How to Train Your Dragons of Legend

Today marked the release of the latest expansion set, Dragons of Legend.  The set will without a doubt change the metagame significantly, with the release of not only Soul Charge, but both the Fire & Ice Hands, Kuribandit, Mathematician, and Wiretap are all great cards as well.  There are some definite sleepers in the set that could prove to be great cards that many people have overlooked with the hype of other great cards.  Moving forward, here is a breakdown of my thoughts on a variety of cards from Dragons of Legend.

Soul Charge

Soul Charge is easily the card in Dragons of Legend with the greatest amount of hype and for good reason, it is a great card.  Soul Charge allows the player to sacrifice their battle phase to summon up to five monsters from their graveyard, by paying 1000 life points for each.  Believe me when I say that every 1000 life points will matter more than ever.  It is doubtful you will see as many decks running Upstart Goblins, in my opinion, as it essentially is giving your opponent a free summon off of one of their Soul Charges.  Soul Charge will create numerous plays in decks that gain advantage without the use of their battle phase or simply by creating huge boards that are incredibly difficult for the opponent to break.  We have already seen the price of Shooting Quasar Dragon go insane due to the release of Soul Charge and the obscene combos that it creates with Lonefire Blossom.  Soul Charge will without a doubt be a defining card this format and have an unbelievable and immediate effect on the metagame. 

Fire & Ice Hands

Given the Fire & Ice Hands were announced prior to Soul Charge, I thought these cards would easily be some of the best in the set.  After Soul Charge, they almost seem balanced…almost.  The Hands will certainly be seeing play at some point, given their unbelievable effects.  Your opponent can have a field of six cards and you can have one of these things and destroy every card on their field in the right situation.  It is literally a one card Black Rose Dragon when played correctly.  That is incredibly powerful all by itself, but not only that, it is a plus-able floater.  They are simply a really, really powerful pair of cards that may not see immediate play, but eventually will be extremely powerful.

Kuribandit

Kuribandit screams break me.  It adds an interesting interaction to the Sylvan archetype that it did not previously have.  Magical Merchant provided a similar effect, however with Kuribandit, you are guaranteed to see five cards and you have an option of the Spell/Trap that you add.  In addition, you can do it the same turn that Kuribandit is played rather than having to wait for Merchant to flip.  Given all of these circumstances and the release of Sylvan Charity awaiting the TCG, Kuribandit could be a very key cog in the correct build of Sylvans.

Mathematician

Mathematician is a creation of two of my favourite cards sandwiched into one.  It provides you a powerful effect, similar to that of Armageddon Knight, except for virtually any deck.  In addition, similar to Card Trooper, it makes itself a floater, given the condition that it dies by battle.  With 1500 attack it is not exactly a pushover.  It creates more interesting interactions when crashing into say a Mermail Abysslinde, causing the Abysslinde’s summoned monster to miss the timing on its effect (like Abysspike or Abyssturge).

Wiretap

Wiretap is quite a powerful trap card.  It can be both better and worse than the already played Seven Tools of the Bandit, but more often better.  First off, it literally has no cost and remains a counter trap, just like Seven Tools of the Bandit.  In addition, there are certain traps that may be in your advantage for your opponent to have back in their deck, for instance a Solemn Warning if they are low on life or if you have an already established field, which essentially makes the card a dead draw.  Wiretap can be a double-edged sword though as it can add powerful cards versus your deck back into your opponent’s deck for use later in the duel, such as Macro Cosmos versus a graveyard based deck.  Simply put, I can confidently say that Wiretap will probably trump Seven Tools of the Bandit in seeing play.

Construction Train Signal Red

When this card was brought to my attention by my friend, I actually had to re-read it.  This card is actually unreal.  Not only is it an EARTH machine type monster, it also provides a very real addition to Geargias.  It helps one of the deck’s major weaknesses in having to protect Gear Gigant, and being a hand trap it is quite hard to play around.  It is better than similar cards like Battle Fader, because rather than only stopping direct attacks, damage, or allowing your monster to live, it is not able to be destroyed by battle and it puts a monster on board that you are able to XYZ with next turn.  Not only that Gigant is able to recycle it from the graveyard, so you do not have to play more than one, allowing you to prevent it from clogging in your hand.  Make no mistake, Construction Train Signal Red is a really damn good card.

Black Sonic

While Black Sonic is an interesting card that is receiving a little bit of hype for Blackwings it does not actually do much that other cards do not already do.  It is harder to stop then a Mirror Force, it is also harder to activate it.  The cards most interesting effect, in my opinion, is that if the opponent controls three or more Blackwings, then it can be played directly from the opponent’s hand.  While this is certainly a powerful effect, good players should be able to play around this and it also requires the opponent to overextend into you.  In short, if I were to play Blackwings, I’m not sure that Black Sonic would even make it into my deck.

Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos

Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos is fairly easy to understand.  If you have an XYZ monster, you can summon its C version on top of it by playing this card and targeting your XYZ monster.  Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos does exactly what its name suggests, creates a quick chaos XYZ monster.  Most relevant at the moment, Number C101: Silent Honor DARK.  Silent Honor ARK already sees play so fitting this in your extra deck is not difficult, but I am not sure how realistic just splashing Quick Chaos is, however, once on the field, Honor DARK is one hell of a good monster and difficult to get rid of permanently without the opponent’s own Honor ARK or by banishing/bouncing it.

Given the amount of good cards in Dragons of Legend it is sure to change the metagame significantly and cause numerous decks that were tier two or three to combat tier one decks more than ever before with the additions of cards like Soul Charge and others.