Lightning Tricorn…
I think I may hate this card.
First, it fails on name and art.
While technically sound, the
name seems like a lame attempt at
“improving” a unicorn.
I mean, it feels like
something you did thinking it was
wicked cool in grade school: “If one
horn is good, two – no three will be
even better!”
Is this a contest entry or
something?
Ah… possibly inspired by some
other animé/manga.
Also irritating is… it has
more than three horns!
Or are you going to tell me
those protrusions from its sides and
flank are supposed to be hair?
Voltic
Bicorn might be able to save
itself with that claim, but not this
one!
When will they learn… to make a
unicorn sound tougher, just swap the
“o” and the “r”, right Transformer’s
fans?
As for actual play, the card doesn’t
fair much better.
It starts off promising:
being a Light Attribute monster is
fantastic, of course.
It
is a Level 8 Synchro monster… how
crowded is that “slot”?
Very, and to fully utilize
this card, the whole Synchro deck
will be even more crowded than
normal, but more on that later.
Beast is passable: they do
have some nasty tricks.
The 2800 ATK is strong while
2000 DEF will do.
We hit another potential
“deal” breaker, here: you can use
any Tuner but the non-Tuner Synchro
materials must be Beast-Type
monsters.
So it’s Beast deck or bust.
The good news?
It has a revival effect that
is triggered by its destruction.
It does restrict to your
opponent’s cards (no using your own
stuff to blow it up) but at least it
can be through
Battle
or an opponent’s card effect.
The bad news?
The effect doesn’t revive
itself.
Instead you “get” to choose
between
Thunder Unicorn and
Voltic Bicorn.
Now I like the effect of
Voltic Bicorn.
Thunder Unicorn I don’t much
care for, but some of the summoning
tricks for
Voltic Bicorn need
Thunder Unicorn, and you really
don’t want
Lightning Tricorn to ever hit
the field without one or the other
in your Graveyard, so you’re kind of
stuck running them.
Important thing to note:
unlike
Tricorn, these two Synchro
Monsters require a Beast-Type Tuner,
so in effect you may as well
consider
Tricorn to need one as well.
You can get some really nasty combos
off this family of cards… but most
of it I feel hinges on
Voltic Bicorn.
Voltic Bicorn can practically
end games: if the opponent has 7 or
less cards left in their deck, they
have until their next Draw Phase to
win or replenish their deck, or else
you win.
This creates an almost built
in protection.
Without
Bicorn,
Tricorn can only get…
Thunder Unicorn.
In the end, we have a Synchro
beatstick that needs to be run in a
specific deck type (Beasts) in order
to be even that, and to be run in a
specific theme to be effective.
Even its effect feels clunky:
you have to bring out at least one
of two other Synchro monsters and
get them to the Graveyard afterwards
for the effect to do anything.
Bottom line, too many Synchro
monsters are required to make this
work.
Some member of the family
needed to be something else.
Ratings
(Using September 1st
List, deck specific)
Traditional:
2/5 – Just because it is
Chaos compliant while at the
same time confounding so many deck
strategies (via
Voltic Bicorn).
Advanced:
3/5 – It fills the role of aiding
another card, and the card it aides
wants to be revived just so it can
die again and cripple an opponent’s
deck.
It also is a level higher
than
Voltic Bicorn: sometimes
bringing out
Tricorn will be an option when a
second
Bicorn isn’t.
I am still selling quite a bit of my
stuff on eBay. I’ve had a lot
of hobbies over the years, so at
various times I’ll have comic books,
manga, action figures, and video
games on the auction block.
You can take a look at what’s
up for bids
here. I usually add new stuff
on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Just
a reminder, Pojo is in no way
responsible for this and was merely
kind enough to let me mention the
auctions here. ;)
