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ExMinion OfDarkness |
Wednesday:
Manticore of Darkness
This is a fairly good cards that will be overlooked
for all but one combo.
If a Beast Warrior or Beast deck is played, this card
is almost guaranteed to stay on the field, giving you
a constant 2300 Attacker. Berserk Gorilla is now a
VERY viable card...Enraged Batle Ox, Bazoo, Giant Rat,
Nimble Momonga...the problem is sticking to Beasts and
the like for an entire Deck. I'm sure there are other
cards that can be comboed with this, but not enough
tournament playable ones.
Now, for the combo:
Have one Manticore in the hand, and another in the
graveyard that just went there this turn (no matter
how, doesn't have to be by battle, can be by Graceful
Charity/Painful Choice/etc.), and Card of Safe Return
on the field. During your End Phase, give up the
Manticore from the field to bring back the one from
the Grave. Now the one in the grave was just sent
there this turn, so you can use the effect for THAT
one, and discard the Manticore from the field, to
bring that one back. This creates an infinite loop --
and every time you Special Summon one of them from the
Graveyard, Card of Safe return gives you a card.
Instant Exodia.
This card earns itself a 4/5 in decks based on it, and
3/5 in Exodia-based Decks (Tribute monsters, no matter
how great their effects, are sometimes hard to get
out.) |
|
Otaku |
Stats:
Manticore
of Darkness is a Level 6 Fire/Beast-Warrior. If my
info is correct, it’s the strongest Level 6 or less
Fire Monster in the game, and the only real playable
Fire Monster with a higher attack (in my opinion, of
course) is Tyrant Dragon( a level 8). The only
stronger Beast-Warrior is
Garnecia Elefantis,
a Level 7 monster. There isn’t a lot of love for Fire
Monsters, but Beast-warriors recently got some
support. 2300 ATK is a bit low for a Level 6, so
hopefully the effect will make up for that. 1000 DEF
could have been a touch higher: after all,
Sangan can search for up
to a 1500. Still, not terrible. Overall, okay stats,
but not enough to get it played. So let’s move onto
the effect.
Card
Text (Effects):
This is part of what makes it playable. Whenever this
card is sent to the Graveyard (no restriction on how),
it can be revived by discarding a Beast,
Beast-Warrior, or Winged Beast card during the
End-phase of that turn. There are decent cards for
each one, so is that enough? Read the combos to find
out.
Uses/Combinations:
Monsters that are nice for this are Enraged Battle Ox
(which grants trample to
Manticore and all the monsters that can be used
for Manticore’s effect).
This has wonderful Synergy, giving a nice heavy hitter
to decks built around that ability. Monsters that
appear in such decks are Mad Dog of Darkness (Level
Dark Beast, 1900/1400), Berserk Gorilla (Level 4
Earth/Beast, 2000/1000 that must attack each turn it
is able to), and several others. Wild Nature’s
Release might be a possible good combo-I believe that
getting destroyed is one way of being sent to the
Graveyard (stupid wording issues :-P).
If it is, then you can use is and discard something to
revive Manticore. Not
great-you are only getting a 1000 ATK bonus for a 3
card combo, but it (hopefully) works. The other nice
trick (again, assuming it works) is discarding it with
a card (like Graceful Charity), then discarding one of
the appropriate monster types to get it back. Timed
right, you can build up a quick, trampling, assault
quite quickly.
Ratings
Casual:
4/5-I think it makes a nice
heavy for Beast/Beast-Warrior/Winged-Beast decks.
Tournament:
3.5/5-As usual, it’s the same as above, but such decks
take a hit from fiercer competition.
Limited:
4/5-Considering most of the cards I mentioned in combo
with it are in this set, it’s a solid draft choice and
apt to become a “poor” man’s Vampire Lord.
Summary
A
good, solid card for a neglected attribute/type
combination. |
