|
Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
Click here for more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| |
Many of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Warrior-type monsters have backstories—histories that you can explore through the art on various cards. You can see Marauding Captain save Gagagigo’s life in the art on My Body as a Shield. The Captain’s heroism sets Gagagigo on the path of righteousness until his tragic downfall, when he sacrifices his soul to become Giga Gagagigo. You can also see Freed the Brave Wanderer grow into Freed the Matchless General, and you can watch D. D. Warrior Lady having crazy adventures in the Different Dimension. Almost every Warrior has some sort of story behind it.
 Gearfried the Swordmaster continues the trend of Warriors with expanded characterization. It’s a graduated version of Gearfried the Iron Knight. Gearfried the Swordmaster is a “nomi” monster, which is a monster that cannot be normal summoned or set—it can only be special summoned by a specific effect. Gearfried the Swordmaster relies on a tricky combination of Release Restraint (a new spell in the Flaming Eternity set) and an in-play Gearfried the Iron Knight. It takes some effort to get this Warrior out, but it’s definitely worth it.
The Swordmaster is a level 7 Warrior with the Light attribute. Weighing in at 2600 ATK and 2200 DEF, Gearfried packs quite a punch, and the card’s effect makes it even better. Whenever you attach an equip spell card to Gearfried, you can destroy one monster on your opponent’s side of the field.
Equip spell cards have always had one primary drawback—if you attach an equip spell card to a monster, and then your opponent destroys that monster, you’ve lost two cards. It’s that weakness of card advantage that prevents equip spells from seeing much play. Gearfried the Swordmaster throws that drawback right out the window. As soon as you equip it, you automatically gain a piece of card advantage on the field. Even if an opponent uses Hammer Shot or Smashing Ground on Gearfried afterward, you’re still breaking even.
With Gearfried the Swordmaster, every equip spell card you have in your hand gets turned into a Fissure, right? Not quite. You get to choose the monster destroyed by Gearfried’s effect. Unlike most monster-destruction effects, the monster doesn’t get destroyed as the result of a calculation. Don’t think of it as a free Hammer Shot, but rather as a Tribute to the Doomed that doesn’t require a discard.
Because the Swordmaster is a “nomi” monster, it would normally be difficult to get it back from the graveyard when an opponent manages to destroy it. After all, Gearfried can’t be special summoned back onto the field. However, because it’s a Warrior-type monster, it can be retrieved from the graveyard to the hand with The Warrior Returning Alive.
Because Gearfried is a Warrior, it can be equipped with the underplayed Fusion Sword Murasame Blade. Fusion Sword isn’t seen in most metagames, but it can be a terribly powerful card. An opponent is going to have a very difficult time destroying a Swordmaster that has one of these attached, unless he or she has a direct destruction effect. Even before you summon the Swordmaster, Fusion Sword can be useful for the other Warrior monsters in your deck. Marauding Captain’s ATK value is pumped up to 2000 with a single Fusion Sword, making its “you have to attack me before you attack any other Warrior” effect all the more frustrating. Mataza the Zapper can get 1600 life points’ worth of increased damage from a single Sword if it can directly attack an opponent twice, and it can turn from a direct-attacking threat to a board-sweeping monster-killer. Fusion Sword Murasame Blade gives decks built around the Swordmaster three solid equipping combos to start with.
Butterfly Dagger – Elma is always a good card for equip spell decks because of its resiliency, and since you’ll need to run three copies of Gearfried the Iron Knight, Smoke Grenade of the Thief can be a great pick as well. Smoke Grenade is a quick piece of monster removal when it’s attached to the Swordmaster, but it becomes a quick piece of hand removal when it’s attached to Gearfried the Iron Knight. That kind of flexibility can be brutal. With the addition of Mage Power, you have eight strong candidates to fill up a Swordmaster deck’s lineup of equip spell cards.
In Sealed Pack formats, the Swordmaster won’t be as strong, because there won’t be a Gearfried the Iron Knight to help summon it. However, Gearfried the Swordmaster presents an interesting alternative for the typical Warrior deck in Constructed formats. The Swordmaster could be quite viable, so give it a try when you get your hands on one!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
 |
| |
| Top of Page |
|
|
| |
|