Preview The Past With The Yu-Gi-Oh ‘Breakers Of Shadow’ Special Edition
As if we didn’t have enough reason to love Breakers of Shadow, the latest expansion in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game that we said could change the direction of the game in our original review, the special edition of the set has arrived with some exciting new cards for us to get our hands on. As with the previous special edition, each set will contain three booster packs along with two of four promo cards. Selected at random, each box will contain one of two reprints of a hard to get card, and one of two preview cards that will be featured in the next set. Since we’ve already spoken at length about the contents of Breakers of Shadow itself, let’s dive in and see what new cards we have to look forward to. Although… Something tells me Blue Eyes White Dragon fans like myself will have a lot to look forward to when cracking open these boxes. So, without further ado…
Starting with Number 23: Lancelot, Ghost Knight of the Underworld. Formerly found in the Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal volume 7 manga, this knight sets up a solid wall to protect your field from monster, spell and trap effects. Detaching one of its Xyz material when an effect during either player’s turn is activated allows you to negate the effect’s activation, keeping you safe for one more move. When on the offensive, detaching one Xyz material lets Lancelot attack the opponent directly, which triggers its secondary effect, which allows it to destroy one face up monster on the field. It might be tricky to get it on the field since it requires two level 8 monsters to summon, and its relatively low 2000 attack points might make it an easier card to take out, but it’s clear that Lancelot gives you so many options when its on the field that it can potentially turn the tide of any duel.
Continuing the evolution of the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon that’s become a mascot for the fifth generation of Yu-Gi-Oh, this Shonen Jump subscription promo is now available for the world to play! Despite being a Fusion Monster, Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon can be Special Summoned without Polymerization if the fusion material monsters listed at the top of the card are on the field and in your control. Acting as a pure powerhouse, Beast-Eyes inflicts even more damage on top of its initial attack thanks to its effect, which inflicts damage to the opponent equal to the beast type monster used to summon it every time it destroys a monster. It won’t be long until those Life Points count down to zero with an ability like that!
Forge of the True Dracos is the first card that we’re previewing from the upcoming Shining Victories set, which gives a huge boost to Dracoslayer players. If you have a non-Pendulum Dracoslayer monster and a Dracolord monster on the field, you can play this card to shuffle all the cards you have on the field back in your deck to Special Summon one Dracoslayer or Dracolord straight from your deck, ignoring any special conditions that would make you unable to summon it normally. With the right hand and right monster, this card can essentially give players a do-over, allowing them to pull a game changing monster onto the field with ease.
And finally, we have Beacon of White, just in time for the revival of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. As one of the most popular cards from the series’ original run and the trademark monster of Seto Kaiba, the card of a dragon that used to be a girl that was in love with his ancient Egyptian self, (hey, I didn’t write the stuff,) is set to come back in a big way. Beacon of White is just one of many new support cards that are set to debut in Shining Victories, but if this was all we got, it would be more than enough to make Blue Eyes competitively viable again. Although the activation requirements might be a stretch depending on your deck, the result is more than worth the trouble. If you have three or more “Blue-Eyes” cards in your graveyard, (meaning any card with that name in it,) you can special summon any one of them straight to the field. While no other monsters can attack, and it loses any effects it normally has, (which is mostly moot since most Blue-Eyes cards don’t have effects,) it gains the ability to attack in an amount equal to the amount of Blue-Eyes cards in the Graveyard. So if you were to say… use this card to bring back a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and you have three Blue-Eyes White Dragons still in the grave, that’s three attacks at 4500 each, more than enough to finish a duel! What’s crazy is, this isn’t where the support ends, and I’m excited to see what new tricks this old favorite will have when the full set releases.
So there you have it. If the base set wasn’t enough to get excited about, these promo cards really put it over the top. Which ones are you looking most forward to?
