Breaking Down the Yu-Gi-Oh F/L List (Part 9): Limited Extra Deck Monsters
Crunch$G
Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G back here with another installment of the breaking down of the F/L list that we currently have. This time around I’m looking at the Extra Deck Monsters that have seen themselves go to one throughout the years. Extra Deck Monsters are weird as they are only limited when they are good in multiples, which sounds standard, but not many Extra Deck Monsters are good in multiples. Most of the Extra Deck Monsters you see played today are usually one ofs because they offer different toolbox effects, so these limited monsters in the Extra Deck clearly have some use for archetypes to where they are worthy in multiples, so let’s get started looking at these monsters.
El Shaddoll Construct
The best of the Shaddoll Fusions, Construct is a Level 8 Fusion that needs 1 Shaddoll Monster and 1 LIGHT Monster as materials, which is easy to do from the deck when you have Shaddoll Fusion sending monsters from the deck when your opponent has an Extra Deck Monster or El Shaddoll Fusion being able to do a standard Fusion Summon, only it can do it on your opponent’s turn. Upon being Special Summoned, not specifically Fusion Summoned, Construct allows you to send a Shaddoll card from the deck to the graveyard. The Shaddolls have effects when being sent to the grave via a card effect, and Construct gives you two basically with the Fusion Summon and her own effect. You can send monsters for the various effects they have, or Spells/Traps to work with Construct’s other effect. At the start of the Damage Step, any Special Summoned monster that battles Construct is destroyed, which makes this 2800 ATK body even more annoying to get rid of. If Construct is sent to the graveyard, meaning you did find a way to get rid of it or something, then Construct can grab back a Shaddoll Spell or Trap back from the graveyard. This is on all the Shaddoll Fusions and it makes both Shaddoll Fusion and El Shaddoll Fusion more recyclable while at the same time letting you grab back Core if you want to summon a specific Shaddoll Fusion that doesn’t require a DARK (which Winda is the only one that can really use two Shaddoll monsters) but don’t have the proper monster with the proper attribute. Construct was so good in the pure Shaddoll deck that it was banned in November of 2015, but Shaddolls are not the force that they once were, so Construct was safe to come back to one in January of 2019.
Now, I think it is safe to say Construct can come back to three. The best things Shaddolls can do is as an engine, the pure Shaddoll deck isn’t the threat it once was, it just needs more to get the job done. Sure the Shaddoll deck did play the Performages and the Artifacts, but that was standard for Shaddolls because Construct was so important, and still is for Shaddolls. Three Construct will help Shaddolls strive better as a stand alone deck, but at the same time offers for more experimentation as an engine when you have more copies of Construct to use.
Gem-Knight Master Diamond
The biggest piece of the Gem-Knight deck, Gem-Knight Master Diamond is a Fusion of any three Gem-Knight monsters, must first be Fusion Summoned (but Lady Brilliant Diamond can ignore that) and once per turn you can banish a Level 7 or lower Gem-Knight Fusion from your graveyard to let Master Diamond gain that monster’s effects and its effects. The reason this was so good is that with Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli, you could create an FTK since Lazuli burns for 500 for each Special Summoned monster on the field by sending a Gem-Knight from the deck or Extra Deck to the graveyard. You could send another Lapis Lazuli from the Extra Deck to the grave for the burn when you got enough Special Summoned monsters on the field, and you wanted to send Lady Lapis Lazuli to the grave since she could only be summoned once per turn. You could then get two Master Diamonds on the field to take the effect of two Lady Lapis Lazulis in the grave to do more burn and potentially cause an FTK, which this FTK was easy with Gem-Knight Phantom Quartz helping Fusion plays by searching a Gem-Knight card and Fusion Summoning using your graveyard and banished pile, along with Gem-Knight Fusion being heavily recyclable. To hit at this FTK, Master Diamond was limited in May of 2018.
I think this was the wrong hit for the FTK, as Lady Lapis Lazuli was the problem really. Limiting or banning Lady Lapis would stop any version of the Gem-Knight FTK from existing while at the same time keeping Master Diamond at three since that card is at its best with Lady Lapis Lazuli. I’d trade the banning of Lady Lapis for three Master Diamond since the FTK still is possible right now, just harder to do.
Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk
The only reasoning I can think of this card being limited is that Konami hates 20 minute turns. Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk is a Fusion of any Ritual Beast Tamer monster and any Spiritual Beast monster and must be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by banishing the mentioned Fusion Materials and no Special Summoning it any other way. The other Ritual Beast Fusions are summoned like this, and all three Level 6 Ritual Beast Fusions can also go back to the Extra Deck to summon a Spiritual Beast and a Ritual Beast Tamer from your banished zone, which this effect isn’t a hard once per turn and it’s a Quick Effect. Another effect Ulti-Cannahawk has that isn’t a hard once per turn and unique to it is that you can take 2 Ritual Beast cards and send them to the graveyard and then search for any Ritual Beast card, but you only have to send 1 Ritual Beast to the grave, so the common play was to target two cards, then use Ulti-Cannahawk to go back to the Extra Deck and Special Summon the Spiritual Beast and the Ritual Beast Tamer (only one of them being the card targeted by the other effect of Cannahawk) to then just return one Ritual Beast to the grave and search for something like Ritual Beast Steeds or Ritual Beast Return. The Ritual Beast deck was good with searching and could make impressive boards, but it was never a top tier deck, it was rogue at best, but Ulti-Cannahawk was limited in November of 2015 because it did take a while to do the play I guess, and it was a pretty solid and disruptive play.
Ulti-Cannahawk at three won’t be the end of the world, sure it takes a while to finish a turn, but there is enough disruption to stop these turns that top tier decks have, and if not then it’s just an unlucky day. Ulti-Cannahawk deserves to be at three, it is good for the Ritual Beast deck, and they can still do their plays with one of these guys, but having three will be so helpful to make sure the deck isn’t completely blown out of the water after their one of Ulti-Cannahawk is gone.
Heavymetalfoes Electrumite
I’ve talked about this card a fair amount with some of the banned Pendulum Monsters, it’s time I finally talked directly about it. Heavymetalfoes Electrumite is a Link-2 that needs only 2 Pendulum Monsters and two bottom arrows which is good with Pendulum Summoning. Upon its Link Summon, it can take a Pendulum Monster in your Deck and add it to your Extra Deck face-up, basically putting it into circulation for a Pendulum Summon or the other effect of Electrumite. Electrumite could destroy any face-up card you control once per turn to target a face-up Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck and add it to your hand. This was very strong when Astrograph Sorcerer was legal and why that card is now banned, but having this effect was helping get you to any Pendulum Monster you might need, especially the one you put in the Extra Deck with Electrumite’s previous effect. This isn’t a hard once per turn, so if you got multiple Electrumite you could just destroy the Pendulum cards that aren’t doing much for you and get back Pendulum cards with more power. The hard once per turn on Electrumite is that when a monster in your Pendulum Zone leaves the field, you can draw 1 card, and this effect can basically be triggered by Electrumite himself. Electrumite was too good at three since it make Pendulums very consistent, especially Pendulum Magician, so Electrumite went to one in September of 2018.
Electrumite at one is fine for the game, three is too good for top tier Pendulum Decks to have. Giving Pendulum Magicians three of this was just too good and we are getting a Structure Deck with new Pendulum Cards that are very good, so having Electrumite at one is good with more Pendulum archetypes coming to the game. Maybe eventually this can come back to three, but now Pendulums are still too powerful to have three of this, and the right archetype could be meta with it.
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
These Ice Barrier Synchros are so good, only one was never limited and two are currently not limited. One of the Ice Barrier Synchros that is limited is Dewloren, which is a Level 6 Synchro that needs one Tuner and any 1+ non-Tuner WATER monsters. Once per turn, you could return any number of cards to your hand and this card will gain 500 ATK until the End Phase for each card that goes back to your hand. What matters is the self bouncing effect, because this helped cause so many FTKs over the years by abusing card effects that aren’t a hard once per turn like with Grandsoil before its errata and Future Fusion before its errata. Self bouncing is just too good, just ask Brionac before his errata since he was powerful for field clearing and FTKs, so Dewloren was quickly semi-limited in September of 2009 to slow down FTKs (they tried bringing it to three in March 2011 but it quickly returned to two) and eventually the TCG brought it to one in September of 2013 to really hinder FTKs with this card.
Dewloren is a card only good for FTKs, and having one of them is fine since it makes them harder to do, which it kinda was hard already since abusing Dewloren required you to fit a WATER monster into the FTK somehow. Maybe a hard once per turn can put Dewloren back to three, at least Dewloren can’t bounce himself and you only have one so you can’t use another to bounce back another copy.
Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer
Before Electrumite, we had the Dracoslayers, especially Ignister. Ignister is a Level 8 Synchro that only needed 1 Tuner and any 1+ non-Tuner Pendulum Monsters, which you’d only play this in a Pendulum Deck anyways. Once per turn, Ignister could target a Pendulum Monster on the field or a card in the Pendulum Zone and destroy it to then shuffle a card on the field into the deck. Non-targeting and non-destructive removal against your opponent is so good, and vs another Pendulum Deck this card could take out two resources from your opponent. This could also trigger Performage Plushfire before its ban because it would of destroyed the Plushfire. Ignister could also Special Summon a Dracoslayer from your deck in Defense Postion but you were prevented from using it as Synchro Material, but that does mean Ignister could make his first effect live if you no longer control a Pendulum Monster or Scale. Ignister was so good in Pendulum decks, especially Performages and Pals and later Dracopals, that he was limited in April of 2016.
Now I think Ignister is fine at three. His effect is still powerful, but not so powerful that three will be broken. He doesn’t really add consistency like Electrumite does, plus Links make getting multiple Ignisters on the field harder to do. I don’t see a single problem with three Ignister and neither does the OCG since they already have this at three.
PSY-Framelord Omega
I did say this was the best Synchro of all time, and while it didn’t get the top spot when we did the Top 10 list, it was still high on it and is still one of the best Synchros of all time. PSY-Framelord Omega is a Level 8 that only needs 1 Tuner and 1+ non-Tuners and once per turn, during either player’s Main Phase, you could banish this card on the field and one card in your opponent’s hand until your next Standby Phase. This can easily get out of harm’s way and in Master Rule 4 it can also clear out your Extra Monster Zone since it’ll return into a Main Monster Zone, also having three of this makes it easy to hand loop your opponent. Also during your opponent’s Standby Phase once per turn, you can target a banished card and return it to the graveyard. This is good in Zombies to recycle Mezuki and in the Performage Pendulum deck that came before Performages and Pals, Omega was useful for recycling your Damage Juggler. Omega could help reuse many effects of monsters that need to be banished from the grave to do their thing, especially with multiple Omega returning multiple Mezukis or Damage Jugglers, and on a rare occasion can disrupt your opponent if they have something useful that is banished. Omega could also return itself from the graveyard from the Extra Deck to return a card from either player’s graveyard into the deck, meaning it could help you recycle useful cards back into your deck to draw again hopefully. Omega’s best use was the hand looping at three and being able to easily leave the Extra Monster Zone, so it was limited in September of 2018, but all of its effects are still good.
Omega at one is just fine. It’s hard to hand loop with one Omega and you shouldn’t have that many cards to leave the Extra Monster Zone with so much ease while at the same time taking away your opponent’s resources. One Omega isn’t hurting anything like three could have done.
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
The card we did declare the best Synchro of all time, and one that deserves the distinction, is Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Trishula is a Level 9 Synchro that needs 1 Tuner and any 2+ non-Tuners, so it does need more than standard materials to summon, and when Synchro Summoned lets you banish up to one card each from your opponent’s hand, field, and/or graveyard. This can eat away at your opponent’s resources alive, especially on turn 1 if you could spam out Trishulas. Infernity were able to spam out three of these in the OCG to really destroy the opponent’s hand before they could make moves and neither them or the TCG wanted to deal with that so the OCG did limit Trishula in September of 2010, but when it came to the TCG I don’t think they ever got to play with three Trishula, even though the wiki says it was limited in September of 2011, I guess the TCG did have some time with three Trishula. Both the TCG and OCG did ban Trishula in March of 2012 but it eventually returned to both formats (OCG in September of 2013 and the TCG in July of 2015).
I feel if players can abuse Trishula, they will. It’s hard to loop it with cards like Dewloren limited and Brionac being errataed while at the same time being in Master Rule 4, but the right set-up could allow for three Trishulas, which is dangerous. Trish at one might be for the best, though I don’t know if any deck can make summoning three Trishulas very consistently, so maybe it could return to two or three, I don’t know if many have experimented with three Trish in Master Rule 4.
Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal
The last card related to Burning Abyss that is limited is Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal. Beatrice is a generic Rank 6 that only needs 2 Level 6 monsters, but Burning Abyss could also overlay this card on top of a Dante monster (either the Xyz or Fusion) by also discarding a Burning Abyss card and if it was the Xyz Dante, then Beatrice gets its materials of course. If summoned using a Dante and discarding a Burning Abyss, then you don’t get to use the next effect of Beatrice the turn it was summoned. Otherwise, it has a Quick Effect of detaching a material and sending any card from your deck to the graveyard. Burning Abyss could make use of this on the opponent’s turn to get Burning Abyss floating effects, best abusing Farfa by sending that from the deck, though having two Beatrice wouldn’t be able to send two Farfa in the same turn since Farfa is a hard once per turn. Any deck that could use Level 6s also got a Lavalval Chain, but the only thing that made Chain better was that he was a Rank 4 and Beatrice needed Burning Abyss specifically or Level 6 monsters. The final effect of Beatrice is that if it is destroyed by your opponent and sent to your graveyard, you can Special Summon a Burning Abyss monster from the Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions. This easily got you to the Fusion Dante since you didn’t want to really Fusion Summon it, and it has good targeting protection and the ability to discard a Burning Abyss to draw a card and also if the Fusion Dante was destroyed you could discard a random card from the opponent’s hand. Beatrice was so good despite not having Burning Abyss in the name so the BAs blew themselves up, so it got limited in August of 2016.
Beatrice was only ever played at two at the most I believe, and if it did move up the list I’m sure it would be the same with a tight Extra Deck. I think Burning Abyss players are even just running two Dante Xyzs now, but they still play the one Beatrice and the one Dante Fusion for the Beatrice. I don’t think summoning two Beatrice will be as good in 2019 as it was in 2016, when Burning Abyss was more viable with Phantom Knights where as now it is useful with Sekka’s Light and we no longer have Fairy Tail – Snow for Beatrice to send. Three Beatrice might not be broken, Rank 6s nor Burning Abyss won’t really break it, but only having one Beatrice compared to three won’t make the biggest difference for Burning Abyss I feel, I don’t think it would with Rank 6s either. I guess it doesn’t matter the most if Beatrice moves to more (BAs will likely only play one Fusion Dante anyways even if they had two Beatrice).
In Conclusion
It was easily noticeable with these limited cards that they were useful mostly in specific decks. Trishula and Omega might of been the exceptions. Ignister and Electruimte were limited to Pendulums, Construct to anything Shaddoll related, Master Diamond to Gem-Knights, Dewloren to FTKs, and Beatrice to Burning Abyss. It seems archetypes get Extra Deck monsters limited as archetypal or more specific Extra Deck monsters are going to be useful in decks that can abuse the effects designed for them, so I guess that’s why you see these limited while more generic monsters from the Extra Deck get banned, with those few exceptions. Still, there are some good Extra Deck cards and I only see few archetypal Extra Deck monsters worthy of a limit in today’s game, which shows how rare this comes along.
