THE CRIMSON KING is Fun for YU-GI-OH! 5D'S Fans
Konami recently released Structure Deck: The Crimson King for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. This is a deck based on the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s character Jack Atlas utilizing Resonators and Red Dragon Archfiend. There are approximately 9 brand-new cards for the TCG and one of those is an unusable card. That unusable card is Everyone’s King with an image of Jack Atlas with some children, an ATK of 3000, a DEF of 2500, and is labeled as a Human-type card. It’s a fun card and is even an Ultra Rare, but it is useless outside of collecting.
However, the box art card, Scarred Dragon Archfiend (which is unfairly a Super Rare in my opinion) is pretty cool although I don’t expect it to break into the meta any time soon. However, it can bring back a Red Dragon Archfiend from the graveyard when it ends up in the graveyard and this includes itself (granted it is properly Synchro Summoned first) as its name counts as Red Dragon Archfiend when on the field or in the graveyard. Unfortunately, that’s about it. If you use it as material for a DARK Dragon Synchro Monster, you can Lightning Storm your opponent, but I feel like that’s not likely to happen too much.
Other new key cards include Soul Resonator and Vision Resonator which are low-level FIend-type Tuners to help you get all these nifty Red Dragon Archfiend-related Synchros, and said Synchros. The really big ones (Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity and Red Supernova Dragon) will probably never see mainstream play due to resources required. That being said, I’ve never played competitively and am sure someone will try to prove me wrong. Red Supernova Dragon has potential as it has protection from effects and you can non-target banish your opponent’s field, but it is a Level 13 that requires 3 tuners and 1+ non-Tuner Synchro. That’s a minimum of four cards and I just don’t see Yu-Gi-Oh! players bothering with that.
At the end of the day, the big audience are the 5D’s fans. However, some more casual players may grab three copies of The Crimson King for the Pot of Extravagance at the very least although it was already readily available in the Structure Deck: Albaz Strike. Beyond that, Danger! Nessie! and Danger! Chupacabra! might have some pull? What do you think about The Crimson King? Was it a decent Structure Deck or a complete whiff? What would you like to see Konami do for new Structure Decks outside of not forcing us to buy three copies to get the cards we want?