So, I’ve been testing out the new Buster Blader support on
YGOPro Salvation (Username BigDub if you’re interested) and I’m fairly
impressed with it. So, I’m giving to give you all a rundown of the current
cards in the support (minus Buster Blader itself) and give them a rating. I’m
also then going to suggest cards for the non-Pendulum build for the Deck.
Destruction Sword-
Arms Buster Blade
-
Monster (Effect)
-
Dark attribute
-
Machine type
-
Level 4
-
1600/1200
-
Effect: You can target one “Buster Blader”
monster you control; equip this monster from your hand or your side of the
field to that target. While this card is equipped to a monster, Spell/Trap
cards that are already face-up on your opponent’s side of the field cannot
activate their effects. You can send this equipped card to the Graveyard; the
monster this card was equipped to gains 1000 ATK until the end of this turn.
When I was
testing this card out, I ran it at 3, and then brought it down to 2 and I’m
considering putting it to 1 because it’s just not useful at all. It hasn’t got
great attack but it can lessen the damage you take from being attacked and its
effect isn’t much better. I don’t understand why the Spells and Traps have to
be already face-up on the field. The only thing I can see this stopping is
Pendulums. Even though you can’t stop your opponent from Pendulum Summoning you
can stop Qli’s in their tracks because neither Scout or Monolith can activate
their effects. Other than that, it’s not useful. PSYFrame Overload is really
the only Trap I can see this working against, but that’s really situational
because you have to equip this after Overload is activated, and that’s assuming
they haven’t already banished your Buster Blader monster. I feel the effect
should be that “your opponent cannot
activate Spell (or Trap, one of the two) cards.” Period. That would be a much
better effect and it would encourage players to use it more. The only redeeming
quality this card has is the ATK boost, which can be helpful in some
situations, but overall, I feel the card is trash.
Rating: 3/10
Destruction Sword- Wizard Buster Blade
-
Monster (Effect)
-
Dark Attribute
-
Spellcaster type
-
Level 3
-
1200/900
-
Effect: You can target one “Buster Blader”
monster you control; equip this monster from your hand or your side of the
field to that target. While this card is equipped to a monster, monsters in
your opponent’s Graveyard cannot activate their effects. You can send this
equipped card to the Graveyard, then target 1 “Destruction Swordmaster” monster
in your Graveyard, except “Destruction Sword(master)- Wizard Buster Blade”, add
it to your hand.
This card
may be weaker in terms of attack and defence when compared to Arms Buster
Blade, but its effects are much better. While equipped this card can hurt quite
a few Decks, even though having monsters in the Graveyard isn’t really a thing
anymore thanks to Pendulums, it can certainly hurt Gravekeepers and Dark
Worlds. The only thing that could make this card excellent would be “cards in
your opponent’s Graveyard cannot activate their effects”. That would make me
run this at 3 instead of 2 because it would hurt a lot more Decks and provide
protection from cards like Galaxy Cyclone and Breakthrough Skill. The effect
you really want though, is the ability to add cards from your Graveyard to your
hand. That ability is a livesaver, and we all know how good adding cards is.
Overall, the card is decent but could be a lot better.
Rating: 5/10
Companion of the Destruction Swordmaster
-
Monster (Tuner, Effect)
-
Light attribute
-
Dragon type
-
Level 1
-
400/300
-
Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned: You
can add 1 “Destruction Swordmaster” card from your Deck to your hand, except
“Companion of the Destruction Swordmaster”. You can only use 1 of the following
effects of “Companion of the Destruction Swordmaster” per turn and only once
that turn. (1) You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 “Buster Blader” from
your hand or Graveyard. (2) While this card is in your Graveyard, if you
control “Buster Blader”: You can discard 1 “Destruction Swordmaster” card;
Special Summon this card.
I don’t care
what build you claim to be running, this deck CANNOT operate without running
Companion at 3. You just can’t do it. The card is one of the best in the
support. Yeah, it only has 400 ATK, but unless its effect gets negated you
don’t have to worry about that because you’re going to be tributing it or
Tuning with it almost straight away. It has a search ability, which just opens
up a lot of combos with the deck and you can tribute it to get out Buster
Blader in the same turn. It’s a Tuner as well, and I’ll get to the Synchro
monster soon, so you can use it as a generic Tuner as well. Most of the time,
you’ll be using effect (1). If you find yourself having to use effect (2) make
sure you can Synchro with it otherwise, you’ll be in a very bad position. The
only thing that the card is missing is some form of protection. It needs
something like “this effect cannot be negated” or “This card cannot be
destroyed by battle” or something like that just in case it gets stuck on the
field.
Rating: 8/10
Destruction Sword- Dragon Buster Blade
-
Monster (Tuner, Effect)
-
Dark Attribute
-
Dragon type
-
Level 1
-
400/300
-
Effect: You can target one “Buster Blader”
monster you control; equip this monster from your hand or your side of the
field to that target. While this card is equipped to a monster, you opponent
cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck. While this card is equipped
to a monster: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use this effect of
“Destruction Sword(master)- Dragon Buster Blade” once per turn.
So this is
the card you are going to be searching out a majority of the time with the help
of Companion. It’s a Tuner as well and why you’ll want to use this card as a
Tuner will become clear when I talk about the Synchro Monster. The effect that
everyone loves is that it locks your opponent out of their Extra Deck. It
basically shuts down Pendulums to the point where they can’t play, because
Pendulums require access to the Extra Deck to swarm the field. If they can’t do
that, they generally lose. I run this at 3 but you could potentially get away
with it at 2.
Rating: 8/10
Buster Dragon, the Preceptrampler Dragon
-
Monster (Synchro, Effect)
-
Dark Attribute
-
Dragon Type
-
Level 8
-
1200/2800
-
Material: 1 Tuner, 1 or more Non-Tuners
-
Effect: All monsters your opponent controls
become Dragon-type monsters. Once per turn, if you do not control a “Buster
Blader” monster: You can target one “Buster Blader” in your Graveyard; Special
Summon it. Once per turn, during your opponent’s turn: You can target one
“Buster Blader” monster you control; equip 1 “Destruction Swordmaster” monster
from your Graveyard to that target (this is a Quick Effect).
This is one
of two monsters you want to run at 3 in your Extra Deck, purely because of the
lock it makes with the Fusion monster, which we will get to next. You’re going
to want to Synchro Summon this by using Dragon Buster Blade instead of
Companion because, odds are that you’ll already have this card equipped to Buster
Blader so there’s no point in sending three cards to the Graveyard to get out
one card so you effectively go -1. You can then use Buster Dragon’s effect to
reset your field so you essentially got it out for free and still lock down
your opponent. This only thing this card
is missing is “This card cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects”.
It’s very vulnerable to effects, though when you see what the Fusion does,
you’ll see that it kind of has to be.
Rating: 9/10
Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer
-
Monster (Fusion, Effect)
-
Light attribute
-
Warrior type
-
Level 8
-
2800/2500
-
Material: Buster Blader + 1Dragon-Type Monster
-
Effect: Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be
Special Summoned by other ways. Cannot attack your opponent directly. This card
gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Dragon-Type monster your opponent controls or
is in their Graveyard. Change all Dragon-Type monsters your opponent controls
to Defense Position. Dragon-Type monsters in your opponent’s possession cannot
activate their effects. If this card attacks a Defence Position monster,
inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.
This card,
if it could not be destroyed by card effects, would be a win condition. That
“Dragon-type monsters cannot activate their effects” effect also applies to
monsters in the Graveyard. So, let’s see how nasty we can get this:
Level one:
Combo with Buster Dragon- Opponent locked out attacking.
Level two:
Combo with Buster Dragon AND Dragon Buster Blade- Opponent locked out of
attacking and their Extra Deck
Level three:
Combo with Buster Dragon, Dragon Buster Blade AND Arms Buster Blade- Opponent
locked out of attacking, their Extra Deck and ALL monster effects in the
Graveyard.
And even if
your opponent could have their monsters in attack position, you would never
have to worry about this card being destroyed by battle because even with one
monster on their field (and treated as Dragon) this card becomes a 3800 point
beater. 7800 if they have 5. And that’s just on the field. It includes Dragons
in the Graveyard so this card can easily reach over 10000 ATK. So you can
understand why both this card and Buster Dragon need to be vulnerable to card
effects: It’s impossible to destroy them by battle if they’re on the field
together. Oh, you’ll want to run it at 3.
Rating:
10/10
Buster Blader, the Destruction Swordmaster
-
Monster (Effect)
-
Earth attribute
-
Warrior type
-
Level 7
-
2600/2300
-
Effect: This card’s name becomes “Buster Blader”
while it is on the field or in the Graveyard. If an opponent’s monster(s) is
destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1
of those monsters; equip it to this card. Once per turn: You can send 1 monster
equipped to this card to the Graveyard; destroy all monsters your opponent
controls with the same Type as the sent monster’s.
So, this
card is trash. It’s a Buster Blader but it has no way to increase its ATK by
itself (unlike Buster Blader and Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer). The
effect is only good against Dragon based decks or while you don’t have Buster
Dragon on the field. Think about it. If your opponent is playing a Dragon based deck, you can equip a Dragon to
this card. Send that Dragon to the Graveyard and you destroy all their monsters
on the field and then you get re-equip another Dragon, while Buster Blader (and
Dragon Destroyer) keeps its ATK boost. However, if they’re not playing Dragons,
this card is useless. Even with Buster Dragon on the field, the equipped
monster will not be considered a Dragon because it is considered to be a Spell
card. It’s just no good. Even if your opponent was running only Spellcasters,
or Fiends, or Fairies, running this card would defeat the purpose of playing
this deck, because you’re supposed to powering up your monsters, not keeping
them at base strength. Good against Dragons. Not much good against anything
else.
Rating: 2/10
Destruction Swordmaster Fusion
-
Spell (Quick-play)
-
Effect: Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster that
lists “Buster Blader” as a Material from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your
hand or either side of the field as Fusion Materials. If this card is in your
Graveyard: You can send one card from your hand to the Graveyard; add this card
to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Destruction Swordmaster Fusion”
once per turn.
This card is
up there with Companion. I run it at 3, but you could potentially run it at 2
because you can search it out with Companion anyway. It’s Super Poly basically,
but only for Buster Blader. And you can add it back to your hand and reset
yourself for next turn. It’s a Quick-play so you can activate it on your
opponent’s turn to use their monsters before they can really hurt you, or you
can activate it during your Battle Phase to potentially OTK/FTK. I can’t see
how the deck would function without this card because you’d have to run Poly
which just isn’t that good anymore.
Rating: 8/10
Fate of the Destruction Swordmaster
-
Spell (Quick-play)
-
Effect: Target up to 3 monsters with the same
Type in your opponent’s Graveyard; banish them, and if you do, 1 “Buster
Blader” monster or 1”Destruction Swordmaster” monster you control gains 500 ATK
until the end of this turn. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can discard
1 “Destruction Swordmaster” card; add this card to your hand. You can only use
each effect of “Fate of the Destruction Swordmaster” once per turn.
I’ve never
had a reason to use this card. Presumably, it’s meant to help you protect your
monsters, but there is definitely an OTK possibility.
Destruction Swordmaster Flash
-
Trap (normal)
-
Effect: If you control a Fusion Monster that
lists “Buster Blader” as a Fusion Material: Banish all monsters your opponent
controls. When exactly 1 “Buster Blader” monster you control is targeted by a
card or effect: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; negate the
effect, and if you do, destroy it.
Now I’ve
never used this card, because it doesn’t fit my style of play, but I can tell
this is a good card. It provides the protection that Buster Blader, the Dragon
Destroyer is lacking. On top of that, you can banish everything they control.
Most of the time, if you have Dragon Destroyer out, you’re also going to have
Buster Dragon out as well so you don’t need to worry about monster effects
because they’re being negated, but Flash works against spells and traps that
target. The only thing that would make this card better is if it was a Counter
Trap card. “Oh, you’re summoning Triverr? Activate Flash, banished and you don’t
get its effect.” (I hate Triverr. Go and read my “Decks that take no skill” if
you want to know why).
Rating: 7/10
Total Deck
Rating: 60/90
Average
Rating: 6.6/10
Cards to include in a Non-Pendulum Deck
Anti-Spell Fragrance
ASF is an
excellent card to run against Pendulums because it basically locks them out
until they can destroy it, because they can’t set in their Pendulum Zones. Most
Pendulum Decks lack the ability to destroy Spell and Trap cards with anything
other than Pendulum Effects, so your ASF should be safe from cards like MST and
Galaxy Cyclone. I’d run it at 2 (and in fact I do run it at 2) to increase the
odds of drawing it. Ideally, you’d want to open up with ASF, set it, use as
many spells as you can and then activate it on your opponent’s Draw Phase.
Elemental HERO Prisma
Most BB run
at least of one of this, but I just thought I’d include it anyway. Prisma makes
it easier to summon Dragon Destroyer and it also gives you a target for
Companion’s effect, assuming you send Buster Blader to the Graveyard.
Dark Magician
Apart from
nostalgia purposes, this card allows you to make Dark Paladin and that allows
to create a partial lock on your opponent if you have Buster Dragon and Dragon
Destroyer on the field as well. Buster Dragon to force your opponent’s monsters
to become Dragons. Dragon Destroyer to force said monsters into Defence Mode
and negate their effects. Dark Paladin to provide protection from spell cards.
Use Decree to protect your monsters from cards like Mirror Force.
Eternal Soul/Dark Magic Attack/Thousand
Knives
Eternal Soul
is essential to this devastating combo. If you can dump Dark Magician into your
Graveyard quickly you can Special Summon it at any point you need. Dark Magic
Attack and Thousand Knives then allows you clear your opponent’s defences and
weaken their monsters allowing you to set up your kill. This strategy is
extremely effective against Pendulums if you can set it up quickly. Eternal
Soul also allows to spam Dark Magicians so you can summon Dracossack very
easily. Be sure to protect Eternal Soul if you use it though, because if it is
destroyed, so are all your monsters. Dark Magician won’t be destroyed by card
effects either as long as Eternal Soul is on the field, giving you a 2500
beater.
