Welcome to PRIO Finale Week, where we finish off our last reviews for the set before we move on to Duelist Alliance.  But first, let's start our finale with a cool support card for an undersupported theme.

Nopenguin

Since the original Penguin Soldier, people have had a fascination with Penguin cards.  Anime viewers will remember Crump from the Battle City/Noah's Virtual World season and his affinity for them.  Penguins aren't a serious deck and are lacking in support, but they are getting support at IV-drip speed.

The Great Emperor Penguin was a nice +1 but didn't make me excited to run Penguins.  Penguins have a long way to go, but Nopenguin actually makes it possible to build a deck centered around them.  It would be hilarious and borderline-possible to win locals with it, but don't expect to win Regionals or anything like that.

If Penguins do ever get more decent support, this card will definitely rise in popularity fast.  For now, it's a niche product.

Assessments

Power – 3/5 ; A penguin deck is able to use, re-use and abuse this... if they can protect their other penguins.

Versatility – 3/5 ; Penguins will want to draw this card a lot.  You would want this card in all of your games.  However, since Penguins don't return Spells/Traps to the hand, you can't banish Spells or Traps.

Accessibility – 2/5 ; Costless, although lacks a searcher aside from the bulky LV5 The Great Emperor Penguin.  This proves to be a problem in terms of trying to make it consistent.

Card Advantage – 4/5 ; This will make Penguins able to finally plus, and not just return monsters.  The fact that it summons itself and banishes a card, makes it a +1 on successful activation.

Speed – 2/5 ; Summons quickly but this card is slow because other Penguin cards are slow.  Cards like Nightmare Penguin and Penguin Soldier, for example, depend on being flipped face-up in order to trigger the banishing effect, and that's slow.

Ratings

Traditional – 1/5 ; Penguins won't work here.  Don't feel bad, penguins.  90% of theme decks are dead in this format too.

Advanced – 3/5 ; Penguins will never be tier 1, 2 or even 3, but this card is a really amazing card, for Penguin standards at least

Mechanic Design – 4/5 ; Quite broken, but the deck needs it.  I like how it is quickly summoned.

Artwork – 3/5 ; I like this one.  A meme-quality troll-penguin.  Encino Man boyfriend and Nope.avi Engineer have some company now.

Verdict

Penguins decks use 3.  Non-Penguin players ignore this.

Nopenguin

For the Penguin Deck, this card is a fabulous addition, it really is.

The first time (since it’s only a “Once per turn” effect) a Penguin’s effect activates (during either players turn) this cards mandatory effect activates.

Because of this if Nopenguin were to be in your Graveyard and then your Penguin Soldier (lets say) were to be flipped up, Nopenguin’s effect chains to this, and this is important because it Summons itself before the a Penguins effect resolves, and thus in the case of Penguin Soldier, any of your opponents selected monsters become banished instead of simply being returned to the hand. Also a great way to permanently get rid of non Extra Deck monster cards.

Keep in mind that it only Banishes your opponents monsters that would otherwise be sent back to the hand, so it doesn’t actually have any negative effects on you.

Nopenguin fits in so well with ANY Penguin type Deck, so much so that you should be including 2-3 copies of it in your Deck.

Use Nopenguin itself to help you Xyz into whatever Rank 3’s you can afford to fit into your Deck as well as using it to help you Synchro Summon with. Also it can be used as Tribute fodder for The Great Emperor Penguin or simply used as a “Blocker” if worst comes to worst.

It most certainly sets up many opportunities for play, and for the most part it’s only limited by how little support the Archetype actually has.

Traditional: 1. Penguins find this format too hot to handle…

Advanced: 2.5 While it may indeed be good support there is simply not enough strength in Penguins overall for this card to really matter. 

Nopenguin
 
Starting off this week we have Nopenguin, a new penguin card. Before we start this is already a bad idea by Konami trying to create an archetype out of cards there were very loosely connected; it’s Archfiends all over again and they worked out well, he says with a tone of sarcasm.
 
Anyway Statwise Nopenguin is a Level 3 WATER/Aqua which is what Aqua types should be with 1600 ATK and 100 DEF, a pretty common stat configuration for a level 3 monster with high ATK.
 
Effectwise both effects require other Penguin cards and their effects. The first effect allows you to summon this card from the graveyard when a Penguin effect activates.  A nice effect which is designed to work with Rank 3 Xyz monsters or use as Tribute Fodder for The Great Emperor Penguin. The second effect would be more useful if there were more Penguin cards with bouncing effects, so far there are only the two reliables; Penguin Soldier and Nightmare Penguin, so there isn’t much this card can work off even if the effect is quite nasty.
 
Overall, a solid card but this isn’t going to change the fact that Penquins aren’t an archetype.
 
Traditional: 2.25/5
Advanced:  2.25/5

Nopenguin is quite an interesting card to say the least. Penguins are not a terribly strong archetype, as they have very little support, and none of it really stands out as impressive. Conveniently enough, however, I actually have dabbled a little bit with the cute little birds to see how they function together.

The general strategy of the Penguins is disruption. Cards like Penguin Soldier and Nightmare Penguin bounce monsters back to your opponent’s hand when they’re flipped; this is where Nopenguin comes in, since while it’s in play anything your Penguins bounce gets banished. This can cause your flightless birds to go from nuisances to nightmares (pun intended). Penguin Soldier in particular can become potentially devastating if it successfully banishes two monsters.

Possibly the biggest selling point of Nopenguin however, is that it revives itself when a Penguin activates its effect. This is mandatory, so no missing timing, and no “can’t activate in the Damage Step” shenanigans. And because this is an effect that activates in response to the Penguin’s effect, Nopenguin will summon itself before the effect resolves.

For a clearer picture of this situation, imagine you have a set Penguin Soldier, and Nopenguin in the Graveyard. Your opponent attacks the Penguin Soldier, and it flips, activating its effect. Nopenguin chains to Penguin Soldier, summoning itself, then Penguin Soldier resolves, banishing two monsters on the field. As a bonus, because Nopenguin is always Chain Link 2, summon response Traps such as Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute miss timing, making Nopenguin effectively immune to them.

There are several ways to get Nopenguin into the Graveyard, whether it’s through Tidal, Foolish Burial, or Mathematician. Alternately, you can summon it from the Deck with The Great Emperor Penguin. And since its effect can only be activated once per turn, you only really need one copy, so there’s not too much worry about it getting stuck in your hand.

I’ve probably made Nopenguin sound like quite the stellar card, but the fact of the matter is that the Penguins are still an underwhelming archetype, and he doesn’t really do much to improve that. He’s a very welcome addition to the group, but I wouldn’t expect to get far competitive-wise with the cute little birds.

Traditional: 1/5

Advanced: 2/5