Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz – #BLMM-EN024
If you Ritual Summon exactly 1 “Nekroz” Ritual Monster with a card effect that requires use of monsters, this card you control can be used as the entire Tribute. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 “Nekroz” monster from your Deck, except “Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz”. If this card is Tributed by card effect: You can add any number of your banished “Nekroz” cards with different names to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz” once per Duel.
Date Reviewed: September 1st, 2025
Rating: 4.0
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,
Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz begins our look at the new support for the Nekroz archetype, which, a good bit ago was a meta deck that was a far cry from the old Doom Dozer/Armageddon style of Ritual decks.
Like several Ritual-based support cards we’ve seen before, Avance can be treated as the whole tribute for the archetype (Nekroz) Ritual Summon. This is always a handy effec to have for a Main Deck monster in a Ritual archetype, especially the higher the Levels climb for the Ritual Monsters. Avance Special Summoning a Nekroz monster from the Deck gets you to any of the other Main Deck Nekroz monsters you may want to run, which in turn will gain you more advantage. The newest version of Emilia (our card tomorrow) is a search card when Normal or Special Summoned, getting you to your Ritual Spell or Ritual Monster that you want. If you Special Summon Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz, you’ll get a Spellcaster Nekroz Ritual search if he’s Tributed, as well as a banish ability from Great Sorcerer while in the grave. There are a few other monsters as well, both those are the top two.
When you use Avance for the Ritual Summon, Avance can recoup as many differently named banished Nekroz cards to your hand. This is of course a once per Duel effect because all the Nekroz Ritual Spells have banish effects that involved banishing a Nekroz as well, and these effects made them above-average Ritual Spells because they paid you back. Now you have a card within the archetype that can get you all those cards back, but also to the hand. In the late game stage this card being banished could net you several cards and enable the game-winning play. At its very worst, it is a good way to get back some cards. This effect applies to monsters as well, balancing out the banish ability for Ritual Summon using Nekroz Mirror.
Balanced stats for a search card, Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz is a one-card Ritual Summon when paired with Emilia. Gathering back any of your Nekroz cards that are banished, along with using Avance for the full tribute for your Nekroz Ritual Summon will simplify how much you invest into your Ritual Summons and keep you from losing card advantage.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Nekroz ends the Terminal World part of Monster Mayhem coverage starting with some non-Rituals, first being Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz.
Avance is a Level 4 WATER Spellcaster withh 1500 ATK and 800 DEF. Stats could be better, but a WATER Spellcaster is nice, though better when Bahamut Shark was legal in the TCG. If you would Ritual Summon a Nekroz Ritual with a card effect that requires the use of monsters, this card you control can be used as the entire tribute. Interesting wording, but it’s more versions of Shurit basically, except you must summon this, which you likely will since when Normal Summoned, you get to summon any Nekroz from the Deck, besides Advance. There are some decent Nekroz non-Rituals this could summon, like the aforementitoned Shurit, but the best target will be covered tomorrow. If this card is tributed via a card effect, you can add any number of banished Nekroz cards with different names from your hand, offering some solid recovery with cards you might banish off Nekroz Mirror or the graveyard effects of your Ritual Spells. Once per duel on that last effect, otherwise Nekroz might have an insanely ridiculous grind game. Avance is good for the Nekroz Deck, giving you more ways to Ritual Summon with less monsters, getting more Nekroz bodies out of the Deck, and potentially offering massive recovery if you tribute it to Ritual Summon. Play 3, it’s a decent starter for the Deck.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4/5 Seeing more Gishkis become Nekroz monsters could make for some interesting lore.
Mighty
Vee
Hey you! Yeah, you! If you’re in the Project Ignis Discord server, I’m watching, got it? With that ominous message out of the way, this week begins our coverage of the Nekroz support in Monster Mayhem, starting with Avance, Swordsman of the Nekroz, a level 4 WATER Spellcaster monster. Nekroz of Brionac and Seventh Tachyon are the most reliable ways to search it. Fittingly, Avance shares the stat spread of its Gishki counterpart– a whopping 1500 attack and 800 defense. Yeah.
Taking a page from Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz, Avance can be used as the entire Tribute for a Nekroz Ritual Summon using monsters as long as it’s on the field. While you can’t use it in the hand for some reason, it’s still very helpful for fielding your high-level Nekroz Rituals like Nekroz of Areadbhair and the new boss monster. Avance has 2 other effects with very strange stipulations– first, a non-once per turn effect that triggers on Normal Summon to let you Special Summon any Nekroz monster from your deck except another Avance. For the most part, you can forget about trying to loop and abuse this because you’d need to find a way to gain additional Normal Summons. Instead, you should focus on using this effect as intended. Usually, you’ll be summoning Emilia, Dance Priestess of the Nekroz; this’ll get you a search and let you either continue your Nekroz combos or, if you’re in the OCG, go into Bahamut Shark and make Toadally Awesome. Avance’s final effect is instead a once per duel effect, bafflingly enough, though it arguably deserves it. It triggers if Avance is Tributed by a card effect (that is, used for a Ritual Summon!), letting you add any number of Nekroz cards with different names from your banishment to your hand. This unsurprisingly has absurd combo potential considering how it pairs well with the Nekroz Ritual Spells, which all banish themselves and other cards to search more Nekroz Spells. Your bread and butter combo will use Emilia to search Areadbhair, then use Areadbhair to Tribute Emilia and get a Nekroz Spell into the Graveyard so you can start banishing cards, eventually letting you recycle all of your banished cards when you inevitably Tribute Avance. I think that justifies a once per duel restriction, though evidently it’s no Habakiri! In the OCG, Ryzeal Nekroz was a solid hybrid build since Avance could quickly make Bahamut Shark, but with that card now banned in the TCG, that’s no longer an option in either Ryzeal hybrids or even Nekroz proper. In any case, Avance is a card you’ll run at 3. Arguably your most important starter!
+Solid combo starter that accesses Emilia, Dance Priestess of the Nekroz
+Extremely powerful recycle effect that can recuperate all of your banished cards after your combos or be weaved into explosive plays
-Only triggers on Normal Summon, hurting combo potential
-Recycle effect is only once per duel
Advanced: 4/5
Art: 3.75/5 Avance is back and better than ever! Though, the Secret Rare foiling on the swords makes the card look a lot more ridiculous than it should be.
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