I have to say that I really enjoyed writing last week’s article since I like Dinosaurs so much—and I get to do it all over again with this week’s card! What we’ve got here today is Black Ptera, and it’s pretty fierce looking. Check it out! We’re obviously dealing with a pterosaur here, which technically isn’t a dinosaur (it’s a flying reptile), but it’s big, it’s cool looking, and it’s a great support to both Dinosaur and Wind types, so you’ll hear no serious quibbles from me about taxonomy.

I’m going to be using it in my Dinosaur deck because I want to run some two-tribute monsters. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.  Black Ptera is a Level 3 Dinosaur monster with the Wind attribute. It’s got 1000 ATK and 500 DEF. Sure, that’s a little bit tiny, but it sports a very useful effect. When you send it from the field to the graveyard for any reason other than as a result of battle, it is returned to your hand.

Now the obvious use for this guy is for tributes, right? It’s a little bit like Treeborn Frog in that you aren’t really giving it up for good. There are actually a lot more uses for the card, though, and I’m going to talk about some of them here. Let’s start with tributing, though. It’s good for more than getting out bigger monsters!

I’ll definitely be using it to help get out Black Tyranno or Ultimate Tyranno in my Dinosaur deck, but it’ll also get out Dark Driceratops (just as good as Saber Beetle!) and be back in my hand to help me out again later. Of course, you aren’t restricted to Dinosaurs. Black Ptera is good for getting any tribute monster out on the field, without giving up a card.

Don’t get distracted by the fact that it’s a Dinosaur—the Wind attribute makes it even more useful. You can search it out with Flying Kamakiri #1 (which is already a pretty useful card) and get it onto the field when you need it. What can you do with it once it’s there? Well, if you’ve picked up a copy of the latest Structure Deck, Lord of the Storm, the combos leap right out at you.

How about Swift Birdman Joe? Tribute Black Ptera to summon this guy, and you get a free Giant Trunade and your tribute monster back in your hand. No threat from Sakuretsu Armor, Mirror Force, or Enemy Controller, and a 2300-point attacker. Oh, and while we’re at it, what’s Sonic Shooter’s effect? Attack directly for 1300 when your opponent’s spell and trap zones are empty? So much for that Spirit Reaper, huh? Sounds like a good deal to me.

Once the Black Ptera is back in your hand, you could discard it for a cost if you liked, such as Hysteric Party or Lady Ninja Yae. Even though it won’t come back to your hand, you’ve still gotten twice the use you’d have gotten from any other monster.

If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with other Wind decks, consider Black Ptera with Familiar-Possessed - Wynn or Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi. It was born to be played with Spiritual Wind Art!

Basically, if you need to send a card from the field to the graveyard to get an effect, Black Ptera is probably the monster you’re looking for. How about Share the Pain? Cannon Soldier ammunition? And while we’re at it, we can’t overlook how well it will work with Ultimate Offering. For a mere 500 life points, you can recycle it as many times as you like, either for a tribute summon or for other tribute effects.

Its usefulness goes beyond mere tributes, though. It’s also got a lot of strategic uses. For instance, you can easily use it to manipulate the tempo of the game, fooling your opponent into over-committing to the field. If you can create a situation where you and your opponent are passing turn after turn setting monsters (and you know the kinds of games I mean), but you’re setting copies of Black Ptera, then you’ll have the upper hand when you eventually activate Torrential Tribute. You’ll get all those Black Pteras back, while your opponent will lose his or her monsters to the graveyard.

Black Ptera also makes a great “bait” monster when your opponent is running Mystic Swordsman LV2 or Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. If he or she destroys it, it’s not that bad: since it was destroyed by an effect, you’ll get it right back in your hand. You will lose field presence, true, but you haven’t lost card presence, and you’ve possibly distracted your opponent from more important or vulnerable monsters.

Black Ptera cards, once returned to your hand, also provide discard support for cards like Lightning Vortex, Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, and Jowgen the Spiritualist. You’ve already gotten some use out of it as a tribute or a decoy for your opponent, so discarding it to pay a cost is still an efficient move. Don’t forget its usefulness with Fossil Excavation. Say you tribute it to bring out a bigger Dinosaur that then gets hit by Torrential. You can discard Black Ptera and bring the big one right back. Surprise!

Before I wrap this up, we should touch on loops. The first thing anyone will want to do with a monster like this is figure out how to abuse it unmercifully by creating a loop. Here’s an obvious example. It’s hard to pull off because it requires a combo of at least four cards, but it’s fun. You’ll need Black Ptera, Mysterious Puppeteer, and Ultimate Offering to keep yourself in business. You’ll also need something awful to do to your opponent.

You can see how it works fairly clearly. You need Ultimate Offering active on the field, and Black Ptera and Mysterious Puppeteer out as well. The life point boost from Mysterious Puppeteer will balance out the cost of Ultimate Offering, giving you an unlimited number of normal summons due to Black Ptera’s effect. Every time you tribute it, it comes right back to your hand. That means you can tribute it for Cannon Soldier or Mass Driver as many times as you like to burn the opponent until he or she loses. You could also just summon a bunch of tribute monsters, repeatedly using Black Ptera as the tribute. There are several ways to abuse the loop, but Cannon Soldier or Mass Driver are the easiest and the best, since they are the most direct path to victory.