Enlightenment Dragon – #LEDE-EN038
“Judgment Dragon” + “Punishment Dragon”
Must be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by banishing the above monsters, 1 each from your field and GY. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can pay 2000 LP; banish all other cards on the field and in the GYs. Once per turn, during your End Phase: Send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the GY. If this card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card: You can add 2 of your banished monsters to your hand (1 “Judgment Dragon” and 1 “Punishment Dragon”), then you can Special Summon both, ignoring their Summoning conditions.
Date Reviewed: May 31st, 2024
Rating: 3.43
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,
Enlightenment Dragon is a the Fusion Monster we knew Lightsworn would eventually get, but probably not the kind of one we thought they’d get.
Needing both Judgment and Punishment Dragon to summon, Enlightenment Dragon at least doesn’t need a Fusion Spell, as it banishes the materials needed to summon. Another plus is its Fusion Summon working with the archetype’s mill ability, needing one of them on the field and one in the grave. You’re more likely to get Judgment on the field and Punishment in the grave with how easy it is to summon Judgment. 2000LP cost to banish the field and grave except itself is one heck of an effect, it’s like Demise but banishing and getting the graveyard involved as well. This does rob you of your Lightsworn monsters in the grave so summoning Judgment will take a mill or two to get back online. Enlightenment Dragon does mill in the End Phase like Judgment Dragon does, at least attempting to refill the grave. As a Quick Effect you get some interruption potential with your opponent and avoid destruction protection and effecting kicking off.
If your opponent destroys Enlightenment Dragon, you can add back both Punishment Dragon and Judgment Dragon from your banished card and then summon them, no questions asked, no conditions to meet. Punishment can then once summoned pay 1000LP and cycle back all face-up banished cards and cards in the graveyard, except Lightsworn monsters. While your opponent would get something back as well, you are cycling back all your Spells/Traps and tech monsters. Leaving out Lightsworn monsters does kind of suck if your graveyard isn’t prepped for another Judgment Dragon, or you are running low on monsters, but with both these behemoths on the field you should likely be able to win, especially if Enlightenment Dragon’s effect landed at least once. You’ll also get a mill by Judgment Dragon in the End Phase to attempt to get more Lightsworn monsters into the grave.
Enlightenment Dragon is made to work with the archetype and not need another Spell added to the list. They made it flexible to summon, gave it a Quick Effect that can cripple a turn, and allow for two 3000ATK boss monsters to be summoned without their qualifications being met. You don’t need to run three of each, you just need to run one Punishment Dragon and get it in the grave somehow, and in Lightsworns there’s always a way to do that.
Advanced- 3.5/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Lightsworns have 2 Synchros, a Xyz, and a Link, but a Fusion has always eluded the Deck until now as the Deck’s boss monsters combine to make Enlightenment Dragon.
Enlightenment Dragon is a Level 10 LIGHT Dragon Fusion with 3000 ATK and DEF. Strong stats and it’s a Light Dragon, so good start. Fusion Materials are Judgment Dragon and Punishment Dragon, and you summon it by banishing both monsters (1 from field and 1 from grave). Not hard to acheive at all, considering you only need to summon one of the Dragons while hopefully milling the other to get this onto the board. First effect is a soft once per turn and a Quick Effect to pay 2000 LP to banish all other cards on the field and in the graveyards. It’s a complete wipeout, which now makes it clear why the new Minerva protects your Lightsworns from being banished. Odds are you still don’t end on a ton of Lightsworn monsters, so this will wipe those out, but you are opening your opponent up with their field and graveyard all in the banished zone. Still more of a last ditch effort to stop the opponent if needed. The other effect triggers during your End Phase, sending the top 4 cards from your Deck to the graveyard, cause it is still a Lightsworn card. The final effect triggers if this card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card, letting you add a banished Judgment Dragon and Punishment Dragon back to your hand, then you can summon both from the hand while ignoring summoning conditions, basically replacing itself with the original Fusion Materials after it’s destroyed, but a good chance the opponent takes care of this a different way. Still, it can potentially get the original Dragons back onto the field, so that’s solid. Enlightenment Dragon is a solid Fusion, but not solid enough to feel mandiatory. You for sure can run it in Lightsworns, especially if you already choose to run both the Dragons to begin with, and it’ll be a nice extra piece to the end board to wipe everything out if you need. It’s player preference really, but I say running it is completely fine.
Advanced Rating: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5 It’s fine, just doesn’t hit like the original Dragons did.
Mighty
Vee
We finally finish the week with the combined form of Judgment Dragon and Punishment Dragon: Enlightenment Dragon, a new boss monster for the Lightsworn archetype (again, not a Lightsworn name, which stinks!). Enlightenment Dragon is a level 10 LIGHT Dragon Fusion monster. Though it lists Judgement Dragon and Punishment Dragon as Fusion materials, you can’t Fusion Summon it manually anyway, and I’ll just say that it’s tougher than it looks. Enlightenment packs the same solid 3000 attack as its components and gets a modest defense boost for a clean 3000 defense as well, making it balanced overall.
Enlightenment Dragon can only be summoned by its own summoning condition, banishing one Judgement Dragon and one Punishment Dragon, one from your field and the other from your Graveyard. You’re meant to search and summon one of them with Lightsworn Dragonling while praying to mill the other one through sheer luck (OCG still has Curious, Lightsworn Dominion to help with this). The components lacking the Lightsworn name makes it very awkward to make Enlightenment Dragon without RNG; I’ve had opening hands where I made it almost immediately as well as games where I couldn’t make it because Punishment Dragon was stuck at the bottom of the deck. At least it’s a Fusion body for Cross Sheep! As for its actual effects, Enlightenment Dragon has two soft once per turn effects, the first being a Quick Effect that takes a page out of Punishment Dragon’s book, paying 2000 Life Points to banish all other cards on the field and in the Graveyard. This is where Minerva, the Athenian Lightsworn comes in to save your own Lightsworns from being nuked. It’s a powerful disruption, make no mistake, though unfortunately it will get rid of your own Lightsworn Aegis (if you choose to run it), forcing you to activate it first before firing off Enlightenment Dragon. Banishing your own Lightsworns from the Graveyard also seems rough, but fortunately that’s where its last effect comes in, triggering if Enlightenment Dragon is destroyed by your opponent to recycle one each of Punishment Dragon and Judgment Dragon from banished back to your hand, then immediately Special Summon them, ignoring summoning conditions of course! While neither of them are spectacular monsters these days, they can help stage a comeback since they still have solid stats and have strong effects when your turn rolls back around. Having to be specifically destroyed is unfortunately a very unreliable condition, why couldn’t it just be leaving the field? While Enlightenment Dragon is a very strong boss monster, all of the odd design quirks as well as its unreliability in the TCG make it an optional part of Lightsworn decks; it’s nice to summon if you get the chance, but if you’re risk-averse you can probably cut it entirely.
+Extremely powerful quick nuke effect
+Potentially very easy to summon if you get lucky
-Not a Lightsworn name and can banish Lightsworn Aegis
-Can be difficult to summon if you’re unlucky
-Unreliable floating effect
Advanced: 3.25/5
Art: 4.25/5 Bling of war…
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