Koa’ki Meiru Prototype/82/TSHD/Rock/Effect/Earth/4//1800/1800/
If a face-up “Koa’ki Meiru” monster would be destroyed during the End Phase, you can destroy this card instead. When a face-up “Koa’ki Meiru” monster is destroyed during the End Phase, you can Special Summon 1 “Koa’ki Meiru” Token (Rock-Type/EARTH/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 1800)./
KM as an archetype is just terribly designed (I have elaborated on this in several Pojo COTD reviews). This card is garbage. It requires you to destroy 1900 ATK monsters with good effects, purposefully, to create 1800/1800 tokens as their replacement.
Cards like these seem to indicate that the architect behind the TCG exclusives (or these cards in particular) is throwing slop on the wall to see what sticks. KM are supposed to be a focused, anti-meta archetype that focuses on big monsters with permission abilities. Why waste one of the ten possible sacred slots that can help existing themes on a counter-intuitive card like this?
It appears that the designer is growing frustrated with the failings of KM and has moved gradually towards turning the KM archetype into yet another OTK engine. I think the proper way to fix a lack of utility without Iron Core is to improve Iron Core or find a tutor for it (like a KM-specific Volcanic Rocket). The answer isn’t to reinvent the *entire* theme.
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T: 1/5
D: 1/5
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Core Overclock/87/TSHD/Spell Card/Spell//Continuous///
All face-up “Koa’ki Meiru” monsters you control gain 500 ATK. Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can discard 1 “Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru” to have all face-up “Koa’ki Meiru” monsters you control gain 1000 ATK until the End Phase./
This card is leading to some hype because of its ability to contribute to near-OTKs. This type of KM build would obviously be an explosive variant that would seek to push game-ending amounts of damage in a single turn.
I mean I suppose I understand the rage that Yu-Gi-Oh! KM designers feel. They devoted dozens of slots to KM support, created a host of TCG-exclusive support cards, and watched the efforts fall flat on their face due to a lack of proper tuning. But you can’t just try to morph a control-heavy anti-meta type group of monsters into a herp derp pain train!
While I understand the desire to shake things up, the game does not need more effects that resemble Limiter Removal/Megamorph type cards.
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T: 2/5
D: 2/5
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Koa’ki Meiru Bergzak/99/TSHD/Warrior/Effect/Earth/4//2000/200/
During each of your End Phases, destroy this card unless you send 1 “Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru” from your hand to the Graveyard or reveal 1 Warrior-Type monster in your hand. If this card destroys an opponent’s monster by battle, this card can attack once more in a row./
Another contradictory piece of KM support. Basically the entire assortment of KM monsters features some sort of anti-meta or permission effect. Bergzak is a monster that can conceivably push through almost 6000 damage against certain fields. However, I don’t understand why KM, of all archetypes, would receive this kind of explosive burst.
The weight of evidence, from Iron Core Luster to Automatic Laser to KM Guardian, Beetle, Drago, Ice, Doom, and others indicate that the archetype was focused on control and field presence.
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T: 1/5
D: 1/5
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I have to agree that Darksoul is a very strong card, but it is not broken. Even with the Failtroll loop allowed, Darksoul is not what breaks the Saber deck. If I summon Rescue Cat for 2x Darksoul, how would you play then? You would probably realize that the loop would be performed the next turn. You don’t even need any specific cards to do something against this; you just have to bring your hand to the field.
Darksoul doesn’t come close to breaking X-Sabers. Failtroll loop is in fact broken, but it is not something that makes them better than the other Tier 1 decks. It is also not Hyunlei that does this. Rather, the threat is the combination of Failtroll loop and Hyunlei. These two cards together make it so that the X-Saber’s opponent’s cards aren’t safe on the field, nor in the hand. This is what breaks X-Saber decks. Darksoul merely makes it more accessible.
I think it’s saddening that you haven’t taken a closer look to what Pashuul is capable of. You read it as a card that whose potential can only possibly lie in an X-Saber deck. However, Pashuul is what will make a new Synchro Engine big. I would call it the successor of the Teleport Engine because it is very similar. Activate Reinforce Truth to summon a level 2 Tuner is nothing new, but Pashuul is the perfect card to be that level 2 Tuner. Set Reinforce Truth, absorb any attacks with Pashuul, Synchro summon it in your turn before you take any damage by it’s effect.
I too think you may have overrated Dark Soul, although not as much as the above poster seems to think.
It’s an ultimate floater/searcher to be sure, and the synergy with rescue cat is unbelievable. However, 100/100 stats do as much as they can to nerf the amazing card. Whereas Goblin Zombie and Sangan can end a game in 8x direct attacks, Dark Soul will never attack in any significant way. Likewise, it will never defend in a meaningful manner.
3x Dark Soul seems to be too many for me. I think, running a full compliment of Emmersblades and rescue cat, a X-Saber deck can easily get away with running 1 and simply using it as Gottoms/Hyunlei material.
But as you said, the opportunity to turn Cat into a Pot of Greed is too good to pass up, so I imagine 2x Dark Soul will be the norm until Cat is banned.
Also, food for thought, it is interesting to draw design comparisons between X-Sabers and Zombies.
I have to say, reading this left me disappointed. This was not the kind of review I would enjoy reading from you.
Don’t get me wrong, I do agree with your views on Boggart Knight (except I like the name =’(), Darksoul, Snyffus, Nimble Sunfish, and Akz the Pumer, but in my opinion you didn’t looked into some of the other cards enough.
One card that I feel you didn’t take the time to evaluate properly is Koa’ki Meiru Prototype. If you ask me I find this to be an excellent card for the Koa’ki Meiru. It’s yet another Koa’ki Meiru that doesn’t carry a maintenance cost, but unlike the others we’ve gotten it actually has decent stats to match.
No longer must they worry about not having the proper card to reveal or an Iron Core to stay on the field, and if you don’t have any choice then pop the KM and get a beefy Token.
It’s been made clear enough that they weren’t going to design any cards that eliminates their End Phase cost so the other best course of action is designing cards that can help you benefit from their otherwise disadvantageous cost. Couple this card with the Field Spell and not only will you get to keep your other Koa’ki Meiru on the field, but you’ll also get a big Token courtesy of Prototype’s effect and still get to search for another Koa’ki Meiru.
Koa’ki Meirus had the problem of keeping their guys on the field without losing anything in exchange, but thanks to Prototype they have yet another way to mitigate that loss by replacing themselves with a 1800/1800 Token that is also recyclable thanks to Crusader.
To top it off you can even use those Tokens to tribute for the big KMs that the Archetype has. While not as great as it’s first application, it shows that they were thinking about every little thing that the Archetype offers when designing it. That in my opinion is great card design.
Another card that I feel you didn’t cover enough is Bergzak. This thing is huge!
I don’t know if you’re aware that this + Urnight = half your opponent’s LPs or more dealt in one turn. That can be game-ending especially if coupled with the aforementioned Core Overclock or even a Maximus drop.
I question players using the Overclock, but nonetheless the choice is there. Though I must admit that the potential damage output is tempting.
It’s also a Warrior-Type KM that can reveal couple with Rooklord, a KM with as much destructive power as Celestia that was put aside for lack of a suitable match to reveal for. Thanks to Bergzak’s introduction into the TCG, players can now look at Rooklord again and consider it as an option for inclusion in their deck.
Lastly, I was disappointed that you didn’t cover the new Genex monsters at all, specifically Genex Neutron.
I understand that you said that you’re unaware about them, but surely you know at least about Genex Neutron who is heavily talked about, and what it can do since you typed its effect.
An 1800 ATK LIGHT monster that can float into a Black Salvo, a Quickdraw Synchron, and a….Genex Controller(?) surely counts for something.
Despite all of this, it was nice reading about your thoughts on the Shining Darkness Exclusives and I hope to read more of it from you in the future.
Oh and do look into Fish more. I think you might like it, especially now thanks to Sunfish.
-Siulzen
I would like to add that your review on some of the cards basically summarizes into “crap”.
Couldn’t you have at least elaborated a bit more on them through a designer’s perspective?
Not that I don’t agree, but I can see what the designers were trying to let off on when they made those cards.
-Siulzen
Thanks for the amazing feedback guys. I was surprised to see such clarity and thought so soon.
Exiro, I do agree with the catch-22 that Hyunlei presents with Faultroll. I will address this in more detail in a future article.
Ben, time will tell. But I am fairly certain we will see a reduction in Emmersblade numbers. I simply don’t feel recruiters are reliable enough in this format filled with Chariots and Firedogs and Mist Wurms floating around. Heck, even cards like Sangan are less than reliable now with Caius all over the place.
Emmersblade is rather overrated if you think about it. It functions like a Giant Rat in almost every capacity except for being able to grab Airbellum and now Boggart (but Rat can grab Cat, Trooper, Grand Mole, and other pieces of tech).
I guess we’ll see. I am predicting 2-3 Darksoul, 1-2 Emmersblade run by the top YGO players.
Siulzen, I really do appreciate your thoughtful feedback. I felt it would have been disingenuous to give an overview of Genex support cards when they are clearly intended to be a part of a theme that i have no clue about.
I am not a fan of the direction they are taking KM. I elaborated a bit on it with edits. I actually missed the last few sets because I just came back to the game for Edison. So you probably know a lot more about the fringe tier 2 interactions with these cards than me. That’s great, the game needs more analysis from players like you.
I agree with others that your reviews were slightly biased.
I do agree that darksoul is broken when used with resuce cat (which needs to be banned). Darksoul is the goblin zombie of x-sabers, while emmersblade is the pyramid turtle of x-sabers. That alone should warrant more darksouls played than emmersblade.
As for KM monsters, I find that they are better used in other decks than their own. For example, drago in hopeless/disaster dragon, guardian in rock stuns, and bergzak in warrior decks. Of course, with urknights, KMs themselves become more playable, yet not at a level of synergy reached by REDMD ss drago, for example.
And as for genex, the only good genexes, imo, are ally genex birdman and locomotion-genex, although genex neutron seeems enough in quick draw decks and salvo decks.
I am in a rush while typing this, so just a few comments about 3 cards and why I see they were released/overpowered.
1. Saber vault: this card allows for a 2800 hyunlai, a 2900 urbellum, and a 4000 gottoms. It makes the x saber synchro monsters even more valuable individually. Although I personally am against atk boosts, as an x saber player who hates how weak urbellum and airbellum are, is running boggart knight which means I NEED strong saber synchros, hates facing down a stardust or colossal and in general, recognizes that sabers don’t run as many 1 for 1 tricks as decks such as gadgets do, I see a reason for this card.
2. core overclock: I noticed that KM, due to the lack of tuners and ways to synch, has very little it can do once a big monster HAS hit the field. In this respect, I see the reasoning over core overclock. It puts most KM at 2400 attack, giving them a 1 chance boost to 2900 to run over / crash with commonly played creatures such as tytanial, monarchs etc.
3. Snyffus: I was suprised that the interaction that this card has with arcanite wasn’t mentioned: specically summoner> rescue cat> airbellum and snyffus> arcanite, blow 2, > stardust…..
Aside from the Saber synchros (which arguably need the attack boost the least), Gaia Power is a more reliable way to boost your Sabers’ attack points, if it’s really that big a problem. It just seems like you’re making Fullhelm/Emmersblade into BTH targets, while letting them run a few more things over. However, the idea of Emmers trading off with Laquari/Shura/Stratos is tempting.
Good reviews overall.
Also, you claim that Quickdraw Synchron will not be able to hold the fort, so to speak. Are you making this prediction with knowledge of the soon-to-be-released Junk Destroyer (a Gyzarus-shaped card)?
Darksoul is quite a force. I agree with what you said on him. I wish you hadn’t harped so badly on Prototype; it’s not him that’s bad, it’s the archetype itself, as you hit on the head. He doesn’t force you to destroy your beatsticks, he just provides a replacement in case you can’t Core for them, and I’d rather have that than nothing. Thank you sincerely for noting the intricacies of Barrier, and the fact the Wave-Motion is a horrible, god awful card. People need to value it lower; just because it’s a secret that doesn’t mean it’s not an awful card.
I’ve been doing my best to work with KM also, and while Overclock and Prototype do something that the deck needed (save field presence with Prototype with some thanks to Urknight, and get the necessary ATK boost against non-DARK and -LIGHT monsters), they do need something besides Core Transport Unit to get the Iron Core in your hand. As you’ve noted, Jae, a card like Volcanic Rocket is what the deck desperately needs before it will ever properly function. Core Transport Unit was a decent attempt, but having to discard a card to *potentially* (it IS a Continuous Spell, so paying the cost doesn’t guarantee anything) get a card that is necesary for the deck to properly function is/was ridiculous. The 20+ people I play against every weekend have allowed me to playtest such a necessary card, and this is what I’ve been working with:
Basically, I’ve just been using Cyber Ouroboros, keeping it’s basic stats but giving it name and effect changes;
“Koa’ki Meiru Iron Ouroboros”
“This card’s name can be treated as ‘Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru’ while in your deck, hand, or graveyard while you control at least 1 face-up ‘Koa’ki Meiru’ monster (That’s the best phrasing I could come up with, without it being overwhelming long). During the End Phase of the turn this card was sent to the graveyard, you can remove from play this card to add 1 ‘Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru’ from your deck or graveyard to your hand.”
It works perfectly well without overpowering, can abuse ‘Burial from a Different Dimension’ if needed (and works with Ghoulungulate and Maximus), and allows for more guaranteed activation capability of their Traps. The only downside is that it makes Core Compression and Koa’ki Meiru Initiate! a touch too abuseable, so I was thinking of adding a “no Spell Card” stipulation, but then it won’t work with their Field Spell or Overclock…
It’s obviously what the deck needs. Why they seem to almost refuse a card that may function in the same sense as Cyber Dragon Zwei is beyond me.
Most of the reviews seem accurate to me however I think Passiul is more valuable than you give it credit for. Passiul gives you lvl 2 tuner for sabers which widens the number of syncs the deck can easily produce and gives Emmersblade a good target to stop a swarm of monsters. It helps you go for Hyunlei more often, via Boggart, and enables faultroll to turn into a SDD or a Collosal. It also can be helpful to sync with Emmers or Darksoul for Catastor or later for Nat Beast. I definitely think 1-2 Passiul is almost staple in Sabers.
A bit of comment in regard to darkpaladin752′s comments dated May 6, at http://go-ygo.com/yugioh-shining-darkness-tshd-recap-tcg-exclusives/comment-page-1/#comment-1083
You argue for Saber Vault.
To put in perspective precisely how poor a design choice it is, the card’s comparisons to Gaia Power come to mind – Gaia Power having been designed by Konami some ten years ago, having never truly seen any sort of intensely competitive light of day.
Both Gaia Power and Saber Vault work for both players. One’s EARTH, the other’s X-Saber – so, we can say that Gaia Power will help your opponent more often, as it’s slightly more likely to run into any opposing EARTH mon than an opposing X-Saber. However, this factor is terribly miniscule in competitive matters; X-Sabers represent EARTH far better than most other cards, ergo arguing that Vault wins here somehow matters a whole lot… won’t work.
In order for Saber Vault to give an ATK boost equal to Gaia Power’s, an X-Saber must be Level 5. Higher Sabers get more, of course – Faultroll and Hyunlei get 6, Urbellum 7, and Gottoms 9. But the bread and butter of the Deck’s cards that actually warrant ATK boosts are all at or below Level 5. For the cards that actually need something like Vault, Gaia delivers better; and at lower levels, a difference of 100 ATK is much more imperative to survival.
Let’s check DEF, too. Here, those lower Sabers end up losing more DEF from Gaia Power than from Vault. But it matters not. To lose an equal amount from Gaia and Vault, a Saber must be 4; the only ones worth considering are Boggart and Garsem, and their remaining DEF after Gaia or Vault is so miniscule as to be without weight. Consider the Sabers below 4; not a one of them has enough DEF for the difference in loss between Gaia and Vault to matter. Where the ATK differences work in Gaia’s favor for monster survival, the DEF differences do not work in Saber’s favor, as the DEFs left by either Gaia OR Vault are too small.
Let’s also consider how Gaia gives less ATK to the higher Sabers. Gottoms is 4000 Vault vs. 3600 Gaia; that difference doesn’t permit it to kill any monsters any faster, nor does the battle damage difference matter enough. The same goes for Urbellum’s 29 vs. 27, Hyunlei’s 29 vs. 28, and Faultroll’s 30 vs. 29.
And while Gaia takes less DEF from the higher Sabers, that DEF matter is of little relevance; bringing it up would only help my case anyway.
No matter the breakdown, Saber Vault is a worse card than Gaia Power, and Gaia Power, well, isn’t hot.
@ atem: my apologies, I had 1. forgotten about gaia power and 2. neglected to notice that saber vault is a field spell that affects all saber monsters, not just your own. I do not disagree that this card was a poor design choice and is a complete waste of both the TCG exclusive spot and a secret rare. However, I was just noting that it does have its uses, primarily referencing the synchos (urbellum, hyunlai who are both weaker than all commonly played synchros other than brionac, AFD and catastor).
However, with the reference of higher lvl monsters, 2900 vs 2700/2800 does matter as 2800 is the line for both tytanial, thought ruler, unboosted colossal, and light and darkness dragon, and 3000 gives you a way to crash with red dragon (if for whatever reason it is still on the field). Does this necessarily redeem the card? probably not. Does it however give an option to consider if for whatever reason, your biggest issue is running over certain monsters? yes.
As to the monsters that need sabervault, I disagree in the sense that I do not feel boggart knight, emmersblade, garsem, and airbellum particularly warrant attack boosts. With either boost, monsters are either pushed to at least the 1900 range (garsem and airbellum) or should not be used for their attack power in the first place (emmers). Again, for these monsters, yes gaia is better.
Again, I do not feel that this card is great or is likely to be run in better saber decks, but I do feel like mentioning that the atk power it boosts certain monsters too are very interesting to note (namely hyunlai, urbellum and airbellum) and it does make those 2 synchro’s specifically better.
To clarify: I feel snyffus is overpowered (for all the reasons jae mentioned in addition to the interaction it creates with summoner and rescue cat…. it shores up the weakness of leaving arcanite on the field or having to waste a lone airbellum), and I see reasons behind overclock (which I actually feel is a decent card) and saber vault (which again…. is bad but has interesting interactions)
There is honestly FAR to much to cover. I’ll mention what I believe are the best cards mentioned
Obviously like most people XX-Saber Darksoul speaks for itself, though its not the be all end all of the deck. In all honesty it now means only one thing for X-saber…you no longer need Sangan in any shape or form. Yes the abuse for Rescue Cat is clear but since its been limited i dont see any major change coming to it in September. If anything I see Emmersblade and Darksoul taking the hit for X-Sabers. And honestly I will most likely NOT be playing their big 1900 attacker at all. His restriction in synchro summoing is huge, and there are a variety of ways to get out a variety of other monsters. The downside is not being able to get lv 8s on the field but Myst worms sort of makes up for it, sort of.
Whats sad about MK cards is how people haven’t really used them properly up until this point. When Dandylion took center stage as a super rare in the ABPF special edition I expected to see Gravirose become part of more decks since you can easily shove him into grave with Gravi’s effect during your standby phase. The sad thing is they can’t really co-habituate well even with support coming out for them. Sadly they fit they are niche cards meant for specific archtypes.
Genex Monsters….they arent there yet…sorry folks not much more to say.
A few of the other cards are decent, snyffus may work, may not it all depends on the deck its in.
I am confused as to why you believe that Koa’ki Meiru Bergzak deserves a 1/5 in both Tournament playability and Design. I can easily see why it gets a 1/5 for design due to its easy splashability into warrior based decks such as six samurais but 1/5 in Tournament usage? It’s a 2000 attack, 4 star that can overpower almost anything non-tribute. If your opponent is using low attack monsters or attempting to swarm the field, you could conceivably destroy every monster they have, and then attack to inflict 2000 direct LP damage.
Anyone who thinks that Darksoul does not break X-Sabers is bad at Yugioh. The fact that Darksoul stacks is what makes it so good. It’s a floater on the same level as Sangan and Goblin Zombie that’s accessible to Rescue Cat. It’s arguably the best floater in the game, though its themed.
I must confess that I am a little disappointed by some of these reviews, but the one that I find that you missed the ball on entirely is Koa’ki Meiru Bergzak. And I can sum up how you missed it by simply saying, “Bergzak is not a card designed for a Koa’ki Meiru deck (at least exclusively).”
One of the biggest misunderstanding that I can tell you have about the Koa’ki Meiru archetype is that they are not just to function as one cohesive deck. Especially the early cards from Raging Battle were designed to blend into other cards as meta answers. The best example of this intent is how Koa’ki Meiru Drago has found a home in Disaster Dragon and numerous other variants of Dragon decks. Bergzak is a similar case, only with Warrior monsters; also as a side note, this was originally released along side the original Koa’ki Meiru monsters but as a promo. And as an added bonus, it allows some Warrior decks to even make some use of Koa’ki Meiru Rooklord as well.
But my my basic point is this: While Bergzak has limited use in a Koa’ki Meiru theme, it does open up possibilities with other Warrior decks, and I believe your review does not reflect that.