Condemned Darklord – Yu-Gi-Oh! Review

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Condemned Darklord, great, an easier way to summon Archlord Kristya…great.

Fairy Monsters for a Link 2 ensures no splashing this into any other decks aside from Fairy-based strategies. Despite that, it won’t be used in Trickstar. Darklords and Counter Fairy decks will be the priority for this monster. The banish instead of tribute is a HUGE deal for both these decks, especially Darklords. With their discard/draw abilities it is easy to get two monsters into the grave as fodder for any of your Darklords. For Counter Fairies or Fairy-based strategies in general, Archlord Kristya not having to wait for four monsters in the grave would be a tremendous opening play. Not only that, but if you have to re-draw it you could still have monsters in the grave to easily use Condemned Darklord to get Archlord Kristya back onto the field with ease. For the 2nd effect, Darklords love being in the graveyard. This effect gets a Darklord into the grave (or any card of your choosing) and gets you a Darklord from the deck, a nice 1-for-1. If it’s better in your hand like Ixchel, keep it, or get it into the grave to be Special Summoned later (Superbia). This Darklord effect just adds more speed to the deck. The LP gain isn’t consequential, it is something nice though if you start paying increments of 1000 for Darklord effects though.

Advanced-4/5     Art-4/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

Next up is a Link for an archetype that has more announced support in Rise of the Duelist, along with cool lore behind it with the Forbidden and Solemn cards, Condemned Darklord.

Condemned Darklord is a Link-2 DARK Fairy with 1600 ATK and two bottom diagonal arrows. Fine ATK, though I expect higher stats on Darklords typically, and you got a fun Type/Attribute combo that looks strange on paper. Arrows are great as well, but I don’t think you’d need me to tell you that. The summoning requirements are any 2 Fairies, so Venus can get Shine Balls from Deck to summon this for one option, or you do have Darklords filling the field with relative ease. The first effect lets you Tribute Summon a Fairy that requires 2 Tributes by banishing 2 monsters from your graveyard instead, and it’s treated as a Tribute Summon for some niche interactions like maybe a Fairy Monarch or something. The best monster to summon with an effect like this is Archlord Kristya for her ability to stop Special Summons, and most of your Darklords are also 2 Tribute monsters for this as well. The second effect lets you discard a card to take a Darklord monster in Deck and either add it to hand or send it to the graveyard. So you either get hand set-up for a monster effect you might want to use for hand or more discard fodder for Ixchel, or you can put Superbia in grave to revive it with Darklord Contact to get a double revival. This is the hard once per turn effect for Condemned Darklord, which is fine for the potential advantage this can generate. The final effect is a soft once per turn where she lets you recover 500 LP during your End Phase for each Fairy on the field. Helps recover the cost you’re paying to use Darklord effects to copy Spells and Traps in the grave. It can be dangerously easy to get low on life in Darklords, so having this helps recover you for more effects or to widen the gap between your opponent and victory. Condemned Darklord seems designed mostly for Darklords more than generic Fairies. You can use this for anything Fairy based to get that Kristya summon without actually tributing monsters on field, but it’s real home is Darklords.

Advanced Rating: 4/5

Art: 5/5 Now to see how she recovers against Solemn.

Solember
YouTube

   I found some great plays with this card outside of the Darklord archetype, but of course its true home is there.

   I often found myself struggling to summon this card casually, but opportunities did present themselves. The Agent of Creation – Venus is a usable here, but drawing a Mystical Shine Ball is unpleasant.

   After getting this monster to the field, though, you can get to your high-level Darklord monsters a lot easier by banishing 2 Fairies when Tribute Summoning instead of Tributing monsters on the field. That is handy for keeping your field presence strong, and it dynamically changes the way this deck plays.

   The search effect is great for putting what you need where you need it. I don’t think there is much more to say about it.

   The LP gain is beneficial after the heavy costs paid by this archetype and adds a very noticeable sustainability for games that drag on.

   The card is balanced perfectly with a HOPT on the search effect and a reasonable cost for it as well. The low ATK means you have to take effort to protect this card if you want to use it more than once.

   I love the art on this card and I cannot express that enough. It is clear that a lot of effort went into this one, as it really stands out (even among the other cards within the Darklord archetype).

Versatility – 2
Rogue Plays – 3
Art – 5
Balance – 5
Uniqueness – 5

I give this card a 4/5. Sometimes it doesn’t feel worth summoning when able, but it is definitely easy to find a place for it in a Darklord Extra Deck. I would even go so far as to say that other Fairy decks that simply want an easy Kristya might be better bets.