Article # 39 - Wicked Winged-Beasts

Finally, back again with another article. Today’s article will be featuring a couple Winged Beast-type Monsters of the English game’s future and current Japanese game. Let’s get right to it with a look at Stealth Bird.

Stealth Bird

Dark/Winged-Beast - Level 3 - 700/1700

Effect: Once per turn, this Monster can change to face-down DEF position. When this Monster is successfully Flip-Summoned, do 1000 damage to the opponent.

Stealth Bird was a Common from the Japanese 307 set. It’ll be released in English in IOC.

Stealth Bird could be a powerful asset to many types of Decks. It fits well in Burners, Dark-based Decks, etc. At Level 3, it can get under things like Gravity Bind, and with stats of 700/1700, it could provide a pretty hefty Defense for you. 1700’s not always easy to get by, and you won’t have to worry about its ATK being overpowered, because with its ability to turn to f/d DEF position once per turn, like the Monsters of Pharaonic Guardian such as Guardian Sphinx, it’s not going to be attacked while in attack mode, so 700 ATK is plenty for a Monster with such an Effect, really. Note, though, that it’s Effect occurs when it’s successfully Flip-Summoned. That means you actually manually flipping it from face-down DEF positions to face-up ATK position. Its Effect would not activate if it were attacked while in f/d DEF position.

Stealth Bird is usually a mistakenly overlooked and underrated card. This card has some massive capabilities in various types of Decks. Whenever it’s successfully Flip-Summoned, which could be once during each and every one of your own Turns, 1000 damage is done to the opponent. It may not seem like a lot, but it really is for a Burn-Effect, and that 1000 damage could easily aide you in a quicker victory. Not to mention it’s likely that you’ll get at least 2000-3400 damage done with it in a mere couple of turns, depending on if you get to attack with it, as well.

Not only is it useful for that, but in Dark-based Decks, Stealth Bird is also capable of working with the Deck Destruction Virus of Death, (Reviewed in my Deck Drainers article) since its ATK strength is just 700. It can also obviously be Searched by Critter and the Tomato.

Overall, I’d consider Stealth Bird to be a very versatile Monster card, and I would give it an overall rating of 7.5 / 10. Moving on, we take a look at the Holy Bird - Crane.

Holy Bird - Crane

Light/Winged-Beast - Level 4 - 1600/400

Effect: When this Monster is Special Summoned, its controller Draws one card.

Holy Bird - Crane was also a Japanese Common card from the 307 set. It too will be released in English in IOC.

Well, Holy Bird - Crane is certainly an interesting Monster card. It has an above average ATK strength at 1600, and although that’s not too powerful, it can hold its own. 400 DEF isn’t exactly great, though, but this Monster can still fit well into Winged-Beast-based Decks, but I wouldn’t recommend it for much else, though it might be able to work well in Exodia Decks, as well.

Holy Bird - Crane’s Effect is pretty simple. Whenever it’s Special Summoned, whoever Special Summons it Draws one card. This is a card that could slightly aide you, or slightly backfire on you if your opponent is who ends up Special Summoning it by Revival or some other sort. Drawing one card can help you, such as the Airknight can, but it’s really not that great of an Effect considering it has to be Special Summoned to Draw a single card. Being able to be Searched by the Witch is always a nice capability, though.

There’s really not much else to say about Crane, so I’ll leave it at that. I’d give the Holy Bird - Crane an overall rating of 6 / 10. Nothing too special there, really, but it has its upsides.

Besides those two, there is only one other Winged-Beast-type Monster released in Japanese that has yet to be released in English. (to my immediate knowledge, anyway) And that Monster will be reviewed in what I’m planning to be my 41st article. Look for my next article (big # 40) to be featuring some new 309 cards, and a few Japanese Promos.

You can e-mail me with any questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..

~DM7~