A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow – #SUDA-EN049
2+ monsters, including a Fiend monster
During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can discard 1 card, then activate 1 of these effects;
● Destroy 1 card on the field.
● Banish this card (until the End Phase), and if you do, Special Summon 1 LIGHT or DARK monster from your GY.
During your Standby Phase: You can draw cards equal to the number of different Monster Types in your GY, then place cards from your hand on the bottom of the Deck in any order, equal to the number of cards you drew. You can only use each effect of “A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: January 29th, 2025
Rating: 4.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow is a new Link 4 that is pretty generic with the Fiendsmith toolbox still dominant despite the ban list tweaks.
Needing at least one of your monsters to be a Fiend-Type isn’t a problem for most meta decks, as they are packing the Fiendsmith toolbox or a way to summon out a Fiend-Type. 2800ATK for a Link 4 is pretty strong and A Bao A Qu for the amount you commit to her will pay you back.
1-for-1 on either player’s Main Phase, discard to pop any card on the field or save her from something on the field and get her back in the End Phase…oh, and Special Summon a LIGHT or DARK monster from your grave in her place. The ability to dodge spot removal/banish abilities as well as field-clearing cards was good enough, but to bring back any LIGHT or DARK monster in your grave so you don’t lose advantage on board, or worse for the opponent, gain advantage because the monster summoned isn’t negated. A Bao A Qu is a break even at the worst and a plus 1 or more at best. The discard also allows you to set up your grave with something for later or simply summon it back if it is a LIGHT or DARK monster.
At your Standby Phase A Bao A Qu does a modified version of Mirage of Nightmare for you: draw cards equal to different Monster Types in your Graveyard, then cycle back cards to the bottom equal to the number drawn. The dodge ability prevents A Bao A Qu from being dealt with during your opponent’s turn, all-but ensuring you’ll get to your Standby Phase with her and then get to use this effect. The more Types in the grave the better, but you are at the absolute worst getting a free draw and then cycling back one to the bottom of the Deck. The further you go into your Extra Deck the more likely you are to have different Types, as well as if you pack several hand traps.
Anything running Fiendsmith can run this, it is all about if you can reliably make this card and have a spot in your Extra Deck for it. The advantage it gives you can be immediate as she covers the two most supported Attributes in the game, involves the most popular toolbox currently in game, and offers great protection and advantage to you all without carrying a negation power. If you aren’t running a Fiend she isn’t for you and it isn’t the end of the world…but she does kinda make you want to have access to a Fiend monster in some fashion because of how good she is. Set up grave with the discard, pop a card for a discard or dodge an opponent’s card while summoning a LIGHT or DARK from grave, big body while on board, rearrange your hand at Standby Phase. She doesn’t need a negate with all of that attached to her.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Midweek brings us to the card designed to help Evil Twins but might be the most generic card of the three to run and easily one of the most hyped cards in Supreme Darkness: A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow.
A Bao is a Link-4 DARK Fiend with 2800 ATK and arrows pointing Left, Right, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right. A respectable ATK stat on a Link-4, DARK/Fiend makes for a great combination, and the arrows are pretty strong for Link-4 standards. The materials for this are any 2+ monsters, including a Fiend, which is honestly super generic considering the Knightmares are some of the best generic Link Monsters out there and they are all Fiend monsters, so you can just provide one or two other materials (depending on which Knightmare you use) and summon this. The first effect is a Quick Effect for the Main Phase to discard a card to use one of two effects. The first lets you destroy a card on the field, which is super simple, yet solid disruption for any Deck to access really. The other will banish this card until the End Phase to summon any LIGHT or DARK monster from your graveyard. A good effect in Evil Twin to revive a Trouble Sunny you might tribute to revive both Ki-sikil and Lil-la for their effects and then Link them into this to get both it and Trouble Sunny on the field for the end of your turn. Of course, you can run it elsewhere, and there are plenty of good LIGHT and DARK monsters you can revive off a card like this. There’s honestly a reason why Jowgen the Spiritualist was banned shortly before this card came out in the TCG. Dark World also springs to mind for a card like this since they are all Fiend monsters and the effects are useful for the Deck, even if the discard won’t trigger their effects due to being a cost. The other effect can be used during your Standby Phase, letting you draw cards equal to the number of different Monster Types in your graveyard and then placing cards from your hand to the bottom of the Deck in any order equal to the number you drew. Again, the obvious Evil Twin synergy since Ki-sikil and Lil-la both have different types between the regular Live Twin versions, the Evil Twin Links, and especially the holiday-themed extenders they have each having a unique typing. Any other Deck summoning this with multiple Types can also get a big draw off of this and put back some of your bricks or cards that aren’t useful at the moment. HOPT on each effect, of course. A Bao is a pretty strong, generic-ish Link Monster for multiple strategies to play. Even if you don’t have many good LIGHT or DARK monsters to revive, if you can run this for destroying a card each turn and getting to draw more cards, you should get decent value off of this. It might not be a complete Extra Deck staple, but it’s pretty close.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 Konami seems to really put effort into the artwork of their “waifu” cards.
Mighty
Vee
Apollousa fans jumped for joy while Link critics gnashed their teeth with today’s card, A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow (which I will simply refer to as “Bao”). Bao is a Link 4 DARK Fiend Link monster with left, right, down left, and down right arrows, making it fairly flexible in either a Main Monster Zone or the Extra Monster Zone. It takes any 2 or more monsters as long as one of them is a Fiend, which means it fits like a glove into decks like Live Twin, Dark World, and of course Fiendsmith hybrids. While 4 monsters worth of materials is still a bit steep, many decks can still access it with generic Fiend Links like all the Knightmares– it’s just a question of whether the materials are worth it. Bao’s 2800 attack stat is decent enough for a Link 4, so I can’t complain there.
Bao has two hard once per turn effects, the first being a Quick Effect that lets you discard a card during the Main Phase to activate 1 of 2 effects. Either you can simply destroy 1 card on the field, or you can banish Bao itself until the End Phase to Special Summon any LIGHT or DARK monster from your Graveyard. Many sounded the alarm on the first choice, since it means almost any deck once again has access to a disruption you can make with 4 Link materials worth of leftover jobbers. Considering that it needs a discard, I would say it’s not comparable to Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess at all, especially when one of Apollousa’s strongest points is being able to stop Hand Traps during your turn, which Bao doesn’t do. On the bright side, the destruction doesn’t target, so it can get rid of some pesky monsters with targeting protection but not destruction protection. Though Bao hasn’t panned out as a generic endboard piece, the decks that it is good in love the second effect because it lets you extend your combos and set up potentially stronger disruptions. White Forest weaponizes it as another way to revive Rciela, Wolf Tamer of the White Forest for its blanket flip effect as disruption, and Fiendsmith hybrids can revive Chaos Angel for its banish effect. Bao’s other effect says a lot, but comparatively isn’t too important; during the Standby Phase, it’ll let you draw cards for each type of monster in your Graveyard (hopefully at least 1 Fiend among them!) then place cards on the bottom of your deck for each card you drew. It’s a basic mulligan effect that unfortunately can’t be used during the next Standby Phase– granted, it’d be a little silly if you could get rid of any leftover cards and potentially replace them with boardbreakers. Fortunately, it still has some utility since it can help prepare for turn 3 or 4 by turning leftover cards into a boardbreaker or follow-up combo starter you need to turn the tide of the duel. Bao isn’t good in every deck and it certainly isn’t a replacement for Apollousa, but in the decks that want it, it does a lot; any LIGHT or DARK deck that doesn’t lock you out of it can probably use it in some fashion.
+Stupidly versatile effect for extending and disruption
+Draw effect can get rid of bricks and fish for boardbreakers and follow-up
-Needs a decent number of bodies which may negate its extending potential
-Can make you quickly bleed card advantage
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 4.25/5 Yet another horrific literary monster turned into a girl. Good!
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