Mermail Abyssteus – #RA03-EN007
You can discard 1 other WATER monster to the GY; Special Summon this card from your hand. When Summoned this way: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower “Mermail” monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Mermail Abyssteus” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: February 13th, 2025
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 Abyssteus is our Throwback Thursday choice as it got a reprint in Quarter Centry, but was actually not really much of a force in its own archetype, as Mermail Abyssmegalo preceded it and was the superior card.
Discard a WATER monster to Special Summon, which will likely trigger the likely Mermail or Atlantean you discarded for Abyssteus. RoTA for Mermail upon summon in this manner (but not any other Special Summon way). If you happen to send Dragoons to the grave for Abyssteus’s Special Summon that will get you two searches, but is it really worth playing another searcher monster that is 1700ATK as a Level 7? With Poseidra getting its retrain it is much better than Abyssteus and works with both archetypes, and while it won’t search like Abyssteus, it will get rid of a problem on field and Foolish Burial an Atlantean or Mermail which will trigger their effect(s), so it’s just as good of an effect as getting that monster to the hand. Strong DEF, and it is an extender that will activate several of the Mermail/Atlantean effects, and is Rank 7 fodder, but so is the new Poseidra.
You won’t be attacking with this, it doesn’t do anything to advance you on field, but it does get you a Level 4 or lower Mermail, though you are likely also playing Atlantean monsters you want to search as well. The card, like I said previous, was already a lesser option upon release because of Abyssmegalo, but its search was more useful back then.
Advanced- 2.5/5 Art- 3/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Midweek brings us to what was once the second in command to Abyssmegalo, but is now the main Mermail Level 7 you run in the Deck: Mermail Abyssteus.
Abyssteus is a Level 7 WATER Aqua with 1700 ATK and 2400 DEF. Not amazing stats for a Level 7 monster, but WATER and Aqua are always a synergistic combo. You can discard another WATER monster to Special Summon this card, making for another easy-to-summon Level 7 monster in the Atlantean Mermail Deck to make your Rank 7 monsters that’ll also trigger the effects of some of your Atlantean and Mermail monsters as well. When summoned that way, you can add a Level 4 or lower Memail from your Deck to your hand, which can be useful to get you to Abysspike, Shadow Squad, or Abyssrhine to either Normal Summon or use their effects when discarded or in hand in general for the case of Abyssrhine. The search is a HOPT, but the summoning condition is not, so it won’t be a complete brick if you draw more than 1. Abyssteus is useful for several Mermail combos while also filling your graveyard for Moulinglacia even more. It’s been a mainstay in Atlantean Mermail for years and will likely continue to be a staple, unlike Abyssmegalo in 2025.
Advanced Rating: 4.25/5
Art: 3.75/5 Fish
Mighty
Vee
As if to celebrate Merlantean making it to top 4 at YCS Birmingham, Throwback Thursday brings us Mermail Abyssteus, a staple Merlantean card from ancient times to this very day. Abyssteus is a level 7 WATER Aqua monster, as expected of a Mermail monster, so it can help make their Rank 7 Xyz monsters. On the other hand, its stats are unimpressive, with only 1700 and an okay 2400 defense for a level 7 monster. Mermail Abyssmegalo was your main muscle in the deck anyway.
Abyssteus has a two effects, and both of them are quite vicious– like the other high level Mermails, Abyssteus can Special Summon itself by discarding any other WATER monster (not once per turn, oddly enough), and afterwards, it’ll let you search a level 4 or lower Mermail monster (this is hard once per turn). It’s a simple but exceedingly powerful set of effects in a deck that helped pioneer the whole idea of “discarding is a plus, actually”; in ancient builds, you’d ideally discard Atlantean Dragoons so you’d get not 1 but 2 searches off of Abyssteus. Naturally, the combo potential has only gotten wider with the new support. Mermail Shadow Squad is excellent discard fodder for Abyssteus, and coincidentally it’s a great choice to search with Abyssteus as well alongside Mermail Abysspike and Abyssrhine, the Atlantean Spirit. Since Abyssteus’s self-summon isn’t once per turn, it’s not too uncommon to search and summon multiple copies of Abyssteus just to activate more discard effects while getting a body on the board in some combo lines. It doesn’t consume your Normal Summon either, so you’re free to summon Abysspike and search even more. Abyssteus was so good, it would quickly be Limited in the OCG because of Merlantean’s dominance, though it eventually came back to Unlimited and it remains there to this day. Aside from only having one effect (albeit an amazing one), it could potentially be a brick, but you’d have to open a catastrophic hand with only Abyssteus and no other WATER monsters, so it’s highly unlikely– you might as well play 3 Abyssteus since it can even send another Abyssteus in a pinch. Abyssteus is an older card, but it has aged incredibly well, which really puts into perspective how drab the competition was at the time. Looking at you, bad beaters!
+Fantastic 2-card combo starter and extender for Merlantean
+Self-summon isn’t once per turn opening up some combo lines
-Needs you to run a healthy amount of WATER monsters to minimize bricking
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 3.75/5 All this time I thought Abyssteus was a turtle, but now it’s obvious it’s supposed to be a Dunkleosteus…
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