Mermail Abyssgaios – #ABYR-EN046
2 Level 7 WATER monsters
While this face-up card has Xyz Material, Level 5 or higher monsters cannot attack. Once per turn, during either player’s turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the effects of all face-up monsters your opponent currently controls that have less ATK than this card, until the end of the turn.
Date Reviewed: November 21st, 2024
Rating: 3.67
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,
Mermail Abyssgaios is our Throwback Thursday choice and a pretty easy one aside from looking at something like Abyssmegalo.
Abyssgaios is a Rank 7 that requires all WATER monsters for its Xyz Summon. Now with the ability of Shadow Squad to turn all your WATER monsters into Level 7’s, this summon is far easier than playing Level 7 WATER monsters that required you to go negative on hand advantage. Abyssgaios slows the game down, preventing Level 5 or higher monsters from attacking as long as he has a material attached. This was useful if you had Atlantean Dragoons and a few Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent monsters on the field to attack directly. With a lot of Xyz and Link Summoning now this effect isn’t as good, and can hurt your side with the Level 7’s you can summon through discarding and Shadow Squad making stuff Level 7.
Abyssgaios does make up for that first effect through being a one-sided Skill Drain for the turn. Detach during either turn and negate all face-up monsters the opponent controls that have less ATK than Abyssgaios. At 2800ATK, Abyssgaios will be able to lock down a lot of monsters the opponent is going to want to use to build their board or combo with. Doesn’t completely halt the opponent from making plays, but you can choose when to use it to hurt them the most. Will they sometimes be able to play through it? Yes, that is the nature of the game, but will it more times than not be a hindrance to them? Yes.
It’s a shame that Abyssgaios can’t be attached with multiple monsters. With Shadow Squad you could attach many more than just two monsters to make Abyssgaios. One-sided Skill Drain for the turn is great, and while it won’t stop Hand Traps or monsters they summon after the effect has be activated, you will have at least stopped one effect. The Attack prevention will come into play, but with more and more strategies not needing Levels, this effect is slowly being power-crept out of the game. It will be useful to have, but with a one-sided Skill Drain using your materials you won’t have that attack prevention for long.
Advanced- 3.5/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
With a classic Xyz archetype from the Zexal era, it’s fitting to look at one of the archetype’s Xyzs for Throwback Thursday, so this week we’ll cover Mermail Abyssgaios.
Abyssgaios is a Rank 7 WATER Aqua Xyz with 2800 ATK and 1600 DEF. Strong stats for a Rank 7, plus WATER/Aqua remains great. Materials are any 2 Level 7 WATER monsters, so perfect for Atlantean Mermail to summon. While this card has Xyz Material, Level 5 or higher monsters can’t attack. It might slow you down with your Level 7 monsters and some Synchros you might make like Trishula, Chengying, or Aegirine, but the former can be used as Xyz Material and the latter are still good cards to make and/or have on board, plus you are stopping the opponent’s high Level monsters from battling. The main effect however, is the second one, which is a Quick Effect to detach an Xyz Material from this card to negate the effects of all face-up monsters the opponent controls with ATK less than this card until the end of the turn, and you should cover a lot of ground with 2800 ATK. It’s a good effect to help out the opponent’s board or to stop their plays right in their tracks, negating their most important play enablers at a crucial time if timed right. Abyssgaios is simple, but does age well with the blanket negation it has. Mermail Atlanteans have no issues making this, and it’s useful for the new Rank 7 the archetype has, so 1-2 works for the Extra Deck to use for the new Xyz and then the other to have on your end board.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4.5/5 Poseidra in his human form with the dragon body still at the bottom is pretty neat, tied in the original Atlantean Structure Deck well for when we got the Mermails in Abyss Rising.
Mighty
Vee
Though it has often been forgotten in favor of hand rip nonsense, we can’t forget the de-facto boss of the Mermail (and by extension Atlantean) archetype, Mermail Abyssgaios, the perfect card to cover for Throwback Thursday. Abyssgaios is a Rank 7 WATER Aqua Xyz monster, requiring any two level 7 WATER monsters. In ancient times, you were supposed to use the level 7 Mermails, but with the addition of Mermail Shadow Squad, you only need to run the best one, Mermail Abyssteus and maybe Abyssmegalo (we don’t talk about the other two, you can ask Ursarctic fans why they’re not great). Abyssgaios comes with a solid 2800 attack and 1600 defense, almost mirroring the stats of its lore-rival Garunix, though they’re a bit below average for boss monsters.
Abyssgaios has a very unusual floodgate that is only active while it has Xyz material, preventing any level 5 or higher monsters from attacking. This makes perfect sense against Fire King before they got an Xyz monster, but it is also pretty silly since your main beaters in Mermail are high-level monsters. Thankfully, the modern version of the deck is unbothered since you’ll likely be Linking off your high level monsters into Mermail King – Neptabyss anyway. Other than that, Abyssgaios has a soft once per turn Quick Effect to detach an Xyz material and negate the effects of all of your opponent’s monsters with lower attack than Abyssgaios on the field until the End Phase. When paired with an Abyss-scale card, Abyssgaios can reach a fantastic 3600 attack, which will negate pretty much any not-unaffected monster out there that isn’t a high-attack boss monster. Blanket negates are always very strong, and if you’re scared of backrow, that’s what the Abyss-scale cards are for! Abyssgaios has another function that will be very clear tomorrow, as it lets you climb into Merlantean’s new boss monster. Granted, I would consider it more of a sub-boss since you’ll actually be ending on Abyssgaios instead, because it’s your main endboard piece alongside Toadally Awesome. Despite being over 12 years old, Abyssgaios has aged very well and I’m glad to see it’s still a staple part of the Merlantean endboard, which I can’t really say for the original forms of Garunix.
+Excellent blanket monster negate effect
+Much easier to make now with Mermail Shadow Squad
? Floodgate is less relevant on both sides due to Link monsters
-Lacks protection without outside help
-Needs a way to get more Xyz material in certain combo lines
Advanced: 3.5/5
Art: 4.25/5 How to evoke Poseidon without saying “Poseidon”…
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