May 2007
Crystal Beasts - Cameron

Who likes these monsters? I know I do, it's too bad Konami made them better than my Dragons. Oh well I still stick by 'em, but I'm gonna make a Crystal Beast Deck anyway. I've been testing them, with 3 proxies each of Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and Rare Value. I bought 2 boxes of Force of the Breaker and didn't get a single copy of either! Oh well, if anyone would like to trade for 'em I've got a list of cards that might interest you. Or if you'd like to sell 'em, I'll pay $20.00 Canadian for each Sapphire Pegasus (up to 3, can't go broke off of this I gotta pay tuition as well) and $15.00 Canadian for each Rare Value (up to 3). I'm trying to balance this out with University funds so I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to sell them for this cheap. Anyway, here's the proxie-laden deck I've been testing:

40 Cards

Monsters: 19
Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth x3
Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat x3
Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle x3
Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise x3
Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus x3
Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger x3

Magic Cards: 16
Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins x3
Crystal Abundance x2
Crystal Beacon x3
Crystal Blessing x2
Crystal Promise x3
Rare Value x3

Trap Cards: 5
Crystal Raigeki x3
Last Resort x2

That's right, it's pure. I prefer it that way. Also, it's not very focused. I've used all of their support wheras others have streamlined their versions to cater to a specific purpose. One is Beatdown, maxing out on Rare Value and Crystal Raigeki as well as only running 3 each of Sapphire Pegasus, Topaz Tiger and Amber Mammoth along with a single Ruby Carbuncle. Another type is Rainbow Ruin Control, using Rare Value and Crystal Raigeki sparingly (maybe 2 copies of each) along with Card Trooper and Crystal Blessing to fill the S/T Zones with Crystal Beasts as quickly as possible. Also, there's a trick with Rescue Cat and 2 Amethyst Cats to fill 2 Zones in one turn that it can make use of. The third is the Crystal Beast OTK Deck, using absolutely no copies of Rare Value or Crystal Raigeki cuz it wants to put 4 Crystal Beasts in the S/T Zones as quickly as possible to activate Crystal Abundance and attack for over 8000 damage with ease.

My build has forfeited this speed and focus in favor of a pure Crystal Beast Deck that keeps its options open. I've waited for so long for an archetype that had so many quality support cards that you can easily make a 40-Card Deck out of without using cookie-cutter cards for filler (or for necessity because the theme sucks). After I'd made my own deck I had enough surplus Crystal Beasts and their common support cards left over from just the first box to give to my brother. All those commons working in conjunction with eachother drastically improved his deck, even without Rare Value/Sapphire Pegasus. If I get real ones any time soon, I just might take this deck to an SJC and see how it does. It will probably fall victim to the Card Trooper enhanced versions but I'll be happy if it does any good considering the fact that it's pure.

Oh, one more thing. I wrote an article on cards of interest from Tactical Evolution, however I left out one card that could be the best reason to play Crystal Beasts 3 months in the future:

Ultimate Crystal God Rainbow Dragon
Light/Dragon - Effect
Level 10 - 4000/0
Text: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except when there are 7 Types of "Crystal Beast" cards on your side of the field or in your Graveyard. The following effects cannot be activated during the turn this card is Special Summoned:
- Send all "Crystal Beast" monsters on your side of the field to the Graveyard to increase this card's ATK by 1000 points for each card sent to the Graveyard by this effect.
- Remove all "Crystal Beast" monsters in your Graveyard from play to return all cards on the field to their owners' Decks.

Interesting eh? I thought it'd be better. If it were in my deck I'd have really no use for the second effect because all Crystal Beasts I had access to in my Graveyard for Crystal Blessing are gone, it resembles a field-clearer for an OTK but that's what Crystal Abundance is for. The first effect would be great if it could be used the turn it was summoned for a quick shot at an Attack Position monster, but if you get a free 4000 ATK Special Summon and can't use it on the first turn you can bet EVERY MONSTER your opponent controls is going in Defense Position during his/her next turn. If you run Enemy Controller and Giant Trunade I can see this coming in handy cuz there's not gonna be anything your opponent can do about a possible 6000-8000 ATK shot to an Attack Position Cyber Dragon. Nevertheless if you use neither of the effects it's still a 4000 ATK free Special Summon for any deck that uses all 7 Crystal Beasts. Hah! No cutting out the fat, this might support the use of pure Crystal Beast Decks like mine. Or it'll be treated like the 3 Sacred Beasts from Shadow of Infinity and fall to the way side. Oh well, I'll still want 1 or 2 for my deck in the future. I'll take out 1 each of Cobalt Eagle and Emerald Tortoise for them.

Anyway that does it for me for this tip.

Send your questions, comments, etc. to cjrwaud@cogeco.ca. Please no hate mail, I'm really a nice guy once you get to know me.