There are some great new cards coming out in Rise of Destiny, including some tribute monsters that completely justify sending one or two in-play monsters to the graveyard in order to normal summon them. One of the biggest of these bad boys is The Creator, which is one of my favorite picks from the set.
The Creator is a level 8 monster, so you’ll need to tribute two monsters in order to Normal summon it. The Creator also has a summoning restriction. Like so many great monsters nowadays, it can’t be special summoned from the graveyard, so you can’t use the usual multitude of tricks to get it into play easily. It’s a Thunder monster with 2300 ATK and 3000 DEF. Its attack is a bit low for a two-tribute monster, but it’s a massive wall when in defense position.
The effect of The Creator is what makes it special. In short, it allows you to discard a card to special summon a monster from the graveyard. This can only be done once per turn, but it’s pretty easy to see the combo potential of this card with things like Sinister Serpent and other cards that you’d enjoy having in your graveyard.
The Creator is going to fit into a lot of decks. Surprisingly, it works very well in Fire Princess decks, giving them a large boost. The Creator not only gives you a way to drop Marie the Fallen One into the graveyard, but it can also special summon any monsters that are important to your combo in exchange for any card you want to pitch. Whether you have the opportunity to get multiple copies of Fire Princess into play, or you just have Cure Mermaids and Dancing Faeries to add to the barrage, The Creator can be a great way to use your UFO Turtles and other monsters that become useless once you get your lock in place and adequately protected.
In Constructed, The Creator can be valuable to several other decks as well. It’s a Light monster, so if you’re playing a Light deck it can be summoned by just tributing Kaiser Sea Horse. That can mean a lot of swarming with big monsters and surprising endings to games, if you have hand advantage over your opponent. If you’re playing a Dragon deck, The Creator allows you to pitch any card from your hand to special summon those huge Dragons that the deck prefers to special instead of tribute summon. Is Blue-Eyes White Dragon in your graveyard? Discard another Blue-Eyes from your hand to special summon the first one, and then repeat on the next turn.
Unfortunately, because The Creator is so potentially overwhelming, it has a large target on its back the moment it comes into play. If an opponent doesn’t immediately see a bullseye on The Creator when it’s first summoned, he or she isn’t looking very hard. The result is twofold. First, when you summon The Creator, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting one very good use out of it right when you summon it. You’ll be able to maintain priority to use its effect once it enters play, and that means you’ll at least get some bang for your buck even if it immediately gets nailed with a Ring of Destruction or Raigeki Break.
Second, you can use The Creator’s status as a must-kill card to pressure the opponent. If your opponent is hanging on to a piece of monster removal, he or she will probably use it on The Creator. You can use this to protect what you just brought out of the graveyard with The Creator’s ability, which is especially useful when the monster you special summoned was one with a lot of raw attack power. You can also use this strategy to draw attacks and effects away from monsters that are key to your deck’s central strategy. Fire Princess is agood example, but Don Zaloog or Spirit Reaper fit the bill in a Control deck, and Terrorking Archfiend would be worth protecting in a Fiend deck.
It’s worth noting that The Creator basically allows you to cycle away one card from your hand per turn, provided you have Card of Safe Return in play and a free monster slot in which to summon the new monster. Card of Safe Return has mostly been relegated to Manticore of Darkness decks and rules scenario examples, but this gives a good reason to use the card with some other ones that work well with it. Spear Cretin and Night Assailant immediately come to mind, creating a nasty trio of self-replenishing defensive walls and card cycling.
In Limited, The Creator is a total bomb, meaning it’s a great game-winning card. It’s a lucky pull in Sealed, and a definite first-round pick in any draft. The ability to get multiple uses out of the monsters in your ranks that have high ATK stats is invaluable in Limited formats, and the fact that The Creator is a 3000 DEF monster makes it an incredibly potent wall. If you get one, be sure to play it—it’s easily one of the best possible cards for Limited play.
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