Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss

Today I'm giving a shout to Bill, Mr. Pojo, himself.  Thanks to him for both giving me a creative outlet to express myself and for maintaining this wonderful tradition for 15+ years.  Also, shout out to T-Rex, who, of all the people I added on the COTD team, the writer I'm most satisfied with.

At #3 is the big-gun of Burning Abyss, Dante.  They had to make him a Secret Rare so you have to pay $180 for a playset.  Because you need a playset of Dante if you want to win with Burning Abyss  He really is the heart and soul of the deck, and has lots of combos.  The release of new cards made him even better.

•    He sports a base 2500 DEF and effectively 2500 ATK

•    He mills/thins the deck, triggering Malebranche effects

•    Malebranche effects trigger when detached for XYZ effect.

•    Malebranches and Tour Guide make summoning him easy

•    Rubic, Calcab and Alich = 90% chance of "first turn Dante"

•    Dante replaces himself when destroyed (You can recover Fire Lake from the graveyard to deal another devastating blow to the opponent.)

•    With Rank-Up Magic Astral Force, Dante becomes Pleidas

•    Dante can attach to Downerd Magician to guarentee triggering his own effect.

•    Cir can summon Dante from grave, and Dante can add Cir to hand.  Loop!

•    Facing an opponent with 2 Dante's on the field is really scary!

4.75/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Hope everyone has had a great holiday, as well as a happy New Year later this week. We resume with #3 on the countdown: Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss. The best card in the Burning Abyss archetype, Dante is the Burning Abyss specific Xyz monster. Easy to summon, requiring only 2 Level 3 monsters. Its LIGHT attribute and Warrior-type lend it as fodder and allow it massive support in the game. 2500DEF is tremendous defensive power for a Rank 3, it will likely hold its own against almost any monster your opponent can bring at you.
 
Detach a material to send up to 3 cards from the top of your deck and gain 500ATK for each sent to the grave this way until your End Phase. At 1000ATK it isn't very strong, but when the effect kicks you will have likely a 2500ATK powered Dante attacking for the turn. After it finishes attacking it turns into defense mode and stays there until your next turn. With the attack power drop and its strong defense this is a great protective effect. When Dante hits the grave he will kick a “Burning Abyss” level 3 monster back to your hand.
 
Any deck that involves the graveyard in some sense can use this card. 2500ATK (after successful effect resolving) protects itself after each attack it makes by changing its mode and having a strong defense unlike other monsters with this effect in the past. Lightsworns, Burning Abyss, and Shaddolls come to mind. Burning Abyss lean heavily on Dante, while Lightsworns could fill their graveyard with his effect, setting up Judgment Dragon and possibly getting a Wulf or Felis as well. Any Shaddoll sent to the grave by a card effect gets an effect. Much like Burning Abyss, the likelihood of not plusing off Dante's effect in either of those decks are rare.
 
Dante is good...very good. If you run any of the above decks you should have at least 1 Dante in your Extra Deck and 3 if you run Burning Abyss.
 
Advanced-4/5
Art-4/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

#3 on our Top 10 Cards of 2014 is Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss.

Position on my list: N/A

I ignored this card on my personal Top 10 list because I labeled it as non-generic. Looking back, though, the card is generic, and easily one of the best Rank 3’s to come out recently. As such, were I to make my list again, Dante would probably be on it.

Even though at the highest levels of play Dante is only seeing use in Burning Abyss, the card is overall extremely versatile, doing what Card Trooper does but better. This is due to overall better stats. Within Burning Abyss itself, Dante is a pivotal card, being able to accelerate the Deck while at the same time getting back any Burning Abyss card from your Graveyard upon his death; in the past the primary target was Cir, but recently Fire Lake has also become a major target for Dante.

Any Deck that can run Tour Guide and likes Card Trooper also likes Dante, and he’s definitely key to the success of Burning Abyss. Dante is easily one of the best TCG exclusives to be made.

Advanced: 5/5