Dark
Paladin |
Thursday
Blaze Accelerator Reload is very good support for a
theme. Volcanic specifically, something I'd
bet most players don't know about. They were
powerful and relevant oh six, seven years ago.
This card does a lot of things right. It adds
speed to a very quick Deck in three ways, by sending
Monsters to the Graveyard, and by allowing you extra
Draws. On top of that, it allows you to add
Monsters from your Deck to the Hand as well.
If all this isn't enough, it's treated as Tri-Blaze
Accelerator. That allows you to burn your
opponent and destroy their Monsters, at the cost of
your Battle Phase. Honestly, I'd run two,
maybe three even, if you were playing Volcanic.
It's incredible theme support. The rating will
reflect that, despite the irrelevance at present of
Volcanics.
Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 4/5
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Misdreavus
"Mean and Evil" |
Let us git hyped! I heard that "Volcanic" decks
are the *insert swear word that gains a positive
connotation in this context somehow* these days, and
that's not just because the deck's fantastically
cheap to build (except for those who want to play
Lavalval Chain I suppose): Blaze Accelerator Reload
is a form of support that even Axel Brodie would
have never dared dream of. But it's a trap you say!
Traps are too slow these days you know... My
thoughts exactly, until I read its effect...
Nah, I'm not quoting - the card text should be on
top of this page already; back in the early days I
imagine one card the "Volcanic" theme has available
will have raised some eyebrows: Volcanic
Scattershot. Its monster effect inflicts 500 damage
to the opponent when it is sent to the graveyard,
and also, if it was sent to the graveyard by a
"Blaze Accelerator" card, you may send two other
copies of Volcanic Scattershot from your hand/deck
to the graveyard to destroy all monsters the
opponent controls.
"If..., you can..."! Volcanic Scattershot may count
itself lucky, when one considers that it was
released in a time when this wording was scarce to
say the least (although I'll admit that making an
effect like this mandatory would be silly). Either
way, we conclude that by discarding Volcanic
Scattershot with the effect of a "Blaze Accelerator"
card, we may inflict 1500 damage to the opponent, as
well as whipe their monster card zones. Very
promising indeed, but luckily the two "Blaze
Accelerator" cards that were released with it in
2007 weren't as convenient, requiring very specific
discards, forcing their user to skip the battle
phase, and forcing you to destroy an opponent's
monster, which is the most useless effect it could
have had when that's what Volcanic Scattershot was
going to do already. Even a formidable searcher in
the form of Volcanic Rocket could not make up for
the consistency issues an engine as reliant on one
specific card faced, or for said card's inherent
flaws..
Fast forward to early 2015, a forgotten theme got
exactly what it needed: another "Blaze Accelerator"
name, and a card with a worthwile effect even, that
grants the deck even more speed when it gets
running. The card being a trap is a blessing in
disguise, because this allows its user to activate
Volcanic Scattershot during the opponent's main
phase, and draw every turn as opposed to only during
their own. When Blaze Accelerator Reload reaches the
graveyard, either because of an illiterate opponent,
or because its controller wanted to draw even more
cards through Magic Planter/intended to beat face
with Volcanic Doomfire, it grants the "Volcanic"
player the option to activate the effect of Volcanic
Scattershot directly from the deck even!
So how does this deck play? Obviously it can't
discard Volcanic Scattershot every turn, can it? It
could with a bit of luck, but that'd be a waste of
resources obviously: in comes Volcanic Shell, with
the convenient effect of allowing the player to add
another copy of itself by paying the small cost of
500 life points, once per turn while it is in the
graveyard. Now that we are drawing cards and
searching discard fodder at the same time, all we
need to do is find a way to recycle our "Volcanic"
discards; we have a normal summon to spare, so Royal
Firestorm Guards will take care of this.
Obviously there's a bit more to the deck, but to get
you started, allow me to share with you my personal
take on the best way to open in a "pure" "Volcanic"
deck. We're playing three copies of Upstart Goblin
and two to three Pot of Duality to increase our
chances of seeing Volcanic Rocket as early as
possible, but also to have a spell count as high as
possible: the hand with the most potential, is one
consisting of Summoner Monk and at least one spell
card - I'm sure most players will figure this out by
themselves, but since I'm typing this review anyway
(my apologies for including an expensive card but I
like those): normal summon Summoner Monk, and
discard Upstart Goblin or whatever spell you don't
need, to summon Volcanic Rocket from the deck. With
the effect of Volcanic Rocket, add Blaze Accelerator
Reload from the deck to the hand. After this,
overlay Summoner Monk and Volcanic Rocket to make
Lavalval Chain.
Now normally, we want to send Volcanic Shell to the
graveyard, pay 500 life points to add a second copy
to our hand, and we're all set to get our draw
engine running! It is however possible that we drew
Volcanic Shell already, or have Volcanic Scattershot
in hand, or like discarding other "Volcanic" cards,
or... In this case, Lavalval Chain can send a Blaze
Accelerator Reload to the graveyard so that we can
access its second effect right away, or it can place
Royal Firestorm Guards on top of our deck for us to
draw so that our engine won't run out of steam...
All in all Lavalval Chain is as much of a boss
monster for this deck as it is for "Infernity" (you
expected me to say "Laval", weren't you?).
One last thing I should mention is what other cards
one would run in a "Volcanic" deck, as drawing cards
alone won't win games: we need cards we want to draw
into. I suppose the best choices are cards to limit
the opponent's options even more, adding to the
control provided by that nifty little card Volcanic
Scattershot: it's always nice to have Vanity's
Emptiness back you up, and Wild Fire is another
field wipe that deserves a mention if only because
it's not a trap card... With enough continuous trap
cards (Fiendish Chain is another good option), Magic
Planter becomes a cute inclusion as well, and we can
freely enjoy blowing up everything our opponent
summons - what one would expect from a theme that
goes by the name "Volcanic" in short.
On a final note: the "destroy all monsters your
opponent controls" part of Volcanic Scattershot's
effect will always be chain link 2 (dealing 500
damage is chain link 1 as it is mandatory), so "Yang
Zing" among others do in fact dislike the card very
much.
Traditional: I'm afraid that the fields a "Volcanic"
deck produces are far from threatening enough to
allow this deck to compete - sure whiping your
opponent's board every turn is fun, but the decks
you will encounter here have more comeback potential
than you have copies of Volcanic Scattershot. Not a
card that can be rated here; did I mention that no
one plays Traditional anyway?
Advanced: 4/5. Blaze Accelerator Reload is an
example that shows that Konami does playtest their
cards, and is in fact well aware of what many of
their decks need to become playable, releasing only
a single card that makes a forgotten deck like
"Volcanic" a threat again! The card's perfect, and I
hope we will see more retro support like it! I'm not
giving it the highest possible score because Blaze
Accelerator Reload did not propel "Volcanic" all the
way to top tier - feel free to call me a hypocrite.
Art: It's bigger... It's better... Ladies and
gentlemen... It's... Too much for Mr. Incredible!/5
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