Ad Libitum of Despia – #BODE-EN011
During your Main Phase: You can make all monsters currently on the field gain ATK equal to their own Level x 100, until the end of the opponent’s turn. If this card in your hand or field is used as Fusion Material, and sent to the GY or banished: You can target 1 of your “Despia” monsters or Level 8 or higher Fusion Monsters, that is banished or in your GY, except “Ad Libitum of Despia”; Special Summon it. You can only use each effect of “Ad Libitum of Despia” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: February 7th, 2022
Rating: 3.38
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,
Ad Libitum of Despia opens up the week looking at more of the “Branded” support cards.
Level 8 1500ATK isn’t something you like to see off the bat. The ATK boost Ad Libitum gives works well in Despia as most of the monsters have higher levels with the exception of Despian Tragedy and Despian Comedy. The ATK boost is for any monster you have, so if you have some other monsters with levels they will benefit from the boost until the end of your opponents next turn.
Ad Libitum is best used as fusion material for a Fusion Summon because of what it can give back to you. Getting a free Special Summon from your banished zone of a Despia or a Level 8 or higher Fusion Monster puts two big monsters on the field?. You can use a Despian Fusion Monster as material alongside Ad Libitum to Special Summon another Fusion and then get that previous Fusion back, or go conventional and, off your Fusion Summon, get a Despia to Special Summon. Dramaturge is a big body with negation power if you make another Extra Deck summon, while Aluber is your searcher, arguably the two best Despia monsters you could summon off Ad Libitum. The flexibility for any Level 8 or higher Fusion Monster to be summoned gives the deck some great room to bring out big attackers that can also control the flow of the game. You have any Fusion Monster that involves “Fallen of Albaz” as well as the two big Despian Fusion Monsters at your disposal and all are easily summoned, especially with Thursday’s choice for Throwback Thursday: Fusion Gate.
Ad Libitum won’t be on the field for long (if ever) but that ATK boost in Despia can mean some good added damage. As material for a Fusion Summon, it prevents you from losing advantage, even when banishing.
Advanced-3.5/5 Art-3.5/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
As we are impending a meta of Branded Despia being one of the top Decks in a few months, it’s fitting we look at some of the Branded Despia cards starting with Ad Libitum of Despia.
Ad Libitum is a Level 8 DARK Fairy with 1500 ATK and 2000 DEF. Pretty low stats on Level 8, DARK is always a great Attribute, and Fairy is well supported. During your Main Phase, you can make all monsters currently on the field gain 100 ATK times their own Level until the end of the opponent’s turn, which is fine I guess to make some of your monsters stronger. This at least gets to a more respectable 2300 ATK, but you likely just boosted the opponent’s monsters as well with this. Second effect triggers upon being sent from the hand or field to the graveyard or banished as Fusion Material, allowing you to target a Despia monster or Level 8+ Fusion that’s banished or in your graveyard that isn’t Ad Libitum and Special Summon it, allowing you to get your monsters back considering the archetype does do some amount of banishing for their Fusion Summons. Pretty good to trigger the search of Aluber once again or to get Dramaturge back on the field for his effect. The Fusions likely won’t do much if summoned off this outside Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer, but that part is nice to have still. Each effect is a hard once per turn, as is tradition for cards now. Overall, Ad Libitum is a good card for Despia and will likely find a spot in the Deck once it starts to take off in April. Something you want to have in the back pocket if you end up playing the archetype.
Advanced Rating: 3.5/5
Art: 4.5/5 That’s a pretty creepy looking dude.
Alex
Searcy
A big card to kick this week off, in Ad Libitum of Despia. Dark/Fairy (fun) Level 8, but only 1500/2000 atk/def here. During your Main Phase you can make all your Monsters gain attack to their Level x100. So this guy becomes a Level 8 with 2300 which is better but still low. It’s much appreciated the Effect lasts until the end of the opponent’s Turn, but modest as the boost is, it’s something, and it can help even your smaller Monsters be more effective. Lastly, if used as Fusion material from your Hand or Field, and sent to your Graveyard or removed from play, you can Target a Despia Monster or a Level 8 or higher Fusion, so long as it also is removed from play, and Special Summon it. That’s about as open ended as that can be, you should be getting a nice return likely every time this leaves the Field, which is a definite plus. The attack gain Effect is somewhat decent, but this guy likely won’t stick on the Field very long either.
Rating: 3.75/5
Art: 4.5/5 This is very cool, in a wicked way
Mighty
Vee
Being a main set, it was inevitable that Burst of Destiny would drop some more lore cards, with this week covering the new toys for the Despia archetype and the Branded mini-archetype. Their first card this week is Ad Libitum of Despia, a level 8 DARK fairy mirroring the monster Dogmatika Ashiyan, which makes it valid fusion material for most Despia fusions as well as giving it some synergy with Darklords like the rest of the Despia archetype. Ad Libitum also has the reverse stats of Ashiyan, a horrendous 1500 attack and mediocre 2000 defense for a level 8 monster.
Both effects of Ad Libitum are hard once per turn. Unlike Ashiyan, which relies on your opponent attacking to get a modest 500 attack boost (albeit a permanent one), Ad Libitum somewhat shores up its low attack with its first effect, which grants all monsters on the field 100 attack for their level until the end of the opponent’s turn. While this might end up screwing you against decks that field lots of high-level monsters, like synchro or tribute decks, it does grant an advantage against XYZ and link decks while boosting Ad Libitum itself to a still bad, but more respectable, 2300 attack. More importantly, it’ll boost your other heavy-hitters like Dramaturge of Despia (who goes from 3000 to a nasty 3800 attack) and Despian Proskenion (gaining 1100 attack for a whopping total of 4300), which is pretty helpful for securing the OTK as long as the enemy doesn’t benefit from it. Ad Libitum’s second effect allows you to special summon a Despia or level 8 or higher fusion monster from your graveyard or banish zone if Ad Libitum is used as fusion material from the hand or field (notably, it specifically excludes itself). The second effect will probably be the most useful one since it lacks a special summon condition, so while it does help swarm a bit and has combo potential, it is a bit of brick compared to Dramaturge.
Advanced: 2.75/5
Art: 4/5 It would appear Ashiyan decided to attend clown school, but wanted to look cool instead of funny.
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