have always been associated with bad card management and a loss of advantage, but if you can successfully tribute summon this Gilford, all that will change. You can equip as many equip spells as you can from your graveyard to Warrior monsters that you control, allowing you to change the loss of advantage that you may have sustained earlier in the game into an angry army that’s just itching to tear into your opponent.

Armed Samurai – Ben Kei especially loves it when Gilford’s effect resolves, because it turns a previously tiny Warrior into a whirling dervish that could be hit by 200 poisoned arrows and still keep on fighting. Just imagine tribute summoning Gilford and pulling back United We Stand, Mage Power, Axe of Despair, Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, and Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade from your graveyard on to your Armed Samurai – Ben Kei. The problem, of course, is getting all those equip spells in the first place.

For a little help with that, I suggest trying out a few copies of Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu to search out the right equip spell for the situation. In fact, other types of decks could even use Kotetsu to search out some of their best cards. “But, Jerome!” you say. “Lots of other decks don’t run equip spells!” Oh, really? That what’s that icon I see next to “Spell Card” on Premature Burial and Snatch Steal? Yup, those are equip spells too, and that makes them valid choices for the Blacksmith’s effect.

That’s about all I have for today. Next time you crack open a Warrior’s Triumph Structure Deck, rejoice! You just opened up three sweet new cards, and as an added bonus, they also came with a Royal Decree. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu

NEXT WEEK: I didn’t have enough time to play around with the new cards to have a new deck for you this week, but I should have things pretty well figured out by next week. I hope you’re all having a good time with Elemental Energy, because as a set, it has nearly infinite potential.