Punishment Dragon – #COTD-EN028
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by possessing 4 or more banished “Lightsworn” monsters with different names. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can pay 1000 LP; shuffle into the Decks, all cards in the GYs and all face-up banished cards, except “Lightsworn” monsters. Once per turn, if your “Lightsworn” monster’s effect is activated: Send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the GY.
Date Reviewed: May 30th, 2024
Rating: 3.33
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,
Punishment Dragon is our Throwback Thursday choice rather than Judgment Dragon, because both lead up to tomorrow’s new Fusion, but Punishment hasn’t been reviewed yet to my knowledge.
Much like its counterpart, it will need four or more Lightsworn monsters, but instead of in the graveyard it needs them to be banished. This is because Punishment Dragon is a DARK instead of a LIGHT and is part of the Twilight side of the Lightsworn archetype. There’s enough cards to banish DARK and LIGHT monsters in the game to make this an easy task, let alone the Twilightsworn monsters having banish effects to help this along. Unlike Judgment though, Punishment’s effect is a Quick Effect. Shuffle everything in the grave and face-up banished cards into the Deck rather than destroying on the field does have its positives. Being a Quick Effect it is able to interact with the opponent and rob them of their graveyard target that you are likely chaining this effect to. This robs you of your grave though as well, and your Judgment Dragon will not like that. Costing 1000LP to do this every time your opponent has even a few cards in their grave that you may not want there isn’t even a thought. The mill Punishment Dragon can do is like Judgment’s mill, but it needs a Lightsworn monster’s effect to activate to mill, and while that is able to happen almost every turn, it just doesn’t beat being able to mill on your own.
Punishment can be run in a pure Lightsworn that involves banishing cards and work pretty well. The Quick Effect is responsive to your opponent’s moves and is an easy cost to pay, but wiping the board eliminates what’s in front of you rather than cycling back stuff that is banished and in the grave. And while you can banish stuff in pure Lightsworn or a variety of combinations, nothing really beats being able to drop Judgment Dragon with little to no setup, especially with all the Lightsworn draw power maxed out now.
Advanced- 3/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We could have easily looked at Judgment Dragon this week, but skipping the Twilightsworns a few years back means we skipped over the newer Dragon, so today we make up for that with Punishment Dragon.
Punishment Dragon is a Level 8 DARK Dragon with 3000 ATK and 2600 DEF. Strong stats and a great combination of Type and Attribute. It cannot be Normal Summoned or Set and must be Special Summoned from the hand by having at least 4 Lightsworn monsters with different names banished. This wasn’t great when you had to rely on Twilightsworns to pull this off, but the new Minerva Synchro makes this reasonably easy, plus this being searchable off Dragonling means you shouldn’t have issues getting it on board. The first real effect is a soft once per turn and a Quick Effect, letting you pay 1000 LP to shuffle all cards in both graveyards and face-up banishments into the Deck, besides Lightsworn monsters. It’s good graveyard disruption against the opponent while also giving you more fuel to go into a grind game. The Lightsworns don’t go back, likely to help you summon more Judgment Dragons and Punishment Dragons. The other effect is also a soft once per turn, and triggers when a Lightsworn effect is activated, making you send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the graveyard. It’s mandiatory to mill, but you want to do that in Lightsworn anyways, and you should still have a ton of Lightsworn effects to activate after summoning this. Punishment Dragon wasn’t great on release, but now that it’s actually viable to run in the Deck, you kinda feel like it’s better than Judgment Dragon in 2024. Being a Quick Effect does offer some disruption and gives you more cards in the Deck so you don’t run out, plus the mill can be triggered on both turns. It’s probably the Dragon you want to summon while you potetially mill the Judgment Dragon, but it won’t matter either way for tomorrow’s card (considering you don’t want to shuffle Judgment Dragon back into the Deck if you plan to summon it).
Advanced Rating: 3.75/5
Art: 4/5 Judgment Dragon going through a phase.
Mighty
Vee
While Judgment Dragon is the more mainstream posterboy of the Lightsworn archetype, Punishment Dragon is the deck’s lesser-known sub-boss and is this week’s Throwback Thursday monster. It’s a level 8 DARK Dragon monster, meant to mirror Judgment Dragon except for the Twilightsworn monsters instead, though either way it can still be searched by Lightsworn Dragonling and Starliege Seyfert if you wanted to. It also shares Judgment Dragon’s solid stat spread of 3000 attack and 2600 defense.
Punishment Dragon is, unfortunately, a nomi monster, as you must Special Summon it from your hand while you have 4 or more banished Lightsworn monsters with different names. Thankfully, Minerva, the Athenian Lightsworn will perfectly set this up on its own, so it’s not so bad if you’re trying to summon Punishment Dragon specifically. Punishment Dragon has two soft once per turn effects, the first being a Quick Effect to pay 1000 Life Points and shuffle every card in both Graveyards and face-up in both Banishments. While it doesn’t touch the field, this effect can still be devastating disruption against Graveyard-based decks as well as some Banishing-based decks (stopping Lubellion the Searing Dragon’s Fusion using the Graveyard comes to mind), and it has the added bonus of recycling your Lightsworn cards for drawn-out duels. Obviously, the advent of decks that don’t use the Graveyard (such as Kashtira and Exosister) make this effect a potential liability, so you shouldn’t rely on Punishment Dragon alone as a disruption. Its other effect triggers if you activate the effect of any Lightsworn monster, letting you send the top 4 cards of your deck to the Graveyard. It’s a neat bonus for fielding Punishment Dragon and might give the mill you need to finish your board, so it’s hard to complain. Between this card and Judgment Dragon, Punishment Dragon is better to keep on the board assuming you’re unable to summon the new boss monster, which tragically brings me to my main gripe– not being a Lightsworn name! In a Lightsworn focused deck, you can play one as Fusion fodder and as an occasional backup disruption, though hybrid builds can go without it.
+Shuffle effect is very strong against Graveyard-based decks
+Easy to summon with Minerva, the Athenian Lightsworn
-Not reliably accessible if you use your search on Judgment Dragon
-Shuffle effect can be useless against decks that don’t use the Graveyard
Advanced: 3.25/5
Art: 4/5 I like the idea of a more feral and vicious pose compared to the regal and dignified pose of Judgment Dragon.
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