Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer – #RA04-EN230
2 Level 4 monsters
You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; change it to face-down Defense Position. You can detach 2 materials from this card, then target 1 other face-up card on the field; shuffle it into the Deck. You can only use 1 “Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer” effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Date Reviewed: October 2nd, 2025
Advanced Rating: 3.5
Genesys Rating: 3.5
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,
Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer is a Throwback Thursday choice that remains a viable option for anyone playing multiple Level 4 monsters.
Generic Rank 4 that can either detach one material or two materials depending on which effect you wanna use. Detach one to turn a monster that is face-up to face-down Defense Position. As always, this won’t work against Link Monsters, but everything else is good to go. If you want to detach two materials you can shuffle back any card on the field to the Deck. Limiting the use of Castel effects to once per turn and only one effect per turn prevents attaching something to Castel after using its first effect.
Shuffling back something on the field is a great out to avoid destruction protection, though with it targeting it can still trigger any counter effect that needs its monster to be targeted. Shuffling back deals with a problem monster, Spell, or Trap (aside from a floodgate negation) while detaching one to flip down is more of a Book of Moon situation where you have or will have the means to deal with what you are flipping face-down. It isn’t a Quick Effect like Book of Moon, or something like Vallon earlier in the week, but it is easier to make in most archetypes because of the Level requirements. Flipping your own monster face-down would only be something you’d want to use if you had a flip effect or wanted to trigger its Normal Summon effect again.
Castel remains a good Rank 4 staple for any archetype using a couple Level 4 monsters. It directly deals with a monster on the field that you want to flip face-down, while giving you the option to shuffle something back if you want to expend both materials. You have options with Castel and if you can attach something to it you won’t have to choose which effect to use.
Advanced- 3.5/5 Art- 3.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week brings us the first Skyblaster to see meta play: Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer.
Castel is a Rank 4 WIND Winged Beast with 2000 ATK and 1500 DEF. Solid stats for a Rank 4, and being a WIND Winged Beast meant Ryzeal had a way to use Harpie’s Feather Storm, which sounds as dreadful as it is. Materials being any 2 Level 4s makes it generic in the best Xyz pool in the game arguably. First effect lets you detach a material from this card to target a face-up monster on the field to swap it to face-down Defense Position, so Vallon without the Quick Effect. Can be useful if you got a monster that’s hard to deal with, but you were mainly only using the 2nd effect on Castel, detaching 2 materials from this card to shuffle any face-up card on the field into the Deck, which was great removal in 2014, especially since Rank 4s were all the rage back then. Even today it’s still decent, though removing 1 card isn’t as fast as it once was. It was mainly scary for Harpie’s Feather Storm. HOPT on each effect, which is honestly easy to forget about since you typically only summoned 1 of these a turn and used the detach 2 effect. It was the Rank 4 Xyz that powercrept most of what came before it, and it still remains solid to this day.
As a Genesys card, it’s free and a lot of Rank 4 Decks are probably going to be viable. Traptrix again is an option with only Rafflesia at 10 points, even if no Links. Ryzeal needs a lot of points with Ice, Sword, Duo Drive, and Detonator each costing 20 while Ext costs 25, so that Deck is basically a non-factor minus maybe a small engine. Onomat has Onomatopaira at 33 points, so you can try that. Zoodiac has Barrage at 33, Broadbull at 66, Drident at 20, and Ratpier at 50, so the only realistic way to play Zoo is maybe with a Drident or two and a bunch of hand traps that also cost points, since that’s the type of defense Zoo typically needs. But hey, if Shock Master or Abyss Dweller being legal at 100 points each is appealing to you, you can try those, but I’d say the only one worth attempting is Shock Master. Anyways, Castel should be a perfect fit in Genesys Rank 4 Decks, though not for Harpie’s Feather Storm unless that’s where you want 100 points to go.
Advanced Rating: 3.5/5
Genesys Rating: 3.5/5
Artwork: 3.5/5 Took me a while to see he had a bird face.
Mighty
Vee
We covered Vallon, the Super Psy Skyblaster earlier this week, so it makes sense that our Throwback Thursday card this week is Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer, the original chicken with a gun. Castel is a Rank 4 WIND Winged Beast Xyz monster that takes any 2 level 4 monsters, making it a consideration in any Rank 4 toolbox deck like Ryzeal. Being a WIND Winged Beast is also very important– more on that later! Again, Castel is technically part of the Skyblaster mini-archetype, which will only be relevant in weird meme decks with Phantom Skyblaster. Castel’s stats aren’t too impressive, with only 2000 attack and 1500 defense, so you probably aren’t going to count on it for offensive pressure.
Removal is the name of the game, as Castel has 2 hard once per turn effects and only one can be used per turn, though you’d have to jump through hoops to use them both in one turn anyway. Castel’s first effect will simply detach an Xyz material to target and flip any monster on the field face-down. It’s not a Quick Effect, so it’s considerably less useful than it could’ve been. You’ll mainly be using this to flip high-attack monsters so you can beat over their lower defense stat, or in Ryzeal, you can pair it with Ext Ryzeal sending Vallon for a roundabout pop. More interesting is Castel’s other effect; by detaching 2 materials instead, you’ll get to target any other face-up card and shuffle it into the deck. Shuffling is one of the stronger removals in the game, since it’ll never trigger any destruction or Graveyard effects (or banish effects, for that matter) and your opponent will more than likely have to go through the trouble of searching that card all over again. It hits any card too, so you can zap valuable backrow– the Yummy Field Spells come to mind. Castel on its own is a decent filler slot for a Rank 4 toolbox deck, though neither of these reasons are why it got a bit of scrutiny during recent formats; it’s conveniently a WIND Winged Beast, which meant that Ryzeal decks could tech Harpie’s Feather Storm for an almost guaranteed win if they opened it. It’s similar logic to the infamous Harpie tech in Swordsoul where they made Cyber Slash Harpie Lady instead. Fortunately for Castel (and unfortunately for those who wanted Storm gone at last), Ryzeal ended up eating more direct hits, making hitting Castel itself or Storm redundant. For now.
+Versatile options for removing enemy monsters
+WIND Winged Beast for Harpie’s Feather Storm
-Spell Speed 1 flip isn’t great on its own
-Shuffling costs 2 materials
Advanced: 3.5/5
Genesys: 3.5/5
Art: 3.75/5 He’s a musketeer bird with a gun, you don’t see that every day. Hilariously, I couldn’t even tell they tried to censor the gun by making it pink, which I guess is slightly more respectable than turning it into a Kids Next Door laser rifle.
Visit the Card of the Day Archive! Click here to read over 5,000 more Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards of the Day!
We would love more volunteers to help us with our YuGiOh Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉