If you control a
face-up "Blackwing" monster, you can Normal Summon
this card without Tributing. When this card is
Normal Summoned , you can change the Battle Position
of 1 monster your opponent controls.
Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.25
Advanced:
3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - 06.08.09
Blackwing-Elphin the Raver, an Ultra Rare opens up
the week, who is a Level 6 monster, of the Dark
attribute, and who is a Winged-Beast (bet you didn't
see that coming) with 2200 attack (not so great) and
1200 defense (same comment.)
Now, his first effect is that he can be Normal
Summoned without Tribute, if you control a face-up
Blackwing monster, which is good, but of course we
would rather have that as a Special
Summon...furthermore, when Normal Summoned, you can
change the Battle Posistion of one monster your
opponent controls.
The second effect is only really going to be useful
in two situations...either you can destroy the
chosen monster with this card or another Blackwing
you have on the Field, or use some other card to
destroy the monster in question. Honestly, it's
obviously support, but I don't care for it too much.
Ratings:
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5
Art: 5/5 Raven? Maybe in the lower legs and
feet...it looks like a gargoyle primarily, with the
head of a Komouri Dragon...
General Zorpa
Blackwing-Elphin the Raven
Well, we will start this week off with the Blackwing
that fell flat on his face. Elphin has decent stats.
2200 ATK and 1200 DEF are not great, but slightly
below average for a level six monster. He is a DARK
Winged-Beast like all the other Blackwings. This guy
received special treatment because he happens to be
a Blackwing and was used pretty well in Japanese
tournaments.
His effect os that you can Normal Summon him without
tribute if you control another Blackwing. That is
pretty good, very much like Sirocco's effect and it
can help you get some muscle to the table pretty
fast if need be. His second effect is that once per
turnyou can change the Battle Position of one
monster your opponent controls. Suddenly, big
Synchros are not so big and high DEF cards like
Hoplomus are suddenly on their weak side. This is
really not a reason to run the card, just a bonus to
his other attributes.
the card sucks in America. Thea eason the Japanese
play him is because he is used as a Level 6
Blackwing and you can actually get him to the field.
Blackwings in America and teh rest of the world do
not have Vayu nor the right metagame nor mindset to
play Elphin right now. At this point, I will keep a
copy just in case that changes. He is a decent card,
but just not quite right for the game as of right
now.
Traditional-1/5
Advanced-2.5/5
Freeza
Blackwing - Elphin the
Raven ...
Yay! another Blackwing monster! I really love these
guys, but i'll try to be as unbiased as possible.
The long and short of it is that they havent made
one bad Blackwing monster yet. And Elphin certainly
doesnt buck the trend. Now his stats are a bit on
the low side for a level 6. 2200 ATK? Well tribute
monsters with attacks less than that 2400 standard
generally need a reasonable effect to validate them
... and one of Elphin's effects is allowing himself
to be normal summoned WITHOUT that tribute so long
as u have another Blackwing already on the field.
That's not too shabby. Cyber Dragon sucks as a
tribute, but being able to skip that cost is what
makes him so awesome. One might argue that Elphin's
effect counting as a "normal" summon makes his
effect substandard by comparison, but with the
stipulations on Black Whirlwind, this only enhances
the synergy the Blackwings share. Elphin has the
highest attack of any Blackwing that will be in your
deck, so with the normal summon while Whirlwind is
on the field, u can then reach in and grab anything
else. Bora - the 1700 ATK piercer is a nice choice
since he can then be special summoned, and will help
with your swarming. Or Gail - who can also be
special summoned and can then reduce the attack of
whatever is bothering u, and/or then be used to
synchro with whatever other Blackwing u've got on
the field.
So if the ease of his summoning coupled with the
fact that he's the strongest non-synchro Blackwing
currently available isnt enough to make u a fan -
he's got one more trick - upon his summoning, he
switches the battle position of one monster on your
opponent's field. If it's in face down DEF, it is no
longer able hide (hopefully it wont have an annoying
flip effect). If they have Spirit Reaper - it is now
dead. Changing opponent's monsters to their more
vulnerable state is excellent. Just too bad he can't
do it once per turn!
Traditional: 3.5/5
Advanced: 4/5
- FREEZA
N o V a
Welcome to another
week of Card of the Day! We start off the week with
another Raging Battle card, Blackwing - Elphin the
Raven. A lot of people seem to under estimate this
card, because this card is quite the good card.
Elphin is a level 6, 2200 attack 1200 defense
monster from the popular Blackwing family that can
be normal summoned without tributing if you control
a face-up Blackwing monster. When its normal
summoned you can change the battle position of a
monster your opponent controls. More times than not
you will always have a Blackwing monster on the
field, so summoning this card isn't hard at all. Its
also a good card to combo with Ultimate Offering.
Using 3 Elphin in a Blackwing deck that uses
Ultimate Offerings opens up a lot of possibilities,
even though most players just follow whichever deck
is really winning right now.
Elphin is a decent card in its own Blackwing build,
but most players would rather not use Ultimate
Offering or Elphin as they feel they take up space
in their decks when they can use better options.
