10.04.04  Shadowclashin’ Part 1—What’s Hiding in Your Shield Zone Now?

Like Evo-Crushinators of Doom, Shadowclash of Blinding Night will introduce a new card type, the Shield Trigger Creature. Shield trigger ability is easily one of the most exciting mechanics in Duel Masters. Spells like Terror Pit and Holy Awe are devilishly good because they pack the shield trigger ability in addition to their devastating effects. If slapping the shield trigger ability on certain spells makes them more robust, does the same thing hold true for creatures? Shield trigger creatures will add another layer to the deck building process. For example, you might face the following dilemma: do you continue to deck an old-standby creature like Burning Mane or do you deck the shield trigger creature that’s similar to it? In addition to generating card choice conundrums, Shield Trigger creatures will provide more ways to circumvent the summoning sickness process, more targets for shield manipulation cards like Emeral, and more ways to free up mana for summoning other threats. Let’s take a quick look at 2 shield trigger creatures coming in Shadowclash, Highest Bless and Magma Tyranus.

Notices:

*Card text and names may change when the set is released in English. All Japanese translations come from Edo’s site.

Highest Bless*
Creature / Beast Folk / Nature / 2 / 1000 / Common
- Shield Trigger (When this card is returned to your hand from the Shield Zone, you may Summon it without paying its Cos

Beast Folk are the most prevalent race of creatures in Nature, the backbone of a seriously aggressive deck, and the progenitors of mana production. Another blessing is 90% of them cost 4 mana or below. Beast Folk lovers will want to give Highest Bless a shot; speedy evolution line plus a potentially free hitter sounds like a great fit. Highest Bless is a 2 mana Beast Folk creature, so it falls in line with the race’s characteristic affordable mana cost range. Even though it weighs in with a paltry 1000 power, it sports the shield trigger ability, which could help increase board presence quicker. Highest Bless has the chance of coming to you for free, and that could lead to quicker evolving, freeing up mana and evading summoning sickness. For instance, if Highest Bless were to be the first shield broken by your opponent and you had Barkwhip in your opening hand, then you could summon Barkwhip on your second turn (normally Barkwhip’s earliest chance to see the field is after a mana buildup of 3). Or you could choose to cast another creature, such as Steel Smasher, and attack with Highest Bless a turn sooner than normal. In the late game, scoring a free hitter could help you push that final blow should you slam into creature removal shields that take out your prominent hitters, or if you need more creatures to outnumber your opponent’s defenses.

If you run a 40 card mono-Nature Beast Folk deck and plan on reserving spots for spells (like Snare, Gate, Nexus), then you can’t slap every Beast Folk creature into your deck. That’s even more poignant if you plan on making a 40-card Nature/X (most likely Light) Beast Folk oriented deck once Shadowclash releases. Highest Bless’ spot in the Beast Folk lineage has it contending with the race’s 2-3 drops for quality deck time. That’s in terms of mana cost and power. It’s no secret that Highest Bless won’t take deck space away from Bronze-Arm Tribe; that creature is synonymous with mana gain. What gets the boot in favor of Highest Bless depends on what your focus is for your Beast-based build: mana gain (Mighty Shouter/Silver Axe), pump (Golden Wing Striker), pump/quick attacker (Barkwhip, the Smasher—outside of mono-Nature), early evolution stability (Fear Fang), control/early evo stability (Steel Smasher) or quick evo bait with 1000 more power (Burning Mane). What to deck once shield trigger creatures like Highest Bless are released is something that play testing in your meta will help you decide.

Strengths:

--Cheap, hard-casting is not a problem: free or 2 mana—not too big a gap to bridge

--Beast Folk evo bait

--Has shield trigger ability, another target for Mana Nexus in mono-Nature

Weaknesses:

--1000 power means it’s mega-venerable

Magma Tyranus*

Creature / Rock Beast / Fire / 5 / 3000 / Rare

- Shield Trigger (When this card is returned to your hand from the Shield Zone, 
you may Summon it without paying its Cost.)

- When this Creature is played to the Battle Zone, put all Creatures in the Battle 
Zone with Power 1000 or less into their owners' Graveyards.

A shield trigger creature with a come-into-play effect—this ST creature concept has just become more intriguing! An effect that sometimes comes for free makes shield-triggering fun in addition to all the strategic benefits it provides. Pair this ability with a creature and guess what—more fun along with increased strategic options. You have the chance for a free hitter and free kill with Magma Tyranus. Some of the creatures Magma Tyranus can kill are heavily played right now: Marrow Ooze, Deadly Fighter Braid Claw, Essence Elf, Emeral, Bone Piercer, Wailing Shadow Belbetphlo, Miele, Aqua Vehicle, Bronze-Arm Tribe, Poisonous Mushroom, and Brawler Zyler. Also, there are a handful of 1000 creatures coming in Shadowclash, several with interesting effects. If you’re facing a field with a number of those teeny 1000 hitters, then they’re all going bye-bye when Magma Tyranus drops.

One problem with Magma Tyranus is you’re not looking at decimating an opponent’s field when this guy hits unless you’re playing against something like a Darkness/Fire Weenie Rush deck. Although targeting only 1000 hitters is narrow focus, the chance to knock off 1 or 2 hitters in your opponent’s zone means there are fewer threats to face. Another problem is Magma Tyranus’ lackluster stats, 3000 for 5 mana. It’s a step up in power over its 5 mana brethren Meteosaur, but Magma Tyranus lacks staying power. However, when you really think of Magma Tyranus’ purpose in a creature destruction deck, it’s not meant to do much other than kill something on its way into the duel. Hitting a shield with Magma Tyranus is like a bonus. If you draw into kill like Hammer early, you could be looking at putting a Weenie Rush deck to sleep with drops like Magma Tyranus followed up with plays like Burst Shot.

Magma Tyranus might see its share of play because the Rock Beasts will receive an evolution creature in Shadowclash. It’s an 8000 double breaker for 6 mana, and it kills one of your opponent’s 3000 or below creatures when it enters the battle zone. The evo is a step in the right direction for Rock Beasts. They hover around 5 mana with 4000, and have effects ranging from gaining double breaker to targeted weenie kill. If you play in a Weenie heavy meta, then you may want to rock the Rock Beasts (yeah, bad pun) in a Darkness/Fire control deck. In other metas, the Rock Beasts most likely will be overlooked in favor of the Humans, like the Armored Dragon evo line introduced in Rampage of the Super Warriors.

Strengths:

--Kills all 1000 hitters

--Has shield trigger ability so its kill can come for free sometimes

--Evo bait for Shadowclash’s new Rock Beast evo

Weaknesses:

--5 for 3000 isn’t great

--Toasts your 1000 guys too

--It’s a Rock Beast; these guys aren’t for every meta

--Hitting only 1000 guys is very narrowly focused

Shield Trigger creatures expand the strategic options available to duelists in more ways than one. Time will tell whether or not Shadowclash’s shield trigger creatures will significantly impact the competitive environment—and which ones galvanize the meta. In any event, some of Shadowclash’s shield trigger creatures should be oodles of fun in Limited.

Well, that does it for my first “C-Notes” article. I can’t accurately state how often I’ll write for the column—since I review cards for 2 Pojo sites, have a deck garage, attend school, like to go outdoors, can sometimes turn up in Spain at lunchtime, and have kids—but I’ll try to keep this puppy going steadily. Until the next article, cheers!

If you have any questions, want to see something covered in an article, or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line at kaiserpso@hotmail.com.