The effects of the Crystal Beast monsters may seem quite strange until you get your first glimpse at the support cards designed to function with them. This team certainly has its fair share of support cards to choose from, with combos both new and old that mix in quite well with their unique abilities. In order to use the new support cards, it helps to understand what they do.

Precious Gems

What do Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players like to do? Do they like to draw cards? No. Do they like to draw lots of cards . . . ? Getting warmer. Oh, right! They like to draw lots of cards with little to no effort. Afterward, they restlessly shuffle them about in their hands for no reason at all. While I can’t speak for this behavior, I can say that Rare Value does what Crystal Beast players want, and does it well.

“Activate only when there are 2 or more ‘Crystal Beast’ cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone. Your opponent selects 1 ‘Crystal Beast’ card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone and sends it to the Graveyard. Then you draw 2 cards.”

Rare Value has one condition that must be met in order for it to be activated. It’s hardly a restriction at all, because it isn’t difficult to have two Crystal Beasts in your spell and trap card zone. In fact, the spell card Crystal Blessing will do it in a hurry if you haven’t already reached that point naturally from the expected destruction of a bunch of Crystal Beast monsters.

When Rare Value resolves, your opponent selects one of the Crystal Beast monsters you have in your spell and trap card zone, and sends it to its owner’s graveyard. This selection is entirely up to your opponent and you won’t know which card he or she picks until the effect is resolved. After the opponent has made his or her choice and the monster has been sent to the graveyard, you draw two cards from your deck.

Two potential problems can come up for Rare Value. The first is the longevity of the Crystal Beasts in the spell and trap card zone after Rare Value has been activated. At that point, you no longer need two or more Crystal Beast monsters in your spell and trap card zone, but that doesn’t mean you can ditch them all. Having one remaining Crystal Beast becomes a necessity. By default, it will become the Crystal Beast your opponent selects to send to the graveyard. Losing every Crystal Beast is not an option, because if you don’t have a Crystal Beast for your opponent to select and send to the graveyard, you won’t be drawing two cards. You can’t get one without the other.

The other issue is Macro Cosmos and cards of its ilk. While it may seem like a problem when it comes time for your opponent to select one of your Crystal Beasts from the spell and trap card zone, it’s actually not an issue at all. If Macro Cosmos is in play, the Crystal Beast selected from the spell and trap card zone will simply be removed from play instead of winding up in the graveyard.

The End?

Crystal Abundance is essentially the finishing move of the Crystal Beast deck. Not many cards are capable of completely wiping out everything on the field, but to special summon monsters afterward? That’s quite an accomplishment.

“Send 4 ‘Crystal Beast’ cards from your Spell & Trap Card Zone to the Graveyard. Send all cards on the field to the Graveyard. Then, Special Summon as many ‘Crystal Beast’ monsters as possible from your Graveyard, up to the number of your opponent’s cards that were sent to the Graveyard by this card’s effect.”

It was Crystal Abundance that made me want to figure out how the Crystal Beasts work, because this card really sets the team on its way to winning the duel. Every obstruction that could possibly get in the way is eliminated, and afterward, the Crystal Beast monsters you special summon can very likely finish the game. You need only have four Crystal Beasts in your spell and trap zone to send to the graveyard for Crystal Abundance’s cost.

When you activate Crystal Abundance, the four Crystal Beasts you give up won’t be on the field anymore, so it isn’t possible for your opponent to target them with effects like Mystical Space Typhoon. They are given up at the point of activation, so when your opponent has a chance to respond, these cards are already in the graveyard. If he or she wants to stop Crystal Abundance, the opponent needs to focus on negating its effect.

The number of Crystal Beast monsters you are able to special summon is entirely dependent upon two facts: how many Crystal Beasts you have in your graveyard and how many of your opponent’s cards you sent to the graveyard with Crystal Abundance. Naturally, you would hope to hit as many of your opponent’s cards as possible, but you can run into a snag with monster tokens, which are removed from the equation because they will never touch the graveyard. They’ll be removed from the field, and will not count towards your opponent’s cards that were sent to the graveyard.

Example: Sheep Herding

Jessica has four Crystal Beasts in her spell and trap card zone. Her opponent Gabriel has four monsters on his side of the field: Harvest Angel of Wisdom, Gellenduo, and two Synthetic Seraphim tokens. In his spell and trap card zone, he has Synthetic Seraphim and a face-down Aegis of Gaia.

Jessica begins her turn by activating Crystal Abundance, sending the four Crystal Beasts in her spell and trap card zone to the graveyard. When the effect is resolved, every card on the field is sent to the graveyard. Now the number of Gabriel’s cards that were sent to the graveyard is counted. The two Synthetic Seraphim tokens are removed from the field and cease to exist, so they are irrelevant. The Harvest Angel of Wisdom, Gellenduo, Synthetic Seraphim, and Aegis of Gaia are the only cards that are actually sent to the graveyard, totaling four cards. Jessica will be able to special summon up to four Crystal Beast monsters from her graveyard.

When you resolve Crystal Abundance, you are free to choose any Crystal Beast monster you have in your graveyard. You can choose multiple copies of the same Crystal Beast as well as from those Crystal Beasts you sent to the graveyard to pay Crystal Abundance’s activation cost. This is possible because you don’t target any cards with this effect. The Crystal Beasts you will special summon are not selected until the effect is resolved, so any Crystal Beast that happens to be in the graveyard at the time you make your selection is a valid choice. If you happen to select Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, you can activate its effect after you summon it to the field. The timing window for its effect will be just right.

What happens if you special summon multiple Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus cards? That works just fine too. You will be able to chain all of their effects together in perfect harmony. An abundance of crystals, indeed.

Next week, we continue with more support cards for the Crystal Beasts. Until then, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.