Continuing the trend of augmenting older themes, Enemy of Justice has two more nifty surprises lined up for you. This set is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent memory, due to the strength of themed support cards like Cyber Phoenix, Macro Cosmos, and Icarus Attack. These excellent cards are giving older themes like Fire, Machines, and Winged Beasts the chance to have a greater impact on the environment.

One of the oldest and most popular themes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! has been the Harpie Lady theme, which was immortalized by Mai in the television series. Though it began in Metal Raiders with the release of Harpie Lady, Elegant Egotist, and Harpie Lady Sisters, the theme was never fully fleshed out in future sets. Until the boost from Rise of Destiny, all we Harpie Lady fans saw was the unthemed Harpie’s Feather Duster and the rare Harpie’s Pet Dragon.

It wasn’t until the support from Rise of Destiny that the Harpie Ladies could truly be taken seriously. The set introduced three new flavors of the flagship monster Harpie Lady, a field spell that generates massive card advantage (Harpies’ Hunting Ground), and a huge win condition (Triangle Ecstasy Spark). Unfortunately, the general lack of Winged Beast support and a shortage of solid monsters to fill in spots next to the Harpie Lady cards continued to cause problems for the theme. Much like other favorite themes from the show (such as Bakura’s Destiny Board deck and Yugi’s Dark Magician deck), the Harpie Lady deck seemed doomed to obscurity. Will two key pieces of support be enough to bring back the archetype? This preview article will analyze the merits of Icarus Attack and Harpie’s Baby Pet Dragon from the new set. Then, New Grounds will analyze the Harpie Lady theme!

Assessing the Impact of Icarus Attack

This card is a shot in the arm for all Winged Beasts in general. Interestingly enough, Winged Beasts remain one of the most under-supported subtypes in the game. Their total number of effect monsters is around twenty. However, a few gems can be found that generate some serious advantage with Icarus Attack. Its effect reads, “Tribute 1 Winged Beast-Type monster on your side of the field to destroy 2 cards on the field.”

Assuming that the tributed Winged Beast is a floater, or has already paid its resource cost, Icarus Attack does indeed create advantage on the scale of Pot of Greed. However, to maximize its use, we must immediately identify the Winged Beasts that make sense to use in a deck. The two best options outside of the Harpie Lady deck are Sacred Crane and Stealth Bird.

If Sacred Crane is brought out through the effect of a card like Reasoning, Return from the Different Dimension, or other such special summon, it definitely qualifies as a floater. In fact, special summoning Sacred Crane and then sacrificing it to Icarus Attack is one of the most advantageous two-card combinations in the game. It destroys your opponent’s resources and field presence at minimal cost to you.

Stealth Bird is a more interesting case. First, you can always search it out with a card like Mystic Tomato. Flip it down and up for 1000 damage, and you have a card that basically pays for half its cost. The other monsters that can be tributed for Icarus Attack don’t provide even half a benefit like Bird’s burn damage.

While the pickings seem slim indeed, Crane is a spectacular card to use and Stealth Bird is solid enough. The rest are difficult to justify, with the possible exception of Winged Sage Falcos. I’ve been citing the card quite frequently recently, because it proves that the beauty of our wonderful game creates all sorts of situations to include spicy tech (or “hot sauce,” as Matt Peddle likes to call it).

Of course, the real point of Icarus Attack is to provide support for the Harpie Lady theme that we all know and love. Using cards like Elegant Egotist can create beautiful situations filled with many Harpie monsters on the field simultaneously, providing ripe targets for the tribute. Let’s take a look at another card that works well in conjunction with the Harpie archetype’s swarm characteristics.

Harpie’s Pet Baby Dragon is a new Wind monster that Flying Kamakiri #1 can search for. It may pack small stats, but it has three powerful effects based on how many Harpie monsters you can put on board. Because the archetype lends itself well to swarm tactics (through Kamakiris, Egotists, and other special summon options), you can often pull off every effect in the Baby Dragon’s arsenal. Let’s take a look at this 1200 ATK/600 DEF Wind/Dragon monster.

This card gains effects when these number of monsters with "Harpie" in their names are on your side of the field. (Not counting "Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon" or “Harpie’s Brother”).  
1 or more: While this card is face-up, your opponent cannot attack monsters on your side of the field if they include "Harpie" in their names (but not "Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon" or “Harpie’s Brother”).  
2 or more: Double the original ATK and DEF of this card.  
3 or more: Once per turn, you can destroy 1 card on your opponent's side of the field.

Of course, we have to fear the inevitable Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force. However, getting two Harpie monsters on the field is the key to this equation. That will pump the Baby Dragon into a monstrous 2400 ATK behemoth while protecting every Harpie Lady from attack. Adding onto this with the “3 or more” effect is an unexpected but delightful bonus.