Stats                : Bladefly is a Level 2 Wind/Insect.  Being Level 2 means it slips under cards like Gravity Bind and Level Limit-Area B, though it doesn’t have a lot of options for Metamorphosis.  Wind seems to be a really underrated type, but then again, the area it seems to excel at is brute force.  Even though some have a slight twist and there are three Level 4 Monsters with an ATK of 1900 – Luster Dragon#2, Slate Warrior, and Spear Dragon – Wind just doesn’t seem to be a match for the raw power of Chaos.  Compared to the slick tricks of a Water deck or the beat/burn created by a Fire deck or the even better brute force with some nasty tricks of Earth decks… its just hard to compete.  The Insect aspect may help: there are a few decent Wind/Insects aching to have decks built around them.  For example, the Ultimate Insect family and Insect Princess show potential.  Still, Insects seem to have better options in the Dark and Earth varieties.

 

Bladefly’s ATK is a mere 600, which is only useful in that it is well below the restrictions for searching via Flying Kamakiri#1, Last Will, and Sangan.  It has the marginally better DEF of 700, which means little with Witch of the Black Forest banned.  This thing needs a fantastic effect in order to see play.

 

Effect(s)            : While face-up on the Field, all Wind Monsters get a 500 ATK boost and all Earth Monsters take a 400 point hit to ATK.  Not bad, but not great.  You aren’t apt to have this in play with more than one other Monster, so you would seem to be better off using Rising Air Current.  What is sad is that this is the strongest of the Metal Raider Elemental boosters.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : The ability to be searched out sometimes makes the Elemental Monsters almost useful in very dedicated Elemental decks.  For example, with the Field Spell Rising Air Current also in play, a slain Flying Kamakiri#1 can bring out one Bladefly, and one’s normal summon another, and you have two 2100 ATK beatsticks that can slip some popular stalling tricks.  More over, should they manage to both survive, the combination would yield a sick +1500 to any Wind Monsters, and also drop Earth Monsters by 800 (sucks to be Berserk Gorilla or D.D. Assailant)  The main problem is that it is such a fragile combination.  Book of Moon and Mystical Space Typhoon can easily break it at the worst time, right before you attack.  Even so, especially in weenie rush decks, I’ve seen Elemental attackers prove occasionally useful. 

 

This one still won’t be though, and for a simple reason: there’s something better.  Harpy Lady 1 gives only a 300 boost to Wind Monsters, and doesn’t hurt Earth Monsters, but instead of a tiny 1100 ATK Monster, you get a solid 1600 ATK Monster via the Harpy.  Just a searchable – more so, in fact, since you run Elegant Egotist if you really, really wanted to search them out en masse.  No, I am not encouraging that, though I have found that one Harpy Lady 1 makes decent TecH in a Wind Beatdown.  As stated, such a deck isn’t the greatest, but I do think it might be better than some would expect.  Plus, this makes tempting bait for Book of Moon, since an opponent will think they are saving one of their Monsters and ridding themselves of one of yours by simply turning your Elemental booster face down.  Those who actually have used an elemental booster usually know what cards to run to make this less likely.  After all, you can use Book of Moon as well, and setting a Slate Warrior can actually come in handy.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5-I am not certain it is even more useful in a Wind/Insect deck than Harpy Lady 1.  Of course, a Wind deck is unlikely to do much good here.

 

Advanced        : 1/5-Same score because even though Wind decks are better here, there is still a better card available.

 

Limited            : 2/5-There are just enough Wind Monsters (a few actually impressive for Limited) in Metal Raiders that this isn’t a bad card to add to them if your deck is composed of a few.  It also turns several that aren’t so great into decent beatsticks for Limited.

 

Summary

The original elemental boosters are basically a failure.  Fortunately this appears to be largely realized by Konami, and we’ve seen much better boosters released.  Some, like Harpy Lady 1 are still along elemental lines, while others such as Command Knight work quite successfully according to Type.