Aluber the Jester of Despia – #DAMA-EN006
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Branded” Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand. If a face-up Fusion Monster you control is destroyed by battle, or leaves the field because of an opponent’s card effect, while this card is in your GY: You can target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; Special Summon this card, and if you do, negate the targeted monster’s effects until the end of this turn. You can only use 1 “Aluber the Jester of Despia” effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Date Reviewed: October 18th, 2021
Rating: 3.82
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Aluber the Jester of Despia begins our look at the Despia archetype this week on Pojo CoTD.
Branded spell/trap searcher for your deck upon any summon, a monster that is becoming standard for every archetype nowadays. Negation ability for the turn from the graveyard is a great way of turning off a monsters effect(s) and prevent further damage, however, Aluber can’t do that unless a Fusion Monster you have gets destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect. You do get to Special Summon Aluber, breaking even with your lost Fusion Monster, but you can only use one of Aluber’s effects per turn, and once per turn. While this is true to every monster in the Despia archetype it hinders the monsters as well, and that’s not good for playability.
Plenty of cards to choose from to search with Aluber, 10 in total, eight spell, two trap. The traps need setup in place to be effective, and of the spells you can search, Despia, Theater of the Branded does give you a Fusion Summon once per turn as a Field Spell. Branded Bond, Branded Opening, Branded in Red, and Branded in White also give you immediate offensive power and access to your Fusion Monsters, but Despia Theater can be multiple turns in a row. Paradise Branded is good protection for your Fusion Monsters but again, isn’t very useful if you don’t already have a Fusion Monster on the field.
Aluber will get you to a spell/trap you need and can be used as a defensive card to slow down your opponent. That defensive ability plays alongside the archetype’s strategy of Fusion Monsters, and while only using one effect a turn sucks, it keeps the monsters in the archetype balanced.
Advanced-3.5/5 Art-3.5/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Despia take centerstage this week as we start with one of the main pieces to the archetype: Aluber the Jester of Despia.
Aluber is a Level 4 DARK Fairy with 1800 ATK and 0 DEF. Good ATK on Level 4, also DARK and Fairy are great, even if they make for a weird combination. Anyways, Normal/Special Summon of this guy nets you a search for any Branded Spell/Trap. You’re pretty open to some good options here right now and in the future as we get more Branded Spells and Traps. This also searches the most important card for the Despia strategy, so that’s a massive plus. If a face-up Fusion Monster you control is destroyed by battle or leaves the field because of the opponent’s card effect while this monster is in your graveyard, you can target an Effect Monster your opponent controls to Special Summon this card and negate the targeted monster’s effects until the end of the turn. Nice revival once your Fusions are gone, and the effect negation is nice, even if negating something that could stop this would just stop it from coming out to begin with most likely. Just a negative that you can’t revive this if there isn’t a monster to negate. You only get 1 effect of this card a turn and only once that turn, which is a downer since reviving it off its own effect won’t net the search. Either way, this is probably the most important Despia monster we have, hence its Secret Rare status. Maxing out on this is highly recommended unless you’re just using a small Despia package in something else.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4.5/5 I see Fallen of Albaz has an evil twin.
Alex
Searcy
Aluber the Jester of Despia kicks off a Dark week; appropriately so, as we near Halloween. Level 4, Dark/Fairy (that might be more fun than Light/Fiend) 1800 attack is solid but 0 defense isn’t good. Normal or Special Summon nets you a ‘Branded’ Magic/Trap from your Deck to your Hand. We like Effects not being limited to Normal Summons, and a free card off a Summon is always a good thing. The text gets clunky for the rest of this, but if this card is in your Graveyard, and a Fusion of yours is destroyed in Battle or removed from the Field from an opponent’s card Effect, you can Target an opponent’s Effect Monster to Special Summon this back to the Field. If you’re successful, Effect(s) of your opponent’s Monster is/are negated until the end of the Turn. Simple, but fun enough. Negating an Effect(s) is always welcome, and it could be what you need at the time. Solid attack, a couple of decent and useful Effects, and some speed make this a good card to open the week.
Rating: 3.75/5
Art: 4.25/5 I like this a lot, from figure to background, colors and what’s happening, this is cool.
Mighty
Vee
Kicking off the week is Aluber the Jester of Despia (oddly missing a comma), a level 4 DARK fairy from the Despia archetype. 1800 attack and 0 defense makes sense from a lore perspective, mirroring Fallen of Albaz, though in practice the statline won’t come into play very often.
Both effects of Aluber are hard once per turn. The first effect triggers upon being normal summoned or special summoned: you can search a Branded spell or trap from your deck. You’ll probably be searching Despia, Theater of the Branded, the archetype’s main method of fusion, or Branded in Red for disruptive plays. Normal Summoning Aluber isn’t ideal, but it can be special summoned with Branded Opening, so it should be fairly accessible. The second effect triggers if one of your fusion monsters is destroyed by battle or removed from the field by an opponent’s card effect while Aluber is in the graveyard; you can special summon Aluber and negate the effects of a monster on the field. While it’s not the most reliable negation, it’s nice to have, especially since your opponent will likely have to deal with Aluber in the graveyard and a Despia fusion come their turn. Overall, solid playmaker for Despia.
Advanced: 4/5
Art: 3.5/5 Truly, Aluber lives in a society.
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