Black Ptera is an interesting Dinosaur and I was shocked it still hadn’t received a review.  Why? To quote EMoD from the Ancient Gear Cannon CotD:

 

“… and you know what they say about 3 card combos -- they have to win instantly to be worth it, because if they don't, they're inferior to Stein, THE 3 card combo.”

 

Well, Black Ptera is part of a three card one turn kill.  It’s even via burn damage, so the opponent needs anti-Burn instead of just the normal Stein countermeasures.  Although every other CotD reviewer should have already mentioned this, the three card OTK combo for Black Ptera is Black Ptera, Cannon Soldier, and Ultimate Offering.  Bet some of you were wondering why Ultimate Offering was restricted to one card (even though so few of us used it): this is one of the two big reasons I’ve heard tossed around, it and sure makes sense.  After clearing the opponent’s field of Spells and Traps, you are free to Normal Summon Cannon Soldier and then use Ultimate Offering to Normal Summon Black Ptera 15 times, offering it as Tribute for Cannon Soldier’s effect each time, finishing by offering Cannon Soldier itself.  Why?  Because whenever this card is “sent from the field to the Graveyard, except when destroyed by battle, it is returned to the owner’s hand”.  So using Ultimate Offering to repeatedly Normal Summon Black Ptera will drop your LP by 7500, but the Tributing via Cannon Soldier will drop them by 7500 for Black Ptera and then the last 500 can come from Tributing Cannon Soldier itself.  All components of this combo have at least one method of searching the card from the deck: A Cat of Ill Omen will let you topdeck Ultimate Offering, and Sangan and Last Will can fetch both Cannon Solider and Black Ptera (and of course there are multiple techniques that can get one or the other, like Attribute searchers).

 

The main thing that keeps this combo down is the set-up required.  You need to get all the cards, and then keep a hold of them (two parts in hand or in play, one part in play) for a turn before you can go for the kill.  Trap hate is a high as, as usual, which obviously shuts this combo down.  Still, the needed components can be eased into many decks.  Cannon Soldier can be great for that last bit of burn, and Ultimate Offering is often useful for a last turn rush (or decent defense option), and Black Ptera can be a decent surprise and maintain advantage.  I mean, it’s nice as a Set when you know you’re just going to Torrential Tribute if they Summon anything, and Tribute Summon something if they don’t.

 

The card’s actual stats are poor to okay: Wind is sort of “whatever”, Level 3 will let you slip under Level Limit-Area B and Gravity Bind but with just 1000 ATK and 500 DEF, its main purpose is as fodder.  Since it is a Dinosaur it does actually work a bit better in Dinosaur decks, which do tend to have plenty of reasons to Tribute a Monster.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1.25/5

 

Advanced: 3.25/5