Astrograph Sorcerer – #TAMA-EN040
Pendulum Effect
During your Main Phase: You can destroy this card, and if you do, take 1 “Stargazer Magician” from your hand or Deck, and either place it in your Pendulum Zone or Special Summon it. You can only use this effect of “Astrograph Sorcerer” once per turn.
Monster Effect
If a card(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then you can choose 1 monster in the GY, Extra Deck, or that is banished, and that was destroyed this turn, and add 1 monster with the same name from your Deck to your hand. You can banish this card you control, plus 4 monsters from your hand, field, and/or GY (1 each with “Pendulum Dragon”, “Xyz Dragon”, “Synchro Dragon”, and “Fusion Dragon” in their names); Special Summon 1 “Supreme King Z-ARC” from your Extra Deck. (This is treated as a Fusion Summon.)
Date Reviewed: July 12th, 2024
Rating: 4.25
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,
Astrograph Sorcerer is the #1 slot for Pendulum Monsters and ends our look at the best in the game. There wasn’t much doubt that this guy was gonna be the top slot.
Banned for three years and currently at one, Sorcerer always was a key cog in the Pendulum archetype. Level 7 Spellcaster offers you some good Xyz targets when it’s on the field, while its scale of one helps complete your scale. As a Pendulum Spell, Sorcerer can trade itself for a Stargazer Magician. Not really a great effect as Stargazer isn’t that great of a Pendulum Monster or Pendulum Spell. It does replace your scale of one with another scale of one, and puts your Astrograph face-up in the Extra Deck for a Pendulum Summon, so I guess that effect isn’t too bad.
As a monster is where it shines. Special Summoning any Level 7 or higher monster with high ATK off battle or card effect destruction of another card you control is never a bad effect. Searching off its summon is great, and while you can only search another copy of whatever was destroyed or banished that turn, you are likely running multiple copies of the monster that was destroyed or banished. This is key because Astrograph summons itself off a card’s destruction or battle destruction. You don’t need to lose a monster to summon him, but if you did, you can summon him at any point. Dropping him at End Phase avoids losing him in battle and likely by card effect.
Banishing him plus four other specific kinds of monsters to get to Supreme King Z-ARC and having it treated as a Fusion Summon may seem like a hard thing to do, but this was a thing in 2017 and likely contributed to Astrograph being banned at the start of 2018. This is one of those things that comes back to bite the opponent later in the game. Sorcerer can be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck via Pendulum Summoning and then banish itself to summon Z-ARC the old-fashioned way, or you can use Soul of The Supreme Celestial King to summon Z-ARC but need at least one of your Main Deck Pendulum Monsters to be banished that fits the restriction employed by SoTSCK. Z-ARC is likely a problem when summoned, but there’s far more board negation now so it isn’t entirely impossible to deal with him.
Along with that ability, Astrograph is just a strong Pendulum Monster. Easily Special Summoned, a good searcher/deck thin ability, and, while not always used, the ability to drop a potential OTK card if you have the right materials in place, Astrograph is the best of Pendulum Monsters. Not a great Pendulum Spell effect, but it will set up the Pendulum Summon of Astrograph and put him back on the field to use his better effects. There’s more ways to dump what is needed for Z-ARC into the grave nowadays, so that shouldn’t be overlooked as well. Astrograph as a Special Summon 2500ATK Pendulum Monster that searches off its effect Special Summon is still top of the line. Would like to see what happens if all great Pendulum cards got put to 3 but still no Electrumite.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We finally hit the #1 spot for the Top 10 Pendulums and it’s a card that probably has been a notable omission from the list so far, but it made sense to be the #1 of the list. From Pendulum Evolution, we have Astrograph Sorcerer.
Astrograph Sorcerer as a Pendulum Scale is a Scale 1, great low Scale, with the effect to destroy this card in order to take a Stargazer Magician from your Deck and either put it into the Pendulum Zone or Special Summon it. It’s a great effect to go into the Extra Deck to be Pendulum Summoned while also either getting a body or a replacement Scale, depending on which you need. HOPT on this effect, of course, but the effect of this card is so good as a monster that you don’t even need the Pendulum Effect, so some don’t even opt to run the copy of Stargazer Magician.
Astrograph Sorcerer as a Monster is a Level 7 DARK Spellcaster Pendulum with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF. Good stats, yet another Spellcaster on this list, and DARK is always great. If a card(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect while this is in your hand, you can Special Summon it from the hand and then you can search for any monster from the Deck with the same name as a monster destroyed this turn and that is in the graveyard, Extra Deck, or banished. .A great effect to summon itself out easily and get you a good search. This was super broken with Heavymetalfoes Electrumite with its ability to destroy a Pendulum Scale to add this back from the Extra Deck to the hand to immediately be able to use its effect, hence the ban at one point (though thankfully it’s at 1 now, but now there’s no Electrumite in the TCG). Without Electrumite, there’s still good ways to destroy your cards in order to trigger this effect and get a search. It isn’t as consistent as it was with Electrumite, but it’s still good enough to make it a mainstay in most Pendulum Decks still. The other effect lets you banish this card alongside a Pendulum Dragon, Xyz Dragon, Synchro Dragon, and Fusion Dragon from your hand/graveyard in order to Fusion Summon a copy of Supreme King Z-ARC, which is super nice considering the recent Z-ARC support. This effect isn’t as relevant, but it’s solid especially with the Pendulum Magicians that treat themselves as the required monsters. The selling point is the first Monster Effect, which somehow isn’t a HOPT at all, but the other effects are still pretty solid. The Pendulum Effect is useful if you do choose to run Stargazer Magician, but either way this will likely be a mainstay in a lot of different Pendulum Decks for years to come, especially if the TCG was to get Heavymetalfoes Electrumite back.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 4.5/5 Pretty sick presence to this card before Z-ARC comes out.
My #1: Astrograph Sorcerer
Mighty
Vee
Taking the gold trophy in our countdown is none other than Astrograph Sorcerer, a level 7 DARK Spellcaster Pendulum monster with an excellent scale of 1, and yet another powerful portion of the dreaded Pepe deck. While Wavering Eyes was the main way to search it in its heyday, it’s much more accessible now between Pendulum Evolution and Beyond the Pendulum. As it’s intended to mirror Dark Magician, Astrograph amusingly has a protagonist stat spread of 2500 attack and 2000 defense– decent, but not amazing for a level 7. Fortunately, unlike Dark Magician, it can summon itself! Astrograph still sits at limited in both regions, so should it stay there or come back to 3?
Astrograph’s Pendulum effect is hard once per turn, letting you destroy it during your Main Phase to take a Stargazer Magician from your hand or deck and either Special Summon it or place it in your Pendulum Zone. Getting a level 5 body is actually pretty neat and helps with some awkward Synchro levels, but if you’re using this effect, you probably aren’t using its monster effect…
That brings us to Astrograph’s two monster effects, neither of them once per turn, the first triggering if any of your cards are destroyed by battle or card effect, letting you Special Summon Astrograph from your hand then choose a monster in your Graveyard, Extra Deck, or Banishment that was destroyed this turn and search another copy from your deck. It’s not hard to see how monstrous this effect could be if you read our review of Performage Plushfire; triggering off of Plushfire’s destruction lets you search another Plushfire, and if you could get another Astrograph or recycle it, you can do it all again! While the exact combo lines are lost to the sands of time, it boils down to Astrograph being an excellent extender, and functioning as a free body didn’t hurt either (even if this was before Link monsters and being level 7 didn’t help Rank 4 plays). Astrograph’s other effect is much less impressive, letting you banish itself, a Pendulum Dragon, an Xyz Dragon, a Synchro Dragon, and a Fusion Dragon (that’s the dimension bros, not the literal card types) from your hand, field, or Graveyard to Fusion Summon a Supreme King Z-ARC. This was supposed to be the primary way to summon Z-ARC, but as you might expect, it wasn’t even remotely practical, and still isn’t now that we have much easier ways to summon Z-ARC. As a card, Astrograph is still extremely powerful on paper. In the OCG, Heavymetalfoes Electrumite can recycle it and take advantage of it not being once per turn. Fortunately, we no longer have to worry about Pepe; even with all of its tools, by modern standards it’s a rather frail and inconsistent combo deck and still lacks Number 39: Shock Master for its more degenerate plays. Astrograph coming back would certainly be a boon to Supreme King decks, but it’s probably fine to stay at 1 as it is.
+Monstrous combo potential due to not being once per turn
+Can provide a level 5 body in a pinch
-Effect is limited in scope without other non-once per turn cards to abuse
-Relies on other cards to properly combo
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 3.25/5 I like the colors, though I think his triangle hat thing is a little goofy.
Alex
Searcy
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