The Iris Swordsoul – #RA01-EN023
During the Main Phase, if a monster, whose effects are negated, is on the field (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from your hand. If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s) (except during the Damage Step): You can activate 1 of these effects based on where it was Special Summoned from;
● Hand: Special Summon 1 monster from your hand. ● Deck: Draw 2 cards.
● Extra Deck: Destroy 1 of those monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.
You can only use each effect of “The Iris Swordsoul” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: July 17th, 2025
Rating: 3.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
The Iris Swordsoul fits in perfectly with the Regenesis archetype, as does her former Dogmatika form.
As our Throwback Thursday choice this week, Iris is a 2500ATK monster that can help Special Summon out the Regenesis monsters because she can Special Summon herself. Better than that, she can do this on either turn during the Main Phase. Having a monster whose effect is negated isn’t hard in the game now: a simple Effect Veiler, Ash Blossom, Ghoste Belle, Skill Drain, or monster from either side can do this via a once per turn negation. Heck, there are several monsters that can Special Summon a monster from somewhere but negate their effect(s), which, in this case, is a great thing. Special Summoning her to recover from an opponent’s move or even your own would be good, but Iris can help you even more if the opponent Special Summons a monster from the hand, Deck, or Extra Deck.
Your opponent will likely Special Summon a monster at some point, and depending on where, Iris will do something. Sadly, she can’t help you if they Special Summon from the banished area or the grave (Maliss escape for the most part, and the grave is a huge blow). From the hand happens a lot (Ryzeal variants) to start combos, and Iris can Special Summon a monster from your hand when this happens. From the Deck, which doesn’t happen as much (Altergeist, Gladiator Beast) will net you a nice +2 draw. From the Extra Deck pretty much any archetype can do, and a lot at times, but White Forest and Lunalight do it a lot, as well as Fiendsmith-based strategies, and when that happens, Iris will destroy one of the monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.
Special Summoning from the hand to counter an opponent’s Special Summon from the hand helps if it will enable other counter moves from your monsters or, at the very least, will provide a shield for you or eat up an effect. As for the Extra Deck effect, attempting to destroy a monster they just Special Summoned is direct and likely to always happen given how many decks Special Summon from the Extra Deck.
Iris may not have negation, but she has a way to Special Summon herself that can be triggered by either player and will respond at some point to the opponent. You rarely are going to get the draw two, but another Special Summon from the hand or a spot removal of an Extra Deck monster that was just summoned are pretty good effects. Dropping her in response to one of the hand traps mentioned is the best way to use her and get another monster on the field. Anything after that is a plus.
Advanced- 3.5/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week brings us to one of the few 2500/2500 monsters in the Main Deck that’s actually halfway decent: The Iris Swordsoul.
The Iris Swordsoul is a Level 8 LIGHT Spellcaster with 2500 ATK and DEF, so nice stats, Type, and Attribute. First effect is a Quick Effect in the Main Phase if there’s a monster whose effect is negated on the field, letting you Special Summon this directly from the hand. Shouldn’t be that hard to meet the requirement with Effect Veiler and Imperm both being at 3 and some of the best hand traps in the game since they are some of the few with no HOPT at all. The only challenge just comes from having either of those along with this. If your opponent Special Summons a monster, you can activate an effect based on where the monster was summoned from, with hand letting you summon a monster from your hand, Deck letting you draw 2, and Extra Deck letting you destroy one of the monsters summoned from the Extra Deck. The hand part might be the worst in the sense of playing Regenesis since they can already summon themselves, but it at least summons them on the opponent’s turn and gets extra bodies out. A draw 2 if the opponent summons from the Deck is nice enough, and the popping of a monster the opponent would summon from their Extra Deck does make for decent disruption. Both effects are HOPT on this card, of course. Iris Swordsoul is fine, two effects that aren’t bad, but just wouldn’t always come up. If you get it out, you do have a decent monster the opponent has to think about before making their plays. It is tied to Swordsoul if you want searchability, but Swordsoul usually skips on this. Might see some Side Deck play from time to time.
Advanced Rating: 3/5
Art: 5/5 Still love how Fleurdelis looks under the armor.
Mighty
Vee
Half for Regenesis, half to celebrate the animated adaptation of the Albaz lore, this week’s Throwback Thursday card is The Iris Swordsoul, a level 8 LIGHT Spellcaster monster. While it’s a Swordsoul monster by name and in lore, it doesn’t have much to do with them gameplay wise, though you can still search it with Swordsoul Emergence if you wanted to. Of course, thanks to sharing its solid 2500 attack and defense stat spread with Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted, it’s also searchable with Regenesis.
Iris has 2 hard once per turn effects, the first being a unique Quick Effect to let you Special Summon Iris from your hand during the Main Phase as long as a monster with negated effects is on the field. This is meant to combo with Swordsoul Grandmaster – Chixiao since its negate will make Iris live, though plenty of cards will enable it like Infinite Impermanence and Skill Drain. Speaking of Skill Drain, that’s what makes Iris a popular tech in some stun-focused Regenesis builds, though for obvious reasons you won’t be able to use its actual effect. That effect will trigger whenever your opponent Special Summons a monster, letting you apply an effect depending on where it was summoned from. If it was from the hand, you’ll be able to Special Summon a monster from your own hand. If it was from the deck, you can draw 2 cards, and if it was from the Extra Deck, you can destroy it (or one of them, if your opponent summoned multiple monsters). The effect is probably the least useful in general, since you usually don’t want to be trying to extend during your opponent’s turn, but it can be more helpful in decks with aggressive plays during your opponent’s turn like Vanquish Soul or in decks where you have strong main deck bodies like Kashtira and, fittingly, Regenesis. Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of Triple Tactics Talents’ draw effect is probably aware that a draw 2 can be pretty frightening in the right deck, though it’s not something I’d pick over the third effect unless I’m playing a deck packed to the gills with Hand Traps. Speaking of which, as far as general use goes, you’ll likely be picking the third effect since so many decks rely on Extra Deck playmakers; this was true when Iris was first released and is still (mostly) true now, as you want to hit cards like Maliss Q White Binder and Ryzeal Duo Drive. Obviously, it’s not going to be the case for every deck (Mitsurugi, of course, does not use Extra Deck combo pieces outside of King of the Feral Imps which isn’t even strictly mandatory), but if you’re playing Iris, this is probably the effect you’ll use. Despite how helpful it can be, Iris has always struggled as a generic tech because its summoning condition is still too niche. If you’re teching it, you’ll want to do it in a deck that can consistently apply spot negation. Or just run Skill Drain…
+Versatile set of effects to disrupt or gain advantage
+Fairly easy to summon in certain decks
-Relies on other cards to summon itself
-Not particularly worth summoning against decks that don’t have integral Extra Deck combo pieces
Advanced: 3.25/5
Art: 4/5 Hopefully not the last we see of Fleurdelis as a Swordsoul, even if she’s kind of out of commission at the moment…
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