YU-GI-OH! SPEED DUEL: STREETS OF BATTLE CITY Brings 8 Decks of Fun
A couple of weeks ago, Konami released a new product for the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game spin-off Speed Duel. Speed Duel: Streets of Battle City brings Speed Duel duelists 8 new premade decks plus additional cards inspired by the second season of the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. You’ll find decks inspired by Yami Yugi, Joey Wheeler, Mako Tsunami, Weevil Underwood, Espa Roba, Rare Hunter, Arkana, and Strings. This is the second Speed Duel box centered around Battle City and this brings me to a few of complaints.
First, did we really need another Yami Yugi Dark Magician deck? I get it. Yami Yugi and Dark Magician are so important to the franchise. However, in both Battle City boxes for Speed Duels, there’s a Dark Magician/Dark Paladin deck. While some of the cards are different, the strategy is basically the same. Especially when there’s another Dark Magician deck in the box, it feels a little sad. It could’ve been really cool to get a full-on Odion deck or a new take on Mai’s deck. Joey’s deck got a bit of a bigger revamp in Streets of Battle City putting more of the focus on Warrior-type monsters which is why I’m not complaining about him.
My other complaint is about Rare Hunter’s deck. He’s known in the anime for cheating and having an Exodia stall deck. Neither of those strategies is present here. I think there are a total of two cards that he had in the anime present in this deck: Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Gear Golem the Moving Fortress. It just feels awkward in my opinion to have a deck so untrue to the character. I know Mako’s got non-WATER monsters like Airorca and Flyfang, but they’re still Sea Serpent- and Fish-type monsters.
One final complaint I have is that cards are being introduced that can’t be used. For example, Joey’s deck includes Karbonala Warrior and Giltia the D. Knight for the Extra Deck, but none of the materials for those Fusion Monsters are in Speed Duel. It’s Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon all over again.
That being said, I do know that this box does include a bunch of cards new to Speed Duel like Summoned Skull, Arkana’s Dark Magician, and more. There’s also the first ever printing of Mako Tsunami’s Fiend Kraken in the TCG! It’s not good, but it’s crazy that it has taken this long to come to the TCG. I also love that they brought back the OG artwork for Dark Magician which is also my favorite.
I do want to take a minute to talk about some of the new Skill Cards released in Streets of Battle City. I think Ultimate Wizardry has some real potential. It can speed up Skilled Dark Magician and Skilled White Magician as well as letting you use Breaker the Magical Warrior multiple times. Whale of a Tale makes Fortress Whale less of a brick and gives it a decent effect. Stalked by the Rare Hunters is an interesting one, but I worry it’s too slow since you have to Set the monster to your field. I can see Now You See Them… as getting quite a bit of play since you can draw up to 5 cards from it which is powerful, but that would make you play 3 Dark Magicians which may be a bit too bricky for a 20-card deck. The Dragon Hunting Swordsman actually sounds pretty nasty since it can help you get out Dark Paladin without the need for Polymerization and give it a massive ATK boost. I want to like Heart of a Warrior, but I feel like it’s not useful right now. I guess it’s a way to get a body on the field, but it’s extremely limited in its use. Once Synchro and Xyz monsters hit the format this will probably change. However, Joey’s Malicious Motivation is pretty decent although it does require your opponent to have a full field.
Overall, I think Streets of Battle City is really cool. Yes, I think Konami dropped the ball on a few items, but Speed Duel is still a ton of fun. I wish that there were more Speed Duel events near me. You can check out my opening of Streets of Battle City below and let me know which of the 8 pre-made decks is your favorite. Huge thank you to Konami for sending me a box.