Gazelle the King of Mythical Claws – #DUNE-EN003
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Level 5 Fiend monster or 1 “Chimera Fusion” from your Deck to your hand. If this card is sent to the GY as material for a Fusion Summon: You can add 1 Illusion monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Gazelle the King of Mythical Claws” once per turn.
Big-Winged Berfomet – #DUNE-EN004
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Level 4 Beast monster and/or 1 “Chimera Fusion” from your Deck to your hand, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Fusion Monsters. If this card is sent to the GY as material for a Fusion Summon: You can target 1 Illusion monster in your GY; Special Summon it. You can only use each effect of “Big-Winged Berfomet” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: September 26th, 2023
Rating: See below for ratings
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,
Today is a double dose of retrains as we look at the new forms of Gazelle and Berfomet.
Starting with Gazelle the King of Mythical Claws, this new Beast is no longer a vanilla generic stat beater. Now, Gazelle can get you to Berfomet or any Level 5 Fiend monster off of its Normal or Special Summon, or the new Chimera Fusion Spell, instantly ten times better than the original, no need to play the original unless something specifically called for it…darn it Chimera Fusion! The only thing I could see you playing the new Gazelle in outside of its own archetype would be a Marik show-style deck because it can search some of his cruddy Level 5 Fiend monsters, or a Phantom Beast deck because it searches Dark Summoning Beast. Plain and simple it is better than its vanilla counterpart.
When used as a Fusion Material, Gazelle keeps on searching for you, getting you an Illusion monster from your Deck to your hand. If you don’t run any then you are out of luck, but with two of the three Main Deck Illusion Monsters working with Chimera Fusion I think it’d be wise to run them beside Gazelle and Berfomet.
Great improvements for Gazelle. Wasn’t hard to keep the original’s theme while making it better. If they didn’t have the new Monster Type in the game all you’d have to do is have this Gazelle do its search and switch Chimera Fusion with Poly.
Advanced-3.5/5 Art-3.5/5
Now we come to the new form of Berfomet: Big-Winged Berfomet. BWB, like this predacessor has the same stats and all that, but can add a Level 4 Beast rather than just Gazelle to the hand. Also, you can add your Chimera Fusion Spell and lock yourself into Fusion Monsters for the rest of the turn from the Extra Deck. Restriction for the sake of restricting but doesn’t restrict your plays entirely is standard. Not sure you’d see BWB in any decks that search Beast monsters because of its low stats and Level 5 status, though now you can Special Summon this Berfomet and get a search versus the original.
Use BWB as Fusion Material (like with the Chimera Fusion you searched with it) and he gifts you an Illusion Special Summon from the grave. While Nightmare Magician is the only Illusion Main Deck monster that can benefit from not destroying a monster through battle, Big-Winged Berfomet being used to Fusion Summon the new Chimera Fusion, then Special Summoning the OTHER Chimera Fusion Monster you have floating around now is nothing to scoff at: a 3100ATK monster that loses its ability to potentially attack multiple monsters, but can still drop a monster’s ATK to 0 and negate its effect(s) permanently.
Big-Winged Berfomet is much better than its previous form, as it should be. Switched Flip with Special Summon to get your search and added a search off of being used as a Fusion Material, good upgrades pertaining to the archetype it belongs in. Competitive, not sure, probably not, but they are improvements.
Advanced-3/5 Art-3/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We got a double review up today with the new Gazelle and Berfomet taking center stage, Gazelle the King of Mythical Claws and Big-Winged Berfomet.
New Gazelle is a Level 4 EARTH Beast with 1500 ATK and 1200 DEF. Pretty middling stats for a Level 4, EARTH is great, and Beast is good. Upon Normal or Special Summon, you can add a Level 5 Fiend or a Chimera Fusion from your Deck to your hand. If you summon this, you might more likely add Chimera Fusion, since the best Level 5 Fiend you’ll likely go for is the new Berfomet. You can try and get cheeky with all the Book of Moons and Book of Eclipses running around and Labrynth being an option and run Byser Shock, but that’s an extreme niche. The search is at least good. The second effect triggers if it’s sent to the graveyard as a Fusion Material, letting you add any Illusion monster from your Deck to your hand. Easy effect to trigger, and very versatile to search for an entire typing. Your main options are Mirror Swordknight and Cornfield Coatl, but you can run Nightmare Magician if you wanted, though that’s better with Berfomet. This search effect will get better as we get more Illusion monsters for a better variety. Hard once per turn on each effect of course, we’ve seen what it’s like if searchers don’t have this clause. Gazelle is still a pretty good card for the searching it offers, giving some very strong consistency. Play 3 for another Normal Summon in the case you don’t have Mirror Swordknight somehow.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4/5 Pretty neat update to Gazelle’s artwork compared to the old one. Like this better.
Now for the new Berfomet, we got a Level 5 DARK Fiend with 1400 ATK and 1800 DEF. Stats aren’t great for a Level 5, but being a DARK Fiend is great. So another effect on Normal or Special Summon, letting you add a Level 4 Beast and/or a Chimera Fusion from your Deck to your hand, getting a 2-for-1 to make up for this being a Level 5 monster. You’ll likely search for Gazelle, but the Branded version can serach for Springans Kitt or you can tech in a King Tiger Wanghu in certain matchups. You do get locked to only summoning Fusions from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn after you use this effect, which is fine in this case since you’ll likely mix this stuff with Branded and only be summoning Fusions from the Extra Deck anyways. We also got an effect if it’s sent to the graveyard for a Fusion Summon, letting you revive any Illusion monster, being good to summon a Mirror Swordknight on the opponent’s turn or maybe revive a Nightmare Magician for an Illusion boss monster in the Main. Hard once per turn on each effect again. Being a Level 5 does make this more of a brick that you want to summon off of Mirror Swordknight more than you do want to draw it, but 2 of it is more than enough still. It’s key to your Fusions still.
Advanced Rating: 3.75/5
Art: 4/5 Those are indeed some big wings.
Mighty
Vee
Our Chimera coverage continues with a double feature, the duo of Gazelle the King of Mythical Claws and Big-Winged Berfomet, which many will recognize as staples of Yugi’s deck during the Battle City arc. Gazelle is up first, a level 4 EARTH Beast monster, just like the original, sharing its middling 1500 attack and 1200 defense as well. Though it might be a little odd that Gazelle isn’t an Illusion monster, it makes sense if you’ve read the manga!
Fortunately, Gazelle actually has effects unlike the original, both of them being hard once per turn. Gazelle’s first effect triggers if it’s Normal or Special Summoned, letting you search either Chimera Fusion or any level 5 Fiend monster. I’m sure you could do something whacky with Garbage Lord or Kuribabylon, but most of the time you’ll probably be searching Chimera Fusion, or Big-Winged Berfomet if you don’t have it yet and can’t access it with Mirror Swordknight. The second effect, which is incidentally the more useful one, triggers if it’s sent to the Graveyard as a Fusion material (that is, by Chimera Fusion or Branded Fusion), searching any Illusion monster. If Cornfield Coatl and Mirror Swordknight are already in the Graveyard, it doesn’t particularly matter which one you get since it’ll become Fusion fodder anyway, though it’s a good opportunity to search any one-off Illusion monsters like Nightmare Magician if you choose to run them. Gazelle’s primary purpose is as a combo piece, since you can search it with Berfomet and immediately use it as Fusion material to go into one of the little Chimera Fusions. Additionally, since it’s a Beast monster, you can use Branded Fusion to kickstart your combos by making Rindbrumm the Striking Dragon and searching Mirror Swordknight. In a pinch, you can use Gazelle as a starter, but it won’t be able to fuse alone since you’ll need another Fusion material. Despite being only a combo piece, it’s still nice to see in your hand, so many lists actually run three copies.
Advanced: 3.75/5
Art: 3.5/5 I like that the background is a shout-out to Polymerization.
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Gazelle’s buddy Berfomet is also back, though rather unfortunately it’s too much of the same, being a level 5 DARK Fiend monster with an abhorrent stat spread of 1400 attack and 1800 defense. Thankfully, it’s a valid summoning target for Mirror Swordknight, which makes it significantly more usable. In a pinch, you can even use Kashtira Fenrir to Tribute Summon it, but ideally it would never come to that horrid situation.
Unlike the original Berfomet, which only triggered on Normal Summon for some bizarre reason, Berfomet’s first effect (a hard once per turn) triggers when it’s Normal or Special Summoned, letting you search both Chimera Fusion and (or) any level 4 Beast monster at the cost of locking you into Fusion monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn. Double ROTAs are always incredibly powerful combo pieces, and this is no exception; summoning Berfomet alone immediately sets up summoning the little Chimera Fusions, one of which we’ll get into later. While you could grab any level 4 Beast, there’s basically not reason not to search the new Gazelle (please don’t search the original). The Fusion lock is also largely meaningless since you don’t have much else to summon anyway, though it might sting to lose out on Link monsters since Chimera decks are very good at amassing resources. Berfomet’s other effect, also a hard once per turn, triggers if it’s used as Fusion material, letting you summon any Illusion monster in your Graveyard. This effect’s main purpose is to help set up Guardian Chimera with two pops or provide another Illusion body for more materials, and in some scenarios you can even bring out Nightmare Magician for some added oomph during the Battle Phase. Berfomet’s only drawback is being a pretty huge brick, but at least you can still use it as Fusion material if you hard open Chimera Fusion. Many decks run two copies since it’s not uncommon to summon Mirror Swordknight again as follow up, but you can certainly get away with just one.
Advanced: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5 Something something DIO…
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