Dark
Paladin |
Monday
Angel of Zera opens week two of our Top 10 for
Judgement of the Light. Another Synchro Monster,
this time Level 8, with 2800 attack and 2300
defense, and of the Light attribute, also a Fairy,
playable with Honest, all very excellent things.
Zera is Synchro Summoned with one Tuner and one or
more non-Tuner Monsters. This card is very good, at
least right now, and might be not as good come next
Format which is just around the corner. Angel of
Zera gains 100 attack for each of your opponent's
cards that are removed from the game. 100 may not
seem like much, but for any player you face using
Black Luster Soldier, that makes Zera have 3000
attack when Summoned, meaning BLS has to remove Zera,
it won't be able to attack through her. This card
fits in a wide variety of Decks, obviously a Light
or Fairy Deck, a removal Deck, obviously where you
are removing your opponent's card, and it's
powerful. Play this, period.
Ratings:
Traditional: 3.25/5
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 5/5
|
Philosophical
Psycho |
I made a small mistake in my Armades article last
week. I said 2400 ATK was the highest of any Level 5
Synchro. There are three higher ones. What I meant
was that it was that it was the highest of any Level
5 that said “1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners.” Also,
when I reviewed Lion Heart, I did so under the
pretense you could use both effects on the same
attack, which you can't.
In our age of the Xyz, the Judgment of the Light
Booster Pack has given a revival to the Tuner/Synchro
mechanic, and I would say it’s new-and-improved.
After all, five of the eight new Synchros are on our
Top 10. I particularly like Angel of Zera, the only
monster on our list that is a special
made-for-English card, because he blends the effects
of two good monsters: Colossal Fighter and D.D.
Survivor. Colossal Fighter is a Level 8 2800 ATK
Synchro that gained ATK for Warriors in the
Graveyard. D.D. Survivor was able to Special Summon
himself if he got banished. Angel of Zera is a Level
8 2800 ATK Synchro that gains ATK from ANY of your
opponent’s banished cards and can also Special
Summon himself multiple times if banished.
Ok, admittedly those are the only connections it has
with Colossal Fighter and D.D. Survivor. However, it
still means that most combos you can do with those
two monsters are also applicable with Angel of Zera.
Like Colossal Fighter, Angel of Zera gains power
from fallen monsters, and three times as fast. Angel
of Zera’s revival effect is also an upgrade from
Survivor’s, because you can banish Angel of Zera
anytime, anywhere (assuming you legally Synchro
Summoned him) and he’ll be coming back.
Like D.D. Survivor, Angel of Zera boasts a small
immunity to Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional
Prison. Angel of Zera summons himself at the Standby
Phase instead of the End Phase, which is usually
inconvenient, but tolerable. (It would be better if
it were during your End Phase instead of your
Standby Phase, as it’s more likely to get Banished
during your own turn than your opponent’s. However,
Zera laughs at the face of Black Luster Soldier.
Also, on the off-chance you have Zera in your Grave
and a set Call of the Haunted while Dimensional
Fissure or Macro Cosmos is out, if your opponent
activates Heavy Storm and you chain CotH you can get
back that Zera your next turn…although you shouldn’t
use CotH alongside Fissure/Cosmos anyway.)
Unfortunately, Angel of Zera only gets his boost off
opponent’s cards, and having a consistent way to
banish your opponent’s cards is not as reliable as
banishing your own cards. Still, a lot of enemy
Decks do a fair amount of banishing, and it just
takes one card to push Angel of Zera over the 3000
ATK benchmark.
The rate at which Angel of Zera boosts his ATK
(Honest-able, too) makes him almost invincible in
battle, and if you have out Banisher of the Light,
Banisher of Radiance, Dimensional Fissure, or
especially Macro Cosmos, you can put a detour on the
Grave and constantly revive Angel of Zera. It goes
without saying that a Deck that focuses on this
mechanic is where Angel of Zera gets his most power,
to fuel his ATK and revival. These Decks are good as
anti-meta, but are reliant on using Continuous
Effects to keep getting cards banished. However,
Angel of Zera is a great Level 8 Synchro in any Deck
that focuses on banishment, such as Chaos or Fairies
(particularly Agents), although I wouldn’t use Angel
of Zera at all unless I had many ways to banish him.
These Decks focus on banishing Light monsters in the
Graveyard, so you can summon Angel of Zera and later
find a way to banish him from the Grave and he’ll
come flying back. Other examples include Cyber
Valley which can banish this card on the field, and
using the Eccentric Boy Tuner can make Synchoing
easy and also auto-banish the Synchro. I’ll tell you
right now, if I’m playing against Angel of Zera,
it’ll annoy me how he can keep reviving himself and
I’ll feel oppressed by how he’ll coming back. The
problem is that this effect only activates once per
Zera, so you can’t swarm with a whole bunch of them
at once. Also, it MUST be the “next” Standby Phase,
so if for whatever reason you can’t, you can’t use
the same effect to bring him back the next turn.
Trad: 3/5 (it’s cool how I can banish this for Chaos
Emperor Dragon’s summon but that’s it)
Adv: 3.55/5 (might not give instant advantage,
Aesthetics: 4.5/5 The Warrior of Zera was a
wandering warrior who sought the Sanctuary in the
Sky to harness the Archlord power. Wary of being
tempted by the Archlords, he trained by himself.
When he reached the holy place, he ascended towards
them as Zeradias, Herald of Heaven, as an Archlord
trainee. Since Angel of Zera still has green wings,
I would think this is his intermediate form between
Zeradias and Archlord Zerato. After Archlord Zerato
is Darklord Zerato, which is either Archlord Zerato
from a parallel universe, or, more likely, what
became of Archlord Zerato when the Darklords
kidnapped him.
Philosophy Corner: Last Wednesday, I was at Target,
and as I was walking past the trading card aisle, I
happened to see a Pokemon Card on the floor. I
picked it up and it was the Amoonguss from the
Plasma Storm expansion. I looked on the shelf and I
saw a Plasma Shadow Theme Deck split open. I bet
someone ripped it to steal the Giratina. I tossed
the Amoonguss back into the pile. I considered the
idea of running off with the Amoonguss or any of the
other cards for a while, but I really decided not
to, and it felt better because Target donates
damaged products to charity.
abc_at_123.com@hotmail.com
|
Rikothe
FoxKid
YouTube
Site |
We’re down to the Top 5 cards for our Judgment of
the Light countdown. At #5 we have Angel of Zera:
Level 8
LIGHT
Fairy / Synchro / Effect
2800 ATK / 2300 DEF
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
This card gains 100 ATK for each of your opponent's
banished cards. During the Standby Phase of the next
turn after this card was banished: Special Summon
this banished card. You can only use the effect of
"Angel of Zera" once per turn.
Here we have another generic Level 8 Synchro,
joining the ranks of Scrap Dragon, Crimson Blader,
and Stardust Dragon. Does he hold up to them?
Well, for one, he gains 100 ATK for each banished
card your opponent has. He also has the nifty
ability to return next Standby Phase if banished.
Any Deck that can utilize Macro Cosmos can make use
of this so that he always comes back when destroyed.
Unfortunately, I feel he may be a format too late.
Under the threat of Dragon Rulers, this guy would
have gained a massive ATK boost (consider how much
they banished their own monsters). With those out of
the way this September that’s not as much of a
concern. He does dodge both Bottomless Trap Hole and
Dimensional Prison, and while the former will remain
popular, I think the presence of the Bujin will
cause Dimensional Prison to drop in use.
He’s definitely solid, but I don’t think he’s quite
the same as things like Scrap Dragon or Crimson
Blader.
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5
Art: 5/5 (He’s an angel form of Warrior of Zera;
possibly before becoming Archlord Zerato? I’m a
sucker for the card storylines.)
Tomorrow: Definitely not a card from Storm of
Ragnarok.
|
