Icarus Attack – #OP14-EN024
Tribute 1 Winged Beast monster, then target 2 cards on the field; destroy them.
Date Reviewed: February 9th, 2023
Rating: 3.00
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,
Icarus Attack is our Throwback Thursday choice this week, despite Scareclaw being Beast-Type monsters.
An absolute wrecking machine of a card when first released in 2006, making Blackwings a Tier 1 force and lending support to Winged Beast archetypes alike. Giving up a Winged Beast to take out two cards of your choice was an even break that never seemed even. Offensive to clear out monsters out on your turn for direct attacks, defensive on your opponents turn to halt their plays. With more and more monsters able to activate effects upon hitting the grave in any fashion, Icarus Attack becomes more and more playable. Not only do the Blackwings benefit from this staple for Winged Beasts, but Harpies, Mist Valley, and Raidraptors got a tremendous addition to their archetypes. Really, if any Winged Beast archetype can Special Summon a lot like the previously mentioned ones do, this card is a must because you can recoup what you tribute.
Easy card to review, understand, and play. Winged Beast monsters got a huge generic support card back in the early 2000’s and it stands as one of the best still now, even with it being a Trap Card in a game where speed has been key for a long time.
Advanced-3.5/5 Art-4/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday is the more generic version (at least in terms of coverage) of an archetypal card we looked at yesterday, Icarus Attack.
Icarus Attack is a Normal Trap that lets you tribute a Winged Beast to target 2 cards on the field and destroy them. It’s 2-for-2 destruction, which is pretty solid if timed right in usage. If the opponent doesn’t have 2 targets for this, you will have to target and destroy your own cards, which is suboptimal, but I doubt this would be activated if the opponent only has 1 card unless it would of been given the “up to 2” clause instead of needing exactly 2. Icarus Attack is still solid, but isn’t as staple as it once was since Traps are slower compared to today’s gamestate compared to the past. It doesn’t help a lot of monsters have protection from destruction or can outright negate this, meaning you lost 2 cards for nothing. It has nothing else to offer besides the 2-for-2, which worked fine for 2006. It can still find a home in some Winged Beast strategies, but it isn’t a staple for them like it once was.
Advanced Rating: 3/5
Art: 4/5 I assume that’s Harpie Lady on the card going into a frenzy.
Mighty
Vee
This card walked so Scareclaw Twinsaw and Swordsoul Blackout could run; this week’s Throwback Thursday is the Normal Trap Icarus Attack. You can tell it’s a 2006 card thanks to its effect being a single line of text, tributing one of your Winged Beast monsters to target and destroy two cards on the field. It’s a simple effect, but at the time, being able to destroy two cards for the price of two could easily turn the tide of battle; double pops have aged so well that even modern archetypes incorporate them into their endboards. The most prominent user of Icarus Attack was Blackwing– though it wasn’t searchable, simply opening it would let you annihilate your opponent’s board early into their combos. Compared to Torrential Tribute, it comes at a much lower cost to yourself, and will easily pave the way for an OTK. Additionally, unlike Twinsaw, Icarus Attack can target your own cards (though not itself), so it’s not completely dead if you have enough bodies to waste and your opponent plays a deck that somehow only fields one card at a time. Though a few people raised a fuss, Icarus Attack was never really broken, and nowadays most Winged Beast decks are better off running power techs and hand traps than hoping to open an unsearchable Trap for a somewhat stronger endboard. That said, its legacy lives on in two-for-two trading effects to this day, and we’ll likely continue to get more in the future.
Advanced: 2.5/5
Art: 3/5 Swift Birdman Joe flew too close to the sun, apparently.
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