Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss – #DUEA-EN085
2 Level 3 monsters – Once per turn: You can detach 1 material from this card and choose a number from 1 to 3, then send that many cards from the top of your Deck to the GY; until the end of this turn, this card gains 500 ATK for each card sent to the GY this way. If this card attacks, it is changed to Defense Position at the end of the Battle Phase. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 “Burning Abyss” card in your GY, except this card; add it to your hand.
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity – #ORCS-EN044
2 Level 3 monsters – Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 “Wind-Up” monster from your hand or Deck. When a face-up “Wind-up” monster on the field is destroyed and sent to your Graveyard (except during the Damage Step): You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target that monster; return that target to the hand.
Date Reviewed: June 14th, 2021
Ratings: See Below
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
Crunch$G
Get ready to see a few ties on this list as it’s hard to narrow down 10 specific Xyzs for this. Today we got a 2-way tie between some Rank 3s that were the faces of their respective archetypes. From Duelist Alliance we get Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss and from Order of Chaos we get Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity.
First off, Dante is a Rank 3 LIGHT Warrior with 1000 ATK and 2500 DEF. Good DEF stat, LIGHT and Warrior are also good as BA once used Astral Force with this to go for Pleiades back when they didn’t have as much support. 2 Level 3s summons this, which is as easy as a Tour Guide. You can detach a material from this card once per turn to send up to 3 cards from the top of your Deck to the grave and then have this gain 500 ATK for each card sent. A solid effect to get this to 2500 ATK while also triggering graveyard effects like the Burning Abyss monsters you’re intended to use with Dante. The ATK boost lasts until the end of the turn, which is fine since this card attacking will make it go to Defense Position so you’re stuck with 2500 DEF instead of 1000 ATK on the opponent’s turn. Finally, this being sent to the graveyard lets you add any other Burning Abyss card from the grave to your hand, good to loop with Cir to create a loop between it and Dante himself. Triggering off going to the grave by any means is of course good for a Link Summon or being detached off Beatrice. It’s strange I don’t see Dante as often as I used to, especially in Decks you’d think would benefit off it like Phantom Knights, since they still do use a few BAs, meaning they could access Beatrice if they wish. Still, in more Burning Abyss heavy Decks, this is of course a staple, just probably at 2 now instead of 3 since Cherubini is a thing.
Advanced Rating: 4.25/5
Art: 4.5/5 He looks like a cool guy.
Now for Carrier Zenmaity, we have another Rank 3, this time WATER and Machine with 1500 ATK and DEF. Not that impressive of stats, but being WATER is solid and Machine is great. 2 Level 3s gets you to this as well, which is great that Tour Guide basically makes full Wind-Up combos. Once per turn, you can detach a material from this card to summon any Wind-Up from the hand or Deck. This is very good to get a Wind-Up Rat to revive another Level 3 to go into another Rank 3, potentially another Carrier Zenmaity to keep going full combo and having materials to summon the Number F0s. You could also get Wind-Up Magician to serve as another way to summon Wind-Ups from Deck. Wind-Up Hunter is an option to destroy the opponent’s hand. You can also just summon any Wind-Up that modulates Levels if you need anywhere from Level 3-5. Wind-Up Shark might be best in this sense, but Dog and Soldier work as well I guess. The second effect I never seen used really, but if a Wind-Up monster on the field is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, except during the Damage Step, you can detach a material to get that monster back in your hand. Not as good as the effect to access a Wind-Up from Deck, so I don’t think this would come up since after summoning from Deck you’re likely using Carrier as material for something else. It’d be nice to use this in Wind-Ups to have better combos, but sadly this card is still banned in the TCG even after serving time for 8 years. OCG brought this to 3 during Master Rule 4, but put it back to 1 after fears of the April 2020 rule change. The only difference is they instead banned Wind-Up Hunter, a card that was only good with Zenmaity for hand destruction. I think Carrier Zenmaity would be fine in the format again, especially at 3 if you want to get rid of Wind-Up Hunter, and just the fact we no longer have Shock Master in the format to begin with to prevent the Shock Lock from being a thing again. If you play Wind-Ups, just hope one day Konami throws you a bone and gives this card back, whether they get rid of the Hunter handloops or not, though you might have to wait for a line of support for this to happen.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 4.5/5 Nice boat.
My #8: Toadally Awesome
Alex
Searcy
It’s a Twofer…Wednesday! Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, is a delicious combination of Light/Warrior, with 1000 attack and 2500 defense (honestly fine and then GREAT for Rank 3) who needs any 2 generic Level 3 Monsters for an XYZ Summon. So similar to but different from Card Trooper, Dante gives you the option to mill 1-3 cards from your Deck. Each card milled nets Dante 500 extra attack until the End of the Turn. (So, simply put, 1500/2000/2500 attack at 1/2/3 cards respectively). This gives him the ability to not just be a defensive wall (although attacking switches him to Defense position; hardly an issue). The really cool part there is that card only switches position when IT attacks, not if it itself is attacked. If sent to the Graveyard (no condition as to how or by whom, always awesome) you net a Burning Abyss card from your Grave to your Hand; other than this card. It’s pretty amazing in its Deck. Great defense, gets stronger, mills, nets you a card back…really great card here.
Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 He looks very serious and steadfast, but also like a hero. It’s a trustworthy face, no question.
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity has caused some trouble through the course of the Yugioh timeline. This card still sits in Forbidden Status, though it MAY not need to anymore. The Wind-Ups, as Themes do, just wrecked the scene upon release. Still powerful, yes, but powerful enough for this guy to still be Banned? Let’s see. Water/Machine IS weird (Water, in my experience, is NOT good for Machines), 1500 atk/def, and needing any 2 generic Level 3 Monsters for XYZ Summon (AGAIN, I feel this might have been appropriate with Machines or Wind-Ups specifically for that, but I digress). This card is insanely fast, and it does generate Monsters, advantage, and recycle resources like nobody’s business. Special Summoning a Monster for FREE from your Hand or Deck of the Theme simply by detaching an XYZ Material is almost anarchy. Sure, it’s once per Turn, but having your Deck including is just…quick access to about anything for anything you need in the now. Returning a destroyed (as long as it was face-up) Wind-Up from your Grave to your Hand is amazing too. This is a glorious piece of this Deck just sitting on the sidelines waiting to come back. I’d actually like to see it. Slowly
Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 4.5/5 While cool, Dante definitely takes the art prize today. The carrier is fairly neat looking.
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Two cards today, three cards tomorrow…BILL, THERE ARE BETTER WAYS! DICE ROLL, COIN FLIP, WE’RE ONLY HUMAN! Joking aside, we had a few ties in the rankings so some extra CoTD for the readers.
Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss has been good since he was first released and remains a quality splashable Xyz Monster.
Generic materials needed for this Rank 3. Super strong DEF for a Rank 3, which plays into his effect. Detach for a mill of up to 3 makes this card so good. So many decks revolve around the graveyard being filled and the BA archetype needs monsters going to the grave to activate their effects. PK also gel well with Dante, as do Lightsworns to a certain extent. 500ATK gain for each card for the turn allows Dante to punch through for some good damage and him turning to defense saves you from taking a big hit because his ATK drops back to 1000. 2500DEF will hold up against a lot of the card pool and even if Dante hits the grave you’ll get a Burning Abyss to your hand. With Link Summoning Dante can cash in all his effects in one turn, but you want to get both materials detached from him before he hits the grave to get the most out of him.
Great way to mill cards even if you splash him in somewhere and don’t get the add back to the hand. Solid attacking monster in conjunction with his effect and protects you from damage with the switch into defense. Had he been a Rank 4 he’d be on the ban list.
Advanced-4/5
Art-4/5
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity was the beginning of Wind-Up monsters hitting the ban list, and this particular monster remains banned.
Another generic Rank 3 monster, however less splashable than Dante. 1-for-1 detach to return a “Wind-Up” that was destroyed that turn to your hand gets any small “Wind-Up” back to your hand to combo off next turn. 1-for-1 detach to Special Summon from hand or deck gets you immediately to the “Wind-Up” you need either in your hand or deck. Most of the time you’ll go for your deck to thin it and get another copy if you have that monster in your hand. It is that Special Summon effect that has Zenmaity banned. The Zenmaity Loop almost a decade ago had this card as one of the most hated that you could see across from you. This, alongside Rat and Hunter, and with far-less negation and essentially zero hand traps, your hand was gone. Zenmaity could be made without any issue in its archetype and get to its combo pieces on its own. Get Hunter in the grave, Special Summon Rat, Rat summons Hunter, Hunter pops Zenmaity, Xyz Zenmaity with the Rat and Hunter, rinse, repeat. Once per turn wasn’t a normal thing on monsters back then and it made Hunter and Rat equally frustrating to deal with. Zenmaity wasn’t strong on its own, none of the Wind-Up monsters were, but when you had nothing to work with in terms of resources it meant you couldn’t win.
On its own it is an average card, but in its own archetype it is banned for a reason, a good one.
Advanced-3.5/5 Art-4/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
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