Monday

Continuing with Hidden Arsenal Week Part III we open with an XYZ Monster in Lavalval Chain. We have a Rank 4, Fire attributed, Sea Serpent, (seems a bit contradictory) with a mere 1800 attack and 1000 defense, both very low for its Rank. This Monster is XYZ Summoned with two Level 4 Monsters.

Once a turn you may activate one of the following effects by discarding an XYZ Material from this card: Either you can send one card from your Deck to the Graveyard, which does boost many Fire Decks (Brotherhood, for one, and Laval of course, as well as others). Or, choose one Monster from your Deck and add it to the top of your Deck.

The second ability may actually be what gets this card the time of day...at least somewhat. That's a pretty key combo piece for several Decks out there. You may only get to use the effect once, via the low 1800 attack, but this card could work in your favor.

Ratings:

Traditional: 1.5/5
Advanced: 2.5/5
Art: 4.5/5

Today, we are going to look at an Xyz monster that is good in about any deck except for the top tier decks. Mermail and Fire Fist decks do not have much use for Lavalval Chain, but any deck that can make use of Foolish Burial or has a key monster that needs to be in hand should have it in their Extra Deck. The list of deck types that Lavalval Chain helps is quite extensive and too numerous to talk about in this article, so I am just going to point out a few of those decks.

Starting off with Lavalval Chain’s namesake, we have Laval, Infernity, Dark World, Chaos Dragon, Plant Synchro, Gem-Knight, Inzektor, Zombie, and Lightswarm decks as good destinations for Lavalval Chain. We can even go way back and use it in decks like Blackwing (Zephros), Flamvel, Monarch, and Exodia to name just a few. All you need to summon Lavalval Chain is a Rescue Rabbit or Summoner Monk. Imagine having the ability to put powerful monsters like BLS, Dark Armed Dragon, or Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon on top of your deck to break the game open on your next turn, or to mill Dandylion, Plaguespreader, Wulf, or Hornet.

Now let’s take one of my favorite decks to use Lavalval Chain in to see just how good this card can be. Summon Rescue Rabbit and use its effect to special summon two Zure Knight of Dark World monsters to Xyz summon Lavalval Chain. Use Chain’s effect to put Grapha on top of your deck. Activate Dark World Dealings to draw and discard Grapha to get Grapha’s destruction effect and to have it in your graveyard to be special summoned. If nothing else, Chain gives you a faster way to get Grapha in the Graveyard where it is a real pain to your opponent.

Search power and graveyard use is a tremendous advantage to the savvy duelist and Lavalval Chain is one of the key tools in gaining that advantage. It is not great in every deck, but in most decks struggling to become tier #1, it could prove to be just the ticket. The low attack (1800), knowledge your opponent has in advance, and the slow speed at which it works is a detriment to Lavalval Chain in this fast format, but in the right situations, it can be game breaking.

Traditional: 3/5
Advance: 4/5

Another week of Hidden Arsenal cards, and first up is a card who's name you can't say 5 times fast, Lavalval Chain. A FIRE/Sea-Serpent (urr?) and a Rank 4 Xyz, needing a mere 2 level 4 monsters. while its 1800/1000 ATK/DEF stats won't fend off a lot, but its effect comes in handy in a lot of decks that allows setting up for future plays and strategies. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz material from Lavalval Chain to activate one of the following effects:

1) Send one card from your deck to your graveyard.

2) Choose 1 monster from your deck and place it on top of your deck.

That first effect comes in handy with several cards, such as Wulf, Dandylion and White Stone of Legend. Or any other cards that you might need for setting up later, such as Dark Armed Dragon, LightSworn Dragon, Black Luster Soldier, or a big monster to get back with Monster Reborn. Chain's second effect is just as handy for setting up future plays as well. Getting key cards such Rescue Rabbit, Tour Guide or even those precious Exodia pieces when you need them, or even want them is pretty good. But there is one down side to this as your opponent is let on to what you may be up to and plan ahead to stop your shenanigans. But overall, a decent card that helps out with planning strategies and getting you want you need, where you need it. Lavalval Chain is good in a lot of decks, and get you those game winning cards where you need them.

Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3

It's good to be back......

Today's Card of the Day Review is one of the hottest and most wanted cards out of Hidden Arsenal 7. That card happens to be Lavalval Chain.

It is a generic Rank 4 Xyz monster that uses 2 Level 4 monsters to summon. It has a very low 1800 ATK and 1000 DEF but makes up for it with 2 very useful effects.

"Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate 1 of these effects;
● Send 1 card from your Deck to the Graveyard.
● Choose 1 monster from your Deck and place it on top of your Deck."

Basically, this card is a walking Foolish Burial but even better than the initial Limited card since it can send Spells and Traps from your deck to the Graveyard. This has value in Gem-Knight and Gishki decks since you can reverse toolbox Gem-Knight Fusion or Gishki Aquamirror to the Graveyard and then use its effect to add it back to your hand. This also can easily set up your Graveyard with monsters like Heraldic Beast Leo, Dandylion, Spore, Treeborn Frog, Machina Fortress, any of the Dragon Lords from the upcoming set Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy, Wulf, Lightsworn Beast and so much more.

It can also see Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Avenger to the Graveyard. Now, you may be wondering why those 2 cards is singled out.

Heading forward, the 2nd effect is not as useful overall but it does also have value in certain situation. It allows you to rig your deck by placing whatever monster you want on top of it. As for the Infernity Archfiend/Avenger mention, this can put an Infernity Archfiend on the top of your deck, getting ready to be drawn your next turn. Anyone who has faced against a good Infernity deck will know how bad that initially ends because it is massive card advantage for the Infernity player.

Outside of that, it has value in many other decks. Lightsworn will love this effect as it places their boss monster, Judgment Dragon, right where it needs to be: on top of your deck ready to be drawn next turn. If you use Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning in your deck, you can stack it right there. Need a Side Deck monster ASAP? Lavalval Chain can put it right in your grasp. That effects add a whole lot of consistency that we hasn't seen before.

In conclusion, if your deck needs the benefit of sending cards to your graveyard or need certain monsters for your deck to work at full strength, Lavalval Chain should be close to the top of your list, if not the top, of the cards you need to play. Sure, it needs protection with its puny 1800 ATK but I'm sure the rewards it offers is more than worth it.

Traditional Format: 3/5 (It's not bad there but it can be a bit too slow with Painful Choice, Foolish Burial, and many other faster ways to dump cards to the Graveyard.)
Advanced Format: 4/5 (It's very good here. Just needs protection but once it gets it, it will wreck havoc indirectly for the rest of the game. This is a card that needs to be dealt with quickly.)